MONTGOMERY
COUNTY
CLARK
TOWNSHIP.
Clark township was laid out in
October, 1830, comprising T. 17 N., R. 3 W., since which date it has
never been changed in form or area. The territory embraced in this
township is rolling and was once the most heavily timbered of any
portion of the county. The soil is exceedingly fertile and produces
large crops of cereals. The drainage is excellent, Big and Little
Raccoon and Haw creeks running through the township from northeast to
southwest, and each, having considerable fall, renders tile drainage
almost unnecessary.
Clark and Scott townships were the last to be settled in the county, a
fact probably due to the close and heavy forest growth and the presence
of a tribe of Indians, who claimed the territory for their hunting
grounds. Access of emigration, the entry of all other available lands
by earlier settlers, and the removal of the Cornstalk tribe to the
Mississinnewa Reservation in Grant county, impelled the tide to flow
over these rich lands.
As near as can now be ascertained among conflicting claims to the
honor, Lucas Baldwin, from Berkley county, Virginia, was the first
pioneer to essay a home in the " big woods " of Clark township. He came
in 1826 and entered the land on which the town of Ladoga now stands,
and lived there for eight years thereafter. His grandson, Jonathan
Tipton, now living on a farm in the township, may be classed among the
older settlers likewise. The country was full of " wild varmints,"
bears, deer, hogs, wolves and smaller game. The Indian trails between
Kokomo and the Cornstalk villages, in Scott township, were still
trodden by moccasined feet. Stories of .adventure in those days are yet
recounted by the firesides of the descendants of men who bore hardships
and danger for the comfort of our present circumstances ; some of these
are as thrilling as the most improbable of Mayne Reid's, and all are
pathetic of the long .suffering of pioneer life. Settlers being much
like sheep in respect to following a leader, came rapidly in, until by
the spring of 1837, no land remained in Clark township that had not
been entered by actual settlers. These came from Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee and a few from Kentucky, bringing in nearly every
instance young families and, for the time and rule, generous outfits
for their combat with nature. Neither were they tillers of the soil
alone, for with them came cabinet-makers, whose labors were
indispensable to the colonists, and whose handicraft still has handsome
evidence of its rude strength and simple elegance in many a household
of Montgomery county; blacksmiths who could make axes at the forge and
all the numerous irons of the farmer, who could set up the " Gary "
plow, with its wooden moldboard and right angled bar share, and its
five feet of length; wagon-makers, who were competent to build the "
Virginia schooners," with beds wide and deep enough to move & whole
family with all their "plunder," and tight enough to serve as a
ferry-boat over unfordable streams; young physicians, eager to flesh
their maiden lancets and heal the ills of the new settlement; teachers,
and preachers and lawyers came later, when the "clearings" began to
appear and people had leisure to remember the luxuries of their former
life and willingness to encourage the shadows of coming substance.
The earlier settlers of the township were Charles Lewis Sr., Humphrey
Rice, David D. Nicholson, Limledge Stringer, William A. Brown and John
Brown, Robert Davis, Andrew J. Davis, Isaac Baker, father of John
Baker, Gabriel S. Davidson, William H. Utterback, Jefferson Hicks,
Benjamin Sharp, all of whom were from Kentucky; John B..Peffley, Lewis
Otterman, Caleb H. R. Anderson, George Stover, Jacob and Jacob M.
