USA > Indiana > Grant County > Fairmount > The making of a township, being an account of the early settlement and subsequent development of Fairmount Township, Grant County, Indiana, 1829 to 1917, based upon data secured by personal interviews, from numerous communications > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 41 | Part 42
"Will thee have flat plug or dog-leg ?"
There were no canned goods, no cereals such as oatmeal, corn flakes, etc. No bottled goods, no olives ; in fact, nothing except what I have mentioned above.
Henry Harvey was a good man in every sense of the word. He did just as the merchants of today do. He granted credit to those who never paid him for his goods or appreciated his kindness for extending credit
I remember only John. Avis and Kelley Harvey. Possibly there were others.
Joseph W. Baldwin kept store in Fairmount, and. I believe. Seaberry Lines. John Scarry kept a grocery.
George Doyle came later on, kept a grocery, and was accused of selling wet goods. We always thought he was guilty for the reason that at that period my father was in the habit of taking a nip of the "Oh, be joyful!" He thought a great deal of Mr. Doyle and usually after calling at Doyle's grocery showed the effects of John Barleycorn. There- fore, we thought that wet goods were sold at Doyle's. We think that no liquor was sold in Fairmount after Doyle left until after 1868.
Fairmount was as dry as the Sahara Desert for years, except possi-
I18
The Making of a Township.
bly when a drug store sold 4-X bitters and London gin. That did not last long.
We forgot to mention the fact that the first settlers had no oil lamps -- only tallow candles, some of which were made in moulds and some were what were termed dips.
The candle-mould consisted of three, six or nine round tin tubes shaped like a candle. Those were joined together at the bottom and top. The bottom of the tube had a small hole through which the wick- ing was drawn. The wick was prepared as follows: It was cut twice the length the candle was to be made, then doubled and placed in the tube and the ends drawn through the hole in the bottom of the tube. After a round stick had been placed through the folded wick at the top of the moulds, the wick was then drawn tight and tied at the bottom. The melted tallow was then poured into the mould and allowed to cool, when the candles were pulled out of the mould and stored away ready for use.
The dip was made by preparing the wick and placing them on a round rod. Then a kettle of melted tallow was prepared and the wick was dipped in the melted tallow and taken out and hung on a support until the tallow that had adhered to the wick had hardened. This pro- cess was continued until the candle had become the desired size. This style of candle could be made only in cold weather. We have assisted our mother in making this style of candle.
A lamp flue or lantern globe was not thought of. A lantern made of tin, punched full of holes of various sizes, was to be found occa- sionally. A candle was placed on the inside of this lantern. You can imagine about how much light it would give. Later a lantern was made which had glass sides. This was an improvement over the old tin lan- tern. There may have been a lantern that burned sperm oil, but we never saw one. When we wanted a light to go to the neighbors, or coon hunting, a hickory bark torch was used, and it made a good light.
Fairmount Township was covered with heavy timber, the finest that ever grew. If we were to state the size of some of those immense pop- lar and oak trees that were to be found along Back Creek the reader might say :
"That fellow is out of his head."
It was a serious problem with the carly settlers to know how to dis- pose of the timber. In order to clear the land for cultivation the most common method was to deaden the trees. After they had become dead and dry it was easier to burn them. This was done and it involved a great amount of labor. A farmer would either burn or cut a large num-
119
Wide Variety of Subjects.
ber of logs in lengths that could be handled. Then he would invite his neighbors to a log rolling. They would come early and stay late. You would see them with their favorite handspike in hand ready to roll logs and out lift their neighbor.
It was at the log rollings that many contests were had as to the strength of those hardy pioneers. There was much care exercised to see that no advantage was taken in the contests. If a man won honors it must be done fairly. Great numbers of logs would be piled by the men, to be burned at the pleasure of the owner. The women of the neighborhood would come in and assist the good wife in preparing a sumptuous dinner for the men. And so it went all over the country.
The people of those days were genuine neighbors in the strictest sense of the word. When a few acres were cleared they were fenced with rails. This was done to keep the stock out, as all kinds of stock ran at large. Bells were put on cows, horses and sheep, so that the owner could find them more readily when he wanted them. Each owner knew the sound of his bell as well as that of his neighbor.
