Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1876 — JASPER COUNTY reminiscenses. [ARTICLE]

JASPER COUNTY reminiscenses.

Compiled and Written by C. W. Clifton. , . t mom asotn twmira There was an i*oerr>‘ot rtdle®t>n{ nuido in the Aral chapter of thia article from Ibis fuel.—flba. Indiana were removed by the guverament in HjSfl—but as 1 have since learned from parties who were at a town on. the route of the removal—a large num’tr of them biAlt, tbo swamps and hills in the north of the territory. The government agents could not find them and they Were left behind. A large number of those who Wero removed ran off und C ime back lo the dearly love| land of their fathers.-r-Oovcrnmentagento again began to gather them up ; amt, !n iMft, M d in 183 H tbe last of them were removed. We mentioned the curious burial of the two chieftains. Bull and Turkey Foot. On further evaminatien I find that tho peculiar prac'ice nf building a pen and butying the corpac In a titling postbre ««•'not uni ver•al, but that a atilt more peculiar method was followed by Indians in the burial of inf. nts and small cMldron, which wns as follow*: A log was cut off of a proper length,‘about one-third of the log was split oft. Die larger part was then hollowed out sufficiently to contain th? the corpse, wh ch wns then deposited in tho cavity.— The portion split off was then repi iced.— Hickory andl willow withes were used to secure the nov d coffin and its lid together.— It wns then deposited tn—not the ground as you suppose—but secured in the forks of a tree, whore it remained until it decoyed with age. Home old gentlemen still living in thu cuunty recollect seeing these noiel coffins, or remains of them, with ths bones lying under the tree.

As an instance of Indian cookery, an old" gentleman related to me that when visiting the county for the purpose of locating lands they took supper in on Jndtap lodge, the cooking bcinK'dpnc by an antiquated squaw assisted by a dusky belle, (lorn meal was mixed with witter mid baked on a smooth lioard before the fire. Venisun was broiled before the rttme fire, Cuffee bolted and ’cnSßErrlu Blew rd. While the Biller were cooking the supposition of tho guests was that it would be “a sour mess,’’ Indians using no sugar; but when the frugal n-pastJwHs set bes re the guests a large dish of the nicest honey Was aided. With this the cranberries w ere sweetened, and nothing was wanting bat salt, of which there was none. B*.irnelt,.the chief of the Pottawattamie*, wis a college graduate, a very intelligent gentleman, but not of pure Indian Mood. OAMK. There were, in particular, at the time of the earliest settlements, an abundance of doer. Herd-t of from twenty to an hundred reamed over tho teeritory, m>l only in the timber lands, but over Hie prairies.— Titc herds wore soon broken up by the rifle of the white settler. An occasional boar wamlettM.l liiruug.U._Lha ccuuty ns Uto ao--1840. I’ftutlitr wero aUu known. Wild ent w--re more common -Mr. Sparling killed ono noir his father’s farm, south of town, since 1845. It was a very large specimen, us large as his dogs, and it wns only after a severe fight, nnd after being twice shot with a rifle, that thennimnl was dispatched. Elk were once common, but’had almost if not entirely disappeared at the time of the first scttleinefrt in 1831. Fur bearing animals were much more common. The rncc ion, mink nnd muak-rnt wore very nunicrou '. O ter were frequently mot with «nd an occasional one is still to be found in Newton county. The beaVer have entirely disappeared, though their ohl dams M.till remain ns monuments of their occupancy and strange engineering skill, Habi'it by the thousand, squirrel not so numerous,but several varieties, chiefly the fox-squirrel. The flying, ground, and atriped squirrels are also very numerous. Ffhs other fourleg ;ed denizens of tho county are distributed according to numbers in about the followingorder: Waif, skunlg, opossum.ba Ig-

