USA > Indiana > Pioneer history of Indiana : including stories, incidents, and customs of the early settlers > Part 40
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They attempted to get their guns, but before they suc- ceeded, the old bear knocked one of them down. The other got his gun, but it was empty, and rushing at the bear that was fighting his brother, he struck it on the head with the gun barrel. The bear knocked the gun out of his hands with such force that it broke his arm. The other brother, though badly wounded, got his gun and attempted to shoot the bear in the head as it was biting his brother, but his aim was so bad that he only slightly wounded it, and it then turned on him and knocked him down, biting his legs in a fearful man- ner. The boy with the broken arm stabbed the bear many times with his hunting knife and finally hurt it fatally. It started, however, to follow its two cubs, but had gone only about a hundred yards when it laid down and died. The young men were found by the Major and taken to camp and then to his cabin, where they were for several months before they were able to be out. This experience satisfied them and cured their roving dispositions and they returned to their Pennsylvania homes.
In 1812 the Indians were very bad and everybody had to live in forts. The one which was in the neighborhood where Major Sprinkles lived had a number of families in it, consisting of the Hayes, Lynns, Sprinkles, Alexanders, Darbys, Frames, Wests and Roberts-in all, more than thirty-five persons. It was not regarded as safe for any to live outside of the forts during that year from the first of June to the last of No- vember.
There was a young girl who lived with one of these families who was expecting a sister from central Tennessee. She was very uneasy about her, fearing she had been cap- tured by the Indians. Late one evening, just before dusk, a whining, piteous cry was heard, which did not seem like the scream of the panther, as it was continuous. This girl heard the noise and declared it was the cry of her sister, and nothing could stop her from going out to it. Before the men
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in the fort realized her intentions, she was running in the di- rection of the noise. Three of the men got their rifles and hurried after her. They were uncertain what it was, think- ing it might be the ruse of the Indians trying to imitate the cry of a woman or child to draw some of the people into an ambush. The men had gone nearly a quarter of a mile when they heard the most terrible scream of a panther mingled with the outcry of the unfortunate girl. Hurrying as fast as they could, when they located the scream, they were very cautious in their advance. Coming to an open space, they saw several animals which were biting and scratching at the body of the girl they had killed. The men killed the old panther and two of the young ones that she, no doubt, was trying to teach to scream, which was the cause of the peculiar noise they heard. After she had killed the girl, she was teaching the young ones how to attack their prey, and she would bound onto the prostrate form and bite and scratch it. The kittens would go through the same motions, and thus had torn her to pieces.
In 1816 Major Sprinkles laid out the town of Sprinkles- burg, which is now known as Newburg, Warrick County, Indiana.
HUNTING DEER.
The deer were so plentiful that they were to be seen every little distance in passing through the forest, sometimes in large droves. The reason they were not exterminated sooner by the hunters in the rush to secure their hams and hides, as were the buffaloes on the open plains of the north- west, was that the greater portion of Indiana was a dense wilderness, having many thickets of underbrush so dense that they could safely hide in them. There was great skill in hunting them. Some would kill three deer to his neighbor's one, who hunted equally as faithfully.
Early in the twenties Andrew McGregory moved to the neighborhood of what is now Somerville, Indiana. The next year the two oldest boys, George and John, put in all their time hunting. That winter they sold enough venison hams to come to $75.00. The hams at that time were worth only
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twenty-five cents a pair. They entered forty acres of land and had enough to purchase their ammunition, salt and other indispensable supplies for the family.
The next year George, the oldest son, killed deer, caught coons and paid for eighty acres of land, for which he was nicknamed "George, the Deer Killer." The father of these boys was from Ireland, coming to this country after he was sixty years old. The old gentleman could never become used to the many strange things he found on every hand.
