USA > Indiana > Adams County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 25
USA > Indiana > Wells County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 25
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
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the United Brethren, a mile and a half south of the settlement. The Methodists and the United Brethren had erected it jointly, in 1866, and it stood on the farm of Robert E. Smith, in section 9, Monroe Township. This quaint old house of worship is still standing and, although it may not be as picturesque as Hawthorne's "House of Seven Gables," it is far more interesting to the average man and woman of Adams County.
The first building to be erected within the Village of Monroe, dedicated to religious service, was the Methodist Church, which was completed in 1877. Some of the most active members in securing its construction were Bazil Hendricks, William and Phillip Hendricks, David Reefy and James Davey. They were also assisted by contribu- tions of labor, lumber and cash from business men of the town and neighborhood. In 1904 the church was remodeled and greatly im- proved. The Monroe society is now in charge of Rev. John Phillips.
DECATUR AND MONROE M. E. CIRCUITS
Various points in Northern and Central Adams County have given the name to the Methodist Circuits at different periods, as thus de- scribed by Rev. W. J. Myers, county historian for the North Indiana Conference History : "When Decatur was made a station in 1860 under Rev. Thomas Comstock, the other Methodist societies around Decatur were called Decatur Circuit. Rev. H. Woolport, in 1861, was the first regular pastor. In 1864 the name was changed to Mon- mouth Circuit, Rev. I. P. Nash, pastor. In 1867 the name was changed to Pleasant Mills Circuit, N. T. Peddycord, pastor. The next change was in 1875, and was called Monroe Circuit, Rev. I. M. Wolverton, pastor. The work contained Washington, Monroe, Salem, Pleasant Mills, and Mount Tabor (now Bobo). Monroe, being located on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, and more central than some of the others, was a rival with Bobo for the parsonage. Bobo won the day. Then an old building they had at Monroe was sold and the money used to build a parsonage at Bobo. In 1907 Monroe asked to be set off with Salem in a work of two appointments. Then Bobo Circuit had Pleasant Mills, Bobo, Clark's Chapel and Alpha. Monroe was made a station in 1909 and Salem was added to Bobo Circuit. Monroe has easily maintained itself a station since that year. While Rev. J. A. Sprague was its pastor, its church building was enlarged and remodeled, and in 1914, under Rev. John Phillips, the present pastor, a parsonage was built."
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ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES NOT A STRONG LODGE TOWN
Monroe is not strongly inclined to lodge life; in fact, its support in that regard may be said to consist of the identification of a lim- ited number of its people with the Modern Woodmen and auxiliary, the Royal Neighbors. The parent body was organized in 1904, and has a present membership of about thirty.
CHAPTER XIV
OTHER ADAMS COUNTY TOWNS
TOWNSHIP OF CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS-MAGLEY-TOWN OF PREBLE PLATTED-STANDARD OIL COMPANY'S STATION-OTHER PREBLE IN- STITUTIONS-PLEASANT MILLS-LINN GROVE (BUENA VISTA)- - CORYVILLE - PETERSON -- MONMOUTH AND WILLIAMS - STEELE (SALEM )-CEYLON.
The Township of Preble, in the northwestern part of the county, was chiefly settled by Germans, commencing in 1830 and continuing to the present. The pioneers of this section located along the old Winchester Road, which runs to Fort Wayne, and the St. Mary's River, which cuts across the northeastern corner of the township, was an- other good means of transportation to the northwestern metropolis. Preble Township is not only overwhelmingly German-American, but is the stronghold of Lutheranism in Adams County. The German Lutheran and Reformed churches are everywhere.
TOWNSHIP OF CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS
The first Lutheran Society was organized at Friedheim in 1838. Not long afterward the central and southern parts of the township founded several churches, and the intelligent settlers of those parts also commenced to build schoolhouses for the education of their sturdy children. The Wafel schoolhouse was erected about 1841 and was located in the west part of section 26, and the Fuhrman School, about two miles north, in section 23, was built in 1843. They were both rough log houses. Later came the frame schoolhouses-the Dirk- son, completed in 1852, and the Fruchte, in 1853.
In 1848 the Evangelical Association built a church at the south- west corner of section 13, about a mile west of the river, and in 1857 the German Reformed Congregation erected the Salem house of worship in the eastern portion of section 28, in the southwestern part of the township. In 1847 the St. John's Lutheran Church was built in the Dirkson neighborhood, and was occupied for thirty years, or
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until a substantial brick meeting house replaced it. In 1878 the St. Peter's Lutheran Church was completed a short distance from what is now Preble station and village. While the different congrega- tions were preparing to provide their people with meeting houses, re- ligious services were usually held in the schoolhouses, which were most convenient to the various neighborhoods.
