Fountain County IN Archives History - Books .....Troy Township 1881
************************************************
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 August 25, 2006, 4:13 am

Book Title: History Of Fountain County

TROY TOWNSHIP.

   To the Wabash "the Saxon has come." His conquering foot has trodden the vast
domain from the Atlantic shore to the "Wau-bash-kau-sepe,"—yea, far beyond. "The
weaker race has withered from his presence and sword. By the majestic rivers and
in the depths of the solitary woods the feeble sons of the bow and arrow will be
seen no more. Only their names remain on hill and stream and mountain. The red
man sinks and fails. His eyes are to the west. To the prairies and forests,
the-hunting grounds of his ancestors, he says farewell. He is gone. The cypress
and the hemlock sing his requiem."

   Hard behind the sword, and almost within sound of the aggressive musket,
pressed the feet of the pioneer settler. Virginia sent her kings, and Ohio
pushed them still farther to the front; Kentucky perpetuated the Boone
character; North Carolinians, who "would not pay tribute even to Caesar," sought
freer homes, and New York sent her encyclopaedia she had bought somewhere near
the "hub" of the literary universe. A combination of such mind and muscle proved
a power the most untoward circumstances in the wildest country could not resist,
and he who dared to open a way into this wilderness and implant a never-dying
mark of civilization and progress in this, an enemy's, country, was a hero, and
for bravery deserves equal mention with him who risked life in the heat of battle.

   Troy township annals are not without such heroes. The field of conquest needs
description. It lies in towns 19 and 20 north, and ranges 8 and 9 west. The
surroundings are Shawnee township and Wabash river on the north, Shawnee and Van
Buren townships on the east, Wabash township on the south, while the Wabash
river washes the whole western side, on whose opposite side are Vermilion and
Warren counties, Indiana. The Wabash river encounters the township about forty
rods east of the northwest corner of Sec. 5, T. 20 N., R. 8 W., and cuts through
Sec. 6, same town and range, then Secs. 1, 11, 10, 15, 21, 27, 26, 35, T. 20 N,
R. 9 W., and Secs. 2 and 11,T. 19 N., R. 9 W., making twelve partial sections in
Troy township. There are Also thirty-six complete sections. The surface is
generally undulating, yet there are large level tracts. The soil varies from a
dark, black loam to a yellowish clay, and in other places much gravel is mixed
with the soil, forming natural drainage. Underneath lies a bed of coal, but not
in so rich abundance as farther south, hence it is as yet undeveloped. This
section of Fountain county was mostly timbered land, yet in the northern part is
Osborn's Prairie, so named from Jesse Osborn, who settled part of it in a very
early day. The Wabash river, as it winds to the west, south and east, forms a
large bend as though having at some time been forced from its natural channel to
its present tortuous route. Within this bend the soil is very rich, and seems to
have been especially inviting to early land-seekers.

   It was as early as 1822 that Andrew Lopp obtained a patent for the E. 1/2 of
the N.E. 1/4 of Sec. 7, T. 20 N., R. 8 W.; also the W. 1/2 of the S.E. 1/4 of
Sec. 27. Thomas Patton the W. 2/3 of the S.E. 2/4 of Sec. 27, and William
Alexander the E. 1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 27. but did not settle till later.
In 1823 John Hawkins entered the E. 1/2 of the N. W. 1/4 of Sec. 34. Enoch
Woodbridge also located considerable land. In this year also Archibald Johnson
obtained the S.E. 1/4 of Sec. 7, T. 19 N., R. 8 W., the date of entry being July
28. Whether he settled at this time or not the writer cannot say, but he was
permanently settled here in 1824, when Joshua Walker made his way hither. In T.
20 N., R. 9 W., in 1822, Rezin Shelby entered the E. 1/2 of the N.W. 1/4, also
the W. 1/2 of the N. W. 1/4 of Sec. 14. In the following year, August 4, David
Rawles entered the E. 1/2 of the N.E. 1/4 of Sec. 13; Rezin Shelby the W. 1/2 of
the N. W. 1/4 of Sec. 13; William Saxon the E. 1/2 of the S. W. 1/4 of Sec. 13,
and William Miller and Frederick C. Paine the W. 1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 13.
Joseph Shelby secured the E. 1/2 of the N. E. 1/4 of Sec. 14; Isaac Shelby the
W. 1/2 of the N.E. 1/4 of Sec. 14; George Steeley the S.E. 1/4 and E. 1/2 of the
S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 14, and Lucas Nebeker the W. 1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 14;
also the E. 1/2 of the S. E. 1/4 of Sec. 15. Peter Low obtained the W. 1/2 of
the N.W. 1/4 of Sec. 24. Lucas Nebeker returned to his family, and in the
following year became a permanent settler of Troy township. There accompanied
him John and William Bilsland. 1824 witnessed the arrival of quite a number of
pioneers, and much land was purchased of the government. John Bilsland entered
the W. 1/2 of the S. E. 1/4 of Sec. 15, and William Bilsland the E. 1/2 of the
N.E. 1/4 of Sec. 23. Lucas Nebeker added more land to his first entry. Mr.
Nebeker became one of the first men of the county and figured largely in the
county organization. He was also prominent in the early church. In this year,
1824, Ignatius Morris entered the W. 1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 12; George
Steeley the S.E. fraction of ninety-three acres of the N. 1/2 of Sec. 15; David
Rawles also entered more land in this year. Joseph McCune obtained the W. 1/2 of
the N, E. 1/4 of Sec. 23, also the W. 1/2 of the N. W. 1/4 of Sec 23, and Abner
Baum secured the E. 1/2 of the S. E. 1/4 of Sec. 23, all of T. 20 N., R. 9 W.

