USA > Indiana > Perry County > Perry County: A History > Part 21
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In 1866 Jesse C. Esarey, a descendant of the pioneer family who were the earliest settlers of Oil Township in 1810, erected a saw and grist mill near one of the
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branches of Oil Creek, where a settlement began to spring up, and in 1874 Daniel R. McKim laid out a regular town plat to which the name Branchville was given, Miss Mary C. Reily becoming the first post- master. Its location is on the section line between the southeast quarter of Section 13 and the northwest quarter of Section 24.
John S. Frakes and John C. Newton, partners in general merchandise, were the first business men and Dr. John W. Lang the first physician. The Rev. Wil- liam H. Sabine dedicated the Methodist Church built in 1867 near Branchville, although services had been held in school houses and other buildings ever since 1817. Branchville Lodge No. 496, F. and A. M., was chartered in 1873, with John S. Frakes, W. M .; Hiram Esarey, Jasper Deen, James S. Frakes, John H. Deen, John D. Carr and Absalom C. Miller as charter mem- bers. A two-story building, 20 by 40, costing $1,000, was erected by the order and the lodge is still in exist- ence.
Adyeville's first settler was John E. Newton, who opened a store there in a log cabin about 1848, and the point became locally known as Bridgeport, because of the old-fashioned covered bridge across Anderson River, on the highroad leading from Clark Township into Harrison Township, Spencer County. It thus ap- pears on early state maps, but in 1861 when a post- office was established the name Adyeville was con- ferred, taken from a prominent resident, Andrew J. Adye, who became the first postmaster.
Twelve years later when the town-plat of Adyeville was surveyed by Daniel R. McKim, County Surveyor, June 18, 1873, he was the owner of all but four lots out of eighteen in the new village, the others being in possession of William T. Chewning, A. J. Mills and George Zeiler. Main street, thirty feet wide, followed the county road with Walnut and Willow respectively north and south of it. State, Cherry and Church were the three streets crossing these at right angles, with a
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public square at the intersection of Main and State and a church lot, 418 by 104.5 feet, at the corner of Walnut and Church streets. James Peter was Recorder of Perry County when this survey was entered, December 2, 1873, in Miscellaneous Record Book B, Page 482.
Andrew J. Adye, who was born January 15, 1831, in Chautauqua County, New York, was the fifth son of Andrew and Laura (Whicher) Adye, who removed in 1837 from the Empire State to the Hoosier State, find- ing a location in Clark Township where the father died in 1845. Andrew, Jr., when a youth, made numerous flatboat voyages out of Anderson River-then con- sidered a 'navigable' stream-down the Ohio and Mis- sissippi. At the age of twenty-three, however, he settled down to mercantile pursuits near the home farm and December 13, 1857, was married to Barbara Ann, daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Miles) Kesner, four children being offspring of the marriage.
He was practically the founder of Adyeville, enter- ing its town plat in 1873 and serving nineteen years as postmaster. While almost self-educated, his own re- search made him a man of unusual attainments, espe- cially in nature study and the allied sciences, and he discovered several medical remedies of vegetable com- pound, which earned prosperity for him in his later years. As township trustee and county commissioner he held elective offices, being an ardent exponent of the Jacksonian Democracy taught by "Old Hickory" whose name he bore.
The Adye family were vigourous Baptists, affiliating with the church of that belief organized in 1847, and were also connected with an early school of exceptional merit, conducted for several years at private expense in their neighbourhood.
Another name identified with the Baptist Church, besides prominent politically and otherwise in Clark Township during its early days is that of McKim, John McKim, who was one of the two magistrates chosen at the first township election in 1819, having reared a
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family of ten children by his marriage with Permelia, daughter of the pioneer Ephraim Cummings. Thirty years later (1849) he was elected Representative of the Legislature by the Democratic party. A son, Daniel R. McKim, served sixteen years as County Sur- veyor, being elected to the office in the campaigns of 1856, 1870, 1876 and 1880. Another son, the youngest, William M. McKim, enlisted August 20, 1862, in Com- pany K, Thirty-fourth Kentucky Infantry, for three years and was discharged June 24, 1865.
Active Methodists in the same locality were Thomas and Sarah (Stapleton) Wheeler, both natives of Ken- tucky, through whose seven children an extensive pro- geny is the result, the third generation having scat- tered into other localities, some of its members having attained special prominence in medical circles of Indianapolis.