MAGLEY
Preble Township has two villages, which were founded when the Erie road named them as stations on its line. Magley was fathered by Jacob Magley, who in 1882 was appointed station agent and opened a general store. A creamery and stock yards were afterwards es- tablished at the station, which became considerable of a shipping point and around which collected a small group of buildings, some- times dignified by the name of village. The only church of a strictly local nature is the Salem Reformed, of which Rev. J. Otto Engleman is pastor. The public school building at Magley was erected in 1902 at a cost of $16,000.
TOWN OF PREBLE PLATTED
The Town of Preble, which was platted November 14, 1884, on the southwest corner of section 36, and the southeast corner of see- tion 35, has developed into a brisk village, largely as the result of the concentration of large Standard Oil Company's interests at that point. The original proprietors of the town were Daniel Hoffman and David Werling, and the plat comprised thirteen lots. Soon after Preble was laid out, tile and saw-mills were located there, and within a few years the expansion of the place indneed Mr. Werling to make an addition to the original town.
STANDARD OIL COMPANY'S STATION
The oil station at Preble was built by the Indiana Pipe Line Com- pany in 1889-90, and has been improved and increased in size several times. The plant is one of a chain of fifteen or twenty pumping stations forwarding oil from the Mid-Continental Field to the Sea Board. The oil from the west is simply received at the Preble sta- tion and pumped on to the next station. The plant now comprises sixteen iron storage tanks, with a total capacity of about 568,000 barrels, and in its operation employs a considerable number of men
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and represents an important local industry. S. D. Henry is the man- ager at Preble.
OTHER PREBLE INSTITUTIONS
The Preble Elevator Company, managed by Albert Huser, and the Farmers' State Bank, are also evidences of local trade and neigh- borhood thrift and productiveness. The bank was organized by John G. Hoffman, in January, 1915, that gentleman having been its president ever since. Its cashier is L. Adler. The capital of the bank is $25,000, and its resources, $130,000.
At Preble and in the immediate neighborhood are four Lutheran churches and a German Reformed Congregation. The latter is the well-known Salem's Congregation, which was organized in June, 1856. Its first meeting house was completed in January, 1857, and the present house of worship in July, 1893. The successive pastors of the congregation have been Revs. Peter Vitz, Carl Jaeckel, Peter Gred- ing, Wilhelm Spietz, Gustav Beisser, E. Delorme, Eduard Voenholt, Calvin Schneider, Chris Baum and Otto J. Engelmann. The present membership of the Reformed Salem's Congregation is 180.
PLEASANT MILLS
Pleasant Mills, on the western bank of St. Mary's River, in the township by that name, is an old and a pretty rural settlement and postoffice, which was platted September 8, 1846, from parts of sec- tions 20, 21 and 28. The first settlers of the township located on the old Wayne trace twenty years or more before, but there was no set- tlement of any note until Pleasant Mills was laid out by E. A. God- dard and George W. Heath. In December, 1850, they made an addi- tion to it, and in the '50s it was quite a flourishing place. Although the first mill in the neighborhood was built as early as 1834 on the east side of the river, it was rather an insignificant affair compared with the grist mill completed in 1837 on the opposite shore by Mr. Goddard. He also opened large general stores in connection with his mills. In 1846 the original plant was transformed into a woolen factory and a new grist mill was erected. The combined plant was operated for about fifty years and rebuilt, in 1896, by J. C. Cowan and W. W. Smith. It was around these industries that Pleasant Mills developed, taking on new life, when the Clover Leaf touched it as a station, in 1880. It has never outgrown its status as a modest rural town, which is the shipping point of a considerable grain trade and
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maintains an elevator and a few stores. The local briek schoolhouse was erected in 1881, having been enlarged and remodeled in 1897. At various periods it has supported Baptist, United Brethren and Methodist churches. The Methodist Society is of many years' stand- ing, and is at present in the Bobo Circuit.
