USA > Indiana > Warrick County > Warrick and its prominent people : a history of Warrick County, Indiana from the time of its organization and settlement, with biographical sketches of some of its prominent people of the past and present > Part 6
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A LETTER FROM GENERAL LANE.
The following letter, which we have slightly abridged, from General Joseph Lane, while living at Rosenburg, Oregon, to A. T. Whittlesey, Esq., Secretary of the Vanderburgh County His- torical and Biographical Society, contains many interesting inci- dents of his own life and reminiscences of prominent men and important events in the early history of Warrick and Vander- burgh counties. From it, much information can be gained regarding the old veteran's residence in this section, which is not given in the foregoing sketch of his life :
"In iSig my father settled on the Kentucky bank of the Ohio river, opposite the mouth of Cypress creek ; the place afterwards owned by the McCormicks, and for aught I know, still belong- ing to some one of the family; be that as it may. We suc- ceeded in clearing off the cane and small timber, chopping around the big trees so as to deaden them, and put in cultiva- tion ten acres of that rich bottom land. The first year we raised a good crop of corn, a good garden, and some six hundred pounds
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of cotton in the seed. Then, all families, not very rich, raised cotton and flax ; carded, spun, wove and made their own cloth- ing, sheeting and other necessary cloths. When our cotton was picked out of the boll and sacked, old Mr. Vanada, who lived on the bank of the river, three miles from us, proposed to furnish a skiff and with my help take the cotton of both parties to Hen- derson, then called Red Banks, where a Mr. McBride had put up a gin to pick the seeds from the cotton, and also a small carding machine to make the cotton into rolls, which, by the way, was at that time of great advantage to poor people. Well, in the fall of 1815, with our cotton loaded in the skiff, the good old gentleman and myself set out for Henderson. I did the rowing.
"At nightfall we had reached the mouth of Green river ; a slight head-wind prevailed, and finding myself a little tired I pro- posed to land; but Mr. Vanada said : " No, we must reach Hen- derson by morning." We ate a portion of our cold ham and corn bread, and I settled down to the oars, he held the tiller and on we went, rowing as hard as I could, the wind increased ; faithfully did I tug at the oars, but our progress was slow. As we commenced to turn McClain's point the wind took us fair, and the waves broke over the sides of our skiff. The old gen- tleman called out "Hard on the oars!" and headed our little boat quartering up the river. We made a landing not far from where Shanklin first opened his store. There we camped and slept till morning, the wind still blowing too hard for our little boat or the power that propelled it. As we could not go on, I took a ramble through the woods and brush, and for the first time looked over the land and site where now stands the beauti- ful and business city of Evansville, with its many churches, and school houses, and banks, and public edifices, with its daily lines of steamboats and railroads, and constant hurry and rush
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of business, and with its high state of civilization. Then how little did I think of the great future of the site where then, alone, I rambled; could I then have foreseen it, with my uniform good health and energy, what a large fortune could now be mine ; perhaps Heaven directs ! My life has been one of action, and not of speculation ; directed in a different sphere, and although in that sphere I experienced much hardship, deep anxiety and severe wounds, from which I suffer much pain and inconveni- ence, it was necessary for the protection of our pioneers and the rapid progress of civilization that soon followed and spread all over the Pacific slope. But enough of this.
"In the winter of that year, 1815, I obtained permission to go out and work for myself. Early in 1816 I obtained work in Darlington, the county seat at that time of Warrick county. It was located one mile from the Ohio river, between Pigeon and Cypress creeks, and bordered on a long pond, that in winter afforded fine duck shooting, and in summer plenty of mosqui- toes, ague and bilious fever; quite as sickly as any place between Louisville and New Orleans.
"Myself, and several other young men, took a contract to cut, raft and deliver several hundred saw logs at Henderson, Ken- tucky, to Mr. Audubon, (subsequently known as the great ornithologist). He had built and owned a very good steam saw mill, a little too soon for the times, which was one among other failures that caused him to quit business and turn his attention to that branch of science and literature in which he afterwards became famous.