After his son John had a family, the father, who lived to be nearly a hundred years old, made his home there. He was a very industrious man and wanted to be at work all the time. When there was nothing else to do he would wander through the surrounding forest looking at the many strange things so different from his old home in the north of Ireland. In his wanderings one day he saw a hornets' nest hanging to the under side of an elm limb some twenty feet from the ground. The old man thought it was a jug and made up his mind that he would have it. Relating the experience himself, he said: "Now, just look there-see what strange kind of peo- ple we have in this country, go and hang a jug way up in a tree. Maybe it has a nip of the creature in it; I will see." Pulling off his shoes, he climbed the tree like a squirrel, and when he got out on the limb over the nest and was reaching under to get the jug, the hornets swarmed out and stung him fearfully. The old man let all holds go and fell to the ground, which came near killing him. Dinner time came and the old man had not yet returned. His son, becoming uneasy at his absence, started out to find him. After a long hunt he found him near where he had fallen, sitting against a log with his shoes off and badly battered. His son, on coming up, said, "Father, what in the world is the matter?" The father said, "John, this is a fine country. Just see that fine jug hanging up there! John, I saw it and I thought it such a pretty jug and that it might have a wee drop in it, I climbed up to get it, and while reaching under the limb I pulled the cork out and a lot of nasty little varmints bit me all over my hands and face and knocked me off the limb.
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Here, John, is your old dad, all battered and bruised. Just think what a mean country this is-some joking fellow to play such an impish trick on a poor old Irishman!"
All hunters at this time had dogs, usually of the cur breed. When on hunting trips the dogs would go with their masters and were used to slow-track the game, but never made any outcry and would only go as fast as the hunter when slow-tracking. In this way they were very useful, and often, in a bear fight, indispensable.
About eighty years ago a man named Grigsby was re- turning from a hunt to his home in the northeast part of Spencer County. The pigeons were settling on their roosts on the low scrubby ridge oak timber, the acorns of which was their food. As he was passing along he heard, a little way off, pigeons, rising and flying and the timber crashing, their weight causing large limbs to break off, and sometimes tree tops. As Grigsby got nearer the noise, he heard the whining cry of some animal. Going quietly up, he saw an old bear and a cub which seemed to be trying to move a heavy limb that had fallen. He shot at the bear, but only hit her in the top of the shoulder, not disabling her. Before he could re- load, she came rushing at him. His dog caught the bear by the hind leg, but only stopped her for a moment, and then she came at the hunter with all the fury that a wounded bear could. The hunter clubbed his gun and there was a battle royal for some time, the dog doing his best to help his master in the fight.
Finally the bear knocked the dog down and attempted to catch him by the throat with her mouth, when the hunter thrust his hunting knife into her heart.
Jacob Zenor, an early settler in Harrison County, went to watch a lick for a deer in the early part of the night, leaving his two large cur dogs at home. Selecting a location in a thick cluster of saplings a short distance from a bushy beech tree, he took his stand to watch. He had been there but a short time when a panther sprang from the place where it was watching the lick in the beech, intending to light on the hunter, but the saplings were so thick that its body was
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stopped before reaching the hunter. At that instant his two dogs came up, having followed his tracks. They rushed at the panther, which sprang back into the beech tree, and was killed by Mr. Zenor. Had it not been for his two faithful dogs, the hunter would have been torn to pieces.
CHAPTER XX.
FLAT-BOATING.
After produce of any amount was raised in this country it was sold to produce merchants, who took it to New Orleans on flat-boats.
