Cass County, Indiana - Chapter 26: Miscellaneous Items, 1913

Underground Railroad - Captured Slaves - Slave in Cass County - Vice President Marries a Negro - Monster op Manitou - ^Indian Anecdotes - ^Money Hid at Old Town - Legend op Cedar Island - Indian in Hollow Tree - Steamboats to Logansport - Canal Boat Wrecked - Courthouse Square in 1837 - ^Napoleon Tree - Wolf Story - ^White Blackbird - Curious Insects - The First op Many Things - Great Fires - Accidents and Fatalities - Oldest Settlers - Ginseng Factory - ^Amusements in Court - ^Black Ben - Anecdote op Judge Chase - Jane Crawford - Old Table - Oldest Man in World - Old Door - First Aerial Mail Carrier.

Many years before there was a mile of railroad in Cass county there existed a line of road that began, no one, save the initiated, knew where, and ended in the same mysterious place. It had regular relay stations but their location was equally mysterious. It had conductors but they were not figuring in the limelight. It was known as the Underground Railroad and was patronized exclusively by negroes, fugitives from bondage. They paid no fare but traveled on free passes. The road paid no wages and if any dividends were declared they were for future payment. Its stock was not listed in Wall street nor elsewhere unless it be in kingdom come. There were many men and women in Cass county, in those days, of high character and sympathetic hearts, whose homes were open to all victims of cruelty and oppression. Their philanthropic and heroic deeds brought them no reward in this life, and even subjected them to suspicion, ridicule and ostracism ; but who doubts that they added stars to their crown of rejoicing when they passed over the **Land of the Lear' and heard the words, ** Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

The first negro the writer ever saw was a runaway slave from Kentucky. It was in 1857. My father then lived seven miles north of Logansport on the Michigan pike and kept a station on the underground railroad. Lycurgus Powell and his son, John T. Powell, were station agents in Logansport. Benjamin Campbell, uncle of B. F. Campbell, Benjamin Powell and Josiah Powell were other agents in Cass county and a negro barber by the name of Turner in Rochester. It is needless to say that the trains on this underground railroad did not carry headlights. The trains were not announced by clanging of bells, nor blowing of whistles, yet the station agents usually understood each other, and were anticipating the arrival of trains that only carried goods that were as black outwardly as the nights on which they traveled, yet they were human and possessed human aspirations. There seemed to be a system of communication between agents, probably by wireless telegraphy, even in those early days. Trains were only run at night, and the daAer the night the more contented and happy were the passengers; and often they were purposely detained for days and even weeks at a station in some secluded Quaker cabin, until the roads were clear of slave hunters and the tracks were open into Canada. About 11 o'clock one summer night in 1857 John T. Powell brought a very black runaway slave to our house and father called us children up to see a black man of whom we had heard so much but never saw one. It was an exciting time and made a lasting impression upon our minds to see a black man, a slave, that was bought and sold as cattle. The stop at our house was of short duration and father and the black man were soon on their way to Rochester where they arrived long before daylight and safely landed the slave with Mr. Turner, who the next night piloted him on to Plymouth, and thus he was taken by trusty friends from station to station, from the Ohio river to Canada.

This is but one instance of many passengers that passed over this system of so-called ** underground railroads,'* but thanks be to Abraham Lincoln and the Union soldiers this method of travel has long since passed into ** innocuous desuetude."

The following year a black man and his wife came to our station, accompanied by a ** wireless message," that the would-be owners of these negroes were close on the trail, so father hurried them over to a sub-station three miles northwest through a dense woods to Josiah Poweirs, who lived where his son Lemuel now resides, where this poor black couple remained for a week or more until the road was cleared of obstructions in the shape of slave drivers, when they were safely carried to Rochester on a free pass, but not in a Pullman car.

