History of Whitley County, Indiana, Part 7

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 940

USA > Indiana > Whitley County > History of Whitley County, Indiana > Part 7

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).

1 .. Lampson, William Graves,

Silas Scott,

Robert Blain,

John Blain,

Jonathan Trumbull,

D. K. Chandler.

D. J. Bowman.

Thomas Blain,

James Blain,

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

Jacob Kile, D. S. Scott,

Robert Scott, Sr.,

Simon Trumbull,

Jacob P. Prickett, S. Trumbull, Jr., William A. Blain, S. Benton,

Benjamin Boyer,

Washington Jones,

Thomas Gaff,

Alex M. Blain, Jr.,

W. B. Cunningham, Samuel Bennet. Fielding Scott, J. C. Matthew,

Franklin Hunt, Joseph Welker, Thomas Scott, F. M. King,

Abram Straight,

J. D. Goble,

Henry Myers,

A. M. Blain,

Eli R. Jones,

Isaac Sheafer,

John A. Miller, Alex McKendry, John W. Long,

William Crow, James McKendry,

Jacob Fashbaugh,

Lyman Robinson,

John Long,

M. C. Scott, Samuel Garrison,

John Bennet,

J. B. Long.

Frederick Sheets, Francis Kind,

This change met with great opposition from the board of commissioners of Noble county and every possible obstacle was thrown in the way to prevent it. James Long, one of the county commissioners, re- sided in the district, and it was only through the great friendship of one of the other com- missioners for him that he finally consented to vote with Long for the change. Prior to the change, Lafayette Lamson had laid out the little town of Etna, naming it after the town and township from which he came in Ohio. It was the wish of the citizens that the new township take this name. Accord- ingly, on the 12th day of September. 1860,

Levi Kile,

J. F. Cunningham, Abraham Straight, Sr. A. B. Gandy, John Kisler, Thomas Hartup. Aaron Bennet, Alanson Tucker,

the commissioners entered of record an or- der that it be called Etna, and on the fol- lowing day they appointed A. W. Myers to draft the field notes from the records of No- ble county and to transcribe the names of the owners of land therein and place all on rec- ord in Whitley county with the valuations. Also to make copy of deed records of said lands and to secure from Noble county the part of Congressional school fund to which Etna township was entitled, all of which was promptly done. The county auditor did on the 19th day of September, 1860, appoint T. B. Cunningham trustee of Etna town- ship. to serve until the ensuing general elec- tion. This change was followed by two other attempts soon after.

On the 9th day of March. 1860, Moses Trumbull, John B. Rowland, H. A. Adair, Leander Nicholas, James A. Nicholas, Rob- ert Bowlesby, Andrew S. Carill, C. B. Wood, Michael Bowman, Thomas Kern, J. Brown. Clayton Fisher, Charles Hanson, Noah Cripe, L. Makemson, J. S. Hindbaugh and John Ruggles, filed petitions in both No- ble and Whitley, representing that they were a majority of the voters in sections 19 to 24, inclusive, in Washington township. Noble county, a strip one mile wide across the township adjoining that part set off the year before as Etna township, and asking that they also be set off to Whitley county and made a part of Etna township. After due course of law, the board of commission- ers of Whitley county entered an order on the 9th day of June, 1860. finding the mat- ters and things contained in the petition to be correct and solemnly declared the strip to be a part of Whitley county. It was to be expected that Noble county would not

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

ratify the action, and as it did not the order of Whitley county became inoperative and no further action was taken.

On March 10, 1860, a petition was filed in both Allen and Whitley counties, by sun- dry citizens of Allen county, residing in the twelve most westerly sections of Lake township. Allen county, asking that two miles off the west side of that township be declared a part of Whitley county and made a part of Union township, as it lay adjacent to Union township. This was signed by-

