Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 6: Brick Court House and Early Residents at Rome, 1916

Rome's palmy days were her earliest, and the erection in 1820-22 of a brick court house - handsome for its time and built with a care shown by its yet excellent state of preservation - seemed to prophesy a career of enduring prosperity.

In general style and dimensions the building closely copied other county edifices of the same period - square, two stories, with hip roof and central cupola; its architectural lines strongly suggesting Indiana's first state house in Corydon; or the ancient court house of Nelson County, Kentucky, in the public square of storied Bardstown, once the refuge of an exiled French king.

The lapse of a century and the complete disappearance of the county records for Perry County's first decade, make it impossible to designate positively the actual pioneer residents upon the town plat of Rome (the former Washington). It may have been that the oldest volumes of all were never removed from Troy to Rome, since it was reported by Judge Goodlett in 1820, after inspection, that the clerk's office had not been kept as the law specified after the organization of the county, part of the records being then at Troy and part at Rome.

With such easy going methods of procedure, it is not a rash supposition that some of the immediately succeeding volumes were left behind when the county seat was finally re-located in 1859 at Cannelton. The compilers of a historical sketch published in 1885 declared that the most minute and protracted research failed to reveal any County Board reports of date prior to 1826 among the musty archives of the courthouse then in use, and similar investigation thirty years afterward, in the present Court-House basement, proved equally fruitless of result.

An approximate grouping, therefore, is all this chapter may claim to be, giving such names and particulars as can certainly be mentioned of those whom earlier authorities definitely establish as citizens of Rome during its first dozen years of existence. Terence Connor and his sons were a family of particular prominence; also Lemuel Mallory, George Ewing, Solomon Lamb (who as Recorder-Clerk moved with the county seat from Troy to Rome), and Samuel Frisbie (son-in-law of Terence Connor, Sr.), prosecuting attorney for a long term of years, in succession to William Hall, besides teaching one of the earliest schools.

John W. Ricks was for many years the leading merchant, even establishing a chain of branch stores at various other points in the county. He likewise owned a grist- and saw-mill run by the water power of Poison Creek, the stream's name having its origin from a spring whose water was believed to have caused the death of an early hunter who drank of it about the time of the survey in 1805.

Ricks was an extensive pork-packer, but did no slaughtering himself merely buying the fresh meat from the farmers, among whom it became customary to collect their hogs into large herds which were driven at the beginning of winter to Rome and there slaughtered for immediate sale, packing and shipment. In each season Ricks usually sent South at least one boatload of 25,000 pounds of pork, besides oats, corn and produce ; also live cattle, to say nothing of blooded horses, though he commonly found ready sale in Kentucky for the finer strains of horseflesh. He became a rich man by his trading ventures, and his sons, who went to California during the "gold fever" added to the wealth they had inherited.

also dispensing liquor over his bar. Two corn-mills and distilleries were operated in the neighbourhood, by Samuel Connor and Uriah Cummings, respectively. Everybody - men, women and children alike - in that early time drank whiskey whenever they could get it, regarding it as necessary to the system. A decanter stood on every sideboard and no reaping, corn-husking, house-raising, or shooting match could be carried on, it was thought, without a liberal supply of liquor, and a change of sentiment came about only by slow degrees.

George Ewing, Jr., also kept an early tavern in a commodious log structure of which a portion is still standing on the east side of the public square. He sold out comparatively soon, however, to Joshua Brannon Huckeby, a native of Bedford County, Virginia, whose parents - Thomas and Frances (Brannon) Huckeby - had come from their home near the "Peaks of Otter," bringing their children into Indiana in its territorial day, breaking their long wilderness journey as did the majority of Virginia emigrants by a period of residence in Kentucky.

Born February 13, 1802, three miles east of the Blue Ridge mountains, Joshua B. Huckeby was married April 4, 1824, in Rome, to Rebecca Lang, whose father, John Lang, had been killed by the Indians during the War of 1812. Within a few years they took up their abode in the log inn, where most of their children were born and where the leading men who came to Rome within the next quarter century were entertained.

Elijah Brannon Huckeby, a younger brother, opened a general store and was engaged in merchandise for some twenty years, at times alone and again in partnership. He was born May 15, 1811, and was twice married: in 1835 to Nancy, youngest daughter of David Groves, and in 1841 to Jane, daughter of Samuel Connor.

C. Axton a grocery and tavern the same year, and in 1827 William Hargis began selling liquor in what was then commonly spoken of as a "coffee-house." John Allen was a carpenter; Montgomery Anson (a native of Quebec, Canada, who had come to Perry County in 1819) a mason; Robert Gardner, a saddler and harness-maker; Robert S. Negus, a blacksmith; Shubael Little, a carpenter; Lanson Mallory and Moses Mallory, mill-wrights ; Andrew Ackarman (who came to America from Germany in 1822), a tanner.

Other property-owners at Rome in 1826, according to a list given by Goodspeed's History of Perry, Spencer and Warrick Counties in 1885, were Ira A. Blanchard, Drusilla Claycomb, George Claycomb, Nicholas Critchlow, Catherine Donnelly, John Green, Presley Hall, Isaac Hardin, Greenberry S. Holloway, John Little, Ezra Lamb, Israel Lamb (county agent until his death in 1829, when Robert Gardner succeeded him), Edmund Jennings, Louisa Negus, Alexander Ramsey, Jacob Shoemaker, John Shoemaker, Stephen Shoemaker, John Stapleton, James Stith, Casper Stonements, David H. Stonements, Phoebe Van Winkle and Thomas Wheeler. It must be remembered that this list enumerates only such individuals as actually held lots in the town plat on record, and therefore omits many who were residents of the immediate vicinity.