"It was while engaged in delivering logs and rowing back in our skiff that I got acquainted with every one who lived on the bank of the river, and especially did I get well acquainted with Col. Hugh McGary, and was rather pleased with him. He talked well on the subject of his town site and of the ultimate
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greatness of his prospective city. With him, I walked over a portion of the land. A portion of it I had walked over the year before, solitary and alone; I found him quite in earnest about his town. Not long after this he put up his hewed log house not far from Mitchell's corner, I think, near the spot where, some time after, James Lewis built his dwelling house. Upon this occasion we camped near his house, and he spent most of the night with us, and talked much and complained bitterly of Col. Ratliff Boon, who was, as he held, the only obstacle to his suc- cess; that he, Boon, was opposed to the formation of a new county out of Warrick, Posey and Gibson, and so arranging the boundaries as to make his town site central. I was fond of Boon and did not like to hear him abused, but said nothing until after I had obtained employment in the clerk's office; then the first time that I saw Boon, I took the liberty of saying to him that perhaps he had it in his power, or if he wished he could have a new county formed out of the counties above named, and still have them large enough, and that by so doing he would make many friends. A few months after I happened to be present at a conversation held in the clerk's office, while our circuit court was in session, between Boon, McGary, Gen. Evans and Judge Daniel Grass, all leading men, in which the whole programme of a new county was fully discussed. Boon mentioned that such chipping of Warrick county would necessitate the re-loca- tion of the county seat and the probable point would be at or near Setteedown's village, where he, a Shawnee chief, had lived with his little band until 1811, and who, before he left to join his nation had killed some white people in French Island neighborhood. He was followed and killed by a party of citi- zens, among whom Boon figured conspicuously.
The county seat was re-located and located as above mentioned or suggested ; and Boon's name is, and rightly should be, per-
1, the U. S Devationship, Ftale. 1825, Born again become Acting Governor A derved out the terms of Nov. Mendruckit
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petuated. Boonville is still the county seat of Warrick county. The boundaries of Spencer county were so fixed as to insure the location of the county seat at Rockport, a good location. Van- derburgh county was formed so as to make McGary's town site fit in exactly. General Evans had now become part owner ; the county seat was located and the name of the proprietor was per- petuated in the now famous city of Evansville. In 1818 my father moved from the Kentucky side, to the Indiana side, of the Ohio river, in Vanderburgh county, a short distance below the foot of "Three Mile " Island. In 1820 I married and became owner of a portion of his land, where I lived till 18.46 (my family remaining until 1853) and where our ten children had their birth. It is hardly worth while for me to mention the names of the early settlers and business men, lawyers, doctors, etc. You have among you those who knew them all.
"In 1822 I was first elected to the Legislature from the counties of Vanderburgh and Warrick. Gen. Evans and Dr. Foster were opposing candidates; three of us on the track and one to be elected. Your humble servant had a plurality of fourteen votes over Gen. Evans, who was better qualified to represent the district than Foster and myself put together. That year the Legislature held its session at Corydon, then the seat of govern- ment, and continued to so be (if my memory serves me right) until 1825. After that, Indianapolis became the permanent seat of government.
"In 1822 the House organized by electing Gen. @ W. John- son, of Knox county, Speaker, and Wm. Shects, Clerk, Boon, Lieutenant-Governor, was President of the Senate, and Farnham,
Je. 121, 122
See Indicaina Gazetteer of 1850
Ratlif John. M.
von May, Percent of the .
General Joseph Lane. 79
To wit : Oliver H. Smith, Gen. Milton Stapp, Bullock and Pinckney Jones; two of these became quite prominent. I sup- pose that it is safe to say that not a member (myself excepted) of 'either House of that session, is now living, or has been living within the last ten or fifteen years. On looking back, how sad one feels ! The only one left !
"As many of the older members of your society know, I served at intervals in one or the other House of our State Legislature, from 1822 to 1846, when I left vacant an unexpired term in the Senate, and volunteered, in that gallant old veteran, Capt. William Walker's company. From him I took my first lessons in company drill.
"At Buena Vista, sword in hand, he fell, while nobly and gal- lantly battling for his country's honor. A truer and braver soldier fell not upon any battlefield, before or since.
