Adams County, Indiana - The whole text, 1907 (part 1 of 16)

Introduction

But few of the poineer residents of Adams county are now living to relate their story of its beginning as a county. The written details of who was its first white residents, or of the early events that transpired in the days of its organization are few and hard to find. However, it has been the purpose of the author of this work, as far as possible, to give a record of the events of the government of the territory, along with what is of only local interest. It is a matter of fact that the general and state governments are of as much, or more, historical interest to the county, as is its local history - for the reason that they are inseparable from it. The county is taxed for their support, for its quota of men in time of war - and for its share of money for government expenses in time of peace. It joins in the general elections of governors, congressmen and presidents of the United States. It gets in return the protection of the federal and state laws, which control the township, as well as the county, state and nation. For the reasons stated, the actual history of Adams county begins with the colonial grants made by the European governments to the various colonies. The ownership as determined from time to time in their contentions for mastery of iliis region and finally the control at the time actual permanent settlement was made, claims a share of the county's history. Until the close of the Revolutionary war - 1783 - Virginia claimed dominion of most of the actual settlements throughout the Ohio valley. That lying north west of the Ohio river was known as the county of Illinois, and that south, as the county cf Kentucky. The laws of Virginia prevailed in her settlements in these counties until T/87. Then the federal government came into control of Illinois county, known 3ater as the Northwest Territory, and thereafter, appointed its governors, who were largely instrumental in making the laws of the territory. About one of the first acts of the first territorial governor was to divide the territory into two counties, the west as Knox county with its seat of justice at Vincennes, or "Saint Vincent" as it was then known, and Wayne county, the eastern part, with its seat of justice or county seat at Detroit. In 1800, Indiana Territory was organized which in 1 816 became a state, with the privilege of forming its constitution and enacting itown laws. At the date of its admission, as a state, Indiana was divided into thirteen counties, Randolph county being one of the number. In 1S23 this was divided and Allen county was organized. Thirteen years later, in 1836, Adams county began its existence as a distinct and separate civil corporation. In our preparation of this work we make no special claim for originality, but have endeavored to, as nearly as possible, arrive at facts, as received from the writings and reminiscences of those who were intimately acquainted, at first hand, with the organization and development of the county, however, the author hereof has been a resident of Adams county for more than forty-six years, and has seen much of the development himself of the county's resources, and has also listened to the reminiscences as related by many of the oldest residents of the county themselves. Much interesting historical matter is forever lost, to future generations from the fact that its actors' names remain as a tradition of the past ; their grave stones mark their only span of life as an unwritten book.

In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge the valuable encouragement received from many of the pioneer residents of Adams county, and also, the assistance gotten from the valuable histories of Randolph, Jay, Allen and Van Wert counties. Also the state histories of Indiana, and Howe's Historical Notes of Ohio.

How nearly we have succeeded in presenting a plain straightforward impartial and interesting historical record of events, is left to the judgment of each individual reader to decide for himself.

Early Explorations

Nature with her bounteous hand has provided her children with a great variety of landscapes. None of these can be more beautiful than those which may be seen at harvest time. The green meadows - 01 the yellow grain fields, just ready for the sickle, the rolling pasture lands with their herds of fine cattle, the orchard nestling around the neat cozy cottage - is a picture of civilization an and contentment. A hundred years ago these farms were a part of an unbroken forest reaching from western Indiana, along the Wabash, to the Atlantic sea-board, at the east, - with the exception of a few small prairies along the lakes. The constant labor of the pioneer has wrought the wonderful change, within the last few decades. Then, the only routes of travel were the lakes and the navigable rivers. Wild beasts, and wilder Indians held dominion over what is now the finest farm lands and the most populous cities. The French were the earliest explorers of the lake region and the Mississippi valley, Cadillac, in 1701, founded Detroit, and some years previous to this time the French traders and missionaries ascended the Maumec river to where Fort Wayne is now situated, to the Indian village of Kekionga. New Orleans, Natchez, Vincennes, Marietta, and DuOuesne, are lasting mementoes of the French occupancv of this region. Until 1763 the French had nominal control and possession of the lands and country west of the AHeghanies. Her traders were chiefly engaged in traffic with the Indians. They furnished the Indians with many of the useful articles of domestic life and war, - such as guns, knives, hatchets, wipes, paints, and ornamental trinkets, as their fancy and wants demanded, in exchange for valuable furs of the otter, beaver, mink and such others as would find a ready sale in Europe. Trading posts were established at convenient points on the rivers and lakes at which the supplies were collected by local traders and taken up at certain intervals by pack trains and carriers to boat navigation down the Maumee and Ohio, to the sea board, - and sent to Europe. In 1763, the French had more than sixty trading- posts protected by block houses and stockades, within the Ohio valley. Several of these were on the Wabash river. At Fort Wayne, Saint Mary's, Ohio, and Wapakoneta and Defiance, on the Auglaize river, were important trading posts. There were at least three general classes of white people who visited this section of the country at an early day, when all was a wilderness and unbroken forest - the fur trader and the missionary, - neither of whom expected to remain long at any particular place. Those who came subsequent to the trader and the missionary became the permanent sett'tr, - the pioneer resident of the country. The missionary and the trader learned to live in Indian fashion and learned the Indian languages and did much toward filling the link between barbarism and civilization. La- Salle and Marquette were perhaps among the first white explorers of the Maumee and Ohio valleys. The record of their exploral»«»ns dates back to about 16S0. The mislonaries who followed on close to the fur trader were a medium between the red ntcr and white settler. Neither the mis- Munary nor the trader gave any attention to Jmjir or sowing or cultivation of the inarketing its timber or mineral products ; however they erected stockades and block houses for their protection from hostile Indians. Near these trading points the Jesuit missionaries established missions for the conversion of the Indians, who came to barter with the traders. Some of the Indian traders and missionaries were halfbreeds, or part white and part red man, with Teutonic ambitions and filled with a spirit of adventure, or anxious to erect a church to the glory of God and to their own fame, risked their lives and suffered exposure and privation to blaze the way for the permanent .settler. The fur traders and the missionaries did not interfere, to any great extent with the Indian's mode of living; but rather adopted some of the Indian's customs. For this, and other reasons, comparatively few conflicts ensued between them. But when the pioneers and permanent settlers came and began a new era, by felling the forests, and fencing the lands, the red man sent in his protest, and enforced it with all of the power at his command. Much has been' said of the injustice shown the Indian. A gocd deal of truth may be attached to such statements. Yet, there are some principles in naura! science that ever demonstrate themselves. Oil and water never unite in one homogeneous mass. So with the savage barbarians and civilized white men. The habits and customs of a people are largely the result 01 their law and methods of government. 'I he customs, manners and beliefs of civilized, and uncivilized people are too far at variance to ever unite them, so they can live at peace with each other, in the same country. As a result, with the advent of the permanent resident came the Tndian massacres, and the frontier war?. In these the combined forces of the Indian tribes took part against the white settlers. The general government rendered its assistance to the pioneers. The Indians determined upon a war of extermination of the pale-faced intruders. Energy, was summoned to determine who could command the greater power. In that last and decisive struggle the tomahawk yielded to the sword, and the hand that held the bow and arrow was forever stilled by the unerring rifle of the pioneer. "Westward empire takes it way" applies as well to the great Indian confederacies that held this country in terror a hundred years ago as it does to the Causacian races of Europe. The remaining tribes - after their final struggle for supremacy east of the ''Father of Waters" - were, in 1832, removed by order of .the United States government, on toward the setting sun, to be known no more as a nation in the beautiful lands east of the Mississippi river. However, their tribal names - the natural limits of their hunting grounds - long since deserted by them, are daily on the tongue of the white mar. Kankakee, Kaskaskia and Kekionga as Pottawattamie words, each had its significance. Miami, Mississinewa and Mississippi, once the tribal words of the powerful Miamis, new the names of rivers - once resounding to the war song or to the rippling of the light bark canoe - as it glided over their waters bearing the red children of the forest from wigwam to village - knows him no more. These so common names but perpetuate the existence of the natural enemv of the white man.