When we moved to Fairmount Township, David Smithson owned six hundred and twenty acres of land that joined my father's farm. We do not think that more than sixty acres of this immense farm was clear and in cultivation. This ivas about a fair sample of the entire Town- ship at that time. Tanbark finally became a commercial factor in the community. In the spring of each year hundreds of the finest oak trees would be felled and the bark taken from them and hauled to the tanyard. The trees were either made into rails or left to rot.
The best log house ever built on Back Creek was built by Seth Wins- low about two miles north of Fairmount. It was built of hewed logs, was two stories high, and there were only seven logs on a side, as we rec- ollect it. Each log was thirty inches wide when hewn. We think the building was twenty by thirty. What immense trees it must have taken to get such logs! Who but Seth Winslow would have undertaken such a task? Anyone who ever saw this house could not help praising its builder.
Uncle Seth could pinch the hardest of any man I ever saw and derived the most pleasure out of seeing his victim get out of his reach. We have good reason to recollect him. The last time the writer saw him he was sitting outside of his house on Main Street, in Fairmount. I had just arrived from Nebraska, and was talking to some friends near where he sat. He reached out and pinched me until I winced with pain. He laughed heartily at my discomfort. No one could get angry at him. If he is not with the angels then there are none.
I20
The Making of a Township.
The first school I attended in Grant County was taught by Milt McHatton. He was a small man. My recollection is that the school house was a little old log cabin that stood on the southwest corner of my father's farm. Then a new, hewed-log school house was built on Henry Wilson's farm and called Wesleyan Back Creek school house. It was the pride of the community. The seats were linden logs hewed flat and pins driven in for legs. Then there were long pins driven in the walls and a wide board placed on them. This was where we prac- ticed writing. Once or twice a week the teacher set the copy and the scholars tried to imitate it. Steel pens were a scarce article. The pens were usually made by the teacher out of a goose or a turkey quill. The ink was of home manufacture.
At the first school the studying was audible-reading and talking aloud-a regular bedlam. This method soon gave way to more sane ideas. In those days there was very little money for educational pur- poses. The majority were subscription schools. A teacher would go through the neighborhood and get as much patronage subscribed as possible, with the understanding that the teacher should board around among the patrons. The result was the patron who had the best accom- modations had the teacher to board most of the time. The net amount usually received by the teacher was fifteen to twenty dollars per month. The term usually lasted four months. It did not require a great deal of preparation to be a teacher. If you could write a fairly good hand. knew a little arithmetic and read fairly well, you could teach school. Grammar, algebra, history and geometry were not necessary in the first schools.
John Rush was our second teacher. He taught in the new school house. He was a frail man and very sedate. He came to school the . first day with a big beech limb, or whip, laid it on his desk, then read the rules of the school. In those days the teacher made his rules with- out any reference to patrons of the school. He was the lord of the manor. The whip, or gad as it was called, was used unmercifully by many teachers. I have witnessed some brutal whippings in the old log school house.
121
Wide Variety of Subjects.
WILLIAM R. WOOLLEN
Was born in Dorchester County, at Johnson's Cross Roads, now Oak Grove, on the eastern shore of Mary- land, September 5. 1818, and died at his home on Mill Street, in Fair- mount, August 31, 1911. He was a son of Jacob and Nancy (Cockran) Woollen. In early life he had ac- quired a practical education obtained by his own personal experience and observation. In 1836, at the age of eighteen, his parents having died, he went to Baltimore. From Baltimore he walked to Wheeling. Virginia, and at this point he took a boat. making Ohio River towns, arriving at Cincinnati with only seventy-one cents in his pocket. Here he found employment in a brick yard. After a short stay at Cincinnati he went by boat, working his passage to Quincy, Illinois, where his cousin. Isaac Woollen, resided. He re- mained here two years, doing such work as came to hand in this new Mississippi River town, when he de- cided to return to his old Maryland home. He traveled horseback. While on this journey he joined some cattle men and assisted them in driving their stock as far as Con- nersville, Indiana, where he parted company with the drovers and went on to Wayne County, Indiana, to visit Robert and Jane ( Woollen) Whitely, his sister, who had but recently emi- grated from Maryland and settled at Milton. He abandoned the idea of returning to Maryland and joined Robert Whitely in