Cleveland Township

Cleveland Township

By reference to the general chapter on organization in this history our readers will get much detail information, which to give here would only be a repetition. Cleveland township was organized and named in 1836, more than a year before the organization of the count}'. The county was organized in May, 1838. A year before this, or, to be exact. May 1, 1837, Joseph Parrett caused to be surveyed and platted forty-two lots on Eel river, and called the town Springfield.

Before this time, to-wit, on the 25th day of February, 1837, a postoffice was established in the locality. In view of the coming' town which it was understood should be christened Springfield, that name was asked for the postoffice when the application was made, but there being another Springfield in Indiana at the time, the authorities named the office Whitlev, as it was the only place in all the new and unorganized Whitley count)' that made any pretentions to being a village. All other present towns in the count}' were a dense forest. Anything' approaching to the dignitv of a town was considered synonymous with Whitley county. This action of the department did not deter Joseph Parrett, Jr., from naming his town Springfield, and we thus have the origin of the two names that have caused so much confusion. On the establishing of a postoffice at the new county seat a little later it was called Whitley Court House, and Whitley postoffice was changed to South Whitlev on the same date, and this caused still more confusion.

Though Springfield was surveyed and platted May 1, 1837. the plat was not acknowledged and recorded until January 9, 1840, but in the meantime he began selling lots. It might have been recorded in Huntington county, but the proprietor wanted to patronize home institutions and wait to have it recorded in the new count}' when organized, and even when that was done held it from the record nearly two years. In this later day of abstracts and perfect titles people would hardly want to lake deed for a town lot of a town without an existence except a plat on paper the proprietor carried around in his pocket or kept in the family Bible, the only book in his cabin.

However, on July 8. 1837, Parrett sold to Richard C. Meek inlot number two for sixteen dollars, and this was the only conveyance prior to the county organization, but there were three other conveyances before, the plat was recorded. On May 16. 1838. a week after the county organization. lot twenty-six was sold to Daniel Lesley for fourteen dollars, and on April 10, 1839. Samuel Obenchain bought lots four, twentyeight, twenty-nine and thirty for seventyfour dollars and twenty-five cents, and on May 25, [839, Solomon Stiver bought lot twenty-seven for twenty-five dollars and twentv-five cents. Prom this earl}' and small beginning Springfield has grown to be a fine town with two railroads, and has held its place as first in the count}', outside of the county seat. Twenty additions to the original plat have been made from time to

On the 9th day of February, 1846, Smith Rambo procured the services of George Arnold and surveyed and platted the town of Millersburgh, and on the 23d day of March following acknowledged and caused the plat to be recorded.

September 8, 1849, a postoffke was established. The name asked for was Millersburgh, but as there was already a town and postoffice by the name in Elkhart county, the authorities named it Collamer, in honor of Jacob Collamer, then postmaster-general, and it is now known as Collamer. There were ten lots surveyed. Lot one was three by eight poles, lot ten was ten poles on the north line and bent around river. The other lots were four by eight poles. The first lots were sold on February 6, 1847. On that day Rambo sold four lots or parts : To Christian Harter, lot one and a rod off the south side of lot two for sixteen dollars and ninety-six cents, and to John W. Nottingham, lot seven for fourteen dollars, and lot six for eleven dollars and sixty-six cents. The next sale was November 25, 1847, lots four and five to Ellis Miller for twenty-five dollars and fifty cents. Ellis Miller had built the dam across the river in the summer of 1845 anc' sometime in the winter of 1845 anr' 1846 began to grind corn and shortly after wheat and other small grain. The mill and dam remain, the only waterpower left in the whole county, the South Whitley dam having gone out on the dredging of Eel river a few years ago. Millersburgh, nr Collamer, though having the only water-power mill in the county and having the Vandalia Railroad, and being: in as fine country as the world affords, has made no headway and is no better town than a half century ago. The railroad station has been abandoned and it has been hinted that the postoffice will soon yield up the ghost before the march of rural delivery.

