USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > Evansville > History of the city of Evansville and Vanderburg County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 3
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 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
A hunter shot another buck this side of Newburg and hitched his horse while he followed it on foot. It circled back and attacked the horse cutting it so badly in the abdomen that it had to be killed. So much for deer.
But the only time to beware of a bear was when an old she bear's cubs were hurt. She might be with two cubs, and she would try to get away, and if the hunter killed one, she would leave with the other. But let one be only crippled and begin to "squall" and she would come back ready to fight to the death.
So in stealing cubs, if only one was taken, the old bear did not seem to know the difference, but if both were stolen she would follow up the scent till she found them and be just as ready to fight for them.
CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST PIONEER-PIERRE BROUILLETTE WAS SIMPLY A TRADER-THE AD- VENT OF HUGH M'GARY-HOW HE HAPPENED TO LOCATE-THE HOOSIER TONGUE-HOW THE FIRST HOMES WERE BUILT-PRIMITIVE UTENSILS- OUR PIONEER MOTHERS-PIONEER CITIZENS-GETTING SALT-EARLY THRESHING AND CORN GRINDING-WORK WITHOUT NAILS FIRST HAR- NESS AND BRIDLES.
While Hugh McGary was without doubt the first man to settle on the site of the city of Evansville, he was not the first one who really located here for a time.
But the first man was a wanderer and he went where trade was the best. History tells us that at least ten years before McGary decided to build his cabin, one Pierre Brouillette came down from "the falls," now known as Louisville, Ky., and tied up at the bank of Pigeon Creek.
At this time the Shawnees were camping here, trapping and fishing, and they occupied the land from the creek clear up to the present Boule- vard. This, with the exception of a few gullies, was a perfectly level pla- teau. At that time Pigeon Creek was a small river and Sweezer pond quite a lake. (In after years Mrs. Sweezer, a widow, used to run a ferry at the mouth of the creek.)
Learning that the Shawnees not only had plenty of pelts, but could get them almost as fast as they needed them, Brouillette decided to locate here, and for four years he ran the first store. He carried in stock almost noth- ing except old flint-lock guns, cheap blankets, beads, tobacco and whiskey, and of this latter he sold great quantities.
As it is known that the partially civilized Indian of today will almost barter his soul for whiskey, some idea may be had of the profits of this shrewd trader. But as Brouilette never built a house or located any land, but lived on his boat during his residence here, he is not entitled to any honor in the history of Evansville.
A writer who tried to trace up his wanderings says of him:
"Peddling out fire-water to the Shawnees of this day was an avocation which required level judgment and when they became troublesome, ex- tremely quick action.
"For about four years Brouillette carried on his business with the In- dians. From time to time demand for his goods made it necessary for him to go to Louisville to replenish his stock. He would then dispose of the
20
21
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
furs which he had accumulated during the interim. In those days of lim- ited transportation facilities a trip to Louisville was no small undertaking and required three or four days of travel. Brouillette usually made his journey on horseback, leading several other animals heavily laden with the results of his trading. On the return trip the horses would be still more heavily loaded. It is related of him that he often carried several kegs of whiskey on horseback, one balancing the other on either side and the whole secured by a stout strap.
"Sometimes his red-skinned friends required his supplies with greater celerity than the tedious trip to Louisville permitted. Then he would hurry to Vincennes and return quickly with enough goods to supply the pressing demands of the moment. On one of these trips Brouillette met General Washington Johnson, a prominent figure of that day and he gave Johnson such an enticing account of his business inevestment that Johnson was induced to make the journey southward for the purpose of viewing the conditions.
"When he visited Brouillette he found the lands in that part of the country had just been surveyed and were coming into the market. The surveyors had completed their work in the territory now comprising Van- berburg county in the fall of 1806 and upon his return to Vincennes, Mr. Johnson promptly secured title to the tract which seemed to be the pros- pective seat of industry in the new section of country. Whether he con- templated the inauguration of a town on the Ohio is not known and if so it is not known why he failed to take steps in that direction or to locate other tracts of land contiguous to the purchase he made in 1807.
"Some years afterward, Mr. Johnson told a friend that he had missed a rare opportunity for a paying investment when Evansville came into being at a point less than a mile from the old Brouillette boat landing.