William Thorp,

Edward Ruby,

Luke Dugan,

M. Smith,

William McManus,

A. M. Long,

John W. Therbond,

W. Raley,

Jac. Diffendarfer,

A. W. Ruby,

John Owen,

J. G. Vandewater,

G. Stahel.

W. G. Miner,

David Tawney,

John Owens,

A. Vandewater, Samuel Nickey,

H. D. Vandewater, Patrick Roe,

M. Dugan, Patrick Leslie,

M. Bowerman,

William Tracey,

E. Hyre,

John Fry,

B. J. Upp,

Charles Crary,

James Ralby,

James Lawrence,

Basil Butts,

C. Gearman,

M. R. Vandewater,

William Sternberry, Joseph Finch,

Thomas Tracy,

M. Waugh,

C. Lemley, James Tucker,

Thomas Tracey,

Octavius Baff,

Dennis Gorman,

Robert Hanna,

William Brown,

William Miller,

Thomas Larimore, John Thorp,

William Stamboy,

John H. Gratcer,

Patrick Donan, A. Ryan,

Bernard Mclaughlin, Dennis Gearing,

William Thorp, Jr., Thomas Quicksell,

David Gorman, William McMahan,

H. Diffendarfer, Wm. C. Vandewater.

On the 9th day of June, 1860, the board found that the legal provisions had been complied with, and ordered that said strip be attached to Whitley county and made a part of Union township. Counties are always loth to yield up any part of their territory, and under ordinary conditions never do so. Al- len county never granted the change, and therefore the action of our county was void.

The line between original Cleveland and Richland townships was at the very north- ern part of South Whitley. The line be- tween the original Richland and Troy town- ships was directly through. the center of Lar- will. It will also be remembered that up to 1882 there was but a single voting place in a township. Consequently, about the close of the war, both the villages having grown to a pretentious size, residents on the north line of Cleveland township, practically in Southı Whitley, resented the idea of go- ing three miles north into the country to vote and several miles into the interior to do township and school business. On the north line of Richland the feeling was greater. More than half the voters of Larwill, then a larger town than South Whitley, were obliged to go three miles north and one and a half mile east to the center of Troy town- ship to vote, and anywhere to do local offi- cial business. Roads were bad at any season of the year, and by the time of October and November elections almost impassable. At both ends of Richland township there was desire for change. Cleveland would of

J. C. Springer, A. Hyre,

Nathan Smith,

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

course be gratified to have her territory in- people of that township than those living in creased by one-third its original size, and Troy. Richland perfectly contented to have the Albert Webster was trustee of Richland, William H. Liggett of Cleveland and Ben- jamin Wooden of Troy, and as the residence of each of these officers still remained in the townships as they stood before the change, it was ordered that they hold office, as offi- cers of the new townships, until their suc- cessors should be elected at the April elec- tions, 1869. With the abolishment of Etna township, her offices were declared vacated. The assessors of Troy and Cleveland resided in the new townships of same name, but James Runkle, assessor of Richland, now a resident of Cleveland, his office was vacated, until the new election of the next spring. The people of Etna township, however, re- sented the change. For what reason does not appear of record, but tradition says they were proud of their independence and de- sired to be left alone. The officers held their books and papers, and under protest ceased to perform the functions of their offices. No. election was held for officers in April, 1869. The assessor of Troy reported to the com- missioners that nearly every resident of Etna township refused to list their property with him, whereupon the board ordered him to return, demand the listing of their property and advise them that any further refusal would put them in contempt of court and that they would be fined under the law pun- ishing persons for refusing to list their prop- erty. The case was acute. At the March term, 1869, the trustee of Etna township reported to the commissioners his levies for township and school purposes for the year, which the board refused to consider, but an order was finally entered admitting the change made by gaining as much to the north as was lost at the south side. Troy only would be the loser of one-third its ter- ritory. At the September term, 1867, a pe- tition was presented to the board of com- missioners asking that a voting precinct be established in Larwill, at which place the voters residing in the south two-mile strip of Troy and north one-mile strip of Rich- land might vote. This was granted, but the privilege could only be available for general county and state elections and not for town- ship elections. Then this required the ex- pense of having a voting place additional in both Troy to the north and Richland to the south and created the names of New Rich- land Center and New Troy Center. This was an unsatisfactory makeshift. On the 12th day of December, 1868, the people of Cleveland, Richland and southern Troy were almost unanimously in favor of at- taching two miles across the south end of Richland to Cleveland, and two miles off the south end of Troy to Richland. The north two-thirds of Troy was appeased by joining Etna township to them, giving them again a full township six miles square. Ac- cordingly, all this was done by order of the board of commissioners on the 12th day of December, 1868. It was supposed the peo- ple of Etna township would be more than satisfied with the change, as they would be- long to a full-size township and expenses of township administration be lessened. As a concession also the town of Etna was des- ignated as the place of holding elections, which was much more convenient for the

WHITLEY COUNTY. INDIANA.

levies, but that they should be vacated, and the auditor not to compute taxes on them unless the action making them a part of Troy should be rescinded and vacated, the people already having taken action toward this end.

