Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 9: Early Residents, Schools and Churches - Derby, 1916

In the same year of Lafayette's visit to America a young man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight who came into Perry County bore the name John Mason, a scion of the distinguished Virginia family, collaterally descended from the Colonial statesman, George Mason, author of the famous Bill of Rights, whose estate in Fairfax County overlooking the Potomac, "Gunston Hall," was adjacent to "Mount Vernon."

John Mason's first venture into Indiana had been into Pike County, but foreseeing a career of advancement for the Ohio River counties he sought a home in Perry County, establishing himself in Troy Township, Section 16, Township 6, South, Range 3, West. There, some two or three years later, he married Mrs. Sarah (Elkins) Webb, a native of Maine, the widow of Asa Webb. Of their seven children the eldest, William Floyd Mason, was the first-born child within the limits which afterwards became the city of Cannelton, his birth occurring January 21, 1830.

A few other scattered families were neighbours, as country people reckon such distances, the names of Cavender, Hoskinson, Holman and Wentworth being represented, but among them John Mason's vigourous personality made him distinctively foremost. He was energetic in his farming operations and - added to a disposition of singular kindheartedness and benevolence - possessed keen penetration and sound forethought which made him judicious while venturesome.

Coal as a steam-producer was brought to the notice of steamboat engineers by him among the first, and he was one of the earliest shippers introducing coal as a fuel in the city of New Orleans. While the commercial development of the region about his home became a little later the work of others, it must not be overlooked that his scrupulous honour in the payment of security debts thrown upon him had for a time severely cramped his financial status, and a just chronicle may not deny the credit which others have failed to pay John Mason as the true pioneer in recognizing the vast material resources latent in the rock-ribbed hills of Perry County.

That old-time conservatism yet existed in the 'twenties along the Ohio River, especially upon its southern bank, is quaintly attested by a grand jury indictment brought in 1827 for what is believed to have been the only genuine duel ever fought in Perry County, reading :

"State of Indiana, Perry County - ss : In the Perry Circuit Court, in the term of September, in the year of Our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven.

The Grand Jurors empanelled and sworn to enquire for the State of Indiana and the body of the County of Perry, present that Daniel Stephens, late of Tobin Township in the County of Perry and State of Indiana, Gentleman, on the fourteenth day of August, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, with force and arms, at said township in said County and State aforesaid, did fight a duel with a rifle loaded with gunpowder and ball, with one Stanley Singleton, by then and there shooting and discharging said rifle, loaded as aforesaid, at said Stanley Singleton, contrary to the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Indiana.

A corresponding indictment was returned against Stanley Singleton, and the cases remained for several terms upon the docket before finally nollied, as the

Both men were Kentuckians, and Daniel Stephens, an extensive landowner in Breckinridge County, just opposite the mouth of Bear Creek, adjacent to the present stations of Holt and Addison on the Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis Railway. The land was a portion of that entered by his father. Captain Richard Stephens, of Virginia, as a Revolutionary grant, and Singleton was a neighbour and personal friend. A violent quarrel, however, had arisen over political differences, so that a challenge was sent and accepted, the challenged party selecting the pioneer's weapon - the rifle - for the conflict. In order to evade Kentucky law the two men, in company with their seconds, and possibly a doctor or one or two servants, crossed the river into Tobin Township and exchanged two shots apiece. Singleton escaped with only a shot through the lobe of his ear, but at the second discharge Stephens received a severe wound in the hip, from which - after a tedious recovery - he suffered during the remainder of his life. The friendship between the men was cordially resumed, just as if there had been no duel.

One year later was held the first trial for murder, - the State of Indiana vs. William Rockwell for killing William Pitman. On May 12, 1828, the two men were in a skiff on the river and became involved in an altercation, during which Rothwell struck Pitman on the back of the head with an iron implement called a 'sheep's foot,' (a metal bar formed into a hammer head at one end and a claw at the other,) fracturing his skull and causing his death after a few days.

