rL^#. ^y ^* -^"^^ f^* -?r ^i^.5i-

^^» ^^•:'^f:

Gc 977.201 J31s v.l

A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties,

A Standard History of

Jasper andNewton Counties Indiana

An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with an Extended

Survey of Modern Developments in the

Progress of Town and Country

Under the Editorial Supervision of

LOUIS H. HAMILTON, Rensselaer

For Jasper County and

WILLIAM DARROCH, Kentland

For Newton County

Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors

Volume I

ILL USTRATED

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY -^

CHICAGO AND NEW YORK J—C'

S-tT."^

1308665 INTRODUCTION

Indiana has always stood for not only prosperity, but originality, whether considered from the standpoint of the commonwealth or the people. In politics it is often classed as doubtful, because its men and women are thinkers, as well as doers, and are not led against their wills. Especially is the northwestern part of Indiana typical of prosperity, energy and independence, and Jasper and Newton Counties are centers of "God's country," as the real Hoosier calls his home hunting grounds, his picturesque streams, his teeming fields and his hamlets, towns and cities.

It is this diverse, useful and interesting country and people which this history, now finished, has endeavored to depict in the gem counties of Jasper and Newton. The twin counties, which so worthily perpetuate the names of two brave Revolutionary com- rades, have put forth gallant soldiers of the later days, writers of wide repute, successful business men, women of culture, and numerous characters of both sexes whose strength and activity have been given to social, moral and religious development.

From the very outset, it was the earnest aim of editors and pub- lishers to gather all material information bearing upon the multi- tude of topics which logically called for treatment and which the prospectus had promised. As a rule, the responses were prompt and hearty, although in scattered instances, and despite repeated requests, the facts obtained were not as full as desired. Without mentioning all who have thus promoted our enterprise, and co-oper- ated in the lightening of our labors, the editors acknowledge their obligations to their advisory boards of both counties and to the editors of the newspapers, without exception. All have rendered cheerful and efficient assistance. Not a few business men have also contributed of their valuable time in the actual preparation of manu- scripts, for which they have our special thanks. While it has been the constant aim of the editors to give all credit who have materially contributed to the upbuilding of any community or institution, the object has also been kept in mind of endeavoring to observe literary proportions in the amount of space accorded to the many topics con- sidered. In the progress and completion of the work, we have endeavored to be impartial, as becomes all historians, whether writ- ing of counties or of countries.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

CO-OPERATION OF NATURE AND MAN

The Kankakee and Iroquois — Surface Geology — Mineral Springs — Topography, Soil and Products — Moulding of Nature by Man — What the Fires Did to Drive Out Rank Forage — The Live Stock of Jasper County — ^Agriculture AND Live Stock Forty Years Ago i

CHAPTER II

CONFLICTS OF WHITES AND REDS

The Miamis Tamed by the Iroquois — Labors of French Mis- sionaries AND Traders — French Indiana — Indiana Under British Rule — Uncertain French Titles to Lands — Ruled from Canada and Virginia — In the County of Illinois — Part of NoRTHVi^EST Territory — Indiana Territory^ — Gen- eral Harrison, Father of Indiana — Tecumseh and the Prophet — The Battle of Tippecanoe — Founding of the State Government — Miami and Pottawattamie Titles Ex- tinguished— Pottawattamie Villages in Jasper County — No Evidences of Permanent Prehistoric Settlements. . .16

CHAPTER III

PREPARATIONS FOR WHITE IMMIGRATION

The American Survey System — Survey of Indiana Public Lands — When Statehood Came — Creation of the Counties — Conditions Unfavorable to Settlement — William Dona- hue, First Settler — The Yeoman and the Nowels Family — Charles G. Wright — Thomas Randle and George Gulp — The Blue Grass Settlement — The Benjamins — Settlers of 1832-45 Z7

vi ' CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION

Erection of the Twin Counties — Named after Comrade Pa- triots— Jasper County of 1835 — County Seat Moved to Spitler's Cabin — Jasper and Newton Counties Consoli- dated— County Seat, the Falls of the Iroquois — Formation OF Townships — The Spitler Courthouse — The Early Rens- selaer Courthouses — The Brick Courthouse of 1856 — Courthouse Burned — The Courthouse of 1898 — County Jails — County Officials 44

CHAPTER V

COURTS, JUDGES AND LAWYERS

First Western American Courts — First Territorial Court — Federal vs. Territorial Jurisdiction — Judicial System un- der the First State Constitution — Subsequent Legislation Affecting the Courts — Circuit Court, a Monopoly of Judi- cial Power — List of Circuit Judges, 1852-1916 — First Court Sessions in Jasper County — Noted Early Lawyers — Joseph A. Wright — Rufus A. Lockwood — Edwin P. Hammond — Simon P. Thompson — Robert S. Dwiggins — Mordecai F. Chilcote 57

CHAPTER VI

LAND HIGHWAYS

Indian Trails in Jasper County — The White Man's Trails and Early Roads — Bridges as Connecting Links — Thwarted At- tempts at Railroad Building — Indianapolis, Delphi & Chi- cago Line, a Success — Rensselaer Gets Railway Connection Now IN the Monon System — The Big Four — The Three I's Railroad — The Chicago & Eastern Illinois 70

CHAPTER Vll

GENERAL AND STATISTICAL

Decadal Population, 1840- 1910 — County Revenue and Taxable Property — Present Area and Value of Property — County Finances — The Swamp Lands Scandal — Draining and Im- provement of the Lands — Jasper County Agricultural Society 76

CONTENTS vii

CHAPTER VIII

GROUNDWORK OF AMERICAN GROWTH

Basis of the American Public School — Territorial and Early State Legislation — First Township Schools — The Old- TiME Subscription Concern — Created in Three Days — Founding a Regular System — Building Schoolhouses Un- der the New Order — Deciding on Teacher's Qualifications — Pioneer Schools in Jasper County — The County's Sources of Educational Revenue 84

CHAPTER IX

SPECIAL PIONEER PICTURES

First Sight of the Grand Prairie — Harbingers of Malaria — Abundance of Wild Game and Fish — The Seasonings and Cultivated Meats, Rarities — Settling of the Emigrant — Breaking Ground — The Pioneer's Live Stock and Forage — Wild Honey and Pumpkin Sirup — Hoosier Hunt^ ing Grounds — In the Kankakee Marshes — A Pottawat- tamie Village 92

CHAPTER X

JASPER COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR

State Militia Previous to the Civil War — Jasper County in the War of the Rebellion — The Ninth as a Three-Months' Regiment — General Robert H. Milroy, Leading Military Figure — Unveiling of Memorial at Milroy Park — Judge Hammond's Tribute to General Milroy — A Nursery of Military Renown — First Union Victim of the Battle- field— Company A, Fifteenth Indiana Infantry — The Sev- enteenth Infantry — The Forty-eighth Regiment — The Eighty-seventh- — Twelfth Cavalry, Company K — Fourth Battery, Light Artillery 114

CHAPTER XI

RENSSELAER AND ITS INSTITUTIONS

First Actual Settlers — The Yeomans — William Mallatt — The Rapids Named Newton — Yeoman Floated Out by Van Rensselaer — Newton Platted in 1839 — Name Changed to

viii CONTENTS

Rensselaer — Death of Van Rensselaer — Corporation of Rensselaer^ With Additions — Incorporated as a City — Municipal Officials — City of the Present — Municipal Departments — The Commercial State and First National Banks — State Bank of Rensselaer — ^Jasper Savings & Trust Company — The Local Press — Churches — St. Joseph's Col- lege— Societies 133

CHAPTER XII

REMINGTON

Always a Grain and Livestock Center — Elevators — State Bank of Remington — Corporation Matters — Remington Public Library — The Newspapers — The Churches — Foun- tain Park Assembly 154

CHAPTER XIII

MINOR CENTERS OF POPULATION

Saltillo, the Pioneer Settlement — The Forks Settlement, Rensselaer's Early Rival — The Blue Grass Settlement — Carpenter's Grove — Davidsonville — Hanging Grove — Town of Wheatfield 163

CHAPTER XIV

NEWTON COUNTY BEFORE IT WAS A POLITICAL BODY

Darroch's Review Previous to Civil Organization — No Indian History — The Period of Lawlessness — Early Adventurers — The Kenoyer Settlement — First Postoffice at Brook — John Murphy Founds Morocco — John Ade Locates There — Morocco and the Neighborhood in 1853 — Lands in the Goodland Region — Alexander J. Kent and Kentland. . . 168

CHAPTER XV

MATTERS VITAL TO THE COUNTY

Opposition to a Western County — State Supreme Court Up- holds Newton County' — The County First Publicly Recog- nized— First Officials Elected and Sworn In — John Ade and Family — Kentland Still the County Seat — Seat

CONTENTS ix

Located Before Town Was Platted — Proposed Change to Beaver City — Other Attempted Removals — The Old Court- house— -The New Courthouse — The Poor Farm and Asylum — Organization of the Townships — Roster of County Offi- cials— The County's Golden Anniversary — Increase in Population — Population in i860, 1870 and 1880 — Popula- tion in 1890, 1900 AND 1910 — Assessed Valuation of Prop- erty, 1916 — Other Statistics for 191 5-16 — Improved Roads in the County — In the Days of the Trails and Stage Routes — Projection and Building of Its Railroads 183

CHAPTER XVI

COURTS, JUDGES AND LAWYERS

Circuit Judges Presiding in Newton County — Judges of the Court of Common Pleas — First Term of Circuit Court — First Term of Common Pleas Court — Albert G. Brown and Other Pioneer Lawyers — "Reputation Is Not Character" — Reputation of the Beaver Lake Region — The Man from Mong — Convening of Court, an Event — A Degenerate Son — Legal Matters Connected with Kankakee Improve- ments— Beaver Lake Land Litigations — The Brandon Trial — ^Justifiable Larceny 209

CHAPTER XVII

COUNTY EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Pioneer Schools of the County — Prominent Ex-Pupils of a District School — The County Examiners (1861-73) — County Superintendents (1873-1916) — The System of the Present — Play, as Well as Work — The School Savings Bank — The Boys' County Corn Club » . 233

CHAPTER XVIII

NATURE AND HER CULTIVATION

Transformation of the Beaver Lake Region — Natural Drain- age AND Topography — Prehistoric Mounds — Soil and Prod- ucts— George Ade on Agricultural Changes of Twenty Years — Jump from $50 to $200 per Acre — Scientific Farming, the Explanation — Change in Popular Opinion 241

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIX NEWTON COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR (1861-1865)

The "Boys" of '61 — The County at the Outbreak of the War — First War Meeting — Summer and Fall of '61 — Organi- zation OF Company B — Off for the Front — Dark Days in Newton County — Enrollment in the County — "The Home Guard" — John Ade — Brook Soldiers' Monument and Tablet —Newton County's Roll of Honor — Gave Their Lives in the Service — "Out of Reach" 251

CHAPTER XX

KENTLAND, THE COUNTY SEAT

The Original Frontier Town — Struggles for a Distinctive Name — Improvements in 1865-70 — Great Fire of December, 1870 — A Series of Destructive Fires — Ultimate Result, Substantial Town Improvement — Public School Burned — Destruction of McCray-Morrison Elevator — Water and Electric Light Supply — Public School System — The Car- negie Public Library — Kentland Woman's Club — Warren T. McCray — Kentland's Material Standing — Discount and Deposit State Bank — Kent State Bank — Kentland's First Newspapers — Newton County Enterprise — Newton County Democrat — Early Kentland Churches — ^United Brethren in Christ — The M. E. Church — St. Joseph's Catholic Church — The Presbyterian and Christian Churches —

Secret and Benevolent Bodies 275

•

CHAPTER XXI

GOODLAND

Originally Tivoli, a Railway Flag Station — First Business Men and Additions — Grain Warehouses and Elevators — Extensive Grain and Produce Trade — Increase in Popula- tion AND Area — Abundant Supply of Water and Light — The Public Schools — Goodland's Two Banks — The Good- land Herald — The Churches — The Lodges 293

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER XXII

THE TOWN OF BROOK

Public Schools — The Brook Public Library^ — McKinley Park AND THE Soldiers' Monument — The Pioneer Methodists — Miss Ella Lyons' Story — First Church and School at the Lyons House — Changes in Circuits — List of Pastors — United Brethren Church of the Brook Circuit — The Christian Church — The Welfare Club — History of Brook Masonry — Knights of Pythias — The Independent Order of Odd Fellows — Modern Woodmen of America — The Bank of Brook — The Brook Reporter — Pioneer Times in Town and TownshiP' — Early Mills and Their Owners — Seven Good Strong Men — Samuel H. Benjamin — Morris Lyo-ns — John Lyons — Old-Time History by John Hershman and Morris Jones — Brook in 1856 — Mr. Hershman's Address — Stove Without a Fireplace — Other Home Improvements — Early Schools and Teachers — A Little Judicial and Civil History — More About the Township Schools 300

CHAPTER XXIII

MOROCCO AND OTHER TOWNS

Drawn to the Rich Fur Country — Murphy Lays Out Morocco — Slow Growth — Invisible Branch Bank of America — ■ Struggles to Become County Seat — Final Expansion — The Present Morocco — The Morocco Courier — The Methodist, Christian, United Brethren and Baptist Churches — The Morocco Woman's Club — The Lodges — Mount Ayr — First Called Mount Airy — Other Railroad Towns 335

Biographical 347

INDEX

Abbott, Melvin, 143

Adams, Henry I., 55

Ade, 346

Ade, Ardis, 282

Ade, George, 188, 245, 305

Ade, John, 170, 177, 178, 179, 184,

186, 187, 194, 198, 199, 200, 204,

205, 208, 233, 254, 255, 261, 262,

285, 291, 337, 635 Ade, Mrs. John, 260 Ade, Mr. and Mrs. John (portrait),

177 Ade, McCray & Company, 285 Ade, William H., 193, 198, 396 Agate, Amos, 657 Aldrich, E. T., 343 Alexander, Robert, 47 Allen, Joseph,, 187, 190 Allman, Jesse D., 55 Alter, B. Frank, 371 Alter, I. N. S., 147 Alter, Isaac V., 392 Alter, John E., 56, 100, 393 Alter, John J., 199 Alter, Lewis S., 56, 361 Alter, Moses B., 55, 143 Alter, Samuel, 55 American Survey System, 37 Amsler, Henry, 437 Anderson, A. E., 342 Anderson, Edward, 131 Anderson, Emma M., 651 Anderson, James C, 652 Anderson, William B., 724 Andrews, John, 170, 184 Anheir, Anthony A., 193 Annabel, Thurman C., 56 Antrim, James F., 56 Antrim, Thomas, 56 Archibald, James, 191 Archibald, Pierce, 236 Area, 77

Armitage, John, 120 Armitage, Will, 120 Arnold, Alvln, 265 Arnold, Elias, 682 Arnold, E. R., 265 Arnout, G. W., 277 Ash, Daniel, 192, 206, 256, 258, 270 Ash, John H., 213

Askew, Eliza, 407

Atkinson, Charles M., 234 "

Atkinson, Elias, 206

Atkinson, George W., 234

Atkinson, Walter, 234, 256, 258, 275

Austin, John M., 56

Babb, Henry, 134

Babeock, Augustus D., 625

Babcock, Frank W., 55

Babeock, G. M., 148, 159

Babcock, James B., 639

Babeock, James L., 639

Babeock, William C, 55

Baker, William P., 444

Ballard, James, 56, 170

Ballard, Rev., 316

Ballard, T. E., 311

"Bandits of the Prairie," 172

Bank of Wheatfield, 167

Bard, Samuel, 305

Barker, Martin G., 735

Barker, S. C, 171

Barker, Thomas, 170

Barker, Thomas R., 170, 175, 183, 187,

199 Barkley, Belle, 42 Barkley, Henry, Jr., 41 Barkley, Henry, Sr., 55, 56 Barkley township, 49, 76 Barnes, Lillian, 158 Barnett, Cynthia N., 472 Barnett, John, 472 Barr, Robert, 265 Bartholomew, Fred, 266 Bartholomew, Frederick, 762 Bartoo, H. J., 159, 341 Basis of the American public school,

84 Bassett, Clarence C, 605 Battle of Tippecanoe, 27 Beagley, Thorp, 304 Beard, F. H., 149 Beaver aty, 190, 192, 208 Beaver Lake, 241 ; bad name of, 215 ;

land litigations, 223 Beaver township, 197, 202, 203 Bebout, Abraham W., 178, 747 Beck, Jennie, 120 Beef cattle, 9

INDEX

Bekelheimer, I., 316

Bell, Charles W., 749

Bell, James, 298

Bellows, Albert J., 459

Benjamin, Jared, 42, 134, 458

Benjamin, Mrs. Jared, 42

Benjamin, Real P., 56

Benjamin, Rial, 43

Benjamin, Samuel, 175, 322

Benjamin, Samuel H., 176, 323

Benjamin, S. H., 165 ,

Bennett, William P., 398

Benson, Samuel, 165

Benton County, 48

Bernhardt, August, 541

Berry, William H., 462

Besser, Emil, 559

Beyea, Isaac, 276

Bieknell, John L., 301

Biddle, Jerome H., 155, 161, 497

Big Four Railroad, 207

Bird 's-Eye View of Rensselaer

(^-iew), 143 Bishop, David L., 214 Bishopp, Arthur A., 285 Bissell, James, 211, 256, 258, 259, 271 Bissell, Jane, 260 Bitters, T. M., 148 Blake, William C, 224 Blessing, Joseph, 277 Bloomer, J. M., 266 Blue Grass Settlement, 42, 165 Blue, John, 255 Blue, Matilda, 331 Blue, Philip, 56 Blue, P. R., 167 Bogus Island, 215 Boicourt, Clement T., 445 Boieourt, Vivian, 445 Bold Rapids of the Eoekwise, 133 Bole, W. H., 199 Bond, G. A., 311 Bond, Jesse W., 620 Boothroyd, Dyson, 124 Boroughs, Thomas, 55, 147 Bostwick, Lathrop A., 143 Bounty system in Newton county, 2o8 Bowden, H. O., 286 Bowman, Ezra, 511 Boyle, Albert M., 199 Boys' Coimty Corn Club, 239 "Boys" of '61, 252 Bramble, Amanda, 260 Bramble, Samuel, 198, 254, 256 Branch Bank of America, Morocco,

337 Brandon, Samuel, 227 Brandon Trial, 227 Branson, M. M., 314 Breaking Ground, 97 Brecount, Alfred, 291 Brees, Sylvester, 714 Brenton, Joseph, 123

Brewer, Frank, 709

Bridgeman, Adda, 548

Bridgeman, E., 191

Bridgeman, George M., 199, 547

Bridgeman, Samuel, 758

Brigham, Elmer R., 194, 199

Bright, Michael G., 224

Bringle, Je-sse, 706

British Indiana, 20

Brook, 193, 202, 203, 208, 300; settle- ment of, 175, 176; postoffice, 178; Masonry, 317; early mills, 322; in 1856, 325

Brook Carnegie Library, 316

Brook Chapter No. 372, Order of the Eastern Star, 318

Brook High School Building (view), 301

Brook, H. J., 298, 605

Brook Lodge No. 70, F. & A. M., 317

Brook Lodge No. 277, Knights of Pythias, 318

Brook Lodge No. 427, L O. O. F., 319

Brook Modern Woodmen of America, 320

Brook Soldiers' Monument, 262, 303

Brook Welfare Club, 316

Brown, Albert 6., 211

Brown, Ephraim, 707

Brown, George H., 42

Brown, John T., 56

Brown, Mrs. G. H., 43

Bruce, Edgar L., 368

Bruce, Henry, 134

Bruce, Lawson, 55

Bruek, John A., 199

Bruner, John F., 504

Bruner, Mrs. Han-y, 303

Bryant, William P., 63

Builta, L. P., 341

Bull, E. H., 160

Burgess, Cliarles E., 426

Burgess, Hiram, 425

Burns, Albert M., 193

Burns, Mrs. William, 42

Burton, William H., 199, 554

Bush, Adah E., 284

Bush, Asabel K., 131

Business Street of the Present Good- land (view), 294

Bussell, Charles W., 515

Butler, Henry, 688

Calkins Brothers, 148

Calkins & Johnson, 148

Callahan, Thomas, 150

Callow, Joseph, 134

Carnegie Library Building (view),

316 Carnegie Library, Kentland (view),

283 Carpenter township, 51, 76 Carpenter 's Creek, 154

INDEX

Carpenter's Grove, 165

Carr Brothers, 470

Carr, Matbew P., 469

Carson, J D., 161

Cashaw, I'homas J., 266

Cass, Lewis, 30

Catholic Church of the Sorrowful Mother, 167

Catt, Edmond, 266

Cattle, 14

Cattle-raising, 9

Chamberlain, King J., 737

Chambers, Joseph, 199

Chancellor, James, 195

Chapman, Blanche L., 412

Chapman, James H., 143, 146

Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, 208, 339

Chicago, Indiana & Southern Rail- road, 208

Chilcote, Mordecai F., 68, 123

Chizum, Albert E., 46, 234

Chizum, James B., 234, 769

Chizum, Joseph M., 234, 612

Christian Church, Kentland, 291

Church & Hartley, 154, 295

Church, O. W., 158, 295

Church of Christ, Morocco, 342

Church of Christ of Brook, 314

Church of God at Rensselaer, 149

Church of the Sacred Heart, Reming- ton, 581

Circuit Court, 63, 210

Circuit Judges, 63, 209

Cissel, John H., 308

Cissel, M. O., 148

Citizens State Bank, Morocco, 341

Civil war bounties (Newton County) 259

Civil war enrollment in Newton County, 258

Civil war relief, 116

Civil war relief fund (Newton Coun- ty), 261

Clark, A. B., 158

Clark, A. L., 311

Clark, Amos, 178

Clark, George T., 753

Clark, Horace M., 660

Clark, Josiah, 140

Clark, Leslie, 148, 534

Clark, Mervin, 141

Clark, Thomas M., 255, 266

Clark, "William, 58i

Clary, Isaac N., 32

Claussen & Son, 167

Claypool, James H., 308

Clifton, C. W., 333

Cochrane, John Sr., 621

Coekrill, Mrs. William, 43

Coen, Albin W., 55

Coen, John, 134

Coffelt, John, 191

Coffelt, Michael, 170, 187, 199

Coffert, Michael, 276

Coffman, Joseph, 31.'

