The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I, Part 68

Author: Griswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph), 1873-1927; Taylor, Samuel R., Mrs. The story of the townships of Allen County
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : R.O. Law Co.
Number of Pages: 760


USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I > Part 68


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In 1829 the rapid increase of population made the keeping of accurate records almost impossible. The pioneers in Adams were no longer lonely. The tides of traffic and travel swept past the river road farms, landing many new neighbors, while seeking wealth and happiness in the fertile valley of the Maumee.


Because the Grim Harvester is not idle in any land nor any season, David Miller, in 1830, donated a plot of ground for an established cemetery, which by that time had become a necessity.


But happiness is always the stronger factor, and the rough log-cabin homes as well as the more pretentious structures housed happy families in which peaceful industry was rewarded with pros- perity. The first religious service was held in the John Rogers home, by Reuben Nickerson, and the same roof sheltered occasional meetings for the next four years, these being conducted by success- ive circuit riders of the Methodist faith. The first church organiza- tion was not effected until 1853, and then it was a Lutheran body.


School history in Adams township is a story oft-repeated in the early days of the middle western states. It is not for the twentieth century to carp at the "haphazard methods" of the pioneers. To those who struggled with the primeval forest the three rudiments of education might easily have seemed of secondary importance to the three necessities, food, shelter and clothing. They trusted to Providence in the matter of teachers, it is said of them. Thus, im- posters, in search of adventure or the easy money of a new country, often found their way into the teacher's position, and time was lost to the settlers' children. Still Providence did not always sleep. The first school house was built in 1829 on Absalom Holcomb's farm. Like the homes of the township, it was made of logs, with floor of hewn slabs, and windows "glazed" with paper, well greased. Fortunately, the first teacher was a man of real education and fine character, who set a standard for the settlement, and though he could not be secured for a second term, the name of Jared Bobo was


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long remembered. Orrin D. Rogers, himself afterward a teacher, began his education under the influence of the "good school" of the first teacher. Uncertain as was the administration and support of these early schools, and burdensome as they must have been financially, yet it seems that the settlers were long inclined to endure those evils rather than to fly to the free school system "which they knew not of." Strenuous opposition met the first efforts of the township trustees to establish the modern regime in Adams. The proposition, being put to vote, was defeated. The trustees took counsel together, made a personal canvass of the township and again submitted the question to the settlers-this time winning a victory for public education. This was not until 1854, but the first free school building was at once put up on "Elm Park" farm, while the building already in use at New Haven became a free school at the same time. Two more buildings were erected in Adams in the fall of that year. In 1858 a new building was provided for the New Haven district, boasting two rooms, to accommodate what was still "the district school." The incorporation of New Haven as a town took place in 1866, following the election of June 7th, held to decide the question. The new corporation became a voting precinct a year and a half later, in response to the petition of Allan H. Dougall. When the incorporation had been effected the school house was enlarged by the addition of two rooms and the new town school board engaged Dr. James Anderson as its first principal, with authority to install a graded school system. This first school board was composed of L. M. Rogers, C. E. Bryant and John Begue. Under the administration of O. D. Rogers, trustee in 1885, the old building was torn down and replaced by a more modern structure, two stories high, with four rooms and an office. This has in turn been changed with the times. New Haven, realizing the greater advantage of the county system, as it has developed, has relinquished its "school city" rights, and the schools there are now administered under the township method, which has reduced all schools, city and rural, to a standard grade.


The high school at New Haven is a model institution of which the township as well as the town itself is proud. But that is the story of a later day.


