Fairmount Township (part 4 of 10)

The candle-mould consisted of three, six or nine round tin tubes shaped like a candle. Those were joined together at the bottom and top. The bottom of the tube had a small hole through which the wicking was drawn. The wick was prepared as follows : It was cut twice the length the candle was to be made, then doubled and placed in the tube and the ends drawn through the hole in the bottom of the tube. After a round stick had been placed through the folded wick at the top of the moulds, the wick was then drawn tight and tied at the bottom. The melted tallow was then poured into the mould and allowed to cool, when the candles were pulled out of the mould and stored away ready for use.

The dip was made by preparing the wick and placing them on a round rod. Then a kettle of melted tallow was prepared and the wick was dipped in the melted tallow and taken out and hung on a support until the tallow that had adhered to the wick had hardened. This process was continued until the candle had become the desired size. This style of candle could be made only in cold weather. We have assisted our mother in making this style of candle.

A lamp flue or lantern globe was not thought of. A lantern made of tin, punched full of holes of various sizes, was to be found occasionally. A candle was placed on the inside of this lantern. You can imagine about how much light it would give. Later a lantern was made which had glass sides. This was an improvement over the old tin lantern. There may have been a lantern that burned sperm oil, but we never saw one. When we wanted a light to go to the neighbors, or coon hunting, a hickory bark torch was used, and it made a good light.

Fairmount Township was covered with heavy timber, the finest that ever grew. If we were to state the size of some of those immense poplar and oak trees that were to be found along Back Creek the reader might say :

It was a serious problem with the early settlers to know how to dispose of the timber. In order to clear the land for cultivation the most common method was to deaden the trees. After they had become dead and dry it was easier to burn them. This was done and it involved a great amount of labor. A farmer would either burn or cut a large num- ber of logs in lengths that could be handled. Then he would invite his neighbors to a log rolling. They would come early and stay late. You would see them with their favorite handspike in hand ready to roll logs and out lift their neighbor.

It was at the log rollings that many contests were had as to the strength of those hardy pioneers. There was much care exercised to see that no advantage was taken in the contests. If a man won honors it must be done fairly. Great numbers of logs would be piled by the men, to be burned at the pleasure of the owner. The women of the neighborhood would come in and assist the good wife in preparing a sumptuous dinner for the men. And so it went all over the country.

The people of those days were genuine neighbors in the strictest sense of the word. When a few acres w^ere cleared they were fenced with rails. This was done to keep the stock out, as all kinds of stock ran at large. Bells were put on cows, horses and sheep, so that the owner could find them more readily when he wanted them. Each owner knew the sound of his bell as well as that of his neighbor.

When we moved to Fairmount Township, David Smithson owned six hundred and twenty acres of land that joined my father's farm. We do not think that more than sixty acres of this immense farm was clear and in cultivation. This was about a fair sample of the entire Township at that time. Tanbark finally became a commercial factor in the community. In the spring of each year hundreds of the finest oak trees would be felled and the bark taken from them and hauled to the tanyard. The trees were either made into rails or left to rot.

The best log house ever built on Back Creek was built by Setli Winslow about two miles north of Flairmount. It was built of hewed logs, was two stories high, and there were only seven logs on a side, as recollect it. Each log was thirty inches wide when hewn. We think the building was twenty by thirty. What immense trees it must have taken to get such logs ! Who but Seth Winslow would have undertaken such a task ? Anyone who ever saw this house could not help praising its builder.

Uncle Seth could pinch the hardest of any man I ever saw and derived the most pleasure out of seeing his victim get out of his reach. We have good reason to recollect him. The last time the writer saw him he was sitting outside of his house on Main Street, in Fairmount. I had just arrived from Nebraska, and was talking to some friends near where he sat. He reached out and pinched me until I winced with pain. He laughed heartily at my discomfort. No one could get angrv at him. If he is not with the angels then there are none.

The first school I attended in Grant County was taught by Milt McHatton. He was a small man. INIy recollection is that the school house was a little old log cabin that stood on the southwest corner of my father's farm. Then a new, hewed-log school house was built on. Henry Wilson's farm and called Wesleyan Back Creek school house. It was the pride of the community. The seats were linden logs hewed flat and pins driven in for legs. Then there were long pins driven in the walls and a wide board placed on them. This was where we practiced writing. Once or twice a week the teacher set the copy and the scholars tried to imitate it. Steel pens were a scarce article. The pens were usually made by the teacher out of a goose or a turkey quill. The ink was of home manufacture.

At the first school the studying was audible - reading and talking aloud - a regular bedlam. This method soon gave way to more sane ideas. In those days there was very little money for educational purposes. The majority were subscription schools. A teacher would go through the neighborhood and get as much patronage subscribed as possible, with the understanding that the teacher should board around among the patrons. The result was the patron who had the best accommodations had the teacher to board most of the time. The net amount usually received by the teacher was fifteen to twenty dollars per month. The term usually lasted four months. It did not require a great deal of preparation to be a teacher. If you could write a fairly good hand. knew a little arithmetic and read fairly well, you could teach school. Grammar, algebra, history and geometry were not necessary in the first schools.

John Rush was our second teacher. He taught in the new school house. He was a frail man and very sedate. He came to school the .first day with a big beech limb, or whip, laid it on his desk, then read the rules of the school. In those days the teacher made his rules without any reference to patrons of the school. He was the lord of the manor. The whip, or gad as it was called, w'as used unmercifully l:)y many teachers. I have witnessed some brutal wdiippings in the old log school house.

William R. Woollen

Was born in Dorchester County, av Johnson's Cross Roads, now Oak Grove, on the eastern shore of Maryland, September 5, 1818, and died at his home on Mill Street, in Fairmount, August 31, iQii. He was a son of Jacob and Nancy (Cockran) Woollen. In early life he had acquired a practical education obtained by his own personal experience and observation. In 1836, at the age of eighteen, his parents having died, he went to Baltimore. From Baltimore he walked to Wheeling, Virginia, and at this point he took a boat, making Ohio River towns, arriving at Cincinnati with only seventy-one cents in his pocket. Here he found employment in a brick yard. After a short stay at Cincinnati he went by boat, working his passage to Quincy, Illinois, where his cousin, Isaac Woollen, resided. He remained here two years, doing such work as came to hand in this new Mississippi River town, when he decided to return to his old Maryland home. He traveled horseback. While on this journey he joined some cattle men and assisted them in driving their stock as far as' Connersville, Indiana, where he parted company with the drovers and went on to Wayne County, Indiana, to visit Robert and Jane (Woollen) Whitely, his sister, who had but recently emigrated from Maryland and settled at Milton. He abandoned the idea of returning to Maryland and joined Robert Whitjly in agricultural pursuits. It was at Milton that he met and courted Julia Ann Oldfield, a daughter of William Oldfield, also a native of Maryland, who with his daughter and two sons, James and Luther, had found a home in the new West. James subsequently bought a farm near Summitville, Indiana, where he lived until his death, Luther continuing to reside at Milton. On May 24, 1842, at Milton, William Woollen and Julia Ann Oldfield were married. Five years later, in the fall of 1847, they moved to Madison County, and with savings accumulated by hard lalaor and the strictest economy, purchased a farm near Summitville. He commenced at once to improve his land, passing through all the hardships and successfully meeting the discouragements which were the common lot of all pioneers in that early day. In 1852 he bought and operated the first chaff piler brought to that section, later purchasing a separator from a Richmond concern, one of the first separators manufactured, and for that time an innovation which attracted the attention and excited the wonder of his neighbors for miles around in that sparsely populated settlement. In 1864 he sold his Madison County farm and bought of John Rush two hundred acres of land in Grant County, situated southwest of Fairmount, where John Woollen now lives. Here he remained until his wife's health failed, when he retired from active work and moved to F"airmount. In politics he was first identified with the Whigs, casting his ballot in 1840 for Gen. William Henry Harrison, who was elected the ninth President. In 1856. upon the formation of the Republican party, he supported Gen. John C. Fremont. Late in lifa he became a member of the Society of Friends, and as often as health would permit he was found in his place at all services. William and Julia Ann (Oldfield) Woollen were the parents of five children, namely: James H., born May 24. 1843. who died in January, 1894, at his home in Clay County, Nebraska; Jacob, born November 30, 1845; Edward, born September 22, 1847; William L., born August 6, 1851, who died June 22, 1873, at his father's home, and Mrs. Elda A. Trader, born September i, 1857. wife of Harvey Trader. They reside in Fairmount. Jacob lives in Fairmount, and Edward owns and manages a farm about three miles southwest of Fairmount. August 13, 1886, the wife and mother, after a prolonged illness, passed away. On the 14th day of December, 1887, William Woollen was married to Miss Lizzie McConnell, of Marion, who was a true companion and faithfully attended her husband's care and comfort in his declining years. William Woollen was a man of sterling qualities and noble characteristics. His strict integrity and absolute honesty none questioned. His life was replete with kindly deeds and manifestations of consideration for the welfare of others. To his progeny he left the memory and example of a career in every respect worthy of emulation.