To further show the methods of the promoters of this railroad and the determination and fearlessness of some of its agents we relate the following story, although it occurred in Washington county, Penn^lvania, where the writer's father, son of Josiah Powell was born and raised in the midst of a Quaker settlement near the Virginia line :

About 1831 a Virginia slave driver had captured a runaway slave, and had him shackled and sitting behind him on horseback. Josiah Powell accosted him on the highway, when the slave driver drew a pistol ; sustained by a clear conscience, that he was doing God's duty, Mr. Powell said to my father, who carried a rifle and was an expert marksman, Jacob, draw a bead on him, and the instant he shoots me, thee shoot him. Jacob obeyed the command of Josiah, and the latter assisted the slave to alight, removed the shackles and started to a nearby Quaker house and next morning was fifty miles nearer Canada securely lodged in a ** friend's" cabin in a backwoods settlement, where the negro remained for a week or more, before venturing on to the next station. Jacob kept his gun leveled at the slave driver, who was bidden to hasten south to his native state of Virginia, which he did.

John Morris lived in Kentucky, near the Ohio river, and had a slave whose name was David Powell. On the night of October 9, 1847, this slave with his wife, Lucy, and four children ran away and by the complete system of underground railroads reached Michigan and in a backwoods Quaker settlement, eight miles from Cassopol^ they were given employment and a cabin in which to live. Search was made for two years without finding. them, but in September, 1849, Mr. Morris heard of them and with eight men kidnapped the colored Powell family in their cabin home and started for their Kentucky plantation, but the Quakers in the neighborhood were soon apprised and gave hot pursuit and overtook them at South Bend. Morris and his men at &st showed fight, but were outnumbered and submitted to legal restrictions. Wright Mandlin swore out a writ of habeas corpus, and as we then had no fugitive slave law, the judge freed the colored family, but the owner brought suit in the federal courts at Indianapolis and made Mandlin and his aids pay heavily for the slaves. They never returned, however, to their master but soon after went to Canada. This was an exciting case and Cass county people were at the time much interested in the outcome as the parties passed through Logansport from and to Kentucky.

Charles J. Murray, a Kentuckian and slave holder, married Margaret McBean, of that state. She was a sister of Qillis McBean, who was one of the earliest settlers in Logansport and at whose house, on Railroad street, the three commissioners appointed by the legislature to locate the county seat of Cass county met in 1829 and selected Logansport as the seat of justice. In 1844 Gillis McBean 's widow lived on the Skelton farm on the north bank of Eel river, in Clay township, and Mr. Murray and his wife moved from Kentucky and lived with Mrs. McBean and brought a negro slave, a mulatto girl, whom they kept as their slave, but at the approach of winter they sent her back to Kentucky. This is probably the only negro slave ever harbored as such within the confines of Cass county. Giles 6. Thomas, who lived on the adjoining farm, well remembers this colored slave and relates many interesting reminiscences. Mr. Thomas also relates an interesting fact, not known to many or perhaps any of our people, that Richard M. Johnson, vice-president of the United States from 1837 to 1841, was married to a black negro woman and when he went to Washington as vice-president he took his negro wife with him and created quite a sensation in the capitol. Mr. Thomas says his mother-in-law lived near Mr. Johnson's home in Kentuctjr and has often seen his wife; that she was not a mulatto, but a very black negro woman.

In the year 1837 there appeared in the columns of the Logansport Telegraph a communication supposed to have been written by a Logansport pioneer artist, Wm. Winter, giving a detailed description of the monster, that in early times, was said ^ have inhabited Lake Manitou near Rochester.

Mr. Winter describes the monster as related to him by a fisherman, who said he had seen it and it was terrible to behold. The serpent, which they represented to be sixty feet long, had a frontal bone three feet across, eyes as big as saucers, and a forked tongue as red as blood. At the time the article created quite a sensation throughout Cass county and parties interested in the piscatorial art were made up to explore the lake and capture the monster, but he was never taken and some said that our esteemed artist was imposed upon by some fisherman who had taken on too big a load of ** Indian fire water," but the lake always bore the name of Manitou or Devil's Lake.

Burl Booth relates that a drunken Indian, one hot summer day in the thirties, lay as a nuisance in thje market place between Second and Third streets, with only a cloth around his loins. He lay with his face down ; some mischievous person raised the cloth and poured some turpentine under it ; soon the Indian woke up, began to squirm, and presently got up, gave 8LX\ unearthly **war whoop" and flew like a streak of lightning for the Wabash river, a square away, and plunged into it, and there sat down in the river for some time, to the amusement of the settlers who had been attracted by the familiar war whoop and swift running of the Indian. The turpentine was an effectual remedy in waking the Indian from his drunken stupor.

In 1837 Joel H. Davis, father of Mrs. John White, moved from Albany, New York, and located in a log cabin in the midst of the forest in Cass county. Mrs. Davis was a young bride, always lived in a city and never saw an Indian. One day when Mr. Davis was absent from their cabin home a big Indian raised the latch string to the cabin door and suddenly, without knocking, stepped in with his shawl, in which he was robed, all covered with blood. This was the first Indian she had ever seen, and thus abruptly entering the* cabin, when she was alone, and all bespattered with blood, Mrs. Davis was terrified beyond expression, thinking that the Indian had murdered her husband and she was soon to feel the scalping knife of the red man. The Indian, however, soon smiled, grunted and pointed to the cupboard, indicating he wanted something to eat, which she quickly gave him as soon as she could recover from her fright. He began eating the lunch ravenously and patting her on the back and with a grunt left as abruptly as he came, greatly to thci relief of Mrs. Davis, who at once drew in the latch string and doubly barred the door. When her husband returned, she not venturing out before, they found the hind quarter of a deer lying outside the cabin door which the Indian had left them, thus accounting for the blood-stained shawl he wore. While Mrs. Davis had a more favorable opinion of the Indian thereafter, yet her first informal introduction to the red man made an indelible impression upon her mind, and she often related her first experience in her Hoosier home to her friends and relatives in New York with mingled feelings of pleasure and pain.

Senator Pratt in his personal recollections, published in the Logansport Star, gives some interesting narratives of Indian life, especially after they had received the government annuity. We quote in part: ** Early one morning, in 1836, I strolled down to the camp, which was just waking and rubbing its eyes after the drunken revels of the night. What a spectacle. Everywhere around lay drunken Indians in all sorts of attitudes, picturesque and grotesque. One beautiful squaw, not more than twenty years old, lay placid in death, a deep gash in the temple, showing where the fatal tomahawk, wielded in mad fury, by a drunken and jealous husband or lover, bad done its fearful work. The mild lovely face of this Indian girl plead eloquently for vengeance to the heart of every passerby. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the murderer, but he had fled to the Miamis, who adopted him into their tribe. He won the friendship of one of the great chiefs, Benach, and married his daughter and was protected ever thereafter. Who of the early settlers will ever forget **Pe-ash-wa" and the crimes imputed to this wily, chief?

There is a legend with some elements of truth in it, that when the French controlled the northwest territory the French commandant at Kaskaskia, near St. Louis, sent a runner to Marquis du Queue at Montreal for money to pacify the Indian allies. Father Chardon was, with four soldiers and four Indian guides, to carry the money to Kaskaskia When Father Chardon reached the Old Town Indian village on the north bank of Eel river near the mouth of Twelve Mile Creek, he discovered a plot on the part of the four soldiers to murder him and the Indian guides and make oflf with the money, $10,000. In order to frustrate this scheme Father Chardon placed the money in a pot and buried it near the mouth of Twelve Mile creek, keeping an accurate description of the place, but he took sick and returned to Montreal and Europe, and the hidden treasure still remains undiscovered, although in early times efforts were made to discover it.