Indian Troubles

No future generation can produce an achievement so grand in results as did the discover)'' of the American continent. Nature with her bounteous hand has provided the Americas with every variety of climate and many strange, curious and beautiful wonders not to be seen anywhere else in the universe. This discover)- gave civilization a new world to explore, to conquer and to occupy. Soon after this discover)' Europe was ablaze with the spirit of adventure, and conquest. Religious zeal and the search for gold, - the hope of extension of dominion and increase of power stimulated every respectable European country to send expeditions to the new world. They all found the natives friendly in disposition. But this friendship was soon broken. With the spirit of the age, - the Indians were treated as beasts of burden, rather tlian as men with individual rights and privileges. It is related that Columbus himself carried some of the leading Indian chiefs into captivity to Europe on his return voyage. The Portuguese and Spaniards in Louisiana and the southwest attempted to enslave the natives but their efforts were failures, as the resentful disposition of the Indian and his utter disregard of consequences as to his personal punishment caused him to murder his newly established overseer as soon as a favorable opportunity was presented. There may be great difference in the energy and mental capacity of the different tribes, but it has been demonstrated that the Indian cannot he successfully enslaved. His pcneral idea number of his enemies is the most famous. For this reason perhaps, the Indian brave soon took an aversion to the pioneer fanner, as he performed the work of a woman, and was known as a "squaw man" who was rather beneath the notice of a warrior. The traders had less trouble in holding the respect of the Indians as he was not a tiller of the lands and lived more like the Indians than those in the settlements. The English and French nations were enemies in Europe and rivals in American colonization. The French fur traders along the lakes and .west of the Alleghanies were many years in advance of the English. Their manners and customs readily blended with those of the Indians, and they became fast friends in attack and defense. The English settled the Atlantic seaboard country from Massachusetts to the Carolinas, and gradually pushed their frontier westward across the mountains. Various disputes led to colonial wars in which the services of the Indians were, from time to time, employed by the contending powers. It is charged that before these war?, the Indian was never known to scalp his victim; that to the everlasting shame of Great Britain, she through her military agents, offered a bounty for Frenchmen's scaiplocks. This prompted certain Indian tribes to massacre the defenseless settlers for rewards. In 1754 the colonial forces and British regulars under General Braddock attempted to dislodge the French near the headwaters of the Ohio, at Fort Du- Oue.-ne. The commander in chief was killed and the army defeated with great loss of life and property. For the next ten years the frontier was a battle ground for guerrilla warfare. In 1763 the French yielded nominal control qf the Ohio valley to the English. The new government was scarcely established when the Revolutionary war began. At that time the posts erected and established by the French were in the hands of the British. The Ohio and Wabash valleys had many French traders and sympathizers with the colonial cause. They were suspected of treason to the king, - and the scalping knife and tomahawk were again encouraged, and sanctioned by British agents throughout the west. Indian barbarity managed and directed by Teutonic intelligence, reached the limit of sickening cruelty. The lands south of the Ohio to the Mississippi were known as Kentucky county, Virginia, and that on the north, as Illinois county, Virginia. Patrick Henry, in 1778, was governor of the colony and directed Colonel George Rogers Clark to proceed to the counties on the Ohio and capture the military posts from the British. Clark captured Kahokia. Kaskaskia, and Vincennes and the country was thereafter held by the colonial forces. The Indians, and the British sympathizers, continued to annoy the frontier settlers until in 1791, when General Arthur Saint Clair, with a large force of militia from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and several companies of Continental regulars, were sent to the Indian country to reduce the hostile tribes to submission. From Fort Washington - where Cincinnati now stands, he proceeded northward to Greenville, thence to the headwaters of the Wabash, a few miles southeast of where Portland, in Jay county, is now situated. Here he was attacked on the morning of November 4, 1791. by a large force of Indians under the chiefs Little Turtle and Blue Jacket, and the traitor and Indian interpreter - Simon Girty - a white savage, who had long been in the service of the British government. The results were disas- trous to the invading forces, and Saint Clair was defeated with heavy less of life, all his artillery and military stores The army consisted of six companies of regulars, and about fifteen hundred militia. The enemy's forces were variously estimated at from twelve hundred to two thousand men. Considering the number engaged, there are but two other Indian engagements - Braddock's defeat, and the Custer massacre, that corncompare to any degree of resemblance with this engagement, in destruction of life and loss of property. Until Saint Clair's defeat, the Wabash country was comparatively unknown in history. Its name and fame now spread from home to home as the news was related of the sad fate of those six hundred soldier boys whose life's blood reddened the shores and waters of the Wabash - more than a hundred years ago, - a baptism that time can' never erase. The general government was not long in avenging this Indian victory. New levies were made and an effective army of about five thousand men was placed under the command of General Anthony Wayne, who. in 1794. took the route Saint Clair had traveled and built and fortified Fort Recovery, on Saint Clair's battle field. From these they marched to Girt\'s town - now Saint Mary's, Ohio, and on northward to the Maumee river, near the Auglaize, where he built Fort Defiance. Then moved to the "Fallen Timbers." near the Maumee rapids, where he met the Indians in battle August 20. 1794. killing about two hundred of their number and driving the others from the c< untry. Coining up the Maumee to Keldonga. he erected a fort, which, was named by one of his officers Fort Wayne. Wayne war a natura commander and leader of nicv., and mere fortunate than some others of those who preceded him in having a large force at his command. At the "Fallen Timbers'' he formed his attacking columns in three lines of battle - at the starting - near half a mile apart, with orders to charge the Indians and when raised, to deliver a sharp fire on their backs. The location and strength of the Indians were in this way determined and the points receiving the heaviest fire were at once reinforced.

Flanking divisions reached their right and left and the savages were driven from their hiding places, and eventually put to flight. The fields of corn which were then nearing harvest time were destroyed and the Indians hunted down and shot like deer, whenever found. Even squaws and pappooses as they were gathering plums in a thicker were fired upon and killed. When Wayne was questioned as to this mode of warfare he simply stated that "Nits make lice. The country is lousy with cut-throat red skins." Such treatment soon brought the Indians to submission, and on the 3d day of August, 1795, a treaty was made at Greenville, Ohio, with the leading tribes, that had been troublesome and much land was ceded to the United States. However, the Indians retained and held several valuable tracts in the ceded territory, as reservations, which in 1S18 and 1826 were finally purchased by the general government. Some of these reservations were along the Wabash near Huntington and Peru. One west of Portland, and one on the Salamonie west and north of Camden, known as Godfrey's Reserve. About two miles below Williamsport, in Allen county, on the Saint Mary's river, the I^iFountain and Richardville reservations ! begin and extend for six and seven miles toward Fort Wayne. The Rivare reservation in Saint Mary's township is the only

Indian reservation in Adams county. It contains about 1,600 acres of land in (ions 9. 16 and 21, and is about the half-way distance between Saint Mary's, Ohio, and Fort Wayne. Until 1832 the Indians made regular trips from Wapakeoneta and Saint Mary's to Fort Wayne to receive their regular annuities on the sale of their lands. In 1832 the Indians were removed to what is now the state of Missouri and Kansas. Those that chose to remain and submit to the civil laws - made for the government and control of the white residents - came under the same jurisdictions and for violations were subject to the same penalties as the white men. A few families in which there was more or less white mixture remained at their reservations, near Fort Wayne, Wabash and Peru. Anthony Shane, of Old Town - now Rockford, Ohio, went west with his people, at that time. By way of diversion, while speaking of the Rivare Reservation, we are reminded of a landscape that is almost identical and an exact duplicate of the famous battle ground of Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela, a few miles above Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The Saint Mary's river flows from the southeast to the northwest through Saint Mary's township; on the west side of the river is the village of Pleasant Mills- - at one time the largest town in Adams county. To the east and north across the river is Spring creek, which flows into the Saint Mary's river. When standing on the raise just where the road crosses Spring creek and looking westward yon see a fine level tract of perhaps two hundred acres, with its western boundary the west banks of the Saint Mary's, fringed with forest trees. As you stand on the banks of Turtle creek, looking southeastward toward the Monongahela river, you sec Braddock's battle ground, which is nearly exactly such a natural landscape. That ground marks one of the most important battles known in American history. However, Saint Clair's battle ground on the Wabash was perhaps the scene of the greater loss of life and the most cruel barbarity of any of equal magnitude in the history of Indian warfare. One morning while waiting for the train and Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to the north and east of the railroad, we saw an old cemetery. As it was an hour until train time we strolled up the hill over that way. The old and moss covered slabs of limestone and marble were many. But in the distance was a marble shaft heavier and more imposing than some others near it. By close examination we read the following inscriptions: South Side.

Snows History Of

Seeing the grave and monument of General Saint Clair, brought to my recollection a description given by one of Wayne's soldiers, as appears in his reminiscences, who was one of a company that built Fort Recovery in 1793-4, two years after the famous defeat of Saint Clair. His statements were in the following language: "We arrived on the ground on Christmas day and pitched our tents on the battle ground. When the men went to lie down in the tents at night, they had to scrape the bones together and carry them out to make their beds. The next day holes were dug and the bones remaining above ground were buried, six hundred skulls being found among them. The flesh was entirely off of trie bones and in man}' cases the sinews yet held them together. After this melancholy duty was performed, a fortification was built and named Fort Recovery, in commemoration of its being recovered from the Indians who had possession of the g-round in 1791."

