Jay County IN Archives History - Books .....Chapter XX 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 December 9, 2007, 1:45 am Book Title: Reminiscences Of Adams, Jay And Randolph Counties CHAPTER XX. A sketch of the life of F. M. McLaughlin, now a resident of the city of Portland, Jay County, Ind. His father, John McLaughlin, was one of the pioneers of Jay County, Indiana; he was born in Bath County, Virginia, February 21st, 1799, and resided there until he was 22 years of age. Although a native of a slave state, he imbided a hatred of slavery, and the cause of his leaving his native state was the danger he incurred for chastising a slave driver for beating a slave. His mother was also a native of Randolph County, Virginia, being born December 21st, 1805, and resided there until her 15th year, when her father, Christopher Spillman, emigraed to Meigs County, Ohio, where she was married to my father, John McLaughlin, August 24th, 1824. To this union eleven children were born, six boys and five girls, six of whom are still living. William, John, Wiley and the subject of this sketch were soldiers during the late war of the Rebellion. Wiley was killed at the battle of Franklin, Tenn., while making a charge on the rebel lines. My father emigrated to Jay County in November, 1833, and settled in Madison Township, on the farm now owned by J. Armstrong. On his arrival he found that he had insufficient money to pay the entry fee on the land he wished to enter, consequently he was obliged to relinquish this land for the time, and with the hope of securing some land for his own, he went to Kosciosko County where he rented a farm on which he lived until October 1st, 1837, when he returned to Jay County and entered 160 acres of land one half of a mile east of the village of Salamonia. While living in Kosciosko County, the subject of this sketch was born, April 9th, 1836, and was one year and six months old when he arrived in Jay County, so that I was born the same year that Jay County was organized and came to the county in the same year that the town, now city, of Portland was laid out, so that you will see that I have saw the county transformed from a vast wilderness to what it now is. My father killed a wolf near the house the same day that my Brother John was born. I was but one and a half years old when we arrived in this county, and here I was reared on a farm and subject to all of the hardships of a pioneer life; I never had a pair of shoes until I was 13 years old; there was quite a number of Indians in Jay County at the time of the McLaughlin family coming to the county, and I just then learning to talk, and one Indian took quite a fancy to what they called the white papoose, and learned me to talk the Indian language, some of which I now remember yet. I recollect very well the first cigar I ever saw; some person found it about half a mile from our house, near the blacksmith shop of George Beard, and when I heard that they had found a cigar I had no idea what it looked like. I imagined that it was a fancy pipe of some kind, so I told mother that I was going to see it. She refused me this privilege, but I told her that I would go, and she said that I must not, as it was through the woods all the way, but my curiosity was so aroused that I ran away and went, and when I arrived at Mr. Beard's I told them that I had come to see that cigar that had been found. They got it and showed it to me, but I told them that they could not play that kind of a trick on me, as I wanted to see the cigar that had been found, and not a leaf of tobacco that had been twisted up, but Mrs. Beard told me that it was the cigar, and I think that I went home the worst disgusted boy you ever saw. I had no opportunity to go to school and had no clothes sufficient to keep me warm in winter time, and there was no school in the summer time, and if there had been, we could not have went, as we all had to work in the summer to clear up the farm. The only way that I got any education at all was that every dime I got I bought a book with and every moment that I had from work I was readin or writing on something with a piece of chalk or coal or anything I could get hold of. There was a preacher at our house one time and we stole his pony out and run a race with one of our horsese and they collided in the race and knocked me off and pretty nearly broke my neck. We had a cross ram and we used to take it by turns and stand out and let him make a run at us and see who could dodge him, and my Brother John one day failed to dodge him, and he nearly broke his back for him, and father did not know we had been teasing the ram and he killed him for butting John. In those times we could only farm the higher lands, and the black soil that is now the best of land was all under water and was only inhabited with frogs and snakes the whole year round, and when we got a piece of ground cleared and raised a crop of corn on it, it was almost impossible to save it, as there were so many coons, foxes, squirrels, turkeys and deers to eat it that we had to constantly watch it until it was ripe sufficient to be shucked and brought in, and I can now hardly believe how plenty these wild animals were. I have saw twenty to twenty-five deers at one time. I at one time shot twenty squirrels from one tree, and very well remember the day that my oldest sister, Jane, was married. I think that it was in January, 1846. The old folks did not inform us of the wedding, but we found it out and my older brothers, Hugh, William and John, felt that they had been slighted, and they ran away and went hunting, and it being Sunday, they felt hurt about the slight, took to the woods early in the morning; I could not go, as I had no shoes to wear, and they never returned until it was getting dark in the evening. Just about the time that the preacher was ready to perform the ceremony the three boys came marching in. They had ten rabbits, eight opossums, two raccoons, a fox and a mink. They had them all strung on one pole and it was a little embarrassing for father, but they all had a good laugh on the amount of game the boys had caught and the wedding went on all the same. I had forgotten what kind of a dress that my sister wore no that occasion, I interviewed her a few days ago and she says that she thinks that it was a blue calico that she could buy anywhere now for 4 cents a yard; she says she worked out and waited on sick folks for 50 cents a week and took calico at 37 1/2 cents per yard for her pay, and that was the way that she got her wedding dress, and six yards made the dress, as that was all that they put in a dress at that time. I remember that she wore a cap; all brides at that time wore a cap like their grandmothers wore when they got married. We think that we have hard times now, but we are living in paradise to what we did then. I have often saw the time when we got up in the morning that we could not get any breakfast until we grated meal enough for a big family on a piece of tin with holes punched through it with a nail. I could give you many more incidents of early life in Jay County, but I have already taken up too much space. My father died in March, i860, leaving my mother not in good circumstances; he had 40 acres of land near the village of Salamonia, which she choose as her dower in the estate; there was no house on it, only an old log cabin, and I did not think it fit for her to live in, so I set out to build her a house. I cut and hewed the logs for a house and Brother Hugh hauled them for me, and I built her a hewed log house. It took all the money that she and I both had to complete it and I had to trade my silver watch to the carpenters to get it finished. About that time the war came on and we all went to the army and left her and my youngest sister, Rebecca, who now lives near Toledo, Ohio, to do the farming and to get along the best that they could, I left the service in the fall of 1863 and returned home. Miss Susan Keck, a Liber student, was borading at my mother's and teaching the village school, and on the 18th day of October, 1863, we were married and commenced housekeeping in the old cabin that was situated near my mother's house. Mv wife was a good scholar and was a great help to me; she being a fine mathematecian, I learned much from her teaching after our marriage. I rented mother's farm and we started to make a living. I had $60 in money that I had saved up, and that was all the money we had to start on, and that only bought us a cook stove, six wooden chairs and a few other trinkets, and all our money was gone and Mrs. McLaughlin traded her watch for a set of dishes, and we thought that we were pretty well fixed. I farmed for a living until 1871, taking jobs of ditching and farming, and I managed to make a living until 1871, when I was elected as recorder of Jay County, serving two terms of four years each, and by economy and by the help of my good wife, we secured a reasonable good home. Six children have been born to us, three girls and three boys, all of whom are now living, three being married and three single. My wife was always a faithful and a noble wife and a hard worker, and through exposure she contracted consumption, which baffled all medical skill, and on the 23rd day of April, 1894, she died, since which time I have had a very lonely life and am only waiting for the time to come when we may be united in the spirit land. F. M. McLAUGHLIN. 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/jay/history/1896/reminisc/chapterx559gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 10.1 Kb