Harshbarger, John Peffley, and Alfred Rose from Virginia; John Ellis,
Schenck, Harvey, Richard Graves, Drake and Joel Brookshire, and Green
Davis from North Carolina; George Otterman Sr., and George Otterman
Jr., from Pennsylvania; James Manners Sr., from Maryland, with numerous
others whose names and native places cannot now be ascertained. These
were the pioneer fathers of the township; with but few exceptions they
brought with them the pioneer mothers, some of whom still live in peace
and plenty, surrounded by their great-grandchildren. The following are
well known names of early housewives, wool-spinners and flax-weavers:
Charlotte (Hunter) Davis, Sarah (Slack) Brookshire, Agnes Graves, Lora
(Null) Otter- man, Mary (Morrison) Rose, Mary (Robinson) Peffley,
Salome A. Harshbarger, Hannah (Arnold) Myers, Anna (Rader) Stover,
Hettie (Peffley) Otterman, Anna (Buntrager) Peffley, Sallie (Manges)
Peffley, Priscilla (Manners) Clark, Elizabeth (Harrison) Sharp, Mary
(Pearson) Hart, Lucinda (Ragsdale) Hicks, Elizabeth (Bonner) Brown,
Keziah Davis, Elizabeth (Watkins) Stringer, Elizabeth (Fleener)
Nicholson, Nancy (Ellis) Rice, Nancy (Adams) Lewis, Martha (Sparks)
Baker, Hannah (Adams) Baldwin, Betsey (Kelsey) Hays, Elizabeth (Crane)
Pearson.
Ladoga, the first nucleus of the settlement in Clark township, was laid
out by John Myers in 1836. It is situated on the north side of Big
Raccoon creek, and now has nearly 2,000 inhabitants, and is the second
town in enterprise and population in the county. It is a station of the
Logansport, New Albany & Chicago railroad, and has in prospect,
should the A. L. & St. L. railroad be completed, still larger
growth. This latter railroad is laid out to pass through the center of
the town, and although work upon the line has been suspended for
several years, the day will certainly come when the township will
possess all the advantages of an east and west railway route.
In 1837, when David D. Nicholson came to Ladoga, the town consisted of
four or five houses, two of which, used as stores, were of frame, and
the others of hewed logs. Silas Grantham kept a log boarding-house.
John Steele and Wm. K. Nofsinger were the merchants, and Dr. Carey
dispensed pills and medical aid. Mr. Nicholson was the first blacksmith
to open a forge in the place, and Humphrey Rice made plows and wagons.
Aside from these artisans and business men, the remaining citizens were
Taylor Webster, Caleb H. E. Anderson, Zack and James Mahorney, Joseph
Ellis and John Masterson.
Ladoga has been from the outset unusually favored by the enterprise and
business capacity of her merchants and tradesmen. For a number of years
a large woolen manufactory was carried on by Harney, Thomas & Co.,
doing an enormous business throughout the county and adjoining country.
An extensive flouring mill has been in operation for more than a
quarter of a century, obtaining power from the creek which runs along
the southern outskirts of the town. The grain and lumber trade has been
very profitable to the community, and has laid the foundation of good
fortune for many of the citizens. One of the largest dry-goods
establishments in western Indiana, conducted by A. M. Scott, in a
handsome brick block built for the purpose, supplies goods to all the
surrounding country.
Church privileges and school facilities were early provided by the
founders of the town, the more successfully than is usual, because of
the morality and intelligence of the people. The leading religious
denomination is the Christian church, following which come the
Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics and New School Baptists. All of
these have commodious church buildings and regular services.
For a long time a classical all scientific school was conducted by the
late Hon. Milton B. Hopkins, ex-superintendent of public instruction
for the state. Mr. Hopkins was equally distinguished as an educator and
as a controversial leader in the Christian church. He surrounded
himself with an able corps of assistants, and received the warmest
support of the entire community. The school became noted, and drew
pupils from other parts of the state. At the same time Prof.Vawter was
at the head of a similar institution, carried on under the auspices of
the New School Baptist church. The latter was likewise largely attended
by pupils from nearly every section of the state. It occupied two
commodious buildings, situated in a beautiful grove west of the town.
The influence of these schools upon the people of Ladoga and Clark
township was elevating and refining. At this day no community of
similar size in the state possesses a higher standard of intelligence
and culture.
As a proper supplement to all this preparatory scholastic work, the
Central Indiana Normal College was organized at Ladoga in September
1876, with three regular teachers and forty-eight students, having
Profs. Warren Darst and W. F. Harper as principals. The design of this
institution, never departed from since its organization, is to provide
thorough training to teachers in all the latest Normal methods, as well
as to afford opportunities to acquire a regular classical education.
