USA > Indiana > Newton County > Newton County a collection of historical facts and personal recollections concerning Newton County, Indiana, from 1853 to 1911 > Part 2
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(Signed) DEMPSEY MCD. JOHNSON. Morocco, Indiana, November 16, 1910.
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There is another tradition that Bogus Island (northwest of the present station of Enos) was headquarters for a gang of horse-thieves and counterfeiters, and much has been said and written in regard to the same. I think the stories have been greatly exaggerated, but this much is undoubtedly true : At one time, along about 1837, two or three men were on the island and engaged to some extent in making counterfeit silver coin. They were arrested
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NEWTON COUNTY
and brought before Wesley Spitler, a justice of the peace, who then lived in the same house afterward occupied by Zechariah Spitler. These men were tried and bound over to court, but they forfeited their bond and the case never was tried. For these facts I am indebted to Wesley Spitler, who gave them to me in an in- terview shortly before his death.
There was one case of horse-stealing of which I had some personal knowledge, having met and talked with the parties who were in pursuit of the thief, both when they were go- ing and on their return. This was, I think, in 1857. A horse had been stolen in the neighbor- hood of Milford, Illinois. A party consisting of some twelve or fifteen men started in pur- suit. They got on the track of the thief and followed him, and at a house a little east of where the town of Conrad now stands, they found the horse, also shortly got in pursuit of the thief, who jumped into the big ditch be- tween Beaver lake and the Kankakee river, but a short distance from where they found the horse. As the thief was climbing up the bank
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AN EARLY TRADITION
of the ditch, on the opposite side, the party fired at him, as they all had guns, and he fell back into the ditch, dead. They then went back to the house, got their horse, and arrested the man living there and took him to Rensselaer, where he was afterward tried and sentenced to three years in the penitentiary for harboring horse thieves. His name was William Shaffer.
MOROCCO IN 1853
A S this history was prepared for the mem- bers of my family and my more intimate friends, I hope I will be permitted to touch upon matters that might seem out of place in a book addressed to the general public.
I was married to Adaline W. Bush at Chev- iot, Ohio, then a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 20, 1851, by Thomas Wells, Esq., a personal friend of both my wife and myself.
Until the early part of 1853, I lived at and kept the old toll-gate between Cheviot and Cincinnati. At that time I received a request from Ayres and Company, of Bunkum, Illi- nois-old acquaintances of mine-to move out and take charge of a branch store which they had established at Morocco, Jasper county, Indiana. Accepting their offer, I left Cincin- nati on March 10, 1853, going by steamboat
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MOROCCO IN 1853
to Madison, Indiana. At that time there was no railroad from Cincinnati to Indianapolis.
Arriving at Madison early the next morn- ing, we took the train on the Madison & In- dianapolis Railroad and arrived at Indianap- olis about noon. We went to the Wright House, a large frame hotel on Washington street, standing where the New York Store is now located. There we got our dinner and then took a train for Lafayette on the In- dianapolis & Lafayette Railroad, which had just been opened up for travel and extended to the top of the hill about two miles east of Lafayette. We remained in Lafayette two days and then started for Bunkum, Illinois, in a two-horse carriage.
We were met at Lafayette by Mark Ayres, who accompanied us on the remainder of the trip. Leaving Lafayette early in the morning, we made the first twelve miles in fine shape, our route that far being over a new plank road just completed by the Ellsworth Land Com- pany. At the end of the plank road we started to go through a lane about a mile long, before
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NEWTON COUNTY
reaching the open prairie. We soon found the same impassable, so we let down the fence and drove through the fields.
We reached Oxford, then the county seat of Benton county, about two o'clock. There we fed our team and had dinner. We then started for Parish Grove, which point we reached after dark and in a heavy rain. In fact, when we got to the grove the only way by which we were able to follow the road was for one of us to go ahead on foot and keep calling out, thus enabling the driver to find his way by sound instead of by sight. The Boswell family was then living in the grove and at first said they could not take care of us, but Mr. Ayres, who was somewhat acquainted with them, said it did not make any difference what they said, that we were there to stay, and stay we did, as it was eight miles to the next house.