Coffman, W. N., 3l4

Cole, L. A., 141, 184

Colfax township, 198, 202, 203

Collier, Theodore E., 302, 317, 692

CoUier, Mrs. T. E., 303

Collins, Erasmus B., 254, 255, 265, 267

Collins, G. D., 316

Collins, Jasper J., 199

Collins, William, 769

Comer, Addie C, 523

Comer, Barney D., 522

Comer, Stephen T., 520

Commercial State Bank, Rensselaer, 145

Common Pleas Court, 62, 210, 211

Company A, Fifteenth Indiana Regi- ment, 125

Company B, Fifty-First Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 264, 267

Company H, One Hundred and Fifty- First Regiment, 262

Company K, Forty-Eighth Regiment, 128

Company K, Twelfth Cavalry, 130

Comparet, Frank A., 214, 571

Cone, C. B., 192, 285

Conn, G. A., 318

Conrad, 208, 346

Conrad, Jennie M., 346

Continental Railway, 208

Continental Railway Company, 73

Cooking Class in Operation (view), 238

Cool, L., 299

Cook, Milton, 199

Cooke, John L., 602

Coombs, J. v., 315

Cooper, J. S., 314

Coover, Marion C, 199

Coover, William H., 55, 158

Coovert, Frank, 198

Coppock, William C, 298

Corn-crackers, 99

Corbin, Henry K., 767

Corbin, William F., 698

Corbin, Mrs. William, 314

Corporation of Rensselaer, with Addi- tions, 141

Cotton, William, 134

Coughlin, Robert, 285

Counterfeiters of Bogus Island, 223

County Asylum and Hospital, 54

County finances, 79

County jails, 54

County seat, 48

Courthouse of the Present (view), 62

Courthouse of 1865 (view), 53

Court of Common Pleas judges, 209

Cowen, V. B., 286

INDEX

Cox, Charles, 158

Craig, James R., 773

Crank, Rev. Mrs. S. M., 314, 315

Crawu, Mrs. D. J., 742

Creek, David, 185, 186, 247, 293

Crockett, Alexander, 49

Crowder, R. H., 159

Crowe, J. B., 160

Crozier, John, 160

Crumpaeker, E. T>., 305

Culp, George, 41, 135, 163, 370

Cummings, Roland R., 549

Cummiugs, William, 214, 549

Cunningham, Terrenee B., 550

Cunningham, William S., 730

Cured fish, 35

Curnick, Paul C, 149

Currens, E. C, 198

Dairies, 9

Daniel, Charles M., 198, 545

Daniel, Christian, 150, 442

Daniels, Elvin, 291

Daniels, George, 632

Daniels, Horace G., 679

Darroch, Austin M., 234

Darroch, Daniel C, 234

Darroch, John, 167, 177, 185, 186,

191, 206, 219 Darroch, John M., 234 Darroch, William, 63, 200, 209, 234,

242, 366 Daugherty, Daniel, 43 Daugherty, John, 43 Daugherty, Lewis L., 43, 56 Daugherty, William H., 43 Daveer, John W., 192 Davidson, Lewis, 165 Davidson, Moses E., 165 Davidsonville, 165 Davies, Daniel F., 56, 147 Daviess, Jo, 28 Davis, Charles M., 287 Davis, Frank, 193, 302, 303 Davis, Fred, 341 Davis, John G., 198 Davis, John E., 193 Davis, Mrs. John G., 284, 286, 287 Davis, Thomas L., 734 Davisson, Grant, 683 Day, Edward, 311 Day, John, 335 Dean, Algy, 219 Dean, Charles J., 472 Deardurff, Daniel, 177 Deardurff, J. R., 199 Deardurff, John, 255 Deardurff, John S., 266 Deardurff, Mrs. Tennis, 343 Deardurff, Young D., 616 Deaver, John W., 319 DeForest, O. E., 157, 158 DeHart, R. P., 192

Deitch, Albert G., 311

Democratic Sentinel, 148

DeMotte, 74

Denham, Charles T., 156, 384

Deuel, George E., 298

Dewees, Abraham, 305

Dewees, Abram, 692

Deweese, William, 265

Dick, Anthony, 151

Dickinson, Sumner H., 627

Dickson, Hannah, 314

Didlake, Mrs. M. T., 161

Diocesan Orphan Asylum, 149

Discount and Deposit State Bank, 285

Dluzak, Charles, 597

Dodson, J. v., 193, 235

Dodson, James W., 564

Domestic Science Products (view),

235 Donahue, William, 40, 49 Donaldson, S., 82 Doty, Daniel, 265 Dowling, William, 199 Downing, Wesley, 43 Drainage of Beaver Lake, 242 Drake, Ira, 198 Drees, Henry, 150 Dunham, D. S., 289 Dunham, J. D., 158 Dunliam, J. E., 158 Dunlap, John A., 409 Dunlap, Livingston, 187, 190 Dunn, Isaac, 670 Dunn, John P., 224 Dunn, Josiah, 175 Duunville, 74 Duvall, John W., 43 Dwiggins, Robert S., 67, 73, 214

Earl, William H., 266

Early school legislation, 85

Eastern Star, Brook Chapter No. 372,

318 Eddy, Norman, 128, 224 Edwards, J. H., 342 Eger, John, 143, 146 Eib, Adelbert, 680 Eighty-Seventh Regiment, 129, 270 Ekey, Alexander, 199 Elijah, James, 177 Ellis, James H. S., 143 Elliott, Horace, 320 Elliott, John, 175 Elliott, Stephen, 179 Emerich, G. A., 167 Enfield, Christian, 266 English, Edward C, 453 English, Job, 697 English traders, 19 Enos, 208, 346

Enterprise Printing Company, 287 Erwin, Felix R., 643 Esson, John, 575

INDEX

Everett, T. J., 307, 311 Ewan, E. L., 195

Exhibit of Soil Products, Newton County (view), 246

Fair Oaks, 74

Falls of the Iroquois, 48

Fan iliar Object on the Early Roads, (view) 71

Faris, Benjamin R., 53

Farmers Co-operative Company, 154

Farmers State Bank, Morocco, 341

Farris, Andrew, 43

Farris, James, 342

Faulk, P. H., 343

Fell, Alson A., 55, 401

Fenwick, John, 487

Ferguson, Kin, 265

Fifteenth Indiana Regiment, Company A, 125

Fifteenth Regiment, Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, 266

Finn, John, 650

First Baptist Church, Morocco, 343

First church in Newton county, 288

First Civil war meeting in Newton county, 254

First National Bank, Goodland, 297

First Union victim of the battlefield, 124

Fisher, Henry, 134

Fleming, J. B., 149

Folger, William, 645

Foltz, Frank, 446

Food for Prairie Fires, (view) 5

Forage, 98

Fordiee, Jesse H., 154

Foreman, Marcus, 237

Foresman, 208, 345

Foresman, John, 333

Foresman, John B., 317

Foresman, John B., Jr., 695

Foresman, J. B., 345

Foresman, Lillian, 316

Foresman, M., 302

Foresman, Mrs. John, Jr., 303

Forks settlement, 163

Fort Chartres, 20, 21, 58

Fort Wayne & Western Railroad, 73

Forty-eighth Regiment, 128

Frankenberger, Charles, 199

Franklin, John, 165

Frazer, Daniel, 214

Freeland, Abram, 43

Freeland, Abram J., 470

Free school system, 88

French Indiana, 20

French Missionaries, 17

French, Moses F., 372

French titles to lands, 21

French traders, 17

Friedline, Fred & Company, 197

Fry, Daniel, 266

Frye, David K., 704

Foster, Timothy, 294

Foster, William, 257, 258, 293

Fountain Park Assembly, 160

Fountain Park Chautauqua, 161

Fourth Battery, Light Artillery, 131

Fox, John P., 301

Garrett, John M., 123

Garrison, J., 314

Gates, Everett, 342

Gehres, A. W., 316

Geizelman, Alexander L., 493

Geizehnan, Emma R., 493

Gilbert, James H., 155

Gillam, John, 163

Gillam Methodist Episcopal Church, 149

Gillam township, 77

Gillett, H. A., 209

Gilman, William W., 198, 634

Girard, William T., 124

Givin, Jesse C, 55

Gleason, David D., 648

Glick, G. M., 311

Gobin, H. A., 159, 306

Goddard, John D., 266

Goddard, Reece, 134

Godfrey, Samuel, 308

Goff, Statira B., 777

Goodacre, Isabelle, 316

Goodland, 179, 193, 202, 203, 208, 239, 293-299 ; warehouses and eleva- tors, 294; water works, 296; churches, 298

Goodland Grain Company, 295

Goodland Herald, 298

Goodland 's Public School, (view) 297

Goodnow, Aaron M., 223

Gragg, Bernard B., 317, 318

Gragg, Elsie, 318

Graham Edward, 341

Graham, Edwin, 287

Graham, W. H., 291

Graham, William H. H., 213

Grand Army of the Republic, Rens- selaer Post No. 84, 153

Grant, Alton, 465

Grant, Garland, 466

Grant, Shelby, 56

Grant township, 198, 202, 203

Graves, Daniel, 256

Graves, Daniel M., 130, 236, 272

Graves, Lawrence, 199

Graves, Milton E., 778

Graves, Robert O., 56

Greathouse, Charles A., 91, 237

Green, A. H., 147

Greenway, J., 311

Grevenstuk, Gerrit, 647

Gridley, Etta, 318

Gridley, Willis A., 317

Griffes, J. L., 160

INDEX

Griffin, Fred L., 159, 161

Griffin, John, 58

Griggs, Henry T., 502

Griggs, Mrs. W. P., 314

Griggs, W. P., 301,, 318

Grindle, Alfred, 54

Group of the Early Settlers of Ren-

selaer, (view) 134 Gmnm, Walter L., 161, 535 Guthridge, Albert G., 117, 123 Guthridge, A. J., 164 Guy, Jasper, 484

H. & D. plant, 295 Hall, Andrew, 198, 563 Halleek, A., 53 Halleek, Abraham, 402 Halstead, Chester H., 406 Halstead, David T., 55, 134, 407 Halstead, Everett R., 405 Halstead, Mieah B., 403 Halstead, Orpheus C, 404 Ham, Mrs. Ephraim, 256 Hamerton, J. T., 298 Harney, F. W., 191 Hamilton, Edward H., 199 Hamilton, Louis H., 375 Hamilton, Robert, 199 Hammerton, Elias, 675 Hammerton, George H., 676 Hammond, E. P., 63, 121, 123, 124,

214 Hammond, Edward P., 117 Hammond, Edwin P., 64, 201, 209, 258 Hammond, J. B., 167 Hammond, Joseph P., 55, 351 Hammond, Stewart C, 42, 351 Hand, S. G., 155, 156, 490 Hanging Grove township, 51, 77 Hanging Grove, 166 Hankie, Lemuel, 43 Hanley, Charles, 56 Hanley, Charles W., 63, 209, 349 Hansson, Johau, 415 Hardy, Abraham G., 56 Hargrave, Richard, 308 Harmon, T. H., 314 Harrington, W. A., 731 Harris, Benjamin, 199 Harris, Henry O., 508 Harrison, William H., 24, 27 Hartley, C. W., 295 Hartley, Charles, 195 Hartman, Louise, 158 Harwood, Riley C, 751 Hathaway Brothers, 154 Hatch, J. A., 255, 256 Hawkins, Ann, 256, 261 Hawkins, Barnett, 199, 562 Hawkins, Edgar, 305, 322 Hawkins, Geo. C, 266 Haymond, William S., 17 Haynes, Mrs. John, 316

Hazelton, Royal, 41, 133, 164

Healey Clark, 148

Healey, George H., 149, 533

Healey, Joshua, 123, 147

Hemphill, Marcus H., 55

Henderson, William, 56

Heukle, John A., 43

Henkle, Joseph C, 43

Henkle, Lemuel, 55

Henneberger, Anthony, 609

Hensler, Christian, 495

Heusler, Jacob A., 496

Herriman, George M., 195, 713

Herriman, Mrs. George M., 713

Hershman, Francis M., 721

Hershmau, John, 304, 319

Hershman, John E., 195, 300, 302, 327, 659

Hershman, R. E., 302, 303

Hershman, William H., 236

Hervey, O. P., 212, 236, 333

Hess, Andrew, 191, 319, 322, 693

Hess, David, 195, 322, 694

Hess, E. E., 302, 303, 318

Hess, E. S., 199

Hess, Edward, 302, 656

Hess, Egbert S., 546

Hess, Elmer E., 700

Hess, Etta, 318

Hess, Mrs. David, 314

Hess, Reuben, 56, 198, 386

Hess, Sherman, 690

Hicks, Andrew, 466

Hicks, Fred A., 156, 467

Higgins, John, 199, 251, 254, 255, 265, 483

Higgins, Ruth, 284

Hillis, George H., 755

Hinkle, Benjamin, 52

Hinkle, Wesley, 134

Hobbs, Clifton J., 56

Hoerstman, H., 167

Hogau, J. W., 311

Hogs Ready to be Shipped from Rem- ington, (view) 155

Holly, Guy P., 773

HoUingsworth, Emmet L., 145, 146, 532

HoUingsworth, George K., 145, 532

HoUingsworth, Thomas, 531

Holmes, C. Oliver, 298

Hooker, Joseph E., 712

Hoover, George 0., 480

Hoover, Lucy A., 480

Hoover, W."H., 55

Hoover, William I., 56, 448

Hoover, William M., 412

Hope, Valerius P., 756

Hopkins, Clinton, 134

Hopkins, George A., 705

Hopkins, J. D., 56

Hopkins, Joseph M., 56

Horses, 11, 14

INDEX

Horticulture, 13 Hosier, Charles E., 766 Hudson, John, 593 Hughes, Levi, 159 Hull, J. H., 159 Hull, John H., 308 Humston, M. L., 341 Hunt, Job, 176 Hunt, Judsou J., 146 Hunt, Lewis W., 583 Huntington, Ella, 736 Hurley, Willis, 720 Hurst, J. S., 265 Hurt, Clyde, 285 Hutton, Coruelius, 159 Hutton, Joseph T., 195

Hiff, Charles F., 638

Iliff, Joseph ¥., 637

Illinois country, 22

Illustrations

Rural Scenes in Both Counties, Frontispiece Vol. I; Food for Prai- rie Fires, 5 ; Jasper County Live Stock, 8; Northwest Territory of 1787, 23; Old Time Sawmill, 46; The First Jasper County Court- house, 50; The Courthouse of 1865, 53 ; Courthouse of the Present, 62 ; Familiar Object on the Early Roads, 71 ; Reclaimed Swamp Lands, 81 ; Rural School of Today, 88 ; Log Cabin 's Center of Inter- est, 96; Robert H. Milroy, 119; The Old Milroy Homestead, 120; The Memorial Monument, 122; Group of the Early Settlers of Rensselaer, 134; Old Mills Along the Iroquois River, 138; Bird 's- Eye View of Rensselaer, 143 ; Rensse- laer High School, 145; Main Build- ing of St. Joseph 's College, 151 ; Ready to Be Shipped from Rem- ington, 155; Remington's Water Tower, 157; Mr. and Mrs. John Ade, 177; Alexander J. Kent and Wife, 180; The Newton County Courthouse, 196; Williams Ditch Triers, August, 1916, 222; Manual Training Exhibit of Today, 232; Domestic Science Products, 235; Cooking Class in Operation, 238; Exhibit of Soil Products, Newton County, 246 ; Lyons Memorial Tab- let, 263; Public School, Kentland, 280; Carnegie Library, Kentland, 283; Water Works Plant at Kent- land, 287; Business Street of the Present Goodland, 294 ; Goodland 's Public school, 297; Brook High School Building, 301 ; Carnegie Li- brary Building, 316; Morocco High

School, 336; View on State Street, Morocco, 341

Indian Corn Fields, 34

Indian Trails in Jasper County, 70

Indian treaties, 29

Indiana pjublic lands surveyed, 39

Indiana Territory, 24

Indianapolis, Delphi & Chicago Rail- road, 73

Indians, 16

Ingram, Andrew, 63

I. O. O. F., Brook Lodge No. 427, 319

Iroquois Press, 147

Iroquois river, 1, 101

Iroquois township, 197, 202, 203

Irvin, James, 154

Irwin, J. C, 159

Irwin, James F., 55

Irwin, Robert F., 595

Irwin, Schuyler C, 142, 143

Jackson, David I., 55

Jackson township, 197, 202, 203

Jakway, Adelbert 6., 298, 615

James, H. E., 148

James, H. E. & Company, 148

James, Horace E., 13, 147

James, R. B., 56, 147

James, Reuben H., 123

Jasper and Newton counties consoli- dated, 47

Jasper Banner, 147

Jasper county, 47; bounds, 44 county seat, 47; courthouses, 51 courthouses, 52; population, 76 area, 77; property valuation, 77, township areas, 78; personal prop erty valuation, 78 : in the Civil war, 114

Jasper county courthouses, the early Rensselaer courthouse, 52 ; brick courthouse of 1856, 52; courthouse burned, 52; the courthouse of 1865, 53; the courthouse of 1898, 53

Jasper County Agricultural and Me- chanical Association, 82

Jasper County Agricultural Society, 82

Jasper County Democrat, 148

Jasper County Live Stock (views) 8

Jasper Republican, 148, 158

Jasper Savings & Trust Company, 146

Jefferson Township, 197, 198, 202, 203

Jenkins, Alfred, 198

Jenkins, George G., 198

Jenkins, John, 219

Jenkins, N. F., 199

Jennings, Jonathan, 30

Jensen, A. L., 167

Jensen, Englebret, 654

Jensen, Thomas, 654

Jessie, C. A., 311

INDEX

Johnson, Benjamin F., 132

Johnson, C. B., 299

Johnson, Cecil E., 56

Jolmson, Charles M., 148, 158

Johnson, D. M., 342

Johnson, John P., 198

Johnson, Silas, 170, 177, 184, 191

Johnston, John Z., 199, 277

Johnston, Ora C, 491

Johnston, Walter E., 490

Jones, Acquilla, 224

Jones, Cornelius, 305

Jones, Dexter R., 53

Jones, Ezra B., 199, 291

Jones, Lemuel C, 55

Jones, Morris, 304, 325

Jones, Morris A., 256

Jones, Schuyler C, 199

Jones, Thomas J., 646

Jones, W. H., 314

Jordan, John, 42, 165

Jordan, Sarah L., 513

Jordan Township, 77

Jouvenat, Charles, 158

Julian, 208, 345

Julian, J. B., 345

Justifiable larceny, 229

Kankakee improvements, 219

Kankakee marshes, 100

Kankakee river, 1

Kankakee township, 51, 77

Kankakee valley, 1

Kankakee Valley Draining Company,

219 Kanual, George, 399 Kannal, Harvey J., 400 Kay, Daisy, 343 Kay, M. D., 198 Kendall, J. M., 343 KendaD, Mrs. James, 314 Keefe, Patrick, 192, 193 Keene, Albert S., 655 Keeue, Nathan T., 655 Keener township, 51, 77 Keiser, Jacob, 147 Keith, Alice, 120 Kelley Grain Company, 154 Kelley, G. W., 316 Kennedy, Frank, 599 Kermedy, Jolm, 748 Kennedy, Joseph, 607 Kennedy, Sarah A., 749 Kenoyer, Aaron, 265 Keiioyer, Frederick, 47, 176, 289, 342 Kenoyer, Jacob, 175, 288, 312 Kenoyer, Lewis, 738 Kenoyer settlement, 175 Kenoyer, W. H., 198 Kent, Agnes, 260 Kent, A. J., 191, 192, 197, 256, 277 Kent, Alexander J., 179, 194, 276, 354

Kent, Alexander J. and Wife (por- trait), 180

Kent, Carroll C, 181, 193, 285, 358

Kent, John A., 357

Kent, Mrs. A. J., 260

Kent, Rosamond C, 357

Kent State Bank, 285

Kentlaud, 179, 193, 194, 202, 203, 208, 275-292

Kentland's fire of December, 1870, 277

Kentland's municipal water works, 281

Kentland churches, 288

Kentland Chapter, Royal Arch Ma- sons, 292

Kentland public library, 282

Kentland public school, 281

Kentland Woman's Club, 282

Kenton, Omar J., 473

Kenton, Simon, 164, 473

Kenton, W. M., 42, 136

Kern, Moses A., 149

Kesltr, George, 43

Kessler, David, 177

Kessler, Robert B., 754

Kight, Isaac, 674

Kilgore, Mort, 297, 610

Killenberger, William L., 236

Kimberlin, B. O., 290

Kindig, Samuel G., 741

King, Henry F., 417

King, Orris, 276

King, Sidnial, 134

Kinneman, John 6., 619

Kirkpatrick, Carrie, 282

Kirkpatrick, Delia, 282

Kitt, A. J., 158, 288, 298

Knight, Dorothy, 120

Knight, Joseph R., 143

Knight, Mildred, 120

Knights of Pythias, 318

Knox, Turner, 55

Kolhoff, Henry, 474

Kolliofe, John, 475

Kolhoff, Joseph, 476

Kummer, A., 311

Kurrie, Harry R., 732

Lacy, James, 331

Lacy, James W., 175

Ladies Fountain Park Improvement

Association, 162 Lake township, 197, 202, 203 Lake village, 208, 345 Lamb, Virgil, 219 Land values, 78 Landon, H., 161 Langdon, Henry L., 652 Langdon, Herman R., 653 Lansing, Peter, 149 Law, Algie J., 341, 745 Lawler, John J., 716

INDEX

Lawlessness, 172

Lawrence, Ida, 303

Lawrence, John F., 574

Lawton, E. W., 289

Learning, Cyrus, 256

Lear, Hugh, 152

Leatherman, James, 134

Leatherman, James N., 55, 146, 354

Lee, John H., 779

Lefler, John, 166

Lefler, Michael, 166

Legras, J. M. P., 58

Le Masters, L. "W., 237

Leopold, B., 318

Leopold, Bernhart, 317

Leopold, Moses, 143

Lewis, Frank B., 666

Lewis, Isaac M., 686

Lewis, John Q., 56

Lewis, Margaret J., 685

Lewis, "William E., 265

Light, Albert, 256, 265, 267

Light, Hugh M., 711

LiUey, E. F., 160

Lincoln township, 198, 202, 203

Little, Ziba F., 624

Littlejohn, William D., 743

Live stock, 7, 98

Lockwood, Jesse M., 199

Lockwood, Eufus' A., 64

Logansport & Peoria Eailroad, 194,

207, 293 Logan, Larkin C, 644

Logan, Will C, 298 , , , ^

Log Cabin's Center of Interest (view), 96

Long, Abram F., 373

Long, Samuel, 43, 373

LongVell, Fred H., 56, 200, 302

Lough, F. L., 155

Loughridge, James H., 410

Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Eailroad Company, 74

Lowe, David E., 319

Lowe, Greenberry G., 199

Lowe, Mrs. James, 256

Lowe, Mrs. J. Bennet, 317

Lowe, Mrs. John, 256, 261

Lucas, Eoss, 750

Luers, J., 150

Lund, Eric, 195

Lynch, Charles W., 266

Lynch, George W., 707

Lyons, Aaron, 42, 169, 305, 387

Lyons, Abel, 259

Lyons, Aunt Polly, 256

Lyons, Bennett, 304, 305

Lyons, Ella, 309

Lyons, Fred, 585

Lyons, J. B., 304, 334

Lyons! John, 169, 176, 191, 305, 322, 323, 331, 332

Lyons, John B., 193, 257, 264, 269,

390 Lyons, John, Jr., 303 Lyons, Laban, 773 Lyons, Lawrence E., 740 Lyons Memorial Tablet (view), 263 Lyons, Morris, 306, 309, 319, 322, 323 Lyons, Mrs. Aaron, 26 Lyons, Mrs. John B., 256, 261 Lyons, Mrs. Luther, 317 Lyons, Mrs. Samuel, 314 Lyons Soldiers' Memorial Tablet, 264

MacDonald, Julius L., 315, 316

Major, John F., 55

Majors, George, 159

Makeever, Daniel S., 494

Makeover, John, 134, 347

Makeever, Madison, 43

Malaria, 94

Mallatt, William, 42, 136, 165

Malone, Eichard, 345

Man from Mong, 216

Manual Training Exhibit of Today

(view), 232 Marble, Henry W., 167, 538 Marble, Horace, 167 Marion, Francis E., 678 Marion, Lewis, 344 Marion Township, 77 Markets, 98

