Harrison Township

Harrison Township

John Blount was probably the pioneer or Harrison township, locating on the south bank of the Salamonie, in 1833. His first wife, Rachel, died in 1855 at the age of fifty-six, and he then married the Widow Jarrett, a daughter of John Twibcll. and ;ibout 1872 removed to Kansas. His brother, Andrew R., came in 1836 and lived southeast of Montpelier. Two other brothers, Joseph and Thomas, came near the same time and afterwards went to Wells county. John Twibell came from Virginia in the spring of 1836 with his wife Elizabeth, and his sons David and Josiah. He was born in Ireland March 14, 1760, and served in the British army in the Revolutionary war, but toward the close of the war deserted to the Ameri¬ cans and remained in this country. David and Josiah located on the north side of the Salamonie, north of Montpelier, their sister Martha McCulloch, locating farther down the river in Wells county. A younger brother, Thomas, married a daughter of John Blount, and lived many years two and one-half miles southeast of Montpelier. Rachel McGeath, another daughter of John, was the wife of Lewis II. McGeath. The}'' resided two miles west of Montpelier. John Twibell died July 21, 1853 ; he was blind for a few years prior to his death. His wife died four years earlier at the age of seventyeight years. David Twibell died August 13, 1855, being nearly sixty-three years of age, Margaret, his widow, died in 1864. Josiah Twibell was an active and enterprising man in public affairs. He was one of the early commissioners of the county, was a candi¬ date for the legislature in 1S52 and 1854, and was the first captain of Company I, Thirty-fourth Regiment Indiana Volun¬ teers. He died January 27, 1874, aged sixtyseven years and five months. In 1836 and 1837 a considerable number of emigrants came from Vermont and settled in and around the territory now included in the city of Montpelier. Abel Baldwin was the lead¬ ing spirit among them. He was born in the town of Cavendish, Windsor county, VermoiT in 1790. His father's name was Abel and his grandfather's name was Isaac. His maternal grandfather. Captain John Coffeen, was the first white settler in the town of Cav¬ endish. Mr. Bald , in acquired a good edu¬ cation and was a successful school teacher. He was in the army in the war of 1812. With his family he left Vermont in October, 1836, and came through the state of New York, and by water to Detroit and on to this county by way of White Pigeon and Goshen; his brother, Franklin G. Baldwin, and Josephus Streeter and David Pierce started from Vermont in September- and came through in wagons. With them came Newton and Kendall Putnam and their fa¬ ther, who settled across the line in Wells county. Nearly all these families were re¬ lated in some way to the Baldwins. The fol¬ lowing year the Spauldings came also from Vermont. Judge Isaac Spaulding was a fine scholar and an excellent citizen ; he was a half brother to Jesse Spaulding, the father of the other Spauldings who came, who were John C., Franklin B., Francis G., Salome, Ste¬ phen S,, and Freeman 11. and their widowed mother, Sarah Spaulding. Abel Baldwin laid out and platted the town of Montpelier, Sep¬ tember 5, 1837. It contained sixteen blocks and a total of one hundred and fifty- four lots. The lines of the original plat do not run north and south, east and west; the north and south lines run north eighteen degrees east, and the east and west lines run south seventy-two degrees east. Abel Baldwin died August 16, 1839. His widow, Rhoda S.. afterwards married Judge Spaulding, who lived but a vear or two after their marriage. Of the children the oldest child, Marthesfa, became the wife of John J. Cook, one of the early county officers; Rhoda S., married Amos Perry, who came from Vermont; John Baldwin was postmaster at Montpelier dur¬ ing the Whig administrations of Taylor and Fillmore and died recently in Nebraska; Charles P. went to Howard county; Edward P., one of the early county surveyors, died while a young man ; Henry C. received a fine education from his step-father. Judge Spaulding, and is now a resident of Kansas, and the only member of the family living. The younger children were Hortense R. and Zada L. John D. Waugh came from Ver¬ mont and located two miles west of Montpe¬ lier, in June, 1837, bringing with him his son, James, and daughter, Eliza Ann; in the summer of 1838 he was taken sick with in¬ termittent fever and died July 3. His fam¬ ily was then on their way here and arrived in August. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and was born in New Hampshire in 1770. Plis father was a Revolutionary soldier and lost his life in the battle of Bun¬ ker Hill. Oscar B. Boon, with his mother and sister, came from Vermont in 1845; the mother was a native of Massachusetts and a sister of the Widow Spaulding previously mentioned. Thomas ITulett was also from

