Randolph County, Indiana - Chapter 10: Colored People, 1882

Chapter 10: Colored People

pees of color came so early to the county, and in such numbers, and have remained, during the years since those olden days, dwellers in these regions, and in Randolph County in particular, so extensively and so permanently, that it hus been deemed advisable to give an account of them in a separate chapter.

Greenville Settlement

Tn 1822, Thornton Alexander, Sr., with a wife and nine children, moved from Warren County, Ohio, to Greensfork 'Township, northeast of Spartansburg. Within a few years, he entered 300 acres of excellent land. In a short time, other colored families followed Mr. Alexander, so that a considerable settlement was soon formed. {[n 1833, eleven years after he had entered the wilderness, the following settlers were in the region:

Ezekiel Lewis, east of Thornton Alexander; Colliér Simpson, north of Alexander; William Lewis; Philip Holland, near the Griffis farm; Allen Davis, near Jessup's Mill; John Randle, near Spartansburg, 1833.

Colored persons continued to come in until, by 1846, the settlement had been quite large. About 1845, the Union Literary Institute, a manual labor boarding school, was established for indigent youth there by the munificence of Benjamin Thomas, James Moorman, James Clemens, Thornton Alexander and others, friends of the poor, both white and colored. Land to the amount of near one hundred and eighty acres was donated, and a charter obtained from the Legislature. Rev. E. Tucker was employed as Principal, and a boarding house, by donations from friends of the cause, was erected. 'The school was opened in June, 1846, and for years the school was somewhat famous throughout the region. Good schools were scarce then, and large numbers of all colors attended from Randolph and adjacent counties. Colored youth were members of the school from Dayton, Piqua, Cincinnati, Richmond, Logansport, Indianapolis, from Shelby and Mercer Counties, Ohio, and even from Mississippi. Many colored youth received an education there who have since done good work for their people.

Prof. Tucker left in 1854, and, after passing through various hands, and being intermitted for several years, the institution was revived again, and Prof. Tucker took charge, and taught from 1873 to 1879.

The schoo] is now under the supervision of Mr. Milton A. Roberts, a graduate of Spiceland Academy, a gentleman of fine talents and of high promise for future usefulness as an instructor. of youth. It was originally a boarding school, but the change of times has brought it to be chiefly a neighborhood school. However, it is still accomplishing a good work for those who attend its instructions.

Most of the early settlers are dead. John Randle alone remains of the grown-up settlers, old and blind, but sprightly and cheerful. . [He died, October, 1881.] Isaac Alexander, who came there as a boy seven years old, in 1822, still resides in the settlement.

Many of the men volunteered in the army and gave good service in helping to crush the rebellion.and to secure freedom to the down-trodden millions of their race; and they are reaping their due reward in the enjoyment of a full citizenship, bestowed on them by a grateful country.

The settlement here Jies on both sides of the Ohio line, with by far the largest part in Ohio. In Indiana, a territory about one mile by three is occupied, while in Ohio nearly three miles square is covered by the colored residents. In Ohio, four school districts are to be found, with a good schoolhouse in each, three of them being new brick edifices of good construction and neat design, and schools are maintained. for seven to eight months ir the year.

The nucleus of the settlement in Ohio was formed about fiftyfive years ago, by James Clemens, Sr., with his large family of boys and girls, there being eight or ten children, five of whom are still living. James Clemens and his wife, Sophia, are dead, both living to be about ninety years old. He took up in his lifetime about six hundred acres of land, which is now mostly distributed among his numerous descendants. The principal residents now are Charles Clemens, James McKown, Reuben Goens, William Burden, William McKown, Zebedee Buss, Asaniah Goens, Elijah P. Clemens, Windsor W. Epps, Leander Swaney, Sandy Jones, Riley Bass, Perry Clemens, Iuayton Clemens, A. J. Clemens, J. W. Clemens, Charles Carpenter, John Carpenter, Willson Smith, Mrs. Mahala Clemens, Mrs. Durant, Alfred Clemens, Silas Wade, Moses Jefferson, Blake Durant, Sumner Durant, Silas Robbins and many others.

In the whole Greenville settlement, some years ago, there 'were about nine hundred people. There is on the Ohio side a Wesleyan Church, and on the Indiana side an African Methodist Episcopal Church. The clergyman among them are: Rev. Lemuel Stokes, Indiana side, A. M. E.; Rev. Charles Clemens, Ohio side, Wesleyan; Rev. Perry Clemens, Ohio side, Wesleyan.

