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 4
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 4
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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
Washington township, streams, 11; early settler, 43; created, 60; pop- ulation, 73; property value, 74; taxes, 74; farm lands, 76; crops, 76; live stock, 77; school enrollment, 150; war bounties, 153 Wasson, Irvin W., 519
Water Mill (view), 94
Water supply and distribution, Deca- tur, 185
Water Works. Bluffton (view), 386
Water works, Decatur, construction of, 184, superintendents of, 186 Watson, George W., 657 Watson, Sherman A., 752
xxxiv
INDEX
Wayne, Anthony, 4; portrait, 7
Wayne's Campaign of 1794, 6
Wayne Plank Road, 78
Wayne road, 35
"Wayne trace," 8, 78
Wechter, Jacob, 952
Wechter, John E., 953
Wedding, first in Wells county, 297
Weimer, Henry C., 153
Weinland, John, 627
Weinland, William H., 623
Weldy, William B., 721
Wells County Agricultural Associa- tion, 273
Wells county agricultural organiza- tions, 273
Wells County Agricultural Society, 273
Wells County Infirmary and Orphans' Asylum, 312
Wells County Bank, 397
Wells County Courthouse (view), 305
Wells County Medical Society, 363 Wells County Pioneer Association, 300
Wells County Standard, 396
Wells County Union, 396
Wells connty, 260; general deserip- tion, 261; subsoil, 261; glacial marks, 262; foundation soil, 262; topography and drainage, 262; veg- etation, 264; forests, 264; animals, 264; drainage, 265; first open ditches, 266; area, 272; agricultural education, 272; agricultural organ- izations, 273; county agent, 273; corn production increasing, 274; hogs, 275; wheat production, 275; live stock, 276; cereals, 276, 279; comparative soil
and animal wealth, 277: live stock, 279; population, 279; property valua- tion, 281; taxable property value, 281; automobile income and roads, 282; finances, 282; early settlement, 284; county named for Captain Wells, 286; first white man, 290; pioneer events, 297; first white child born in county, 297: first wedding, 297; first mill, 297; first school, 298; pioneer association, 300; first steps in county organization, 305; county seat, 306; first county board, 306; taxes, 307; election districts and townships, 308; first public road, 308; first treasury report, 309; first courthouse and jail, 309; second (brick) courthouse, 311; present jail and sheriff's residence, 311; courthouse of the present, 311; county infirmary and orphans' asylum, 312; county officials, 312; auditors, 313; clerks, 313; treas- urers, 313; recorders, 313; survey-
ors, 313; sheriffs, 314; old-time office holders, 314; early schools, 315; first school, 315; high schools, 318; agriculture, 319; domestic science in schools, 319; modern school buildings, 319; libraries, 325; valuation of school property in thirty years, 327: roads, 333; rail- road projects, 334; first railroad ties laid in county, 335; roads and traffic in 1865, 337; traction lines, 347; circuit court, 349; first grand jury, 350; first lawsuit, 350; first indictments, 351; first divorce suit, 351; first resident lawyer, 352; last associate judge, 353; court changes, 1865-84, 357; court of common pleas, 358; bar in 1887, 358; pioneer lawyers, 359; bench and bar since 1885, 359; early physicians, 360; Civil war volun- teers, 364; drafts, 365; home guards, 370; officers and privates who died in Civil war, 371; soldiers of War of 1812. 371; Spanish- American war, 373: World War, 375; volunteers and drafted men in the National Army, 377 Wells county hospital, 400
Wells County Percherons (view ). 281 Wells County Schools (views), 317
Wells, William, 286, 287
Wemhoff, George E., 748
West Market Street, Bluffton, (view), 399
Wheat production, Wells county, 275 White, Amza, 314
White child, first born in Wells coun- ty, 297
White man, first in Adams county, 29; first in Wells county, 290
Wild animals. 98
Wild hogs, 97, 264
"Wilds of Adams County," 14
Wild woman, The, 302 Wiley, John, 588
Wilkins, David L., 586 Williams, 252
Williams, Amos R .. 537
Williams, Andrew B., 556
Wilson, Edwin R., 356
Wilson, John B., 951
Winchester State Road, 9
Winnes, Annie E., 809 Winters, John R .. 605
Wisner. Thomas L., 314
Wolfe, Edward S., 540 Wolfe, Jacob N., 562
Wolf and bear stories, 108
Wolves, 264, 301, 433; extermination of, 98
Wolpert, Andrew, 703
Wood-choppings, 325
INDEX
XXXV
Woods, Emanuel, 20 Woodward, C. G., 719 Woodward, George T., 522 Worden, James L., 354 World War, 375; National Guard mustered into U. S. service, 169; Rainbow Division, 169; Adams county men in service, spring of 1918, 171; volunteers and drafted men, 377 Worthington, 434
Worthman, Martin F., 188, 957 Wreck on the Clover Leaf (view), 449
Road
Yaney, Job L., 847 Yellow Creek, 14
Zanesville, 436; churches, 437 Zimmerman, George W., 913 Zion Lutheran Church school, 136 Zion Reformed church, Decatur, 206
Adams and Wells Counties
CHAPTER I
MIXED RED AND WHITE HISTORY .