The last organized resistance offered by the Indian tribes in Indiana, was just about the beginning of the second war with Great Britain, or about 1812. At that time Indiana was a territory, with but few settlements. The British from time to time encouraged the restless Indian tribes to hostilities toward the frontier residents. Tecumseh, who had taken up his residence in Canada, near Maiden, wras a great agitator, and very influential with the most powerful tribes. His brother claimed to be a prophet ;and was a medicine man, who worked upon the savage superstitions and secured their aid and assistance in a general attack upon the frontier. In 181 1, General William H. Harrison was governor of the territory, and prepared to punish the Indians in the Wabash country for their conduct. In June of that year, he met them in battle near the mouth of the Tippecanoe river and defeated them with severe loss. The power of the prophet was forever lost and his brother Tecumseh retired to Canada, and received an officer's commission in the British army, and a large concession of land for his sen-ices against the government of the United States. In 1819 the military post at Fort Wayno was abandoned as a fortress and the. troops and supplies removed to a western fort. In 1832 the Indian reservations on the Auglaize and most of them on the Saint Mary's and Wabash rivers were abandoned - the red man - squaw and pappoose - again started toward the setting sun, never more to roam the huntinp- p/rounds of their youth. What few remained were required to adhere to and abide by the civil laws of the white man, rather than the tribal laws.

Some Indian Leaders

That the Indian is a distinct race is taken are copper colored, have coarse black hair, by common consent. In sever? i respects he high cheek bones, low retreating foreheads, is unlike any other race of mankind. All small and inexpressive eyes. heavy eyebrows, full, compressed lips, large noses, with dilating nostrils; stout, heavy, square jaws; light or scanty beard, and generally have rather round heads, high toward the crown or top. Their color varies in different types from a light to a dark shade of bronze - some almost black, while others are of a yellow tinge. H. B. Schoolcraft, who is considered a good authority on the Indian races, says that : "The Algonquins occupy a position far above mediocrity, and are surpassed only by the Dakotas and Iroquois, the latter standing in the first rank." The Miamis are a distinct branch of the Algonquin tribe. Little Turtle was a Miami Indian whose parents lived on Eel river at "Old Orchard," a. few miles northwest of Fort Wayne. He died July, 181 2, at the age of sixty-five years. It is said that his courage and sagacity in the estimation of his countrymen were proverbial ; and that his example inspired others of his tribe to their best continued efforts. He was in command of the forces of his tribe in the defeats of Generals Harmer and Saint Clair, but was opposed to going into battle with General Anthony Wayne in 1794, as he foresaw defeat in the careful preparations for the event of battle as made by that old Revolutionary general. Blue Jacket was a Shawnee chief whose home, in the last years of his life, was Auglaize, near Defiance, Ohio. He was present at the Braddock's and Saint Clair's defeats, and was a power among his people. After the treaty of 1818, with a portion of his tribe, he occupied a reservation at Wapakoneta, Ohio, at which place he died at the age of about a hundred years. Colonel Johnson, of Piqua, Ohio, who was an Indian agent of the United States, describes him as a small man, but agile and well formed ; that he was far above his tribesmen in knowledge and intelligence.

Pontiac was an Ottawa chief whose operations along the Maumee and Wabash rivers were very disastrous to the forerunners of civilization, the pioneer settlers. He was ever the friend and supporter of the French trader, and the interests of France. He is* said to have been a man "Powerful in person, commanding in presence, resolute in an extraordinary degree. He was possessed with a rare gift of oratory and eloquence common to very few of his race. He was sagacious and subtle and an inveterate enemy of the English."

Tecumseh was a Shawnee Indian chief. born near the Indian village of Piqua, Ohio, in 1768, and was an incessant agitator of his people against the encroachments of the white settlers. His theme was that the lands were taken from his tribesmen without just compensation. He was a member of many attacking parties of Indians between 1790 and 1813, throughout the Northwest Territory. He led an attack on the stockades at Fort Recovery, and was with his allies at the battle of the "Fallen Timbers," and at the battle of Tippecanoe. He joined the British under General Proctor and engaged in the war of 1S12 against the United States, and was killed by an American or United States soldier at the battle of the Thames, in Canada, in October, 18 13

In the language of one who saw him in conference with General Harrison, in 1S11. at Vincennes, the following estimate and description of him is given: "Tecumseh was about five feet and ten inches in height and more than usually stout. He had small feet and broad shoulders, with a round chest. He was powerful and active in his movements. His eyes were small but intellectual. Had nearly a Roman nose, large mouth and full lips. In the opinion of those who attended the council, his muscular strength and mental action corresponded with his high order of intellect. When the subject of review of the encroachments upon the Indians' lands was mentioned he became violent. His vindictive oratory- spellbound his dusky listeners. The intelligent, unlettered Tecumseh was a man of much natural ability and of great influence among his people."

The Girtys

Though somewhat transient in their roving- habits, the Girtys for a time lived in the Maumee valley, and the Indian town where Saint Mary's, Ohio, is now situated was known as "Girty's Town.'"' There were four of the Girty brothers - Thomas, James, George and Simon. From Butterfield's "History of the Girtys" the following incidents and descriptions are taken :

Simon Girty, Sr., was an Irishman, who settled on the borders of Pennsylvania and became an Indian trader. He was killed by an Indian in 1751 in a drunken brawl at the Girty cabin. John Turner, who lived with Girty, at once killed the Indian. He subsequently married the widow and in 1756 was taken captive with his family by the Indians, carried to the Indian village and tortured to death. Turner was tied to a blackened post and heated gun barrels were thrust throughhis body; was scalped, while alive, and clubbed while the slow fire roasted him. Mrs. Turner and the four children were compelled to witness this horrid scene. The family were soon separated. Mrs. Turner and an infant were taken by the Delawares v.nd carried to the country near Fort Du Quesne. Thomas Girty, the eldest son, soon escaped from the Indians and lived a useful life; died near the Susquehanna in 1820. The three remaining boys were adopted by the savages - Simon, then fifteen years old, going with the Ser.ecas ; James,, then thirteen, with the Shawnees, and George with the Delawares. They all, exepi Thomas, remained with the Indians for about three years, when as a result of a treaty, they were surrendered to the authorities at Pittsburg. For the next thirteen years the employment of the Girty boys was that of Indian interpreters and traders' assistants on the frontier. Simon Girty acted as scout when hostilities broke out between the colonial forces and the Indians and translated Logan's - the Mingo chief - speech in 1776 to General Gibson, the Indian agent. Until 1778 Simon Girty sided with the Whigs against the Torys and the British. In March, 177S, seven of the interpreters and Indian traders at Pittsburg (Du Quesne) deserted the fort and made their way to Detroit to join the British commander, Hamilton, stationed at that point. Three of these - Simon Girty, Matthew Elliott, an Indian trader, and Alexander Mc.Kee, also a trader - became the most ultra and notoriously de- praved opponents of the white settlers and American revolutionists. Girty, McKee and Elliott took British gold and entered the Indian department under regular pay ; Simon Girty as an interpreter for the six nations. James Girty soon joined his brother and went to live with the Indians in the wilderness of the Maumee and Ohio valleys, among the Shawuees, to carry out British military orders. George Girty, in 1779, was a lieutenant in the Continental army, but went over to the enemy and joined the British Indian department at Detroit as an interpreter, and was sent to the Shawnees' country, with headquarters at Wapakoneta, then an Indian town in Ohio. The British commandants demanded that these interpreters take up arms against the frontier and they most ferociously did their bidding. George Girty married a Delaware Indian woman and died near Fort Defiance, Ohio, a habitual drunkard. James Girty married a Shawnee Indian woman and retired to Gosfield, in Canada, and took protection in 1S12 from the British government.

He received a regular annuity and large landed interests for his services. He was tall and commanding in person, and temperate in his habits. The Girtys were a set of murderous traitors, to be reckoned in the class of Benedict Arnold. Their opportunity to receive British gold could not be withstood. Henceforth an ever guilty conscience prompted these white savages to be unrelenting and barbarous in the extreme. Fort 'Henry, now Wheeling; Bryant Station, Kentucky, and Saint Clair's defeat, each have their revolting tales of cruelty by those under their commands. The following description of Simon Girty is given by Oliver

M. Spencer, who when a boy of about fifteen was taken captive in 1792 by the Shawnee Indians on the Scioto river. He saw Simon Girty at the Indian village on the Maumee a short distance below Defiance. Ohio.

He says that, "The Indian priestess, Cooh- Coo-Cheeh, with whom T lived, took me to a Shawnee village, where I saw the celebrated Blue Jacket and Simon Girty. Girty was a medium sized man with dark, shaggy hair, low forehead, his eyebrows contracted and meeting above his short, flat nose. His steel gray eyes averting the ingenuous gaze ; his lips thin and compressed, and the dark and sinister expression of his countenance to me seemed the very picture of a villain. He wore an Indian costume without ornament. On each side in his belt were stuck a silver mounted pistol and at his left hung a short, broad dirk knife. He made a number of inquiries of me about my family and my captivity. Fie spoke of the wrongs he had received at the hands of his countrymen, and of the revenge he had taken. He boasted of his victorious exploits, and raising the handkerchief from his forehead showed a deep scar he said he received at Saint Clair's defeat, but said, with an oath, that he had sent the damned Yankee officer to hell who did it. He ended by saying that I would never see home again, but that if I would turn ou: to be a good hunter that I might one day be a chief."

