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 80

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 80


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ter, Mary A. Mr. Jones served Lake township as clerk, supervisor school director and in similar capacities. Butts, Kronmiller, Stir- ling, Madden, Welsheimer, Rapp and Boaeuf, all arrivals of not later than the early '50s, are well-known names in Lake township records. The latter name, a French one, is only one among many French names in Lake and Washington townships. The story of Thomas Larimore, from Ohio, has interest to warrant its preserv- ation. One of two little brothers orphaned by the death of their father under a falling tree, in 1832, little Thomas was "bound out" while his mother's hands were full, caring for the baby brother. In 1849 the mother and brother went to Noble county, Indiana, and several years later came to Lake township, in Allen. Meanwhile young Thomas, left in Ohio, had had a hard road to travel. The little "bound" boy's mistress died, and at the age of eight years he was thrown on the world to subsist by his own efforts. Somehow he grew up and at the age of twenty-one he married Miss Mahala Evans, with whom he came to Lake township in 1850, bought a tract of eighty acres and started in to win. By that time the eldest of their twelve children had been born, and they had also with them a "bound boy" who, fortunately, was not cast adrift at eight years old. Thus equipped, but without a penny in their purses nor a cabin on their land, the Larimores faced the winter of 1850-1. But the wonders which courage and industry will accomplish may be seen in the fact that the close of a life full of work and honors found them the possessors of a four-hundred-acre farm in Lake township and a valuable property in Fort Wayne.


Aboite Township


Aboite township, through which the River Aboite runs from north to south, unquestionably received its name from that stream, the title given the river in the earliest French treaties being "a Bou- ette," meaning "Minnow" river, the French term being easily cor- rupted by Indians, or trappers and traders, into "Aboite."A Once applied to the river, it came by natural event to be applied to the whole basin, and especially to that part embraced in the township limits. It was a region of peculiar conditions incident to the circum- stance of its embracing a large part of the Wabash-Aboite moraine, and also a large part of the Little river basin in the southern half, both districts having their interest for geologists, and their difficul- ties for engineers.


The arrival of a colony numbering about thirty persons, in the . early spring of 1833, quite suddenly broke the solitude of this region, which had not been disturbed by previous settlers. The party com- prised the families of Enoch Turner, Richard Andrew, William Gouty and Richard Clark, all of whom hailed from Maryland, from which circumstance the group was called the "Maryland Settle- ment."


Almost simultaneously, if not immediately before, came Jesse Vermilyea and his family, not from Maryland, but from Delaware county, New York. Within a few weeks was born the first white child of the settlement, Jesse Vermilyea, Jr., who died in the fall of the same year. Mr. Vermilyea became a prominent figure in the


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new settlement immediately upon his arrival. He opened no store, but kept a small stock of general merchandise with which he accom- modated his neighboring settlers and traded with the Indians.


There were no more additions to the colony until the spring of 1834, when Lott S. Bayless and Benjamin Rogers settled there with their families. William Hamilton, from New York, purchased land in the spring of 1835, and brought his family, whom he had left in Cleveland, to live in the new land in the succeeding fall. George Bullard reached the district in November, 1835, and another early settler was Rayburn Beeson. Written records of these earliest days in Aboite are scant and incomplete, but remembering the stern neces- sity of the times, when the settlers were so busy making history that they had no time to write it down, we are the more impressed with the achievements that are recorded. First, enough timber had to be felled to make room for the pioneer roof trees, before even the roof trees could be raised to house the colony. And after that, other "first things" followed each other thick and fast. But it is results that display character most eloquently, and the quality of the Maryland settlers, and of those who were drawn to join them, is attested in what they accomplished, and the standing in the county which they attained. Venturing into a region where no white man's home had ever been before, these families carried with them into its forest fastnesses a standard of life in keeping with the social element from which they came.


