Marshall County, IN

Post date: Apr 24, 2010 8:23:55 PM

In 1835 the first settlers began emigrating to Marshall Co. from southern Ohio and Indiana and northern Kentucky. These areas furnished nearly the entire emigration the first eight or ten years. Marshall County was legally organized in 1936. At the time the land was thickly timbered and full of undergrowth. Cabins of the roughest kind of logs were erected and covered with clapboards. Chimneys were built of small poles, and the cracks in the cabin and chimney were "daubed" with a very inferior quality of mud. If it was desirable to have a window, part of a log was taken out and a rough frame covered with white paper greased would be put in. The furniture, except such portions as had been transported by wagons when the movers came, was primitive. At this time Indians outnumbered whites 2 to 1. It was uncertain whether the treaty entered into between the Indians and the government, by which they were to leave the country, could be carried out. The average Indian that inhabited this region could hardly be made to see the justice of being forced to leave his hunting grounds. They were finally driven away two years later. The country was full of swamps and wet lands, and the malaria that arose there was sufficient to disable more than half the population. Many died for lack of care and proper medical attention. Surveyors were sent in by the government and the lands were platted and opened for entry by the government for $1.25 per acre. Emigrants from Ohio, Pennsylvania and other eastern states were rapidly coming into the county. Speculators came up with a scheme to built a great national thoroughfare between Lake Michigan and the Ohio River, through the center of Indiana. Parts were eventually built and named by the legislature "the Michigan Road." In a treaty the Indians gave up a strip of land one mile in width from Indianapolis to Michigan City for the making of the road. In 1832 the road lands were put up for sale, with the proceeds devoted to the building of the road. The road extended in a north and south direction through the center of Marshall County. In its early form it only extended from Indianapolis and was nothing more than a rough trail. The thought of this road inspired the early settlers to come up from the south. For nearly all the pioneers that settled in the county up to 1840 came from the south and settled in Union township in the region of Maxinkuckee Lake. They came in a caravans from southern Indiana in wagons drawn by ox teams, on horseback and on foot. The roads most of the way were through swamps and over log bridges, and much of it was little better than Indian trails. From Indianapolis the Michigan Road was followed. It was not much better than a rough trail. Since the Michigan Road was the first one open, they established themselves in its vicinity. Many of the settlers were Germans. the National Road extended to Springfield in Ohio (in 1838) and then on to Vandalia, Illinois in 1841.

The first log cabin built in the county was erected by Abel C. Hickman on the Michigan road, two and a half miles south of Argos. It was built of rough, unhewn logs, covered with clapboards, had an outside chimney made of sticks and "daubed" with mud. It wasn't a very palatial residence, but it was fitted and furnished so as to keep out the wet and cold, and was considerable of an improvement over the Indian wigwams in the neighborhood. At that time the Michigan road was not passable. The contractors had only commenced opening the road and only in patches could it be traveled over, and there was little or no travel in either direction here at that time. Mr. Hickman cleared off a small patch of ground near his cabin, on which he raised vegetables in sufficient quantities to supply the wants of his little family. There wasn't a great deal of comfort living there at that time. For weeks at a time no human being would be seen. Wild animals of almost every kind were numerous, and it was no trick at all for Mr. Hickman to take his trusty rifle down out of the pegs from over the door and kill a deer, turkey or other animal in an hour or two sufficient to supply food for days at a time. At night, from the time the sun went down over the treetops until it came up again in the morning, the wolves made the night hideous with their barking and yelping. When morning came they secreted themselves in their dens and hiding places, and during daytime seldom was one seen. In that region and for a few miles northwest all along down Wolf creek, which took its rise not far from here in Tippecanoe township, wolves were as thick as fleas on a dog's back. It passes through a portion of Walnut and Green townships and empties into Yellow river near the northeast corner of Union township. It is skirted for some distance with broken lowlands, marshes, cat swamps, etc., and was a safe and sure retreat for wild animals of all kinds. Black wolves were numerous from one end of the creek to the other , and from this fact it took its name. The Indians called it Mack-kah-tah- mo-may, the Indian name for black wolf. In 1835, when the lands were made subject to entry, Mr. Hickman secured a piece of land and moved off west of the road to the farm owned by Adam Bixel. Here he erected another log cabin of a more pretentious order of architecture, taking the trouble to hew the logs and otherwise adorn it in more modern style. " Here, according to the best authority, the first society for religious worship was organized by an itinerant preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church by the name of Owens. Here the society continued to meet for several years, until 1844 ; it is stated by the same authority, a house of worship, or a "meeting house," as it was called, was built on this farm, being the first building exclusively for church purposes erected in the county. During the year 1835-6 there was quite an addition to the population. The first thing the newcomer had to do was to select and enter a piece of land, decide on a building location, and without unnecessary delay erect a cabin in which to live. There was no lumber or brick here at that time, and the only material out of which these dwellings could be built was logs chopped from the trees. Axes, adzes, cross-cut saws, hatchets, augers and drawing knives were the implements used in their construction. In the earlier cabins such articles as nails, door hinges and iron latches or window glass were not known. Everything was made out of wood. He who had decided to build a cabin ground his ax, went to the woods and, having selected trees of the proper size, proceeded to chop them down. He measured off the length of the logs according to the size the house was to be, and cut an equal number for the sides and ends. Of course, a yoke of oxen was necessary to haul the logs in place, and men enough to assist in raising them into the building, so the neighbors were invited, and one of brought along Broad and Berry, and in a few hours a cabin in the had been erected. The rafters on which the roof was to be were made of small poles fastened to the top logs and the gable rafter by means of wooden pins driven into holes bored with an auger. The roof was of clapboards. These were generally “rived Out” of oak logs sawed the proper length with a cross-cut saw. A maul and wedge were used to split it into small blocks, after which a "froe" and mallet properly applied by the "horny-handed son of toil" produced a fair substitute for shingles that came into use later. These clapboards were fastened on by binding them down with heavy poles laid on them along the where they were joined together. Four or five feet in length of as many logs at one end were cut out for a fireplace, which was walled up outside with niggerhead stone and plastered over with mud. The chimney built of small sticks was continued a foot or two above the top of the house. At one side a door was cut out, in the same way, and a door made out of hewn poplar timber, fastened together with oak pins was hung on wooden pegs with rawhide straps. The latch was of wood which was fastened in the inside of a slot. A leather string attached to the latch on the inside hung through a hole on the outside. To latch the door from without all that was necessary was to pull the string, the latch would be raised out of its socket, and the door swung open. Locks had not reached this part of the country at that time. There was no need of them, anyhow. There were no housebreakers then, probably because there wasn't anything in the houses worth carrying off. A window was cut out near the door. and, prior to the advent of glass, greased paper or white muslin served to admit all the light that was deemed necessary. The floor was made of puncheons hewn out of small poplar logs. As a general thing they were a little rough, but they served to keep the pioneer feet off of the ground. There were no brussels carpets in the market then, and so a split broom made out of a small hickory sapling and some soft soap and water vigorously applied served to keep it reasonably clean. The furniture was scanty and was of the most primitive kind. Bedsteads, tables, stands, benches, chairs, shelves, etc., were made by hand "on the spot," by the man of the house. Bed clothing, cooking utensils and dishes had mostly been brought with the emigrants. In case of a young married couple, the parents of the bride and groom usually set them up in housekeeping by dividing with them their household goods. A few years later, after the boys and girls grew up, and the "courting" had been gone through with and the marriage ceremony had been performed, the young people moved into and began housekeeping in apartments very similar to the one above described. The household furniture and equipments, except such as the pioneers had brought with them, were primitive and rude in the extreme. The following is one among many plans for Constructing beds which was common in those days: "Holes were bored in a log of the wall at the proper height from the floor, and into these sticks were driven horizontally, the other ends being supported by upright stakes or posts. Upon the framework thus provided was woven a bottom of withes or bark or deerskin thongs, which formed a support for the bedding. Privacy was sometimes secured by making the outer supporting posts high enough to be furnished with a concealing curtain.

Hooks on which to hang clothes or other articles were fashioned from the forked or crooked branches of trees, and forked sticks with the addition of pins inserted in the longer arm made pothooks which were caught over a pole or crosstree that was fixed in the fireplace a safe distance above the fire, the pots being hung on the pins. An improvement on these was the “trammel hook,” formed of a flat bar of iron hooked at one end, while at the other an adjustable hook could be raised or lowered as desired and secured by means of an iron pin inserted in the holes that were drilled along the bar. With the advent of brick chimneys came swinging cranes of iron. These set in iron eyes imbedded in the masonry, could be turned freely, the long arm carrying the pots out over the hearth when desired. The common cooking utensils were first of all the rotund bulbous iron pot constructed with a flare at the top so the lid would sit in safely. And then there was the iron oven for baking pone, not forgetting the long handled frying pan. The baking oven was a vessel of perhaps three or four inches deep set on legs and provided with an iron lid turned up around the edge. In it the thick loaf of corn bread was baked by setting it on a bed of coals with more coals piled upon the lid. Many who read this will call to mind the long thin slices of corn pone, heavy and clammy, and the bowl of sweet milk which was frequently all one had for the “frugal meal”. In this same iron kettle was also stirred up and cooked the pot of cornmeal mush, which with the fresh milk from the family cow was made to satisfy the evening repast. The “johnnycake” board was also one of the most important cooking utensils belonging to the kitchen department of the old log cabin. It was usually made out of an oak clapboard, the sides dressed smooth with a drawing knife and the ends rounded. Cornmeal was made into dough and spread on one side of the board and smoothes along the sides and ends. It was then set up before the log fire close enough so the heat would gradually bake, but not burn it. It was allowed to remain there until it was browned. When eaten warm with nice fresh butter and sweet milk it was a dish that a king might relish. As time wore on other devices were invented, among which the “reflector” oven was considered among the greatest. This utensil consisted of a light iron frame, two or three feet in length, mounted upon short legs, to hold the baking and roasting pans. To the back part of this frame a flaring top was attached by hinges, so that it might be turned back when the cooking needed attention. The sides were also enclosed. This flaring top and sides, made of bright tin, presented a large opening toward the open fire which was supplemented by a bed of live coals drawn out upon the hearth and from the hood, sides and back of the tin the heat was reflected down upon the cooking. It served its purpose well, and surely no better light biscuits, bread, cakes or pies have ever been eaten anywhere than those our mothers used to bake in the old “reflectors” upon the hearth of the old log cabin. When the cook stove made its way into the early homes of the pioneers it was hailed with delight by a majority of the housewives because it afforded such great relief to their faces, hands and arms, that had been so blistered by the great open fires, but some adhered to the fireplace, old utensils and the old cooking methods as long as they lived. A many of the more prosperous families used what was called the ovens." These were made of small boulders or bricks and mortar, else of tough clay, wrought and beaten into shape and burned by slow built within. They were usually set upon wooden platforms away from house by reason of danger from fire, and were protected by a shed. They principally used in the summertime. In appearance they were rounded not unlike the old-fashioned beehive. The fire was built in them raked out, and the baking set upon the floor, the body of the oven enough heat to do the cooking. The woodenware of the household was often made by the pioneer himself. Trays, large and small, were made from the soft poplar, buckeye and these took the place of most of the present-day tin and crockery ware. The churn was sometimes a mere trough and paddle. The hominy pestle was a solid beech or maple stump with a bowl-shaped cavity burned in the top to hold the grain while being pounded, and a similar stump cut as smooth as possible made the chopping block for meat. The rude trough hollowed out from a short log split in half, that was used to catch sap from the sugar trees, is still a familiar relic from the olden time. For drinking and dipping vessels," it has been well said, "the common article was the gourd - one of the most adaptable and convenient gifts of nature to man. In an age when manufactured conveniences were hard to get the gourd was a boon, and in every cabin home it played a conspicuous part. Of many sizes and shapes, it served, when properly scraped out and cleaned, a variety of purposes. It hung as a dipper beside the spring or the well with its long sweep, and in the same capacity it was a companion to the cider barrel and whisky jug ; it was used at the table, at the lye kettle or at the sugar camp, for soup, soap or sap; a large one properly halved made a wash pan or a milk pan, or, cut with an opening, it became a receptacle for the storing of divers things; a small one was used by the grandmother to darn the family socks over; the boy used one to carry his bait in when he went fishing, and the baby used another for a rattle. A veritable treasure was the gourd, and it should be celebrated in song." There were various curious articles used in the pioneer homes that are now quite obsolete. Among these we find metal warming pans which, filled with live embers, were used to warm the sheets of a cold night; lanterns of perforated tin; tinder boxes with their contents of flint, steel, little powder horns and "punk" from rotten logs used to start the fires; candle molds with balls of cotton wicking; long tin horns and conch shells to call the men to dinner, and many other conveniences now considered quaint and sought for relics. One important piece of pioneer furniture, if so it might be called, unknown to the modern house, was the loom, which in the days of home-made fabrics was almost indispensable. The space this ponderous machine occupied in the small cabin made it a serious encumbrance, and hence a period would be devoted to the family weaving, after which the loom could be taken apart and stowed away, unless, as sometimes happened, one had a separate loom room. The excellence of the work done upon these rude, homemade implements is a matter of wonder now, as one examines preserved specimens.