LINN GROVE (BUENA VISTA)
Linn Grove, a postoffice in the southeastern corner of section 3, Hartford Township, was platted as Buena Vista, on March 25, 1857, and originally embraced portions of sections 2, 3, 10 and 11. Its site covered old Jamestown, which in 1838, was laid out in section 11, on the south bank of the Wabash, and was soon flooded out of existence by the spring freshets of that inconsiderate stream. In 1845 James MeDowell built a union mill for sawing lumber and grinding grain on the present site of Linn Grove. This, with its successors, probably prompted Robert Simison to lay out Buena Vista on the west bank of the Wabash, in 1857. The original town, situated on the Fort Re- covery & Huntington Road, contained sixteen lots and nine outlots, and an addition to it was made in 1869. Before the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad was built through the county to the east, in 1871, giving Geneva advantages over it which could not be overcome, Buena Vista was a brisk mill town and center of trade, as well as quite a political point for the conventions to nominate prosecutors and rep- resentatives for Adams and Jay and Adams and Wells counties. Its successor, Linn Grove, stands for a small collection of stores and houses, a feed mill, garage, a school and churches maintained by the Evangelical Association and Christian denomination. Linn Grove also has an Odd Fellows' Lodge (No. 683) organized in January, 1892.
CURYVILLE
Curyville, which was platted February 26, 1880, is a station on the Clover Leaf line which was laid out on the northwest quarter of section 21, Kirkland Township. Henry Jackson was the original owner of the site. At first it was a timber town and, as such, pos- sessed some promise of growth until the surrounding country was denuded.
PETERSON
Peterson, a few miles to the northeast, on the same road, has had a similar history, although it was never platted as a town. In the '70s Vol. 1-17
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Steele & Lenhart were operating a large sawmill and heading factory at that place, but the neighborhood supply of raw material gave out and made the enterprise finally unprofitable. Peterson, like Cury- ville, has reverted to a rural community, its trade being almost con- fined to handling grain and live stock.
MON MOUTH AND WILLIAMS
Root Township, in the northern part of the county, has been rather unfortunate in founding towns which last. Old Monmouth, platted in 1836 and once' considered a rival of Decatur, is but a memory ; and the days of its prime were so long ago that it is hardly a memory except in the minds of the very aged.
The little town of Williams, which is situated on the north line of the county on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad, was platted in June, 1872, but has gone the way of all the other communities which depended upon the local timber supply for its growth. The original owners of the site were David Crabbs and Benjamin Rice. Williams is now simply one of the hundreds of railway stations which at one time "amounted to something," but which, from circumstances not within its control, "lost out," "went wrong," etc.
STEELE (SALEM)
Blue Creek Township was in the direct line of the old Quaker trace, or Fort Recovery Road to Fort Wayne, with a cross branch to the Wabash River on the southwest. Some of the earliest pioneers of the county located in that section of the county, Thompson's Prairie being an especially favored locality in that regard. In November, 1867, at the crossing of the Fort Recovery and Willshire roads, in section 17, George W. Syphers laid out a town to which he gave the name of Salem. It was afterward rechristened Steele and, although it had no promise of business growth after all the railroads which were built through the county gave it the go-by, at one time it was quite a church center for the people of the southeastern part of the county. Its Presbyterian Church, built in 1850, was the only one of that denomina- tion in Adams County south of Decatur, and the Methodists erected a meeting house later, while about a mile and a half east of Salem the Union Chapel was built by the United Brethren. Some of the first schoolhouses erected in the county, such as the Burde and Bryan, were also built in the central and southern parts of Blue Creek Township.
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CEYLON
In Wabash Township, besides the old towns of Alexander and Buffalo which were absorbed by Geneva, there is Ceylon, now but a little group of buildings, but in the '70s, when timber in the adjacent country was still plentiful, a busy, if small, industrial center. The town was platted June 24, 1873, by Dr. B. B. Snow, and the paper recorded in the following month. Ceylon lies just south of the Wabash River in seetions 20 and 21, and at the height of its prosperity had spoke, wheel, heading and stave factories, saw and grist mills, eooper shops, and a number of well-stocked stores. The Snow grist mill, built in 1873, was the first steam plant of that kind to be operated in Adams County south of Decatur. At the present time the most sub- stantial looking building in the little rural settlement is the brick schoolhouse which was completed in 1894. The Ceylon Methodist Cir- euit had supplies for two or more years after it was set off from Gen- eva, and in the year mentioned ereeted a house of worship at that plaee.