"The exact time when Brouillette left his trading post at the mouth of Pigeon Creek is not known. The advent of the surveying corps appears to have broken up the Shawnee village and although at periods far apart por- tions of the tribe appeared in the vicinity there was not enough of an In- dian settlement to make the bartering profitable. Pierre Brouillette went away. Whither, no one seemed to know. He had relatives at Vincennes, but inquiry among them at a much later date failed to bring to light any information concerning his history or his wanderings."
Reverting to McGary, I am able to give the following facts: He was of Irish and not Scotch parentage. If he had been Scotch, he would have spelled his name MacGary. He first lived in Kentucky where he fought Indians side by side with Boone, Todd, Trigg, Harlan, Estill, Logan and the other brave fighters of the Dark and Bloody Ground.
He went to Post Saint Vincent to the treaty, and, starting back with his brothers to his Kentucky home, he took the old Indian trail which came through what is now known as Stringtown. This brought him through the dense woods to what is now the foot of Main street. His destination was
22
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
"The Red Banks" (Henderson, Ky.). He was so much impressed with Indiana that he came back and settled in Gibson county, but, still thinking of the great Ohio River and its possibilities, he moved here and built his first house.
It is but just to say, that a log house had been built here some years before at the mouth of Pigeon Creek, but the most diligent search fails to show who built it. It consisted of only one room, the logs were not even smoothed by the axe, and the roof was held on by poles, as saplings were called. It stood many years and was finally washed away in a spring flood.
McGary, however, had an eye to something better, and his house, while only one story, consisted of two rooms and a hall between; in other words it was a double log cabin.
The average city bred reader can have no idea of the primitiveness of the tools used in the early architecture of Evansville.
Only three were needed-an axe, an augur and a cross-cut saw. And even the latter was a sort of luxury, and in many cases several families combined and traded enough pelts to purchase a saw, which was used in turn by the joint owners. As a matter of fact many houses were built with only an axe and an augur. The augur was straight and had a long and very strong handle. As a rule the logs were put into the house "in the rough" i. e. without any attempt to smooth them, but those who had any pride hewed their logs smooth on one side or both, and if they had a saw they sawed the ends so as to make smooth corners. But the poor fellow who had no saw, or no neighbor from whom he could borrow, simply left the corners rough.
The logs of McGary's house were smoothed inside and out, and notched so that they set in nicely. The gaps between the logs were filled with dried grass and mud. This was called "chinking," and to say that a man lived in a cabin that "wasn't even chinked," was to pronounce him a lazy kind of fellow, for mud and grass were plenty.
The roof was of slabs, laid much as shingles are, and held in place by long poles, which in turn were held by stones at each end. At the end of each room was an enormous chimney, large enough for a half-grown child to stand in. This was built on the outside and made of split sticks plastered inside and out and between each layer with mud. In fact the chimney was really of mud and the sticks held it in place. These chimneys soon har- dened, and it is wonderful how they lasted. Many a time in hunting I have run across these old cabins with their chimneys almost as good as the day they were built. The only doors in the building faced each other across the open hall.
There were only two windows in the house, one in the front of each cabin and they were only as large as the space cut out of two logs. There was no glass but there were very strong shutters which fastened by bars
23
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
And how did the doors work? Who has not heard the expression "the latch string is out." But how many of my readers ever stopped to think how the expression originated ?
Inside each door was a heavy wooden latch which fitted into a slot. Just above the latch was an augur hole, and through it a deer skin thong fastened to it, could be hung outside. If it hung outside it meant "Come in and welcome," but if the door was shut and the thong pulled inside, it behooved the visitor to tell very plainly who he was before he could hope to enter.
In each corner of the sleeping room were the beds. These were made by driving saplings into augur holes in the wall and fastening them at the corner with hickory withes. Across the poles slabs were laid and pegged down and on them were home made mattresses of dried grass, or filled with the feathers of wild geese and ducks.