On June 10, 1869, the board found that it was the unanimous wish of the people in this strip that the functions of a township should be restored to them and it was given them and the township of Etna was restored. Since that time there has been agitation for the consolidation of the two townships, but it came more from people outside than with- in either of them. Some of this was polit- ical. Both townships are strongly Repub- lican, each having a trustee, and while poli- tics dominated the election of a county school superintendent, there was Democratic sentiment for consolidation and Republican sentiment against it. This is practically the only political advantage of the office of township trustee. This has so much abated under the superb management of the schools by the present superintendent, George H. Tapy, a Democrat, that with him as the issue at the November election 1904. only Troy and Etna townships elected Republican trustees, though President Roosevelt carried the county by seventy-eight, and each party elected part of its county ticket.

At the loss of Etna township, the people of New Troy felt very much aggrieved over the final outcome of the boundary upheaval of 1868. They had another serious and just cause of complaint. It was inserted in the order making the change, insidiously they believed, that each new township should as- sume all debts contracted by the township of that name before the change. This was

in no way objectionable to Cleveland. for the two mile strip would help them pay all debts for improvements of which the people in the strip got no benefit. It was particu- larly pleasing to the people of Richland, be- cause old Troy township had built a new frame two-story school building in Larwill which was not yet paid for. Richland township and Larwill got the building and New Little Troy was obliged to pay for it. Troy lost her school building, but with loss of one-third her territory and at least half her taxable property she must pay for it. Everyone saw the rank injustice. If an at- tempt was made to enforce this order, the courts might annul the whole proceeding, and the change of territory being more de- sirable to the citizens of Richland than get- ting rid of their just share of debt, they were in a conciliatory mood. The county com- missioners therefore appointed Alexander S. McNagny on behalf of Richland township. and Ambrose M. Trumbull on behalf of Troy, to arbitrate and reach a satisfactory settlement. I. B. McDonald, county school examiner, was appointed the third member of the arbitration board and the commission- ers bound themselves to ratify any agree- ment reached by any two of the arbitrators. The arbitrators met at Larwill March 18, 1869. McNagny and Trumbull agreed that McDonald should act as referee, president of the board, and manager of the proceedings. Henry MeLallen, now president of the First National Bank of Columbia City, was se- lected as secretary to the board of arbitra- tion. Mr. McLallen says that McDonald explained the situation so clearly and figured out a settlement so just, that it was accepted without even suggestion of a change.

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

The debt due on school house was $695.43. There was special school funds in hands of county treasurer. $1,100, of which amount one-third or about $366 equitably belonged to that part of the town- ship now Richland, for they had paid in it as residents of Troy. Deducting this $366

from the total debt on the school house, would leave $329.43. This sum of $329.43 was assumed by Richland township, but Troy township paid Richland township $34. And thus for the period of thirty-five years there have been no changes made in the civil subdivisions of Whitley county.

INDIAN HISTORY.

BY S. P. KALER.

Ages, perhaps centuries, before the era of Columbus, the interior of this vast country, especially along the streams and lakes, was densely populated. Research proves that it was inhabited long before the advent of the red man, by a people whose history is lost forever, and of whom we can never know but little beyond conjecture. We have reason to believe they had fixed habits and places of abode, in a degree surpassing their dusky successors. To this people has been given the name of Mound-Builders. North- ern Indiana has many proofs of the presence of this race, but not so extensive as found in some other regions.

Some writers have sought to establish proofs of their works in Whitley county. but all these, on close analysis and investiga- tion, have proven to be the work of the In- dians beyond all question. If they were here and left evidences, they have since disappeared.