We think George Pierce taught several terms. Foster Davis was well liked as a teacher. He was one of the first teachers at Wesleyan Back Creek to get away from the old idea that "he that spareth the rod spoileth the child." I do not think that he ever kept a whip in the schoolroom. All the others prior to him did.

No woman had ever taught school at Wesleyan Back Creek until a little English miss of about seventeen applied for the school. Mary Taylor was her name. The old heads said it was not possible for a woman to teach the school, but Eli Neal, Harvey Davis and my father were willing to try, and employed Miss Taylor. She was a success from the very first, and taught one of the best terms ever held in the old school house.

About this time, 1854 to 1866, the people became more enlightened, and waked up to find that women were just as competent to teach school as men. Angelina Harvey and Mary Winslow, both, were teachers who never had a superior and few equals.

When we attended our last school in Fairmount Township the term was taught in the new two-story frame building. It stood just opposite Jonathan P. Winslow's brick house, at that time the finest in Fairmount.

No wonder Fairmount has such good schools. The foundation was of the right kind of material. The early teachers were none of them more advanced than the eighth grade of the present time. They made good use of what knowledge they did have and laid the foundation for the present-day methods.

In the earliest days the school house did not have stoves, but a big fireplace that would take a four- foot backlog. The teacher (man) and the big boys cut the wood in the timber around the school house and carried it so it could be used when needed. A backlog twelve to eighteen inches in diameter would be j^ut in the fireplace, then smaller wood

Schoolbooks were scarce. They would not average more than one book to the scholar. Not all children of school age attended school. As soon as they were able to work they were compelled to assist in clearing the land, that a crop might be raised.

The roads of Fairmount Township were almost impassable, especially in the spring and fall. As is well known, the surface of the land is very level, and at an early date was not drained. Therefore, it was not possible to have good highways. I will describe the thoroughfare running east and west from the old pike at Carter Hasting's, and this description will answer for all the roads in the Township.

All the worst places were called corduroy. This kind of road was made by cutting rails, poles and logs about twelve feet long. These were placed across the road and a little dirt thrown on them - just enough to hold them in position. This kind of road could be found for miles. Often, when the waters were high in the spring, these logs would float out of place. Then the road would be impassable until the logs were replaced or the water receded.

Commencing at the home of James Nixon, running west for miles, this pole road could be found. To say that it was rough would be putting it mildly. Just imagine going over those logs or poles in a wagon (no spring seat) for miles at a time, with seldom a smooth piece of road to break the jolt, and water on both sides full of frogs and snakes. Such were the country roads of Grant County prior to i860.

The first gravel road built was started about the year 1857. As we now recollect, it was a toll road commencing at the Madison County line and running north to Jonesboro, where it was to connect with a plank road that was to run from Jonesboro to Marion, and on to Wabash. This road was built by private parties. We fail to recollect all of the original owners, but Nathan D. Wilson, Jesse E. Wilson, William Pierce, Samuel Radley, Joseph W. Hill, Henry Harvey and my grandfather, Samuel Heavenridge, were among those who built the first gravel road in Fairmount Township and Grant County.

This road is a monument to the men who built it. They were eighteen carat fine in brains and integrity. They anticipated the wants of the country long in advance of the time. Tollgates were established at points where travel coming from cross roads would be intercepted and toll collected. For a long time a tollgate was maintained just south of where Dr. Glenn Henley's office now stands, that being the south side of Fairmount. Solomon (Toddy) Thomas kept this gate for years. There was a gate not far south of Joseph W. Hill's, near Jonesboro. William Winslow kept this gate. Later on, a gate was established near Allen Dillon's and one at the cross roads south of Carter Hasting's. (I use the names that were familiar to me.)

There were always people who would try to avoid paying toll. They w,onl(l run past and do a dollar's worth of dodging- to avoid paying a few cents. I have known men who lived south of Fairmount, and near the pike, who, rather than pay a toll of say, ten cents, would go west out of town, then south to the County line, then east, miles out of their way. They pretended that their rights were infringed upon. I am told that there are no toll roads in Indiana now.

The farmers soon discovered that drainage was very important. Back Creek and Deer Creek were splendid outlets for almost the entire v/est part of Fairmount Township. It soon became evident that those creeks must be cleaned out to make drainage perfect. There was no such thing as tile to use in draining the farm. The ditches were dug about two feet deep and twenty inches wide. An oak rail about six inches wide was put on one side of the ditch and stakes driven to hold it in place. Then inmcheons of oak were made and one end placed on the rail, the other end resting on the ground. This made a good drain. My father was among the first who drained his farm. We always had corn when anyone in the vicinitv did.

The first settlers depended on maple sugar almost entirel\- until i856-'57, Avhen sorghum was first introduced in the L'nited States. My father received a ])ackage of sorghum cane seed from the Patent Office at Washington. D. C, the spring of 1857. He decided to give it a trial. Sorghum was an entire stranger in the United States, being a native of China. Xo one knew how to get be.st results. There were no mills in existence to crush the stalk and get the juice. Neither did they have evaporators or other means to reduce the juice to syrup.

Grandfather Heavenridge and my father conceived the idea of making a mill of wood. They took a wheelwright by the name of Jack Reel in with them. They went to the timber, selected a perfect maple tree about two feet in diameter. They turned two rollers eighteen inches through, one with a long shaft, the other shorter. They placed wooden cogs near the top of the rollers, then a heavy oak frame was made and the roller placed in it. The frame was made so that b\ means of a wedge the rolls could be made either loose or tight, just as needed. After the rolls were in place it was necessary to have something to turn them. A crooked tree was procured and made into what was called a sweep.

In the meantime, the cane had grown splenchdly and was ready for the mill. The next problem was, ''Could the juice be boiled in iron kettles?" We had two iron kettles and one large coffee kettle, and decided to try both.

The cane was cut and business commenced. The result was the jiiolasses was as black as it was possible to be. but tasted all right. People came from far and near to taste the new syrup. The mill was a success. We think it possible that one other person tried the same experiment the same year in Grant County.

This was the year that a paper dollar would be good when you started to town, but would be worthless before you got to spend it. The merchant kept a book in which the values of paper money then in circulation were listed. Nothing but gold and silver had a real value, and there was but little of either in circulation.

There were no markets for the products of the farm, for the reason that farmers would not take mone}" of uncertain value. A great many merchants issued their own script. This was used in the vicinity where it was issued. If the merchant was good the scrip was redeemed. Man\ merchants failed, many banks went out of business, but the sturdy farmers of Grant County went alonsr as usual.

Chapter Xii David Stanfield And The Naming Of Fairmount

DAVID STANFIELD, son of Samuel and Lydia Stanfield, was born about nine miles above Greenville, in Greene County, Tennessee, on the Second day of the week. Fifth month 13th, 1793. From a little private diary, made by himself of an excellent grade of paper, each page 3x4 inches, the writer is permitted by Dr. Glenn Henley, a great-grandson of David Stanfield, to copy the information given herewith. As nearly as is practicable the items are taken verbatim from this diary as David Stanfield himself entered them :

Omitting information in regard to David and Elizabeth already given, this diary reads as follows : "David Stanfield and Elizabeth Beals, aforesaid, were married by Esq. ]\Iiller, at her father's house, in Washington, Tennessee, aforesaid, on the 13th of 5th mo., 1813. DAVID STANFIELD "Births of David and Elizabeth

Stanfield's children, the 2 eldest, William Williams and David S. Stanfield, both born at his father's house, nine miles above Greenville, Green County, Tennessee State. The other children as far as the now youngest, namely, Lydia Jane, were all born on Big Sinking Creek, Green County, five or six miles above Greenville, Tennessee, as follows :

David Stanfield was of English stock. He bought a piece of land not quite a mile east of Fairmount, which is now a part of the Foster Davis farm, where he lived for a short time prior to buying the land south of town, where he made his permanent home. In stature, he was erect, five feet, ten inches tall, square-built, of a commanding appearance, weighed about 175 pounds, big forehead, dark hair and grey eyes, pleasing address, and when speaking in public used good English. His habit was to go smoothly shaven, hair cut short, was neat and clean in nis dress and appearance, wearing the Friends regulation cut of clothes and using the plain language at all times. As a recorded minister of the Society of Friends, he traveled some in ministerial service, always paying his traveling expenses, which all preachers did not do. He held advanced views in reference to the resurrection of the dead to wdiat was generally accepted by his church in his day and time, hence some objected to giving him liberty to travel, as was Friends usage. His faith is now quite generally accepted by all orthodox churches. He was a man of energy and perseverance. He did not wait for opportunities to come to him, but got out and turned something up. He was strictly fair and honest in his dealings with men, but wanted what was his by right. He loved to trade in real estate, owned a number of farms at different periods of his active life, and gave each of his sons a good start in life. At one time he kept a large fruit nursery, from which many of the orchards of this section were stocked. He was kind and considerate

This picture shows the old house which once stood at the southwest corner of Main and Eighth Streets. It was on this lot that John Benbow commenced the erection of the first log cabin on the present site of the town of Fairmount. Before the cabin was completed Daniel Baldwin came from Wayne County, Indiana, with his family, and in 1833 purchased the property and finished the cabin, which he occupied tor several months.

as a neighbor, courteous in his luanner, given to hospitality, lived out the Scriptural injunction to live in peace with all men as much as laid in his ]K)wer. David Stanfield was a man of splendid spirit and of singular purity of character. The foregoing is an estimate of his career by a prominent citizen who knew him intimately for many years.

