USA > Indiana > Newton County > Newton County a collection of historical facts and personal recollections concerning Newton County, Indiana, from 1853 to 1911 > Part 3
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One afternoon five men got off the train at Bradford, made their way to the hotel and called for supper. Two of them were attor- neys from Lafayette going over to Rensselaer to attend to some legal matters. Two of the
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others were citizens from Rensselaer-one an attorney and the other a doctor. These four were well known to each other, in fact old ac- quaintances. Also, all of them were well known to me. The other was a stranger, and although he ate supper at the same table, he seemed to keep as far away from the others as possible. It was noticed that he kept a small satchel on his lap all the time while eating sup- per, This, and a few remarks he made to the landlord in regard to the location of Morocco and the manner of getting there, satisfied one of the party at least that the stranger's objec- tive point was the Bank of America at Mo- rocco. He communicated his suspicions to the rest of the company. After supper the hack drove up and all got in. After a few miles had been traveled, by a preconcerted arrangement, the two Lafayette gentlemen commenced an attack on the two citizens of Rensselaer for the bold and terrible system of outlawry allowed to exist in their county, especially in the neigh- borhood of Morocco. They cited many cases of murder and horse-stealing and called atten-
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tion to the gang of counterfeiters said to exist in that neighborhood. The Rensselaer gentle- men defended themselves as best they could from these charges, claiming that they were no more responsible for violations of law in their county than the gentlemen from Lafayette were for crimes committed in Tippecanoe county. These charges and counter-charges were kept up until late at night, when Rens- selaer was reached and all went to bed.
Early the next morning the livery-stable keeper was posted by one of the passengers of the night before, so when he was approached by our friend with the black satchel, he re- fused to take him to Morocco for less than thirty dollars, and asked for a guard of four men. He told the stranger that he (the stran- ger) would be held responsible for all loss or damage to team and wagon. About this time one of the fellow passengers of the night be- fore called the stranger aside and told him he supposed his business at Morocco must be of the greatest importance, and, as a friend, he would advise him how to go there. In the first
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place, it would never do for him to go there in the clothes he had on, for he would be almost certain to be murdered. He proposed letting the stranger have an old suit of clothes and a rifle, so that, in the disguise of a hunter, he might make his way on foot to Morocco and back, with at least some prospect of safety. Our friend thanked him for his kindness, went back to the hotel, and in a short time the hack for Bradford drove up and he secured passage for that point. And the bank at Morocco was thereby saved at least one demand for specie.
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ORGANIZING NEWTON COUNTY
P RIOR to 1834, the northern part of the state of Indiana was unorganized terri- tory. The legislature of the state, meeting the latter part of that year, passed an act for the organization of fourteen new counties. In- cluded in this number were the counties of Newton and Jasper. The boundaries of Jas- per county were defined as follows :
Beginning at the southeast corner of section 33, town 24, range 6, west; thence west to the state line; thence north thirty miles; thence east on the line dividing towns 28 and 29, to the northeast corner of section 4, town 28, range 6, west; thence south thirty miles to the place of beginning.
This embraced all of what is now Benton county, twelve miles off of the south side of the present Newton county, and also a portion of
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ORGANIZING NEWTON COUNTY 55
the territory of the present county of Jasper. The county of Newton was described as fol- lows :
Beginning at the southeast corner of town- ship 29, range 5, west; thence west to the state line; thence north thirty miles; thence east on the line dividing towns 33 and 34, to the northeast corner of town 33, range 5, west; thence south thirty miles, to the place of begin- ning.
This embraced all the present counties of Newton and Jasper lying north of the line di- viding towns 28 and 29, and also a portion of the territory now included in the counties of Lake and Porter.
In 1836 Porter county was organized, and Lake county in 1837, taking from Newton county all the territory north of the Kankakee river. In 1840 the present county of Benton was organized. A year or two prior to that time Jasper county had been reorganized, and the remaining portion of Newton county be- coming by that act a part of Jasper county, the
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original county of Newton passed out of ex- istence, and remained so for a little more than twenty years.