Vermont, and was here before the county was formed; he was a Methodist class-leader, and an ardent Whig. Other Vermonters among the early settlers were Thomas H. Edson, Nathan C. Rice. Samuel Brown, a soldier of 1812, John S. Bliss, Thomas Eaton, Ira- Rice and Abel Byam. William Ellsworth, a New Yorker, and his wife, Betsy (Platt), came to Abel Baldwin's in Montpelier, in September, 1837, and built the second house in that village, in March or April, 1839, they moved to their land, three and one-half miles east of Montpelier, which was thenceforth their home. William died in February, 1893. lacking a month of being eighty years old. Mrs. Ellsworth is still living on the old homestead at the age of eighty years. Lyman Simpson, a Massa¬ chusetts man, was among the first in the vi¬ cinity of Montpelier. 1 1 is wife having died he married Clarissa Putnam, a sister of Abel Baldwin and widow of Kendall Putnam, who died in 1838. Simpson built the water power, grist. and saw-mill, a mile east of Montpelier,' one of the largest mills of the kind in this part of the state. He was after¬ wards a merchant and hotel keeper, and later a justice of the peace in Montpelier. In the spring of 1839 Michael Maddox settled on tlie tract of land north of the river about two miles east of Montpelier; his son Joseph C, then recently married, had preceded him a few years. Michael died September 10, 1845, seventy-two years of age; his son-inlaw, Charles Mays, came about the same time and his son Silas located in Hartford City soon after. Of his other sons, Wesley FI. is in Wells county; William McK. and Wilson went to Nebraska, and James J. died recently in Hartford City. Henry Householder and Daniel Wood were for a time near neigh¬ bors of Michael Maddox. Mr. Householder died in the fall of 1842. About a mile further east John Wells located in May, 1839, coming 'from Guernsey county, Ohio, but being a native of Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1800-. lie was a tanner and carried on that business extensively while clearingup and cultivating his farm. His. wi fe, Sarah, was a sister of Michael Teterich, who lived some four miles south of them. James MeF. Wells is the oldest child of the family, and, at the age of seventy-four years, is still liv¬ ing on a part of the land once owned by his father. The oldest daughter, Martha, marri 1 William Clevenger, another pioneer in that neighborhood. Just north of John Wells was Elihu Hillis, and a mile farther north, in the northeast corner of the county, Hyman and Darius Shinn located in the fall of 1841. Across the river south of the Maddox farm, William Crossan settled about the time that Maddox and Wells came. He was from Pennsylvania, and died in TS56 at the age of sixty years. Joshua B. Cass and John B. Gouldsberry were among the first in this township, as were also David Fox, Joseph Penrod, Thomas Simonton, John Ferrin, Emanuel Hirst, Robert Duffee, Samuel Wilson, James Bowman, Joseph C. David, David Daugherty, Elias Hawkins, William Wilson and John and Benjamin Lowrey. In the southwestern part of this township George FI. Houser must have been one of the first settlers. Soon after the county was formed he was elected a commissioner. Like the ancient Nimrod, he was a mighty hunter. He could take his gun and go out into the forest and bring in a deer of any age or de¬ scription that might be desired ; he was a zealous member of the Methodist church and was probably an exhorter. The writer remembers of seeing him once or twice at religious meetings at Montpelier or at the residence of Michael Maddox, and remem¬ bers how he sung with an enthusiastic aban¬ don that was inspiring, while he displayed conspicuously a single, very large front tooth. John Houser, another pioneer, was his son ; one of his daughters married Jona¬ than Havens, and another married Arthur Badley, a young Methodist itinerant, who in later years was a presiding elder in Iowa.

William Calc and his son Conrad and their wives, Elizabeth and Barbara, were all native Germans, as were Lewis, Peter and Christian Hiser, Margaret, the wife of the latter, being born on the sea. Thomas * Markin and his wife, Frances (Sumter), ^ came from Lawrence county, Ohio, to this township in February, 1837. Fie was a soldier in the war of 1812, had been a justice of the peace in Ohio and was one of the first - justices in Blackford county. George Sumter, who came with them, was a brother of Mrs. Markin. Jose K. Hobson and Elzy Silor (or Sailor) were in this neighborhood and Abraham Thompson, Robert Hays and David Hughes, the miller, Joseph Beymer and William Davidson were other first set-V tiers. John Beal, school teacher and associ¬ ate judge, went to Missouri. Michael Te¬ terich was one of the first in southeast Har¬ rison township, coming from Guernsey county, Ohio. Flis family suffered a calamity similar to that which twelve years later be¬ fell the Covault family. John Teterich, a son of Michael, took away a drove of ho.rses in the spring or summer of 1847, anc^ 011 his return took down with typhoid fever and soon died. In the course of a few days the mother, three daughters and the other son, Jacob, were all taken away by the same ter¬ rible disease. Jacob was engaged and was soon to have been married to a daughter of ^ William Davidson. He was taken sick at her home and died there and she took the fever and died soon after, and three of An¬ drew R. Blunt's daughters became victims of the plague about the same time. The neighborhood was alarmed. This form of disease was comparatively new and little understood, and was spoken of as the tetcrich fever. In some other families there , were a few cases somewhat similar and the | neighbors were afraid to go near to render j any assistance. Michael Teterich was left j alone, his family being swept away, with the exception of his married daughters, Eliza¬ beth Paxson and Sarah Hays. He survived

James Havens was another pioneer of this corner of the township, and also his sons, Sealy and Jonathan; his daughter, Nancy, was the wife of Joseph Reymer. Mr. Havens died about the end of the year 1849. There was also the Liestenfeltz fam¬ ily. Conrad and Susanna, and their children, Jacob and Daniel being natives of Germany. The other children were Peter M., Catharine, Conrad and Susanna.