A welcoming hand was always outstretched to greet the west- ward traveler, and whether he stopped to stay, or only to rest, the hospitality of the river road settlers did not fail. In 1832 John Rogers opened an inn on his farm which was available to both road and river travel, and speedily became so popular that it was known as the "Hoosier Nest" by the guests who enjoyed the friendly shelter and board. Almost at the same time, the "New York Inn" was established by Rufus McDonald. The postoffice found headquarters in this inn five years afterward, Mr. McDonald acting as post master for the next seven years. The mail at that time was carried on horseback by John Omans, who plied between Fort Wayne and Defiance, Ohio. The "river road," while it follows the trend of the Maumee, was cut for the greater part through decidedly dense woods, and soil richly covered with natural vege- tation of much beauty, wild flowers abounding everywhere, and wild things not so agreeable adding piquancy to travel. The pioneer


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mail carrier, and hundreds of others who passed that way were quite accustomed to the silent dropping of snakes-for the most part harmless-out of the over-hanging trees onto shoulders, hands or packsaddles, or to being gently struck on cheek or ear by the swaying body of a reptile lurking on a leafy twig. To our twentieth century sense of "conservation," the ruthless sacrifice of these forests seems appalling, even while we are reciting the hardy brav- eries of the settlers who by this means gave to the broad acres of Allen county "a place in the sun." Conditions have undergone stupendous changes since the days when it was a praiseworthy thing to first "deaden" and then destroy those giant timbers which would now be priceless, but then were a useless incumbrance of the land.


The site of New Haven, as it was platted first, occupied a sec- tion of woods known as "Gundy's Deadening," a man named Gundy having once undertaken the clearing of the tract by the method popularly employed by the settlers. Evidently Mr. Gundy settled elsewhere, for the land soon became the property of Samuel Hanna, who in turn sold it to Eben Burgess and his son Henry. The town plat, made by these men, is dated March 16th, 1839. Great prosperity was expected for the new town owing to its location on the canal, and a hotel was erected by Elias Shafer, and, not far away, the first store was opened by Henry Shafer. These hopes were not to be realized through the canal traffic, how- ever, though the building of the Wabash railroad, and later, the Nickel Plate route, kept them from actual failure. At the present date, the Wabash has a direct line to Detroit from New Haven, which with its other transportation facilities, makes the town an excellent shipping point. Its early development was nevertheless slow, though its boundaries were enlarged by three additions to the original plat, one by Reuben Powers in May, 1853, one by Joseph Edgerton in 1854, and one by Nicholas Shookman in 1863. The first industry listed seems to have been the cooper shop start- ed by John Begue, in 1854, a business which had a stable exist- ence and was enlarged to include stave manufacture, the Beugnot brothers entering the firm, which in the seventies was reorganized as Schnelker, Beugnot and Co., and became an establishment of decided importance. In 1854 a second industry venture of magnitude, the New Haven Flouring Mill, was undertaken by Vol- ney, Amasa and John A. Powers, one or more of whom continued to hold greater or less interests in it until the late eighties, although others, notably Allen H. Dougall, of Fort Wayne, at times owned stock in it. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1884, being at the time the property of Volney Powers. The "Maumee Valley," an- other flouring mill, was founded in 1864 by L. M. Rogers with John Begue and Levi Hartzell, and later Amasa Rogers, as partners. It was an extensive establishment and flourished for several years under the management of Louis and Charles Lepper, but in 1871 the building was wrecked by the explosion of the boiler, which caused also the death of the proprietors and the engineer while the miller and two lads were seriously injured. A few years later the property was purchased by Joseph Brudi and Co., equipped with modern machinery, and from that time has been in continuous operation, and is still one of the best-known mills in this section of the state. In the prosperous days of the sixties, the Gothe