In 1857 it became known that an effort was being made by parties owning large tracts of land in the north part of the county to form a new county out of the north part of Jasper county, with the county seat to be located on the Kankakee river. It became evident to the citizens of the western portion of the county that if they allowed the scheme to be carried out, their prospects for a new county would be forever hopeless, as there is a constitutional provision prohibiting the formation of a new county of a less area than four hundred square miles, or reducing any old county to a less area ; and although the western half of Jasper county was hardly ready to assume the respon- sibilities of a separate county government, the residents believed that if they waited too long the north and south partition would be made and all of what is now Newton county would continue to be relatively outlying territory, so far as the seats of government were concerned. :
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A meeting of the citizens of Jasper county living west of the line dividing ranges 7 and 8 was called at the town of Morocco, at which time it was resolved to proceed at once to cir- culate a petition to the commissioners of Jas- per county, asking them to set off a new county, to be known as Beaver. Afterward, but at the same meeting, on motion of Thomas R. Barker, the name was changed to Newton, carrying down to history the friendship of Jasper and Newton, as related by Weams in his "Life of General Marion."
The petition was signed by nearly every voter in the west half of Jasper, and at the September term, 1857, was presented to the commissioners for their action. Naturally, the petition was opposed by the citizens of the other part of the county and, after about two days of skirmishing, the petition was dismissed on the ground that some of the names had been attached to the petition before the law author- izing a division had taken effect. The petition was rejected on Tuesday afternoon. That same night a meeting was held at the school
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house in Morocco. Copies of the petition were hastily prepared and each one, as soon as ready, was delivered to a horseman who was to ride all night, covering his assigned part of the territory and collecting signatures. The work of circulating the petitions was contin- ued next day and the horsemen met by ap- pointment next night at what was known as the Salem school house, which stood a half-mile east of the present station of Julian. Within twenty-four hours, these energetic workers had canvassed the whole territory and brought in a petition representing an overwhelming ma- jority of all the citizens.
On Thursday we went to Rensselaer to pre- sent the new petition. The commissioners had adjourned the evening before, to meet the next morning at nine o'clock, but by some means they got wind of what was coming and two of the commissioners failed to return until after the court was adjourned by legal limitation. John Lyons, one of the commissioners, re- mained there all the balance of the week. It is but justice to one of the commissioners, Sam-
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uel Sparling, to say that I went out to his home during the day and found him confined to his bed by illness. The other commissioner was reported to have received word that his wife had been taken sick and needed his attention.
At the December term, 1857, certain parties offered a counter-petition, striking off the ter- ritory along the Kankakee river, intending to hold that as a preventive against any action in favor of striking off the new county of New- ton.
On the first day of the term all parties were on hand, the county of Newton being repre- sented by Silas Johnson, John Andrews, Zech- ariah Spitler, John Ade and several others. The opposition was led by Robert Milroy and L. A. Cole. After a short time spent in con- sultation, the case was continued until Thurs- day. After a conference, the friends of New- ton county determined, as the best line of pro- cedure, to go into the territory asking to be set off as a new county along the Kankakee river and, if possible, secure signatures to a remon- strance against such action. This was so far
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successful that quite a majority of all the voters residing in that territory signed the re- monstrance. After considerable argument for and against the petition, the remonstrance was presented, and with but little further discus- sion the petition was dismissed. Thereupon the petition for Newton county was presented December 7, 1857. After some time spent in hearing the argument for and against said peti- tion, the prayer of the petitioners was granted. Zechariah Spitler, John Darroch and David Creek were appointed a committee to lay out and establish the boundaries of the proposed new county.
An appeal was taken to the circuit court, which overruled the decision of the commis- sioners and granted an injunction restraining them from entering the report of the commit- tee appointed to establish the boundaries of said Newton county upon their records.