Sheets were rare, but quilts were plenty, and were a source of great pride to the pioneer women. If they were alive today they would be horri- fied to see the scraps of ribbons, old dresses, etc., that the average house- keeper throws into the fire as useless. To them they would be rare treas- ures, to be brought out with pride at the first "quiltin' bee" for they kept every little faded scrap, from the men's pants to the little girls' worn-out calico dresses, and all were worked into quilts of gorgeous patterns.
Sometimes when the family was large, a sort of loft of strong poles was built, and the children and sometimes "the stranger within the gates" re- tired by way of a light ladder.
It would be wrong to leave this subject without telling of the ways of the first Indiana mothers.
Their household implements were few. Their brooms were made by shaving down a hickory pole with a knife or axe, and then pulling down the little strips in a bunch and fastening them with the ever-ready hickory withe. Their cooking utensils were an iron pot which hung on a "crane" in the big fire place, and a "spider." This latter was a simple heavy frying pan or skillet with a heavy iron lid, on which coals could be heaped.
I myself have eaten many a time when deer hunting where the entire meal was cooked in the "spider." First the coffee was browned in it, then the game was broiled, and after that was set aside, the spider was quickly cleaned and the corn pone or "warm white bread" was hastily baked in it.
The children were always expected to wait; in fact there were hardly ever dishes enough to go around.
I have read many alleged accounts of how the old hoosiers talked. Some of them took the form of stories, but they were rarely true to life. They had a language all their own, though many idioms they brought with them from the Kentucky country, and I will try to give a few examples which I know are reliable for in my youth my happiest days were spent with these old settlers and their descendants.
24
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
If a rider or driver came up to the horse-block, his usual announcement was "hello, the house." This brought all the dogs to the front, and the lady of the house would come to the door, and if she knew the visitor, would say "light and come in." This of course meant "alight" or "get down," but "light" was considered the very acme of politeness.
In the meantime she brought a chair or stool and after carefully dust- ing it with her apron ( for it would be bad form indeed not to show this mark of respect) she placed it before the fire.
Of course the conversation was limited. There were no topics save the poor little details of their small clearings.
Strange to say, the average mother always told with pride how "bad" her child was, and if the visitor was shrewd he always said that he "al- lowed" her little Billy was the "wust young 'un in the settlement"-with the accent on "ment."
And then the proud mother would say "I allow to git me a bresh (piece of brushwood) some day and jist lay it on him till he squalls like a painter (panther).
Nobody "knew" or "supposed" anything; they "allowed."
No modest woman ever spoke of a muscular man as "strong." To her such a term would mean that he gave out an effluvia. Oh, no, he was "stout." A creek was a "crick." A man might "kill" a bear or some wild animal, but he "hung up" a deer. "Up yanways" meant up the road, or up in some other direction.
Marks of a stray horse or wild animal were "sign." A "deer scrape" was where a buck had rubbed its "velvet" on small bushes, and a "turkey scrape" was where wild turkeys had scratched.
One could "tree" a coon or "shine" a deer at night. A possum that pre- tended to be dead "sulled."
To "pull yer weasel-skin" meant take out your pocket book. A midwife was a "granny." To say that a young man was "ficety," meant that he put on airs. There was never interest on a note; it was "intrust." A spotted cow or hog was "pieded."
There were no pants, trousers or pantaloons; men wore "britches" and "gallusses" (suspenders). Tobacco simply twisted was "long green," while plug tobacco was "store terbacker."
One did not chew; he "chawed." A "log rollin" was when the neigh- bors all gathered to roll up the logs on a clearing into pyramids so that they might easily burn. A "house raisin" was when they came to help the young settler roll up his house timbers into place, and a "house warmin" was where all came bringing some little thing from their scanty store to start the young couple to housekeeping.
A strange thing was the use of the word "critter" and "brute." A man bought a "horse critter," or saw a stray "cow brute." A child was given a small branch of wood at the table and told to "mind" the flies. An "eaves- drapper" was the meanest of creatures. A man who was thinking deeply,
Evansville's First Lot Sale
(From original handbill in possession of Sebastian Henrich)
EVANSVILLE
THE sale of Lots in the Town of Evansville, will take place on Wednesday and Thursday the 27th and 28'h of May next, when purchasers can have a credit of B & 12 Months, by giving Bond with approved security, & on Friday the 29th of May, the building of a public Jail, in the said town will be let to the lowest bidder.
