USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 4
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Reed stands it very well, he has not been sick that I know of since we left home. Capt. Rice is a noble fellow, he is as kind as a father to us. Fry has left us at present I believe, he is as- sistant quartermaster in the brigade. Uncle Charlie is clerk in that department, he is well.
The boys in my mess are R. D. and L. A. Fowler, Milo Pelton, David Pulver, Allen Gregg, Tunis Farmer. There is 18 in Mess No. 5. In Mess No. 4 is Oliver Wheeler and John F. Meyers, I thought it no use to name all of them because you do not know them.
Iam glad Caroline is going to school to Bert. She will find him a good teacher. I will write to her soon, but have not re- ceived any letters from her or Will. Why don't they write. It keeps me writing all the time to answer the letters that I received. If you have heard from Mesham, let me know, or if any of the boys from around home have gotten hurt, write me in your next letter.
We will come off from picket tomorrow morning.
I will mail this when I get in camp. I sent you all letters with Tom Phillips. I am glad Alfred Hayward has got well. I think I have sent three letters to you, that you have not got, and one to Will and Caroline.
No more this time. With love to all I remain,
Your affectionate son, Edmund Bartlett Woods. *
Letter of Bartlett Woods to Edmund Woods, his son, in the army near Louisville, written October 9, 1862.
"Ross, Thursday night, Oct. 9, 1862. Dear Edmund :
We were all very much pleased to read your welcome and in- teresting letters, especially with the one from Henry enclosed, who we are glad to hear is well. His visit to you must have been pleasant, as it was gratifying to us.
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We had three or four letters from you the last of this week in pencil. You state you are assisting in getting the mules in working order. I see by the letters as well as the papers that you have commenced a forward march. We are sorry to hear that you are so unwell, you should have your overcoats if you are not better and your cough continues you must go into the hospital. Do not neglect it as a little prevention and care may save you a prolonged sickness.
If your provisions are bad report to the Captain and he will attend to it. I am glad Rice is so good a man. You are fortunate in having him, and Mr. Reed as your chief officers. I have sent you several papers, and George Tyler sends you some papers if you got them.
We have heard of Nelson's death in the papers and in your letter. Your Uncle William wrote to you last Sunday and he has received a letter and $20.00 balance from Henry. You must know how rejoiced I was over the issuing of Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation to take effect on the 1st day of January next in all those states that then still remain in rebellion. Now they have their choice. If the rebels resist-and they will-Emancipation and freedom forever to all slaves.
The issue then will be fully made, it will be in earnest and in reality a battle between freedom and slavery. Their element of strength will then be to them an element of weakness. We will be fighting for freedom, justice and humanity. Slavery as a power in this country must be destroyed. We have lived as a neighbor to slavery for 86 years, and have tried to make the infernal thing work harmonious with republican institutions, and the results have been discord and allmost National death. Slavery must die that the nation may live. Freedom on this continent must be supreme, and in after years future generations will bless the men that as- sisted in overthrowing the monster, and making this a really free government.
I suppose the Kentucky Unionists howl at Lincoln. The world does move and the progress of the 19th century cannot be stopped to please them. Make the South fall, and the black man will stay there and live. This bugaboo of the black man coming north is all a fiction. Some come now-it is a temporary necessity. So if I was burnt out, I might be compelled to intrude in another man's house for shelter.
God bless Abraham Lincoln, and we will sustain in him. You are fighting for freedom now, not only for the black man, but for
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freedom generally, the freedom of speech, the free press, the free ballot box, and free schools, all over the South so that slavery shall no longer rule us. And nigger plantations shall no longer take our territory, making the power of slavery sit in the cabinet and representing us abroad in other lands, sitting even in the presi- dent's chair in our own land. You can now all fight with a will.
God is with us now, if you have pro-slavery generals, they can't stop the great wheel of events, it will roll on, and if they get in the way, it will crush them.
Tomorrow I go to Crown Point to hear Colfax and Turpie. Some fear that Turpie may be elected with so many republicans gone to war, but I hope not It would indeed be a sad calamity. You must get the Crown Point paper sent to the boys. It is too old when I get it for me to send, or I should send it to you.
