USA > Indiana > Morgan County > The pioneers of Morgan County : memoirs of Noah J. Major > Part 2
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Devault Koons with his large family moved to this cabin in due time and became one among the first settlers in the south part of Washington township. In like manner came Cyrus Whetzel, who is supposed to be the very first settler in the county. He and his father, Jacob Whetzel, cut a trace following an old Indian trail from the Whitewater river to the bluffs on White river in the summer of 1818. They selected ground for a home below the present site of Waverly; and the next March young Cyrus and a young man whose name is unfortunately lost, returned and built a cabin, cleared five or more acres of land in the river
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bottom and planted it in corn. The following fall the elder Whetzel and family came through the wilderness for many miles and safely reached the new home, where he passed the remainder of his life in hunting, fishing, and roaming the unbroken forest.
In the winter of 1820-'21, the blue smoke of many a "stick and clay" chimney shot up through the tree tops, while husband and wife sat looking at the blazing logs be- low, thinking of the "Old Kentucky home" where in child- hood they had romped and played around the old hearth- stone and did not have a care that could outlive a good night's sleep; thought, too, of the time they became lovers and the difficulties they experienced in keeping in that dreadful "current that never runs smooth"; and of the promise, the "first kiss," the wedding day-and then they looked down at three little responsibilities who had already arrived and were amusing themselves by poking sticks into the fire, and the reverie was broken.
Most of the early settlers were from the Southern States, North Carolina and Kentucky furnishing probably two- thirds of those who came in 1820-'22. Our winters being much longer, colder, and more changeable than those of the South, the newcomers must have experienced great in- convenience and privation. But they came to stay and make homes, and were not deterred by wintry winds, nor by the arduous task of clearing away the heavy forest that everywhere hung over their cabin homes. Hope, the eternal mainspring to action, sustained and cheered them on day by day.
Some great government events were happening about the time of our county's settlement. The independence of the South American states had been acknowledged. The Mis- souri Compromise was passed, Spain had ceded Florida to the United States, and the Monroe Doctrine was asserted.
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Alabama and Missouri had just been admitted into the Union, but above and beyond all was the recent demon- stration of the successful navigation of the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers and tributaries by steamers. This gave an assured outlet for all the surplus productions of corn, wheat, and pork that could be produced in the Ohio Valley. Up to this time a flatboatman had to walk back from New Orleans through the wilderness at the risk of having his scalp taken by an Indian and his body decay by the way- side. But now he could board a steamer at the "Crescent City" on Monday and land in the "Queen City" on Sunday, a distance of 1,800 miles. The old "keelboat" and "setting poles" were left to rot. on the shores of those mighty waters, while the waves of passing steamers have con- tinually lashed their banks from that time until now. When steamboat navigation was an assured success the Middle West was the most desirable new country in the United States. With its rivers and rivulets, its bubbling springs, its dense forests of the greatest variety of timber, its deep and fertile soil, its stone quarries and mines of coal, it presented attractions to the earnest homeseekers seldom equalled and never surpassed.
Indiana was near the center of the Middle West, and our county was near the center of the State; and so it is, a concise history of the toils and turmoils, privations, dis- tress, and hardships of our old settlers, would be the his- tory in general of central Indiana in its first settlements.
But let us go back to some of the first things which were done, and name those who were in authority in that day when Morgan county took her stand with others of the "Indiana family."
Jonathan Jennings was governor and commissioned the first county officers. As before stated, the preponderance of evidence points to Cyrus Whetzel as the first settler.
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Phillip Hodges was undoubtedly the first owner of real estate in the county. The land office must have been at Brookville, eighty-five miles due east of Martinsville, to which place he had to make his way as best he could, through an unbroken wilderness. He bought two eighty- acre tracts of land, lying about two miles east of Martins- ville. Colonel John Vawter was salesman and, when the government patent was given to Mr. Hodges, Colonel Vawter said: "Mr. Hodges, you are the first owner of land in Morgan county." Benjamin Cuthbert built and operated the first watermill in the county on the present site of the Brooklyn mills. Reuben Claypool is credited with preaching the first sermon. This was in Brown town- ship at the residence of a Mr. Martin. Mr. Claypool was probably a Methodist. Some say that Peter Monical is entitled to this honor. There is no doubt that Mr. Monical was among the very first preachers in the county, as he was an early settler.
