Morgan Township

Morgan Township

Altlioiigh some of the earliest settlemoits in the eoiiiit>' were made in wliat is now Morgan loi'nship, it was not organiz(Hl as township nntil August, ]843, when it was cut off from the nortlirni part of Pleasant. It is exaetly six miles scpiare, corresponding to the ('ongressional townsliip .34, range 5, and contains thirty-six square miles. It derives its name from Isaac Morgan, who was one of the first settlers, though the jDlace where he located is in Washington township. Among the pioneers of Morgan may be mentioned Benjamin Spencer, George, Jacob and John Schultz, John Baum, Abraham Stoner, Samuel and Abraham Vaij Dalsen, Lyman and Elisha Adkins, John G .Keller, Thomas Wilkins, N. S. Fairchild, Archie De Munn, Elias Cain, John Berry and William Minton, all of whom had taken claims by 1837. Steplio) Bartholomew, Thomas Adams, Miller Parker, Enos Arnold, G. W. Patten and John E. Harris were also among those who located within the present township limits at an early date. An old settler is quoted as saying that when he oame to Morgan township "there was nothing but snakes, wolves and Indians." The Indians were generally peacable, however, except when thej'^ were drinking, and even then one would remain sober and take charge of the fire-arras and other weapons to prevent his drunken tribesmen f rolii doing some one an injury.

Among the Pottawatomies there was a tradition that at some period in the remote past their tribe got into a dispute with another tribe west of them regarding the boundary line between their respective hunting gi-aunds. To settle this difference of opinion, it was agri'cd by tlie chiefs to fight three pitched battles, the winner of two of llicm to fix the boundary. Old Indians believed the three battles were foiiglit sojiiewhere on the Morgan prairie, though no evidence of such conflicts Avere apparent when the first settlei's came there in the early '30s. Some believe that the old fort on the Kankakee river, mentioned in tlic liisloiy of Pleasant township was erected as a place to which the Pol(a\s;iloinies could retreat in case of defeat, but this theory is hardly Icnabic \\licii ojie stops to think that the best authorities agree that the I'oUawaloiiiies did not inhabit this region until after the Revolutionary war, whilr Ihe old fort shows evidences of having been erected at a niucli raili( r dale. The probabilities are the whole tradition is a mj'th.

Game animals were found in abundance by the fij'st .sclllcrs, and in the groves were numerous hollow 1/ees in whicli bees had Im'cii storing honey, perhaps for years. As late as 1851 Heni'v S. Adams, Rollston Adams, Asa Cobb and G. W. Patton, in a hunt of five (\:\yii succeeded in killing sixteen deer. AVilh plenty of wild game to fin'riisii nu'at for the larder, honey for the taking, and a fertile soil to cuUivalc, the pioneers of Morgan township did not sutfer the hardships ajid p)-i\a-lions experienced by many settlers on the frontier. Their gi-ea1isl drawbacks were the long distance to markets and the prairie firr.s, w liiili often swept OA'cr the country laying waste everything that canie in the jiafh of the flames.

The historical sketch of thei township written by Henry Stoner, trustee, in 1883, to be filed with the relics in the corner-stone of the court- . house, states that' an election was held on April 4, 18-i:', at which James White, Jesse Spencer' and Joseph McConnell were chosen trustees; David W. White, clerk, and John Brumbaugh, treasurer. As this date was some four months prior to the time when the county commissioners established the to\VTiship of Morgan, Mr. Stoner is mistaken regarding the date, or the officers named were elected for Pleasaiit township, of which Morgan was then a part'. The official records of this election cannot be found, nor can the names of the first township officers be ascertained. Neither can the name of the first white child born in the township be definitely learned. The first burial was that of a man named Agnew, who was frozen to death in a snow storm late in the fall of 1835, while trying to join his family at David Bryant's place at Pleasant Grove, Lake county. With a wagon load of household and an ox-team he set out on the old Indian trail but in a short time the sn(i«' Ix'gan falling so fast that the trail w.is obliterated. Unyoking his oxiii and leaving his wagon standing on the prairie, he started on foot, but became Ijcwildcred and iinally f?;ive waj' to the drowsiness that ended in his death. Wlien liis oxen and wagon were discovered search was made for his ho(l\ . wliidi was found and buried upon ]\Iorgan prairie. Mr. Stoner's (;ornii' stone aceoiiut says he was buried in the Adams cemetery, but Rattey's History of Porter County says that Mrs. Harriet J. Adams wiis ilic first person to lie interred in that burial ground. It may be possil>lc 1lial Ali'. Aguew's remains were removed H^am. the first place of burial to tbe cemetery, but the writer has been unable to find any one who could throw aii>- light on the subject.