As David Stanficld was one of the persons who did not come to Fairmount, but Fairmount came to him, I will give a little information as regards this fine man and much-loved citizen. He came from Green County, Tennessee, was an authorized minister in the Friends Church before he came to Fairmount, and so continued until his death. He was the first preacher I remember of hearing preach. In the fall of 1856 he preached at my mother's funeral at old Back Creek (I was five years old at the time). Margaret Pucket also preached at the same funeral.

David Stanficld appeared to be quite an old man at that time. He lived about two blocks south and two blocks west of where Dr. Glenn Henley's office is now located. His family consisted of himself and wife and nine children, seven boys and two girls. The boys were William, Vernon, Elijah, Clayton, Isaac, Charles and Samuel. The girls were Lydia Jane (wife of Joseph W. Baldwin), and Hannah (wife of William Hall).

David Stanficld was a great man for fruit and had a large nursery and orchard that came to Dr. Henley's residence. He was exceedingly fond of good horses, and they did not come too lively for him. He was a good man with young horses, and always had the very best. He was what we would call an up-to-date farmer. He was not a rich man, but for that day was considered "pretty well fixed," and was ready and willing, as were all the early settlers in the Township, to divide the last bushel or the last ham with a neighbor without money and without price.

My wife, who was a daughter of Joseph W. Baldwin, and a granddaughter of David Stanfield, has in her possession a diarv kept by her grandfather in 1831, before he came to Fairmount. The bookwas made by cutting heavy, plain white paper seven inches square, which was sewed together with white flax thread, and the writing was very fine, indeed. It would be interesting to some of our young people to see this splendid penmanship made by him eighty-six years ago. Not many persons of today could duplicate it. He says :

"In the year 1831 had a concern to attend Indiana Yearly Meeting and the meetings constituting it, and obtained a certificate for that purpose. On the fourteenth of the Ninth month, in the same year, pursued the project, accompanied by my worthy friend, Aaron Hammer." He says they held no meeting while passing through Kentucky, and arrived at that great city in the State of Ohio, Cincinnati, Ninth month, twenty-fifth. ( Eleven days on road, and I suppose traveled horseback, a distance of about three hundred miles.)

A meeting was appointed for him in Cincinnati at the First Presbyterian Church. Many English Friends were present. He felt very much embarrassed at the prospect of facing a congregation made up of persons so intellectual and distinguished, in such a large city, and wished himself among country people. He says that Friends told him that Cincinnati, according to the last census, contained twenty-eight thousand people. He had his meeting, and many older Friends came to him after the service and encouraged him, saying he did well.

On the seventh day, first of the Tenth month, they attended Yearly Meeting at- New Garden (doubtless Indiana Yearly Meeting was held at New Garden and not at Richmond, at that date, as he says nothing about Richmond in his book).

On the way from Green County, Tennessee, to Cincinnati, they stopped over night at taverns, I suppose similar in construction and hospitality to the one kept by Robert AlcCormick in Fairmount Township. The bills itemized are : Bobbs, 25 cents ; Lowe's, 50 cents ; Johnson's, 50 cents ; Calvert's, 50 cents ; Sails, 62I/0 cents ; Rose, 62I/2 cents.

As these bills were for two men and two horses, it would seem that the high cost of living did not figure much in those davs. After preaching in Indiana and Ohio, at man\- places, they returned home.

Fairmount had in 1850 attained to a position of some importance as a business point. It was in this year that citizens began to cast about for a suitable name for the embryonic town. David Stanfield suggested that the place be called Kingston. Joseph W. Baldwin, who owned the corner store, had heard much of Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and favored Fairmount. Stanfield and Baldwin, after due consideration of the matter, being unable to agree, decided to leave the controversy to the decision of William Neal. Neal agreed with Baldwin, and this is how^ the town came to be called Fairmount. This, at least, is the conclusion arrived at by the writer, after conferring with a pioneer who knew Stanfield, Baldwm and Neal intimately, and was closely allied with the three men and held frequent conversations with them at the time the matter was under consideration. However, there appear to be other ideas in reference to it, and expressions bearing upon the subject are here submitted:

Joseph W. Baldwin, when talking about the early days of Fairmount, always claimed, that he gave the infant town its present name. There were three of them that had the matter in controversy. They were William Xeal, surveyor, William Hall and Joseph W. Baldwin. They all had names to offer. I have forgotten what they were. Joseph presented the name of Fairmount and won the others over to his choice and thus it was recorded Fairmount.

Editor News : I see that somebody says Joseph W. Baldwin gave Fairmount its name. I have always thought that my father, William Neal, named Fairmount. I am sure he was County Surveyor about that time. Mrs. Alvin Wilson.

(Editor's Note: - The best information at hand shows that before a name was selected for the town Joseph W. Baldwin had a little store on the Seth Winslow corner (the northeast corner of Main and Washington Streets), located where the Borrey Block now stands. David

Stanfield, father-in-law of Baldwin, was planning to have a part of his farm surveyed and an addition laid out and platted for the sale of lots. It was suggested by one of the two men that the time had come to select a name for the town. Both agreed that this should be done. Stanfield preferred that the town be called Kingston. Baldwin, who had been reading about Fairmount Water Works, at Philadelphia, favored Fairmount. After discussing the matter at some length they agreed to let William Neal decide the controversy when he came to make the survey. When Neal arrived Stanfield and Baldwin put the question up to Neal, and he took the view that, all things considered, Fairmount would be the best choice of names. Bill Wright had previously given the struggling village the name of Pucker, and the place was so designated until the name Fairmount was finally agreed upon.)

Editor News : Some years ago, while Joseph Baldwin, William Hall and James R. Smith were yet living, I remember one afternoon these three worthy pioneers were sitting at the front of our store (Oakley & Elliott's), discussing with others the cjuestion as to who gave Fairmount its name. My recollection is that William Hall made the following statement (the other two concurring), that William Neal, who just at the time the people were seeking a name for the prospective town, returned home from Philadelphia, where he had visited Fairmount Park, and being greatly delighted with its beauty and grandeur, he proposed the town be called Fairmount, which was generally accepted by the community. J. N. Elliott.

(Editor's Note: - It will be observed that there exists a difference of opinion as to who named Fairmount. However, there is honor enough to go around, and it is very likely that several had a hand in it.)

The south part of Fairmount was platted and subdivided into lots by David Stanfield, December 28, 1850. At first only four blocks lying south of Washington Street were surveyed by William Neal, who had been engaged for this work.

The original town plat was located in Section 29, Township 23 north and Range 8 east, consisting of fifteen lots. The following additions have since been made : David Stanfield's ; Jonathan Baldwin's

First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth ; Nixon Winslow's ; J. P. Winslow's First, Second and Third; Henley's First, Second and Third; Baldwin and Nottingham's; Phillips's; Winslow, Filers and Bogue and Winslow and Osborn's.

The first home built inside the present corporation limits was a log cabin started in November, 1831, by John Benbow, and completed later by Daniel Baldwin, at the southwest corner of Eighth and Main Streets. It was a typical pioneer cabin built of round logs, with a stick and clay chimney, puncheon floor, chinked and daubed to protect the family from wind and cold.

In December, 1833, Daniel Baldwin and family arrived from Wayne County, Indiana. Baldwin had visited Grant County the year before, and while here he purchased the Benbow cabin.

Chapter Xiii Eighteen Fifty-Two To Eighteen Sixty-Three

IN COMPLIANCE with my promise I will attempt to descnl^e things as I remember them in 1852 and up to 1863, when my acquaintance with Fairmount and Fairmount Township terminates.

In order that the reader may know why I assume to speak of early conditions in your town and Township I will say that I make no claim to having been a pioneer in your community. As a matter of fact the hunters and early pathfinders who contended with the haughty savages that inhabited your almost impenetrable wilderness had gone many years before I came. F)Ut the home builders and early settlers, the sturdy characters who cleared away the forest, built the roads, constructed the drains, erected the log school houses, the primitive church and their plain and simple habitations were here when I came. It is of these that I shall attempt to write.

I was born in Clinton County, Ohio, July 6, 1847, and came with my father, William Hundley, to your Township in the late fall of 1851. I have no distinct recollections of the journey from Ohio, which was made in a two-horse wagon to a point a short distance south of the Back Creek meeting house, where the road running east and west crosses the road leading to Marion.

It was here, in the early spring of 1852, that memory first dawns upon me. I found myself living with my father in a log cabin which was owned and also occupied by a man named Sam Jones and his familv (not the Sam Jones of Gospel fame, but the husband of Jane Jones, who was a preacher of some note in the Friends Church). Sam Jones had a small frame blacksmith shop located at the crossroads, and, as my father was a blacksmith, they joined their fortunes and we remained there until the year 1853, when we removed to Fairmount and father, with Isaac Roberts, built the first smith shop in your town on what is now North Main Street.

