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 12
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In 1854 or 1855, Daniel Ridgeway came with a tanyard and located in your community. He continued to operate this place for a few years. when he sold it to Micah Baldwin, who continued to make leather so long as the writer remained in or near Fairmount. Nathan Little
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The Making of a Township.
established a tanyard in your town some time after Daniel Ridgeway came, and these two places furnished the leather to make the boots and shoes for your town and the surrounding community. This was an important and indispensable industry.
In 1859 or 1860 a stage line was established from Marion to Ander- son, and trips were made from each place three times a week, carrying mail, merchandise and passengers. I cannot now remember who estab-
THE GIANT HACKBERRY
Which stands on the Bogue lot, near the present residence of John Harvey Wilson, on North Main Street. This tree is one of the largest in the Town- ship. A few of its spreading branches extend out seventy-five feet, making an interesting and picturesque object contributed to the present generation from the primitive forests of Fairmount Township.
lished this line, but know that Walker Winslow operated it during the Civil War and for some years afterwards. It went out of business when the Cincinnati, Wabash and Michigan Railroad came, in 1874.
In 1862 or 1863 was built the first gravel road in your Township, running from Jonesboro to the Madison County line. This was a toll road, and was promoted and owned by men of your Township until bought by the County and made a free gravel road. I think Jonathan P. Winslow was one of the chief promoters and owners of this road.
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Eighteen Fifty-two to Eighteen Sixty-three.
I have thus far confined myself to matters that in my opinion were of a more or less public character and in their operation served to pro- mote the growth and making of your Township in a material way. I have said nothing about schools, churches, trades or business enter- prises, all of which are vitally essential to the growth and progress of a town or Township.
When I came to your town the frame Quaker meeting house fur- nished the only school room in town. In 1855 was built on East First Street a frame building in which was opened the first free school in town. William Neal was the teacher. There were in the Township, at that time, some five or six public schools located in various parts of the territory. I cannot now locate all of them, but remember that one was located near the William G. Lewis homestead, another east of town, not far from the William Karwin farm, one at Sugar Grove, on the Madison County line, another southwest of town, near the Liberty Township line.
The Quaker meeting house was the only place of public worship in town when I came. Nixon Rush and Milton Winslow were the minis- ters connected with this church whom I remember most distinctly. Wil- liam Hall was, I think, a United Brethren minister and George Bowers was a Methodist minister. The last two were what were known in that day as circuit riders and covered a wide extent of territory.
All of the above ministers were worthy exponents of the Master's cause, and were preaching in the interest of a fallen humanity and for the upbuilding of the cause of Christ.
The merchants in town during the period about which I write were Joseph W. Baldwin, Isaac Stanfield, William and Vincent Wright, Seaberry Lines. George Doyle, Ezra Foster, Jonathan P. Winslow and Micajah Wilson. I think, perhaps, Henry Harvey may have had a store there during this period.
The physicians were John White, Philip Patterson, Alpheus Hen- ley and David S. Elliott.
The blacksmiths were Isaac Roberts, William Hundley, Joseph Ben- nett, William A. Walker, Elisha Cook and Solomon Macey.
The carpenters were William Hall, Nathan Vinson, Joshua Foster, Miller Martin, Alfred Waldron and Dennis Montgomery.
The shoemakers were Solomon Parsons, James Martin, William G. Lewis, Logan Fear and Micajah Wilson. Richard Mott was a travel- ing shoemaker, and went from house to house in the fall and winter, making the shoes for the entire family while he remained.
The first cabinet maker was William Hollingsworth. He made the
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The Making of a Township.
furniture which adorned the primitive homes, as well as the caskets in which the pioneer fathers and mothers were consigned to their final resting place.
Lawyers we had none, and needed none. Men were then capable of settling their own affairs.
Bankers were not necessary, for everybody was poor. The good housewife was the tailor and dressmaker.
Robert Kelsay, Smith Kelsay, Granville Mott and Bert Mott were the early stone cutters and builders of monuments.
