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 6
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The office of Secretary was abolished and William R. Pierce was chosen to serve in the dual capacity of President and Secretary. He was succeeded by Jesse E. Wilson, who was elected President and Sec- retary and was serving as such on August 24, 1862. He continued in this position until August 5, 1881, a period of nearly nineteen years. Upon the death of Jesse E. Wilson the stockholders, on June 21. 1883. elected Joseph W. Hill, Jonathan P. Winslow and Daniel Winslow. Directors. On July 30, 1883, the Directors met and named Jonathan P. Winslow, President, Joseph W. Hill. Treasurer, and Jonathan P. Winslow, Secretary.
The position of an officer of the Jonesboro & Fairmount Turnpike Company was not regarded lightly. It was considered one of real responsibility and importance. This fact is evidenced by the action taken at a meeting of the Board of Directors held in July, 1883. The records show the following :
Jonathan Baldwin 6
Levi Winslow 2
Calvin Bookout 4
Wright & Brother 2
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Building Roads.
"State of Indiana, Grant County, ss. :
"We. Joseph W. Hill, Jonathan P. Winslow and Daniel Winslow, do truly affirm that we will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Indiana, and that we will discharge the duties as Directors of the Jonesboro & Fairmount Turn- pike Company according to law, to the best of our ability, for which we shall answer under the pains and penalties of perjury.
"Witness our hands and seals.
"JOSEPH W. HILL, "JONATHAN P. WINSLOW. "DANIEL WINSLOW.
"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 30th day of July, 1883.
"ALFRED BARNARD, "Justice of the Peace."
On August 1, 1883. Jonathan P. Winslow purchased of Daniel Wil- son, administrator of the estate of Jesse E. Wilson, thirty-eight shares of stock. At about the same date eleven shares of stock were assigned to Nixon Rush, Jr.
Jonathan P. Winslow continued to serve as President and Secretary of the Company until July 17, 1886, when he was succeeded by Chris- topher Hill.
On May 14, 1892, Jonathan P. Winslow was again elected Presi- dent. Z. M. Gossett was chosen Secretary. On July 12, 1892, forty- one shares were assigned to Dr. A. Henley.
For the month ending August 1. 1892, the receipts for toll were as follows: Gate No. 1. $30.00 ; Gate No. 2. $52.66 : Gate No. 3. $42.21. September. 1892, the receipts reached high-water mark. The report of receipts on October 1, for the preceding month, was as follows: Gate No. I, $50.05 ; Gate No. 2, $98.62, and Gate No. 3. $39.72, making a total for the month of $188.39.
On April 27, 1893, one hundred and twenty shares were assigned to Sullivan T. Waite.
In 1899 the Interurban line connecting Marion and Anderson had been completed and was in operation. It was doubtless partly due to this new and more convenient means of travel and partly to the fact that other gravel roads had been constructed that the income from tolls became almost negligible.
The records show that on September 9, 1899, the receipts for two months, July and August combined, amounted to but $25.25. At this date Sullivan T. Waite was President and Adeline Wright, Secretary.
The Jonesboro & Fairmount turnpike was taken over by the county
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The Making of a Township.
on January 9, 1901, at which time the officers of the company gave a quit-claim deed for the property to the County Commissioners. There are now no toll roads in Fairmount Township.
The construction of the Jonesboro & Fairmount turnpike marked the beginning of an era of rapid development along various lines of progress vitally important. It was, perhaps, the first gravel road built in Grant County. It enabled farmers more easily and more cheaply to get their products to market. It perceptibly increased the value of land. Perhaps no two things happened which worked more to the material advantage of pioneers than the drainage of farms and the building of gravel roads. The records show who blazed the way for better transportation facilities.
And thus we see that this pioneer road, as a profitable private busi- ness enterprise, under pressure of modern ingenuity and advancement, went the way of the pioneer corn cracker, the pioneer tanner and the pioneer boot and shoe maker. These institutions all served their pur- pose admirably in their day and generation. It is fitting that we of the present, in our moments of meditation, rejoice with hearts full of pride and gratitude that the persistent toil and uncomplaining sacrifice of men who have passed on before contributed so generously to a condi- tion which has made life more pleasant and placed the possibilities of enduring happiness within the reach of all.
