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 3
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* Kingmans' . Itlas.
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Chief of the Miamis.
ion, that he was not in that engagement. It is my impression that Me- shin-go-me-sia, with several squaws and their children, were over on Wildcat when the Battle of the Mississinewa was fought."
"I have been slower in making reply to your favor of the 13th inst. than I would have been excepting my inability to find data to bear me out in thinking that Me-shin-go-me-sia was a boy six years old, among other children, with women and men too old to accompany the war- riors of the tribe who had gone north to do battle," writes Maj. George W. Steele, of Marion. "The latter returned in time, as we know, to give Colonel Campbell and his command all of the fighting he could stand.
"Of course Me-shin-go-me-sia was a young hero at any rate, and in due time a chief who proved to be the last of his tribe.
"As a boy, in 1849, was at their village at a round-up and separation of their ponies, which had become so numerous as to disturb our pioneer settlers, and were sold at public sale in surrounding towns, Marion, of course, among them."
The letter of Major Steele was prompted by an inquiry made in a communication by the writer addressed to him relative to the participa- tion of Me-shin-go-me-sia in the Battle of the Mississinewa. Major Steele was a leading factor in the effort made looking to the purchase of the ground on which this battle was fought. It was planned to acquire this land with a view of converting it into a park, as was. done in the case of the site of the Battle of Tippecanoe, located near Lafayette. The project failed for lack of proper interest on the part of men in position to make their co-operation effective.
A letter to Dr. Thomas R. Brady, of Wabash, who at one time rep- resented Wabash County in the Indiana State Senate, elicited the fol- lowing response :
Wabash, Indiana, January 31, 1917.
Edgar M. Baldwin, Fairmount, Indiana.
Dear Sir :- My father, Dr. Thomas R. Brady, received a letter from you recently asking for information concerning an Indian, Me-shin-go- mė-sia, I think, and we are sorry that we have been so negligent in answering it.
Father has been very sick for some time and is unable to write a word, or I am sure you would have had a prompt reply.
He says : "I knew the Indian all my life. He was temperate and was a good citizen. He urged his people to work and be industrious. I have always understood he was not engaged in the Battle of the Mississinewa."
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The Making of a Township.
If he were able I am sure he could give you other and better infor- mation, and I am sorry I can give no more.
Hoping this may be of some little assistance, I wish to remain.
Yours sincerely, JENNIE A. BRADY.
Dr. Brady, at the time the communication was written, was one of few men then living who knew Me-shin-go-me-sia intimately. It seems almost a hopeless task to connect the old chief with the engage- ment at Mississinewa. The safer plan, therefore, seems to be to sub- mit such evidence as may be adduced and suggest that the reader use his own judgment in reaching a conclusion.
Referring to the matter, Hon. Edgar L. Goldthwait, for many years editor of The Marion Chronicle, says in a letter to the writer, under date of January 5, 1917 :
"Relating to your inquiry of the old Indian's part in the battle: It is said that he spoke of it often to his friends. In one of the histories he pictured it. He was a boy ; his duty was to look after the horses. to be ready when retreat was sounded."
Richard Dillon, of Fairmount, in a letter dated January 27, 1917. offers this interesting bit of information :
"Phineas Henley came to Indiana in 1837 and settled on forty acres now a part of the farm owned by Alice Thomas.
"The writer, a grandson of Phineas Henley, has often heard hin speak of being acquainted with Me-shin-go-me-sia, and of hearing him tell about the Battle of the Mississinewa, stating that he was twelve years old at the time, and was hid in the woods behind a log, where he could hear the bullets whiz over him."
In a letter written on August 26, 1909, to Hon. John T. Strange. of Marion, Indiana, Mrs. John Flitcraft,* who lived at the time the. communication was written at Macy, Indiana, says :
"Me-shin-go-me-sia told my father that he was fourteen years old at the time of the battle and held four ponies during the fight and then he lun and lun and lun and hid in sycamore log long time."
It is exceedingly difficult, owing to the well-known diffidence of the Indian, to obtain from him information which he sees fit to with- hold from the white man. It is said that few Indians care to discuss
* Mrs. Flitcraft is the daughter of William L. Fields. William L. Fields lived in the neighborhood of the battlefield for over twenty-two years, and was well acquainted all through that section. His father built the old Conner mill and helped run it for years. His daughter speaks of Mr. Fields as possessing a fine memory.
