USA > Indiana > Carroll County > Recollections of the early settlement of Carroll County, Indiana > Part 12
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Since December, 1859, I have resided at Stockwell, being one of six proprietors who are attempting to build an academic village there. From that retirement my fellow-citizens of the Eighth District called me
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to serve another term in Congress, a duty which I assumed with great diffidence, and, in common with my sober and patriotic countrymen who are still loyal to the Union, pray that Providence may evolve light from the surrounding darkness, and save our country alike from the desolation of anarchy and the withering em- brace of tyranny. It may be that we are to be co- workers with destiny to purge our institutions of all antagonistic elements, and that this desolating Civil War will be school-master to those sections which are at once the cause and the chief sufferers in this ruin, persuading them voluntarily to inaugurate such a change in their system as will make us a homogeneous nation- a result, which if it requires three generations to ac- complish, posterity will arise and call them and us blessed.
I was married in January, 1843, to Harriet, daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph, of Virginia, and hope that my children may never see a divided Union, or be un- able to look with equal pride and affection upon both Virginia and New York.
Most truly, your friend, ALB. S. WHITE.
15
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CHAPTER XIII.
BIOGRAPHY.
GENERAL SAMUEL MILROY.
0 NE among the early and most prominent of the pioneers of the territory, out of which Carroll County was organized, was General Samuel Milroy, who was born August 14, 1780, in Kishakoquillas Valley, in Mifflin County, in the state of Pennsylvania. His grandfather, John M'Elroy, was the Earl of Annandale, in Scotland, a lineal descendant of Robert Bruce. He engaged heart and soul in the attempted revolution in Scotland, in 1744, in which Charles Stuart, the last heir to the throne of Scotland, sought to regain the kingdom of his ancestors from the English, but was terribly defeated by the Duke of Cumberland, at the battle of Culloden. His followers were proscribed and pursued without mercy. John M'Elroy, with his young wife, escaped to Ireland, and changed his name to Milroy, and, after a few years, emigrated to the Ameri- can Colonies, and settled near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and became a prosperous farmer. He had a family of two boys and three girls, and afterward was, with his eldest son, killed by the Indians. Henry, the surviving son, after arriving at maturity, married, and settled in Kishakoquillas Valley, Mifflin County. He had a family of four boys and two girls. Samuel, the subject of this sketch, was the third son, and when eleven years old, his father died. He was soon afterward ap- prenticed to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner. After the completion of his apprenticeship, in 1800,
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he set out the next year, in company with his elder brother John, to seek their fortunes. They came north- west to Lake Erie, where, by an act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, land was to be donated to actual set- tlers, upon certain conditions. They located upon a claim of four hundred acres, near where the city of Erie now stands. After working on and improving their claim three years, keeping " bachelor's hall," and undergoing much hardship and privation, on account of the newness of the country, by some kind of legis- lation and skulduggery among speculators, they lost their claim, which was taken from them, with all their labor and improvement.
After the loss of their land, in 1803, Samuel re- turned to Mifflin County. The same year he married Frances Alexander, and settled in Center County, Penn- sylvania, following his trade until 1806, in which year his wife died, leaving two children, a daughter and a son. The daughter was the first wife of John Adams, who built the " Adams Mill," in Wild-cat, in this county. The son was Henry Bruce Milroy, who was the first sheriff of Carroll County, and well known to all our old citizens.
Soon after the death of his wife, Samuel left his two. children in the care of his mother, and again set out with his brother John, to try their fortunes in the great West-then an almost unbroken wilderness. They came across the Alleghany Mountains on foot, carrying their knapsacks to Pittsburg-then a small town with a few hundred inhabitants, besides the soldiers in the fort. From Pittsburg, they descended the Ohio River on a flat-boat, partly paying and partly working their passage to Cincinnati-then a trading-post, probably as large as Camden, in this county. They remained in Cincinnati a few weeks, to recruit their finances. Sam- uel obtained work at his trade, and was very successful;
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but John tried in vain to procure employment at his business, that of surveyor; and having previously ac- quired expensive habits, in an attempt to play merchant for a year or two, and also having served as lieutenant, for a few years, in the idle standing army of the elder Adams, which was disbanded by the Administration of Jefferson, he proved rather an unprofitable companion to Samuel, whose earnings were spent nearly as fast as received, to relieve John from difficulties and prosecutions.