Enoch Turner's first gift to the community was a lot for a cemetery, the first burial made there being that of a little Irish lad whose pathetic story draws the tribute of a passing sigh. The son of an inebriate father who had drifted into the settlement, and whose fragile wife had died from neglect, Mr. Vermilyea befriended him, but the help came too late. Richard Andrew's house, doubtless a cabin of logs, but more or less capacious, was early opened for the holding of religious services, a custom which was continued for years, until the first schoolhouse was built. Rev. James Holman and Rev. Stephen R. Ball, a "circuit rider," conducted these serv- ices. Rev. Mr. Holman also performed the first wedding ceremony, when Miss Mary Andrew was married to Mr. Martin Kelly, Mrs. Goudy's brother, in 1834. George Bullard, whose first home was a rude log house of fair dimensions, built for temporary residence, began the erection of a new home in the spring of 1836. The Bul- lards had arrived very late in the year, via the overland route, in wagons, while their household goods came by way of Perrysburg, in pirogues. The family made the best of their first winter, and in the spring the father made haste to plant his corn, the first planted in the township. The new house went forward with some inter- ruptions caused by illness, and by fall the family were moved into it. It was of hewn logs, and double in construction, of quite pretentious proportions, plastered throughout within, and, later, weather-board- ed. It was the first of its kind to be built in the settlement, and remained the family residence for years. The corn field is said to have yielded a good harvest. That winter the Bullards gave the use of the original rough log cabin for the first term of school taught in Aboite township. They also provided a stove, and boarded the teacher, Miss Lavina Pierce, the daughter of Asa Pierce. Her salary


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was made up by subscription. This young pioneer lady became, several years later, the wife of Samuel Cartwright, and both were always prominent in the affairs of pioneer days, attaining an honored old age.


In 1836 the settlement petitioned to have the township set apart, and it was commissioned in May of that year. The election took place at once, although there were barely enough voters in the settlement to form the board and fill the offices. However, there seems to have been no useless timber in the Aboite colony, so all went well. The election was held at Mr. Andrew's house, and Mr. Andrew and Samuel Dunlap were chosen justices.


The soil of Aboite afforded a substratum of clay under its rich black loam, which was very good for brickmaking, and upon his own farm Mr. Vermilyea, in 1839, made bricks and built with them a new home, the first brick house in the settlement. In this house was installed the first postoffice, Mr. Vermilyea being appointed postmaster, a position which he held for a long term of years. The Vermilyea home was by far the most luxurious in the township-a comparative mansion-and the hospitality of its inmates was far- famed. Many a merry party from Fort Wayne enjoyed gala days there, and it was a center of social life in the settlement, which drew many congenial spirits thither. The youngest daughter of the house became the wife of Stephen B. Bond, late president of the Old National Bank, of Fort Wayne, where during all her after life she was a universally beloved woman famed for her deeds of kindness and love. Mr. Vermilyea died during the cholera epidemic, his wife having preceded him to the Silent Land. The Vermilyea homestead stood on the Huntington road, about three-quarters of a mile north of the site of the village of Aboite. It is now owned by D. W. Simmers.


Up to 1842 Aboite had no church, meetings still being held at the Andrews', or other homes. That year Enoch Turner donated land for the site of a building which should be used for the double purpose of a church and school. A condition was attached to the gift, for surety of the plan's fulfilment, that the land should revert to him if the agreement were not carried out as specified. The early conditions were so difficult, however, that the regular services called for could not always be held. But they did the best that circum- stances allowed, and Mr. Turner accepted the will for the deed. He never reclaimed the land. This building was called "Friendship Church," the same name being applied to the school, and it stood on Mr. Turner's land close by the plot he had given for a burial ground, and adjoining the farm of William Gouty. The cemetery is still in use. The story of churches in Aboite differs somewhat from that in most of the other townships. The population was so very scattered, and of so many diverse denominations, that in spite of genuine fraternal atmosphere, it was long before any permanent organization was effected. The Bayless schoolhouse witnessed an- other group of adherents of the Methodist and kindred denomin- ations, who continued to gather as often as a preacher could be had, but never built a church. The Bayless school was situated on the Liberty Mills road toward the west township line. Hiram Porter, now living at an advanced age in St. Joseph township, was once a


