USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Richmond > Memoirs of Wayne County and the city of Richmond, Indiana; from the earliest historical times down to the present, including a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in Wayne County, Volume I Pt. 1 > Part 5
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
when a contractor appeared to again attempt "razing" the jail a mob again interfered and prevented it, until it was ascertained, the following week, that the prayer for a rehearing was hopeless. Then hostilities ceased, the work of demolition began Oct. 23, to proceed without further molestation, and the materials in the prison part were most advantageously utilized in erecting our present jail in a most complete and substantial manner. But the court house erected during the hurry of this exciting period was
40
MEMOIRS OF WAYNE COUNTY
only intended to serve temporarily, albeit there were hosts to say it was good enough when the time came to erect the present magnificent one, which doubtless surpasses any in the State in originality and newness of design, if not in architectural beauty and elegance of construction, its style or plan being a wide depar- ture from the stereotyped one that appears in the great majority of court houses of both high and low degree. Its erection was decided upon by the commissioners at their June term, 1891, and at their September term a formidable remonstrance was filed, but this they rejected as they also did the first plans submitted by several architects, at their November term.
Thereupon MeLaughlin, the Cincinnati architect, was em- ployed to prepare plans and specifications, incorporating ideas ad- vanced by the commissioners, who had traveled and viewed court houses until they thought they knew what they wanted. The following April, 1892, proposals were received and the contract let to A. G. Campfield & Company, for $274,000, but divers changes and additions were made which swelled the final cost to about $425,000.
THE WHITE WATER SETTLEMENT OF FRIENDS.
The Society of Friends has never taken kindly to the appella- tion of "Quaker," as it was given them in derision, but it ante- dates their history in America, back to that early epoch when they were known as the "Children of Light." It was when George Fox, the founder of the sect, was arraigned before Justice Ben- nett, of Derby, England, in 1650, for promulgating their doctrine, and told him to "quake before the Lord," whereupon the court following styled them Quakers. As previously stated, the Nestor of the Society made his advent here in 1806, to be followed by the vanguard in 1807, and by August of the latter year their number was so augmented (to eighty-four, children and all) that West Branch (Ohio) Monthly Meeting "indulged" a subordinate meeting here. At its first session, in one of the rude homes, there were only thirty-four present, but when it was learned that a meeting had been indulged the colony began increasing more rapidly and by the next year they built a meeting house. It was a log house, twenty-four feet square, and in it the present White Water Monthly Meeting was established by Miami (Ohio) Quarterly Meeting, 9th Month, 30th, 1889, with 265 members- the first in Indiana Territory.
In his Memoir, Dr. Plummer, in referring to this first meeting
2
-
Drawn by Marcus Mote & 1844 RepaintedDeslarga 1885.
INDIANA YEARLY MEETING OF FRIENDS. 1844. P
41
EARLY IHISTORY
house says, "I remember its leaking roof, letting the rain through upon the slab benches, with three pairs of legs and no backs; its charcoal fires, kept in sugar kettles, for as yet stoves were not pro- cured, and the toes pinched with cold of the young, who sat re- mote from the kettles"; and under such circumstances, their at- tendance sufficiently attested the sincerity of their devotion; but harder trials, "for opinion's sake," were in store for them. Their pursuits of peace were hardly inaugurated in their new home until the War of 1812 came, and during its continuance it was more of the oppression of the whites than of the Indians that the Friends had to complain. Based on the testimony of Jesus, to love the Lord with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves, the Friends have a testimony against all wars, in spirit or in fact, wherefore they declined to participate in any of the busy preparation for war. They not alone refrained from "mustering" but steadfastly refused to drill or serve any way whatsoever when drafted. There- fore, they were repeatedly arrested, fined and imprisoned; but while they did not resist arrest nor imprisonment, they refused to pay fines and allowed their hard earned effects to be seized and sold at nominal valuations to liquidate the penalties imposed. True to their principles, they were non-resisting, but fixed in pur- pose. Four young Friends, however, who had no effects to be sold and suffered long imprisonment, without fire and other neces- sities, subsequently recovered damages off the county. One old Friend named Elliott so stubbornly defied the authorities that he was ordered shot, but was purposely allowed to escape the guard to avoid executing the order. But amid their tribulations a bles- sing came that same year, for 6th Month, 1812, Baltimore Yearly Meeting had established West Branch (Ohio) Quarterly Meeting "only forty miles distant," to which their White Water Monthly Meeting then became attached. This forty miles was through the dense, primeval forest, and the hostilities of the Indians were kindled to a war heat by the animosities of the whites, but the Friends had already inculcated in the barbaric minds of the red men that they were especially friendly to them, and right while the spirit to kill was rife within their savage breasts they mani- fested, in a degree, toward the Friends much of that reciprocal feeling that in years after prompted those of their race to fall in reverence at the base of William Penn's statue in Philadelphia. A contributor to a local paper told only a few years ago how the Quaker's garb was a signal of friendliness, in which the red men had abiding faith even in those hostile times. Even his mother