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Chief of the Miamis.
in any way a battle in which he has been defeated. It may be stated, however, that Me-shin-go-me-sia was a man of considerable ability, firm, but not obstinate. His grave may be seen in the Indian burying ground near Jalapa.
CHAPTER IV. 1
THE FIRST SETTLERS.
I T WAS some time in the late fall or early winter that a family of eight arrived at a place about four miles from where Fairmount now stands and erected a booth by the side of a large fallen tree, under which and in the wagon that conveyed them there, they proceeded to make the best of the situation with the true pioneer spirit.
Their neighbors were few and far between in the then dense wilder- ness. The word soon became circulated for miles around amongst the scattered inhabitants that a family had moved in their midst and were living in the open forest. This aroused the neighborly chivalry. Run- ners were sent out all through that section to notify people that a fam- ily had moved in and were needing help.
No time must be lost in getting the exposed family under shelter. Accordingly a day was named. At the appointed time a dozen or more stout-hearted woodsmen met at the camp, elected their foreman and pro- ceeded to business. Some felled the trees that stood plentifully near by. They were dragged in by a team as soon as felled. Four of the best ax men each took a corner of the building to notch and fit the corners together. This was considered a position of honor, requiring practice and a mechanical eye and steady nerve. Then two men must select a good oak tree, fell it, cut the blocks and rive the boards to cover the building.
When the noon hour had arrived they had the side walls to the cabin about done, for they did not meet there to play. Those first cabins were but one story, about eight logs high to the eve. The family was short of table supplies. and at dinner did not have cups to go around. Two and three must drink from one cup, use the same knife and fork and plate, and make a table of a chip.
Some of the men killed a deer on the way there and brought that along, which materially helped the dinner menu. By night they had the cabin up and covered, a place cut out for door and fireplace, which no doubt was soon occupied.
When I left Fairmount there was one man living in Marion who helped erect that cabin. That family proved to be good, honest, loyal citizens, but are all gone now. I have been on the place many times. but I think the original cabin was gone. This incident came before me today. I had not thought of it for a long time. So I sat down and
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41
The First Settlers.
THE FANKBONER GRAVEYARD
Situated on a knoll about six miles northeast of Fairmount, near the old State road. In the foreground is Robert McCormick's monument. The inscription, which is not plain in the picture, reads as follows: "Robert McCormick. Died August 9, 1836, aged 57 years, I mno. 9 da." On Mrs. McCormick's tombstone appears the following words: "Ann, wife of John Fankboner, former wife of R. McCormick, died Jan. 23, 1880, aged 92 yrs. 4 ino. 7 da."
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The Making of a Township.
penciled it off in a hurry. It may interest you as a fraction of the his- tory that was once one of the stage scenes in the making of Fairmount Township.
The walls of the cabin being up, the work of making the house com- fortable was not near complete. An opening must be cut out for a door and fireplace and two small windows. Then the open spaces between the logs in the body of the house must be filled with chink and clay mor- tar to keep out the wind, snow and rain.
It will not be conducive to health to live on the ground in that damp country. There are no saw mills in the new country, and no roads one
ORIGINAL SITE OF THE MCCORMICK TAVERN
The little pile of rock in the foreground indicates the location of the his- toric McCormick cabin, often in the first settlement of the new country the first stopping place of the pioneer who came to seek a home in the wilder- ness. This cabin was the center of hospitality in the early days.
could haul a load over. Consequently one must use such material as one has. Necessity is the mother of invention, it is said. They go into the woods, select three straight logs eight or ten inches in diameter, in length the width of the building on the inside, and with an ax make one side as true as possible, place one at each end on inside and one in the middle on which to rest the floor, which is to be made by selecting small, straight trees that will split easily, cutting sections half the length of floor, splitting them through the center and making the flat
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The First Settlers.
side as smooth as possible with the tools they may have, flattening the rounded ends so that they will lay evenly on the three sleepers, or joists, meeting in the middle, scalping the edges of the flooring so that they will come close together as may be.