Not only have those blankets, jeans and various cloths a surpassing durability, but some fabrics, such as coverlets and curtains, exhibit a remarkable artistic taste and skill, both in the dyeing of the yarns and the weaving of complicated figures. Complimentary to the loom were the spinning wheels - a big one for the wool and the familiar little one for the flax. The skillful use of these was a part of the education of every girl and some of the boys, and in the ears of many an old man and woman the resonant hum of it still lingers as the sweet music of a day that is past.

When the pioneers came there was nothing here but a wilderness. No evidences of civilization were to be seen anywhere. Telegraphing had not then been discovered, and there wasn't a railroad within a thousand miles in any direction, and at that time there was not even a stage line within, forty miles. The first telegraph line ran from Chicago to Chicago. Plymouth was not included on the line until 1852. The main reason for the connection was mainly for the purpose of enabling the company to keep its line in repair. Trains were slow in coming to Marshall Co. It wasn't until 1853, that the citizens thought about getting a connection to any train track. The first train to come into the county was in 1856 and about a year later it was connected to Chicago. The Baltimore & Ohio railroad was completed through Marshall county December, 1874. The New York, Chicago & St. Louis railroad, the "Nickel Plate" was completed through the southern part of the county in the latter part of 1882 or early 1883. The Indians, their manners and customs and characteristics having been quite fully set forth in these sketches, the inquiry may naturally be made, who were the pioneers who first settled this region and took the places of the Indians after they finally left the country, and what were their habits, manners and customs?

Those who first came here, or their parents, were originally mostly from Pennsylvania, Virginia and the coast states, and were of Scotch, German, Irish, English and French descent. Upon the opening of the great Northwestern Territory, of which this was a part, they began moving westward, and, striking the Ohio River at various points, floated down on rafts and boats of rude construction to various settlements, such as Marietta,

The first settlers here were from southern Ohio and Indiana and northern Kentucky. Butler and Preble counties, in Ohio, and Rush, Fayette, Franklin and Union counties, in southern Indiana, furnished nearly the entire emigration the first eight or ten years. No better class of people could be found any place than were the first settlers in this county. They were the cream of the settlements they had left; resolute and determined; moral, honest, upright and generally of a religious turn of mind, and were social and neighborly in a degree that would put to confusion and shame the average of those who make up the population in these days. Many of them were fairly well educated and all were endowed with what is commonly known as "good common sense." Everything goes to show that. They laid the foundations of our present county government broad and deep, firm and solid. They began at once to build schoolhouses and provide places of worship; they built a courthouse and other public buildings, and provided an asylum for the helpless poor. They chopped down the forests; plowed and sowed the ground; erected saw mills and grist mills, and brick yards, blacksmith and wagon shops; cut out and bridged, and made the roads passable; established mail routes and stage lines; opened up facilities for trade and reciprocal intercourse with neighboring towns and villages; elected officers who set the legal machinery to work, all of which gave us the start that has brought us on and up to our present advanced stage of civilization. As we review the past, the forms and faces of these early pioneers- those who "blazed the way" through the almost impassable wilderness "in shadowy design," come up in vivid remembrance, and in their life's history present much that is worthy of admiration and emulation. Leaving their early homes, and the scenes of civilization, with ax and gun, they wended their lonely way through the unexplored wilderness until they reached the place where their future home was to be. Here, among the wild men of the forest that were still here when many of them came, the wolves and wild beasts of prey that infested the Country, a wigwam of brush and poles was erected, a campfire built, and "the ax laid at the root of the tree." There, in the lonely woods, away from friends and family, the original pioneer labored, day in and day out, clearing a little "patch" of ground and preparing a rude log cabin for the reception of his wife and little ones. Finally they came, thinly clad in "home spun," sick and weary from weeks of traveling with ox teams, over roads that had to be made as they went, breaking an axle here, a tongue there; sleeping on the ground in the night air; fighting myriads of mosquito’s and braving the storms that overtook them on their journey. Here, and in this way, was the battle of life again renewed; and right manfully was it pressed to a glorious victory. How the memory of their hardships looms up, as the past, like a panorama, is spread out before us! It is well those who are living here now, gathering the fruits of the toil of those early pioneers, cannot realize the suffering and deprivation they passed through in forming and handing down the blessed heritage we now enjoy.

Those were days that tested true friendship. The question was never: "Who is my Neighbor?" All were neighbors. All were friends. And let us hope that the friendships formed under so many trying circumstances, in those early days, may serve to cement the rising generation with the past, and that it may continue for all time to come. When the Northwestern Territory was declared opened for settlement, about 1800, most of them made their way in boats down the Ohio river as far as where Cincinnati now stands and settled in Hamilton, Butler and adjoining counties, and from there gradually found their way into southern Indiana, settling in the river counties. Emigration from southern Indiana to Marshall County began in 1835, but it did not commence in earnest until 1836. In the spring of that year, in the vicinity of Maxinkuckee Lake and farther north and east in the direction of Plymouth, the Logans, Voreises, Morrises, Thompsons, Dick- sons, McDonalds, Brownlees, Houghtons, Blakeleys, Lawsons, and others, arrived and made a permanent settlement. From this on, the settlement of this region was rapid and permanent. Except that portion of Union township known as the: Burr Oak Flats," the land was thickly timbered and full of undergrowth.

Cabins of the roughest kind of logs were erected and covered with clapboards, "rived" with an implement called a "fro," out of red oak timber, which were held to their places by logs fastened on the laps. Chimneys were built of small poles, and the cracks in the cabin and chimney were "daubed" with a very inferior quality of mud. If it was desirable to have a window, part of a log was taken out and a rough frame covered with white paper greased would be put in. The furniture, except such portions as had been transported by wagons when the movers came, was of the most primitive Workmanship. At that time there were no white people nearer than the Michigan road, and few there. The Indians outnumbered the whites two to one, and It was uncertain whether the treaty entered into between them and the government, by which they were to leave the country, could be carried out. The average Indian that inhabited this region at that period could hardly be made to see the justice of being forced to leave his hunting grounds, for the accommodation of those he looked upon as being only a few white adventurers, and until those untutored savages were driven away two years later they were the imaginary terror of timid men, women and children. They were peaceable, however, and the anticipations of danger were never, in a single instance, realized. No disturbance of any kind ever occurred. There were no roads or bridges in those days, and he who did the milling for the neighborhood blazed his way as he went, and if he succeeded in making the trip to Delphi or Logansport, the nearest grist mills, and return in a week or ten days he was applauded as having accomplished a great feat. Sometimes he would break his wagon, frequently his oxen would get stuck in the mire, and other unforeseen accidents would befall him by which he would be delayed. Then the rations would run short, and those dependent upon his return for bread would have to crack corn with such appliances as were at hand, live on lye hominy made out of Indian corn, and such wild game as the hunters of the neighborhood could procure. If the fire went out at night, which was not an uncommon occurrence, a chunk of fire had to be brought from the nearest neighbor, or a jack knife and a piece of “punk” attached to a flint stone had to be brought into requisition. In those days these articles were considered essential in all well regulated families. People then knew nothing about friction matches, nor did they enjoy the luxury of tea, coffee, pepper, spices or anything of that kind. They were not to be had, and if they could have been bought there was no money to buy them with. There were no churches then, and no schoolhouses, no country stores, no shoe shops, no blacksmith shops, no wagon ships, in fact nothing that the people needed. Homespun flax pants and shirts of a little finer material, the sleeves and collars fastened with a needle and thread, an inferior straw hat made by hand of oats or rye straw and boots or shoes made by the shoemaker of the neighborhood, generally badly worn, constituted the average Sunday outfit at that period and for some time afterwards. The country was full of swamps and wet places, and the malaria that arose there from in the spring and summer was sufficient to prostrate more than half the population. Such a time with bilious fever, “ager,” and other bilious diseases as prevailed for several years was never known before nor since. The proper remedies were to be had for love or money, and many died for want of care and proper medical attention. Dr. Thomas Logan, who came with those who arrived in 1836, was the first doctor who practiced his profession in that section of the county. He was sent far and wide and saved many lives and did much to alleviate the suffering that was everywhere prevalent. People of these days often wonder how it happened that the earliest settlers found their way into Marshall County and into this section of the state, which was at that time a howling wilderness inhabited only by Indians and wild animals, and what induced them to leave the scenes of their early childhood and settle in the woods to labor and toil in building up homes for themselves and children away from their friends and the influences of civilized society ? It would be difficult to tell what influenced those who first came to locate permanently here. Treaties had been made with the Indians by which they were to give up their lands and hunting grounds to the whites. Gangs of government surveyors had been sent here; the lands had been surveyed and platted, and opened to entry by the government at $1.25 per acre. Through these government surveyors, axmen and chainmen, it soon became noised abroad that a most delightful and productive country had been found, with beautiful lakes and water courses, and every kind of fish and wild game, fruits and nuts and roots in abundance. Prior to the treaty ceding the lands to the United States by the Pottawattomie Indians, a scheme had been entered into by some speculators III looking to the building of a great national thoroughfare between Lake Michigan and the Ohio river, through the center of Indiana, which was, in the course of time, built and named by the legislature, "The Michigan Road." It was this Michigan road that probably induced many of the early settlers to come here; in fact, otherwise they could hardly have found their way through the wilderness. Nearly all the pioneers that settled in the county up to 1840 came from the south on the line of that road, especially the large colony that settled in Union township in the region of Maxinkuckee Lake. How They Came. The first settlers about the lake came in 1836. Several heads of families came in 1835 and entered lands, and early in the following spring built log cabins, cleared off little patches of ground, planted corn, potatoes, etc., and early in the summer returned to bring their families and take up their permanent residences in Marshall county. They came in a caravan from southern Indiana in wagons drawn by ox teams, on horseback and on foot. They started on their long and tiresome journey on the twelfth of July, and arrived on the east side of Maxinkuckee lake July 26, 1836, just six days after the county had been organized and the county seat located at Plymouth, which occurred July 20, 1836. At that time there were only about 600 white people in the county and about 1,500 Pottawattomie Indians. The household goods of the members of the caravan were carefully packed away in the wagons, leaving room for the women and children and the supply of eatables prepared for the journey. The wagons were covered with sheeting for protection against rain and the hot rays of the sun. Fourteen days were occupied in making the journey. The roads most of the way were through swamps and over log bridges, and much of the way was but little better than Indian trails. From Indianapolis the Michigan road was followed. At that time it had only just been opened through this part of the state, and that only to such an extent as to make it passable by cutting down the trees and bushes along the line and bridging over the worst places with brush, poles and logs. The country through which the road ran at that time was for the most part thickly timbered, and all along was an abundance of wild game and fruits of all kinds, which the hunters of the little band brought into camp. The lack of pure water to drink was the most serious difficulty they had to contend with. There were seldom any springs along the way and the water for drinking and cooking purposes was mostly from stagnant ponds and small streams which were not much better. Every night on the way they camped wherever darkness overtook them, slept in the wagons and under the trees, the cattle and horses browsing about the camp and resting from the day's toil as best they could. The mosquitoes and flies were terrible pests, much more so than people nowadays can imagine. It was late in the afternoon of July 26, 1836, when the tired and worn out caravan obtained the first sight of the ever-beautiful Maxinkuckee Lake. The glorious sun was just making its golden setting, "and by the track of his fiery car, gave token of a goodly day tomorrow." It was indeed, as our own "Hoosier Poet" has so beautifully expressed it, a picture that no painter has the coloring to mock." A sunset on Maxinkuckee is always beautiful, and, no matter how often seen never loses its charm to the beholder. None of them had ever seen a lake before, and the beauty of the scene, the rippling water, the rays of the golden sunset, and the shore lines, with their "etchings of forest and prairie," left a picture on their memory that lasted during life. The final stop was made not far east of the lake, near the residence of the