The settlement of this township had just fairly begun when the county was organized. James Ransom came in October, 1836, from Belmont county, Ohio. Pie had a family of twelve children, five of whom were born in Ohio and eleven of whom grew to man¬ hood and womanhood. As several of them were somewhat prominent in the county, we give their names.

Dr. William C. Ransom, Robert, Jane, wife of William Jenkins, Bazel B., Mary, wife of Moses S. Stahl, Dr. James G., Sarah, wife of William Landon, Dr. John A., Plarriett, wife of Joseph Landon, Matthew W., and Rosanna, wife of James Kessler. About the same time or soon after, James Ran¬ som's father-in-law, William Clark Ander¬ son n, came, having also a large family. His wife's name was Eliza, and the children who came to Indiana were Mary Dean, Elizabeth Ransom, Asa, Humphrey, Bazel, William

Joseph Creek came from Highland coun¬ ty, Ohio, in 1839; his sons were Joseph, Jr., deceased, Jacob and Reuben, the latter of whom are well known. David Creek came soon after.

William Cortright, one of the first jus¬ tices in the township, and his wife, Huldah, were natives of New Jersey, but came from Ohio here. Johiel, Isaac, Henry, Jackson, Hiram, William and George were their sons and Delila, wife of Jacob Creek, was their daughter. Ezekiel Lanning, Robert Lanmng, Sr., James and Robert, Jr., and Matthew M. Thompson, came from Guernsey county, Ohio. Martin Bear (or Bare) was also a pioneer, and Henry was here soon after. George W. Porter, now of Montpelier, and nearly ninety years old, came from Jay coun¬ ty; his father, Elias Porter, and his uncle,

Historical Sketch Of

Thomas Shalor, were among the first white men in Jay and Blackford counties. All the foregoing, except the last Iwo named, locat¬ ed in the vicinity of Trenton. Farther north was John Havens, another son of James Havens, already mentioned. In the north- \ est corner of the township were Thomas Langdon, who died soon afterward, and the three patriarchal Emshwillcr brothers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham died many years ago; his widow, Em¬ ily, and his son, Moses, have recently died, while his other children, John, Jacob, William T. and Ann R. Morris, are still liv¬ ing in the county. Isaac was a bachelor and school teacher. Jacob was county treasurer nearly ten years; his tragic death in Febru¬ ary, 1S49, occasioned by his team running away, was universally regretted by the peo¬ ple of the county.

Samuel Gochnauer was one of the early commissioners of the county. Of his daugh¬ ters, Catharine married Jo§e K. Hobson; Eliza married David Hughes, and Mary Ann married Jacob Emshwiller. John and Jacob Wentz were native Germans. Frederick Beall, the first sheriff elected after the county was organized, lived east of Hartford City. The Stewarts, John and Henry, have already been mentioned. In the southeast corner, near Dunkirk, the first settlers seem to have been Leonard Clouse, George Clouse and Thomas H. Bowen, both of whom died at an early date, William Bowen, Ozias Barnes, the father of William Jonathan, Solomon M. Thomas and Orange L., William C. Bundrant, Edward M. Crumley and John Kitts - miller.

Among others located somewhere in the township were Emanuel Fuller, William James, R. R. Kelley, Ephraim Murray, Jo¬ seph Tyler and James Walker. In a very few years the foregoing pioneers were large¬ ly reinforced, a few of the additional being Thomas and Daniel Brown, James C. Baird, William II. Boyd, John Cunningham, John Everett, Ebenezer Edwards, Lois Evans, William Fulkerson, Josiah Cates, David Huffman, Aaron Hackney, John Hudson, Andrew Llarris, Mary W. Kline, Dennis Lowrey, Augustus Logan, another Robert Lanning, the Mill Grove merchant, Reuben Rousseau, John H. Snyder, William Tippen, David Tilton, George and William Whetsel and Abraham Wilson. The last mentioned Robert Lanning is said to have been an expert marksman. Dr. A. W. Hen¬ ley, of Hartford City, agreed with him at one time that he would buy all the squirrels that Lanning would kill in one day by shoot¬ ing them through the head with a rifle, at three cents apiece. He brought in fifty of the gray variety, all shot through the head, and the Doctor dressed and salted them down and said it was the cheapest meat that he had ever bought.