The site of the first school-house in Rome is impossible to locate, although a man named Corwin is said to have taught in 1820 in a small log dwelling on Lot 89, on Market Street, which had been converted into a temporary school building. Solomon Lamb, who had taught in Troy, also engaged in the same after his removal to Rome, and Samuel Frisbie followed the teaching profession at irregular intervals between his practice of law, all the terms being arranged for by subscription for tuition.

About 1819 the Methodists organized a class, its first meetings being held at the house of Terence Connor, Sr., who was an active member, together with his wife, John Claycomb and wife, John Allen and wife, John Jefferson Lang, the Greens, the Stapletons and other families. Preaching was held monthly, a large number of charges being embraced in what was long known in conference as "Rome Circuit," services continuing at the Connor residence until the court-house was finished, after which it was used for public worship and all meetings of importance, until a church edifice was erected some thirty years later.

The Baptists claim to have organized, also about 1819, some three miles west of Rome, the Rev. Charles Polke founding the class, as he had done that at Tobin's Point (Mount Gilead Church) a little earlier. Among the first Baptists at Rome were members of the Ricks, Lamb, Mallory, Hardin and other families, and it appears that their meetings were soon transferred to the court-house, in alternation with the Methodists.

The strongest Baptist organization in Perry County in early years was that of Gilead. At one time nearly all the residents in the south end of Tobin Township belonged to it, while on its membership roll today still appear the pioneer names of Polk, Tobin, Winchel and others representing the fifth generation of descendants from the original families.

A characteristic feature of these primitive years, now forever passed away, was "Training Day," and muster-grounds were set apart in various convenient clearings. One still remembered in Perry County was the level tract of land just west of Deer Creek, close to the Ohio River, for many years part of the Floyd Mason farm and now owned by Mrs. Robert Tobin Groves (Lena Roland). This was practically on the line between Troy and Tobin Townships and of equally convenient access to both.

The old militia system of the Northwest Territory, which Governor Harrison found in force upon his arrival at Vincennes, was by him reorganized and remained the law for Indiana Territory from December

Every able-bodied citizen between the ages of eighteen and forty-five (except ministers of the Gospel and Territorial officers) was required by law to enroll himself with the captain of his district company, also to provide himself with flintlock musket, bayonet, knapsack, pouch, cartridges, powder and ball. A complete division into the various ranking bodies was arranged, with full quota of officers, and semi-annual muster days were set for April and October, when the troops were supposed to be under arms for six hours, beginning with roll-call and inspection, with field-drill based upon Baron Steuben's manual of tactics.

Fines, ranging from six dollars for a private to one hundred dollars for an officer, usually ensured full attendance, though training day was too much of a neighbourhood social function for any one voluntarily to absent himself. The entire family turned out in full strength, a dinner of barbecued meats being customarily provided, with stands for the sale of gingerbread and hard cider, those delicacies of the period, and dancing on the hard ground was enjoyed to the stirring strains from pioneer fiddlers, whose music - however crude - was not devoid of a harmony peculiarly its own.

With such diversions occupying the younger element, their elders discussed topics of common interest; county, state or national affairs, and the inevitable presence of candidates, who were ubiquitous in a time when elections were held annually, brought prominently into the foreground a condition still reflected whenever Hoosiers assemble.

As the militia themselves were immune from arrest on the two days when called out for muster, the general jollification sometimes became boisterous, and the trials of strength begun in merriment occasionally de- generated into rough-and-tumble fisticuff practise, not to say actual fights. Personal grievances or differences of long standing were often settled on training day by a hand-to-hand conflict, which nobody interferred with as long as it was fair and square, and when thus settled the grudge was forgotten equally by victor and vanquished.

Samuel Connor, of Rome, was the highest ranking officer in the county, serving as General in the militia, besides having held a Captain's commission in the War of 1812. Greenville Polk, of Tobinsport, was a Colonel, his commission reading thus :

"Know ye, that from the special trust and confidence reposed in the patriotism, valour, fidelity and ability of Greenville Polk, I have commissioned and do commission him a Colonel in the 12th Regiment of the Militia of the State of Indiana ; to take rank as such from the date thereof, and during good behaviour. He is, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge the duties of a Colonel. And I do strictly charge and require all oflficers and soldiers under his command to be obedient to his orders as Colonel. And he is to observe and obey such orders and instructions, from time to time, as he shall receive from his superior officers, according to the Rules and Discipline of War.

"In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and have caused to be affixed the seal of the State of Indiana, at Cory don, the 11th day of March, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, the third year of the state, and of the Independence of the United States the forty-third. "Jonathan Jennings. (Signed) (SEAL)

This yellow and time-stained original document is now owned by a grand-daughter of Greenville Polk, Mrs. James H. Payne (Addie Polk Miller) of Tobinsport, to whom it has descended through her mother Nancy (Polk) Miller.