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

CHAPTER XVII.
BY J. E. NORRIS.

CASS TOWNSHIP—FIRST LAND ENTRY—PIONEER SUPPLIES—NECESSITIES OF THE TIMES—FIRST
SETTLERS—FIRST BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH— IMPROVED DWELLINGS—JAMES PIGG'S
WAGON—"RAISINGS"—FIRST MILL—HUNTING AND HUNTERS—A FAMOUS HUNTER—THE OLD
GUNSMITH—A POLITICAL INCIDENT—A CYCLONE AND EPIDEMIC—NATURAL RESOURCES—SEYERAL
MATTERS—DUGGER, BUELL, ETC., ETC.

THIS division of the county, known as Cass Township, is the eastern of the
central tier of townships, and is bounded on the north by Jackson Township; on
the south by Jefferson Township; on the west by Hamilton Township; and on the
east by Greene County. From north to south on the east portion, it is seven
miles in extent, and from east to west on the southern portion it is the same;
but from east to west on the northern portion, and from north to south on the
western portion, it is about six miles in extent, a section a mile square being
chopped out of the northwest corner for the benefit of Hamilton, which section
should be restored to Cass, to which it rightfully belongs. The township was
formed from Jackson and Haddon Townships in 1850, and the first officers were:
Trustees, John Maxwell, John G. McBride and James A. McGill; Clerk, John H.
Wilson; Assessor, William G. Moss.

FIEST LAND ENTRY.

   The first man to enter land in Cass Township was William Pugh, who came way
back—some time in the twenties. The first man, however, to open a farm here was
Thomas Neeley, who came from East Tennessee, bringing with him his aged father,
and settling about a mile from where is now located the town of Dugger.

PIONEER SUPPLIES.

   At this time, about 1825, the whole face of the country was just about as it
came from the hands of the Creator; everything was wild, and although there was
considerable timber, the ground was covered with wild pea-vines, which afforded
fine living, in connection with the plentiful supply of acorns, for the many
hogs that ran wild through the woods. Game of course was plentiful, and all that
was to be done by the settler to fill his larder with the best of venison, wild
turkey and bear meat, was to take down his trusty rifle from its pegs against
the cabin wall, step a few yards from his door-way, and bring down a buck or a
couple of turkeys; or, going a little farther into the brush, track a bear to
his lair in the recesses of the forest, bring him to his haunches with a well
directed shot, cut his throat with the keen-edged hunting knife, skin him, and
bear the carcass back to the cabin, where the women folks would dress the best
portions of Old Bruin, for the repast, which consisted, in addition of corn
dodgers, hominy and honey, a diet, by the way, not to be sneezed at in these
sham times, when one does not know (especially if living in large cities)
whether he is eating diseased beef or not, and when he can't tell whether his
butter is made from the refuse fat of a steer or from a sick cow. Verily, if the
lives of the old pioneers were full of trials and hardships, they yet had good
health and appetites. Much honor should we pay to those brave, self-sacrificing
and manly old advance guards of the army of civilization. But for them, when
would this lovely land of ours have been made to yield its treasures and blossom
as the rose?

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

   James Pigg came in 1828. He was from Tennessee, and was, probably, the most
progressive of the early settlers, for he had not only more of the "first"
things to occur in his family, but had most of the "first" improvements, of
which more hereafter. Mr. Pigg was well advanced in life when he reached this
wilderness, for he had served in the war of 1812, and gallantly, too, coming out
of that struggle without a scratch. Several others settled shortly after Pigg,
and the country soon began to assume some little of the appearance of
civilization. Cabins began to rise here and there on the sides of the knolls,
and near the small streams that water the country.

   Among those coming after Pigg, or thereabouts, we find the following, who are
now dead: Joseph Neely, Elias Graves, Morgan Gambill, Phillip Usrey, Uncle
Johnny Maxwell, and several others who are now forgotten; also John Y. Dodd, the
Saucermans, Peter Alembaugh, Lewis Brewer, Michael Houck, the Freemans, Moores,
McBrides, a man named Egbert (who afterward went away and joined the Mormons at
Nauvoo), Jerry Pickett (who hunted through here) and others, Tennessee and
Kentucky furnished most of the settlers, but there were a few from Virginia,
Maryland and other States.

FIRST BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH.

   The first birth in the township, or rather what was then known as Jackson
Township, was, probably, a daughter of James Pigg. This child was born in 1831,
and died the next year, she being named Martha Jane Pigg, hers being the first
death. The first marriage, also, occurred in the same family, when Sanders Pigg,
son of James, married Hannah Gambill, a daughter of which union is now Mrs.
George W. Usrey.