The floor being down, a fireplace and chimney must be builded. There are no brick kilns or stone quarries awaiting them in the wilder- ness. What can the poor family do? Again they must appeal to the forest for material. They split out some boards three by ten inches wide, six feet long and three feet long, according to the size they wanted the fireplace, with which they would make a three-sided box by notch- ing together at the corners, the loose ends to be nailed or fastened to each side of the opening for the fireplace and carried up to the mantle log, where they commence narrowing in for the chimney flue by split- ting out pieces similar in size to plastering lath, but a little heavier, of the proper length to build a flue two by three feet, and plastering this lattice work on inside and out with clay mortar.
The fireplace must be lined with a stiff clay mortar about one foot thick, brought in to the edge of the wall and carried up to the lattice work of chimney flue to prevent the wood catching fire. Then, with split boards driven in the ground at front and sides of hearth place and filled with good clay well packed down, the family is ready to cook their first meal at home, if they have a skillet, boiler and coffee pot.
There was another way they had of getting out floor boards in those primitive days, when a man had some money and wished to build an extra fine log house. It was to employ two men with a whip saw to cut his boards. The saw was not quite so long as a cross-cut saw, with teeth set like a carpenter's rip saw. The log to be cut was placed on a platform of logs, some six feet from the ground, with one strong man below and one above, to work the saw up and down. This was slow work and took strong men to do the motor work. Charles Hin- shaw, who settled on the Nate Wilson farm, did such work. I saw him operating his mill once.
Melbourne, Florida, December 26, 1916. A. HENLEY.
(Editor's Note .- It may be helpful, at this point, to consider care- fully the pen picture so skilfully drawn of that struggling pioneer fam- ily in their efforts to gain a foothold and a home in the new country. How aptly it portrays the hardships of people who came here in the early days. How suitable as an introductory word to the fundamental purpose of this narrative. Expressed in words so simple and yet so
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The Making of a Township.
comprehensive and so full of meaning, the little story stands out in front of you like a thing apart.)
In the fall of 1826, about the month of September,* Robert Mc- Cormick came from Fayette County, Indiana.
On August 15, 1829, he entered land and built his cabin soon after near the crossing of the Ft. Wayne, Muncie and Indianapolis State road, on the farm later owned by J. and M. E. Wilson, situated one- half mile south of Wilson's ford.
McCormick moved his family to their new home in October. 1829. His cabin became known far and near as McCormick's Tavern. As the State road in those days was the principal highway through this section of Indiana, the tavern enjoyed a good trade.
Near the site of this old tavern is Bethel Graveyard, the quiet spot where lie buried the early settlers of this neighborhood, including Dan- iel and Mary Coleman, the donors of the land, and Isaac Sudduth, who served in the War of the Revolution, and died at the Coleman home at the age of ninety-nine years. Mrs. Rachel Coleman Haynes, who lives at the Coleman homestead, takes great pleasure in bringing to mind the scenes about the old tavern house in the days when the girls wore poke bonnets and shawls and skirts of great fullness. Her father, Daniel Coleman, a son of Thomas Coleman, served for sixteen years as Justice of the Peace in pioneer days. Mrs. Haynes was married, August 26, 1868, to Francis Marion Haynes.t
* This information is supplied by Mrs. Gabrille Havens, whose parents, the Clarks, were neighbors and intimate friends of the McCormicks. The offi- cial records show that McCormick entered land on August 15, 1829. This was two years before Grant County was organized and three years after his arrival. The explanation is offered that there was no need for haste in that early day, since settlers were few and far between. Emigration had not commenced at this date to any considerable extent, and there was hence no likelihood of con- tention over property rights among pioneers who then peopled this sparsely settled wilderness. The discrepancy in the dates, therefore, is accounted for. McCormick simply deferred the long and difficult and often dangerous jour- ney through the swamps and the forest to Ft. Wayne, where the land office was situated, to enter land.
+Francis Marion Haynes, farmer, who lives in the extreme northeast cor- ner of Fairmount Township, was born in Franklin County, Indiana, August 22, 1842. His paternal grandfather came from England and on his mother's side of the house he is a descendant of Silas Andrews, of New York State. His parents were Solomon and Chloe (Andrews) Haynes. On December 6, 1864, he enlisted in the Second Indiana Battery and served with this command until July 3, 1865, participating in several hard-fought battles, among them the engagement at Nashville, Tenn. At the end of the Civil War he returned home, and in 1866 came to Grant County. In politics he has always affiliated with the Republican party, and for many years he has supported every movement to make Fairmount Township and Grant County dry. He is a member of the Methodist Protestant Church at Fowlerton.
