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 30
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Father once told me a story about old Dr. Horne. It seems Dr. Horne had an excessively long nose, regarding which he was quite sensitive. This, together with a somewhat peppery disposition, made him the subject of frequent pioneer jokes. At that time he lived near Wilson's ford.
One night, very late, some of these early wits were passing his house and they called out :
"Dr. Horne! Oh, Dr. Horne!"
The doctor was awakened and stuck his head out the window only to be told to-
"Please take your nose in so we can get past your house !"
Our father's memory is a most happy one, for even in those rough times he always saw the bright side to everything, and if there was any- thing funny he remembered it to tell us youngsters.
ALVIN SEALE.
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 9, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- Prof. Seale is the son of the late John Seale. Prof. Seale has acquired international reputation as a scientist, being at the present time a member of the faculty of Harvard University. With Dr. David Starr Jordan he has collaborated in the production of a number of standard works on natural science which are found in most large scientific libraries throughout the United States and Europe. The late John Seale is all and more than his gifted son has described
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The Making of a Township.
him to be. An Englishman by birth, he possessed the courtly manners and grace of a polished gentleman. He probably never said a harmful word of any man. He was always cheerful and optimistic, and memo- ries of this grand old man's kindly consideration of others will linger as long as there are people left in this community who knew him and his gentle ways.
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BACK CREEK AT FLOOD TIDE (March 24, 1913)
The high waters covered adjacent lots and near-by streets to a depth in places of several feet. It was the opinion of pioneers then living that within their recollection the overflow had not been equalled in extent of territory covered or destruction of property. A heavy rain for several days brought on the disaster. Several families along the creek were compelled to move their belongings to the second story of their dwellings. The waters raced like a torrent through Mill and Third Streets. A part of the concrete bridge spanning Third Street was washed away. Walnut Street was flooded by the overflow of Puddin' Creek. Basements were flooded and many furnaces put out of commission. Water stood three inches deep in the basement of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fairmount Public Schools were temporarily closed and only a few students were able to reach the Academy.
WRITES OF DROWNING.
I see that William Baldwin writes of the drowning of Cyrus Puckett and Reuben Bookout at Weesner's ford. It was Calvin Bookout, the father of Reuben Bookout. I will write of it as I re- member it.
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Communications and Comment.
Puckett rode his horse in the river and when he got in deep water he became frightened and got separated from his horse. It was soon seen that he was drowning. Bookout, without removing his clothing. went to help him. Although a good swimmer, his clothing hindered him, and they both drowned.
Puckett was about seventeen years old, was a son of Greenleaf Puckett, and lived on the farm now owned by Joseph Poole. Bookout was about fifty, and lived on the farm now owned by Otto Wells.
I saw the bodies as they were being taken home through Fairmount. BERT WIMMER.
Jonesboro, Indiana, February 12, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- Mr. Wimmer here refers to a tragedy which created a good deal of excitement back in the early seventies. It was the first case of a double drowning, perhaps, which had occurred in the Township up to that time. The funerals of the two men were attended by throngs of people. In those days it was the custom for people gen- erally to drop their work and attend funerals, contrary to the habit which now prevails. Mr. Wimmer's father, Isaac Wimmer, was born in Pennsylvania in 1802. From Pennsylvania he moved with his fam- ily to Henry County, Indiana, and in 1865 came to Grant County. Peter Wimmer, grandfather of Bert Wimmer, served as a drummer boy with Pennsylvania troops in the War of the Revolution.
LYNX OVER THE DOOR.
I shall never forget the old tanyard, where my father worked for so many years. Many times I have helped him. I used to help pump water in the vats. One time I was jumping, and I think Martha Gossett, Sal- lie Hollingsworth, now Kelsay, and I jumped in. But the vat was full of hides and I got out as soon as possible.
One time my father and Uncle Billy Brewer went out hunting. Uncle Billy killed a wildcat, or some called it a Canadian lynx. My father had it stuffed and put it over the tanyard door. Everybody who passed that way stopped to see it. It surely was a sight.
MRS. AMANDA SMILEY.
Kiefer, Oklahoma, April 1, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- Mrs. Smiley is a daughter of Nathan and Nancy Little, well remembered and highly respected citizens of Fairmount many years ago. They played well their part in the early development
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The Making of a Township.
and progress of the Township. Many will recall vividly to mind the lynx which used to hang over the door when Nathan Little owned the tanyard which stood out on East Washington Street.
