USA > Indiana > Fountain County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 5
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
HON. JOSEPH RISTINE'S RECOLLECTIONS.
From the pen of Judge Ristine, the following extracts from his reminis- cences have been taken: "In June, 1826, my father entered the lands about six miles east of Covington, to which he removed from Brown county. Ohio, and arrived on these lands December 6. 1826, that day being my eighteenth birthday. It was a rainy, gloomy day. Providence, however,
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FOUNTAIN AND MARKET COUNTRY . INDIANA
smiled upon him, and used to western hie, supplied with aves, alleer , que and other exemit's necessary to the commencement of life in the wood . work was commenced by the creation of a double- faced camp koning f. e between wide enough to drive a pair of herst . in order to hand log in to make a fire. Here ke me say, this preparation was for the accommodation of the families, neither of them small, the free comprising, in mo uld with att children, about eighteen persons. On our journey to our new hem, in the wilderness, and while stopping for the night on the ? ak of Whit river, wel of Indianapolis, a family y the name of Evans, from Augusta county, Vir- ginit, was encountered. Here, of course, an acquaintance was made. Mr. Evans had never been out of the old Dainion state before mitil this time when he had started for the West. and kn. y not where he would yo or where would be his stopping place. This family was pretty well prepared. Mr. Evans had a good four-horse team and comfortable clothing, and four or five hundred dollars in ready money. After the interview of the night Mr. Byaus concluded that where my father went he would go, and these camps were built for the comfort of both families. Although in December, the weather be- came settled, clear, and ( for that month ) warin. My father at once set about the erection of what was known as a double log cabin. Mr. Evans, with three boys, and my father, with three, went to work, and by Christmas we had our cabin se near complete with clapboard roof, puncheon floors, chinking and daubing done, that we got out of camp to what we regarded as a pretty respectable dwelling, My father aided Mr. Evans in the selection of land which he entered a joining our land. Mi. Evans, after abiding comfortably in the camp all winter, built a cabin in the spring of 1827 on his own land, where for years after the two families lived as kind neighbors. Within the range of three miles there were settled Abner Bush, John Simpson, William Cochran, Hiram Jones, Benjamin Kepner, Joseph Glasscock, Thomas Patten, Captain White and Leonard Lloyd, all of whom gave us a kind greeting and hearty welcome. While at this point the peculiarities of my old friend, Jesse Evans, will be noticed. As has been stated, he had never been out of Vir- ginia until he made his break for the west. Mr. Evans was a man not wholly without education. He could read, wrote a good legible hand, with a fair common arithmetic knowledge, such as to fit him for the ordinary business life. He had no fixed political ideas, and his association with my father, J think, had much to do in making him a Democrat. He had pretty exalted ideas of Virginia. but with a slight conception of the character of the men of the West. His ideas when he left old Virginia were, as stated to me by himself afterwards, that he would go west and stand among his fellows a
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FOUNTAIN AND WARE & COPYING, INDIANA.
head and shoulders above them all, 'but now, said he, 'I have Is there bile about two years, and 'tis a fact ! now find it out that ning out of fer knew more than I do. Mr. Even, continued a Desperat mail the Bemolle of Democracy, under the shield of General Jackson, fell upon Martin Van Buren. The hue and cry of the Me arising from the sub-treasury sy -fem. the extravagance at the White House by the little sly nabob from New York accompanied with the gold-spoon stories, bewildered the Ad man wil his first conception of himself reuntrued. He mened his back on Democrats, ind hi, regrets were that he had not money enw 'i to go to Washington, or h. would go, as he knew that he could in twenty minutes convince Mr. Van Buren of the errors of his policy, and thereby save the country from ruin He became an idolater of the old Whig party, and died in that political fait , witha honest man.