In the morning we started for Sumner's Grove. When we came to Mud Creek we found it was very deep, but we started to ford it. When nearly across, one of the single-trees floated off. We had to get out in the water,
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MOROCCO IN 1853
waist-deep, and tie the traces to the double- tree before we could pull out. In the mean- time, Adaline, holding the baby in her lap, had tried to keep her feet on the seat but made a slip and she was wet nearly to her knees. Aft- er making the shore, we drove on to the Sum- ner home, where we dried our clothes and got our dinner. During our stay at Sumner's, Mr. Sumner got into conversation with us and found out where we were going. He said he was glad to hear it, that he had been ac- quainted with Bunkum for fifteen years, and that during that time people had been contin- uously moving in, and but few moved out, and that it was just about the same size then that it had been fifteen years before. In fact, he did not even recollect of ever being there when there was not a corpse in the town. After he left, however, Mrs. Sumner, who noticed that Adaline was badly worried over his statement, told her to pay no attention to his stories, as it was not nearly so bad as he had attempted to make it.
After dinner we started for Bunkum. Mr.
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Sumner went part of the way, piloting us across Sugar Creek. Late that afternoon we reached the famous city of "Bunkum." It may be well to state here that Bunkum was not the name of the town at all, but the name used by every one at that time for two different towns, the Iroquois river forming the dividing line between the two-the one on the south side of the river was Montgomery, and the one on the north side was Concord.
After we left Parish Grove in the morning, until we reached the timber on the Iroquois river, we passed but two houses, no others be- ing in sight on either side of the road. The first was the Sumner house and the other was a small house standing on what is now the east end of Sheldon, Illinois. There was not a bridge across any of the streams between the end of the plank road and the Iroquois river.
We remained in Bunkum six weeks, during which time I made six trips to Lafayette, haul- ing goods for the store one way and produce, largely eggs, the other way. Eggs were then five cents a dozen. One load, I remember, was
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MOROCCO IN 1853
packed in walnut sawdust which colored the eggs so badly that we had hard work to dispose of them at any price.
Bunkum, at that time, was a great business town. It had four large stores, drawing trade from the surrounding country as far away as thirty or forty miles. The firms doing business were Ayres and Company, Fowler and Smith, Charles Sherman, and John Donovan, nearly all of whom afterward moved to Watseka, when the railroad was built. John Donovan is the only one of the number now living.
We moved to Morocco, Indiana, about April 25, 1853. At that time the town was about two years old and had some six or seven houses. On the road from Bunkum to Moroc- co, after passing the Dunning farm, about half a mile from Bunkum, until we reached the Robert Archibald farm, a distance of ten miles, all was open prairie, with the exception of an improvement just commenced by Wil- liam Plummer, which was about half way be- tween these two points. Of those living in Mo- rocco at that time, David Pulver and A. W.
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NEWTON COUNTY
Bebout are the only ones left among the liv- ing. Mrs. Pulver passed away since I began writing these recollections.
At that time Morocco was the only town in the territory now comprising Newton county. The nearest post-office was Bunkum on the west, twelve miles, and Rensselaer on the east, eighteen miles. There was a post-office at the residence of Amos Clark, called White's Grove, established September 27, 1853. This house stood about a half-mile southeast of what is now known as the Pleasant Grove meeting-house, near the Iroquois river, in Jef- ferson township. On April 27, 1854, it was moved to the residence of Zechariah Spitler, and again on June 20, 1861, to the residence of Elijah Kenoyer, where it remained until October 15, 1861, when it was discontinued.
There was also a post-office called Brook, several miles farther up the river, both sup- plied by mail carried on horseback once a week. The first office was about two miles southwest of the present town of the same name. The several postmasters of the Brook
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MOROCCO IN 1853
post-office, and the dates of their appointment, are as follows :
George W. Spitler
John Montgomery
Samuel H. Benjamin Alfred D. Tale
February 28, 1856 October 24, 1856
James E. Stacey S. A. Chaffee
December 27, 1859 June 23, 1860
Aaron Lyons
Albert S. Warren
May 22, 1866
F. E. Ross
May 17, 1867
John G. Perry
May 4, 1868
W. F. DeHaven
Hiram C. Dryer
August 16, 1872 July 28, 1874
J. L. Hess
October 11, 1877
David E. Lowe
February 17, 1879
Manez A. Pendergrass
December 8, 1882
Joseph Merchant
July 23, 1889
William J. Corbin
October 13, 1893
Morris A. Jones
September 14, 1897
August 23, 1837 April 22, 1840
August 18, 1853
The Brook post-office was by far the oldest in the county. Morocco had no mail connec- tions with Brook or White's Grove. We com- municated with the outside world through
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NEWTON COUNTY
Bunkum, Illinois (the post-office was Con- cord), and Rensselaer, Indiana.