er, gopher, weasel, gronnd-hog, fox and lynx. The latter are not natives, but visit us quite frequency from the colder regions of the North. Of the wolves there wqre formerly three varieties, vlx.: Profne, gray or timber, and black. Thu latter have now entirely disappearod. Of feathered game we hove all that is found in any portion of the West. Though wild turkey uro now seldom found, the stately sand-hill crane, wild goost, brant, duck, grouse ar prairie chicken, pheasant, quad, plover and xni|e are found, as a hunter would say, in gloiioiis abundanco. The county is not d as •* resort, for Hastcrn hunters ;ind game denier*. This is a special, resort of the t,rfamed prairie ehbekrii, though every year they are being-thFnned out by the sportsmen. They have theiMrtmnrin the curly history of the country. At the Ume of the White man’s first coining they were almost as plentiful as black birds, ns tajue ns quails, and like them, could bo driven into traps prepared for them. A Mr. King, who camo early to th is county in search of land, never having heard cither the bowl of tho wolf or the peculiarly mornful crow of the prairie chicken, first camo upon the prairie enet of Hanging Grove, 1 deone evening. Unexpectedly, Ins cars were saluted by un unknown and peculiar cry. Wolves of course, thought he, and as others immediately took up the refrain, he thought prudence th e better part of valor, «d immediately a* the horrjble dinTfibreMcj, broke iftto a run toward a light just visible two or more miles in advance. This light was at-the house of Mr. Thomas Peregrine. Fear endowed hitn with wonderful speed, and in a short time ho dashed against the door, flinging it openand fulling headlong, senseloss and exuui-tud, at full length- on the floor. The family thought it a rather rude introduction for an entire -stranger, nnd were much startled. When they had succeeded in restoring him to consciousness, he explained that ho had been “chased by fltoWes for five miles.” The family could not understand'his strange behavior nor his tale, as they hnd hoard no wolves.— Next morning, however, it was made plain. On stepping out, the first sound that saluted his ears was the peculiar cry of the prairie chicken from which he had fled ths night before, and his first exclamation was:— “There they are now I” Mr. Donahoo, an early settler, started to visit Giilam tpwnship when there were but one sr two white jj>en living in the county. Filling the inevitable bottle with “cobsolatiou” and mounting his steed, he left tho Wabash.and later in the day, the last sign of civilisation far south on the gnwd prairie.— Late in the day when be wns nearing the timber lands north of Wolcott,' he saw be must reach tho shelter of tho woods nnd camp. It was late in the autumn.— Nights were cool and frosty and the bottta was empty aud Deoahoo full. Suddenly, from out the boundless sea of grass that strstched to either hand, broke a solitary, an unknown, aud to him a fearful sound. It was of course immediately responded to front another quarter. To "his frightened ears it was “Old Don-a-hoo 1” “Old Don-a-hoq-00. Ho said he thought the “Devil and all hie angels wore after Donahoo,’’— He waisobiwd ai dhce, and putting xpuni lo his horse ho was soon beneath tho shelter of the frienilly woods, and bad left the sound of fearful omen »♦ Fish wer.i quite abuiidnntln tho Troquoie and in Beaver lake. The finest pike and salmon were easily speared. One of the largest, if not the largest pike ever caught in the Iroquois, was speared at the rapids by Mrs. Joseph Yeotnan. She WW it lying near thejshore, and had no trouble In spearing and retting it without even wetting her feet. It weighed twenty-five pound after It w*s dressed. The Indians, bssidesspeariag them, wouW stand in the water with a pecutUr .hoped board and MMhey passed,

with adex?” ms scoop would them on I the bank After nufficiml number worn i secured they were dressed sod dried on kilno* erected by for that pmrposc. 1 * oxaxaxxAtJiiM. | Wo have said ibet Newton county wee i attached to Jtmper for civil purpose*. It wna also attached to White county for Ju- ; dicial purjoko*. During tlte winter of 1838 J and '49 a petition was Hint to <he Legislature praying for the consolidation of J*s- ■ per and Newton counties. Th- petMHon was I granted and the governor was mfthorbed I to appoint three conimleMorfent to locate 0 new county-eeat for the big county. Three points coinjieted for (he location. On the Iroquois below Brook; in Barkley township, and the town of Newton on the rap Ha. Wo have seen that the latter place was eucceasful. The county as consolidated was called J super. Ha the winter U. 1839 and ’4O the citizens of the southern part of the county prayed fora division from the north- Although only a year consol'dnted, the obi taping Legislature granted their petition nnd Benton was struck off from the south, In 1840 a new county was struck off front the west side of Jasper nnd called Newtop,' with Kent, since changed to Adriance, and later to Kentland, as the county-seal.— Kentland io a flourishing town in the southwest corner of the county. The continuance of the eounty-seat there la by no' means a fixed fact. Several times have ths citizens north of thedroquois almost succeeded in effecting a removal to some more central nnd convenient point. So confident were they of succeeding nt one time, that a court house wns built at a place near tho center of the county called Beaver City. The question of again dividing Jasper count#, cutting off the south end, and with a liberal slice from White, constructing a new county with the town of Remington ns the county-seat, has more than once been agitated, end, in time, it may become a fixed fact. (TO BB COXTIWUED.)