USA > Indiana > Floyd County > New Albany > New Albany, Indiana City Directory, 1868 > Part 2
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On the 17th of May the Board held a stated meeting. William S. Hobson was appointed Constable in New Albany township, and gave bond in $500, with Joel Scribner and Seth Woodruff as his securities. John V. Buskirk was also appointed a Constable in New Albany town- ship. Patrick Leyden was appointed a Constable for Franklin town- ship. Syrenens Emmons was appointed a Constable in Greenville town- ship. An order was also issued for the election of an additional Justice of the Peace in Greenville township.
On the same day the "County Lister made his return of the County levy for taxation. Dr. Asahel Clapp was appointed "Overseer of the Poor in the township of New Albany, in place of C. Woodruff, who is absent."
- Jacob Bence was appointed supervisor of some half dozen roads in Franklin township. William Bailey, Thomas Smith, Michael Swartz, Andrew Long, John Merriwether, Samuel Miller, sr., Wm. L. Hobson, John Scott, David Edwards, Jacob Frederick, John Lopp, and Man- rice Morris were also appointed Road Supervisors in their respective townships.
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'On the 18th of May, 1819, the Board passed the following order : " Ordered, that the following rates of tax be paid for State purposes for the present year : for every one hundred acres of first rate land, one dollar; for every one hundred acres of second rate land, eighty-seven and a half cents; for every one hundred acres of third rate land, sixty- two and a half cents. And for every bond servant above the age of 12 years (other than an apprentice) three dollars.
"Ordered, that the following rates of taxes be levied for county pur- poses : for every one hundred acres of first rate land, fifty cents ; for second rate land forty-three and three-fourth cents ; for third rate land, thirty-one and one-quarter cents per acre; every horse thirty-seven and a half cents ; every stallion, once the rate they stand at by the season ; each tavern in the town of New Albany twenty dollars; all others in the county, fifteen dollars; the ferry in New Albany twenty dollars ; Oatman's ferry fifteen dollars ; Newman's ferry five dollars ; town lots fifty cents on each one hundred dollars valuation."
Paxton & Co's ferry in New Albany was declared a public ferry. David Edwards was appointed school Superintendent in place of Tho- mas Pierce. The following rates of ferriage were established by the Board : " For each four-wheel wagon or carriage 50 cents, every horse of said wagon or carriage, 25 cents ; two wheel carriage or cart, 37} cents ; horse of said carriage 25 cents; single horse, mule, or ass, 124 cents; person, except a driver with tear, 124 cents ; every head of neat cattle 12g cents; every sheep, hoag or goat, 62 cents ; barrel of flour or liquor, etc., where taken over without the carriage or wagon, 12} cts." The Clerk was required to furnish each ferryman with a copy of these rates.
Seth Woodruff, Summers P. Gillman, and Basil Hoyt were licensed to keep tavern in New Albany.
The Clerk was ordered to procure weights and measures for the County of Floyd. All the ferries in the County were made public ferries. Seth Woodruff was paid fifty dollars for building the jail, and thirteen dollars for making the jail door.
The next meeting of the Board was held at the house of Seth Wood- ruff, commencing on the 9th day of August, 1819. At the session some thirty roads, principally neighborhood, were ordered laid out. David M. Hale and R. R. Stewart were licensed to keep tavern in New Albany. It was erdered that a fence be built "fifty feet square, out of good white oak timber, five feet in height, for a public pound," to be located "on one of the public squares on which the jail now stands." Charles, Paxon was appointed to superintend the building of this pound, and an allow- ance of twenty dollars was made to pay for it. Thomas Sinex was ap- pointed Pound Keeper.
The Board met again at the same place on the 8th of November, 1819. At this session what is now known as the "river road" was laid out. Isaac Stewart was allowed twenty-five dollars for his services ih making an assessment or "listing" the county.
The County Treasurer, on the 10th of November, submitted his report of the receipts and disbursements by the county treasury for the year 1819. The receipts were.$251 11; the disbursements $208.97, leaving a balance in the hands of the Treasurer of $42.14. The total amount
of the tax levy for 1819 was $803;29, the Sheriff being the tax collector. Thomas Sinex was ordered "to place a pad-lock, hasp and staple upon the gate of the County Pound, at a cost not to exceed one dollar, Wyatt P. Tuley was licensed to keep a tavern in New Albany .*.