An indictment was found against Rothwell, followed by his arrest and trial at the September term. Samuel Frisbie was attorney for his defense, with Charles I. Battell as prosecutor, and Aaron Cunningham foreman of the jury. 'Guilty,' was the verdict returned, whereupon defendant's attorney filed a plea for a new trial on the ground of no jurisdiction, which was allowed by Judge Goodlett, it being construed at that time that Kentucky alone had jurisdiction over crimes committed on the Ohio River along Indiana borders. The prisoner was therefore delivered to the authorities of Breckinridge County, but on the eve of his trial at Hardinsburg a change of venue was taken to the county of Hancock, just organized, and Roth well succeeded in escaping from the primitive Hawesville jail and was never recaptured.

Samuel Frisbie was appointed Probate Judge in 1829, holding the office until elected senator the following year when James Reily became his successor, Stephen Shoemaker following Robert Gardner as County Agent, also in 1830. In September, 1831, the county business was placed in the hands of three commissioners, John Bristow, Hart Humphrey and Safford Haskell. They divided the county into forty-one road districts, naming the hands of each, or such ablebodied citizens as were required to give two days' manual labour oin the roads. For example: John Frakes was appointed supervisor of the Vincennes Road, "from Oil Creek to Smith's Sugar Camp," with Thomas Sprinkle, Abishai Dodson, Samuel Ewing and Graham Ewing as his assistants.

Much gerrymandering of road districts appears to have been indulged in, and an idea of road surveying at that period may be gleaned from a description placed on record in 1828 by Samuel Connor and Thomas Wheeler, who had been appointed 'to view a road from Tobin's Ferry to Rome.' It reads :

"Proceeding up the Ohio River until coming to the upper line of the widow Rebecca Weatherholt's Plantation ; - thence leaving the bank of the river, on the line of said plantation until crossing the principal slash; - from there bearing to the right on a small ridge as marked, until Abraham Finch's corner; - thence following the old Rome road to a blazed way formerly agreed on by George Tobin and Charley Polke until it intersects the Rome road; - thence following the Rome road as formerly opened to the blazes formerly made by Richard Polke and brothers; - and following said blazes with some alterations made by them to Buck's Run ; - thence up said run 59 or 80 yards to a log across the run where the marking again commences; crossing the run and proceeding near the corner of Henry Miller's oat-field; - where following said blazes to the Troy road to Rome."

The taxes for 1830 were fixed at a session of the board as 'the same as last year except horses 50 cents each and oxen 25 cents,' a reduction, as shown by the 1829 levy, quoted in full, and reading:

Ferry licenses were variously rated: Samuel Connor's, $9. James McDaniels', $4. Edmond Jennings', $4. James Tobin's, $3. Peter Barber's, $1. All storeboats were taxed at one dollar per month and no license was to be issued for less than one month. Resident merchants were also taxed, it appears, as Uriah Cummings paid $10 for the privilege of keeping store one year.

For a short period about this time the southern extremity of Tobin Township, or such portion of it as coincided with Congressional Township 7, South, existed under the name of Athens Township. Whether such title was bestowed as a further tribute to the ancient classics already twice honoured in the county, or because the residents considered themselves as veritable Athenians in culture and the desire for "some new thing," the present generation can never hope to know.

neys were admitted, Lyman Leslie, Eben D. Edson (afterward prosecutor, in 1835,) and George Burton Thompson, a member of that Kentucky family to which Congressman Phil Thompson, of the Harrodsburg district, belonged. George B. Thompson was elected jointsenator in 1833, and representative in 1845,

It is said that Rome was first incorporated by a special act of the Legislature which Doctor Thompson's efforts carried through while in the upper house, and a curious recognition of the equal franchise issue occurred in the provisions of the bill, which extended the suffrage privilege within the corporate limits to women who were property owners. Goodspeed's History of Perry, Spencer and Warrick Counties (1885) asserts that this was done in order to secure as heavy a vote as possible against the granting of liquor licenses, but when the test came, the result was not what the temperance advocates had reckoned upon, and the town corporation lapsed after but a few years of existence. Three changes on the judicial bench occurred during the decade of the 'thirties. Judge Goodlett after serving twelve years being followed by Samuel Hall who, at the September term, 1832, presented a commission signed by Noah Noble, Governor. His sound interpretation of the law is attested by the fact that very few of his decisions in the Fourth Circuit were reversed by the Supreme Court. He was accurate, deliberate and dispassionate ; popular with his court as a good reader of human nature.

Charles I. Battell succeeded him in 1835, filling the position only one year. Possessing more grace in oratory than Judge Hall, he was yet unequal to him in hard common sense. Plodding studiously through ancient authorities had no attraction for Judge Battell, who aptly acquired legal lore through practice. He was a better attorney than judge, and still more a pleader rather than counsellor.

the superior of either Hall or Battell, and a man above the average in all branches of his profession. He is described as reliable, skillful, adroit, fluent, and not easily confused by any depth of conflicting testimony or argument; qualifications which made him later a valuable public servant in the higher position he was called to occupy, Representative for the First Congressional District.

Most of the development of Perry County thus far traced has been of occurrences immediately adjacent to the Ohio River, but it must not be assumed thereby that the northeastern region was without settlers, or that a more detailed individual mention of them has been intentionally omitted.

Into the extreme northern end of Tobin Township had come Thomas Cummings from Virginia as early as 1807, and inside the next three years he was followed by his son, Uriah Cummings who, on his way to Indiana, had married in Kentucky, Sarah Lanman, like himself a native of the Old Dominion. They located upon land which the father had entered, and became the parents of four sons and seven daughters, so that their descendants are numerous and found in other townships as well as on the original homestead, the name of Uriah having been handed down through each generation to the present.

From 1815 to 1829 Uriah Cummings I operated a saw- and grist-mill on Poison Creek, afterward conducting a store in a building on his farm until he died, July 30, 1831. His donation, in 1816, of forty acres, had secured the location of the court house at Rome, but the condition attaching thereto, (providing for reversion to his heirs in case Rome ceased to be the county seat,) was disregarded when the county offices were moved, in 1859, to Cannelton, and through some technicality the claim of the Cummings heirs to the property was defeated.

from the river, above the old State Road. While its date of origin could not be definitely ascertained, it was known as the Waterbury Mill prior to 1850, and the locality was of sufficient importance to be indicated as ''Waterbury" upon a state map in Colton's Atlas of that period. Samuel Burton was one of its proprietors, and the families of Anson, Bryant, Carr and Glenn v/ere among those who lived near.

John Hargis, who had come from Kentucky with his wife, Nancy Allen, among the pioneers, was unfortunate in losing the land he had entered in Section 13, owing to an accidentally erroneous description of its location, only discovered and taken advantage of by other parties after he had made considerable improvement of the property.

He bought other land near by and for several years operated a large horse-mill, the power whereof was conducted by a band of raw bull's-hide, with the hair still on, cut out in a circle beginning at the centre of the hide. This business was so profitably managed that he was the owner of a half-section (320 acres) of land at his death, October 17, 1838. His widow survived him forty years, dying at an advanced age in June, 1878. Their descendants through twelve children are of great number, scattered through many states, besides represented in the old neighbourhood and connected by marriage with numerous Perry County families.

William Mitchell founded the third town in Perry County, on Section 33, Township 5, South, Range 2, West, w|hich he had taken up in 1818, after coming from Virginia through Kentucky, with his wife, Mary Bruner, and their several children. On November 4, 1835, John Cassidy, then conducting a store at the mouth of Oil Creek (but who had been County Surveyor in 1819) laid out for William Mitchell a town-site comprising 21 lots 90 by 60 feet in dimensions, with a 50-foot street (Water Street) along the river front, and Second Street, parallel therewith, 33 feet wide, one

Of this plat, however, the encroaching river has devoured so much that one can scarcely recognize today the original plan as recorded December 4, 1835, on Page 18, of Deed Book B, by Samuel Frisbie, Recorder, per Joshua B. Huckeby, deputy. It has always been toiv. that Samuel Frisbie was the town's sponsor, choosing its name to honour the Old World home of his ancestors.