CHAPTER XV WELLS COUNTY
MATERIAL WEALTH AND PROGRESS
GENERAL DESCRIPTION-THE SUBSOIL-GLACIAL MARKS-THE FOUNDA- TION SOIL-TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE-CHANGES IN VEGETATION -ANIMALS, EARLY AND LATE-ARTIFICIAL DRAINAGE IN WELLS COUNTY-FIRST OPEN DITCHES-DRAINAGE COMMISSIONERS UNDER STATE LAWS-FIRST PUBLIC DITCHES PARTIALLY TILED-THE LAKE ERIE BASIN AND WABASH RIVER VALLEY-DITCHES PARALLELING MAIN STREAMS-THE GREAT NORTHEASTERN DITCH-THE ROCK CREEK DRAIN-BIG THREE MILE DITCH-ELICK-MICHAELS DITCHES -LARGE TILE DRAINS-OPEN DRAIN THROUGH SOLID ROCK-OTHER LEADING DITCHES-PROGRESS FROM 1908 TO 1917-AGRICUL- TURAL EDUCATION-COUNTY AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS-THE COUNTY AGENT'S WORK-INCREASING THE PRODUCTION OF CORN ---- PROTECTING AND IMPROVING THE HOGS-THE BROAD, PROGRESSIVE FARMER OF TODAY-CHANGES IN CEREALS AND LIVE STOCK -- COM- PARATIVE SOIL AND ANIMAL WEALTH (1884-1917)-COUNTY ACRE- AGE (1917)-CEREALS OF COUNTY (1917)-LIVE STOCK BY TOWN- SHIPS (1917)-POPULATION OF THE COUNTY (1860-1910)-POPULA- TION BY TOWNSHIPS (1890-1910)-COMPARATIVE PROPERTY VALUA- TION (1884-1917)-VALUE OF TAXABLE PROPERTY (1917)-AUTO- MOBILE INCOME AND ROADS-FINANCES OF THE COUNTY-INDEBTED- NESS ON ACCOUNT OF ROADS.
Wells County lies mostly in the Valley of the Wabash, or in the Ohio-Mississippi-Gulf of Mexico system of waterways. Like Adams County, it was in the natural course of travel pursued by both the reds and the whites in their journeyings from the more settled East and Northeast to the wilder West and Southwest. The general history of the two political divisions is therefore the same and the background of Indian migrations over trails fairly well defined when the American pioneers first made their homes in the Northwest Territory, as well as the earlier era of French exploration and exploitation, applies as
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closely to Wells as to Adams County. It would therefore be a useless expenditure of mental effort either to repeat, even in substance, the earlier portions of this work, which dealt with such general historieal matters, and with subjects of later date relating to American civil government over the territory now embraced in Adams and Wells counties while it was attached to other political bodies than those specially organized under those names.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The surface geology of the two counties has many points of re- semblanee, the most marked difference being that the watershed be- tween the Great Lakes and the gulf systems, which passes almost
EVIDENCES OF MATERIAL WEALTII
diagonally through Adams County, cuts aeross only a small eorner of Northeastern Wells. The county now under special consideration is in Northeastern Indiana, and extends for twenty-four miles north and south. It comprises nine municipal townships-two tiers of four townships north and south, with Jackson Township jutting out to the west from the southern tier. It is 372 square miles in area, is the sec- ond county from the eastern state line and the fourth from the northern.
THE SUBSOIL
Northern Indiana is covered with what is ealled in geology the "drift," consisting of gravel, sand and clay, deposited by water when it lay under that element. The "lake region" was one great body of
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water, covering Northern Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, as well as Miehi- gan, Wiseonsin, Minnesota, etc. The dip of the underlying strata in Northern Indiana is generally westward, but in Adams and Wells counties it is nearly northward and about eight feet to the mile.
Although most of the subsoil in this part of the state is gravelly, good commereial clay abounds in many places, so that briek ean al- ways be made convenient to the place of building. Valuable limestone for foundations, bridge abutments, ete., also abounds along the Wa- bash, Salamonie and St. Mary's rivers, near the surface, even cropping out in places.
GLACIAL MARKS
South of the Maumee Valley is a terminal moraine, which is the summit of the watershed dividing the waters of the Ohio from those of Lake Erie, known as the St. John's Ridge in Ohio, extending west- ward into Jay County, Indiana, where it is known as the "Lost Moun- tains." The elevation of this ridge is nearly 350 feet above Lake Erie. The boulder elay is thicker here than in any other part of Northeastern Indiana. In Jay and Wells counties, seattered pro- miscuously, are found many speeimens on top of the drift, of streaked and grooved boulders, the rounded and polished surfaces, often on the upper side, demonstrating that they had been ground and polished at a higher level, and then frozen in ice, transported, and dropped from the melting ice. Another expansion of the torrid zone drove the iee further north, leaving the great lake basin filled with water, which covered Upper Canada, Michigan, Minnesota, Wiseonsin, and the northern portions (about half) of Illinois. Indiana and Ohio.