42
MEMOIRS OF WAYNE COUNTY
felt safe to ride to mill alone, only taking the precaution to array herself in her First-day (Sunday ) bonnet and shawl. But all this time the Indians were committing all sorts of depredations, in a vindictive spirit, against those pioneers who were fortifying with block houses, in which they constantly took refuge from the time General Ilarrison began the expedition that made him the "hero of Tippecanoe" until the Harrison-Cass treaty was effected in July, 1814, about thirty miles from this city, at which there were several thousand Indians of various tribes. Peace restored, the administration of White Water Monthly Meeting augmented, in 1815, to six subordinate meetings, aggregating Soo members, and the strength of the Society was recognized the following year by the civil authorities of the Territory by selecting one of their rep- resentative members, Jeremiah Cox, as a delegate to the Corydon Convention, which, in June, 1816, adopted the State Constitution. Next, Jan. 4, 1817, White Water Monthly Meeting became a Quarterly Meeting and continued to strengthen each year until Oct. 8, 1821, when Indiana Yearly Meeting was established, which rendered necessary the building of a new and more commodious meeting house, as the old log one had meanwhile proved inade- quate for even the Quarterly Meeting; and it was not alone a larger one that was immediately proposed, but a brick one, which, in view of the fact that brick houses were as yet very few in Wayne county, was considered very enterprising by all and some- what to be deplored by some of the plainer factors in the meeting, who were fearful lest it be a little ostentatious. In 1823, the walls were built, and in 1824 it was occupied, but it was not until 1829 that it was completed. It was a "big thing" for that period and moved slowly, but it was substantially built, as is evidenced by the fact that after it had served its original purpose it was con- verted into an oil mill and still stands, as an adjunct to a large lumber yard, in a good repairable state of preservation. That it was economically builded before "rings" and "jobs" were known as requisite to a large undertaking is also evidenced by the very complete reports made by the "overseers." They report, "May I, 1824: Stone in foundation, loads, 225; brick, 266,000; hewed tim- ber, feet, 8,473; sawed scantling, feet, 12,501 ; shingles, 43,200; glass, panes 1,029; walls, 100x60x30 feet, in lower story 22 inches and upper 18 inches thick. Money expended, $3,489.911/2." But as the building was not completed until five years later, and so much in work and materials was gratuitously contributed, the above figures only approximately indicate the real cost of the historic old pile.
43
EARLY HISTORY
Pending the completion of the big brick meeting house, came a dissention in the Society that split them asunder. That was the "split" of 1827-28 that resulted in the two "branches" of to-day. With no creed nor ritual, no church form that binds one meeting to the other save their "correspondence," as they term an annual exchange of epistles, they rely upon their faith in God as the Father, and his revelations through Christ the Son, first, and then their own love for one another, for unity. But when Elias IIicks came here, at this time, on his pilgrimage from one meeting to another, preaching his new "views," the major part of the meet- ing arose in opposition to their promulgation. They were branded as the doctrine of the Universalists and would not be tolerated by the main body of the Meeting, whereupon he went to Charles W. Starr's barnyard, not far distant, to preach his views, which were especially pronounced on the divinity of Christ, the miraculous conception and the atonement. A memorable declaration was that there was no more virtue in the blood Christ shed than in the blood of an ox; that the crucifixion of God's chosen Son was the work of man; that it was by His examples and not his sacrifice that he fulfilled his mission. The result was that about 140 mem- bers "split off" and established another Meeting, which has ever since held its yearly meetings alternately here and at Waynes- ville, Ohio, but has never assumed numerical strength in the West comparing to the Orthodox Meeting, albeit the Hicksites are in the majority in Philadelphia. There are now less than 2,000 members of the Hicksite Yearly Meeting, about two-thirds of whom belong to the Quarterly Meeting here; whereas, there are about 20,000 members of the Indiana (Orthodox) Yearly Meeting, which, as before stated, is the largest body of Friends in this country or any other; and it has this distinction despite that in three-score- and-ten years of its existence there has been "set off" from it Iowa Yearly Meeting, Western (Indiana) Yearly Meeting, and Kansas Yearly Meeting.