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teacher at this old schoolhouse. The third attempt to form a per- manent church in Aboite succeeded. It was held this time at the old "Red, White and Blue" school, situated on Liberty Mills road, just one mile south of the center of the township. The Methodists congregated here strong enough to form a class, and subsequently purchased the site and erected their church there. It is still a flourishing church, the only one existing in Aboite. A fourth church, called "Union Church," was built on Covington road, long after Friendship church had been abandoned, but it, too, became discour- aged for want of followers, and the congregation, as many as there were, went elsewhere. Some, indeed, left the colony, because at that time there was no other church accessible, and they wished not to rear their families in a churchless community. The old Bullard schoolhouse, in the east part, was also used as a place of meeting for a long time. It was built before the county system of roads was in effect, and when the roads were relocated, the old avenues were closed in and the buildings were then too remote for use. The bad roads of the early days of Aboite were largely responsible for the difficulty in church building. Owing to the marshy lands, roads were difficult to construct, and each settler cut his roads to suit his own convenience. The canal, as soon as completed, was a means of communication with the headquarters of commerce, and, later, the building of the Wabash railroad replaced the canal for trans- portation purposes, but, aside from these, Huntington road was the only thoroughfare, and not much can be said of that as a highway previous to the movement for better roads begun in 1843, when Jesse Vermilyea and Captain Mahon were appointed a committee to secure subscriptions for its improvement. For these reasons, the units of population were kept isolated, and not only no churches, but no villages sprang up within the borders of Aboite. There have been years together in the history of Aboite that there was not even a store in it. After the passing of the old trading days the Vermilyea store was no longer kept: Some years previous to the Civil War Mr. Barney opened a store at the crossing of the Illinois road which runs north from the old reservation as far as the Yellow River road. The name of the road, which is now a traveled one, has been confused by the fact that it had once been surveyed as the "Kraco" road, the model town that never was built being its supposed terminal. The crossing was known, and still is known, from the store (which r was the principal one Aboite township ever had) as "Barney's Corners," a name that still clings. The schoolhouse near the corners bore the same name. The store was quite extensive for its day, and was well patronized by the settlers. A granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Marlin Vaughn remembers hearing her grandmother Vaughn tell of going through the woods to Barney's Corners, trembling lest the wolves she could hear howling should attack her on the way. Mr. Barney's only son was killed in the war, and about 1867 the store was abandoned forever.


George Bullard, in 1837, planted the first orchard in Aboite, and the same summer reaped his first crop of wheat. His entire lands, amounting to eleven hundred acres, were purchased from the government at from $1.25 to $2.50 per acre, the canal lands being held at double the price of the other. He was several times trustee


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of the township, and for twenty-six years was justice, being known as "Judge" Bullard. A man of extreme personal dignity and very positive convictions and opinions, he was a valuable and thoroughly esteemed citizen always. Mrs. Bullard, a match for her husband, who lived to over ninety, was, up to the time of her death, which occurred at the age of eighty-three, able to read without glasses "by candle light," and could thread a needle to the last.


