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 32
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It didn't take much of a metamorphosis to create young Quakers into dudes when their combs were red. They were our barbers' best customers. Their hair was groomed, mustaches dyed, boots shined, neckties given special attention-verily. I say that Solomon couldn't come it over them. Do you remember Iredell Rush, Steve Baldwin, et al. ? I never knew the girls in those days. I was too young to know the difference between demureness and indifference. I only know that
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the plethoric homes up there had not a piano, organ, fiddle or song book.
And now, Ed, haven't I gone far enough into my reminiscences of the past to fill a space in your history of a township ?
EDGAR L. GOLDTHWAIT.
Marion, Indiana, February 2, 1917.
(Editor's Note .- Mr. Goldthwait was for many years editor of The Marion Chronicle, during a period of its wide popularity and in- fluence. He is now living in well-earned retirement, enjoying the com- forts of life, with a competency ample, the result of a successful busi- ness career. No one in Grant County possesses a more intimate knowl- edge of the political issues during the time that he was at the head of the Republican organ of Grant County than he.)
A VARIETY OF THINGS.
Fairmount did not contain more than ten or twelve houses in the year 1853. In fact, as I remember it, there were but seven dwelling houses in the town proper, one of which, located on the present site of the Flanagan store, was occupied by my father.
On the opposite side of the street, on the corner now occupied by a drug store, was the general store of Joseph W. Baldwin. Directly across the street, on the corner now occupied by the Fairmount State Bank, was the store of Isaac Stanfield.
James Cammack was the owner of the saw-mill, one of the up-and- down variety. Cammack lived in a frame building on the mill lot.
James Johnson was the engineer at the saw-mill and lived in a log cabin west of the mill.
William Hundley, father of the writer, was the only blacksmith in town, and his shop stood on the site where a saloon was blown up some years ago.
This shop was built by Isaac Roberts and my father, in the year 1853. Isaac Roberts at that time lived in Fairmount. Andrew Lever- ton was my uncle and lived with my father until he entered the army, in the year 1861, as a member of Company C, Tenth Indiana Infantry. He was killed at Chickamauga.
John Benbow lived on what I think is now West Washington Street.
William Hall lived somewhere near where the office of Glenn Hen- ley is now located.
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The Making of a Township.
David Stanfield lived just south of the Hall home, but he lived on a farm and was not then a citizen of your town.
Jonathan Baldwin lived just north of the town limits, but not in- cluded in the town.
Joseph W. Baldwin lived in one end of the building occupied by his store.
Tom Barnhouse came about 1854, and was the first photographer.
Solomon Parsons came into town about 1855 and engaged in shoe- making, and also kept a small hotel on Main Street. His shoeshop was in the same building.
The same year-1854 or 1855-came Seaberry Lines (or Dad Lines as he was known). He had a small grocery and also kept a hotel, and was located about where the Hunt furniture store used to stand.
George Doyle came about this time and located on the corner west of the Montgomery & Buchanan marble shop, with a grocery store and a supply of wet goods, including an abundance of sod-corn whiskey. I think this marks the advent of this disturber of human happiness into your community.
Daniel Ridgeway came about 1855 and located a tanyard in the north part of town.
Nathan Little also had a tanyard, east of town, but not then within the corporation limits.
Albert, Allen. Calvin and William Dillon lived north of town, as did their father, Jesse Dillon. The Dillons were gunsmiths and were, in 1855 and 1856, in the shop owned by my father, just west of where W. F. Buller's bakery stands. This was a new shop and very much larger than the one at first located on Main Street.
In the year 1855 William and Vincent Wright built a store about where A. R. Long's office now stands, and it was this store that Jona- than P. Winslow bought when he came, in the year 1860.
Thomas J. Parker did not come to Fairmount until after the close of the Civil War.
The first physician in town, as I now remember, was Dr. White. I do not recall his given name. Next came Dr. Philip Patterson, about 1854 or 1855. I think Dr. David S. Elliott came about the beginning of the Civil War. I can very distinctly remember that Dr. Horne and Dr. Meek, of Jonesboro, did the medical practice in Fairmount for the first two years after I located there, or from 1853 to 1855.
Alexander Pickard did not come to town until long after I had gone away, in the year 1857.
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Personal Recollections.
