Putnam County, Indiana - Chapter 10: Incidents of Early History, 1910

Chapter 10: Incidents of Early History

We are told by those who have studied tlie question that in the early settlement of the county the people almost invariably mo\'ed westward along climatic parallels : that the wave of immigration which began in New York and the New England states rolled over Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana ; that the Maryland and Virginia tide swept through Kentucky and thence along the same parallel to Missouri. Such doubtless was the rule, but for some strange reason it did not apply in the case of Putnam county : for when the New York or Yankee stream neared these parts it was sudtlenly diverted and in its stead came a persistent and unvarying influx from Kentucky. The young and hardy emigrant from the blue-grass country was by some mysterious and inscrutable agency drawn across the natural parallel to that one spot in Indiana where blue grass had long before aii[)eared and reached its highest perfection.

Many of our established families are able to trace their lineage through and beyond Kentucky : and it is no discredit to them that, even to the latest generation, there still remain traces of the lofty bearing, knightly hospitality and hatred of their Yankee neighbors which was so marked a characteristic of their aristocratic progenitors, the Cavaliers of Maryland anfl \'irginia.

To illustrate more vividly the character and purposes of those who laid the foundations of our agricultural prosperity and success. - for we are above all things an agricultural county, - extracts are here inserted from the history of the li\es of two of our earliest and most prominent settlers; and as they are merely types of many others, the names are omitted. The first one is the substance of a paper read before the Putnam County Historical Society as follows :

I40 Weik S History Of

American colonies where he could exercise his religious and political views as best suited him. He landed in this country in 1775, about one year before the Declaration of Independence. He settled in Virginia, where he lived when England declared war against the colonies. He at once laid down the plow for the sword and enlisted in the army. He fought under the command of General Washington for a short time; then was placed under General Greene and was with him in all his battles in the Carolinas and in Virginia. He was a soldier of the Revolution for seven years, remaining faithful to the cause until peace had been declared and the United States had become free and independent. After his discharge from the army he lived for a short time in the state of Virginia and from there went to Jessamine children were born to them, three daughters and one son. The death of his first wife occurred a short time after the birth of the last child. His second

"The subject of this sketch was the fifth child by the second marriage and was born July 5, 1804. In the year 1812, when he was eight years old. his father died. His mother survived her husband many years, her death occurring October i, 1839, at the home of her son in Putnam county, six miles near Mt. Sterling. Kentucky, and worked for his board and clothing for five years. During this time he went to school about three months of each winter for four winters, obtaining thus all the school education he ever recei\-ed. The school house was built of hewed logs with a large fire-place in one end. having split saplings with wooden legs for benches and greased paper for window panes.

the age of twenty years, on March 5, 1825. the subject of this sketch w as married to Miss In a few days thereafter, having loaded on a pack saddle all their household goods, consisting of two beds, three plates, two teacups, two knives, two forks, a gourd, a stewkettle and a skillet, the wife riding another horse and canying with her all their wearing apparel and leading the pack-horse, and the husband following on foot. driving a cow and a colt which his father-in-law had given him. the young couple started for their new home in the wilds of Estill county, Kentucky, on the Kentucky river seventy-five miles away. They took two days for the journev. Arrived at his destination, the young farmer traded one horse for a claim of al^out twentv-five acres. This trade left him one mare, a colt.

one cow, a young wife and not a dollar in his pocket. He at once determined to better his condition and own a large fami. The first year he cleared five acres of ground. He raised five crops on this place. All the iron he had for tending these crops was the point of his shovel-plow and the bit in his horse's mouth. After he had raised one crop his brother-in-law sold him eleven sows and pigs on credit for thirty dollars. He drove them home eighteen miles and turned them out on mast in the mountains, feeding them occasionally to keep them from running wild. That thirty dollars of debt worried him day and night and he was determined to pay it. In order to do this he hunted coons on winter nights for their hides, which he sold for ten dollars. His wife spun yarn, wove cloth and made him an overcoat, which he concluded to do without in order that he might sell it for twenty dollars to pay his debt. He now had the thirty dollars he owed his brotherin-law and walked eighteen miles to pay it. He felt chagrined when on reaching the latter's house he refused to take the money, saying: 'Now,