The early hotel keepers were Seaberry Lines, Solomon Parsons, Nathan Vinson and John Scarry.
I have now traced briefly many of the men and events which my boyhood recollections connect with the early making of your Township. I have not stopped to comment upon the individual characteristics of these men, nor to point out, except in a general way, the part they played in obtaining the high and advanced position your town and Township now occupy in all that is best in our present day civilization.
These men were ruggedly and scrupulously honest in their deal- ings with their fellow men, loved their homes and their families, as well as their neighbors. They recognized the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They were charitable and generous to a fault. They knew and recognized no law except the law of right, and during all the period about which I write no crime of any kind dims the fair record of your Township.
To these rugged pioneers courts and jails were unnecessary and for them held no terrors. These hardy pioneers have long since gone to their final reward, and most of the men who were contemporaneous with me have also crossed the Great Divide.
As I close this review of a long-gone past there come unbidden to my mind some stanzas of Gray's immortal Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard :
Beneath those rugged elms, that yewtree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mold'ring heap. Each in his narrow cell forever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,
The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed.
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
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Eighteen Fifty-two to Eighteen Sixty-three.
For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care ; No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.
Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ;
How jocund did they drive their team afield ! How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!
Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure : Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the poor.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike th' inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
These men who linger only in memory, whose lives and deeds you seek to perpetuate in "The Making of a Township," which is, after all, but the making of a State and Nation in miniature, have left to their descendants who largely populate your town and Township a glorious heritage. No act of theirs can bring aught but pride, no deed of theirs can mantle the cheeks of their children and grandchildren with shame. They are gone, but not dead. They live in the glory of the blessings they have transmitted to posterity.
Summitville, Ind., January 30, 1917.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
(By J. M. Hundley)
I CAME into your community when the great questions which after - ward shook the very foundation of our Nation were beginning to be discussed and agitated. I mean the extension of human slavery and the doctrine of State's rights.
Reference has been made in your story to the Underground Rail- road, but I doubt very much if young people have any adequate con- ception of what is meant by the Underground Railroad.
Slavery, in some form, existed in all Nations from the earliest dawn of human history, but it is not my purpose in this communication to discuss the different forms of this monstrous and inhuman custom, except in so far as it has affected our political history in the past.
Our English ancestors established negro slavery in this country in 1620, at Jamestown, Virginia, and at one time it extended throughout the New England states.
It was soon found to be unprofitable in New England, and finally found its abiding place in the cotton-growing states, where we find it at the period about which I am writing.
As early as 1807 the great British statesman, Fox, worked aggres- sively against human slavery in England and her colonial possessions. He was preceded by Wilberforce, Buxton, and Elizabeth Heyrick, a Quaker lady, who wrote a pamphlet entitled "Immediate, Not Gradual Emancipation."
The arguments of this good Quaker lady finally prevailed, and on August 1, 1834, England emancipated her 800,000 slaves and paid their owners $100,000,000 for them. At the same time England emancipated her slaves in her East Indian possessions, making a grand total of 12,000,000 slaves who obtained their freedom.
I have recited the brief history of England's emancipation of slaves in order that I may the more easily get the reader to understand what I am going to say in relation to the Underground Railroad and its operations in Fairmount Township, as well as with the political history of our common country.
It will be understood that the United States failed to be impressed by the humane arguments which induced the mother country to give freedom to her slaves. On the other hand, the Southern States, finding
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The Underground Railroad.
slavery very profitable in the growing of cotton and other Southern staples, sought to have this institution extended to newly-formed states, and even succeeded in having this degrading practice recognized in our Federal Constitution.
Canada, lying along our Northern border, was the mecca of bond- . men fleeing from slavery in Kentucky and border slave states. As early as 18co Congress had declared the importation of slaves to be piracy, and had abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. But at the same time the slave power was growing more arrogant and was extending slavery to new states and demanding additional laws to assist in the recapture and return of escaping slaves.
