USA > Indiana > Newton County > Newton County a collection of historical facts and personal recollections concerning Newton County, Indiana, from 1853 to 1911 > Part 5
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The following incident may be taken as a fair sample of his style of discussion. One day the store was nearly full of the best talent of the country. Among those present, besides the 'squire, was a Doctor Grigg, a man who had a very exalted idea of his own ability. The sub- ject under discussion was the condition of things in Kansas as affected by the slavery question. The 'squire, in commenting on the action of the political parties on the slavery question in days gone by, made the remark that in 1844 both parties, whig and democratic, made their platforms halfway between earth and hell. The doctor, thinking to give the benefit of his theological knowledge, wanted to know, "Where is that place you call 'hell' located?"
The 'squire, puffing a little, short pipe, re- torted, "What did you say?"
The doctor repeated the question.
The 'squire then said, "Why, do you belong to either of those parties ?"
"Yes, sir; I profess to be a democrat, sir."
The 'squire replied, "In that case, it is use-
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less to tell you anything about it, sir, as you'll find out soon enough."
Another time, the 'squire came into the store and was telling me about a political speech he had heard made by Al Bunch at the Collins school-house. He said to me : "Why, it was re- markable! I had no idea he was capable of such an effort. You would have been surprised to hear him. Why, he knows 'constitution,' 'amalgamation,' 'high heavens,' and lots of other big words that you would have no idea he knew anything about."
Still another time, he was telling me about his experience in going to mill. It was in the fall of 1857 or 1858. It was a very dry season, the streams being all dried up. Allen May, of Indianapolis, had a large bunch of cattle herd- ing on the prairie where the town of Reming- ton is now located. When the creek dried up, the cattle were driven to the Iroquois river for water, and when the river dried up they had to be taken to Beaver Lake so they could get water. It was so dry that we had to haul drinking water two miles. The grist-mills of
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Momence and Texas were compelled to shut down. The 'squire, being out of breadstuff, shelled a sack of corn and went up about eight miles northeast of Rensselaer. In describing his experience he told how it took him all one day to get there in a little one-horse wagon. The mill was a horse-mill, and he said it was the prettiest little thing he ever saw. He said, "Why, it would just hop off one grain on to another so quick, it was fun to watch it."
Living close to the 'squire was a man by the name of Ward, who, in a fit of passion, put a load of shot into the back of one of the Kennedy boys, while the latter was passing the Ward residence on horseback. Ward was arrested and at the next session of the circuit court he was tried. Harrington was a witness and when called upon to give his evidence, he said : "I don't know as I can tell anything that would be good evidence in this court, but as I've had a long ride through deep mud to get here, would say I understand Ward shot the Kennedy boy, putting a whole load of shot in his back. And after he had done it, he played
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crazy-tried to kill himself by running his head against a fence-stake. His brains ran out and Doctor Richards was sent for. He filled up the cavity with corn meal and they do say that Ward has more sense now than he ever had. This is all I know about the case."
Another citizen of Morocco, deserving a passing notice, was Samuel Hurst. In many respects he was an entirely different type of man from the 'squire. He was a consistent member of the Methodist church. He was naturally full of fun and a joke on himself seemed to do him more good than to get one on somebody else. His habit of joking was carried to such an extreme sometimes as to de- mand discipline in the eyes of some of the good brethren who thought it was a grievous sin even to smile.
During the time Hurst lived in Morocco he kept the only hotel in the town. A part of the time he would work at his trade-that of car- penter. At this time the Methodists were building a frame church on the ground some two or three lots east of where the present
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Kennedy store stands. At this particular time Hurst was working alone on the church build- ing, when a man drove up in a buggy, stopped, and called out to him to inquire where he would find the hotel. Mr. Hurst pointed it out to him, when the stranger asked: "By the way, what kind of a man is the fellow that keeps the hotel?"
"Well," Hurst replied, "I don't like to talk about my neighbors, but the real facts of the case are, he is no better than he ought to be."