To make one of these boats was quite an undertaking. The first thing to do was to procure two gunwales. They were usually made out of large poplar trees and were from sixty to eighty feet in length. A fine large, straight tree was selected, and after it was cut down, two faces of it were hewn, leaving it about twenty-four inches thick. Then it was turned down on large logs and split in halves, hewn down to from twelve to fifteen inches in thickness, thus making both the gunwales out of one tree. The two ends were sloped from six to eight feet, so that when the bottom was on, it had a boat shape, that would run much faster in the water. The gunwales were then hauled to the boatyard and placed on rollers. The distance apart which was wanted for the width of the boat was usually from fourteen to sixteen feet. Strong sills or girders were framed into the gunwales every eight or ten feet and securely fastened there by strong pins. Small girders or sleepers, to receive the bottom of the boat, were pinned into the cross sills or girders every eighteen inches and even with the bottom of the gunwales. The bot- tom was made of one and a half inch lumber, the length to reach from outside to outside of the gunwales, where it was securely nailed and then calked. The old Indiana flat-boat builders used hemp for calking, driving it into the cracks be- tween the edges of the planks with a calking chisel made for the purpose. When this was done, another bottom of inch
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lumber was made over this that held the calking in place and made the bottom stronger. When the bottom was finished, it was ready for launching. This was done by having large auger holes in the round logs the bottom rested on and turn- ing them with handspikes. The ground was always sloping toward the river and it did not require much turning until the- logs would roll down the slope and carry the boat into the water. The boat, having been made bottom-upward, had to be turned. A large amount of mud and dirt was piled on the edge of the bottom, which was intended to sink it. Then a check line was fastened to the farthest edge and near the middle the line was carried over a large limb or the fork of a tree and two or three yoke of oxen hitched to it. When everything was ready, the boat was turned right side up. It was then full of water, which had to be baled out. The up- per framework for the body of the boat was made very se- curely and well braced and the siding was nailed on. Strong joists were put on top of the framework from side to side to hold the decking. A center girder ran lengthwise of the boat and this rested on a post every six or eight feet. This girder was a little higher than the outer walls, so that the water would run off the deck. A strong post was fastened in a framework made on the false bottom which came up through the decking about three feet near each end of the boat. Holes were bored in these check posts, so that it could be turned around with long wooden spikes. The check rope was securely fastened to these posts and one end of it was carried to the bank and fastened. By using the spikes the check post would take up the slack and the boat could be se- curely landed as near the bank as wanted. There were three long oars, the steering oar had a wide blade on the end and was fastened to a post near the back of the boat. This oar was used as a rudder in guiding the direction of the boat. The other two oars were used as sweeps to propel the boat and to pull her out of eddies. This crudely fashioned boat would carry a large amount of produce. The pork was us- ually packed in the boat in bulk; flour, wheat and corn were stored on raised floors so as to keep them dry. On small
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rivers when the water was at floodtide, two hundred thou- sand pounds of pork, one thousand bushels of corn and many other articles of produce would be carried.
The pioneers made their location where there was plenty of good spring water, but at a later date they had two ob- jects in selecting their homes: First, to be near a mill or a place where there was a good mill-site; second, to be not far from a river where a flat-boat could be loaded with produce .. The money paid for the produce to load the boats brought: great prosperity to the country, On the lower Mississippi, where the great sugar plantations were, there was a great demand for this provision. A boat would tie to the bank near one of these immense plantations and would sell the owner a half boat-load of meat, corn and flour.
It took one of these boats a month to run out of the Wabash down to New Orleans. They would sell their load of produce and then sell the boat. These old boatmen were a jolly, generous, light-hearted set of men, and would often lash their boats together and float for several days and nights in that way on the lower Mississippi. 1
This description does not apply to the Pittsburg flat-boat men or those from the upper Ohio, running coal barges down the river. These were, in many instances, a lot of despera- does.
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CHAPTER XXI.
GENERAL JOSEPH LANE-A SHORT BIOGRAPHY-LETTERS.
General Lane contributed his full share to the military glory which has been won by Indiana soldiers. He was born in North Carolina in 1801 and removed with his father to Henderson, Kentucky, when he was six years old. Here he remained for several years, helping his father. In 1818 he, with his father, moved to Vanderburg County, Indiana. They settled on a farm up the Ohio river not far from the town of Newburg. Young Joseph was hired by Judge Glass to take charge of a store for him at Rockport, Indiana. He was a very popular young man and made friends with every one. He had a very kind, genial disposition, and understood the rules of business very well for that day. After remaining there for a while he purchased a keel-boat and cut cordwood, which he loaded into the boat and sold to steamboats. The passing boat would take his keel-boat in tow and haul it up or down the river until all the wood that was wanted was taken off and then the boat was cast loose and rowed to. where he wanted it anchored.