EARLY SETTLEMENT .- Dr. McMurtry, in his " Sketches of Louisville," published in 1819, says that the first white man who visited Kentucky was James McBride, a Virginian, who entered the State in 1754, and traversed a large extent of its territory. Capt. Thomas Bullitt, in 1773, was the first man who visited the falls of the Ohio, and made a survey of the Territory of Kentucky, for settlements, from the neigh- borhood of the falls as far down as Salt river. A number of men ac- companied him to assist in the surveys, and they pitched their tents on the present site of Louisville, near Beargrass Creek. Bullitt did not live to found a permanent settlement, however, dying the same or the succeeding year that he undertook his surveys.
The first permanent settlement around the falls of the Ohio, was made by six families, who accompanied the army of (then) Col. George Rogers Clarke as far as the falls on his expedition for the cap- ture of Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and other British stations, North of the Ohio. These families, Dr. McMurtry says, were James Patton, Richard Chenoweth, John Tuel, William Faith, John McManus and one other, of whose name there is no record. They settled on Corn Island in the spring of 1778, cleared off a field and planted it in corn. In the fall of the same year they removed to the Kentucky shore, opposite the little island, and erected their log cabins, the first ever built around the falls of the Ohio.
Louisville was laid out as a town in 1780, by William Pope, an act being passed by the Virginia Legislature in May, 1780, granting to John Floyd, Stephen Trigg, George Slaughter, John Todd, William Pope, George Merriwether, Andrew Hines, James Sullivan, and Marshall Brashears on thousand acres of land "for establishing the town of Louisville, at the falls of the Ohio," "to be by them laid of into lots of half an acre each, with convenient streets and public lots.".
The first settlements made in the neighborhood of the falls in Indiana Territory were made in Clark county at Clarksville, Springville, (the first county seat of Clark county), Jeffersonville and Charlestown. No settlements were made below Clarksville, in what is now Floyd county, until November 5th, 1804. Prior to this time, however, several families had moved from Kentucky into what is now Harrison county, settling below Knob Creek and in the neighborhood of Corydon. The first white woman that ever crossed the knobs below New Albany, was the daughter of Clement Nance, sen., and afterwards the wife of Patrick Shields. This, as near as we can ascertain, was about the year 1800 or 1801-we are not able to fix the precise date. She was a woman of great courage and force of character, and was one of the most worthy and highly esteemed of the pioneer mothers of this section of Indiana. She was often compelled, before as well as after her marriage, to seek
*The above embrace the principal acts of the Board of County Commissioners during the year 1819, and shows the entire legislation for the County during the first year of its existence.
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refuge from the savages when they were out on their murderous and thieving raids, withi her neighboring women, by fleeing across the Ohio river to the settlements near Louisville. She was many years ago called to rest from her labors ; but her many virtues are yet cherished by all those who were so fortunate as to know her, and we have often heard her mame mentioned in connection with the most heroic as well as the most philanthropic acts.
The first white settler in what is now Floyd county, was Robert La- follette, father of Judge D. W. Lafollette, of New Albany. Robert Lafollette was a Kentuckian, and on the 4th day of November, 1804, was married in that State. On the next day after his marriage, accom- panied by this young wife, he crossed the Ohio river into the then In- diana Territory, and the same night pitched his camp about three- quarters of a mile east of the month of Knob Creek, a location that he had selected prior to his marriage.
Here he remained, living in his camp, until he had chopped down the trees, cut the logs into proper length, cleared of a small spot of ground, and erected his humble log cabin,-the first house built within the present limits of Floyd county,-and then removed from this tempo- rary tent into the cabin.
This house was built in the most primitive style. It was one story high, and contained but one room. The cracks between the logs were "chincked" with small slabs of wood split from logs, and then danbed with a mortar made of clay. There was no window in it, for at that time a pane of eight by ten window glass, that now sells at five cents, could not be bought for less than seventy-five cents, and the early settlers were too poor to indulge in so costly a luxury. A large fireplace, extending half the width of one end of the house, and from which a chimney made of sticks and daubed with mud conducted the smoke, supplied the place now usurped by our modern health-destroy- ing stoves, and answered the double purpose of furnishing heat by day, and heat and light by night. Even tallow candles could not be afforded, except by a few, in those early days. The roof was of ciapboards, split from the oak timber that composed the principal growth with which our hardy pioneers were surrounded ; and as nails were then worth sixty-two and one half cents per pound, their purchase was impossible, and heavy poles were laid upon the clapboards and pinned with wooden pins into the house logs at either end. This made an excellent roof.
