Prairie Township

Prairie Township

Prairie township is situated in the northwest corner of Tipton coun;y, being bounded on the east by Liberty and Cicero townships, on the south by Jefferson township, on the west by Clinton county and on the norffi by Howard county. This township originally included the western half

The surface of Prairie township is mostly level, with a slight undulation to relieve the monotony. The soil is of thick, black loam common to this section of the state, and is abundant in elements conducive to good crops. Black and white walnut, beech oaks, hard and soft maple, elm, ash, and willow and spicebrush covered the land when the first settlers came, but this growth of timber has been reduced to almost nothing, that remaining being the young second growth only.

In the western part of the township is a long wet slough or prairie, which once embraced many acres of rich soil too marshy for cultivation. Prac¬ tically all of this district has been reclaimed during the last three decades by an excellent system of drainage. Indian prairie, from which the town¬ ship drew its name, extended into the southwest corner. It was originally nothing but a quagmire, but drainage has developed its productiveness to such a degree that the land is second to no other portion of the township for agricultural purposes.

The principal streams by which the township is watered and drained are Mud creek and its tributaries, Little Wildcat and Shanty creek. The first named flows through the eastern and southern parts and leaves the township from section 12. The valley of this stream is low and at one time stretched out into long quagmires and sloughs. Little Wildcat rises in section 19, flows in a northeasterly direction, and leaves from section 35. Shanty creek flows in a northerly course and has its source in section 19. Two smaller streams, unnamed, flow through the southeast corner of the township.

Settlement

Seventy years ago Prairie township was a wilderness, unbroken by the hand of white men and inhabited by a few roving bands of Indians and an abundance of wild game. The emigrant found it thus when he entered, but by that perseverance and hardihood we read so much of, but so little understand, he built and endured until the land became a garden, the trackless woods a harvest field, the prairie a scene of bloom and fertility. The broad acres are now checkered with splendid farms, and the rough, log cabin has been superseded bv the modernly equipped and commodious residence of the twentieth-century farmer, or agriculturist as we term him now.

This township was, in the early clays, a portion of the old Indian reserve, and cortlequently was not opened for settlement so soon as some of the sister townships. The year 1847 was the time of the first marketing of land here. Many hunters and trappers entered the township territory years prior to the first permanent settlement, but their names and date of entrance are lost. It is only known that when the first permanent settlers entered there were many squatters living along the streams, none of them having made any effort to improve the land or till the soil. Some of these squatters were of the class of men who follow or proceed the tide of civilization, parasites they might be termed.

Perhaps the first actual settler in Prairie township was Alexander Suite, father of Riley Suite, who pre-empted a claim in the northwestern corner of the township as early as 1842. He was a native of Tennessee, but came to Indiana at an early day and located a few miles from the present village of Russiaville in Howard county, where he lived until the survey of the Indian reserve was made, when he moved to the locality mentioned. His son, then a very small boy. thus relates their advent to their new home.

A miniature cabin, sixteen feet square, had been constructed upon the claim a few months previous, the work being done by a young man whom Mr. Suite hired for the purpose, giving him a gun for compensation. The understanding between Mr. Suite and the architect was that a house should be erected. This contract the builder carried out to the letter of the law, and then presented himself to his employer for his pay. The gun was given and the family made preparations to move.

They loaded up their few household goods and agricultural implements in a single wagon, and proceeded tor the little home, the mother and wife driv¬ ing, and the father and son preceding the wagon in order to cut their way through the woods and thick underbrush. After a very hard journey the destination was finally reached, but upon reaching the place the pioneer found that the cabin had no floor, no chinking in the cracks between the logs, and neither door nor window. A temporary shelter was hastily improvised outside for the family. Afterward Mr. Suite took an axe and chopped an aperture in the logs to serve as a door, which was soon ready for the oc¬ cupants. The few household goods were arranged in one end of the cabin, while the other end was reserved for a fireplace. Before this was construct¬ ed. however, the wife did the cooking over a fire built on the ground floor, the smoke making escape through the openings between the logs. In a few weeks Mr. Suite had constructed a rough puncheon floor in the cabin, a fire- place, and a window covered with greased paper. The apartment was not free from the cold drafts which crept in, but served to shelter the family. Suite lived on his claim for a period of two years, at the end of which time he sold his improvements to David Brown and took a second claim a few miles farther south. The second house was a much better one than the first, being larger and better constructed. It required all of the settlers within a radius of five miles and two gallons of whisky two days to raise it. For four years Suite lived here, and then disposed of the property to Enos Scott and moved near the central part of the township, where he resided until his death in 1856. His son, Riley Suite, came with his father to the new country, shared all of the hardships and privations of pioneer life, and was prominently iden¬ tified with the county afterward.