CHAPTER V.
EARLY HISTORY-(Continued).
INDIANS HARRASS SETTLERS-SETTLEMENT ON THE ELKHORN-EXPERI- ENCES OF JOSEPHI COX-GEORGE HOLMAN AND RICHARD RUE CAP- TURED BY INDIANS-ACCOUNT OF THEIR CAPTIVITY-THE HOOVER FAMILY-JEREMIAH COX-CHARLES HUNT AND SONS-EARLY MILLS -FIRST ENTRY OF LAND-FIRST CLEARING AT BICHIMOND-NAMES OF EARLY SETTLERS-EARLY ELECTIONS AND COURTS-WAR OF 1812.
When General St. Clair came West as the Governor of the new "Territory Northwest of the Ohio," just organized by the Ordinance of 1787, he found a few settlements scattered along the right bank of the Ohio and in the "then almost unbroken wilds." The hostile demonstrations of the Indians harrassed the settlers and led to a long and disastrous war, which was closed in the treaty of Greenville by General Wayne, Aug. 3, 1795. This treaty secured to the United States Government a large part of what is now the State of Ohio and that part of Indiana east of a line drawn from Fort Recovery (now in Mercer county, Ohio) to the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river. After the treaty of Greenville settlements began to be made slowly in the White Water Valley. In 1795, a few families settled upon the bottom lands on the banks of the Ohio where Lawrenceburg now stands. During the war a line of forts had been built, extending north from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) to Fort Recovery, but as late as 1804 settlements had not been made further north than where Hamilton now is, at which place there was a trading house and a few Kentucky and North Carolina families. Settlers were also scattered up the White Water as far as the site of Brookville, and scarcely had any pioneer explored the country above where Dun- lapsville, Union county, is.
In February, 1805, Richard Rue, George Holman and his sons-Joseph, aged seventeen and one-half years, and William, aged sixteen years-Joseph Cox and Mary, his wife (the eldest daughter of Rue), Thomas McCoy, William Blunt, and Patrick
46
MEMOIRS OF WAYNE COUNTY
O'HIarra crossed the Ohio near the month of the Kentucky river to explore the new region just brought into the market by the Government and known as the "Seven Mile Purchase." Joseph Cox and his young wife brought all their possessions along on pack horses, intending to make their permanent home wherever they found a place to suit their fancy. This exploring party passed the settlements near where Hamilton now is and came up the eastern branch of White Water as far as -Short creek, where they pitched their camp, Feb. 10, about two-and-a-half miles south of the present site of Richmond. They explored the surrounding forest, passing over the fertile lands watered by the streams now known as Lick creek, Clear creek, West, Green's and Noland's forks, Nettle and Simond's creeks, and on the east, Four Mile, Sil- ver and Ilanna's creeks, and were greatly pleased with the coun- try.
After six days spent in prospecting, Rue, George Holman, McCoy, and Blunt returned to Kentucky to make arrangements for removal to the White Water Valley. Cox anad his wife, the Holman boys, and O'Harra remained to work upon the quarter- sections of land which Rue and Holman had entered the year be- fore at the Cincinnati Land Office. This land was situated on Short creek, near Cox's camp.
The return of the rest of the colony was expected in a few weeks, but unforeseen difficulties prevented their arrival for over two months. During these two months, Joseph Cox explored and gave names to several of the streams in his neighborhood. Elk- horn was so named from the circumstance of his finding a large pair of elk horns in that creek near its mouth. Liek creek was so named from a "deer-lick" found on its bank. The colony not hav- ing returned as soon as expected it was deemed advisable not to await their assistance, so cabin logs being cut, the aid of some Shawnese and Delawares who were passing was obtained and the cabin raised. It was situated on a knoll near Short creek, called Rue's Branch, near the road leading from Richmond to Abington.
A short time before the cabin was built, while Cox and his wife were making sugar, an Indian came to the camp with trinkets and endeavored to force a bargain for Cox's dog. The Indian offered various articles for the dog, but was refused. lle in- creased the amount, but this being also rejected. he sprang to his feet, seized his gun and angrily exclaimed, "Shall swap""' Cox, who had been carelessly stirring at the kettle, but gradually ap- proaching the stump behind which his rifle was. now seized it and
47
EARLY HISTORY-CONTINUED
ordered the "peddler" to "puck-a-chee" (go home). The scared Shawnee suddenly recollected urgent business at a distance which demanded his immediate personal attention, and left accordingly.