This town is so well known as a place of Landing and deposit for the wes. teru part of the State of Indiana, that any particular description of the place is deemed unnecessary. Suffice it to say, that this town has lately been esta- blished as the permanent seat of Justice of Vanderburgh County, and certainly holds out a fairer prospect to become a considerable Commercial town, than any other in the western part of the State .- Merchants, Mechanicks and men of enterprize are particularly invited to come and judge for themselves.
April 28th, 1818.
DANL. MILLER, Agent for Vanderburgh County.
Printed at the Office of the Western Sun-Vincennes .:
25
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
was "progikin." To feel a little sick, was to feel "daunchy." The word "puny" was also in general use and simply meant that a man or woman couldn't work all day like a horse.
The above is only a specimen of what was known as the backwoods tongue. Of course the cultivated men who came here from the east did not use it, but I am speaking of the natives.
Oh! those pioneer mothers! No feeble pen can ever give them their due meed of praise. They were the mothers of real men. No work too hard, no privation too great. If the men were away, they did not hesitate to take the axe and chop their own wood. In clearing up the land they worked side by side with their sturdy husbands and sons.
Their charity was great. No thought of self ever entered their hearts. Let it be known that a neighbor was sick and a walk of miles through the trackless woods to help minister to the afflicted was no task to them.
And to them the ties of blood meant something. Let a man be of their "kin" and the whole world might turn against him, yet they would be true. They would forgive any deed, and set themselves as a shield between him and his enemies.
Their modesty was as great as their goodness. No man dared to tell a "risque" story when the "women folks" were around. Tales that pass current in fashionable drawing rooms today, would be met by a burst of virtuous indignation by the women of the olden time. And yet their ideas were strange. A mother would nurse her babe before a dozen men and think nothing of it, yet she would draw down her poor dress till not even her shoes were exposed.
Hers was the true hospitality. Let a lost stranger come at any hour of the night and she would only too gladly leave her warm bed to get him "a bite to eat" and a good cup of coffee. To do less would be to break a law handed down by her ancestors. And in the morning, long ere day, she would be up and ready with a hot breakfast, so that he might lose no time. If he offered to pay, she would spurn it and say "I reckon you'd a done the same for me or my old man." And when her neighbors came, to let them go without a meal was something unknown to her and her methods. Every poor dish was brought out and her little store of sweetmeats was ravished, but when she said, after the last touch, "draw up yer cheers and help yourselves. We aint got much, but sech as it is, you're mighty wel- come," she meant it. Yes, from the bottom of her great, generous heart, and not to have done ample justice to the meal would have hurt her deeply.
On her shoulders fell all of the household work. Each little piece of all worn out garments would be carefully cut into strips and the ends sewed together. Then when large enough to make a "carpet ball" it was carefully stowed away pending the time when she could have made a little carpet or rug to put upon the barren floor.
26
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
She it was who took the big pumpkins and cut them as one cuts a water- melon, into round slices, and when a pole was run throug them (for who could afford twine) they were fastened by little strips of deer hide up along the rafters. The red peppers were strung and fastened up. The nuts of various kinds were strewn on the loft floor and the sassafras roots were gathered in season and carefully put away. She and her little ones gath- ered the wild grapes, and the papaws and persimmons, and the first May apples.
To her the dense woods were full of treasures, even to the slippery elm bark. And if one were sick, she alone knew how to take nature's own primitive roots and herbs and concoct healing and soothing medicines.
She believed her husband to be the best man living; her children the sweetest and best ever born, and her "kin" incapable of doing wrong. She was good and sweet and true. God bless her memory.
An item in a recent issue of the Courier goes to show how closely the pioneer mother stayed at home.
It was not that their minds were not bright and active, but it was sim- ply their way of living. To them their own hearthstones were the sweetest places on earth, and just so "the folks kept well" and there was plenty to eat, plenty of warmth, and a near neighbor to drop in to chat while they both sat knitting ( for to be idle was a crime) they cared little for the doings of the great outside world. And who shall say they were not the happier for it?