As a small boy I played around my father's shop, and became quite well acquainted with not only the men of the town, but of the Town- ship as well. I can now recall and locate the following pioneers :
West of town were Nathan D. and Jesse E. Wilson, Daniel Thomas, Nixon Rush, Phineas Henley, Lindsey Buller and John Wilson.
South of town were Carter Hasting, John Smith, Andrew Buller, Calvin Bookout, James and Thomas Lytle, Greenleaf Puckett, John Plasters, Morris Payne, David Smithson, Harvey Davis and Bernard McDonald.
East of town were Nathan Little, Hopkins Richardson, Zimri Richardson, Jonathan Richardson, John Bull, Jesse Winslow, Nixon Winslow, Milton Winslow, William G. Lewis, Henry Osborn, John Buller, Andrew Levell. Jackson Mann, and Simon Kauffman (on the Jack Ink farm).
North of town were Jesse Dillon, Allen Dillon, Thomas Newby, Seth Winslow, Thomas Winslow, Thomas Baldwin, William Pierce and John Phillips.
I am sure that Fairmount did not contain more than ten or twelve houses in the year 1853. I think some confusion may arise from the fact that Fairmount grew very rapidly and was quite a considerable village when the writer removed from there, in 1857. I am not writ- ing this as a contribution to your "Making of a Township." but only as a means of exciting inquiry and criticism in order that the facts, as far as may be possible, may be ascertained. I think it has well been said that man's progress in the past has been made possible by his ability to improve upon the mistakes of his ancestors.
J. M. HUNDLEY.
Summitville, Indiana, January 15, 1917.
JESSE WILSON'S RIFLE.
My friend Hundley takes me to task for leaving the early farmer to the mercy of the winds while cleaning their grain. The method I mentioned was the easier but the method Jim mentioned was used in cases of necessity.
The tread mill consisted of a wheel in the form of a cylinder fur- nished with some twenty-four steps around its circumference and turned on its axis by the tread of horses or oxen. Two horses were generally used to furnish power sufficient to run a chaff piler. Those tread mills were in common use up to 1870 to saw wood for the rail-
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The Making of a Township.
roads that used wood for fuel, and this included all the roads passing through Indiana.
I was pilot of the first coal-burning engine that ever passed over the Pan Handle road from Columbus, Ohio, to Logansport. It was a Rogers engine No. 10. This was in 1869, I think.
Speaking of threshing machines. John Ferree, who lived near Little Ridge, once owned a thresher called the Traveler. Four or six horses were used to propel the machine, which was pulled around the field, the grain being thrown in the cylinders as the machine moved along, the straw being scattered behind the machine. The power was gotten by frietion. This machine was not a success.
Brother Hundley must have seen this machine, for if J. M. Hund- ley or Ceph Bennett failed to see anything when we were boys it was hidden. Just to show how the boys would find melon patches in the early days (I don't mean Hundley or Bennett, of course), they would climb a tree on the edge of a clearing, where they suspected a melon patch might be. In this way they could locate the exact spot where melons could be had, with little risk of being discovered.
There were more shoemakers than any other mechanics in the pio- neer days. Some had shops and some went from house to house during the fall and early winter months. Richard Mott (or Daddy Mott, as he was called) was the first one I remember. He made the shoes for father's family for years. James Farrington, Evander Farrington and Berry Farrington were all good shoemakers. Berry Farrington died recently at Ottumwa, Iowa. I have often met him and talked with him of our boyhood days. There are possibly some at Fairmount who will remember him. He was successful in business and lived comfortably for many years. My recollection is that all the shoe lasts were made straight, and neither right nor left. Neither were they made in sections, as now. Both boots and shoes were heavy-no split leather, no shoe polish-only tallow or coon grease. Good wool socks, no overshoes, no damp feet. Thus the pioneers would go the coldest days perfectly comfortable. We do not recall who made shoes in Fairmount in 1854-1858.
Carpenters were plentiful. Jude Smithson, his brother Jake, Na- than Vinson, Alfred Waldron, and, I believe, Alex. Henley and I. B. Rush both worked at the trade when they were young men.
Albert Dillon was a gunsmith.
Nathan Little, Micah Baldwin, J. R. Smith were tanners.
Robert Kelsay was a stone cutter.
William Hollingsworth was a cabinet-maker.
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Personal Recollections.