Wheeler, as a Perry County name, is also particular- ly identified with Tobin Township, whither came at a very early day James and Sarah (Claycomb) Wheeler, natives of Pennsylvania and Maryland, whose family lines met in Breckinridge County, Kentucky. Six sons and five daughters were born to this marriage, most of whom in turn married in their own neighbourhood, so the connection is now a very wide one, represented far beyond the original county and state.
Van Winkle is the name of earliest conjunction with the settlement of Bristow, which has grown to be the principal town of Clark Township and northern Perry County. Alexander and Phoebe (Miller) Van Winkle, William T. and Emeline (-) Van Winkle, Elisha and Letitia (Jarboe) Weedman were owners of the site surveyed by Daniel R. McKim, Deputy County Surveyor, signed and acknowledged by them March 14, 1875, before Walter Hunter, County Surveyor.
Fifteen lots, besides a school lot, were embraced in the original plat, described on Page 68, of Miscallane- ous Record Book C, by Israel L. Whitehead, County Recorder, March 16, 1875. The location was well
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chosen, just north of the East fork of Anderson River, giving water power for a successful mill. Main street was the principal thoroughfare laid off, 66 feet wide, running due north and south. Oak street, 49 feet wide is parallel to it, one block east, with a 161/2 foot alley bisecting the blocks, which were crossed at right angles by Water and First streets, each 23 feet in width.
Elisha S. Weedman opened the first store; the second being kept by T. J. Duncan in connection with the post- office, which he held until Smith McAllister was ap- pointed his successor. Thomas K. Miles conducted a hotel for a number of years, besides dealing extensive- ly in horses and stock on his large farm. The first resident physician, still one of Bristow's foremost citizens in every movement looking toward its growth, was Dr. William Lomax, who settled there permanently in the spring of 1881, following his graduation from Indiana Medical College. Two years later he married Hettie, daughter of Thomas J. and Sarah (Jeffers) Dugan, and Bristow has been their home continuously ever since, and the birthplace of their children.
The growth of the village in twenty-five years called for additional building lots, so Main street and Oak street were continued northward and Second street laid out to cross them, extending from the Baptist Church lot to the county road leading northeast from Bristow to Adyeville. This survey was made October 19, 1896, for William T. and Emeline Van Winkle, William and Hettie Lomax, Jacob H. and Nancy Aders, with Samuel Lasher and John Lanman, Trustees of the Baptist Church; although not placed on record until May 17, 1900. Four years later, July 22, 1904, William and Emeline Van Winkle entered for record a second addi- tion lying west of the original town, containing nine lots, through which Van Winkle street leads, parallel with Main.
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CHAPTER XXXI.
ROME ACADEMY.
THE SAME act of Legislature, approved December 22, 1858, which accomplished the re-location of the county seat at Cannelton provided for transforming the old court-house into an academy, Elijah B. Huckeby, John C. Shoemaker and Job Hatfield being named as the first board of trustees. The citizens of Rome sub- scribed a fund of $2,000, which was invested in first mortgage bonds, the interest to be used for keeping the building in order as a school-house.
Some necessary re-modeling, etc., was done during the summer following the actual removal of the county offices and records, and in October, 1860, the school was formally opened as Rome Academy, with N. V. Evans, A.M., principal, and C. W. De Bruler, assistant. The first session began with an enrollment of forty pupils, which soon increased to sixty. A course of study planned to continue forty weeks was outlined as fol- lows: Primary Grade,-reading, writing, ortho- graphy, mental arithmetic and primary geography; tuition $6 per term. Second Grade,-arithmetic, gram- mar, geography, ancient and modern history, analysis and elocution, tuition, $8. Third Grade,-natural and mental philosophy, algebra, geology, hygiene and book- keeping; tuition, $12. Fourth Grade,-higher mathe- matics, chemistry, rhetoric, composition and the lan- guages; tuition, $18. Music, $20; use of piano, $4; vocal music, $2; drawing and painting, $3. Intellec- tual ability marked both Evans and De Bruler so that their efforts brought the academy into speedy promin- ence in a day which saw small institutions flourish.