THE MIAMIS AND THE FUR TRADE-THE FATHER OF LITTLE TURTLE- LITTLE TURTLE HIMSELF-AS A STATESMAN AND A MAN-LITTLE TURTLE'S DEATH-THE MIAMIS LEAVE FOR KANSAS-THE RIVARE INDIAN RESERVATION-THE POTTAWATOMIES-WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN OF 1794-THE OLD WAYNE TRACE-THE HARMAR TRAIL-THE GODFREY TRAIL, OR TRACE-STATE ROADS, SUCCESSORS OF TRAILS.
The country now included in Northwestern Ohio and Northeastern Indiana is traversed by the Maumee, St. Joseph, St. Mary's and the Wabash rivers, and in the trough along which pour the waters which all but join the Great Lakes with the Ohio Valley. It was foreordained by the forces of nature that this great system of waterways should de- termine the migrations of the races which battled for dominion over a large area of interior America for a period of more than two cen- turies. That cycle of history, not vast, as time goes, but great in events, covers the record stretching from the pioneer explorations of Marquette and Joliet in 1673 to the creation of the Northwest Terri- tory in 1787. France, through these great and intrepid characters, made possible a Northwest and a greater America than was bounded by the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. In acknowl- edging their indebtedness to the splendid European republic, the peo- ple of America must never forget that far-reaching fact which ante- dates the French salvation of Revolutionary times by more than a century.
THE MIAMIS AND THE FUR TRADE
When the French reached the valley of the Wabash, the entire country now embraced within the State of Indiana was occupied by Vol. I-1
1
PINOCTION
A FRENCH VOYAGEUR
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the Miami Confederacy of Indians. But in blocking the western in- vasions of the fierce Iroquois they had been greatly decimated and their strength as a nation had declined. The rum and brandy introduced to them by the French traders had also contributed to their decline. The work of the traders, to a very large extent, counteracted the efforts of the missionaries among the Miamis, but even in the first portion of the eighteenth century they were of such commercial im- portance in the prosecution of the fur trade that the English com- menced to cast covetous eyes at the business transacted with them through the villages and posts on the Manmee and the Wabash. One of the most flourishing centers of that trade was near the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph rivers, at the present site of Fort Wayne.
THE FATHER OF LITTLE TURTLE
The early history of the Miami Indians is veiled in tradition and obscurity, and little is known of the chiefs or head men prior to July 3, 1748. On that date a treaty of peace and friendship was con- cluded at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, between commissioners appointed by the English colonial authorities and the chiefs of several tribes in the interior. In that treaty the name A-gue-nack-gue appears as "principal chief of the Miamis," and it is said that he then lived at Turtle Village, a few miles northeast of the present City of Fort Wayne. Two other Miami chiefs from the Wabash country also signed that treaty, which lasted until the Government of the United States was established.
LITTLE TURTLE HIMSELF
A-gue-nack-gne married a Mohican woman according to the Indian custom and one of their sons was Me-she-ke-no-quah, or Little Turtle, who became principal chief of the Miami Nation at the death of his father. Little Turtle was born at Turtle Village abont 1747, and at the time he succeeded to the chieftainey, his tribe was regarded as the leading one of the West. He was not lacking in any of the essential qualifications of a great chief. He has been described as "short in stature, well built, with symmetrical form, prominent forehead, heavy eyebrows, keen, black eyes and a large chin." From his mother he inherited many of the finer qualities of the Mohicans. Agile and ath- letie, his physical ability was not to be questioned for a moment. As a youth his influence was made manifest on more than one occasion,
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even the older warriors listening with respect when he presented his views in council. After he became chief, not only of his own tribe, but of other tribes of the Miami Confederacy, he was acknowledged by all as their great leader, and they followed him without the slightest envy or jealousy. Wise in council, he was equally brave in battle. No military academy taught him the art of war, yet in the management of an army he showed the skill and strategy of a Napoleon. His prowess as a commander is seen in the masterly manner in which he handled his warriors in the defeat of General St. Clair. Not until he met General Anthony Wayne, whom he designated as "the man who never sleeps," did Little Turtle acknowledge defeat.