He engaged extensively in farming, stock raising and stock buying. His produce he sold in lower Mississippi and in New Orleans, carrying it there by flat-boats, of which he ran a great many out of the Ohio river. He carried on farming and stock dealing until the Mexican war. He, with others, raised the Second Indiana Regiment. The regiment was placed in a division commanded by General Zachary Taylor and went with that division to Mexico and was there engaged in several battles of the Mexican war.
For gallantry and meritorious conduct he was made a.
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brigadier-general. After the war he was appointed Governor of Oregon. From that state he was elected United States Senator. He was also a candidate for the Vice-Presidency on the Breckinridge ticket in 1860. He died at Roseburg, Ore- gon, in 1881.
Three letters are here introduced from General Lane which will be of interest, it is thought:
ROSEBURG, OREGON,
May 15, 1878.
COL. W. M. COCKRUM, Oakland City, Ind.
DEAR SIR: I don't remember of ever having seen you, as you must have been a very small boy the last of the thirties and up to 1842, the last time I visited your father at his Eastern Gibson County home.
After the war with Mexico I was never in Indiana except short periods at a time. As I read the Indiana papers, I know of you and that you won an honorable title in the war of 1861 and '65. Your father and I were friends-yes, real chums. I recall so many things of his life and worth that it affords me real pleasure to thus bear testimony to his noble manhood and integrity. Many times we have run side by side with our flat-boats lashed together, in the lower Mississippi, for days at a time, having a real, old-fashioned social visit. We were not of the same political faith, but I don't know that politics were ever mentioned when we were together. I was on the boat at the time you ask about. The cause of the contention was about a bill due the boat for freight from New Orleans for the Davis plantation. As I now recall, it was owned by two brothers, Joseph and the Honorable Jefferson Davis. The man who caused all the trouble was a hot-headed manager of the planta- tion for the Davis brothers.
There was a wood-yard on the plantation and your father's boat, the Otsego, had taken on wood, and when the bill was presented the clerk for pay- ment, the freight bill was given in part payment. This manager was a very important fellow. He raved like a maniac, saying that it was an insult to
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thus force collection for any of their bills and he intended to see that the boat did not loose her cable or raise her stage until the bill was paid in full and they would pay the freight bill at their pleasure.
About this time your father, who was captain of the boat, ordered the mate to loose the cable and raise the stage. The fool manager was rushing up and down along the side of the boat and on the stage with a Daringer pistol in his hand, ordering his wood-yard slaves not to allow the men to loose the cable. The Colonel came running down to the lower deck with a monstrous gun in his hand, and leveling it at the threatening fellow, ordered him to put up his weapon and leave the gangway, which, after looking into that gun, he concluded to do. All the history of myself that would be of importance to the general public is easily secured by you and you can use such of it as will be in line with your work. The other questions you asked about, I will answer in the near future.
Very truly yours, JOSEPH LANE.
ROSEBURG, OREGON, June 21, 1878.
COL. W. M. COCKRUM,
Oakland City, Ind.
DEAR SIR: The first time I was ever on the site of where the city of Evansville now stands, was in 1815. Col. Hugh McGary lived there in what was called a faced camp. Soon after this he built a hewed log house, which was a very good one for that day. The Colonel was a very gen- erous man and his latch-string hung on the outside at all times for everybody.
I spent hours going over with him what he was pleased to call a fine town-site. At that time the evidence of there having been a large Indian town at that place was very plain. The ground on which the tepees stood was plainly marked. At Sprinklesburg, now known as Newburg, there had been another Indian town. The Shawnee Indians, who were under Chief Seeteedown, had a scattering town farther up the river. The western end was
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just above the Newcome coal mines and there were wigwams over a considerable territory up and back from the river.
There was no cause, except treachery, which all Indians were full of, for the Shawnee Indians murdering Althea Meeks. He was a very harm- less man. It was always believed by those in a po- sition to know that the murder was done by a few discontented members of that band, aiming to re- move all trace of that family. At the time Chief Seeteedown heard of the murder he had a large herd of cattle and horses on the range about where Boonville now stands, which were all left in their hurry to get away.
