Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1895 — EARLY HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY. [ARTICLE]

EARLY HISTORY OF JASPER COUNTY.

Address of S. P. Thompson, At Fountain Park Assembly, Aug. 22, 1895. Tne first marriage of parties living within onr territory was Krastus Smith now of Battle Ground, and Mary Mallatt. He went fifty miles for the and thirty for a squire. Such a' splice ought to have stood the voyage down the stream of time without a storm or any untimely squalls. , The first birth in the county to white parents was Thomas J 7 Yeoman brother of David H. Yeoman, now trustee of Union Township. Joseph D. Yeoman and his wife and parents moved to Rensselaer Jn'lSSi and witfi she assistance of John Nowels and David Nowels, then a boy, with -yoke of oxen, erected in 1835 the first house on the present site Jasper’s capital. That cabin had no chimney, the fire was in the center and a hole left in the clapboards suggested an escape for the smoke. The house stood in what is now Washington street on the north east bank of the Iroquois river. Yeoman lived on the present Town Plat for three years, but owing to the want of a bridge did not neighbor with the Forks settlement. Where George Culp, uncle of Edmund Culp, now of Carpenter township and James., Culp, who are both members and here today, and Thomas Randle in September 1834 passed William Donalioes, the first white settler, visited the falls of the Iroquois" and then from choice settled in the timber of what is now Barkley township. Theirs constituted one of three or four farms of what were then called neighbors. In those days one living nearer than four or five miles was getting rather close. When a man by the name of Norman settled 4 miles fromJßeuj. Welch, father of Henry and James Welch, who are present, he made complaint that the scoundrel had come and settled right under his nose . . In 1836 John Parkison son-in-law of the Indian fighter Simon Kenton, ancestor of all the Parkisons now in the county, with his wife and mother-in-law also settled in Barkley township and soon thereafter others came and the first little log school house was located for the accommodation of aii within a limit of five miles. Iu that settlement the first death was Thomas Randle’s son Simpson; brother of James, John, William and Nelson still living in the county, and the first marriage was Parkison’s daughter Eliza, to ■ J. M. Iliff, father of J. F. Ilili the livery man of our town. The early settlements were few and settlers fewer. The most of them loved to hunt for their necessary meats and the profits derived from the furs. In fact in those days meat was cheap for it was mostly deer. The settlers on the Wabash in driving their hogs to the village of Chicago through the tall grass lost many of them. They went wild and in the autumn became fat on mast, and were hunted for a change of meat. David Nowels then a boy relates that in 1836 be and Mr. Yeoman tracked hogs from Rensselaer to this, Carpenter’s Grove, in the snow, slept in the dead Carpenter’s cabin and the next morning passed over vest to the Grand Prairie and were lost in a fog. The snow melted and for three days and nights they were without either food or shelter.

Scarcely any of the settler’s cabins were built outside of the timber belt%#intil after 1856 when the driest season ever known enabled the people to determine that the flat prairies and swamps were far better lands for farming purposes than the sandy-ridges.

The first newspaper was started in 1854 called the “Jasper Banner,” edited by John McCarty followed by the “Rensselaer Gazette” published by Dan F. Davies. The first number of which was issued on April 29th, 1857. In the editorial column we find this item. “When we state that in consequence of the bad roads between this place and the railroad onr press has lain at Bradford three weeks no apology is necessary.” The Hack lines of the Duvall’s were started in 1854 or near that time and in 1859 were extended to Remington as well as Bradford.

I also find in said number a communidation with reference to the corporation election from which I quote “There must be a Trustee for each ward and a Clerk, Assessor, Treasure/ and Marshal One personl may hold all four of last namedflofficea, \ In view of the disgraceful situation of our

town as to schools, streets, grains and sidewalks we need an efficient working board.” Yet the citizens was so averse to taxes that the election went by default The prices qf necessaries reported in said paper were as follows: Wheat $1.25; Corn 62 cents; Oats 50 cents; Potatoes $1.50 cents, white beans $3.25; sugar lScents; rice 10 cents; molasses $1.00; butter 20 cents: eggs 10 cents per doz. It was. said however that one load of produce would glut the market of Rensselaer. The county -officers prior to 1852 were Clerk, Auditor, and Recorder, George W. Spitler; Treasurers, Albert Parcels and Samuel L. Sparling; .Sheriffs, Robert Barkley, William Stewart, and John Philipps; Surveyor, Benjamin Welch; School examiner, David Snyder. Prior to the division of the county in 1859 criminals took possession of the islands along the Kankakee river and commenced a systematic commission of the crimes of larceny, burglary and counterfeiting and gave name to “Bogus Island.” The honest settlers pursuant to an act of the Legislature organized a detective association called the “Jasper Rangers.” But the rogues had so many sympathizers that it was not until 1870 and 1872 that a vigorous prosecution of the mob that murdered “Wardell” taught the criminals, and those who were willing to commit crimes to destroy odious persons, a due respect for the law, and since which time the county has been remarkable for tbe peace, quietness and aversion to courts as a means of settlement es differences between its citizens.

The wild animals which were regarded as most useful were the “deer, "the raccoon, the mink and the muskrat. The pioneers coming from Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia brought guns, and dogs, and an inherited passion for hunting. John Kenton, the father of Jasper and William and most all the Kentons in the county was always called “Coon Kenton.” It whs said that he derived the name from two circumstances. In tella Coon story he related that at one time passing a tree he heard a squeaking noise and approached the tree, found it hollow and windshaken and so full of raccoons that when they breathed the crack in the tree would open and shut. It was also said that he was married in the evening and that it happened be a good night for “coons” so as soon as the ceremony was ended he whistled for the dogs, left the scene of the wedding and hunted raccoons al night. So the name of “Coon” stuck to him daring life.

The muskrats built towns in al the swamps among the wild grass which the unvaried testimony o 1 my old friends assert grew so high that a man could not reach the top when riding on horseback. In winter these furbearing animals were speared and it said that James Carpenter lost his life by falling into the water by reason of the ice thawing on the south side of one of these houses.

The emigrant from New York or New England came without “coon dogs.” The two origins settlements on Plymouth rock am the James River were thus manifest in the lines of emigration. In the one room of these primitive homes all the domestic anc social amenities were performed in the glow of the blaze of a wood fire. The only store things needed were tea, coffee, sugar, spices and once in a long while a hat for the “old man.”

The location of the houses along the sluggish streams which in midsummer filled the air with the destroying spirit of miasma. The drinking water had to be skimmed of skum and strained of wiggles; and it was no wonder that distilleries flourished and complaint was made of too much water in the whiskey of those days. The “fever and ague” would shake them from dog days till frost The crop would scarce bear the cost of transportation to Lafayette, Michigan City or the village of Chicago. The men wrestled, raced, hunted, fished, served on the jury and had husking bees, and the women had quilting frolics, and spinning bees for amusement

The roads were trails across what is now called Baum’s Bridge to Michigan City; via Monon to the Wabash; one toward Laporte and one to Chicago duly staked and blazed.

The first 'established road was in 1837 from Williamsport on the Wabash to Win am sc the land office. Thomas Randle, father of James, John, Nelson and William who are still living was the agent to disburse the 3 per cent congress sional road fund of 1836. The first bridge was across Curti-

creek; and the next across the ’inkammk north east of Renseeaer. These were all pole bridges with stringers and planks pinned :ast with wooden pins, Tne four railroads came and I well remember the banquet in Rensselaer February 14, J. 878, when the Narrow Gauge engine steamed in with a load of free excursionists to eat A. McCoy’s atted calf. The one through lemington was completed in 1859; ;he one through Monon in 1853. The Methodist churchwas first to organize at Rensselaer in 1836 under a circuit rider. Many early residents of Jasper achieved fame in the political arena. George W. Spitler held ;he office of Clerk, Auditor and Recorder from 1838 to 1852 and some of them until 1856, and his Son, M. L. Spitler has been Clerk and in the Legislature so tbe Spitler’s were in it politically. A. NM. C. Gowdy was elected to the legislature and his son has served as State Chairman of fe# Republican party. Gv C. Moody was State Senator, a Colonel apd a U. S. Senator from Dakota. J. C. Updegraff became a congressman from lowa leaving Rensselaer when a young man. Ezra Wright was a county officer of long standing and State Senator. Headly Brown was a long time Commissioner and four years in the Legislature. Mr. Robert Parker, Sr. came within 42 votes of election to the Legislature in 1857 and has a son you all know, who has served honorably as a member of that body. The first settlers dammed the sluggish streams at the foot and middle of the falls at “Tail Holt.” Lakins, Brenesholts and Larue’s as a temporary convenience, yet -as~a Lreeder and saffron colored faces these dams were in fact a curse to the county. The dams have all disappeared and with surface drainage cases of fever and ague are unknown to the present inhabitants.

The steam dredges are completing the creation of our county by getting the waters together that the dry land may appear. Thanking Simon Phillips, Jarec Benjamin, David Nowels, James T. Randle, Addison Parkison, Lemuel W. Hinkle, Hon. G. H. Brown, Mrs. Minerva* J. Wright, and other old settlers for refreshing my memory as to these early days, and you my friends for patiently listening to my reminiscences I wish you all a succesi*n of happy days until the sunset o your lives.

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buggies and carriages in the county, for sale by N. Warner & Sons.