The stranger said, "That's about what I thought, for a man down the road told me he was a d-d old rascal !"
With that he drove on to the hotel, inquired for the landlord, and when informed he was working on the church, the man didn't have the "nerve" to face the music, so drove on to find another stopping-place. Mr. Hurst got more good from telling this story on himself than he would have derived from several times the amount of the man's hotel bill.
Before moving to Morocco, Mr. Hurst lived on a farm near the line dividing Newton
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and Jasper counties. This farm he traded for a stock of goods belonging to Benjamin Hinkle, of Rensselaer. He operated two stores, one in Rensselaer and one in Morocco, closing up the business in about two years. In the meantime he had trusted many of his neighbors and whenever he had failed to collect accounts due him, he took notes giving the parties more time in which to make payment. In this debtor class was a man owing him thirty dollars, whom we will call Jake-because that was his name. After a few years had passed he met Jake one day and said to him: "Jake, here's your note. It's all paid off and you might as well have it."
"Why, Mr. Hurst," replied Jake, "I never paid you anything on the note !"
"Oh, yes, you have, Jake. It's paid off, so here, take your note."
Jake, with a look of surprise, said to him, "I'd like to know when and how it was paid off?"
"Well," said Hurst, "I'll tell you. You know, Jake, every time you promised me you
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would pay the note I just gave you credit for one dollar and-well, here it is and it's paid off."
At one time there was living in Jackson township a man by the name of Jerry C., who was red-headed and very impulsive. Each winter during the revival services in the church he would join, and he would then want permission to preach. But they put him off from time to time, and usually, as soon as the weather got warm and the meetings closed, he would fall from grace and be ready to com- mence again the next winter. On one of these occasions during which he renewed his vows, they gave their consent for him to preach. An- nouncement was made that he would preach in a certain school-house the next Sunday. I was not present to hear him, so will have to give the facts as my informant related them to me. This was an old lady, about seventy-five years of age, by the name of Ellett-the mother of Martin and Steve Ellett, old citi- zens of Jackson township. She came into the store and after a while asked me if I was up to
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hear Jerry preach on Sunday. I told her I was not there. She said: "Well, you'd ought to have been there, you'd have been surprised. Why, he done lots better than you'd 'a' thought he could. He really done first-rate for a man with neither religion nor education !"
In the ridges north of Morocco were a few families who got their living by making rails and clapboards, sometimes getting a day's work in the settlement. Among them was a family living in a dugout in a sand-bank. It was a very sorry excuse for a habitation. They had one small room with dirt floor, and a stovepipe running through the covering of puncheon, hay and sand. They had quite a family of small children, with scarcely any clothes, and often not more than half enough to eat. To make conditions worse, the mother of the family had been sick for some time and, as might reasonably have been expected, the sickness ended in death. I met the stepmother of the dead woman the next day-an old lady about seventy-five years of age. With tears streaming down her cheeks she remarked to
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me: "Well, poor Nancy's gone! I hope she's gone to the good place."
All at once she brightened up and, with al- most a smile on her countenance, ended by saying: "Well, anyhow, it couldn't be any worse for her."
John Brennesholtz and Madison Collins both came to this country at an early day and became what in that day was considered tol- erably close neighbors. However, they failed utterly to live together as neighbors should, trying to promote peace and good will, one toward the other. On the contrary, they were continually mixed up in lawsuits-sometimes over matters too small to talk about. Gen- erally the one defeated before the justice of the peace would take an appeal to the circuit court. A case of this kind was on trial at Rens- selaer, and I, along with several other neigh- bors, had been called as a witness. Milroy & Cole were attorneys for Brennesholtz, who, by the way, was a very strong spiritualist. Spitler & Lee were the attorneys for Collins. The jurors were in their seats, the evidence all
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in, the arguments ended, except from George Spitler, who was to close the argument for Collins.
