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 16
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MYRA BALDWIN.
Fairmount, Indiana. March 6, 1917.
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Early Schools and Teachers.
Do you have the name of Joseph Knight, son of Solomon Knight, as one of the early Fairmount teachers ?
In examining my scrap book I find the following that I believe was published in The News the middle of 1908:
"Joe Knight is still living and is seventy-nine years old. His eye- sight did not fail until last winter. He has never used glasses to aid his sight. He can still read without them. He enjoys telling of early days in Grant County, and remembers many who are now living at Fair- mount and Jonesboro.
"This evening he told some of us about the first license he got to teach school. It was in 1853. William Neal was the Examiner. He asked only this question : 'Why do you invert the divisor in divisions of fractions?' Mr. Knight said he did not know, but he told the Exam- iner something, he had forgotten what, and got a two years' license.
"He taught school at Back Creek on this license. He afterwards taught in Fairmount and Oak Ridge.
"Mr. Knight is considered the best read man in the vicinity of North Branch, Kansas, he having an excellent memory."
MIr. Knight died a few years ago, over eighty years old. He was a good citizen.
I well remember old Milt McHatton, and frequently heard him spoken of as a man of some attainments.
My mother went to school to William Neal. She thought he was an excellent teacher. Has any one told you of Pike's Arithmetic and Talbert's Arithmetic and Pineo's Grammar? Have they told of sing- ing geography ? D. W. LAWRENCE.
Deepwater, Teras, April 14, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- Prof. Lawrence is a former Liberty Township man, and a brother of Mrs. Jacob Briles. For many years he has been engaged in educational work, a profession in which he has met with notable success.)
Old Liberty school house was built in 1856, on the northeast corner of the land now owned by Joel O. Duling. During the time the house was situated there I went to the following teachers: William H. H. Reeder, George Bowers, Milton McHatton, Columbus Lay, David Bowers, John Heal, Mary Taylor, Eliza Brelsford, John Daily, Frank Smith, John Litler, and Maria (Duling) Hollingsworth taught a sub- scription school. SOLOMON DULING.
Jonesboro, Indiana, March 24, 1917.
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The Making of a Township.
(Editor's Note .- Solomon Duling is a son of the late Edmund and Eliza Ann (Hubert) Duling, who came to Fairmount Township in 1845 from Coshocton County, Ohio, and settled on the farm situated about four miles east of Fairmount, now owned partly by Solomon Duling and partly by Joshua Hollingsworth. Edmund Duling served as a County Commissioner during the Civil War, when the county was paying bounties in order to induce men to enter the Union Army. He was an ardent supporter of the Republican party, and he and his family were affiliated with the Methodist Protestant Church. The Dulings have been known from the very early days of the Township to be active in promoting educational and church matters in their neigh- borhood, and foremost in supporting the best and most substantial things in civic affairs.)
.I see the folks are contributing quite freely to the list of early teachers for "The Making of a Township." They have missed my teachers entirely. I always have a warm spot in my heart for them.
They were Seright Roberts and Martin Tracy, winter teachers, and Rebecca Garrison Hayden and Mrs. Elizabeth Hollis, summer teachers.
They all taught at old Leach- burg prior to 1874. Miss Garrison taught there about the summer of 1869.
I will never forget my first day at school. The teacher stopped to talk to my mother, and as I was not always good, mother said :
"Harry, you go with Miss Gar- rison to school."
And I balked. So mother came out and made a little history right then and there.
MISS STELLA BULLER And Rebecca took me gently by Fairmount Township teacher. Miss the hand and led me to school. And Buller is a great-granddaughter of David Stanfield, founder of the south half of Fairmount, and one of the after.
I always loved my teachers ever Township's progressive pioneers.
HARRY SUMAN.
Hunter, North Dakota, February 5, 1917.
.
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Early Schools and Teachers.
(Editor's Note .- This is a contribution which relates an experience familiar, doubtless, to many others on their initial introduction to the school room. Mr. Suman, who is a son of Abner Suman, lived when a boy and young man in the Leachburg neighborhood. Mrs. Suman is a daughter of the late William G. Lewis and Mrs. Emeline (Osborn) Lewis. )
I have your recent favor, together with two copies of your paper. Glad to hear from you.
Yes, as they used to say, I "kept school" in Fairmount Township. I am not so certain whether I taught anybody or not, but I did keep order.
