Fayette County, Indiana - Chapter 3: Pioneer History, 1885

Chapter 3: Pioneer History

THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION UPON, AND FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE WHITEWATER VALLET - POSITION OF THE LANDS OF THE COUNTY - JOHN AND WILLIAM CONNER AND OTHER EARLY SETTLERS - PIONEER LIFEFRIENDLY AND HOSTILE INDIANS.

aENERALLY speaking, from the east and south upward marched the van of civilization to the fertile valleys and beautiful hills of the Whitewater country, explorers and immigrants coming from the direction of the Miami country, Cincinnati, Harrison and Lawrenceburg.

John Gleves Symmes had landed at North Bend on the Ohio early in the year 1789, and in 1795 several families had settled on the site of Lawrenceburw, and a small settlement had been made at Armstrong's Station, in Clark County. Cincinnati was laid out in 1789; Hamilton, at Fort Hamilton in 1794; Dayton in 1795 and in the spring of the following year permanent settlements commenced.

Gen. Wayne's victory over the Indians, August 20, 1794, put a check to their depredations but did not at once reduce them to absolute submission. In March, 1795, one man was killed and eight horses stolen in the village of North Bend. The treaty of peace at Greenville, concluded August 3, 1795, put an end to the murder of white men by Indians in the Miami country and was signalized by rapid immigration thither and opened the way for further exploration and immigration to the territory of eastern and southern Indiana.

It is not improbable that the Whitewater Valley was as early explored as the division to which it belongs. It is a matter of record that from 1796 to 1799 many settlers had established themselves throughout Dearborn County.

The Rev. Allen Wiley, one of the pioneer preachers of the Whitewater country, and well known to many of the pioneers yet living in this section, in 1845-46 wrote a series of articles which appeared in the Western Christian Advocate published in Cincinnati, titled " Introduction and Progress of Methodism in Southeastern Indiana." Mr. Wiley was a man of unusually large experience and knowledge of the people and times whereof he wrote. He says: "In the autumn of 1804 my father came to Indiana and settled aboi;t three miles above where Harrison now stands, I being then in my sixteenth year. The country was then somewhat densely settled along the river up to what was called the Lower Narrows, six or seven miles above where Whitewater leaves Indiana. As well as I remember there was one family on the southwest side of the river opposite the before mentioned narrows; another family on the same side opposite the narrows above the present town of New Trenton, and another on the same side in the bottom below the present town of Rochester, now Cedar Grove. Three-quarters of a mile above Big Cedar Grove Creek, Mr. John Conner, an Indian trader, had a store kept by a Frenchman, hence the store was called the ' French store.'

"I have now gone to the ultima thule or verge of the white population in the Whitewater Valley in 1804. There were a few families on Johnson's Fork. In the spring of 1805 two settlements were formed on the Bast Fork of Whitewater; the one a little north of the town of Richmond, in Wayne County, was called the Kentucky settlement, because most of the families were from Kentucky; the other was some distance above the town of Brookville, near where Fairfield now stands, and was called the Carolina settlement because the most of the families were from South Carolina. The same spring Mr. William Tyner, a Baptist minister, settled about one and one-half miles below Brookville and Mr. Thomas Williams one mile above on the south side of West Fork. At that time I presume the land on which the flourishing town of Brookville now stands was the property of the Government. At the period of which I now write (1805) the only mill for all the upper Whitewater country was on the edge of Ohio, owned by Mr. Thomas Smith, of Kentucky, so that the Kentucky settlement had to travel some fifty miles to mill, and the Carolina settlers twenty-five. Sometimes, perhaps, the former went across through the wilderness to Four and Seven Mile Creeks, near the Great Miami, because they were some nigher."

Of the two settlements referred to by Mr. Wiley the " Carolina Colony" was composed of the following named heads of families: Robert Hanna, Sr., John Templeton, George Leviston, William Logan, Joseph Hanna, John Ewing and Robert Swan. These fam- ilies as early as the year 1801 had settled on the Dry Fork of Whitewater River, near Harrison, and there remained until the spring of 1805. However, in the meantime the male members of the families had ex plored the country along East Fork, and doubtless elsewhere and determined upon the sites of their future homes. Then returning to their families on Dry Fork, there remained until the summer or fall of 1804.

These families were nearly all related, and the party was under the leadership of Robert Templeton and Robert Hanua. In the summer or fall of 1804 they started for the Whitewater region, their route being a "blazed" one and was ever afterward known as the "Carolina Trace." The first of the cabins built is believed to have been the one subsequently occupied by Robert Templeton and family and was located in Fairfield Township, Franklin County. Nine cabins were built extending along East Fork through what are now Fairfield Township in Franklin County and Harmony and Liberty Townshijas in Union County. The cabins were occupied in the spring of 1805.

Concerning the Kentucky settlement Mr. A. W. Young, author of the "History of Wayne County," published in 1872 writes: "In the year 1805 the first settlement of white men on the banks of Whitewater was commenced and the first rude cabin built. In the spring of that year George Holeman, Richard Rue and Thomas McCoy, with their families, from Kentucky, settled about two miles south of where Richmond now stands. Rue and Holeman had served under Gen. Clark in his Indian campaigns several years before the formation of the Northwestern Territory under the ordinance of 1787. Both had been captured by the Indians and held as prisoners about three years and a half. Both also lived on the lands on which they settled until their deaths, far advanced in age. Rue was the first Justice of the Peace in this part of the country.

'\Holeman and Rue selected and entered their lands late in 1804, at Cincinnati, on their way home. Early in the winter they retiu'ned to build cabins for their families, bringing with them, on their horses, such tools as were necessary in that kind of architecture, and a few cooking utensils. Holeman's two eldest sons, Joseph and William, then about eighteen and sixteen years of age, accompanied their father, to assist in his initiatory pioneer labor. In a very few days two cabins were ready for occupancy. Rue and Holeman, leaving the boys to take care of themselves, started again for Kentucky to bring their families."