"Any one riding over Fairmount Township at the present day will note the very level surface of the land." writes Dr. A. Henley, under date of Melbourne, Florida, April 14. 1917. "It does not look nearly so level now as it did to the first settlers, before the forest trees and underbrush were cut away and the fallen timber removed that ob- structed the natural drainage of the sloughs.
"I think one would be safe in saying that fifty per cent. of the landed surface was wet land, covered with water a portion of the year-too wet to cultivate until late in the spring-and was an uncertain proposi- tion even then. For this reason the first comers selected land some- what rolling, land that had the best natural outlet for the surface water. erected their cabins, cut out roads on the ridges and the driest ground and as direct from one neighbor to another as was practicable.
"They had the soil to bring abundant crops to please the appetite of man if they could get the surface water off. That was the leading question that agitated the minds of the people. A few farmers cut open ditches, which proved unsatisfactory, as the ditch would soon fill up by the stock passing over it. Then, again, the open ditch was a nuisance and obstruction when cut through a field, and also a waste
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of good land. Consequently, some of the more progressive farmers conceived the idea of making a blind ditch of split timber by cutting a narrow, deep channel, placing the oak timber in the bottom in different ways to suit the individual fancy, give a free channel for the water to flow beneath the timber, and filled the ditch to the top surface with the excavated dirt and clay. This scheme was a success and gave satisfac- tion so long as the timber remained sound and kept its place, which was not a great while.
"In the early seventies good timber began to be very valuable for export, so much so that other material was sought for to substitute wood as ditch timber. About this time a firm in Indianapolis, Chand- ler & Taylor, devised a machine that would press out of wet clay a tube from two to six inches in diameter, which was cut as it came from the machine into one foot lengths. The power used was a team of horses hitched at the end of a long sweep which was securely bolted to the top of the mill post, the team going round the mill, pressing out a length of the tube at every revolution of the machine, which was cut into proper lengths by the operator. Then the tile were placed on racks under a long shed to dry, and when sufficiently dry were removed to a round kiln, after the manner of pottery, to be burned to a dark red color.
"Thus the land owner was provided with an indestructible material for drainage purposes, if he could be convinced of the utility of the material.
"William S. Elliott was the first man to bring one of those machines into the Township and risk money in what was to most of the people a doubtful enterprise. Many people were incredulous. Mr. Elliott had to overcome all kinds of foolish objections to his new system of drain- age. The very idea of paying out a lot of good money for material to bury in the ground for ditches had never been done, and it was a pre- posterous thing to do.
"Another objection was raised. The cost would be prohibitive. It would never pay interest, and the water could not get into the tiling any way. To overcome these and many other objections, Mr. Elliott, at first, let out many thousands of rods of tile on trial, with the under- standing that if they failed to do the work he claimed for them they could have them free of cost.
"At first the farmers would lay the tile with the ends a little distance apart, fearful that the water would not get into them, and then cover the tile with straw to keep out the dirt while the ditch was being filled. No one believed the water could get through the sides of the tiling until
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The Making of a Township.
John Selby, with his ingenious turn of mind, determined to test that question by completely sealing one end of a tile and set it with the sealed end down in a tub of water not quite to the top of the tile. After twelve hours the water in the tile was on a level with the water in the tub.
"This, becoming generally known, the straw business was aban- doned and the tile laid close end to end. It was soon observed that a tile ditch would run as full of water soon after a heavy rain as any timber ditch.
"The utility of the tile ditch was established, and Mr. Elliott's faith in putting out hundreds of dollars worth of tiling on trial was fully rewarded, as he did not lose a dollar in the end. Wide-awake farmers soon began to see that tiling their land, instead of being a financial burden, was a paying investment. They replaced their wooden ditches with tile, cleared and ditched more wet land, adding in excess of twenty-five per cent. to the acreage of tillable land in the Township. It was like putting a new and permanent foundation under an old building, making it safe and durable for all time.
"It will be remembered with a shudder by many that up to about this date chills. shaking ague, congestive fevers, dysentery, cholera morbus, cholera infantum, typhoid fever, and all malarial diseases were prevalent. Any one was liable to be prostrated from July to November. When the ponds and stagnant water were drained off and the surface water line lowered from two to three feet by means of the tile drain- age, those malarious diseases first enumerated disappeared from the country and are not the factor to reckon with that they formerly were.