They left Cincinnati, with the intention of going to St. Louis, to which point they had intended directing their steps from the time of leaving Pennsylvania. The country through Indiana Territory being almost uninhabited, except in places along the Ohio River and on the Lower Wabash, they crossed over into Ken- tueky, and traveled by land down the Ohio River, in- tending to reeross again somewhere below Louisville, and thenee, by way of Vincennes, to St. Louis. But when opposite Bardstown, in Nelson County, Ken- tucky, in which county a large number of their old neighbors, acquaintances, and some relatives from Pennsylvania resided, John wished to turn south and go to Bardstown, about twenty-five miles distant, and enjoy themselves among their old friends and rela- tives awhile, and argued that perhaps they could get into some good business; but Samuel insisted on pro- ceeding to St. Louis. Upon examining into their finanees, they found that they had but one dollar between them. John argued that this was insufficient to go on with, but Samuel, although strongly tempted to drop in among their old acquaintances for a while, urged that it would be best to push on to St. Louis, relying upon the known hospitality of the early settlers, and his ability to earn money by a few days' work, to help them through; and when once there he felt certain
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that they could each get into a lucrative business that would enable them to visit friends in much better style than they were then able to. This argument took place at the forks of a road ; one fork running south to Bardstown, and the other running west, down the Ohio. John, being a little inclined to superstition, pro- posed that they should decide the matter by setting up a stick, and which ever way it fell, that that would be the way to proceed. Samuel, not being very strenuous, consented to this. John accordingly balanced his walking stick on its end very nicely, and let it fall, when lo! it fell to the south. So they proceeded to Nel- son County, and found plenty of warm friends; and both went to work, Samuel at his trade, and Jobn to surveying; and after surveying about a year, he was married to Miss Isabella Huston, by whom he had ten children, the eldest of whom, Dr. Henry A. Milroy, re- sided for some years in Delphi, and will be remem- bered by many of our citizens.
Samuel, after working at his trade for some months, still had dreams of making a fortune in St. Louis, and in the Fall of 1807, in company with George Wilson, a distant relative, of the same trade with himself, traveled on foot, by way of Vincennes, to St. Louis, where they worked at their trade very successfully for about ten months, when both were taken down with bilious fever, from which Samuel recovered after an illness of about six weeks, and Wilson about the same time. As soon as they were sufficiently able to travel, they set out on their return to Nelson County, Kentucky. They struck the Ohio River at Evansville, and were there offered wages as hands on a keel-boat (the only kind of a boat in those days, besides a pirogue and canoe, that could be taken up stream), loaded with goods for Louisville. They accepted the offer, and on
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the way up, an incident occurred that proved the sin- cerity of Wilson's friendship.
While passing a large drift, one day, Samuel, being on the side next the drift, saw a log sticking out at the upper edge, and supposing from its appearance it was solid and stationary, placed the end of his setting-pole on it, and threw his weight on the pole for the purpose of propelling the boat; but the log suddenly turned, and he went into the river head foremost, and sunk down. All the men on board of the boat were greatly alarmed. Wilson rushed to the place where his friend had gone down, and plunged in after him without a moment's hesitation, knowing that he could not swim. Samuel kept his presence of mind as he was going down, and thought it would be best to let himself go down to the bottom without resistance, and that he could then by a vigorous spring send himself to the surface ; but finding the water very deep, and that he did not reach the bottom after sinking some fifteen or twenty feet, he commenced working for the surface, and, upon reaching it, Wilson came to the rescue. He called to the men on the boat to throw out a rope to him, which was done, and they seized hold of it when within a foot or two of the upper edge of the drift, under which the water was sweeping with a strong current. They were taken on board just in time to save their lives.
Upon his arrival in Nelson County, he again re- sumed his trade with his usual energy, and in 1809 pur- chased a tract of land, and commenced improving it. In 1810, he married Miss Martha Huston, a young sister of his brother John's wife, by whom he had ten children, seven sons and three daughters. Three of the boys died young. The eldest, Colonel Robert H. Milroy, after having served a campaign in Mexico, and having been a member from this county of the Consti-
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tutional Convention of 1850, and after having served a few months as president judge of this judicial circuit, finally located at Rensselaer, Jasper County, engaged in the practice of the law. In April, 1861, Colonel Milroy raised a company at the call of President Lin- coln, and was one of the first to reach Indianapolis. Upon the election of officers, he was elected colonel of the Ninth Regiment. Naturally a military man, and brave as a lion, he gave a good account of himself.