It was in the years of 1874-75. I was master over the Back Creek school, with Miss Fidella Pierce as my sole assistant. It was in the old brick school house, with two rooms, one upstairs and one down, which you no doubt remember when you were a small boy.
Since that time I have seen a lot of this old world, and now have the honor of holding down a seat in the Minnesota State Senate, which is now in session, and it is likely to be "some session" at that.
I live two hundred miles northwest of this place, at Frazee, in Becker County, and a very fine country that is.
Hoping this may answer your question, I am,
J. H. BALDWIN.
Senate Chamber, St. Paul, Minnesota, February 6, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- Mr. Baldwin is a grandson of Charles Baldwin, and a son of Lindsey Baldwin, both of whom at one time lived in the Back Creek neighborhood.)
In the summer of 1852 I went to a school taught by Rachel Jane Fankboner, then Rachel (Moreland, who now lives in Fairmount. The school house stood on the Abraham Myers farm, a little more than one- fourth mile northwest of the present school house in Fowlerton. There had been schools taught there before by Thomas Duling, Edmund Duling, Bertley Bradfield and Joseph Broyles. Yon have their names. In the winter of 1852-1853. while George Thorn was teaching there, the house burned down, and was never rebuilt.
In 1854 there was a frame school house built just one mile south of the Fowlerton school house that was known as Leachburg. One of the
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The Making of a Township.
teachers who taught there, in 1857 I think it was, whose name I have not seen in the list, was Benson Millard. He was a brother-in-law to George W. Bowers, the pioneer Methodist preacher who was known by all Methodist people in early times for many miles, especially as far north as Marion and east to Hartford City and Eaton. Millard was a well-educated man, from the East I think, but his ways and manner of teaching were so far different from what the pioneers were used to that his school was not as much of a success as it should have been.
In the summer of 1854, Anna Simmons taught a subscription school in a log dwelling house, which was vacant at the time and stood near one-fourth mile west of the present brick Leachburg school house.
I well remember of being at the last day of her school. I remember of going with my parents to a basket meeting held at a log school house that stood on the Jonesboro and Muncie road in Fairmount Township. about one-fourth mile west of the Gabriel Johnson farm, where the Hartford City pike now intersects the old road. I don't know who any of the teachers were that taught there.
Gabriel Johnson and John Heavilin, east of him, were carly settlers on the old road. Johnson kept a tavern and Heavilin had a blacksmith shop and did lots of work for travelers on the State Road in early times, such as mending wagons and shoeing horses. He also made almost everything in the way of hardware. I have in my possession at this time a pair of barn-door hinges that Byram Heavilin, son of John Heavilin, made in 1851 for Joel Littler, then living on the farm that I now own. They are the hook-and-strap hinge.
ADRIAL SIMONS.
Fairmount, Indiana, May 16, 1917.
Mrs. Mary R. Haisley.
Dear Friend: Some one very kindly sent me two copies of The Fairmount Newes. In each copy there was a reference, one by yourself and another by your brother, to a little girl who years ago taught school in your neighborhood.
You will think this statement true when I tell you that at that time I was less than sixteen years of age ( friends told me then I was older than my years), and until I was twenty years old I taught at intervals in Fairmount Township. The school to which your brother refers, when I "boarded around," was my first school.
"The Hoosier Schoolmaster" is no joke. There are advantages in boarding around, which I enjoyed. I learned my scholars better, and
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Early Schools and Teachers.
the people generally, and they, in turn, became better acquainted with me. There is a friendship in this, too, not found in the school room.
Do your remember one evening that I went home with you? On our way there came up a thunder storm. We were in the woods. Other children were with us and we all were drenched. That was my six- teenth birthday, and I suppose the reason I remember it, and maybe
ELI JONES COX
Born near Fairmount, in 1853. is a son of William and Elizabeth (Wil- son) Cox, the parents natives of North Carolina. The Coxes trace their ancestry back to England and Scotland, having originally come to the new country with Friends who settled in Pennsylvania. Eli J. Cox was educated in the common schools of Grant County and attended Normal School at Marion, Indiana. As a young man he taught school a short time and then traveled West, where he remained for one year. He later went to Florida, where he engaged in the business of growing, buying and shipping citrus fruits, becoming an ac- tive member of the Florida State Hor- ticultural Society. He has found time in his busy career to_ devote consid- erable attention to the study of as- tronomy, and is deeply interested in this science. He has kept abreast of the discoveries made from time to time, and with the theories of lead- ing astronomers, never tiring of the study of the wonders of the heavens. He is a member of the Astronomical Society of Los Angeles, California. In politics Mr. Cox is a loyal Repub- lican, and affiliates with the Friends Church. Mr. Cox, who owns a home in Fairmount, with Mrs. Cox, spends his winters at his orange grove near Maitland, Florida. Mr. Cox, as a small boy, was a pupil of Mrs. Mary (Taylor) Morrow when the latter taught school at Wesleyan Back Creek in the days when the teacher "boarded 'round."
that is why Eli remembered my age. If I remember correctly, he was of the younger scholars. His memory is better than mine.