In 1854 we succeeded in getting a post-office at Morocco, on condition that the citizens would agree to carry the mail once a week to Rensselaer and back, also keep the post-office for the proceeds of the office, so that it should be no expense to the government.
As this was the best arrangement that could be made, the conditions were accepted. John Ade was appointed postmaster and David Pul- ver appointed mail carrier. A few months later an office was established in Jackson town- ship, called Pilot Grove, and Stephen Elliott was appointed postmaster. This condition of things existed for some three years, when John Ade was removed for offensive partisanship. There was no civil service in those days but, as a prominent state politician put the case, "The times now require that every government offi- cial must be a firm supporter of the admin- istration."
At the time above spoken of, envelopes and postage stamps were unknown. When a letter
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MOROCCO IN 1853
was written, it was folded and fastened either with a wafer or sealing-wax. The rate of postage depended upon the distance the letter had to be carried, and the money could be re- ceived from the sender or collected at the des- tination. This necessitated making out a way- bill with each package of letters sent to the dif- ferent offices, showing the amount paid and the amount to be collected on each package. Few of our institutions have shown a more de- cided change than the mail service. 475864
In 1851 a new constitution was adopted by the state of Indiana; and the next legislature, which met during the winter of 1852-1853, enacted many laws to put in force the changes made necessary by the new constitution. One of the most important of these enactments was the adoption of an entirely new school system. After the new school law had been passed, it took considerable time to make it effective, as taxes had to be levied and collected, and new officers elected.
In the early part of 1853 there was not a sin- gle public school building in the district now
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NEWTON COUNTY
forming the county of Newton. There were several buildings used for school and meeting- house purposes, but they were all built by private enterprise. Some of them were built by single individuals, and all were log build- ings. There was one at Morocco; one about a mile and a half west, known as the Kessler school house; one on the river, built by the Myers and Kenoyer families; one in Jackson township, near the Jabez Wright residence. There may have been one southeast of the pres- ent town of Brook. In most of these, school was taught for a short term in each year, per- sons in the neighborhood uniting to employ a teacher, he boarding around among the pupils, in many cases, as part pay for the services ren- dered. These buildings did not have a nail or any other article of iron in their composi- tion. The floors, benches and doors were made of puncheons; wooden hinges for the doors, and for a light, a log would be sawed out of the side of the building, and when they did not have glass, greased paper was used in place of it. The roof was made by using clapboards
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MOROCCO IN 1853
about three feet long, split out of logs and held down in place by logs called "weight poles." When meetings were held at night, and spelling schools, it was expected that each family would bring a candle or a saucer of grease with a rag in it to furnish light for the occasion. Rude and unsatisfactory as these conditions may seem to have been, many of our prominent men got their first elements of an education in these very schools.
Prior to 1834, at which time the lands in this part of the state were surveyed and placed on the market through the land-office at Win- amac (price one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, payable in gold or silver), no one had actual title. Some of it was settled by squat- ters. Others filed claims and proved them up and purchased the lands after they were thrown open for entry.
Settlements were made exclusively either in the timber or along the edges of it. No one thought of getting out on the open prairie. In fact, the surveyor, making his notes to the gov- ernment in his report of the survey of the 4
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NEWTON COUNTY
prairie in the south part of the county said : "Land is good; covered with fine grass, but owing to the scarcity of timber can never sup- port anything but a very sparse population."
Along the edge of the Beaver timber some of the earliest settlers along this line of timber were :
John Murphy, who was one of the first, set- ling there in 1838. He laid out the town of Morocco on a part of his farm in 1851.
Dempsey Johnson in 1849, Daniel Dearduff in 1844, Josiah Dunn in 1832, and John Elliott in 1832. John Lyons built a house on the Iro- quois river in 1832 and started what was after- ward known as the Brook settlement. A son, Aaron Lyons, born that same year, is conceded to be the first white child born in the territory of Newton county. Samuel Benjamin also settled there about the same time. Samuel Lyons came in 1840; Philip Earl in 1837.
