Sullivan County IN Archives History - Books .....Chapter XV 1884
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Book Title: History Of Greene And Sullivan Counties, Indiana

CHAPTER XV.
BY J. E. NORRIS.

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP—EARLY TRIALS AND HARDSHIPS—PRIMITIVE IMPLEMENTS—CLIMATE AND
TIMBER—VERY EARLY SETTLERS—FIRST HOUSE —SOME PIONEER NAMES—FIRST CHURCH AND
PREACHERS—A PRIMITIVE SUNDAY SCHOOL—SCHOOL AND TEACHERS—THE FIRST MILL—VARIOUS
MATTERS — PLEASANTYILLE — BUSINESS INTERESTS—SCHOOLS, CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES.

ON the 8th day of March, 1854, Jefferson Township was created out of Haddon with
its present territory, except Sections 5 and 8 in the western part, which have
since been added, and an election was ordered to be held at the house of James
S. Reid, James F. Harvey being appointed Inspector of Elections. The name, of
course, was given the township in honor of the great apostle of Democracy, the
immortal Jefferson, and the citizens have steadily maintained the doctrines of
that party at all elections ever since.

EARLY TRIALS AND HARDSHIPS.

   Settlements were made early, and the trials and hardships through which the
settlers passed are almost beyond belief at this late date when everything, even
farm machinery, is largely propelled by steam. The land is excellent, there
scarcely being any superior to it in the State, and all the productions with
which Nature so bountifully blesses the industrious husbandman can be produced
in abundance here. The implements with which the early farmer had to till his
acres were few and very simple in construction. The plow was the old
"bar-share," with a wooden mold-board and long handles; and the team had to be
stopped sometimes two or three times in going across the field to clean off the
closing: soil. The hoes and rakes and axes and harrows were exceedingly
primitive, but the yield was so great that there was ample compensation for the
hardships and inconveniences attendant upon the labors of the tiller. The first
little crop consisted of a patch of corn, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, and a strip
or two of flax for the women; a little tobacco, also, was raised, and cotton
enough for home purposes. The flax and cotton brought into use the spinning
wheel, and many a bright striped garment finished for the Sunday's wear has set
the heart of the anxious wearer almost wild with delight as she donned it and
went off to meetin' in the log schoolhouse three or four miles away, and many a
hardy youngster has thought himself dressed as finely as a Chicago dude when he
stepped out in a spick and span new pair of tow-linen pants, with genuine store
"galluses" to hold them up. Oh, those were grand old times, when everything was
what it seemed to be; when butter was made from cows, and the storekeeper didn't
have to give a prize to sell his coffee.

CLIMATE AND TIMBER.

   The climate in this section of the State being mild, the pioneers were
greatly favored, for they could work late in the fall and early in the spring.
Timber was very scarce, however, and it was difficult to get the proper logs
with which to build cabins without going many miles. It is said that at one or
two raisings, when the matter had been overlooked, the "raisers" had to go
several miles away to cut saplings to make handspikes. Firewood, consequently,
was scarce, but it was not long till Nature's great storehouse of fuel was
utilized, and coal became and is now almost as cheap as dirt. The whole surface
of the township is, doubtless, underlaid by immense deposits of the best of
bituminous coal. It crops out in almost any ravine, and from ten to twenty feet
of digging exposes veins of three to ten feet in thickness. Some day this rich
field of the useful mineral will make Jefferson as independent of all other
sources of wealth as some sections of Pennsylvania. At present, there is no
railroad here, and as for other roads—don't mention it. Sullivan County is far
behind in this regard, yet there is no stone in this section with which to build
a road, the only substitute being the gravel away off in the Wabash bottoms.

THE VERY EARLY SETTLERS.