I do not recall standing him on the stove with a little girl, or of making him wear a dunce-cap. "Poor little man," I would say now. I'm glad if he has forgiven me. I suppose the punishment was not unjust. I know I did not like to use the whip, but usually kept a supply on hand, for order was requisite to my teaching.
After teaching this first school, the following winter I went to school to a former teacher of mine, Cornelius Shugart. Then I taught the summer school again at Wesleyan Back Creek, with an increased attend- ance and some larger pupils.
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The Making of a Township.
I have been told since that at the first (and I am not surprised) older and wiser heads thought I would not be sufficient for the place, as there had been some trouble in the government of the school. I do not recall now of having any serious trouble.
I do not mention this to take any credit or glory to myself. Before I began to teach others I had learned in whom to trust for needed help. I believe now that I did the best I knew at the time, and lived to feel the "touch of His hand on mine."
The last year I taught in Fairmount. In the fall it was arranged for me to continue the school and draw my salary from the district funds.
I well remember a pony ride down to Marion to meet the county superintendent and pass an examination for a teacher's certificate. After this, I felt better equipped for teaching, and in the winter of 1863 I taught my last school in the Duling settlement, east of Fairmount.
Marion, Indiana.
MRS. MARY A. MORROW.
CHAPTER XVIII.
WILLIAM LEACH AND HIS DESCENDANTS.
(By David G. Lewis.)
W ITHIN a year after Grant, as an organized county, had been placed on the map of Indiana, the Leach family name was spoken in the wilderness long since supplanted by the cultivated fields, in the immediate vicinity of Fowlerton.
In their early ancestry history the Leach family is of English and Scotch descent. Coming to America in the Seventeenth century, like pioneers of other households, the ancestral members were busy with the every-day economic problems, and they did not leave much record of their effort-simply the fact that their posterity is here and enjoying the fruit of their labors. We have little knowledge of the family back of Esom Leach, father of William Leach, and great-grandfather of William J. Leach. Esom Leach came from Virginia to Ohio, and into Indiana early in the Nineteenth century.
It is a family tradition that in 1803 or 1804 Esom Leach located in Franklin County, and that six children were born in his family. Wil- liam Leach, who came in 1832 to Fairmount Township, was the founder of the local branch of the Leach family. We trace him back to the Franklin County family, and to the household of Esom Leach. He was one of the four sons and two daughters. His brothers were Reuben, Archibald and James. His sisters were Martha and Rebekah. Those who remember Uncle Billy now know whom he left behind him when he came to Fairmount Township.
Privation and dire necessity, which were the common fate of all, must have been the portion of Esom Leach's family in the Territorial days of Indiana history. The Leach family was in Indiana a dozen years before it became a State, and in Grant County within a year after its organization. The name Leach appears early in the annals of both the State of Indiana and Grant County.
The name Esom-the name of the family's earliest Indiana ances- tor-has been handed down in several Grant County families, and it is a name peculiar to the Leach family. Where is there an "Esom" outside the Leach family relationship in Grant County ?
There was a time when Leachburg seemed to describe the locality -the neighborhood now occupied by Esom Leach's descendants in Grant County. William Leach entered seven eighty-acre tracts of Fair-
195
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The Making of a Township.