In 1784 Simon Girty married Catherine Malott, a white girl who had been captured by the Indians about 17S0 near the Ohio. He was an active adherent to the British cause in the war of 1812, and died in iSr8 near Maiden, in Canada, still in the British service.

Snow'S History Of Northwest Territory

For many years preceding the Revolutionary war there was continuous border warfare between the advance settlers and the French traders and exploring' parties northwest of the Ohio river. In 1763 the British took formal possession of the western frontier, yet there were many Frenchmen who were opposed to British rule. In 1778 the Revolutionary war was vigorously progressing along the seaboard, and the French line of forts at the frontier were in possession of the British. Patrick Henry was at that time governor of Virginia. That these frontier posts be taken and held for the American cause, he sent an armed force of about three hundred men under the command cf Colonel Rogers Clark to take possession of the country. In the early winter of 1778 Clark crossed the Alleghanies and descended the Ohio river, captured Cahokia, Kaskasb'a and Vincennes and moved up the Wabash from Vincennes and captured a British train of supplies from Detroit intended for the garrisons. These timely exploits gave the northwest territory to the American cause, as these posts were never Tetaken by the British. By these active military measures at this critical period a republican form of government, rather than British dominion, has ruled and regulated that vast fertile region northwest of the Ohio river. After victory was won and the wars were over, dissensions arose as to the right of the various states to the territory northwest of the Ohio river. The war debt was unpaid, land titles were defective from the multiplicity of claimants. At this time General Rufus Putnam and a few other Revolutionary soldiers advocated the payment of ex-soldiers' claims in western lands. After much debate in congress this arrangement was agreed upon and the several colonial states ceded their claims to the lands northwest of the Ohio river to the United States government to be disposed of and sold to actual settlers.

In 1783 Virginia ceded her state and colonial rights northwest of the Ohio to the general government, and on the 13th day of July, 17S7, the ordinance became a national enactment and the fundamental law of the Northwest Territory. The act of the Virginia state legislature. December 20, 17S3, authorizing her representatives in congress to make and execute a (feed of conveyance and transfer of her interests northwest of the Ohio, and made these exceptions : "That the French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers of Kaskaskia, Saint Vincent (now Vincennes) and neighboring villages, that professed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their possessions and titles confirmed to them and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties. That a quantity, not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres of laud promised by this state, shall be allotted and granted to the then colonel, now General George Rogers Clark, and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment who marched with him when the posts of Kaskaskia and Saint Vincent were reduced, and to the officers and soldiers that have been incorporated into the said regiments ; that said land to be laid off in one tract, the length of which not to exceed double the breadth, in such place on the northwest side of the Ohio as a majority of the officers shall choose, and be afterward divided among the said officers in due proportion according to the laws of Virginia." This was known as the "Illinois Grant" or as the "Clark's Grant."

The deed of cession was executed on the first of March, 1784, by Virginia's delegates in congress - Arthur Lee, Samuel Hardy, James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson. In October of the same year General Arthur Saint Clair was appointed military governor of the Northwest Territory and took up his residence at Marietta, on the Ohio. Later he visited Kaskaskia and appointed such civil officers as were necessary for the execution of the laws in that region. His secretary established civil and military authority at Vincennes in 1790. The appointive officers at this time were militia officers, sheriffs, tax collectors, surveyors, constables, justices of the peace, and coroners. Indiana territory was organized in 1800 and General William Henry Harrison was appointed governor and the seat of justice, or seat of government, was removed from Vincennes to Corydon. The first territorial general assembly was chosen in 1807, and a code of laws adopted. Some of the laws then made would, today, be considered as semi-barbarous, to say the least of it. Under the established territorial code horse stealing, arson, murder and treason were punishable by death. Burglary and robbery were punishable by imprisonment, fine and whipping; larceny by fine, whipping and hard labor; forgery by disfranchisement and standing in the pillory; hog stealing by a fine and whipping; Sabbath breaking, gambling and profane swearing by a fine; bigamy by a fine, whipping and disfranchisement. The ordinance of 1787 was possible only by the surrender to the general government of the colonial grants claimed by the original states. This preceded the United States Constitution and at the time it was adopted was the most liberal in its provisions of any national enactment yet made. It granted liberty of conscience to every individual to worship God according to the methods of his choice without fear of being molested by law or officious rival religious organizations. At that date liberty of thought, as we know it today, was supposed to be an absolute impossibility. Though religious to a fanatical degree, the laws previous to this were patterned after the moth-eaten statutes of Europe, dating back to the feudal ages. Another feature of the ordinance was that it was not a matter of local interest as a state law. It was for all liberty-loving Americans or those who wished to become citizens in the new republic of the United States. Some of the provisions in the territorial laws for holding office required the candidate to be a landowner and a resident of the territory. The principal executive officer was appointed by -the President of the L'nited States, with the approval of congress. The governor, secretary and part of the legislature were appointive officers. The territorial legislative assembly was to be organized as soon as five thousand free male inhabitants of full age were registered in the district. The first territorial general assembly appointed a delegate to the national congress of the United States. Each civil and military officer, except the general in command of the army, was required to be a resident landowner in order to be eligible to hold office. Each voter for a representative in the territorial legislative assembly must own of what was then Illinois territory that Indififty acres of land. Each representative in ana territory had reached the number of legislative council (senate), the secretary was the first election of legislators in Indiand each of the three judges must own five ana. There were five representatives chosen, hundred acres of land. The governor must and the general assembly, so chosen, recomown one thousand acres of land and be a mended six eligible candidates, three of were twelve thousand and five hundred votes be a primitive beginning, but such was Indifor the twenty-five representatives ; then the ana's territorial "legislative assembly." On and appointed the necessary officers to aid 1S16, and on the founh day of the next Xoin an execution of the laws. When the land vember the first Indiana state general assemnorthwest of the Ohio river was ceded to the bly, or legislature, convened at Corydon, in bash at "Flint Springs," where Huntington is now located, then on down the Wabash. In iSo-j. congress established three offices for land entries and sale to settlers. One was located at Detroit, in Wayne county; one at Viucennes, in Knox county, and one at Kas-

20, 1823. It is: "The steamboat Florence, Captain Donne, ascended the Wabash river, being the first boat that ever passed up the river." From the Delphi Oracle of March 20, 1842, the following: "We hear that the steamboat lock across the Wabash river at kaskia, in Illinois county. Three years later De]phi is completed. That seven i ..:... one was established at Jefferson ville, in Clark county.

The Indian wars for a time checked immigration until about 1818, at which period the Indian power in the Ohio valley was forever broken. In 1823 the national road from Cumberland, Maryland, was completed to Wheeling, West Virginia, and by the year 1830 it was finished through the state of Ohio to the east line of Indiana; later was partly bridged and graded to Vandalia, Illinois. This was a wide, well piked road, covered with crushed rock and constructed with the best of stone arch bridges and culverts. Upon this great thoroughfare, more than sixty feet in width, the "Conistooga" wagons could be seen - as a great supply tram to a marching arm)- - from sun-up till sunset, carrying forward an immense tidal wave of humanity to the "far west" country, in the Wabash valley. This road passed through Zanesviile. near Columbus, Ohio. through Richmond. Greenfield, Indianapolis and Fcrre Haute. Indiana, and on westward into Illinois A little Inter, when Indiana had grown a score cf years as a state, a waterpassed through on their way to New Orleans." One of the histories of Allen county, Indiana, says that : "In November, 1S42, a flatboat left Fort Wayne for New Orleans, freighted with forty-five thousand hooppoles, two hundred a-id fifty barrels of cranberries, taking two hundred barrels of cranberries at Logansport ; boat owned by Benjamin Smith, T. J. Lewis and N. D Stewart. Another belonging to some Germans left a few days afterward with fifty thousand hoop-poles by the way of Delphi to the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi rivers." T!u;swe see that settlers could come in by both water and land. The Quakers came from North Carolina and eastern Pennsylvania and began settlements near Dayton. Ohio, and Richmond, Indiana. The German'- at Cincinnati and Minster, Ohio, and legions of liberty-loving citizens of the eastern states found desirable homes west of the mountains along the valleys of the Wabash, Miami, Maumee, Muskingum and Scioto ri\ ers. Five-sixths of the first settlers of Adams county were pioneers from other states of