During the first year of its history the college enrolled nearly 300
students. Prof. Darst retired from the faculty in 1877, and in the
spring of 1878 Prof. Harper resigned, at which time Profs. Darst and J.
C. Murray were elected to the charge of affairs. During the third year
the enrollment was about 325. In the summer of 1879 Prof. J. V. Coombs,
the present principal, assumed charge, since which time the attendance
has largely increased ; last year 594 students were present. In 1877
there were ten graduates, in 1878 three, in 1879 five, and in 1880
there were nineteen collegiate, thirteen business and eighteen normal
course graduates. Fourteen teachers are now employed in the college,
having charge of the following departments, namely,classical,
scientific, teachers, commercial, preparatory, musical, elocutionary,
engineering, and law. The school possesses a large library of
miscellaneous literature, and has a fair supply of apparatus for
scientific demonstration. Clark township has nine public school-houses
valued at $4,100, with an attendance in 1880 of 379, out of an
enumeration of 429.
Ladoga has, in addition to this, a school enumeration of 325, making
the total number of children of school age in the township 754. From
these data, in the absence of any census report for 1880, we may safely
place the entire population of the township at nearly 4,000. S. F.
Kyle, of Ladoga, is the present school trustee, and the school trustees
of the incorporation of Ladoga are: David Nicholson, president ; A. M.
Scott, treasurer, and Edwin Snodgrass, secretary. Mr. Nicholson has
been connected with the school boards of the town and township, for
more than forty consecutive years, and the present prosperous condition
of the schools is, for him, a matter of great pride and gratification.
The school fund of the township amounts to the handsome sum of
£2,761.77. Eighteen teachers were employed in the public schools
during the school year of 1880. With such facilities provided for
pupils in the township it will certainly be their own fault if they
fail to secure a thorough English education.
The writer of this sketch has had the pleasant privilege of conversing
with many of the old settlers of the township, some of whom have since
departed " to that bourne from whence no traveler returns," and he
recalls with feelings of pleasure, as fresh as when first they were
listened to, narratives of their peculiar sports and adventures. Of
these genial veterans none shines more in general reminiscence than
Uncle Drake Brookshire, whose jolly .disposition once led him into all
manner of comical scrapes, that, narrated in his incomparable manner,
with all the adjuncts of idiomatic language and quaint North Carolina
brogue, would make him the hero of any coterie of storytellers. His
stories are modestly impersonal, but with all his crafty concealment it
is easy to perceive that he was always " on the ground " when the
occurrence of which he speaks took place. He vouches for the following:
"There was a man named Herndon, who had a horse mill this side of
Fredericksburg; he was a blustering, busy sort of man, rather free of
speech. A customer brought some corn to be ground one day, and while
they were getting ready to start the mill, a little ground-squirrel
that had been sitting on the track in which the horse moved round,
jumped up on the side of the hopper and then down into the mill-stones.
The old miller went on with his work, and poured the corn into the
hopper and started to grind. Pretty soon the meal came out mixed with
strings of hide and rolls of fur and flesh, and Herndon said: "Well
sir; you are the blamedest luckiest man I ever knew; you bring corn to
my mill, and here you are getting both meal and meat!' "
Circle Peffley, when a boy, went hunting after wild hogs, deer and
turkeys. He killed a deer where Joel Ridge's house now stands in
Ladoga, and hung it on an oak tree to keep it from being devoured by
the wolves, while he went home for a horse to carry the carcass. The
tree is still standing, near where Lollis and Biddle now live in
Ladoga. The first home for many of the settlers was a "lean-to camp";
made by cutting forked poles, and extending cross poles to some large
tree, and covering top and sides with brush, thereby making a
triangular, wedge-shaped shelter, in front of which a fire of logs was
kindled for warming and cooking purposes. Limledge Stringer has a vivid
recollection of such a camp, and still speaks, with a shiver, of the
fiery wolf-eyes that used to circle the outer darkness during the
winter nights of 1830.