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The First Settlers.
OLD COLEMAN HOMESTEAD
Robert McCormick came from New York State to Indiana. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1779. He was the father of seven chil- dren, namely, Jacob, John, Katie, Eliza, Enos, Lewis and Jane. Mc- Cormick was of medium size, dressed plainly, was sober, industrious, thrifty, and exceedingly kind to his neighbors. He was helpful to others and popular with all. He kept tavern from 1826 until 1836, the year of his death. The funeral services, held at his tavern, were attended by a large number of people. The cause of his death was fever, the insidious disease which carried away, prematurely, so many pioneers. He was sick but a short time. McCormick was a member of the Baptist Church. In politics he was a Whig. At the time of his death he owned a section of land. This land was not all comprised in one body. It lay in several different localities within and adjacent to the boundary lines of what is now Fairmount Township. South Jones- boro is situated on part of an eighty-acre tract once owned by Mc- Cormick.
In 1829, according to official records, the first settlers came to Fair- mount Township to make their permanent home.
On June 10, of that year, Josiah Dille purchased from the Govern- ment the south fraction of Section 10. James H. Clark, about 1834. bought this land of Dille. Josiah Dille was a brother to James Dille. who at one time lived in Fairmount. Josiah was a younger half- brother to Ichabod Dille, who was many years his senior. Josiah lived for about five years where he first bought land, then moved to what
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The Making of a Township.
was known as the Dille neighborhood, two miles north of Jonesboro, on the river. In later years he moved West, with his family, where he died. As he was not given to writing letters, it is not definitely known which State he finally settled in, and there appears to be no information regarding his family now in possession of Grant County relatives.
Mrs. Gabrille Havens was born in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, near Luther's Mills, on February 25, 1820. She was the daughter of James H. and Susan B. Clark. There were nine children in the Clark family, namely. Polly, Ga- brille, Rebecca, Visula, Weltha Ann, Emma Carline, Cynthia Ma- riah, Simon B., and James M. The father moved to Fairmount Township on February 3. 1838. Mrs. Havens was therefore eight- een years of age when she arrived. The Clark family came in two wagons, one drawn by horses and the other by an ox team. It re- quired three days to complete the journey from Darke County, Ohio. Mrs. Havens has been of material assistance in connecting up past events with the present. At this writing (January 16, 1917), she is spending the winter MRS. GABRILLE HAVENS with her granddaughter, Mrs. Frank McCombs, of Hartford City, Indiana. Although in her ninety- seventh year, her mind is as keen and active, apparently, as ever, and, barring unforeseen circumstances, she bids fair to live to see her one hundredth anniversary. Mrs. Havens has read the Bible through seventy times, besides the reading here and there at random in the Good Book. She completed the seventieth reading of the Scripture in the year 1915. The first President she remembers hearing her folks talk about when she was a girl at home was Andrew Jackson, when old Hickory was making his campaign in 1832, although, being always an omniverous reader, she was familiar with the name of the first Pres- ident, and heard much of George Washington.
CHAPTER V.
LOCATING ON BACK CREEK. Stories Grandfather Tells. (By Mark Baldwin.)
O H, MARVELOUS tales can my grandfather tell Of wonderful times and the things that befell When he was a boy, and roamed the wild wood, Enjoying his life as a boy only could ;
With vigor and health, and with pioneer blood Flowing strong in his veins, he swam the swift flood, Or hunted the sly, little, impudent beasts That peopled the forests, and stole for their feasts The corn from the crib, or took from the soil The grain, making useless the pioneer's toil.
And I think to myself, then, how grand it must be To live in a hut in the forest so free
From the vain, pompous ways of the life of today, From the pace we are living at present. But say, When grandfather tells of the woodticks and lice, Of the fleas and the chiggers, the rats and the mice, The fever and ague, I don't think I'd lose My freedom from these to have been in his shoes.
We have observed that Robert McCormick and Josiah Dille came to Fairmount Township and settled over on the old State road. The cen- ter of pioneer activity is now changed. The scene shifts to a location a few miles to the west. The way is opened for settlement along Back Creek.