Now, Spitler, as a general rule, was a plain, forcible speaker, quite effective in his manner before a jury-seldom making use of any spread-eagle style of oratory: But somehow in this case he got warmed up and closed his speech with the following burst of eloquence : "Oh, that I had the eloquence of a Demos- thenes and the legal knowledge of a Black- stone, that I' might portray in characters of livid light the damnable persecution of this man Collins by this idiotic old spiritualist!"
Just as he closed, he cast his eyes over the jury and discovered there were three spiritual- ist jurors. It is needless to say the jury failed to agree.
We at this day hear but little about ghosts and witches. They seem to be almost a thing of the past. However, only a few years ago the world was full of them. The evidence in support of their existence was fully as strong as is the evidence which still supports such
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popular superstitions as those in regard to eat- ing at a table at which thirteen are seated, or starting on a journey on Friday. So do not condemn too harshly a man who carries a rab- bit's foot in his pocket for luck, or a buckeye to cure rheumatism, or a red string around the neck to keep the nose from bleeding, until we rid ourselves of all these superstitious notions.
One little incident will illustrate the con- dition of the minds of some people regarding superstitions a little over fifty years ago. One day, while working in the old log blacksmith shop in Morocco, a man came in with a little job of work. While waiting for it to be fin- ished he related to me his troubles. It seemed from his story that some time before he, or some of his family, had been having a little falling out with an old lady in their neighbor- hood, and from that time they were unable to make their butter "come," although they had spent much time and put forth a lot of hard la- bor at the churn. Being unable to account for this condition of things on any reasonable grounds, they finally came to the conclusion
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that the old woman with whom they had been quarreling had "bewitched" the cow. The more they thought of it the stronger became the conviction. After telling of his troubles he wanted my advice as to how this "spell" might be removed. My experience along the line of witchcraft having been limited, I had to draw on my imagination somewhat. My first thought was to recommend the black cat cure. That was to take a black cat and cut off three inches of its tail, one inch at a time. Upon re- flection I concluded that would be pretty rough on the cat, so I abandoned that treat- ment. I then told him to go home and fill his churn one-third full of water, take the king- bolt out of his wagon, put one end in the fire, and, when it got quite hot, to swing it three times around his head, shout as loudly as he could, and then stick the hot end of the king- bolt into the water in the churn. That, I told him, I thought was the best thing to do under the circumstances.
He went home and I had almost forgotten the circumstance, when one day a few weeks
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afterward he again came to the shop. This brought the whole matter fresh to my mind, and I asked him if he had done as directed.
He answered that he had done so and that since doing it there had been no trouble with the butter proposition. To make the remedy still more certain of having produced these results, he said : "And I want to tell you, right at that very time that I done it, that old woman who had bewitched the cow had a spell of sick- ness."
Which proved positively that she had be- witched the cow and also demonstrated the efficacy of the remedy. It also proved that my misplaced sympathy for the black cat had re- sulted in misfortune for the old lady, although I had not meant to do her any harm.
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I RECALL an interesting trial held at Mo- rocco.
James Moore had missed several hogs, and he suspected one of his neighbors of having stolen them. On searching the premises of the suspected party, evidence was discovered which satisfied Mr. Moore that his suspicions were well founded. He then went to the jus- tice of the peace, James Murphy, and swore out a warrant for the arrest of the suspected party. This warrant was placed in the hands of the constable, Thomas Starkey, who came to my house and asked me to go with him to assist in making the arrest. When we reached the home of the party we were to arrest we learned that he had gone away. Expecting to catch up with him in a short time, we rode on after him. We kept hearing of his passing certain houses along the road, so we kept on
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for some forty miles until we reached the town of Bradford. Here we caught up with him and arrested him just as he was getting on the train to go south. We stayed in Bradford overnight and the next morning started for home. We went through Rensselaer, where we stopped for dinner, and at this point the man under arrest made arrangements with David Snyder, a prominent attorney of that town, to go down with us to Morocco and de- fend him at the trial.