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Planing Mill, erected by Gustav Gothe and the Brudi Brothers, be- came a solid business institution. A second stave factory was opened in 1864, which after twelve years of independent existence was consolidated with the first plant, under the ownership of H. Schnelker and Co., making a business of impressive magnitude for the place and period. It employed ninety-five workmen, and its en- gines consumed twelve thousand cords of wood, annually. Between this early prosperity and the present thriving condition of New Haven lies a period when the village slept or rested on its oars-but this is now a part of its past. Wood-working factories are still flourishing in New Haven, and with fresh impetus, modern methods having supplanted the old in the renaissance of the pretty town. Two large handle factories conduct thriving business, one of these, Schnitker and Son, dating from about thirty years ago; and the other, the Sperry Manufacturing Co., having incorporated in 1892, and enlarged its original plant since then. The New Haven Lumber and Supply Company is an extensive depot of all varieties of fine lumber, for construction and inside work, and also manufactures doors, sash and other parts for building. The "Elastic Plaster" Com- pany not only manufactures that commodity for builders, but other items of similar nature, including cement blocks, etc. The Cream of Rice Co. has an extensive plant in New Haven, the stock being held largely by Adams township farmers and New Haven resi- dents. Two grain elevators afford market facilities to the town- ship, one of which is operated by Fort Wayne capital and the other by a New Haven firm, Minsel and Son. The stockyards of Kauffman and Company have a shipping capacity larger than Fort Wayne can exhibit, from which stock of all kinds is sent to market in large quantity. The retail business of New Haven flourishes correspond- ingly, extending from the crossing of the two principal streets in four directions, and affords excellent shopping facilities for the residents. New Haven has also its own Home telephone exchange, Mr. William Bowers, manager, from which its own rural lines are operated. The Ohio Electric interurban line has one of its prettiest depots there. The presence of two banks in the town indicates the high state of local prosperity. The oldest of these institutions is the "New Haven State Bank," and the other the "People's State Bank," and both enjoy the confidence of town and township. The "People's" has recently built new quarters. Under the rural free de- livery system, the New Haven postoffice is a center from which five rural routes are served to the surrounding country. New Haven is well lighted with electricity, the current coming from the Traction Company at Fort Wayne. Its water supply is from wells which are "one hundred per cent good" by state test. It is distributed by an electric pumping plant, deriving its power from the same source as the lights.


The retail business of the town is prosperous and adequate. The stores are all "general" or department stores, including John C. Smith, successor to the old pioneer store of Frank Bueter; R. J. Blackwell, which was originally the old Rogers store ; Blaising and Lucas; Bolyard and Bolyard; and J. A. Bailey, which succeeded to the old Peltier stand. H. E. Purvis keeps the drug store, and J. A. Hellwarth sells hardware. The old store of B. Dowling survives under the original name. There is a fine garage, good livery barns,


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two blacksmith shops, restaurants and bakery. The New Haven 'Bus line now runs three auto 'buses on the Lincoln Highway. There are four churches, the Methodist Episcopal occupying, still, its original edific built in 1866; but it is modernized, and very at- tractive. The Protestant Methodists have a new church built about twelve years ago, and the old building is now used as a garage. St. Emanuel's Lutheran church has a very handsome modern school building conducted in connection with the parish. Some years ago, New Haven was deeply in debt, in which it had floundered for a long period. A change of town administration undertook the reduction of the debt and while bringing it down from $17,000 to less than five thousand dollars, have at the same time accomplished the building of a handsome and substantial city hall, and several other municipal improvements. Streets and sidwalks are ex- cellent, and there is much building of the better sort both in the business and the residence districts. A new industry not yet men- tioned is the New Haven Floral company, built five years ago, and under the management of Herman Leitz, formerly of Vesey's, Fort Wayne. The green houses at New Haven cover more than an acre of ground and have over fifty-five thousand square feet of glass in them. About a half million plants are potted every year. Carna- tions are one of the specialties, about a thousand daily being cut at this season. In the rose house are seen all the rarest varieties now cultivated, Sunburst, Aaron Ward, Killarney, Ophelia, and "My Lady," the latter a red rose of which the Floral Company are exclu- sive growers in this section. About eight hundred roses are cut daily, and are prepared for shipment in the cooling cellar, sales being principally wholesale, to the trade. A feature of the rose house is the presence of a number of robins which are harbored for their usefulness in ridding the house of insect pests.


The old Maumee hotel is no longer open to the public, as the public of New Haven does not appear to need it. Its principal restaurant is conducted by the daughter of a pioneer workman on the canal, Adolphus Wolf, who came from Germany in 1838.


New Haven has a flourishing Commercial Club, organized in 1916 with a membership of one hundred and twenty-five, to which the town may look for substantial benefits.