I have been to Chicago with the hogs. They weighed-15 of them the No. I took-4200 lbs. I got $3.15 per hundred lbs. for them. I should have taken 16 but one had pigs. They fetched me $132.30, and out of that I had to pay freight, etc. They went to Canada. Wheat is up nice and green. I got it in in good order though wet to the skin the last day. Jefferson dragged all one day when Willy was sick. Willy helps me a good deal, he is well now. We all had a hand in it, mother included.
I had twenty bu. from the machine, and cleaned it, and let Hoffman have a half bushel and then had just enough to sow. I have it furrowed nicely. Henry Muzzall helped me cut the buckwheat, about 25 bushels. I think I shall stack it. A few turnips-potatoes rotten-corn now ripe, and no blackbirds.
"I saw Wellington and Edgar, all well. I went to Dr. Walet . in Chicago, Mesham's doctor, for my ear and side. I have felt unwell lately. I have had a pain in my side and my ear rings badly. I have got some medicine and will follow it up. I am now building the hog pen, and I go away from home but little. I cannot get time. No word from Mesham. I know he is with the regiment at Fort Lyons, at Alexandria."
"Mother and the children have picked a bushel and a half of cranberries. I sent you a paper with the names of those wounded in the 20th regiment only 2 serious, none killed in Co. B. Christ- ian Holdsworth leg amputated, expect him home. Col. Brown killed.
Be sure and go to the hospital if your cold and cough troubles
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you. Take some cayenne pepper and put a little in cold water and a little sugar in it will warm you up, and you can carry it in your pocket. Thompson is now putting the shingles on the school house. Watson Baeley is home sick and he is lending a hand today.
Try the pepper. Get some of the doctor or the sutler, it is in bottles, be careful if you buy any from the stores. If you had stay- ed we would have sent you some cranberries, pickles, cabbage and perhaps we can yet. We all send our love to you, Henry and your Uncle, and remain your affectionate father.
Bartlett Woods."
Letter of Charles Woods written Dec. 28, 1862, from Gallatin, to his brother William.
"Gallatin, Dec. 28, 1962.
Dear Brother:
I should have answered your letter before this had Bart been down respecting poor Edmund, and I naturally knew he could tell you more in one minute respecting our situation in camp life, than I could write in a week. I received the letter from father and from Sally and also the photograph for which I was highly pleased.
I wrote a very long letter to Sally and told her I considered it not only a letter to herself and husband but also to father and mother. I gave her a very general description of our retreat from Kentucky River by Kirby Smith, and also the action of Buell on his march from Nashville to the relief of Louisville, and also the sympathy he seemed to have for the welfare of Bragg, at all times when our men came on his rear and opened fire, the word was invariably halt. And also the trap we had Morgan in at Versailles, and then flinging three shells at him with orders to our men to lay on their arms, and wait until morning; or more honestly speaking to wait until Morgan had skedaddled out of the way of the Damned Yankees, as the Tennessee Sesesh call us.
Such proceedings as we have seen fairly made the majority of the thinking portion of the soldiers, which are the bone and sinew of the army, look at one another and ask what in God's name does that mean, and what was we sent here for.
We had the traitor (fowled) and there is not a rear rank man but knew enough to bay him. But the answer is invariable traps or a nigger in the fence. The affair at Hartsville was bad, but it was reported by some to be the fault of Dumont, he was not
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near that part of the brigade, being 16 miles distant and could not be any more implicated in it than if he had been in Chicago. It was a bad affair but was a surprise just before the break of day in the morning.
We were aroused the night after Bart left with the long roll, and expected an attack from Morgan, in fact we have been in readiness to receive him, being now reinforced by some fine old regiments and one regiment of regulars.
They handle themselves more like the soldiers did in Canter- bury than any men I have seen since, I have been in the service. The 18th Regulars, 2nd Minnesota, 14th Ohio, 10th Ind., 17th Ind. and 72nd Ind. and also a battery I don't remember the name of. But I expect Morgan has finally made up his mind not to attack us. The last alarm we had was in the night last week. But the nearest he came was in about 15 miles from here and with about 8,000 strong.
It was ascertained his destination was Kentucky to break up the railroad and to stop the transportation from Louisville. It was so for he tore up the track near Horse Shoe Cave called Cave City, and on Saturday morning a lot of Infantry and Cavalry with Lilly's Indiana battery were sent in pursuit of him, and the last report is that they have him surrounded, but I believe nothing I hear, it won't do in camp.
The Fort that has been building here is nearing completion, and it is a very hard place to take when the heavy guns are mounted. Bart will explain that more fully than I can in a letter.