Gabriel S. Davidson is authority for a squirrel hunt that deserves
historic embalmment in these pages. A weary tramp of twenty miles
during all the hours of a long day is now thought well rewarded by the
sportsman if he bags half-a-dozen squirrels; but at the time of which
Mr. Davidson speaks that game was so abundant as to be a decided and
destructive nuisance. The young corn of the settlers, planted with
great pains and severest toil among the numerous stumps of their little
clearings, had scarcely pot into the milk stage before the squirrels
and coons discovered that as an edible green corn was better and more
toothsome than anything they had tasted before. In consequence they
came by thousands, uninvited, to the tempting feast; the squirrels by
day and the coons by night. Worn out by desultory slaughter, the
settlers joined forces for an organized battle upon the invaders. For
fifteen days all other pursuits were abandoned, and every offensive
weapon in Clark township was directed upon the foe. The forces were
divided into two parties. The one making the largest bag was entitled
to receive one quart of whiskey per capita from the other party, the
evidence to be the largest count of coons' tails and squirrel scalps.
Never was there such wholesale destruction. When the tales came to be
counted there were more than 3,000 squirrel scalps, and nearly 1,500
ring-tails. The general result was a glorious spree and, what was
better, a good crop of corn. Charles Lewis tells of the killing of a
bear by some honey hunters on his father's land in the township. His
father was a professional hunter, and made sad havoc among the furred
and feathered denizens of the big woods. Wild honey was abundant, and
domestic swarms were not thought of in those days. Bee-trees were as
easily found then as a lawyer is now. Other sweetening came from the
sugar trees in the shape of maple molasses and Migar in an abundance
commensurate with all of nature's kindly gifts to the pioneer.
As an admirable picture of frontier life viewed by a boy's eyes, we
present the following extracts from an address written by Joel Peffley,
Esq., and r^ad on the occasion of the golden wedding of his parents,
John B. and Mary Peffley:
"Our company emigrating from Botetourt county, Virginia, was made up of
father's family (five persons, one wagon, and four horses); Jacob
Harshbarger's family (nine persons, two wagons and six horses); Samuel
Britts' family (seven persons, one wagon, one buggy and five horses);
McCormic's family (ten persons, one wagon and one horse); J. Fletcher's
family (three persons, one wagon and one horse), and J. Barber's family
(three persons, one wagon and one horse), making a little company of
forty-one persons leagued together for safety and convenience. We
traveled nearly three hundred miles over the mountains, and about the
same distance across land where mud and water were equally distributed.
In six weeks and five days we arrived one and 1/2 half miles east of
Ladoga and occupied an old log cabin. In the spring of 1832 our family
moved into a log cabin that still stands on the lot near our home; it
was then considered a tine and comfortable dwelling. It was a regular
Hoosier cabin, with clapboard roof, clapboard door, clapboard loft,
.and puncheon floor. That spring we were obliged to eat bread made from
corn so moldy that even the horses refuse to eat it. We had no meadows
from which to procure hay, so we fed our stock with bushes upon which
the leaves had dried. I helped to roll logs by day, and made clearings
by night lighted by the blazing log-heaps ; on one occasion I cut a
small sapling across a large mossy rock, thinking it was a big chunk of
rotten wood, and ruined my axe, which was then no insignificant matter.
In 1834 we raised some wheat; we threshed and separated this, our first
crop, by beating it out with clubs, and fanning the chaff with a sheet
worked by two men, while the third stood upon a bench, and dribbled it
down from a half bushel. John Myers built his mill at Ladoga in 1836,
which saved us many a trip to Crawfordsville to get our grist ground.