Adams township received its first settlers from New England and eastern states chiefly, but the fact that these settlers were will- ing to go a long way to church, accounts for the fact that the first church organized in the township was a German Lutheran con- gregation, in 1853, followed five years later by a second of that de- nomination, and in the same year, 1858, by the Catholic church at New Haven, known as "St. John the Baptist." Beginning in Nicho- las Schueckman's basement, this latter congregation has graduated with the years through several stages to its present pretty Gothic structure, beside which a flourishing parochial school, taught by the Sisters of St. Agnes, is maintained.


The old pioneer burying grounds were supplanted by the Odd Fellows' cemetery established in 1875, occupying part of the Miller farm, and near where the old Miller cemetery was situated. Many of the graves from these old plots were removed to the new grounds at the time, including those of David and Rachel Miller,


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John Dougall, Levi Hartzell, Joseph Townsend and Richard Bar- row, the last from the Adams plot.


The professional history of Adams township is, of course, begun with its physicians, which have been more prominent and numerous than in other parts of Allen county. Not to be forgotten among the many fields of pioneer life in which Jesse Adams worked is the practice of the kindly art of healing the township sick. While he was not a graduate physician, natural talent and a general and doubtless cultivated intelligence made him equal to the emer- gencies of the period, and he is fairly entitled to rank as the first Adams township doctor. Dr. Barnwell, an "herb doctor," came later, and Dr. Opp, a more trained and skilled physician, followed. In 1840 Dr. Philip H. Clark entered the field and practiced for six years. Then Dr. W. W. Martin, who afterward served as surgeon of the Forty-fourth Indiana Volunteers, practiced in New Haven for a considerable period, and subsequently Drs. Mitten, Ross, Diggins, Bilderback, Morris and Lycurgus S. Null. Dr. Null died on the 9th of July, 1917. Dr. Clark, a well-established physi- cian of New Haven, also died recently. The legal fraternity of Allen County includes several prominent Adams township names.


The Adams township school east of Fort Wayne which was assumed by the school city of the county seat several years ago, un- der the name of the Adams School, made New Haven the center of the school system for Adams township. At present it accom- modates the high and grade schools, and a full commissioned high school course is administered, in spite of the close quarters. The curriculum includes domestic science, and offers an agricultural course as soon as any pupils elect it. The attendance in all grades is increasing, the children being brought from all over the town- ship by automobiles, traction railroad, and other means. Many come from very near the Fort Wayne district. A modern high school building embodying the most advanced ideas in every regard is soon to be erected, from plans made by Architect Henry Meyers, of Fort Wayne. The latest school enumeration in Adams township is 884, with public school enrollment 261, and parochial school en- rollment 288. Fifty-four students attend the high school, nine of whom graduated in June, 1916. Grade school graduates at the same date numbered ten pupils. Adams has a total of eight school buildings, with twelve teachers employed. The school year is the full one hundred and eighty days, for both grades and high school, the average daily attendance for high school being fifty-two out of two hundred and sixty-one, a very remarkable percentage. Per capita expense in Adams is $72.61 for high school, and $23.62 for grades. The library is new, numbering not quite one thousand volumes.


New Haven has had a varied history in newspapers, several of which have in the past sprung up only to wither in a day; yet their editors have gone out into larger fields to larger successes. The old "New Haven Palladium" under Thomas Foster was a training school for several men who worked on it in different capac- cities. The New Haven Tribune was established October 13th, 1893, by W. D. Gorrell, who published it for ten years, when he sold it to William E. and H. H. Bowers, William E. purchasing his brother's interest in July, 1905, since when he has published it


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regularly until January, 1917. Mr. Bowers is now so fully oc- cupied with other interests, mainly the New Haven Telephone Ex- change which has developed its present efficiency almost entirely under his management, that the Tribune establishment has been leased to the C. F. Moon Publishing company, who will hereafter edit, and print it, as well as the Grabill and Woodburn papers, at the New Haven plant. William and H. H. Bowers are Jefferson township men, their grandfather, John Bowers, having settled in that township in 1837. His son, David B. Bowers, married Eliza, daughter of Alanson and Elmira Whitney, in 1864. His death, by accident, occurred very recently in Fort Wayne.