A few miles farther down the river was what was known as the Kenoyer settlement. In 1836 Jacob Kenoyer settled near Spitler's
MOROCCO IN 1853 39
Creek, and in 1845 erected the first sawmill in the county. It was a water-mill and run by throwing a dam across the creek, a short dis- tance east of the farm now owned by George Spitler. Samuel and Frederick Kenoyer, brothers of Jacob Kenoyer, also settled in the same neighborhood in 1836; and John Myers, the same year, followed a short time after by Amos Clark, Amos White and Charles Ander- son on the south side of the river.
Settling right in the heavy timber were John Montgomery, father-in-law of Morris Lyons, and John Roberts, who were both early settlers, John Roberts in 1843 and Morris Lyons about the same time. A little farther down the river was the residence of Bassett Timmons, father of Joshua Timmons, who settled near what was known as the Timmons ford in 1835. Down toward the state line was the Whiteman settlement, consisting of five brothers: Jacob, Joshua, Amos, Ezekiel and Henry, who set- tled there in 1835, possibly a little earlier. On the south side of the river, right on the state
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NEWTON COUNTY
line, lived Samuel M. Dunn, who was acting- sheriff in Iroquois county, Illinois, in 1835, at the time Joseph L. Morris was hung in the town of Bunkum.
BEAVER LAKE
T HE early settler in Newton county, though deprived of any near source of supplies, found no difficulty in finding support for himself and family. A new-comer brought with him a limited supply of flour, coffee, tea and sugar. With this stock as a basis, he found it possible to furnish his table with all he needed. Deer were found in great abun- dance, as well as almost all other kinds of game, such as geese, brant, ducks, prairie chickens-in fact, in that early day this part of the country was a perfect Indian and hunt- er's paradise. And for many years, even after this country was fairly well settled, hunting parties would come from long distances to en- joy the sport and supply themselves with lux- uries so easily obtained. For many years Alexander Lanier, of Madison, Indiana,
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NEWTON COUNTY
would come here for several weeks in each year to gratify his delight in this kind of sport and recreation.
There was another source of supplies and revenue-in fact, for many years it afforded the settler his only means of getting the little sums of actual money with which to supply himself with necessary articles not produced at home. The winter time was then the harvest time of the year, for in that season the fur-bear- ing animals were eagerly sought, captured and skinned, and the pelts sold to fur-buyers who had agents at convenient points supplied with ready money. Sometimes the competition be- tween opposing buyers was quite brisk. The principal fur-bearing animals were the mink, raccoon, muskrat, deer once in a while, and, in a very early day, before the country was set- tled by the whites, some beaver. The quality of the fur captured here was said to be very fine and much superior to that taken no far- ther south than the Wabash river.
One of the localities famous among hunters and trappers was Beaver Lake, a body of water
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BEAVER LAKE
covering a large portion of township 30, range 9, now known as McClellan township. This body of water was about seven miles in length, east and west, and about five miles at its widest part, north and south, with a depth of not to exceed eight or nine feet in its deepest places. It was celebrated as a wonderful fishing resort, and amazing stories are told of the vast num- ber caught sometimes by a single draw of the seine. At certain times of the year myriads of geese, ducks, swan and other game birds would be found there. As a spot for hunting and fishing it had no equal in any other por- tion of the state.
When the original survey of this part of the country was made, this lake itself was not in- cluded in the survey but was meandered and fractions all around the boundaries of same were purchased by John P. Dunn and Amzie B. Condit, who afterward deeded the same to Michael G. Bright, who claimed all inside of these fractions and extended the lines across the lake by platting the same in 1857, dividing it into forty-acre tracts and giving each lot a
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NEWTON COUNTY
number, commencing at number I and running to number 427. About this time, through some kind of a settlement made with an outgo- ing state treasurer, he deeded to the state of In- diana each alternate forty-acre tract, the state getting the odd-numbered tracts, and Michael G. Bright retaining the even-numbered tracts. In 1865 the state authorized the selling of its lands so held, making the terms of sale one dol- lar and fifty cents an acre for one year, all re- maining unsold at the expiration of the year to be held at one dollar per acre.