I want to say before proceeding" further that I am writing wholly from memory, which for one so young as I was at the period about which I write, would seem an unreliable source of information at this time. It has been said, and I think truly, that early impressions are the most lasting. I am sure that in my mind the surroundings and the nun and events of that day are more clearly impressed upon my mind than events happening but a few brief years ago.

and women who can have but a faint conception of the conditions which surrounded your beautiful and prosperous town and your splendid and progressive Township when I came. I have already stated that I was not a pioneer or first settler, but only one who remembers those sturdy and splendid men and women who laid sure and fast the foundation and assured the making of your splendid town and Township.

They it was who overcame obstacles which would seem to characters less stern and hardy, insurmountable. Their industry, privations and hardships changed an unhealthy and unfriendly environment and made your fertile fields to blossom as the rose. If we trace the progress of civilization in the past we shall find that environment has largely determined the advance of man in the attainment of the highest and best of which he has been found capable.

Jonathan Baldwin

Son of Daniel and Christian (VVilcuts) Baldwin, was born in Wayne County, Indiana, September 30, 1823. He came to Fairmount Township with his parents in December, 1833, his father having entered the land now comprising the larger portion of the north part of Fairmount. This land extended from Washington Street north to Eighth Street, and from the Big Four railroad west to Back Creek. The cabin home originally stood near the hackberry tree on the Bogue lot. After the death of his parents Jonathan Baldwin purchased the home place and added much to its appearance. He was a man of medium size, not of robust build, but with more energy than physical endurance. He was public spirited, and always in the front rank in promoting public improvements. No man did more in the building of the town, the public schools and the charch of his choice than Jonathan Baldwin. He was extremely hospitable and kind-hearted, generous in charitable calls. He was religiously inclined, a consistent member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, to which he was a liberal contributor. He kept several yoke of cattle and for some years did a great amount of heavy teaming. He greatly exposed himself to inclement weather, thus contracting lung fever, from which he never recovered, but lived a number of years afterwards. He was no shirker, li there was a hard piece of work to do he went at it, confident of success. He did Cammack's heavy hauling in building the first steam saw-mill in that country. He was one of the original promoters of the Jonesboro and Fairmount turnpike. He was married twice. His first wife was Sarah Ann Dillon, daughter of Jesse Dillon. By this union four children were born, namely. Isaac, Elizabeth, David and Mary. Isaac died at fourteen years of age. The others are still living. His wife died in 1861. Later he married Mrs. Emeline (Tharp) Hockett. Jonathan Baldwin died April 8. 1877. His funeral was a large one. The minister, Rev. Elijah Coats, who preached his funeral, said of him: "As to his real worth to his church and the community in which he lived, he stood head and shoulders above his fellow men; that he lived a contented, joyful, happy life, spent in doing good." - Dr. A. Henley.

I think I am safe in saying that your Township had made more progress when I came than had Fairmount. There were scattered all over your Township small farms and clearings. Fruit-bearing orchards gave evidence that their owners had been there several years when I came. The town and Township were, however, covered largely with a dense growth of magnificent forest trees. The houses were chiefly of logs, some of them hewed logs, but by far the most of them were round log cabins, with puncheon floors and stick and clay chimneys. I do not mean by round-log cabins that they were circular in form, but that they were constructed of round logs. A puncheon floor was one made of split logs. The man who was fortunate enough to have a comfortable frame house was considered an aristocrat in those days. The most formidable task which confronted men of the early day was the clearing away of the forest and the draining of the land, which was very much of it cov-

Hon. James M. Hundley

Hundred and Fortieth Indiana Infan- good place in which to raise peotry, serving with this command until pie, because it was three-fourths July II, i86s. Mr. Hundley is a law- , . , 11,, 1 ^ ^ when I first saw it. Back Creek, which runs through Fairmount, was an ahnost impenetrable swamp, and in a good many places it was more than one-half mile in width, and for the greater part of the year it was very difficult to locate the channel. In the year 1854 the ditching of this creek was commenced, and a drain twenty-five feet wide and of sufficient depth to carry the water and furnish an outlet for lateral drains was constructed. This work was done by some fifty

First Frame Dwelling In Fairmount

James Cammack, who owned the mill, lived in the house west of Stanfield's store. The picture above shows this house, which until torn down in 1916 stood almost opposite The News office on West Washington Street. This house was at one time the home of George W. Butler and family, when Butler was associated with his son-in-law. J. N. Wheeler, in the ownership and operation of the old flouring mill, located in the building which still stands at the southeast corner of Washington and Mill Streets, and now occupied as a coal office. The old dwelling was used in later years as an office by the late Squire John F. Tones. It was also a sort of headquarters for veterans of the Civil War, who were in the habit of congregating here during leisure hours for the purpose of exchanging reminiscences and telling stories of their service during the Rebellion. Squire Jones himself was a brave soldier, having served as Captain of Company C, Eighty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, a command in which many Fairmount Township men were enlisted. Captain Jones was popular w^ith all comrades, enjoyed their respect and confidence, and for many years after the close of the War worked faithfully to secure and did secure pensions for hundreds of veterans and their

Irish laborers, brought from Cincinnati, and was superintended by Jesse E. Wilson, Seth Winslow and Jonathan Baldwin. It was the first public improvement undertaken aside from cutting- out and makingsome corduroy roads.

"Well," some of our young people will ask, "what was a corduroy road?" Simply a road constructed with logs thrown crosswise and covered with Inrush and dirt in order to prevent vehicles from sinking in the mire. Anyone who has traveled over one of these roads in a wagon will not soon forget his experience.

The Old Baldwin Homestead

On North Main Street, now owned and occupied by Mrs. Elizabeth Bogue, widow of Robert Bogue, a grandson of Daniel Baldwin. This house, which, consisted originally of twelve rooms, six below and six above, is finished in native walnut taken from the forest. It was built by Jonathan Baldwin, son of Daniel Baldwin, in 1858, and was for many years the center of characteristic pioneer hospitality dispensed with a lavish hand by Jonathan Baldwin and wife. This house has at different times been used for hotel purposes. Across the road east of this house, in a beautiful grove, political and other meetings were held during summer and fall months.

The first saw-mill in Fairmount was built b\- James Cammack, and was there when I came in 1853. A little later he put in burrs and ground corn. Solomon (Toddy) Thomas had a horse mill for grinding corn, but this was southeast of Fairmount.

Isaac Stanfield, who was a pioneer merchant, built the first flouring mill a little way south of the present mill site, in tlie year 1854. This was a two-story structure and equipped with the most modern machinery known in that day. This mill blew up by a boiler explosion and was never rebuilt.

The building of a woolen mill was commenced in the year i860 and completed in 1861. I am now unable to say who was the builder and operator of this mill, but think Jonathan P. Winslow was one of the chief promoters. In any event, this mill supplied a lonq-felt want, carding, spinning and weaving wool, making jeans and linsey, the fabrics out of which the clothing of this time was chiefly made. Prior to the building of this mill the carding, spinning and the weaving had been done by hand, and the woolen clothing for winter and the linen clothing for summer had been spun and woven by the good women who then lived in your Township.

I cannot here describe the old-fashioned spinning wheel, your grandmother's loom or the cards used in preparing the wool for spinning. You may find these in some collection of curios. The flax-brake and the hackle have long since disappeared and can onh- be found in some collection of relics.

I cannot describe the process by which the home-made garments were colored. Certain it is, however, that many variegated and beautiful colors w^ere obtained, and the miss of that period, costumed in her homespun dress, was quite as comely and fair to look upon as her latter-day sister, arrayed in her frock of silk which in man\ instances seems to have failed to attain its growth at both ends.

I wnsh I could paint a pen picture of an autumn day in your Township in 1853. In all the humble homes would be heard the hum of the spinning wheel, the sound of the loom, and in the clearings would be heard the sound of the woodman's ax and the crash of fallino' timber. At night the sky would be illumined by the burning of brush and logs piled high by your sturdy home builder in his effort to clear away your virgin forest and bring it under a state of cultivation. Then we Avere seeking to obliterate the forest and to destroy millions of dollars worth of valuable timber. Today we are talking about conservation and spending millions in promoting forestry. But I am digressing. I have been attempting to describe the public improvements and the private enterprises which at an early day contributed to the making of your Township.

In 1854 or 1855, Daniel Ridgeway came with a tanyard and located in your community. He continued to operate this place for a few years, when he sold it to Micah Baldwin, who continued to make leather so long as the writer remained in or near Fairmount. Xathan Little established a tanyard in your town some time after Daniel Ridgeway came, and these two places furnished the leather to make the boots and shoes for your town and the surrounding community. This was an important and indispensable industry.

In 1859 or 1^60 ^ stage line was established from Marion to Anderson, and trips were made from each place three times a week, carrying mail, merchandise and passengers. I cannot now remember who estab-

The Giant Hackberry

Which stands on the Bogue lot, near the present residence of John Harvey- Wilson, on North Main Street. This tree is one of the largest in the To\ynship. A few of its spreading branches extend out seventy-five feet, making an interesting and picturesque object contributed to the present generation from the primitive forests of Fairmount Township.

lished this line, but know that Walker Winslow operated it during the Civil War and for some years afterwards. It went out of business when the Cincinnati, Wabash and Michigan Railroad came, in 1874.

