Warren Township

Chapter Xxvi

The township of Warren is the central one of the eastern range of townships of Marion County, Lawrence township joining it on the north, and Franklin on the south. It is bounded on the west by Centre township, and on the east by Hancock County. The population of Warren township, by the United States census of 1880, was three thousand one hundred and seven.

In the western, southwestern, and northwestern parts of the township the surface is but slightly undulating. The east part is more broken and rolling. The soil is either a black loam or clayey. This township is not excelled by any in the county for the production of grass, and the soil is also well adapted to the production of corn and wheat.

Originally, Warren township was thickly covered with timber, and had many low marshes and swamps. The kinds of timber were principally beech, maple, white-, red-, and burr-oak, hickory, poplar, elm, ash, sycamore, walnut, buckeye, bass, mulberry, and ironwood. The timber was of large growth, with very thick underbrush.

Warren township is afforded good drainage by Buck Creek on the east. Lick Creek through the centre and south, and Pleasant Run in the northwest. The marshes have all disappeared, and now but little waste land is to be found in the township.

At an early date the principal road through the township was the Centreville road, about a quarter of a mile south of where the National gravel road is now. After the location of the National road the Centreville road was vacated. Now the principal \ roads are the National, Brookville, and German pikes. But few dirt roads are left in the township, j

Warren township was laid off and erected by the county commissioners on the 16th of April, 1822, but, being then not sufficiently populous for separate organization, it was at the same time joined to Centre township, the two to be regarded as one township, under the name of Centre- Warren. This union continued until May 1, 1826, when, by order of the county board of justices, Warren was taken from Centre, to be separately organized as a township, and an election of justice of the peace was ordered to be held, on the 3d of June following, at the house of Rufus Jennison, Harris Tyner to be judge of the election. At this election Rufus Jennison was elected justice of the peace. Following is a list of township officers of Warren, from its erection as a township to the present time, viz. :

Justices Of Thk Pbaob

Early Settlements and Settlers. - ^Among the earliest settlers in Warren township was Henry Brady, who was born in Pennsylvania, Sept. 16, 1794. He had a great desire to gain an education, and with that intention he went to Athens, Ohio, where he for some time attended school, working mornings and evenings for his board, and his lessons were chiefly learned while on his way to and from school. He was, however, compelled to abandon his idea of completing the course.

His first residence in Indiana was in Jackson County; from there he moved in 1824 to Marion County and settled in Warren township, on land about six miles east of Indianapolis, whore he has lived ever since, and is yet quite hale and hearty, though in his ninetieth year. His name is a familiar one to all the older inhabitants of Marion County. He has served his township in various ways, as surveyor, teacher, and magistrate. Although a stanch Democrat, he has represented Marion County at different times in both branches of the Legislature. He has now quite a large farm, and it is also one of the finest and best improved in the township. Mr. Brady was always popular wherever known, and now in his old age he is happy in the respect and esteem of his many friends.

Harris Tyner was born in South Carolina. He emigrated to Kentucky, and from there to Indiana in 1805, and settled in what is now Franklin County. In February, 1821, he moved to Marion County and settled in the northern part of Warren township, where he resided at the time of his death, in 1881. Harris Tyner served as county commissioner for twelve years. He was in the war of 1812, also in the Black Hawk war.

The earliest assessment-roll of Warren township that can now be found is that of the year 1829, which, being complete, shows, of course, very nearly who were the male adult inhabitants of the township at that time. The following names taken from it are those of men then resident in the township who were assessed on no real estate, viz. :

The same assessment-roll gives the following Dames of persons resident in Warren township in 1829, and who were the owners and holders of the lands respectively described, viz. :

Andrew Morehouse, the southeast quarter of section 11, township 15, range 4, and the west half of the northeast quarter of section 14, in the same survey township.

Thomas Askren settled in the northwestern part of the township in 1828, and a year or two later bought the land on which he lived till his death, in 1868. He accumulated a large amount of property, and was, moreover, a man highly respected and esteemed by all who knew him.

Nathan Harlan moved to Marion County in 1823. He first settled in Franklin township, but in 1827 moved from there to the southeastern part of Warren, and lived there until his death, in 1846. In 1828 he took the contract for cutting the timber from off the line of the Brookville road. He kept tavern from 1833 to 1844.

