Pioneers of Marion County by Wm. M. Donnel, 1872

Part II, Chapter XXV

Indiana Township - Its Geography and Early History - Names of Early Settlers - Alexander May -
A Milling Expedition - Eleven Miles to borrow Meal - George Henry - Out of Provisions and Money -
Working on Sunday - In a Storm - Mush and Milk - Only Potatoes - A Perilous Adventure

This township is technically described as town. 74, range 19. It is a southern township, and its exact location may be defined as the south-west quarter of the south-east quarter of the county. It is bounded on the north by Knoxville, on the east by Liberty, on the south by Monroe county, and on the west by Washington township.

Off the streams the prairie is almost level. The prairies are not large, and timber is abundant and convenient to any part of them. Coal is plentiful along many of the small streams, and the veins are from three to six feet thick. Those worked most are on the lands of Daniel Sherwood and Alexander May.

Indiana was declared and organized township by the board of county commissioners at their regular session, January 6, 1847, and the place for holding elections was appointed at the house of Alexander May, which was about a mile east of the center of the township.

The first election held in this township (of which there is no preserved record,) took place at Mr. May’s cabin, August 1st, 1844, which, it will be observed, was a precinct election. Benj. Sherwood and John Riddle served as clerks. The first named person was elected township precinct clerk; Alexander May and John T. Pierce, justices, and Allen Lowe and Samuel C. Nicholson, constables.

At this election, and just previously thereto, there was a strife between parties in favor of Pierce and Lowe on the one hand, and May and Nicholson on the other, as to which pair of constables should receive the largest number of votes. Knowing the beneficial effects of something good to drink in the way of winning friends, Alonzo Smith and Samuel Coolly had prepared a barrel of “mathoglin” as a treat to the supporters of Pierce and Lowe, and won the victory by three votes.

The first election of which there is any preserved record, was held at the house of Benj. F. Williams, in Barkersville (now Attica,) April 5, 1852. Fifty-three votes were cast, and the following officers elected: Harvey Manners and W. T. Smith, justices; Nathaniel Coclerece, Samuel M. Cooly and Jacob Bonebreak, trustees; Noah Bonebreak, clerk, and Allen Lowe and John Camplin, constables.

Indiana was so named in consequence of a large majority of the first settlers being from that state. The following is a list of their names and date of settlement: Alexander May, Noah Whitlatch, Wm. Carlisle, George Henry, Allen Lowe, Samuel Coolly, Wm. Shanks, Samuel Nicholson and John Riddle in 1843; Jeremiah Gullian, Benj. Sherwood, David Sweem and Jas. Cade, in 1844; Isaac Kelsey and Lewis Pierce in 1845, and John Bonebreak in 1846.

Alexander May, who still lives where he originally settled in the township, and, with several others mentioned in the above list, formed what was known as May’s Settlement, was born in Henry county, Kentucky, January 5th, 1801, immigrated to Orange county, Indiana, in 1816, to Fountain county, same state, in 1827, and from thence to his present place, arriving there June 22, 1843. In relating his first year’s experience in pioneer life here, Mr. May says in a letter to us:

“In the fall, having to lay in our provisions for the winter, John Riddle and I took my ox wagon and four yoke of oxen, and drove to the old purchase. having to work for our grain, we put in three weeks of steady labor, by which we paid for forty-five bushels of fall wheat, and thirty bushels of old corn, one barrel of salt, one side of sole leather and one upper. We got our grinding done at Meeks’ mill, Bonaparte. No roads from Agency till we got home, only as the emigrant had made them. We were thirty-five days from home.

“The first grain we raised was threshed in the old-fashioned way with horses, and fanned with a sheet. Soon as it was ready we took it to Farmington to mill, the trip occupying fifteen days. The first wheat we got ground at Haymaker’s, we bolted through book muslin stretched over a hoop. The first meal we borrowed, my wife got at Joseph Tally’s on the north side of the Des Moines river. In this trip she went alone, forded the river at what is now Bellfountain, with a team of horses and wagon, the water being flank deep tot he team, borrowed three bushels of meal and bought seven chickens, and returned the same day, a distance of eleven miles. These were the nearest neighbors from whom we could obtain such accommodations.”

George Henry, who now lives near Knoxville, was originally from Pennsylvania. First moved from that State to Ohio, from Ohio to Missouri, and from thence to Lake Prairie, in the fall of 1842. Here, in company with Jas. Carnilius and another whose name is not remembered, they took claims and erected three cabins. But not being permitted to make permanent settlement, they returned to Missouri and remained till the spring following. Finding that the cabins had been destroyed by dragoons, Mr. Henry took a claim in what is now the northeast corner of Indian township. This was near Wm. Carlisle’s, whose family cleared a small patch of land in the timber, on which they planted some corn and potatoes. But towards fall provisions ran short, and Mr. Henry started to mill in September, leaving but little for his family to subsist on during his absence, expecting to return in a week. Having no money to purchase grain or provisions with, he hoped to obtain some due him on the way to Keosauqua, where he intended to get his milling done. But being disappointed in getting the money, he tried to get some grain on credit, and after traveling three or four miles from Keosauqua for this purpose, was again disappointed. There was now no other shift but to look for work, and if he could get it to do, earn the means to buy his breadstuff. Luckily he obtained a job of making rails, and his employer kindly furnished him a house to live in and food till he should finish the job. The contract was made on Saturday evening, and will any one censure Mr. Henry for going to work next morning? With thoughts of his family at home in an almost destitute condition, and really in danger of suffering ere he should be able to return to them with food, could he have spent the day more religiously than he did? So Mr. H. went to work on Sunday morning, and by Tuesday evening made six hundred rails, for which he received seventy-five cents per hundred, in an order to the mill, and this secured a little flour and few bushels of meal at fifty cents per bushel.

Having secured these articles, Mr. Henry set out for home with all possible haste. After going six miles, he was overtaken by a violent storm of wind and rain. He was near a house when the storm came upon him, so he concluded to go no farther, but unhitched his horses, put them into an enclosure near at hand, and took shelter in his wagon. In this frail shelter he passed the dark tempestuous night alone. Next morning, on going to look for his team he found the dead timber thickly strew over the pasture, prostrated by the storm, and his horses luckily, and we might add miraculously, uninjured.

Mr. Henry now proceeded on his way, and being too eager to reach home to carefully regard the strength of his horses, they failed within twenty miles of their journey’s end. He then went to a house near by to get some feed for them and for himself, and obtained some shelled corn; but the house could afford nothing in the way of human food but milk. He, however, made an arrangement with the family by furnishing a sufficient quantity of meal for mush, and they all supped jointly and heartily on a mess of mush and milk. By next morning the horses were refreshed for a renewal of the journey, and our hero reached home in safety, to find his family reduced to nothing but potatoes for a diet.

Just before Christmas, ‘43, Mr. Henry and a son of Noah Whitlatch, took two loads of flour barrels to Keosauqua. The weather was cold and stormy when they started, and a deep snow had fallen the day before. When they reached the Des Moines river, a little below Talley’s ford, they found it frozen over strong enough, they supposed, to bear them and their teams, and drove on. It proved to be a dangerous venture. The ice bent under the weight of their wagons so much that the water gushed up in jets. But once started it would be as dangerous to return as to go on, and the safest plan was to make all possible speed, and they succeeded in reaching the opposite shore. On their return they found the ice gone, and had to ferry their wagons over on a canoe, and swim their teams.

Transcribed by Mary E. Boyer, 12/06, reformatted by Al Hibbard 12 Oct 2013.