"Having now disposed of Jesse Evans, a return will be made to our start- off-to prepare bread for the future. Wild game was so plentiful there were no fears but we would have plenty of meats. Father, having to retain to Ohio that winter on account of business. marked off what he designed as fifteen acres, to e'ar up for corn planting in the spring: gave us three boys directions to cut all under eighteen inches, and have the brush piled up and burned, and the logs cut and prepared for rolling upon his return, mother to take general supervision of our attention to business in his absence. [ can give assurance that no kinder mother ever lived than we had, and a watch- fulness over her trust was kept with such good faith that all ended well. Rails were to be made to fence the land, and, by the way, my brother next younger than I and myself were rail-makers and, being about the age of the lamented Lincoln, could have competed with him in rail splitting. We com- pleted the task and log rolling time came. With the aid of our kind neigh- bors, this was a short job, and the fifteen acres were planted to corn and pro- duced an abundant yield. Corn, potatoes, beans, turnips and pumpkins made good returns for the labor bestowed. The sugar-making season came on, and this had to be attended to. Not having vessels to care for the molasses, a trough made from the trunk of a poplar tree, large enough to hold fifty or sixty gallons, was nicely hewn out as a receptacle for the same. A block was prepared to make hominy. This was done by sawing off the trunk of a good solid oak tree a piece about three feet in length and about twenty inches in diameter; scalloping out one end by cutting and burning a hole in the shape of a bowl large enough to hold a half bushel or more of corn; then with an iron wedge banded in the end of a stick, the corn was pomded until the outer coating of the grain was beaten off. This, by long boiling, made a good sub-
FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
stitute for bread : and, with corn meal to be hand at White'- nul. greatdom stones prepared from the large boulders found in the forests- there. sob wild me. , furnished our first winter's food. W. had milk and biffter Hoe, our cons, and, with corn bread made inno dodgers' pones and ploun . the. with basted turkey and venison for meats, and plenty of hard work a. a appetizer, we lived well and slept soundly.
"Thus we lived, and so did most of our neighbors Most keepit apartments we: uniquely furnished; a Wabash had read ruamented and of the log cabins of those days. This consisted of an upright post about to feet long, cut from a sapling four or five inches in diameter, through which were bored several inch and a half or two-inch anger holes in transverse order neat each other; opposite to these like holes were bored in the logs of the cabin; into these holes in the logs of the cabin and the post set out on the puncheon floor, were inserted poles or rails of sufficient strength to hear the burder of two or three grown persons, on which were placed poles, or split slats; upon these were thrown ticks filled with thy grass, or straw when it could be procured. This gives a pretty fair description of the architecture of an early Wabash bedstead with its furniture, which, with some blankets and some- times coverlets, often aided by buffalo robes and wolf skins Aittel out a bed for winter. For summer sleeping, a buffalo robe and coverlet spread upon a puncheon floor made good sleeping quarters for the sturdy boys who swung the axe, wielded the maul, or followed the plow."
CIF PTER IL.
TERITORIALE, STATE AND COUNTY ORGANIZATOR
All that wast territory lying to the west and north of the Ohio river, viel of the Mississippi, and south of the British possessions, prior to 1781, b Jouged to the state of Virginia. This was one hundred and thirty -one years ago. Great have been the changes in this century and a third. With the exceptions of a few points, including Kaskaskia and St. Vincent, and adjoin- ing settlements, the entire domain mentioned was an uoknown, trackless wilderness, inhibited only by Indians and wild beasts. No boats had traversed the waters of its streams, save the occasional canoe of a fur trader or balt- breed, with an occasional French missionary. The sound of the woodinan's axe had never been heard in the great forests and the expanse of rolling prairie had as yet been untouched by the plot of civilized man. September 6, 1780, the United States Congress asked the several states of the Union "having claims to waste and unappropriated lands in the western country," to make a "liberal cession to the United States of a portion of their respective claims, for the benefit of the Union." In response to this call the common- wealth of Virginia, in 178t, yielded to the United States all her "right, title and claim" to the territory "northwest of the Ohio river." In 1783 Congress signified its desire for a modification of the act of cession, and in December, 1783, the Legislature of Virginia modified the act, and authorized the dele- gates from that state in Congress to make a deed to the United States for the ceded territory, upon certain conditions, prominent among which were, that the territory should be laid out and formed into states, which should be distinct republican states and admitted into the Union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other states; and providing for the protection of the inhabitants of the Kaskaskias, St. Vincents and neigh- boring villages, who had "professed themselves citizens of Virginia," in their possessions and titles and in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties, and reserving to "General George Rogers Clarke, and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment who marched with him when the posts of Naskaskia and St. Vincent were reduced and the officers and soldiers that have since been incorporated into said regiment," one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, to be laid off in one tract, in length not exceeding double its width, in