THE OLD EDMUND LEACH HOMESTEAD
Located about one-half mile south of Fowlerton. This property is now owned by Mrs. Naomi Deeren. William Leach, father of Edmund Leach, was born in Virginia May 5, 1793, and when a young man moved to Ohio. He was married in Ohio to Sarah Harrison. Their marriage occurred on December 23, 1813. About 1820 they moved west to Franklin County, In- diana. During the thirties he left his wife and some of the children on the Franklin County farm and with his son, Edmund, and a daughter, Rachel, came to Grant County and entered a half-section of land where the town of Fowlerton now stands, his wife and the other children joining him later. William Leach and his wife remained in this Township until his death, Feb- ruary 23, 1851. His wife survived him until about 1865. Religiously, they were of the old school Baptist faith. Edmund Leach was born June 22, 1821, in Franklin County, Indiana. He came to Fairmount Township with his father in 1832. Edmund Leach married Miss Emily Brewer, daughter of Stephen Brewer, one of the early settlers of Fairmount Township. To this union were born twelve children, namely: Jasper, now living in Gordon, Nebraska; Charles M., now living in Delaware County, Indiana; Stephen and Esom, living in Sullivan County, Indiana; Rachel Ann, deceased; Ed- mund, Jr., living in Gordon, Nebraska; Lucinda, of Culver, Indiana; George, of Sullivan, Indiana; four dying in infancy. Edmund Leach, Sr., moved to Sullivan County, Indiana, in 1864, and died there in 1901. Charles M. Leach, son of Edmund Leach, Sr., was born in Fairmount Township in 1846, and moved with his parents to Sullivan County in 1864. Charles M. returned to Fairmount Township in 1872, and married Miss Malissa J. Caskey. Mr. and Mrs. Leach are the parents of Edmund, Claud and Iva, the latter the wife of Leo Underwood, all of whom live at Gaston, Indiana; William O., best known as Wick Leach, of Fairmount Township; Addie, of Wheeling, Indi- ana, and Bertha, wife of Oscar Roberts, also of Wheeling.
(Editor's Note .- Claud Leach, who kindly supplied the writer with the above facts, is at present the Trustee of Washington Township, Delaware County, an official position which evidences the esteem in which he is held by his neighbors and the citizens of the community where he resides.)
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William Leach and Descendants.
mount Township's most fertile and productive land, all of which lie in the immediate vicinity of Fowlerton, and most of which are yet in the possession of his posterity. The peaceful village of Fowlerton nestles securely on one of those tracts. There was a Leach school, a Leach store, and a Leach saw-mill. In short, the name Leach was coupled with about all the industries of the community, and the name Leach is still a synonym for thrift and industry, the Leach family occupying an honorable place in the history of the community.
William Leach married Sarah Harrison, who was born in October, 1793. Mrs. Leach belonged to a pioneer family with an honorable his- tory, her brother, Lewis Harrison, father of Luther Harrison, having been a soldier in the War of 1812. The span of fifty-eight years seems short, now that so many older men and women have succeeded him in the history of the Leach family. William Leach lived when the set- tlers of Fairmount Township were enduring hardships. Longevity seems to have been the rule in all families, now that the comforts of civilization are secured, and the men of three-score years do not seem old. Three score and ten is the allotted life of man, and many reach the four-score milestone in Grant County history.
William Leach, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, came when Fairmount Township was a dense forest, and he certainly had his part in its transformation. Along with the Lewis, Ward, Todd, Simons, Duling, Powers, Crist, Reeder, Ice, Corn, Furnish, Mason, Harrison and Payne families, the Leach family had its opportunity, and William Leach was the man of the hour in planting the family tree in the virgin soil of the Township. Three sons, namely, Esom, John and Edmund, and four daughters, Rachel, Mary, Jane and Martha, constituted his family circle, and his children and children's children unto the third and fourth generations assemble in annual reunion in the comfortable little grove generously bequeathed to Fowlerton, the town of his found- ing, by William J. Leach, who is in the second generation of his family in Indiana, but in the first generation as far as the history of Fairmount Township and the immediate family tree is concerned. Those who point to him as a relative are numbered among the good people of the community. With the coming of railroads came changes in the family and community history, and Leachburg became Fowlerton.
In the days of William Leach the McCormick Tavern was a land- mark. The pioneers along the Mississinewa-the McCormick, Wilson and Coleman families -- knew all about self-denial and privations. The pioneers in all these early-day families knew what it meant to procure venison from the woods, and to shoot wild turkeys if unexpected con-
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The Making of a Township.
pany arrived for dinner, when the family repast was cooked before the fire. Some of those old hearth-cooking vessels are still treasured in many households.
David Lewis was not the only man who secured corn meal for fam- ily use from the settlers along the Wabash when the resources of the Mississinewa farmers were exhausted. Our forefathers all told of the long trip to Wabash and the canal when they had something to offer on the market. They hauled grain to Wabash until the railroads came and changed the whole situation. Fairmount Township was then in touch with the outside world.