John B. Milroy, the second son, resided in Carroll County. He has served one year as representative to the State Legislature, and one term as county auditor.
Samuel, the third son, remained on the old home- place, and James resided at Galveston, in Cass County.
The eldest daughter became the wife of Mr. Valen- tine Coble, and resided in Adams Township, in this county. The second daughter was the wife of Dr. Samuel Grimes, of Delphi, and died in 1850. The third daughter is the wife of Dr. E. W. H. Berk, of Delphi.
But to return. In September of the year 1812, the Indians attacked and destroyed a settlement in Scott County, Indiana Territory, killing three men, five women, and sixteen children. The news of the massa- cre spread through the territory, and into the state of Kentucky, creating intense excitement. Mounted vol- unteer companies were hastily raised in several of the border counties of Kentucky. Samuel Milroy raised one of these companies in Nelson County, and reached the scene of the massacre with his company, near a hundred miles distant, in just four days after its oc- currence. The other volunteer companies that arrived from Kentucky, swelled the number of volunteers from that state to about three hundred and fifty men, which, with the militia companies of the surrounding counties, constituted a little army of near five hundred men. They found the ruins of the houses still smoking, and
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the bloody, mangled corpses of the victims scattered in ghastly array around them, some of them partly burned. These sights created feelings-of the most intense desire for revenge upon the bloody monsters who had perpe- trated the horrid deed. A council of war was called, to determine what to do. There were several colonels and majors present, all wishing to be commanders-in- chief, several of them claiming it by virtue of rank, so that the council finally broke up in a row, and the companies separated. Some of them disbanded, and some of them returned home at once. Captain Milroy, with what volunteers he could raise, determined to fol- low the Indians. They accordingly set out on the trail and followed it several days ; but a fall of snow covering the foot-prints, they were compelled to give up the pursuit. After ranging the woods for some time, in hope of finding the trail, made after the fall of the snow, their provisions giving out, they reluctantly returned. During this scout, he had a good oppor- tunity for observing the country, and formed a very favorable opinion of a portion of Washington County. After his return home, he continued the improvement of his farm, and built a horse-mill; but becoming dis- gusted with the institution of slavery, he determined to emigrate to Indiana Territory, from which slavery was excluded by the Ordinance of 1787. He effected a sale of his property in Kentucky in 1814, and in the Fall of that year, in company with his youngest brother, James, then unmarried, and a blacksmith by trade, came out to Washington County, and purchased a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land in partnership, on a branch of Blue River, about five miles east of Sa- lem. They built a house, and made some improve- ment, and in the Spring of 1815, he (Samuel) removed his family to their new home. They went to work with great energy to clear off the heavy forest and make a
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farm. They erected a blacksmith-shop, and afterward a grist-mill, on the creek that ran through the land.
On the 19th day of April, 1816, the Congress of the United States passed an act to enable the people of In- diana Territory to form a Constitution and State Gov- ernment. This act required an election to be held in the several counties of the territory, on the second Monday of the following May, for delegates to a Constitutional Convention. Samuel Milroy was elected one of the delegates from Washington County. The Convention met at Corydon, Harrison County, the old seat of Gov- ernment, on the 10th day of June, in the same year, and finished their work in nineteen days, and adjourned on the 29th of June. By reference to pages 557 and 558 of " Dillon's History of Indiana," it will be seen that Milroy was a member of three of the most important committees of the Convention-the Committee on the Legislative Department of Government, the Committee on the Judicial Department, and the Committee on Prisons.
The election for members of the first Legislature under the Constitution was held on the first Monday of August, 1816. At this election, Samuel Milroy was elected one of the representatives from Washington County. This Legislature met at Corydon, on the first Monday of December of the same year, which was the day of the meeting of the Legislature under the old Constitution.
He was commissioned a major by Governor Posey, in 1816; a colonel by Governor Jennings, in 1817; and a brigadier-general by the same governor, in 1819.
