USA > Indiana > Whitley County > History of Whitley County, Indiana > Part 47
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Calomel is mentioned as a specific for ague, taken in heroic doses, which some- times canses salivation.
The first dance in the township was at Otto M. Webb's, April, 1841. Grover Webb was the "fiddler." People in those days enjoyed dancing as well as nowadays, and many a "hoe-down" came off in the cab- ins where there was room and a suitable floor. It was generally conceded that a puncheon floor was not quite as good as a floor of sawed lumber. Joel Philips was an expert dancer. The cabin joists would in- terfere with his head sometimes. Biddle- comes and Comptons also were experts in the art.
Log rollings and house raisings were the chief gatherings. A man with a good yoke of oxen would put in about as many days away from home as at home in the spring of the year. The price for man and team was about seventy-five cents per day. At raisings it was necessary to have four expert cornermen-men with sharp axes- who could notch down the logs to fit. It was no snap to be a cornerman. The tools necessary at these raisings were axes, hand spikes and forks. These forks, if good ones, were usually kept for future raisings, mean- time serving as poles for chickens to roost on in somebody's log stable. Joel Philips and Nathan Biddlecome, E. S. Scott and J. R. Anderson and Joshua Carder and Arthur Black were all considered good cornermen, each pair in a separate neighborhood. The women's gatherings were quiltings and wool
pickings. The women were experts in these two callings, as well as spinning and knit- ting. Sheep shearing was done as early as possible so as to get the wool picked and off to the "carding machine" and get the "rolls" as nearly first as possible, and then the merry song of the "Old Spinning Wheel" would be heard from June to November, but not so merry to the ones with the ague. There were several looms in the country. I can- not say who had the first. Cloth was woven. "Linsey, flannel and jeans" were the principal kinds. Some of these cloths were taken to Monoquet, in Kosciusko county, to a fulling mill, where it was col- ored, sheared and fulled and made nice enough cloth for any one to wear.
It might be well here to say that about 1838 David Hayden went to Ohio, near Dayton, and bought a lot of sheep, which he brought to this township and sold to the set- tlers. We suppose that others may have brought sheep with them. I have learned that some of the hogs were bought at some of the settlements in Kosciusko county. A letter from Mr. John Galbreath, who used to live in Kosciusko county, states that in early times there were some traders who came out from Fort Wayne and brought ar- ticles to sell, among which were leather and salt. It had been arranged previously that they would buy stock or whatever was for sale. A pen was built of rails made from timber which grew on the ground near Hay- den's lake, also near the Columbia and War- saw road. Some hogs were driven here and sold. Each hog was caught and weighed separately. They had a heavy net of har- ness leather and a large pair of steelyards which they used to do the weighing. He
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mentions that his father sold a tubful of honey to these men. They drove their hogs to Fort Wayne. Hogs were weighed in the way mentioned above by dealers generally. Hog buyers sometimes had a pair of hog tongs to catch the hogs with. They were caught by a hind leg and drawn to the fence. It was not always safe to go into a pen and catch a hog.
The first marriage in the township (I here copy from the old county history) : "This is no doubt the first marriage in the township, and probably in the county : Charles Dilton and Eveline, daughter of Zebulon P. Burch, were married at Z. P. Burch's, December 15. 1836. Mr. Dilton went to Goshen for his license, and the preacher came from near Elkhart to per- form the ceremony."
The next is not mentioned in the old history. Horace Hunt and Mary, the daughter of John Jones, were married some time in 1837. The relatives of this couple have been questioned concerning the dates of this marriage, but were unable to give them. We think the license was procured at Huntington. Mr. Hunt and his wife went to northern Ohio soon after they were mar- ried and died there and their children still reside there. The following is from the county history :
"The records of Whitley show the fol- lowing first entry in the marriage depart- ment :
'State of Indiana, Whitley County :
'Be it remembered that on the Ist day of September. 1838, a license was issued by the clerk of Whitley circuit court, authorizing the marriage of Jacob Kistler and Sophia Payne.' And the following certificate of its solemnization :
'State of Indiana, Whitley County:
'To all persons to whom these presents may come-greeting : Know ye, that on the 2d day of September. 1838, the sub- scriber, a justice of the peace in and for Whitley county, joined in the holy bonds of matrimony Jacob Keistler and Sophia Payne, both of same county. Given under my hand this 8th day of September, 1838.