We reached Morocco after having been away two days, although we had not expected to be gone more than that number of hours. The court was soon in session and ready to dis- pose of the case. A jury was demanded and soon collected and accepted by the parties. Witnesses gave their testimony showing that the body of the missing hog had been found in the house of the accused and fully identified. It looked as though nothing could be said or done to prevent the speedy conviction of the prisoner. David Snyder commenced his plea to the jury by saying that in all new countries
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there were certain conditions and practices that every one recognized and accepted, the same being entirely different from the con- ditions existing in older settled portions of the country ; that customs long practiced in a com- munity became of higher authority in deter- mining certain cases than the mere letter of the law, instancing the established custom of going to the woods and taking the timber freely from lands owned by non-residents, placing under the same rule the right of every person to take a hog wherever found running at large. He said that custom made law and from time im- memorial it had been the custom in this coun- try to consider hogs as public property, and be- fore a man could rightfully be punished for this offense there must be a public meeting of the citizens of the community to then and there declare that, from and after a certain date, hog-stealing in that community would consti- tute and be considered a crime.
Strange as it may seem to us now, the jury took the same view of the case that Mr. Snyder did and the prisoner was discharged.
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About the year 1850 there was a great rush to buy up the timber lands of this part of the state. The idea then was that as soon as im- migrants commenced the settlement of the prairie, the timber lands would become val- uable and a source of great profit to those own- ing the same. With that idea in view, a great many non-residents rushed in and bought up large tracts of timber land, thereby, to some extent, at least, establishing a hindrance to the settlement of the country. Consequently it was not long until, by a law acted upon almost universally, residents had the right to go upon what was called "speculators' lands" and take the necessary timber to improve their farms and erect their buildings, quieting the con- science by saying, "Others do it, and why not I?"
About the time the timber lands were bought up, quite a large number of Swedes settled about seven miles west of Morocco, across the state line in Illinois. I want to say they proved to be a very valuable class of citi- zens-honest, industrious and truthful. Al-
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though they had a hard time to make a living for the first three or four years after they set- tled there, it was not long until they had good farms and improvements, surrounded by many of the comforts of life, amply repaying them for the privations of the first few years. When the nation needed their help, no community, according to their number, furnished more or better soldiers during the civil war, many of them serving in Indiana regiments.
A few years after they located and the strug- gle for a livelihood became easier, they con- cluded they needed a church building, as they were a very religious people. So one winter day when there was snow on the ground and sledding was good, about twenty or more started for the woods with teams and sleds to cut logs and haul them to Morocco, where there was a saw-mill. There they could have the logs sawed up into lumber, to be used in building the church.
That same afternoon James Archibald went out to get some timber for his own use, and on arriving at a piece of timber land owned
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by him, north of Beaver Creek, he found some of these same Swedes busily felling trees. On reaching the point where they were at work he asked them what they were doing. They told him they were cutting logs and hauling them to the mill, as they were getting ready to build a church.
He said to them : "Do you know whose land this is that you're cutting on?"
They replied that they did not.
"Well," Archibald went on, "this is my land and I don't want you to be cutting my timber."
They immediately stopped work and called to their preacher, who was assisting them in the work. When he came up, one of the men told him what Mr. Archibald had said.
The preacher replied, "Well, men, you must stop cutting here at once."
Then, turning to Mr. Archibald, he said, "We are very sorry, indeed, Mr. Archibald, to have disturbed your land, as we don't want a stick of stolen timber put in our church, but we really thought this was 'speculators' land.' "
THE OLD COURT HOUSE
A T the time of the organization of Newton county the town of Kent consisted of one store, one dwelling house, erected by David McHolland (now owned by Thomas Moore, one square west of the Catholic church), and a couple of unfinished store buildings. Through the courtesy of the owner of one of the latter buildings we were allowed possession of same for the transaction of county business, all of the officers occupying the one room. We at once opened up the books and from that time on were ready to discharge the duties de- volving upon the several officers of Newton county.