In 1862 or 1863 was built the first gravel road in your Townsliip, running from Jonesboro to the Madison County line. This was a toll road, and was promoted and owned by men of your Township until bought by the County and made a free gravel road. I think Jonathan P. Winslow was one of the chief promoters and owners of this road.

I have thus far confined myself to matters that in my opinion were of a more or less public character and in their operation served to promote the growth and making of your Township in a material wav. I have said nothing about schools, churches, trades or business enterprises, all of which are vitally essential to the growth and progress of a town or Township.

When I came to your town the frame Quaker meeting house furnished the only school room in town. In 1855 was built on East First Street a frame building in which was opened the first free school in town. William Neal was the teacher. There were in the Township, at that time, some five or six public schools located in various parts of the territory. I cannot now locate all of them, but remember that one was located near the William G. Lewis homestead, another east of town, not far from the William Karwin farm, one at Sugar Grove, on the Madison County line, another southwest of town, near the Liberty Township line.

The Quaker meeting house was the only place of public worship in town when I came. Nixon Rush and Milton Winslow were the ministers connected with this church whom I remember most distinctly. William Hall was, I think, a United Brethren minister and George Bowers was a Methodist minister. The last two were what were known in that day as circuit riders and covered a wide extent of territory.

All of the above ministers were worthy exponents of the Master's cause, and were preaching in the interest of a fallen humanity and for the upbuilding of the cause of Christ.

The merchants in town during the period about which I write were Joseph W. Baldwin, Isaac Stanfield, William and Vincent Wright, Seaberry Lines, George Doyle, Ezra Foster, Jonathan P. Winslow and Mica j ah Wilson. I think, perhaps. Henry Harvey may have had a store there during this period.

The shoemakers were Solomon Parsons, James Martin, William G. Lewis, Logan Fear and Micajah Wilson. Richard Mott was a traveling shoemaker, and went from house to house in the fall and winter, makifig the shoes for the entire family while he remained.

furniture which adorned the primitive homes, as weH as the caskets in which the pioneer fathers and mothers were consigned to their final resting place.

I have now traced briefly many of the men and events which my boyhood recollections connect with the early making of your Township. I have not stopped to comment upon the individual characteristics of these men, nor to point out, except in a general way, the part they played in obtaining the high and advanced position your town and Township now occupy in all that is best in our present-day civilization.

These men were ruggedly and scrupulously honest in their dealings with their fellow men, loved their homes and their families, as well as their neighbors. They recognized the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They were charitable and generous to a fault. They knew and recognized no law except the law of right, and during all the period about which I write no crime of any kind dims the fair record of your Township.

To these rugged pioneers courts and jails were unnecessar_\' and for them held no terrors. These hardy pioneers have long since gone to their final reward, and most of the men who were contemporaneous with me have also crossed the Great Divide.

As I close this review of a long-gone past there come unbidden to my mind some stanzas of Gray's immortal Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard :

These men who linger only in memory, whose lives and deeds you seek to perpetuate in "The IMaking of a Township," which is. after all, but the making of a State and Nation in miniature, have left to their descendants who largely populate your town and Township a glorious heritage. No act of theirs can bring aught but pride, no deed of theirs can mantle the cheeks of their children and grandchildren with shame. They are gone, but not dead. They live in the glory of the blessings they have transmitted to posterity.

Chapter Xiv The Underground Railroad

I CAME into your community when the great questions which afterward shook the very foundation of our Nation were beginning to be discussed and agitated. I mean the extension of human slavery and the doctrine of State's rights.

Reference has been made in your story to the Underground Railroad, but I doubt very much if young people have any adequate conception of what is meant by the Underground Railroad.

Slavery, in some form, existed in all Nations from the earliest dawn of human history, but it is not my purpose in this communication to discuss the different forms of this monstrous and inhuman custom, except in so far as it has affected our political history in the past.

Our English ancestors established negro slavery in this country in 1620, at Jamestown, Virginia, and at one time it extended throughout the New England states.

It was soon found to be unprofitable in New England, and finally found its abiding place in the cotton-growing states, where we find it at the period about which I am writing.

As early as 1807 the great British statesman. Fox, worked aggressively against human slavery in England and her colonial possessions. He was preceded by Wilberforce, Buxton, and Elizabeth Heyrick, a Quaker lady, who wrote a pamphlet entitled "Immediate, Not Gradual Emancipation."

The arguments of this good Quaker lady finally prevailed, and on August I, 1834, England emancipated her 800,000 slaves and paid their owners $100,000,000 for them. At the same time England emancipated her slaves in her East Indian possessions, making a grand total of 12,000,000 slaves who obtained their freedom.

I have recited the brief history of England's emancipation of slaves in order that I may the more easily get the reader to understand what I am going to say in relation to the Underground Railroad and its operations in Fairmount Township, as well as with the political history of our common country.

It will be understood that the United States failed to be impressed by the humane arguments which induced the mother country to give freedom to her slaves. On the other hand, the Southern States, finding slavery very profitable in the growing" of cotton and other Southern staples, sought to have this institution extended to newly-formed states, and even succeeded in having this degrading practice recognized in our Federal Constitution.

Canada, lying along our Northern border, was the mecca of bondmen fleeing from slavery in Kentucky and border slave states. As early as i8co Congress had declared the importation of slaves to be piracy, and had abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. But at the same time the slave power was growing more arrogant and was extending slavery to new states and demanding additional laws to assist in the recapture and return of escaping slaves.

The Fugitive Slave Law, which made every free man in Indiana or any other free State a slave catcher, and provided that anyone who should feed or shelter one of these poor black men fleeing to Canada in order to obtain his liberty should be subject to fine and imprisonment.

This obnoxious law was soon followed b)- the infamous Dred Scott decision, which declared that the negro belonged to an inferior race and had no rights which our Constitution was bound to respect. These two actions on the part of the slave power which was then dominant in our Government fanned to a white heat the flame of hatred against the curse of slavery which already prevailed in the free states.

As love laughs at locksmiths, so liberty depises and defies oppression. The immediate effect of the laws to which I have referred was to foster the organization of .societies in the free states to render aid and comfort to escaping slaves.

The most potent and effective agent in assisting slaves to obtain their freedom by reaching Canada was the Underground Railroad, which consisted of organized societies extending across Indiana and Michigan, with stations at convenient intervals where escaping slaves could be secreted by day and transported by night from one station to another on their way to Canada and Liberty.

This railroad had no track but the rude trail through the wilderness, and no train or trolley car, but the means of transportation was a farm wagon, on horseback, or on foot, as the case might be. The fleeing slave, with the north star as his beacon to liberty, and three or four of these hardy Hoosier pioneers as guides and protectors, made his slow and painful way to freedom.

One of these Underground Railroad stations was in Fairmount, and the Winslows, Wilsons, Baldwins, Rushes, Davises, Henleys, Stanfields, Richardsons, and many others were active agents on this railroad.

Pendleton, south of Fairmotint, and Marion, north, were stations, and when an escaping slave was brought from Pendleton in the night time he was concealed in Fairmount or vicinity until the next night, when he was conveyed to Moses Bradford or Samuel McQure, at Marion, who in turn would convey his charge to Ashland, now Lafontaine. In this way fugitive slaves were housed, fed and conveyed to their destination in Canada.

The writer well remembers the last escaping slaves he saw. It was in August, 1856, and for some reason two runaway slaves had found it necessary to change their hiding place in the day time, which was an unusual and dangerous thing to do. They came to my father's smith shop about two o'clock in the afternoon, but in a few moments disappeared and were concealed in Dr. Philip Patterson's hay mow - none too soon. Shortly after their disappearance James Buchanan, who was, I think, the sheriff of your county at the time, appeared upon the scene, accompanied by four or five other men, two of whom were the masters of the fleeing negroes. Inquiry was made as to whether any one had seen the escaping slaves, but, of course, no one had seen them, and in a short time their pursuers disappeared. That night my father, William Hundley, Jonathan Baldwin and Seaberry Lines conveyed them to Bradford's, at Marion.

I think a large number of your pioneer citizens were connected with the Underground Railroad, and I am sure a very large majority of them were in sympathy with its operation. While many of them came from North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, they were not of the slaveholding class and detested the institution of slavery and loved liberty for all mankind.

I have traced briefly the history of slavery as it affected your community. While I have shown that there was an overwhelming sentiment in your town and Township in favor of human freedom and opposition to the institution of slavery, it is only fair to say that this institution had in your midst a few defenders.

The writer has traced in a hasty manner the action being taken everywhere throughout the North to nullify the odious laws which had been enacted in order to perpetuate human slavery. Nowhere was the feeling against slavery stronger than among the Quakers of your Township, but it was seen that this institution could not be eliminated by compromise or by the assistance of the Underground Railroad. The time was rapidly drawing near when this institution was to 1)c shot to death on the field of battle, and in the accomplishment of this result Fairmount and Fairmount Township were to offer on the bloody field of carnage many of their best and noblest sons, who gave their lives in order that human freedom might prevail everywhere in our fair country, and that the doctrine enunciated in the Declaration of Independence "that all men are created free and equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" might be true for the first time in our history.