FOU NEMEN AND WARREN CENTIES, INDELAA
such place as a majority of the officers should choose, and to be all for a cording to the law of Virginia. This deed was made Mar 1 4. 1780 and was signed by Thomas Jefferson, Sheed Hardy, Arthur Les and Lyx Monroe, the delegates in Congress from Virginia. During the -une yeay Mir defferson submitted to Congress a plan for the government of all the teljitory north and west of the Ohio river, as well as all that territory from the south ern to the northern boundary of the United States. A prominent feature of this plan -- voted il lis more because made by a Southern gentleman, a slave holder bin-elf, and applied to all territory south of the Obio river --- was that "after the year 1800 there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said proposed states other than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This plan was not then adopted, and it was again renewed in 1785, having been brought forward by Rufus King, of Massachusetts, and again failed in securing the necessary votes for its adoption. The original act of cession by the state of Virginia required that the ceded territory should be laid ont and formed into stakes not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square. or as "near thereto as circumstances will permit." In 1;86 Congress indi- cated to Virginia that a division of the territory into states in conforinity with the act of cession, "would he attended with many inconvenience -," asked a revision of the act, "so far as to empower Congress to make such division of the said territory into distinct republican states, not more than five nor less than three in number, as the situation of the country and future circumstances might require: aud, mindful only of the interests and future prosperity of the great region which she had given for the benefit of the Union. Virginia, through her Legislature, December 30, 1788, revised her act of cession so that Congress was authorized to create three states out of the ceded territory, the western to be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Wabash rivers. and a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post Vincent due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and by that line to the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi; the middle state to be bounded on the west by the cast line of the western kate, on the south by the Ohio river, on the east by a direct line drawn due noith from the mouth of the Great Miami to the Canada line, and on the north by Canada; the eastern state to be bounded on the west by the middle state, on the south and east by the Ohio river and the Pennsylvania line, and on the north by the Canada line; with power in Congress to so far alter these boundaries, if found expedient, as to form two states in that part of the territory which was north of the east and west line drawn through the "southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan."
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It was an article of company betyrat the United States and Vitamin Between the origins tate feel the "people and tate in the wrong
should be created, and the water remita no Aplica aespanha boundaries noaltered. except a it might be done with in the , mas of reno and with ad the right- und pio dleges provided for in the art of co mm wo in the ordinance of 1787.
While the divisions made by the Virginia act of December. AN and the fifth article of the ordinance of 1787, are ponen of as slide-, Metal were but proposed states, and never did become sudes with the bodrum. above given. The first organic law for the government of this territ og an- adopted July 13. 1787. This ordinance of 1787 constituted the territory ofle district for the purpose of temporary government, reserving the power of divide it into two, if circumstances should dermed it. I provided manner of settling estates and distributing property by will; for the appolla ment of a governor and secretary and three judges with full common k . jurisdiction. The governor was required to be possessed of a frec-level estate in the territory, "in one thousand acres of land": the secretary and each of the judges in five hundred acres of land. The judges were required to 15- side in the district, and were to hold their office during good behavior.
S. tenaci us were the American people, at that day, of the right of in - ing domestic matters regulated by a domestic legislature, that it wa- provi led that such legislature should be elected and organized when the territory con- tained five ousand free male- inhabitants, with a representative therein for every five landred of such inhabitants. After this ground work had been laid and the people became their own law-makers, the next step was to vouch- safe to citizens within the district religious rights, allowing cach to worship God after the dictates of his or her own conscience.