James Davis settled in Warren township in 1827. The lands he entered were on Buck Creek, in the southeastern part of the township. He lived here until 1864, when he moved to Fremont County, Iowa, where he lived until his death, in 1872.

N. Y., Nov. 8, 1796. His father was an old Revolutionary soldier, and was at the capture of Burgoyne when only sixteen years old. Not long before his father's and mother's deaths they lost their farm through a defective title. Eight children were left to shift for themselves, the youngest being but two years old. Andrew determined to go West, and walked to Olean, on the Alleghany River, and getting employment on a lumber-raft, floated down the river to Cincinnati. Liking the country, he determined to go back to New York and make preparations for emigrating West. He had to walk the most of the way home, and in the spring he again floated down to Cincinnati. There he bought a part interest in a flat-boat, floated down to New Orleans, and sold his boatload of produce. Not liking the institution of slavery, he determined to go back to Cincinnati. He worked his way back on a keelboat, it taking sixty days to make the trip. This trip disgusted him with river-life, and having saved some money, he, in March, 1823, walked to Indianapolis, where he stopped with a man by the name of Benjamin Atherton. Mr. Morehouse entered one hundred and sixty acres of land on Lick Creek, about five miles east of Indianapolis, on the Brookville road. Having had the misfortune to lose one hundred dollars while looking for land, and wanting eighty acres of land adjoining his, he built a cabin of round logs, split puncheon floor, clapboard door hung up with wooden hinges, cut down four acres of Heavy timber, piled the brush, and then left for Hamilton County, Ohio, where he worked through the summer of 1824. Making his one hundred dollars, he came back to his farm and bought the eighty acres. March .8, 1825, he married Theresa White, who was born in Kentucky, Oct. 4, 1796.

Then commenced in earnest the work of clearing. Their honeymoon was spent in burning brush and logs, with every day, three times, corn bread and meat as the bill of fare. By April they had succeeded in clearing about three acres, one corner of which was sown in flax for clothing, and the rest planted with corn, while the places between logs were dug up for potatoes and pumpkins. From early morn until evening Mr. Morehouse kept the axe going, felling the heavy timber, and on moonlight nights he would work until late in the night. In the fall, the fight commenced with squirrels, deer, and raccoons for possession of the corn ; fires were built around the field to keep them away, and as soon as the corn was dry enough it was stored away in the cabin loft. The pumpkins were peeled, cut in thin rings, and hung overhead on poles. In the fall of 1825, Mr. Morehouse took his yoke of oxen and an old cart, also an axe to cut the saplings out of his road, and set out for Hamilton County, Ohio, to get apple-trees. He brought back fifty apple- and some cherry-trees, and planted the first orchard in Warren township ; he also brought a quart of apple-seed, which he planted. One of the seedling trees and a sprout from one of the fifty trees are still living, and both bore apples in the past season.

The first year of his new life was a success, and the promise it gave for the future was fully realized. Mr. Morehouse served in the Black Hawk war in 1832. In 1835, while digging a well, a tub fell on him, crushing his skull. The skull was never lifted, and he sufiered from the effects until his death, Feb. 3, 1864. Mrs. Morehouse is still living, and although in her eighty-eighth year, is as ambitious to be useful as when she first came to the wilderness of Marion County with her willing hands to help her husband clear the land for their home. Her mind is as bright as ever, and to see her sitting in her own particular corner, knitting and chatting, it is hard to realize that one little woman could ever have done so much.

Robert Brown, another of the early settlers in Warren township, was bom at Staunton, Augusta Co., Va., Feb. 5, 1787. His father, who came to America from Ireland, was the most prominent physician of Staunton. The early education of Robert Brown was sadly neglected. When a mere boy he took to hunting, and many a deer and bear fell at the crack of his rifle. At the age of fifteen he left home to make a living for himself. His first work was at the saltpetre-works in Virginia, where he worked, off' and on, for three or four years. He then went to the western part of Pennsylvania, where, in 1807, he married Elizabeth Messinger, who was of