Some Physical Features

Adams county has but two large streams, or natural water courses, the "Wabash and the Saint Mary's rivers. Two moraines follow the courses of these rivers. A short distance from the right bank of each as you descend the streams are ridges largely composed of clay soil. Occasionally there are beds of gravel found just above the rock, where the limestone abounds. These places are along the Wabash, in Jefferson and Hartford townships; on Big Blue creek, and along the Saint Mary's in Washington and Saint Mary's townships. Several good sand and gravel pits are found within the county, but some of them are nearly exhausted from the amount of road material used in building gravel roads before the macadamized road construction was commenced. The gravel pit southeast of Geneva supplied about twenty acres of gravel for the Chicago & Erie Railroad that passes through Decatur, and the Snyder and Pontius pikes in the southern part of the county. The Robinson gravel pit, about two miles northwest of Decatur, has furnished about, five acres of gravel for the northern township pike; and the old Piqua road pike. Most of the county is underlaid with rock at the depth of from fifty to seventy-five feet from the surface of t':e ground, except, perhaps, the southwest third of Wabash township and part of southern Hartford. This includes the "Lob-lolly"' shallow pond terminating at its source seven or eight miles to the southwest of Geneva in some small lakes. It varies in width from a quarter of a mile to a mile or more, and is intersected at certain intervals by beaver dams. It has been recently dredged at the cost of nearly forty thousand dollars and much of the more elevated parts have been reclaimed for agricultural purposes. That part referred to southwest of the Wabash river is in what the oil producers know as the "deep drive" and has hundreds of feet of quicksand before rhe rock is reached. The Wabash river at the south and the Saint Mary's river at the north traverse the county in a northwesterly direction for about fifteen miles each. The Saint Mary's region is somewhat more undulating and the river has more current than the Wabash river. The Wabash river bottoms are more nearly a black loamy soil than the Saint Mary's river bottoms, except in Hartford and French townships, where they overlay a deep ledge of limestone. The Wabash river passes through a part of Jefferson, Wabash and French town- ships. Its principal tributaries are Indian creek, the Limherlost, Lick ran, Canoper creek, Dismal run, in Wabash township, and Six Mile and several smaller creeks in 1 iaftford township. The Saint Mary's river passes through Saint Mary's, Washington, Root and Preble townships. Its principal tributaries are Spring run, Big Blue creek, Twenty-seven Mile, Ye'low creek, Borum run, Lenhart's run, Numbers creek, Seventeen and McKnight's run. In Adams county the Saint Mary's carries about three times the volume of water that is carried by the Wabash river. This is caused to a certain extent by the feeder from the reservoir in Ohio supplying water power for the mills at Saint Mary's. The Wabash river by nature is a very crooked stream - in Wabash township - and is at this time being dredged and straightened through what was formerly the farm of Dr. B. B. Snow. The dredging begins at the mouth of the Limberlost creek and extends to the Price bridge, where the river crosses the Winchester road. Just to the southeast of Berne on what was known as the Morgan Smith farm there is a small prairie of perhaps ten or fifteen acres. A part of this drains into Thompson's prairie, t bonce into Big Blue creek and the Saint Mary's river. At the south the water flows into the Canoper and on into the Wabash river. If this water should continue to the sea one destination would be the Saint Lawrence gulf and the other the Gulf of Mexico. Generally the land along the Saint Mary's river is a sandy loam. That along lh« Wabash, ex-cept in Hartford and French townships, is black loam bottoms. The uplands are usually a mixed clay and marl that is adaptable to almost any crop that can be grown in this climate. We are told that as early as 1812 there was a trading post at Fort Recovery, near the headwaters of the Wabash, but a few miles to the southeast of Portland, Indiana; that Shane's Crossing, or Rockford, as it is now called, is but a short distance east of Willshire, Ohio, on the Saint Mary's river; that this was a trading post as early as 1S1S; that rafting and boating from these points was a common means of travel, though these streams at the present time would be in too low a stage of water throughout most of the year to carry a boat of much magnitude. As late as 1865 Caleb Penock rafted walnut and calico ash lumber from h;s mil! or the thill at old Buffalo to Huntington, to be shipped over the Wabash & Erie canal to Cincinnati. That the millers at Willshire sent many boat loads of flour to Fort Wayne and intervening points before the fifties.

From the geologist's standpoint the lands in this section of the country in general may be thus described: "The soil is clay overlying the silica and calcareous upper Silurian rocks of the Niagara group, in most cases the resulting soil being from two to ten feet deep. Although fertile, it is inclined to be tenacious and the surface of the country being rather level the character of the land may be designated as frequently too retention of moisture except in very dry seasons." From the above we would readily see the need of tiling. The lands that were once too wet for cultivation are now drained and the very best farms. There seems to be one prevailing peculiarity of the ponds and sinks in Union and French townships. Many of them were small but quite deep; not infrequently from three to six feet of water in a pond covering but an acre or two of ground. In Wabash township, east of

Ceylon, and in French township, just east of Vera Cruz, or New Ville, as it was once called, the land is more rolling than in any other part of the county, but these eminences in eastern Ohio, or Pennsylvania, would be considered as the most acccssable farming tracts. There are but three or four prairie tracts within the county, and they were but little else than swamps without brush until they, were thoroughly drained. The largest of these is the Thompson's Trairie, which varies from a half mile to a mile and a half in width, and is about five miles long. The Grim's prairie is about three miles in length and the Eelt's prairie and Yellow Creek prairie are smaller. The longest one - though not the biggest otherwise - is the Blue Creek prairie, which was rather a continuous chain of small, swamp prairies, extending through Monroe and French townships, with here and there a sort of beaver dam or small strip of land between them. In many places throughout the country beaver dams of two or three feet in height can be seen. On the land of Adolph Schugg, in section 20, just west of Ceylon, there is a beaver dam that required a six-foot cut through the bank to drain the pond above it. Perhaps the most extensive and largest beaver dam in the county is near the center of section 15, in Wabash township. It is of such size and dimensions that it would pay any one interested in this subject to go and see it. It is about a hundred yards in length and perhaps five or six feet in height ; is situated on a tributary to the Canoper creek, on the David Long farm. There is no worthless land in Adams county. From the particular topography and the richness of its soil and the advantages for water and drainage offered bv its rivers and numerous smaller streams, it is well adapted to the various branches of agriculture. From the onion fields in the Yellow creek, Blue creek and Thompson's prairies, its rich corn lands along the Wabash and Saint Mary's rivers and its other fertile and productive farms throughout the more elevated parts of the county, it may be placed in the first rank as one of the leading agricultural counties of the state. The central part of the county, from near the Wells county line to the eastern part of Blue Creek township, was the last of the county settled. It was a string of small, wet prairies, following the Big Blue creek to near its source. As late as 1867 it was known as the "wilds" of Adams county. In that year the Ford and McCollum boys killed twelve cr fifteen deer in the "wilds" on these prairies. Perhaps the last bear killed in Adams county died near the Blue Creekprairie in 1S46, in Monroe township. It was killed by Daniel Barnhart, who started the game in Grim's prairie and finally killed it on what is now the Ira Waggoner farm, in section 8, in Monroe township. As the srory goes, there were several hounds and some little dogs in the chase. The hounds stood off and bellowed, while the fiests woukl ran up and nip Mr. Bruin's legs as he would start to run. The bear and his pursuers passed near the cabin of the father of "Hunting" Perry Andrews, who had a big bulldog, who mixed into the chase. He at once closed in on the bear, which gave him just one good hug, and "Old Sank," as he was called, expired without even taking time to make his will. Mr. Andrews, who was not much of a hunter himself, like Washington, who is reputed as saying he would rather George had told a thousand lies than to have cut that

. :ic cherry tree, was much worried at the loss of his faithful dog, and would rather have seen a thousand bears escape than to lose that one sturdy dog". Some years later, it is said that a tiger was captured near Berne, ''ust beyond the prairie - it is reported to have been blind - and no bulldog smasher, like Bamhart's bear. Along in the sixties Lewis Mattax vj?s the drainage commissioner of Adarns county. Through his energies several large public drains were located. Little Blue creek, that runs to the town of Berne, was ditched and Big Blue creek, from the cencer of Monroe township eastward beyond the township line, was opened for good drainage and much valuable land was reclaimed for farming purposes. Along in the eighties this ditch was extended to near the west line of French township, passing through a portion of land known as the Robinson farm, a tract of about fi /e hundred acres, in section 12, in Monroe township. This ditch provided an outlet for the drainage of forest lands and frog ponds - a decade before known as the "wilds" of Monroe township.