AS A STATESMAN AND A MAN
As a statesman, Little Turtle was a conspicuous figure in the nego- tiations of several of the early treaties with the United States. Hav- ing once affixed his signature to a treaty, he considered it so much more than a scrap of paper that it never seemed to occur to him, savage though he might me, to violate the least of its provisions. The "culture" of the white man had not hardened his conscience or his manly honor. Thus he won the confidence and esteem of the whites, although many of his nation did not support him in this straight- forwardness, and referred to him contemptuously as "an Indian with a white man's heart."
LITTLE TURTLE'S DEATH
Washington, when president, presented Little Turtle with a medal and a handsome sword as tokens of personal and national regard. The last days of the upright chief were spent at Little Turtle Village. He was sorely afflicted with the gout, and a few months before his death went to Fort Wayne to consult a physician regarding his disease, but passed away on July 14, 1812, at his lodge in the Old Orchard not far from the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers. Brice in his history of Fort Wayne says: "His body was borne to the grave with the highest honors by his great enemy, the white man. The muffled drum, the solemn march, the funeral salute, announced that a great soldier had fallen, and that even his enemies paid tribute to his memory." Deposited in the grave with him were the sword and medal presented to him by Washington, together with the Indian ornaments and implements of war customarily buried with the war- riors of his race. Little Turtle was a credit to the bravery and mor-
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ality of humanity ; in his person were centered some of the best traits of both the red and the white races.
THE MIAMIS LEAVE FOR KANSAS
Chief Richardville, the successor of Little Turtle, was born at Fort Wayne, which was the scene of several important treaties with the tribes which were dominant in Indiana. After the return of the Mi- amis to Indiana, following the treaty of 1763, a number of new villages were established along the Wabash in what is now Allen, Huntington, Wabash and Miami counties. Prophetstown was the site of an ancient Miami village, but after it was destroyed by General Harrison in 1811 it was never rebuilt. In 1846, after several treaties, the Miamis were moved to their Kansas reservation.
THE RIVARE INDIAN RESERVATION
The old Rivare Indian Reservation, covering about 1,600 acres of land in Sections 15, 16, 21 and 22, St. Mary's Township, Adams county, is more than a century old. The tract was granted and re- served to the children of Cho-a-pin-a-mois, alias Antoine Rivard, a half-breed, at the treaty concluded at St. Mary's, Ohio, on the 6th of October, 1818, between the United States land commissioners and the chiefs and warriors of the Miami Nation. The Indian title to the reservation was extinguished partly by purchase and partly by an action at law in the Adams County Circuit Court (See Francis Com- parete and John B. Boure vs. Cho-a-pin-a-mois, alias Antoine Rivard, son of Anthony Rivard; action brought in that court, October 14, 1837). On the 26th of the month named, the west half of the tract was platted into lots 1-8, inclusive, of about forty acres each, and on May 26, 1855, part of the east half was divided, also into eight lots, containing over forty-one acres each. Thus was the old Indian Reser- vation incorporated into the regular records of Adams County.
THE POTTAWATOMIES
The Pottawatomies, who shared with the Miamis the soil of Indiana when the French first came upon the scene were also of the Algonquin family. They were rather docile and always very friendly to the French. They joined Pontiac in the uprising of 1763, and at the beginning of the Revolution sided with the British and opposed the colonists. At the treaty of Greenville in 1795 they notified the Miami
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Indians that it was the intention of their chiefs to move some of their people from the region around Southern Lake Michigan to the valley of the Wabash. To this the Miamis objected, claiming all of Northern Indiana by right of possession. But the Pottawatomies came into Northern and Northeastern Indiana, notwithstanding, and at the be- ginning of the nineteenth century claimed all the territory now within the state north of the Wabash River. Within that area they had about fifty villages. The Pottawatomies concluded more than forty treaties with the United States, the last important one being that of February, 1837, by which they ceded all their lands in Indiana to the United States and agreed to move to their Kansas reservation; and they actually left the state soon afterward. The Miamis had ceded any lands which they claimed within the same domain more than ten years previously. So that the white settlers of Adams County saw the red cloud upon their real estate completely lifted about a year after they organized a civil government.
WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN OF 1794
It was the Wayne campaign of 1794 which broke the power of the Miamis, the Pottawatomies and all the other tribes which were a men- ace to the progress of American civilization in the valleys of the Mau- mee and the Wabash. It was along the Indian trails then well beaten, and the military roads which were to be built as a result of the de- cisive operations of Mad Authony, that the pioneer settlers were to come into Adams County. Wayne thoroughly avenged the defeat of St. Clair at Greenville, Western Ohio, in 1791. Little Turtle's tri- umph was to be short-lived.
General Wayne organized his forces at Pittsburgh, and in October, 1793, moved westward from that point at the head of 3,600 men. He proposed an offensive campaign. The Indians, instigated by the Brit- ish, insisted that the Ohio River should be the boundary between their lands and the domain of the United States, and were convinced that they could maintain that line.
General Scott of Kentucky joined General Wayne with 1,600 mounted men, and erected Fort Defiance at the mouth of the Auglaize River. On August 15th the army moved toward the British fort near the rapids of the Maumee, where, on the morning of the 20th, they defeated 2,000 Indians and British almost within range of the guns of the fort. Of the 900 American troops actually engaged, thirty- three were killed and one hundred wounded, the enemy's loss being more than double. Wayne remained in that region for three days,
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destroying villages and crops, and then returned to Fort Defiance, his course for many miles on either sides of the route being marked by a clean sweep of every vestige of Indian occupancy.
On September 14, 1794, General Wayne moved his army in the di- rection of the deserted Miami villages at the confluence of the St. Joseph and the St. Mary's, near Little Turtle's home. The Ameriean
MAD ANTHONY WAYNE
commander arrived October 17th and on the following day selected the site of Fort Wayne. The fort was completed November 22nd, and garrisoned by a strong detachment of infantry and artillery com- manded by Colonel John F. Hamtramck, who named it in honor of the intrepid Wayne. Soon afterward the latter coneluded the Green- ville treaty, which placed a stamp of permaneney upon his military successes.
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THE OLD WAYNE TRACE
The road, still known as "Wayne trace," was first an Indian trail, and after Mad Anthony's victory over the Indians the main-traveled route over which supplies went for the troops garrisoned at Fort Wayne until that military post was abandoned in 1819. It enters Adams County about a mile northwest of Willshire, Ohio, passes through the Rivare Reservation in St. Mary's Township, then through Washington and Root townships, via Monmouth, toward the north. Wayne's army is known to have passed through that portion of Adams County in August, 1794. The road thus traveled was made some- what permanent at the time by the slow and laborious advance of the troops, caused by the vigilance of the Indians. The soldiers generally halted and pitched their tents about the middle of the afternoon and, the ground of the encampment having been previously marked out by the surveyor, each company fortified in front of its position by cut- ting down trees and erecting a breastwork, so that by dark a complete fortification enclosed the camp. The army entered the county at a point very little north of where the St. Mary's River passes from Ohio into Indiana, about a mile northwest of Willshire, Van Wert County, in the former state. It marched in a northwesterly direction through what is now known as the Rivare Reservation in St. Mary's Township, and then through Washington and Root townships, via Monmouth, into the present Allen County at a point where the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad leaves Adams County. After Wayne's victory over the Indians was won, the route of the army march became the main- traveled highway over which supplies were sent to the Fort Wayne troops.
The Wayne trace connected Fort Recovery with Fort Wayne, and in 1819 a colony of Quakers residing at Richmond, Wayne County, cut a road through the woods which ran from Winchester, Randolph County, and joined the Wayne trace in Adams County, near the mouth of Yellow Creek. Some of the first settlers of the county, as will be- come evident later, located on the old Wayne and Quaker traces. The Quaker trace was often called the Fort Recovery road.
THE HARMAR TRAIL
Perhaps an older military road was that located by General Har- mar. It has been virtually abandoned. Formerly it angled in a southeasterly direction across the northeast corner of Union Township toward Shane's Crossing, Ohio, at which place Wayne's army crossed
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the Harmar trail in the route from Fort Jefferson, south of Green- ville, to what is now Fort Wayne.