The earliest settlers of the Township are descendants of those ideal- ists, and seekers after freedom, religious enthusiasts, and adventurers that left England in the seventeenth century for the new country of Pennsylvania and its neighboring states. Of the causes that led to their unrest after two or three generations, and exodus to Virginia and Maryland and almost immediately on to North Carolina, and the subsequent moving to the Middle West, there is an interesting account in "Southern Quakerism and Slavery," by Rufus M. Jones. No doubt all through the search for a place where absolute freedom of con- science could be exercised, a desire for larger and richer lands was an- other impelling motive, as it was perhaps the only one that had carried
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The Making of a Township.
them South. This Southern experience turned out a bitter one in many ways, families of gentle blood being exposed to the rigors of mountain pioneering. It is small wonder if many of the more lax held slaves, and if, after conscience had bade them free them, they pushed out again for a new country, their fortunes crippled, but hearts resolute and purpose high. Yet, though they carried little away from the South in wagons through the dense wilderness, they ever kept in their hearts a tender regard for the Old State, which they had, for a brief period, helped to build. The counties of Guilford and Randolph were seats of advanced thinking in the early years of the nineteenth century ; the first college in North Carolina was established there and there was a keen awakening even in those early days to the evils of slavery, war and intemperance.
Back Creek rises in Madison County, entering Fairmount Town- ship in Section 6, and has a general northerly course, bearing a little to the east, entering Mill Township a little west of the half-mile corner on the north side of Section 17, emptying into the Mississinewa River at a point northeast of Jonesboro. The upper portion of the stream was, in 1829, very flat and rather marshy. It was cut wider and deeper about 1856. This was the first improvement of any extent done in the county. It is worthy of note that this work was carried on by private enterprise. The lasting benefits far exceeded expectations, both as to land drained and made tillable and as to the public welfare generally. This locality had been a series of beaver ponds. A channel was opened and a crude system of drainage introduced. This enabled farmers to raise grain and grass on soil where cattle had mired during the first settlement along the creek. The higher land and ground farther north were first choice for farming.
Joseph Winslow,* on December 28, 1829, entered the northwest quarter of Section 17, the farm now owned by Ancil Winslow.
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* Joseph Winslow was by occupation a farmer and miller. He was born fft Randolph County, North Carolina, in 1777. He came to Fairmount Township, with his family, in a four-horse wagon. He had been successful in the South. He brought with him to the new country $2,600 in cash, which was a considera- ble sum of money for that day. He entered land for himself and assisted his sons and daughters, supplying each with funds to enter a quarter-section at $1.25 per acre. He founded Friends meeting at Back Creek, in 1831, services being held at his home prior to this date. In 1841 the log meeting house gave way to the brick structure. For many years Joseph Winslow sat at the head of the meeting. He rarely ever spoke at the services, excepting at business ses- sions. He held to the Quaker idea of silent supplication to his Master, praying as his conscience directed. He was a liberal supporter of educational movements and figured prominently in all worthy enterprises which promised to advance the best interests of his neighborhood. One son, John, settled on Blue River, near Carthage, in Rush County. Daniel Winslow, a son, and Aaron Hill and Solo -. mon Knight, sons-in-law, settled in Mill Township. Joseph Winslow died October 27, 1859, aged 81 years, 9 months and 22 days.
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Locating on Back Creek.
On the same date Matthew Winslow, son of Joseph, entered the west half of the northeast quarter of Section 17, the farm now partly owned by John A. Jones and partly by John Devine.
THREE OF THE FIRST SETTLERS ON BACK CREEK
Reading from left to right the men shown in the above picture are Daniel Winslow, Henry Winslow and Seth Winslow. They are sons of Joseph Winslow, who entered land along Back Creek on December 28, 1829. Jo- seph Winslow founded the Society of Friends in Fairmount Township. For a short time after the first settlement, according to Levi Winslow, son of Henry Winslow, Back Creek was known as Winslow Creek. Joseph Winslow, who was a plain, unassuming man, protested against the idea of calling this stream after his family for the reason that it appeared to him like exalting his own relatives over others equally entitled to consideration. Out of deference to his wishes, and upon his earnest solicitation, the name Winslow was dropped and it was called Back Creek, after a stream by that name in North Carolina, his old home. It has ever since been known as Back Creek. The sturdy men whose likenesses are shown above bore well their part in the primitive days of the Township.
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