   In this same year (1824) Joshua "Walker made the acquaintance of Archibald
Johnson, whom he found in the southern part of the township, or T. 19 N., R. 8
W. Mr. Walker was born in Kentucky in 1798, and emigrated with his parents,
James and Catharine Walker, to Franklin county, Indiana, in 1811, and in the
following winter to Wayne county. Joshua, at the age of twenty-six years, having
accumulated some money, set out to seek an addition to his little fortune. He
was induced by Mr. Johnson to invest in eighty-five acres of land, being the W.
fraction of the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 7, now occupied by Henry La Tourette. Mr.
Walker then pushed on to the lead mines of Illinois, where he spent about three
years without much success. He, in 1828, returned to Fountain county, and
improved his farm and added more land. He is now (1880) one of Fountain county's
oldest citizens. He claims to have built the first log cabin on the spot where
the city of Indianapolis has reared her spires, built her stately edifices and
immense business structures, and transformed a forest into a city of palaces.
James Briggs also entered land in 1824, his patents calling for the E. 1/2 of
the N.E. 1/4 and the E. 1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 9. William Blue must have
made his advent not far from this time. He was a Virginian. He improved several
different farms in Fountain county. At his death, in 1873, he owned 900 acres of
land. Jesse Osborn came in 1824, and entered 480 acres of prairie land in the
northern part of Troy township, giving his name to the whole prairie. He moved
to Missouri in 1839, and died in 1845, and Margaret, his wife, died in 1847. W.
M. Osborn, his son, returned to Fountain county, and makes his home here.