Those mentioned all lived at or near Fairmount prior to 1861. All were good workmen. There were many others whom we have for- gotten. No doubt there is evidence of the handiwork of all these men vet to be found in or near Fairmount, with perhaps the exception of the shoemaker or tanner.
The first guns that the Dillons made were flint-locks, as percussion caps were not in general use until 1850. When a boy I owned a gun made by Albert Dillon, and I have an idea that the rifle Jesse Wilson owned when the people of Fairmount thought that the town was going to be raided by the rebels was made by Dillon.
It was told of Jesse that when he was asked to help defend the town he told the ones who went to him :
"I am a man of peace, but if thee needs the gun I will tell thee where thee can find it."
The first blacksmith shop was William Hundley's, and the shop was in Fairmount. At that time charcoal was almost entirely used by the blacksmiths for forge work. They made everything by hand. Horse nails, horseshoes, rivets and all the tools that they used were hand-made-axes, hammers, knives and many other tools.
It was not all smiths that could do every kind of work. Some were more skilled than others. Joe Bennett I recollect best, for the reason that he did my father's work longer than any other smith. Joe was drafted, with many others, to go to the army. I think he was assigned to the Twenty-fourth Battery. I recollect of hearing him preach the Sunday before he left for the army. He told his hearers that he was going to leave his Bible at home and take up the sword. My recollec- tion is that Joe came home and regained his Bible.
It is now fifty-two years since the things occurred that I am trying to write about. My memory, I find, is a little faulty. I have no way of refreshing my memory, and it is five hundred miles to anyone who could assist me.
The first saw-mill at Fairmount was of the sash pattern. It was a lazy man's job to run one of those saws, as they were so very slow and the logs were large. I have seen most of the block where The News office now stands covered with immense logs and the old mill going at snail gait sawing them into lumber.
The first circular saw-mill that I remember stood almost west of the Friends Church and on the bank of Back Creek. I think it was in 1864. After the sash saw-mill came one called the Muley, and this was much faster, and soon came into general use. Then came the portable mill with the circular saw of today.
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The Making of a Township.
In the early sixties I remember that Jesse E. Wilson had planted peach trees along his fences for some distance on each side of the road near his residence. In the peach season I have seen those trees loaded with the finest fruit imaginable. No one who knew Jesse would take one of those peaches without asking for it, but there were boys not a mile from him that would go miles to take his peaches or pears. The boys spoken of were not bad boys, but were mischievous and loved ad- venture, and finally grew to manhood to be the best citizens of the community. T. B. MCDONALD.
Lovilia. Iowa.
PIONEERS AND EARLY SCHOOL DAYS.
A public speaker once told me that if you want to interest your audience tell them something they already know. This I will. un- doubtedly do.
My mother died in the fall of 1856. My brother Winslow and myself went and lived for a time with Uncle Milton Wilson, Nate's father. He had just bought of Tommy Powell the farm now owned by John Kelsay. The house was west of the present residence. Tommy was an Englishman. I think he was a relative of John Bull and Samuel Radley, who were also from England.
Tommy Powell's wife was a Winslow ( Aunt Betsey, we called her ). a sister of Uncle Jesse Winslow, who lived east of Fairmount. She was afterwards the wife of Samuel Dillon.
My brother and I attended my first school at old Back Creek, north of town, the winter of 1856-1857. Asa T. Baldwin was the teacher. To my surprise he had no "gads" in sight, nor did he use any during the term. Some of the scholars near me were Jesse Dillon, now living in Marion, George Whybrew, David Winslow, Bill Baldwin, Lank Baldwin and many others. We attended Friends services at the old meeting house, then standing, on First day and Fourth day. There was hardly anything said by any one during services for two hours.
The school boys, when playing at recess, would try to see who could crawl through the air holes at the foundation of the old church. Many a boy went through all right, but swelled up until he could not get out. and what a yell they did make under the old church until rescued. The big boys and the teacher would have him come out craw-fish style, and one get hold of each leg and pull him out. The boy was then warned to not try it again, or if he did he would get a licking. But they were trying it again at each play time.
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Personal Recollections.
Aunt Rachel Newby lived on the Lewis Fankboner farm. The buildings were north of the present ones. We boys, at her request, would stop and warm by the big fireplace on our way to and from school. This was a small thing, but we never once forgot her for her kindness. It is the little things that people do that count, after all, even down to the present day.