'EDWIN CONE, J. P.'"
The above, though not the first marriage in the county nor in Richland township, is yet the first in the county after its organiza- tion. On November II, 1838, Edwin Cone married Isaac Collins and Nancy Cuppy. On January 17, 1839, Edwin Cone married John Thomson and Emily Perin. July 4, 1839, married William Rice and Harriet U. Jones ; February II, 1840, Charles Ditton and Sarah A. Calhoun; March, 1840, Levi Curtis and Eunice Andrews ; July 30, 1840, H. Swihart, justice of the peace, married A. D. Parrett and Susan Perkins.
The first born white child in the town- ship was Orella, daughter of Edwin and Salima Cone. The family record is as fol- lows: "Orella Cone, born January 30, 1837, was married to Frank Inlow, April 29, 1858, died, November 15, A. D. 1881. Frank Inlow, the husband of Orella Cone, died August 12, 1892." They moved to Missouri in February, 1865. She died at Blue Springs, Missouri, and he at Kansas City. Their children live in New Mexico. The second birth was Charles W .. the son of David and Alma Hayden, who was born August 12, 1837. He grew to manhood in this township. He was married to Ann Hoover, in January of 1858. She was a daughter of Alfred Hoover, of Kosciusko county. He moved to Missouri and tried his
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fortune there for several years with varying success, his health failed and he returned to this state and now resides near Warsaw. He and his wife now enjoy pretty fair healthı.
The third birth was Eveline, the daugh- ter of Charles and Eveline Ditton, who was born in September, 1837. In a few years the family went to Lagro. Miss Eveline married a Mr. Smith, who lived but a short time. She married second, a Mr. Todd. They resided several years at Lagro. He died there and a few years ago the remainder of the family moved to Kansas, where Mrs. Todd died.
The next birth we have any information of was Appleton W., the son of Edwin and Salima Cone, who was born March 14, 1839. He grew to manhood in this town- ship, was in the war of the Rebellion. He was married to Martha Hoover, of Kos- ciusko county, February 26, 1868. He was a carpenter by trade and moved away from this county several years ago and worked at his trade in several different cities and towns in this state and Michigan. He was never very successful in gaining property. His health failed a few years ago, and he and his wife now live with their daughter, Mrs. Cleveland, at Dayton, Ohio. They have a son, Clyde C. Cone, whose home is at Wina- mac, Indiana, but is employed as a job printer at Chicago.
The first death among the first settlers was Samuel, the son of John Jones and wife, who died in February, 1837. He died at the house of Ezra Thompson, where the family were stopping whilst a cabin was made ready to receive them. The young man died from exposure, having caught the
measles while moving to the country. He was buried in the woods on the land owned by his father and now owned by Alexander S. McNagny. This was the start of the Summit cemetery. A few years later. Mr. Jones made the coffin of Mrs. Andrews, his own sister, who died about 1841 or later. Mr. Samuel L. Andrews moved to this town- ship in the fall of 1839, and owned land in, section 4, next west of the McNagny farm. known as the John Steel farm. The second death was that of Eveline, the wife of Charles Ditton. She was the first bride of the township, of which mention has already been made. She died about October I, 1837, leaving a little girl about two weeks old." John Thompson and other neighbors made for her a coffin from the boards of a wagon box, and the few neighbors there were in a range of a half-dozen miles gath- ered to lay her at rest." She was buried in section 22, on the land owned by her hus- band, and known as the "old Norris place" and now owned by Mrs. George Miller.