In the way of furniture Mr, Lafollette had nothing beside some bed- ding, a few rude cooking utensils, and a scanty supply of cupboard ware. For a bedstead holes were bored into the logs on the inside of the house, and long wooden pins driven into them. Upon these pins were placed two or three " puncheons " hewn out by Mr. Lafollette, and on these "puncheons " the bed was placed. This rude bedstead, thus improvised, was quite common among the early settlers of Indiana, and upon such bedsteads our fathers and mothers have passed hundreds of nights in the sweetest, most invigorating rest after the toils of a hard day's lavor. Thus slept Robert Lafollette and his wife "many a time and oft," and on such a bed their first-born was ushered " into being ; and though his birth-place was so humble he now lives honored and respected by all who know him. For a table, plain boards were fas-
tened upon wooden legs with wooden pins. No leaves were required, and but two or three narrow and short boards were necessary for a top, and the table was complete. Wooden benches supplied the place of chairs, and a few wooden shelves laid upon wooden pins driven in the logs, answered for cupboard, bureau, and clothes press. The floor was of "puncheons." This was the home and its furnishings of the first settler within the present limits of Floyd county. It was finished and first occupied sixty four years ago, next December.
Mr. Lafollette's nearest white neighbors at this time lived about ten miles below him in Harrison county, and twelve miles above him, at Clarksville, opposite the falls. He brought with him from Kentucky a few sacks of corn, and getting out of meal about Christmas he took a small sack of the grain in a canoe and paddled his little vessel and grist up to Tarascon's mills at the falls. But a few hours after arriving at the mill, and before his corn could be ground, an immense field of ice from above began moving down the river over the falls. The ice con- tinned to increase in amount, and for twelve days completely blockaded the river, and rendered it impossible to cross. All this time Mr. La- follette was detained at the mill.
During his absence Mrs. Lafollette's scanty store of provisions gave out, and for five or six days the only food she had to subsist upon was parched corn. . In those days the only meats used was what was afforded by the wild game, and this was easily killed as it was required. Mr. Lafollette has frequently stated that he could almost any morning kill all the game he needed in half an hour within fifty yards of his house. Bears, deer, wolves, panthers, and wild-cats were numerous in the woods around him, and the hills back from Knob Creek seemed to be a favorite re- sort for these wild animals. - Bears and wolves not unfrequent came within his enclosure and close up to his cabin door, and so plenty were wild turkeys and so tame, that he often shot them from his own door yard.
This section of the State was at that early day frequently visited by wandering gangs of Shawanese and Miami Indians. Mr. and Mre. Lafollette had for their nearest neighbors a small party of Shawanese. They lived on the most amicable terms with these Indians, and when- ever the marauding Miamis and Shawanese fame from White river and the Wabash into the white settlements along the Ohio, for the pur- poses of robbery and murder, Mr. Lafollette was at once informed of the danger by his friendly Indian neighbors, and his wife would be sent over the river into Kentucky for safety, while he would join the ex- peditions of the settlers above and below him to aid in driving back the savage foe.
Mr. Lafollette continued to reside where he first settled until the division lines between the counties of Harrison and Clark had been definitely run, and Charlestown fixed as the county seat of Clark county. He resided in the limits of Clark county, and paid his pro portion of the special tax levied to build the first conrt house at Charles. town. A few years later he removed into Harrison county, and there paid a special tax to build the court house at Corydon. When Floyd county was organized in 1819, he was thrown into this county, and when the court house was built at New Albany, he paid his proportion
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of the tax levied to pay for it. He thus, in the course of fourteen years, paid special taxes to build three court houses.
Mr. Lafollette continued to reside on the farm to which he removed from near Knob Creek until his death, which occurred in January, 1867. At the time of his death he was eighty-nine years old, and had resided within the territory of what is now Floyd county for sixty-two years and two months. His wife died about one year earlier, at the age of seventy-nine, and sixty-one years after her settlement here.
In all the relations of life Robert Lafollette was a good man. He was conscientiously religious; his house was for many years a preaching place for the Regular Baptists; and the pioneer ministers of that denomi- nation, as well as of all others, always made his home a stopping place, and ever found there a cordial welcome. He subscribed for the first newspaper ever published in Floyd county, and continued to take a county paper up to the day of his death. He is now, with the com- panion of his youth's pioneer life, enjoying the rewards of a well-spent life "in that house not made by hands-eternal in the heavens."
Mr. Lafollette's family was followed into this section by Clement Nance, Sen., and his family, who settled on what is known as the "Oatman Farm," a few miles below New Albany, on the river road. It was his danghter, who was afterward married to Patrick Shields, that was the first white woman that ever crossed the " Knobs." He lived to a ripe old age, and was always actively identified with the in- terests of the county, holding a number of important and responsible offices, all of which he filled with honor.
The Oatman family followed that of Nance, from the best informa- tion we can glean, shortly after. An old settler tells us a little love affair between Oatman and one of Mr. Nance's danghters, and what came of it. Oatman fell in love with Miss N., but for some reason his suit did not meet the favor of the father, and his visits to the young lady ceased.
Now, Nance had not taken the precaution to pre-empt his land when he " squatted " upon it; because he had to go to Vincennes, through an almost unbroken forest, to do so, and settlers were coming in slowly, and he did not fear that his "claim " would be "jumped."
Oatman found out that the land was not entered ; and so determined if he could not get the girl he would the land. Accordingly, in company with John Paul, he quietly left for Vincennes one fine morn- ing early in 1807, entered the land, and got the patent for it. At the same time John Paul entered and got the patent for all the land upon which the present city of New Albany now stands, except that lying above the "Grant Line."
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On returning home Oatman produced his patent for the "Oatman Farm," and took possession of it. In consequence of this an ill-feeling always existed between Mr. Oatman and Mr. Nance. To say the least of it, Oatman's act was not a very gallant one.
The settlements now rapidly increased, particularly along the river bottom below the city, and in what are now Georgetown and Green- ville townships. In March, 1812, Samuel Miller crossed the ferry, which landed in the woods at the foot of what is now Upper Fifth street, and settled on the Miller farm, one mile below the city on the Budd road.
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At this time the only persons who lived within the present limits of New Albany, were James Mitchell and Martin Trueblood, the ferry- men, whose log cabin stood where the Conner house now stands, at the foot of Upper Fifth street ; old man Trueblood, father of Martin, who bad a small. log mill on Falling Run creek, near the present depot of the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago railroad ; a man named Magrew, whose cabin stood at the corner of Lower First and Water streets, on the site of the large warehouse of Capt. H. J. Reamer, and a man named March, whose cabin occupied a place near Trueblood's mill. March left soon after, and did not return.
Trueblood's little mill did not last long to grind the corn for the few settlers ; as a flood in the creek in 1812 washed out the dam, and it was never repaired. A few of the logs of this old dam may yet be seen sticking out from the bank of the creek, in which they were imbedded over fifty five years ago.
When Mr. Miller arrived here in 1812, the following persons lived on " the bottom," that is, on the river road between Middle Creek and New Albany : John Hickman, George Oatman, widow Oatman, John Oatman, Beverly Hurst, Joshua Wilson, and Jesse Wilson. George Oatman lived on what is now known as the Stoy farm, John Oatman on the Mrs. South farm, Beverley Hurst on the Collins farm, and the two Wilsons below, not far from Middle Creek. Joshua Wilson after- ward bought George and John Oatman's farms, and Jesse Wilson bought Beverly Hurst's farm, and the two Wilsons built the brick house on the Collins farm, and the brick house on the Stoy farm, both being commenced in 1817, and finished complete in 1820. These were two of the first brick farm houses ever built in Floyd county, and both are now occupied and in excellent repair, though over fifty years old.