Soon afterwards we went back home to live, south of town, my father having married. Our school days were afterwards spent at Back Creek, southwest of Fairmount. The early teachers were Milton McHatton, George Pierce, Jesse Reece, Keturah Baldwin, Columbus Moore, Foster Davis, Lancaster D. Baldwin, William Baldwin, and some others I may have overlooked. The school houses were log, and very poorly ventilated, but were, for that day, pretty comfortable.
The games played at school in those days were "three-cornered cat," "black man," and "bull pen," but the real game was "town ball." In- stead of a baseball bat, a paddle made of oak timber one inch thick and six to ten inches wide, made with a handle, was the bat. There were bases. Two were asked to choose up, or select the players from the crowd. Some one would take a chip of wood and spit on one side and one of the "choosers" would say "wet," the other "dry." They would then toss the chip in the air, and if "wet" was up the one taking that would have first choice of players, and if "dry," the second choice, and so on.
Nathan D. Cox and T. B. McDonald were usually first and second choice, as they were two who could break the paddle or knock the ball over the big white oak tree near by. No one ever caught the ball. Instead of a pitcher he was known as the one "giving balls." If he threw a ball so the batter with his big, wide paddle could not hit it, he was immediately fired and someone else put in to "give balls," so they could hit them. In baseball, which sprang from old "town ball,". men are now paid $10,000 to $20,000 annually to pitch a ball they can- not hit, and when he cannot do this he is let out.
We had no umpire in "town ball," and when a player did not like the way the game was going he just got mad and quit and would not play. There were always plenty to take his place. Even to this day there are persons who will not play unless things go to suit them. However, I do not know of any such in Fairmount Township.
The Wesleyans held church in the school house for some time, but finally cleared away about one-half an acre in a very thick woods near by and built the frame church which is now standing to the west on the range line. To clear away the heavy trees for the church was quite a
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The Making of a Township.
task. However, by the help of Uncle Jonathan Baldwin's pair of big, red oxen, from town, and twenty-five or thirty men who knew what an ax was made for, it was soon donc.
The early Wesleyan preachers that I now call to mind who preached at this place were Aaron Worth, now living at Fountain City, Thomas Brelsford, Isaac Meek, Emsley Brookshire, father of Thomas J. Brook- shire. William Lacey, and many others I do not now recall. Aaron Worth was then the big preacher of all, and Isaac Meek was very popular and much loved by everybody, especially the young, on account of his Indian, bear and deer stories in conversation. He could talk all kinds of Indian language.
The boys in the neighborhood often had a heated argument as to who was the biggest and best preacher. It was finally decided in favor of a new preacher, whom I do not now recall, for the reason we could hear him nearly a mile away.
There was not very much land cleared in the carly settlement of the Township, so the farming was on a very small scale, indeed. On the high places along Back Creek and east of Fairmount along the old prairie was about the only land high enough to farm. The very best black elm land lay idle for years and was rated as worthless, on account of its being covered with water all the year. Today this low, level black land has been drained until it is doubtful if the sun shines on better anywhere.
The farmers raised corn, wheat, flax, buckwheat, sugar cane, but not much stock. The farms averaged one cow, six to ten hogs, two horses and fifteen to twenty head of sheep.
Hogs ran wild and were hunted and killed in the woods when wanted for meat. They were large and thin. There was no danger of getting too much fat in those days. They were what the packers prize so highily today as strictly "bacon hogs."
The farmers had but little to sell in those days. Not many fed over five or ten hogs, and the man who had twenty-five or thirty hogs to market was considered a big stock grower.
Jeans suits made from wool off their own sheep were the clothing. No overcoats, underwear, overshoes or anything in the way of fine dress was in evidence. The women wore calico and flannel and fancy gingham dresses for Sunday.
Neighbors were quite well acquainted and knew one another better than they do today. All would lend any tool or horse. Neighbors visited much more than at present. The whole family would walk a mile and stay and visit a neighbor until bed time, and then return
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Personal Recollections.
home with a hickory bark torch or a tin lantern punched full of holes and a candle inside for light.
The early merchants in Fairmount bought coon skins, sheep pelts, beeswax, sorghum, flax-seed, feathers, dried peaches and apples, rags, eggs, butter, sheep and beef tallow.
