|
1882 COUNTIES OF
LaGRANGE and NOBLE INDIANA HISTORICAL and BIOGRAPHICAL
Chicago F.A. Battey and Company Publishers 1882
CLEARSPRING TOWNSHIP
By: R.H. Rerick
Clearspring Township- Introductory-Topography-Early Appearance
of the Country-The Coming
of the Pioneer-The Settler's Home-Rollings and Raisings-Industrial
Development-Incidents and Statistics-The Teacher and the
Preacher.
In the beginning of this century, the beautiful
country now covered with fertile farms and meadows and woodland, which
is called Clearspring, was a terra incognita to the white man. The
Indians alone roamed through its unbroken forests, hunting the game and
refreshing themselves at the springs that made this locality so attractive.
The country presented no peculiar advantages to the farmer, as a whole,
though in the southwest there lay the eastern part of that broad and extremely
fertile opening, called the Haw Patch. The remainder of the thirty-six
miles was a rolling country, covered by forests of beech, oak and maple,
which were to be felled before the
fertile soil would yield its riches to the patient pioneer. Cleraspring
and Eden were at first one township, and their fitness for such a union
was shown by the first settlement. The best lands in each township lie
near the line seperating them, and this fact invited settlement about the
Haw Patch, while the swamps to the east and west
kept those sections backward in their development. The first settler
in Clearspring was not bound down by sectional lines. He rose above township
limitations. His log-house, at least, was raised precisely upon the town
line, and he could bid defiance, as it was jocosely remarked after
the division of the towns, to the constabulary of either. Anthony Nelson,
this first settler, came into Indiana from Ohio in 1829, and located first
in Elkhart
County, and then came to this township and entered two eighty-acre
lots in 1831, which he occupied the next
year, and has ever since lived upon. Mr. Nelson is now eighty-five
years of age. One of the next comers was
Dr. David Rogers, who was in the township in 1833, from Wayne
County, N.Y., and entered 1,280 acres of
land in this township and Eden, as a speculator. He spent much time
in the township, however, and for the last fifteen or eighteen years of
his life resided here almost continually, collecting herbs and roots for
medicine, and attending to a considerable practice as a physician. He also
made a business of selling extracts, essences, etc., in the East, and traveled
a great deal for that purpose. He collected his simples in all parts of
the East, as well as
here. He was a man of many eccentricities, and a real "naturalist."
He would often spend the summer in a cave or
in a slight shed, preferring to have nothing more artificial between
him and the canopy of heaven. His house, a sort of adobe contrivance, was
on his land in Section 22, but he lived much of the time with his neighbor,
Erastus
Nelson. Dr. Rogers died in 1871, and was buried on a little
hill near his home, overlooking the Haw Patch road, where there is a fine
shaft of marble bearing the inscription: "Dr. David Rogers, born
June 2, 1786, died February 24, 1874, aged eighty-five years eight months
and twenty-two days. He was the friend of the invalid,
and gave medicine without money and without price."
He left a will dated March 7, 1868, by which
he bequeathed the remainder of his lands lying in this county, consisting
of eighty acres in Clearspring and one hundred and sixty in Eden "to the
Commisioners of the county of LaGrange and their successors in office forever,
in trust forever, for the use and benefit of the orphan poor, and
for other destitute persons of said county."
Norman Sessions settled on Section 27
in 1834. He was married to Minerva Gaines, of Eden, by Justice
William McConnell, February 8, 1835. This was the first marriage in
the township. His first child was, it is thought, the first born in the
township, and also the first one to die. It was buried in a lot then donated
(1837), by Elisha Pixley, for a burying ground. Mr. Sessions
himself died at the age of thirty-two, in March, 1841.
In 1834, John Sprout settled at first
with Anthony Nelson upon the line, but afterward moved upon Section
19, where he died in 1878. Nathan Bishop of North Carolina, sometimes
called the first settler, came April 12, 1834, with his young son Robert,
and nephew, Robert H., and entered upon land in Section 22. Nathan
Bishop, a Free-Will Baptist, was the first preacher in the township.