Lack of endowment forced the instructors to depend
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upon tuition fees for their pay and such recompense was insufficient to prove satisfactory, even after augmented by interest from the mortgage fund. The Reverend William M. Daily, A.M., succeeded Evans as principal in 1861. A scholar of advanced culture, Dr. Daily was one of the foremost educators in the state, having occupied a few years earlier the president's chair of Indiana University at Bloomington. Rome Academy attained under him even higher eminence than when Evans was principal, the attendance in- creasing and about the same course of instruction being pursued.
One year alone, however, was the period of his service, also, and the Reverend William S. Hooper was placed at the head in 1862. Miss Susan Hooper, his sister, a woman of grace and accomplishment, was his co-worker and through their energetic efforts the in- stitution apparently flourished, closing in June, 1863, with an attendance of ninety pupils.
Professor Joseph W. Snow, a graduate of Genesee College, took charge in the autumn of 1863, with Miss Flint as his assistant, but their year's work was less successful than their predecessors' had been, although an exceptional standard in French and music was main- tained through the instruction given by Emile Longue- mare. He belonged to an aristocratic old French fam- ily of St. Louis, Southern sympathizers, who had cast in their entire fortune with the Confederacy and were thus brought into reduced circumstances.
His uncle and aunt, Charles and Felicité (LeGuer- rier) Longuemare, had come to Indiana after equip- ping at their private expense a full Missouri regiment of which their son, Charles Longuemare, Jr., was cap- tain. A romantic incident of Winston Churchill's novel "The Crisis," where a young Southers officer breaks his sword rather than yield it to an enemy, was recognized in St. Louis as an actual occurrence in the career of Captain Charles Longuemare, Jr.
He took for his wife an Indiana girl, Anna, daugh-
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ter of James and Ellen (Donnelly) Hardin, of "Hardin Grove" near Rome, where one of their daughters yet lives on her inherited portion of the old estate, the other marrying Major Harrison Jackson Price, of the Thirteenth Infantry, U. S. A. Emile Longuemare also married into a Perry County family, Josephine, daugh- ter of Adam and Jane (Wheeler) Ackarman.
At this time the board of academy trustees was headed by William Valentine Reynolds, and through him the building was leased to St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Cannelton, the parish taking over its con- trol and changing the name to St. Albans' Academy. As such it was managed for one year by James R. Rafter, but proved unprofitable so the lease was not renewed.
The Baptists next took charge, installing the Rever- end I. W. Bruner as principal, but the attendance and resources had steadily dwindled ever since the Hoopers left, so after two years of experiment the property was returned to the Board, who then arranged to have it used as a part of the public school system.
Since that time its teachers have been paid from the public fund, except for various spring and summer normal schools, sustained by personal subscription. Perhaps the most noteworthy among these-both for the quality of instruction given and the class of pupils in attendance-was that conducted in the 'eighties by Howard M. Royal and his wife, Mary H. (Batson) Royal, whose long career as successful educators has given them unique distinction upon the muster-roll of Perry County teachers during a half-century of con- tinuous labour.
The Reynolds family represented old Yankee stock of New England though their coming into Perry Coun- ty was through Hardin and Grayson Counties in Ken- tucky. William Rhodes Reynolds, a son of Richard and Esther Reynolds, of Providence, Rhode Island, had there married Sarah Jane Tower, daughter of Mathew Tower, lineally descended from that John Tower, of
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Hingham, Massachusetts, whose descendants are so widespread that a copious volume of family history has been written in the present generation by a member bearing the ancestral name with distinction, Charle- magne Tower, sometime ambassador to Germany.
William R. and Sarah (Tower) Reynolds removed to Indiana in 1825 with the eldest two-William Valen- tine and Alonzo Davis of eight children that were born to them, living for twenty-five years in Leaven- worth, but in 1851 locating at Rome, where the re- mainder of their lives was spent. William V. was twice married, first to Mary, a daughter of Samuel Frisbie, and second to Elizabeth Gardner, by whom he was the father of three children. Alonzo D. married Caroline Woodford, daughter of Julius and Sarah (Phelps) Woodford, (her mother belonging to that New Jersey family which William Walter Phelps repre- sented in the diplomatic service,) and their children were several in number. One of the daughters, Sarah Phelps Reynolds, married John William Minor, of Rome, himself of the third generation in Indiana of a family name long notable in the Old Dominion.