   In 1815, Jesse Beck came to this section and settled on the spot where now is
located Pleasantville, and where he lived till he was eighty-two years of age.
He opened the first farm and made the ordinary improvements of that early day.
Some of his descendants are yet living in the township. In 1816, he had a son
born to him, John H. Beck, who was the first white child born in the township,
and who is yet living. Jesse built the first house in the township, which stood
for many years on the site of Pleasantville, but which has now entirely
disappeared. When that old log cabin was built in the then wilderness, it was
indeed a palatial mansion, and the wife of the old pioneer deemed herself as
happy as the most favored lady of the land. When she and her husband first came,
they had to live in their wagon until the cabin was erected, and many a night
the couple lay down in the bottom of it, not knowing whether the morning sun
would greet their eyes, or whether the bullet or tomahawk of some lurking savage
would arouse them to their deaths. The hardships and privations of those old
pioneers can never be recorded in all its verity, and we can only look back to
those times with a sort of wonder how they successfully passed through them, and
to think of them with all the feeling and respect that one can have, surrounded
as we are by the comforts and conveniences that modern progress has furnished.
After Beck, James Reid settled a farm and built him a cabin, and then James
Mayfield came in. and he, too, settled a farm and built a cabin. And thus the
community began to grow, for between 1815 and 1820 many settlers came. Wendell
Hinkle came, and Uncle Johnny Bedwell, and Rev. James F. Harvey, Henry Moody,
the Howards, Jones Enochs, and a little later, Pleasant M. O'Haver, brother of
J. K. O'Haver, who settled in Haddon, and who afterward became a prominent
citizen of Sullivan County. Those and many others afterward came and swelled the
numbers, but they are now dead. The settlers came mostly from North Carolina,
Tennessee and Kentucky, but a few were from Virginia and other Southern States.
Pleasant O'Haver came from Tennessee and was one of the most prominent men of
the township; he owned 1,400 acres of land, and was a highly respected and
active business man. He left sis sons and three daughters, among whom is Mr.
William P. O'Haver, of Pleasantville, who is one of the leading citizens of
Jefferson.

SOME PIONEER NAMES.

   Among the early settlers now living, some of whom are sons of those mentioned
above, are the following: Aunt Jenny Bedwell, who is eighty-seven years of age;
Benjamin Corbin, eighty-two; Elias Newkirk, eighty-two; S. J. Bedwell, George
Baker, Francis Harvey, James N. Enochs, Samuel Enochs, John Enochs, Cornelius
Howard, James M. Bedwell, Elisha Bedwell, Lacey Wood, Benjamin Cleveland,
Benjamin Sisson, James Houldson, Eli Woodward, William P. O'Haver, John Wells,
John Shake, Francis Newkirk, George Mayfield, Robert McClung, J. T. Jackson, H.
Milburn, S. C. Hale, Francis Wells, and there may be several others.

   Owing to the fact of there being little or no timber in the township in the
early days, the country was comparatively free of marauding Indians; they only
occasionally passed through on their way to better hunting tracts. The last of
the redskins to pass through the country were a band of Shawanese (now spelled
Shawnee), who camped for a short time on Black Creek.

FIRST CHURCH AND PREACHERS.

   The first church society was organized in 1819, by Rev. John McCord, one of
those self-sacrificing and brave old pioneer Methodist ministers, who may have
been found in all the early settlements of the West, and it seems that, no
matter where one searches for information of the early history of any specified
locality, he will be sure to find some grand old hero in the garb of a simple
worker for the Lord in the wilderness, such as Father McCord and others of his
type. Those pioneer preachers came to the early settlements with their Bibles in
one hand and their rifles in the other, and were as quick to hold up the one as
to look along the barrel of the other. No timid time-servers were they; no
hair-splitting theologians; no sticklers for "under the water," "out of the
water" or-"in the water;" ah, no; they came to proclaim the word of Jesus Christ
and to call all men from sin to righteousness: they cared not for creeds in the
abstract, and it made little difference to them through which gate the sinner
entered the hereafter, so that they did enter. The voices of these old leaders
in the van of civilization could be heard on Sunday morning from beneath some
shady tree, or from the steps of some humble log cabin, and the sturdy listeners
and their wives and children went away better prepared for the hardships on the
morrow. This first church was organized with five members, one of whom, Aunt
Jenny Bedwell, is still living. They met at various houses for some years, but
in 1824 a church building was erected, it being a log cabin, and stood upon the
spot where now is the cemetery at Pleasantville. Every vestige of that humble
house of the Lord has passed away, and nothing, save the hallowed memories of
those who worshiped there, remains. But there are those-who can look back at the
little building, and give thanks that it was within its sacred walls they first
knew what it was to feel the divine forgiveness, and that satisfaction of mind
that those only feel who have thrown themselves upon the mercy of Him who maketh
the burden light.

A PRIMITIVE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

   The first Sunday school was organized in 1830, by Rev. John Ritchey, and was
attached to the Methodist Church. Phillip Hinkle was the first Superintendent.

SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS.