Catching .A Penitent Thief

"The third year our subject lived in the mountains he met with a loss which led him into an interesting and almost fatal adventure. .-\ young man came to him for work and he hired the applicant for the season. The second day after doing so. while he was away in the mountains looking after his hogs, the hired man stole the only suit of clothes he had. ten coon skins, se\'en dollars in monev and his canoe and put off down the river. On coming home at night he learned from his wife what had happened and immediatehdetermined to catch the thief. He borrowed a canoe of his nearest neighbor and started down the river for that purpose. Se\'eral miles below, a large rock lay in the middle of the river with a swift current flowing on each side of it. On this rock his canoe lodged in such a manner that he could not get it oft'. He got out of his boat and managed to get a solid footing, but having carefully \iewed the situation he gave up all hope of ever getting away alive and commenced to pray. After pra\-ing for some time, he concluded forced prayer could not avail much. So he quit praying and. plunging into the icv water, swam ashore. He went to the nearest house and dried his clothing. At daylight he set out. this time on foot down the river bank in search of his man. Four or five miles below he found his canoe tied to the bank bottom up and knew from that circumstance and from the swift current in the river that the thief had also been capsized and lost all the stolen goods. He went to the nearest house and found the man drying his clothes. He took the refugee in charge and started back on foot. Thinking the matter over, he concluded to give his captive the choice of a whipping or a trip to the penitentiary. The man chose the whipping. He accordingly tied him to a tree, cut a good switch and began on him. He whipped a while, then talked, telling the culprit that the whipping was for his good. He repeated the castigation till they were both worn out. Then he turned the malefactor loose and gave him some good advice. As the hat of the unfortunate evil-doer had been lost in the river, he gave him his own and went home bareheaded. Twenty years later he met this man in an adjoining state, with an interesting family around him, well-to-do and respected by all his neighbors. The whipping was not referred to by either party; but it is not at all improbable that the timely whipping with its accompanying advice made a man of the unlucky thief.

"After raising five crops concluded that the mountains had no further attraction for him and in the fall of 1829 he rounded up his hogs, which had increased to one hundred seven head, and his calves, which had grown to be good sized steers, and sold the entire lot, together with twentv acres of standing corn in the field, for five hundred dollars.

and he had selected Illinois for his future home. He hired a man to move him and he himself walked behind the wagon, driving three cows. He arrived in Illinois about the loth of October, 1829. He had sent his wife and two children with her father to Indiana. He entered one hundred fifty-six acres of land six miles south of Paris, sowed four acres of wheat and commenced to build him a cabin. When Sunday came he found there was not a church or school house nearer than six miles. He began to look about and see what class of people he was to make home and rear his children with and found them congregated on Sunday at shooting matches, horse races and gander-pullings. They would take an old gander, tie his feet to the limb of a tree, soap his head and neck, then go back fifty yards and ride as fast as their horses could run under the gander and catch him by the head : whoever pulled the head off received the gander as a prize. ]Men were pulled off of their horses oftener than heads were pulled off of the ganders. As the young fanner from Kentucky had been taught to respect the Sabbath and was a member of the Methodist church, he could not think of rearing his children in such a community. So he concluded to find a better neighborhood.

"About the last of October he came over to Indiana after his wife and children. The first Sunday following his arrival he attended church in a these men and the land about with the people and land in Illinois, where he had taken a claim, he concluded to sell out and locate in Indiana. ^Ir.

of his land for two hundred dollars and then give him an additional eightyacre tract adjoining it. He accepted the proposition. These one hundred

Greencastle. Immediately after the purchase he left for Illinois and moved all his household goods on a pack saddle, arriving at his new Indiana farm the latter part of October, 1829.

'"The first thing was to build him a log house in about the thickest woods he had ever seen. By spring he was ready to move into the cabin. He at once went to work, deadening timber, rolling logs and burning brush bv night. The first spring he succeeded in clearing three acres, among the stumps of which, planting in June, he raised a good crop of corn. The second year he cleared ten acres. After cutting all the timber down and trimming it ready for rolling, he called in his neighbors and thirtv of them came to help him. The next day he and his thirty assistants went to another neighbor and helped him. and so on from clearing to clearing. And so from year to year the sturdy early settlers toiled until they finally succeeded in clearing and fencing their farms says that ofT of the fann on which he settled when he came to Putnam county he has sold twelve thousand dollars worth of walnut and poplar timber and he is satisfied that he destroyed and made into rails an amount that if it were standing todav would be valued at not less than twenty thousand dollars.