This beautiful little island in the Wabash river, four miles above Logansport, now occupied by the Country Club, has an interesting legendary tale portrayed by Captain Swigart in his writings, and Q. N. Berry adds interest to this picturesque island in song ; thus both in song and story the history of Cedar island will be perpetuated, i

Wild Rose, a daughter of a Miami chief, was the belle of her day and tribe. She was sought by the young bucfas as belles are everywhere, whether red or white. One of Wild Rose's suitors was No-ka-me-na, who was her favored one. Another admirer was Mais-ze-ka, a dissolute young chief who was insanely jealous of his rival. There was another Indian maiden, ** White Fawn," who was in love with No-ka-me-na, and counted herself a rival of Wild Rose. She learned of an appointed meeting to take place on Cedar island between Wild Rose and No-kame-na, which she at once communicated to Mais-ze-ka, the rival of No-ka-me-na.

Mais-ze-ka lay in ambush near the shore for the expected meeting of his rival with Wild Rose. It was a fine evening, about 1750. As the sun was sinking in the western horizon and its beams were penetrating this sylvan forest and glistening upon the smooth waters of the Wabash on the north bank of Cedar island two canoes might have been seen approaching the island from opposite directions. The canoes met at a given point, where they were concealed under the branches of overhanging trees that fringed the shore and the occupants soon were seated on a log near the rocky cliflf, unconscious of Mais-ze-ka, who lay in ambush. The first intimation they had that an enemy was in this quiet island was the twing of a bow-string and the whizz of an arrow which with unerring aim pierced the heart of No-ka-me-na.

Wild Rose saw her lover sink down at her feet in death. She gave a piercing war whoop of rage and despair, then called and implored **Manitou" to avenge the murderer. In answer to her prayer, says the legend, the new moon was veiled in a haze, the earth rocked and a portion of the rocky ledge on the northeast comer of the island fell into the water, carrjdng down the body of No-ka-me-na, forever burying him. The savage heart of Wild Rose was glad that her lover was thus entombed, because her enemy could not scalp him. Wild Rose found her canoe and left the island and her people forever. Mais-ze-ka's victory was of short duration, for White Pawn, angered because he had murdered the man she loved, killed him.

This legendary story, substantially as told here, is said to have been handed down by the Miami and Pottawattomie Indians, who inhabited this region prior to the coming of the whites and there may be some elements of truth in it but evidently colored up by the fictitious.

Mrs. Beaufort Banta of Jefferson township relates that the Indians often buried their dead in hollow trees and gave a practical illustration : She says she was milking one evening in the woods back of her house in the year 1836 or 1837 and she noticed an unusual offensive odor, and on investigation found a dead Indian in a hollow tree nearby, whose spirit had evidently taken its flight to the happy hunting grounds some time before, as the effluvia from that hollow tree had not the odor of violets. At this time there was an Indian village on Crooked creek not far from the Banta cabin.

Five or six steamboats have come up the Wabash river to Logansport, one in 1832 or '33, 1835, 1836 or 1837, 1851, 1854 and the *' General Philips'* in June, 1857. Our fellow townsman, Wm. Bevan, took a ride on the latter. The one coming up in 1835 was stranded and never returned.

The boat steaming up the Wabash in 1836 or 1837 brought the first piano to Cass county and in unloading it fell into the water and remained in the bottom of the river until the water subsided before it was taken out. This was the old Lasselle instrument, now in possession of B. W. Booth.

In 1844 the canal boat ** Kentucky" was lost by a washout in the canal bank west of town near Cottonwood creek, the boat being wrecked beside the canal, and Thomas Emerson was drowned, and the chambermaid and three men were rescued, which was described in verse by Enion Kendall, Logansport 's pioneer poet:

* * The chambermaid and three men more, Sat all night on a sycamore. Prom early night till rise of sun, And watched the mighty Wabash run.*'

At the northwest corner stood a two-story hewed log house used as a residence by Harvey Brown. Next to it on the east was a typical round log, pioneer cabin. On thie next lot east stood an unfinished one-story, two-room frame building used as a storage room for Aldrich's chair factory but later finished and occupied as a residence by Philip Pollard.