Marshall, George E., 148 Martin, A. L., 198 Martin, Charles, 169 Martin, Edgar L., 751 Martin, Mrs. Thomas, 314 Martin William, 723 Martin, WUliam D., 341, 764 Martin, William H., 192, 212 Martindale, John C, 53, 457

Martindale, Samuel, 198, 199

Martindale, Teresa B., 457

Maxwell, Theodore F., 266

Maxwell, W. T., 258

May, Charles G., 155

May, Charles V., 55, 482

May, Jacob A., 585

May, Eobert W., 481

Mayhew, Charles P., 56

Mayhew, Hopkins & Miller, 142

Mayhew, Horace A., 159

McCain, C, 290

McCain, Eichard C, 237, 556

McCarty, John, 147, 287, 319

McCarty, William T., 715

MeColly, Benjamin D., 56, 454

McColly, Clark, 454

McCoy, Alfred, 73, 82

McCoy, Thomas J., 142

McClellan township, 198, 202, 203

McCray, Elmer, 558

McCray, Eliza, 559

INDEX

McCray, Greenberry W., 283, 284, 285, 383

MeCray-Morrison Elevator, 280, 284

MeCray, Mrs. W. T., 282

McCray, Warren T., 193, 282, 284, 285, 346, 381

MeCullough, John, 159

McCuUough, Samuel, 43, 170, 187, 198

McCuMough, W. I., 159, 161

MeCurry, Howard, 198

McDaniel, Asa, 149

McDermott, L. M., 342

McEwin, James W., 148

MeGowan, Thomas, 143

McHoUand, David A., 254, 257, 265, 267

MeHolland, Da-s-id H., 256

Mcintosh, James, 302

Mclutosh, Mrs. James, 318

MeJimsey, Joseph, 163

McKee, G. V., 160

McKenzie, W. E., 307

McKinley Park, 303

McMillen, William L., 551

McMullen, J. W. T., 308

McNary, J. B., 158

McReynolds, B. C, 306, 311

Meadal, Charles E., 594

Means, Samuel A., 726

Memorial Monument (view), 122

Merchant, George A., 710

Merchant, George F., 304, 715

Merchant, John H., 236

Merchant, Joseph, 302

Meredith, H. W., 312, 314

Merideth, Mary, 256

Merideth, Mrs. Henry, 261

Merkle, Jacob, 55

Messmann, Anthony, 299

Methodist Episcopal Church, Brook, 306

Methodist Episcopal Church, Kent- land, 289

Methodist Episcopal Church, Morocco, 342

Meyer, Frank B., 143

Meyers, George F., 143, 448

Meyers, William, 447

Meyers, William D., 468

Miami and Pottawattamie titles ex- tinguished, 29

Mianiis, 16, 18, 30

Miller, Daniel B., 56

Miller, David, 672

Miller, John, 56

Miller, Philip, 198

Miller, Samuel, 126

Milligan, Sanford F., 759

Mills, 98

Mills, C. H., 146

Mills, Charles E., 56, 143

Milroy, C. E., 120

Milroy, Donald, 120

Milroy, Harry C, 120 i

Milroy Homestead, The Old (view),

120 Milroy Park, 120 Milroy, Robert, 120 MUroy, Robert H., 117, 119, 121, 123,

141 Milroy township, 51, 77 Milroy, V. A., 120 Mineral Sjjrings, 2 Mitchell, Robert C, 147 Mitten, William E., 237, 611 Modern Woodmen of America, 320 Monon Railroad, 208 Montgomery, John, 305, 322 Moody, Bessie, 343 Moody, Gideon C, 117, 123 Moore, John M., 642 Moore, Samuel, 270 Mooreman, Milton J., 266 Morgan, J. D., 265 Morlan, Charles, 143, 144 Morocco, 178, 192, 202, 203, 208, 335-

343 Morocco Courier, 341 Morocco High School (view), 336 Morocco Woman 's Club, 343 Morrison, J. L., 284 Mount Ayr, 74, 202, 203, 208, 343 Murphey, George H., 596 Murphy, John, 176, 335, 336, 337 Murray, George E., 414 Murray, Henry B., 55 Murray, Hugh, 295, 618 Myers, Alexander, 198 Myers, John, 176 Myers, Mrs. John, Sr., 314 Myers, W. H., 341

Naylor, Isaac, 63

Naylor, Isaac B., 169

Neisz, Benjamin F., 236

Neisz, William, 305

Nelson, James, 192

Nelson, James M., 236

Newell, Benjamin, 526

Newell, Mrs. B. F., 314

Newspapers, 147, 158

Newton, 52, 136; platted, 137; re- named Rensselaer, 139

Newtou county, 48, 49, 168; county seat fights, 189; courthouses, 194, 195; townships, 197; population, 201 ; real estate valuation, 203 ; personal property valuation, 203 ; taxable property, 203 ; finances, 203; roads, 204; railroads, 207; judges, 209; lawyers, 212; boards of education, 236; examiners, 236; school superintendents, 236; physi- cal features, 244 ; in the Civil war, 251; roll of honor, 272; newspa- pers, 286

INDEX

Newton Couuty Chronotype, 286

Newton County Courthouse (view), 196

Newton County Democrat, 287

Newton County Enterprise, 286

Newton County, Gazette, 286

Newton County Poor Farm and Asy- lum, 196

Newton County Union, 286

Newton Lodge No. 361, F. & A. M., 291

Newton township, 77

New York Central System, 208

Nichols, John L., 434

Nichols, Samuel E., 55

Ninety-ninth Regiment, 270

Ninth Regiment, 117

Noble, Alice, 314

Noble, W. P., 314

Noland, William, 43

Nork, John D., 55

Norris, Bertha, 343

Northwest Territory of 1787, 23

Nowels, Daniel, 42

Nowels, David, 40, 134

Nowels, Ezra C, 55

Nowels, George, 133

Nowels, John, 40, 133

Nowels, Mrs. David, 42

O'Brien, E., 192

O'Brien, Edmund H., 213

O 'Connor, John, 56

Odell, Anthony, 266

Old Mills along the Iroquois River, (view), 138

Old Time Sawmill (view), 46

O 'Meara, Sylvester, 134

One Hundred and Fifty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, 272

One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Reg- iment, 271

Oosley, Joseph, 166

0 'Riley, Dennis, 460

Ormiston, George, 629

Osborne, John L., 686

Osborne, W. Frank, 56

Osborne & Pierce, 295

Oswald, J. W., 298

Overacker, C. F., 148

Overton, Robert, 166

Overton, William, 166

Owen, R. J., 167

Owen, Samuel H., 187, 190

Palmer, C, 290

Parcels, Edgar M., 143

Parke, Benjamin, 30

Parker, Francis M., 439

Parker, George, 510

Parker, Hugh, 199

Parker, Robert, 82, 160, 166, 167

Parker, Samuel, 134

Parker, Thomas R., 43

Parker, William A., i99

Parkinson, Addison, 42, 145

Parkinson, John G., 41

Parkinson, Joseph V., 42

Parkinson, Mrs. W. K., 42

Parkinson, Robert A., 55

Parkinson, William K., 42, 83

Parkison, George B., 358

Parkison, Harvey E., 476

Parkison, William H., 476

Parkison, William K., 476

Parr, 74

Parsons, Elisha, 199

Parsons, Henry, 199

Parsons, Samuel H., 58

Patrick, William A., 199

Patterson, J. P., 299

Patterson, Eev., 316

Patton, William, 159

Paul, Henry A., 299

Paulus, Bernhard, 702

Peacock, Harriet, 260

Peacock, John, 198, 254, 276

Peacock, Sarah A., 260

Peek, Charles H., 378

Peck, C. H., 161

Peck, Daniel W., 377

Peck Family, 376

Peck, Frank L., 380

Peek, Isaac L., 380

Peck, James I., 380

Peck, Mary E., 380

Peck, Maurice B., 380

Peck, William E., 379

Peek, William H., 266

Pence, D. S., 236

People's Press, 287

Pepper, Abel C, 31, 33

Perkins, Judson H., 55, 438

Perry, J. G., 192

Persail, Albert, 55

Peters, W. S., 314

Pettit, John, 63

Pfrimmer, D. A., 197, 198

Pfrimmer, William W., 236

Phegley, David, 42

Phegley, Jackson, 42, 479

Phelps, Aaron O., 774

Phelps, Isabelle B., 775

Phelps, John W., 592

Phelps, Oscar, 276

Phillips, John, 56

Phillips, John R., 56

Phillips, Simon, 43, 56, 134

Piankeshaws, 19

Pierce, F. C, 198

Pierson, Henry C, 394

Pilot Grove, 179

Pioneer schools in Jasper county, 90

Pioneer times at Brook, 321

Piatt, Charles, 55, 56

Pleasant Grove postoflSce, 165

INDEX

Pleasant Eidge, 74

Plummer, WUliam, 178

Pokagon, Simon, 33

Polke, William, 32

Ponsler, Mrs. Joshua, 314

Poole, Warren E., 518

Population, 16

Porter, Asa, 423

Porter, Burdett, 584

Porter, John C, 143

Porter, John J., 530

Porter. Rice M., 423

Porter, Eobert B., 56

Porter, Walter V., 423

PostiU, Charles W., 579

Post, J. C, 82

Pottawattamies, 16, 29, 30, 31, 33

Pottawattamie village, 106

Potts, James, 768

Powell, Jacob, 32

Powell, John W., 56

Powell, J. Z., 31

Powers, G. C, 156

Powers, Simeon S., 211

Prairie fires, 3, 328

Pratt, Benjamin W., 297, 505

Presbyterian Church of Kentland, 290

Presher, Edgar L., 572

Presher, Melissa W., 572

Price, Charles H., 55

Price, D. M., 43

Price, John, 49

Price, Myrt B., 56

Probate court, 64

Profit, George, 31

Property valuation, 77

Prophet, The, 26

Protsman, David A., 171, 752

Public School, Kentland (view), 280

Puett, Austin M., 242

Pulver, David, 178, 179

Pumpkin sirup, 99

Puxdy, Arnet G., 766

Purkey, Alonzo, 199

Purkey, Alonzo E., 600

Railroads, 207

Rail, Harris P., 307

Ramsay, Thomas, 630

Randall, John W., 199, 286

Handle, James T., 41, 419

Handle, Edward J., 420

Raudle, E. J., 146

Handle Family, 418

Raudle, J. T., 42

Handle, Thomas, 41, 49, 72, 135, 163,

418 Rankin, J. J., 342 Hansford, Nettie, 318 Rapids of the Iroquois, 136 Rapids of the Rockwise, 34 Havenscroft, Sampson, 360

Hecher, L. S., 237

Reclaimed Swamp Lands (view), 81

Redding, Jefferson T., 266

Hedding, Joseph, 175

Reed, Anna, 303

Heed, Ethel, 303

Heed, Nathan J., 56

Held, John M., 289

Remington, 154-162; corporation, 156; churches, 159

Remington Journal, 158

Remington Press, 159

Remington public library, 156

Remington township, 76

Remington's Water Tower (view), 157

Rensselaer, 52, 74, 77, 133-153, 141; churches, 149 ; gets railway connec- tions, 74; schools, 144; waterworks, 144; societies, 152

Rensselaer Baptist Church, 149

Rensselaer City, 142

Rensselaer Evening Republican, 148

Rensselaer Gazette, 147

Rensselaer High School (view), 145

Rensselaer Post No. 84, Grand Army of the Republic, 153

Rensselaer Presbyterian Church, 149

Rensselaer Republican, 148

Rensselaer Union, 147, 148

Rensselaer 's Catholic History, 441

Retterath, Frank J., 613

Reynolds, Alfred W., 214

Reynolds, John, 254

Rhoades, Edwaid D., 420

Rice, Clair M., 703

Rice, Henry, 314

Rich Brothers, 295

Rich, Frank C, 198, 542

Rich, Jacob D., 303, 318, 590

Rich, Mrs. P. C, 314

Rider, George D., 193

Riley, James Whiteomb, 274

Risser, H. G., 284

Roadruck, Benjamin, 177

Roberts, Preston F., 708

Robinson, George M., 55, 56

Hobinson, Wallace, 143

Robinson, WUliam^ 134

Rockwell, Oscar B., 671

Rogers, E. E., 316

Rogers, James P., 760

Root, C, 287

Hoot, S., 277

Rose, William C, 212, 236, 287

Hoselawn, 208, 345

Ross, Charles E., 256

Hoss, WUliam, 254, 255, 276

Housh, Edward, 195

Roush, Mary, 155

Howen, Alexander, 43

Rural School of Today (view), 88

INDEX

BusseU, William, 170, 187, 199 Eyan, John W., 598 Byan, Mrs. John W., 284

Sacred Heart School, 582

Sage, Charles E., 622

Sage, Kliezer W., 491

Sage, George W. T., 622

Sage, Warreu W., 623

Sager, Jacob H., 255, 266

Sailor, Jeremiah, 265

St. Ange, Louis, 20

St. Augustine 's Roman Catholic

Church, 149 St. Clair, Arthur, 24, 58 St. Joseph's Catholic Church of Kent- land, 290 St. Joseph's College Main Building

(view), 151 St. Joseph's College, Rensselaer, 150,

442 S. S. Peter and Paul's Church, 608 Salrin, Joseph N., 664 Saltillo, 163 Saltillo Bridge, 72 Sammons, Hume L., 237, 488 Sands, Charles M., 144 Sands, Martin V., 668 Sarver, John C, 763 Saunderson, James T., 192, 213 Sawyer, James, 311 Sawyer, Moses C, 199 Sayers, Lester A., 167 Sayers, L. W., 43 Sayler, Henry, 43 Sayler, Isaac, 134, 342 Sayler, Mieah, 134 Schanlaub, Sidney, 341 Schanlaub, WUliam O., 236, 237, 578 Sehmitz, John M., 581 School funds, 90 School lauds, 38, 85 School Savings Bank, Goodland, 239

Schraack, Frederick, 56

Schuette, Paul, 729

Schuh, Albert J., 198,

Schuster, Godfrey F., 576

Scoonover, Albert, 214

Scott, George W., 56, 776

Scott, Washington, 776

Sears, Frank J., 56

Sego, Meddie, 722

Seifert, Augustine, 151

Sell, Edward W., 691

Sell, Ephraim, 193

Sell, John A., 494

Sellers, E. B., 214

Sergeant Jasper, 45

Sergeant Newton, 45

Service, William, 276

Seventeenth Infantry, 127

Shaefer, Joseph, 266

Shaefer, Mrs. Finley, 256, 261

Shaeffer, James, 699 Shafer, Fred, 236 Shafer, J. F., 265 Shafor, John W., 234 Shagley, J. P., 306, 307, 311 Shappley, G. D., 314 Sharp, Alexander, 170, 187, 199 Shaw, Mrs. William, 42 Shearer, MoUie, 158 Sheep, 14 Shepard, Otis, 199 Shideler, Adam, 187 Shideler, Adam W., 199 Shields & Dilley, 148 Shirer, Lewis P., 56 Shoekey, William P., 149 Shortridge, Lemuel, 43 Shriver, Elijah, 170, 187 Shriver, Elijah I., 199 Shriver, Noah E., 733 Shunk, Dominic, 167 Sickafoose, C. A., 313, 314 Sigler, John A., 661 Sigo, Moses, 589 Silver, J. A., 52 Simpson, Abram, 143 Sims, Carrie M., 120 Sink, John D., 56 Sizelove, Samuel R., 199, 544 Skinner, James, 507 Skinner, Jira, 199, 265 Skinner Lola, 508 Smart, Adonijah, 255, 266 Smart, Isaac, 198, 255, 256, 266 Smart, John, 206 Smart, John W., 761 Smith, Elem G., 291 Smith, George W., 266 Smith, Henry, 134 Smith, John B., 236, 290 Smith, John L., 308 Smith, Joseph, 47, 332 Smith, Joseph A., 665 Smith, W. H., 61 Snell, T. T., 298 Snip, Tunis, 662

Snyder, A. M., 304, 312, 313, 314 Snyder, David S., 128 Snyder, H. T., 318 Soldiers Aid Society, 260 Soldiers ' Aid Society, Rensselaer, 116 Sources of educational revenue, 90 Sparkling, Joseph W., 42 Sparkling, Mrs. Joseph, 42 Sparling, Henry A., 42 Sparling, Mrs. Samuel, 42 Sparling, Samuel, 42, 165 Sparling, Samuel L., 55 Spencer, James, 147 Spinney, Charles, 198 Spitler, Charles G., 143, 146, 453 Spitler, George W., 47, 51, 54, 55, 63, 90, 139, 144, 169, 175, 176

INDEX

Spitler, Maliuda, 42

Spitler, Marion L., 42, 55, 83, 451

Spitler, Thomas J., 148

Spitler, Wesley, 56

Spitler, Zec-hariah, 170, 175, 184, 185, 186, 187, 191, 198

Spitler 's Heal Estate Gazette, 148

Spotswood, John B., 287, 288

Spottswood, James B., 212

Staekhbuse, Charles F., 478 ^^ Staekhouse, Clinton D., 478

Stage routes, 204

Stanforth, C. B., 311

Stanley, Amzi, 141

Starr, Charles C, 142

State Bank of Remington, 155

State Bank of Rensselaer, 146

State government founded, 28

State judicial system, 61

State militia, 114

State road, 71

State Supreme Court upholds Newton County, 185

State Trust and Savings Bank, 604

State Trust and Savings Bank, Good- land, 298

Staton, Jeptha B., 728

Stearman, Sadie, 318

Steinbaeh, Edward, 288

Stembel, Albert F., 543

Stembel, George O., 543

Stembel, Sarah E., 544

Stephan, Joseph, 150, 167

Stephens, Albert P., 628

Sterrett, Morgan L., 167

Steward, Edgar, 730

Stewart, Mrs. Ezra, 140

Stewart, Joseph, 677

Stewart, Sidney, 43

Stewart, William, 56

Stewart, William J., 615

Stockton, Almira M., 349

Stockton, William S., 348

Stoner, Henry, 199

Stoner, 0. F., 341

Stoutsberg, 74

Strawn, Abner, 294, 295

Streeh, William M., 266

Streight, A. D., 256

Strohm, H. A., 193

Strohm, Harry, 286

Strole, Asberry, 727

Stryker, Jonathan W., 197

Stump, John L., 49

Subscription schools, 86

Sullivan, J. W., 147

Surrey, 74

Swamp lands, 38, 170

Swamp lands scandal, Jasper county, 79

Swigget, Ralph, 197

Syraes, John C, 58

Talcott, William C, 209, 211

Tatman, C. H., 147

Taylor, John W., 573

Taxable property, 78

Tecumseh, 26

Terwilliger, Matthew, 63

Test, Charles E., 63

Test, Charles H., 209, 210

Thayer, 208

Thayer, E. M., 302, 345

The First Jasper County Court House

(view), 50 Thomas, Greenip I., 539 Thomas, Mrs. Harve, 256, 261 Thomas, William, 266 Thompson, Delos, 146 Thompson, John, 192 Thompson, Mrs. Alfred, 121 Thompson, Roy D., 143 Thompson, Siinon P., 63, 66, 209, 214 Thompson, WiUiam 0., 744 Thornton, Adaline H., 429 Thornton, C. C, 43 Thornton, George L., 56 Thornton, George R., 427 Thornton, Greenleaf L., 428 Thornton, H. C, 43 Thornton, John H., 266 Thornton, Mrs. H. C, 42 Thrawls, James C, 56 Tliree I 's Railroad, 74 Tiffany, G. E., 265 Tilton, John W., 56 Timmons, Clement, 43 Timmons, James T., 63 Tineher, Henry, 757 Tipton, John, 32 Tivoli, 293 Todd, John, 22 Toledo, Logansport & Burlington

Railroad Company, 74 Torbet, James M., 681 Town of Newton, 136, 137-141 Townsend, Claude B., 529 Townsend, Lowell, 530 Townsend, William, 527 Township schools, 86 Township schools, Newton county, 332 Townships formed,. 49 Trails, 204

Treadway, Ezra S., 266 Triplett, C. D., 172 Triplett, Charles E., Sr., 191, 258, 270,

421 Triplett, Charles E., Jr., 421 Troxell, Joseph R., 213 Truman, B. H., 299 Tuggle, J. M., 343 Turfler, Francis A., 430 Tucker, E. N., 316 Turkey Foot and Bull affray, 171 Turkey Foot Grove, 171

INDEX

Turpie, David, 63 Turner, Daniel H., 649 Twelfth Cavalry, 130, 272 Twelfth Judicial Circuit, 210 Tyler, Felix, 195

Ulrey, John W. S., 199 Union township, 51, 77 United Brethren Church, Kentland,

288 United Brethren Church of the Brook

Circuit, 312 United Brethren in Clirist of Morocco,

342 Urmston, E. Littell, 198, 212, 285, 291

Vail, W., 314 Vance, E. E., 302, 318 Vanderburgh, Henry, 58 Vander Voort, William S., 320 Van Eensselaer, James, 52, 137, 140 Varnum, James M., 58 .Veatch, John S., 199 View on State Street, Morocco, 341 Vincennes, 20, 22, 58 Vinton, David P., 209 Vinton, David W., 63 Vondersmith, Elkanah B., 156

Wainscott, Rev. 313

Walker, Isaac D., 684

Walker M. H., 56

Walker township, 51, 77

Wallace, David, 32

Wallace, James, 212

Ward, Artemas, 311

Ward, Peter E., 63

Ward, Peter H., 209, 213

Warner, Charles C, 433

Warner, Charles W., 55

Warner, Daniel G., 432

Warner, Norman, 56, 149, 431

Warner, Norman H., 433

Warren, Horace J., 255

Warren, Horace K., 199, 256, 261, 266

Warren, Isaac N., 463

Warren, John W., 463

Warren, Samuel, 463

Warren, Solomon, 197

Warriner, W. B., 159

Washburn, Angus D., 285, 568

Washburn, I. B., 55

Washburn, Ira M., 435

Washburn, James A., 161, 486

Washburn, Mary, 120

Washburn, Mary E., 568

Washburn, Perry, 566

Washington township, 197, 202, 203

Wasson, John M., 145, 146

Waterworks Plant at Kentland

(view), 287 Watson, Charles M., 55 Waymire, Frederick E., 53

Waymire, Eev., 313

Weas, 19, 30

Weatherhogg, Charles B., 54

Weaver, Clifford S., 315

Weaver, Clifford T., 315

Weil, R. L., 298

Weiss, Charles B., 519

Welch, George, 587,

Welsh, Mrs. Benjamin, 43

Wenrick, Catherine, 667

West, Nathaniel, 198, 228, 236

Western couuty opposed, 184

Weston, Henry, 142

Whaley, James A., 195, 579

Wharton, Chester W., 290

Wheat, 3, 13

Wheatfleld, 74, 77, 166

Wheatfield township, 77

Wheaton, Z. T., 198

White, Adda V., 282

White, Amos, 47

White, Charles, 725

White, Isaac, 28

White, Jacob A., 237

White, Mrs. Sherman, 314

White's Grove, 178

Whitney, E. B., 160

Wickwire, Chester, 199

Wigmore, Charles F., 288

Wildasin, John A., 199

Wild game, 92

Wild honey, 99

Wiley, J. H., 311

Wiley, Ulriek C, 63

Wiley, U. Z., 209, 214

Willard, Ashbel P., 187, 190

Willard, George L., 150

Williams, Cordelia M., 456

Williams Ditch, 221

Williams Ditch Triers, August, 1916

(view), 222 Williams, George A., 408 Williams, George W., 193 Williams, Jay W., 456 Williams, John A., 167 Williams, Joseph, 42 Williams, Thomas, 266 Williamson, Claud, 341 Willis, Levin, 133 Willits, William E., 687 Wilson, Aaron, 198 Wilson, Blake, 198 Wilson, Charles, 293 Wilson, Neely, 739 Wimsett, A., 313 Wishard, Mrs. W. W., 134 Wishard, William, 134 Wonder, Adolphus H., 257, 265 Wood, Charles A., 256, 709 Wood, Delos, 308 Wood, E. G., 149 Wood, Miles H., 289 Wood, Thomas J., 269

INDEX

Wood, WiUiam L., 6J:0 Woodson, Mrs. T. P., 307 Woodson, Thomas P., 307, 311 Wright, Charles G., 41 Wright, Edward W., 149 Wright, Ezra, 55 Wright, J. A., 169 Wright, Jabez, 43 Wright, Joseph A., 63 Wright, Truitt P., 56 Wright, WilUs J., 54, 56 Wright, W. J., 43, 133, 136 Wyatt, H., 286 Wyatt, Nathaniel, 43

Yeoman, Allen J., 56 Yeoman, Daniel H., 41

Yeoman, David H., 83, 153, 449 Yeoman, Ira W., 43, 55, 73 Yeoman, James, 43 Yeoman, J. J., 140 Yeoman, Joseph, 40, 43, 133 Yeoman, L. D., 139 Yeoman, Samuel, 254, 255 Yeoman, Samuel E., 42, 56, 265

Zaring, Joseph, 311 Zick, Robert, 632 Zoborosky, Sarah, 772' Zook, Edwin D., 302 Zook, E. M., 314 Zook, S. C, 314 Zumbuelte, Mathias, 150

RURAL SCENES IN BOTH COUNTIES Kent's Pond, Kentland Scene near Remington

Maple Walk, St. Joseph's College, Rensselaer Stewart's Lake, Goodland Fountain Park, Remington

Jasper and Newton Counties

CHAPTER I

CO-OPERATION OF NATURE AND MAN

The Kankakee and Iroquois — Surface Geology — Mineral Springs — Topography, Soil and Products — Moulding of Nature by Man — What the Fires Did to Drive Out Rank Forage — The Live Stock of Jasper County — Agriculture AND Live Stock Forty Years Ago.