From out of that dark night which hangs forever over all we know or shall know of early America, came the Indian, a waif flung by the surge of time to these later ages of our own. With the advent of the red man,

the Indiana of nature was complete. perfect. It possessed that primeval savage beauty of a world unmarred by man. Lakes, streams, forests, prairies, stored fuel, noble game. all here untouched. For centuries, the Indian lived in peace within its bounds. The forest yielded him deer and bear, the prairies buf- falo and wild fowl. On the higher ridges overlooking the larger streams and lakes, he had his principal village sites. Over their placid waters he paddled his dug-out and bark canoe. From their depths he se- cured with rude hook and spear fishes sufficient to supply his needs, while the skins of muskrats, otter and beaver which he trapped about their marshy margins, fur- nished him protection against the cold. Through the forest glades, when returning from the chase, his cries of triumph were echoed. Here, in a land of plenty. his wants were few and easily satisfied, his ambitions lowly, his hopes eternal. But to this, as to all things peaceful, there was an end. From across the seas came that "prince of para- sites," the white man, self-styled heir to all the ages, conqueror and civilizer, in reality the greatest devastator nature has ever

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

known. First, as a discoverer came he, then as a trapper and trader among the Indians, last as settler of the future state, always a despoiler of the land the natives loved so well. True, there were noble, self-sacrific- ing souls who came as early missionaries to befriend the natives, to point them the way of the Christian religion, to win them by the example of perfect self-sacrificing lives, but even this zeal was tinctured with the hope of the enlargement and aggrandize- ment of some particular creed. But little good or even history came from all this, except it leaves to us the story of the general disposition of these savages. Lives they lived of barbarian simplicity, gentleness and hospitality. Their later treachery, savage brutality and general devilishness, though latent in their uncivilized nature, were de- veloped by their contact with white men, and they were apt scholars. The intense hos- tility of the French and English governments toward each other, transmitted to their sub- jects in the new world, inspiring them with love of conquest and spoil, and later the hostility toward all white races who had become Americans, by both French and English; these things are principally re- sponsible for the final development of those characteristics of the Indian we have all learned to despise and which our earlier ancestors learned to fear. The history of the Indian from his discovery to his ex- tinction, covers but an infinitesimal portion of the world's history, but it sees this race, educated from uncivilized simplicity to sav- age brutality; and yet, withal, there were many notable characters who have left les- sons of faithfulness, devotion and self-sacri- fice to the world, ever worthy of remem- brance and emulation.

The first white man lived much as the natives ; their places of habitation, their food, their clothing and environment being neces- sarily the same. But from the larger streams and lakes, and the frontier he grad- ually pushed into the interior, until in less than two centuries, a mere second compared with those measureless eternities before he came, the white man has changed beyond recognition the face of the land. From its bounds he has driven forever the buffalo, bear, panther, elk, deer, wild turkey, ivory- billed woodpecker, paroquet and wild pigeon, and obliterated forever the picturesque trails and woodland paths. What the Indians were before Capt. John Smith met them in 1607, or the Pilgrims found them that dreary winter of 1620, we know not and shall never know. When they occupied all this vast country and had never to do with white man, they had a history, but it is neither preserved or disclosed. We are sure they had federations, some rude kind of governmental management in their tribal lives, and exercised control or ownership over certain territory and defended it against their neighbors, as white men in all lands and all stages of civilization. That these tribes were at war with each other, proved them to be in the one respect, at least, equal to the christianized, enlightened and fore- most nations of white people with their centuries of intellectual growth.

Misunderstanding and inevitable conflict must come with the co-mingling of races. causing prejudice, clannishness and event- ually a war of extinction. Intertribal com- munication, what we call news, was slow and uncertain, but was not liable to lose any of its intensity by transmission. A race by nature inclined to imagination, excitement

COLUMBIA TWP.

UNION TWP.

CHAPINE

RÉSERVATION

COLUMBIA CITY

VILLAGE

BEWSC BE

MUD CRITK

RESERVATION

SEEKS

VANDALIA R.R.

COESSE

BEAVER RESEVATION

The Island

MAP BY ML GALBREATH

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

and hyperbole, would not suffer a story of wrong to lose force on its journey, and the acts of a slowly but surely conquering race must raise a spirit of hostility and bitterness among the conquered whether black, red or white. And so, while the fight was going on along the Atlantic coast, the natives were gradually forced back and from their origi- nal territory there must come a mingling of tribes with race sympathy and growing hatred for the invaders. But the character- istics of the Indian and his history, during the two centuries of his extinction, have been fully set out in numberless histories, differ- ing in many essentials and seldom agreeing in detail, and we are only concerned with the history of the red man in Whitley county. going beyond this only as it may be neces- sary to make plain that local history.