German parentage, and was born near the Monongahela River, in Pennsylvania, Dec. 10, 1786. After staying a year in Pennsylvania, they emigrated to Butler County, Ohio, within a few miles of Hamilton, where he followed farming, and in the winter months worked at coopering. In the summer of 1812 he volunteered, and served in the war. His company went out in the early part of the summer, and, after a few months of active service, returned home in September, and remained long enough to put in their wheat. They returned to headquarters in October, where Mr. Brown served till the close of the war. His children still have the sword which he carried. In the fall of 1822 he and his family, in company with two of his brothers and a brother-inlaw, moved to Indianapolis, then but a small settlement of a few log huts. The evening before he reached Indianapolis he camped with a party of Indians on Lick Creek, just south of Irvington, the place where he lived so many years. Mr. Brown returned the next fall to Hamilton, Ohio, to enter his farm, south of Irvington, and on returning, in company with others, they were obliged to swim Blue iliver, which was very high at the time and the weather very cold. There were Indians camped near the river, and they wrung the water from their clothes and dried them by the Indian camp-fire. The only man they met between Blue River and Indianapolis was Henry Brady, who was hewing the logs for his cabin.

Mr. Brown lived for eight years on the present site of the Blind Asylum, and he tended his corn several years on the square on which the present court-house stands. He would kill game enough to feed his family two or three weeks and then go out and work on his farm, clearing off the land and building his house, which he finished in the fall of 1824. The same house is now standing and occupied. When he was building it, the deer would come two and three at a time and lie down within fifty steps of the house in the daytime. Wild turkeys were also very plenty. He moved to Warren township in the fall of 1830. He served as school trustee three or four terms, before the free school system was established. The school-houses of that day were few and wide apart. He helped to survey all of Warren and the greater part of Centre township, and in later years if there was a dispute about any corner-stone in his vicinity, he was called on to settle the matter and locate the corner.

Mr. Brown followed farming and hunting. Breadstuff was an item at that time, and they had to go to a horse-mill in Shelby County, a distance of some twenty or thirty miles, the trip generally occupying three days. For meat they relied exclusively on deer and other game, which was in abundance.

The day was never too cold or too hot, rain or sunshine, for him to go out hunting. He was acknowledged the best shot in the country. He would never hunt with a hound, or go out with a party if they took a hound. His favorite way was a still hunt, and it appeared that he knew just where to look for deer, and when he shot he was sure to bring down his game. He was present at all shootingmatches for miles around, and if he was not ruled out (which was often done to give others a chance), he always won the first choice, which was the hide and tallow.

Mr. Brown was respected by all who knew him. His word was as good as his bond, and few indeed were the promises that he broke. His wife died April 20, 1867, at the advanced age of eighty years, four months, and six days. She had been married for sixty years. Mr. Brown survived her nine years, and died Oct. 20, 1876, at the age of eighty-nine years, eight months, and fifteen days. Only four children survived him, three sons and one daughter. He left several great-grandchildren, and one greatgreat- gran dph ild.

" Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years, Yet ran he freshly on ten winters more. Until, like a clock, worn out by eating time, The wheels of weary life at last stood still."

Reason Hawkins came from Hamilton County, Ohio, about 1826, and located on Pleasant Run, northeast of the present town of Irvington. In 1829 he was not assessed on any> lands in the township. He sold out his first location and afterwards bought land of Calvin Fletcher, situated a little west of

Joseph S. Mix and wife came from Hamilton County, Ohio, in the year 1833, and settled in the east part of Warren township, in a perfect wilderness, where the only clearing was where the logs were cut for erecting his cabin, which was (as was usual in those days) of only one room, with puncheon floor, and quilts or blankets hung up at the door and windows. For three years he kept a store in Cumberland for Nicholas McCarty, and when he closed at night would take the money in a basket on his ^rm and go to his home, a mile distant through the woods. There he hung his basket (with the money in it) on a peg for the night, without the least doubt that it was perfectly safe, as it was. He was afterwards in the hemp business with Mr. McCarty. The farm on which he settled in 1833, and where he still lives, is situated one mile southeast of the village of Cumberland.