The news of the " Pigeon Roost Massacre," which occurred on the third of September, 1812, was received in this section of what was then Clark county, some thirty hours after its occurrence, and created much consternation among the settlers. All those who resided between Falling Run and Silver Creek, those who lived back toward the present sites of Greenville and Galena, and some of the settlers on the river below Falling Run, fled into Kentucky.
There were a number of others, however, who had become used to "Indian scares," as they were called, and these refused torun. Among the latter were the Lafollettes, the Millers, the Hickmans, the Nantes, and the Oatmans. These determined to fight it out with the savages, if such they praved to be, if they visited the settlements in this vicin- ity. But some of them did not believe they were Indians, but white horse thieves and robbers, painted and disguised as Indians. Most of the men belonging to the families we have named accordingly set off for Jeffersonville, the rendezvous of the Clark county militia, to join in the pursuit of the murderers. The men and women left at home barri- caded their houses a's securely as possible, and prepared for defense.
There was, however, one woman in the neighborhood, Mrs. John Hickman, whose husband was away from home some twenty miles at mill. Mrs. Hickman was not willing to leave her honse unprotected in case of a raid, and yet she feared to stay alone. There was but. one room to the cabin, as in all other cabins in those days, and so she
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deemed it immodest for her to stay all night alone in the house with a man in no ways related to her. \ In this dilemma she went to the cabin of Samuel Miller, and asked Nancy Miller to volunteer to stay all night with her and help guard the house.
It was now dark, but the brave woman agreed to go, and they both set out and soon reached Mrs. Hickman's cabin. The door and window were each closed and securely barricaded, and then Mrs. Hickman pro- ceeded to the rifle rack. that necessary and always provided article of a pioneer's furniture. (This rack is made of a hooked stick, nailed to the side of the cabin logs, and in its forks the rifle-rests.) But when she reached up for the rifle, for it was dark in the house, she was frightened to find it gone. Her husband had taken it with him to the mill. But she did not faint and scream, as most women of the present day would have done, at discovering her calamity, but, instead, provided herself with the iron flax hackle and a butcher's knife. Mrs. Hickman took the flax hackle and Nancy Miller the knife, and during all that long night these two brave women sat in that darkened cabin in the woods, not knowing at what moment the yells of the savage foe would call them to action. Few men would have shown such bravery; for in those days 'it was not an uncommon thing for wandering gangs of Indians to sneak slyly into & neighborhood and commit deeds of violence and even bloodshed. The savages did not make their appearance, however ; but the bravery displayed by the women made Mrs. John Hickman and Nancy Miller the heroines of the neighborhood.
Horse stealing, from about 1810 to 1817, was followed in this part of Indiana by a band of men regularly and well organized. These men made an occupation of this species of robbery, and came to be a terror to the settlers. In 1810 two of these horse thieves were caught near the present upper limits of this city, by a party of settlers from Clark county, whom they had robbed. As the courts were seldom held, and the few laws existing were not very operative, a council was held by the captors to determine what should be done with their prisoners. The proof was positive of their guilt, for the stolen horses were found in their possession, and a verdict was soon made up that they should suffer death.
The names of these thieves were Aveline and Morris. They begged piteously for their lives; but so many horses had been stolen, and the settlers had become so exasperated at their losses, for they were all poor, that no appeals moved them from their purpose. They were ac- corbingly taken to a point on the west side of Silver Creek, opposite where the old Very mill used to stand, allowed one hour in which to prepare for death by prayer, and then shot and their bodies thrown into the stream, which was at that time very high. This was the first exe- cution by Lynch law that evertook place within what are now the lim- its of Floyd county. It had a most salutary effect, however, upon the horse stealing fraternity.
At another time, in 1813, a youth, aged about seventeen years, stole a horse from the Lafollette settlement near the Harrison county line. He was pursued and captured near Greenville. His captors stripped him, and then told him that in consideration of his youth they would only give him a little whipping. He was tied to a small tree with a
bridle rein, his face toward the tree. His captors then cut them a dozen or more stout switches, and with these laid one hundred and ten lashes upon his bare back. The boy's name was Parrish, and he lived at Louisville. After the whipping had been ended he was unable to stand upon his feet, and was therefore lifted upon a horse by his exe- cutioners and held up until they reached the ferry at New Albany, upon which he was placed and sent over to the Kentucky side. He died before he reached Louisville.
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