late David R. Voreis. It was twilight then. A signal of their arrival in the neighborhood had been agreed upon before they started, and as the ox teams were halted at the end of the journey, a long; loud blast was given on a conch shell, which resounded and echoed and re-echoed through the trees and over the hills for miles in every direction. The night birds began to carol their sweetest melodies and sing their glad songs of welcome. And then the weary travelers listened eagerly for the response. It soon came from the residence of Vincent Brownlee, a short distance farther away in the wilderness. The echo of that response still rings loud and clear in the ears of the few still living who heard it. It was in one sense a most joyous occasion. The women who had borne the burden and heat of the long and wearisome days and were well nigh exhausted cried for joy, and even the stalwart men of the party let fall a silent tear that the hardships of the journey to the new country were at an end. Less than half a dozen who came at that time are known to be living. All the others have "gone to that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.” Mill Dams – Grist and Saw Mills. The same year that white settlers came, they set about devising ways and means by which they could secure the establishing of mills by which they could get their corn "cracked" at home, and the little lumber they needed for doors and floors to their cabins without being compelled to drive their ox-wagons thirty or forty miles arid back to procure it. Such a thing as steam boilers or steam gristmills were not known then. Mill sites were numerous and all that could be desired, but it was hard to find one close by a dam-site! There were few rivers or streams that could be dammed so as to hold the necessary amount of water, and with fall sufficient to furnish power to run the machinery. The first effort at dam building was across the outlet of the lower Twin lake and the erection of a small mill known as "Barber's Mill," now known as "Zehner's Mill." It was built about 1836, Timothy Barber and others. It proved to be a great convenience all central, southern and western part of the county in the grinding of corn, there being no wheat until several years later. The dam was quite substantially built, and as the Twin Lakes were not a affected by the heavy rains and floods as were the rivers, the owner was not annoyed by the dam washing out every time the heavy rains and flood came. A dam was built across Pine creek in Polk Township, not far from where Tyner is now located, and a sawmill built there, also about 1836. It furnished lumber for the neighborhood round about when there was a sufficient water to keep the mill running, but when there was a dry season there was not enough water to run the mill. It went into retirement more than half a century ago. The mill dam across Wolf Creek, six miles southwest of Plymouth, was built about 1840, by Clark Bliven. Wolf Creek was a very small stream at that time being fed by the drainage of the swamplands through which it meandered. A small gristmill was erected on the south side of the dam, and later a sawmill was built on the north side. At this mill, the lumber for the second courthouse was sawed. It was here, too, about 1850, when the creek was overflowed by the high water, that Mr. Bliven, the owner of the property, in attempting to save the dam from washing out lost his footing, was washed out with the dam and drowned. In backing up the water the dam caused much valuable land to be overflowed, and for many years, on this account and because it was a breeder of malaria, efforts had been made to have the dam removed. Proceedings, were instituted in court at various times, but “the law’s delay” suffered it to remain until the early part of 1907, when the court ordered the dam to be taken out and the channel of the creek dredged, which was done, and this historic spot is now only a memory. No wonder it had such a checkered history. The Pottawattomies called it “Katam-wah-see-te-wah”, the Indian name for Black Wolf. In the late ‘40s a dam was built across the Tippecanoe River at what was afterwards and is now, Tippecanoe Town. There was considerable opposition to the dam from the first, and as the country became more and more thickly settled, the feeling that the dam ought to be removed grew stronger and stronger. No effort being made to remove it, one night in 1878 the wooden mill was set fire to and burned to the ground. An attempt was made to burn the gristmill, but it failed. Finally the dam went out, and no one has since had the courage to rebuild it, and it is now also a thing of the past. A dam was built across Yellow River, and a saw mill erected nearby. The dam was not substantially built, and every time there came a freshet, which was about every time it rained, the dam either went out or was damaged so it had to be repaired. Traces of this old dam are still visible, and especially the location of the circular mill race, a few hundred feet to the northeast of the present Zehner’s gristmill. It was not long after this dam and mill was abandoned until the present dam, some distance above, was commenced on a larger and more substantial scale by Austin Fuller and others. This was probably in the later ‘40s or the early ‘50s. Notwithstanding the dam had been built solidly of large stones, trees and brush, and every sort of material to make it permanent, the high water frequently tore it out, and damaged it, and it was many years before it solidified itself so that the high water had no effect on it. The mills were burned down two or three times, and several efforts have been made to compel the owners to remove the dam, as it is claimed that the backwater damages by overflow large quantities of land. A case looking to this end is now pending in the court of Marshall County. This dam and surroundings are also historical. Below the dam, and between the race and the river proper to where they untie, is a beautiful little park of two or three acres, on which has been sunk a flowing well fourteen inches in diameter, from which flows a continuous stream of clear, pure water. In this little park, have been held numerous picnics, old settler’s society’s meetings, soldier’s campfires, and political meetings. Some of the great men of Indiana and elsewhere have walked through this beautiful park, and laved their thirst at the flowing well fountain; and it is only the truth to say that many a “Robert Burns and his Highland Mary,” or a “Romeo and Juliet” have sauntered through these most delightful grounds under the shade of the umbrageous trees, and by the light of the pale and inconstant moon, listening to the music of the flowing well and the gentle murmur of the water as it fell in gentle cadences over “The Old Mill Dam.” Marshall County was a part of the territory belonging to the Menominee tribe of Indians, and included in the government purchase under the treaty of Tippecanoe River made in 1832. It is a timbered region interspersed with prairies, formerly regarded as marshlands and valueless, now held most valuable. The heavy timber lies in the shape of a reversed letter E, the open part to the west, the upright body of the letter represented by a tract fifteen by twenty-one miles on the east side of the County; the cross line by a tract to eight miles wide at the south end, with some smaller tracts In the center of the west side representing the cross in the middle of the letter. The remainder is made up of prairie and barrens (not barren land, but light timber) and prairies. The heavy timber consists of all the hard and soft timbers, except the resinous-oak, ash," hickory, maple, beech, elm, walnut, butternut, linn, poplar, etc., and in all the varieties of these woods. The barrens are variously timbered with white, burr, yellow, and black oak and hickory, and the heavy barrens have the heavy timbers scattered without undergrowth, while the light barrens are like large orchards. The face of the land is gently undulating, with no abrupt elevations or declines. There is every variety of soil, the greater portion being the deep, rich, black loam of the heavy timbered lands. The burr oak barrens have rich sandy loam. The white oak barrens, clay and sand. The black and yellow oak, light sandy soil with clay bottom. The marshes, the richest and finest of alluvium, producing heavy growths of the best hay. Every kind of farm production is raised in abundance; crops are reasonably certain and the yield remunerative. Yellow river rises in the northeast part of the county, and flows through it southwesterly. From eighteen to twenty-five miles distant from the county seat, on the east and south of the county and partly through it, flows the Tippecanoe River; on the north and west, the Kankakee; on the northeast the St. Joseph, and about forty-two miles northwest and north lies Lake Michigan. Pine creek in the northwestern portion of the county, and Wolf creek in the center are the only streams of note. Small streams flow through all the wet prairies, and good water is abundant almost everywhere. In almost every portion of the county flowing wells of pure artesian water are secured at a depth of from fifty to 100 feet. Pretty lake, three miles west of the county seat, is a beautiful sheet of water about two miles in circumference. Since the organization of the county it has of late years become a noted summer resort, and around its beautiful shores have been built nearly fifty summer cottages. Lake of the Woods, known also as "Big Lake," in the northeast part of the county, not far from Bremen, is about five miles in circumference, and is famous for fish. Twin lakes, three in number, extending from the center of the county to the west line of West township, are all beautiful sheets of water, and good fishing is had in all of them. The middle Twin lake is noted for the Menominee Indian village that stood on its north bank, where the old Indian chapel formerly stood, and from which place the Pottawattomie Indians were driven away in 1838. At the end of the lower Twin Lake was built the first gristmill in Marshall County, in 1836-37. Maxinkuckee Lake in the southwest part of the county is about twelve miles in circumference, three miles long and two and one-half wide, it is fed entirely by springs that burst up from the bottom, and the natural rainfall. In its primitive state, before the forest trees that lined its shores were cut down by the white men who settled there, it was the most beautiful 72 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. sheet of water anywhere to be found. In the early times deer and other wild animals drank of its rippling waters unmolested. Fish and wild game of all kinds were abundant, and it was indeed a most charming spot. The Michigan road crosses the county from north to south, starting at Michigan City and ending at Madison, Ind. The Yellow River Valley. Marshall county is in w hat is known as the "Yellow River Valley," which was beautifully pictured by the late C.H. Reeve, in an address a few years before his death, and it is reproduced here as setting forth historical facts worthy of being perpetuated. Mr. Reeve said: "Those who are residents and read the newspapers should rejoice that they live in the safe and beautiful Yellow river valley. I suppose few of them ever stop to think that they do live in a valley; that westward the land rises from thirty to fifty or more feet to the mile, until it reaches the summit a few miles out, and then slopes away on the great Kankakee plains, at only about six to eight inches to the mile to the Kankakee river, and then rises again to the high tableland of the prairies; while on the north and northeast it rises in like manner to the summit and then slopes away to the St. Joseph river; the same on the east, southeast and south to the Tippecanoe river. "Nor do they regard our inland position and timbered protection, where the wild storms sweeping up the valleys of the larger streams above named, and from Lake Michigan and the great western prairies are carried up by the rising land toward us, and so high over our heads instead of tearing us in pieces, while the timber, obstructing the currents, makes clouds and rain, and saves us from droughts. As day after day the reports of the terrible storms all over the country came to us, and the wailing of the victims of pestilence leaving knowledge of the awful desolation in their track, our quiet valley is full of peace and safety no failure of crops, no epidemics, no floods or great droughts, with good lands, ready and convenient markets, no public local debts, schools and churches convenient on every hand, the farmers of the Yellow river valley should hug themselves with delight in their safety and prosperity! We have passed the excitement and trials of pioneer life, and are settling into the permanency and stability of slow and progressive prosperity in place of the wild and speculative rush for wealth that constitute the movements of new localities. But more than all we have safety. Here the elements do not war. While we have no coal, or iron, or stone, or precious metals in mines, or great waterpower, we have nearly 500 square miles of as good land as is in the world, taken as a body; we have health, abundance of valuable timber, good and certain crops, good water easily obtained; our lovely and now famous Maxinkuckee lake, and our unsurpassed Yellow river valley. "The proud and ambitious, the restless and the grumbling, may emigrate, but the wise will be content with our quiet valley, where, in fact, they have what they cannot find elsewhere, with so few discomforts and evils, and which should be, if it is not, held at its true value. Sixty years of personal knowledge and half a century of continuous residence should enable me to know, and in that belief I pay this brief and truthful tribute to one of the fairest spots in all the land." HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 73 There is no more delightful scenery to be found anywhere in this than along the rivers and lakes and over the hills and valleys in county, and especially in the autumn clays when the leaves are receiving the golden tints that present to view a "picture that no painter has the coloring to mock! The reader will pardon the writer of this history, if he pauses a moment from, the dry complication of historical information to add a slight tribute to The Beauties of Autumn, in connection with his late friend Reeve's beautiful address on "our unsurpassed Yellow river valley." As he writes the autumn tints are just beginning to give the maple and other forest leaves their farewell kiss, and soon the whole country will be a golden picture of rare beauty! During the golden days of which these are typical, the period known as "Indian summer," when the golden rod, the national flower, is adding charm to the scene in every direction, it has been the custom of the writer for many years past to spend a few days in the country, about the rivers and lakes, through the woods and hazelnut patches, among the grape vines and hawthorn bushes, and listen to the birds singing in the branches, and watch the squirrels as they jump from limb to limb gathering nuts for the winter's supply of food, and for the time being get out of sight and hearing distance of the petty annoyances that continually confront one in the every-day humdrum of life in the struggle for existence. If you do not own a bicycle or an automobile, or a horse and buggy, and are too poor to hire one, take your lunch basket and