An appeal was thereupon taken to the su- preme court by the defeated parties. The matter rested there until November, 1859, when the supreme court reversed the ruling of
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the lower court. On December 8, 1859, the commissioners of Jasper county made the final order on their records, defining the boundaries of the new county of Newton.
The first public recognition of the existence of Newton county took place at the February term of the Jasper county circuit court. I had been selected to act as a juror at this term of the court, and, on the morning of the second day of the term, I was present with other jurors. We were told to stand up and be sworn. I then stated to the court, Judge Charles H. Test, that before taking the oath I wanted to make the statement that I did not think I was qualified to act as a juror. The judge asked my reason for making the state- ment, and I replied I did not think I was a resident of Jasper county. The judge then in- quired where I lived, and I told him I lived in Morocco. He replied :
"Is that not a part of Jasper county?" I said to him, "I think not."
He then asked me to give my reasons for making such a statement. I said, "It is my un-
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derstanding that the supreme court has ren- dered its decision by which the western part of Jasper county, in which the town of Mo- rocco is situated, has been stricken off from Jasper county, thus forming a new county."
The judge then asked the clerk if there was any such decision on file in his office and if so to go and get it, which the clerk did. After a little time spent by the judge in reading the decision of the supreme court, he said: "Mr. Ade, you may stand aside. And if there are any other jurors from the part of Jasper county which has been stricken off, they also may con- sider themselves discharged."
In March, 1860, Thomas R. Barker was ap- pointed by Governor Willard as organizing sheriff for the new county, and as such organ- izing sheriff he issued a call for the election of officers for the new county. In accordance with said call, about the Ioth of April, 1860, the following persons were declared duly elected to the several offices, as follows :
Zechariah Spitler, clerk; Alexander Sharp, auditor; Samuel Mccullough, treasurer ;
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John Ade, recorder; Adam Shideler, sur- veyor; Elijah Shriver, sheriff; William Rus- sell, Michael Coffelt and Thomas R. Barker, commissioners.
On April 21, 1860, the officers elected to the several offices in Newton county met in the town of Kent, which had been selected as the county seat by the three commissioners ap- pointed by Governor Ashbel P. Willard for that purpose. These commissioners were Liv- ingston Dunlap, Joseph Allen and Samuel H. Owen. After performing the duties assigned them, they made their report to the governor on March 15, 1860.
On April 21, 1860, the formal proceedings were as follows:
Thomas R. Barker, organizing sheriff, then and there administered the oath of office to William Russell and Michael Coffelt, as com- missioners of said county. The said Thomas R. Barker then declared the board of com- missioners duly qualified to act as commission- ers of said county, and called them together for the purpose of doing such business as might
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be brought before them. The said board, be- ing now in session, approved the bond of Zech- ariah Spitler as clerk of the circuit court in and for said county. Thomas R. Barker, as organizing sheriff, then administered the oath of office to Zechariah Spitler and declared the office of clerk of the circuit court duly estab- lished.
The commissioners then approved the bond of Alexander Sharp, as auditor of said county, who received the oath of office by the clerk of the circuit court. The said office of auditor was then declared by said sheriff to be duly es- tablished.
The commissioners then approved the bond of Samuel Mccullough as treasurer of said county ; also of John Ade as recorder of said county ; also of Adam W. Shideler as surveyor of said county ; also of Elijah Shriver as sher- iff of said county. The clerk of the circuit court then administered the oath to said Sam- uel Mccullough, John Ade, Adam W. Shide- ler and Elijah Shriver. The said Thomas R. Barker then declared that the said officers be-
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ing duly qualified, the said offices were duly established for said county of Newton.
Thomas R. Barker, having resigned the office of organizing sheriff and his successor having qualified, then took the oath of office as a commissioner of said Newton county ..
The commissioners then adjourned to meet the following Monday morning at their first regular term, at which time the routine busi- ness of the county was taken up.