'"The early settlers were all poor and dependent upon selling what little thev had to spare to new-comers into the county. .\t one time at a Fourth they would have no one to whom they could sell their surplus; but as the country became settled their markets opened and the Judge's problem was solved.

money to donate, the first mentioned on the above list subscribed a cow, which was sold for eight dollars, the money thus obtained being used in the construction of the church. The inhabitants attended church by families in wagons drawn by oxen some of the men walking and leading the oxen.

money and ere long had bought forty acres of land adjoining his home farm for one hundred dollars. His next purchase was eighty acres for five hundred dollars. And as he could spare the money he kept adding to his farm until he had increased it to five hundred and fifty acres; this was in the year 1847. He always made it a rule never to buy land until he could make a partial payment and see his way to pay the balance, giving his note for deferred payments; and he never failed to meet the notes when due. He was never asked to give an endorser or make a mortgage.

wnth him an equal share of the hardships of a new country. She left him a large family of children, consisting of seven boys and three girls, all of whom are living except two. Three years later, on September 15. 1S52.

three thousand acres of land, though all the money for this purpose or for any other purpose advanced to them has. with the exception of eight hundred dollars each, been returned to him. He preferred to let them pay for their own homes that they might better appreciate them. He attributes his financial success largely to keeping out of debt and avoiding speculation and has tried to impress the same rule of life upon his sons."

The account of the other early settler referred to in the opening paragraph of this chapter is from the pen of his son. "My father.'' relates the latter, "left Fre<lerick county. INfaryland. where he was born, in 1825. main- ly because of slavery, to which he was bitterly opposed. He was mounted on a large and fine horse, of which he was a judge and great admirer, and seated on a pair of old-fashioned leather saddle-bags, in which he carried all his belongings. Being deeply interested in agriculture, he had decided to emigrate to a country where he could get the four most important elements of a hrst-class fami, namely, good soil, good water, lime-stone rock and good timber. He journeyed through Kentucky, halting in Clark, Faette and Bourbon counties, where he found the four requisites, but the dark shadow of slaver}- was as objectionable as in the Maryland location he had just left. He kept westward and ere long reached Indianapolis where the means he had would have purchased a wide extent of land, but he thought it was too wet, more or less unhealthy, and not up to his standard. Continuing his journey, he liked the appearance of the coitntry about Danville. but did not see exactly what he wanted. Xight overtook him two miles east of Greencastle. He stopped for the night with old John McXary, at whose house a large gathering of neighbors had congregated to celebrate the in fare of one of McNar>'"s children who had just been married. My father was much pleased with the manner of the people, especially their considerate attentions to a stranger. Xext morning by sunrise he was on his horse, headed for Greencastle, expecting to arrive there in time for breakfast. He stopped at a tavern called 'Social Hall,' kept by one King. AX'hile eating his first meal in the embyro city, he learned from King that the upper story of his house was unfinished on account of a lack of monev and that he wanted to sell. Before leaving the table a bargain was struck and before the next meal my father was himself the proprietor of "Social Hall" and held an option on two vacant lots nearby. His travels had ended antl he soon began to acquire farnnng land near the town. At that time there was much valuable land still subject to entr>- at the United States land office. :\Iv father's selections there and his purchase of small tracts located by others composed the main part of his landed possessions. He had evidently found in the soil and climate of Putnam county the requisite he had been seeking, and in time became the largest land owner in the county."

Tliere are good grounds for the belief that the blue grass of Putnam county and the adjacent area is an original Indiana product and not. as is generalh- supposed, an importation from Kentuck\-. To at least two per- (10) sons from the Hoosier state - Hon. Henry S. Lane, of Crawfordsville. and Col. Thomas Dowhng, of Terre Haute - Henn.- Clay declared that the seed of the original blue grass which has made Kentucky famous came from Indiana. When Colonel Dowling visited Mr. Clay and asked for a handful of the seed of the real Kentucky blue grass to take home with him. the proprietor of "Ashland" smiled and then reminded his visitor that blue grass was indigenous to the soil of central Indiana, which was a limestone base with -a. super-stratum of clav, and that the Kentucky soldiers in the early Indian wars, returning from Ft. Harrison on the Wabash, found it growing in profusion there and brought the seed back home with them.