"The Speakers in the several Houses, in which I served after 1822, were Isaac Howk, Harbin H. Moore and Dr. John W. Davis; and if I remember correctly, each of these gentlemen served more than one term as presiding officer.
"I was twice elected to the Senate, once only beaten for the House ; that was by Wm. T. T. Jones, a gallant, talented gen- tleman. Brown Butler run me close; I beat him by only six votes. After that Butler was my colleague in the House while I was in the Senate. As you are aware, I did my part in bringing about a compromise between the State and her creditors, or bondholders; the adjustment saved us the disgrace of threatened repudiation, to which I was very earnestly opposed. During my whole service in the Legislature 1 did all I could for the pro- motion of the interests and honor of our State and the district that I in part represented.
I have not, as was my intention when I commenced writing, given the names of the early business men of Evansville, the
.
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mechanics, professional men and others that ought to have a place in history. I have endeavored to give the little I knew of . the influence of the men who shaped and formed boundaries of counties and location of county seats, all of which was under- stood, by the actors, a year or two before the great work was accomplished, all of them more or less interested, and still all they did resulted in great public good. Ratliff Boon, Daniel- Grass (the humorist) and Gen. Robert M. Evans, were more than ordinary men of their day and deserve a place in the his- tory of Indiana.
"With kind regards and best wishes for the health and success of all the Society, I am, sir, with much respect, your obdient servant,
JOSEPH LANE.
The writing of this letter to the Vanderburgh Historical Soci- ety was one of the last acts of General Lane's life. He died at Rosenberg, Oregon, on April 20th, 1881, in his seventy-ninth year.
EZEKIEL PERIGO.
Ezekiel Perigo, one of the early settlers and a prominent citi- zen of Warrick county, was born in Ohio county, Kentucky, August 6th, 1802. His father, Romey Perigo, was a native of Maryland, and was born in that State during the strife with Great Britain. At eighteen years of age he settled in Ohio county, Kentucky, and in 1800, when twenty one years old, he was married to Miss Rhodia Hinman. He died about 1830. Mrs. Perigo was a woman of extraordinary bravery. She could handle a gun or shoot a wildcat as well as a man. She died by a stroke of palsy in 1822. In April, 1819, Mr. Perigo moved to Warrick county and settled south of where Ezekiel now lives. This was one year after Boonville had been laid out and there
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Ezekiel Perigo.
were not more than a half dozen houses in the place, and these were rudely built log cabins.
Ezekiel's early advantages in instruction were limited to a few days each winter for two or three years while in Kentucky, and after his father's removal to Warrick county he attended a school two weeks, taught by George Hathaway. This comprised all his schooling. However, he obtained most of his education after his marriage by pursuing a regular and systematic course of study in the chimney corner at night by the light of a "shell bark hickory " fire.
In 1822 he was married to Miss Peggy Hudson, a life long member of the Methodist church, who died June 27, 1878, at the age of seventy-three. They had one son, Romey, who was killed in the battle at Atlanta, Ga., during the late war.
Until fifty-four years of age Mr. Perigo pursued farming. He engaged in milling for about eighteen months, and then pur- chased a saddle and harness shop. He began mercantile busi- ness in Boonville in 1856 and continued until 1872.
He finally retired from active business life and now lives on his farm south of Boonville, where he will spend the remainder of his days.
During the late war he was a decided Union man and did much to aid the cause by helping to feed and clothe soldiers' families, and otherwise encouraging the work of fighting our battles. Politically, he was a Whig, having cast his first vote for John Quincy Adams for President, but when the Whig party was succeeded by the Republican he joined the latter. He has been a man of prominence in local politics and has held various offices. He was twice elected constable of Boon township. He has also been treasurer of Boon township four years and trustec four years. He was commissioner of the county seminary for six years and was also appointed commissioner of swamp lands,
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but there were no duties attached to the latter office. In 1838 he was appointed county collector of taxes and was required to ride over the county and make personal collections. In this he was far more successful than his predecessors. He counted out the silver once after the year's work was done and threw it into one of Jackson's old fashioned tin cups, which held about three pints, completely filling it. This was two years' salary and consisted of about $200. He has been administrator of forty-five estates and commissioner in petition of forty others.