hammock, and a Kodak, if you have one, and start for the woods. Never mind the traveled roads. Climb the fences and tramp through the fields, and so on through the woods, following some cow path, or an old Indian trail, of which there are still a few that can be traced. Don't hurry to get to some given point. Just take your time. When you get tired, hang your hammock and take a rest. Don't take any novels or stories of "the villain still pursued her" kind with you. You probably read too much trash of that sort when at home. Take out your pencil and scratch book, make rough sketches of the beautiful scenes that especially attract your attention, and jot clown your impressions of the beauties and grandeur of nature that come under your observation. You have probably traveled much and visited many places of interest, both in your own country and in foreign lands, and yet, likely you have never been outside of the towns and villages in your own county, and some of them possibly you have never seen. Around all the lakes, big and little; up and down the rivers and creeks in various parts of the county, and through the cultivated and uncultivated regions, the highways and byways, the long shaded lanes, over gravel roads, and on an occasional cut-off through the woods, you will see sights as grand and beautiful as can be seen anywhere on the globe. You can spend several days in this way that will open your eyes and give you a better opinion of the beautiful Yellow river valley and your own county and its possibilities than you ever had before. Pasted from <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~berta/mcbk1908/1-16.htm>A few white settlers began to locate here in 1830, and under an unorganized condition the inhabitants were under the protecting care of St. Joseph county, which was organized in 1830. At that time St. Joseph county was bounded on the north by Michigan territory; on the west by La Porte and the unorganized territory south of La Porte, on the south by the unorganized lands, and on the east by the unorganized lands and Elkhart county. Its extent was about thirty miles from north to south, and twenty-seven miles from east to west, including an area of about 740 square miles, or 473,600 acres. Its population in 1830 was 287 inhabitants; in June, 1832, it was estimated at 1,500, and so great had been the immigration it is said that in 1833 the population was estimated at two thousand. The legal organization of Marshall county began in May, 1836, by the formation of North, Center and Green townships, as previously stated. Pasted from <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~berta/mcbk1908/1-18.htm> The first real emigration to Marshall county began in the early spring of 1836. Many of those who came early, following the customs of the Indians, built temporary domiciles of poles and bark, similar to wigwams, into which they moved their household effects, and lived after a fashion, until log cabins of more pretentious designs could be erected. In a discussion on the subject a number of years ago between two of the "oldest inhabitants," it was quite satisfactorily settled that the first log cabin built in the county was erected by Abel C. Hickman on the Michigan road, two and a half miles south of Argos. It was built of rough, unhewn logs, covered with clapboards, had an outside chimney made of sticks and "daubed" with mud. It wasn't a very palatial residence, but it was fitted and furnished so as to keep out the wet and cold, and was considerable of an improvement over the Indian wigwams in the neighborhood. At that time the Michigan road was not passable. The contractors had 138 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. only commenced opening the road and only in patches could it be traveled over, and there was little or no travel in either direction here at that time. Mr. Hickman cleared off a small patch of ground near his cabin, on which he raised vegetables in sufficient quantities to supply the wants of his little family. There wasn't a great deal of comfort living there at that time. For weeks at a time no human being would be seen. Wild animals of almost every kind were numerous, and it was no trick at all for Mr. Hickman to take his trusty rifle down out of the pegs from over the door and kill a deer, turkey or other animal in an hour or two sufficient to supply food for days at a time. At night, from the time the sun went down over the treetops until it came up again in the morning, the wolves made the night hideous with their barking and yelping. When morning came they secreted themselves in their dens and hiding places, and during daytime seldom was one seen. In that region and for a few miles northwest all along down Wolf creek, which took its rise not far from here in Tippecanoe township, wolves were as thick as fleas on a dog's back. It passes through a portion of Walnut and Green townships and empties into Yellow river near the northeast corner of Union township. It is skirted for some distance with broken lowlands, marshes, cat swamps, etc., and was a safe and sure retreat for wild animals of all kinds. Black wolves were numerous from one end of the creek to the other , and from this fact it took its name. The Indians called it Mack-kah-tah- mo-may, the Indian name for black wolf. In 1835, when the lands were made subject to entry, Mr. Hickman secured a piece of land and moved off west of the road to the farm owned by Adam Bixel. Here he erected another log cabin of a more pretentious order of architecture, taking the trouble to hew the logs and otherwise adorn it in more modern style. " Here, according to the best authority, the first society for religious worship was organized by an itinerant preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church by the name of Owens. Here the society continued to meet for several years, until 1844 ; it is stated by the same authority, a house of worship, or a "meeting house," as it was called, was built on this farm, being the first building exclusively for church purposes erected in the county. During the year 1835-6 there was quite an addition to the population. The first thing the newcomer had to do was to select and enter a piece of land, decide on a building location, and without unnecessary delay erect a cabin in which to live. There was no lumber or brick here at that time, and the only material out of which these dwellings could be built was logs chopped from the trees. Axes, adzes, cross-cut saws, hatchets, augers and drawing knives were the implements used in their construction. In the earlier cabins such articles as nails, door hinges and iron latches or window glass were not known. Everything was made out of wood. He who had decided to build a cabin ground his ax, went to the woods and, having selected trees of the proper size, proceeded to chop them down. He measured off the length of the logs according to the size the house was to be, and cut an equal number for the sides and ends. Of course, a yoke of oxen was necessary to haul the logs in place, and men enough to assist in raising them into the building, so the neighbors were invited, and one of HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 139 brought along Broad and Berry, and in a few hours a cabin in the had been erected. The rafters on which the roof was to be were made of small poles fastened to the top logs and the gable rafter by means of wooden pins driven into holes bored with an auger. The roof was of clapboards. These were generally “rived Out” of oak logs sawed the proper length with a cross-cut saw. A maul and wedge were used to split it into small blocks, after which a "froe" and mallet properly applied by the "horny-handed son of toil" produced a fair substitute for shingles that came into use later. These clapboards were fastened on by binding them down with heavy poles laid on them along the where they were joined together. Four or five feet in length of as many logs at one end were cut out for a fireplace, which was walled up outside with niggerhead stone and plastered over with mud. The chimney built of small sticks was continued a foot or two above the top of the house. At one side a door was cut out, in the same way, and a door made out of hewn poplar timber, fastened together with oak pins was hung on wooden pegs with rawhide straps. The latch was of wood which was fastened in the inside of a slot. A leather string attached to the latch on the inside hung through a hole on the outside. To latch the door from without all that was necessary was to pull the string, the latch would be raised out of its socket, and the door swung open. Locks had not reached this part of the country at that time. There was no need of them, anyhow. There were no housebreakers then, probably because there wasn't anything in the houses worth carrying off. A window was cut out near the door. and, prior to the advent of glass, greased paper or white muslin served to admit all the light that was deemed necessary. The floor was made of puncheons hewn out of small poplar logs. As a general thing they were a little rough, but they served to keep the pioneer feet off of the ground. There were no brussels carpets in the market then, and so a split broom made out of a small hickory sapling and some soft soap and water vigorously applied served to keep it reasonably clean. The furniture was scanty and was of the most primitive kind. Bedsteads, tables, stands, benches, chairs, shelves, etc., were made by hand "on the spot," by the man of the house. Bed clothing, cooking utensils and dishes had mostly been brought with the emigrants. In case of a young married couple, the parents of the bride and groom usually set them up in housekeeping by dividing with them their household goods. A few years later, after the boys and girls grew up, and the "courting" had been gone through with and the marriage ceremony had been performed, the young people moved into and began housekeeping in apartments very similar to the one above described. The household furniture and equipments, except such as the pioneers had brought with them, were primitive and rude in the extreme. The following is one among many plans for Constructing beds which was common in those days: "Holes were bored in a log of the wall at the proper height from the floor, and into these sticks were driven horizontally, the other ends being supported by upright stakes or posts. Upon the framework thus provided was woven a bottom of withes or bark or deerskin thongs, which formed a support for the bedding. Privacy was sometimes secured by making the outer supporting posts high enough to be furnished with a concealing curtain. 140 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. Hooks on which to hang clothes or other articles were fashioned from the forked or crooked branches of trees, and forked sticks with the addition of pins inserted in the longer arm made pothooks which were caught over a pole or crosstree that was fixed in the fireplace a safe distance above the fire, the pots being hung on the pins. An improvement on these was the “trammel hook,” formed of a flat bar of iron hooked at one end, while at the other an adjustable hook could be raised or lowered as desired and secured by means of an iron pin inserted in the holes that were drilled along the bar. With the advent of brick chimneys came swinging cranes of iron. These set in iron eyes imbedded in the masonry, could be turned freely, the long arm carrying the pots out over the hearth when desired. The common cooking utensils were first of all the rotund bulbous iron pot constructed with a flare at the top so the lid would sit in safely. And then there was the iron oven for baking pone, not forgetting the long handled frying pan. The baking oven was a vessel of perhaps three or four inches deep set on legs and provided with an iron lid turned up around the edge. In it the thick loaf of corn bread was baked by setting it on a bed of coals with more coals piled upon the lid. Many who read this will call to mind the long thin slices of corn pone, heavy and clammy, and the bowl of sweet milk which was frequently all one had for the “frugal meal”. In this same iron kettle was also stirred up and cooked the pot of cornmeal mush, which with the fresh milk from the family cow was made to satisfy the evening repast. The “johnnycake” board was also one of the most important cooking utensils belonging to the kitchen department of the old log cabin. It was usually made out of an oak clapboard, the sides dressed smooth with a drawing knife and the ends rounded. Cornmeal was made into dough and spread on one side of the board and smoothes along the sides and ends. It was then set up before the log fire close enough so the heat would gradually bake, but not burn it. It was allowed to remain there until it was browned. When eaten warm with nice fresh butter and sweet milk it was a dish that a king might relish. As time wore on other devices were invented, among which the “reflector” oven was considered among the greatest. This utensil consisted of a light iron frame, two or three feet in length, mounted upon short legs, to hold the baking and roasting pans. To the back part of this frame a flaring top was attached by hinges, so that it might be turned back when the cooking needed attention. The sides were also enclosed. This flaring top and sides, made of bright tin, presented a large opening toward the open fire which was supplemented by a bed of live coals drawn out upon the hearth and from the hood, sides and back of the tin the heat was reflected down upon the cooking. It served its purpose well, and surely no better light biscuits, bread, cakes or pies have ever been eaten anywhere than those our mothers used to bake in the old “reflectors” upon the hearth of the old log cabin. When the cook stove made its way into the early homes of the pioneers it was hailed with delight by a majority of the housewives because it afforded such great relief to their faces, hands and arms, that had been so HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 141 blistered by the great open fires, but some adhered to the fireplace, old utensils and the old cooking methods as long as they lived. A many of the more prosperous families used what was called the ovens." These were made of small boulders or bricks and mortar, else of tough clay, wrought and beaten into shape and burned by slow built within. They were usually set upon wooden platforms away from house by reason of danger from fire, and were protected by a shed. They principally used in the summertime. In appearance they were rounded not unlike the old-fashioned beehive. The fire was built in them raked out, and the baking set upon the floor, the body of the oven enough heat to do the cooking.The woodenware of the household was often made by the pioneer himself. Trays, large and small, were made from the soft poplar, buckeye and these took the place of most of the present-day tin and crockery ware. The churn was sometimes a mere trough and paddle. The hominy pestle was a solid beech or maple stump with a bowl-shaped cavity burned in the top to hold the grain while being pounded, and a similar stump cut as smooth as possible made the chopping block for meat. The rude trough hollowed out from a short log split in half, that was used to catch sap from the sugar trees, is still a familiar relic from the olden time. For drinking and dipping vessels," it has been well said, "the common article was the gourd - one of the most adaptable and convenient gifts of nature to man. In an age when manufactured conveniences were hard to get the gourd was a boon, and in every cabin home it played a conspicuous part. Of many sizes and shapes, it served, when properly scraped out and cleaned, a variety of purposes. It hung as a dipper beside the spring or the well with its long sweep, and in the same capacity it was a companion to the cider barrel and whisky jug ; it was used at the table, at the lye kettle or at the sugar camp, for soup, soap or sap; a large one properly halved made a wash pan or a milk pan, or, cut with an opening, it became a receptacle for the storing of divers things; a small one was used by the grandmother to darn the family socks over; the boy used one to carry his bait in when he went fishing, and the baby used another for a rattle. A veritable treasure was the gourd, and it should be celebrated in song." There were various curious articles used in the pioneer homes that are now quite obsolete. Among these we find metal warming pans which, filled with live embers, were used to warm the sheets of a cold night; lanterns of perforated tin; tinder boxes with their contents of flint, steel, little powder horns and "punk" from rotten logs used to start the fires; candle molds with balls of cotton wicking; long tin horns and conch shells to call the men to dinner, and many other conveniences now considered quaint and sought for relics. One important piece of pioneer furniture, if so it might be called, unknown to the modern house, was the loom, which in the days of home-made fabrics was almost indispensable. The space this ponderous machine occupied in the small cabin made it a serious encumbrance, and hence a period would be devoted to the family weaving, after which the loom could be taken apart and stowed away, unless, as sometimes happened, one had a separate loom room. The excellence of the work done upon these rude, homemade implements is a matter of wonder now, as one examines preserved specimens. 