USA > Indiana > Perry County > Perry County: A History > 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
Thomas Royston served in the east under Captain Rutledge, of Maryland, enlisting at Baltimore. He died June 25, 1855, at Rome, aged 82, and was buried on the Jehu Hardy lot in the Connor Cemetery.
Thomas Gilham was in Captain Pittman's company, raised at Winchester, Kentucky, for Colonel Taylor's regiment. William Dodd enlisted at Louisville, serv- ing in the "Hopkins Campaign," under Captain John Jones, under Colonel Wilcox. John Courcier, who is buried near Leopold on what is now the estate of the Marcilliat family, received a grant of land in that township of his services. His descendants under his own and other names reside in Perry and Spencer Counties, and through his approved records the line- age is registered in the Indiana Society United States Daughters of 1812.
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CHAPTER VI
BRICK COURT HOUSE AND EARLY RESIDENTS AT ROME
ROME'S palmy days were her earliest, and the erection in 1820-22 of a brick court house-handsome for its time and built with a care shown by its yet excellent state of preservation-seemed to prophesy a career of enduring prosperity.
In general style and dimensions the building closely copied other county edifices of the same period- square, two stories, with hip roof and central cupola; its architectural lines strongly suggesting Indiana's first state house in Corydon; or the ancient court house of Nelson County, Kentucky, in the public square of storied Bardstown, once the refuge of an exiled French king.
The lapse of a century and the complete disappear- ance of the county records for Perry County's first decade, make it impossible to designate positively the actual pioneer residents upon the town plat of Rome (the former Washington). It may have been that the oldest volumes of all were never removed from Troy to Rome, since it was reported by Judge Goodlett in 1820, after inspection, that the clerk's office had not been kept as the law specified after the organization of the county, part of the records being then at Troy and part at Rome.
With such easy going methods of procedure, it is not a rash supposition that some of the immediately succeeding volumes were left behind when the county seat was finally re-located in 1859 at Cannelton. The compilers of a historical sketch published in 1885 de- clared that the most minute and protracted research failed to reveal any County Board reports of date
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prior to 1826 among the musty archives of the court- house then in use, and similar investigation thirty years afterward, in the present Court-House base- ment, proved equally fruitless of result.
An approximate grouping, therefore, is all this chapter may claim to be, giving such names and par- ticulars as can certainly be mentioned of those whom earlier authorities definitely establish as citizens of Rome during its first dozen years of existence. Ter- ence Connor and his sons were a family of particular prominence; also Lemuel Mallory, George Ewing, Sol- omon Lamb (who as Recorder-Clerk moved with the county seat from Troy to Rome), and Samuel Frisbie (son-in-law of Terence Connor, Sr.), prosecuting at- torney for a long term of years, in succession to Will- iam Hall, besides teaching one of the earliest schools.
John W. Ricks was for many years the leading mer- chant, even establishing a chain of branch stores at various other points in the county. He likewise owned a grist- and saw-mill run by the water power of Poi- son Creek, the stream's name having its origin from a spring whose water was believed to have caused the death of an early hunter who drank of it about the time of the survey in 1805.
Ricks was an extensive pork-packer, but did no slaughtering himself merely buying the fresh meat from the farmers, among whom it became customary to collect their hogs into large herds which were driven at the beginning of winter to Rome and there slaugh- tered for immediate sale, packing and shipment. In each season Ricks usually sent South at least one boatload of 25,000 pounds of pork, besides oats, corn and produce; also live cattle, to say nothing of blooded horses, though he commonly found ready sale in Ken- tucky for the finer strains of horseflesh. He became a rich man by his trading ventures, and his sons, who went to California during the "gold fever" added to the wealth they had inherited.
Samuel Anderson was one of the first inn-keepers,
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also dispensing liquor over his bar. Two corn-mills and distilleries were operated in the neighbourhood, by Samuel Connor and Uriah Cummings, respectively. Everybody-men, women and children alike-in that early time drank whiskey whenever they could get it, regarding it as necessary to the system. A decanter stood on every sideboard and no reaping, corn-husk- ing, house-raising, or shooting match could be carried on, it was thought, without a liberal supply of liquor, and a change of sentiment came about only by slow degrees.
