Early Industries

About the year 1825 Francis R. Cogswell came to Noblesville. He was a tanner by trade. He built a cabin on the corner of Sixth and Logan Streets. This cabin was on the east side of Sixth Street. On the west side of the street, opposite this cabin, the lot extended to the river bank. On this last named lot Cogswell established a tanyard. A wooden wheel was made to turn in a circle. A sweep was attached to this wheel to which a horse was hitched to turn the wheel. A floor was laid in the. circle. Upon this floor tanbark well cured was laid, then the wheel was started over the bark and kept going until the bark was sufficiently pulverized to use in the vats prepared for that purpose. This wheel was used for some time, but was discontinued and a cast mill used in its stead. The process of tanning has heretofore been stated except that the vat has not been described. This vat was constructed as follows: A hole was dug in the ground about three and a half feet deep, six feet long and four feet wide, with square ends. Then a bottom was laid of two inch oak planks, closely fit, then the vat was sided up in the same manner and with the  same material.    One of  these vats was called the lime vat. In this vat the hair was loosened by the use of lime. The lime was then all worked out of the hide by scouring in clear water. Water was then placed in the vats where the hides were to be tanned, then one half of the hide was laid in the vat and covered with the ground bark, and so on until the vat was full.

This tanyard was one of the most useful industries of the time. Here all the hides from animals that had died and had been killed were converted into leather; here the pioneer secured the leather to make shoes for his family; here the settler found collars for his horses, and leather out of which bridles and harness of all kinds could be made. Cogswell sold this tanyard to Pleasant Williams.

In the year of 1826 the great emigration of squirrels occurred. The squirrels passed through this county from west to east. The number could not be estimated. The time occupied in passing was about two weeks. They destroyed all the corn in the fields they passed over. They could not be turned in their course, but kept straight on in the route taken. When they came to White River they entered the water at once and swam across. Hundreds of them were shot. Others were killed with clubs and stones. It was never known from whence they came nor where they went.

About this time James Casler started a distillery two miles below Noblesville. Pure whisky was sold there at twenty cents per gallon or ten cents per quart. The sporting part of the community gathered at this still house on Saturday of each week. Turkeys, deer hams, deer and 'coon skins were usually brought there and sold to men who attended shooting matches. Tickets were sold at a certain price for each shot until the price of the turkey was made up, then the best shot won the turkey. The shots were at a mark usually forty yards distant. The day was usually passed in shooting, drinking, foot racing, wrestling and a fist fight. This distillery was the nearest one to Noblesville.

In the year 1829 Robert L. Hannaman taught the first school in Noblesville. This school was in a cabin located on the southwest corner of Eighth Street and Maple Avenue. The lot is now owned by Mrs. James Haverstick. This was a subscription school. The children attending this school were small, ranging from nine to twelve years. It was the fall season of the year. This teacher opened the first drug store in Noblesville. William Davis procured the first license to sell intoxicating liquors in Noblesville.

In 1830 the population of Hamilton County was 1,705. The nearest house to Noblesville on a direct line west was fifteen miles; in a northwest direction about twenty miles. The settlements up to this time had been made on both sides of White River, Fall Creek and Stony Creek, but few had ventured far into the forests. The first cabin built west of Noblesville on what is now called the Noblesville & Eagletown Road, was built by Garret Wall, father-in-law to George Bow­man. I stayed all night in his cabin in February, 1832. The cabin was eighteen feet square. Eleven persons stayed there that night. The cooking, eating and sleeping were all done in the same room.

At the time the Foster mill was built on Stony Creek, an account of which has been given, there was no wheat in the county to grind, and no provision was made by Foster to bolt flour made from wheat. Foster sold this mill to a man named Betts. Betts attached a bolting chest to the machinery and thereafter ground wheat. The bolt was turned by hand. There was but little wheat raised while Betts owned the mill. There were no fanning mills in the county, and the thrashing and cleaning of wheat was a hard job. Prior to the year 1830 there were but few barns in the county, and they did not all have threshing floors. A large majority of the farmers having wheat, cleared off all the weeds and soft earth from a piece of ground, in a circle large enough for a thrashing floor. The wheat, when ready to thresh, was placed in a row on the outside of the cleared place, leaving room in the center for a man to direct the threshing. Sometimes the wheat would be pounded from the head with a flail; sometimes a boy would be placed on a horse and a second horse would be given him to lead, and by riding over the grain, a man standing in the middle to keep the straw turned, the wheat would be threshed. The next thing to be done was to clean the wheat. Some men selected a windy day for this work. Standing on a bench with a measure of some kind filled with grain, a man would pour out the contents of the vessel in such a way that the wind would blow the chaff and dirt away, while the wheat would drop to the ground.