East of the alley on North street stood the jail 16x32 feet, built of hewed logs one foot thick, also floor and ceiling of same material; two rooms, the debtor's room and the murderer's room.

cavated for the basement of a courthouse, but plans were changed and the courthouse was later built nearer the center. Near the southeast comer, (comer of Fourth and Wall streets), stood a one-story brick building, with two rooms and floors laid with brick eight inches square. This was the clerk's office.

On the southwest comer (Third and Wall streets), stood Aldrich Brothers', (Wm. and Nathan), chair and furniture factory. It was a two-story frame building and in the rear part in 1839 was an iron furnace for melting and making iron castings, the first iron furnace ever operated in the county. At the west end of the square on Third street between the log house on the corner and the chair factory was a small frame building occupied by Harvey Brown as a hat factory. He made wool and fur hats. Skins and peltries were bought, the fur taken oflP and the skins thrown away. There was a vat in the back room where the composition for the hats was prepared and across the street was a room where the hats were finished and sold. The usual price for a good fur hat was $5.00.

Leroy Fitch, half-brother of Dr. 6. N. Fitch, was in the United States navy for many years. In 1840 he was an officer aboard the United States war ship that was appointed to escort the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte from the Island of St. Helena back to Paris for permanent sepulture. When at St. Helena he secured a sprout of a willow tree that stood at the head of Napoleon's grave on that island and brought it home with him and planted it on the Fitch lot, comer of Seventh and Market streets, where it grew into a large tree and may now be seen in front of (Jeorge W. Seybold's residence, No. 709 Market street, who purchased the^property. The tree is now nearly two feet in diameter and stands in front of the house on the lot line and in building the present iron fence they were considerate enough to make a curve in the fence around this historic tree in order to preserve it.

Out in the township of Boone, on the prairies west of Royal Center in the year 1870 the farmers were losing large numbers of sheep and the loss rj^n up to about one hundred in the one neighborhood and the dogs came in for censure, and the farmers were so wrought up that they began to kill every dog found off his master's premises, and some were pursued and shot at the very doors of the owners. Bad blood was thus engendered but still the sheep killing went on. Finally a party of determined young men headed by Ben Stewart began to sit up of nights to watch for the dogs that were playing havoc with the herdsmen's flocks. One moonlight night in June, when all the denizens of bloody Boone were wrapt in the arms of Morpheus, except Ben Stewart, the flock of sheep he was guarding began to run in great excitement and soon the guardsman saw in the midst of the herd a big Newfoundland dog, as he supposed, and being well armed, he hastily ran toward the supposed cause of the commotion and did not shoot until near the dog lest he might not hit his dogship but the sheep. As he approached nearer, the dog that had caught a sheep saw him and began to growl and show fight and Ben says it looked as big as an elephant in the bright moonlight. He was terribly frightened, every muscle was trembling, but he fired at close range and mortally wounded the cause of the commotion among his sheep, and as he came near, it began to snap at him but a second shot laid it low and when he examined his victim it proved to be a very large gray wolf as big as any Newfoundland dog. No more sheep were killed in that neighborhood. The wolf's scalp was taken and the county paid Mr. Stewart $5.00 for the same. This is probably the last gray wolf ever killed in Cass county, although in early days they were numerous and very destructive to the farmers' herds.

In derision we often hear the expression, ** White Blackbird" but Green Thomas, whose memory is excellent and who delights to tell his past experiences, relates an absolute fact ; that about the year of Logansport 's first recorded great cyclone in 1845, that Enion Kendall so graphically describes, that this hurricane raised **Cain" among the blackbirds, that some of them were changed to a pure white.