142 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. Not only have those blankets, jeans and various cloths a surpassing durability, but some fabrics, such as coverlets and curtains, exhibit a remarkable artistic taste and skill, both in the dyeing of the yarns and the weaving of complicated figures. Complimentary to the loom were the spinning wheels - a big one for the wool and the familiar little one for the flax. The skillful use of these was a part of the education of every girl and some of the boys, and in the ears of many an old man and woman the resonant hum of it still lingers as the sweet music of a day that is past. Pasted from <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~berta/mcbk1908/1-22.htm> XXIV. EARLY ROADS IN MARSHALL COUNTY. When the first pioneers came there was nothing here but a wilderness. Few evidences of civilization were to be seen anywhere. Telegraphing had not then been discovered, and there was not a railroad within a thousand miles in ally direction, and at that time there was not even a stage line within forty miles. With the coming of white people closely followed the "pony express” mail carrier, once a month, then weekly and tri-weekly, and so on. Those who were here then will remember when an occasional New York, Philadelphia or Baltimore paper strayed out this way, the picture of the pony express would be looked for to see what time the mail was scheduled to leave the east for the west, and what time it would be due at Pittsburg, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, and the probable date of its arrival here. It will be remembered how fast that mail carrier seemed to be going. The pony was running at full speed; the mail carrier was bent forward at an angle of 45 degrees, and was heralding his approach by the blasts from his tin horn. But he did not make half as rapid headway as he appeared to be making. Most of the road he had to travel over was through the wilderness, and before he reached the end of his journey he met with many a mishap that delayed his arrival for hours and days. The letters he brought were written on blue letter paper with goose quill pens, folded in the form of our present envelopes, envelopes not having .been invented then, and sealed with a red wafer or sealing wax, mucilage being a discovery of a later date. Letter postage at that time was rated according to distance, 25 cents being the rate from the eastern cities, payable in coin on HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 145 postage stamps not having been invented at that time and for ears afterwards. It is easy to be seen that the number of letters that failed to reach the parties to whom they were addressed and consequently the dead letter office without the postage having been collected was immense loss to the United States. There were no roads or bridges in those days, and the neighbors in their way to the cabins of each other followed the Indian trails, were the first roads in this part of the country. There is more method in laying out an Indian trail than may be imagined. As of all the Pottawattomie Indian trails in this county and in Indiana the writer avails himself of the following truthful and worded' description of the Pottawattomie trail as given by Charles in his admirable "Tales of Kankakee Land." The Indian trail, he says, was an Indian path with all the features that the term might indicate. It never crossed over a hill which It might go around; It crept through the hollows, avoiding, however, with greatest care, those conditions in which a moccasin could not be kept dry and clean; it clung to the shadows of the big timber belts, and when an arm of the prairie intervened sought to traverse such a place of possible danger by the route which was shortest and least exposed. At every step the ancient path tells the story of wilderness fears. Yet the travelers of this venerable avenue of the old life had also their own peculiar delights. A warm and sheltered path in the winter time; its fragrant airs were cool and soft in summer days. All the woodland flowers crowded to its margin; the blue violets and the water-cress; yellow honey- suckles; the fringed gentian; the roses, the ox-eyed daisies and where the shades were damp and dark, yellow ladies' slippers and purple ones. When the heavy foliage above parted wide to let the sunshine fall on some gentle slope, there was the strawberry bank all white with promise, or growing with the ruby red of its luscious sweets, or throwing above the tender leaves of its pink stolas to make sure the feasts of coming days. The birds loved the red man's path, stationed their homes in the thickets that bordered its course, sang their morning songs beneath those rifts where the blue sky looked down, and there, while the twilight lingered, warbled their evening hymns. And then, to the Pottawattomie, this above all others was the ancient highway of his people. All the pageant of his life was then in the springtime and in the moon of falling leaves passing before them in living remembrance. When these scenes were over the old men loved to wander along this path and rehearse the stories of the past and tell the times when they with their people in tumultuous throng hurried home from the chase. With trembling voice and solemn gesture they pointed out the spot where a chief with warriors brave once fell victims to the deadly ambush; or this was the tree where the children had been lured to their death by the mocking wail of a panther; or, in that place the Great Spirit with a countenance of light had spoken of his children in a voice of thunder. Then on the old path they told off, as on a rosary, the sacred traditions of their people. It was a long time after the first settlers came to the county before any roads were regularly laid out and opened for travel. Indian trails were followed wherever they led in the desired direction. Wherever it was thought that a road should be opened the route would be selected by those 146 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.interested and a man sent over the route with an ax to blaze the way. The brush and logs were cut out, and the man with the ax would cut the bark off of the trees along the line a foot or two long and about five or six feet from the roots, on both sides of the trees, that would be seen by those passing along the road going and coming. One of the first of these roads was from the region of Maxinkuckee lake by way of the Indian trail near Menominee village at Twin lakes, and so on to Plymouth. Another branch was by way of Wolf Creek and from there by the nearest route through the woods to the Michigan road, which had been cleared out and blazed so that it could be used after a fashion, and thence on to Plymouth, A road was also early cleared and blazed from Plymouth to Bourbon by way of what is now Inwood, and on to the Benak Indian village in Tippecanoe township. Short roads were opened in the same way in various parts of the county where most needed, but without any system or legal authority. The lines of these early roads were selected so as to avoid swamps and marshes, and as much as possible to avoid the building of corduroy bridges. In this way they were like the Indian trails they meandered around over the county without regard to the distance to be traveled and without any regard as to whose lands it was that the road was built upon. The Michigan road has an interesting history. Several years ago the writer of this history made as thorough investigation of this subject as possible, procuring the data for such investigation from the Interior Department at Washington. The following is the result of that investigation : Prior to 1826 numerous treaties had been made with the Pottawattomie Indians, the owners and inhabitants of the country embraced in Indiana, southern Michigan and northern Illinois, by which they were to give up most of their lands and hunting grounds to the United. States for the benefit of the white population. After these treaties were proclaimed, gangs of government surveyors were sent out to survey and plat the land, which was done, and the land opened to entry at $1.25 an acre. Through these government surveyors, ax men and chainmen it soon became noised about that a most delightful and productive country had been found, with beautiful lakes and watercourses, and every kind. of fish and wild game, wild fruits, etc., in abundance. Many of these surveyors, with Indian traders, land speculators and government agents, entered into a scheme to persuade the Pottawattomie Indians to make a treaty giving to the government a strip of land 100 feet wide through the entire state from Lake Michigan to the Ohio river , with a contiguous section of land through which the road should run which should belong to the state of Indiana and by it be given to those who should be awarded the contracts to build the road. It was to be a great national thoroughfare, the northern terminus of which was the mouth of Trail creek at Michigan City, and the southern at Madison, Ind. After the treaty .was made the Indiana legislature took the matter up, and among other things named it the "Michigan road." The treaty by which the Pottawattomies granted the land for this road was article 3 of the treaty made October 16, 1826, concluded near the mouth of the Mississinewa, on the Wabash, Indiana, between Lewis Cass of Michigan and James B. Ray and John Tipton of Indiana, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and warriors of the Pottawattomie tribe of Indians. This article of the treaty is as follows : HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 147 " Article 3. As an evidence of the attachment, which the Pottawattomie tribe feel towards the American people, and, particularly to the south of Indiana, and with a view to demonstrate their liberality and benefit themselves by creating facilities; for traveling and increasing the value of their remaining country, the said tribe do, hereby cede to the United States a strip, of land commencing at Lake Michigan and running thence to the Wabash River, 100 feet wide, for a road, and also one section of good land contiguous to the said road for each mile of the same, and also for each mile of a road from the termination thereof through Indianapolis to the Ohio river for the purpose of making a road aforesaid from Lake Michigan by way of Indianapolis to some convenient point on the Ohio river. And the general assembly shall have a right to locate the said road and to apply the said sections or the proceeds thereof to the making of the same, or any part thereof, and the said grant shall be at their sole disposal, As I view it, the wording of the treaty was a cunningly devised arrange- ment to swindle the Indians out of an immense amount of the best lands belonging to them in the state, The words "good land" enabled the legislature to zigzag the road so as to avoid all the bad land and run around through all the "contiguous good land" through the entire state. By referring to the map of Marshall county it will be seen that from the time the road enters the county on the south until it reaches the northern boundary, the Michigan road sections are so disjointed on the map that they have the appearance of a great big stairway, From Argos north the line of the road angles off to the west before it reaches Plymouth, about two miles and a half, The object of this "wobbling" was to avoid low or swamp lands and get over onto a better quality. Near Benoni Jordan's old farm, now owned by D. E. Snyder, four miles south of Plymouth, the angle is so abrupt that the sections are barely "contiguous." From La Paz the road zigzags about until it reaches South Bend, where it turns abruptly and runs directly west through some of the best prairie lands in the state, or anywhere else for that matter , and then turns north and finally finds its way into the mouth of Trail creek at Michigan City. The disjointed manner in which these Michigan road sections appear on the map of Indiana is a perpetual verdict against the conspirators who defrauded the Indians out of their rights; and like the blood on the hands of Lady McBeth, "the d------d spot will not out." It was in 1832-3 that this end of the road was ordered to be "cut" and "opened" and these are the directions prescribed by the legislature of 1832 (see pages 124-5, acts of that session) : "Cut and clear off said part of said road all logs, timber and under-brush, leaving no stump more than one foot above the level of the earth, and grub thirty feet wide in the center of said road." Polk, Blair and Seering were the contractors through this part of the state, and the late Robert Schroeder of North township was one of the bosses that superintended the job. He told me many times before his death the manner in which this great thoroughfare was opened up, and according to history, the truth of which cannot be doubted, the work was the merest pretext toward complying with the intent of the law. The road was practically impassable for much of the way through this part of the state; the 148 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. mud holes, which were numerous, were bridged over with poles and logs placed on cross logs without any particular system, the brush cut off and piled up by the side of the road, and some of the knobs and high places cut down, and that was about all that was done to make it the great thoroughfare that the Indians had been made to believe was to be built for their especial benefit. Within five or six years after this road was declared open, the various small reservations