Another death but perhaps not the third, was that of James Perkins, who died Sep- tember 14, 1839. He died from injuries re- ceived by a wagon overturning and break- ing several of his ribs. He, too, was buried in a coffin made from the lumber of a wag- on box, and buried near where Mrs. Ditton was buried, but I think the remains were removed to the Oak Groce cemetery. Mr. Perkins moved to this township in the fall of 1837, and settled on land he entered in section 22. on Spring creek, and near the Graham bridge. The widow, whose maiden name was Susan McCoy, was afterward married to Rev. Anderson D. Parrett. She has been dead several years. Mr. Perkins
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left two little girls. Nancy, who was born in August, 1836, married John Graham and is still living on the land her father entered. Percilla was born in this township, married Rev. Henry Rupley, has been dead several years. The Indians wanted to buy these children when small. The postoffice business was very uncertain and high-priced. Let- ters were as much expected and as eagerly sought after as now. A good many times letters were sent to persons in this county by some one who was coming to the county on a visit. The address would be the name of the person for whom the letter was in- tended and Whitley county. I have some old letters in my possession, written to my father of this sort. Letters would come to Springfield or Columbia and any one in the neighborhood would bring them to the own- er, if the postage was paid. It will be re- membered that postage was not always pre- paid and the postmaster would not send out letters till the postage was paid. The post- age was from six and one-fourth cents to forty cents according to distance. From Ohio it was about eighteen and three- fourths cents, from western New York twenty-five cents and farther east thirty-one and one-fourth cents and from the Pacific coast forty cents. I do not known how they made the change for a quarter of a cent. It was said of the late William Rice that once he rolled logs all day with his oxen and re- ceived seventy-five cents for his work, and when he came home in the evening, one of his neighbors had been to Columbia and had brought him three letters, for which the neighbor had paid the postage, at the rate of twenty-five cents each. But the rates are lower now. The first stamped envelopes,
and stamps also, I saw in 1853. The letter posage was three cents. The first postoffice in the township was at the house of A. S. McNagny, and Mr. McNagny was the first postmaster, and is perhaps the oldest ex-post- master in the county. The date of his com- mission was March 10, 1847. He held the office from 1847 to 1854. A mail route was established about this time. John Erwin, an old settler living in Kosciusko county, was the contractor, and his son Andrew was mail carrier. The mail was carried each way once a week. Andrew carried it on horse- back. He went to Iowa over fifty years ago and I think is living yet. A few years la- ter a "hack line" was established from Fort Wayne to Warsaw and perhaps farther. It carried the mail and passengers, too. I re- member what an interest was taken in see- ing the hack and hearing the hack horn blown. Mrs. McLallen writes about it thus : "August 20, 1854.
"We have a mail now three times a week. There is a hack running from Warsaw to Fort Wayne carrying the mail. Leaves Warsaw Mondays, Wednesdays and Fri- days. Leaves Fort Wayne Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays."
But the hack days came to an end when the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Rail- road was put through in the latter part of 1856. I mentioned that the first milling was done at the Wyland mill in Elkhart county. In 1839 there was a mill put up at Monuquet on the Tippecanoe river in Kosciusko county, and the same year one built at Liberty Mills on the Eel river in Wabash county. The mills at Collamer and South Whitley were built a few years later.
The hog market was not very good and
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what hogs were fattened to sell, had kets were made of round splits and of the to be butchered and hauled to Fort Wayne. best of oak timber. The half-bushels were made of one broad hoop, like a drum, with one head and a narrow hoop at the top. These were made of oak also. He lived on section 13 or 14. He died some fifty years ago. A man named Walton was an expert at making spinning wheels. He lived in Troy township. He has been dead several years. This was from thirty to thirty-five miles, and the weather had to be cold enough so the meat would keep several days without salting. I think Reason Huston used to buy hogs and drive them to Fort Wayne. The surplus wheat was marketed the same way. Store goods were shipped to Fort Wayne on the canal and hauled on wagons to where they were sold. There were some who were Bethany Nickels used to make ropes. He had a set of rope tools, the only ones I ever saw. Of course he believed in raising flax and had a flax-wheel and a flax-break. He had a foot-power turning lathe. He could make a drum. He lived in section 18. He died in 1879. Truman Hunt had the first shingle machine I knew of. I think he commenced the shingle business about 1850. He lived at Larwill in section 4. thoughtful brought along a supply of apple and peach seeds, and it was not many years till there was some fruit. The trees were seedlings, but the fruit was better than no fruit. Jesse S. Perin and William Rice learned to graft and it was not many years till there was a pretty good variety of apples. People used to do a good many things to make a living. Hunting and trapping and selling the fur, selling maple sugar, tan bark, woolen yarn, home made cloth, dried ap- ples, ginseng and ashes. (There was an ashery at Springfield.) These were some of the things sold or traded. The supply of books was not very large and books were borrowed and read by a good many, and some books showed the usage.
The settlers' names up to 1840 have been mentioned so often they need not be repeated here.
SOME OF THE USEFUL OCCUPATIONS.