About 1853 the first effort was made to drain the lake by cutting a ditch from the northwest part of the lake to the Kankakee river. The contract to make this ditch was taken by Austin M. Puett, grandfather of William Darroch. This first ditch carried off enough water to cause the shore line to recede about a hundred yards-in other words, it re- claimed a very narrow strip all around the lake. As this ditch was enlarged and tribu- taries opened, the old bed of standing water gradually disappeared and Beaver Lake is
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BEAVER LAKE
now dry land at most seasons of the year. The name remains but the "lake" itself is now only a memory of the past.
THE FIRST BANK
O NE of the most noted and far-reaching laws enacted by the legislature of 1853 was the adoption of what was known as the free banking law. Under its provisions, any person or persons depositing with the secretary of state bonds of any state in the union, were authorized to issue currency for an equal amount. The object of many of the founders of banks under this law was to establish them as far away from the lines of travel as possible and put the money into circulation at points far distant from the banks of issue. As Mo- rocco was then forty miles from the nearest railroad, and the intervening country was very sparsely settled, Morocco made a very desira- ble point for the establishment of such a bank.
The first intimation to the citizens of Mo- rocco that the Bank of America had been es-
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THE FIRST BANK
tablished came in 1854. I had been to Cincin- nati on a visit, and while there saw some of the money in circulation. Shortly after my re- turn from Cincinnati, in company with John Murphy, I went to Rensselaer on business in connection with the new post-office, of which I had been appointed postmaster. Shortly after our arrival in Rensselaer we were called into the office of George W. Spitler, who informed us of the fact that a bank had been established in Morocco and told us of some of the advan- tages that would accrue to the country by rea- son of the same-that our school funds would be increased and the county developed by in- ducing persons to locate in that vicinity, also that within a short time some of the officers of the bank would be among us and erect a bank building and take charge of the business in general. In the meantime, before these things could be attended to, he requested Mr. Murphy to take home with him one thousand dollars in gold to redeem any bills that might be presented before the regular officers arrived to take charge of things. Mr. Murphy said
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NEWTON COUNTY
that was more money than he wanted to be responsible for, but finally he consented to take one hundred dollars for the purpose named.
As time passed, Mr. Murphy redeemed what few bills were presented, until the amount brought from Rensselaer was ex- hausted, and still no one put in an appearance to establish the bank. But, having entire con- fidence in the stability of the bank, he re- deemed other notes until he had paid another hundred dollars out of his own money. Then he sent David Pulver to Rensselaer with a re- quest for some one to come down and attend to the business or else send more money. On ar- riving at Rensselaer, Mr. Pulver was informed that the bank had changed owners and there was no one there authorized to speak for the further action of the institution. There was no clue to the proprietors and Mr. Murphy had two hundred dollars of the paper of the Bank of America on his hands, without any assur- ance that he would ever realize anything for his money expended. It is safe to say he did no further banking business, but when the
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THE FIRST BANK
affairs of the bank were eventually wound up by the secretary of state he made a reasonable salary besides the return of his money, as the issue of the bank, amounting to about seventy- five thousand dollars, was redeemed at eighty cents on the dollar. No one ever appeared to make settlement with Mr. Murphy, nor is it known that there was ever any person in the town of Morocco that had any right of owner- ship in the same. I was not president of the bank, although there is an outstanding joke to that effect.
This is not an exceptional case, for the state was full of banks that had but little, if any, bet- ter foundation on which to rest. This was al- most a fair example of the condition of the finances of the state under what was known as the wild-cat banking system.
It is impossible for us to-day to realize the difficulties of doing business under that system. Whenever a bill was offered, you had to get the latest Bank Note Reporter and find the quotation. It might be worthless or show any shade of discount. When one crossed the state
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NEWTON COUNTY
line no one in another state would accept his local currency.
To illustrate, I had a note for fifty dollars, due in six months without interest. One of my neighbors bought it, taking the note at its face, and discounted his money ten per cent.
A great many stories are told of the bank at Morocco. Many have but little foundation in truth, but the following, I have every reason to believe, is an actual fact. During the time the bank was supposed to be in operation, the town of Bradford (now Monon) was the railway station nearest to Rensselaer. The railroad line extended north to Michigan City. A stage coach from Rensselaer met the north-bound afternoon train at Bradford and then returned to Rensselaer, so that most of the return trip through a very lonesome region had to be made after night.
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