agricultural pursuits. It was at Milton that he met and courted Julia Ann Oldfield, a daughter of William Oldfield, also a native of Maryland, who with his daughter and two sons, James and Luther, had found a home in the new West. James subsequently bought a farm near Summitville, Indiana, where he lived until his death, Luther continuing to reside at Milton. On May 24, 1842, at Milton, William Woollen and Julia Ann Oldfield were married. Five years later, in the fall of 1847, they moved to Madison County, and with savings accumulated by hard labor and the strictest economy, purchased a farm near Summitville. He commenced at once to improve his land, passing through all the hardships and successfully meeting the discouragements which were the common lot of all pioneers in that early day. In 1852 he bought and operated the first chaff piler brought to that section, later purchasing a separator from a Richmond concern, one of the first separators manufac- tured, and for that time an innovation which attracted the attention and excited the wonder of his neighbors for miles around in that sparsely popu- lated settlement. In 1864 he sold his Madison County farm and bought of John Rush two hundred acres of land in Grant County, situated southwest of Fairmount, where John Woollen now lives. Here he remained until his wife's health failed, when he retired from active work and moved to Fair- mount. In politics he was first identified with the Whigs, casting his bal- lot in 1840 for Gen. William Henry Harrison, who was elected the ninth President. In 1856, upon the formation of the Republican party, he sup- ported Gen. John C. Fremont. Late in life he became a member of the Society of Friends, and as often as health would permit he was found in his place at all services. William and Julia Ann (Oldfield) Woollen were the
I22
The Making of a Township.
parents of five children, namely: James H., born May 24, 1843, who died in January, 1894, at his home in Clay County, Nebraska; Jacob, born Novem- ber 30, 1845: Edward, born September 22, 1847; William L., born August 6, 1851, who died June 22, 1873, at his father's home, and Mrs. Elda A. Trader, born September 1, 1857, wife of Harvey Trader. They reside in Fairmount. Jacob lives in Fairmount, and Edward owns and manages a farm about three miles southwest of Fairmount. August 13, 1886, the wife and mother, after a prolonged illness, passed away. On the 14th day of December, 1887, Wil- liam Woollen was married to Miss Lizzie McConnell, of Marion, who was a true companion and faithfully attended her husband's care and comfort in his declining years. William Woollen was a man of sterling qualities and noble characteristics. His strict integrity and absolute honesty none questioned. His life was replete with kindly deeds and manifestations of consideration for the welfare of others. To his progeny he left the memory and example of a career in every respect worthy of emulation.
We think George Pierce taught several terms. Foster Davis was well liked as a teacher. He was one of the first teachers at Wesleyan Back Creek to get away from the old idea that "he that spareth the rod spoileth the child." I do not think that he ever kept a whip in the schoolroom. All the others prior to him did.
No woman had ever taught school at Wesleyan Back Creek until a little English miss of about seventeen applied for the school. Mary Taylor was her name. The old heads said it was not possible for a woman to teach the school, but Eli Neal, Harvey Davis and my father were willing to try, and employed Miss Taylor. She was a success from the very first, and taught one of the best terms ever held in the old school house.
About this time, 1854 to 1866, the people became more enlightened. and waked up to find that women were just as competent to teach school as men. Angelina Harvey and Mary Winslow, both, were teachers who never had a superior and few equals.
When we attended our last school in Fairmount Township the term was taught in the new two-story frame building. It stood just oppo- site Jonathan P. Winslow's brick house, at that time the finest in Fairmount.
No wonder Fairmount has such good schools. The foundation was of the right kind of material. The early teachers were none of them more advanced than the eighth grade of the present time. They made good use of what knowledge they did have and laid the foundation for the present-day methods.
In the earliest days the school house did not have stoves, but a big fireplace that would take a four-foot backlog. The teacher (man) and the big boys cut the wood in the timber around the school house and carried it so it could be used when needed. A backlog twelve to eight- een inches in diameter would be put in the fireplace, then smaller wood
Wide Variety of Subjects. 123
would be placed in front, fire started, and all in the room would be comfortable. A backlog would last a day.
Schoolbooks were scarce. They would not average more than one book to the scholar. Not all children of school age attended school. As soon as they were able to work they were compelled to assist in clearing the land, that a crop might be raised.