Of Benjamin Rogers and Lott S. Bayless, who came at about the same time, in 1834, Mr. Rogers, a thorough-going settler of fine character, passed the whole of his subsequent life in Aboite. Mr. Bayless, of an active, stirring, positive temperament, first cleared his farm and settled it, and then turned his attention to mill building. In 1846 he built the first sawmill in the township. It was located on Aboite river, from which it derived its power. After making a success of the mill Mr. Bayless, who seemed to have acquired the habit of pioneering, went west and located in Dakota, then a terri- tory. Comparatively early as he left the township, Mr. Bayless's influence in the community scarcely failed for his absence. The settlers of the first two decades owe more, it is said, to Lott S. Bayless than to any other one man. There were times in those diffi- cult early days when many of them would have suffered for the necessities of life if it had not been for his benevolence. His influ- ence outside the township or in the county at large is a part of the broader history of Fort Wayne, where he was as well known as in his home township. William Hamilton, who came in 1835, was the second mill-builder of Aboite, the Hamilton mill dating five years later than the Bayless. Hamilton road is named after him, and ran past his farm. He was content to round out a full life career in the township of his choice, where he amassed wealth and held an honor- able position. Of settlers who came a little later, but still early enough to bear a share in the development of Aboite from a wilder- ness to a highly civilized corporate community, James S. Bird (1848), John Sprankel (1849), John Harper (1848), Thomas Coving- ton, Alfred Bates, John N. Corey, Austin M. Darroch are all due to be mentioned. James S. Bird, father of Ochmig, of Aboite, was born a farmer's son, but, like many another farmer's son, he took a little journey in the world before settling down to the plow. It was the early railroad that attracted him, and he worked on the construction of the first railroad bed laid in the country ; and after he had once more become a farmer he was proud to tell that he had "run on the first railroad train in the United States." There is a touch of romance in the experience which brought Mr. Sprankel to Indiana also. He was forced to seek a new fortune after being thrown out of employment by a peculiar accident, in a rolling mill run by water power drawn from the Juniata river. A spring freshet caused the waters of the blue Juniata to sweep over its banks in a flood which reached the mill furnaces and burst them. The young single men were discharged, and young Sprankel came west and became a farmer in Aboite. Mr. Harper came from Pennsylvania, and his wife, a Miss Byall, was of a Maryland family. He not only cleared a fine farm, but reared a fine family.


Mr. Bates allied himself to the Maryland group by marrying Miss Ann Turner, daughter of that good pioneer, Enoch Turner.


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Austin Darroch, who married Miss Mary, daughter of William Ham- ilton, had the distinction of belonging to one of the very oldest pioneer families of Indiana, both his father and his mother having been born in Indiana, of Indiana pioneer parents. Mr. Darroch was a soldier in the great American conflict for three years, participating in seven battles.


Richard Clark, of the Maryland colony, was a brother-in-law of Enoch Turner, whose farm the Clark homestead adjourned. Mr. Clark died in Aboite township, on the homestead, in 1850, and his wife, Nancy Turner Clark, in 1866. One of Richard Clark's sons re- moved to Fort Wayne where he became the founder of the Clark and Rhinesmith Lumber Company. A daughter of this Mr. Clark. Mrs. Florence Clark Binford, born in Fort Wayne in 1854, now' lives in Greenfield, Indiana. Another son, Enoch Clark, remained on the homestead farm in Aboite, and is believed to have achieved the long- est residence in the township of any member of the Maryland colony. His death occurred about 1912, and until 1903 or 1904, he resided on the original farm.


Of a still later group, the Kelseys, families of numerous sons who settled in Lafayette and Aboite townships in the early '50s, the Marlin Vaughns, from Vermont about 1852, Philetus Smith, per- haps a little earlier, the Rhodes family and others have been prom- inent in the township. The Kelsey brothers' sawmill on the Coving- ton road was built about 1871, and operated a long time. A gristmill was built by Isaac Kelsey in 1878 in the same neighborhood; and a brick building was erected and a general store was kept by Mr. Kelsey for several years. The railroads at the north were both built just too far to the north to benefit Aboite township industries to any great degree, and have not been followed by village platting as in other townships. The Pennsylvania road ran, as many remem- ber, through one of the peculiar "sinks" which threatened to swal- low it out of sight for a long time, but was finally mastered by the engineers. Districts of that sort are not good shipping points, how- ever. The Nickel Plate road ran so far north of the mills which might have benefited by the railroad that they were abandoned. Dunfee, which is just over the county line, has received nearly all the advantage from these sources.


Aboite township's present good roads go far to making up for what other traffic routes have failed to give it. The splendid gravel road system so well known in Allen county received, it may fairly be said, its first impetus from the meeting called by Charles Wells for the purpose of crystallizing public opinion for the betterment of roads. The meeting was held in the old "Red, White and Blue" schoolhouse. A system of roads was mapped out for graveling and the work was begun at heavy individual expense at first, but grow- ing more moderate as experience taught wiser methods. The assess- ments were made on property owners on both sides of the road for a distance of one and a half miles. Liberty Mills road was the first to be graveled, the Illinois road following, and then the others. So it is really to Aboite citizens that Allen county owes the initial movement for its fine roads.