The Fugitive Slave Law, which made every free man in Indiana or any other free State a slave catcher, and provided that anyone who should feed or shelter one of these poor black men fleeing to Canada in order to obtain his liberty should be subject to fine and imprison- ment.
This obnoxious law was soon followed by the infamous Dred Scott decision, which declared that the negro belonged to an inferior race and had no rights which our Constitution was bound to respect. These two actions on the part of the slave power which was then dominant in our Government fanned to a white heat the flame of hatred against the curse of slavery which already prevailed in the free states.
As love laughs at locksmiths, so liberty depises and defies oppres- sion. The immediate effect of the laws to which I have referred was to foster the organization of societies in the free states to render aid and comfort to escaping slaves.
The most potent and effective agent in assisting slaves to obtain their freedom by reaching Canada was the Underground Railroad, which consisted of organized societies extending across Indiana and Michigan, with stations at convenient intervals where escaping slaves could be secreted by day and transported by night from one station to another on their way to Canada and Liberty.
This railroad had no track but the rude trail through the wilder- ness, and no train or trolley car, but the means of transportation was a farm wagon, on horseback, or on foot, as the case might be. The flee- ing slave, with the north star as his beacon to liberty, and three or four of these hardy Hoosier pioneers as guides and protectors, made his slow and painful way to freedom.
One of these Underground Railroad stations was in Fairmount, and the Winslows, Wilsons, Baldwins, Rushes, Davises, Henleys, Stanfields, Richardsons, and many others were active agents on this railroad.
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The Making of a Township.
Pendleton, south of Fairmount, and Marion, north, were stations. and when an escaping slave was brought from Pendleton in the night time he was concealed in Fairmount or vicinity until the next night, when he was conveyed to Moses Bradford or Samuel McClure, at Ma- rion, who in turn would convey his charge to Ashland, now Lafon- taine. In this way fugitive slaves were housed, fed and conveyed to their destination in Canada.
The writer well remembers the last escaping slaves he saw. It was in August, 1856, and for some reason two runaway slaves had found it necessary to change their hiding place in the day time, which was an unusual and dangerous thing to do. They came to my father's smith shop about two o'clock in the afternoon, but in a few moments disap- peared and were concealed in Dr. Philip Patterson's hay mow-none too soon. Shortly after their disappearance James Buchanan, who was, I think, the sheriff of your county at the time, appeared upon the scene, accompanied by four or five other men, two of whom were the masters of the fleeing negroes. Inquiry was made as to whether any one had seen the escaping slaves, but, of course, no one had seen them, and in a short time their pursuers disappeared. That night my father, William Hundley, Jonathan Baldwin and Seaberry Lines conveyed them to Bradford's, at Marion.
Many instances of this kind occurred, and men, women and children were conveyed in the above-described manner to Canada and freedom.
I think a large number of your pioneer citizens were connected with the Underground Railroad, and I am sure a very large majority of them were in sympathy with its operation. While many of them came from North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, they were not of the slave- holding class and detested the institution of slavery and loved liberty for all mankind.
I have traced briefly the history of slavery as it affected your com- munity. While I have shown that there was an overwhelming senti- ment in your town and Township in favor of human freedom and op- position to the institution of slavery, it is only fair to say that this insti- tution had in your midst a few defenders.
The writer has traced in a hasty manner the action being taken everywhere throughout the North to nullify the odious laws which had been enacted in order to perpetuate human slavery. Nowhere was the feeling against slavery stronger than among the Quakers of your Township, but it was seen that this institution could not be eliminated by compromise or by the assistance of the Underground Railroad. The time was rapidly drawing near when this institution was to be shot
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The Underground Railroad.
to death on the field of battle, and in the accomplishment of this result Fairmount and Fairmount Township were to offer on the bloody field of carnage many of their best and noblest sons, who gave their lives in order that human freedom might prevail everywhere in our fair coun- try, and that the doctrine enunciated in the Declaration of Independence "that all men are created free and equal, endowed with certain inalien- able rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" might be true for the first time in our history.