"To what or to whom shall we give credit for this great change and for this immunity from disease? Has not the tile drainage system been the real foundation upon which the prosperity of the Township rests ? Who, then, is more deserving of gratitude as a benefactor of his race than he who introduced the tile system of drainage into the Township?
"Mr. Elliott did not use the horse-power mill, as described above, but devised a gearing out of an old portable machine which had been used for running a threshing machine in an early day. To this he attached steam power to the opposite end of the pinion shaft with the master wheel fastened in a saddle on the top of the mill post, and by driving the master wheel and also the mill with the little pinion he had adequate power, and just the proper speed for successful work.
"This was the first steam-power tile mill in Indiana. Mr. Taylor. of the firm at Indianapolis that made the mill, came over to see the manner of attaching steam power to his machine, after which his firm
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made no more horse-power mills. Tile mills and motor power went on improving until now a tile two feet in diameter can be made as easily as the six-inch tile in the first place."
William S. Elliott is a native of Grant County. He was born Jan- uary 28, 1844, at the Elliott cabin, which then stood on the present site of the Mess Hall of the National Military Home. His grandpar- ents, Isaac and Rachel (Over- man) Elliott, with two children, came originally from Virginia, settled in Wayne County, Indiana, and in 1822 traveled in wagons to a point near the Mississinewa River, where they entered land since taken over by the Govern- ment and now included within the grounds forming the Soldiers' Home property.
William S. Elliott as a boy at- tended the public schools, as well as the schools conducted by the Society of Friends in that day. His ancestors for many genera- tions were Quakers. He engaged in agricultural pursuits in his boy- hood, until August, 1862, when he volunteered his services to his country. He enlisted in Company WILLIAM S. ELLIOTT C, Eighty-ninth Indiana Regiment of Infantry, at eighteen years of age. This company was in the latter part of the war in command of Capt. J. F. Jones, lately deceased. The term of service for which Mr. Elliott had volunteered was three years. The regiment was captured by the Confederates while guarding a rail- road bridge at Mumfordsville, Kentucky, before he had been out six weeks. In a short time he was paroled and sent home, under instruc- tions not to take up arms against the Confederacy until properly ex- changed.
In six weeks this exchange was arranged by the authorities and Elliott again joined his command at Indianapolis. After some time of hard drilling the command was ordered to Memphis, Tennessee. Here he did post duty while the Union Army was sent on to Vicksburg. In
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The Making of a Township.
the weeks following he did much important service, being promoted for his fidelity and efficiency.
With twelve men he was detailed to escort a dozen captured Con- federate officers to Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio. The prisoners were taken in a separate car set aside for the purpose. At Centralia, Illinois, and Bellefontaine, Ohio, the prisoners attracted numbers of Southern sympathizers, several offering pistols to the prisoners. As one of the guards on duty at Centralia Elliott, with gun and bayonet, pressed the crowd back from the car.
At another time, after the surrender of Vicksburg, July 10, 1863, he was detailed with others to guard iron safes containing $2,000,000 sent by the Government on the "City of Madison" from Memphis to Vicks- burg to pay off Union troops.
In October, 1864. Elliott was with his command in Missouri, then under General Pleasanton, in pursuit of the Confederate General Price. Captain Jones had responded to a detail to guard a water tank twelve miles west of Sedalia. General Pleasanton reminded Captain Jones that it would be a dangerous undertaking, telling him that he and his entire command might be killed or captured.
"You may have all the men you require for this work," remarked General Pleasanton, "but they must be picked men. You now realize the dangerous character of the duty you are about to perform. Are you ready ?"
Captain Jones hesitated.
"Why do you hesitate?" asked the General.
"I am not hesitating because of the hazardous character of the mis- sion," replied Jones, "I was simply wondering, General, if you would allow me to take my own company with me."
The General agreed to the suggestion. So Captain Jones, with Company C. made up principally of Fairmount Township and Grant County men, went to the water tank and held this important source of water supply until relieved.