Our division is once more broken up. Dumont was taken very sick and had to give up his command, and our brigade was turned over to Paine. We were then ordered to reduce our bri- gade teams to five-six mules teams, and deliver up 12 teams to the division. At that time I thought I saw my head taken from my shoulders, and supposed the general would say, or through Capt. Coolidge, the brigade quartermaster, that he no longer wanted my services as assistant wagonmaster, and that I and my horse would have to ske-daddle.
But the captain says, "Well, Uncle Charley, I have got the very spot for you and want you to fill it." "What is that," says I. "Why walk in to my office and take up your quarters with me and the staff, and help James McCorckle in my office."
Thereupon instead of having to go back to the Bloodhound, Old Hathaway, which I never would have done. . . . I never swore
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to support a tyrant, but I swore to support the United States, which I calculate to do, and have done, and I have given satis- faction to such men as Gen. Ward, Capt. Spillman, Commissar of the Brigade and Capt. Coolidge brigade quartermaster, who are men, and think more of a man than of a mule, even if a mule does cost the most.
I am well, and never was so hearty in all my life. I have a good horse which I call Cisaroe. But all in all I am a very sorry material to make a first rate soldier, a being destitute of speech, thought or action. That is if it extends to any further speech than "Yes, sir." He must not think, out loud, for it is truly unmilitary to hold common conversation with a private. As for action, you may act out your orders, and no more. Do all of this and you are under what is termed military discipline.
As it is strictly understood that no superior in rank take any counsel from an inferior. Therefore the presumption for a com- mon soldier is that he have these particular faculties of speaking, thinking and acting.
If he should have to be liberally endowed with these faculties, by the creator, it is better for his comfort if he could not possibly control his sentiments, that he keep them from the shoulder strap gentry, to them gag himself.
I am as I said before, as comfortable as a man can be, with- out the shoulder straps. But you may ask, do they give the man the power of speech, the comprehensive powers of discernment and the capabilities of a soldier. The military powers that be think so. . . . . But it is hard to put brains in a fool's hand, and hard to place courage in the breast of a coward. But such is military life.
I am the wrong material to make a good soldier, but if old General Ward was to give me a task to perform, be it ever so hazardous, I am the boy that would do it, or faint. I would cer- tainly make an effort.
They sent me to Scottsville with three teams without a guard. Capt Coolidge asked me if I was afraid. I asked him if it was his orders, and he said "yes." I told him I never allowed such thoughts to enter my mind. I went and as luck would have it, brought my small train through safely, 32 miles out and 32 miles back, and not a Union man to protect us, and all the way in enemy's teratory.
The next week old Morgan took 100 head of cattle on the same road, about 15 miles further on. I now have my descriptive
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list, and my regular detail papers, so that Hathaway cannot come and take $1,000.00 with him away from Gen. Ward's paper brigade.
I have not received a penny of the money that they owe me, now three months of pay, my regular pay and also my forty cents extra as a detailed man. Gabe Hughes called and saw me the other day. He is speculating in butter. The price of things would surprise you. A plug of tobacco that used to sell at 10c now costs 40c ; common shirts, $3.00; boots, $7.00 to $10.00; whiskey $2.50 a canteen full. In fact everything is at extra prices. Give my respects to Sophrona, and all your children, Miss Fatterle, Cook, Fisher, in fact all friends too numerous to mention.
I remain your affectionate brother,
Charles.
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HISTORICAL PAPERS
INTRODUCTION TO HISTORICAL PAPERS
On September third and fourth, 1884, the pioneers and old settlers of Lake county, Indiana celebrated the semi-centennial of the settlement of the county. Many of the county's first set- tlers, who knew the trials and tribulations, the joys and sorrows of those early days, were there to read papers and give talks about their experiences. Most of these were very capable of putting their thoughts on paper and into words. Bartlett Woods' con- tribution was headed "The Pioneer Settlers, Their Homes and Habits, Their Descendants and Influence."
THE PIONEER SETTLERS, THEIR HOMES AND HABITS, THEIR DESCENDANTS AND INFLUENCE
By Bartlett Woods
President of the Old Settlers Association
It was a fortunate thought that prompted the Old Settlers of this county to organize an association to meet annually, inviting all, young and old, to meet with them renewing old friendships and a fraternal and kindly feeling to all, and to keep green in our memories the trials and the incidents of the early days. My theme today "The Pioneers, their Homes and Habits, their Descendants, and their Influence."