(Franklin), that his father lived as early as 1794 or 1795 at North Bend and in the Big Bottom, and that he helped to raise the first patch of corn that was ever raised by white men in the Big Bottom. He also told me he had a brother about sixteen years of age taken by the Indians from North Bend, about 1795. He had been sent after the cows. The Indians decoyed him by using a bell. His father alone followed them to near Brookville, and stayed all night on the place on which 1 now live, and watched the movements of the Indians, but was unable to effect his son's release. The Indians took him to the Upper Wabash country and he remained with them about two years. He was left by his master at the camp with the squaws, with directions what to do, but after the Indians left, one of the squaws, a half-sister of the celebrated Tecum, seh, ordered him to work at something else, which he refused to do, when she tried to kill him. He kept out of her way for the time, believing she would kill him if she had an opjjortunity. Soon after he went with her fishing, and watching an opportunity, he struck her with a club on the back of the head and knocked her into a deep hole of water, where he supposed she was drowned. Then he struck out for Detroit, where he arrived in about a week, subsisting himself as best he could, being followed by the Indians all the way, whom he succeeded in eluding. After he arrived in Detroit he found a friend, who secreted him for a day or two, until the Indians ceased hunting for him, when he conveyed him over to Maldon, on the Canada side of the Detroit River, from which place he went to Buflfalo, N. Y. , and from there he went home through New York and Pennsylvania, and down the Ohio River."

As many of the early settlers of Fayette County had first settled in what is now Franklin County and territory further south and subsequently removed further north and settled permanently, we will give the names of some common to both counties.

As early as 1802 or 1803 on Dry Fork lived the Athertons; in 1804, the Cottons near Harrison; at Harrison and below, the Cooleys, Aliens and the Backhouses; above Harrison, John Caldwell and the Eads; further north were the Hacklemans, the Mc- Cartys and Adairs; about New Trenton in 1807 lived the Rockefellars, and in the vicinity settled early the Brownlees; the Higgs and Blades settled early on Blue Creek.

The lands of Fayette County are composed of two distinct tracts ceded to the United States Government by as many different treaties. What is known as the " Twelve-Mile Boundary Line " is a line which begins at Fort Recovery, in Ohio, extending thence in a due southwesterly direction until it arrives at a point twelve miles distant from the " Indian Boundary Line," thence parallel with said "Indian Boundary Line," until it intersects the Grouseland Boundary Line at a point a little west of the southwest corner of Franklin County. This boundary was established by a treaty held at Fort Wayne in 1809.

This line passes through Fayette County, entering it at a point in the northeast corner of Posey Townehip, passing in a southwesterly direction and out of the county at a point in the southeastern corner of Orange Township. The lands of the county lying east of this boundary are in the " Twelve-Mile Purchase," and were surveyed and ready for market in 1811. The lands lying west of the boundary are in what is known as the "New Purchase," which was ceded to the United States Government by a treaty concluded at St. Mary's, Ohio, October 3, 1818. These land were not surveyed and ready for market until 1820. The greater portion of the territory of the county lies within the "Twelve-Mile Purchase." The land office for the sale of the " Twelve- Mile Purchase " was located at Cincinnati, Ohio, while that of the New Purchase was situated at Brookville, Ind,

It is our belief that no account of the first settlement made within the present limits of Fayette County has ever been given to print, and if narrated the lips from whence it came have long since been sealed and the parties to whom given have taken their final sleep, and none live to-day to satisfactoi'ily present it. There is, however, little doubt but that the trading-post established by John Conner (or possibly by both of the Conners) on the present site of the city bearing his name, marked the first white man's cabin and from it gleamed forth the first ray of civilization from the surrounding wild forests of, perhaps, four score years ago.

In 1788 or thereabouts there resided in the State of Pennsylvania a family by the name of Conner, which at that time were taken captives by the Indians (theShawnees,we believe,) and carried away to Detroit, remaining in state of captivity sufficiently long to become thoroughly acquainted with the Indian language, customs, etc., etc. They were finally, through the interposition of some French residents at that place, liberated, the father remaining a permanent resident of that city. In 1798, at the age of eighteen years, William Connor left his paternal hearth-stone and sought to carve out for himself his own fortune, and with this view he settled at Saginaw Bay and there commenced trading with the Indians. At this early period of Western history the trader was both a traveler and a hunter. To lay in his stock of goods it was necessary to make long and wearisome journeys through the forest upon horseback, and the transportation of his goods was eflfected upon pack-horses. In his journeyings his eye was attracted by the natural beauty of scenery, the richness of the soil, the abundance of game of the fur-bearing species, and the commanding locality of Hamilton County (Indiana), and in 1802 he settled in a beautiful prairie, which has ever since borne his name (located a little below Noblesville). Here he established a trading post, which for many years was the great central mart at which the various tribes inhabiting central Indiana did their trading.

At what time John Conner left Detroit and where he first began his trading with the Indians is not known to the writer. It may be that he accompanied his brother William, for the Hon. Elijah Hackleman, of Wabash, in a contribution of " Reminiscences " to the Rushville Republican in 1884, speaks of the two as building. a trading house in what is now Franklin County, in the early history of the Whitewater Valley. Whether the two were together or not, it is reasonable to presume that as each followed the same business in those early times, they were at least in intercourse with each other.

The first definite knowledge we have of John Conner's presence in the Whitewater country is given in the writings of Rev. Allen Wiley, heretofore spoken of. In speaking of the year 180-1 Mr. Wiley says: "Three-quarters of a mile above Big Cedar Grove Creek, Mr. John Conner, an Indian trader, had a store kept by a Frenchman, hence the store was called the French store."