He held services at his home for many years, and organized a society which
met there, but gradually died out. In addition to this work, Mr. Bishop
preached
at various places throughout the town. He died March 3, 1850. His eldest
son Robert, who was born in 1799,
still lives on the old farm. In the early days he was the only blacksmith
in the town, and, with his father, built and worked the first tannery in
that vicinity. James Gordon, a son-in-law of Nathan Bishop,
came with him and had the honor of sowing the first wheat in Clearspring,
on Section 28, and of being the first mason. Amos Newhouse, with
his son John, settled on Section 32, in the spring of 1835, and
began clearing the large farm, which he occupied until his death in 1875.
He was a native of Virginia, and is remembered as a quiet and industrious
man.
A half mile from Mr. Newhouse's estate lies the farm upon the
county line, which John S. Gibson, after living at the Haw Patch
a short time, occupied in the same year, and at this date still lives to
enjoy.
Elijah Pixley was another settler of
1835, from Union County, Ind., and began here his farming life upon Section
28, where he lived until his death in 1874. Upon his land were located
the first schoolhouse, the first burying ground and the first church in
the township. His sons Edward and James Pixley have since
been
residents of Clearspring. The year 1836 was the time of increased immigration,
and many of the best citizens coming that year were able, at the time of
the Centennial celebration of the nation, to commemorate the
fortieth anniversary of their settlement. Among these was Charles
Roy, who came with his family upon his land
in Section 22, near the center of the township, on the 20th of June.
Mr.
Roy has always been an energetic man, and has made valuable improvements.
He was the first to raise fruit to any great extent, and early had a nursery
of 700 trees, and an orchard of ten acres. He was also one of the first
to raise mint and distill the oil, and came
to do an extensive business in this line. Simeon Crosby came
from New York and settled in the west half of Section 34, but died in 1839,
three years after his arrival. A daughter, Sarah Crosby, was one
of the first
married in the township, then a part of Eden, being married to John
Hubbard, September 12, 1836, by Rev. James Latta.
Nicholas Lowe and wife came from Maryland
and settled on Section 29, where he came to possess 300
acres of land upon which he and his son, Rev. Thomas H. Lowe,
now reside. Ernestus Schermerhorn, of Syracuse, N. Y., was in the
township at this time, and bought land in the northeast, but did not settle
until 1839.
He died forty years later, February 8, 1876. Willard Hervey
came in this year, at first to the home of Simeon Crosby, whose
daughter he married in 1839. This lady, when Miss Sebrina Crosby,
had taught school in
Amassa Durand's house, north of LaGrange. It is told of her,
as an instance of what the pioneer girls had to endure, that at one time,
when living at home, and her father dangerously ill and without any remedy
or doctor
near, she walked through the forests the whole distance to Lima, about
fifteen miles, to bring Dr. Jewett, the nearest physician. Most
of the journey, an Indian trail was the only road, and at one point she
had to cross Buck Creek, which was swollen with floods, and only partially
bridged with logs. But she pulled off her shoes, and jumping from log to
log, made the passage safely and brought the doctor to her father. In 1836,
October 3, William Dallas, of Ohio, settled in Section 26, on the
present land of Norton Kinnison. He had with him his sister and
fourteen motherless children, of whom, Samuel, Lorenzo, George,
Joseph
and Levi are now well-to-do citizens of the township. His home was
near the Elkhart River, near where it emerges from a group of lakes, of
which the most eastern lie partly in the township. These four bodies of
water, the largest of which
is called Dallas Lake, are the only ones in Clearspring, and occupy
but about three hundred acres. Mr. Dallas at once began to utilize
the water-power of the river, and in 1837 built a grist-mill near his home.
This was a considerable undertaking for a man in his circumstances, and
in such a remote place. But his perseverance carried it through, and it
was soon completed and ready to grind the grists of the few farmers for
miles around. Before this
time the wheat had been carried to Goshen, Ontario or Van Buren. "Uncle
Billy's corncracker," as it was called, was of a very primitive and simple
construction. The building, built of whitewood logs, was so low that
the man who put the grain in the hopper had to make a humble passage beneath
the rafters. There were no castings about the mill; all was wood
except the mill-stones, and of these there were but one pair, and the millstone
shaft, a flat
bar of iron. A bolt only was necessary and that was soon supplied,
but there were no cog-wheels or belting, and consequently this had to be
revolved at first by hand, a process which required a good deal of muscle.