It has always been a convenient thing to have baskets and measures. About 1840 or somewhere near that time a man named Adam Phillips moved into the township. He was a basket maker, also a manufacturer of half-bushel and smaller measures. His bas-
James Sears, who lived in section 8 made shingles about the same time. They both made cut shingles of poplar timber. They made their shingles sixteen inches long, and if good timber was used a good roof might be had. They did custom work mostly. I do not remember their terms. These men have both been dead for many years.
William Welker, John Craig and per- haps others have been in the cut shingle business.
There were several experts at making shaved shingles, among which was John Jones, who entered land in section 4, moved there in 1837 or 1838. His work was in great demand. He went from place to place, and made the shingles where they were to be used. He too passed away some thirty-five years ago.
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The sawed shingle industry never amounted to much. Some of the saw-mills cut out a few and some men with traction engines. have tried the business, but the shingles usually were not satisfactory.
Making brick was a useful industry. The first brick made were what was called "slop"' brick. The moulds were wet instead of sanded to make the brick turnout. The mud was sometimes made by tramping it with oxen. It was thought best to have a lot of clay dug up in the fall of the year, and let it freeze and thaw through the winter.
The first brick made in the township was made on the farm owned by Mrs. Miller in section 22. Charles Ditton owned the land at the time. Andrew Compton and Mr. Ditton made the brick in about 1842. The brick was used to replace some of the stick chimneys.
There was a brick yard in section 18. among the first. It was owned and run by a Christian preacher, James Atchison, by name. He commenced the business about 1854. He made brick some three or four years, burning two or three kilns each year. The kilns were small but the supply was per- haps all that was needed. The mud was mixed by being tramped by oxen. The driver would stand on a little island in the middle of the mud and drive the oxen around him. It is said that the cattle did not like the business and would get balky and turn the yoke and do other mean things.
About 1858 Andrew Samuel made brick on the McNagny farm in section 4. He made brick only a year or so and quit the business. He was followed by Lewis Ware in 1861, who run the yard for one season
only. John Steel, who lived on an adjoin- ing farm, commenced making brick about 1863 and followed the business for some four or five years. He made some very good brick, of full size and what is called "sand moulded" brick.
Joel Barney made the brick for the Fire- stone house in Larwill, in 1872. The brick were made on the farm. He also run a yard on the Benjamin B. Salmon farm in section 29. This yard was run for two or three seasons, commencing in 1873.
One of the most useful industries ever followed in this township was the manu- facture of drain tile. George Deeter. who now resides in Etna township, seems to have been the first to venture in this business. It was about 1874 when he started this busi- ness. The yard was on the Crosby farm, just west of Larwill. The tile mill was run some eight years, when the proprietor bought a farm in Etna township and moved the tile business there. In 1876, there was a tile mill started in section 30, by a man named Gleason. In 1882, he moved the mill onto the Maryland farm. just east of Lar- will. He failed the next year and Ream & Whiteleather bought the plant and run it two years. They made brick also in this yard. The brick used to build the schoolhouses in districts 5 and 7 were made at this mill. Price Goodrich made brick for his own house and some to sell in 1851. The yard was on his farm in section 25.
The first threshing machines were what were called "chaff pilers" and were riin some time prior to 1848. David Clapp owned one of the first and Jim and Fred Elder, from north of Pierceton, used the same kind of machine some in this town-
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ship. A Mr. Finton, also from Kosciusko county, did the first threshing in this town- ship with a separator. John McCune seems to have owned the first separator in the township. He brouglit it from Ohio in 1848. He was a young man then and fol- lowed the business nearly all the rest of his life. He died February 1, 1892, at the age of about seventy. The machine was a Mount Vernon of the vibrator kind. He sold this machine to some men in Kosciusko county in about 1850. He and Andrew Compton then went into partnership and bought a new machine, a Mount Vernon. He and Mr. Compton's eldest son, Isaac N .. went with teams to Mount Vernon, Ohio, after it. Threshing then lasted from har- vest till the next spring. The machines were run with horse power, usually with eight horses. Three or four hundred bushels was a good day's work. But Mr. McCune, like a good many threshers, could not quit the business. He had a great many ma- chines, sometimes three good separators, a horsepower or so, two common thresher en- gines and a clover huller or so. He went into the sawmill business about ten years before he died and finally failed. He prob- ably run the first clover huller in the town- ship about 1857. He had one enigine to blow up while using it, but no one was hurt. The first blacksmith in the township was Samuel Barnhouse. His shop was in section 15. The next was George Clapp, then George Hower, Sr., then George Hower, Jr .. and then George Harris. The first shoe- makers were Harrison Rodebaugh, George G. Allen, David King and Isaiah Hammon. There were several who could cobble. The first harnessmaker was Norman Guy, about