The settlers seemed to have formed the acquaintance of some of the "first families," who sought to do them favors. One morn- ing an old Indian-a frequent visitor-came to the cabin, looking very sad. He said he had an important secret, must tell it and be off, for it might cost him his life to be found there. Hle told them that the young braves could no longer be restrained ; they had determined on beginning hostilities along the frontier as soon as the leaves got as large as a squirrel's ear. "Take your good squaw and go back to Kentucky as soon as you can-don't fail to go soon-good-bye." The next day an aged squaw came and con- firmed this statement. She besought them with tears in her eyes to leave or they would certainly be killed. These voluntary com- munications of friendly natives, taken in connection with the at- tempt of the Indian to deprive them of their watchdog, gave the settlers some anxiety. They took the matter into serious consid- eration and finally decided to run the risk of remaining, notwith- standing the protest of the Irishman, who, weak as he was with the fever and agne, was willing to "foot it" back to Kentucky.
Some time after this, while Cox and his wife were both at work a short distance from the cabin-the other men being at the clearing more than a mile away-twelve warriors made their ap- pearance and raised the war whoop. Cox told his wife to go to the cabin and be prepared to let him in and fasten the door im- mediately, if he should have need of seeking refuge. He then went towards the warriors, while she went to the cabin, arranged the door, called in the dog, put new priming in the guns and pre- pared to run bullets in case they were required. Cox approached the Indians, who were seated on a log, and offered to shake hands with them ; they did not reciprocate his friendliness very warmly, but he insisted on shaking hands with every one of them. The Indians remained sullen, would not speak a word, so Cox's next move was to examine and pretend to admire their guns, at the same time by a sleight-of-hand movement disarranging the flints or knocking out the priming. He now thought to run to his cabin before they could discover the trick, when the whole party arose, laughed long and loud, patted Cox on the back and said, "Good, brave man, brave squaw!" All became mutually friendly and Cox invited them to the cabin, where his wife entertained them with the "best the country afforded." The rest of the day the
48
MEMOIRS OF WAYNE COUNTY
whole party spent in shooting at a mark, Cox making the best shots. This, one warrior said, was owing to the superiority of his rifle. But Cox let him try it. It would go off as soon as the trigger was touched and before the Indian could draw a sight. Cox reloaded it for him, explained that it had a double trigger and must be touched lightly, etc. The red gentleman this time en- deavored to discharge it by blowing upon the trigger, but finally abandoned the idea of excelling his palefaced host. The Indians took leave in a friendly manner, and ever after "Young Kentuck" and his "good squaw" were great favorites with the natives. Their cabin was often visited by some of the noted chiefs and warriors of the Northwest.
Many are the amusing anecdotes told of Patrick's bungling at . tempts at hunting and of his nervous apprehension of the "bloody red rascals." But no doubt occasion has required it, for Wayne county's first citizen of foreign birth must have proved himself as brave as did his countrymen, who in a later day went forth from the same county to meet a mightier foe and make a greater sacri- fice.
Rue, Holman and Joseph Woodkirk arrived in the month of April, 1805, accompanied by their families and three young men- John Collins, Daniel Griffin, and Hermon Warum-whom they met after crossing the Ohio. George Holman is said to have acted as "bell-ringer" to the party most of the way, as the dense forest rendered it necessary that some one should go forward and ring a bell so that the immigrant train could follow along the dim and rugged "boundary trace." In many places the "trace" was dis- cernible only by the "blazes" upon the trees, and they could only be found after diligent search among the exuberant foliage. After eight or ten days' difficult traveling, these first regular train "movers" arrived at the cabin of Joseph Cox.
Rue built a cabin on the brow of the hill northeast from the mouth of Short creek. Holman erected one three-quarters of a mile northeast from Rue's.
The following fall, MeCoy and Blunt arrived from Kentucky and settled on the west side of the river within half a mile from Rue's and Cox's cabins. In the fall of 1806, Hugh Cull, Jacob Meek, John Cox (father of Joseph), Lazarus Whitehead, Charles Hunt, and their families arrived, and, with the exception of John Cox, joined the "Kentucky Settlement," as it was called, along Big Elkhorn. It is supposed that Hugh Cull, who was a local Meth- odist preacher, or Lazarus Whitehead, a Baptist minister, preached
49
EARLY HISTORY -- CONTINUED
the first sermon in Wayne county. John Cox settled where Ab- ington now stands. This town he and his son afterwards laid out (1817).