STORMS ON THE PRAIRIE
T HE old settler always has the special privilege of talking about the weather of bygone days. Perhaps the weather itself has not changed since fifty years ago, but the con- ditions under which we were compelled to face the storms have been entirely altered.
It is hard at the present day to realize the contrast between the open prairie as we first knew it and the stretches of farming country as we see them to-day, with their groves, hedges, houses, fences and other serviceable wind-breaks. Before settlements were estab- lished outside the timber, there was nothing to check the force of the storms, especially the windstorms, which swept across the open prairie for many miles without trees, buildings or fences to check their violence. Travelers crossing these vast unsettled plains were some-
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times overtaken by storms, especially in the winter, and often would suffer great privations and even loss of life.
In the winter of 1850-51 a man by the name of Williams started from the town of Bunkum to cross the prairie to the Beaver timber, a dis- tance of some ten miles. He was overtaken by one of these storms and became lost. He failed to reach his destination. His friends, learning that he had started across the prairie, organ- ized searching parties which moved out in all directions, but without success. His body was not found until the snow melted in the spring, and it was then discovered some four or five miles west of the point he was intending to make.
For many years I had been hearing of sim- ilar cases, and one especially interesting, but I had been unable to get the exact facts in the case. A short time before the death of John Myers I interviewed him and requested him to tell me what he knew about the story I had heard. He said he was acquainted with some of the facts in the case but referred me to Mrs.
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Jacob Kenoyer, who, he said, could tell me all about it.
I interviewed Mrs. Kenoyer shortly after and found she had a very vivid recollection of all the circumstances. In fact, her brother had been the principal sufferer and it is from my recollection of what she told me, and also from a narrative published in a history of Iro- quois county, Illinois, that I am enabled to offer the following facts.
In 1836, James Frame, the father of Mrs. Jacob Kenoyer, was living near the present city of Onarga. In December of that year, Thomas Frame, his son, had sold some cattle and from the proceeds of such sale, after rid- ing across the prairie to Danville, Illinois, he entered eighty acres of land in section 15, township 26, range 14. The transaction took place December 19, 1836. On the following day, in company with a man by the name of James H. Hildreth, who was also on horse- back and going in the same direction, he left Danville for his home. They journeyed along together during the day through a misty rain
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and there was considerable snow on the ground. About four o'clock in the afternoon a gale of wind, sharp and piercing, came sweeping over the prairie and in a few mo- ments clouds overspread the sky. Within a short time the men were moving across a sheet of ice. They were proceeding on the Ash Grove road when this change in the weather took place. They reached Fountain Creek about sundown, finding the creek overflown and ice forming along the banks, making it impossible to cross. They decided to return to the house of a man named Bicknell, but had not gone far when darkness overtook them. The cold grow- ing more and more intense, the labor and diffi- culty of travel kept on increasing and the prospect of reaching any house became more and more gloomy, until it seemed altogether hopeless. They realized they must do some- thing or perish. They agreed to kill their horses. Hildreth was to kill Frame's horse first, and when that became cold, then Frame was to kill Hildreth's. Accordingly, Frame's horse was killed by severing a vein in its neck.
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The carcass was opened and both men got their arms and legs into the carcass of the dead horse. Frame survived until nearly daylight, when he expired. Hildreth, although badly frozen, as soon as it was daylight, started for help. He soon discovered a house, but before he reached it he came to a stream three hun- dred yards wide, with the current deep and running swiftly and full of ice. A man by the name of Burson lived in the house on the other side of the stream but was powerless to help him. Hildreth, however, went up the stream and finally found a place where he crossed. Burson went with Hildreth to Asa Thomas's, a mile south of Milford, and gave notice of what had happened.
Clement Thomas, David and Benjamin Mersham, Levi Williams and Amos Wiley set out for Burson's. Arriving there, they found the stream frozen over, and from there they followed Hildreth's tracks and were soon at the spot which witnessed the terrible sufferings of that night. Frame's body was taken to Bur- son's and the following day word was sent to
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the father of the deceased, who on the second day thereafter removed the body of his son to his own home. The funeral was conducted by Amos Wiley, one of the parties above men- tioned, he being the circuit rider of the Meth- odist church.