OLD BRICK CHURCH.
The first ague I ever had Dr. Philip Patterson doctored me. Dr. Philip Patterson was the first doctor I ever saw in Fairmount. He lived
BACK CREEK ON A RAMPAGE (March 24, 1913)
Looking north from the West Eighth Street bridge. The larger tree in the foreground marks the location of the old swimmin' hole. This favorite re- treat for small boys during summer months in the seventies was obsc ured from public view by a large pile of saw-dust from the saw-mill near by. As a result of high waters Back Creek school was closed for a few days.
where Isaiah Jay's business is now located. Later on, Dr. Patterson and Dr. Pierce doctored together. Later on, Dr. Pierce moved to Jones- -
boro. He was the father of Jack Pierce and Mrs. Buck Mann.
I helped to make the brick that was used in the old Friends Church that was torn down a few years ago where the new one now stands. After Jonathan Baldwin and Walker Winslow finished making brick they fixed a wagon and Jonathan Baldwin. Walker Winslow. Joe Little and I went to the State Fair. We stayed all night at Jimmy Cam-
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Communications and Comment.
mack's, in Hamilton County. We took it by turns, one at a time, to stay with the wagon while in the city.
Dr. White married Solomon Parsons' daughter, I think. My rec- ollection is they didn't stay in Fairmount very long.
The first school I went to in Fairmount was taught by Exum Mor- ris. The school house is the house O. R. Scott and William Lindsey use for their office. The Friends held their meetings there. The next school I went to was taught by Joseph Knight. The next was taught by Jacob Carter. The house stood near George Montgomery's house. That was the first school taught in that house. The next two schools were taught by William Neal.
After that school, Nathan Vinson built the house on East Wash- ington Street. William Hollingsworth moved the old house from North Walnut Street to just east of Flanagan's store, on East Wash- ington Street, just east of where William Lewis's shoe-shop is now located. It was used for furniture and undertaking business.
ALEX LITTLE.
State Soldiers' Home, Indiana, January 26, 1917.
FAIRMOUNT MINING COMPANY.
I give below the names of the charter stockholders of the Fair- mount Mining Company.
After canvassing the town three or four times, pleading with busi- ness men to put their shoulders (their names to a subscription paper for stock) to the wheel of a local business enterprise the result was as follows :
Dr. Alpheus Henley, Levi Scott, C. R. Small, Thomas J. Nixon, John Flanagan, Dr. W. H. Hubbard, Kimbrough Bros., Jonathan P. Winslow, Moses Mark.
These men were called to meet in the law office of Charles M. Ratliff, in the front room upstairs over the store occupied by A. F. Norton, where Ribble Bros. are now located.
Being much discouraged with so few subscribers for stock in the company, after a spirited discussion it was decided to order an assess- ment of thirty-five dollars each for expense of completing an organiza- tion. This being completed, another assessment, sufficient to put down a gas well, was made, and "Jumbo" was the result.
C. R. SMALL.
Greenville, North Carolina, January 4, 1917.
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The Making of a Township.
(Editor's Note .- "Jumbo" created considerable excitement in his palmy days. Excursions were run from different directions to see this wonder of nature, which was brought forth by the intelligent perseve- rance of forward-looking men who were willing to back their judg- ment with finances sufficient to carry through the project.)
VOICE FROM IDAHO.
You asked me to write in your album. I hardly know where to begin, For there is nothing original in me Unless it is original sin.
But to say that I am interested in the buiding of a Township would be putting it in mild form. How could I help but be? I am learning about my grandparents. It seems that I am descended from four of the oldest Quaker families in Grant County.
Sister Ruth Carey told of our mother's parents. Our father and William S. Elliott's father were brothers, making William and me first cousins. I tell people that if I am not a full-blooded Quaker I must be fifteen-sixteenths. Well, I am proud of that, all right, but when I stop to think it over, have I held up the standard? I am afraid not.
I can not help but think of the changes since the days of our grand- parents. Now. I see that Grandfather Knight was listed in the top ratio when old Back Creek meeting house was built. He would put his family on a horse and walk at their side. I expect if we could get the records of Mississinewa Friends meeting, Grandfather Elliott's record would be about the same.
I was at preaching two weeks ago at Melba and there were five automobiles and three Fords there. Grandfather walked and let his family ride a horse. I hope we are just as good, but you know we live in faster times. E. R. ELLIOTT.