Near the southwest corner of the tow7isliip is the old place known as Tassinong. There is a theorj' that a French trading post once occu))ied this site, though when the white men became acquainted with the place about 1830, uo traces of the post remained. Some three years after Morgan township was organized, Jesse Harper, who later won renowTi as a Greenback orator, started a store at Tassinong. A postoffico called Tassinong Grove had been established two miles south of Hari)er's store in 1840, with John Jones as postmaster. Harper remained but a few years, when William Stoddard started the second store at Tassinong. Aliout that time the postoflice was removed to the village. Josejih and William Unruh, William C. Eaton, Francis McCurdy, Ranker & Wright and Abraham ^hart were also engaged in the mercantile business at Tassinong prior to the Civil war. In 1852 there were, besides the store, two blacksmith shops and a shoe shop at the place, and in 1855 the Pres byterians established a church. The building occupied by this congicgation was erected by the people with the understanding that all denominations should have the use of it, though it was known as the Presbyterian church. When the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville railroad came through the township a few years ago, the town of Maiden s]irang uj) about two miles north of Tassinong, and the old town fell into decay. Maiden is a thriving little place, and is the principal shipping and trjidin^' point in the township. The only postoffice in the township i)i V.)]'l was Liberty View, a station on the railroad about four miles east of j\lalden. This town was projected by E. C. Maulfair, of Chicago, who. in June,

1909, platted the north sevciily-twu .hmts of llir iiortlicast quarter of section 35, township 34, range 5, :iim1 cdiife'iiid \ipon the embryo city the name of Liberty View. The jdnt \\:is ,hi],\- rccuided in October, 1909, and a postoiYice by that name was jorm established there. The town has not met the expectations ol ils rounder.

Just where the first scliool in tlie Uiwiisliij) was located seems to be somewhat in doubt, though old settler.s ^.ay it was not far frour the old "Baum" farm on Morgan prairie. Thi>\' agicc that the house in which it was taught was a small log strurtmc, jirobahly 12 by 14 feet in size, and that Orilla Stoddard was the lirsi. leach -i-. The second school house stood about two miles from the soulh line ol the township on the road running east from the present town oT M.ddi'u, and the third was built on the old Spencer place near Tassinong. j\Ir. SLoner's sketch, above referred to, closes with the staten)eut that "Mfn-.^-an township is noted as being one of the foremost agricultiu-al 1ownsliij)S in the county. Its growth has been gradual and steady. At the present date, October 20th (1883), there are enrolled in the nine school districts of the township 306 school children between the ages of six and twenty-one years." . That was written nearly twenty-nine ye.irs ago. In the school year of 1911-12, the nine districts mentioned by Sir. Stoner had been reduced to seven by consolidation, and in these .seven schools the following teach- .ers were'employed : No. 2 (Adams), VAHh Anderson ; No. 4 (Rising Sun), Florence Yoimg; No. 5 (Tassinong), Nora McNeff; No. 6 (Bundy), Edith Shroeder; No. 7 (Schroeder), Pcail Stoner; No. 8 (Piukerton), Olive Donahue; No. 9 (Flitter), Noia Denton.

Morgan township has an extensi\(' sxstmi of dilclics and al>oat fifteen miles of macadamized road. Two lines of railroad cross the towiiship. The New York, Chicago & St. Louis (Nickel Plate) line crosses the northeast corner, but there is no station on this i-oad \\itliiii the limits of the tOAVuship. The Chesapeake & Ohio (Innncrly tlic (Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville) enters near the soidhcasl cormi' and follows a northwesterly course, through' Liberty View and IMaldrji, having the township about two and a half miles north of tln' sonlhwesl coi-ner. The populaiv./." ,. av lion of the last twenty years has been somewhat fluctuating in characliT. In 1890 it was 830; in 1900 it had increased to 88-1, and during the next ten years there was a decrease, the number of inhabitants in 1910 being but 812.