He has been a member of the M. E. church for a number of years, and is esteemed by all as an honorable and upright man. His admirable character appears to better advantage at his own fireside, and none know him but to like him for his sincerity and honesty. His career has been a very useful one, and, although very old, he still retains a wonderful vigor of mind. He has watched the progress of Boonville from the time it was a settle- ment of a half-dozen log cabins to a thriving town of two thou- sand population. To use the words of the venerable old gentle- man himself, "his highest ambition is to so live that when this life's toils are over it may be truthfully said, he was always honest and honorable."
DR. REUBEN C. MATTHEWSON.
Of the prominent men of Warrick county that have passed away none covered a longer period of usefulness than Dr. Reu- ben Clark Matthewson, one of the pioneer physicians of Indiana and a gentleman of rare attainments, who settled in this county at a very early day. He was born October 16, 1804, in Steuben county, New York. His parents, Oliver and Agnes Matthew- son, lived to be very old. His father died very suddenly of apoplexy at the age of eighty-two, and his mother of heart dis-
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Dr. Reuben C. Matthewson.
ease at seventy-five years of age. His mother, whose maiden name was Clark, was a descendant of a highly intellectual family and was a lady of extraordinary intellect. It is thought that the subject of this sketch inherited from her much of the talent and ability which he displayed throughout his career from boyhood to old age. In 1817 the family moved from New York to Prince- ton, Gibson county, Indiana, where the parents ever afterwards lived and are now buried. Reuben was thirteen years old at this time and had attended school very little, but when quite young he evinced a love, if not a passion, for books and music, which he maintained till old age, although averse to the wishes of his father, who wanted him to be a carpenter, the trade which he himself followed. At about this time the son was sent to school to Dr. Ira Bostwick, a gentleman of scholastic attainments and polished manners Between the two there became a warm attachment, which continued until the death of Dr. Bostwick, many years after the manhood of his pupil. At a later period in life he received tuition in Princeton from William Chittenden, a gentleman of literary attainments, and doubtless it was here that he obtained most of his education. At this time he was twenty years old, quiet and reserved, evincing a marked passion for books, and reading much in solitude.
He expressed to his father a desire to read medicine, but Mr. Matthewson tried to discourage him, telling him that he did not possess the capacity or scholarship to engage in such high notions. However, he was permitted to enter the office of Dr. Charles Fullerton, a practicing physician in Princeton of more than or- dinary ability for that time and place. Dr. Fullerton was also a fine musician and a teacher of both vocal and instrumental music. Here the student of medicine spent some of his leisure time in learning melodies and harmonies which were of great use to him early in life. He also studied the languages, particularly
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Latin, French and German, and for several years he was a reg- ular subscriber and reader of a German newspaper.
He was licensed to practice medicine at the age of twenty-one and at once located in Boonville. This wasin 1825, seven years after Boonville was laid out. It was a village of about fifty inhabitants at that time, and Dr. Matthewson was the only phy- sician, Dr. Paseo, who came first, having died in 1824.
He was married February 16, 1828, to Lorinda Baldwin, a young lady of good family and a native of New York. Her parents were among the earliest residents of Boonville. She died August 19th, 1860, a little more than forty-eight years old, after a lingering illness, greatly lamented by all her numerous friends and relatives. Their children were five in number, three sons and two daughters. Two of the sons died in 1847, before they had arrived at manhood. The surviving son is Mr. Charles Clark Matthewson, who resides at the old homestead and is engaged in the drug business in Boonville. He inherits to a large extent his father's love of music and books, and lives quietly in the enjoyment of his favorite pastimes. Isabella Helen, the second child and eldest daughter, was married in April, 1850, to Dr. W. G. Ralston, and now resides at Evansville. Lucy Maria, the other daughter and youngest child, the favorite of her father, and a beautiful and highly accomplished young lady, was married to John Brackenridge in April, 1876, and died two months afterwards.
In some business speculations about 1832 or 1833 Dr. Matthewson became much involved financially. Therefore, he relinquished his practice in Boonville and went to Bardstown, Kentucky, where he was made professor of music of the college at that place. He filled the chair with entire satisfaction for several years and then returned to his home and the practice of
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Dr. Reuben C. Matthewson.
his profession, having made enough in the meantime to pay all his liabilities and start him anew.