Melba, Idaho, April 27. 1917.
THE BIG TREE.
The contributions of my friends, Dr. A. Henley, T. B. McDonald and J. M. Hundley, as well as many others who have written interest- ingly of the very early days in that section, have really restored, in the mind's eye. the somberness, as well as the glory, of the forest primeval.
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Communications and Comment.
with which the first settlers had to contend in the struggle to sub- due the wilderness. These pen pictures of those early days, handed down in book form, will no doubt find a place and be read in many homes of this and future times. Yet there must have been joy, as well as inspiration, among the hardy pioneers who came with sturdy deter- mination to subdue and to build not only homes for themselves, but a monument to their memory. To them there must have been a joy in conquering nature, which feeling gives a zest to life.
Now a word along another line. The "hikes" taken by yourself and Mrs. Baldwin I have read with much interest. I used to think there were many things along the country ways about Fairmount that were alluring to the lover of nature. There still remained many forests of majestic mien, some yet in a primitive state, and there were beautiful groves, quiet coverts and vistas of field and forest that appealed to me strongly, and I used to keep my bicycle busy whenever occasion permit- ted. This method was faster than "hiking," but I grant not so satisfac- tory in some ways. Your method is more deliberate, and consequently more satisfying, and it teaches the valuable lesson of the benefits of walking that is too much of a lost art.
Now, I have an assignment for Mrs. Baldwin. Some years before I bade farewell to the only place that seemed like home to me, and the memory of which I cherish deeply. I published in The News a letter written by Rev. Nixon Rush, who was then on a visit to California-I think his first trip to this coast-in which he gave an account of a trip he and Dr. Henley-I think it was the doctor-made when they were boys, through the forest, to what was called in that day "the big tree," an immense tree that was considered a wonder even in that day, and how they came near being attacked by a drove of wild hogs. I think the direction of the tree was northwest, but am not sure.
J. STIVERS.
San Francisco, California, April 22, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- The tree to which Mr. Stivers refers attracted much attention in pioneer days, so large was its trunk and so extensive were its spreading branches. The tree was located several miles north- west of Fairmount, but the exact spot is unknown to the writer. Robert Seeley is authority for the statement that the "big tree" referred to in the communication from J. Stivers stood in the northeast corner of Green Township on land entered by John Pattison and now owned by the Newkirk heirs. The tree-a walnut-was sold by William Pattison to a man by the name of William Kidd. It was sawed into heavy boards
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The Making of a Township.
at a saw-mill owned by Davis & Burrier. The boards of solid walnut were shipped to New York City to be used as counters for stores. The tree was a beauty and was sound from root to top. At the end of the first twelve-foot log it measured more than nine feet in diameter. The tree. at the time it was visited by Dr. A. Henley and Nixon Rush, stood in the Miami Indian Reservation. The country out there was then an unbroken wilderness. Mr. Seeley formerly lived in the vicinity of the "big tree," which he remembers well. He also remembers the Indians, who kept the "Reserve" as a hunting-ground. They would come there from their village over about Jalapa for the purpose of hunting and for making maple sugar. The men would hunt and the women would make the sugar and syrup. The "bucks" would hire white men to make the wooden troughs into which the sugar-water flowed from the trees. The Indians were fine hunters and could get a deer where no one else could find it.)
THE MAN ON THE RAIL.
At one time in the '70's I helped to carry a man out of Fairmount who was hauling a load of saloon fixtures to the old Methodist Episco- pal Church building, which now stands at the southeast corner of Sec- ond and Main Streets.
Fred .Cartwright and Andy Morris were trying to get a saloon in our little Quaker town. Cartwright went a roundabout way and got in here. He reached Sam Fritch's house, where Sam and Fred were entertaining one another. The man had left his team and fixtures down in the south part of town and walked up the street to see if the coast was clear.
While he was standing on the corner of Washington and Main Streets the word came what his business was. It created quite an ex- citement, and men, women and children were up in arms.
While they were discussing what to do with the man I came up with the rail and run it between the gentleman's lower limbs. Alex Pickard was then living. He was standing at the right place to catch hold of the other end of the rail. Someone held him on and Pickard and I took him to his wagon, turned his team towards Summitville and started him in the direction from where he came.
Cartwright slipped out of town and went the same way.