Reuben Claypool and Martha Russell were the first couple married in the county. William W. Wick was judge of the first court (1822), and Jacob Cutler and John Gray were associated judges. Benjamin Cutler was the first sheriff (January 16, 1822) ; George H. Beeler was the first clerk of the circuit court ; also first recorder (May 22, 1822) ; James Shields was first county treasurer, and Charles Beeler was first surveyor.
The first justices of the peace were Larkin Reynolds, Samuel Reed, James Burris, and Hiram Matthews; one for each of the four townships, viz., Washington, Monroe, Ray, and Harrison. The justices at that time composed the board to do county business. They held their first meeting in June, 1822, at the home of Jacob Cutler, where they proceeded to divide the county into the aforesaid townships.
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We have stated in a former sketch that the first suit at law was Jacob Cutler vs. John W. Cox; but the first suit for divorce was Rachel Morrison vs. Thomas Morrison, September term, 1823. Calvin Fletcher was the first prose- cutor. Most of the aforesaid items of "first things" are taken from Blanchard's History, which he probably gleaned from the county records. Benjamin Bull was the first resident lawyer of Martinsville, John Eccolds, the second.
Dr. John Sims was the first regularly educated physi- cian who practiced medicine in the county. He located in Martinsville about 1823. James Cunning taught the first school in Martinsville in the summer of 1822. Abraham Stipp, now living at Centerton, was one of his scholars, and distinctly remembers one incident that happened dur- ing the term. There were some boys and girls from fifteen to eighteen years of age, who began making love to each other by writing love notes back and forth. Mr. Cunning peremptorily forbade any further advances by the young men; but in a day or two, being willing victims to that dreadful disease, "puppy love," they were writing again to the girls. Then the teacher got on the warpath and told them plainly they should leave school or take a "thrash- ing." They concluded to let him "thrash" as they could not afford to lose the opportunity to learn how to "read, write, and cipher," which most of them could not do when school began. After everything had been "thrashed out" but the love, quiet reigned and the work of education went on. The house in which this school was taught stood northeast of the square. It had been an old round log stable, but was thoroughly cleaned and improved for its new use.
There is reason to believe that schools and churches be- gan work earlier in Brown and Monroe townships than in
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the south part of the county. The Friends, who largely composed the early settlements, as well as the Methodists, gave more attention to school and church work than their southern neighbors.
So rapidly does time send all our names into oblivion, excepting a very few, so thoroughly are we forgotten in the whirl of the activities of life; so completely are sub- lunary things blotted out, that of all those who helped to grub the public square and lay it out and plat the town- even those who donated the land it stands on-not one is remembered to-day by the citizens of the "Mineral Springs City." There are a few descendants of Joshua Taylor, and perhaps of John Gray and Samuel Scott among us, but not one of Jacob Cutler or Joel Ferguson that the writer is aware of. The five men donated the 155 acres of land which was in the original plat.
But where are the descendants of Conner, Reynolds, Jenkins, Case, Mast, Rowland, and Chester Holbrook? Some of the above named men owned land in the sections of the county seat; the others nearby. But their names disappeared more than sixty-five years ago from among the citizens of Martinsville.
ยง4. PIONEER FAMILIES.
It was no uncommon thing to find a large family of children among the first settlers. If the husband and wife were of fairly robust health and lived past middle life, from six to ten children usually encircled the hearthstone, and it was no uncommon thing to find families numbering as high as fifteen. If there was anything more than another that the pioneers rejoiced in it was a family of good, strong boys and girls,-good boys and girls, mind you ; for parents then were as sensitive about flat failures
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as they are to-day. They knew as well as we do that much more depends on the quality than the quantity of the increase of population. The present generation has learned very much that was unknown to the pioneer; some of which is well worth knowing as it relates to hygiene and reproduction. "Other some" would better be unlearned, but there are few people who can learn to unlearn. And so it is, habits, desires, and society "fads" are stronger than the strong-minded. To-day, among those who make any pretentions to paternity, the average number of chil- dren to the family may run from two to four; others there are, endeavoring to cheat nature out of the whole crop.