But whether that be true or not, it is certain that Putnam county is entitled to some distinction as the leading blue grass county of the state. Our earlv settlers realized the advantages of that remarkable plant, its wonderful nutritious value and the profitable returns it yielded when properly fed to li\-estock. The result was that our people were among the earliest and at one time the greatest producers of high-grade cattle in the state. Space here will not allow the list of all their names, but prominent among them Avere such men as Dr. A. C. Stevenson, Andrew M. Lockridge, Joseph Allen. Wilson Yates, James McMurray. B. F. Corwin, Daniel Thornton, Charles Brido-es, Col. A, S. Farrow, Alexander Bryan, Ambrose D. Hamrick, Frank P. Nelson, Jesse Hvmer, William B. Peck. Thomas C. Hammond and Simpson F. Lockridge. The earliest and the most conspicuous in his efforts to utilize the wealth of blue grass and improve the breed of cattle was Dr. Alexander C. Stevenson. He was a real student of agriculture, having for vears been president of the State Agricultural Society, as well as a genius in the development of our livestock. Even while he was still living in Greencastle and practicing medicine, he was deeply interested in livestock. "He lived." relates one of the early residents of Greencastle, "in a two-story log house just outside the corporation line, northwest of town and on a lot north of James M. Groom's residence. He had a large barn and when I was a bov I used to go there and admire the fine specimens of the short-horn breed of cattle, descendants of stock purchased of the Owens family, and which traced back to the famous Kentucky importation of 1817. The Doctor was a remarkable man for his time and a diligent student of the stock c|uestion. I have witnessed him in del^ate when called to the floor by remarks of such men as Lewis F. Allen, of Buffalo, New York. George M. Bedford and William Warfield of Kentucky, and he invariably acquitted himself with credit.''

Early Importation Of Cattle

Doctor Stevenson ven- early realized that our own livestock was not up to the requisite standard and that great improvement could be made bv the introduction of some of the recognized pure breeds from abroad. He argued that with the abundance of luxuriant blue grass then in the country, great profits could be realized if only the right strain of stock was secured: and he proposed to his neighbors and friends that they combine and purchase the requisite stock in Europe and ship to this country. But, however favorably his neighbors were impressed with the idea, none - with a single exception - were willing to join him and he therefore embarked in the enterprise himself. July 2, 1853. he sailed from Philadelphia for England, where he spent some time traveling over the country, examining the various herds and studying the livestock question from every point of view. With the primitive and inconvenient arrangements on shipboard and elsewhere for shipping cattle across the Atlantic in that day, it was not only an expensive but more or less hazardous undertaking. The Indiana State Journal and the Indiana Farmer published numerous letters from the Doctor in which he described his journey and the many strange and oftentimes interesting experiences that befell him. He bought stock here and there, mostlv the short-horns and Durham cattle, and collected them at the town of [>arlingtrjn.. From the latter place he drove them across the country to Liverpool, where he secured passage for himself and proper shipping facilities for his stock on one of the west-bound vessels sailing from that port. The passage across the Atlantic in the fall was somewhat rough, but in due time he reached the United States without the loss of a single animal.

The arri\'al of the herd in Greencastle is chronicled in the Putnam Banner. There were two bulls: one named "Prince of Wales." was turned over to Joseph .\llen, who was interested in the enterprise : the other. "Fancy Boy." was retained by Doctor Stevenson. There were also four heifers The Banner \ery significantly observes that "The cattle imported bv Doctor Stex'enson to this countrv- are not for sale. They were purchased near Darlington. England, of three different breeders, are all beautiful roans, except one which is red, and are but distantly related, so that the produce may be lired together for some time to come." Doctor Stevenson also brought home with him from England two pigs of the Leicester breed, purchased from Robert Thornton of Stapleton. The boar he named "Prince Albert." In the columns of the Indiana Farmer the Doctor, recommending them t<j his farmer friends, is ver}- enthusiastic in their praise. Describing them, he says : "In color they are white with an occasional small discoloration in the skin but none in the hair, it being uniformly white. The hair is fine, short and very thin o\er the body. The legs are short and straight and the bone small. The head is small and tapering to the nose, face straight, ears small and narrow ; in many cases they are erect - in some they pitch a little forward. The body is long and finely barreled, being in the boar almost a cylinder. They have great depth through the shoulders and hips. The eye is lively and quiet. In disposition they are exceedingly quiet. They have a great propensity to take on fat at any age and their usual weight at twelve months old is from three hundred to three hundred and fifty pounds."