   In 1833, Joseph Neely, father of Thomas Neely, died. He was an old man when
he came to this county, and had been a soldier in the Revolutionary army. He was
looked up to by all the settlers as one worthy the respect of his fellow-man, as
he had risked his all in the grand old war for liberty. His remains were
deposited in the graveyard at Antioch Church, and they were followed to their
last home by nearly all the settlers.

IMPORTANT EVENTS.

   An event occurred about this time, somewhere along in the thirties, which was
the event of that primitive age: James Pigg conceived the idea of improving on
the old round-log cabin, and commenced the construction of a hewed log house,
which he duly finished in time, and that house was the admiration and wonder for
miles around, for some time to come, or at least till others attained to the
same good fortune. Mr. Pigg also had built for him the first wagon that ever
rolled across a farm in this section. Peter Alembaugh did the blacksmith work,
and Boatman and Pigg did the wood work. How the old settlers daily watched the
rise and progress of that four wheeled vehicle is beyond our knowledge now, but
they did so evidently with as much interest as Holmes Deacon did the building of
the "wonderful one horse shay." They pronounced her a beauty when finished, and
the way the neighbors borrowed that wagon was simply wonderful, but in those
early times, so dependent was one upon the other, that it was not thought
unreasonable. The community felt as one person when their interests were at
stake. The first "check line" was brought into use in this section about this
time, when Mr. Pigg got his neighbors to help him break the horses into that
newfangled mode of horse-tailoring.

BUILDING THE CABINS.

   The settlers had their fun and frolic, for "all work and no play makes Jack a
dull boy," as the old saying goes; so when a cabin raising was to take place
they would collect from all quarters on the morning of the "raise," and even the
night before, camping out by bright fires, singing many songs, telling hunting
stories and passing the old jug around quite freely. In the morning, however,
all hands would go to work with a will, and before night set in the cabin would
be up from sill to topmost log, roof on, and floor of split logs, almost ready
for the Brussels carpet. The chimney was where the pioneer artist exhibited his
best skill, and the care that was taken to give it the best shape for conducting
away the smoke was worthy the most advanced architect of to-day. Whisky was used
quite freely at these raisings, and it used to be said, as it has been said
later, that a house could not be raised nor a harvest gathered without the
inspiring "bug-juice." Time, we are happy to state, has given the lie to all
such theories. The whisky was not obtained in Cass, we are also assured, for
there never was a distillery in the township.

THE FIRST MILL.

   The first mill was built by Peter Alembaugh. on Buttermilk Creek. It was a
horse mill, one of that old pioneer sort, with a long lever, tied to the end of
which was a horse, who went round circus fashion, and which, like the mills of
the gods, "ground slowly." Still those mills were almost indispensable, and the
meal they furnished was, doubtless, exceedingly toothsome, if it was not so fine
as that of the patent "decorticated" variety now almost a necessity to the
"advanced" housewife. If the old "one-horse" mill on the Buttermilk was an
institution, what could have been thought of the pretentious water mill, erected
some time after on the Busseron, near Caledonia? To this mill the settlers would
bring their grists long distances from their homes, after making a three days'
trip—one day to go, one to have it ground, and one in which to return. They
would often come in parties and camp out together. Caledonia, by the way, where
this mill was located, was the principal trading point for all this region. Here
flat-boats were built, loaded with the products of the country, and floated down
the rivers as far, often, as New Orleans. It was at this point where Gen. De
Pauw, a man of great business energy and force of character, settled, and where
he did a large business. His son, Washington De Pauw, is now one of the
wealthiest men of the State, and resides at New Albany. The name, Buttermilk, of
the creek referred to above, was derived in the following manner: Some soldiers
were passing through this country in the early times, and stopping at a house on
this small stream, asked for something to eat. The good woman, whose husband was
off hunting at the time, told them that all she had was a little venison and "a
plenty of buttermilk." They accepted the fare, and drank so much buttermilk that
they all got sick. which made such an impression that the stream has been called
Buttermilk Creek ever since.

HUNTING AND HUNTERS.

   Hunting was almost universal among the settlers, for they had to depend upon
that source for much of their meat. It is true hogs were plentiful, but as they
all ran loose through the woods, they soon became very wild, and often to
procure one, he had to be shot. Many very fierce boars were among the number,
and they frequently made it exceedingly dangerous to approach them in the
solitude of the woods. On one occasion, an old hunter was in the woods laying
for a large buck that usually came for water at Mud Creek. In the vicinity of
where the hunter lay concealed was a drove of probably twenty or thirty hogs,
including two or three large boars, with projecting tusks two or three inches in
length. Finally, along came the buck, and no sooner had he gotten in range than
a bullet entered his head. He fell, and as he did so, the hogs, through some
unaccountable impulse, rushed for the dying deer. The hunter, thinking he had a
better right to the buck than the hogs, rushed up too, never dreaming of his
danger, but he had hardly gained the side of his game, when one of the boars
struck at him with his tusk, fortunately not cutting him, but knocking him over
a log. All the other hogs then made for the hunter, who, quickly perceiving his
danger, sprang for the nearest tree, climbed out of reach, and waited till the
porkers went away, but he did not get his deer; the hogs devoured every vestige
of the animal with the exception of the larger bones and antlers, which measured
nearly five feet from tip to tip.