In at least the last half of the eighteenth century, this territory was occupied jointly by the Miamis and Pottawattamies, though the former made stout claim to all of it. and it must be considered that interwoven with these two great tribes were many smaller ones, such as the Weeas and Eel rivers, and these were mostly branches of the Miamis.

The domain of the Miamis was de- scribed by Little Turtle at the treaty of Greenville, June 16, 1795, as follows: "My fathers first kindled the fires at Detroit and covered the territory to the headwaters of the Scioto, thence down the same to the Ohio, thence down that river to the month of the Wabash, and thence to Chicago on the south-west end of Lake Michigan, and from thence back to Detroit, and all within these boundaries is Miami territory." This bombastic speech, spoken by the leader of

the federation, was no doubt inspired by the determination of himself, his people, and his federated allies, to make the best possi- ble terms with his white conquerors, and especially for himself and the Miamis to re- tain his capitol, Fort Wayne, the very golden gate of the country ; and he must claim far beyond that to the westward, and not allow this much coveted place to fall in the out- posts on the extreme western portion of the frontier. To this General Wayne replied that the territory claimed practically covered all that claimed by all the tribes represented" in the convention and a few small ones not represented. intimating that Little Turtle was imbued with the doctrine asserted by statesmen and politicians of our own time, "claim everything," and gave him little hope to expect the convention would recognize occupancy much to the west of Fort Wayne.

The origin of the Pottawattamies and their first location on the continent have never been ascertained. They were known to the French in south-western Michigan. They were probably first known by white men about Lake Michigan, in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. They were described as a somewhat vagrant and unambitious tribe, with little or no organization, wander- ing almost aimlessly about, and were often destitute while and when other tribes reveled in savage luxury. They were driven east- ward by the more western tribes until they were practically confined to north and west- ern Indiana until they came among the Mi- amis, with whom they fraternized fairly well. Indeed we may say they met and overlapped the Miamis about and along Eel and Blue rivers in Whitley county. In the west part of our county and beyond, they occupied

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

the territory practically alone. In the east- ern part of Whitley county, practically east of the rivers, we find none but the Miamis, including a few Eel rivers and predatory bands of Weeas and others not definable.

About 1790, the Miamis could muster 1,500 warriors. They were at this time always at war with the whites until their disastrous defeat by Gen. Anthony Wayne in 1795, the year prior to the Greenville treaty. After that, they rapidly declined. By a series of treaties between that date and 1809, they ceded lands extending from the Wabash river to the Ohio state line. The annuities proved fatal to them, intro- ducing intoxicating liquors, resulting in in- dolence, dissipation and violence.

In the war of 1812, they sided with England and being defeated by General Har- rison sued for peace, and a treaty was made on September 15, 1815, and their war spirit was broken. War had broken up the prog- ress they had made in peaceful arts, and drunkenness and debauchery again over- whelmed. leading to internal fights in which nearly 500 of them perished in about fifteen years. In 1822, the census showed they numbered from 2,000 to 3,000 on three res- ervations. The Weea or Piankeshaw bands of them, numbering 384, removed themselves in 1833 and 1835 to a reservation of 160,000 acres in Kansas.

The Eel river tribe were Miamis who had located near Eel river, perhaps about 1760, about twelve miles from Logansport. wandering up and down that river into Whitley county. They were removed with the Pottawattamies in 1837, by Col. Abel Pepper and Alexis Coquillard. Those in Whitley, northern Huntington and eastern

Allen counties were loaded on canal boats at Raccoon Village, Whitley county, May 18, 1837. The Miamis, then reduced to about 1,100, sold to the government 117,000 acres in Indiana for $335,680, still retaining con- siderable land in reservations, but by treaties made in 1838 and 1840, ceded to the govern- ment practically all these reservations and were removed to near Leavenworth, Kansas. At this time, they had dwindled to a wretched, dissipated band of 250, each in- dividual being paid a life annuity of about $125. In 1873. they numbered about 150. and now that once powerful, boastful na- tion, dominating a great part of Ohio, In- diana and Michigan, is extinct as a tribe.

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History of Whitley County, Indiana, Part 7

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth Publication date: 1907 Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co. Number of Pages: 940

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 940