I shall not attempt in this article to trace the formation of political parties or to describe the National campaigns which immediately preceded the Civil War. I want to here advert very briefly to what was known in 1856 as the Know Nothing party, which made its appearance in Fairmount Township in that year. It was also known as the American party, because of its opposition to foreign influence. This party was characterized by its secrecy and the reticence of its members.

I remember that when this party organization came to your Township there were no secret societies of any kind in Fairmount. As the members of this party held their meetings in secret, and as there were no public halls or lodge rooms the meetings were held at night in barns and shops. The women of the town upon one occasion became greatly excited and pursued their liege lords to Bill Wright's barn and demanded admittance. This was refused, whereupon the women proceeded to break into the star chamber session and of course broke up the meeting and took their spouses home, where they were taught that they must at least know one thing, and that was that they could not keep late hours in barns without the consent of their wives.

I have been writing much about slavery and the black man, but have failed to say that the first colored man I ever saw was in Fairmount in 1852. His name was Nelson Brazleton, and he was a wagonmaker and worked in my father's shop and lived at our home for some time. He was a sober and industrious man, and was universally respected. I do not know whether he was the first man of African descent to make his home in your Township or not, but he was the first man of that kind that I had ever seen. In 1858 and 1859 Brazleton had a small shop on Jesse Winslow's farm, east of town, and did wagon repair work and some blacksmith work. I think he died here in i860 or 1861.

I am sure that I have only touched upon the great subject of the Underground Railroad and have failed to mention scores of your early pioneers who were identified with this cause and did valiant service in advancing human liberty.

The Friends everywhere worked by speech and by writings against the institution of slavery. The Underground Railroad became a means of escape for human chattels. Levi Coffin, a Friend, who lived in Cincinnati, was the reputed president. There were hundreds of branch lines running through various sections of the free states, reaching northward to Canada, the only territory the runaway slave could flee to and be safe from the pursuit of his master.

One of the capable teachers to whom frequent reference has been made, is a native of Fairmount Township, where she was born, February i/, 1845. Her paternal grandparents were Thomas and Anna (Sadler) Harvey, and her maternal grandparents were Phineas and Mary ( Bogue) Henley, all of North Carolina, who came in the early day to this community'. John S. Harvey, the father, was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, February 24, 1821, and died August 18, 1850; Lydia (Henley) Harvey, the mother, was born July 21, 1827, and died July 29, 1845. Mrs. Pearson was their only child. On her father's side she is of English, Irish and Welsh extraction, while her maternal ancestors were a mixture of English, French and Indian blood. She was educated in th; common schools of Fairmount Township and attended Earlham College in 186.3. With the exceptit)n of three years' residence at Converse. Indiana, she has always lived in I'airmount Township. Mrs. Pear.son was engaged in teaching from 1862 until 1870, her school work being confined mostly to her own native Township, with the exception of brief engagements at Blue River .Vcademy, in \\'ashington County, Indiana, in Howard County, near Greentown, and on? summer session in Greentown. Her most notable success, perhaps, was at the Lake School, in Fairmount Township, during the Civil War, when management of the highest order was required in the maintenance of discipline. On December 30, 1869, she was joined in marriage to Lemuel Pearson, born at West Milton, Ohio, December 17, 1843. His death occurred September 15, 1914- His parents were Isaac and Mary (Pemberton) Pearson. Lemuel and Angelina Pearson were parents of six children, namely: Herbert, born June 25, 1871; Harvey, born August 18, 1873; Mary, born February 22, 1878; Ethel, born December 30, 1880; Ernest, born April 26, 1883, and Susan, born April 24, 1886.

The Dred Scott decision covered the entire Cniled States. This decision made it unlaw ful U<y anyone to harbor, feed or protect a runawav slave.

The Underground Railroad had one of its best officered organizations in Fairmount Township. All the way from Cincinnati there were stations where the slave was befriended. As far back as 1833 there was a station at the farm just opposite the Friends meeting house at Back Creek. It was occupied by Charles Baldwin and family, he having several stalwart sons who were ready, day or night, to give their lives, if need be, for the cause of abolition. I will relate one incident.

Often there were runaways brought in for Baldwin to aid. On one occasion there were nine men brought, and for one week Baldwin kept them concealed in a thicket, in a little log cabin which had been built for the purpose, one-quarter mile east of his home. These men were closely pursued by their masters. They belonged to three different owners in Kentucky. Baldwin had brought them to the house with the intention of conveying them on north. Upon looking out towards the road, which is now the tarvia road, he saw three men and two officers stop at the end of the lane. One of the slaves ventured out far enough to look at them and recognized them as their masters. He informed his comrades and they formed a circle in the center of the living room, taking hold of hands, looked. upward, and in concert they swore :

After parleying for a half hour the men at the end of the lane turned their horses and went back to Anderson without a single sisfht of their slaves, after pursuing them to within speaking distance.

"I could not do what I am doing if it were not for my kind neighbors. I often have to inform them when I have a consignment. Sometimes I am eaten out, but when we open the kitchen door in the morning there will be great baskets of cooked food, clothing and medicines as our needs may be."

It was no uncommon thing for the slave owner to follow the track of the Underground Railroad, but it was rare for him to recover his human property. Many were the cunning artifices used to delude him.

On one occasion there were three men to be conveyed to Moses Bradford, three miles north of Marion. The owners were in the neighborhood. It was undertaken by John S. Harvey, my father, and Quincy

Baldwin, two young men then about twenty years of age. The work must be done that day. They dared not travel the public road, but walk, and go a round-about way through swamps and a jungle of underbrush. As there had just been a deep "thaw out" and a heavy rain, it was impossible to travel in any other way. They selected a position where there was a thicket on each side, what is now a stone road, in front of where Isaiah Thomas now lives, and every man kept hid while John Harvey crossed the road and reported that nobody was in sight. Then one man would cross at a time, being careful to step in the same track. Ouincy Baldwin was the last to cross. By sunset they were at Bradford's, torn by brush, clothing in tatters, cold, hungry and wet with mud and water above their knees. Oh, what a price for liberty ! But that was better than the lash of the whip, or being branded by hot irons, like cattle, as many slaves were.

As well as the writer remembers, until January i, 1861, the date of his death, at the age of sixty-two years, Aaron Hill lived on the farm now known as the Harvev farm, and his home was

Herbert Pearson

Is another Fairmount boy who is occupying a responsible position. Mr. Pearson has for several years been located at Balboa Heights, Canal Zone, where he is employed as Auditor of the Commissary and Railroad Departments of the Panama Canal. Here his services are so eminently satisfactory to the Government that he finds no difficulty in holding his position. Mr. Pearson is a son of Mrs. Angelina Pearson and the late Lemuel Pearson.

another station. For some time after Aaron Hill's death the business was successfully carried on by his son, Daniel. One Sabbath afternoon Daniel Hill called u]K)n the writer of this article and excused himself for not staying but a few minutes, saying:

'T took seven runaway slaves to Bradford's last night. There was the father, mother and five children. I had them four days. I put hay in my deep wagon bed, then had them get in and lie down. Then I put hay over them and ordered them not to speak. The only road was through both Jonesboro and Marion, and it was a bright, moonlight night. In driving through these towns I drove slowly. I passed through Marion just at midnight. I had my horses walk through town slowly, but when I got beyond town at a safe distance I whipped them into a gallup and delivered them safely."

This was the last "consignment" that ever passed over the Underground Railroad through Fairmount Township. Some one calculated that as many as fifteen hundred runaways passed over the road while it existed. Daniel Hill was a frail, delicate-looking man, but it is due him to say he was heroism personified. He, like many others, hoping that the war then raging would end slavery, enlisted in Company C, Eighty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and laid down his life at Alexandria, Louisiana, on that fruitless raid up Red River.

Chapter Xv

IN 1 85 1 Spiritualism swept over this part of the country. William Chamness started the movement for a town at Lake Galatia.''' As early as 1833 Solomon Thomas had built a tannery in the neighborhood, and Micajah Cross, son-in-law of William Chamness, and Moses Hollingsworth had erected cabins there. Chamness insisted that all his followers should have everything in common. All believers were required to subscribe to the idea that there should be a mutual interest in all human necessities.

Otho Selby, well known surveyor of his day, was employed to locate streets and blocks. Circles were formed and services were conducted by writing mediums. It was the design of Chamness to make this a seat of learning and headcjuarters for the propagation of Spiritualism.

William Wellington and Joseph Hollingsworth erected a saw-mill and grist-mill. William Chamness and son started a store and built a residence. A little later James Lancaster erected a small frame building and put in a stock of merchandise.

A printing office was soon located, and a periodical called The Galatia Messenger was published. + The Messenger was a four-page paper, each page being about eleven by seventeen inches in size. Eli Selby was the managing editor of the periodical, which contained news of spiritualistic movements, accounts of local happenings, items in reference to the seances held, and frecjuently referred to the excellent healing properties of the waters in the Pool of Siloam, otherwise known as Lake Galatia.