still held by the Pottawattomies were secured from them by treaty, and those who refused to leave the country were driven away, starting from Twin lakes September 4, 1838, in charge of a company of soldiers under command of Gen. John Tipton, one of the commissioners who secured the making of the treaty. Thus was completed one of the darkest pages in the history of Indiana.LaPorte and Plymouth Mail Route. N ext in importance to the Michigan road was what was called the LaPorte road. In the beginning it was little more than an Indian trail and was established more as a post road between Plymouth and LaPorte than for purposes of travel. At first the mail was carried once a week between the two places; later it was increased to three times a week, and finally to a two horse wagon daily, which also carried passengers back and forth. In examining some ancient documents over in La Porte county not long ago a student of local history came across a contract written by J. H. Bradley with a quill pen on an old-fashioned unruled legal folio sheet, which, though the paper is yellowed with age and stained by exposure to the weather, is as clear and legible as on the day it was written. Following is the wording of the contract, as nearly as it can be reproduced in print: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Memorandum of an agreement: Made this sixth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, between John H. Bradley, Mail Contractor, for carrying the United States Mail from LaPorte, by Plymouth to Chippewa, once a week and back, of the one part, and Erastus Ingersol, of Marshall county, Indiana, of the other part, as follows, to-wit, the said Ingersol, agrees and hereby binds himself to carry or have carried, the said United States Mail on the said Route from LaPorte by Plymouth to Chippewa, according to the terms, times and manner prescribed by the post office department, and in all things to comply, with the directions, and requisitions of the law, and the Post Office Department in carrying guarding and delivery of the same, for and during the full terms and time of said contract, to commence on the ninth day of May, A. D., 1837, and continue until the said contract be ended, for the sum price and consideration of three hundred and fifty dollars per annum and at and for that rate and proportion to be paid by the said John H. Bradley in the manner herein after mentioned and also the said Erastus Ingersol agrees and binds himself to pay and satisfy all fines, forfeitures, penalties and amercements, imposed or exacted by the said post office department, for or on account of any and all failures or delinquencies, about the performance of the said contract, while in his hand, or while he is carrying the same, and to allow the said John H. Bradley to deduct the same from the amount to be paid to the said Ingersol, for his services aforesaid. In consideration whereof, the said John H. Bradley agrees and binds himself to pay to the said Erastus Ingersol the said sum of money aforesaid, or the rateable proportion thereof, as soon as the money shall be received from the department, and at no other times or manner whatever, deducting there from any and all fines and exactions for delinquencies aforesaid and making from the money due July 1st, 1837, the further deduction of seventy-five dollars, the amount of a note held by the said John H. Bradley on the said Ingersol the price of a mare sold to him. HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 149 To the true performance of all which covenants and agreements the said parties bind themselves the one to the other in the sum of three hundred dollars. Witness our hands and seals May 6th, A. D., 1837. JOHN H. BRADLEY, (Seal) . ERASTUS INGERSOLL, (Seal) . Sealed and delivered in the presence of J. C. HOWELL. This document is a reminder of the days when things at LaPorte were in their beginnings. In May, 1837, the village was hardly more than four years old, Plymouth and Rochester had not yet been laid out a year, the Yellow river road from LaPorte to Plymouth was little better than a blazed trail through the woods and marshes, and the Michigan road, though opened three and a half years earlier, was very, very far from being usable as a race course. Notwithstanding the fact that Daniel Webster broke dirt in LaPorte county July 4, 1837, for a railroad, no such commercial artery was actually in operation in this section until fifteen years passed by. LaPorte had a post office in 1833, Plymouth not until 1837. Mail routes were just being opened up in northwestern Indiana.John H. Bradley was one of LaPorte's greatest lawyers, his admission to the bar being dated October 12, 1835. He was aggressive in politics on the Whig side and served repeatedly in the state legislature, besides being defeated nearly as often. He was a great orator and a profound student, and in his early life as a pioneer in this region he was glad to reach aside from the practice of his profession and take a contract to haul the mail, not to perform that arduous labor himself but to sublet it at a small profit. Erastus Ingersol, the subcontractor and actual post-rider, belongs to the history of Marshall county, in which his appearance is very obscure. On horseback with his sacks of mail, in all sorts of weather, he followed roads that would now be thought impassable, covering the distance in two days, or four days for the round trip. About that same time a regular stage line was operated from LaPorte to Plymouth, connecting there with the Concord coaches plying up and down the Michigan road between South Bend and Indianapolis, at which latter point connection was made with the lines east and west on the National road. J. C. Howell, the witness to the contract, was a LaPorte merchant. The Chippewa named as one of the terminals of the route-called Chippe-wa-qua in some of the old records would be difficult to find now save with help from some curious antiquary, but then it was an important and a hopeful settlement, well known to every traveler on the Michigan road. It was a formidable rival of Rochester for selection as the county seat, and even now one can hardly see why it was not chosen because of the beauty, healthfulness and availability of its site near the intersection of the great northern highway and the Tippecanoe river (then more important than now) unless it was too far from the county's center. William Polke, Michigan road commissioner, entered the land at that place built his log cabin there in 1832, the first house on the road north of the Wabash, moved his family to it from the southern end of the state and established there his official headquarters. It was a home of great hospitality. The tourist for pleasure, the traveler for business, the Catholic missionary priest, the Protestant preacher, the state or government official, the teamster and road laborer, the vagrant Indian for all these the door of that small cabin in the woods was opened. Gen. John Tipton, Col. Abel C. Pepper and 150 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. other important functionaries were often there and under the trees close by several Indian treaties were concluded. There in 1834 was celebrated the marriage of Mary, daughter of William Polke, with John B. Niles, then a young lawyer whose brilliant future was but faintly indicated. William Niles, born of that union September 27, 1835, is now the oldest living white person who was born in La Porte. He and Mrs. Emmet H. Scott are the present owners of the long-forgotten Chippewa, the terminal point of La Porte's earliest southern mail routes and designed to be one of the chief cities along the historic Michigan road. The original cabin is still in existence and is occupied, as is also the frame house on the adjoining farm, which was also built by William Polke and was the first frame house north of the Wabash on the Michigan road. The Yellow River Road. This road was the same as the La Porte and Plymouth mail route above referred to. The board of commissioners of Marshall county early took steps to open the road and put it in condition for the increasing travel over that line to La Porte, and especially to Michigan City, where shipments of grain and other produce was made, and where all kinds of merchandise was received by lake from New York and Chicago, and hauled overland to Plymouth and farther south to Rochester . At a special session of the board held in the early part of July (no date is given on the record) the following order appears on Order Book A, page 17, in reference to this road : The board of commissioners for the county of Marshall, Jul¥ special session, 1836. Ordered, That Stephen Marsters, commissioner of the three per cent (3) fund for said county, is ordered to layout five hundred dollars ( $500) on the road leading from Plymouth, in the said county of Marshall, to La Porte, commonly called the "Yellow River road," which sum shall be expended on that part of said road which is within the bounds of the said county of Marshall, and the said commissioner aforesaid shall proceed to layoff the said road in lots of quarter sections as near as may be and expend the aforesaid appropriation in the places mostly needing the same. The said commissioner shall cause the said road to be cross [word indistinct] with good lasting timber, to be eighteen feet in length, in those parts of said road wherein he may deem it necessary, and cause the same to be covered with clay, sand or gravel five or six inches in depth; and also cause culverts to be put in said road and said road to be ditched so as to cause the water to drain from the same wherein his judgment may deem it necessary; and said commissioner shall proceed to sell the same to the lowest bidder at public auction in the town of Plymouth, in said county, after having advertised the same ten days previous to the day of sale by posting up written advertisements at several of the most public places in said county. Contractors to give bond with security to be approved by the said commissioner in double the sum of their contracts for their faithful performance of said work; said road to be completed by the fifteenth (15th) day of November, 1836. Said commissioners to pay one-fourth of the money when contractors have their contracts half completed and no more.Ordered, That said board adjourn until tomorrow morning, 9 o 'clock A. M. And said board adjourned. ROBERT BLAIR, ABRAHAM JOHNSON,CHABLES OSTERHAUTE, Commissioners. Test: JEREMIAH MUNCY, Clerk. At the September term, 1837, Stephen Marsters, the commissioner of the 3 per cent fund, reported that he had expended on the Yellow River road 151 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. A total of $1,107.41, to the contractors – Sidney Williams, Williamson Owens, Thomas Singleton and Gustavus A. Cone. For many years afterward much work was done on the road before it became fairly passable. PLANK ROADS. During the year of 1851 the question of how to obtain good roads was the all-absorbing topic of conversation and discussion among the people of Marshall County. At that time there were very few regularly established wagon roads in the country. The Michigan Road, extending through the county from south to north, had been opened after a fashion, as had also the road between Plymouth and LaPorte. Roads leading in other directions mostly followed the Indian trails, the brush and logs being cleared out and the trees blazed so that those passing along would not get lost. The ponds and sink holes, which were numerous, were bridged over with logs and poles and covered with a light coating of loose dirt. Roads ran whenever it was most convenient, without regard to section lines, as there was little cleared land then to be interfered with. In the spring and fall of the year, known as the “rainy seasons”, the roads became almost impassable. Ox teams were mostly used then, and it was about all a single yoke of oxen could do to haul even an empty wagon any considerable distance. The Michigan and LaPorte roads were traveled more than any others in the county, but the more they were traveled the worse they got. The sub-soil, sand and mud holes were numerous, and teaming was the most difficulty thing the farmers and business men had to do. Naturally enough this deplorable condition of the roads led to an effort to improve them, resulting in the attempt to build plank roads over the main lines of travel. The Plymouth Pilot, which was the only paper in the country at that time, took up the discussion of the advisability of building plank roads and pursued it with vigor for some time, although it does not appear that it resulted in accomplishing much toward the final completion of the roads then being built in this direction. Among other things the editor said: “Here we have a county containing a population of 8000. We have but one town in the county, and no other town within twenty miles of us and no good market under forty miles. In order to get to that market we have to pass over some most execrable roads at all seasons of the year, which are easily bettered and which we fail to make any effort in, while our neighbors around us are all awake to their own welfare and offering every assistance to us that we can ask, and that needs only the taking advantage of to bring a market to our own door.” After enumerating the advantages to be derived from plank roads, the editor went on to say: “The interests of Michigan City and LaPorte are identical, and we should care nothing for their bickering. South Bend, twenty-four miles north, is on the St. Joseph River, with the Southern railroad through it and the Central ten miles distant, and the warehouse of the Central at Mishawaka, twenty four miles from here, prepared to receive produce at Niles without additional charge. Boats are running on the river carrying produce to St. Joseph to be shipped on the lake. Rochester is twenty miles south; Logansport forty-three miles south on the canal and will probably soon 152 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. have a railroad and depot. Now here we have a diagram of our means of outlet, and now comes the value of plank roads. Logansport is building to Rochester and has completed about fifteen miles. South Bend has built about ten miles toward us. La 'Forte has built about twelve miles toward us, and it remains with us whether it comes here or goes through North Liberty to South Bend." After showing the great advantages to be derived from the building of the proposed roads, the editor concluded as follows :"Lay down your plank one foot wide, nine feet long, and full two and one-half inches thick, and it will stay there. With railroads all around us and thoroughfares opening in every direction, we are 'stoning the squirrel while the dog is robbing our dinner basket !' Wake up, then, and show us the man that says he won't take a share in it and push it through, and we will show you the man that goes to mill with the wheat in one end of the bag and a stone in the other, 'because his father did.' " The road from LaPorte, if memory is not at fault, was only completed to the Kankakee river, where it connected with a toll bridge across that stream known as "Lemon's bridge." Until the completion of the LaPorte & Plymouth railroad in 1855, "Lemon's bridge" was a popular stopping place. Horses were watered and fed there, meals served, and a little some- thing for the stomach's sake could be had upon a pinch. Frequently teams loaded with wheat for the "port at Michigan City" camped out there over night during the