The city of Fort Wayne has from its nearness overshadowed New Haven, and made futile any ancient hopes of metropolitanism indulged for the lesser town. But the building of many suburban homes along the Lincoln Highway and the interurban line is, in fact, bringing the two corporations yearly nearer and nearer, until it seems no longer all a dream to imagine New Haven at no distant day an integral part of a "Greater Fort Wayne."


Washington Township


Chronologically, Washington township came fourth in order of setting apart as an organized corporation, but in the matter of actual settlement it should hold third place, since its first settler, a Pennsylvania German, Reinhard Cripe by name, took up land on Spy Run immediately after the sale of lands was opened in 1823, his family being with him. Reinhard, however, appears to have been more attracted by the fine hunting afforded by the forests than by the agricultural or lumbering prospects. At least, he moved on, a few years later, to Elkhart county, leaving but slight trace of his sojourn in the Spy Run district beyond a popular reputation for being a good fellow, as well as a good hunter. So, the real credit for pioneering the occupation and settlement of Washing- ton township belongs to the Archer family and its connections. The Archer group sprang variously from Virginia, Kentucky, New Jersey and Canada, Ohio being the common ground from which they migrated to Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Archer (already past middle life at the time) with several members of their family, David, John S., Benjamin jr., Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Ballard, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Campbell, Andrew J. Moore and Adam Pettit (the latter two unmarried) are on record as arriving in 1824, although it is also stated that some of these came the following year, in com- pany with Thomas Hatfield, who did not first visit the township until the spring of 1825. Though the names of the Archer grand- children are not listed in the group, the subsequent record of events. shows that there were several of them, making in all a goodly party to land in a small pioneer village at one time. One can imagine that their advent may have caused quite a flutter of excitement in little old Fort Wayne. Mrs. Ballard and Mrs. Campbell were respectively Susan and Sarah Archer, daughters of Benjamin Archer, sr. (Judge Archer), Andrew Moore was then in the employ of Mr. Archer, and Adam Pettit was later married to the daughter of David Archer. In the spring of 1825 Thomas Hatfield, whose


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wife was Elizabeth, another daughter of the senior Archers, visited the township, and seeing in it a land of promise, purchased a tract on the Little St. Joseph river and returned to Montgomery county, Ohio, for his family. Probably the crops already planted on the Ohio farm required his attention for the summer season, for it was not until November 25th that the little wagon train carrying the family and household goods set out for Indiana by way of Wayne Trace. One old account says that the David Archers came with the Hatfields, instead of the previous year, and it is possible that David Archer waited until 1825 before bringing his family on; but however that may have been, the whole party was practically one assemblage of pioneer units-and a very healthy and hardy party it was, too. That stalwart group of men who followed Wayne Trace to the west, through forests infested with wolves and wild- cats, was never daunted by the severities of pioneer life. The alchemy which transmuted a thousand acres of green forest into the gold of grain land in Washington township was the labor of their hands.


Judge Benjamin Archer himself resided in Fort Wayne, but being a well-to-do man for the times, purchased separate tracts of land for each of his sons, which they afterward improved, though special industries engaged most of them at the outset. The farm of David Archer was situated on the St. Joseph river a two and one-half miles from the fort; John S. Archer received a quarter section near what is now the site of the Catholic Orphanage; while Benjamin, jr., went three miles to the northwest. Mrs. Ballard also was given a portion of land lying on the east of the Wells "Pre- emption." Benjamin Archer, sr., during the first year after his ar- rival, established a brick kiln not far from which were the acres al- lotted to the Edward Campbells and in this industry all of his sons were employed more or less, notably John S., who eventually took the entire management of it. The advent, in 1830, of eastern investors with modern machinery crowded the hand-made article out of the field, but the Archer bricks had up to that time supplied the early builders of Fort Wayne with most of the brick they used.


The Ballards and John S. Archer then took up residence on their lands, and cleared farms. Adam Pettit purchased and cleared a farm, and married, in 1828, Miss Sarah, daughter of the David Archers. Andrew Moore assisted in clearing the farms of Benjamin, sr., and David Archer, and then purchased a holding for himself. and settled on it. His heirs still retain this property.




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