1855. The first tinner was Samuel Bonar, about 1863. The first mason was Price Goodrich, who laid both stone and brick and could plaster, but worked mostly at brick- laying. He built the first brick house in the township and built many fireplace chimneys. The first coopers were Anthony Atchison and a Mr. Fletcher, both in section 18, and before 1846 others were Albert Webster. Mr. Bastel and Peter McGoldrich. I do not know that there ever was a tanner in the township. I think George Clapp and Mr. Hower used to fix the settlers' guns. John Erwin and Joel Philips were the first car- penters. Making sorghum molasses was first commenced about 1858. Some of the first to make molasses were Nathan Biddle- come, George Souder and others. I think Uncle Jesse Perin made molasses of this sort ; at any rate he made sorghum beer. Jolin Smalley, Sr., could tell a pretty good story about helping to move a house where there was some of this same beer. Abner Prugh was an expert at making sorghum molasses and at present W. H. Buntain leads in the business. About 1847 Andrew Dodge built a wool carding machine in sec- tion 30. It was home made as far as could be. The building was a round log house, two stories high (not very high stories ). The machinery was mostly on the second floor. The motive power was furnished by a horse and sometimes two horses, which walked on a large tread-wheel placed under a shed at the side of the building. The wheel was like a gigantic top some eighteen or twenty feet across. The axle was about twenty-five degrees from being vertical. The horses traveled near the outer edge of the wheel. On the under edge of this wheel
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were large wooden cogs which run a large wooden line shaft, which run the machines, which included a saw for sawing lumber and a turning lathe. These last two were under another shed on the opposite side of the building. This machine was looked on as a great help and nearly a necessity to the early settlers. It was run as long as there was wool to card, which was from May to July or August. This machine was run till about 1860, since which time it has been considered cheaper to buy cloth or ready made clothing than to manufacture it at home.
The first water sawmill was known as Smith's sawmill. It was on Spring creek in section 12, some sixty rods west of the road bridge on land now owned by John Dietrich. It was built by Henry H. Smith in about 1849 and was run by him and David Clapp and perhaps others. The whole life of the mill was about ten years. Mr. Smith was one of the earliest settlers, was a favorite school teacher, was elected township clerk. and was county commissioner. He has been dead several years.
James Grant built the first steam sawmill in the township (or in the county for that matter). It was situated in section 26. I think this mill was the start of the village of Lorane, which is partly in Troy town- ship. It was called at first Steam Corners. Some wag gave it the name of "Buzzard's Glory," a name more notorious than popu- lar. But about the sawmill: It was built in 1851, before there was any railroad. The building was a two-story frame, with very heavy timbers, as were all the first steam mills. This mill had a brick chimney. It was run some fifteen or twenty years.
There were two other water sawmills on Spring creek that should be mentioned. They were both, I think, in section 34. The upper one was near Black lake and was called the Harpster mill. It was built by Solomon Harpster. I believe corn was ground at this mill. The other was called the Shuh mill and was built and run by John Shuh. All these old water mills passed out with the coming of steam mills or soon after.
The second steam sawmill was built in 1852 in section 31, near the railroad and known as the Carder mill. I think it was built by Jacob Philips and Arthur Black. and about the time of its completion Joshua Carder bought an interest in it. Soon after this Mr. Philips sold out and in a few years Mr. Black also sold to Mr. Carder. Mr. Carder was very handy with tools and could make a coffin and made most of the coffins for several years. He died in about 1861 and the mill went into the hands of his son. Wesley J., who run it some six or eight years, when he failed. It was run for a while by Truman & Zartman. The whole life of this mill was some twenty years. Nathan Chapman, I think, built a mill of the old style in section 36, and there was one in section 18. These were built in about 1857. These old mills used an "up-and- down" saw and made very nice lumber, but not nearly so fast as a circular saw. and were all changed to circular saw mills. There were perhaps a dozen other mills scattered over the township. Before the railroad gave an outlet for surplus lumber. some of the mill men used to take half the lumber for toll. but would rather have money. From about 1860 on most all the
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