Looking back, it seems that we can hardly realize that from such small and humble beginnings such great results should follow, and now, fifty years have passed since the first white man built his cabin and ploughed a furrow in the then, unbroken and virgin soil of Lake county. It was the wish of many of our citizens that this event should be commemorated.
A community, should in their journey through life, occasion- ally make a halt and look back, and at this time we as a people can so clearly mark the starting place, that we should meet and cele- brate the semi-centennial year which marks the fifty years of growth and of civilized life in what is now Lake county. Fifty
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years ago, a wild, uncultivated region, today, the home of thous- ands of people.
Fifty years ago.
"During the summer of 1834, United States surveyors sur- veyed the land. The party camped for a week in June and July in that part of the grove now owned by Dr. Pettibone in the town of Crown Point." For this I am indebted to the History of Lake County by my friend, Mr. Ball, and I shall have to quote still further from that valuable record. "Mr. J. Hurlburt, an old set- tler of Porter county, was one of that party of surveyors, and at the time, he remembers no cabin, and no settler at that time, (June and July) in any of our central groves." "As yet, the squatters were not here," but soon the pioneers came. Ball's history says, "In September, 1834, Richard Fancher, Charles Wilson, Robert Wilkinson and two nephews left Attica, on the Wabash river, three in a wagon and two mounted on good horses, to look for claims or homesteads in the newly surveyed northwest corner of the state. They crossed the Kankakee at the head of the rapids, crossed West Creek at a place which Wilkinson selected for a home, and came up to Cedar Lake. They camped there. They kept their headquarters at the lake. R. Fancher and Charles Wilson being well mounted, traveled considerably. They were at South East Grove, and all the central parts. The surveyors had just been over the region. They found no settlers," Richard Fancher selected a part of section 17, the land on which we are now assembled being part of this same section, and the little lake in our Fair Ground was named after Richard Fancher, and is to- day called Fancher lake. Charles Wilson selected land near Cedar Lake. They stayed three weeks, returned to the Wabash and waited for the spring. I have quoted freely from the pages of Mr. Ball's history the doings of these pioneers; and their evidence goes to show that up to the date of their coming, there were no settlers in the region of country traveled by them.
In the last October, 1834, came a prominent figure in our county's history, Solon Robinson. In that same October, there came from the Wabash, David and Thomas Horner, and Dr. Brown. On the first of November, Henry Wells, and Luman A Fowler came to Solon Robinson's tent, looking at the country.
In October, 1834, Thomas Childers and family, according to the record, settled on the southeast quarter of Section 17, on the edge of School Grove, being the first known settlers in the central part of the county. Solon Robinson and family settled on the part of timber now forming part of Crown Point, and must be awarded the honor of being the first settler in Crown Point, and
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second only in the central part of the county, and from this time, the pioneers came moving on, and became settlers. I will name them in the order of their settlement in 1834. In October of that year, Thomas Childers. In November, Solon Robinson, Luman A. Fowler and Robert Wilkinson. In December, Jesse Pierce and David Pierce, and it is believed that a settler by the name of Ross settled on Deep River in the summer of this year, and it is prob- ably from him that the township took the name. William Crooks settled on Deep River near the bridge across that stream on the present road from Merrillville to Hobart. Samuel Miller of Michigan City, in company with Crooks built a mill there. I knew Miller but do not remember Crooks; the same Crooks was after- wards an associate judge. There was a store there in an early day, selling a little of everything. Whiskey was part of the stock in trade. Whiskey was cheap then, and was retailed at a shilling a quart. The mill and store were finally abandoned but the place was always known as Miller's Mill.