   The first school was conducted in the church building above mentioned, and
the first teacher was Jesse Beck, the next James Reid; then Rev. James F.
Harvey, followed by Isaac Owen, James W. Hinkle and others. The old schoolhouse
was known for many years as the "college," and in it the most of the middle-aged
citizens of the vicinity of Pleasantville secured their education or the
foundation for the same. In the early times, education was not looked upon by a
certain class with as much favor as it is now, and considerable currency was
given to the supposed correct aphorism: "The more learning, the more rascality."
But the educational history of a township should interest every well-meaning
citizen. Nothing conduces so much to the prosperity of any section of country as
good schools, and although those early schools, the teachers and what was
considered the curriculum were extremely primitive, yet they laid good
foundations, and have gradually given the lie to what used to be said by many
otherwise well-meaning persons, that "gals didn't need to know nothin' about
books, and all that boys orter know was to grub, maul rails and hunt." Such
senseless prejudices, born of ignorance and envy, have descended in some measure
to the present time, and yet tinge the complexion of many localities. Around
those old pioneer school -houses, those old-log cabins of learning, what
memories cluster! What memories of happy, sunny days, when tow-linen slips were
worn by the boys, and when the rosy-cheeked girls were proud of their homespun
linsey frocks, all striped with yellow and red, and when a pair of new shoes was
an event in the life of boy or girl. How cheerily each pupil started off from
home in the morning, carrying his little basket or pail containing his humble
dinner, and what sports there were before school and at recess; and what fun it
was to lock the teacher out till he promised to treat to cider and apples! Oh!
those days of genuine, unalloyed pleasures come up from the dim past, yet linger
fondly in the memory of all who enjoyed them. And the stern master, whose depth
of lore was looked upon as something wonderful. He was the intellectual center
of the entire neighborhood, and within whose cranium was supposed to dwell all
the knowledge that was worth treasuring up by man. He was the oracle on all
subjects, and his nod was sufficient to settle the most difficult problems. But
the old schoolmaster—him of the "olden times"—has passed away like many other
good things.

THE FIRST MILL.

   The first mill in the township was erected in 1830, by James S. Reid and
James F. Harvey, and it was, up to that time, the most important improvement
introduced to the community. Before its erection the settlers had to go many
miles to have their grain ground, and the trip would often occupy three days.
But now they had a mill of their own, and need not depend upon the far-off
settlements for their bread. The completion of the mill brought business, also,
to the section where it was located, and many farmers from a distance brought to
it their grists. The mill, of course, was extremely primitive, but the meal it
turned out was doubtless relished quite as highly as that produced by the
new-fangled patent processes of the present time.

EARLY  MERCHANDISING.

   The first stock of goods was brought to the township by Jackson Hinkle, about
1850. A small cyclone passed through the northern portion of the township in
1846, and destroyed considerable timber. Black Creek and Maria Creek, two small
streams, cross portions of the township. Very little drainage is done, but some
efforts are being made to introduce the earthen pipe, now being manufactured at
Paxton, in Had-don Township, and at other points. The land is very productive,
and excellent crops of wheat, corn, oats and some tobacco are raised, whilst
hogs, cattle and sheep are shipped in considerable quantities from Marco and
Carlisle.

VARIOUS MATTERS.

   There is no railroad at present in the township, but there is a prospect of
one at no distant day, as steps are already being taken to secure the passage
through this section of the Indianapolis, Eel River & Vincennes road. The
completion of this road will mark an era in Jefferson of no small importance, as
it will furnish an outlet for the immense beds of coal that underlie the surface
in all sections of the township. There are. notwithstanding the fact that there
is, comparatively, no outlet for the product, five mines opened, two of which
are being worked, one of which is leased and operated by George Sage, and the
other by George Suit.

   There are in the township fourteen good schoolhouses, all of brick, with an
attendance of about 500 pupils. In the matter of churches, there are, outside of
Pleasantville, four: one of the Baptist denomination, at Indian Prairie, of
brick, with Rev. W. Wood as pastor; one Methodist Episcopal, at Mount Moriah, of
log, with Rev. Dayton Harvey as pastor; one Christian, at Shiloh, of brick, and
one Christian, at Bethany, frame, with Rev. Price as pastor.

    There are two saw mills in the township, one one mile west of Pleasantville,
owned by B. Sisson, and one three miles southwest of same-point, owned by J. S.
Anderson and Theophilus Cox.

   The population of the township is about 2,000, and casts a vote of about 400.
The Trustees at the first organization were, as well as can be remembered,
Jackson Hinkle and Eli Woodward. The present officers are: Trustee, Jeremiah
Daugherty; Justice of the Peace, Reuben Gilmore; Constable, Charles H. Lucas. W.
P. O'Haver is Notary Public.

PLEASANTVILLE.

   In 1862, the erection of a steam mill was begun on the site where now stands
the only town or village in the township—Pleasantville. The building of this
mill was started by John Martin, who before finishing the same sold it to P. M.
O'Haver, S. J. Bedwell and J. L. Smith, but the two latter gentlemen afterward
sold their interests to P. M. O'Haver, who then completed the mill and put it in
operation at a cost of over $7,000. Mr. O'Haver run it for several years, and
finally disposed of it to three of his sons, who in turn afterward sold it to
Underhill & Martin. The mill is at present in successful operation, has two run
of buhrs, and does excellent work. It is, excepting the coal mines, the chief
interest of the township.