In the year 1806 arrived also Benjamin and Robert Hill, John Smith, Jeremiah Cox, Andrew and David Hoover, Jacob Foutz, Joseph Wasson (a Revolutionary soldier), and John Addington, among others.
Before attempting any further account of the settlements it may not be uninteresting to glance at the histories of some of those already mentioned.
Joseph Cox, the first settler, was born in Virginia, Nov. 8, 1783. When about ten years of age he moved with his father to Redstone Fort (now Brownsville), Pa., then quite a newly settled region. Soon they removed to Kentucky. John Cox, the father, was a blacksmith and gunsmith and worked at these employments most of the time, leaving Joseph to take charge of the farm. He devoted his leisure hours to acquiring such education as the limited advantages of backwoods life allowed. Ile became a school teacher, and while teaching at New Castle, Ky., married Mary Rue. Shortly afterwards they came to Indiana, as already men- tioned. Joseph Cox served in some of the "three-months tours" in the War of 1812 and afterwards studied law with James Noble, then one of the United States Senators from Indiana, but did not enter into practice until 1819, when he removed to Wabash county. He was employed as one of the counsel for the defense of the Indian murderers-Sawyers and Ridge. In October, 1824, he set- tled at Crawfordsville and actively engaged in the practice of law for several years. He retired to his farm on the Wea Plains until 1836, when he removed to Rock Island county, Illinois. Here he built a mill and managed a small farm. He also practiced law from time to time, being engaged in some of the most noted cases of that time and section. On June 12, 1848, after an illness of thirty-six hours, of inflammation of the brain, he closed his event- ful life. His wife survived him some ten years. They were buried side-by-side in a little burial ground on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, between Hampton and Port Byron.
George Holman was born in Maryland, in 1768. While a boy he came with his family to Kentucky. In his sixteenth year he, in company with Richard Rue, was captured by the Indians and remained in their hands nearly three years. Richard Rue was nineteen years old when captured, and was a prisoner about the same length of time. The story of their captivity is sufficient to
50
MEMOIRS OF WAYNE COUNTY
form the subject of a future chapter. Rue had been in many In- dian campaigns before his capture, and both he and Holman were in one or two after their return. When Rue returned, he found that his brother-in-law, Edward Holman, had administered upon his estate, supposing him to be dead. Not thinking it right to interfere with the claims of the persons who had thus innocently become possessed of his property, he ratified the transaction and began life anew. Ile afterwards married a relative of George Holman. Holman and he lived many years in Henry and Wood- ford counties, Kentucky. In 1806, they came to Indiana Territory, as already stated. Their accounts of the new country on their return from the exploring expedition induced many to follow them. There grew around them, on the Elkhorn, quite a settlement, known as the "Kentucky Settlement." Rue died in 1845, and Hol- man died on May 24, 1859, aged ninety-five years, three months and thirteen days, on his farm near Richmond, where he had lived fifty-four years.
As previously stated, these persons were taken captives and held for several years by the Indians. Some account of their ad- venture may not be out of place here. On Feb. 11, 1781, Rue and Holman accompanied as guards a wagoner named Irvin Hinton, from Louisville to Harrodsburg, Ky. Hinton was going to Har- rodsburg for a load of provisions to supply the block house at the village of Louisville, and more from custom than from fear of molestation, the young man accompanied him. Soon after be- ginning the journey, a snow storm commenced and continued until after noon. To prevent the snow from dampening the pow- der in their rifles, they had been fired off. Rue walked ahead of the wagon several rods, while Holman was an equal distance be- hind. When they reached a hill about eight miles from Louis- ville, Hinton heard some one say, "Ho!" to the horses. He stopped, asked first Holman and then Rue if they had called out. Each said they had not, but had heard the call and supposed one of the others had made it. While thus standing in amazement, a voice said, "I will solve the mystery for you. It was Simon Girty that cried 'ho!' and he meant what he said." At the same time that notorious renegade emerged from a sink hole near the road- side, followed by thirteen Indians, and demanded instant sur- render. Rue raised his gun to shoot Girty, but remembering it was unloaded, took it down and the whole party gave themselves up.
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.