summer, starting early the next morning and arriving at Michigan City by sundown. The plank road was completed most of the way to Plymouth during the year 1852. It never paid the expense of construction, and after a few years was abandoned. The boards soon began to warp at the ends and as no repairs were made the road became almost impassable. The planks were finally taken up and piled at the side of the road and finally rotted or were burned up. It was many years before the Michigan road to South Bend was fairly passable, and even to this day it might be a good deal better than it is. Before the war all the plank roads that had been built were abandoned, and that great improvement scheme that promised so much in the beginning came to an inglorious end. Pasted from <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~berta/mcbk1908/1-24.htm> Of course every cabin had to be provided with a well or spring from which water for drinking, cooking and washing purposes could be drawn. Springs were not very numerous and they were confined to hills and gulleys and along the banks of the lakes, rivers and small streams. Places where springs could be secured were few and far between, and therefore the water supply mostly came from dug wells, and these were supplied almost entirely with surface water. A five or six square foot hole would be dug in as low ground as could be found near the cabin, to a depth generally of form twelve to twenty-five or thirty feet, or until the first surface vein of water would be struck, when the digging would cease and a barrel or square box would be sunk in the bottom, into which notches would be HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 153 or auger holes would be bored into it to allow the water to seep in the gravel or sand, or, more frequently, blue clay. This "hole in ground" was boarded up with heavy boards split out of red oak logs, prevent the well from caving in. Generally the water was drawn by means of a wooden or tin bucket, to which a rope would be tied, or if the well wasn't too deep a long, slim pole with a hook and fastener at the lower end would be used. These were generally only for temporary use. When deeper wells would be dug, and better water would be found, the well sweep and the "old oaken bucket," about which so much has been said and written, would be erected. These "sweeps" were made by erecting a large post in the ground, say twelve or fifteen feet. A long pole, heavy at the butt end and tapering until it was quite small at the top end was fastened into the top of the erect pole, in a socket cut for the purpose, through which a two-inch auger hole was bored and a hard, seasoned hickory pin was inserted. To the top end was fastened a small pole or a rope or chain of a length about the depth of the well, to the lower end of which the bucket would be attached. The lower end of the sweep rested on the ground. When water was needed to be drawn the bucket was put over the top of the curbing and let down to the bottom of the well by pulling the top of the sweep down. A sinker, a stone or piece of iron, was attached to the bail of the bucket, which turned the top of the bucket sideways, when the water would run in and fill it, when it would be pulled up to the top and emptied into the bucket or other vessel at hand used for, that purpose. This mode of procuring water was almost universal, for the reason that there were no pumps to be had here at that time. Up to 1840, and probably to 1850, there was not a pump in the county. The Indians who were here before that time had no dug wells and got their water from the lakes, rivers, branches, creeks and ponds, wherever they might happen to be located. Tinware was very scarce for a number of years and tin cups for drinking or other purposes were hard to get. As a consequence other devices were resorted to, many of which were quite unique. Many will remember the small gourd cut and cleaned out in the shape of a dipper , with a long crooked handle, that used to hang on a bush near the spring, or a peg at the well, out of which the thirsty was always welcome to drink and refresh himself. It was not uncommon to see the shell of a turnip that had been scraped out used for drinking purposes. Many will remember , too, of having seen wooden cups and bowls cut out of soft wood by experts with jack-knives that were useful, if not very ornamental. It was not uncommon for the male portion of the inhabitants when very thirsty to lie down on the ground and drink out of the creeks, springs, etc. They sometimes turned up the rims of their hats, dipped them in the water, and drank in that way; and frequently the large leaves of the pawpaw bushes in their season would be plucked off and made into a ladle shape, which made an excellent substitute for a dipper to drink out of. The lack of good water in the early times was the greatest drawback the first settlers had to contend with. The only pure water and the only water fit to drink was the water obtained from springs, but these were very rare and but a very small percentage of the people had access to them. 154 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. As a general rule the water obtained from wells was "surface water," full of malaria, and during the summer months, when it was drunk in larger quantities than at any other season of the year, it was sure to bring on ague, bilious fever, typhoid fever, flux and other summer complaints, often to an alarming extent, and frequently it was not an uncommon thing for entire families to be prostrated with some of these diseases at the same time. The ague was the most prevalent of the different varieties of malarial diseases, and it came on every day, every other day, every three days, every seven, fourteen and twenty-one days, and was known as the "chills and fever ," "fever’n ager," "shakes" and the like. To the newcomer it was a holy terror, but it was no respecter of persons. It attacked old and young alike. In the fall of the year, after all had gone through the summer's siege of this hated disease, nearly everybody looked pale and sallow like they had been frostbitten. It came on with a chill, which usually developed into a shake that would make one's teeth chatter so that the sound could be heard for some distance about the cabin. The shaker covered himself with blankets and comforters, no matter how hot the weather was, and he shook and shook and shook until his bones fairly rattled. In an hour or two the chill went off and then came on the fever, followed by a thirst for water that could not be quenched. After two or three hours the fever passed off and the patient began to recuperate sufficiently to get up and walk about. But oh, how miserable he did feel! In many cases it was impossible to get rid of it and it had to be endured until frost came and killed the malaria that produced it. The year 1850, when the entire population of the county was only about 5,000, more deaths occurred than during any year before or since on the basis of population. From the census report which was made on the first of June of that year the total number of deaths from the diseases named was set down at 133. That was June 1. It is quite probable that a great many more deaths occurred during July, August, September and October, so that it is fair to estimate that not less than 300 souls were removed by death caused by malaria, generated through impure water during that year! A note by the census taker stated that "this year has been remarkable for the unusual number of deaths. A very fatal disease known here as typhoid fever has prevailed to an alarming extent in the center of the county and spread in all directions, reaching to the extreme parts of the county. The flux, bilious and scarlet fever have also been prevalent." The physicians here at that time were not very well read and were scantily supplied with medicines which were supposed to be specifics for these diseases and half the time not knowing what the real ailment of the patient was, probably a large per cent died for lack of proper medical knowledge and attention. In those days most of the doctors considered "bleeding" necessary to get the patient's system in proper condition to receive medical treatment. When he arrived he looked wise, felt the patient's pulse, examined the tongue, shook his head to indicate that it was a dangerous case and that bleeding was necessary! The clothing was removed from the patient's arm, a string' tied tightly around it above the elbow to stop the circulation, a bowl or pan was procured to catch the blood, the doctor took his lance, HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 155 ripped open the vein, and the blood spurted out two or three feet high. Sometimes half a bowl full would be drawn from the patient before the flow could be stopped. The next thing was to administer a dose of calomel and jalap. As a general thing this would take his insides out and salivate so his gums and teeth would be permanently ruined: If the patient recovered under this treatment the physician was considered the best in the country ," and his praises were sounded far and wide. If he died, his death was attributed to the inscrutable interposition of Divine Providence! Driven Wells. During the Civil war, or perhaps a little later, driven. wells were invented, that is, procuring water through hollow pipes driven into the ground to a considerable depth, far enough, at least, to go below the surface water . As pure water could be procured through these wells they became at once very popular. Well drivers became numerous, every neighborhood having one or more. Whenever a resident wanted a well on his premises he employed one of these well drivers to put one down for him. It happened that these driven wells had been patented, that is, the "process" had been, patented by the United States patent office, and as these well drivers did not have permission from the patentees to use their process every well driven into the ground was liable to pay a royalty, which was fixed at $10 by the United States district court. About 1879 the owners of Green's patent, having secured the names of all owners of driven wells, sent them notices that they were indebted to the patentees for infringement of their patent in the well driven on their premises in the sum of $10 and unless it was paid within a reasonable time a suit would be brought against them in the United States district court to recover the amount. As might be expected, this created great excitement among the people owning driven wells, as they had paid the well drivers for putting down the wells and they supposed that was all there was of it. The excitement increased as it extended to every township in the county and finally resulted in the organization of an Anti-Driven Well Association to resist the payment of the royalty demanded. It was a Plymouth organization, but quite a number of members belonged to it from various localities throughout the county. A legal opinion as to the probability of successfully resisting the payment of the royalty was secured from the law firm of Baker, Hord & Hendricks, of Indianapolis, to the effect that similar cases had been brought against the patentee and in every case his patent had been sustained, giving him the lawful right to collect royalty on all infringers. At the same time the agent of the patentee, fearing a long siege of litigation, proposed that he would compromise with the members of the association for $5 on each well, half the amount originally asked. The legal opinion, together with this proposition, was made to the association at a called meeting, and in view of the uncertainty of succeeding in the courts, the proposition was accepted, each of the members paying $5 for each well, and the association disbanded. For a considerable time it created quite a bitter feeling among those who wanted to fight it out and those who favored compromising. Finally most of those having wells paid up and the matter was dropped. While the royalty collected from the people was not far removed from highway robbery, yet the wells did more to improve the health of the community by furnishing pure water and driving out malaria than anything that ever occurred. Pasted from <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~berta/mcbk1908/1-25.htm> CLEARING UP FARMS. The clearing up of farms was the hardest work the pioneer farmer had to do. The land was mostly covered with a heavy growth of timber, which had to be cut down and rolled into log heaps, and the limbs, etc., piled into what was called "brush heaps" and burned, which, as the timber was green and full of sap, was a very slow process, and frequently took several seasons before the chunks were all consumed. .The slaughter of the very best kind of timber in those early days is something fearful to contemplate now by the people living away down here three-quarters of a century since then, when the country has been almost entirely denuded of some of the finest timber that ever grew out of the earth. At that time there was no particular use !or it, and the only object was how best and the cheapest way to get rid of It. The finest stately poplars, the tall oaks, the ash, and above all the different varieties of walnut, of which the black walnut was afterwards found to be the most valuable because particularly adapted to the manufacture of furniture, came down by the woodman's ax. In after years the walnut timber that grew upon the land was found to be more valuable than the land itself. When the timber on a piece of land had been felled and was ready to roll, the neighbors for miles around were invited to a "log rolling" and with several yoke of oxen to help in hauling the logs together, the work was soon done. The ground was generally covered with underbrush and small saplings, and the roots had to be taken out with a mattock and grubhoe, and this primitive implement had to be operated by main strength, and those who know how it is themselves know that it was the hardest kind of work. Stock, such as cattle, hogs, sheep and horses, ran at large, and so the clearing had to be fenced, and this was done with rails split from the trees near by. An iron wedge, a few "gluts," an ax and a maul were the implements used, and as in "grubbing," the splitting had to be done by main force. To fence a forty-acre lot was a long, tedious job, and many a man ruined his health by long continuance at this kind of labor. But after this work was done, there was a harder job still-that of plowing the ground. There were no chilled plows in those days, and the first plowing of the ground was nearly always done with a large breaking plow and wooden moldboard, to which were hitched two or three or more yoke of oxen. When the ground had been gone over it had more the appearance of having been rooted up by the hogs than having been turned over with a plow. Plows met with roots and stones every few rods, and many is the time that he who held the plow handles was hit in the side or in the umbilical region by the handles when the plow struck a big root, and had the breath knocked out of him before he knew what the matter was. Usually the first crop planted was corn, and between the rows was planted the old-fashioned "Hoosier punkin." It was worth all that was raised to keep the chipmunks, wild squirrels, blackbirds and crows from stealing all seed that was planted. Usually the corn rows near the fence and woods have to be replanted two or three times, and even then if half the hills came up it would almost invariably be destroyed while in the roasting-ear it matured. The ground was very rich, and it was a race from start to finish between the weeds and corn as to which could outgrow the other. The weeds. that caused the most trouble, and were the greatest annoyance, were the wild nettles. To touch them was equal to the sting of a bee, and the more one tried to keep clear of them the more one was sure to run into them. As soon as the ears of corn turned from the milk into the grain they were used by the family for food. They were cooked in various ways, whichever was the most convenient. They were boiled, roasted before the fire, the grain cut off the cob and fried, or boiled in a kettle with beans, with a piece of pork for seasoning; and when a fellow was real hungry, with a piece of hot corn bread, and a bowl of sweet milk, there was nothing like It In the heavens above or in the earth beneath. 