Adams County IN Archives History - Books .....Chapter VIII I. H. Stone 1896 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 17, 2007, 7:54 pm Book Title: Reminiscences Of Adams, Jay And Randolph Counties CHAPTER VIII. At the earnest request of a friend I am asked to pen a few of the many reminicences of bygone days spent in Indiana. In the fall of 1864 my wife and I and one child emigrated from Hocking County, Ohio, in a two-horse wagon with, our household effects to Indiana. On the evening of the 10th of September, 1864, we drew up in front of Daniel Weldy's house, in Kirkland Township, Adams County, Ind. Some two weeks later we moved into a log house two mils west of Decatur, on the Fitzgerald farm. In November I was employed to teach the Beach Grove school in Kirkland Township, seven miles west of Decatur, where I spent the winter. The old log school house situated at a cross-road in the forrest, at that time presented a rather wild appearance at its surroundings. From where I lived, on the Bob Niblick farm, to the school house a distance of one mile through the woods, was the grand crossing for deer, wild turkey, coons, opussums and the porcupine, all of which I often got sight of in the spring of 1865. With the mud fourteen inches deep, with my few household effects it took a four-horse team to haul what little we had at that time to Pleasant Mills, in St. Mary's Township, where we remained until the following September, when we moved to Decatur. At this time it was not an infrequent occurrence to see teams mire down to the axle of the wagon and have to be pried up with rails any where between where the Old Adams County Bank now stands and the Presbyterian church on Second street. There were two different times, between 1865 and 1867, that I paid $16.00 per barrel for flour and 25 cents for smoked hams, and other things in proportion. At that time the old county cemetery was far out in the woods south of town, and the present site of the Catholic church was then west of the now city of Decatur, far out among the logs and stumps, and where the G. R. & I. depot now stands was a lake of water where the boys fished in summer and skated in the winter, and those who came to town on foot in the spring had to cross this lake on the rail fence. At this time it was nothing strange to see the old St. Mary's river two weeks raising and two weeks falling with a 10-foot depth of water on the Zimmerman bottom land. In 1867 or 1868, after a heavy rainfall, the water was deep enough on Second street to run a large skift or row boat, with every cellar in town indunated. On Christmas day in 1871 the first construction train on the G. R. & I. came into town, at which time a free dinner was given, and what a time we had. It was said that a man living suoth [sic] of town ate one-half of a roasted ox and drank a barrel of beer, but with all this the iron horse went through. In 1864 Decatur had 800 of a population, and now with the multiplied resources of our country Decatur can baost [sic] of 4,500, with three railroads and brick paved streets and a first-class water works plant and also an electric light plant. But now the scene has changed, the birds have grown, and they have flown; then I was 28, and now I am 60. The shades of the evening of life is fast approaching, but with all this the invention of man will only make the world hustle that much the faster. From a friend, May 25, 1896. I. H. STONE. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Reminiscences of Adams, Jay and Randolph Counties Compiled by Martha C. M. Lynch Ft. Wayne, IN: Lipes, Nelson & Singmaster Circa 1896 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/adams/history/1896/reminisc/chapterv474gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb