Randolph County, Indiana - Chapter 5: Early ^ettlers, 1914 (part 5 of 5)

There was an old settler, Mr. Nunamaker, at Pittsburg, eighty-four years old. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and has received a pension for many years. He died in 1880."

Jame.S Kelly, Greensfork

"i came to Randolph county, Indiana, in 1842, twenty-eight years after the first settlement. Prices then were almost nothing. Wheat was 25 cents in trade, 32 cents in Cincinnati. It had to be hauled in wagons through the mud - though there were some pikes in Ohio.

Men would go with four-horse teams, hitch their horses before and behind the wagon to feed them and sleep in the wagon. I was offered pork (hogs weighing 200 pounds net) at 75 cents per 100 pounds, for money to pay taxes and I did not take it. Myself and wife went over to the Miami, helped butcher thirty-seven large hogs, cut the meat, chopped the sausage, stuffed them, rendered the lard and salted the pork. They gave us half a barrel of stuffed sausages, one large ham, one keg of lard, ribs, back-bones, etc., all we chose to carry home. We brought away meat enough to last till the next fall, all for two days' work of my wife and myself.

William Hill, father of Aaron Hill (now living south of Arba), made a pestle-mill to pound hominy. He fenced it and ran it by horse-power, getting some custom. Another man having a corn-cracker, also made a pestle-mill but did not fence it. He would let the mill run itself. In pounding, some kernels would scatter out and sheep would come and pick it up. One day when the mill was 'going it all alone,' a flock of sheep came picking around till a big buck, smelling at the log, climbed up and stuck his head into the millhole. 'Crack!' came the pestle and knocked the buck dead. The sheep climbed up, one by one, till twenty-seven sheep lay dead around the mill and the owner of the mill (and this was the pith of the joke) had to pay for the sheep.

Aaron Hill's father used to work oxen and sometimes ride them. One day Aaron rode an ox over to Eli Overman's on an errand. (One version says he went courting.) Said Eli, 'Did thee ride?' 'Yes,' said Aaron. Said Eli to one of the boys,- 'Put up Aaron's beast.' The boy went out but came back, saying, 'I can't find any beast.' 'I thought thee said thee rode.' 'I did; I rode an ox,' piped out the bashful boy. 'Go turn it to the straw-stack,' said Eli.

James Clark was once driving to Whitewater when a big walnut struck him on the back. He was fire-mad in a second, thinking somebody had struck him. He wheeled, crying out, 'Who did tjiat?' But 'nary man.'

A man - Mr. Cartwright - coming from North Carolina, had heard of white walnuts and that they were good to eat. He set upon a lot of buckeyes and went to eating them. Some one asked him :

A young fellow whom I will not name, once went went to Fort Wayne with his brother and brother-in-law with provisions for the Indian trade. The roads were terrible through the bogs and the marshes. The young fellow - only a lad, as it were, and a mild, gentle lad at that - could not get his oxen through the swamps.

Finally at a bad crossing the wild fellow told the boy he would not swear for him any more; that he must get through himself. The lad tried, but 'no go.'

The boy, grown desperate, seized his gad, swung it over the oxen's head, and laying on with fearful blows, broke out into a sort of half swearing, yelling as if the Indians were after him. The oxen went through, whether by the whipping or the yelling or the swearing. But the lad was so mortified that he offered the other all his truck money ($3.00 or so), if he would not tell of it. The fellow took the money and made the promise but broke his word and told of it before he got to Spartanburg and kept the money to boot."

[Of course these tales, related by Mr. Kelly were obtained by him from early settlers since he himself came to the region at a comparatively late date, and it is no more than likeh' that they should have been stretched somewhat in the various tellings to which they had in the course of years been subjected.]