In 1843 Solomon Bringle came to the township, and was joined during the latter part of the same year by John Brown, Joseph Orr and Isaac Goldsberry. Bringle took a claim in the western part. He was a native of North Carolina. He cleared a small space of ground and occupied his claim about six years, when he sold out to a Mr. Bryant and moved to the vicinity of Sharpsville, in Liberty township. Brown pre-empted land a short distance west of Suite's claim, where he cleared and made a very good farm. He came to Indiana from Ohio, and was identified with this part of the country for five or six years, when he sold his claim to John Moulder and emigrated to the state of Missouri. Goldsberrv located in the northwest corner of the township. For several years after coming to the country he did but very little in the way of improving his claim, spending the greater part of his time in hunting, by means of which he supplied his table. He entered his land in the year 1849, but sold ^ a few years later and moved to near the village of Galveston, in Cass county, where he made his permanent home. Orr pre-empted a claim in the western part of the township and became a prominent land owner in after years. He was a resident of the township until the year 1869, at which time his death occurred.

Clinton Gary, a son-in-law of Joseph Orr. was another early settler at this period. He made his first improvements on the land where J. Orem aft¬ erward lived, which he occupied about five years, when he sold to Orem. John Brock came in 1843 an(l t°ok a claim where Robert Nash afterward lived, near the central part of the township. He was a born hunter, and he was pointed out as a perfect specimen of the backwoodsman. His family lived in the most primitive manner in the little pole hut near Mud creek, and seemed contented with their miserable existence. Brock entered the land

Richard Foster was another early pioneer of this township, who set¬ tled near the v/uthern bouwlary of the township in the summer of 1843. He v//n had an excellent farm cleared. He entered the land early in 1848. and trAs a prominent and well-liked citizen of the township until his death, in the seventies,

AdditP/nal settlers who came in before the land sale were Jackson Watts, William Chapman, Isaac Eads, Thomas Scott, Samuel Carter, Vin¬ cent Carner, Robert Alexander, Henry Gamer and Enoch Gamer, all of whom secured claims in the western part, and Amos and W. D. Pritchard, who located in the southern part of the township. When the land was put on the market subject to entry, a number of homeseekers came to the town¬ ship, among whom were Isaac Glenn, who entered land in the western part; Andrew Sample, a native of Switzerland county, who settled near the north¬ west corner; Peter Keel, who located near the western border; Jacob Smith, who settled in the same locality, and W. R. Irbv, who entered land in the northwestern part. Other names of pioneers follow: Thomas Quackenbush, James Carter, Owen Lindley, Major Bennett, James Vawter, Henry Bowlin, Ambrose Corn, Daniel Umphreys, John Lee, James Baldwin, Riley McKay, Joseph Orem, Samuel Carter and James A. Franklin. In addition to the atiove list, the following persons secured lands in the township during the years 1847 and 1848: Stephen Kenworthy, Molten Moody, Hiram Adams, Pewellcn Adams, William Hutto, Harvey Lake. Daniel Lane, Stephen Lane, Cyrus Ally, E. Gage, John Luckenbauch, Benjamin Fee, Thomas Armstrong, Jacob Smith, Andrew Sample, E. Gilbert, F. M. Jones, William Osborne, A. N. D. Thompson, W. Chapman, W. B. Hyatt, William Landers, Jesse Coleman, Smith Turner, Lorenzo Owen, Harvey Barnes, H. Bowlin, George Tucker, D. F. Rittenhouse, Jacob Dunham, Nicholas Tomlinson, George Pitzer, John W. Pvke. William Morris, John Harlow, Jacob Ackerman, Adam Cooper, Samuel Baden, William Hendrickson, Daniel Green, Z. Piper, G. W. Hogan, Abram Kilbv, Samuel Kilbv, John Stevens, Alex S. Jones, Henry Cobbins and James Miller, many of whom were not identified with the township as citizens.