Almost directly after the first house was built in Derby, William Mitchell erected a distillery on (and partially in) the hillside. When in operation its daily output was between twenty and thirty gallons of whiskey and brandy, for which a ready local market was found at a price far from prohibitive, twelve-anda-half cents, or "a bit," per gallon.

After some twelve years the building was turned into the first chair-factory in Perry County and used as such for several years by Jesse Inman. He employed three or four other men, each of whom turned out a dozen chairs as a daily average, the work being performed entirely by hand.

School in the vicinity was first taught in a private house by John Stephens, shortly followed by the erection of a small log school house in a neighbourhood, in which Jesse Inman taught several terms. It was very inconveniently located for the majority of those who should have been its patrons, the notion seeming to have long prevailed among the pioneers that a school house should be situated outside the villages and in the woods remote from any public highway whose passing trafl[ic might possibly disturb the pupils. This idea is borne out by the location of many other early school houses in the county, and, also, obtained to some extent in fixing sites for certain of the churches.

There was no early church in Derby itself, the nearest being some few miles south on the Rome road. Union Universalist Church, built in 1835-36. This congregation was founded by the Rev. E. B. Mann, its first pastor, and during early years ranked as one of the strongest organizations of that belief in Indiana, many of its membership - which is stated to have included representatives of the Connor, Cummings, Ewing, Groves, Humphrey, Hyde, Simons and Tate families - coming some distance from other parts of the county to attend service, or 'preaching' as the term v^as then in vogue. During the 'forties, Roman Catholic missionary w^ork was begun by the Rev. Augustus Bessonies, who organized St. Mary's congregation and built the church which still stands as the only religious edifice in Derby.

Oil Township's first teacher is said to have been James Reily, a man of exceptionally good education for his time, who had located there in 1817, but it is not definitely known just where he taught, nor v/here the first religious worship was conducted. Probably both were held in private homes. Reily also taught a night session, known as a 'grammar school,' at which many adult pupils attended. Among his patrons of different ages were members of the Deen, Esarey, Ewing, Falkenborough, Frakes, Walker and Willett families.

Robert Walker and Delilah (Phillips) Walker were notably active pioneer Methodists, and a prominent circuit-rider of the period was the Rev. John Hughes, who had fought gallantly in the Indian wars, and later served his widespread flock as a pious shepherd until seventy-five years of age. Walls and Seaton were the names of other early preachers of the Gospel.

The Ewings (John and Eleanor) and the Jamisons (Samuel and Catherine) were of the old-school Presbyterian belief, but no preacher or church organization of that faith can be noted until about 1838. At a date which some give as 1817 a combined school house and church edifice, 20 by 24 feet in size, was built of logs, half a mile east of where Branchville now stands, and in it - the earliest of its kind recorded in Oil Township - societies were organized by the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists.

Irregular meetings were held in the late 'thirties among the numerous German families who had come into the central portion of Tobin Township, and the name "German Ridge" came to designate the hill-district in which they formed a colony. Its postoffice is now 'German,' the termination 'Ridge' having been dropped by the government at a time when all such names were abridged by the Postal Department.

Preaching in their own language was naturally wished by the pious farmers from Prussia, Wurttemburg and the Rhenish provinces, so about 1838 a German Methodist class was regularly organized, the leading families being those of Mueller, Plock, Klein, Werner, Schank and Ackarman. For its first years the class was in a wide circuit served semi-occasionally from Boonville, but was later a part of the "Huntingburg Mission," which comprised, besides work in Dubois County, the field of Perry County also, including the German Methodists on the Ridge, at Oil Creek and - somewhat later - at Cannelton.

Their first pastor was the Rev. Conrad Muth, and under his charge a log cabin was built, about three miles from Rome, on a hill above Bear Creek, and giving a glimpse of the distant Ohio River. This church was followed about 1873 by a frame building in use by the congregation.