George Ewing, Jr., also kept an early tavern in a commodious log structure of which a portion is still standing on the east side of the public square. He sold out comparatively soon, however, to Joshua Brannon Huckeby, a native of Bedford County, Virginia, whose parents-Thomas and Frances (Brannon) Huckeby- had come from their home near the "Peaks of Otter," bringing their children into Indiana in its territorial day, breaking their long wilderness journey as did the majority of Virginia emigrants by a period of resi- dence in Kentucky.
Born February 13, 1802, three miles east of the Blue Ridge mountains, Joshua B. Huckeby was married April 4, 1824, in Rome, to Rebecca Lang, whose fa- ther, John Lang, had been killed by the Indians dur- ing the War of 1812. Within a few years they took up their abode in the log inn, where most of their chil- dren were born and where the leading men who came to Rome within the next quarter century were enter- tained.
Elijah Brannon Huckeby, a younger brother, opened a general store and was engaged in merchandise for some twenty years, at times alone and again in part- nership. He was born May 15, 1811, and was twice married : in 1835 to Nancy, youngest daughter of Da- vid Groves, and in 1841 to Jane, daughter of Samuel Connor.
Matthew E. Jackson opened a tavern in 1826, Levi
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C. Axton a grocery and tavern the same year, and in 1827 William Hargis began selling liquor in what was then commonly spoken of as a "coffee-house." John Allen was a carpenter; Montgomery Anson (a native of Quebec, Canada, who had come to Perry County in 1819) a mason; Robert Gardner, a saddler and har- ness-maker; Robert S. Negus, a blacksmith; Shubael Little, a carpenter; Lanson Mallory and Moses Mal- lory, mill-wrights; Andrew Ackarman (who came to America from Germany in 1822), a tanner.
Other property-owners at Rome in 1826, according to a list given by Goodspeed's History of Perry, Spen- cer and Warrick Counties in 1885, were Ira A. Blanch- ard, Drusilla Claycomb, George Claycomb, Nicholas Critchlow, Catherine Donnelly, John Green, Presley Hall, Isaac Hardin, Greenberry S. Holloway, John Lit- tle, Ezra Lamb, Israel Lamb (county agent until his death in 1829, when Robert Gardner succeeded him), Edmund Jennings, Louisa Negus, Alexander Ramsey, Jacob Shoemaker, John Shoemaker, Stephen Shoe- maker, John Stapleton, James Stith, Casper Stone- ments, David H. Stonements, Phoebe Van Winkle and Thomas Wheeler. It must be remembered that this list enumerates only such individuals as actually held lots in the town plat on record, and therefore omits many who were residents of the immediate vicinity.
The site of the first school-house in Rome is impos- sible to locate, although a man named Corwin is said to have taught in 1820 in a small log dwelling on Lot 89, on Market Street, which had been converted into a temporary school building. Solomon Lamb, who had taught in Troy, also engaged in the same after his removal to Rome, and Samuel Frisbie followed the teaching profession at irregular intervals between his practice of law, all the terms being arranged for by subscription for tuition.
About 1819 the Methodists organized a class, its first meetings being held at the house of Terence Con- nor, Sr., who was an active member, together with his
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wife, John Claycomb and wife, John Allen and wife, John Jefferson Lang, the Greens, the Stapletons and other families. Preaching was held monthly, a large number of charges being embraced in what was long known in conference as "Rome Circuit," services con- tinuing at the Connor residence until the court-house was finished, after which it was used for public wor- ship and all meetings of importance, until a church edifice was erected some thirty years later.
The Baptists claim to have organized, also about 1819, some three miles west of Rome, the Rev. Charles Polke founding the class, as he had done that at To- bin's Point (Mount Gilead Church) a little earlier. Among the first Baptists at Rome were members of the Ricks, Lamb, Mallory, Hardin and other families, and it appears that their meetings were soon transferred to the court-house, in alternation with the Methodists.
The strongest Baptist organization in Perry County in early years was that of Gilead. At one time nearly all the residents in the south end of Tobin Township belonged to it, while on its membership roll today still appear the pioneer names of Polk, Tobin, Winchel and others representing the fifth generation of descendants from the original families.