In 1834, came names familiar to the early settlers, and to many now living. I copy from the record from Ball's history ; In January : Lyman Wells, John Driscoll. In February : J. W. Holton, W. A. Holton, and William Clark, from Jennings county, Indiana. March : R. Fancher and Robert Wilkinson, from Attica, Indiana. In the spring; Elias Bryant, J. Wiggins, Nancy Agnew, widow, and E. W. Bryant. In May : Elias Myrick, William My- rick, S. P. Stringham, Thomas Reed, and Aaron Cox. In June : Peter Stainbrook. In November: David Horner, Thomas Wiles, Thomas Horner, Jesse Bond, Jacob L. Brown and Milo Robinson. In December, Henry Wells, William S. Thornburg, R. Dunham, John G. Forbes, R. Hamilton, and John Wood. There were set- tlers perhaps besides these. Some had located in 1832 and 1833 on the stage route from Detroit to Fort Dearborn, and there might be others who failed to have their names in the claim register, and this might have been, as the "Squatters Union of Lake County" was not organized until the Fourth of July, 1836. Be this as it may, these six names in 1834, and twenty-nine in 1835, are from the best authority, and will be accepted as the true record of the first pioneers in 1834 and the following year, 1835. The years 1836 and 1837 were marked by increased numbers and still they came, coming not only from the older states and Canada, but from lands across the sea.
The homes of the pioneers were log cabins; many of the younger people here today have hardly seen one, and fewer have lived in one. Before 1834, the groves and woodlands of this region had scarcely resounded with the echo of the white man's
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ax; nature had here a new field for its efforts; it lay in the line of the march of civilization toward the setting sun. The mission of the race was to make the wilderness figuratively speaking, blos- som as the rose.
The pioneer family had come. The wagon cover for the jour- ney their only shelter. A cabin is to be built, the nearest timber is sought for, the axes wake up the stillness of a thousand years, only broken before by the whoop of the Indians or perhaps by that mysterious race that may have lived here even before the Redman came. The advent of civilized life had begun, the logs are hauled by the oxen that brought them here, neighbors lend a helping hand, and then, the raising. All the settlers around are invited -few there may be, but all come. The best choppers are chosen to carry up the corners. Log after log goes up, even to the roof, no rafters, no shingles, but instead of shingles, shakes, two feet long, rived out of a white oak log, and poles put on the shakes to keep them in place. Not a nail was necessary; even the door was hung with wooden hinges. Dinner was provided, good feeling ruled; whiskey was passed around during the raising, and few thought at that day, that it was any great breach of temperance propriety to drink with the rest, wishing success, health, and happiness to the newcomers. The chimney was a curiosity. Brick were out of the question. It was a stick chimney laid up square, and the sticks split out as near like lathes as possible. Clay mortar was laid on with each lath, the whole carried up above the peak of the roof, the jambs and inside, and the hearth were all clay, kept in place by logs outside. All was plastered inside and out with clay mortar and the chimney was completed.
Of furniture, in the sense we understand it now, was very little. I do not remember any of the pioneer cabins having a cook- ing stove or a carpet. No sewing machines, nothing like there is today to lighten women's labor. The fireplace at one end wide enough for a log fire, the kettles swinging on the crane, the bake kettle, the spider and the frying pan comprised about all the cooking utensils of the household. A table made from the best material on hand, sometimes shakes, a few splint bottom chairs, a bench or two, some had bedsteads, but it was no uncommon thing to see a bedstead made of poles the ends driven into the logs and one leg out, in the room holding up the ends of the poles. With an ax and a few tools, a one legged bedstead could be made in a few hours. No locks or bolts on our doors, no fastenings of any kind. Civilization and culture claim to have made great strides; so they have, but in our condition we had some com- pensating advantages; in those small beginnings, without much
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capital to start, the poverty of that day was clean and respect- able. There were no tramps, there was no fear of the modern burglar. Simply as a way to fasten the door when shut was "the latch" and this was always of wood, with a string attached, and it became a saying, when speaking of the generous hospitality of the squatters, that their latch string was always out, and it was; to all that came, there was a greeting and welcome. This feeling was the result of a mutual dependence at raisings, joining teams, and in every way in which we could help one another. In health or in sickness, this trait of fraternal feeling always prompted to the most neighborly interests and kindly offices was to us all the source of much comfort and happiness. Our isolation and trials would have been almost unbearable without it was for that fellow feel- ing that made us "wonderous kind". Sympathy, that divinity that lives in its purity amidst poverty, trials or trouble came out in its grandest devotion in the hours when, in our homes came sickness and death. Pomp and wealth and luxury have come to many in our land, but not in the revealing of wealth or in the splendor of its surroundings, can be often found the beauty of this sympathy and kindness which grew up and was a balm and a helper to the pioneers in their humble cabins in the wilderness. Fashions there were none. The cut of a coat or the style of a bonnet did not occupy a thought. The mothers and wives and daughters of the pioneers had no money to waste or time, to trouble themselves with the frivolities of fashion.
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