Elijah P. Clemens, teacher; Windsor W. Epps, teacher and studying law; Silas Robbins, now practicing attorney at St. Louis, Mo.; Wesley Robbins, teacher, and practicing medicine; Wiley A. Robbins, farmer; John Wade, attending school; Martin Clemens, teacher and farmer; Sumner Durant, teacher and farmer; Blake Durant, teacher and farmer; Cassius F. Stokes, teacher at Kokomo, Ind.; Lee Roy Stokes, teacher at Noblesville, Ind.; Jackson Okey, teacher and farmer; Milton A. Roberts, teacher and preacher and law student.

During the nearly-sixty years of the existence of this settlement, great numbers have emigrated from this " hive" and gone to other regions, to help form new settlements, or to the towns for readier access to the facilities for work. New accessions have been as constantly made to their numbers, and the growth from without and from within, combined, despite the ceaseless dropping out to Grant County, to Paulding County, to Michigan and where not, has raised the numbers in the settlement to eight or nine hundred souls. It is wholly a farming community, not having even the shadow or semblance of a town, unless, indeed, the old shell of a village at Tampico, on the Ohio side, be reckoned such, wherein no business, except liquor-selling occasionally and a blacksmith shop now and then, has been located or transacted for years.

Music

The people of color seem to have a natural aptness for music. The settlement has long been noted for the ability of many of its members in this respect. Many "schools'' have been held among them there, with pleasing success. j

From 1874 to 1878, a glee club existed in the Greenville settlement, composed of a few enthusiastic young persons - Plijah P. Clemens, Adeline Clemens, Richard Cotman, Philo A. Tucker (white), Jane P. Costen, Emma Goens, Ellen Goens, Elizabeth Goens and Lillie F. Tucker (white). The club took great delight together in their musical efforts, spending much time in prepar-

Several of the same company formed themselves into a " band of singers," and gave several concerts through the region, with good acceptance and success.

During the years that are past, many celebrations have been held in the settlement. First of August, Sabbath schools, temperance, emancipation, politics and other subjects have called the people together at various times and their white fellow-citizens as well, in great numbers, and much pleasure and profit have been imparted by the addresses and exercises upon the several occasions.

At one celebration, some thirty years ago, Hon. George W. Julian, then a young and earnest anti-slavery man, since and for many years a noted and powerful advocate of freedom and right in the national councils, and in still later times an adherent of the modern Democratic faith, gave, before a numerous and enthusiastic assembly, in a pleasant and shady grove in tne Greenville settlement, a most feeling and eloquent appeal for human liberty and right, which has not even yet. been forgotten by some who that day listened thereto. And it still continues, in the minds of the advocates of human freedom who knew the earnestness of Mr. Julian in that former day, and for so many subsequent years, in the advocacy of anti-slavery, to be a standing and inscrutable mystery how he could join himself to that party with principles, aims and methods still unchanged, against which, for five and twenty years, he had waged a war so fierce, so bitter, so unrelenting. But this, like the ways of the "heathen Chinee,': may be one of the things which no man can ever find out.

Cabin Creek, Colored Settlement

The Greenville colored settlement began about 1822, in the State of Ohio. Not long after that date, others sought for homes in the wilderness farther west, and a nucleus was formed of what became Cabin Creek Settlement, lying chiefly, perhaps, in Nettle Creek, but extending also into West River and Stony Creek, and slightly into White River Township. Colored families began to come into the region not very long after 1825, from North Carolina and Virginia, and, after a time, the settlement greatly increased, embracing several miles in extent, and comprising some eighty to one hundred families and several hundred people. During later years, the number has materially lessened, the families having sold their possessions and moved to locations more suited to their notions. There are now some thirty to forty families, forming a single school district.

John Demory came first to the western part of the county about 1825, with Lemuel Vestal, from North Carolina, Demory being the first colored person in that part of Randolph County.

Two other colored families came soon afterward - Drew Taylor, on Hight Mile Creek, and Obadiah Anderson, in the southeast part of the county. After them came Richard Robbins, Samuel Outland and Benjamin Outland, who, as to the colored settlement proper, came first, or nearly so, shortly after 1825, settling in Stony Creek Township. Nearly all the families at present reside in Nettle Creek Township. The settlement is excelusively a farming community, as there is no town whatever in connection therewith.