CREATION OF INDIANA TERRUADE.
May 7, ISO8, the territory of Indiana was created, and included all the territory west of a line drawn due north from the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river; and this was again divided in )809, the western divi sion being called Illinois territory. April 19, 1816, the act of Congress was approved which admitted Indiana into the Union as a state, "upon the same footing as the original states." The boundary of the state was then fixed as it still remains. The act of 1816 authorizing the calling of a convention to frame a constitution, provided that when made it should be republican in form
5.
FOUNDIN MED WARLEN COURTR RYDEAN
and not repugnant forthe articles of the ordin bol to tik ;. com propose itions were also submitted to the people of the territory for theore five aptance or rejection, and which, if accepted, were to be ell cry for de. United States. These were, first. that the sixteenth -cation in rock towatchit. should be granted for the use of schools: second, that all will only and the land reserved for then use, not exceeding thirty-six section . should be granted to the state, to be used as directed by the Legislature, third, that five per cent of the net proceeds of lands soll by Congres after December 1St, Should be reserved for making public reads and canils, three-fifthis to be apphed under the de ection of the Legislature of the state, and two-ffithis under the direc. tion of Congress; fourth, that one entire township, to be designated by the President, should be reserved for the use of a seminary of learning, and Gith. that four sections of land should be granted to the state for the purpose . ! fixing the seat of government thereen. June 29, 1816 the conventual as sembled at Corydon ratified the boundaries fixed by Congress, and accented each proposition submitted by the act of 1816. The same day tin constitu. tion was adopted and signed by Jonathan Jennings, president of the conven- tion, and by each of the delegates thereto, and Indian took her place as a state in the Union. The foregoing has been given for it- i portance in lead- ing up to the county itself. I've be it remembered that every land title ring back in its history to the legislation aud grants which have been just considered, and here are found the foundation stones of many of the commonwealth's most valuable institutions.
FORMATION OF FOUNTAIN COUNTY.
December 30, 1825, the act of creating Fountain county was approved. The language of that document reads in full, as follows :
"Section I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Indiana: That from and after the first day of April next, all that tract of country included within the following boundaries shall form and constitute a new county, to be known and designated by the name of the county of Fountain, to-wit: Be- ginning where the line dividing townships 17 and 18 crosses the channel of the Wabash river ; thence cast to the line running through the center of range 6, west of the second principal meridian : thence north to where the said line strikes the main channel of the Wabash river; thence running down with the meanderings of said river to the place of beginning.
"Section 2. The said new county of Fountain shall from and after the said first day of April next enjoy all the rights and privileges and jurisdictions
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FOUNTAIN AND HARDY COUNTY INDIANA.
which to separate and independent comme drer way provethe biology of op pertain.
"Section 3. That Lachs U. Scott. f Peke on my. die CY 1 . Vigo county, Daniel C. Hults, of fiermike company. Daniel Store di Hodin. county, and John Power, of Vermillion cepn'y be, and they are i really me pointer commissioners, agreeable to the act entitled 'in tet for having 0 seats of justice in all new countie, hereafter to be laid off. The said con missioners shall meet at the house of William White, in the sad amory . Fountain, ou the first Monday in May next and shall inadediates ir ced 1 discharge the duties assigned then by law. It is hereby made the way of the sheriff of Parke county to notify said commissioners, either in person of 'n writing, of their appointment. on or before the third Monday in April neat ; and for such services he shall receive such compensation out of the county of Fountain as the board of justices thereof ary drem just and reasonable, to be allowed and paid as other county clain's are paid.
"Section 4. The board of justices of said new county shall ihin twelve months after the location of the permanent seat of justice therein, proceed to erect the necessary public buildings.