Robert Williams, living near Milford, knew that Burson had no conveniences for caring for Hildreth and sent a team the next day to convey him to the Williams home. There he stayed for several weeks, his mother coming to care for him as soon as the news could reach her by mail. Doctor Hawes amputated all his toes and all his fingers and thumbs, except one finger on each hand.
While writing upon the subject of cold weather, it may be well to state that there have been two memorable cold and stormy days in the history of Newton county. One of these days was January 1, 1864. The other was February 14, 1866. There have been colder days, probably, than either of these, but the days above named were not only cold but ac- companied by snow and high winds. It is safe
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to say that both days may be classed in the list of regular blizzards.
So far as January 1, 1864, is concerned, I was absent from home at the time. I had started about three o'clock in the morning from Stevenson, Alabama, for Nashville, Tennessee, riding all day in a freight car in company with William Graves. We had been to Chattanooga, he to look up and care for his son, Lawrence, while I went to do the same for George W. Dearduff, both wounded at the battle of Missionary Ridge. While we were quite a distance south, the cold was so intense and the storm so severe that it is almost a won- der we survived the trip. The next day we took a train for Louisville and had to wait over there for two days on account of the float- ing ice in the river. The ferry boats were afraid to cross and at that time no bridges spanned the river. We finally reached Kent- land on the first train to get through in four days. While no one was reported to have frozen to death at that time, there were several persons who died shortly after from the effects
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of exposure, and there was a heavy loss in stock and poultry. Many who had started away from their homes that morning, expecting to return in the evening, were compelled to seek shelter at the first opportunity, there to remain until the storm had abated, while the folks at home kept up lights and fires all night awaiting their return.
February 14, 1866, was another day long to be remembered. Up to about nine o'clock in the morning it was a bright and pleasant day, with enough snow on the ground to make fine sledding. Many started out that morning expecting to get a good day's work done and be home again by night, or sooner perhaps. About nine o'clock the wind shifted to the north and it commenced snowing and drifting. Within a very short time all who could do so sought shelter. Among those who were out that day were some six or eight parties with teams and sleds from Morocco, who had come to Kent for lumber for Daniel Ash. He was building a new house to take the place of one destroyed by fire a short time before. The
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storm struck them about the time they were crossing the Iroquois river. They succeeded, however, in reaching Kentland, although suf- fering severely from the cold. They put their teams in the stable, where they remained for two or three days, and then all returned with empty sleds as the roads were drifted so full of snow they were impassable for loaded teams. John Goddard and Isaac Smart, two of the number, the next day after the storm, left their sleds and one team and each one riding a horse, they started for Morocco, finally reaching there safely. There was an urgent reason for John D. Goddard taking the risk he did, as he was to be married that night to Miss Mary J. Kessler, and Isaac Smart was to act as best man on that occasion.
About the worst condition arose from chil- dren being at the school-houses. The morning being so pleasant, there was at least the usual attendance, and when it came time for dismiss- ing school in the afternoon the storm was so severe that had the children started for home they certainly would have perished on the
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road. The teachers therefore kept up the fires and stayed with them until their parents or some of the neighbors came to take care of them. Some cases were reported of teachers and pupils remaining in the school-house all night.
I had a little experience that day. William had gone to school in the old school-house, lo- cated on the lot on which W. F. Porter now lives-just across the street from the old United Brethren and Christian church. Mr. and Mrs. John Cunningham were teaching the school. It was nearly three blocks from where I lived. About the time for school to be dis- missed I went after him. We started home, hand in hand. We ran as fast as we could all the way, but when we reached home his hands were nearly frozen and we had to use snow and water before going to the fire to warm them. Mr. Cunningham remained at the school- house with the children until the parents came for them.
The winter of 1884-85 was a very cold win- ter. There were thirty-three days that winter
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