   David Anderson entered the E. 1/2 of S.E. 1/4 of Sec. 27. Each year swelled
the ranks of the army of toilers seeking western fields of labor. Reinforcements
were always welcomed by those already at the front. No sooner was it known that
"John Smith" had arrived, than the hearty yeomanry turned out in force, and with
ox and merriment soon reared the usual dwelling of the forest for the new-comer,
and Smith in turn assisted, perhaps the next day, in a similar pleasure. 1825
brought James C. Denton, and made him possessor of the E. 1/2 of the N. W. 1/4
of Sec. 32; also the W. 1/2 of the N. W. 1/4, T. 20 N., R. 8 W. In T. 19 N., R.
8 W., Samuel Dollinger obtained the W. 1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 4; Jacob
Cooke, the E. 1/2 of the S. E. 1/4 of Sec. 5; James Carwile, the E. 1/2 of the
N. W. 1/4 of Sec. 7. Solomon Clarke entered the W. 1/2 of the S.E. 1/4 of Sec.
9; and Archibald Johnson also bought more land. 1826 witnessed the arrival of
Samuel Wilson, Richard Hardisty, Francis Hardisty, Thomas Moore, William Osborn,
Isaac De Haven. Joseph and Forgas Graham, John Long and John Ward, all settlers
of T. 20 N., R. 8 W. John and Sarah La Tourette made their advent in 1826, and
were highly respected citizens. Their son, Henry La Tourette, an ex-officer of
the county, and whose portrait appears in this history, is one of the best
farmers of Troy township. William Franklin Ward and Sarah E. Ward entered the E.
1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of Sec. 2, T. 19, R. 8, and spent the rest of their days in
Fountain county. Samuel Campbell, Isaac Clark, Jonahan [sic] Cunningham,
Christopher Heath, David Sewell, Jeremiah Heath, William Johnson and Samuel
Vansickle made land entries in Troy township in 1827, and in the following year
Robert Caldwell, William Robe, Matthew Berkley, Arthur Clelland, Jesse Martin
and William S. Crain arrived. In this year came Jacob De Haven and the parents
of W. C. B. Sewell. Many others, no doubt, became residents of Troy township,
but not having entered land, or having moved to other parts, are forgotten. The
space allotted to these notes debars the writer from following year by year the
arrivals. Those already mentioned comprise, perhaps, the greater number of those
who may be considered among the first settlers. Could we picture to the reader
of to-day the limited circumstances, the hardships and inconveniences,
experienced by those whom we specially term pioneers, scarcely would he believe
the picture to be a, true one, so great has been the change. Witness the pioneer
fare: Corn was eaten in various ways. The earliest mode of preparation was to
bake the dough on a smooth board about two feet long and six or eight inches
wide, placed on the hearth, slanting toward the fire. When one side was baked
the bread was turned over for baking the other side. When lard was plentiful the
dough was shortened. When thus prepared it was called "Johnny cake." Sometimes
the dough was made into lumps, baked, and called "corn dodger." At other times
the dough was raised with yeast, then baked in a Dutch oven, and called "pone,"
— a decided improvement over its antecedents. The cake of that primitive age was
usually "pound cake." In making this the good cook used corn meal instead of
flour, as used in the present day. The other ingredients were nearly the same as
used to-day. Mush and milk was a common dish for supper. An old settler remarked
that when eating this one should have one foot in bed and the other ready, so
that as soon as supper was over he might sleep. Before mills for grinding were
built, green corn was boiled and roasted, and frequently constituted the meal in
[unreadable] hominy, known as "lye hominy," was prepared by soaking corn in lye
till the husk would readily leave the grain, when it was pounded in a mortar and
thoroughly broken. The mortar was formed by hollowing a dry, solid stump or.
log, either with axe or fire. The pestle was of wood. The cracked corn was of
two grades, large hominy and small hominy. Then, to large hominy and small
hominy, large pone and small pone, Johnny-cake, hoe-cake and dodgers, we may add
boiled dumplings and fried-cakes, all made from corn. Was there scarcity of
meats? Not at all. The table was bountifully supplied with venison, opossum,
raccoon, squirrel, rabbit and pork, wild turkey, pheasants, pigeons, ducks,
quails, etc., cooked in divers ways, to suit the taste or times. For drink the
pioneer supped his bread coffee, crust coffee, meal coffee, potato coffee, wheat
and flour coffee, sassafras tea, spicewood tea, beach-leaf and sycamore chips
tea. Their vegetables were potatoes, pumpkins, turnips, and for early use
"greens," or weeds. For delicacies at weddings, log rollings, etc., frumities
and custards were in order. Did the women play any important part? How could it
be otherwise? Witness them as they contrive to prepare the daily meals at the
fireplace, about eight feet in the clear. The kettles were hung over the fire to
a strong pole, raised so high above the fire as not to be likely to ignite from
heat and sparks, and whose ends are fastened in the sides of the chimney. The
kettles were suspended on trammels, which were pieces of iron rods with a hook
at each end. The uppermost one extended from the pole nearly down to the fire,
and with one or more short ones the kettles were brought to their proper height
above the coals. Wooden hooks were used till iron was obtained. A long-handled
frying-pan was used, in which to fry meat. The poor woman held the frying-pan
while the meat cooked, and while she cooked, also. A more convenient utensil was
a cast-iron, short-handled, three-legged spider, or skillet, which was set upon
the coals on the hearth. Turkeys and spareribs were sometimes roasted before the
fire, suspended by a string, a dish being placed underneath to receive the
drippings. But the poor women always suffered, their hair being singed, their
hands blistered, and their dresses scorched. Thus progressed the culinary art,
the hardy and hearty pioneer always ready for the repast. But this was not
woman's only work. Flax was raised, and women pulled it, rolled it, broke it,
scutched it, swingled it, and hatcheled it, and then came the spinning. The
spinning wheel was a stringed instrument, which furnished the principal music of
the household, as operated by our mothers and grandmothers with, great skill,
obtained without expense. The loom, too, had its place, almost every house
becoming a woolen factory. While all was industry within, so it was also
without. The wooden mould-board plow was busy. The iron part was a bar, two feet
long, with a broad share of iron welded to it. At the extreme point was a
coulter, that passed through a beam six or seven feet long, to which there were
attached handles of corresponding length. The mould-board was of wood, split
from a winding piece of timber, or hewed into a winding shape in order to turn
the soil over. The idea of a cast-iron plow had not yet entered the brain of the
inventor, Jethro Wood, of Cayuga county, New York, and many years passed ere the
first "Cincinnati plow" made its appearance. The triangular harrow, or drag, was
also an early implement. It consisted of two pieces of timber about six feet
long and five inches square, hewed before the day of mills, then frequently
sawed. The end of one was framed into the end of the other, forming an acute
angle, the two sides kept apart by a cross-piece of timber framed into the
others near their centers, all forming the letter "A." Before iron came wooden
teeth were used, but the prevalence of roots destroyed them rapidly, so that
iron teeth, twice as heavy as those now used, were obtained as soon as possible.
The farming went on slowly and arduously till the improvements of modern times
entirely changed the mode of procedure and results.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF FOUNTAIN COUNTY,

TOGETHER WITH
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE WABASH VALLEY,

GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS
PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER AUTHENTIC, THOUGH, FOR THE MOST
PART, OUT-OF-THE-WAY SOURCES.

BY H. W. BECKWITH,
OF THE DANVILLE BAR; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES OF
WISCONSIN AND CHICAGO.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHICAGO: H. H. HILL AND N. IDDINGS, PUBLISHERS.
1881.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/fountain/history/1881/historyo/troytown63nms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/infiles/

File size: 15.9 Kb