A characteristic feature of these primitive years, now forever passed away, was "Training Day," and muster-grounds were set apart in various convenient clearings. One still remembered in Perry County was the level tract of land just west of Deer Creek, close to the Ohio River, for many years part of the Floyd Mason farm and now owned by Mrs. Robert Tobin Groves (Lena Roland). This was practically on the line between Troy and Tobin Townships and of equally convenient access to both.
The old militia system of the Northwest Territory, which Governor Harrison found in force upon his ar- rival at Vincennes, was by him reorganized and re- mained the law for Indiana Territory from December
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13, 1799, until by the Territorial Legislature, Decem- ber 5, 1806, it was so amended as to render it con- formable to changed conditions.
Every able-bodied citizen between the ages of eighteen and forty-five (except ministers of the Gospel and Territorial officers) was required by law to enroll himself with the captain of his district company, also to provide himself with flintlock musket, bayonet, knapsack, pouch, cartridges, powder and ball. A com- plete division into the various ranking bodies was ar- ranged, with full quota of officers, and semi-annual muster days were set for April and October, when the troops were supposed to be under arms for six hours, beginning with roll-call and inspection, with field-drill based upon Baron Steuben's manual of tactics.
Fines, ranging from six dollars for a private to one hundred dollars for an officer, usually ensured full attendance, though training day was too much of a neighbourhood social function for any one voluntarily to absent himself. The entire family turned out in full strength, a dinner of barbecued meats being cus- tomarily provided, with stands for the sale of ginger- bread and hard cider, those delicacies of the period, and dancing on the hard ground was enjoyed to the stirring strains from pioneer fiddlers, whose music- however crude-was not devoid of a harmony pecu- liarly its own.
With such diversions occupying the younger ele- ment, their elders discussed topics of common inter- est; county, state or national affairs, and the inevi- table presence of candidates, who were ubiquitous in a time when elections were held annually, brought prominently into the foreground a condition still re- flected whenever Hoosiers assemble.
As the militia themselves were immune from arrest on the two days when called out for muster, the gen- eral jollification sometimes became boisterous, and the trials of strength begun in merriment occasionally de-
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generated into rough-and-tumble fisticuff practise, not to say actual fights. Personal grievances or differ- ences of long standing were often settled on training day by a hand-to-hand conflict, which nobody inter- ferred with as long as it was fair and square, and when thus settled the grudge was forgotten equally by victor and vanquished.
Samuel Connor, of Rome, was the highest ranking officer in the county, serving as General in the mili- tia, besides having held a Captain's commission in the War of 1812. Greenville Polk, of Tobinsport, was a Colonel, his commission reading thus :
"Jonathan Jennings, Governor and Commander in Chief of the State of Indiana, to all who shall see these presents-Greeting :
"Know ye, that from the special trust and confidence reposed in the patriotism, valour, fidelity and ability of Greenville Polk, I have commissioned and do com- mission him a Colonel in the 12th Regiment of the Mi- litia of the State of Indiana; to take rank as such from the date thereof, and during good behaviour. He is, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge the duties of a Colonel. And I do strictly charge and re- quire all officers and soldiers under his command to be obedient to his orders as Colonel. And he is to ob- serve and obey such orders and instructions, from time to time, as he shall receive from his superior offi- cers, according to the Rules and Discipline of War.
"In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and have caused to be affixed the seal of the State of Indiana, at Corydon, the 11th day of March, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, the third year of the state, and of the Independence of the United States the forty-third.
"JONATHAN JENNINGS. (Signed) (SEAL)
"By order of the Governor, R. S. New, Secretary."
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This yellow and time-stained original document is now owned by a grand-daughter of Greenville Polk, Mrs. James H. Payne (Addie Polk Miller) of Tobins- port, to whom it has descended through her mother Nancy (Polk) Miller.
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CHAPTER VII
LAFAYETTE'S STEAMBOAT WRECK AT ROCK ISLAND
A notably unique occurrence of international his- tory about this period, which accidentally brought into Perry County the most renowned personage who ever set foot upon her soil, was the second visit of Lafay- ette to America during President Monroe's second ad- ministration, in response to an official invitation from the United States, placing at his disposal a government frigate for his transportation to our shores. Free passage was eagerly proffered also by each of the dif- ferent packet lines crossing the Atlantic, but all such propositions were courteously waived.