Henry Bowser was born in Pennsylvania in March, 1810. When five years old he went with his parents to Ohio, and when twenty-one years of age he migrated to Indiana, and settled in the southwest corner of Warren township, where he resided until his . death, Oct. 18, 1883. He married, May 6, 1833, i Mary Moore, who still survives him. j

James C. Ferguson was born March 4, 1808. His father and mother were natives of Virginia, but when quite young moved with their parents to Kentucky. About four years after his father's marriage he volunteered to go into the Maumee country, under Gen. Anthony Wayne, to fight Indians, and remained out until peace was made. In a few years thereafter he moved to Butler County, Ohio, where James C. Ferguson was born. Six years after his birth his father' died with a contagious fever, called the cold plague. In 1820 the family moved to Indiana. In 1825, James C. Ferguson settled where he now resides, in Warren township, on the National road, six miles east of Indianapolis. In 1829 he married Nancy Goble, who lived in Henry County, Ind. Her native State was Ohio. Mr. Ferguson says, " I frequently fed the Indians, chased bear, and killed a great many deer. 1 had a horse with a long tail that I rode when hunting. If I succeeded in killing a deer I would tie the horse's tail to its jaw, and in that way drag the deer home. Turkey and wolves were plenty, but the wolves soon disappeared. My first cabin was built in 1825. The floor was of split puncheons, and the door of clapboards. My table was also made of split puncheons."

Elias H. and Mahala Shimer, pioneers of Warren township, arrived here from Zanesville, Ohio, Nov. 1, 1829, and settled on the farm on which Mr. Shimer died July 29, 1864, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and on which his widow still lives. She is now in her eighty-second year, a woman of remarkable health and unimpaired mind. Mr. Shimer was not a stout man, and being sufiiciently qualified to teach, he taught school for a number of years. In 1858 he was awarded the first premium for the finest farm in Marion County.

In 1834, Mr. and Mrs. Shimer joined the Old-School Baptist Church, of which they remained consistent members till the breaking up of the church, about 1856. It can be truthfully said that their house was the home of the homeless ; scarcely a time can be mentioned when his house was not the abode of one or more orphans. At one time five homeless ones, all of diff'erent families, were taken into his house to share whatever blessings the Great Master had given them.

Joseph Clinton, with his family, emigrated from Kentucky to Indiana in 1830, and entered the east half of the southwest quarter of section 13, and bought of Benjamin Atherton the west half of the northwest quarter of the same section in township 15, range 4. When Mr. Clinton arrived there was no house on the land, but as material was plenty it was but a few days until he had erected a rude cabin of one room, with split puncheon floor, clapboard door, and a greased-paper window. The cabin was heated by a large fireplace, which also served for cooking purposes. The chimney to the house was of mud and sticks, and built at first about four feet high, but it was afterwards made higher. It was late in the fall, and as it had taken about everything that Mr. Clinton possessed to buy his farm and move, the family had to practice the most rigid economy- Land on which to plant the next year's crop had to be cleared before spring ; so, working from early in the morning till late at night, and in all kinds of weather, he succeeded in partially clearing enough ground to raise the next winter's food and clothes. At night, when any other light than that from the fireplace was needed, an iron vessel, with a handle for sticking in the cracks of the logs, was filled with lard, and a wick of twisted cotton rags put in for burning. The first improvement in lights was a candle made by dipping a rag up and down in melted tallow until enough tallow adhered to the rag to form the candle. All clothing was home-made, either made from flax or wool. The principal article of food was corn. Corn bread in all its various forms was eaten through the week, and on Sunday a great treat was had in the form of wheat bread.

Joseph Clinton was for several years justice of the peace, and of the many ridiculous incidents that came under his notice he often related the following : One day while working in the corn-field a German and his wife came running excitedly towards him, and as soon as the man was within hearing he called out, " Here, Meester Squire, here is your thaler ; take him, take him." "Why?" said Mr. Clinton, " I don't want your dollar." " Oh, yes, Meester Squire, take him ; me hit Ostermeyer on der kopf, and he fall down dead. Take him, Meester Squire." The man seemed in such evident earnest that Mr. Clinton stopped his work and went to see what was the matter. He found that the two men had quarreled ; one had hit the other on the head, the blow having stunned but not killed Ostermeyer. The German had been in this country but a short time, and knowing that the fine for a fight was one dollar, he thought that one dollar would settle the matter, even if he had killed the man.