William McClure, from whom we have elsewhere quoted, as nearly as we can judge of the year 1807, writes: " John Conner and Pilkey, Indian traders, had a store in the bottom, where John T. Cooley formerly lived." And the author of the "History of Franklin County " says of this store: "There is little doubt b^^t this trading post was the first white man's establishment within the limits of the county. No traditions of an earlier one are found among the people of to-day."

The next point for consideration is the establishment of the trading-post of Conner, or Conner & Pilkey, further north in Fayette County, on the site of the city of Connersville. From what has been said above Conner is known to have been above Big Cedar Grove Creek in 1804, and probably in 1807, but the time of his removal or abandonment of that post for the one further up on the frontier can only be arrived at by tradition. Thomas Simpson, now a resident of the county, aged eighty-four years, with a clear memory and vivid recollection of the past, is authority for the saying that John Conner had his trading-post here at Connersville in the year 1808. Mr. Simpson's father was through the county at that time, and found Conner here; so it is fair to conclude that the post was established here some time between 1804 and 1808.

About the first of the present century the Conners were found among the most expert Indian traders of Indiana Territory, and soon attracted the attention of Gov. Harrison, who in his intercourse with the Indians employed them as interpreters. As early as 1805, at the treaty of Grouseland, August 1, we find that John Conner acted in that capacity. From that time on to the treaty of Wabash, October 23, 1826, and during the interval, in which ten treaties had been held with the Indians, one and sometimes both of these gentlemen were employed as interpreters, and during the war William Conner was the principal military interpreter of Gov. Harrison.

After the battle of the Thames, in which he was engaged, he was specially deputied by Gen. Harrison to recognize the body of Tecumseh, with whom he had long been acquainted.

John Conner is said to have had for a wife an Indian woman and a son by the name of James, a half-blood. The Indian wife died about the close of the last war with England, and he then married Lavina, daughter of Jabez Winship, who lived on Little Cedar Grove. In 1813 he laid out the town of Connersville, and had, as early as 1810, a grist and sawmill in operation near the trading-post, which was probably two hundred yards up the branch from the A. B. Conwell mill building, on Eastern Avenue. In 1816 he served in the State Senate, and was the first Senator for this county and the first Sheriflf. He was an active business man in early Connersville carrying on milling, farming and merchandising. He removed from the village he had founded to the vicinity of Noblesville, this State, in 1823, and, it is said, some years later died while on a trip or visit to the city of Indianapolis, which city he had, in company with nine others, selected and located the permanent seat of justice of the State.

"Some twenty-five years ago, a stranger of venerable and martial appearance by the name of Rankin, from Kentucky, passing through the country stopped and dined at Sample's Hotel, now the Bate's House in this town, where I was then boarding. The name of our town reminding the stranger of his old friends, the Conners, he inquired after John and William, evidently with much interest; he then observed that ho had made their acquaintance during the late war with Great Britain, and knew them well; remarked that in a perilous march he made under Gen. Harrison up toward the lakes, the Conners were selected for the guides of the army; that they had a deep stream to cross over a difficult and dangerous ford, where the Indian ambuscade was apprehended; that Gen. Harrison came to him before they entered the stream, and observed: 'I think those Conners are true, but some -stories to their prejudice have come to my ears, and from the fact that they have been among the British and Indians the most of their days, I must confess to enough of suspicion to be on the lookout. They say they understand this ford, and can and will conduct us safely over. If they could be in league with the enemy and betray us, here is the place for it to be done. Do you follow close after them with your hand upon your holsters, and should they for a moment lead us into water too deep for fording, shoot them down.' They entered the stream, Rankin close after, and the whole army following. Near the middle the horses of the guides stepped into a deep place. In an instant, both exclaimed, as Rankin's cocked pistol was presented: ^Hold! the ford is changed. We' II be right in a moment!' In a moment they were right again, and all got safely over. 'And that moment,' said the narrator, 'saved the life of the proprietor of your town, and his brother, William; whom,' said he, 'I afterward found to be as true and noble Americans as ever I knew.' "

Mr. Parker remarked that the incident was given as substantially received, saying: "I can't vouch for its authenticity, having never seen or heard of it elsewhere; nor seen nor heard of the strange Kentuckian before or since, but I know of no reason to question its accuracy."

In 1808-09, Thomas Simpson, Sr., a native of Maryland, was employed as hunter to, and accompanied the surveying party, while they were engaged in surveying the lands of the "Twelve-Mile Purchase," at which time he traversed the territory of the county throughoiit, and in the month of December, 1809, removed his family to a cabin house, which had previously been erected for the surveying party, and stood on what is now the northeastern part of Jennings Township.

Daniel Green, it is said, while prospecting for land further south, in what is now Franklin County, in the year 1809, was attracted by the sound of a cowbell, and on following its sound he came to a cabin, occupied by John Eagan and family, situated along the river in what is now Jackson Township, some little distance south of the bridge over the river at Nulltown. Mr. Eagan was an Irishman, but came from Maryland here, and both he and Simpson remained permanent settlers.

precede the trading-post of Conner. The account of this settlement is purely traditional and the date unsupported by family record or other history, so far as we can learn; yet it is not at all improbable, as John Eagan and his brother William were very early settlers along the river, the former entering land in Jackson Township in 1811.

Family traditions concerning the early settlements often confound the date of the tirst visit of a pioneer to his lands, or the date of his purchase, with that of his settlement. Many of the pioneer settlers of the county tirst stopped in the county south (Franklin), and subsequently moved further north and made settlements within the present limits of Fayette County. Family traditions of such frequently confound these dates.

From known facts we can safely assume that there were few settlers within the present limits of the county prior to 1811, at which time the tide of immigration set in.