Whatever other faults and failures the pioneers had (and doubtless they had many), failure to be fruitful and multiply could not be reckoned among them. At the pres- ent rate of diminution, we shall soon be on a level with France, with her two children to the married pair among the bon tons, leaving the sustaining of the population to the poorer and less prepared classes, who have always borne more than their share of this natural burden. There is no good reason why a husband and wife should bring into existence more children than they can reasonably hope to care for; and, if we are to have the survival of the fittest, there is still less reason why strong and healthful husbands and wives should bring in none at all. It will be good for the world when the time comes-if ever it does -that none but the true and brave, the honest and good, will be engaged in this cooperative industry; and, when public opinion will be so formed and ripened as to reduce the procreation of paupers, criminals, and 'mbeciles to the minimum number.
Among those in our county who have stood pre-emi- nently at the head of large families, was William Gregory, a remarkably vigorous and energetic pioneer, who was
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born in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, February 8, 1776. His father's name was also William, and his mother's maiden name, Sally Graves, both natives of Virginia. When but a boy, young William's parents moved to Wash- ington county, Tennessee. Soon after their arrival his mother died. About two years after this sad event, his father married again, and soon after moved to North Carolina where he passed the remainder of his days as a local Methodist preacher. He died at the age of seventy years.
The subject of our sketch was first married in North Carolina, March 25, 1795, to Miss Nancy Laws. In 1806 he moved to Kentucky where he remained until February, 1811, when he came to Harrison county, this State (then a Territory), and settled near Corydon. Here his wife died, May 15, 1814. To them had been born eleven chil- dren between July 19, 1786, and May 16, 1814, ten of whom were living at the time of the mother's death, which occurred within thirty minutes after the birth of the eleventh child. Their names and dates of birth were as follows: James, February 9, 1796; John, July 1, 1798; Beverly, June 11, 1800; Katy, April 24, 1802; Thomas, April 1, 1804; Daniel, May 5, 1806; Susan, March 29, 1808; the eighth was stillborn; Nathan, March 22, 1810; Levi, January 22, 1812, and Nancy, May 14, 1814. Shortly after the death of his first wife, Mr. Gregory was married, September 1, 1814, to Mrs. Lucy Moffet, a young widow with three small children, and be it said to his credit that he cared for them as tenderly as for his own. This second wife in due time added eleven more children to this already large family, as follows: Wiley, October 9, 1815; Dennis and Robert, September 13, 1817; David, May 12, 1819; Fanny, April 17, 1821; twins stillborn in 1823; Hiram, June 14, 1825; Grant, February 1, 1827; Milton W., April
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7, 1829; and Eliza D., December 15, 1831. Many old citi- zens will remember John Moffet, the tanner, who for many years lived in and near Martinsville; also, Mrs. Grant Stafford, his sister, Mr. Stafford's first wife. These were Mr. Gregory's step-children. Grant Stafford's second wife was Miss Fanny Gregory, half-sister to his first wife. After Mr. Stafford's death, she became the wife of the late John W. Ferguson. The exact date of Mr. Gregory's coming to our county is not given, but it was early in the twenties. They first settled on the east side of White Lick on the road from Lyon's mills to Mooresville, where he engaged in milling and farming until 1832, when he purchased a farm in the northwest corner of Greene town- ship on the road leading from Martinsville to Indianapolis. This farm is now owned by attorney C. G. Renner, of Martinsville. Here, for eight or ten years, Mr. Gregory added merchandising to his farming.
On the 17th day of May, 1835, his second wife died. Eighteen of his twenty-two children were then living. In August of the same year he made another matrimonial venture. This was with Mrs. Polly Lang, widow of James Lang, a very early settler. She had five daughters and three sons living, all grown, excepting the youngest son. This match proved to be ill-sorted and brought plenty of trouble, not only to the principal parties, but to their chil- dren as well, who all felt more or less aggrieved at the unpleasantness. After much court maneuvering, a divorce was obtained and peace was restored "all along the line." The truth was, there was no congeniality between them. They were both stern and unyielding. She was a thorough- bred Calvinist, and he an "overflowing" Methodist. In those days soda and acid would not effervesce much quicker than "free grace" and "unconditional election" when thrown together. But Mr. Gregory was "foreor-
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dained" to be a patriarch, as the sequel shows, for after his divorce from "Aunt Polly," he married, September 28, 1840, Mrs. Naomi Scott, who had two children. She was the daughter of John and Susan Jackson, and sister of James Jackson, elder of the Christian church at Martins- ville, and clerk of the Morgan Circuit Court during the forties. With her he passed the remaining years of his life, adding six more children to his remarkably large family. William G. was born July 11, 1841; Wallace, December 18, 1842; Marion, December 6, 1843; Scott, September 20, 1847; Edgar, June 22, 1849; and Mary, March 19, 1851.
The panic of 1840 dealt Mr. Gregory a hard blow. He was then in his sixty-sixth year, a time in life when most men are ready to "throw up the sponge." But he was not a man to "sulk in his tent," or "strike his colors" as long as there was a foot of tenable ground on the battlefield.
He gathered up the fragments of his estate in 1843 and moved to Iowa, then a Territory, and settled about twenty- two miles northwest of Burlington. Having served in General Harrison's army in the War of 1812, he received a land warrant, which he laid on eighty acres of prairie land adjoining his homestead. He held an enormous sod- plow, dragged by five yoke of oxen, until the last foot of sod was turned up to the sun for the first time. Here Mr. Gregory found more "snakes in the grass" than he had encountered hitherto in all the ups and downs of his eventful life. His son Milton, at that time a lad of fifteen, and principal driver, says, "When a rattlesnake got tangled in the grass about the cutter, the plow was allowed to hold itself until a quietus was put upon the rattler." When finishing a land, as the grassy strip grew narrower with each furrow, the snakes would crawl out of the grass and over the plowed land trying to escape; but he became so
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expert with his ox-whip that he could clip the head off one nearly every snap of the lash. One day he "lynched" seventeen of "the little prairie devils" without judge or jury, and it was no great day for snakes either.
Here upon the broad prairie of the West he made his last home. Far, far away from where he gave the first infant wail; far from the scenes of childhood and first love, with his children scattered far and wide-some dead, some in childhood, some busy with the concerns of life; himself well worn with the toils, cares, and sorrows of a mortal existence. His journey from the cradle to the grave came to an end September 25, 1858, in his eighty- third year.
Mr. Gregory had lived in six different States, had been four times married, was the father of twenty-nine children and step-father of thirteen. His first child was born in 1798 and the last one in 1851. Thus, for the time of fifty- three years, his ears had been accustomed to the wails of babies and the racket of wideawake children. He was a large, strong man, rather stern in manner and full of energy. A man of good business tact, always providing well for his family, large as it continued to be for more than forty years. His posterity is scattered far and wide, a respectable and respected people, many of whom have passed their lives in Morgan county. Two of his children are well known residents of Martinsville-Milton W. Gregory, to whom we are indebted for many of the items in this sketch, and Mrs. William Edwards. At the time of Mr. Gregory's first marriage, people had not been edu- cated to believe that "marriage is a failure." When the characteristics of manly men and womenly women are so changed or obliterated through luxury and false ideas of life,-when home is the last place they wish to be, and the least cared for, and when women would rather tend lap
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dogs than lap babies, when both parents desire nothing higher than to dress, flirt, and have a good time,-then it must be conceded, marriage is a failure, man a fraud, and woman a cheat. Whether or not marriage is a success or failure, depends upon who is married more than on any of the external circumstances of life.
One of our near neighbors in 1832 was Solomon Collins. He was the head of one of nine families of that name who came from Tennessee at the earliest period of our settle- ment. Several of them lived near the mouths of Sycamore and Highland creeks. "Old Sol," as he was called, then lived in the river bottom, about three miles north of Mar- tinsville, and was a fair specimen of a backwoods Ten- nesseean. He was no bookworm-knew not a letter or figure in the books-much less was he a dude or a "gentle- man of leisure." He was a good neighbor to good neigh- bors, but woe to him who undertook to tread upon the toes of "Old Sol." During the summer of 1832, he, with the help of his daughter "Jinse," the best farmhand in the household, cultivated a field of corn on the bottom lands. They had worked hard-that is, Jinse had-and a fine crop was the result.
Down on the bottom ground near Cox's (High Rock) mills, lived old Tommy Clark and his son Jim. They were full of "crookedness." Among other annoying things, they kept breachy horses and cattle that, like an invading army, were always foraging in every direction. As one settler said, "It took a fence horse-high, bull-strong, and pig-tight to beat Old Tom." In the fall, Clark's horses and cows held daily picnics in "Old Sol's" corn field. When this came to his ears, and a personal investigation proved the report true, the air nearby seemed to turn blue, for Mr. Collins was not a regular church attendant, neither
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had he learned to curb his temper or bridle his tongue; but he could keep his own counsel.
He was at that time the owner of seven dogs. Now, one or two dogs can live on the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table, but seven dogs are too many boarders under the table of a poor man; so the dogs were in poor condition, and very much lacking in snap and vim. Collins killed a beef and began putting his dogs in training for the fray. He said "nine days wus all he wanted to put 'Bull' and 'Caesar' in good workin' order." He told one of the neighbors that "if them cows git into my corn ag'in, old Tom Clark won't hev head nor tail on 'em." A peace- loving neighbor informed Clark of what was coming, and averted a calamity to the cows, as well as a lawsuit; for Clark took in the situation and kept his trespassing animals at home.
It is a true saying that "bad fences make breachy ani- mals and bad neighbors." A good farmer does not like to see his own animals in his wheat or corn, much less to see other people's stock trespassing on his lands. The best farmers among the early settlers made and kept up good fences, and consequently, had but little breachy stock. But many communities had those among them who were careless as to where their domestic animals roamed, know- ing full well that they would breach any common fence. Nay more, they were known to pass by, seeing their horses in a neighbor's field and never offering to remove them, and if remonstrated with, would reply, tantalizingly, by saying, "Build up your fences." It took Indiana fifty years to learn that it is the duty of every man to fence against his own stock. There are those who yet think that they ought to be permitted by law to forage the unfenced lands and public highways. The Legislature wrestled many sessions with the fence question, all to no
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purpose; for many members who wished to be returned were afraid of those voters who wanted to keep the State as a sort of a big ranch. They finally passed an act de- fining a "lawful fence," over, or through which, if an ani- mal went, the owner was liable for damages. Two fence viewers were to be elected for each township. Nobody wanted this thankless office, and the people ridiculed it by electing the longest and shortest men in the township-the one to view the height, and the other the cracks of the fence.
Miss Jinsey Collins was the strongest woman in the county. She was about medium height, weighing 130 pounds. It was said that she could shoulder three bushels of wheat, standing in a half-bushel. She could swing an ax like a logger, and was a good hand in a clearing. She could ride as wild a horse as the average man. In winter time she was usually attired in linsey-woolsey, with a red bandana tied about her head. She had dark brown eyes and hair, with complexion to match, and was more useful than showy. She moved away with her father's family, and we lost all trace of her.
One Christmas Sol brought home two jugs of whisky, one of which he suspended with a rope from the joist to a height to meet the mouths of the smaller children; the other jug was set on a shelf for his private use, and for visiting neighbors. Many kinsfolk and friends dropped in to see Sol on that day and were feasted on pork, venison, and wild turkey, together with corn bread, hominy, and dried pumpkin, all plentifully interspersed and leveled off with stew, sling, and eggnog. It was a merry Christmas at Old Sol's house, long to be remembered by the partici- pants. Even the "seven sons of thunder," as he called his dogs, were not forgotten, but had an additional allowance, besides the ordinary share of crumbs; for next to his fam-
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ily, Sol's affections went out to his dogs and gun, and if you wished to carry a broken nose, you only had to kick one of his "seven thunders" unlawfully.
People of to-day can have but a faint idea of the tie that bound men and dogs in the days of howling wolves, snuff- ing bears, and purring panthers. Sol's dogs were his body- guard by day and his sentinels by night. Daniel in the lion's den was safer than a stranger would have been prowling around Mr. Collins's domicile after nightfall.
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