Joseph Clinton lived upon the farm where he firs* settled until his death, in December, 1874. He was always a man of remarkably even temper, honored and respected by all who knew him. All little children seemed to recognize in him a true friend, and he was most happy when surrounded by a crowd of little ones, telling them stories and soothing them in

Mills, Taverns, and Distilleries. - In 1832 there was a saw-mill built about half a mile south of Cumberland, run by water-power. In 1834 a saw* mill (water-power) was built on Buck Creek, about three miles south of Cumberland. It was known as Baker's saw-mill. About 1835 a saw-mill (waterpower), known as Davis' mill, was built one and a half miles south of Brookville road.

The first steam-mill was built on the National road, about two miles west of Cumberland. The exact date of the building of this mill is not known, but it sawed the lumber for planking the Cumberland plank road, now the National gravel road. At present there are three steam saw- mills in the township and one steam grist-mill. There are no waterpower mills.

An early tavern was kept by Samuel Fullen, on the Centreville road. When that road was vacated he moved to Cumberland, and kept the first tavern there. Henry Brady kept tavern six miles east of Indianapolis as early as 1824. John Wilson kept on the Centreville road, near the present site of Butler University, three and a half miles east of Indianapolis. When the National road was located he moved to it and kept tavern there. Rufus Jennison kept tavern five and a half miles east of Indianapolis, on the National road. James Ferguson kept six miles east of Indianapolis, on the National road. He kept tavern as early as 1825. David Woods kept ten miles east of Indianapolis, on the Brookville road, at a very early date. Nathan Harlan kept on Brookville road from 1833 to 1844, for accommodation of stage travelers. This was about nine miles east of Indianapolis. At present there is but one hotel in the township, kept by Ingram Little at Cumberland.

A small distillery was built as early as 1830 by a man named Richardson, on Buck Creek, near the east end of Cumberland. It was principally used for the manufacture of peach brandy, and was run but a short time. There is no distillery in the township.

Villages. - There are three villages within the territory of the township of Warren, viz. : Irvington (the largest but youngest of the three), lying on the west line of the township, adjoining Centre, and about four miles east of the city of Indianapolis ; Julietta, in the southeast corner of the township ; and Cumberland, near the east line of Warren, and occupying a central position on that line, between the northeastern and southeastern corners of the township, eleven miles east of Indianapolis, on the old National or Cumberland road.

The village of Cumberland was laid out in 1831 (plat recorded July 7th in that year) on land owned by Samuel FuUen ; the survey being made by Henry Brady, who received one or two town lots in payment. Originally there were but six streets in the town, viz. : North, South, East, West, Main, and the Cumberland road, which latter passes through it from west to east, ninety feet wide, with sidewalks nine and a half feet wide. Main Street was laid out forty-nine and a half feet wide, and each of the other four streets thirty-three feet wide. Ground for a public cemetery was donated by the owner of the plat.

The first tavern in the village was opened by Samuel FuUen, who moved there from the Centreville road, where he had previously kept a public-house. His wife was Ann Pogue, daughter of George Pogue, the pioneer settler at Indianapolis. He afterwards sold out in Cumberland to David Richardson, who came from Miamitown, Ohio. Other early tavern-keepers and Dr. William Moore, whose house was the stopping-place for the stages on the Cumberland road. The hotel of the place is now kept by Ingram Little.

The first stock of goods was brought to Cumberland by John Stephen.s, a native of Kentucky, who came to this place from Indianapolis, where he owned the Bayou farm. He was an honest and respected man, but became poor, and it is said he died in Hancock County poor-house. Other early and later merchants of Cumberland were Joseph Mix, Brown & Buell, John Hawkins, Jacob Loucks, Hugh Wooster, Jeremiah and Joseph Oakes, James Woods, and Charles Bouge. The present stores of the village are kept by Jesse Ebrough, Charles Hendricks, Joseph McConnell, and Edward Bouge, - the last named also having the post-oflBce.

those named, were Dr. Lyman Carpenter, Daniel Knight (wheelwright), George Patterson (married a daughter of Samuel Fullen), Noble Perrin (blacksmith), Travis, and his sons James and Joseph,