The watershed between the Lake Michigan region and the Valley of the Kankakee is about fifteen miles south of the great lake. If the territory now included in Jasper and Newton counties should be classified according to the arrangements of nature it would be placed in the great Illinois country. Its far northern sections are within a swamp area of the Kankakee Valley and in the earlier period of its political existence, or until the creation of Lake and Porter counties in 1836, it contained a large area of these lowlands north of the Kankakee. Some of its southern townships also extended into the Valley of the Wabash, but with the formation of Benton County in 1840 the territory to be covered by this history was embraced entirely within the Valley of the Illinois.

The Kankakee and Iroquois

The Kankakee, which is one of the leading tributaries of the Illi- nois, rises in St. Joseph County, Northern Indiana, flows south- west through Northwestern Indiana, receives the Iroquois in the first tier of Illinois counties, and, after a course of about 230 miles, enters the Illinois River above Morris. The Iroquois River, the chief tributary of the Kankakee, drains the central and southern portions of Jasper and Newton counties, flows southwest and west

2 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

into the State of Illinois, and then turns abruptly north to the Kan- kakee. So that Jasper and Newton counties are not only in the broad northern Valley of the Kankakee, with its torpid waters and marshes (many of which have been drained and converted into fer- tile, productive lands), but within the area of the rapid-flowing and stimulating Iroquois, along which sprung some of the first and most permanent settlements of the region.

Surface Geology

Jasper County lies just north of the basin of the Wabash. Its southwestern half is a gently rolling prairie of black, loamy soil, while its northern and northeastern portions are sandy, with oak openings and prairies, interspersed with sandy knolls and ridges. The country is underlaid with beds of bowlder drift, which vary in depth from twenty feet in the Valley of the Iroquois to nearly two hundred feet at some of the higher ridges.

At Rensselaer the Iroquois flows over a bed of limestone con- taining interesting specimens of corals and fossils. The stone is rather cherty and not favorable to the production of lime, but a short distance below the city it is purer and has been burned for commercial purposes. Above Rensselaer, near the old mill dam, thin beds of limestone raise themselves above the low banks of the river constituting the only natural rocky exposure on the Iroquois in Jasper County. Southeast of town is a sandstone quarry which has been worked to some extent and a few miles north several gravel beds, which have supplied material for roads and buildings purposes.

Mineral Springs

A number of mineral springs are found near Rensselaer, the waters of which experience has determined to be highly medicinal. Among them are some white sulphur springs, which, in a malarious climate, are worthy of attention. Half a mile east of the county seat a well that was bored to the depth of 800 feet formerly dis- charged a large volume of sulphureted water. This well was sup- plied from a crevice about 180 feet below the surface. Another well in the corner of the courthouse yard that was bored with a "diamond drill," fumished a supply of water near the surface.

Topography, Soil and Products

The divide which separates the Kankakee and Iroquois rivers is a succession of low ridges of yellow or white sand, interspersed with

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 3

swampy valleys from lOO to 400 yards in width, indicating ancient river channels. These numerous river beds show the extent of the region traversed by the Kankakee and Iroquois rivers before finding a fixed channel, when old Lake Kankakee was first drained off. The soil in these valleys is peaty, of no great depth, and is underlaid by a deposit of white sand. A narrow strip of deep, rich alluvial soil from one to two miles in width along the southern margin of the Kankakee is well timbered and highly productive. Groves and skirts of timber are found along the water courses, the wood comprising hickory and white and burr oak.

Wheat has not been a reliable crop, as the soil does not seem favorable to its continuous growth. A large part of the county, also, is nearly level, with great capacity for supporting water. What little snow falls does not rest quietly where it settles, but is blown about by the heavy, sweeping winds, by which the wheat plants are exposed to the alternate thawings and freezings of February and March. Of the fruits, grapes and apples seem to best flourish.

As to really profitable crops, hay closely follows corn, and of live stock, both cattle and hogs are most extensively raised.

Moulding of Nature by M.-vn

The bold topographic lines are laid down by nature, as well as the general conditions of climate, soil and drainage, but in Jasper County, as elsewhere, man has done much to transform the face of nature. In that transformation fire, artificial drainage, scientific cultivation, the denuding of original tree growth and the introduction of new generations of plant and animal life, have made the country immeasurably more pleasant and healthful than it was in its primi- tive state. How these improvements on nature were accomplished in Jasper County calls for a general backward survey.

Wh.'^t the Fires Did to Drive Out Rank Forage

Cultivation has wrought marked changes in this country during the eighty years which the white man has possessed the land. What appeared to the early settlers a dead level expanse of prairie and swamp is now a pleasant rolling area of thrifty farms. This trans- formation has been brought about not by physical changes, but by the natural effects of the farmer's occupation. The open land was originally covered with a rank growth of prairie grass ; on the high lands the grass did not reach its normal height, while on the lower

4 JASPER AxND NEWTON COUNTIES

lands its growth was of astonishing proportions, frequently reaching a height which would hide a man on horseback, and thus would tend to create the illusion of a perfectly level plain. In the timber lands the change has been still more marked. The dense forests of young growth, underbrush and saplings, did not exist fifty years ago. Then the timber, save along the rivers, was marked only by scattered oaks and hickories, which favoring localities preserved from the annual fires that swept the prairies. These were started by accident from the fires of hunters, or by the Indians, for the purpose of keeping the timber in check, and clearing the country of the rank grass stubble.

These fires that kept the beautiful panorama of prairie unob- structed, although of permanent benefit, were the most to be dreaded of all the early contingencies with which settlers had to deal. From the time the grass would burn, which was soon after the first frost, usually about the first of October, till the surrounding prairie was all burnt over, or, if not all burnt, till the green grass in the spring had grown sufficient to prevent the rapid progress of the fire, the early settlers were continually on the watch, and as they usually expressed the idea, "slept with one eye open." When the ground was covered with snow, or during rainy weather, the apprehension was quieted, and both eyes could be safely closed. A statute law forbade setting the prairie on fire, and one doing so was subject to penalty, and liable to an action of trespass for the damage accruing; but convictions were seldom effected, as proof was difficult to obtain, though there were frequent fires. Those started on the leeward side of an improvement, while dangerous to property to the leeward, were not so to property to the windward, as fire progressing against the wind is easily extinguished, and the temptation to start one of these fires for some trivial purpose was often quite irresistible.

Various means were resorted to for protection. A common one was to plow several furrows around a strip, several rods wide, out- side the improvements, and then burn out the inside of this strip, or to wait until the prairie was on fire and then set fire outside of this furrowing, reserving the inner strip for a late bum, i. e., until the following summer, and in July burn both old grass and new. The grass would start afresh immediately, and the cattle would feed it close in preference to the older grass, so that the fire would not pass over it in the following autumn. This process repeated would soon, or in a few years, run out the prairie grass, which in time would be replaced by blue-grass, which will not burn to any serious extent. But all this took time and labor, and the crowd of business

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 5

on the hands of a new settler, of which a novice has no conception, would prevent him doing what would now seem a small matter; and even when accomplished, all such precautions often proved futile. A prairie fire driven by a high wind would often leap such barriers and seem to put human eifort at defiance.

A prairie fire when first started goes straight forward with a velocity proportioned to the force of the wind, widening as it goes,

Food for Pr.mrie Fires

but the center keeping ahead ; it spreads sideways, but burning laterally, it makes but comparatively slow progress, and if the wind is moderate and steady, this spreading fire is not difficult to manage, but if the wind veers a point or two, first one way and then the other, it sends this side fire beyond control. The head fire in dry grass and a head wind is a fearful thing, and pretty sure to have its own way unless there is some defensible point to

6 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

meet it. A contest with such a fire requires such skill and tact as can be learned only by experience, and a neighborhood of set- tlers called out by such an exigency at once put themselves under the direction of the oldest and most experienced of their number, and go to work with the alacrity and energy of men defending their homes and property from destruction.

The usual way of meeting advancing tires was to begin the de- fense where the head of the fire would strike, which was calcu- lated by the smoke and ashes brought by the wind along in advance of fire. A road, cattle-path, or furrow is of great value at such a place; if there was no such, a strip of the grass was wetted down if water could be procured, which was, however, a rather scarce article at the time of the annual fire. On the side, nearest the com- ing fire, of such a road or path, the grass is set on fire, which burns slowly against the wind until it meets the coming conflagration, which latter stops, of course, for want of fuel, provided there has been sufficient time to burn over a strip that cannot be leaped by the head fire as it comes in. This is called "back-firing;" but in this method, great care must be exercised to prevent the fire getting over the furrow or path, or whatever is used as the base of opera- tions. If it gets in the rear of this and once under way, there is no remedy but to fall back to a more defensible position. The head of the fire successfully checked, the force of fire-fighters divide, part going to the right and part to the left, and the backfiring continues to meet the side fires as they come up. This must be continued until the fire is checked along the entire front of the premises endangered, and the sides secured.

Various implements were used to put out a side or back fire, or even the head of a fire in a moderate wind. A fence board, four to six feet long, with one end shaved down for a handle, was very effective when struck flat upon the narrow strip of fire. A bundle of hazel brush, a spade or shovel was often used with efifect. The women frequently lent their aid, and dextrously wielded the mop, which, when thoroughly wet, proved a very efficient weapon, especially in extinguishing a fire in the fence. When the fire over- came all opposition, and seemed bound to sweep over the settle- ment, a fear of personal loss would paralyze, for the moment, every faculty, and as soon as the danger seemed imminent, united effort ceased, and each one hastened to defend his own as best he could. It is due to historical truth to say that actual losses were much less than might have been expected, though frequently quite severe. The physical efforts made in extinguishing a dangerous fire, and

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 7

protecting one's home from this devouring element, were of the most trying nature, not infrequently resulting fatally.

The premises about the residence and- yards being trampled down by the family and domestic animals, after a year or two became tolerably safe from fire, but the fences, corn and stubble fields were often attacked. When the open land was all fenced and under cultivation, so that these fires were a thing of the past, the residents of the prairie were happily released from the constant apprehen- sion which for years had disturbed their peace by night and caused anxiety by day, though the early settlers still retain vivid recollec- tions of the grand illuminations nightly exhibited in dry weather, from early fall to late spring, by numberless prairie fires. The whole horizon would be lighted up around its entire circuit. A heavy fire six or seven miles away would aflford sufficient light in a dark night to enable one to read fine print. When a fire had passed through the prairie, leaving the long lines of side fires like two armies facing each other, the sight at night was sublime, and if one's premises were securely protected, and he could enjoy the exhibition without apprehension, it was a sight well worth going far to see.

The Live Stock of Jasper County.

From the first it was evident to the county's pioneers who had come into the country with any experience of live stock raising that the rich bottom lands of the Kankakee, when properly drained, as well as the more accessible sections along the Iroquois, in the south, were destined to become an admirable region for the breeding and care of cattle, horses and hogs. Its farmers, with very few excep- tions, have never striven to cultivate blooded stock, but have endeav- ored to produce those varieties which were most useful and profit- able for the home and as accessories to agricultural progress. It was years before any of the early settlers attempted to raise more cattle, horses or hogs than would be required for household con- sumption or the operation of the farm. But by the '50s consider- able progress had been made toward the raising of live stock in commercial quantities, as will be evident by reading the following article, originally published in the Rensselaer Gazette during 1858: "As a grazing country, we scarcely have an equal, and cannot be easily surpassed. Grass grows here in rich abundance, and truly, cattle are made to 'lie down in green pastures.' This fact is well known to many cattle raisers, who are in the habit of bringing their

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

%';*■'"■ •"'■■^^^INiM''^'"*

Jasper County Li\i-: Siock

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 9

cattle two or three days' drive every spring, that they may kixuriate on our rich pasture, and drink of our cooHng streams. Some of the finest cattle that go from grass to market go from this county.

"Beef cattle have commanded the attention and capital of farm- ers to a greater extent than any other stock in this branch of rural labor. Horses, swine, sheep and asses have each occupied more or less time, but more capital has been devoted to cattle than to any of the others.

"Dairies, except with a very few farmers, have been a secondary object. Butter-making has not been made a serious branch of business. No attention has been paid to it, except by families for private use, or to supply the limited trade with the villages of the county, and even this has been very inconsiderable, because almost every villager keeps a cow during the summer season.

"There has not yet been any general system of cattle-raising adopted from deliberate or scientific trial by farmers of this county. Each individual has acted upon the scheme suggested by his own judgment or fancy, or such as the state of improvement or the natural features of his own particular location has afforded, or his own particular case has dictated.

"Numerotis breeds of cattle have been raised in this county. Herds have been purchased abroad and raised and fatted here. But little or no attention has been given to the fineness or firmness of the texture of the beef, the color of the flesh, or the odor or flavor of the meat, or the peculiar frame of the animal, but that breed would undoubtedly receive the preference which will attain the greatest weight of carcass in the shortest time, and with the least labor, and, what is of not less importance, they should be of a hardy variety, able to stand the greatest degree of cold and extreme exposure in winter on inferior food, without shelter.

"In selling, the practice has been to sell for so much per hundred pounds, live weight. Drovers have been offered so much per hun- dred and raisers have accepted the bid, and driven their cattle from the grass onto the scales, or themselves taken them to market where the same or similar result was achieved.

"A few only have packed the beef of their own raising or even of their own fattening, and where any have had it packed on their own account, it has generally been done at some larger towns out of the county, at Lafayette, Chicago, or some other city, the butcher furnishing barrels, salt, cutting the meat, and packing it, for the hide, head, shanks and tallow as payment. In this case the drover must of course, await the action of the market before he can realize.

10 JASPER AND XEWTON COUNTIES

In some instances, advances are made by the consignees, but what- ever has been the final arrangement of drovers and packers, cattle have always commanded cash in hand to the growers and fatteners, though there has been but little competition among buyers, drovers generally giving their own prices.

"The general practice in raising cattle has been either to keep breeding cows, and let the calves run with them on the open prairie in summer, throwing the herd a handful of salt once or twice a week, and taking care, either by an employed herdsman or by occa- sional supervision, that they do not wander too far from the proper range. This is the only expense during seven and a half months in the year, from the middle of April to December.

"A very few, if any, calves are ever slaughtered in Jasper County for their veal. Those who do not wish to winter their calves find a market among their neighbors in the fall, at from $4 to $6 per head. After the grass of the prairies has been killed down by the frosts of autumn, the calves are generally separated from the larger cattle, and kept up in an inclosure, in some part of which is an open shed, built of logs or rails, and covered with a pile of straw or coat- ing of prairie hay. and there fed on prairie hay, with a small daily allowance of ears of Indian corn or meal. Some keep them on com fodder, which has been cut and shocked up in the fall, or turn them into stock-fields ; that is, fields where the ears of corn have been gathered, and the stalks left standing, or more recently, since tame grasses have been cultivated, feed them on timothy, blue-grass or clover, during a portion of the winter.

"In some cases, calves are exposed throughout the winter to all changes of weather, with no shelter besides what is offered by a clump of brush or glade of timber. It is not surprising that with such neglect, many calves perish and die before the end of the first winter. Others that survive get on the 'lift,' or have the 'hollow- horn,' or 'wolf,' or some other disease, the result of starvation and exposures. Very few, if any, calves in this county are ever kept in a thriving condition, much less in a fat condition, during the first winter they are kept. But as soon as spring opens they are again turned out upon the prairies. Here, in a few weeks, the whole appearance is changed. The old hair falls off, and is replaced by a new and smooth coat. In a short time they become fat, and before the ensuing fall they usually attain the size of two-year-old stock that is raised on timber lands. In this condition they are brought to another winter, in which they fare no better than during the first. They are now kept without shelter, many of them without

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 11

grain, and fed on hay, which costs about $1.50 per ton in the stack. It is seldom that any of them die during the second winter, ahhough it would appear strange to a New England farmer that any of them should live through. Heifers with calf at this age — and most of them come in at two years old — need some grain to do well, especially when they come in early, but steers and other stock, if they have only enough coarse feed, get through without difficulty. Early in the succeeding summer and fall the two-year-olds are ready for market.

"The average value of such cattle, during the last four or five years, has been from $15 to $17 a head in the spring and from $2.75 to $3 per cwt., live weight, in the summer and fall. Notwithstand- ing the loss of some calves and some older cattle, the last two hard winters, stock raising has been considered profitable, and some have realized handsome profits from it."

From the same writer we take the following on the subject of horses: "With horses, as with everything else, the middling good, tolerably cheap, every-day-article, is of more general usefulness than any others. If they are very inferior, whether vicious, unsafe, balky or tender, their services will not pay for their keeping. If a horse is expensive or high-priced, few can afford to invest their capital in him. A large majority of people have all they can do to live comfortably from year to year. We cannot afford to try e.xperiments, or risk our means in uncertain enterprises. We know that the dearest horses are not the most useful to us ; that, in our cir- cumstances, fancy horses and fast horses are not what we most need. We have three purposes for which we want horses, i. e., for draught, for travel and for sale.

"First. We want horses to assist in plowing our lands and raising produce ; to take our grain to mill and market ; to haul our wood, and to take our families to worship on Sunday. This is our common business. For this we do not need fast horses, but com- pact, well-built horses that possess the powers of endurance; horses that will keep in good working condition in winter on hay and a moderate share of grain, with indifferent shelter.

"Second. We need horses for herding on the open prairies. Here we need an occasional test of speed, although not great nor long continued, for it does not demand a horse of extra dispatch or bottom to outrun a cow or ox.

"Third, for sale. Several farmers have entered pretty extensively into this branch of grazing, and some have made money at the busi- ness. There has been a steady home market for common draught

12 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

horses at good prices, and a foreign market at great prices for horses of extra quahty.

"Our colts are mostly bred from mares that are occasionally worked throughout the year, and pastured on the prairie in the sum- mer. On the approach of winter, the colts are weaned, fed some grain with straw or hay, and sheltered during the hardest weather, and have no other care. They usually look pretty thin and squalid toward spring. They are generally 'broken' in the second or third year, and by the fourth year are put to hard service. Good geldings then bring from $ioo to $125. A few horses of extra quality have sold for fancy prices. The care bestowed on colts is but little more than that devoted rearing calves, and at four years of age the ox may be worth $40, while a colt at the same age rates at $100. Why has not more capital been invested in this business? Not over one-half, probably not over one-third, annually, of the brood mares in the county have colts. Not half the farmers who keep mares ever raise a colt.

"One reason is directed against the business itself, i. e., that the business opens the door to dissipation, and while it pays well, it is subject to many excitements and tempts to great risks.

"Another reason is, men who have made a moderate income by raising a few common colts annually, have been too often led to try the fancy breed, by which they have changed the character of their associates, fallen under the influence of backlegs and sharpers, run into idleness, betting, racing and gambling, and in the end lost both their character and property. I\Ien judge that a business liable to such results is not safe, and shun it.

"Another reason is, there is personal danger in it. Many care- ful men neither wish to break colts nor have they sons to do it. They therefore raise only just what is needed for their own serv- ices ; and as a span of horses will last for from seven to nine years, after they have come to a working age, their wants do not require continued attention to the business, and they decline it.

"There is another objection that influences some. Horses, like other stock, are liable to die, and careful farmers do not care to risk so much value in a single animal. It is necessary to keep them in good condition throughout the year, to insure their profitable sale when the market favors their disposal, and this involves a consider- able expense generally overlooked in making a computation of the expenses of the business.

"But the principal objection to breeding blooded stock of this description is that the business requires more capital than the ordi-

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 13

nary farmer is able to invest until the profits can be realized. To be successful, the breeder needs good stalls, tame pastures, good fences and plenty of help to give the stock all necessary care. With all these accessories, the event is at best uncertain. Not one colt in a hundred will bring an extraordinary price.- Horses noted for beauty, force or speed, have not always reproduced their like, and even when they do the owner of the colt, unless prepared to expend a costly school of training upon it, is likely to discover the fact only after it has passed from his possession.

"We have in Jasper County the names of all the noted horses in the land, and the names of all the breeds; but we have neither the stock nor the means at present of producing it, and while we frequently find valuable horses, both imder the saddle and harnessed to the plow, we have never yet seen here a first-class horse."

Agriculture and Live Stock Forty Years Ago

Horace E. James, secretary of the agricultural society at Rens- selaer, reported as follows in 1879, twenty years after the preceding survey : Last winter was favorable to the growth of fall-sown wheat ; the spring helped its development; insects did not ravage it nor summer storms do it damage, and at harvest time a good, well- matured crop was found, which was saved in fine condition. Gen- erally, however, wheat has not been a reliable crop in this locality. Systematic draining, by means of open ditches and of tile, and liberal coatings of coarse manure, applied before the middle of February, may solve the problem of successful wheat culture upon light and loamy soils and flat surfaces, such as are to be seen with us. At least those farmers who have experimented in this direction are greatly encouraged by the results that have invariably followed such treatment. The wheat crop of Jasper County in 1879 is estimated at double that of any former year, being more than enough to supply the home demand.

"Small fruits, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, are not extensively cultivated, although both soil and climate are favorable ; grapes do well with us, the commoner kinds being hardy and yield- ing sure crops of good fruit. Producers are only beginning to cultivate them as they merit. Vines bore abundantly this year.