He was re-elected a member of the Legislature from Washington County for nine years successively, and was speaker of the House at the session of 1821. His name was on the Jackson electoral ticket of this State in 1824, and the author, when a boy, remembers being
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present in the. old stone court-house, in Corydon, and witnessing the casting of the five electoral votes of In- diana for "Old Hickory." He continued a warm sup- porter, admirer, and friend of General Jackson while he lived. In the Winter of 1824-5, he built a large flat-boat on the Muscatatuck, a branch of White River, which forms the boundary between Washington and Jackson Counties, and loaded the same with staves for the New Orleans market. In the Spring, when the waters were high, he successfully ran his boat down the Muscatatuck, White River, Wabash, Ohio, and Mis- sissippi, to New Orleans. The experiment was a new one, and had never been tried before from that part of the State, but it opened a new branch of commerce that numbers profited by afterward.
He sold his farm in Washington County in the be- ginning of 1826, and in the Spring of that year, in company with his son, Henry Bruce, he came out to the Wabash; and after looking over the country, then new and mostly uninhabited, he finally located, and en- tered eighty acres on Deer Creek, one mile above where Delphi now stands, and adjoining the old homestead. After renting a piece of land of Mr. Page, on Wild-cat Prairie (near where the town of Dayton, in Tippe- canoe County, now stands), the nearest point where farming land could be rented, and planting it in corn, he commenced improving his land, which was heavily timbered. Having erected a temporary shanty, in which to cook and lodge, they cleared and fenced ten acres of land, and planted it mostly in potatoes and turnips, which proved a wise and fortunate provision for the family, the next Winter. Through the Summer of 1826, they cultivated their corn, on Wild-cat Prairie, and cut and hewed house-logs, and made clap-boards for a dwelling-house, which they "raised " with some difficulty, with the assistance of all the settlers within
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ten miles, about a dozen in all. After the house was raised and covered, they returned to Washington County, and removed the family out here about the 1st of October, 1826.
Having been appointed one of the commissioners to locate the county-seat of Tippecanoe County, he met with the other commissioners, and attended to that duty by locating the seat of justice at Lafayette. This he did while his family were on their way. After ar- riving at home, with his family, in the woods, he determined to have ground cleared, and a sufficient quantity of wheat sown to furnish bread the ensuing year. Considering the lateness of the season, the density and heavy growth of the forest; corn to be hauled from Wild-cat Prairie, where it had to be gathered ; doors and windows to be cut out, and a door to be made; puncheons to be hewed out; floor laid ; house to be chinked and daubed ; fire-place to be cut out, and chimney built, etc., etc.,-this seemed a gigantic undertaking. But he went at it with his indomitable energy, and working all day and by the light of burn- ing brush-heaps at night, and being remarkably favored that season with fine weather, which was so warm that the ground was not frozen before Christmas, he suc- ceeded in clearing and fencing six acres. He com- menced breaking up, harrowing, and sowing, about the 18th of December, and continued until Christmas morning, at which time he found the ground was frozen too hard for plowing. He had succeeded in putting in four acres, which produced about fifty bushels of wheat the next year. As soon as seeding was suspended by the cold weather, the general, with his whole disposable force-consisting of his sons, Bruce, then about twenty- one years of age ; Robert, about ten ; John, about six ; a young hired hand by the name of Samuel Thompson, who resides in this county, on Rock Creek-commenced
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clearing his land, in the Deer Creek bottom. By the last of May, he had succeeded in getting twenty acres grubbed, cleared, rolled, and burned, rails made, fenced, broken up, and planted. He thus, in a few years, sur- rounded his family with comfort. In the Fall of 1827, a petition to the Legislature was circulated among the inhabitants of the territory, now composing the county of Carroll, asking the organization of a new county out of said territory. General Milroy proceeded to Indianapolis with this petition, at the session of 1827-8. He appeared before the committee to whom the peti- tion was referred, and suggested the present boundaries of the county, and the name. He was requested by the committee to draw up a bill, which he did. The original draft of the same is still among his old papers. Having a personal acquaintance with the commissioners appointed to locate the county-seat of Carroll County, they were the guests of the general most of the time they were engaged in making the location. A number of points were offered, and urged as good locations by their respective owners, but principally through the influence and management of General M., the present site (Delphi) was selected. It was the site he had picked out for a county-seat when he first came to the county. It was more particularly his influence and skillful management that procured the liberal donation of one hundred acres for the county-seat from William Wilson.