THE GODFREY TRAIL OR TRACE
The Godfrey trail, or trace, as stated in "Snow's History of Adams County," extended "from the Godfrey Reservation on the Salamonie River southwest of Balbest, in Jay County, to the north of the Loblolly, down the Limberlost Creek to the Wabash River, and down that river to Carington's Ford near the northwest corner of Section 22, Wabash Township; thence in a northeasterly direction to the eastern end of Thompson's Prairie, and on past Big Blue Creek east of Salem (Steele) to the Rivare Reservation north of St. Mary's River. This crossed the Flint Springs and Recovery trail between Alexander and Geneva. The Godfrey trail became a public high- way. Several old residents state that they well remember secing Indian families passing to and from their reservations along the Godfrey trace; that it was not unusual to see a squaw leading a pony well loaded with lodge poles, shect-iron kettles, skins of animals and other trappings; that there were frequently several ponies passing along one after another at the same time; that some had as many as three or four children on one horse; that the Indian man seemed to have little to do but to follow along the trail with the dogs; that in the main these Indians were a very dirty, shaggy-looking set of people; some wore blankets and others were dressed partly in skins, with some white men's clothing; that some of the children and squaws had highly colored scarfs of yellow, red or blue cotton goods wrapped around their bodies over their clothing of skins; that the men were all armed with rifles, knives and tomahawks, and usually carried them wherever they went."
STATE ROADS, SUCCESSORS OF TRAILS
Many of the Indian trails in the old Northwest were cleared and widened by the French traders that the ernde highways might be made more accessible for their pack trains, and the same routes were further improved by the permanent settlers of a later period. At still a subsequent date, taking these easy rontes as a general guide, the state laid out permanent highways in various sections of the com- monwealth, and they were generally used by the emigrants who came to Adams County in the pioneer period of its settlement. An im- portant section of the Winchester State Road extended through the
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ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
Limberlost region of southern Adams county, with Old Buffalo (Geneva) as one of its stations; northward to the Wabash River in what is now Section 17, and thence down the river in a northwesterly direction to Deem's Ford, east of the present city of Bluffton. At that point the road forked, one branch extending to Fort Wayne and the other down the valley of the Wabash to Huntington. The trunk line of the Winchester Road extended from Winchester directly north to Buffalo, crossed the Wabash River at what is now known as the Price Bridge, continued northward to the old Reynolds farm on the St. Mary's River and there intersected the Fort Wayne and Willshire Road. The latter was another military road that came from Willshire, Ohio, and passed through Decatur northward to Fort Wayne. The Winchester Road was constructed at a day (1833) when Randolph Connty (of which Winchester was the county seat) comprised both Adams and Allen counties, and when Fort Wayne was the only real village between its southern and its northern terminus.
The traces and roads mentioned, although minor highways were opened as the country developed, were the main routes which gave the easiest access to the reds and the pioneer whites who entered the territory now included in Adams County.
CHAPTER II
PHYSICAL FEATURES AND PRIMAL INDUSTRIES
A CONTINENTAL WATER-SHED-ROAD-BUILDING MATERIALS-SOILS OF THE COUNTY-TOPOGRAPHY -- THE LOBLOLLY COUNTRY-FAMOUS LIMBERLOST REGION-MRS. GENE STRATTON-PORTER'S DESCRIPTIONS -AGRICULTURE AND LIVE STOCK ORGANIZATIONS-THE COUNTY AGENTS.
Before further steps are taken in the historie development of Adams County, it seems that clearness would be added to the nar- rative by presenting a chapter dealing with the physical and geo- graphical features of the region. This includes the origin of some of the names which have been popularly applied to special sections of the county. After this subject has been fairly expanded, readers of long residence will perhaps have their memories jogged and re-enlightened. while those of later settlement and less thoroughly informed, should follow the narrative with clearer understanding and therefore with more interest.
A CONTINENTAL WATER-SHED
Adams County, comprising twelve townships, is twenty-four miles in length and fourteen in breadth, and consequently contains 336 square miles. The surface is nearly level or gently undulating, ex- cept near the rivers, where it is slightly broken. The controlling physical feature is its numerous streams, of which the Wabash and St. Mary's rivers are the most important. They present several striking coincidences. Each measured by its windings traverses the county for about twenty-five miles; is nearly 150 feet wide; inter- sects four townships, and flows from southeast to northwest. The Wabash, within the county, receives the waters of sixteen and the St. Mary's, of twenty-two affluents. Eventually, the waters of the Wabash reach the Gulf of Mexico. The St. Mary's, which rises in Ohio, flows through the northern part of Adams County-intersecting portions of St. Mary's, Washington, Root and Preble townships-
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ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
and terminates at Fort Wayne, where its union with the St. Joseph forms the Maumee. The latter empties into the head of Lake Erie and its waters therefore finally mingle with those of the St. Lawrence and the northern Atlantic. In Adams County some of the headwaters of two mighty water systems begin their diverging courses toward the north and the south. In Jefferson and Wabash townships branches of these two principal streams are very narrowly separated, and there is found the distinet watershed sloping toward the Gulf of Mexico and the valley of the St. Lawrence.
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