Nicholas Minor I was an extensive landholder in Loudoun County, Virginia, who gave to the town of Leesburg the ground composing the public square upon which the court-house and county buildings are situ- ated. His wife was Mary Spence, and their son, Nicholas Minor II, married Mary Stark, coming with her in (or about) 1780 to Nelson County, Kentucky, where several children were born to them, so the name is found in adjacent counties of that state and came early into Breckinridge County, along with the allied families of Stephens and Holt from which Stephens- port and Holt Station received their titles.
Nicholas III was the pioneer Minor crossing into Indiana for permanent residence, settling in Perry County not far from his Kentucky relatives, where he married Nancy Connor (or O'Connor) by whom he was the father of six sons-William Stark, Hadley
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Jefferson, George S., Robert, Spence, and Richard Con- nor-and two daughters-Martha Belle and Catherine. Three of these children died unmarried, although living to mature age, but the others have widely perpetuated the family stock.
William Stark Minor, who for many years carried on a water-mill on Anderson Creek, took as his wife Almerine Lamar, a member of that pioneer family from which Lamar Township, Spencer County, re- ceived its name, and their children have shown traits of heredity in entering the professions of finance, edu- cation and the law. William Guthrie Minor, now cashier of the Cannelton National Bank, was elected Clerk of Perry County in 1890, holding the office four years, and was chosen Treasurer in 1902. His brother, Oscar Curtis Minor, represented Perry and Spencer Counties as joint-Senator from 1898 to 1902, and has served several terms as prosecuting attorney.
Hadley Jefferson Minor married Eleanor, daughter of John Shoemaker, a native of Pennsylvania, by his first wife, Rachel Tabor. Adam Shoemaker, his father, was of German extraction and came through Ohio into Kentucky bringing his wife, Catherine, and the several children born to them, including John, Adam, Jacob and Stephen.
All these became pioneer settlers of Perry County, entering lands while Indiana was yet a territory and serving their fellow-citizens in various public capaci- ties. Adam Shoemaker II was one of the commission- ers appointed by Governor Ray under an act of the Thirteenth General Assembly, approved January 21, 1830, to re-locate the seat of justice in Dubois County, which resulted in removing the county seat from Portersville to Jasper. He had taught school at Troy during the 'twenties for a time while Abraham Lincoln was a pupil, Lincoln himself relating this fact to a nephew, John C. Shoemaker, whom he met in Indian- apolis when on the way from Springfield to Washing- ton for his inauguration in 1861, Shoemaker being then
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in the state Senate. Stephen Shoemaker was elected Justice of the Peace in 1820; John Shoemaker, in 1840, and Jacob Shoemaker in 1843, while John Shoemaker was Sheriff from 1826 to 1828.
John William Minor, son of Hadley J. and Eleanor (Shoemaker) Minor, was elected Auditor of Perry County in 1874, serving eight years, and removing later from Cannelton to Indianapolis where he became a prominent capitalist and a valuably influential mem- ber of the Democratic party, although never again con- senting to run for office. His sister, Zerelda Minor, married Lawrence Brannon Huckeby, son of Elijah B. and Nancy (Groves) Huckeby, of Rome, afterward making their home in New Albany for many years.
From the second marriage of John Shoemaker, with Sarah Chapman, by birth a New Yorker of English lineage, was born April 8, 1826, John Chapman Shoe- maker, the first of Perry County's native sons elected to a state office (Auditor of State, 1870) and than whom none attained greater success at the price of self- reliance, tenacious purpose and indefatigable effort through all the affairs of life.
Increasing knowledge of sociology and the scientific study of eugenics have completely verified what was formerly held as a mere theory-the potent influence of ancestry upon both physical and mental organisms; so that in seeking for the elements of success and tracing intellectual endowments to their ancestral sources, it must be admitted that no better mingling of national blood could be found than the Anglo-Saxon and Teu- tonic races which were blended in John Chapman Shoe- maker.
As a mere child his quiet persistence was remarkable, and an interesting anecdote is told of his winning a Sunday School prize once offered in Rome to the pupil memorizing and reciting within a specified time the largest number of verses from the New Testament. This was a favourite spiritual exercise of an earlier generation, regarded as a stimulus to youthful piety,
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and one devout lad, considered a village prodigy, out- stripped all competitors at a bound by repeating four chapters. It was assumed that he had so completely distanced every rival that the contest was thought virtually over, but on the following Sunday young "John C." (as he was always called) quietly recited nine chapters in full. He had made up his mind to win, and the prize a handsome Bible-was a lifelong cherished possession.