The roads of Fairmount Township were almost impassable, espe- cially in the spring and fall. As is well known, the surface of the land is very level, and at an early date was not drained. Therefore, it was not possible to have good highways. I will describe the thoroughfare running east and west from the old pike at Carter Hasting's, and this description will answer for all the roads in the Township.
All the worst places were called corduroy. This kind of road was made by cutting rails, poles and logs about twelve feet long. These were placed across the road and a little dirt thrown on them-just enough to hold them in position. This kind of road could be found for miles. Often, when the waters were high in the spring, these logs would float out of place. Then the road would be impassable until the logs were replaced or the water receded.
Commencing at the home of James Nixon, running west for miles, this pole road could be found. To say that it was rough would be putting it mildly. Just imagine going over those logs or poles in a wagon (no spring seat) for miles at a time, with seldom a smooth piece of road to break the jolt, and water on both sides full of frogs and snakes. Such were the country roads of Grant County prior to 1860.
The first gravel road built was started about the year 1857. As we now recollect, it was a toll road commencing at the Madison County line and running north to Jonesboro, where it was to connect with a plank road that was to run from Jonesboro to Marion, and on to Wabash. This road was built by private parties. We fail to recollect all of the original owners, but Nathan D. Wilson, Jesse E. Wilson, William Pierce, Samuel Radley, Joseph W. Hill, Henry Harvey and my grandfather, Samuel Heavenridge, were among those who built the first gravel road in Fairmount Township and Grant County.
This road is a monument to the men who built it. They were eighteen carat fine in brains and integrity. They anticipated the wants of the country long in advance of the time. Tollgates were estab- lished at points where travel coming from cross roads would be inter- cepted and toll collected. For a long time a tollgate was maintained just south of where Dr. Glenn Henley's office now stands, that being
-
124
The Making of a Township.
the south side of Fairmount. Solomon (Toddy) Thomas kept this gate for years. There was a gate not far south of Joseph W. Hill's, near Jonesboro. William Winslow kept this gate. Later on, a gate was established near Allen Dillon's and one at the cross roads south of Carter Hasting's. ( I use the names that were familiar to me.)
There were always people who would try to avoid paying toll. They would run past and do a dollar's worth of dodging to avoid paying a few cents. I have known men who lived south of Fairmount, and near the pike, who, rather than pay a toll of say, ten cents. would go west out of town, then south to the County line, then east, miles out of their way. They pretended that their rights were infringed upon. I am told that there are no toll roads in Indiana now.
The farmers soon discovered that drainage was very important. Back Creek and Deer Creek were splendid outlets for almost the entire west part of Fairmount Township. It soon became evident that those creeks must be cleaned out to make drainage perfect. There was no such thing as tile to use in draining the farm. The ditches were dug about two feet deep and twenty inches wide. An oak rail about six inches wide was put on one side of the ditch and stakes driven to hold it in place. Then puncheons of oak were made and one end placed on the rail, the other end resting on the ground. This made a good drain. My father was among the first who drained his farm. We always had corn when anyone in the vicinity did.
The first settlers depended on maple sugar almost entirely until 1856-'57, when sorghum was first introduced in the United States. My father received a package of sorghum cane seed from the Patent Office at Washington, D. C., the spring of 1857. He decided to give it a trial. Sorghum was an entire stranger in the United States, being a native of China. No one knew how to get best results. There were no mills in existence to crush the stalk and get the juice. Neither did they have evaporators or other means to reduce the juice to syrup.
Grandfather Heavenridge and my father conceived the idea of making a mill of wood. They took a wheelwright by the name of Jack Reel in with them. They went to the timber, selected a perfect maple tree about two feet in diameter. They turned two rollers eighteen inches through, one with a long shaft, the other shorter. They placed wooden cogs near the top of the rollers, then a heavy oak frame was made and the roller placed in it. The frame was made so that by means of a wedge the rolls could be made either loose or tight, just as needed. After the rolls were in place it was necessary to have something to turn them. A crooked tree was procured and made into what was called a sweep.
I25
Wide Variety of Subjects.
In the meantime, the cane had grown splendidly and was ready for the mill. The next problem was. "Could the juice be boiled in iron kettles?" We had two iron kettles and one large coffee kettle, and decided to try both.
The cane was cut and business commenced. The result was the molasses was as black as it was possible to be, but tasted all right. People came from far and near to taste the new syrup. The mill was a success. We think it possible that one other person tried the same ex- periment the same year in Grant County.