Pioneer Life

The first dwellings of the pioneers were the roundlog-cabins, constructed as follows: Round logs of proper size were selected, notched at the ends, the spaces between the logs being filled in with pieces of wood and daubed with clay. The roof was made by laying small logs or stout poles, reaching from gable to gable, suitable distances apart, on which were laid the split clap-boards after the manner of shingling, showing two feet or more to the weather. These clap-boards were fastened by laying across them heavy poles, called weight poles, reaching from one gable to the other. The floor was of puncheons split from logs several inches in thickness, hewed on the upper side. The chimney was made of sticks laid up cob-houso fashion, gradually narrowed in at the top and plastered with clay. For a window, a small opening was made and greased paper, for admitting light, was pasted over it. The door was of clapboards hung on wooden hinges. Such a house was built by a neighborhood gathering, with no tools but the axe and the frow, and often was completed in a single day.

The internal arrangements of one of these rude dwellings has thus been described: "The door is opened by pulling a leather string that lifts a wooden latch on the inside. (The inmates made themselves secure in the night season by pulling the string in.) On entering it (it being meal-time) we find a portion of the family sitting around a large chest in which their valuables had beeu brought, but which now serves as a table from which they are partaking their plain meal, cooked by a log-heap tire. In one corner of the room are two or more clap- boards on wooden pins, displaying the table-ware, consisting of a few cups and saucers, and a few blue-edged plates, with a goodly number of pewter plates, perhaps standing singly on their edges, leaning against the wall, to render the display of table furniture more conspicuous. Underneath this cupboard are seen a few pots and perhaps a Dutch oven. Not many chairs having been brought in, the deficiency has been supplied with stools made of puncheon boards, with three legs. Over the doorway lies the indispensable rifle on two wooden hooks, probably taken from a dog- wood bush and nailed to a log of the cabin. Upon the inner walls hang divers garments of female attire, made of cotton and woolen fabrics, and, perhaps, one or two blue and white calico dresses which had done long service in the Carolinas before their transportation hither."

Rev. William C. Smith, in his " Indiana Miscellanies," thus speaks of one way of lighting these primitive homes: "During the day the door of the cabin was kept open to alford light, and at night, through the winter season, light was emitted from the fireplace, where huge logs were kept burning. Candles and lamps were out of the question for a few years. When these came into use they were purely domestic in their manufacture. Candles were prepared by taking a wooden rod some ten or twelve inches in length, wrapping a strip of cotton or linen around it, then covering it with tallow pressed on with the hand. These "sluts," as they were sometimes called, answered the purpose of a very large candle, and afforded light for several nights. Lamps were prepared by dividing a large turnip in the middle, scraping out the inside quite down to the rind, then inserting a stick, say three inches in length, in the center, so that it would stand upright. A strip of cotton or linen cloth was then wrapped around it, and melted lard or deer's tallow was poured in till the turnip rind was full, when the lamp was ready for use. By the light of these during the long winter evenings the women spun and sewed, and the men read when books could be obtained. When neither lard nor tallow could be had, the large blazing fire supplied the needed light. By these great fire-places many cuts of thread have been spun, many a yard of linsey woven, and many a frock and buckskin pantaloons made." The second-class dwelling was the hewed-log-house, more pretentious in looks and more comfortable. These could be made as comfortable as any kind of building. Log-cabin raisings and log- rollings were occasions of great social intercourse. Preparations for such occasions were made in advance of the appointed day; trees were selected and felled, the logs dragged in, the skids and forks made ready and the foundations laid. At the time fixed upon for the raising the neighbors assembled for miles around, captains were chosen and the work progressed with great dispatch, and amid much glee and merriment, iintil the walls were up and the roof weighted down.

The land of this region in its primitive state was covered with heavy timber, beneath which was an undergrowth of various kinds, such as spicewood, leatherwood, elderberry and some bearing fruits, as grapes, pluma, gooseberries, pawpaws, crab apples, etc., with plenty of nettles, grass, peavine and weeds in the summer.

The labor of opening up a farm was no little task; the trees were to be felled, the branches severed from their trunks, and the underbrush gathered together for burning. The trunks of the large trees were to be divided and rolled together and reduced to ashes. It is said with hard labor the unaided settler could clear and burn an acre of ground in three weeks.

Different methods and practices of clearing land have been resorted to» by the pioneer of different localities. In some States it was the custom to cut down all the timber at lirst, but this did not prevail here. The bushes were either cut down or grubbed out, and the smaller trees were chopped down. The large trees were left standing, and "deadened" by girdling. On this subject Dr. Mason, who settled in the county in 1816, says: "I had a fine creek bottom of some ten acres, a portion of which had been grubbed of the underbrush, and I determined upon clearing and fencing five acres of it to put into corn. The timber had been deadened and was light, except some large sycamore trees. Around those I piled brush'and built tires, and in this way killed most of them."

Flax was cultivated and sheep raised, and therefrom by the spinning-wheel and hand-loom wearing apparel manufactured. Carding wool by hand was not uncommon. "Both men and women were clad in linen and linsey, all of their own manufacture. Some wore buck-skin breeches and moccasins, but they generally had linen for every -day wear, and a man was fortunate who could get 'six hundred linen' for shirts and pantaloons for Sunday. The women would color the linen thread with copperas, or some cheap dye, and stripe or cross their dresses, and when they got them on they were about as proud and put on as many airs as they do at the present day. Once in awhile one of the more fortunate ones would get hold of six yards of calico, which was a full pattern in those days, and when they got it made up with two strings sewed on to the waist behind, and brought before and tied, it would do you good to see them spread themselves, and unless a man had jilenty of dollars he could not shine with them."

The breaking up of ground and cultivation of crops was attended with difficulty. The bar-share and shovel plows, and later the bull plow with wooden mouldboard, husk collars and tug, and rope traces and withs; the sickle lirst, then the cradle and scythe, and threshing with a flail or treading out with horses, and cleaned by means of a sheet by the aid of several persons, characterized the implements of farming.