Joseph Hollingsworth and Peter Havens were two of the strong characters connected with the movement. Mrs. Eleanor Hollingsworth, wife of Enos Hollingsworth, was one of the strong mediums. Charles Stanfield was another active supporter.

*Micajali Wccsner at one time ran a lanyard near Lake Galatia. An epidemic of cholera broke out in the neighborhood. Weesner and Alex Dolman, who had been stricken, were moved to a point north of Joncsboro. and died of the disease.

iLouise Payne Thorn once related that on many occasions, as a girl, she visited the printing office and watched the printers and publishers at work on their paper.

Robert Xose relates that in 1855 a man named Gerard created considerable excitement in the neighborhood by announcing that on a certain day he would make his ascension into heaven. Gerard had for a number of days been preparing for his flight by remaining in bed and abstaining from all food. E. B. Chamness, son of William Chamness, who was teaching in the vicinity, adjourned school in order that his scholars might see the flight of Gerard. At the appointed hour the children and other neighbors formed a circle around the bed. Gerard,

The Pool Of Siloam

It was asserted in articles published by the Galatia Messenger and claimed by followers of William Chamness, that the waters of Lake Galatia possessed healing properties. Thus the lake became known among faithful Spiritualists of the early day as the Pool of Siloam.

his arms akimbo, slowlv arose, shook himself violentlv for a few minutes, and by various other means attempted to arise. He did not succeed in making the ascension as promised, and his failure created much unfavorable comment in the settlement.

orator of unusual ability and considerable persuasiveness. His unanswerable logic appealed with such irresistible force to his hearers that the sermon started an agitation which eventually proved to be the beginning of the end of the enterprise. The movement began to disintegrate in 1857, and in time gradually disappeared.

The proposed metropolis soon faded away, and few of the present generation are aware of the movements of its ambitious but misguided promoters. Today not a vestige remains of this exploded enterprise, which in its energetic infancy promised far-reaching results.

One of the most aggressive opponents of Spiritualism as practiced in that day was Morgan O. Lewis-, who openly ridiculed their doctrine and their practices.

Rev. Bowers was a Methodist Episcopal minister. He was combative when it became necessary to enforce respect for religious services. Upon one occasion, it is related, an intoxicated hoodlum made bold to walk up to the platform and take his seat in the pulpit with the minister. Bowers remonstrated with the drunken man, who promptly replied that he had as much right in the pulpit as Bowers had, whereat Bowers took hold of the ruffian by the nape of the neck and forcibly escorted him to the door, putting the boot to the disturber as he went out. After this circumstance became known throughout the settlement Bowers was never known to have been again interrupted in his meetings.

Eli Selby, soon after the enterprise began to wane, went to Missouri and settled in the Ozark Mountains. When the Civil War broke out Selby is said to have sympathized with the South. He and his son, George, joined a party of bushwhackers and were both killed in the Ozarks in operations against the Union forces. It is not known what became of other members of the family.

E. B. Chamness, son of W' illiam Chamness, lived for many years at Alexandria, Indiana. He died in 1910. The widow, Mrs. Clara K. Chamness, at one time owned a cottage at Chesterfield, headquarters of the Indiana Association of Spiritualists, where their annual meetings are held.

Lake Galatia afforded fine fishing for the pioneer. There used to be an abundance of black bass and plenty of fine perch here. A hard freeze in 1862 killed them off, and fish has not since been so plentiful in the lake. Attention was turned to the Mississinewa River, later on, where there were plenty of pike, red horse, suckers, bass and perch.

river, and with grape vine and hickory bark improvised into a rope they pulled the drag down to a deep hole where they landed with all the fish they could take care of.

"In December, 1847, in the village of Hydeville, New York," writes Mrs. Angelina Pearson, "a family by the name of Fox heard strange rappings about their house, which increased in loudness and frequency, and which were more of an annoyance at night than during the day time, and were noticeable in different parts of the house. It was annoying to Mr. and Mrs. Fox, who became worn out with sleepless nights. Not until in 1848 did they discover that so many raps meant 'yes' or 'no.'

"Such mysterious doings could not be kept secret. The news spread in the village and elsewhere, and finally extended over the United States and to Europe. Great excitement prevailed wherever it made its appearance, and people would go long distances to see and hear its mysterious manifestations.

"Finally, an alphabetical code was established, the letters corresponding to the number of raps. Thus the mediums believed a communication was established between the living and the dead. The first communication thus given, it is claimed, was :

"The public press took hold of the subject and printed much literature. Now, Spiritualism had gained a strong hold, and had multitudes for its advocates. The Banner of Light, a magazine published in advocacy of Spiritualism, was issued in an Eastern city.

" 'Spiritualism is based on the cardinal fact of spiritual communion and influx. It is the effort to discover all truth relating to man's spiritual nature, capacities, relations, duties, welfare and destiny, and its application to a regenerate life.'

"It reached Grant County some time previous to i860, and found many believers. It had many strong advocates in Fairmount Township in that day, especially in the neighborhood of Lake Galatia, and persisted in keeping up its operations until some time in 1865 or 1866.

"The writer began teaching school in that neighborhood, in January, 1864, and boarded at a house which had formerly been occupied by a family that had encouraged it. Often large crowds would gather at this home to witness its noisy manifestations. The family who then owned the house was not friendly to it, yet it was there to annoy tliem. Every evening about 9 o'clock there would be a noise begin near the floor, between the ceiling and weather boarding, like the climbing up of an animal as large as a cat, or small dog. On reaching the upper floor it proceeded to run, making a noise with its feet, and also another noise as if it was dragging a heavy garment with large buttons attached, which scraped and bumped on the floor. Then it jumped off down into the ceiled partition on the north side of the room. Then all was quiet till next evening at just the same time. At the exact hour it would be there and perform the same mysterious operation.

"The woman of the house informed the writer that this was kept up just one year without mjssing a single night, but it gradually died out. At that time, in Fairmount Township, there were hundreds of people, as well as the writer, who saw and knew to a certainty something of the mystic nature of Spiritualism, but who did not believe it had its source in anything good, and only a few aged persons are living today who were witnesses. Latter-day Spiritualism has but little resemblance to that of 1847."

For a number of years a lane was visible through the forest where the right-of-way had been blazed and graded ready for the Marion & Mississinewa Valley Railroad, which was projected to connect Galatia with the outside world. Many people subscribed to a fund which it was proposed to loan to the promoters of the railroad at ten per cent, interest. Thousands of cross ties were bought and hauled to the scene of operations. There are still slight evidences of the grading done on the James Carroll farm, near the lake, but few traces of the right-ofway remain. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway later took over and now traverses for several miles practically the same route as that indicated by the original survey.

The article in relation to the railroad which was surveyed and partly constructed through the eastern part of Fairmount Township brings to my mind that 1 have seen the bridge which Mr. Tingley mentions and many piles of cross ties along the right-of-way, which, if I remcm- ])er rightly, ran near the farm then owned by Otho Selby, near Lake Galatia, writes J. M. Hundley.

I also remember that many men in the southern part of Grant County were induced to put their farms into this scheme. I think much litigation arose over these farms, and T believe that a few farmers recovered their lands, but of this I am not cjuitc sure.

and luul it succeeded would no doubt have changed the whole aspect of your Township. Galatia would no doubt have been the leading town instead of Fairmount.

I remember that this railroad bubble burst a short time after the scheme to build a canal from Wabash to the Ohio River through Grant and Madison counties had collapsed. These failures, with the failure of the State Bank of Indiana, which came about the same time, almost completely prostrated the little business there was at that time. (I am a little hazy about whether it was the State Bank of Indiana 01; the Bank of the State of Indiana, which failed, as there were two of them, and one was good and the other worthless.)

I know my father had a lot of this money taken in at the smithshop, and it was worthless. It was given to the children to play with. This was the day of wildcat banking, so called, and I remember that every merchant in Fairmount had what was called a "detector." or a book in which was given the amount of discount or the value of the several kinds of paper money.

This was one of the difficulties with which your pioneers had to struggle - the want of a stable currency. Imagine, if you can, our bankers and business men of today attempting to do the present vast volume of trade with a currency of this character. It would simply be an impossibility.

Chapter Xvi

THE FIRST temperance meeting of which there is any knowledge was held at the old Sugar Grove Church, in the Lewis settlement, about five miles southeast of Fairmount, in 1848. It was at this meeting that William G. Lewis made his first effort to speak in public. The sentiment expressed in his address created a furore in the neighborhood, and almost broke up the peace and harmony that had for many years prevailed among the early settlers. A few of the neighbors claimed that Lewis was advocating a plan that would take away the liberty that their fathers had fought for and bled for and died for.

The movement grew rapidly, however, and ended in the formation of a division of the Sons of Temperance. The agitation spread and the enthusiasm created at that first meeting bore fruit.

As time went on all denominations united on this question and stood out aggressively against the liquor traffic. Ever since there has been in this Township a general feeling of hostility toward the sale and use of intoxicating beverages. This sentiment manifested itself in a striking manner on more than one occasion in the years that followed.