During this year movers were as thick as possums in a pawpaw patch ;
com-huskings and gum-sucks began to be fashionable. We raised flax,
pulled it, pounded off the seed, put it to rot, broke, scutched or
swingled it, and then mother spun it and wove our wearing apparel. The
every-day clothing of boys of our age (twelve years) was a long
tow-linen shirt, and it was regular torture to break in a rough new
linen shirt. Our Sunday clothes was two trousers and vest, with
home-made pewter buttons, and a buckeye hat; for winter we wore
linsey-woolsey clothes and untanned coon-skin caps with tails flying to
the breeze. For our pocket- money we were allowed to dig ginseng, and
manufacture wooden pitchforks and hickory scrub-brooms. The sang we
sold green for six cents per pound,—if dried, for twenty-five cents per
pound,— and our brooms and pitchforks brought us a shilling each. The
only hay-forks used then were made out of the cork of a bush. Mother
spun, wove and made all of our clothing, platted and braided our straw
hats, and made caps from ground-squirrel, mole and coon skins. She
raised silk-worms, and spun from their cocoons all the sewing thread
used in making up the garments for the females of the family. We made
in one season over fifteen hundred pounds of sugar from 500 sugar trees
on our place, which was hard work, only relieved to us boys by our
nightly horse-shoe pitching, egg-roasting and chicken feasts by the
furnace fires, which, being illicit pleasures, were sweeter than the
syrup we manufactured, to our boyish tastes."
John N. Hays remembers quite distinctly a visit made by a surly Indian
of the Miami tribe to his father's house, when the family sat down to
dinner with their savage guest. A favorite dish with young John was a
part of the menu consisting of sliced cucumbers and onions dressed in
vinegar. The presence of the noble red man had completely paralyzed the
tongue of the boy until he saw his beloved dish about to be devoured by
the Miami, when his stomach-courage compelled him to enter a loud
protest, against which not event the stoicism of the Indian was able to
stand. Mr. Hays heard the eccentric Lorenzo Dow preach a sermon upon
the farm where he was raised; Dow came, after the services were
concluded, to his father's house for dinner. He would not take time to
dine like other men, but ate in the smoke-house, bolting alternate
hunks of break and meat until his voracious appetite was satisfied,
when he mounted his horse and departed, as mysteriously and peculiarly
as was his custom.
Jacob M. Harshbarger (now one of the board of county commissioners) may
justly claim the palm as a hard-working pioneer from Clark township.
When he came to the county he was only twelve years of age. For
eighteen years he engaged in that hardest of pioneer labor, making
clearings in heavy timber-lands. During his life he has reclaimed from
the forest, fenced with rails of his own splitting, and set in
blue-grass, nearly 400 acres of what is now the best land in the
township, and has, beside this herculean task, aided to clear 400 acres
of land belonging to his neighbors.
He mentions a singular fact concerning sheep that were killed in early
days. When the sheep were killed by wolves, if their slayers had not
time nor appetite to eat their quarry they would bury the carcasses
between trees and by the side of logs ; while if the sheep had been
killed by dogs, the carcasses would be left lying where they were
killed.
In gathering elder blossoms, while a boy, he was so badly stung by
hornets that were gathering the honey from the flowers, that he lay for
two days at the point of death. His first school teacher was John
Barnet, after whom came William Nofsinger, Parker Howard, and David
Shannon, who were the pioneer pedagogues of the township. The first
preachers to whom he listened in his boyhood were Daniel Miller
(Dunkard) and Jonathan Keeney (Methodist). He never attended school
after he became sixteen years old, but after his years of toil, having
accumulated an abundance of this world's goods, he is free to indulge
his long repressed taste for reading, and is much better informed than
the majority of persons who have had the amplest opportunities. Such
indeed is the common characteristic of the pioneer mind, and if they
cannot themselves enjoy the full luxuries of learning, they at least
have honest pride and gratification in viewing the attainments of their
children.
Source History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on
the Wabash Valley By Hiram Williams Beckwith, P. S. Kennedy, Davidson,
Thomas Fleming