W. A. PLANCK.
Fairmount, Indiana, January 15, 1917.
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Communications and Comment.
(Editor's Note .- Mr. Planck here relates an incident which at the time caused quite a stir. In those days temperance sentiment was strong. There was a determination on the part of many citizens not to permit a saloon to open its doors in Fairmount. At this particular time Mr. Planck worked on the Big Four section with Henry Barber, who was section foreman. Mr. Planck grew up at Point Isabel. His father and mother moved there fifty-eight years ago, when there was "not a stick amiss." Mr. Planck's father built the first cabin in Point Isabel. The cabin was partitioned off for a postoffice and he was appointed postmaster, retaining the place during thirty-two years of his life. W. A. Planck was his father's assistant for a number of years.)
ISAAC ROBERTS.
The name of Isaac Roberts has been mentioned as one of the early settlers in Fairmount. He conducted the first blacksmith shop that was in the town.
Can anyone except myself show any of his work ? I have an old hoe that he made for my father while in that shop. My recollection is that the shop was near where Frank Buller's barn is.
JOHN W. Cox.
Fairmount, Indiana, February 1, 1917.
OUR FIRST TAILOR.
In looking over the names of persons in business in the early history of Fairmount, I think my father, John Lillibridge, had the first tailor shop, and the building he occupied stood on East Washington Street. where the back part of the Borrey block now stands.
MAY HENLEY.
Fairmount, Indiana, March 8, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- The writer is sure that so far as his recollection goes John Lillibridge was the first tailor to open a shop in Fairmount. Mrs. Henley was formerly Miss May Lillibridge and a sister to the late Charles A. Lillibridge, former Recorder of Grant County.)
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The Making of a Township.
CYRUS PUCKETT, NOT JOHN.
Calvin Bookout and Cy Puckett were drowned at a point southeast of Jonesboro. It was Cy Puckett, and not Jonathan Puckett, and it was on Saturday of June Quarterly Meeting. Cy Puckett's brother married my sister.
I remember the corduroy road just about where the Soldiers' Home is now. I used to go with my father, Robert Trader, to Wabash when he hauled wheat to that point. HARVEY TRADER.
Fairmount, Indiana, March 10, 1917.
EARLY DAYS.
I remember when all the old Friends around Fairmount came to Back Creek meeting. Joseph Winslow sat head of the meeting and David Stanfield sat next. The gallery was nearly full ; in fact, one end of the church was filled. But when the meeting at Fairmount was started it took almost half the members.
I remember well before there was a house in Fairmount. At the cross-roads, a little to the east, a large poplar tree stood in the edge of the road. The first house I remember, Joseph W. Baldwin built. He put a store in the west end of it. It was the Seth Winslow corner. After a few houses were built. before the town was named, I think Jon- athan Baldwin was the man that suggested the nickname "Pucker." But the town soon outgrew that.
My father was a strong anti-slavery man in his time. As long as he lived he kept a station on the Underground Railroad. I have seen a great many runaway negroes eating at our house-at one time eight. I have seen a great many slave hunters go through our lane past the house with their bloodhounds, but they never came in. One morning I remember well, after we had breakfast, a slave came and asked mother for something to cat. The slave sat down to the table, and while there a company of men with two dogs rode through the lane going east. The negro looked out of the door and said to mother :
"There goes my old massa !"
Just as they got out of sight the escaped slave went to the north door and took across the meadow toward the church as fast as he could run. We never heard of him being caught.
Father died in the summer of 1849. My mother had her dowry on the old home and lived there until I was grown and married.
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Communications and Comment.
I married Malinda Knight, daughter of Benjamin Knight, in the fall of 1864. We moved to Marshall County, Iowa, in the spring. In 1896 we came to Salem, Oregon. CHARLES BALDWIN.
Salem, Oregon, April 18, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- The writer of the above communication is a son of Charles Baldwin, who resided for many years in the Back Creek neighborhood in the early day.)
REFRESHENS MEMORY.
I was noticing in one of the letters to The News the statement that the first Friends brick meeting house was built by Samuel Rad- ley ( he was my uncle) and Phineas Henley (he was my father- in-law). That was quite correct, but it was a mistake about the brick being hauled from Jonesboro. The brick were made in the field across the road opposite to where Robert Bogue's red barn used to stand. It was in Jonathan Baldwin's field, and the old gate stood a piece north, and the brick kiln was several rods east. The lime was burned at Jonesboro, a little west of the main part of the town, in the creek bottom. It was burned by an Irishman named Crilley, and his assistant was Quincy Collins, a Staffordshire man who used to make boots and shoes when Crilley did not need him in the lime business.