Dr. Matthewson was a hard student of medicine, as his books show by their marginal annotations. He was a very skillful, successful, and, consequently, popular physician. In his diag- nosis and prognosis of disease he excelled most practitioners ; hence, to his opinion was given great weight in critical and doubtful cases. He was not a graduate, having attended only a partial course of lectures in the Ohio Medical College, yet he knew more about the real and scientific principles and details of medical science than very many of the professors and teachers in the medical colleges of the day. He practiced his profession in Boonville with the exception of the time he was engaged in teaching music in Bardstown College, for nearly fifty years.
He was a prudent and successful business man and was always regarded as honest and upright.
He was for many years skeptical in religious matters, but later in life he often said that his former notions had undergone a change and that he now entertained the hope and belief that the soul was immortal and would live in the future.
He was entertaining in conversation, having read almost every- thing that he considered worthy perusal. In physical appear- ance he was full and erect. His complexion was florid, and he had sparkling hazel eyes and red hair when young, which became almost white before his death. His weight was about 160 pounds and his height five feet ten inches.
In politics Dr. Matthewson was a Whig and afterwards a Repub- lican. He was never a candidate for political favor, but he held the office of postmaster of Boonville from 1841 to 1845.
During his career of active life, covering a period of fifty years, he was identified as foremost in everything tending to the busi- ness or social advancement and improvement of his town and
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Warrick and its Prominent People.
county. He was naturally looked upon as a leading citizen, and was held in the highest esteem by all. He was of a sociable disposition and in a quiet way was very benevolent.
During the last years of his life he was in a feeble state of health, which was doubtless a gradual softening of the brain, and on June 22, 1876, after a brief illness, supposed to be heart disease, the surroundings of his long, useful life,
"Saw, in death, his eyelids close, Calmly, as to a night's repose, Like flowers at set of sun."
WILLIAM SCALES.
William Scales, who was a pioneer of Indiana territory, and a man of conspicuousness in the early days of Warrick county, was born in North Carolina, in April, 1785. Early in the eight- eenth century a family named Scales was banished from Scot- land on account of their liberal ideas. They came to the United States, and it is probable that they settled in North Carolina. It is thought that William Scales was a descendant of this family. In 1803 he was married to Mary Skelton, of Georgia, and during the same year they emigrated to Warren county, Kentucky. In 1807 he came to Indiana and settled in what is now Gibson county, near Princeton. The white men in this part of the country at that time were "few and far between." Settlers twenty miles apart were as neighbors. He constructed a hut of a right-angle triangular shape, with poles, bark and skins, the manner in which the houses of most pioneers were at that time built, and lived in it with his family for sometime, before the more substantial log cabin could be built. A tribe of Indians lived in close proximity to where Mr Scales had decided to settle and shortly after his arrival they came trotting over to his hut in single file to see him One of the Indians approached
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William Scales.
him and said, " White man trust Indian, Indian trust white man," meaning that they would be his friend if he would trust them. They then asked that they might keep his eldest boy one day, promising to return with him when the sun went down. Afraid to refuse lest the savages should become offended he very reluctantly consented to the proposition after a consultation with his wife, and one of the Indians, taking the boy on his shoulders, they trotted away in the same direction they had come. For the father and mother alone in the wilderness, with no friend near, and wholly at the mercy of a band of savages, it was a day of painful anxiety. Now and then they shuddered with the fear that the Indians would prove treacherous, and that they would never again see their boy alive. Night was fast drawing near, and the sun was gradually sinking beneath the horizon. The father's hope began to grow weaker, and he impatiently awaited the end of the time allotted for their return. With fixed eyes he watched the sun disappear entirely in the west and he then turned in the direction the Indians had gone, ready to face any danger, but his face lighted up with a smile of sudden delight, and his heart beat fast with joy as he saw them in the distance coming with his boy. They came trotting up in the same man- ner they had left and deposited the son at the father's feet. The old Indian then patted the grateful parent on the shoulder, and said, " White man trust Indian; Indian white man's friend always." Forever afterward the Indians and William Scales were good friends.
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