The nearest market place to the northern settlement was the village of Burlington in Carroll county, a distance of twelve miles, while those living in the southern part of the township obtained their groceries and other neces¬ sities at Hoxlevtown, in Hamilton county, and later, at the .stores at Tetersburg and Normanda in Jefferson township. An old pioneer whose early youth was spent in this township relates the tale that it was his duty to pro¬ cure meals for the family, and regular trips were made on horseback to Burlington for that purpose. When no corn was at hand to take to the mill, the custom was to take a large jug of honey to exchange for meal, the jug being placed in one end of the bag and a stone of equal weight for a balance in the other end, the whole thrown across the back of the horse. This jug held several gallons of honey and when filled was equivalent to a bushel of meal.

It was threshed with a flail, cleaned by being thrown up in the air from a sheet, and marketed at Lafayette for sixty cents per bushel, which was a large price at that time. The early farmers drove their hogs to the same market place, and realized from the sale about one dollar and fifty cents per hundred pounds in cash and trade.

The first frame house in Prairie township was constructed by Joseph"^ Orr near the year 1850. It was a small structure of one room. William Chapman and William Osborne were the first to build frame houses on their farms. Robert Nash and Gilbert Van Sickle erected the first brick house in the township.

The first burial place was the Prairieville graveyard in the western part. % There were laid away the children of Jackson Watts and Thomas Scott as early as the year 1844. Other early interments at the same place were a son of Clinton Gray, who was killed by a well pole falling on him, a man named Hoffman and the children of Solomon Bringle. The Normanda graveyard was probably the second one, and then the cemetery at Liberty church near Groomsville. The fact that a cemetery is found near each church or regular preaching place points to the fact that no funeral was thought to be properly conducted without a sermon. The coffin was generally built by a home work¬ man, and the body was clothed in a lone shroud. Dead people were never buried in the dress worn in life or in such garments as living persons wear.

The first marriage ceremony took place at the home of Joseph Orr in the year 1845, the contracting parties being Eliza Orr and William Peters. Whisky was the predominating element at this ceremony. Quite a number of the youths of the neighborhood gathered at the bride's residence a short time before the marriage hour and went in procession to meet the groom ahd preacher. The couple were halted by the tipsy revellers who presented them with a decorated decanter well filled with the "O be joyful." To make the occasion pass off pleasantly, the prospective husband cheerfully disposed of the "red eye."

If the fact was stated to a stranger, that Prairie township had no rail¬ road, no traction line, no telegraph line, no express office, no town nor vil¬ lage, and no postoffice, the one addressed would conclude that the township was indeed an open prairie, and would probably ask: "What have they got?"

One familiar with the features of this singular township could un¬ doubtedly convince him in short order that it was a modern and well or¬ ganized township. In fact it is a township of high character, of great agri¬ cultural attainments, and of excellent citizenship. The township is thickly settled, and every farmer in it is a twentieth-centurv edition. The land is improved to the highest state, being well tiled, cultivated and nourished. Every public highway in the township is macadamized, and just within recent years a complete telephone service has been spread over the entire area. Along with these improvements has come the rural free mail delivery sys¬ tem. These are the principal factors of many which enable the farmer re¬ moved from the greater lines of communication to develop in harmony and with equal speed with his neighbors in other parts of the county. The farm¬ ers are all prosperous and are not engaged in hoarding their gold, but be¬ lieve in turning it back into the common cause, for the good of their town¬ ship and county. The people point with pride to the fact that there have rarely been*anv delinquent taxes against the township. Each farm by itself is a model of complete and scientific development. The equipment, buildings and residences are the latest pattern ; the land is drained adequately, and the soil is properly cultivated. Churches and school houses dot the country, although there is a tendency now to abandon the many small schools and consolidate them into few large ones, a system that is spreading over the whole United States. Unlike some townships in the state, this growth has not been a matter of decade after decade, but has sprung to life in the last one decade, a fact which adds even greater glory to the community.

Groom Sville

The village of Groomsville is situated in section 16 in the southern part of the township and dates its history from the year of i860. At that time Enoch Smith got up a petition for a postoffice, which was granted soon, ahd the name of Groomsville given, in compliment to Dr. B. M. Groom, who was formerly a practicing physician there and at the time was auditor of the county, and who was a resident of Tipton. The office gave the place some local prominence and a store building was erected in the course of a few years and stocked with a general assortment of merchandise by Thomas Lamb, who sold goods until the spring of 1883, at which time he disposed of the store to McCreary and Stoops. A saw mill was in operation here for several years and did a good business. It was in the little village of Groomsville that Senator John W. Kern made his maiden political speech in 1870. and with each succeeding campaign he made a speech in the town until he became a candidate for vice-president, when his time would not permit him to visit the scenes of his youth.