   John F. Freeman was a great hunter, and his skill with the rifle was
something wonderful. He seemed to love the sport more for the sport than for the
bagging of the game. He always came home loaded down. Robert Moore, also, was a
great huntsman. He kept a pack of hounds, and nothing seemed to please him half
so well as to hear his leader in the chase, a large, long-eared, brown and white
hound, strike the first note as he scented the trail of the fox or wolf, and
struck off through a clearing with the balance of the dogs at his heels. Old man
Pigg and the boys used to amuse themselves by catching wolves in pens, and
poking sticks at the thieving "varmints" till they fairly foamed with rage. The
old man was a hunter, too, and he has often hung up and dressed five or six deer
in an evening. Jerry Pickett was, however, the great Nimrod of all this section.
He did not live in this township, but was here so much, and hunted these woods
so thoroughly, that he can almost be claimed as a resident. He was from above
here somewhere. His appearance was very peculiar, looking and acting so much
like an Indian that no one would ever have dreamed that he was a white man if he
had dressed Indian fashion. He was, nevertheless, of pure white blood. Some have
thought his appearance was a "birth-mark." He not only looked like an Indian,
but was just as skilled as they in all manner of woodcraft, knew all their
cunning tricks of trapping and hunting, was up to all their devices of
stratagem, and it is said that many persons believed he could track game by
scent, like a dog.

THE OLD GUNSMITH.

   Allen McBride was a gunsmith, and for many years furnished or repaired the
firearms of the community. Hunters came from long distances to secure the
services of McBride, who was extremely skillful in his calling. A gun made by
this old artisan was said to have been as true as the best machine made,
improved rifle that was ever turned out by the most famous makers of the world.
It took him a long time to make a gun, but when it was finished it would
"shoot," you can rely upon it, if the shooter had half an eye for a mark. He
lived near where Bateham now is.

   Among the stories of the old settlers, the following used to be popular: It
appears that a man named Stevens, loved to get up big wolf stories, drawing
principally upon his imagination for the facts. In a crowd at one of the old
raisings, he told how on one occasion he had discovered seven wolves in a small
thicket; he had tracked them in the snow, which was about a foot and a half
deep, and then, forgetting about the snow, related how he had "ring-fired" the
thicket and picked off each of the seven wolves as they came out. The crowd
laughed at the mistake, or rather lie of Stevens, bat another old hunter named
Cantrell said he could beat that; so he went on to tell how he had tracked two
wolves with a little bench-legged dog, and how the wolves ran up a tree to
escape, and then how the little dog went up after the wolves, and grabbing them
by the hind legs, threw them off the tree, where they were killed by the hunter.
At this point, all the listeners were about to exclaim "a wolf nor a dog can't
climb a tree," when Cantrell said: "The tree was lying on the ground, and my
story beats his, because it's true."

A POLITICAL INCIDENT.

   In 1844, when the political excitement ran high, an incident occurred which
illustrates the intensity of the feeling of the two parties, and although
happening in another township, one of the participants was the wife of old Allen
McBride, the gunsmith spoken of above. The Democrats had a big rally at Terre
Haute, and delegations from all over the county were in attendance. Now when the
delegation from Haddon returned to Carlisle, they found the Whigs having a big
barbecue there; so Mrs. Allen McBride, who was here at the time, and Mrs.
Miller, wife of the skin-dresser, called out for horses, and they being
obtained, mounted them and marshalled the enthusiastic Democracy all around the
old town, amidst the plaudits of the admiring citizens.

AN EARLY CYCLONE.

   In 1846, a terrific storm, evidently a cyclone similar to those of late
years, devastated a belt of country lying a mile or more south of the village of
Buell. It was about one mile in width, came from a southwesterly direction, and
created great havoc. It destroyed not only fences, but tore up by the roots
great numbers of trees, and blew down houses and barns-Thousands of dollars
worth of valuable timber was ruined for anything but firewood.

A TERRIBLE VISITATION.

   A terrible visitation in the shape of typhoid fever fell upon the township in
1852. It was so general that it reached the proportions of an epidemic. The
physicians at that date were almost totally ignorant of the disease, and could
scarcely cope with it in a single instance. Numbers, both old and young, fell
before the scourge, but it seemed to have peculiarly fatal effect upon the older
persons, as nearly all the original settlers died from it. Quinine was used
largely, and when that ran out, the doctors used boneset tea.