The name "Delphi"* was suggested to the commis- sioners by General M. One day, when they were
* The following short abstract of the leading incidents in the early history of ancient Delphi, will, we believe, possess consider- able attractions for the people of this community.
The original Delphi was a small but important city of Phocis in Greece, situated on the southern slope of Mount Parnassus, and built in the form of an amphitheater. It. is said to have had a circuit of sixteen stadia. Some say it was not walled, according
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1
discussing what name should be given to the new county-seat, he handed them a slip of paper, on which several names were written, Delphi among others, and that was the name selected. After the location of the town, he (with his compass and chain), assisted by Wil- son, and some of his boys and neighbors, laid out and located the streets and Public Square of the new town. He was appointed the first agent to sell lots in the town, and after advertising six weeks in the Salem Annotator and Terre Haute Register, he held the first sale of lots,
to the custom of those days, its precipices forming a natural de- fense. In its earlier days, probably, it was defended, like Olympia, by the sanctity of its oracle, and the presence of its god. This defense not being sufficient protection against the predatory Phocians, perhaps it was regularly fortified after some of their incursions; or the walls may have been coeval with the founda- tions of the city itself. Whence the name of Delphi itself was derived we have no information. Some say it was named after Delphus, a son of Apollo. Others that Apollo leaped into the sea in the form of a large dolphin (hence he is called Delphin), took pos- session of a merchant-vessel, and forced it to pass Pylo and enter the harbor of Crissa. After the Cretans had landed, Apollo ap- peared as a beautiful youth, and told them that they must not return to their country, but they should serve him as priests in his temple. The Cretans were discouraged when they saw the ster- ility of the country, which surrounded the sanctuary, on the rocky declivity of Parnassus; but, being reassured by Apollo, they built the city of Delphi, calling it at first Pytho, from the monstrous serpent, Python, which was said to have been slain by Apollo. There are several other etymological theories in regard to its deri- vation. One makes it Tel Phi " the oracle of the sun." Another says it is probably derived from the ancient names of the sun ; as the Greek word Delas, the Latin Sol, and the term Bel, the Ori- ental Baal; hence Delphi is the city of the sun. The oracles were delivered from a cave called Pythium. Its discovery has been at- tributed to many different parties. One is, that a shepherd was pasturing his flocks at the foot of Parnassus, and was filled with prophetic inspiration by the intoxicating vapor which arose from it. The sacred tripod was placed over the cave whence the exha-
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on the 11th day of August, 1828. 4 He continued to act as agent until some time in 1829, when he resigned; refusing to receive any compensation for his services, merely requiring a trifle to cover expenses.
Near the close of the year 1827, he was appointed, by the Administration of John Quincy Adams, to ex- amine the land-offices of Illinois. This appointment, not having been sought by him, came very unexpect- edly. Having warmly opposed the election of Mr. Adams, and being strongly opposed to the principles of lation proceeded, on which sat the Pythia (the Priestess), who, having caught the inspiration, pronounced her oracles, in extem- pore prose or verse; if in prose, it was immediately versified by the poet kept for that purpose. The most remarkable of the Pythian responses were those given to the Athenians, before the invasion of Xerxes, to Croesus,# to Lycurgus, to Glaucus the Spartan, and one relating to Agesilans. There seems, however, to have been as little difficulty in influencing the responses of the ancient proptheess as there is said to be in bribing a modern politi- cian. The fame of the Delphic shrine was established at a very early period, from the mention made of it by Homer, and other historians of the earliest times. The Amphictonic Council held an assembly at Delphi every Spring, which gave it still greater celeb- rity. As none dared approach or ask counsel of the god without gifts, hence the temple possessed immense treasures, and numerous works of art and offerings of gratitude. The rich also deposited their treasures in Delphi, under the protection of Apollo, though this did not prevent it from being frequently plundered by Greeks and barbarians. Upon a portion of the ruins of Delphi stands the present village of Castri. At the present day no trace of the sacred aperture has been discovered, though it is said to have been of great depth.
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