The spirit of emulation and enterprise in agricultural products and livestock very early manifested itself among the settlers in Putnam county and as it developed it tended to draw to the county from other localities and even from abroad, as already related, some of the best and finest stock to be had in the country.

"The first fair for the exhibition of stock," related a former historian of the county, "was held September 7, 1837, on the ground north of the public square in Greencastle where the Presbyterian church formerly stood. It was but little more than a show of livestock, held on the open ground and without fees. A committee passed judgment on the merits of the animals exhibited, but no premiums were paid. The horse owned by Col. A. S. Farrow was adjudged the best in that department, but the other winners on that day cannot be remembered. In 1838 or 1839 another fair was held on an open lot near the present site of the east college building of DePauw University. At this exhibition a bull called 'Tecumseh.' owned by Anderson B. Matthews, took the premium in that class."

The Putnam County Agricultural Society was organized about 1850. There are no records e.xtant from which to obtain the first list of officers, but from a list of premiums awarded at the third annual fair held in Greencastle, October 5-7, 1853, we find the names of the following prominent as committees on awards, etc. : A. S. Farrow, Elijah Tennant, William S. Farrow, G. Bondurant. .\. ]\IcCoy, William S. Ray, Benjamin Purcel. William L. Hart, Robert Allen. E. Van Skoike. Henry Smith. R. S. Farrow,

James Evans. A. D. Hamrick, A. Bowen, A. C. Stevenson, \V. H. Thornburgh, A. J. Darnall, H. T. Wakefield, John Hammond, A. D. Bilhngsley, G. W. VVolverton, WiUiam Brown. James Crawford, John S. Jennings, Turpin Darnall, John S. Allen, Elijah McCarty. John W. Nance, Andrew M. Lockridge, O. P. Badger, J. N. Rynerson, W. \V. Yates, William ]\Iatkins, Edward Crow. John Cowgill, Henry Secrest and R. S. Ragan. In February. 1854, the society accepted an offer of five acres of land by B. F. Corwin and Daniel T. Thornton at Bainbridge and decided to hold the fair in that town in October. January. 1855. the following officers of the society were chosen, as published in the Greencastle Banner: President, John A. IMatson ; vice-president, O. P. Badger; treasurer, John S. Jennings; corresponding secretary, Albert G. Patrick; recording secretary, Thomas E. Talbott; directors. James Allen, James McMurray, Nicholas West, C. Fosher, J. Franklin Darnall, W. W. Yates, C. Gibson. Richard M. Hazlett. Thomas Leach, A. D. Hamrick, Samuel E. Parks, A. J. McCoy, I. N. Rynearson, A. C. Stevenson, Joseph Allen, Anderson Johnson. Higgins Lane, T. C. Hammond. E. Y. Tennant. and James AI. Robertson. In the last \i-eek in September, 1855. '^he fair was again held in Greencastle on a tract of land southwest of town owned by John A. Matson and which was leased for ten years. Soon after this. Prof. Miles J. Fletcher, of Asbury University, was chosen president of the Agricultural Society and under his progressive management the fair enterprise took on new life. It was still held on the Matson place and so continued till 1862, when, owing to the agitation resulting from the war and the generally unsettled condition of the country, it was deemed wise to suspend it for a time. A fair was meanwhile held at Russellville, called the L'nion Fair because it was the joint work of people who lived in the three counties nearby, but, for the reason assigned, everything in the nature of an agricultural fair was held in abeyance at the county-seat. In 1868 the Agricultural Society was re-organized and a new set of officers chosen. Fairs were again held each fall, part of the time on the Matson place and later on the Lockridge land east of Greencastle, until along in the eighties when public interest in the matter began to wane and the indifference became so pronounced that it was finally decided to discontinue further efforts to keep the enterprise alive.

Values Of Lands And Crops

But even though the time-honored county fair may ha\e gone out of fashion, interest in agriculture and the development of livestock has not. Our fanners are more strenuously than e\'er striving to increase the products of the soil. From data and figures collected by the United States during the census of 1900 we learn that there are 2,883 farms in Putnam county of an average size of 1044 acres; twelve farms are under three acres; six over 1,000 acres; 54.7 per cent of farm lands is cultivated by the owners; 19.7 by share tenants ; 7.9 by cash tenants and the remainder by owners and tenants together.