Some old fogies, like Rip Van Winkle, who were not aware that the world had moved during the last twenty years, fought hard against the attempt to elect him, and were very indignant at their failure; but Mr. Roberts has proved to be a competent and worthy officer, and the sun shines and the rain falls as in olden time.

There is also a Baptist Church, formed long ago, declining and apparently dying some years since, but revived and re-organized, and now in active operation, with a few members.

There were at one time three school districts and three schoolhouses in the settlement, which was then seven miles long and two miles wide. There is now only one schoolhouse, though some colored families attend at the white schools, and without objection or complaint.

A colored musical band is kept up, and its members are very proud of the fact that, at the soldiers' re-union, held at Winchester in the fall of 1880, they gained the prize offered for proficiency and skill in performance.

There is also an African Methodist Episcopal Church in regular operation in the settlement, in which worship and services are steadily maintained.

Snow Hill Settlement

Some twenty) years or more ago, several colored families had their attention called to the fact that there were cheap lands at a point between Winchester and Lynn, not far from Snow Hill. They resolved to settle there, and did so, and by and by a settlement of several families had grown up in that region. They are located in Washington Township, and form a separate school district. Their children appear to be making good progress, and the settlers in general are approving themselves to the people in the region round about. Since these various settlements began to be formed, many have emigrated to other places - to Grant County, Ind., to Paulding County, Ohio, and elsewhere. But a considerable number remain in each neighborhood still.

It is a somewhat remarkable fact, and one favorable to the colored settlers, and to the people of Randolph County at large, that, in 1851, Randolph County gave a good majority against the famous thirteenth article of the new constitution adopted for Indiana in that year.

The people of these settlements belong mostly to the African Methodist Episcopal and the Wesleyan Churches. They have meeting-houses and preachers, and, on the whole, are a churchgoing people.

The first settlement at Snow Hill was made about 1838. Gabriel Moore came into the region in 1838. Michael and William Benson moved there in 1840, Benjamin Copeland settled there about 1847. Davison Copeland settled there about 1850; Littleburn Winburn, about 1848 or 1849. Prentiss Copeland came just before the war.

There is an African Methodist Episcopal society and a public school. Some of the residents own the land on which they dwell; others liveonrented farms. The people of the settlement are moral and industrious, and the young are intelligent and well behaved, and, by their discreet deportment, merit the confidence and esteem of the community in general.

Other Persons

OTHER PERSONS. Persons of color have been residents of Randolph County outside of the settlements referred to. Among them muy be reckoned, as having been for many years active and prominent among the people, William H. Demory, who resides some miles southwest of Winchester. He is an intelligent gentleman, a thrifty, enterprising farmer, and an active, worthy citizen, and has the respect of all who know him. His biography is given elsewhere in this work. His father, John Demory, is said to have been the earliest colored settler in the western part of the county. An account of his life, also, is given elsewhere.

In later years, some persons of color have become residents of Winchester and Union City. At Winchester resides an old colored gentleman by the name of Willis Perry, whose biography is given. Another enterprising colored man is found there in the person of Kent Browne, Esq., for several years an active, thriving and respected barber in that town. He became during the war an employe in the army of Gen. Thomas M. Browne, and came North with him. Kent Browne has many friends among the citizens of the county, and bids fair to achieve an honorable success.

Henry McDonald, who resides at Spartanburg, Ind., has been, through a long life, a laborious, worthy and reliable citizen, and still, though numbering more than threescore years and ten, is found vigorously plying his hammer and making the sounding anvil ring.

Temperance

There have always been among this people, as elsewhere, some who would indulge in intoxicating liquors. Considerable efforts have been put forth to check the sin and the curse of drink, with at least partial success.

In about 1850 (perhaps earlier), a temperance society was formed in the Greenville settlement, and carried on with interest and a degree of success, for, perhaps, ten or twelve years. That society finally wentdown. In 1874,when the Murphy movement aroused the country, a new association, auxiliary to the Christian Temperance Union, was formed and kept up for several years.

The meetings were held at the two churches at frequent intervals, and great interest was maintained for a time by speeches and essays from the members, both male and female, by volunteer singing by the young people of the settlement, by addresses from abroad, ete. And to the credit of the youth of the neighborhood, be it said, that right nobly did they each and all perform the work assigned them. Some beautiful music was presented, several excellent addresses were delivered, showing what young people, when aroused to action, can do for their country and their kind.