157 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. Pasted from <http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~berta/mcbk1908/1-26.htm>COURTING AND MARRYING. Of course, in order to keep up the population, it was necessary to marry and be given in marriage that the earth might be multiplied and replenished, and therefore there was "courting" among the young folks, and when a wedding was announced, until it finally came off the country for miles around was on the tip-toe of expectation, for everybody of respectability knew that they would be invited to the wedding and "infair ." Before the wedding occurred, to the high contracting parties the most 184 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. important feature in connection with the interesting event was getting ready, or in other words, "courting," or "sparking," as it was generally called in those days. Spelling schools, singing schools, corn husking, quilting bees and the like through the week furnished opportunities for meetings when the expectant groom would accompany his best girl home through the woods along the Indian trail. Don't you remember those evening strolls with her who was to be your partner for life leaning gently on your arm, her face upturned, wreathed in smiles of perfect satisfaction, heart pouting cherry red lips ready for the osculatory greeting that was sure to be forthcoming ? Of course you do. On one of these occasions, after the first part of the night had been nearly spent in arranging the details for the wedding, if our information is correct, about the time the roosters were crowing for the midnight hour, the expectant groom bade his fiancée good night at the gate and started home alone through the woods. After leaving- the cabin and getting into the dark forest he was not long in becoming convinced that he had made one of the greatest mistakes of his life. The night was in the darkest hours, and soon the angry, howling wolves were collecting in large numbers. He knew his life was in danger, but he took his chances and went along blundering and stumbling over brush, stumps and logs, until he came in sight of a cabin a half mile or so in the distance, and on arriving there he climbed up on the shed for horses and cattle. The pack of wolves were but a few rods behind him. Finding they were unable to capture the fugitive, they gave up the chase and apparently retreated back into the woods. He climbed down and resumed his journey through the woods with all possible speed. He had not gone far, however, until he heard the wolves coming again. They were a considerable distance away, and he hurried on as fast as his legs would carry him until he reached another cabin. Here a new trouble confronted him. Two or three savage dogs came out of their kennels and seemed to be determined to tear him to pieces, but the wolves coming within hearing distance they started after them, leaving our hero to make the remainder of his way home unmolested. One Sunday morning he had occasion to visit some friends on the other side of Yellow river. He was the owner of a dugout canoe in which he paddled himself across to the other shore, where he tied it to the limb of a projecting tree. That evening he had an engagement to visit his girl, and having been detained longer than he expected, it was nearly dark when he started back. When he reached the river he found his canoe had been untied and was nowhere to be found. What to do he did not know. The river was pretty well up, and quite deep, and he was not sure whether he could wade across or not. He walked up and down the bank for some distance and finally found a place where the water appeared not to be so deep as at the ford where he had crossed with his boat. Here he made up his mind he would make an attempt to cross. He, therefore, removed his shoes and clothing, and, rolling them up into a convenient bundle, started in to wade across. The further he went the deeper he found the water until he was into it up to his armpits. He held his clothing above his head and felt his way carefully, the water getting deeper every step. Finally, when he was sure he had reached the deepest place, he unfortunately stumbled against a rock and fell headlong over into the water. When he came HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 185 to the surface, his bundle of clothing was gently floating off down stream. Being a good swimmer he started after his bundle, and, overtaking it a few rods distant, with it swam to shore. When he landed on the bank he was thoroughly exhausted; his clothes were dripping wet, and what to do he didn't know. Finally he wrung the water out as well as he could, and began the task of putting them on. How he ever succeeded in this undertaking will never be known. It was an hour before the task was ended, and as he started on his way home through the woods two or three miles distant, he was the most miserable, forlorn individual it is possible to imagine. He found his way home a1l right, but too late to re-dress and fulfill his engagement with his best girl. He was the owner of a fine 'young horse which his father had given him as a birthday present on the occasion of his becoming "his own man." He was neatly caparisoned with saddle, bridle and martingales, and the rider provided with spurs and a rawhide whip. One Sunday afternoon he dressed in his best suit of clothes, which included a pair of white linen trousers, and started on his famous charger to see his girl. It was late when he got to his destination, and he unbridled and unsaddled his horse and turned him loose in a convenient clover field. It was after midnight when he bade his girl good night and started to go home. A heavy dew had fa1len, and the clover, about two feet high, was thoroughly wet, which meant ruin to his white linen pants. So he concluded to take them off and hang them on the fence until he could go and catch his horse and saddle and bridle him ready for riding home. As he approached, the horse saw him coming. It was in the gray of the morning, and the animal took fright at the ghostly appearance of his master and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him. Our hero took after him and tried to head him off. Round and round the field they went, but he couldn't overtake the thoroughly frightened horse. Daylight was now approaching, and what to do was the all important question uppermost in his mind. There seemed to be no hope of catching him, and so he concluded to let down the bars and permit the horse to escape and go home. The poor horse, worse frightened than ever, jumped over the bars and away he went, head and tail erect, as though the old scratch was after him. The bars were put up, but when our hero went to get his pants he found a calf had got hold of them and chewed them so badly, tearing them into shreds, as to completely spoil them. The horse was gone, his pants were torn to pieces and spoiled. What was to be done under the circumstances ? As it was then daylight, after mature deliberation he concluded to take to the woods and await results. The horse arriving home in such a sorry plight naturally alarmed the family, and, they immediately started in search of the unfortunate young man. The neighborhood was aroused and on examination of the field they found pieces of his white pants, and supposing he had been foully murdered or eaten up by some ravenous wild beast, armed parties were sent in every direction through the woods to see if any trace of him could be found. The women of the neighborhood, including his heart- broken best girl, followed at a distance and the most intense excitement prevailed. Finally the lost .young man was found concealed in a brush heap awaiting the coming of night so he could reach home without exposing his nakedness. 186 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. After the courting was done, and the all important "question" had been "popped," and the party of the second part had said "yes" and vowed eternal fidelity to the party of the first part; and the old man and old woman had been consulted in regard to the all important matter, and had willingly given their consent to the union, and the day had been fixed, then arranging the details for the interesting event was begun. The marriage was generally celebrated at the house of the bride, and she was always accorded the privilege of choosing the officiating clergyman, or preacher, as the case might be. A wedding, however, engaged the attention of the whole neighborhood. It was anticipated with the liveliest interest by both old and young. Everybody, great and small, in the whole neighborhood knew all about it long before it was to come off. In those days they didn't have any printed invitations to send around. Whenever there was to be any inviting done a small boy would be put on a bareback horse and he would ride all around the neighborhood delivering as loud as he could speak it, a message like this: "Say, there's to be a weddin' down to the old man's next Tuesday and they want all you'uns to come!" That was all there was to it, and then he rode off on a canter to the next house. And everybody went, too. There was no holding back for fear of not having been invited the right way. Marrying wasn't done then as it is now. Everybody had to be married by a preacher. They were generally itinerants, or circuit riders, and they were few and far between; didn't get around sometimes oftener than once in two or three months, and so the boys and girls had to make calculations about popping the question and winding up their courting so as to be ready, as it might be a long time between chances. On the morning of the wedding day the groom and his intimate friends assembled at the house of his parents and after due preparation departed en masse for the house of his bride. The journey was sometimes made on horseback, sometimes on foot, and sometimes in farm wagons and carts. It was always a merry journey, and to insure merriment the "little brown jug" was occasionally one of the invited guests. On reaching the house of the bride the ceremony took place. The young folks stood up and the preacher required them to join their right hands, and after making them promise to love, honor and obey each other until death parted them they were pronounced duly and truly married, and thus Two souls with but a single thought, Two hearts that beat as one, were tied up into a double-bow knot, thus to remain forever and a day. Then came the kissing of the bride by the preacher and invited guests.The young folks didn't wear the fine clothes they do now, because there were no such fine clothes to be had. But they were as good looking and better than the average young .people nowadays. Tall and straight, and healthy and happy they were, and they loved each other and no mistake. After the ceremony was over they all sat down to dinner, as many as could find places, and the table, which was a big one, just grouped with wild turkey, and venison, and bear meat, roasted and stewed, and honey, and potatoes, and beans, and the Lord knows what all. Those that couldn't HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 187 find room at the table sat around out of doors and told jokes and nursed their appetites till the guests at the first table got through, when they had a chance to go and do likewise. After dinner there were some presents to be given to the newly married couple. There were no stoves in the settlement then, and there was no finery to be bought, and so the people gave of just what they had, and it was generally something good to eat or useful to wear, or that would come handy when they set up housekeeping. When dinner was over the dancing commenced. There was only one fiddle within a dozen miles, and it was there, and its owner was the biggest man in the house as soon as he began to tune up.The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels, "down outside and up the middle," or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by what was called in those days "jigging ;" that is, two of the four would single out for a jig and were followed by the remaining couple. The jigs were often accompanied with what was called "cutting out," that is, when either of the parties became tired of the dance, on intimation the place was supplied by someone of the company without interruption of the dance. In this way the reel was often continued until the fiddler was exhausted. About 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening a bevy of young girls stole off the bride and put her to bed. In doing this they had to ascend a ladder from the kitchen to the upper floor, which was made of loose boards. Here, in this pioneer bridal chamber, the young, simple-hearted girl was put to bed by her enthusiastic friends. This done, a deputation of young men escorted the groom to the same apartment and placed him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued, and if seats were scarce, which was generally conveniently the case, every young man when not engaged in the dance was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for one of the girls. The "infair," which was held at the home of the groom's parents, took place on the following afternoon and", evening, and generally the same program was substantially carried out. The young married folks soon settled down to the stern realities of life in a log cabin in the woods, provided with a few articles of home-made furniture, and many who have grown old since then look back upon those early scenes as the happiest days of their lives.

Many of these surveyors, with Indian traders, land speculators and government agents, entered into a scheme to persuade the Pottawattomie Indians to make a treaty giving to the government a strip of land 100 feet wide through the entire state from Lake Michigan to the Ohio river , with a contiguous section of land through which the road should run which should belong to the state of Indiana and by it be given to those who should be awarded the contracts to build the road. It was to be a great national thoroughfare, the northern terminus of which was the mouth of Trail creek at Michigan City, and the southern at Madison, Ind. After the treaty .was made the Indiana legislature took the matter up, and among other things named it the "Michigan road." The treaty by which the Pottawattomies granted the land for this road was article 3 of the treaty made October 16, 1826, concluded near the mouth of the Mississinewa, on the Wabash, Indiana, between Lewis Cass of Michigan and James B. Ray and John Tipton of Indiana, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and warriors of the Pottawattomie tribe of Indians.