Mr. Thomas vouches for the truth of this story for he captured one out of a great flock that was a blackbird to all intents and purposes except that it was white. The hero of this tale then lived north of town in Clay township where Bob Barnett says he has often seen red bluebirds.

On July 14, 1910, millions of small white insects, moth-like in appearance, probably hatched in the sand in the bed of the Wabash river opposite the south end of Fourth street, swarmed into the Johnson hotel, restaurant and other places in that vicinity that were open late at night. They filled the rooms wherever li^ts were burning, and were so numerous that persons could not breathe. They would get into your mouth, nose and ears. All lights had to be put out in order to prevent them from taking possession of the business places that kept open after night. The insect storm, however, was of short duration but was a curious historic phenomenon, although these insect pests do occasionally appear in the latter part of summer on excessively warm nights.

In June, 1884, the Vandalia Railroad bridge across the Wabash below town went down while a freight train was crossing it, precipitating the engine and a number of cars to the bottom of the river, killing the fireman and engineer.

June 23, 1901, the Wabash Railroad had a bad wreck four miles east of Logansport, due to a washout of a culvert following a heavy rain. It occurred in the night. A passenger train was completely demolished, killing thirteen and seriously injuring many more - Clark Taylor of our city being one of the latter.

Ella Douglass, sister of Jesse D. Douglass, editor of the Logansport Herald, fell while descending a stairs in the old Nash Foundry, comer Fifth and High streets, and broke her neck, dying suddenly about 1853.

Maurice J. Winfield was killed on the Michigan pike, in Bethlehem township. May 13, 1911. The automobile which he was driving ran off the road, upset and killed him instantly.

Mrs. John Eckert, Anna Wagner and Charles Lambert were killed and' Mrs. Keip seriously injured near Rochester, Indiana, while crossing a railroad in an automobile, the latter being struck by a train, August 19, 1910.

A most unfortunate shooting scrape occurred on July 28, 1910, wherein Samuel A. Michael, a respected citizen of Logansport, shot and killed Levi Pippinger on the farm of Mr. Midhael, seven miles southwest of Logansport in the edge of Carroll county. Mr. Pippinger was a tenant of Michael and there had been some differences between them. Michael went to the farm to look after his share of the wheat during the time of threshing. Pippinger had a pitch fork in his hands when they met. Pippinger prodded Michael with the fork and the latter shot him, killing him instantly. Michael was indicted for murder but released on bail. The case was tried, appealed to the supreme court, reversed, and on second tri&l Michael was acquitted, May 30, 1913, nearly three years after the sad occurrence.

On September 12, 1899, a most distressing accident occurred at the crossing south of Uhl's old mill in Washington township. Mrs. Kitura McVety and three children, Arthur, May and Carrie, the family of Harrison McVety, a farmer living near Anoka, while driving across the railroad were struck by a train and killed, the carriage wrecked and horse killed.

James Blake, of Indianapolis, established a gin^ng factory in Logansport in 1830 and continued to operate it until 1835. He prepared the ginseng root, bleached it, then shipped it east for the China trade.

Daniel D. Pratt ^ was trying a case in court where his client was suing a neighbor for trespass and damages, because his hogs had invaded his corn field and destroyed much of it. The defense claimed that there was a hollow log that was crooked and the hogs had crawled through it and that he was not to blame. To show that the hog was too big to get through the hollow log, Pratt asked the witness how big tiie hog was. The witness replied, ** About as big a hog as you are." Pratt repeated the question in a louder tone, with the same answer. Pratt continued his question in still louder and angry tones - **How big was the hog?" The same answer but at the top of his voice, ** As big a hog as you are." By this time the whole court was in an uproar of laughter, except Pratt, who was a big man and exhibited his temper, but the laughter drowned his voice and he could not be heard and had to wait, and finally he joined in the common laughter.