Gilbert Motier Marquis de Lafayette, the aristo- cratic advocate of pure democracy, consistently em- barked as a private passenger on board the vessel Cadmus, plying between Havre and New York, where he arrived Sunday, August 5, 1824, landing at Staten Island. The elaborate reception on the following day which tendered him the freedom of the city of New York, was but the prelude to a year of triumphant ovation bestowed upon a hero around whose name clustered the romantic tradition of half a century. Of him it was said: "While Lafayette lived no one need mourn the age of chivalry as dead," and this sentiment may help us better to conceive the furore of excite- ment which swept over the country when Lafayette was actually once more in America.
Every one of the thirteen original Colonies was vis- ited, and each vied with her sister States in paying honour to this supreme patriot, the invaluable friend of America, than whom none was dearer to the heart
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of Washington. While there was no lack of warmth or spontaneity in the tributes of New York or New England, it remained for the nation's first capital, Philadelphia, to accord him a welcome so enthusiasti- cally brilliant in expression that it yet stands upon record as the most marvellous demonstration ever beheld in the staid Quaker City.
Lafayette's emotion on revisiting "Mount Vernon" was profound, and we are told upon the authority of John C. Calhoun (then Secretary of War) that as the General stood reverently uncovered before the tomb of Washington a magnificent eagle poised its flight in mid-air for several seconds directly above him. At "Monticello" Thomas Jefferson came forth with tot- tering steps to embrace with fond affection his friend of by-gone years, and no less cordial a reception was extended by James Madison at "Montpelier."
Passing on southward through the Carolinas and Georgia, a spirited tribute was paid at Fort Mitchell in the Indian country by a number of Indians who took out the horses from his traveling carriage and drew it themselves for several miles. The vivacious French population of New Orleans spared nothing that could show honour to the illustrious dignitary who seemed to personify the felicitous unity between France and America, and a similar element attended the welcome of St. Louis. From Missouri to Tennessee was the next step in the tour planned to include each of the newer commonwealths added to the original Union, and Lafayette became at Nashville the guest of Andrew Jackson at "The Hermitage."
Messengers were sent on horseback to inform the people in advance of his coming, Lafayette himself leaving Nashville, bound for Indiana and Kentucky, early in May, 1825, on board the steamer Mechanic, Captain Wyllys Hall commander, accompanied by Gov- ernor Carroll, of Tennessee, and a distinguished party. Among its members were Governor Coles, of Illinois, General O'Fallon and Major Nash, of St. Louis, be-
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sides other gentlemen from Missouri, returning to their homes.
The trip down the Cumberland was uneventful, along the same route taken but recently from St. Louis to Nashville. Turning upward into the Ohio, however, Lafayette was quick to perceive the rare natural beau- ties of its scenery, warmly commending the sentiment of his fellow-countrymen, the explorers who had so long before conferred upon the stream its title of La Belle Rivière. The mouth of the Wabash was passed in their journey, and a hundred miles beyond, as Perry County was reached, the channel grew narrower, the bordering hills on either side higher, the rocky cliffs wilder and more precipitous.
Four or five miles above the present site of Cannel- ton, then virgin forest, a jagged island juts from the river in a bend of the channel and although now guarded by a warning government light is still a men- ace to navigation at almost all stages of water. Steam- boat piloting was then in its infancy, and it is not strange that in the darkness toward midnight of Sun- day, May 9, with a heavy rain falling, the Mechanic struck upon the outlying ledge of Rock Island, tearing a hole in her bow, and filled so rapidly with water that she went down in little more than ten minutes.
Every one felt the shock, Lafayette being aroused with the others from slumber, and amid great excite- ment Captain Hall had the yawl made ready to con- vey his passengers to the shore. In the confusion pre- vailing, as he attempted to descend into the skiff, La- fayette missed his footing and was precipitated into the river and might have been drowned but for the timely assistance of one of the deckhands. Despite his advanced years the General had not lost the art of swimming acquired in his youth, so was able to keep his head above water until help arrived.