"Section 5. That all suits, pleas, plaints, actions, prosecutions and pro- ceedings, heretofore commenced and pen ng within the limits of said county of Fountain, shall be prosecuted to final issue, in the same manner, and the state and county taxes which may be due on the first day of April next, within the bounds of said county of Fountain. shall be collected and paid, in the same manner, and by the satie officers, as if this act had not been passed.
"Section 6. At the same time and place of electing county officers for the county of Fountain, under the writ of election from the executive de- partment, the electors of said county shall elect five justices of the peace in and for said county, who shall meet, as a board, at the house of Robert Hatfield, in the said county, on the first Monday of May, next, or as soon thereafter as they may be able to do after being commissioned, and then and there pro- ceed to transact all the business, and discharge the duties, heretofore devolving on county commissioners at the organization of the county, as well as all the duties required of justices at such sessions.
"The circuit and other courts of said county of Fountain shall meet : 1 be holden at the house of said Robert Hatfield until more suitable accomme- dations can be had at some other place in said county.
"Section 7. All that part of the county of Wabash lying north and west
FOUNTAIN AND WARKIA COUNTS. MEN
of the sand county of Fountain shall be, and there's attached of the soul . only for the purpose of civil and criminal projection .
"This act to take effect and be a faire from and after we pulita 000 in the Indians Journal."
The boundaries of this county have never been bringed the the day of 1825 when first fixed by the legislative act given above. Tla civil invioinps or ub divisions of Fountain county are as follows: Davis township, situated in the northeastern corner of the candy, was established m 182), three years later than the original townships were set off.
Logan township was established from parts of Shawnee and Davis 1 MIL ships in 1833.
Shawnee township, one of the original sub-divisions of this county, was established July 244, 1826.
Richland township was established July 24, 1826, with the creation of the county. in many ways it stands as a banner township in the county- - it's name really indicating its present worth. Its history is replete with much of interest to the reader.
Troy township was one of the five original sub-divisions of the county, hence was established July 24, 1826.
Van Buren township was established in 1811, from portions of surround- ing townships, and was named in honor of President Vau Burch.
Cain township, in the southeastern portion of the county, was established as one of the first townships in the county. in July, 1826
Wabash township was also among the five original townships within Fountain county, hence dates its organic history from July 24. 1826.
Fulton township. the southwestern sub-division of the county, was at one date much larger than at present, as it embraced what is now the western por- tion of Mill Creek township.
Mill Creek township, the central southern township in the county, was first settled by John Gilmore in 1826 when the first land entry was made by an actual settler.
Jackson township, the southeastern corner township, was one of the later townships to he erected within Fulton county.
The reader is referred to the several township histories in this volumnic. and the accounts of early settlements and present day progress will doubtless be read with much interest, giving, as it will, much concerning the pioneer bands in each section of the county, and then lead on down to the twentieth- century advancement and prosperity seen on every hand.
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111 , 1 110 1
:
of the record these pioneer gamleme this for group
"At a special meeting of to touch of pedig af gha style
ices present-Absalom Mendenhall, Juste. Alot, End Rag , Then Gillam, Thomas Clawson.
"The said justices, being duly commissioned an modified, parceled the election of a president, and, of motion, Absalom Mendenhall was appointed for one year.
"Whereas, the lection of Wilham B. White so ilk office of clerk of ing circuit court and recorder of Mountain cheaty has been outend by I'd Babcock. an elector of said county, now at the time cane the part - aides- said, and there not being adicione time to determine and case. it is consider. I that the cause stand continued.
"Ordered that the court adjourn to meet a four 2 M. tomorrow. "ABSOOM MANDENE MEL, President
The following day these justices held a session at which they "took time to consider" the contested election eise -- the first in the county, Int not the last! They decided that William B. White had not been duly elected to the office of clerk of the circuit court and recorder of Fountain county, and ac clared his supposed election as "null and void."
The record is not quite clear why the justices thus decided, for it is well known of record that Mr. White did hold the combined offices for three years, if not a longer term. It is supposed that it was declared "null and void" on account of some technicality concerning the date of holding the election, and in that case it would have to be legalized by the Legislature.
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