Trails And Roads

The French were the first white explorers of the lake region and the Ohio valley. Missionaries and traders followed the waterways and Indian trails from place to place across the country. Most of the angling roadways yet remaining were either military roads or. Indian trails before settlements were begun by the white men. Along the navigable streams the raft or canoe was the "beast" of burden and the footpaths along their banks became the established routes of travel. From these well defined trails from point to point the desirable ground and the most direct and nearest routes were chosen. The trader cleared and widened these trails for his pack trains to travel over and the J'rst routes for early roads were in this way located. There are several such trails through Adams county. From Fort Recovery, Ohio, to the Limberlost creek, at "Old Buffalo,' ;i an India:', trail running in nearly -'- straight line. This is now an angling road, that was opened and cut out at state expense, along abouL the forties, but was an Indian trail from the upper Wabash to "Flint Springs,''" at near Huntington, for many years before this time. In 1877 this road was slightly changed from Buffalo to the Jay county line by being moved to the westward. From the Limberlost it was extended northward to the Wabash river bank at the Peter Stndebaker farm, in section 17, in Wabash township. This trail from there continued down the river to Deem's ford, east of Bluffton, in Wells county. One branch bore to the north and went to Fort Wayne, the other went on down the river to "Flint Springs" at the mouth of Little river, where Huntington is now situated. This trace was cut out about 1S40 at public expense and was known as one of the "state roads." A part of this trail - that from the Limberlost creek north 10 the Wabash river - is what later became a part of the Winchester road. The Winches- through Salem, in Blue Creek township ter road was also a state road and ran nearly (sometimes called Steele) to the Decatur and directly north from Winchester through Willshire road, near where Yellow creek Portland, Bloomneld and Buffalo, crossed empties into the Saint Mary's river. The the Wabash river at what is now known as Willshire and Decatur road was an Indian the Price bridge and went on northward to trail on the south side of the river from the Saint Mary's river, or to the Reynolds Saint Mary's, Ohio, through Shane's Crossfarm on the banks of the river, there inter- ing, Willshire, Pleasant Mills and Decatur, sected the Fort Wayne and Wiltshire road - to where it joined the Winchester road at another state road that passed through De- the Reynolds farm, in section 20, in Root catur to the east and through Williamsport township, then on to Fort Wayne. All of and about six or seven miles of Indian reser- the roads so far mentioned are angling roads vation to Fort Wayne. This is an earlier and were undoubtedly Indian trails, with the road than some of the others, for the reason exception of the Winchester road, that runs that Winchester was the county seat of Ran- south from the Sain Mary's river. These dolph county, which then comprised Adams, were also state roads, that is, they were lo- Allen and several other of the present coun- cated and the trees cut out and removed at ties, and it was necessary to reach the county the expense of the state from the three per seat on as direct a route as possible. In 1823 cent, fund that was allowed the state on the Allen county was organized - the plat of the sale of lands sold within her borders. The town of Fort Wayne is on the county rec- funds so derived were applied on opening the ords at Winchester. Along the Winchester principal roadways throughout the state, road the first mails were carried to Fort each county receiving its proportionate Wayne from the county seat. The first post- share of the three per cent, fund on the sales office in the south part of the county was of public lands within the limits of such known as "Canoper Postoffice." Later county. Another Indian trail extended from Canoper postoffice was moved farther north the Godfrey Reservation on the Salamonie and located at Jacob Ruple's house in section river, southwest of Balbeck. in Jay 35, in Monroe township. Soon after this county, to the north of the Lob- Limberlost postoffice was established at lolly, down the Limberlost creek Alexander, on the Winchester road. It con- to the Wabash river, and down the tinued here until 1871, when Geneva took river to "Carington's ford," near the northits place. west corner of section 22, in Wabash town- Another road north from Fort Recovery ship, thence in a northeasterly direction to and Huntington road was known as the the eastern end of the Thompson's prairie, "Quaker Trace," and later the Fort Recov- and on past Big Blue creek, east of Salem, ery road, which intersected the Fort Recovery and Huntington road at die south terminus, in the vicinity of We?tcherter, in Jay county and extended northward thror.gh to the Rivare Reservation, north of the Saint Mary's river. This crossed the "Flint Springs" and Recovery trail between Alexander and Geneva. This trail became a pub- was known as the Prairie road and passed near the cabin home of Charles R. Stephens, Henry Juday, John Bricker, John Cross and William O. Jefters, who lived to the west of the Wabash river. It crossed the river and passed through the "Baker settlement," and through or near the farms of Tilmon Rawley, John and Josiah Crawford, Covey Galloway, Joseph Willson, William Lowe, John R. Burge. It is said tnat this road passes the home of William Lowe, who is said to be the first actual settler in Adams county, he having located at the east end of Thompson's prairie as early as 1820. On this road was built the first church in southern Adams county. It was built just north of old Alexander in 1840, a more complete description of which is given farther back in this work. (See History of Geneva.) The ground on and around this church were platted July 28, 1S53, at the location of the Cincinnati, Union City & Fort Wayne Railroad, and called Buffalo. This church had stood thirteen years before this time. Another church on this road and perhaps the third was near Covey Galloway's farm in section one in Wabash township. That to the west of Alexander, or of the Winchester road, was known as the Camden road and passed the homes of John Pontius, James Glendenning and John Watson and Joseph Clendening. On this road on the farm of John Pontius was the second church in southern Adams county and the first one in Hartford township. Another trace that became a public road left the Fort Recovery & Huntington road about a half mile north of the Limberlost creek near the Arthur McHugh farm (now owned by Vernon L. Snow), in section

29, Wabash township, and bore to the northeast past the residences - cabin houses - of Philemon N. Collins, Andrew McDonald and David McDonald and crossed the Wabash at McDonald's ford, a little above where the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad bridge crosses the river, then on to the northeast, and passes the residences of George Myers, Morgan Smith, Jacob Ruble, John McConnell, to the north of Thompson's prairie, and joined the Quaker trace near the Ericson farm in Blue Creek township. This was known as the Canoper road, as was also the postofficc that -was then kept at the residence of Jacob Ruble just east of where Berne is now located. This read ran past the first steam sawmill that was located in the south part of the county and near the first one in the county. It was erected by John R. Burge in 1851. On this road was one of the very first, if not actually the first, schoolhouse erected in the county. Another trace extended from the Saint Mary's river near Wiltshire, Ohio, in a soiuhwesterly direction through Blue Creek township along the southern boundary of the Blue Creek prairie to Newviile. on the Wabash river. This passed through the French settlement or neighborhood in northwest French township and may have taken its name from some pioneer resident. It was known as the "Senior trace." Along in the forties a direct route was located and established as a road from Decatur to Newviile. This road has at this time been nearly abandoned by changing to the section and half-section lines. This was an angling road and crossed the Winchester road near the Washington church, about five miles southwest of Decatur. This was once one of the most largely traveled roads in the county for the reason that it connected the Fort Recovery & Huntington road with the Decatur and Wii'shire roads, the latter of which became a plank road in 1852-3. The Piqua road, or "Wayne trace," as it is frequently called, was doubtless an Indian trail, is on the north side of the Saint Mary's river, crossing it at Willshire, Ohio, and passing on eastward to Shane's Crossing and Saint Mary's, Ohio, at the east and to Fori Wayne at the northwest from Decatur. This road was planked to about a mile north of Decatur from Fort Wayne in 1852-3. The Wayne trace enters Adams county about a mile to the northwest of Willshire, Ohio, passes through the Rivarc Reservation, in Saint Mary's township, and across Washington and Root townships. It passes near the "Great Northern Indiana Fair Grounds (Steele's Park) and through Monmouth, one of the oldest towns in the county. This road was famous for its taverns. At an early day about every other house was a tavern, and all did a good business from 1840 to about 1865. This road was one of the routes of travel with supplies for the troops garrisoned at Fort Wayne after Wayne's victory over the Indians in 1794 till the garrison was removed and the fortress abandoned as a military post in 1819. There is also another military road - perhaps the route located by General Harmer in 1790. It angled in a southeasterly direction across the northeast corner of Union township, toward Shane's Crossing, in Ohio, at which place Wayne's army crossed the Harmer trail in the route from Fort Jefferson, south of Greenville, to the Miami village Kekionga at what is now Fort Wayne. Harmer's trace has been largely abandoned and the angling road from a few miles east of Williamsport, in Allen county, runs on the section line routes through Massillon and Liberty and on et st and south into Ohio.