Another way was for two men to take hold of a sheet, one at each end. Then the sheet was shaken in such a manner that a wind was created. Immediately above the draft stood a man with wheat in a sack or vessel, pouring it out so that the chaff and dirt would be blown away and the wheat cleaned. Then the grain was ready for the mill.

There was no market for wheat then, and but little was raised. Betts died and the mill was sold to one Hare. The old log mill was torn down and a large mill built lower down the stream. This mill ground both wheat and corn. A saw mill was added, which did considerable business.

John Conner died in 1825. The mill built by him on the river near Horseshoe Prairie, an account of which has been given, passed under the control of Sennet Fallis. The dam across White River, from whence came the power to run the mill, was made of brush, stone and earth. We then had two freshets each year; one in January and one in June. By one or the other of these freshets this dam was sure to be broken.   All the brush, rock and earth near the dam was soon used for repairing, and it became necessary to build a boat. This boat was taken up the river to any point where brush and earth could be procured. It was then loaded and poled down to the dam and unloaded. In the course of time it became necessary to maintain a crew of boatmen to man this boat. They were a jolly lot, but some of them contracted rheumatism and other diseases from which they never recovered. Fallis operated this mill but a short time. It then passed to the hands of W. W. Conner, only heir to the vast estate of John Conner. It did W. W. Conner but little good. He died a poor man.

After Foster sold his mill on Stony Creek he built a mill on White River in Noblesville Township, at the point where Clare is situated. This mill supplied the wants of settlers for a great distance in each direction. A saw mill was added to the grist mill. In addition to the sawing done for the neighborhood, thousands of feet of lumber were sawed and sent to Indianapolis. Rafts were built out of the lumber and when the water was at the proper stage the lumber was floated down to the city. This lumber trade with Indianapolis was kept up for a long time and brought to the mill owner good pay.

In the pioneer days those who were residing upon lands entered by them, and which lands had been partially improved, did not rely largely on crops raised for anything more than food for their stock and bread for their families. The ground from which timber had been removed was covered with stumps, which nothing but time would remove. The process of clearing land was slow and the farming was difficult. Wheat, then as now, was sown in the fall season. In the spring the cleared patches were prepared and planted in corn. The corn was thereafter cultivated according to the custom of the times. Then came the wheat harvest. The implements used in taking care of the wheat was a reap hook, a wheat cradle and a hand rake. The men using the cradle cut the standing wheat, getting as near as possible to the stumps; then the reap hook was used in cutting the down grain and around the stumps; then the grain cut with the cradle was raked up into bundles with a hand rake, then bound and shocked, then put into barns or stacks; next came the hay harvest. The process was as follows: The farmer repaired to his meadow with a mowing scythe thrown over his shoulder. With this implement he cut the grass. A good hand would cut about one acre per day. The rule was for about two men to join in the work. They would cut grass until noon, then with their wooden forks they would scatter the hay so that it would in a short time be dry. Then with hand rakes the hay was put in rows called winrows. Then late in the evening the hay was put in stack.

In about the year 1840 threshing machines, called chaff pliers, were introduced into this county. These machines threshed the wheat from the straw, but did not separate it from the chaff. This was done by running the wheat and chaff through windmills, which were introduced about that time. One mill was generally sufficient for the neighborhood in which it was sold. From about the year 1830 to the year 1841 or 1842 corn sold at about eighteen cents per bushel, wheat from thirty seven and a half cents to forty cents. There were some improvements in price from that time to 1850. From 1850 to about 1855 corn as a rule sold for about twenty five cents per bushel and wheat fifty to sixty cents. In about the years 1856 and 1857 and 1858 wheat advanced to $1.00 per bushel and corn from twenty five to fifty cents, owing to the demand. Some time in the early fifties great improvements were made in farm implements. The roots and stumps had been gradually decaying and were easily put out of the way, so that the farmers began to give more attention to their farms and the result was that farming began to pay. From that time forward improvements in this line were rapid. Domestic improvements were not so rapid and not so general; yet conditions were greatly improved. The carding machine, the spinning jack and the patent loom took the place of the old hand cards, the spinning wheel and hand loom; the sewing machine dispensed with a vast amount of sewing formerly done by hand. The cooking stoves took the place of the old crane and pot hooks that formerly hung in the old fireplace, and also dispensed with the dinner pot and johnny cake boards.

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