Reared on his father's farm, agriculture claimed his attention and he was the first to realize far ahead of his time-the latent possibilities of Perry County hill- sides, with their southern exposure toward the Ohio River, for the growing of high-grade fruit. In 1859 he purchased from various owners tracts of land in Tobin Township, aggregating several hundred acres, seven miles east of Cannelton, fronting the Ohio River be- tween Millstone and Deer Creeks, where he planted what was then the largest fruit farm in the state.
On the highest eminence, 275 feet above high water mark, commanding a glorious view of river and fertile valley for many miles, he built the substantial wooden dwelling planned with striking originality in cruciform shape, all its first floor rooms having large fireplaces into an immense central chimney. Until his election in 1870 as Auditor of State necessitated removal with his family to Indianapolis, he made this his home, and "Shoemaker Farm" became a Mecca for pilgrims seek- ing wisdom in practical horticulture.
The profound research which he had done for several years, on a smaller scale as an amateur, while holding office at Rome, here found material expression in the quality of fruit he was able to grow. His apples won many first prizes at the Indiana State Fairs, and his willingness to share with others the results of his ex- periments soon distinguished him as a leading pomolo- gist of the Middle West. Agricultural journals sought his contributions as authoritative, and articles from his pen published in the Cannelton Reporter during the
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'sixties are still quoted as standard on many points. A sight of rare beauty were the Shoemaker orchards when in full bloom or bearing, and old steamboatmen still relate how a glimpse of them was eagerly watched for by passengers when traveling past. On river charts the name "Shoemaker's Landing" is still used to designate the stopping place thus known during three-score years.
Through frequent changes in its subsequent owner- ship, and and the negligence of non-residents, the estate had fallen into almost complete disintegration by 1912, but its wonderful latent possibilities caught the eye of an enthusiastic young Evansville man-Frank Iglehart Odell. His college-trained mind logically reasoned from cause to effect, and he at once set to work practically carrying out in Southern Indiana the horticultural theories he had mastered among apple- growers of the Pacific coast.
In conjunction with his father, Captain I. H. Odell, and his brothers-Harry Nicholas Odell and Robert Levi Odell-he once more brought together by pur- chase the original estate, with some important addi- tions required to round out its acreage and immediate- ly commenced a heroic rehabilitation of the entire five hundred acres. Vigourous treatment was applied the remaining trees, thousands of new trees were set out, modern scientific methods everywhere introduced, and while the work is yet too new to have attained exten- sive results, it is full of promise. The mansion has been restored as a centre of hospitality by Captain and Mrs. Odell (Anna Iglehart) and the name of "Sunny- crest" has already made for itself a place among Indiana orchards of note.
John . C. Shoemaker, when only twenty-one, was elected county treasurer, serving six years in an office demanding not only strict business habits, but un- questionable integrity. He was married October 13, 1850, to Mahala, daughter of John Stephenson, one of Perry County's pioneer Virginian immigrants, an early
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associate judge and justice of the peace. Several chil- dren were born to them, but only two daughters grew to maturity and married, so the present generation of Shoemakers carrying forward the name in Perry County are his collaterals, the direct descendants of John Shoemaker I, by his first wife, Rachel Tabor.
From the Treasurer's office John C. Shoemaker was chosen Auditor in 1853, as a Whig, but on the dismem- berment of that party affiliated with the Democrats, who, in 1858, elected him senator for the district com- prising Perry, Spencer and Warrick Counties. From that time up to his death, December, 1905, he was an active Democrat, high in the councils of his party.
While in the Senate he introduced the bill simplify- ing township management by placing the business in the hands of a single trustee instead of a board-three trustees, a secretary and a treasurer,-thus abolishing much cumbersome and complicated machinery, with its resultant friction and inefficiency. The work of county auditors, also, was materially condensed through meas- ures of his suggestion, few legislators of Indiana hav- ing displayed greater resources of usefulness than John C. Shoemaker. In 1868 he was elected from Perry County as representative, and again brought forward in the lower house his eminently practical views of legislation.
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