A runner was sent up the river to a keel-boat crew for help and they volunteered to a man. Bailey Anderson organized a posse and Ratcliffe Boone was put in command of both detachments. The Indians were encumbered with their women and children and could not make the speed the well-mounted soldiers could, and it was generally believed that but few of them ever lived to cross White river. There was always an undertalk that Boone did a good deed and the country was well rid of the lazy vagrants. For months after the hasty retreat of the Indians, horses and cattle were found near old Seeteedown's home. On the return of the soldiers all the cattle and horses that they could round up were gathered and thirty-five head of cattle and ten ponies were given to the widow of Althea Meeks.
Very truly yours, JOSEPH LANE.
ROSEBURG, OREGON, June 27, 1878.
COL. W. M. COCKRUM, Oakland City, Ind.
DEAR SIR: The adventure you asked me about that had been told you by your father was one of many which I told him, and I yet remember many of a like character which he related to me during our long acquaintance.
At an early day -I think it was in -1817 - I, with several other young men, took a contract to
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raft several hundred logs down the Ohio to Mr. Audubon, who afterward became the great ornith- ologist. He had a steam sawmill at Henderson, Kentucky. It was said that this mill was one among many other failures that put him out of a business life, and he turned his attention to the branch of science and literature in which he after- ward became so famous.
We had landed a fine raft of poplar logs near the mill. Dinner time came on before the logs were measured. We all left the mill-went up to a little boarding shanty to get our dinners. Mr. Audubon was to measure the logs when he returned from dinner. As he came back and got near the mill, two large black bears and a small one ran out of the mill and into a clump of bushes nearby. The engineer started the mill up. The saw was of the old sash frame kind, making its strokes up and down, governed by the gear attachment to a large wheel. When the men got ready to commence sawing, they discovered that a young bear was un- der the carriage with its head fast in a pot, which was much smaller at the top than in the middle. This old dinner pot had grease in it to grease the machinery. The bear got its head in the pot by crowding and could not get it out. One of the men attempted to catch it by its leg, when it set up a screaming, strangling noise. In a minute here came the two old bears, full of fight at the men in the mill. They first passed near the engineer, when he struck out for a safe place. All of the employes made it convenient to get out of danger. I recollect yet that I climbed up a center post to a cross-beam, which was ten or twelve feet from the floor. The bears had the mill all to themselves. They tried to get the young bear away, would roll it and try to make it go, without much success. The engine and saw were running, the sash going up and down as when sawing. In their efforts to get the cub away, the larger bear was rubbed by the sash. As soon as it touched him he turned around and threw his arms around the sash and the frame it ran in, and such a pounding as that bear got! He kept his hold until almost exhausted, fell down near the saw blade, when the back of the saw was
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rubbing against his shoulder. He got up and made a grab for it, as if intending to hug the saw. In less than a minute his life was sawed out of him. The old mother was frantic in her efforts to release the little cub, pushing it and trying to get it out of the mill. Finally she pushed it off the platform where the logs were put when being brought in to saw. The bear fell three of four feet onto a pile of logs and broke the pot. The little fellow jumped up and ran off with the top rim of the kettle around its neck.
Mr. Audubon was a very just man. In measur- ing our raft, he was very careful to see that every inch in it was given us. The sawmill venture was a failure, but he paid every farthing which was due and then commenced his lifework which was so successful. If it had not been for his failure in that sawmill, the world might have been poorer by not having the many works of the great naturalist.
Very truly yours,
JOSEPH LANE.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE STATE BANK AND OTHER INTERESTING MATTER-COUN- TIES ORGANIZED - MICHIGAN'S ATTEMPTED THEFT - SPEECH OF HON. ISAAC MONTGOMERY-LAND SHARKS- LAND SPECULATORS-BRAVE WOMEN.
In 1828 the following counties were organized: Hancock County, containing 308 square miles. Warren County, containing 360 square miles.
Carrol County, containing 376 square miles.
Cass County was formed in 1829, containing 420 square miles.
The following counties were organized in 1830: Boone County, containing 408 square miles.
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