Probably the first negro in Logansport was Benjamin Talbert, familiarly known as ** Black Ben." He was noted for his good behavior, politeness and loud, irrepressible laughter ; his mother for her Christian faith and like irrepressible manifestations of joy at religious meetings. Black Ben was a familiar figure and his loud laughter could be heard for squares away. At one of the first meetings held in Logansport by Rev. Hunter in the old seminary, about 1830, Job Eldridge, Ash Carter and Black Ben formed part of the audience, sitting upon the same seat. His subject was the afflictions of Job. Carter whispered to Ben if it was not a shame that he should tell about Job's sores. Ben, with both hands over his mouth, broke for the door, which he had scarcely reached when the force of his laughter blew away from his mouth his hands with a report equal to an old flint-lock musket, with his yah! yahl yah! rolled on the grass at the door before he was able to leave. The effect on the audience of five minutes discharges of laughter would have to be seen and heard to be appreciated. During the agitation of the slavery question about 1855, Black Ben became uneasy for fear of being taken south and moved to Michigan and was lost sight of.

contributed by Wm. M. Gordon, who about 1858 was standing beside the overhead canal bridge on Broadway when a number of young men, dudes of the town but strangers to him, accosted Dudley H. Chase, afterwards judge, b^t then a verdant appearing young man, on this elevated canal bridge. They saluted him with much politeness, bowed, lifted their hats, asked bim when he returned, how he left **pop" and **mam," made some affectionate inquiry about dear old grandmother and kindred remarks. Drawing a pistol Chase shot into the floor of the canal bridge. The shooting had the desired effect ; they took to their heels, taking their manners with them.

bom 1764 ; died near Sullivan, Indiana, March 30, 1842, was the first person in the world upon whom an ovariotomy operation was performed. This was by Dr. Ephraim McDowell at Danville, Kentucky, in 1809. Her son, Samuel T. Crawford, was a resident of Harrison township and later resided on the north side in 1837 to 1839 and died there. His mother, Jane Crawford, made her home with her son on the north side for a time during the later thirties. Samuel T. Crawford's wife was Jane Routh, an aunt of Wm. C. Routh, the meat packer. She married Henry Morrell in England. They came to Logansport in the early thirties and Mr.

Morrell, together with the father of Wm. C. Routh ran a tannery on the north side. After Mr. Morrell's death his widow became the wife of Samuel T. Crawford and lived for many years after his death on Michigan avenue with her son Robert Crawford and her daughters Minnie (Crawford) Griffith and Sarah (Crawford) Brown.

Mrs. David E. Bryer, now residing at 207 Seventh street, has an old walnut table with a bit of interesting history. It is octagon in shape and solidly constructed. Alexander (Joodwin, father of Martha and Amanda Goodwin, and Mrs. S. B. Boyer cut the walnut tree from the lot now occupied by the Episcopal church, northwest comer of Seventh and Market streets, in 1840, and had the lumber sawed at the Taber sawmiU on Eel river and Ninth streets. Mrs. Bryer also has several mahogany chairs purchased in Philadelphia by Cyrus Taber in 1829, which the Bryers purchased of the Taber estate after his death in 1855.

Jose Calvario, a Mexican-Spaniard, died at Tuxpan, Mexico, in July, 1912, at the age of 185. Church records showed that he was born in 1727 and is reported to have been the oldest man in the world at the time of his death.

Lew Enyart, eighty-five years old, a resident of Clay township, has in his possession an old door that was used on the first schoolhouse erected in Clay township, about 1833. It is made of poplar slabs and is still in a good state of preservation. Felix McLaughlin was perhaps the first school teacher to open this door. The log schoolhouse stood on the farm now belonging to Art Wells.

First mail in the United States to be carried by air-ships was from Nassau to Brooklyn, Long Island, September 9, 1911, and Earl L. Ovington was the carrier, and on October 3, 1911, Postmaster General Hitch^ cock established the first Aerial Mail Route No. 607,001 between New York and Los Angeles, California, the longest route ever established with Mr. Ovington as carrier, but it has not, to date, been practically operated.