"Some varieties of pears may be grown with moderate returns only. Peaches and quinces winter-kill badly. Plums suffer too much from the ravages of the curculio ever to be popular. Apples do well usually. The exhibition of this fruit at our fair this season

14 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

was remarkably fine. The perfection of specimens equaled any that were shown at the State Fair.

"Quite an interest has developed in Jasper County within a year or two in the breeding of poultry. An association has been organized, and several gentlemen lay claim to the title of fowl- fanciers.

"Ours is emphatically a cattle and hog producing district, and probably more attention has been paid to the improvement of these classes of live stock than to any of the other branches of husbandry. The great desire has been to produce beef to the neglect of milkers, hence short-horn breeders have been favorites with cattle-raisers. Recently a few Jerseys have been introduced, but thus far have not been looked upon with that degree of favor which is calculated to increase the enthusiasm of those who have invested their money in them for the purpose of breeding.

"Large herds (report of i8Si) of cattle are less frequently met than in earlier days. I do not mean that fewer cattle are bred and fed here, but they are scattered around more generally, not kept together in large bunches, as in the days before the county was so thickly inhabited, and before so much of the land was inclosed by fences. The breed has been greatly improved by sepa- ration, better care, better feed, and the introduction of improved blood. The improvement has, however, been altogether in the direc- tion of beef-making. There are few, if any, good milkers or butter producers to be found in our pastures.

"In no former year was there so much good hay, both cultivated and wild, put into stock. Tons by the thousands were not even moistened by dew. It has commanded satisfactory prices. Next to corn and not much behind, either, is the hay in importance with us. Much of it is fed on the ground, but there is also an impor- tant industry in baling and shipping it, which has sprung up within a few years.

"After cattle, hay and corn, come hogs in point of importance. Our breeds are Berkshire, Poland-China and Jersey Red, with a decided preference for the first named, either pure breed, crossed or common grade.

"Sheep hold a modest position. No large flocks are kept, but many farmers own from a dozen to thirty or fifty. The long-wool breeds and their crosses with the natives are the favorites. There are occasional thoroughbred animals, but the object seems to be to grow mutton rather than wool.

"Our horses are chiefly what may be called general-purpose

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 15

animals. The introduction of the Norman and the Clydesdale breeds has made the stock on many farms much more serviceable and marketable than previous to their advent. The quarter crosses of these large breeds upon scrubs are excellent horses for general purposes. There are, however, a few flyers owned in the county, some of which are known to the race courses of three or four States, and boast genealogies recorded in the stud book, but no breeding is done for the special object of speed.

"A decided change for the better is perceivable each succeeding year in the method which farmers employ for the tiling of the soil and the cultivation of crops. The land is better and more sys- tematically worked than formerly. There is a manifest desire to learn and adopt improvements. There is a growing taste for litera- ture treating upon farm topics. In brief, there seems to be more mind-work combined with hand work. Several tile factories are finding employment in the solution of the problem of systematic draining. A butter factory or creamery of the capacity of i,000 pounds of butter daily has lately been built at the county seat, which is doing a good paying business, while opening up a new field to the vision of stock breeders. Orchards and vineyards are being planted, and, what is more to the purpose, are being cared for with a thought to their ultimate value as a source of revenue."

CHAPTER II

CONFLICTS OF WHITES AND REDS

The Miamis Tamed by the Iroquois — Labors of French Mis- sionaries AND Traders — French Indiana- — Indiana Under British Rule — Uncertain French Titles to Lands — Ruled from Canada and Virginia — In the County of Illinois — Part of Northwest Territory — Indiana Territory — Gen- eral Harrison, Father of Indiana — Tecumseh and the Prophet — The Battle of Tippecanoe — Founding of the State Government — Miami and Pottawattamie Titles Ex- tinguished— Pottawattamie Villages in Jasper County — No Evidences of Permanent Prehistoric Settlements.

The lowlands of the Kankakee, alive with water fowl and musk- rats, and teeming with fish, were favorite resorts both of the Indians and French and English trappers from the earliest times of which there are records. But the waters were difficult to navigate, no great land trails followed its courses, such as crossed the country nearer Lake Michigan or along the more navigable Valley of the Wabash to the south. Within the area of what is usually called Northwestern Indiana the main lines of travel both for Indians and whites, in the times of the French dominion, either crossed the immediate region of the great lakes or paralleled the water courses embraced in the Ohio River system. But although the Kan- kakee region was somewhat away from the greater routes of travel, by both land and water, it is believed that the great, tireless and almost ubiquitous La Salle explored it during the later period of his career.

The Miamis Tamed by the Iroquois

In the time of La Salle the country now embraced within the limits of the State of Indiana was inhabited by the Miami Confed- eration of Indians, of which the Pottawattamies were the most 16

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 17

powerful tribe northwest of the Wabash. The Iroquois, or Five Nations of the East, were their inveterate and hereditary enemies, and the river which bears their name in Jasper and Newton coun- ties, as well as the Illinois county just over the state line, are evi- dences of their fierce western incursion, which was finally stemmed by La Salle and the western tribes which he consolidated against them. But for twenty-five years after his assassination in 1687 until the early part of the eighteenth century the Ohio and lakes regions claimed by France were not safe from the invasions of the Five Nations, the allies of the English.

As stated by Dr. William S. Haymond in his "History of Indiana :" "In 1670, and for many years previous, the fertile region of country now included within the boundaries of the state of Indiana vvas inhabited by the Miami Confederation of Indians. This league consisted of several Algonquin tribes, notably the Twightwees, Weas, Piankeshaws and Shockeys and was formed at an early period — probably in the early part of the seventeenth century — for the purpose of repelling the invasions of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, at whose hands they had suffered many severe defeats. By the frequent and unsuccessful wars in which they were com- pelled to engage in self-defense their numbers had been greatly reduced until, at the date mentioned, they could not muster more than fifteen hundred or two thousand warriors. They dwelt in small villages on the banks of the various rivers in Indiana and extended their dominion as far east as the Scioto, north to the Great Lakes and west to the country of the Illinois. Their principal settle- ments were scattered along the headwaters of the Great Miami, the banks of the Maumee, the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, the Wabash and its tributaries. Although once important among the nations of the Lake Region they had become greatly demoralized by repeated defeats in war, and when first visited by the French their villages presented a very untidy appearance. They were living in constant terror of the Five Nations, practicing only sufficient indus- try to prevent starvation and indulging all their vicious passions to a vulgar extreme.

Labors of French Missionaries and Traders

"Almost immediately after the discovery and exploration of the Mississippi by La Salle in 1682, and a few years later by James Mar- quette, the government of France began to encourage the policy of connecting its possessions in North America by a chain of fortifica-

18 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

tions, trading posts and missionary stations, extending from New Orleans on the southwest to Quebec on the northwest. This under- taking was inaugurated by Lamotte Cadillac, who established Fort Pontchartrain on the Detroit river in 1701.

"At this period the zealous Jesuit missionaries, the adventurous French fur traders with their coarse blue and red cloths, fine scarlet, guns, powder, balls, knives, ribbons, beads, vermilion, tobacco and rum; the careless rangers, or coureurs des bois, whose chief vocation was conducting the canoes of the traders among the lakes and rivers, made their appearance among the Indians of Indiana. The pious Jesuits held up the cross of Christ and unfolded the mysteries of the Catholic religion in broken Indian to the astonished savages, while the speculating trader offered them fire water and other articles of merchandise in exchange for their peltries, and the rangers, shaking loose every tie of blood and kindred, identified themselves with the savages and sank into utter barbarism."

The Jesuit missionaries were always cordially received by the Miami tribes. These Indians would listen patiently to the theory of the Saviour and salvation, manifest a willing belief in all they heard, and then, as if to entertain their visitors in return, would tell them the story of their own simple faith in the Manitous, and stalk off with a groan of dissatisfaction because the missionaries would not accept their theory with equal courtesy. Missionary stations were established at an early day in all the principal villages and the work of instructing and converting the savages was begun in earnest. The order of religious exercises established at the missions among the Miamis was nearly the same as that among the other Indians. Early in the morning the missionaries would assemble the Indians at the church, or the hut used for the purpose, and after prayers the sav- ages were taught concerning the Catholic religion. These exercises were always followed by singing, at the conclusion of which the congregation was dismissed, the Christians only remaining to take part at mass. This service was generally followed by prayers. Dur- ing the forenoon the priests were generally engaged in visiting the sick and consoling those who were laboring under any affliction. After noon another sen-ice was held in the church, at which all the Indians were permitted to appear in their finery and where each, without regard to rank or age, answered the questions put by the missionary. This exercise was concluded by singing hymns, the words of which had been set to airs familiar to the savage ear. In the evening all assembled again at the church for instruction, to hear

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 19

prayers and to sing tlieir favorite hymns. The Aiiamis were always higniy pleased with the latter exercise.

Aside from the character of the religious services which con- stituted a chief attraction in the Miami villages of Indiana while the early French missionaries were among them, the traveler's attention would first be engaged with the peculiarities of the fur trade, which during the first quarter of the eighteenth century was monopolized by the French. This traffic was not confined to those whose wealth enabled them to engage vessels, canoes and traders, for there were hundreds scattered through the various Indian villages of Indiana at almost any time during the first half of the eighteenth century, who carried their packs of merchandise and furs by means of leather straps suspended from their shoulders, or with the straps resting againt their foreheads.

Rum and brandy were freely introduced by the traders and always found a ready sale among the Miami Indians. A Frenchman, writ- ing of the evils which resulted from the introduction of spirituous liquors among these savages, remarked : "The distribution of it is made in the usual way; that is to say, a certain number of persons have delivered to each of them a quantity sufficient to get drunk with, so that the whole have been drunk over eight days. They begin to drink in the villages as soon as the sun is down, and every night the fields echo with the most hideous howling."

In those early days the Miami villages of the Maumee, those of the Weas about Ouiatenon on the Wabash, and those of the Pianke- shaws around Vincennes were the central points of the fur trade in Indiana, to which large contributions were made by the Indians and trappers of the Kankakee and Beaver Lake regions, in what are now Jasper and Newton counties. Trading posts were established at the Miami villages mentioned and at Fort Wayne, in 1719. although for twenty years previously the French traders and missionaries had frequently visited them. A permanent church or mission was es- tablished at the Piankeshaw village near Vincennes in 1749, and in the following year a small fort was erected there by order of the French government. It was in that year that another small fort was erected near the mouth of the Wabash River. These posts soon drew a large number of French traders around them, and in 1756 they had become quite important settlements, with a mixed popula- tion of French and Indian.

At this date the English became competitors for the trade with the Indiana Indians and those of the surrounding country, and at the close of the old French war, in 1763, when Canada and its de-

20 JASPER AND XEWTOX COUNTIES

pendencies fell into the hands of the British, this monopoly passed to the visitors. Notwithstanding this change in the government of the country, the French who had settled around the principal trading posts in Indiana, with a few exceptions, swore allegiance to the British government and were permitted to occupy their lands in peace and enjoy the slight improvements they had wrought.

French Indi.\n.\

The post, or the old post — later known as Vincennes — was es- tablished in 1727, and until after the Revolutionary war was the only white settlement in Indiana, although French forts were estab- lished both at the head of the Maumee and at Ouiatenon — the latter on the Wabash, about eighteen miles below the mouth of the Tippe- canoe. The post at Ouiatenon is claimed to be the first of its kind in Indiana and dated from 1720. From its settlement until it was finally transferred to Great Britain, Vincennes was under the juris- diction of New Orleans, although its trade was largely with Canada. It was in command of a governor, Sieur de Vincennes holding that office from the founding of the post until his death in 1736. Dur- ing that period, therefore, Indiana was under the direct jurisdiction of Governor Vincennes, and indirectly, of New Orleans and Versailles.

Indi.\x.\ Under British Rule

Vincennes was killed in battle with the Indians at the mouth of the Ohio in 1736, and Louis St. Ange commanded Old Vin- cennes until 1764, or a short time before it was finally surrendered to the British. In May of that year, about six months previous to the proclamation of General Gage, the British commander-in-chief in North America, announcing the cession of the country of the Illinois to His Britannic Majesty, St. Ange appointed his successor to the command of the old post-and started for Fort Chartres to relieve the commandant at that post, who was on his way to New Orleans. For nearly thirty years he had led and governed the people of Old Vincennes.

On the loth of October. 1765, St. Ange made a formal delivery of Fort Chartres to Captain Sterling, representing the British govern- ment. That military center of the Illinois country became the first semi-civil seat of government established northwest of the Ohio and included the territory constituting the present State of Indiana.

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 21

Captain Sterling in turn received his orders from General Gage, whose headquarters were at New York, the British seat of colonial government in North America.

Fort Chartres was a very unhealthful place and Captain Sterling lived only three months after taking possession. In September, 1768, Lieutenant-Colonel Reed, in command, set up a sort of civil govern- ment for the Illinois country. Its main feature consisted of seven judges, who constituted the first court west of the Alleghanies and retained authority until 1774, when the British Parliament restored civil law in full force.

Uncertain French Titles to Lands

The steps leading to the formal assumption of the civil adminis- tration of the territory embracing Indiana by the Canadian authori- ties, with Quebec as the seat of the dominion government, are thus described: "The arbitrary act of General Gage, in 1772, in ordering all the whites to immediately vacate the Indian country, aroused the settlers and they at once vigorovisly protested. They declared they held the title to their lands from officers of the French government, who had a right to convey such titles, and that when the French government transferred the territory to the English their rights were duly protected by the treaty of cession. Gage was autocratic and determined, and on the receipt of this remonstrance he ordered that all written titles to the possession of the lands should be forwarded to him at New York for examination. The inhabitants were a careless set and mainly ignorant, had failed to properly care for the written evidence of the grants made to them, and many of the papers had been left in the hands of the notary who had drawn them. They never dreamed of any question ever being raised as to their right to the lands they were occupying, and had been occupying for nearly half a century. So it was that this last order of Gage fell like a thunderbolt upon the poor inhabitants. Some deeds were found, but many more could not be found. An appeal was made to St. Ange at St. Louis. He responded by reciting that he had held com- mand of the post (Vincennes) from 1736 to 1764, and that during that time, by order of the governors, he had conceded many parcels of land to various inhabitants by written concessions, and had verbally permitted others to settle and cultivate lands, of which they had been in possession for many years. Other officers certified that many deeds had been carried away, others removed to the record office of the Illinois (at Fort Chartres), and still others had been

22 JASPER AND XEWTON COUNTIES

lost or destroyed by rats. But the British government had already heard the muttering of discontent in the eastern colonies and did not want to add to the embarrassments at other points, and in 1774 the whole territory northwest of the Ohio was put under 'the domin- ion of Canada."

Ruled from Canada and Virginia

When the Illinois country, or the territory northwest of the Ohio, was transferred from France to Great Britain about a decade previously, the entire population did not exceed 600 families, or perhaps 4,000 people, and when it came under the dominion of Canada it was considerably less, as many of the inhabitants had gone to St. Louis, New Orleans and other points in Louisiana.

The British took possession of Vincennes in May, 1777, but it was captured by the Americans in August of the following year by Gen. George Rogers Clark, and became forever a possession of the United States.

During the Revolutionary war no British or American settle- ments were made within the limits of Indiana, although when General Clark was in authority at Vincennes a number of Ameri- cans were added to the post settlement, and the Indians ceded to the commandant himself 150,000 acres of land around the falls of the Ohio River, which grant was afterward confirmed by Vir- ginia and the National Congress. As an energetic Kentuckian, and an able, brave man of military genius, backed by the Old Dominion and the statesmanship of Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, General Clark was admirably fitted to be the conqueror of the Northwest, whether fighting against the British or the Indians.

In the County of Illinois

In 1778, when the news of Clark's capture of Vincennes and Kaskaskia reached Mrginia, its assembly passed a law organizing all the territory northwest of the Ohio into the County of Illinois and placing Col. John Todd in control as county lieutenant. Kas- kaskia was the seat of government, and Indiana again came under a new administration centering ultimately at Richmond, \'irginia. Todd arrived at his capital in May, 1779, and at once commenced his administration as county lieutenant, leaving Clark free to pursue his military enterprises ; but he himself was killed at the battle of Blue Licks in 1782. Although by statute the organization known

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

23

as the County of Illinois had expired in 1781, its civil officers con- tinued to exercise power and grant land concessions until the pas- sage of the ordinance of 1787.

Part of the Northwest Territory

We now approach the period of stable American Government, when the United States as a nation extended its jurisdiction to the

The Northwest Territory of 1787

County of Illinois and the territory northwest of the Ohio River. That immense domain was claimed by Virginia by right of con- quest, but in January, 1783, the General Assembly of the Old

24 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

Dominion, in the interests of the United States, ceded to the National Congress all its rights, titles and claims to that great land. The Virginia deed of cession was accepted by Congress in the spring of 1784, and in July, 1788, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who had been elected by Congress governor of the Northwest Territory under the famous ordinance of the previous year, arrived at Marietta, Ohio, to take over the civil administration of the national domain now included within the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wiscon- sin. At that time, therefore, the future Hoosier .State was governed indirectly from Philadelphia and directly from Marietta, the terri- torial capital.

Until Indiana was organized as a territory in 1800, there were few settlements within the limits of the present state. In 1798, under the provisions of the ordinance creating the Northwest Terri- tory, which provided for civil government when its population should number 5,000 free inhabitants, a popular assembly was elected to represent the Northwest, and in January, 1799, convened at Cincinnati, whither the seat of government had been moved from Marietta. Ten members of the upper house, or council, were then appointed by President Adams, upon recommendation of the elected assembly, and when the two bodies met at the new territorial capital in September, 1799, a near approach to popular government had been effected in the territory northwest of the Ohio River.

Indiana Territory

The Legislature selected as the territorial delegate to Congress, William Henry Harrison, who was filling the position of secretary of the Northwest Territory. The new government was hardly under way before the tremendous domain over which it had jurisdiction underwent its first carving under authority of the ordinance of 1787. By act of Congress, approved May 7, 1800, it was declared that "from and after the fourth of July next, all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river which lies to the westward of a line beginning at the Ohio opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory to be called the Indiana Territory." The seat of government was fixed at Vincennes and William Henry Harrison was appointed governor. He reached Vincennes in Jan-

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 25

uary, 1801, the gubernatorial duties having been performed since the preceding July by John Gibson, secretary of the territory.

The judges and juries were soon in action, and in July, 1805, the first Legislature of the Territory of Indiana met at Vincennes. At that time, Indiana had been shorn of Michigan for about six months and in 1809 Illinois was carved away, leaving its territory as at present.

Governor H-\rrison, Father of Indiana

Governor and General Harrison is acknowledged to be the father of a settled and secure Indiana. Within five years from the time he assumed control of afifairs, both civil and military, he had perfected treaties with the Indians, securing cessions to 46,000 square miles of territory, including all the lands lying on the borders of the Ohio River, between the mouth of the Wabash River and the western boundary of the State of Ohio. At the same time, in co-operation with the Legislature, he guided the revision and improvement of the territorial statutes, and at his recommendation Congress estab- lished several land offices. In 1804 three were opened — at Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, respectively — and in 1807 a fourth, Jeffersonville, Clark County.

But despite treaties and the protection of the National Govern- ment, personified by such a rugged character as Harrison, the origi- nal lords of the soil continued to show just causes for uneasiness and indignation. Even the governor, in his 1806 message to the Legislature, remarked that they were already making complaints, some of them far from groundless. While the laws of the territory provided for the same punishment for offenses committed against Indians as against white men, unhappily there was always a wide difference in the execution of those laws. The Indian was, in all cases, the sufferer. That partiality did not escape their observation. On the contrary, it afforded them an opportunity of making strong comparisons between their own observance of treaties and that of their boastful superiors.

During the period from 1805 to 1810, especially, the Indians complained bitterly against the encroachments of the whites upon the lands which they had not ceded. Not only the invasion of their favorite hunting grounds, but the unjustifiable killing of many of their people, were frequent charges which they brought to the atten- tion of Harrison. An old chief, in laying the troubles of his people before the governor, said earnestly : "You call us your children ; why do you not make us as happy as our fathers, the French, did?

26 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

They never took from us our lands ; indeed, they were in common between us. They planted where they pleased; and they cut wood where they pleased; and so did we. But now, if a poor Indian attempts to take a litle bark from a tree to cover him from the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own."

Tecumseh and the Prophet

All such complaints found voice in Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet ; the one playing upon the superstitions and passions of the Indians, and the other organizing them into a strong confederacy which was to control the disposition of lands, instead of allowing them to be ceded by separate and disunited tribes. Both in 1808 and 1809 the Prophet visited Harrison at Vincennes to assure him of his friendliness and to protest against the charge that he and Tecum- seh were in league with the British. In the later part of the year 1809 it was estimated that the total quantity of land ceded to the United States under treaties which had been effected by the governor exceeded 30,000,000 acres ; and all these cessions were accomplished in direct opposition to the influence of Tecumseh and the Prophet; but the break between these powerful leaders of the white and the red races was at hand.

In July, 1810, Governor Harrison made an attempt to gain the friendship of the Prophet by sending him a letter offering to treat with him personally in the matter of his grievances, or to furnish means to send him, with three of his principal chiefs, to the Presi- dent at Washington. The bearer of this letter was coldly received by both Tecumseh and the Prophet, and the only answer he received was that Tecumseh, in a few days, would visit Vincennes and inter- view the governor; this he did, with seventy of his principal warriors, in the following month. For over a week conferences were carried on with the haughty Shawnee chief, who on the 20th of August de- livered an ultimatum to Harrison, to the effect that he should return their lands or fight.

While the governor was replying to Tecumseh's speech, the In- dian chief angrily interrupted him to declare, that the United States Government, through General Harrison, had "cheated and imposed on the Indians." Whereupon, a number of the Indian warriors pres- ent sprang to their feet and brandished their clubs, tomahawks and spears. The governor's guards, who stood a short distance off, marched quickly up, and the red men quieted down, Tecumseh be- ing ordered to his camp.

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 27

On the following day Tecumseh apologized and requested another interview. The council was thereupon reopened, but while the Shawnee leader addressed Harrison in a respectful manner, he did not recede from his former demand as to the restoration of the Indian lands.

The governor then requested Tecumseh to state plainly whether or not the lands purchased at the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809 could be surveyed without molestation by the Indians, and whether or not the Kickapoos would receive their annuities in payment for such cession. The proposed grant was partly in Illinois. Tecumseh replied : "Brother, when you speak of annuities to me, I look at the land and pity the women and children. I am authorized to say that they will not receive them. Brother, we want to save that piece of land. We do not wish you to take it. It is small enough for our purpose. If you do take it, you must blame yourself as the cause of the trouble between us and the tribes who sold it to you. I want the present boundary line to continue. Should you cross it, I assure you it will be productive of bad consequences." This talk terminated the council.

On the following day Governor Harrison, attended only by his interpreter, visited Tecumseh's camp and told him that the United States would not acknowledge his claims. "Well," replied the In- dian, "as the great chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great Spirit will put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct you to give up this land. It is true, he is so far off he will not be injured by the war. He may sit still in his own town and drink his wine, while you and I will have to fight it out."

Tecumseh's last visit to the governor previous to the battle of Tippecanoe, which crushed the red man's power in Indiana and the Northwest, was on July 27, 181 1. He brought with him a consider- able force of Indians, but that showing was offset by 750 well-armed militia whom Governor Harrison reviewed with some ostentation. The interview was conciliatory on the part of Tecumseh, who, how- ever, repeated that he hoped no attempts would be made to settle on the lands sold to the United States at Fort Wayne, as the Indians wished to keep them for hunting grounds. He then departed for the express purpose of inducing the Indians to join his confederacy.