In the late summer of 1874 Andy Morris, who lived at Summitville, encouraged by representations of an acquaintance that Fairmount might be a profitable location for a saloon, thought by a ruse to test the matter of putting in a stock of liquors.

It was highly important to ascertain the feeling of ultra temperance folks with regard to his proposed enterprise. Induced by Fred Cartwright, a well known character of that day, to make a reconnoiter, Morris put some articles of furniture resembling saloon fixtures into a wagon and brought them to Fairmount.

No sooner did Morris reach the southern outskirts of the town with his conveyance than he was surrounded by a crowd of determined, but angry men, led by Dennis Montgomery and Alex Pickard, who notified him that he had better take his traps and move out at once.

Morris was reluctant to do so. He hesitated too long. He was placed astride a rail, Alex Pickard holding one end and W. A. Planck the other, and was carried for a considerable distance along Main Street. He was told, after a pause in the proceedings, that he might have his choice, get out of town immediately or be tarred and feathered.

Rev. Herbert S. Xukkrson

Morris promptly acceded to the arbitrary terms laid down, and promised to leave at once if released. He was taken off the rail and with his wagon and other belongings he started south. Morris never returned to Fairmount after that.

June I, 1875, Dave Capper, of Harrisburg, planned to open a saloon in a one-story frame structure built by Capper for that purpose east of the Big Four Railroad. There was a door in the west end of the building, and another opening out on the north side. When the structure was being erected Capper claimed that it was intended for a blacksmith shop.

Jonathan P. Winslow suspected the motives of Capper, and kept vigilant oversight of the structure as the work was being completed and the building made ready for occupancy.

Norton immediately left his bed and plans were formulated. It was agreed that the ringing of the Wesleyan Methodist Church bell would be the signal for the ringing of every other bell in Fairmount. When this bell pealed forth in the early dawn of that summer day church bells and dinner bells in the town and country joined in, and a great commotion among the people was the result.

Nixon Rush was among the first to respond. The people were thoroughly aroused, and a number of men assembled to ascertain the cause of the excitement. As each man appeared upon the scene the matter was fully explained. In a short while the crowd had gathered at the old frame school house on East Washington Street.

Norton was promptly elected leader of the crowd. He formed the men in line, and at their head marched northeast, crossed the Big Four tracks, and were soon at the building, where they halted.

Capper, who was a Civil War soldier and a courageous man, appeared at the west door with a cocked revolver in each hand. He swore that he would shoot the first man who came near or who molested him in any way.

Norton was acquainted with Capper. He knew that Capper meant what he said, and that he would shoot. However, Norton, who himself was a soldier in the Civil War, and just as courageous and equally determined, quietly notified Capper that citizens meant business, that they did not propose to allow a saloon to be run in the town, and that he

After a short consultation with Jesse Bogue, J. P. Winslow and Nixon Rush, Norton shouldered a fence rail, took a running shoot, and knocked the door about half way through the building. Jesse Rogue was at the time right at the side of Norton and remained with him through the mix-up.

The citizens loaded up his stock of liquors on a two-horse wagon owned by Jonathan P. Winslow, and, driven by his son, John, who held the lines, forced Capper to sit on one of the whisky barrels, and in charge of a committee, at the tolling of a bell, was hastily started back to Harrisburg, amidst the jeers and hoots of an indignant but hilarious crowd.

In 1886 Ira M. Smith, of IMarion, was making plans to open a saloon on the west side of North Main Street, between \^^ashington and First, in a two-story frame building which stood where the Marion Light and Heating Building is now located. Smith had secured his license. One night, in the summer of that year, the building was destroyed by dynamite, and Smith abandoned his project. He returned to Marion.

Luther Morris secured a license in 1892 and opened a saloon in a one-story frame residence at the northeast corner of First and Main, which had been occupied by Mrs. Eleanor Thomas, widow of Daniel Thomas. Prior to this year, for about fourteen months, Morris had been engaged in taking orders for liquors and beer, delivering his goods by wagon from Marion. In the latter ])art of 1892 Morris had erected a one-story frame building- on East Eighth Street, and was preparing to move his stock of liquors to this location. I'efore the structure was quite ready for occupancy it was destroyed by dynamite one night and a few days later the pile of debris was burned. In 1900 Morris erected the two-story brick building now occupied by the Marion Light and Heating Company, on North Main Street. He continued to operate his saloon in this building until 1906, when the citizens of the Township, by petition, remonstrated the business out of existence, Morris being the first and the last man to own a licensed saloon in Fairmount.

A Friends meeting was held as early as 1831 at the cabin of Joseph Winslow, on Back Creek, two miles north of Fairmount. In the same year a double hewed-log cabin was built, where services were continued, on the Exum Newby farm, and this meeting was known as Back Creek. Nathan Morris was the first preacher. Among early members were the Winslows, the Morrises, the Newbys and the Baldwins. In 1833, by direction of New Garden Quarterly Meeting, of Wayne County, a meeting for worship was regularly established. A monthly meeting was set up here in 1838 by direction of the same Quarterly Meeting.

The construction of the old Back Creek meeting house was started in 1840, and completed in 1842.* Charles Osborn sat at the head of the meeting and preached the first sermon. The land on which it stood was donated by Exum Newby, and the ground for the graveyard was donated by Henry Winslow. David Stanfield and Nathan Morris were prominent preachers among the Friends at that time. The early settlers along Back DAISY BARR

In the early day, Northern Quarterly Meeting of Friends, held at Back Creek, in June, was one of the important events of the year, not only among Quakers, but with people of every shade and variety of religious thought and denominational attachment. For a number of years people from miles around, on foot, on horseback, and by means of wagons and every kind of vehicle then known, would attend these meetings. On Sunday the capacious brick meeting house would always be filled to overflowing. Those who were unable to gain admittance attended services outside. It was not an uncommon thing to see preachers up in wagons out in the shade of the beautiful grove exhorting sinners to forsake their evil ways. Platforms were provided for the use of

*In that day it was necessary to mold and burn brick by hand. It was a tedious process, and accounts for the delay in completing the structure.

ministers. These platforms were surrounded by roughly improvised seats. From such rude elevations the Gospel was ardently expounded and the power of the Holy Ghost vigorously proclaimed. Vast throngs would assemble on these annual occasions, drawn thither by motives as varied as the individual mood differed. Some had pious promptings, others came to mix and mingle, while young beaux brought their best girls to "see the sights," and a few attended as a matter of idle curiosity. Thrifty men, anticipating the needs of the multitude, would erect tents and sheds from which were retailed sandwiches, ice cream, lemonade and other eatable knickknacks. These "stands" naturally were liberally patronized. From year to year others similarly inclined were attracted, and the gatherings began to take on the appearance of ordinary Sunday outings, therebv to a great extent defeating the main purpose for which Friends established the quarterly assemblies, and assuming the air and aspect of "worldliness." The crowds, as they grew in numbers with each recurring June, finally became noisy and unmanageable. The sessions were transferred to Fairmount and the name changed to Fairmount Quarterly Meeting.

The first Methodist Church in Fairmount Township was organized at the home of Joseph Weston, about 1835. The charter members were Elijah B. Ward, Elizabeth Ward, Joseph Weston, Lydia Weston, David Lewis, Nancy Lewis, William Payne, Celia Payne, George Crist, ]\Iartha Crist and Ann Austin. The latter taught the first term of school ever held in this part of the Township. Elijah Ward was the first class leader at old Sugar Grove.*

The class later moved the place of meeting from Joseph Weston's, Joseph Weston being the first class leader. The class was organized by Wade Posey. Rev. G. W. Bowers was the second preacher. These people were the earliest supporters of Methodism in this part of the country. The Methodists held services at the cabin of Henry Osborn, southeast of Fairmount, as early as 1837.

In 1849, Methodists held services at Henry Osborn's hewed-log cabin, which still stands, and is situated on land now owned by Zim Payne, three miles southeast of Fairmount. Caleb Morris, of Marion, an exhorter of that day, would sometimes be present and assist in conducting the meetings. Those who attended meetings at Osborn's were Jesse Brooks and wife, Thomas Morris and wife, David Jones and wife, Henry Osborn and wife, Charles Stanfield and wife, Enicline and

*This church was then located on land now owned by Henry Roberts. It was later moved to the David Lewis farm, on the County Line Road, now ownsd by Daniel Johnson.

Louisa Osborn, and Caroline, Martha and Aaron Taylor. In that day it was no uncommon thing to keep house and hold religious services in a room eighteen by twenty feet.

The Elijah Ward Cabin

THE ELIJAH WARD CABIN Located about four miles southeast of Fairmount. Elijah Ward, who was the grandfather of Mrs. David G. Lewis, about the year 1835, helped to organize the first Methodist Church established in Fairmount Township. He was the class leader at old Sugar Grove.

A United Brethren Church, known as Union Chapel, was built in 1839 on the Solomon Thomas farm, three miles southeast of Fairmount. Rev. John Pugsley was the first preacher at this church.

Standing in Union Graveyard, as if to keep mute vigilance over the remains of pioneer dead, is a wild cherry, a hickory, a sycamore, a walnut, an elm, and a buckeye tree. The graveyard is situated just south of where Union Church stood.