I shall not attempt in this article to trace the formation of political parties or to describe the National campaigns which immediately pre- ceded the Civil War. I want to here advert very briefly to what was known in 1856 as the Know Nothing party, which made its appearance in Fairmount Township in that year. It was also known as the Amer- ican party, because of its opposition to foreign influence. This party was characterized by its secrecy and the reticence of its members.
I remember that when this party organization came to your Town- ship there were no secret societies of any kind in Fairmount. As the members of this party held their meetings in secret, and as there were no public halls or lodge rooms the meetings were held at night in barns and shops. The women of the town upon one occasion became greatly excited and pursued their liege lords to Bill Wright's barn and de- manded admittance. This was refused, whereupon the women pro- ceeded to break into the star chamber session and of course broke up the meeting and took their spouses home, where they were taught that they must at least know one thing, and that was that they could not keep late hours in barns without the consent of their wives.
I have been writing much about slavery and the black man, but have failed to say that the first colored man I ever saw was in Fairmount in 1852. His name was Nelson Brazleton, and he was a wagonmaker and worked in my father's shop and lived at our home for some time. He was a sober and industrious man, and was universally respected. I do not know whether he was the first man of African descent to make his home in your Township or not, but he was the first man of that kind that I had ever seen. In 1858 and 1859 Brazleton had a small shop on Jesse Winslow's farm, east of town, and did wagon repair work and some blacksmith work. I think he died here in 1860 or 1861.
I am sure that I have only touched upon the great subject of the Underground Railroad and have failed to mention scores of your early pioneers who were identified with this cause and did valiant service in advancing human liberty.
Summitville, Ind., February 27, 1917.
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The Making of a Township.
(By Mrs. Angelina Pearson)
The Friends everywhere worked by speech and by writings against the institution of slavery. The Underground Railroad became a means of escape for human chattels. Levi Coffin, a Friend, who lived in Cin- cinnati. was the reputed president. There were hundreds of branch lines running through various sections of the free states, reaching northward to Canada, the only territory the runaway siave could flec to and be safe from the pursuit of his master.
MRS. ANGELINA (HARVEY) PEARSON
One of the capable teachers to whom frequent reference has been made, is a native of Fairmount Township. where she was born, February 17. 1845. Her paternal grandparents were Thomas and Anna (Sadler) Harvey, and her maternal grandpar- ents were Phineas and Mary (Bogue) Henley. all of North Caro- lina, who came in the early day to this community. John S. Harvey, the father, was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, February 24. 1821, and died August 18, 1850; Lydia (Henley) Harvey, the mother, was born July 21, 1827, and died July 20, 1845. Mrs. Pearson was their only child. On her father's side she is of English, Irish and Welsh extraction, while her ma- ternal ancestors were a mixture of English, French and Indian blood. She was educated in the common schools of Fairmount Township and attended Earlham College in 1863. With the exception of three years residence at Converse, Indiana. she has always lived in Fairmount Township. Mrs. Pearson was en- gaged in teaching from 1862 until 1870, her school work being con- fined mostly to her own native Township, with the exception of brief en- gagements at Blue River Academy, in Washington County, Indiana, in Howard County, near Greentown, and one summer session in Greentown. Her most notable success, perhaps, was at the Lake School, in Fairmount Township, during the Civil War, when management of the highest order was required in the maintenance of discipline. On December 30. 1860, she was joined in marriage to Lemuel Pearson, born at West Milton, Ohio. December 17, 1843. His death occurred September 15, 1914. His parents were Isaac and Mary ( Pemberton) Pearson. Lemuel and Angelina Pear- son were parents of six children, namely: Herbert, born June 25, 1871; Har- vey, born August 18, 1873: Mary, born February 22, 1878; Ethel, born De- cember 30. 1880; Ernest, born April 26, 1883, and Susan, born April 24, 1886.
The Dred Scott decision covered the entire United States. This decision made it unlawful for anyone to harbor, feed or protect a run- away slave.