The B.vttle of Tipppecanoe

While Tecumseh was absent on that mission, the battle of Tippe- canoe was fought under the leadership of the Prophet, and Indiana

28 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

became white man's land forever. After Governor Harrison had exhausted every means to maintain peace with the Indian leader he resorted to decisive military measures. His army moved from Vincennes in September, 1811; he built a new fort on the Wabash in the following month, resumed his march, and on the 6th of November, after an unsatisfactory conference with a representative of the Prophet, about half a mile from town, encamped on the battleground, six miles north of the present City of Lafayette. The selection of that location is said to have been at the suggestion of the Indians, who pronounced it a good place for a camp; the Prophet may therefore be said to have selected the ground on which his people met with such signal defeat.

General Harrison's force consisted of about 250 regular troops, 600 Indiana militia and 150 volunteers from Kentucky. Just before daybreak of November 7th, the Indians made a sudden attack on that part of the camp guarded by the militia. They broke at the first on- slaught, but soon reformed, and the entire body of Americans pre- sented a determined front to the wily foe, but did not attempt an offensive until it was light, when several gallant charges were made by the troops and the Indians defeated. The Indians being familiar with the ground had been able to inflict severe losses on the Ameri- cans. Among the killed were Major Jo Daviess, the gifted and brave Kentuckian, and Col. Isaac White, the gallant Virginian, who fell side by side while leading a charge of dragoons. Long after- ward, both Indiana and Illinois were protid to bestow upon two of their counties the names of these heroes of the battle of Tippecanoe.

Founding of the State Government

Governor Harrison's prolonged absences from the seat of govern- ment on military duties made it necessary to place the civil adminis- tration in other hands. In 1812 and the first four months of 1813, these responsibilities devolved upon John Gibson, secretary of the territory. In February of the latter year President Madison nom- inated Thomas Posey, United States senator from Louisiana, for governor of Indiana, as General Harrison had been made commander- in-chief of the American forces in the West. Governor Posey arrived at Vincennes in May, 1813, and in December of that year the Legis- lature met at the new capital — Corydon, Harrison County. The State House at that place had been partially erected in 181 1, but was not entirely completed until 1815.

In December of the latter year, the Territory of Indiana applied

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 29

to Congress for admission into the Union as a state, since more than 60,000 free white inhabitants then resided within its limits — to be exact, 63,897. Congress passed the enabhng act in May, 1816, and the delegates elected to frame a state constitution held a convention at Corydon, lasting from the loth to the 29th of June, of that year. Instead of deliberating in the stuffy little State House, they held most of their meetings under a huge elm tree on the banks of Big Indian Creek, several hundred feet northwest of the capitol. The grand old tree still stands, fifty feet in height with a spread of branches nearly 125 feet across. The first session of the Legislature of the State of Indiana opened at the Corydon State House on November 4, 1816.

Corydon remained the state capital until 1825, although the site of Indianapolis had been selected by the commissioners appointed for that ptirpose by the Legislature in 1820. In 1819 Congress donated to the state four sections of land to be selected from any tract of the public domain then unsold, and in May of the following year the locating commissioners fixed upon a tract on the west fork of the White River near the geographical center of the state and platted the new capital as Indianapolis. The seat of government of the commonwealth was moved thither in 1825, as stated, and the first State House completed in 1836. As designated in the congressional grant, Indianapolis was fixed as the permanent capital of Indiana, and all its counties have since looked to that city as the seat of their government authority.

Miami and Pottawattamie Titles Extinguished

It is an unrelated coincidence that the completion of the State House at Indianapolis and the virtual ex,tinguishment of the Indian titles to the lands of Northwestern Indiana should both fall within the year 1836; it is, nevertheless, a happy coincidence for the pur- pose of continuing this narrative in a chronological and orderly manner.

Without going into the intricacies of the general, or blanket trea- ties by which Great Britain and the United States secured their color of title from the Indians, it is sufficient to know that the specific treaties by which the primitive owners transferred the lands now within Jasper and Newton counties to the general Government were made in 1818, 1826 and 1832.

On October 2 and 3, 18 18, the Pottawattamies, Weas and Dela- wares — all closely related in tribal afl^airs — ceded their several par-

30 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

eels of lands in the State of Indiana west of the Tippecanoe River, the last two tribes then relinquishing all claims to real estate within the limits of the young commonwealth. The Pottawattamie treaty of October 2d, which is the most important from a Jasper County standpoint, was concluded at St. Mary's, Ohio, between Governor Jonathan Jennings, Lewis Cass and Benjamin Parke, United States commissioners, and the principal chiefs and warriors of the Potta- wattamie Nation. The following tract was thus ceded to the Gov- ernment : Beginning at the mouth of the Tippecanoe River and run- ning up the same to a point twenty-five miles in a direct line from the Wabash River, thence on a line as nearly parallel to the general course of the Wabash River as is possible, thence down the Ver- million River to its mouth, and thence up the \\'abash River to the place of beginning.

Within the following eight years the Miamis, the Pottawattamies and the Weas ceded various tracts in Central and Western Indiana, which did not effect any territory within the present Jasper of Newton. Both the Pottawattamies and Miamis ceded all their lands east of the Tippecanoe by the treaty of October 23, 1826, the tract being thus formally described in the paper : Beginning on the Tippecanoe River, where the northern boundary of the tract ceded by the Pottawattamies to the United States by the treaty of St. Mary's in the 3'ear 1818 intersects the same, thence in a direct line to a point on Eel River half way between the mouth of said river and the Parrish's village, thence up Eel River to Seek's vil- lage (now in Whitley County) near the head thereof, thence in a direct line to the mouth of a creek emptying into the St. Joseph's of the Miami (Maumee) near Metea's village, thence up the St. Joseph's to the boundary line between Ohio and Indiana, thence south to the Miami (Maumee), thence up the same to the reservation at Fort Wayne, thence with the lines of the said reservation to the boundary established by the treaty with the ^liamis in 1818, thence with the said line to the Wabash River, thence with the said river to the mouth of the Tippecanoe River, and thence with the Tip- pecanoe River to the place of beginning.

By the treaty with the Pottawattamies of October 26, 1832, a tract of land in the northwestern portion of the state was ob- tained by the Government, which overlapped the Kickapoo cession in Illinois. On the following day the Pottawattamies of Indiana and Michigan also relinquished all claims to any remaining lands in those states, as well as in Illinois south of Grand River.

By the four treaties mentioned the settlers of Northwestern

JASPER AND XEWTOxN COUNTIES 31

Indiana, the pioneers of whom commenced to come into that sec- tion of the state at the time of these Pottawattamie cessions, were enabled to read their titles clear to their homesteads and mansions on earth.

On the nth of February, 1836, the Government concluded the agreement with the Pottawattamies by which all former treaties were ratiiied, and a stipulation made that they would migrate, within two years, to their reservation beyond the Missouri River, the United States to pay the expenses of such removal and furnish them one year's subsistence.

On April 23, 1836, there was introduced in the Twenty-fourth Congress a memorial from the Indiana Legislature asking Con- gress to extinguish the title of the Pottawattamie and Miami Indians to all lands in said state. This memorial recites that said matter is one of the greatest interest and importance and asks that their title be extinguished and the Indians removed from the state. It was referred to the committee on Indian affairs and ordered to be printed. Two years later the Indians were transported beyond the Mississippi River.

The last tribal title to lands in Indiana was not extinguished until 1872, when Congress partitioned the ten-mile reserve originally granted in 1838 to the Metosinia band of Miamis (in Wabash County), comprising sixty-three of the descendants of the original chief.

Migrations of the Pott.^w.^ttamies

Dr. J. Z. Powell, in his history of Cass County, published by the company which issues this work, gives an authentic and condensed account of the various steps by which the Pottawattamies and Miamis were transferred to their reservations in the far West; the bands from the regions of the Kankakee and Iroquois rivers were tributary streams to the main bodies which moved down the Valley of the Wabash toward Illinois and the Mississippi River.

"The first emigration of the Pottawattamies," says Doctor Powell, "took place in July, 1837, under the direction of Abel C. Pepper, United States commissioner, and George Profit conducted them to their western home. There were about one 'hundred taken in this band and Nas-wau-gee was their chief. Their village was located on the north bank of Lake Muck-sen-chuck-ee, where Culver Military Academy ("Marshall county) now stands. The old chief, Nas-wau- gee, was a mild-mannered man and on the morning- of their march

32 Jz\SPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

to their western home, as he stood on the banks of the lake and took a last, long view of his old home to which he was never to return, he was visibly affected and tears were seen to flow from his eyes.

"The last and final removal of the Pottawattamies was made in the fall of 1838. They were unwilling to go, and Colonel Abel C. Pepper, then United States Indian agent stationed at Logansport, made a requisition on Governor David Wallace (father of General Lew Wallace) for a company of militia, and General John Tipton, of Logansport, was directed to enlist a company of one hundred men, which he speedily did. The recruits were mostly from Cass county. The names of the men composing this company of militia are not obtainable, but the writer's father, Jacob Powell, and Isaac Newton Clary, pioneers of Bethlehem and Harrison townships, were among the number.

"Sixty wagons were provided to haul the women, children and those unable to march. There were eight hundred and fifty-nine Indians enrolled under the leadership of Chief Menominee. Their principal village was situated on Twin Lake, about seven miles southwest of Plymouth, in Marshall county, where the entire tribe assembled and bid farewell to their old homes. The village con- sisted of one hundred and twenty wigwams and cabins ; also a chapel in which many of them were converted to Christianity by Father Petit, a missionary in Indiana at that time. Many afiecting scenes occurred as these red men of the forest for the last time viewed their cabin homes and the graves of their loved ones who slept in a graveyard near their little log chapel.

"On September 4, 1838, they began their sad and solemn march to the West. Their line of march was south on the ^lichigan road to Logansport, where they encamped just south of Honey creek on the east side of Michigan avenue, on the night of the 7th of Septem- ber, 1838; and that night two of the Indians died and were buried just north of Honey creek where the Vandalia Railroad crosses the stream and on the east side of Michigan avenue ; and their bones lie there to this day.

"General Tipton conducted these Indians along the Wabash river through Lafayette and on to Danville, Illinois, where he turned them over to Judge William Polke, who took them to their reservation west of the Missouri river. Many of the whites had a great sym- pathy for this band of Indians and thought they were wrongfully treated in their forcible removal, although, by their chiefs, they had agreed to move West.

"A few of the Pottawattamies moved to northern ^Michigan and

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 33

some remnants of this once powerful tribe lived there to recent times. Among their number was Simon Pokagon, who died January 27, 1899. Just prior to his death he wrote an article for an eastern maga- zine in which he said : 'As to the future of our race, it seems to me almost certain to lose its identity by amalgamation with the domi- nant race.' When Pokagon was asked if he thought that the white man and the Indian were originally one blood, he said: T do not know, but from the present outlook they will be.'

"There were bands of Pottawattamie and Miami Indians in Cass and adjoining counties that moved to the West at different times; sometimes they went voluntarily; at other times, they were escorted. The last of the Miamis were conducted to their reserva- tion west of the Mississippi by Alex. Coquillard in 1847, and again in 1851."

By the fall of 1838 there were few Pottawattamies left in their old encampments anywhere along the Tippecanoe. Another eye- witness to their greatest march toward the setting sun, that of Sep- tember in the year named, and toward which the Pottawattamies of the northwestern corner of the state contributed a considerable contingent, thus describes the enforced migration : "The regular migration of the Pottawattamies took place under Colonel Abel C. Pepper and General Tipton in the summer of 1838. Hearing that this strange emigration, which consisted of about one thousand of all ages and sexes, would pass within eight or ten miles of Lafayette, a few of us procured horses and rode over to see the retiring band as they reluctantly wended their way toward the setting sun. It was a mournful spectacle to witness these children of the forest slowly retiring from the homes of their childhood. As they cast sad glances backward toward the loved scenes that were fading in the distance, tears fell from the cheeks of the downcast warriors, old men trembled, matrons wept, the swarthy maiden's cheek turned pale, and sighs and half-suppressed sobs escaped from the motley groups as they passed along, some on foot, some on horseback and others in wagons — sad as a funeral procession. I saw several of the aged warriors casting glances toward the sky, as if they were im- ploring aid from the spirits of their departed heroes who were look- ing down upon them from the clouds, or from the Great Spirit who would ultimately redress the wrongs of the red man, whose broken bow had fallen from his hand and whose sad heart was bleeding within him.

"Ever and anon one of the party would start out into the brush and break back to his old encampments on the Tippecanoe, declaring

34 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

he would rather die than be banished from his country. Thus scores ot discontented emigrants returned trom diiierent points on tlieir journey, and it was several years before they could be induced to join their countrymen west of the Mississippi."

Pottawattamie \Tllages in Jasper County

Although the tribes which made their homes in Jasper County exhibited no indication of having imbibed the religion of the Catho- lic priests, they were not less friendly to the early whites that found their way thither on trading and hunting expeditions, and even when the whites came to take possession of the land after the Logansport treaty.

The Iroquois River has sustained its reputation as one of the best stocked rivers in the state, from the earliest knowledge of the whites to the present time. Long before any settlements were made rumors of its profusion of fine edible fish came to the frontiers through the Pottawattamies, to whom it was a favorite place of resort each fall and spring. Bass, bream, pike, salmon, mullet, suck- ers and other varieties were found in abundance.

The Rapids of the Rockwise. as the Iroquois was early called, was a favorite resort of the Pottawattamie Indians in Jasper County, and every spring and fall during their stay in the state found large numbers of them gathered there to fish and hunt. The river swarmed with the largest fish, the prairie supplied innumerable deer and grouse, and the Kankakee aliforded some of the best trapping grounds in Indiana. Two or three tribes of the nation made their homes in Jasper County, whose principal villages were located near the line of sections 17 and 20, Newton Township, and just east of the Phegley farm. Their principal chiefs were Job, whose following numbered about 300 men; Jim, with a tribe of about no, and Wa- pakoneta, with a smaller band. Their corn fields were scattered all over the county. What was known as the Indian garden, on the Kankakee River in Wheatfield Township, was one of the largest of their com fields. Others were located a few miles west of the county seat on the site of the Benjamin farm; on the Mallatt place, further west, and on the site of Rensselaer. The corn is described as quite diflferent from that now in cultivation. It was of a blue and vvhite color, somewhat similar to our sweet com in texture, and never acquired that flinty hardness which is characteristic of the grain now in general cultivation.

The sites chosen for corn fields were stich as could be the easiest

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 35

tilled with the rude implements at command, and where the rank prairie grass could be best held in control. The squaws performed the labor with the sanghoe, chopping off the sod and piling it up at one side. On the spot thus cleared the corn was planted and left to grow as it might. On the following year the spot on which the sod had been piled was found bare of grass, and there another hill was planted ; thus, in the second year, double the number of hills were planted. The ground thus brought under cultivation was worked each successive year, the corn being planted each time in the same spot, and the earth successively hoed up to the same spot formed little mounds to mark the site of each hill of corn. The stalk grew about 4^ to 5 feet high, from which the corn was stripped in the fall and hung up by the husks in the rude sheds provided for the purpose.

Cured fish was an important part of the Indians' winter supplies. On what was afterward the Rhodes farm, about three-quarters of a mile southeast of Rensselaer, they had their pits for that purpose. These were rectangular, about 2 by 4 feet, sunk about three feet into the ground. They were filled with wood, which was ignited, and when it was reduced to a body of live coals short sticks were placed upon them, on which the fish were laid as drawn from the water. When sufficiently cooked the fish were taken from the fire, the skin removed and the flesh stripped from the bones. The shredded fish was then placed on pieces of sheet iron and again placed over the coals, the meat being turned, from time to time, and rubbed between the palms of the hands until the whole was reduced to rather fine powder. When the fire was exhausted, the fish powder was removed, packed closely in deer skin sewed up to receive it, and laid aside for the winter. A few handfuls of this powdered fish with pounded corn made a very acceptable dish.

1308665

No Evidences of Permanent Prehistoric Settlements

The region of the Kankakee was wisely avoided by the Indians in their choice of sites for their villages, as they appeared to have had considerable regard for sanitary requirements. The same ap- plies to the location of habitations by their prehistoric forefathers. Even along the stretches of the Iroquois River there are few traces of more than temporary occupancy by the aborigines. A mound on the east side of that stream about four miles northeast of the county seat was the only relic of the Mound Builders to be found in Jasper County. It was nearly 10 feet high and about 40 feet in diameter,

36 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

and contained ashes, bones and shells. Spear and arrow heads of an unusual form and specimens of chert, seen naturally only in Tennessee, have been discovered at that locality. Vestiges of old com fields and trails have also been found, but not in such num- ber as to confute the conclusion that the region was never in the path of racial settlement, travel or migration.

CHAPTER III

PREPARATIONS FOR WHITE IMMIGRATION

The American Survey System — Survey of Indiana Public Lands — When Statehood Came — Creation of the Counties — Conditions Unfavorable to Settlement — William Dona- hue, First Settler — The Yeoman and the Nowels Family —Charles G. Wright — Thomas Randle and George Gulp — The Blue Grass Settlement — The Benjamins — Settlers of 1832-45.

Fifty years before the Indian titles to the lands in Jasper and Newton counties had been extinguished and the first white settlers commenced to arrive, the General Government had adopted its system of surveys, so that the potential land owner should be able to have his property plainly staked out in metes and bounds and recorded in the public archives, as his sole possession.

The American Survey System

For several years before the passage of the Ordinance of 1787 creating the territory northwest of the Ohio River, Congress was discussing the best methods of dividing the lands of the national domain. On May 18, 1784, an act was finally introduced to divide them into townships, each ten miles square ; in April of the follow- ing year another measure was brought before Congress proposing that each township should be seven miles square, and on the 20th of the following month that act was amended, making the congressional township six miles square, as at present.

After the appointment of surveyors and geographers, the south line of the State of Pennsylvania extended west was fixed as the base line. The north and south meridian was also established. The sur- veyors were ordered to note "the variations of the magnetic needle at the time the lines were run," and when seven ranges, or forty-two miles had been surveyed, one-seventh of the same was to be set apart "for th^ use of the late Continental army." Then the section num-

37

38 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

bered i6 in each congressional district was set apart for the use of the public schools, the proceeds derived from the sale of the lands therein forming the basis ever thereafter of the American common school fund.

Of course the title to all the lands within the counties of the state is derived from the United States Government, but at various times the Federal Government has granted to the State of Indiana over 3,500,000 acres, of which some 1,250,000 acres comprised the swamp lands. The swamp lands and those conveyed by the United States direct to the purchaser and known as Government land, in- cluded nearly all the area of Jasper and Newton counties. The former were the source of the greatest public scandals which have ever oyertaken the counties.

More specifically, the congressional ordinance of May 20, 1785, stated that: "The first line running north and south as aforesaid, shall begin on the river Ohio, at a point which shall be found to be due north from the western terminus of a line which has been run as the southern boundary of the state of Pennsylvania; and the first line running east and west shall begin at the same point, and shall extend through the whole territory ; provided that nothing herein shall be construed as fixing the western boundary of the state of Pennsylvania. The geographer shall designate the townships, or fractional townships, by numbers, progressively, from south to north — always beginning each range with No. i ; and the ranges shall be distinguished by their progressive numbers to the westward, the first range extending from the Ohio to Lake Erie being marked No. I. The geographer shall personally attend to the ranning of the first east and west line and shall take the latitude of the extremes of the first north and south line and of the mouths of the principal rivers.

"The lines shall be measured with a chain ; shall be plainly marked by chaps on the trees and exactly described on a plat ; whereon shall be noted by the surveyor at their proper distances, all mines, salt springs, salt licks and mill seats that shall come to his knoweldge, and all water courses, mountains and other remarkable and per- manent things over or near which such lines shall pass, and also the quality of the lands.

"The plats of the townships, respectively, shall be marked by subdivisions into lots one mile square, or six hundred and forty acres, in the same direction as the external lines, and numbered from one to thirty-six — always beginning the succeeding range of the lot with the number next to that with which the preceding one concluded.

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 39

And where, from the causes before mentioned, only a fractional part of a township shall be surveyed, the lots protracted thereon shall bear the same number as if the township had been entire. And the surveyors in running the external lines of the township shall, at the intervals of every mile, mark corners for the lots which are adjacent, always designating the same in a different manner from those of the township."

Survey of Indiana Public Lands

The "first principal meridian"' is a line running due north from the mouth of the Miami, and is, in fact, the east hne of the State of Indiana. The "second principal meridian" is a line running due north from the mouth of Little Blue River, eighty-nine miles west of the former. The only base line running through this state crosses it from east to west in latitude 38° 30', leaving the Ohio twenty-five miles above Louisville, and striking the Wabash four miles above the mouth of the White River. From this base line the Congres- sional townships of six miles square are numbered north and south, and from the second principal meridian all the ranges of townships are numbered east and west except the counties of Switzerland, Dearborn, and parts of Franklin, Union, Wayne and Randolph. This part of the state was surveyed in townships from a base line of fifteen miles north of the former, and in ranges west of the first principal meridian. The "Clark Grant" in Clark County and the old French lands in Knox County are also exceptions to the regularity of the general survey of the state. Townships are subdivided into thirty-six equal parts, or thirty-six square miles, containing 640 acres each, called sections. These sections are subdivided into halves, of 320 acres, and quarters, of 160 acres each, which last are again subdivided into halves, of eighty acres, and quarters, of forty acres each. "Fractions" are parts of sections intersected by streams, or confirmed claims or reservations, and are of various sizes. The sections of a township are designated by numbers, beginning with the northeast corner and following in regular order to the west side, the second tier of sections beginning on the west side of the town- ship and proceeding east. That portion of the state in the southeast corner, which was included in the Ohio survey, was disposed of at the Cincinnati land office. The rest of the public lands in Indiana were principally disposed of at offices established at Jeffersonville, Vincennes, Crawfordsville, Indianapolis, Fort W^ayne and Winamac.

40 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

Conditions Unfavorable to Settlement

Until the treaty of 1832, Jasper County was not open to white settlers, nor was there any considerable migration toward that locality. The incoming tide had risen principally from the East and South and flooded the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois through the Valley of the Ohio and its tributaries. These sections afforded abundant opportunities for the selection of choice farms, even beyond the demand, and they lay within the radius of the natural source of supplies and the most complete lines of communi- cation of that period. Northwestern Indiana, below the Kankakee, was some distance from either. The character of the country also operated to discourage immigration, it being generally described as alternate swamps, sterile sand ridges and flat, wet prairies. Its name as a game center, however, induced the more adventuresome to seek out the region in quest of sport and profit, and the realization of both and the gleaning of the tnith, through the striking of a happy medium, eventually brought the first permanent settlers.

William Donahue, First Settler

The first in that class within the limits of Jasper County was William Donahue. Drawn by the good trapping and the trade pros- pects with the Indians, he located in what is now Gillam Township, as early as 1832. There he remained a number of years, improved a good farm and died, his descendants gradually leaving the local- ity. He was a justice of the peace before Jasper County was organized.