SOME FIRSTLINGS.

   The first Justice of the Peace who administrated the law in what is now Cass,
but which at that time was Jackson Township, was Esquire Adam Wilson, and the
first Justice of the Peace after the organization of the township was John McBride.

   The first schoolhouse erected in the township stood on the ridge nearly
opposite Lewis Brewer's house, about half a mile east of Dugger, and the first
school teacher who wielded the rod and taught the "young idea how to shoot," was
Jesse Ruark. There are now twelve neat and substantial frame schoolhouses, with
an attendance of over 600 pupils.

CHURCHES.

   Antioch Christian Church was the first erected in the township, and the first
minister to preach was Rev. Palmer. Antioch is located about two miles north of
Dugger, and Rev. Joseph Patton is the pastor.

   Zion Methodist Episcopal Church is located about four miles north of Dugger.

   Hickory Methodist Episcopal Church is located about two and one-half miles
south of Buell.

Clayborne Presbyterian Church is located three miles north of Buell.

NATURAL RESOURCES.

   Considerable of the land of Cass Township is broken and hilly, and, as a
consequence, it is not as productive as some other sections of the county, but
nature has made ample amends for her apparent slight in the matter of soil, for
the township has just beneath the surface that which will make it the richest
section of Sullivan, at no distant day. Coal underlies the soil to such an
extent and in such abundance, that one can almost kick away the dirt and crary
[sic] off great chunks of the black diamonds. There are four mines opened in the
township: one at Dugger, owned by Dugger & Neil, which employs about forty-five
men; one at Buell, owned by John B. Lyons; another, owned by Edward Hancock; and
still another which is not now in operation, in consequence of there being,
literally, no facilities for carrying off the valuable product, tons of coal
lying at the mines and wasting away. The day will come when the short-sighted
policy of a one-horse railroad will be a thing for wonderment.

   There is a flouring mill half a mile from Dugger, owned by Henry Abbey, and a
grist mill for grinding corn, at Buell.

SEVERAL MATTERS.

   During the late civil war, Cass was pretty thoroughly Anti-war Democratic,
yet she sent some brave sons to the field, who not only did good service, but
who laid down their lives in defense of their country. A sad affair occurred
during those sad times in the death of Enrolling Officer Fletcher Freeman, who
was killed on the public highway, and around whose death much mystery collected.

   The population of the township is about 1,900, and casts a vote of about 400.
The present officers of the township are: Trustee, James B. Cochran, who also
acts as Clerk and Treasurer; Assessor, Amos Marshall: Justice of the Peace, John
Hawtin; Constables, B. W. Fry, T. A. Moss.

OLD SETTLERS LIVING.

   As far as can be ascertained, the following comprise the old settlers at
present living: Michael Houck, who is ninety-three years of age, is the oldest
man in the township, and doubtless the oldest in the county; John Hawtin,
William Bledsoe, John Bledsoe, Thomas Neeley, George W. Usrey, Andrew J. Pigg,
James B. Cochran, Perry Maxwell, Lewis Brewer, Humphrey Shepherd, and there may
be one or two others.

   Cass has a railroad, such as it is, and it is no fault of her citizens that
she has no better, for they are ready, with their coal and other products, to
give it patronage, as soon as they can be assured that the road can and will
haul them off. The Springfield, Effingham & Southeast Railroad Company is the
pretentious title of what is termed the "Narrow Gouge" by the citizens of Cass,
and if the entire United States can turn out anything that is nearer not being a
railroad than this, we should like to see it trotted out.

DUGGER.

   Dugger, the largest village of the township, contains a population of about
225, and has one general, one drug and grocery, and one confectionery and
grocery store; one blacksmith shop;  three physicians, Drs. C. M. Lowder, T. S.
Bedwell and J. S. T. Taylor; another physician, Dr. John Murphy, lives about a
mile from the town. Postmaster, Dr. C. M. Lowder. A lodge of Knights of Labor, a
miners' association, have a lodge at this point and numbers some forty-five
members. A saloon also figures in the Dugger business roll. It is a railroad town.

BUELL.

   Buell, also on the line of the Springfield, Effingham & Southeast Railroad,
has a population of about 125 persons, and contains one general and one drug
store and one saloon; two physicians, Drs. Brown & Son. The post office is named
Cass, with Dr. N. H. Brown, Postmaster. The town was named in honor of Col.
Pratt Buell, a railroad man, and not for Gen. Don Carlos Buell, of war fame, as
one would naturally suppose.

   Bateham is a post office, and contains about one house, with Mr. John Lamey
as Postmaster.


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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