When the commissioners, appointed by the governor to locate the county-seat, made their report locating the same at the town of Kent, they also reported the proposition of A. J.
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Kent, in case they should locate the same as he desired. His proposition was : A donation by himself in cash of five hundred dollars; 160 acres of land, being the southeast quarter of section 23, town 28, range 8; 195 lots, 30 x 150 feet each ; and a court house square, 350 × 250 feet, to be selected by the county commission- ers.
To indicate subsequent proceedings, I quote from the records :
"June 18, 1860. The commissioners, in pur- suance of law, proceeded to select the site for the court house for said Newton county. After viewing the different blocks of land laid out into lots, as per plat of said town of Kent, said commissioners selected block 16, containing 30 lots, as a site for the court house and public offices of said county. At the same date it was ordered by the commissioners' court that Reu- ben White be appointed agent to receive the donations for the county seat from A. J. Kent, as per the proposition made by him.
"March 6, 1861. It was ordered that the au- ditor, recorder and clerk of Newton circuit court are hereby appointed a committee with
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full power to contract for the erection of a building, to be used as a court house, on block 16, and superintend the building of the same at a cost not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), to be paid for out of the donation funds of said county."
The recorder and clerk refusing to serve on the committee above named, the auditor did, on April 10, 1861, take to his assistance Reu- ben White, and proceeded to post notices for proposed bids to furnish material and erect said court house.
On April 15, 1861, the parties above named met for the purpose of receiving bids, as ad- vertised, and the contract was at that time let to John B. Chesebrough for the sum of nine hundred and seventy-four dollars ($974). Afterward they made an additional contract with him to erect a portico over the east door of the said building for the sum of twenty-six dollars ($26), making the total cost of the house, when completed, one thousand dollars. This was at least one instance in which a court
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house was built within the limits of the first appropriation.
"June 3, 1861. Commissioners met. Pres- ent, William Russell, Michael Coffelt and Thomas R. Barker. Elijah Shriver, sheriff, declared the court in session. Whereupon it was, on motion, ordered that we do now ad- journ to meet in the court room of the new court house, erected on block 16, in the town of Kent."
This building was a plain, frame structure with the court room and two jury rooms above and four offices below. The lower rooms were appropriated by the clerk and auditor on the south side of the building, and by the treasurer and recorder on the north side.
This arrangement continued until 1867, when the small building, located north of the court house, was erected, containing two rooms. When first built, it was the intention to use these rooms as jury rooms. However, objections were raised on account of their be- ing on the ground floor. Being abandoned for
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that purpose, the clerk soon after appropriated the west room, the recorder taking the east one. The auditor's office was then enlarged by taking in all the south side of the court house on the first floor. The sheriff then took pos- session of the room deserted by the recorder, this being the first time he had been able to secure a separate office.
This arrangement continued until August, 1906, when the new and present court house was completed. The old building was aban- doned after a continuous use of forty-five years and was, on November 5, 1906, sold to John Simmons for the sum of one hundred and sev- enty dollars. The original cost of the building had been one thousand dollars. Deducting the amount for which it sold, made the real cost to the county only $830 for forty-five years' serv- ice, or an annual rental of $18.50 a year. I doubt if any other county in the state can show such an illustration of economy.
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THE NEW COURT HOUSE
A T the regular term of the commissioners' court of Newton county, held at the court house in Kentland, April 3, 1905, the commissioners, David Hess, James A. Whaley and Elmer Skinner, made a contract with Eric Lund, of Hammond, Indiana, to furnish all material, construct and complete a court house on the public square in the town of Kentland, for the sum of $26,195, said building to be erected according to plans furnished by Jo- seph T. Hutton, architect and superintendent of construction.
Bonds were issued to pay the cost of con- struction and sold to J. F. Wild and Company for the sum of $27,251, they being the highest and best bidders for the same. There were sixteen other bids for the court house bonds.
Prior to the letting of the contract to Eric Lund to build the court house, proceedings
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