The Courier says :
"Although she had lived within 20 miles of Evansville for 71 years, Mrs. F. M. Stallings, Posey County, yesterday visited Evansville for the first time and among other things had her first sight of a street car and an automobile. There were many other things, too, that she witnessed for the first time, such things as were never to be seen in the vicinity of their little farm in the adjacent county.
"Mr. and Mrs. Stallings were here yesterday paying their respects to their daughter, Mrs. George W. Hunter, Eighth and Locust streets, and left in the afternoon for a few days' visit with a son in Eckerty, Crawford County.
"Mr. Stallings had not been in Evansville since 1866 and the tremendous strides the city had taken filled him with wonder.
"Sitting near a window in her daughter's home, Mrs. Stallings saw a street car whizz by on Eighth street. She figuratively rubbed her eyes to see if she was awake and then looking saw it far up the avenue. 'How does the thing run?' she asked her daughter. 'It has no horses pulling it nor anyone pushing it?' An auto moving by brought even greater ex- pressions of astonishment from the elderly lady. 'What won't they do next !' was her only means of venting her wonder.
"The couple will stop off here the middle of next week on their way home and Mr. and Mrs. Hunter are planning an educational trip through
27
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
the city for their benefit. Moving picture shows, the large manufacturing plants and other results of the last century's inventive genius will be in- troduced to them."
The Courier also speaks of two other old citizens :
"Thomas Scantlin of this city, the oldest man in Vanderburg county and probably the only surviving person who carried an advertisement in the first edition of the Courier, published in 1845, will before the summer passes celebrate his 96th birthday. Nearly 90 of these 96 years have been spent in Evansville and there is probably no man in this city who is able to recall so much of the early history of Evansville as Mr. Stantlin.
"When barely six years of age he came here in about 1820, the limits of the village extended only from Sycamore to Walnut and from Water to Third streets. His present residence at 512 Upper Third street he built in 1841. At 34 Sycamore street he constructed the first three-story build- ing in the city. It was a brick business house and still stands.
"Mr. Scantlin was present at the beginning of the construction of the old Wabash & Erie canal, when General Robert M. Evans turned the first shovel of dirt. The ceremonies were followed by a banquet and dance.
"In 1836 he became engaged in the tin business and it was the advertise- ment of this enterprise that appeared in the Courier of 1845. Mr. Scant- lin was married in 1840 to Ellen Jane Parvin, the niece of General Evans, after whom the city was named.
"Captain P. G. O'Riley, who arrived here in 1843, embarked in the first wharfboat business in Evansville which under his guiding influence grew to be the largest enterprise of its kind between Pittsburg and New Orleans.
"During the twenty years of his residence here, Captain O'Riley was known the length of the river for his philanthropies. He erected the first hospital where contagious diseases were treated and personally met the expenses of the institution until the community awakening to the burden he was carrying, took it from his shoulders.
"Captain O'Riley was one of the first promoters of the old Wabash & Erie canal, which was completed in 1853. The first boat upon its waters was called in his honor. 'The P. G. O'Riley.' In 1863 he left Evansville for New Orleans to engage in the commission business. His trip to that city was made upon the first steamboat to reach New Orleans after the fall of Vicksburg.
"New Orleans was visited by an epidemic of yellow fever in 1873 and Captain O'Riley fell a victim to the dread disease."
One of the great necessities of the early day was salt. Without it no pioneer family could hope to get along.
There are people now living here who remember Cook's Park as the salt well. In the early days a spring existed near the bank of the creek at the northwest corner of the park. For years this water was boiled and produced a fair article of salt, but as it failed to produce enough for the
28
HISTORY OF VANDERBURG COUNTY
needs of all it was dug deeper and somehow the vein was spoiled, the water becoming brackish.
After that the settlers used to go in little bands to the Saline banks near Shawneetown, which had long been used by the Indians. They would boil out their salt and bring it home in sacks on their shoulders or on what few horses were owned here.
At that time the only wagon owned here belonged to Adam Fickas, who lived above the site of this city near Newburg, which first went by the name of Sprinklesburg. He was always ready to lend this to his neigh- bors, till a man named Hayden began to make yearly trips here with a trading boat. Corn and coon skins were a legal tender so to speak.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.