After more than three years' service, mostly with the Sixteenth Army Corps, Mr. Elliott was mustered out on July 26, 1865, at Mobile. Alabama. Returning home he was married in September, 1865, to Miss Ruth Wilson, daughter of Jesse E. Wilson. She died in 1867. Later he married Miss Alice Radley, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Bull) Radley, by whom he is the father of eleven children, all living. Mr. Elliott has been uniformly successful in his various pursuits, and has retired with a competency ample to insure the comfort of himself and wife. He has been and is now useful in the church and enter-
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prising in his work for educational and civic progress. He has for several years devoted considerable time and attention to the welfare of White's Institute, located in Wabash County, of which institution he is at present trustee. In all his activities he has been a conspicuous fac- tor. As soldier, as farmer, as church man, as promoter of educational and civic welfare, Mr. Elliott is not only a many-sided man, with a broad experience and a thorough understanding of public affairs, but he is a type of the useful citizen of whom there are entirely too few in the average American community.
CHAPTER IX.
GLIMPSES OF PIONEER LIFE.
(By Mrs. Lydia Morris Arnold.)
B EING the wife of a contractor and builder, changing from one State to another, one job to another, it will be hard for me to con- centrate my mind in order to give anything accurate of happenings of early days. In writing of my early childhood and what I re- member, will say that I was born in 1844, on the farm called the Sammy Dillon place, in a two- story hewn log house with a fire- place in the west end. There was a road on the east. Daniel Baldwin joined on the south. Then north of us the houses on the main road were on the east side of the road.
First was Jesse Dillon, then Charles Baldwin. Ile had a log cabin in the south corner of his orchard, where Samuel Jones lived awhile. His wife was Jane Jones, a gifted minister of the Friends Church. Then Charles Baldwin lived next, and Matthew Winslow and Aaron Hill.
West of the road were farms MRS. LYDIA MORRIS ARNOLD on Back Creek, with the houses up on the hill west of the creek. First, going south and across the creek from Aaron Hill's farm were Solomon Knight and Joseph Winslow, then south was the road turning east across the bridge, then the old meeting house and school house, and the Newby farm south. We cross the creek to go up to Rachel Newby's, then we cross the road running west to Oak Ridge. Going on south we crossed the road, then passed the Seth Winslow farm, then Iredell Rush's, then Jesse Wilson's, and next Nathan Wilson's farm. west of the town.
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Glimpses of Pioncer Life.
Most of the houses first built in Fairmount were one-story, about thirty feet square, then shedded off back for a kitchen. They had a fireplace in the large room and one or two bed rooms. Some put a bed in the kitchen.
Two stores were built, one on the east side of Main Street, and one on the west. Joseph W. Baldwin had his goods on the east, Isaac Stan- field on the west. These two buildings were a little larger, with gable facing street and a small attic. They had the store in the big room.
A saw-mill was built south of the road running west to Little Ridge. James Cammack, who owned the mill, lived in the house west of Stan- field's store.
The first meeting house was built on the vacant ground north of Cammack's. It was a small frame, and was also used for school pur- poses. Father and David Stanfield helped to lay out the ground for the house.
Father bought the first clock and cook stove in the Township. The clock was a wooden clock. It had these letters on the door, "Time is Money." The stove was what they called a step stove.
I went to school at Back Creek before Fairmount was prepared with school facilities. The school house was west of the meeting house. It was a square frame about thirty feet, with a door in the north and one in the south, two windows in east, two in west, one on each side of the door in south, a blackboard on north and east and west as far as the windows. There were two posts in the middle of the room, on each side of the big box stove, heated by wood, and they were big sticks at that. The teachers were paid by the scholar, so the larger the attendance the bigger his wages.
The first teacher I went to was William Neal. He had no bell, and when he called us in he beat on the side of the house and shouted :
"Books! Books! Books!"
And away we scampered for our seats. There we spent about fif- teen minutes with our books, in the manner they called "studying out loud." What would one of our modern students think to be ushered into such a babel as that ?
I can shut my eyes and fancy I hear them spelling :
"Baker, shady, lady."
"Ab, eb, ib, ob, ub."
"The old oaken bucket, the iron bound bucket, the moss covered bucket that hung in the well."
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star."
"Twice one are two."
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The Making of a Township.
"Indiana is bounded on the north by Lake Michigan, State of Mich- igan, on the east by Ohio, south by Kentucky and west by Illinois."
"Silence! Silence !" by the teacher.
"First class in spelling."