The Pioneer Cabin Home

It was John Howard Payne, of East Hampden, Long Island, when far away in a foreign land, who wrote that immortal song, "Home, Sweet Home." His boyhood recollections of that old-fashioned cottage half covered with vines and shadowed by the native forest trees about the dooryard, ever held the foremost place in his memory as ?the prettiest place in the world. What Hoosier lad or lassie can say less of his or her childhood home surrounded by nature's handiwork? What native landscapes can exccll her forest.- with massive oak, giant po;>- lar or useful hickory tree:- ? The boy or the girl of today -hasn't even the dream of an idea of what they were in their rustic grandeur. Could one again see those innocent, hopeful childhood days, Avhen each pebbly brook was full of shining minnows, waiting to be caught with sewing thread lines and bent pins for hooks. When each green bush was a home of the singing birds. Where the pheasant's whirr, as he starts from the ground before you. makes you jump in surprise, or the woodpecker on the dead limb near you, drumming for his mate, makes melodious music to the ears of chUdhood. When every forest grove was alive with birds and barking squirrels; while the morning sunshine male the landscape a paradise. Amid these scents our forefathers, the pioneers, chose the sites for their cabins, the future homos of their children, now the old men and women of today. They laid the foundation for the structure we now occupy, in all our forgetfulness, of what this country cost them. Their customs then were not as now, as conditions have changed, but they were free, happy and contented, beginners alike in a new country. Their sociability and neighborly acquaintance could not be excelled in any age or land. But there is another side to the picture. When one sees the butterflies of fashion hitting along the street he would hardly suppose that their grandparents were obliged to dress in homespun flannels or blue and black plaid linsey, fight mosquitoes, dose themselves with calomel and quinine and shake with the ague while listening to the croaks, and hoots, and howls of frogs and owls and wolves. They - their grandchildren - eat iced cream, attend the skating rinks, baseball games and operas and imagine that they are burdened almost to death with cares. Or, perchance, are worried nearly to destruction because the. latest haby buggy isn't of the most modern pattern. They would perhaps have you speak in whispers about the old gourd dipper in their grandmother's kitchen; or of the sugar trough cradle that a baby boy - their papa - was rocked in when he was the "prince" of the cabin home. Perhaps a little more actual privation and pioneer experience might make some people think of what they really need and more full}' appreciate what they have and enjoy today. In t>'e early days of the pioneer this country Was the hunter's paradise, and many of the first settlers were fond of the chase. The rivers and creeks teemed with the finest fish, among winch were the pike, the bass of several varieties: bluegills, eels, catfish, redhorse, etc. The waters were clear and in the springtime fish were shot and speared. Deer were then more plentiful than sheep are today. Wild turkeys were seen in great flocks of a hundred or more at a time. Squirrels, raccoon and bears were a constant menace to the cornfields from roasting-ear time till the corn was gathered. Wolves and bear were plenty and very destructive to calves, pigs and sheep.

When Adams county was first settled there were plenty of wild hogs in the woods. They were about as shy as deer, and many of them were dangerous. They could run like a deer and scale an ordinary fence like a dog. These were also a nuisance and bothersome when the corn was maturing. The domesticated hogs were fed but little grain and fattened principally on the acorn and hickory nuts that grew by the thousands of bushels along the river and creek bottoms. Cattle and horses were let run on the range and found ample pasturage the greater part of the year. During the summer months the cattle were followed home in the evenings by great clouds of mosquitoes, which were frequently smoked away by a slow fire in the stable yard. The early laws 01 the state offered a bounty on wolf scalps, whicn included the top part of the head and ears. It is said that there were a few that went into the wolf scalp raising business for revenue only. In those days forest fires were common in the fall and early winter. These removed the leaves so the hunter could more easily move from place to place unobserved. They also killed the young and tender sprouts and left the woods comparatively open and free from underbrush, except in the low swamps or wet prairies. The woods were of the finest forest trees of oak, ash, poplar, elm, hickory and walnut. These were cut down and burned in great log heaps, as there was no market for them, and they occupied ground that the pioneer wanted for his fields of grain. The cabin in the clearing was surrounded by tree stumps that were years in rotting away.

The following description may give some idea of a model country home along in the forties in Adams county. Most of the dwellings were single-room cabins, varying in size and furnishings, owing to the taste and finances of the owner. An old resident thus describes his boyhood home : "Our house was a single-room cabin of round logs with puncheon floor and clapboard roof. At the front we had a porch. The last two end logs to the square projected out six or eight feet to the one side for the porch. The clapboard roof was held in place by weight poles. The puncheon floor was hewed smooth on the upper side and was substantial and solid. It had a stick chimney plastered with mud, with "nigger head" hearth and fireplace. The dqor hung on wooden hinges, and was made of thick clapboards. Our loft had a clapboard floor, and we went up stairs on a ladder made of iron-wood poles. The openings between the logs were chinked with small pieces of wood and daubed with clay mortar. We had plenty of fresh, air from f above, as the clapboard floor was not very closely laid. We had two pole beds with one post each. The two back corners of the room, by means of an auger hole in the logs at the side and end of the wall, made good sides and end fastenings. Over these sides smaller poles were placed and held by linn bark tied at the ends, which made a veiy comfortable bed. Now to save light and fuel and for general convenience we arranged to have our kitchen, dining room, sitting room and parlor all in the same room, and when the occasion demanded it we converted this room, which was about sixteen by twenty feet in size, into a shoe shop, a corn-grating shop, a spinning and weaving room and sometimes used it for a gun shop, spinning room and ax-handle factory. So thus the years came and went and we enjoyed them in our simple cabin houses and were happier in our freedom than a king on his throne. Then every settler knew every man, woman and child in the neighborhood and could count them without much trouble or figuring." It would doubtless give the reader a more general idea of the home of the pioneer settler if some quotations were given from their experiences, as related by themselves in a biographical work on Adams county, published more than twenty years ago.

Christian F. Blakey, of Union township, states: "We started from Cincinnati with one horse and an ox team, accompanied by our family, to make our home in Adams county. The roads were so muddy that they were nearly impassable. We were obliged to leave a part of our household goods at New Bremen, Ohio. We took the hind wheels of our wagon and improvised a cart upon which we packed the most necessary articles and again started for our Indiana home, tiie mother and children walking. In this way we made about five miles a day. camping out at night, and landing in our" new home on the 27th day of November, 1840. We cut two crochet poles.

set than on the ground, connected them with a pole and stretched the v-.gon cover ever it. In this we lived until \\c got our rough log house ready to rno\ e into. This was the day before Christmas the same year." We are told that Daniel Hines was the first permanent white settler in Union township. That the Blakey family came in 1S40 and were the second permanent residents of the township.

Jacob Yager, whose boyhood days were spent in Preble township, says that: "We came to Adams county in 1834. The land had no improvements whatever, Wolves, bear, etc., were uncomfortably plenty. The deer and other game had been almost entirely undisturbed My father bought one hundred acres of land for one hundred and twenty-five dollars. The family went to work with a will. Tree after tree was felled and acre after acre was cleared, until this part of the wilderness became a productive farm. The old log cabin with its puncheon floor, after many years' faithful service was supplanted by modern buildings. At that time there were very few settlers. There was no county seat in Adams county in

-William P. Rice, of Root township, who was a powerful man physically in his younger days, cleared up and improved several farms in Adams county. The last owned was the "Bell View" farm east of Decatur. He says: "We came to this state in

1835 and went to work in the woods on some land our father had entered from the government in the previous spring. We, Benjamin and mystelf, built a log cabin one story high with puncheon floor, clapboard roof and an old-fashioned wooden chimney with the back and jambs of mud. We boarded with Benjamin Pillars, a brother-in-law who settled here in 1034. The rest of the family came in the spring of 1836. In a few years father built a better log house. It was a story and a half and built of hewed logs. 1 remained at home until I was of age, and went to work for myself, doing anything I could find to do, principally clearing land, splitting rails and chopping wood, until I earned money enough to enable me to enter forty acres of land. I worked for George A. Dent at eleven dollars a month till I could pay for it. I then built a shanty, cleared my land and married a wife in 1843, and borrowed the money to pay the preacher for performing the ceremony. Y\ e moved into our shanty and went to housekeeping. Our household goods consisted of three knives, three forks, six cups and saucers, six plates and two tin cups. Our bedstead was made of poles and the bed rope was made of bark." William Pendleton Rice has gone but "Bell View" is a lasting evidence of what his determined perseverance has done. Several other phases of the p;eneer life may be shown by the following poem written by John Finley, an early resident of Richmond, Indiana. He thus describes a cabin home as he saw it along in the thirties. It was perhaaps but a sample of the many "Hoosier's nests" of that period. Adams county's early historian says that one of the first dwellings built for actual resident settlers in this county was located at the east end of Thompson's prairie. This may or may not have been the historical cabin made famous bv the poetic verse: alighted. The Hoosier met him at the door. Their salutations soon were o'er. He took the stranger's horse aside And to a sturdy sapling tied : Then, having stripped the saddle off, He fed him a sugar trough. The stranger stooped to enter in The entrance closing with a pin, And manifested strong desire To seat himself by the log-heap fire

Era Of Settlement

In 1832 over eleven hundred Indians were removed westward from the W abash valley and from the headwaters of the Saint Mark's river near Girty's town, now Saint Mary's, and near Wapakbneta, Ohio, to the territory west of the Mississippi river to "what is now the state of Kansas. The Indians' titles having been extinguished and the means of travel having been much improved, emigration to this region began in -earnest along about 1834. From thac time until i860 was the era of settlement in Adams county. What was Root township in Allen county in 1833 became all of Adams county in 1836 By an act of the general assembly on the 23d day of January, 1836, Adams county, Indiana, was organized. A writ of election was issued by the governor and the first election was held on the first Monday of April, 1S36. The first board of county commissioners was composed of Joshua S. Rhea, Samuel Smith and William Heaih, Sr. On May 18th, in 1836, the seat of justice, or the county seat, was established at Decatur. What is now twelve townships was divided into Root and Saint Mary's townships. Ou the following August Saint Mary's township was divided south of the center by a line running east and west and Wabash township was org.vri.-cd. In July, jKiS, WVhingiori township was made from '..irt of Root and Saint Mary's townships and B hie Creek was taken from Saint Mary '?, and Jefferson from Wabash townshio. In 1S38 Preble township was organized from part of Root, and in May, 1839, l-'icnch township was made from a part of Saint Mary's township. In 1840 Monroe township was taken from Saint Mary's township, and on the following September Union was made from part of Root township. Hartford was taken from Wabash and Kirkland from Washington in 1S41. With the foregoing explanation one can readily see how a resident could have lived in Root township, in Allen county, in 1S33, and in any township in what is now Adams county at the same time. Or he could have lived in what was later Saint Mary's township and his residence be located in what is now French township. The following list of early settlers is by no means complete, but will give an idea of whom some of the earliest residents really were :

IN 1819. - Henry Lowe settled first on the Godfrey trace at the east end of what is known as the Thompson's prairie. This is in section 29, on or near what has been known as the Pruden farm, in Blue Creek township.