Almost the only modes of travel in those times were on foot or on horseback. Corn and wheat were taken to the mill on horseback; friends and relatives in the distant East were visited on horseback. Salt iron and such other commodities as were indispensable were frequently carried by means of pack-horses: and often settlers came to their forest homes by this moans. Lawyers and preachers made the circuit in this way, and the roads were mere paths with notched or blazed trees as a guide.

The procuring of bread was often a hardship to the pioneer; mills in early times were few and far between and of rude construction, making it often a journey of miles through an almost trackless forest and over bridgeless streams, the trip fraught with danger on every hand.

At the time of its settlement this region was inhabited by deer, wolf, bear, wild cat, fox, otter, porcupine; occasionally a panther, turkey, raccoon, skunk, mink, rattlesnake and blacksnake.

Almost countless numbers of squirrels were to be found in the woods and great watchfulness was required on the part of the settler to protect his cornfields from destruction both from these and other animals, and from birds. Blackbirds in large flocks were destructive to the corn while yet soft, and later on the raccoon and squirrel. Squirrel hunts were frequent and prizes paid in corn to those killing the greatest number. We have before us a paper showing the names of persons engaged in a squirrel hunt on the 11th and 12th of August, 1820, with the number of squirrels killed by each and the number of bushels of corn each received. The number killed was 502.

The social gatherings were attended by all, the settlers were mutually dependent upon each other, and more hospitality was the result. As we have heretofore remarked, at the log-rollings and houseraisings the whole neighborhood was present, and at the quiltings and huskings the same spirit was characteristic. The long winter evenings were spent in contentment, but not in idleness.

"To recount the toils of the past, enumerate the privations and note the pleasures of pioneer life in Fayette County, and contrast the ' then ' of the past with the ' now ' of the present, must produce a glow of honest pride in the breasts of the aged few who yet remain to recount the past and survey the present.

' ' Each of you for self can look at the present as it lies before you, and I will not attempt to picture it, but hope to recall somewhat of the condition of the county in 1833, when I located among you.

"That portion of the county lying east of the ' old boundary line' being settled ten years earlier than the west side, had nearly passed the stage of log-cabins. Every farm had its occupant, many had comfortable frame or brick dwellings, and some had barns and fruit-bearing orchards; but nearly all the improvements on our western border were of a primitive character, and it is mainly of this part of the county, in which I lived for forty-throe years,. I would speak.

"Farms ranged in size from a forty-acre tract to a quarter section, and nearly all of them had some improvement. The log-cabin was the prevailing dwelling, and it was almost alivays surrounded by a cleared patch, or deadening, ripening for the lire, by whose agency it was cleared up for the plow. So dense was the forest that the only evidences of other occupied farms near by was the sound of the ax, the crowing fowls or barking watch-dog.

" Paths leading from cabin to cabin passed around large trees or logs and over streamlets, led us through the tangle of spice-wood or pawpaw in our neighborly visits, and highways were marked out and corduroy bridges bore us over marshes on our way to market, public worship, or to mill in our wagons, up hill and down the same, and through streams, which were all without bridges. The stumps, roots and logs gave the beaten track a serpentine direction, which required great skill in the teamster. If Levi Conwell were here he could tell you all about it, or if you ask Uncle Billy Simpson how he used to freight A. B. Conwell's whisky and flour to Cincinnati and return with a load of store goods, he can describe it better than I can. Pork and the articles named were our staple productions. Cincinnati was our only market. Our pork was driven on foot, requiring an average of eight days to roach our destination, three to close out the sale, and two more to return. The entire trip consumed about two weeks' time. Wheat sold in Cincinnati in 1834 at 50 cents per bushel, flour for $2.75 per barrel, and Uncle Abe can give you the price of whisky; as I did not handle it my memory is at fault. We got but little money, and we spent little. Our food grew on our farms, and our clothing was mostly home made, growing in the flax patch or on the sheep's back, and its manufacture was mostly domestic. The flax-pulling and wool-picking were frequently done by combination or neighborhood frolics, and were occasions of great social pleasure. There are mothers present who could tell how they used to race with their sweet-hearts at the flax-pullings, and some of them recollect how the points of their fingers ached after pulling the burs and sticktights out of the wool. Yes, and how they enjoyed their trip on foot to the spelling-match or singingschool with their boaux by their side, just to help them over the fences and mud holes. Or, perchance, they rode behind on the same horse, so that if the horse stumbled they could hold on! I can answer for the other sex that a girl behind me on a stumbling horse was rather awkward, but not at all unpleasant. "Don't you grand-dames recollect how the flyers of the flax wheel hummed whilst your gent sat by you, or how your bare feet tripped over the puncheon floor to the sound of the big wheel as you drew out those long threads of yarn which were to be converted into the winter's wear. I assure you it was a pleasure to sit by whilst the shuttle flew from hand to hand as that yarn grew into cloth. The wheel and loom did not sound so refined as the organ and the piano, but their product was far more useful. Most families were thus clothed. We used but little tea or coffee, and the sugar camp furnished our sweets. Our logrollings, house-raisings and harvesting cultivated a social spirit and placed us all on an equality, as we were mutually dependent. Men and women did their own work with but little hired help. Wages were low (from 110 to $12 per month), but money was scarce. I reaped with a reaping-hook, in the harvest of 1834 for 62J cents per day, and cradled the following harvest for $1 per day. Our farm tools were quite simple, but cost but little money. We used the 'bull' plow with wooden mould-board and iron share for turning the soil, and the single shovelplow for cultivating the crop. This, with a swingletree and harness, trace-chains and back- band, furnished out our rig. We had no cultivators, single or double, nor riding plows. We had never seen a reaper, or mower, nor could we have used them among the stamps. Nor had we any threshing machines. Our small grain was threshed out by flail or tramped out by horses on an earthen floor prepared for the purpose, and cleaned by a fanning mill with wooden cogs. The fall season was mostly occupied in burning off the rubbish of our deadenings, and keeping our ' niggers ' busy in preparing the logs for rolling in the spring. Our logs were rolled into heaps and burned in the spring, the rails or fencing having been made during the intervening winter. Stormy days and winter nights were used to make and repair the family shoes from leather tanned in our county, and largely made by the farmers at their own firesides, which were wide and warmed by a bountiful supply of fuel. If some of you old folks will mentally take an inventory of an average dwelling of those days, you would lind as a part of its appendages a shoebench, with needed tools, spinning-wheels, for flax and wool. The hand loom and warping-bars, the wash-tub, in which the clothes were cleansed without even a washboard, the Dutch oven, in which the cornpone and chicken-pie were baked, and by its side a dinner-pot, skillet and tea-kettle, but no cook stove. A Bible and some school-books, added to some furniture of home-make, almost complete the picture. The active men and women here today were born and reared in just this kind of place. Our streams were bridgeless; our commerce had neither turnpikes nor railroads; our business was done without telegraph, and we talked without telephones, and when you take a survey of your surroundings, the present generation, your offspring, your rich and beautiful farms, villages, cities, and their manufactories, together with all your moral, social and religious advantages, don't you think that we did well, and don't you join me in the wish that our children may do better? "