THE FOUNDATION SOIL
Wells and Jay counties have other superficial ridges, knolls, mounds, ete., the origin of which may be easily accounted for by any one familiar with the effects of winds and currents. Compar- atively, these accumulations of sand and gravel are recent. Underly- ing them, and above the coarse gravel resting upon the bed-rock, is a thiek stratum of fine elay, which is the foundation of the agricultural resources of this region.
TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE
The surface of Wells and Adams counties varies from level to gently undulating, the level being inelined to have a swampy appear-
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ance; but as the land is generally high above the rapidly running water-courses, it can be thoroughly drained, and ditehes and tile drains are in rapid process of construction. The southeastern portion of this section, as before noted, is much the highest, and therefore the streams run in a northwesterly direction.
The largest stream is the Wabash, which runs northwesterly through Harrison, Laneaster and Rock Creek townships, Wells County. The second in size is the St. Mary's, draining the most of Adams County. Third, the Salamonie enters Wells County about a mile
VARIETY OF GRAIN GERMINATION
west of the center of the south line, and leaves the county a mile west of the middle of the north line of Jackson Township. Roek Creek rises in the western portion of Nottingham Township, flows a little west of north through Liberty and Roek Creek townships, emptying into the Wabash in Huntington County. Six-Mile Creek drains the eastern portion of Nottingham Township, and empties into the Wa- bash about three miles above Bluffton; and Eight-Mile Creek rises in the eastern part of Jefferson Township, and flowing a little north of west, leaves the county at its northwestern corner.
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CHANGES IN VEGETATION
When the white man first entered this region he found it covered with a dense growth of white, burr and black oak, white elm, bass- wood (lin), ash of two or three varieties, beech, sugar maple, hickory, yellow poplar and walnut. Two or three specimens of sweet gum were noticed in early days. The blackberry was the most valuable of the wild fruits in this section. About eleven miles south of Bluff- ton, thirty years ago, there were 320 acres of blackberry in one piece.
Cultivation has introduced weeds from the East to supplant, in a great measure, the native herbs. The first introduced were the dog fennel or mayweed, jimson-weed, cocklebur and smart-weed; but as no plant can hold a spot of ground beyond a limited number of sea- sons, some of these have given way to the ragweed; and this, in turn, shortly yielded the situation to the sweet clover, a more welcome visitor than all, as it is a prolific source of honey, and no disagreeable feature. The ox-eye daisy also flourished in a gravelly soil. Dande- lion, white clover and blue-grass carpeted most of the ground in the early days.
ANIMALS, EARLY AND LATE
The largest and most conspicuous animals found here by the early settlers were the following: Black bear, in limited numbers, and soon killed off. Rarely, in later years, an individual or two might be seen straying along here from Michigan. The Virginia deer, in great abundance. The last seen in this region was about 1875. Panthers and wild cats, beaver and porcupine, were rare. Raccoons, onee abundant, are now rare. Opossums came in between 1840 and 1850, became common, but a severe winter in the '80s killed off what the dogs and hunters had left. Foxes, once common, are now seldom seen. Wolves, at first numerous, were all killed off many years ago. Ground-hogs, or "wood-chucks," were never plentiful, and are so scarce now that seldom can one be found. No otters have been seen for many years, though they were frequent in early days. A few muskrats remain. Wild hogs, that is, domestic hogs escaped and running at large until they fully attained the savage state, were com- mon in pioneer times. Iu a few generations these animals became as furious and dangerous as wolves. In primeval times there some- times occurred a "raid," when squirrels, pigeons, etc., would migrate across the country in incredible numbers. About the year 1855 there was a squirrel raid here, eastward in its direction. Wild turkeys, once plentiful, are now rare.
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Very early the farmers of Wells County-and nearly everyone was a farmer to a certain extent in the pioneer times-realized that in order to make the progress which was warranted by the natural richness of their soil they must subjeet it to systematie and scientific artificial drainage. As already seen, the physical features of the country were well adapted to aid this purpose of the settlers; this fact, combined with their determination, energy and foresight, has brought about a potent change in the line of marked development. The sueeessive steps of this great evolution in the advancement of Wells County, with brief mention of those substantial citizens who
SPECIAL DAIRY HERD
have stood by these drainage improvements from first to last, are described in a paper which has been furnished by Thomas C. Guldin, the surveyor of Wells County, than whom none ean speak with more praetieal authority. The article follows.
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