It is a terrible commentary on the deadly mischief wrought by the sale and use of intoxicating drinks, and how neariy impossible is the task to destroy the terrible curse, that at a liquor saloon at Tampico, Ohio, in the colored settlement, on Christmas Eve, after a drunken shooting match in the immediate vicinity, and a furious fight among the parties thereto, one man was killed outright, another was so nearly killed that for a long time his life was despaired of, and still another was so badly beaten that his face was said by one who saw him the next morning to be nearly as black as that of a Guinea negro. Four men have been nearly ever since in the Greenville jail, and the first one tried (the trial taking place during the week beginning Monday, March 6, 1882), has been found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment during life, and the trial of the second is now in progress (March 15, 1882).

For many years two churches have been maintained in the Greenville settlement, viz.: African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Indiana; Wesleyan Church, in Ohio. The churches are just one mile apart. They have been established from forty to fifty years. Great numbers have belonged, from first to last, to one church or the other, and the societies have flourished more or less durirg the whole course of their existence.

and revival meetings have been held, continuing sometimes for weeks together, gathering into the church fellowship sometimes scores of professed converts. Many have backslidden from time to time, but many, too, have stood fast, enduring to the end, and going up to claim the promise of a heavenly mansion from their gracious Savior and Lord. Great numbers have "died in the Lord."" Their bodies slumber in the dust; their happy spirits, set free from earth and its hesetments and entanglements, have gone, we may fain hope and believe, to be forever with the Lord.

Some of the members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church on the Indiana side have been Robert Scott, Matthew Lewis, Allen Davis, Daniel Burden, John Randle, Reuben Randle, Levi Linzey, the Purnell brothers (three or four of them), Nimrod Lewis and many others.

Among their preachers have been Paul Quinn (late Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church), Mackintosh, Ward, the Revels brothers, Harper, Mac Smith, Burden, Winslow, Radcliff, Chavis, Stokes and many besides.

Snow Hill. - There is an African Methodist Episcopal Church at this settlement, which is reasonably flourishing, but we have no account of it at hand. It belongs in the same circuit with Greenville and some others.

About 1843, Rev. Samuel Jones, from Mercer County, Ohic, came to Cabin Creek settlement and preached in a log schoolhouse near the present site of the Baptist Church (a little south of James Scott's residence). He organized a church, which has remained to the present time. ;

The members were Stephen Patterson, Isom Davis, James Scott and wife, Thomas Robinson and wife. The meeting-house was built in 1860-65. It was for some years a lively church, and several others were formed in the region, and a little association was organized. The churches were at Newport, Greenville settlement, one in Grant County and one in Rush County.

The church at Nettle Creek languished on account of financial troubles, but in 1878 it was formed anew, with seven persons, and now consists of nine members, as follows:

The preachers have been Messrs. Samuel Jones (first), Samuel Jones (second), John Jones, Lee Van, Reuben Means, Unis B. Plane (present minister).

Cabin Creek (Colored) M. E. Church. - Began in 1833. The first meeting-house was at their old graveyard southeast of Poplar Run Friends' Meeting-House. That house has been gone many years (closed in 1865), and they have worshiped in their schoolhouse to the present time. They are now erecting a tasteful and commodious church near their public school building, which will furnish ample accommodations for worshiping assemblies for years tv come. The size is 28x38; cost, $760.

Some of their preachers have been John Turner, McIntosh, Dove, Davison, Ward, William Trevan, Skipworth, Stokes, Winslow, Quinn, Crosby, Crosby, Daniel Burden, Harper, Price, Mc- Smith, Nichols, Alexander Smith, Chavis.

The members now are P. Perkins, Charles Smothers and wife, Peter Ladd and wife, Maria Stafford, Edward Bolden and wife, Minerva Moore, Anna Weaver, Rev. Isaac Ward, Elias Watkins, Mary Jane Smith, Mahala Perkins, Eveline Jennings, Emily Barber, Rebecca Wood, Armeta Wood, etc.

The meeting-house is in West River Township, two miles southeast of Pleasant View. A large part of the settlement is in Nettle Creek Township, though it used to extend into three - West River and Stony Creek also.

The first preacher in the settlement was Rey. Paul Quinn, then circuit-rider, afterward, during many years, Bishop of African Methodist Episcopal Church, and dying at Richmond, Ind., several years ago.

There were once eighty or one hundred families in that colored settlement, and the Methodist class was strong and flourishing. The settlement and the Methodist society are both much smaller than of old.