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The Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad had one of its best officered organiza- tions in Fairmount Township. All the way from Cincinnati there were . stations where the slave was befriended. As far back as 1833 there was a station at the farm just opposite the Friends meeting house at Back Creek. It was occupied by Charles Baldwin and family, he having several stalwart sons who were ready, day or night, to give their lives, if need be, for the cause of abolition. I will relate one incident.
Often there were runaways brought in for Baldwin to aid. On one occasion there were nine men brought, and for one week Baldwin kept them concealed in a thicket, in a little log cabin which had been built for the purpose, one-quarter mile east of his home. These men were closely pursued by their masters. They belonged to three different owners in Kentucky. Baldwin had brought them to the house with the intention of conveying them on north. Upon looking out towards the road, which is now the tarvia road, he saw three men and two officers stop at the end of the lane. One of the slaves ventured out far enough to look at them and recognized them as their masters. He informed his comrades and they formed a circle in the center of the living room, taking hold of hands, looked.upward, and in concert they swore :
"By the God of Eternal Justice we will die in our tracks right here before we will go back into slavery !"
And they stood there firm.
After parleying for a half hour the men at the end of the lane turned their horses and went back to Anderson without a single sight of their slaves, after pursuing them to within speaking distance.
The Back Creek neighborhood was wholly one of anti-slavery sen- timent, and was always glad to aid in any way it could.
Charles Baldwin often said :
"I could not do what I am doing if it were not for my kind neigh- bors. I often have to inform them when I have a consignment. Some- times I am eaten out, but when we open the kitchen door in the morning there will be great baskets of cooked food, clothing and medicines as our needs may be."
The kitchen door had not been locked at night.
It was no uncommon thing for the slave owner to follow the track of the Underground Railroad, but it was rare for him to recover his human property. Many were the cunning artifices used to delude him.
On one occasion there were three men to be conveyed to Moses Bradford, three miles north of Marion. The owners were in the neigh- borhood. It was undertaken by John S. Harvey, my father, and Quincy
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The Making of a Township.
Baldwin, two young men then about twenty years of age. The work must be done that day. They dared not travel the public road, but walk, and go a round-about way through swamps and a jungle of underbrush. As there had just been a deep "thaw out" and a heavy rain, it was impossible to travel in any other way. They selected a posi- tion where there was a thicket on each side, what is now a stone road, in front of where Isaiah Thomas now lives, and every man kept hid while John Harvey crossed the road and reported that nobody was in sight. Then one man would cross at a time, being careful to step in the same track. Quincy Baldwin was the last to cross. By sunset they were at Bradford's, torn by brush, clothing in tatters, cold, hungry and wet with mud and water above their knees. Oh, what a price for liberty! But HERBERT PEARSON that was better than the lash of the whip, or being branded by hot irons, like cattle, as many slaves were.
Is another Fairmount boy who is oc- cupying a responsible position. Mr. Pearson has for several years been lo- cated at Balboa Heights, Canal Zone, where he is employed as Auditor of the Commissary and Railroad Depart- ments of the Panama Canal. Here his services are so eminently satisfac- tory to the Government that he finds no difficulty in holding his position. Mr. Pearson is a son of Mrs. Ange- lina Pearson and the late Lemuel Pearson.
As well as the writer remem- bers, until January 1, 1861, the date of his death, at the age of sixty-two years, Aaron Hill lived on the farm now known as the Harvey farm, and his home was another station. For some time after Aaron Hill's death the business was successfully carried on by his son, Daniel. One Sabbath afternoon Daniel Hill called upon the writer of this article and excused himself for not staying but a few minutes, saying :
"I took seven runaway slaves to Bradford's last night. There was the father, mother and five children. I had them four days. I put hay in my deep wagon bed, then had them get in and lie down. Then I put hay over them and ordered them not to speak. The only road was through both Jonesboro and Marion, and it was a bright, moon- light night. In driving through these towns I drove slowly. I passed
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