And so forth, on until noon.
We ate our lunch in silence, and then we were given an hour of play. Our games were "black man," "town ball," "three-cornered cat," "base," "drop the handkerchief," "little lame dog," "pussy wants a corner," and on stormy days we had "cross questions and crooked answers," "smiles," "thumbs up," and many other simple games.
They used the Elementary Spellers and McGuffey's Readers, Tol- bert's Arithmetic, Olney's Geography, Thompson's Higher Arithmetic. Brown's Grammar and Walker's Dictionary. A teacher, in order to pass examination. must be able to make a good writing pen out of a goose quill and "do sums up to the rule of three."
The girls wore flannel dresses and big aprons in winter, heavy cot- ton in summer. The boys wore a cloth called jeans in winter and tow or flax in summer. In the middle of the week we went to meeting. Often, now, when I hear the "whinney" of a horse, it brings to my remembrance those times as I sat in meeting (as it was sometimes very quiet in doors), the restless neighing of the horses anxious to return to their mates. The women rode often with a child on behind and one in her lap, the men most always walking.
About the first one to arrive would be Solomon Knight, walking. his wife, Betsy, riding. He would lead the horse up to where they had a wide słab leaning up to a tree, with a deep notch cut to hold it secure, and two pegs driven in the ground down south of the tree. Those who came across the creek got off here, and those on the north on a big stump, with places cut on one side for steps. On the south was a big log with notches for steps. They were generally on time, and when one we all called Uncle Josie Winslow came, we knew it was time for our teacher to say :
"Prepare for meeting."
That meant for us to put away our books and march, the girls first, two and two, the boys next. The teacher led the way, and at the door he let us all pass, the girls on the west of the aisle and the boys east. The teacher sat back of us, as the seats were arranged a little on the incline. He would be able to see over us. We had to be decorous, sure. for there were the old people in the gallery looking down on us and the teacher behind us.
The gallery had three seats on each side of the aisle. Josie Winslow
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Glimpses of Pioneer Life.
was first and then Nathan Morris, David Stanfield, Solomon Knight and John Carey. Next row, Jesse Harvey, William Osborn, Aaron Hill, old Thomas Harvey, Lindsey Baldwin and Thomas Winslow. Now, I will leave the next bench for comers and goers.
On the west, first, was Eunice Baldwin, as Charles was now dead. After Eunice Baldwin there were Sallie Knight and Anna Harvey. When a woman minister came with her companion they moved over and gave place for them. (When men came on the other side two men moved down for them to the next seat.) On the second seat on the west was Rachel Newby, Miriam Morris, Lydia Carey and Anna Wins- low. I will not locate others (too tedious).
The preaching was generally spoken without a text, but occasionally a text was given. When prayer was offered we all stood up and turned our backs towards the gallery.
Nathan Morris was not much for changing his dress and address. . He wore his hair cut the style he wore when a young man. It was cut square across the forehead, then slanting down to his ears, down a little, then it was a little longer in back. His collar was attached to his shirt. In winter he wore a black tie, in summer a white one. His vest was buttoned up within about four inches of his chin, coat in the shad style, pants made with a flap buttoned up about two inches of the pockets on each side, and his suspenders were knit of yarn. They were called galluses. His hat was a beaver. Aunt Polly Henley made his "meeting clothes," as she was a fine needle woman. She was a sister of Betsy Rush and Martha Winslow, and mother of Dr. Alpheus Hen- ley, grandmother of Angelina (Harvey) Pearson. Father never did receive money for his services as a minister. He said if he was faithful the necessary things would be forthcoming. His crops would grow and the stock increase and flourish. He had a good, roomy house, large barn and cribs, a cattle pen for drovers to put their cattle in, and a hog-tight pen for the hog drovers to put their hogs in. We had one large room with a fireplace and a large, brick hearth to let people stay in on stormy nights.
Travel was by wagon. There were no railroads. The boats came up the Wabash River, north, over forty miles away, and south the Ohio River made Cincinnati a great trading point. So the cattle, sheep and hogs were driven to those points.
Father's place was one of the stopping points on the route. The wagons were the old stiff-tongued affairs, with wooden axles, the wheels fastened on with linchpins, and the bed looked more like a boat on wheels than anything I can think of. The harness was the chain
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