IN 1820. - Robert Douglas came as one of the second residents. He settled on the Saint Mary's river, in section 20, in Root township. His land comprised part of what was used as a military camp ground on the Reynolds farm. Within the same year - ^820 - William Robinson moved to the location occupied by Henry Lowe and stayed tr>ere foi two years and returned to Greenviise, O'.iic. His place was then taken - in !"-- - by a man whose name was Thompson, after whom the cabin in the clearing and the prairie were named. Thompson's cabin was one of the earliest stopping places of the "wayfaring man" and trader in the thirties. Thompson died in 1831 and was the first resident white man of whose death there is any authentic record in the present Adams county. However, it is stated that six of Wayne's soldiers, who died while returning from Fort Wayne in 1794, are buried in the old Shaffer graveyard, southeast of where Bobo, in Saint Mary's township, is situated.

IN 1821. - A Mr. Ayres, an English refugee, settled near Twenty-f cur-mile creek, on what was the Acker and later the Shaffer farm. This is on the "Wayne trace," and Mr. Ayres was one of the first permanent residents in the northern part of the county.

In 1822-23 Root township, Allen county, was surveyed by the United States government surveyors, Worthington and J. W. Riley. Fort Wayne and Wiltshire, Ohio, were at that time laid out as towns and some buildings commenced, though each were trading posts, and Fort Wayne a military post for a long time prior to this elate.

IN 1828. - Joshua Lister settled near the Wayne trace in Root township, northwest of Monmouth. One of his sons, Ezra, recently died in Decatur at an advanced age.

IN 1829. - John Ross entered a tract of land near the mouth of Big Blue creek in or near section 28, in Saint Mary's township. He was a permanent resident here for more than the next thirty years.

IN 183.2 - John K. Evans settled on the Wayne trace, northwest of Monmouth, and became a large land owner and permanent resident. He also became associate judge for the district of Allen county, which at that time comprised Adams county. In this same year Joel Roe and William Eorani came and settled above Decatur on the Saint Mary's ri\er on the lands now owned by Conrad Gillig and Elmer Johnson and the Myers estate. They were permanent residents. About t'.iis time Samuel L. Rugg took up by entry the lands where part of Decatur is situated. He was also a permanent resident and was the first justice of the peace of Root township, Allen county. His appointment was from the Allen county board of county commissioners in 1S33. In this year Root township, Alien county, was organized on petition of Samuel L. Rugg. Tin's same year came Esaias Daily and Jeremiah Roe. Mr. Daily, to what is eastern Saint Mary's township, was a tavern keeper on the Wayne trace, was also a stock dealer and fanner. Mr. Roe settled near his brother above Decatur, was a trader and said to be a very successful hunter.

IN 1833. - Peter Studabaker, Robert Simison and Daniel Miller came to the Wabash in the southern part of Root township (it was then), but now Wabash and Hartford townships. Peter Studabaker had lived en the Wabash at Fort Recover}- and later in 1S19 or 1820 Hlbved to Jay county, just south of the Adams county line near Jay City. Robert Simison became a permanent resident in

1S35, settling at what is row Eeuna Vista, a town la.'d out by Mr. Simison in 1857. Mr. Studabaker died in )8_;o at his home in Wabash township. Mr. Simiscn is yet living, the writer having interviewed him at the home of his son in Blufiton, Indiana, in the spring of 1907. He is now ninety-five years old and has a remarkably good memory for a man of his age.

IN 1833 and 1834 the following persons came to the county and were permanent residents : Ezekiel Hooper, James Niblack, Benjamin F. Gorslins, John S. Rhea, Enos W. Butler, Samuel Smith, Marvin R. Gorsline, Benjamin Pillars, Eli Zimmerman and William Lewis.

IN 1839. - Jacob Abnett, John Rumple, Daniel Miller, Robert Daniels, Henry Martz, David Erwin. James Patterson, Ebenezer Roebuck, Daniel Kines and Lawsoh Lenhart.

From 1840 on there was a constant stream of emigration into Adams and adjoining counties. However, the earliest residents were subjected to many inconveniences that were unknown to those who came a few years later, yet a better day was soon to dawn. Canals and railroads were to carry the lumber to the eastern ports. The Wabash & Erie Canal was opened in 1S43 from Lake Erie at Toledo to Lafayette, then the head of boat navigation, on the Wabash. The Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, now the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago, was put in operation in 1855, anc' from that time on to the present time there has been a market for timber and means for transportation for lumber in its various forms. The first demands were tor hoop poles, barrel staves and heading material. Mills and factories were located along the canal and the railroad lines. It is said that Monroeville, the nearest railroad town to Decatur for fifteen years, had seven heading and stave factories all in operation at the same time. Next the market opened up for walnut, poplar and calico ash timber; tin's was shipped in saw logs and later in lumber to eastern cities. Later the massive oaks were cut and hewed to. the square as long and large as they would make for ship timber. This was mostly forwarded by the way of the canal and northern lakes to the ocean ports, where it was reloaded for European markets. There were but few saw milis until there was a market for the lumber. The early ones were water ("muley") mills of small capacity. In 1823 steamboats began to run on the Wabash river - though keel boats and rafting carried merchandise and produce to market on the rivers at a much earlier date. The great National road was completed through Ohio about .1830. This was a direct route from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, West Virginia, which is on the Ohio river; from there westward to Zanesville and a little north of Columbus and Piqua, on to Richmond, Greenfield and Indianapolis. Indiana. About this time many of the large Indian reservations in Ohio, and particularly those in the Wabash river valley, were bought by the United States government and offered for sale to actual settlers. Numbers of the early settlers came from the eastern states - as Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland - over the National road. From this great thoroughfare they came in on the Piqua and on the Fort Recovery and Huntington roads to Adams county.

"Yankee" on the ways and means committee devised a method to help the movers out and aid the shillings to find his own trousers pockets; that the Piqua road, or Wayne trace, in many places became almost impassable. That from VYiilshire to Fort Wayne it was allotted in sections of a mile or two each to ox-team owners, who levied tolls on the movers who got "stuck" in the low ground, mad and chuck holes; that the rate for pulling them out was a shilling for one hole or two chuck holes for a quarter of a dollar; that in the late fall and springtime the "chuck-hole business" along this road was excelled only by the tavern business, which included nearly every dwelling house along the line. Though most of the early settlers of Adams county were from the easiern states, there were certain settlen, ments of French, Swiss and Germans direct from Europe. The census of 1S50 shows a French settlement in southern Kirkland and northern French townships; A German settlement in western Root and northern Preble townships, and a German settlement in northwestern Wabash and southwestern Monroe townships. At that time Hartford township reported but one German family, and Jefferson three German residents. Along about this time me speculators and land companies had their agents at work, sending shiploads of emigrants to take up farms in the fertile river valleys. Many an eightyacre farm in Adams and adjoining counties was paid for with French or German gold at a few dollars an acre. Before 1S35 there were very few white residents in Adams county. Mills were in distant settlements, roads were but Indian trails or "by-roads," from one clearing to another. No streams were bridged. The earliest and nearest trading post to Adams county was Shane's Crossing until 1823, when Willshire had its beginning. Monmouth, the oldest town in the county, began in May, 1S36. Soon the trading posts were supplanted by the country store. The civil townships were organized and taxes were paid to build roads and bridges. Settlements united and a well defined local government was instituted. About this time the trapper and fur trader moved further back from civilization and the actual settler began his clearings. He had well defined plans and had come to stay and develop the resources of the country. Mills were set up and started - a sure evidence of a new civilization. The blacksmith, the cooper and the wagon-maker each found something in his line to do. The potter, the tanner, the hatter and the weaver each did a profitable business. With her public utilities conducive to travel and transportation began a marked period of rapid development of the country's resources. In 1871 her first railroad was put into operation. This afforded additional facilities for markets and convenient transportation of products. A continuous advancement and steady improvement of the lands by drainage and the roads by bridging, grading and piking has changed the country from a huge native forest to a checker-board of grain fields, green meadows and pleasant country hemes.