Friendly And Hostile Indians

At the dawning of civilization upon the Whitewater country, the series of conflicts with the Indians that had been carried on to the east throughout the Northwest Territory for a long period of years had hardly been allayed; and the early settlers were for a time considerably annoyed by the Indians. The pioneer was frightened by open menaces and actual murders. The Rev. W. C. Smith, author of "Indiana Miscellanies," recollects of having heard an Indian relate the first one of several instances of his taking the lives of white persons. At the age of about four- teen, he was permitted to accompany a party of "braves" going to a white settlement to scalp and plunder, on a promise that he would be brave. The first night he and another young Indian were sent to reconnoitre a cabin. They returned and reported that there were in it but a man and woman. They were ordered to go back and kill them. They returned to the cabin, and shot through an opening of the jambs, entered the cabin and scalped them, and returned to their comrades with the bloody trophies. We quote again from Mr. Wiley, whom it will be remembered settled in the Whitewater country in 180-1: " In all the upper Whitewater country, the Aborigines were numerous and used to come among us for trafiic, but their great headquarters for that purpose was the before- mentioned store owned by Mr. Conner. When they visited us they behaved civilly, and we

A campaign against the Indians was inaugurated by the United States Government in 1811, and on the 7th of November of that year the battle of Tippecanoe was fought under Gen. Harrison. The settlements along Whitewater were frontier posts, and ere the declaration of war against Great Britain was proclaimed, blockhouses were built extending along the main stream and each branch and point of settlement further west, through what are now Franklin, Fayette, Union and Wayne, and perhaps other counties. Beginning at the south there was a blockhouse about half a mile above Johnson's Fork on the bank of the river; one three and a half miles below Brookville on the farm of Conrad Sailors; one each on Pipe and Salt Creeks, and perhaps several on West Fork' Ijefore entering' what is now Fayette County; several on East Fork extending through Franklin and Union Counties, one of which, an important one too, was located where the village of Brownsville now is, in the vicinity of which a company of volunteers had been raised under Capt. Myers and performed service on the frontier. There stood a block-house just below Nulltown, one in the northern part of Harrison Township, and several through Wayne County. Maj. Helm, who resided near the block-house at Nulltown, was in command along the frontier. It is not presumed that at each of these several block-houses were garrisoned United States soldiers; the fi-ontier was somewhat guarded, and perhaps for a time might have been stationed at the larger and more outward posts, troops. While the settlers resorted to this means of defense or protection, we believe no engagements or encounters at them ever occurred with the Indians, especially within the limits of Fayette County. During the war Indian alarms were frequent and the settlers were kept constantly in a state of disquiet. Rev. Mr. Smith, in giving a description of one of these block-houses says, " They were made of two rows (sometimes but one row) of split timbers, twelve to fourteen feet long, planted in the ground two and a half or three feet deep. The timbers of the second row were so placed as to cover the tracks of the first. Small cabins were erected inside of the stojkades for the accommodation of the families; usually one block-house was built in each fort. These block-houses were two-stories high, the upper story projecting over the lower, say two feet, with port holes in the floor of the projection, so that the men could see to shoot the Indians if they succeeded in getting to the walls of the block-house. There were also port holes in the walls of the upper and lower stories, through which shoot-

Several murders committed by the Indians occurred throughout the Whitewater Valley, but none, we believe, happened within the limits of Fayette County. Says the author of the "Wayne County History" published in 1872, "In 1811 John Shortridge was shot by an Indian south of the present town of Germantown and about a mile east of Milton, while riding on horseback, in company with George Ish. This, however, is said to have been done by mistake. The Indian had had some difficulty with a man by the name of Isaac Drury. Shortridge, having on Drury's overcoat, was mistaken for the owner, and shot on his white horse. He was carried about a mile to a fort which had been built half a mile south of whore Germantown now is. Word having been sent to the fort north (Boyd Fort), Samuel K. Boyd and Larkin Harding went down and attended Shortridge until his death the next day. For the want of boards to make a coffin, puncheon floor planks were used for the purpose. "

Two men, Tune and Stafford, were killed by the Indians in what is now Franklin County in the spring of 1813. Mr. McClure in his notes speaks of the killing as having occurred at the same time while they were engaged in burning brush on Salt Creek. The date of the murder as fixed by Hon. Elijah Hackleman was MarehU3, 1813.

Charles Morgan, residing near the stream now called Morgan's Creek, and two boys or youths, his half-brothers, named Beesly, were killed near a sugar-camp by Indians in the evening. The leader or principal in this murder is supposed - perhaps generally - to have been the notorious Indian, John Green. This supposition is probably based upon the fact that a mutual hatred existed between him and Morgan. The writer has been'informed upon authority which he cannot doubt, that Morgan, under the apprehension that Green was meditating his murder, intended to take the life of Green in order to save his own, and that he once started from home with the avowed intent of waylaying his adversary for this purpose. Although Green had probable designs against Morgan, and perhaps was accessory to the murder, there is strong presumptive evidence that he was not present when it was committed^. The suspected murderers, four in number, were traced toward Muncietown and overtaken, and one of them shot; the others escaped. Morgan and ,his brothers were all scalped. The murder was committed in the spring of 1813. This occurrence induced many families to take shelter in the forts erected for their protection. - A. W. Young.

the same night, March 13, 1813, with that of Stafford and Tune, and remarks: "Early next morning the militia of the vicinity, under Maj. William Holm, were on the trail of the Indians, but were unsuccessful, as they were never able to overtake them. A few weeks afterward a part of Capt. Brysoa's company had a brush with some Delaware Indians near Strawtown, where Morgan's tent and clothes were found in the deserted camp. "

Below is given an account of the captivity and subsequent life of Miss Tharp, which occurred in Fayette County, as narrated by Hon. Elijah Hackleman, of Wabash, Ind., in 1884:

" With the history of this captivity I am but little acquainted, as I do not recollect ever seeing the same in print. And yet, from my earliest recollections, the story was as familiar in every family in southeastern Indiana as household words. Moses Tharp lived somewhere in the upper valley of the Whitewater. On the fatal evening, his children were playing near his cabin, when suddenly his little girl mysteriously disappeared, and was nowhere to be found, although diligent search was made. On close examination by expert pioneer hunters, fresh ' signs ' of Indians wore discovered, and the trail was followed to the White River country, to the vicinity of Muncietown. There appeared to be no doubt that the girl had been stolen by the Indians. She was never recaptured. After the close of the war, when peace was restored, Mr. Tharp spent several years of hia life in hunting for his lost child. He visited most of the Indian tribes in the north part of the Territory, under the guise of an Indian trader, but specially for the purpose of discovering the location of the object of his affections. His efforts were not crowned with success, until the girl had grown up to womanhood and had married Capt. Dixon, a Miami Indian, who was living at the mouth of Grant Creek, on the Mississinawa River, near the old Josinia Village, in Wabash County, two miles west of Ashland. Here Mr. Tharp and his wife finally discovered and recognized their long-lost daughter some time after her marriage with Capt. Dixon.

"I have been informed by Hon. Jacob L. Sailors, of Wabash County, who was a neighbor of Capt. Dixon, on Grant Creek, that about forty years ago, he (Sailors) recollects of Mr. and Mrs. Tharp visiting their daughter at Capt. Dixon's for a few days. What finally became of Mr. Tharp I am not informed; but I have heard it stated that ho spent the decline of life somewhere in the Wabash valley.

" This Capt. Dixon was a thriftless, quarrelsome Indian, when drunk, and spent most of his time in drinking and fighting, at such places as he could procure whisky. But Miss Tharp (or, rather, Mrs.

Dixon), although uneducated, was kind and affectionate with her family, and polite and lady-like with her white neighbors. Mrs. Dixon manifested a desire to have her children educated, and did for a time send her son, Charlie Dixon, to a school, taught by Mr. Sailors, in the vicinity, where he made some progress in reading and writing. I have often seen the Captain and Mrs. Dixon at their Indian home.

"Finally, about the year 1851 or 1852, in one of his drunken fights with a Pottawattomie Indian, in the town of Ashland, Capt. Dixon received a blow with a hoe, that happened to be near by, cutting his head open. The wound was dressed by my friend, Dr. E. D. Mauzy - then of Ashland, but now of Oakland, Cal., - and although it was a terrible wound, the Doctor expressed his opinion that if the patient could be kept perfectly still, there would be a chance for his recovery.

"The Indians then in town wanted to take Capt. Dixon home the same evening, but Dr. Mauzy told them that he would die before reaching his home, although it was only about two miles distant. The next morning, however, the Indians came in great numbers, and demanded that he should be taken home immediately. Of course no resistance was made. The Captain was put on a sled, and when last seen, was going pretty lively over the rough roals. The journey was accomplished in good time, but on reaching'the wigwam, it was found that Capt. Dixon was cold and stiff in death.

"About this time - I am not sure whether it was before the death of Capt. Dixon or afterward - Miss Tharp, the wife of Capt. Dixon, in a lit of despondency, left her Indian home, and walked down to the Mississinawa River, a half mile distant, to a place called 'Hog Back.' This romantic spot is caused by a long detour of the river, then coming around with a long sweejj into conjunction with Grant Creek, which runs within eighty feet of the waters of the Mississinawa above the detour, and then flowing off and joining the waters below, enclosing several hundred acres of land. Between these two waters is a rugged hill or ridge, eighty feet high and one hundred yards long, bearing the euphonious name above noted. Here Miss Tharp, the captive white woman, paused a few moments, and then deliberately plunged into the blue waters of the Mississinawa River, and was seen no more alive. And here let the grief, anguish and melancholy aching of a heart as pure as yours or mine remain forever."

On the above subject many years ago in the village of Lebanon, Ohio, Rev. David Sharpe, who as a Methodist preacher traveled the old Whitewater Circuit in 1813, remarked to a resident of Connorsville " that he preached occasionally at Tharp's, near the river, about one and one-half miles above Connersville. At one of his visits, in the fall or winter of 1813-14, while sitting in the cabin with Mr. and Mrs. Tharp, they were startled by the screaming of the children, who were out playing between the house and the river. As they all ran toward the river, they met the youngest two children crying and running to the house; they heard the screams of the oldest, a little girl some eight years old, as if she was being carried off. They followed, but the voice became more and more faint, and soon they lost the trail. The Indians had made their escape with the child."