Dr. William Moore (elected and served as a member of the State Legislature), James Parker (the tavernkeeper already mentioned) and his son Squire, now living in Shelby County, Dr. John Pleasants, Robert Wooster (son of Hugh, the storekeeper), Emerson, Joseph Church, Ambrose Shirley, John Dorsey (wagon-maker), Nicholas Stuttsman, George Plummer, Aaron Nixon, and James logersoU (blacksmiths), Mr. Panzy, George McVeigh, and Daniel Reagan, who made the first bricks, which were used for building two brick houses, - one for Mrs. Smith and the other for Samuel Fullen.

Cumberland has now about four hundred inhabitants, three physicians, four stores, a post-office, a railway station, one hotel, two blacksmith-shops, one grist-mill, two saw-mills, a school-house, and one church (Baptist). There were at one time two other church organizations in the place, viz., Methodists and Universalists, and all worshiped in harmony.

Julietta village, in the southeast part of Warren township, was laid out in 1 868 (plat recorded Feb. 5, 1870). It contains at present two stores, one blacksmith-shop, a post-office, one physician, and about fifty inhabitants.

The suburban town of Irvington (so called in honor of Washington Irving) is situated on an elevated piece of ground, one hundred and seventy-five feet higher than the ground on which the Union depot in Indianapolis is built, and is four miles east of Indianapolis, on the National road. The original town was laid out into one hundred and eight lots by Jacob B. Julian and Sylvester Johnson, on the 7th day of November, 1870, and embraces the southeast quarter of section 10, township 5, range 4 east, lying north of the Junction Railroad, except the schoolhouse lot in the northeast corner, the entire area covered being 304.47 acres. Irving Circle was dedicated to use and purposes of a public park, on which, at no distant day, it was designed to erect the statue of Washington Irving. College Circle was designed for the use of a female college. The object was to make it a suburban residence town for the professional and business men of Indianapolis. Additions have from time to time been made, the most notable of which are the following : Woodland Park addition to Irvington, laid out Jan. 4, 1872, by James E. Downey and Nicholas Ohmer ; and Ritter's addition, laid out Sept. 6, 1871. Every purchaser of a lot was obliged to accede to the following requirements, embodied in the deeds of conveyance :

" The grantee accepts this deed from the grantor with the express agreement that he, his heirs, and assigns will not erect or maintain, or suffer to be erected or maintained, on the real estate herein conveyed any distillery, brewery, soap-factory, porkor slaughter-house, or any other establishment offensive to the people, and that he will not erect or maintain, or suffer to be erected or maintained, on said premises any stable, hogpen, privy, or other offensive building, stall, or shed within fifty feet of any avenue in said town, and that he will not sell or suffer to be sold on said premises any intoxicating liquors except for medicinal, sacramental, or mechanical purposes strictly, and he accepts this deed on the further agreement that the right to enforce and compel a compliance of the above conditions rests not only in the grantor, his heirs, and assigns, but in all the property-holders and inhabitants of said town."

The land on which the town was built was owned by Jacob Sanduska and Isaac Sanduska prior to the time it was purchased by Messrs. Julian and others. The town now embraces four hundred and fifty acres. There was an agreement entered into by the gentlemen who were the leading spirits in the undertaking to build in the town and reside there, accordingly Jacob B. Julian, Sylvester Johnson, and Levi Ritter each built a fine residence and moved into it, where they have since resided. The next house was built by Charles Brouse, and then the following persons built fine houses in the order named, viz., Nicholas Ohmer, Dr. John H. Tilford, Oliver M. Wilson, James M. Crawford.

In the year 1874 the trustees of the Northwestern Christian University (now Butler University) decided to locate said college at this place, and in 1875 those persons who had been so persevering in their efforts to secure the prize had the satisfaction of seeing their anticipation realized, and the college moved to and located within the town. A more extended accouut of this institution is given in the history of the city of Indianapolis.

The first merchant in Irvington was William Furrey. After him were the following : William H. H. Shank, William W. Wilson, Cones & Huston, and Omer Burger, the present merchant of the village. Jacob A. Krumrine, the proprietor of the first drug store, is still conducting