The Yeoman and Nowels Families

In the fall of 1834 Joseph Yeoman and John and David Nowels settled at the Falls of the Iroquois. Mr. Yeoman was a son-in-law of John Nowels, who had moved from Ohio to Fountain County, Indiana. While residing there Mr. Yeoman proposed to move into the new country opened by the recent Indian treaties. With John Nowels, the son David, and his own wife, Sarah, Mr. Yeoman therefore located in Illinois, on the Iroquois River, near the Indiana line at a place known as Bunkum. While living there the families learned of the Falls of the Iroquois, the locality so noted for its fine fishing and hunting, and in 1834 the men started for their new Indiana home. Attaching a yoke of oxen to the forward wheels of

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 41

a wagon and fixing a cart to carry what they would need while gone, the party followed the course of the river to the falls. There, much pleased with the prospect, Yeoman left the Nowels family, father and son, and returned to Bunkum to arrange matters for the removal of the household to the new site. This done, David Nowels returned to Bunkum with the oxen, and both families were settled at the Falls of the Iroquois by the fall of 1835. There were no neighbors to assist at the "raising" of their cabin, which was accomplished by the three men, Mrs. Yeoman and the oxen.

It was here, on the old Yeoman homestead, that Daniel H. Yeo- man was born to Joseph Yeoman and his wife, Sarah, in the year 1841. Captain Yeoman, now a Civil war veteran and with James T. Randle the oldest continuous settler of the county, is the infant of seventy-five years ago and the owner of the homestead established in 1834 at the Falls of the Iroquois.

Charles G. Wright

The first addition to the settlement at the falls was in the per- son of Charles G. Wright, who became a resident of Indiana Terri- tory in 1807 and, after several changes of location, found himself living in White County. Soon after the founding of the Yeoman- Nowels settlement, he came to the locality as an Indian trader and built a hewn-log cabin on the subsequent site of the Baptist Church.

Thomas Randle and George Culp

Late in the year 1834 Thomas Randle and George Culp, recently from Virginia, started for the New Purchase, which had just been surveyed, and on their way thither met Mr. Morris returning from his work of laying out the ceded territory. He suggested a fine location, directing them to ascend the Monon River to a certain point, thence to strike over the prairie until they reached a grove of trees which "appeared to hang down." They had no trouble in fol- lowing these directions and, proceeding northward, made a selection' of land at the forks of the Pinkamink and Iroquois rivers, but not until they had examined the famed falls. In the following May they returned with their families and formed the settlement of the Forks. In 1835 it was reinforced by the arrival of Royal Hazelton, John G. Parkinson and Henry Barkley, Jr., with the heads of other families.

Thomas Randle died in December, 1870, and his son, James T. Randle, who has lived at Rensselaer since 1883, is the oldest Hving

42 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

resident of the county and is the direct descendant of one of the first two settlers of Barkley Township. He has been prominent in livestock matters, being one of the pioneers in the raising of blooded stock.

The Blue Grass Settlement

The settlement near the site of the old Indian village in Newton Township, afterward known as Blue Grass, was also an early center. ^^^illiam Mallatt and his family were among the first to reach that locality. He came to the Falls of the Iroquois about 1835 ^"^ made a claim on the southwest side of the river, near Yeoman's house, but that improvement being floated by W. M. Kenton he moved to Blue Grass, where he resided until his death in 1859.

The Benjamins

Mrs. Jared Benjamin, two sons and a daughter, settled about the time that the Mallatts located, having purchased a claim of her brother, Gilbert Yeoman, who had previously bought of John Nowels. Erastus Smith and Alta Yeoman also settled in the neighborhood.

Settlers of 1832-45

David Phegley, who made a claim near the springs east of Rens- selaer, and John Jordan, who migrated from Tipton County about 1836 and located in Carpenter's Grove, were also among the pioneers of Jasper County.

Perhaps the most complete list of pioneers is that published by the Old Settlers' Society, which must be considered in connection with names already mentioned.

1832 — Aaron Lyons.

1834 — Daniel Nowels.

1835 — Jackson Phegley, Mrs. Malinda Spitler, J. T. Randle.

1836 — Samuel Sparling, Mrs. Samuel Sparling, Henry A. Sparl- ing, Marion L. Spitler.

1837 — William K. Parkinson, Addison Parkinson, Joseph V. Parkinson.

1838 — George H. Brown, Jared Benjamin. Joseph ^^'. Sparkling, Joseph Williams, ^Irs. David Nowels, Airs. W. K. Parkinson, Mrs. William Shaw, Miss Belle Barkley.

1839 — Samuel E. Yeoman, Stewart C. Hammond, Mrs. W^illiam Burns, Mrs. H. C. Thornton, Mrs. Joseph Sparkling.

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 43

1840 — Nathaniel Wyatt, D. M. Price, W. J. Wright, Sidney Stew- art, Thomas R. Parker, Mrs. William Cockrill, Mrs. Benjamin Welsh.

1841 — Lemuel Hankie, Rial Benjamin, William Noland, Mrs. G. H. Brown.

1842 — Alexander Rowen, Samuel McCullough, Samuel Long, Joseph C. Henkle, John A. Henkle, John W. Duvall, Jabez Wright.

1843 — Andrew Farris, Henry Sayler, H. C. Thornton, C. C. Thornton.

1844 — Joseph Yeoman, James Yeoman, Wesley Downing, Madi- son Makeever, Ira W. Yeoman, Clement Timmons.

1845 — George Kesler, Lemuel Shortridge, Abram Freeland, John Daugherty, Daniel Daugherty, Lewis L. Daugherty, William H. Daugherty, Simon Phillips, L. W. Sayers.

CHAPTER IV

COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION

Erection of the Twin Counties — Named after Comrade Pa- triots— Jasper County of 1835 — County Seat Moved to Spitler's Cabin — Jasper and Newton Counties Consoli- dated— County Seat, the Falls of the Iroquois — Formation of Townships — The Spitler Courthouse — The Early Rens- selaer Courthouses — The Brick Courthouse of 1856 — Courthouse Burned — The Courthouse of 1898 — County Jails — County Officials.

By glancing over the foregoing names, representing the leading pioneers of Jasper County who settled during the first decade of its social life, it will be seen that by 1835 there could not have been a very large colony of them. But the politicians were abroad even in that sparsely settled land, and the Legislature of 1834-35 formed out of the unorganized area of the Northwest Territory, the counties of Jasper, Newton, Pulaski, Starke, Marshall, Fulton, Adams, Wells, Whitney, DeKalb, Noble, Kosciusko, Steuben and Jay.

Erection of the Twin Counties

Those sections which have a bearing on this history are as fol- lows: "Section 12 — That all the territory within the following boundaries shall constitute a county by the name of Jasper: Begin- ning at the southeast comer of Section 33, Township 24, Range 6 west, thence west to the line of the state of Illinois, thence north with the state line thirty miles, thence east with the line dividing Townships 28 and 29 north, to the northeast corner of Section 4^ Township 28 north. Range 6 west, thence south with the section line thirty miles to the place of beginning.

"Section 13 — That all territory within the following boundary shall constitute a county to be known by the name of Newton: Be- ginning at the southeast corner of Township 29 north. Range 5 west, thence west to the state line, thence north with the state line 44

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 45

thirty miles, thence east with the line dividing Townships 33 and 34 north, to the northeast corner of Township 2^, Range 5 west, thence south with the range thirty miles to the place of beginning."

Named after Comrade Patriots

The names of the twin counties, Jasper and Newton, originated with two of the Revolutionary heroes attached to Marion's historic band of South Carolina — Sergeants Jasper and Newton. They were inseparable comrades in arms and adventures. Marion, it will be remembered, commanded the American troops at Fort Moultrie when it was attacked by the British fleet. One of the English gun- ners, true to his racial traditions for good marksmanship, cut the flagstaff in two, which carried the American colors on the battle- ment of the fort, and Sergeant Jasper, also true to American tra- ditions, nailed them back again amid a storm of shot and shell. The British fleet afterward withdrew. It was considered that Jasper would make an appropriate godfather for the new county, and that his friend, Sergeant Newton, should honor the other.

About the time the counties were created, a book had been pub- lished and freely circulated among the reading public of Indiana entitled "The Story of Marion's Men." The two sergeants were among its most interesting heroes and were greatly admired by the state legislators. One of the stories told of them is this: "Like many families of that time, Jasper's was divided on the great question. His elder brother took the side of the English, and served in their army. Out of affection to his brother, and a wish to examine into the strength and condition of the enemy, he resolved, with another patriot soldier. Sergeant Newton, to pay the British a visit. His brother's position enabled him to receive his two friends without any suspicion of their being spies, and they were entertained for two or three days with great hospitality.

"While they were thus engaged, a small party of Americans were brought in prisoners, and, as they had deserted from the Brit- ish, and enlisted in the American ranks, their doom would have been death. This the brother of Jasper assured him was to be their fate. With them were the wife and child of one of the prisoners. Her distress at her husband's approaching fate touched the heart of Jasper. Confiding his purpose to his friend Newton, they bade adieu to Jasper's brother, and took their leave. They had no sooner got out of sight of the camp than they made a detour, and stretched

46

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

across the country, so as to elude all suspicion should they meet with any British soldiers.

"It \yas the custom of the English to send all the prisoners taken in that quarter to Savannah for trial. At a little spring, two miles from Savannah, Jasper and Newton secreted themselves, awaiting the arrival of the British escort with their prisoners. It had occurred to Jasper that, as they must pass this spot, it was very probable they might rest here for a short time to refresh themselves, and the woody nature of the spot would favor a rescue.

"After some hours' anxious suspense, they saw the escort, with

Old-Time Sawmill

their prisoners, approach ; the guard was ten in number, and armed. The Corporal with four men conducted their captives to the water, and told them to rest themselves for an hour, at the same time giving them provisions. The guard then stacked their arms, and seated themselves. The prisoners threw themselves upon the earth in hopeless despair. Near to the wretched man sat his wife and child. Two of the guards alone kept their arms as sentries. As the rest of the men were filling their canteens with water, Jasper and Newton came stealthily from their ambush, seized two of the muskets that were stacked, shot the two sentries, and rushing upon the others, stunned them with the butt of their weapons. Deprived of their weapons the others abandoned the conflict and fled."

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES il

Jasper County of 1835

The boundary descriptions already given indicate that the Jasper County of 1835 included all of Benton County as we now know it, all of the present Carpenter and Jordan townships, and Marion and Newton south of the line dividing townships 28 and 29 north (Jasper County), as well as Grant, Iroquois, Jefferson and Washington townships, in the Newton County of today. In 1836 all territory north of the Kankakee River was cut away in the creation of Porter County. Two years later Jasper County, which had been attached to White for political and civil purposes, was organized as an inde- pendent body, the "attachments'' of Newton being divided between Jasper and White.

County Seat Moved to Spitler's Cabin

The county seat was fixed at Pine Township and the first board of commissioners, elected in 1837, met at the house of Robert Alex- ander of Parish Grove, in January, 1838. Its members were Amos White, Joseph Smith and Frederick Kenoyer, and at their first session it was ordered that "the Circuit Court, Probate Court and Commissioners Court be held hereafter at the house of George W. Spitler, provided a Majority of Pine township be in favor of it, which is to be known by Amos White taking a petition through said Pine township and getting every voter to sign a petition for or against removal." Sixteen signed in favor and eight against said removal.

The explanation for this transfer of the county seat to a smaller settlement in the northern edge of the territory to be accommodated is that George W. Spitler, who had been elected clerk, refused to act unless the place of business was brought nearer to his residence. The commissioners made the desired concession, and in March, 1839, met at Mr. Spitler's house, about half a mile south of Lyon's mill, in the present Iroquois Township, Newton County.

Jasper and Newton Counties Consolid.ated

In the meantime, the legislative act had been passed which pro- vided for the consolidation of the counties of Jasper and Newton. It read as follows : "Section i — Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Indiana that George A. Spencer and Jacob Moyers, of White, and Solomon Hatfield, of Fountain, and Samuel H. Garrison, of Warren, and William Simms, of Tippecanoe counties, be and the same are hereby appointed commissioners agreeably to 'An act fixing

48 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

the seat of justice in all new counties hereafter laid ofif.' The com- missioners aforesaid shall meet at the house of Robert Alexander, of Jasper county, on the first Monday of June next and immediately proceed to discharge the duties hereafter assigned to them.

"Section 2 — And it shall be the duty of the sheriif of Jasper county, either in person or writing, to inform said commissioners of their appointment on or before the first Monday of May next, and for such services shall be entitled to such compensation as the law requires.

"Section 3 — It shall be the duty of the commissioners, in addition to the duties assigned them by the act to which this has reference, to examine the counties of Jasper and Newton with a view of their being consolidated and, if after examination, the commissioners are satisfied that the interests of the two counties would be promoted by the union of the same, they are hereby authorized to fix the seat of justice in said enlarged territory, taking into view the peculiar situa- tion of said territory in regard to prairie, timber, water-privileges and the known wishes of the citizens of dififerent parts of Jasper county attached to other counties ; and the seat of justice, if con- solidated, shall be called Newton.

"Section 4 — If, after examination, the commissioners shall be of opinion that either county would be injured by the consolidation, they shall proceed to fix the county seat, as provided by law, in Jasper county, agreeable to its present boundaries.

"Section 5 — If, after examination, they shall be of opinion that the interests of the two counties would be promoted by the union of the same, from henceforth the territory known by the name of Jasper and Newton counties, shall be known as Jasper county. This act to be in force from and after its passage.

"Approved January 29, 1839."

County Se.\t, the F.\lls of the Iroquois

The commissioners thus appointed found the plan of consolidation advisable, and accordingly located the county seat at the Falls of the Iroquois River, with the name of Newton, thus striking the county of that name, for the time being, from the map of the state. In 1840 the County of Benton was formed, taking its territory from Jasper, the latter receiving, by way of compensation, thirty sections adjoin- ing the southeast angle and now principally contained in Milroy Township. In 1859, however, Newton County was revived, though shorn of much of its early area, leaving Jasper in its present form.

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 49

Formation of Townships

On the 26th of September, 1835, under order of the commissioners of White County, the first election within the present hmits of Jasper County was held at the house of William Donahue. Justices of the peace for the recently erected Marion Township were to be chosen, and as Thomas Randle and John L. Stump each received three votes for the office another election was called for the following May. The original six voters were Thomas Randle, John L. Stump, David Phegley, George Culp, George Phillips and William Donahue, and at the May election were added to the list, Herbert Owens, Harry Owens, Eli Haskins, John Nowels, John Price, Alexander Crockett, J. D. Yeoman and Silas Phillips. At the second election Thomas Randle was chosen justice of the peace and Alexander Crockett, con- stable, of Marion Township. In the summer of 1836 the commis- sioners designated the house of John Price as a more convenient place for holding elections than the Donahue cabin, and in September, 1837, ordered that "all of the territory attached to Porter county that is called Newton county shall constitute a township to be known by the name of Marion," and that an election should be held at Mr. Price's house for a justice of the peace thereof. At the October election William Donahue was elected to that office.

On the organization of Jasper County in 1838, the old County of Newton was reattached to White County, and on the 3d of September of that year the territory which had been named Marion Township by the White County authorities and subsequently confirmed in the same title by the Porter County officials, was divided by the former authorities under whose jurisdiction it had again been placed. Their action of the date named created the Township of Barkley, in honor of Henry Barkley, Sr., from the territory of Newton County lying in the forks of the Pinkamink and "east from the bridge across the east branch of that creek and by a line due east from that bridge, and all on the north of that line." This territory was subsequently attached to Jasper County as originally formed, and the commis- sioners of the latter county, at their March meeting in 1839, divided it into Newton and Pinkamink townships, the latter containing all territory south and east of the Iroquois River. The voting precincts were established at the houses of Joseph D. Yeoman and William Donahue, and an election ordered for the April following.

The destruction of the early records in the courthouse fire of 1864 throws doubt on the various changes in township organization during the decade 1839-49, commencing with the consolidation of Jasper and

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 51

Newton counties in the former year. In 1849, however, as the pre- served records show, the present territory of Jasper County was covered by the townships of Jordan, Marion, Newton, Barkley and Gillam. Jordan and Marion occupied the area south of the Iroquois River, the latter including the village of Rensselaer and a little ad- joining territory. The remainder of the county embraced the other three townships, each of which had the Kankakee River as its northern boundary.

In March, 1851, Walker Township was organized with the follow- ing boundaries : Commencing at the bridge over Copperas Creek ; thence east to Moses Davidson's mill dam; thence to the mouth of Stump's slough; thence to the east line of the county and along said line to the Kankakee River; thence westerly along the river to a line of Beaver Township (now Newton County), and thence to place of beginning. This was probably intended to include all the present territory of Jasper north of Copperas Creek. In 1853 there was a general revision of township lines, and the boundaries of Walker were changed so as to include nearly one-half of the area of the present county. The lines of Gillam Township were arranged as now found on the map, except that the northwest corner was square. Hanging Grove Township was also erected substantially as at present. Barkley, Marion, Newton and Jordan were included in the balance of the territory not occupied by Walker.

In the March session of 1856 the commissioners erected the Township of Kankakee, which included the present townships of Kankakee and Wheatfield. The latter, as it now stands, was created in June, 1858.

Keener Township was erected in March, 1858, out of townships 31 and 32, range 7, "and so much of Township 30, of that range, as lies north of Newton." In March, 1862, Carpenter Township was carved out of Jordan; Milroy was erected in December, 1867, ^"d Union, the last of the townships, was created in December, 1868. In June, 1871, Union Township was restricted to its present limits. The minor changes in the township boundaries have not been men- tioned.

The Spitler Courthouse

When it was decided to move the county seat to the Brook Settlement, George W. Spitler, who was the first clerk and also dis- charged the clerical duties of all the offices save those of sheriff and treasurer, erected a log building about sixteen feet square for the

52 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

uses of the commissioners and the Circuit Court, at his place of residence. This served as a courthouse and a boarding house until the seat of justice was moved to the Falls or Rapids of the Iroquois in 1839.

The Early Rensselaer Courthouse

In the year named, Rensselaer was laid out as the town of New- ton and, in addition to the public square, the proprietor donated four blocks for the erection of public buildings. The first courthouse at the new county seat was a small structure erected on Cornelia Street between Front and Van Rensselaer. In 1845 James Van Rensselaer, the proprietor, also erected a courthouse at his own expense — a two- story frame building, 31 by 36 feet, on the lot nearly east of the square on Cullen Street. The court room was below and the county offices above, although, as a rule, the officials preferred to transact their light duties in their own residences which, especially in cold weather, were more comfortable than the quarters provided by the county.

The Brick Courthouse of 1856

The Van Rensselaer building served as the official courthouse until 1856, when a brick structure was completed on the public square. It was a $10,000 building, 70 by 40 feet, with court room above and six offices below. The foundation of the courthouse was completed in 1853. and Benjamin Hinkle spent from May, 1854, to September, 1856, in completing the superstructure.

Courthouse Burned

The original specifications called for vaults for the county records, but they were subsequently modified to the great eventual loss of the pubHc and the detriment of historical research and accuracy. In 1864, late at night, fire broke out in the courthouse, and before it could be stayed many of the most valuable early records and papers had been destroyed. The vaults were of such inferior quality and construction as to be virtually of no protection. The whole interior and roof of the courthouse were burned. The fire is supposed to have been the work of an incendiary — a county official who was in- terested in the destruction of certain documentary evidence which might be used against him. J. A. Silver was the contractor for the repairs, to which was added the construction of sufficient vaults for the preservation of valuable papers and records.

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

53

The Courthouse of 1898

Under Mr. Silver the re-built brick courthouse was completed in 1865 and served the people of the county for twenty-one years. It was razed in 1896 to make room for the massive and ornate structure of stone completed two years afterward. The original contract for the building was about $84,000; cost of furniture, $27,000; cement walks, coping, etc., $12,000; a separate heating plant, 200 feet from the building connected by a tunnel, $7,000 ; and various other items, such as plate glass windows, vault doors, shutters, and interior

The Courthouse of 1865

decorations, brought the total cost of the courthouse and the ground improvements to $156,000. It is three stories in height, with a central clock tower of impressive and graceful architecture. The interior furnishings, and the lighting, heating and ventilating ar- rangements of the court rooms and county offices are in keeping with the exterior impressions.

When work was commenced on the courthouse in 1896, the mem- bers of the board of commissioners were Benjamin R. Faris (presi- dent), John C. Martindale and Dexter R. Jones. A. Halleck suc- ceeded Mr. Faris as commissioner from the first district in November of that year, was elected president of the board soon afterward, and continued in that capacity until after the courthouse was completed. Frederick R. Waymire succeeded Mr. Jones as commissioner in November, 1897, and also continued as such until after the building

54 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

was finished. The architect's contract was first awarded to Alfred Grindle, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, who afterward associated himself with Charles R. Weatherhogg, who became the active member in charge of the work. Before its completion, Mr. Grindle dropped out, and Air. Weatherhogg completed the architectural part of the work. The general contractors were Heinzman Brothers of Noblesville, and the subcontractors, the Wabash Bridge and Iron Works (steel con- struction), Shellhouse & Company, of Indianapolis (plate glass), M. E. Humphreys & Company, of that city (roof construction), Henry Taylor Lumber Company, Lafayette (interior wood work and finish), and William G. Andrews, Clinton, Iowa (painting and dec- orating). It might be added, as bearing upon the ways and means provided for the construction of the courthouse, that the 43^ per cent bonds, which were issued by the county to raise money for its con- struction, were purchased by the Trowbridge-Niver Company, of Chicago. The Jasper County courthouse stands upon a solid rock foundation, the earth having been excavated down to the basic limestone, the surface of which was found to have the appearance of having been planed oft' and to have other marks of prehistoric glacial scourings.

County Jails

The first jail was built in 1847. George W. Spitler contracted to erect it, but the actual work was done by Willis J. Wright, a carpenter. It was built of hewn logs 12 inches square, about 20 by 26 feet in size, and comprised two rooms; one being the jail proper which was built of double timbers, with a small window guarded by strong iron bars. For this building Spitler received four blocks of the village plat, containing forty-eight lots which had been donated for public buildings.

The jail of 1847 served its purpose until 1856. when it was torn down, after which, until 1883, the county obtained accommodations for its prisoners at Lafayette. Monticello and Fowler. At the De- cember session of the commissioners in 1881, the county entered into a contract with P. J. Pauley & Brother, of St. Louis, to erect the present brick building on the comer of Cullen and Harrison streets. The cost of its construction was over $12,000.

County Asylum and Hospital

Until 1870 the paupers of the county were farmed out to the lowest bidder, but in March of that year the county purchased 240

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 55

acres and a brick building on section 2^ and established a poor farm. About two years afterward a larger and better frame building was erected for the superintendent and such of the inmates as required his immediate supervision.

To provide for patients dependent upon the county who need medical or surgical treatment, a hospital of modem construction and equipment was erected in 1916 just south of the jail. It cost about $20,000. The plans and specifications were drawn by Albin W. Coen.

County Officials

It is impossible to give a complete roster of the officials of Jasper County, owing to the destruction of so many records in the court- house fire of 1864. It is known, however, that George W. Spitler was county clerk and clerk of the Circuit Court from 1838 to 1856; Charles M. Watson, from 1856 to i860; David I. Jackson, i860 to 1868; Marion L. Spitler, 1868 to 1876; Charles H. Price, from 1876 until 1884; James F. Irwin from that year until far into the '80s; William H. Coover, from i8go (and perhaps before) until 1898; John F. Major was elected in November of that year and served until 1902; Charles W. Warner from the latter year until 1910; Jud- son H. Perkins, from 1910 to the present time.