Approached by the Liberty Mills road, which turns due west from Upper Huntington road, is a locality which is surpassed in



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wild romantic beauty only by the gorges of the Cedar creek region in Perry township. The road, as it reaches the Aboite river valley, dips from the straight line of the prairie into the sinuous windings of picturesque "Devil's Hollow," and leads through a landscape which abounds in unique topographical features charming to the eye, and of deep interest to the scientist. A part of the beauty of the vicinity has been destroyed in the interests of agriculture, seven acres of lovely wooded river banks being denuded a few years ago for cultivation.


Aboite township was one of three which were directly affected by the Little river problem. Since no other was more largely de- pendent, in the southern part, upon the solution of that problem, it may be not inappropriate to insert here a brief exposition of the enterprise of the Little River ditch, by which the fertile expanse of the Little river basin was drained and opened to cultivation. The sunken basin through which the Little river meandered for twelve miles or more extended through parts of Wayne, Aboite and Lafayette townships, with an average breadth of three miles. This region had been a miasmatic swamp since the memory of any man living thirty years ago. It was credited, on good grounds, with breeding malaria for all northeastern Indiana. Cognizant of its agricultural wealth, attempts had been made to drain it. Needless to say, the efforts of individuals were inadequate to so immense an undertaking. A drainage law was passed in 1883, and under its provisions a petition was filed to open necessary proceedings. The commissioners reported findings of eighteen thousand acres abso- lutely worthless, being covered with water ; seventeen thousand more fit for culture only in the dryest seasons; and fifty thousand acres which the proposed drainage would benefit. Forty miles of ditches were recommended. Fearing that the stupendous cost would exceed the benefit, a strong protest was made. But on the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number, the work was ordered; and though the burden it imposed on some was crushing, and many smaller farmers did indeed lose their homes because of mortgages they could not lift, the work went on. The contract was let to the "Little River Ditching Company," with the late William H. Gos- horn chief engineer. Edward Ely, of the commission, was appointed superintendent. This was in July, 1886. In July, 1889, the work was practically completed in the blasting through of the limestone ledge which formed the last barrier. The immense swamp, through which, in prolonged wet seasons, the Wabash trains were wont to crawl nearly axle deep in water, and passage by other means unless by boat was impossible, is now covered by some of the most famous farms of the middle west. Minor losses are all but forgotten in the larger good.


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Aboite, whose early settlers were a strong factor for the insti- tution of free education, in the days when that subject was being threshed out, has, on account of the circumstances which have held it back in other ways, still no high school; but it sends to adjacent townships a quite large number of high school students. Twenty students were enrolled in outside high schools during the year 1915- 1916, and seven of the number graduated in June, 1916. The enu- meration that year was 339, and the enrollment was 243, there being


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no parochial schools in Aboite to draw from the public schools. Eight teachers are employed, and one hundred and sixty days taught, with an average daily attendance of two hundred and nine- teen. Six pupils finished the eighth grade in June, 1916. The school libraries aggregate two thousand and sixty-six volumes. Per eapita cost of education in Aboite is $19.14.


Aboite, or a part of it, was reached by the third rural free mail delivery route established from the Fort Wayne postoffice, Septem- ber, 1900. The first electric interurban car that left Fort Wayne for Huntington traversed the Huntington line through the township. Since then, September 28th, 1901, even the casual traveler by rail cannot fail to note the rapid advance made in the aspect of the whole district along the route. The future beekons Aboite, while the past does it honor.


Sparse as was the settlement of Aboite township at the begin- ning of the Civil War, perhaps no one of the twenty townships of Allen gave as high a percentage of its population to the service of the nation. This does not appear in the pioneer sketches, as the volunteers were all from the younger generation; but of the number of Aboite's brave lads who went into that conflict only a few more than half came back. The memorial record of the Grand Army of the Republic in Allen county bears their names.




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