BUSINESS INTERESTS,

   About this mill, as a nucleus, in the spring of 1866, Mr. William P. O'Haver
laid off the town of Pleasantville, the plat consisting of about forty acres,
and naming the new town from the given name of his father— Pleasant O'Haver. The
proprietor then built quite a number of houses, and started the first store,
since which time the place has improved considerably, it now having a large and
growing trade. The following comprise the business interests: General stores,
O'Haver & Booker, Moore & Howard, S. J. Bedwell; drug stores, C. J. O'Haver,
Allen Booker; harness, J. Timerman, S. M. Howard & Bro.; shoe shops, N.
Timerman; undertaker and dealer in furniture, George Baker; wagon shop, J. L.
Douthitt; two blacksmith shops; brickyard, W. P. O'Haver; bricklayers, T. N. and
Joseph McClung; carpenters and builders, J. O. Birdsall, W. L. Berry, J. H.
Jackson; physicians and surgeons, James McDowell, W. A. Fleming, L. C. McDowell,
T. B. Mayfield; Postmaster, W. P. O'Haver.

   There are two good schools in the town having an attendance of about ninety
pupils. Teachers, J. Shannon Ogg and Albert Ogg.

PRESENT CHURCHES.

   The Methodist Episcopal Church society has a neat frame building and a
parsonage, with a membership of over 300; Rev. Dayton Harvey, pastor. Local
ministers, Rev. W. P. O'Haver, L. R. Edmonds, J. W. Hinkle. The church also has
a flourishing Sunday school, with an attendance of about 150 pupils. J. W.
Hinkle is Superintendent.

   The Baptist Church society has a very fine church edifice, and the
denomination is in quite a flourishing condition. They have a membership of over
ninety persons. Rev. W. Wood is pastor in charge. They have also a Sunday school
of about forty scholars. A. Wood is the Superintendent.

   The Presbyterian Church society has a very neat edifice, in which they have
stated services, Rev. J. P. Fox officiating as pastor. Membership about thirty
persons.

   In connection with these churches and their influence on society, there are
some significant facts, which not only redound to the honor of these humble
houses of the Lord, but to the cause of religion in general. Since the
organization of that little band of five persons into a Methodist society in the
year 1819, and that little Sunday school of 1830, the township has turned out
fourteen ministers of the Gospel, one of whom. Rev. Isaac Owen, was one of the
founders of De Pauw University, and who also became a famous divine on the
Pacific Coast; another, A. P. Forsythe, served a term in the United States
Congress; several others became well known ministers in different sections of
the countow. From this same community have emanated twenty physicians and 130
common school teachers. This result, when the paucity of population is taken
into consideration, is extremely creditable to Jefferson Township.

SOCIETIES.

   In the matter of secret and benevolent societies, the township has been at
the front. Some years ago, when the Patrons of Husbandry were in full blast, a
flourishing grange was located in Pleasantville. They had a fine store in
successful operation, having built a commodious building for that purpose and
for the holding of their grange meetings, but after a time the experiment, like
all undertakings where people enter businesses for which they have had no
training, the co-operative store was given up, and the grange is now numbered
among the things that were.

   In January, 1873, a charter was received from the Grand Lodge of Indiana, I.
O. O. F.. for the organization of Pleasantville Lodge, No. 408, which was duly
instituted. The following are the present chief officers: W. A. Rooksbury, N.
G.; J. T. Howard, V. G.; J. G. Jackson, Secretary; James M. Howard, Financial
Secretary. The lodge numbers about forty members.

   In 1879, in answer to petition, the Grand Encampment of the State issued a
charter and Pleasantville Encampment, No. 148, was organized. The present
officers are: William Underbill, C. P.; W. P. O'Haver, H. P.; S. A. Maxwell, S.
W.; J. M. Howard, J. W.; T. B. O'Haver, Scribe; S. M. Howard, F. S.; W. A.
Harbin, Treasurer. The membership is twenty.

   Pleasantville Lodge, No. 7, I. O. G. T., is in quite a flourishing condition.
The following are the officers: W. P. O'Haver, W. C. T.; Callie Loudon, W. V.
T.; Hattie Edmonds, Secretary; S. E. Paxton, A. S.; Charles Berry, Treasurer; W.
L. Berry, L. D.: James Harvey, Chaplain; Ambrose Corbin, Marshal; Alma Lester,
D. M.; Clara Wilson, R. S. C. T.; Laura Terhune, L. S. C. T.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF GREENE AND SULLIVAN COUNTIES,
STATE OF INDIANA,
FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT; TOGETHER WITH INTERESTING BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES, REMINISCENCES, NOTES, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED.

CHICAGO: GOODSPEED BROS. & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1884.

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