This was the year that a paper dollar would be good when you started to town, but would be worthless before you got to spend it. The merchant kept a book in which the values of paper money then in circulation were listed. Nothing but gold and silver had a real value, and there was but little of either in circulation.
There were no markets for the products of the farm, for the reason that farmers would not take money of uncertain value. A great many merchants issued their own script. This was used in the vicinity where it was issued. If the merchant was good the scrip was redeemed. Many merchants failed, many banks went out of business, but the sturdy farmers of Grant County went along as usual.
CHAPTER XII.
DAVID STANFIELD AND THE NAMING OF FAIRMOUNT.
D AVID STANFIELD, son of Samuel and Lydia Stanfield, was born about nine miles above Greenville, in Greene County, Ten- nessee, on the Second day of the week, Fifth month 13th, 1793. From a little private diary, made by him- self of an excellent grade of pa- per, each page 3x4 inches, the writer is permitted by Dr. Glenn Henley, a great-grandson of Da- vid Stanfield, to copy the informa- tion given herewith. As nearly as is practicable the items are taken verbatim from this diary as David Stanfield himself entered them :
"David Stanfield's Family Rec- ord of his own and his wife and family's births, marriages, remov- als and deaths. 1824."
Omitting information in regard to David and Elizabeth already given, this diary reads as follows : "David Stanfield and Elizabeth Beals, aforesaid, were married by Esq. Miller, at her father's house, in Washington, Tennessee, afore- said, on the 13th of 5th mo .. 1813. DAVID STANFIELD "Births of David and Elizabeth Stanfield's children, the 2 eldest, William Williams and David S. Stan- field, both born at his father's house, nine miles above Greenville, Green County, Tennessee State. The other children as far as the now youngest, namely, Lydia Jane, were all born on Big Sinking Creek, Green County, five or six miles above Greenville, Tennessee, as follows :
"William Williams Stanfield was born Ist day of week and 13th of 2d mo., in the year of Christ, 1814.
"2d child, David S. Stanfield, was born on Ist of week and 7th of 5th mo., 1815.
I26
127
David Stanfield-Naming of Fairmount.
"3d child, Charles Stanfield, was born 5th of week and 18th of 12th mo., in the year of Christ, 1816.
"4th child, Isaac Stanfield, was born on 5th of week and 27th of 8th mo., 1818.
"5th child, Samuel Vernon Stan- field, was born on the 4th of the week and 29th of 3d month, in the year of Christ, 1820.
"6th child, Hannah Jones Stan- field, was born on 6th of week and 28th of 12th month, 1821.
"7th child, and last, until the suc- cessor, Lydia Jane Stanfield, was born on 4th of week and 12th of IIth mo., 1823.
"8th child, Elijah Stanfield, was born on 24th of 10th mo., and 3rd day of week, in the year of Christ, 1826.
"Clayton Reeve Stanfield was born the Ist day of the week and 3d of 6th month, 1832."
No entries are made under the headings of the different pages left for "Marriages," or "Wedlock yet Perpetuated." Under the heading "Removals" we find this entry :
ELIZABETH (BEALS) STAN- FIELD
Daughter of Isaac and Hannah Beals, and wife of David Stanfield, was born three miles above Lees- burgh, on the Abington Road, Lime- stone Creek, Washington County, Tennessee, on the first day of the week and first of sixth month, 1794. She died fifth month, twenty-first, 1881, aged eighty-six years, eleven months and twenty days. Her re- mains lie in Back Creek Graveyard. where repose in their last resting place all that is mortal of many of her pioneer friends and acquaint- ances.
"David Stanfield moved from Tennessee to Indiana in the year 1833, and from Madison County to Grant County in 1837."
David Stanfield was of English stock. He bought a piece of land not quite a mile east of Fairmount, which is now a part of the Foster Davis farm, where he lived for a short time prior to buying the land south of town, where he made his permanent home. In stature, he was erect, five feet. ten inches tall, square-built, of a commanding appear- ance, weighed about 175 pounds, big forehead, dark hair and grey eyes, pleasing address, and when speaking in public used good English. His habit was to go smoothly shaven, hair cut short, was neat and clean in nis dress and appearance, wearing the Friends regulation cut of clothes and using the plain language at all times. As a recorded minister of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.