J. Paxson, Union City

Canal Dover, Ohio, a merchant proposed that I be his clerk. I was surprised at the offer but 'took up' with it and held it till he sold out (two and a half years). At Union City I was putting up a store for Benjamin Hawkins. He bought goods at Cincinnati and came and put the bills into my hands, saying, 'When the goods come, I wish you to "open them out" and go to selling them.' I was astonished, for I was at the first of it, but I took him at his word and when the goods were 'hauled' from Greenville (for the railroad was not in running order yet), I went to work. Afterward we agreed for my wages and I stayed with him for some years. But he left and I concluded to set up for myself. I chose the boot and shoe trade. I went to Cleveland and bargained for $800 or $900 worth ; I could pay only part cash. Said the dealer, 'That is a pretty large bill' ; 'yes, but I need them. If you prefer, I will let you take a note I have for a farm I sold ($550.00).' 'Well, leave it.' I did so; soon sold out, so as to need a new supply, sent cash in part payment of the debt and for the new stock and soon, when that note came due, he sent it to me to collect, which I did, and paid him. From that time I could always get whatever I wished. My store was the first of the kind in the city, and, of course, it is the oldest in the town. I carry now $10,000 to $12,000 worth of goods, making large sales annually and have been mostly without a partner."

Note. - His failing health and feeble strength made him take in a partner a few years ago and finally to sell out entirely in 1880, the firm being now Gordon & McKee, and still later Gordon & Thom.as.

William Stanton, Stoney Creek

"We passed through Gumberland Gap; they hailed us, but allowed us to pass. At Cumberland Ford we encountered Zollicoffer's army. We asked to pass their lines. ZoUicoffer said, 'No; you may get through, perhaps, but not here.' I said, 'We will not harm you; we have property north and we wish to go to it.' But still he said, 'No.' So we turned back through the Gap into Powell Valley, taking a circuit of thirty-five miles. We crossed Cumberland Mountains by terrible roads. It was a whole day's travel over a track but little used. But we met no army nor any soldiers. There were eight wagons in company ; four stopped in Tennessee, turning aside to a settlement of Friends there. These stayed in Tennessee till spring. The other four wagons came directly forward through Kentucky.

We crossed the Ohio river at Madison. People welcomed us in a very friendly manner, one old blind man remarkably so. The people wished to make a dinner for us but we could not stop. We stayed an hour or two and when we started we found in each wagon nice things - pies, caKes, etc., as tokens of good will. There were about twenty persons in the company, my family having seven in number. We came through Rush county, Indiana, to see relatives there, then to West River, where we stayed two months at Absalom Dennis.' Afterward we came to Mark Diggs', arriving there in January. The main trip took us seven weeks. We got through safe and sound, thankful to find at last a quiet haven afar from storm and tempest, and a peaceful home among friends in a land of safety."

"Away from slavery." That refrain has been sung for three-quarters of a century and solemnly, mournfully marching to its steady chorus has been the ceaseless movement of the endless column, leaving the southern plains and valleys, crossing the mountain heights and threading the yawning "gaps," crossing the beautiful river and spreading itself at length like a fertilizing flood over the virgin Western plains. What wonder that, under the weakening power of this depletive process the Southern land should become enfeebled and decrepit, as though worn out with deadly infirmity. This avalanche of human beings poured in a limitless flow upon these wide-spread plains has been like the vital current giving life to the new created body politic. And what we have gained they have lost, and what a loss ! Why may the process now not be reversed - that as the mighty virgin West once received her life and strength through the emigration thither of the best and worthiest of the dwellers in the Southern clime, so now the West may, now and in future years, give back to the depleted and enfeebel South, depleted by a process of impoverishment extending through several generations and enfeebled and wellnigh exhausted by a long and bloody and disastrous war - by hundreds and by thousands - the worthy and vigorous descendants of the sturdy pioneers who fled years ago from the plague and curse of the Southern land - the institution of human slavery? Slavery is gone and the emptied and impoverished South-land cries out to the wealthy and populous" North and the hardy and vigorous West to send from their abundant and overflowing population to restore her waste and desolte places and to renew the prosperity of the elder, ancient time.