All the passengers and crew were rescued, but every article of baggage and cargo was lost. Lafayette naturally suffered some inconvenience by the wreck
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and consequent loss of sundry personal belongings, in- cluding his carriage and eight thousand dollars in money; and while Captain Hall was devoting all his attention to safeguarding his passengers, his own desk, containing some thirteen hundred dollars, was lost overboard and never recovered. With characteristic philosophy, Lafayette declared himself perhaps a gainer through losing at the same time a vast quantity of unanswered letters and unacknowledged addresses.
Here were no triumphal arches, no bands of music, no carefully-conned speeches, to bid the nation's guest welcome to Indiana. Only the simple log cabin of a sturdy pioneer, James Cavender, offered shelter to the highborn nobleman who had slept under the palace- roof of Versailles, yet Hoosier hospitality gave of its best, then as today. News of the famous visitor spread like wildfire through the sparsely settled region, and sunrise after the storm found gathering a small but patriotic assemblage of farmers, their wives and chil- dren, many of whom had traveled miles on foot, over night, merely to touch the hand of him who had con- tributed so much toward our independent existence.
Among these was a ten-year-old lad who had walked with his parents from their home at Tobin's Point, Robert Tobin, son of Thomas and Sarah (Polk) Tobin. Fifty years later this boy had become a man of recognized mark and character in the community, representing Perry and Spencer Counties as joint Sen- ator in the Legislatures of 1875 and 1877. The power- ful impression made by Lafayette upon his childish mind, with other circumstantial details of the event, were cherished into old age by an accurate, retentive memory, and to his interesting personal recollections appreciative credit is here gratefully rendered, all his statements having been fully verified upon further re- search among contemporary authorities.
Troy's oft repeated claim that the wreck occurred there has been traced to the incident of the Mechan- ic's hull having become displaced during the flood of
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1832, when it floated farther down the river, lodging a short distance above Troy, where it was visible for many years in its slow process of decay. Into this slight web of fact many threads of fancy were woven in after years by imaginative story-tellers, embellished by particulars wholly impossible to authenticate.
Very near to the Cavender cabin a never-failing spring issues from a cleft between two towering rocks, shaded then by an elm tree of primeval growth which endured into the present century. Here the courtly General received his rustic visitors. The same easy dignity of manner which had allowed him to be called the most polished gentleman in France, everywhere won for him all hearts, so his memory is kept alive and his name perpetuated in more than a few Perry County families, some of whose members were among the little throng who flocked about him in the sunshine of that spring morning.
The forenoon was spent in informal conversation, with many jests as to the discomforts of the preceding night, when only Lafayette and Governor Carroll had had the accommodation of a bed, and the boat's crew had of necessity camped out of doors, although this last was but an inconsiderable evil in the balmy May- time of Southern Indiana.
Near mid-day the smoke of a descending steamer was descried, which upon approach proved to be the Paragon, bound for Memphis. Being hailed and ac- quainted with the circumstances of the accident, how- ever, the captain at once agreed to return to Louisville with Lafayette and his party, all of whom parted from their kindly entertainers with genuine regret. The Paragon's fuel supply was to have been replenished at the Troy wood-yards, so it became necessary to land again only a few miles above Rock Island to procure wood, whereupon all the citizens within call lent cheer- ful aid to the steamer's crew, to expedite-in ever so humble a way-the General's interrupted journey.
At two o'clock the following afternoon, Wednesday,
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May 11, 1825, the boat reached Portland (Louisville) where it was met at the shore by a military escort comprising the flower of the Corncracker State, and in the evening a grand ball was given to nearly four hundred guests. Among these not the least conspicu- ous was Governor James Brown Ray, of Indiana, prob- ably the most eccentric man ever elected to the highest office in the state. He was very vain, always seeking in both dress and manner to attract wondering atten- tion, fond of impressing everybody with a sense of his singular ability and lofty position. In public places he habitually registered his name "J. Brown Ray, Gov- ernor of Indiana" as if signing an official document, so it is safe to believe that when accompanied by his full staff at the ball in Louisville's Washington Hall, he was not the least spectacular feature of the oc- casion.
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