At the tanyard of Micah Baldwin and William Hall they sold oak bark. The farmers of the Township in the early days raised quite an amount of sugar cane, some as much as five or ten acres. Nearly all raised some to make molasses or sorghum. It was an easy crop to grow. After the cane was done growing and the heads ripened and turned black late in the fall, they went through with corn cutters and cut off the heads about one foot from the heads and let them fall on the ground. They next went through with a sharp-edged board and stripped the cane. The cane was then cut close to the ground and hauled to the cane mill, which consisted of two rollers together made of a sugar tree. A lever was fastened at the top of these rollers and a horse hitched, going round and round, and the mill making a noise you could hear a mile or more. You could often hear ten or twelve of these mills in a neighborhood.
The molasses, or sorghum, was easily made, and was usually quite thick and would not run. It was generally put in a large pan, or bowl, . in the center of the table, and when any one wanted sorghum, they harpooned it with a knife or fork, and wound out what they desired. And permit me to say that with sausage made from hogs, butter made from cows, and hot biscuits or corn bread it was not very bad.
The people are very much the same wherever you go, from Maine to California. Every place has its good and bad citizens. A very large majority are for the very best interests of all the people everywhere and all the time. However, I am of the opinion that from the day of the entry of the land to the present time, there has lived and are living more of the right kind of people in Fairmount Township and vicinity than any place where the sun shines.
CYRUS W. NEAL.
Marion, Indiana, December 26, 1916.
FROM A NOTE BOOK.
I can claini to be a pioneer in one respect, at least, a pioneer in collecting historical facts.
You will receive a small note book filled with facts which I col- lected in February-just twenty years ago. Most of the facts are
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The Making of a Township.
about our own family, and will not, therefore, be of general interest. The men whom I interviewed in 1897 were my father, Nixon Rush, Calvin Rush, Sr .. James Scott, Elwood Rush, Bernard McDonald and Nathan Little. These were good men and great. Let us ever remem- ber them.
I can give some information which should be of interest to young as well as old. It may not be known to many people that there once lived in Fairmount a man who, I believe, was one of the greatest athletes this country ever produced. If he were a young man now, attending one of our colleges, his picture would be published in all the leading papers of America. This man was James Scott.
When I was in my teens the boy who could beat us all in the run- ning hop, step and jump or the running two hops and a jump, was Wick Winslow. Any of us boys would have traded our homes-fami- lies included-for Wick's ability to run and jump.
Among the older boys the great heroes were John and Charles E. White. They could have all the sidewalk any time they wanted it- provided. of course, that there happened to be a sidewalk. Yet none of these heroes-no matter how large the circle of admirers-ever boasted of going more than forty-two feet in a running hop, step and jump, or the more popular two hops and a jump. After several weeks' practice I once made thirty-seven feet myself, but I tore my suspenders in doing it.
My father often told me of the "barn-raisings" when he was a boy. Someone would nearly always start to jump in order to get James Scott and his brother started. As father expressed it, "they jumped as if they had wings." He also told me that on one occasion James Scott jumped against the State champion at Indianapolis and won. And so. in February, just twenty years ago, I went to see James Scott and I wrote in my little red note book his story as he gave it :
"It was the first Monday in August." related James. "Henry Clay was the candidate for President that year. Our wheat was all gath- ered in the barn and father allowed me to go and see my uncle, who lived at Indianapolis.
"The best jumper in the State was there, and he wanted to bet me ten dollars that he could beat me. I did not want to bet, but the fellow would not jump unless I would bet. So I took his bet. It was on the ground where the Court House now stands. There was a little slope to the land. It was not quite level. We each had three trials. I jumped twice. The first time I jumped sixty feet, and the second time I jumped sixty-two feet. It was the running hop, step and jump. He could not
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Personal Recollections.
equal my second jump. I jumped fifty-eight feet at Marion when they were laying the foundation for the first Court House. I could jump twenty-five feet at running broad jump on level ground. I could jump from sill to sill when the sills were ten feet apart, and in the haymow I have jumped from one sill to another where the sills were eight feet apart. I could go thirty-three feet on level ground in three jumps standing. I could jump over a pole six inches higher than my head. My brother Stephen could jump thirty-six feet in three jumps, standing."
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