The place has two churches, the Christian and Church of God, and a few years ago an attempt was made to erect a Universalist house of worship, but on the theory of being saved anyhow, enough force could not be generated to get even a foundation.

While the first town and postoffice in the county were at South Whitley, and Cleveland township was the first organized, there were two or three, perhaps more, settlers in Smith township prior to the Eel river settlement. It is impossible to ascertain who was the very first settler or to determine the priority of several of the first ones. James Chaplin lived on section 7 in 1835 and blazed a trail or road from his farm to intersect the Squawbuck trail in Richland township. This was the highway to Oswego and Turkey Prairie. It is most likely that the Clevelands, Parretts, Samuel Obenchain and John Collins were all settlers before January 1, 1836. Joseph Creager soon followed. Creager and Joseph Parrett settled on land now covered by South Whitley. The Goshen and Huntington road was the only established road in that part of the county at the time of organization. The only other in the county was the Fort Wayr.e and Goshen road in the northeast part of the county, though there were several applications pending at the time of organization, proceedings began in Huntington county and concluded in Whitley. Soon after the establishment of the countv seat a road was blazed through, practically what is today called the "North, Whitley and Columbia road." It was blazed almost through in 1839 and finished early in 1840. Soon after the river road was opened up to what is now Collamer, Liberty Mills and North Manchester.

There were no Indian habitations or villages about South Whitley when the settlers came, the villages were south and in Huntington county and in Columbia township. They gave some trouble as beggars, but the settlers forgave this propensity so much different from what they had expected of savages.

Henry Parrett's remains were deposited in what is now the South Whitley cemetery in 1845, August 2 1st. It was used as a private family burying place for some time and gave no more prospect of becoming the beautiful city of the dead it now is than several other places now obliterated. Some time in the same year Benjamin Cleveland was buried in section 1 1 , what has since been known as the Cleveland cemetery. We omit reference to the burial of that old settler on John Edwards' lot in South Whitley, as it is fully detailed elsewhere in this book. The old cemetery adjoining the South Whitley cemetery to the west was also started as a family burying place in that same year - 1845. John Collins' body was the first deposited therein.

It is settled that the first death in the township was Roxina Chaplin, September 18, 1836. She was buried on her father's farm on section 7. The first birth was also in this same family - Byron Chaplin - born April 14, 1836.

February 25, 1837, Henry Parrett had a little store on the west side of State street near the bridge. The street now runs over the exact spot where it stood, in the Huntington and Goshen road. The postoffice was installed here, in the name of David D. Parrett. This rude store contained a few notions and curiosities and some staples. The supplies were mostly brought in from Fort Wayne by wagon, but were sometimes shipped by canal from Fort Wayne to a point near Huntington and hauled in.

In 1838 another small store was started farther north on the same road and did a good business. This was the beginning of the Combs & Edwards general store that was of so much importance to the community for many years.

The first saw mill was erected by William Parrett in 1841, on section 34, just north of South Whitley, called Wetzel's mill for many years. It entirely ceased operations in 1S72. A year later Milton Grimes and David Clapp built a saw mill a mile southeast of South Whitley.

The most important milling enterprise ever in the township was the Arnold waterpower mill. Work on the dam began in 1848, but the mill was not put in operation until about January 1, 1851, and at once the Arnolds came to the front as millers, bankers and general merchants and remained at the front until the disastrous and far-reaching results of their complete failure a few years ag'o, which is well described in the article on Banks and Banking: in this history. For many years this mill drew the milling' business from many miles. The writer remembers when a boy of being sent t" this mill a distance of ten miles, starting in the night and arriving at the mill about the time it opened up in the morning and awaiting his turn, got his grist of eight bushels just after dark and making the return trip the next night, the roads then being entirely different from the present.

John Parrett began the hotel business when the town began taking on airs in [837, furnishing the primitive entertainment for man and beast, and even that early there was considerable travel and his cabin hotel of two rooms below and a loft above was often taxed to its limit, and at no time could a weary traveler get a room to himself with steam heat and bath.