Sometimes the patrons of the mill were called on to assist in this operation.
The mill had a capacity for grinding about fifty
bushels in twenty-four hours, but never was called on for such an extraordinary
business. To this mill men came with their grain from the whole neighborhood
(and neighborhoods were large in those days) in ox carts, on horseback,
afoot or in canoes. It was an accommodating institution, run by one of
the most accomodating men
that ever blessed a new community with his presence.
Three or four years later, Mr. Dallas
built a saw-mill near by, which, after his death, was run by Van Kirk
until the dam broke, about 1851. "Uncle Billy" Dallas, as he was
familiarly called, died many years ago (in 1847), but his many virtues
still live in the memory of the old settlers.
Others, who came in 1836, are James Haviland,who
built the first barn; Henderson Potts, the first disciple of Crispin;
N.
P. Osborn and David Ray.
We have named those who were here by 1836,
and, by common consent, are called the "old settlers"- at least the earliest
settlers. Among them, however, should be included Hawley Peck, born
in Connecticut in 1810, who bought eighty acres in Clearspring in 1836
but did not come until 1838, when he concluded to settle here, and bought
160 acres more, and in 1844 commenced improvements upon it. He has done
much for the advancement of the township, and his large family of sons
and daughters (now grown to manhood and womanhood) are among the best people
of the county. Charles S. Sperling, now eighty-nine years of age,
the oldest man in the township, settled, in 1843, upon Section 4.
After 1836, the immigration proceeded rapidly,
and the many settlers since then we cannot name except as
they were connected with the events of the general history of the township.
As the tide of population came in, the price
of land rose, and the low price of $1.25 that the Government
asked was increased to $3 or $4 in 1836 and to $8 or $10 two years
later. With this change, the price of
products decreased; but in the earliest years the contrast with the
present was not very marked. Wheat then was worth $1 per bushel; corn,
50 cents; oats, 37 cents; butter, 37 1/2 cents; soft soap, 37 cents per
gallon; hogs,
$10 to $14; cows, $30.
The Indians were removed before 1840 and the
white men left in undisturbed possession. The Pottawatomies were, however,
not in any way troublesome to the pioneers. There were a great many of
them in the township, especially in the south, where they had a camping
ground on a high ridge, now known as the "Hogback." They were agriculturalists
in a small way, and raised corn on low ground near the ridge. But they
were very
conservative in their farming. One year a party of them planted corn
on the farm of Anthony Nelson and were very much opposed to his
plowing and harrowing the ground; but, when he came to mark out the patch
in rows, their disgust was unbounded. The chief Kookoosh, however,
was wise enough to respect the pale face's little eccentricities in farming
and kept his men at work, and they succeeded in raising a very good crop.
Another old chief was one of those few red men who justify the poet's account
of "Lo, the poor Indian!" He seemed to see "God in the clouds and
hear him in the wind," and at every meal, before he would partake of any
food, he would invoke the blessing of the Great Spirit. The Indians were
always ready for a trade with the pioneers, and would exchange venison,
cranberries, moccasins and trinkets for vegetables and whatever the white
men had to
spare. A famous spring on the farm of Charles Roy, known as
Clearspring, whence the township derived its name, was a great resort for
the Indians, and there were many other springs, such as Indian Spring,
south of the first named, which their trails passed.
In March,1837, the Commissioners set off from
Eden Township the territory now known as Clearspring, and ordered an election
at Elijah Pixley's, on the first Monday of April. In accordance
with this, some fifteen or twenty voters met at the appointed place, and
proceeded to vote for township officers. The records cannot be found, and,
consequently, a full list is impossible, but it is believed that the first
Trustees were Ernestus
Schermerhorn, Willard Hervey and Elijah Pixley,
and the first Justices, William F. Beavers and Norman Sessions.
N.
P. Osborn was chosen Clerk, and received $3 for his year's service.
The Trustees were paid
$2.25 each for the first year. Beavers was soon after, June
23, married to Mary J. Cummins, of this township.
Volunteer transcription by Pati Blowers May. Material for transcription
gathered by Barbara Henderson.
On to Clearspring
Township Part 2
Return to 1882 History
Index
Return to Home Page
Graphics from-
|