The territory in the western portion of the county belonging to the Indians until in 1818, Connersville and the settlements to the west were strictly speaking on the frontier, and from the fact of the long established post by Conner, both below and on the present site of the city, the county and neighboring territory were often the scene of many bands of wandering tribes of Indians, whither they had come principally to barter their furs and exchange traffic at the " post," and, perhaps, in the earlier period, to hunt and fish. Conner was a great man among them, and exerted considerable influence over them, and the post was an attractive place. Mr. Conner when dressed in their costume, and painted, it was difficult to distinguish him from a real savage. On one occasion, says Oliver H. Smith, he came to Andersontown (Franklin County), then the lodge of a large band of Indians, under Chief Anderson. He was dressed and painted as a Shawnee, and pretended to be a representative of Tecumseh. As is usual with the Indians, he took his seat on a log barely in sight of the Indian encampment, quietly smoked his pipe, waiting the action of Anderson and his under chiefs. After an hour he saw approaching the old chief himself, in full dress, smoking his pipe. I give his language. " As the old chief walked up to me I rose from my seat, looked him in the eyes, we exchanged pipes, and walked down to the lodge smoking, without saying a word. I was pointed to a boar skin, took my seat, with my back to the chiefs. A few minutes after, I noticed an Indian by the name of Gillaway, who knew me well, eying me closely. I tried to evade his glance, when he bawled out in the Indian language, at the top of his voice, interpreted: 'You great Shawnee Indian, you John Conner.' The next moment the camp was in a perfect roar of laughter. Chief Anderson ran up to me, throwing off his dignity: ' You great representative of Tecumseh,' and burst out in a loud laugh."

Indian trails or paths crossed the county leading from the trading post to their villages to the north and northwest, among which was the one located in the center of the " Thorntown lloservation," in Boone County, and another at Oldtown, near the jjresent city of Muncie. In the early history of the territory the site of Waterloo is supposed to have been an Indian camp. In 1808-09 a band of Indians were encamped along Simpson's Creek in northern Jennings Township, in the vicinity of the spring still there; and in the neighborhood was located an Indian place of burial.

The pioneers of Fayette County were not molested or troubled to any considerable extent by the presence of these wandering red men, saving a little occasional thieving, although subjected now and then to a fright. As late as 1820 Oliver H. Smith remarks that " Connersville was filled with them every day." At a period not much later than this, they were unfrequent visitors. We judge that the Indians of this locality during the early settlement of the valley belonged to the Delaware and Pottawattomie families. Numerous traditionary accounts of thieving Indians in this section have come to our ear during the investigation of this subject, and the accounts of the killing of several of them, but as nothing definite or satisfactory could be obtained relative thereto, a narration is withheld. Concernino' the disappearance or killing of Chief Ben Davis, who was one of the Delaware tribes of Indians, and had located in the Whitewater country, and was there residing during the early settlement of the country, and after whom was called the stream still bearing that name, in Kush County, the name of which chief was for years a household word throughout the valley, is given below the account as published in the Rushville Republican some years ago, written by Dr. John Arnold, of that city, an old and highly esteemed pioneer of that vicinity:

" Personally Ben Davis was a large and powerful Indian warrior, a deadly foe to the whites; and he had frequently led his braves on raids into the dark and bloody ground - the debatable land of Kentucky. In most of the battles for the possession of the present States of Ohio and Indiana, he had taken an active part. He was true to his friends, implacable to his foes, fond of firewater, and when under its influence, regardless of his surroundings, would boast of his prowess, and the number of scalps he had taken. In shprt, he was a representative man of his race, a fair type of the brave, crafty and boastful Indian warrior.

they were compelled to sell their lands, and again move westward. But Old Ben Davis, although well aware that he was looked upon with dislike and suspicion, by the white settlers, still, occasionally revisited his former hunting-grounds. In the year 1820 he had encamped on Blue Creek, some three miles from Brook vi lie. He had been there, perhaps a week, daily visiting the town and drinking too much whisky. One day in the Widow Adair's tavern, he was boasting of his bloody deeds, unmindful of the angry glances of the crowd around him, and among other things how he with his band surprised a lonely settler in Kentucky, killing him with all his family except one boy, who happened to be a short distance from the cabin, when attacked, and who, although hotly pursued, eluded his enemies and escaped. Now in that crowded bar-room there was one intensely interested listener, a stern man, who heard from the lips of the old chieftain the particulars of the story of his family's massacre; for he was that flying boy who had saved his life by fleetness of foot when all his kindred fell. Without a word he left the room. The next day Ben Davis did not make his appearance in Brookville; but it excited but little remark, for he was erratic in his movements. The second day some one passing his camp found the old chief cold in death, with a bullet hole in his forehead, and his pipe fallen by his side, for he had been sitting by his fire, smoking, when he received his sudden message to visit the happy hunting-grounds of the Indian's paradise. It was a fitting death for so fierce a spirit, for though he had escaped the whistling shot and trenchant steel in many a battle, he finally fell a victim to private vengeance. Public opinion, while unanimous as to the author of the deed, recognized the terrible provocation, and justified the act more readily, as many had lost friends by the hands of the red man. No judicial investigation was ever had, and the young man still held a respectable standing in society."

Ben Davis never forgave or forgot an injury. When his tribe, broken and defeated, was compelled to cede his lands, he held himself aloof, refusing to join in any treaty, though sullenly submitting to its requirements, and, while bowing to the decrees of an inexorable and restless destiny, declined by word or deed to approve or sanction them. His name will be perpetuated by that lovely stream, which waters some of the best lands of Eush County.