George W. Spitler was also auditor from 1838 to 1852; Lawson Bruce, his successor, served only a few months and died in ofifice; John D. Nork, appointed to fill the vacancy, served until the next general election in 1855; Turner Knox from that time until 1859; David T. Halstead, 1859-67; Ira W. Yeoman, 1867-71; Frank W. Babcock, 1871-75; Henry Barkley, 1875-79; Ezra C. Nowels, 1879 to about 1886; George M. Robinson until 1890; Henry B. Murray for a number of years ending 1898; William C. Babcock, 1899-1902; James N. Leatherman, 1903-10; Joseph P. Hammond, 191 1 to the present (1916).

County treasurers : Albert Persail, the first incumbent, was suc- ceeded by Samuel L. Sparling, who served until 1852 ; Jacob Merkle, 1852-56; Ezra Wright, 1856-60; Samuel Alter, 1860-64; Thomas Boroughs, 1864-68; Charles Piatt, 1868-70; Lemuel Henkle, 1870- 72; Lemuel C. [ones, 1872-76; Henry I. Adams, 1876-80; Moses B. Alter, 1880-86; \V. H. Hoover, 1886-88: I. B. Washburn, 1888-90; Marcus H. Hemphill, elected in 1890, and succeeded by Jesse C. Givin, in 1894; Robert A. Parkinson, elected in 1898; Samuel R. Nichols, 1902; Jesse D. Allman, 1906; Alson A. Fell, 1910; Charles V. May, the present incumbent, 1914.

56 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

Among the early sheriffs were Henry Barkley, Sr., in honor of whom Barkley Township was named; William Stewart, John Phil- lips, William Henderson and Willis J. Wright, who served from the organization of the county until 1858; Sheriff Wright was succeeded by Simon Phillips, 1858-62; Daniel F. Davies, elected in 1862, who died in office; John M. Austin, coroner, serving the unexpired term; Charles Piatt, 1864-68; Allen J. Yeoman, 1868-72; Lewis L. Daugh- erty, 1872-76; George M. Robinson, 1876-80; John W. Powell, 1880-86; Samuel E. Yeoman followed Mr. Powell; Philip Blue, elected in 1888, was succeeded by Charles Hanley in 1892; Nathan J. Reed was elected in 1896 and Abraham G. Hardy, in 1900; John O'Connor, 1904; Lewis P. Shirer, 1908; William L Hoover, 1910, and Benjamin D. McColly, 1914.

Among the county surveyors who served previous to 1890 were Wesley Spitler, James Ballard, Frederick Schraack, J. D. Hopkins, John Miller, R. B. James, Joseph M. Hopkins, Charles P. Mayhew, Daniel B. Miller and Lewis S. Alter. James C. Thrawls was elected surveyor in November, 1884, and was succeeded by John E. Alter in 1892, who served until 1898, when Myrt B. Price was elected. W. Frank Osborne, chosen in 1908, was succeeded by Clifton J. Hobbs, in 1914, and he has since been replaced by ^Ir. Price.

Among the early coroners were John M. Austin, Norman War- ner, Frank J. Sears and Philip Blue. Since 1888, with years of their election, the following have held office: Real P. Benjamin, 1888; Shelby Grant, 1892; Truitt P. Wright, 1896; Willis J. Wright, 1902; Cecil E. Johnson, 1914.

Following are the prosecuting attorneys of Jasper County, with the years of their election, who have served since 1886: M. H. Walker, 1886; John T. Brown, 1890; Thurman C. Annabel, 1894; Albert E. Chizum, 1896; John D. Sink, 1900; Robert O. Graves, 1904; Fred H. Longwell, 1908; Reuben Hess, 1914.

Thomas Antrim was elected recorder of the county in November, 1886 ; James F. Antrim, in 1888 ; Robert B. Porter, in 1896 ; John W. Tilton, 1904; and George W^. Scott, still in office, in 1912. The assessors since 1892 : Charles E. Mills, 1892; John R. Phillips, 1896; John O. Lewis, 1904; G. L. Thornton, 1914.

CHAPTER V

COURTS, JUDGES AND LAWYERS

First Western American Courts — First Territorial Court — Federal vs. Territorial Jurisdiction — Judicial System un- der THE First State Constitution — Subsequent Legislation Affecting the Courts — Circuit Court, a Monopoly of Judi- cial Power — List of Circuit Judges, 1852-1916 — First Court Sessions in Jasper County — Noted Early Lawyers — Joseph A. Wright — Rufus A. Lockwood — ^.Edwin P. Hammond — Simon P. Thompson — Robert S. Dwiggins — Mordecai F. Chilcote.

Until the middle period of the Revolutionary war, after General Claric had conquered the territory northwest of the Ohio for the patriot army, no earnest attempt was made by either France or Great Britain to establish civil or judicial administration over any part of the country west of the Alleghany Mountains ; and then it was too late for either mother country to do anything in that line. In other words, neither France nor Great Britain ever attempted to estab- lish other than a military rule over the Northwest. Under French rule the commandants of the posts decided most points at issue be- tween the civilians and the Indians, or which came up between the whites themselves ; when the cases seemed particularly involved or important, some of the most influential characters of the special locality which was disturbed would be called into consultation. But few cases of law suits could arise, as few of the settlements in In- diana consisted of more than fifty families; they were happy-go- lucky people who did not worry about definite titles to their lands so long as their neighbors did not object, and much of the land in the settlements was communal, each man usually cultivating only so much as would furnish him or his family with the necessities of life.

When the common law of England was established over the ter- ritory no attempt was made to establish courts, as the newcomers discouraged settlement west of the mountains. Until 1777 they did

57

58 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

not think it worth their efforts to even take possession of \ incennes, the only real center of civihzation in the Northwest.

First Western American Courts

But when General Clark conquered the Territory of \'irginia and the Americans, and John Todd was appointed lieutenant for the County of Illinois, the authority of the courts commenced to be es- tablished. His headquarters were at Fort Chartres, but he sought also to establish a court of civil and criminal jurisdiction at Vincennes, of which the commandant of the post, Col. J. M. P. Legras, was presi- dent. A historian of those times says that "no record of an action by this court remains, except its assumption of the right to make grants of land, and it exercised that authority with royal liberality, most of the grants being made to the members of the Court.'' That was the first judicial tribunal which legally and theoretically exercised jurisdiction over what are now Indiana and Jasper County, although fifty years were to elapse before any white men came to that section of the state to look for civil or judicial protection.

Under the ordinance of 1787, Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum and John C. Symes were appointed judges of the Northwest Territory, who, with Governor St. Qair, were authorized to enforce such laws of the original states as might be applicable to the new territory. It appears that the judges who held their first session at Marietta exceeded their authority and tried to incorporate some original — very original — laws, which were repudiated by the Con- gress of the United States. In 1795 the governor and judges met at Cincinnati and enacted a number of laws which conformed to the authority of the organic ordinance ; the validity of the laws pro- mulgated at Marietta was questioned until 1799, when, to avoid complications, they were re-adopted, as a whole, by the Territorial Legislature.

First Territori.al Court

In January, 1801, William Clark, Henry \^anderburgh and John Griffin, who had been appointed the first judges of Indiana Territory, met Governor Harrison at Vincennes, the capital, for the purpose of passing a code of laws to supersede that enacted at Cincinnati for the government of the Northwest Territory. Among those passed as a part of the new code was one establishing courts of General Quarter

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 59

Sessions of the Peace in the counties of Knox, Randolph and St. Clair.

The first session of the General Court was opened at ^'incennes on the 3d of March, 1801, all the judges present. The grand jury called, as will be seen by an examination of the names of its mem- bers, was largely of French extraction, consisting of Luke Defcker, Antoine Marshal, Joseph Baird, Patrick Simpson, Antoine Petit, Andr. Montplaiseur, John Ockiltree, Jonathan Marney, Jacob Teve- baugh, Alexander Vadney, Francois Turpin, Fr. Compagnoitte, Charles Languedoc, Louis Severe, Fr. Languedoc, George Catt, John St. Barios, Abraham Decker and Philip Catt. With a Court of Gen- eral Sessions and a grand jury in operation, the judiciary of Indiana may be said to have been fully established.

Feder.\l vs. Territorial Jurisdiction

In February, 1805, the first popular assembly of the territory met at Vincennes and split off Michigan from Indiana Territory, and four years later Illinois was carved out of it. In 1814 what is now Indiana was divided into five districts, each of which was to elect a member of the Territorial Council : this action originated in Con- gress. In the same year the General Assembly divided the territory into three judicial districts, but Judge Parke refused to act on the grounds stated in the following letter to Governor Posey: "By an act entitled 'An act reorganizing courts of justice,' passed at the late session of the Legislature, the Territory is divided into three districts, in each of which a circuit court is established — the court to consist of one of the judges appointed by the Government of the United States for the territory, as president, and three associates commissioned under the authority of the territory, and to have juris- diction in all cases at law and in equity. The first circuit, compris- ing the counties of Knox, Gibson and Warrick, is assigned to me. The Legislature is empowered to make laws in all cases for the good government of the territory not repugnant to the laws of the United States. In the delegation of power that which is not expressly given is reserved. Implications cannot be admitted further than to carry into effect the power given. The laws of the United States being paramount to the laws of the territory, if they are found in conflict, the latter must yield to the former. Congress has defined the juris- diction of the judges appointed by the General Government and made one judge, in the absence of the others, competent to hold

60 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

court. The judges are coordinate and their jurisdiction extends over the whole territory. They are judges in and over, and not a part of the territory. As the judges derive their jurisdiction and power from the Government of the United States, they cannot be controlled, in the exercise of their functions, by persons deriving their authority from the government of the territory. The judges appointed for the territory are limited, by the laws of the United States, to the exercise of a common-law jurisdiction. The act, there- fore, as it regards the organization and jurisdiction of the Circuit Court, is repugnant to the laws of the United States, and neither confers any powers, nor imposes any duty, on the judges appointed for the territory by the United States. The General Government has appointed for the territory three judges with common-law juris- diction ; but when, where or in what manner they are to hold a court, or rather exercise the jurisdiction with which they are invested, Congress has not provided. I consider it the duty of the Legislature to do it. To you, sir, it belongs to watch over the aflfairs of the territory and to see that the laws are faithfully executed and, on account of the relation in which I stand to the Territorial Govern- ment, I have thought it my duty to make this representation to you. The peculiarity of the case leaves me no other mode of stating my objections and the cause of my not conforming to the law. The Legislature has organized certain courts and assigned me to per- form certain duties ; but the law constituting the one, and directing the other, is unconstitutional, and as I can derive no authority from it, it imposes no obligation. I shall, therefore, not hold the courts for the circuit."

This refusal of Judge Parke, with various appeals to the General Assembly to establish courts which should modify the one-man power of the Superior Court (one judge being competent to hold court), hastened the establishment of the Circuit Court which was alive when Jasper County was created. At the legislative session, which convened at Corydon in August, 1814, the territory was divided into three judicial districts, each of which was to be pre- sided over by a judge appointed by the governor. In selecting the presiding judges the chief executive was required to choose men "learned and experienced in the law," who were citizens of the United States and who had "regularly practiced in some of the courts of the United States, or in this territory, three years." The two associates of each county were to be residents of good standing, but not necessarily lawyers. Two judges were to constitute a quorum.

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 61

Judicial System Under the First State Constitution

The entire judicial system was virtually fixed and consolidated under the state constitution of 1816. Under its provisions, the judi- cial bodies were to consist of a State Supreme Court, Circuit courts, and such inferior courts as the General Assembly might establish. The highest body was to consist of three judges to be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, their term of office to be seven years. The Supreme Court was given jurisdiction in capital or chancery cases, where the president of the Circuit Court might be interested or prejudiced.

The Circuit courts were to consist of a presiding judge and two associates. The president alone, or with one of the associates, or the two associates together, could hold court, although capital and chancery cases could not be tried in the absence of the presiding judge. The presidents of the Circuit courts were elected by the General Assembly in joint session and the associate judges were chosen by popular vote.

The first state constitution also provided that the clerk of the Supreme Court was to be appointed by that body and that the clerks of the Circuit courts were to be elected by the people, but no clerk could qualify who had not obtained a certificate of competency from a judge either of the Supreme or Circuit Court. The constitution also provided for justices of the peace.

Subsequent Legislation Affecting the Courts

The constitution of 1851 made the supreme judgeship elective instead of appointive, and reduced the term of service from seven to six years. The choice of a clerk of the Supreme Court was also given to the people, and the associate judges of the Circuit courts were abolished. Further, the new constitution provided that no one elected to any judicial office should be eligible to any other office during the term of his service.

"In creating inferior courts," says W. H. Smith, in his "History of Indiana," "the Legislature established what were known as Courts of Common Pleas. These courts were given exclusive juris- diction in probate matters and concurrent jurisdiction with the Cir- cuit courts in some other matters. This created great confusion. All the courts assumed to pass upon the constitutionality of laws enacted by the General Assembly, and the state witnessed the anomaly of having laws enforced in one county and declared uncon-

62

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

stitutional in another. When the Legislature enacted the prohibitory liquor law in 1855, some of the Circuit judges declared it constitu- tional and enforced it, while others declared it void. This lasted until the Supreme Court finally overthrew the law. The confusion grew worse after the Common Pleas Court was estabhshed, for then some counties were operating under two different laws at the same time, according as the opinions of the judges differed. This confusion could not last, and finally the General Assembly abolished the Courts of Common Pleas, and in counties where the business

The Courthouse of the Present

was too great to be transacted by the Circuit courts, Superior and Criminal courts have been established, with well defined juris- diction."

Circuit Court, a Monopoly of Judicial Power

From the consolidation of Jasper and Newton counties, and the establishment of the county seat at the Falls of the Iroquois River in 1839, to the adoption of the second state constitution in 1851, the immediate judicial affairs of that territory were under the juris- diction of the Circuit and Probate courts, with right of appeal to the State Supreme Court; in 1852 all probate matters were trans- ferred to the Common Pleas Court ; the Circuit Court continued its jurisdiction, with the abolishment of the two associate judges, and

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 63

in 1873 absorbed the Court of Common Pleas. So that, as far as Jasper County is concerned, the Circuit Court has had a monopoly of judicial power for sixty-four years.

List of Circuit Judges, 1852-1916

The constitutional convention of 1851 provided that the Circuit Court should consist of one judge instead of three, and by legis- lative act of 1852 it was provided that there should be ten districts in the state. Jasper County became a part of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, composed of Jasper, Parke, Vermilion, Mont- gomery, Boone, Fountain, Warren, Benton, Tippecanoe and Clin- ton counties. William P. Bryant was the circuit judge from 1852 to 1855. On January 21, 1853, Jasper County was attached to the Ninth Circuit, and on February 9, 1855, it was attached to the Twelfth Circuit, composed of Jasper, Benton, White and Tippecanoe counties. In 1855 John Pettit was circuit judge for a short time, and after him, David Turpie, who was formerly United States sen- ator from Indiana. From 1855-57 Andrew Ingram was the circuit judge and for a portion of the year 1857, Johri Pettit. From 1857-70 Charles E. Test was the judge; from 1870-73 David W. Vinton, who so continued service in Tippecanoe County until 1894. In 1873 the Thirtieth Judicial District was formed, composed of Jasper, Newton, Benton and Pulaski counties, and existed as such until March 5, 1875, when Pulaski County was attached and made a part of the Twenty-ninth District, with Carroll and White counties. In Feb- ruary, 1899, Benton County was dropped and made part of the Twenty-first District, with Warren and Fountain counties. Jasper and Newton counties have since composed the Thirtieth Judicial circuit. From 1873-83, E. P. Hammond was judge ; 1883-90, Peter E. Ward; William Darroch, four months in 1890, by appointment; 1890-92, E. P. Hammond; 1892-97, Ulrick C. Wiley; 1897-1902, Simon P. Thompson, and from 1902 to the present time, Charles W. Hanley.

First Court Sessions in Jasper County

The first session of the Circuit Court in Jasper County was held in 1839 at the residence of the county clerk, George W. Spitler, at the Brook settlement. It was attended by Isaac Naylor as judge, with Matthew Terwilliger and James T. Timmons as associates. Joseph A. Wright was the prosecuting attorney. His later career

64 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

as a member of Congress, twice governor of the state and United States minister to the German Empire at Berlin, marks him as one of the most prominent lawyers who ever resided in Jasper County. Rufus A. Lockwood, another lawyer in attendance, is chiefly remem- bered for his successful prosecution of General Fremont's claim to the Mariposa tract, for which he received a fee of $100,000, an exceptional amount for those days.

The cases which appeared on the docket were : Hepsey ]\Iont- gomery, administrator, vs. Ed Boon, administrator — a civil action ; State vs. I. T. Timmons, a criminal case which strongly savored of the "practical joke" brand, as it was promptly nollied and disap- peared ; an assault and battery case against Jonathan Hunt, who was never found, and a petition for divorce made by Louisa Barr against Andrew Barr.

The first session of the Circuit Court at Rensselaer was held in an old half-demolished cabin near the residence of Mr. Merkle in April, 1840. The grand jury consisted of W. Donahue, Hannaniah Hewitt, Wesley Spitler, Robert Mallatt, Lewis Elijah, William Gil- lam, William Doran, Joseph Woolsey, George Culp, Thomas Tim- mons, James Reed, James Brown. Andrew Richey, Joseph D. Yeoman and Samuel Benjamin. The fall term of the year at Rens- selaer was attended by Judge J. W. Wright, of Logansport.

The Probate Court was first opened in 1839 at the courthouse in the Brook settlement, the Spitler house. David McConnell, judge, finding no business on the dpcket, adjourned court. At a subsequent session, the business consisted of granting letters of administration to Elias Clifton on the estate of John Wolf; setting ofif a dower to Mrs. Julia Lewis, widow of Benjamin Lewis, and the issuing of a marriage license to James Lacy and Matilda Blue, the ceremony being performed by John Lyons.

Edwin P. Hammond

Edwin P. Hammond, one of the broadest, strongest and most honored representatives of either bench or bar who ever graced the profession in Jasper County, was a native Hoosier, born in Franklin County, November 26, 1835. One of his brothers, Abram A. Ham- mond, was at one time governor of Indiana. The judge was of sub- stantial Maine stock, work upon the farm and years of out-door life adding to his natural ruggedness. Until he was nineteen his education was mainly obtained from the district schools of Brook- ville and the neighborhood, but in 1855 he entered a broader field of

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 65

experience and education by commencing business life in a wholesale drygoods house of Indianapolis. Soon afterward he assumed the study of law in the otfice of his half-brother, Hon. Abram A. Ham- mond, and Hon. Thomas H. Nelson, of Terre Haute. In the winter of 1856-57 he was admitted to the senior law class of what is now DePauw University and was graduated in the latter year. Immedi- ately afterward he located at Rensselaer. His practice was inter- rupted by his prompt enlistment for the three-months' service, at the outbreak of the Civil war. In April, 1861, he went to the front as second lieutenant of Company G, Ninth Indiana Infantry ; was after- ward commissioned first lieutenant, and served under Col. Robert H. Milroy. At the close of his military service in West Virginia, Mr. Hammond resumed his law practice at Rensselaer and in October, 1861, was elected without opposition to the lower house of the Legis- lature as a representative for the counties of Newton, Jasper and Pulaski. In August of the following year he assisted in recruiting Company A, Eighty-seventh Indiana Infantry, was commissioned its captain, and in 1863 was advanced to the ranks of major and lieutenant-colonel. When Col. Newell Gleason was placed at the head of the brigade, Mr. Hammond was advanced to the command of the Eighty-seventh and so continued in the campaigns from Chat- tanooga to Atlanta, and thence through the Carolinas to Washington. At the close of the war he was brevetted colonel "for gallant and meritorious service."

Within a few years after the war Colonel Hammond had earned a high and substantial professional standing and a large practice, and in March, 1873, Governor Hendricks appointed him judge of the Thirtieth Judicial Circuit, to which office he was elected in the fall of the same year. Again, in 1878, he was elected without opposition for a term of six years. In May, 1883, Judge Hammond was ap- pointed by Governor Porter judge of the State Supreme Court from the Fifth District, succeeding William A. Woods who had become United States district judge. Judge Hammond retired from the bench of the State Supreme Court in January, 1885, with a judicial record and personal popularity which few have equaled. During the succeeding five years he practiced at Rensselaer, served again as circuit judge from iSgo to 1892, and then formed a partnership with Charles B. and William V. Stuart of Lafayette, under the firm name of Stuart Brothers & Hammond. At first the Rensselaer repre- sentative of the firm. Judge Hammond finally made his residence in Lafayette, of which he remained a citizen and a leading lawyer from 1894 until his death in 1915. In 1892 Wabash College conferred

66 JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES

upon him the degree Doctor of Laws, and no such honor was ever more worthily bestowed. Judge Hammond was a republican after the Civil war, but, in view of his years, had little to do with politics for a generation. He was an ardent admirer of General Grant, and in 1872 was sent as a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia which nominated the silent commander for his sec- ond presidential term.

Simon P. Thompson

Simon P. Thompson also was elected to the circuit judgeship from Jasper County, having previously been an able member of the bar for thirty years. His father was a Virginian, transplanted as a boy to Ohio, and in Hancock County, of that state, was born the future judge, Simon Parr Thompson, on the 8th of jMay, 1838. The boy's schooling was all that could be expected of the frontier times in which he was reared, but, after teaching for a time, his ambition for a higher education than could be realized at home was partially satisfied by a year spent as a student at Otterbein University, Westerville, Ohio. He taught at intervals, while attending school, and it was not until 1859 that he was able to graduate at the North- western Normal School, Cincinnati. Three years later he was se- lected as the head of the school at Rensselaer, where he taught two years, and was then appointed school examiner of Jasper County. After studying law privately, he entered the law department of the Michigan State University, from which he was graduated in Jan- uary, 1866. He then formed a partnership with Robert S. Dwig- gins, which continued for three years, and subsequently associated himself with his brother, which connection was of nearly thirty years' duration. During that period the firm of Thompson & Brother was widely known in Northwestern Indiana and its senior member held the offices of prosecuting attorney, from 1872 to 1876, and state senator in 1886-90. In 1896 he was elected judge of the Thirtieth Circuit and served from 1897 to 1902.

Judge Thompson has made his influence felt outside the legal field. As county school examiner he was one of the first to introduce and advocate normal methods of instruction. His enterprise has also been manifest in such public works as railroads, gravel roads, high- ways, ditches and public buildings. It was largely through his influ- ence that the milldams on the Iroquois River v^'ere removed, resulting in a great benefit to the public health. The judge has also done a good work in buying large tracts of land held by non-residents and

JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES 67

selling it to settlers who have improved it and thus benefitted the county. He reclaimed a large tract of swamp land in Union Town- ship by the construction of about fifteen miles of ditches, and divided it into small farms which have since gone into the hands of actual owners and been made attractive and productive. All of which marks the judge as a citizen of broad usefulness, ability and versatility.

Robert S. Dwiggins

There were few practitioners at the Jasper County bar of a stronger character, or greater diversity of talents than Robert S. Dwiggins. He was a leading lawyer, a prominent republican and state legislator, an earnest, moral man, and a deeply religious char- acter, being a regularly ordained minister of the Church of God, in which he stood as a national figure. He was a native of Ohio, but was only two years of age when the family moved to Grant County, Indiana, then (1836) a frontier country. The boy was educated in the common schools and at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, and except when he was away to school his life, until he reached his twenty-fourth year, was passed on a farm. In March, 1859, when he located at Rensselaer to study law in the office of Robert S. Milroy, the horizon of his life commenced at once to expand.

In i860 Mr. Dwiggins was admitted to the bar and