There were fifty thousand brick. I know these to be facts, so have told the straight of it. I gave the hauling as my part of the subscrip- tion, free, towards the new meeting house.
WILLIAM P. SEALE.
IT'hittier, California, March 19, 1917.
BOYHOOD DAYS.
I have just received a copy of The News, and after feasting on it for a while have remailed it to my mother at Whittier.
My mind is carried back to boyhood days, to the fishing, skating and swimming at the old creek ; to "June Quarterly" at Back Creek, with the busy time at the old toll gate ; to the times when we used to gather ferns in the woods and by Lake Galatia for use in making mottoes.
Well do I remember when the old "Jumbo" gas well was ablaze for weeks and could be heard for twenty miles, when one could see to read
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The Making of a Township.
a newspaper outdoors any time of the night in Fairmount, and, as The Neres at that time expressed it, "even the chickens, not being able to discern night from day, did not go to roost, but would drop dead from sheer exhaustion."
LEMBERT T. ADELL.
Greenfield, California, April 8, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- Mr. Adell is the son of Jacob and Tacie ( Pember- ton) Adell, who lived for many years on North Main Street. Bert and his mother went West many years ago, after the death of his father. He is now a prosperous dairyman near Greenfield, California. Jacob Adell. in his time, was an expert penman and made mottoes. Many of these mottoes may still be found in the homes of Fairmount people. He did a great deal of scroll work and many marriage certificates, artistically designed, were executed with his pen.)
THE PLANK ROAD.
The plank road was between Deer Creek Hill and the Marion Cem- etery, if I remember, as we hauled our wheat to Lagro in those days. In after years we changed our wheat market to Wabash, where we sold it to Whiteside. We also hauled our peaches and apples to Wabash. I have gone with my brother, Thomas, to Wabash at different times.
As Mr. Hundley says, we generally went with three or more teams at a time, as there generally was someone who had a balky horse and had to have help on the hill, which has been spoken of so often. We would drive a few feet on the hill, and the driver generally walked at the side of the wagon while going up the hill so as to be ready to chock the wagon when we stopped to let the horses get wind, and then make another pull. In this way we would get up the hill. If we went to Lagro we would camp out in the wagon over night, and I would watch the canal boats and trains during the night.
If any of your readers can tell who built the Fairmount Woolen Mill and operated it at first I would like to know, as I think George Eckfelt was the first and I do not remember who was the next. William Wilkinson and Reece & Haisley operated it one time and William Wardwell operated it one time, but do not remember the parties in rota- tion.
JOHN A. WILSON.
Logansport, Indiana, March 3, 1917.
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Communications and Comment.
A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER.
My Dear Friend Edgar: Thine of the Ist was received, with en- closures, and I am ashamed to answer at so late a date. But I am not very well ; hence my excuse.
Drop in. You know it is very cold, and thee would be very lucky to be set up alongside of a piping-hot bowl of beef soup, made of 28-cent beef, reinforced with II-cent onions, 10-cent cabbage and potatoes at $2.70 a bushel. Excuse me. Allow me to add another ladle to thy bowl ; thee seems hungry. And now is this not a delicious exhibition of the cost of high living ?
But when we are through with the high cost of living we will go to the sitting-room, which is all over the house. Thee can enjoy thyself with a chapter on theology from Barclay's Apology, or a thrilling re- ligious experience from Fox's Journal. They are both convenient-not hard to find.
When thee gets through translating this thee will not want me to contribute to "The Making of a Township."
IREDELL.
Columbia City, Indiana, February 17, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- Iredell B. Rush, author of this characteristically jovial letter, will be remembered by a great many people back at his old home. Mr. Rush, as a young man, entered the banking business at Marion, as an employe of Adam Wolfe, prominent in his day as one of the foremost financiers of this section of Indiana. From Marion, Mr. Rush went to Columbia City, where he has spent the greater part of his active business career as a banker. He is a son of Nixon, Rush, Sr., and a grandson of Azel Rush, who came to this country in the early day. Long before the Civil War Azel Rush, who lived at the time in North Carolina, freed thirty slaves as a matter of conscientious duty.)
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