William Leach went the way of all the world many years before the whistle of the locomotive or the telephone bell had been heard in the land to which he brought the family name. He and his contem- porary neighbors should be honored, inasmuch as they made this com- munity a possibility. The history of the sons and daughters of William and Sarah (Harrison) Leach is, in a measure, the present-day history of Fairmount Township.
Rachel Leach, born December 13, 1814, married Elijah Searles, and their children are William, Ruth and Sarah.
Esom Leach, born December 8, 1816, married Lucinda Corn, and thirteen children were born to them, namely, William J., Nancy E., Sarah A., Joseph J., Edmund C., Martha P., John G., Mary E., George W., Wilson T., Benjamin F., Reuben J., and Simon B. Leach, who have all been factors in this community.
John Leach was born January 23, 1819, married Martha Fear. One son, Harvey, was born to them. Martha died and John married Mary Lewis. There were born to them David, who died in infancy ; Nancy, Esom O., Sarah J., Mary E., Edmund S., and Martha Ann.
Edmund Leach, born June 22, 1821, married Emily Brewer, and their children are Jasper, Rachel Ann, Charles. M., James S .. George WV., Esom, Lucinda, and Edmund, Jr.
Jane Leach, born October 26, 1823. married Stephen Brewer, and their children are William N., Stephen, John, Emily, and Mary.
Mary ( always called Polly ) Leach, born October 24, 1825, married James McCreery, and one son, Samuel, was born. After the death of McCreery, Mary was joined in wedlock to Jehn Stanley, and two sons, William and Joseph, were born of this union.
Martha Ann Leach, born July 9, 1833, married Thomas Edward Smith, and their children are William Henry, James Edward, Lonisa Jane, John Lewis, Esom Leach, Mary Emeline and Rachel Olive.
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William Leach and Descendants.
The Leach family history is an open book and new pages are con- stantly being added to it. William Leach was a God-fearing man, and, with his wife, was instrumental in organizing the first Primitive Bap-
WILLIAM J. LEACH
Son of Esom and Lucinda (Corn) Leach, is a native of Fairmount Township, where he was born on February 2, 1840. Esom Leach, the father, was a native of Franklin County, Indiana. Esom came with his father, William Leach, to Fair- mount Township, in the early day. William Leach stopped the first night in the new country at the Mc- Cormick Tavern. From this friend- ly cabin he went forth with a com- pass and blazed his way through the forest to the location where he after- wards made his home. On August 24, 1838, Esom was married to Miss Lucinda Corn, who was born in Kentucky, December 15, 1823. She was a daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Said) Corn, pioneers of Fairmount Township. Joseph Corn lived to be eighty-three years of age. His wife died at fifty-four. Bred to farming and stock raising, William J. Leach has never been permanently engaged in any other occupation. In 1865 he married Miss Sarah E. Havens, the daughter of Jonathan and Gabrille (Clark) Havens. Mrs. Leach, like her husband, was a native of this county, where she was born April 23. 1843. Four children were born to this union, namely: Lucinda A., Anna J., Charles E. and Martha C. The wife and mother died April 17. 1888. March 16, 1890, Mr. Leach was again married to Miss Jennie Wood, of Bluffton, who is a native of Ripley County.
tist Church in Grant County. He established a pace for the family, and the men and women of today owe him an obligation. Harmony Primi- tive Baptist Church had its inception within the Leach family, having been organized in the home of William Leach, a large, two-story hewn- log house located about one-half mile south of Fowlerton, on the farm now owned by Simon B. Leach. Today, descendants of this pioneer family are members at Harmony, while others are identified with the church in Fowlerton.
William Leach was an Andrew Jackson Democrat, and the family has always clung to his political faith. In an early day he gained the confidence and esteem of his pioneer friends, and was chosen by them the first justice of the peace in Fairmount Township. He was an
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The Making of a Township.
aggressive, enterprising citizen, an obliging neighbor and a good friend, although firm in his convictions and determined in his stand for the right as he understood it. The name Leach will always live in the an- nals of this community. The founder of this family was a strong advo- cate and a liberal supporter of all projects for the extension of educa- tional advantages in the early day. He was an especially good friend of David Lewis, grandfather of the writer, and proved himself a man of tender sympathies under many trying circumstances. William Leach was born May 5. 1793, and died February 23, 1851, in his fifty-eighth year.
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