Crawford County, Indiana

First Settlers Of Crawford County, Indiana

Commercialization the County.

From the 1840's on there was a tremendous business done by flat-boating on the Ohio River. The flatboat was loaded with corn, lime or other articles. The hay boat or corn boat was much more pleasant on which to work. The lime boat was dangerous should any water get on the lime barrels. The boats stopped at most all the towns and sold corn and other produce. The man when he reached the Gulf of Mexico qith his flatboat either sold the boat or had it towed back upriver to his home.

Life on the river was pleasant when the weather was good, but woe be the man who was caught out on the river when a storm came. The flatboat was generally propelled with a steering ore. Besides the corn and lime boats, there were boats loaded with packed meat and whiskey.

There were men up and down the river who delighted in telling great lies. On one occasion a man was floating down the river. As he passed the mouth of the Wabash, a man called from the bank and said that they had better not go far down the river for the recent earthquake had caused the river to fall in a deep hole and sink. The captain cried, "To the oars, boys, back!" That man was only fooling the man, he himself floating on down the river in safety.

In the early days much fruit was grown in Crawford County. It was made into brandy and shipped away or the apples were sold by the barrel.

The old-fashioned lime kiln was a great source of wealth in those days. A large kiln generally held a great quantity of lime. It was put into barrels and shipped south on a flatboat. The old lime kiln was a hole about 15 ft deep and 10 ft in diameter. One usually dug such a pit on a steep hillside where he can dig in from the lower part of the furnace. The kiln being filled, one fired it up by burning wood in the eye of the pit. All up and down the river one finds traces of these old pits or kilns.

Most all the lime was shipped out on flatboats. The boats were being built every day up and down the river. A lumber man generally marked the trees for the gunwales. Poplars were chosen, ones about 80 good feet to the limbs. These were cut down in the spring and scored and hewed until they were about 8 in. thick and two or three feet wide. Small studding were set on the gunwale and sided up some and covered. A long steering ore with a long sweep was cut out on the top of the boat. By it men guided the boat as it floated down the stream. Life out on the river was dangerous at nights, therefore most boats had a "watch." Sometimes robbers would slip up and "coon" the boat and steal all the money the men had, even killing the watches at times.

The farmers cleared up their land as fast as they needed it. Rails were split out of walnut and white oak for the fences. The fences were generally built about ten rails high. Sometimes the fences were staked and ridered or simply locked. These rails were about 4 in. thick and 10 ft long.The first wire fence and the first self-binded fence ever bought in the county was built many years after the Civil War.

The good housewife had her share of the burden to bear. It was not light by any means. She cared for the geese in order to have feathers for bedding. It was the custom to give each girl a feather bed when she was married.

Enough chickens were raised to furnish eggs for cooking. The woman used them freely in cooking cornbread and cakes. Above all, it was a social custom to have a yellow-legged chicken each Sunday when the preacher came.

In the early days men dried apples and peaches on a dry kiln. These old-fashioned kilns were built of rock. There were places for firing and drying the fruit. The women canned the fruit, made cider out of crab apples, wine out of grapes, jellies of all kinds out of crab apples, maple syrup, spice brush, sassafras, balsam, and sage for the sausage. The kitchen was a storehouse. The cellar was filled with apples, potatoes and turnips, while the main quantity was buried or pitted away.

Before the Civil War Crawford County was filled with strong men. They might walk 20 miles any day on a deer hunt. The hardy farmer generally reared a family of eight to 10 and 15 children. The father was the ideal of the boys, while the mother was queen over the daughters. The evening was spent around the huge chimney on a wintry night while the parents played games with the children. Such was the happy life of the farmer.

The courting was done in a manner much different from nowadays. The old couple generally slept in the main living room. When the old man and his wife had retired then the young people set up before the fire and did their sparking. On one occasion a very old gentleman told the writer that he was watching the old lady who was peeping out from under the "kivers" at him. He had no chance at a kiss until the fire got low. Then he happened to think of his tobacco. Filling his mouth with a large chew, he began to fire away at the fire stick which was blazing. After several minutes he mastered the blaze. The room being dark he had just time to get his kiss when he heard a wrestling in the bed and in looking around he saw the old lady with her nightcap on begin crawling out of the bed. He expected the worst but she just came to the fire and steered it up with her long poker. He thought he had better leave about that time.

Judge O. Nash of Marengo told a story of how he went home with a girl about the year of 1858. After taking her home they talked till they were tired, and he decided that he would stay overnight. The old fashioned boot jack was missing so he could not get his boots off. The girl took hold of the boots and by strenuous efforts assisted him to pull them off. Yet he said that the girls were just as moral then as they could be.

The men in those early days wore cowhide boots reaching to their knees. These were sewed so well that one could wade water all day with them on and not get one's feet wet. Such a thing as a pair of rubbers or overshoes was unknown.

The hunting was done with an old fashioned flintlock gun at first. But later a long barrel Kentucky rifle was used. It had double triggers. One set the trigger first. Then sight was taken. When the aim was just right one pulled the second set of triggers. The weight of a hair was almost sufficient to fire the gun, after the trigger was set.

The Methodist ministers and Christians were on the field early. One cannot give too much credit to the work of those early circuit riders. The oldest Christian Church was the Blue River Meeting House, near what is now English. The Baptist's were also on the ground early. These ministers suffered untold hardships and many insults. On one occasion a minister was conducting a baptismal service near Alton when an unbeliever who wanted to see some fun, who lived in a cabin near the Little Blue, came down to the bank and caught his dog in his arms. A footlog about the diameter of 6 ft from the water reached across the river which was about 30 or 40 ft wide. He walked out on that log with his dog still in his arms. Several of the men in the crowd on the bank wanted to go and persuade him to leave, but the minister said: "just let him go."

When he was out over the middle of the stream, he prepared to baptize his dog. The dog became scared and kept kicking around till it got one foot under his suspender. He repeated the little speech that he had, baptized him in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, upon which he intended to hurl the dog into the river, but the dog he gave such a kick that the man lost his balance and fell into the river too. He went under for several seconds, but soon arose and swam to the shore, a wetter but wiser man than before.

The Methodist people organized a class in what is now Tower about 1858. The men used Gaines Patrick's cooper shop for a church till the old Tower Chapel church was built about 1858. It is about 5 miles north of Leavenworth. About the many noted men who have gone out from Crawford County one may mention Mr. William H Kendall, who at the date of writing was the minister of the Memorial Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, and John Hangar, who is a Methodist in Indianapolis. The people of Crawford County are extremely Protestant and temperate, after the enactment of the County Unit in local option an election was held in Crawford County on May 26, 1909. The drys received 1,436 votes and the wets had 683.

Colored people rarely lived in Crawford County. Before the Civil War one lived for a short time down in Ohio Township. About 1922 a few colored men lived on the government reservation above Leavenworth. They sent two colored children up to the Leavenworth Public Schools. Much confusion arose, but fortunately no one was hurt, but the children were badly frightened. Later two colored women came down to the high school to attend the Parent Teacher Association. They came into the hallway but no one welcomed them. So they went away. Later the colored people moved away and the excitement died with their going.

Coal may be seen cropping out of the ground at various places in Crawford County, but not much has been done toward mining on account of the abundance of wood.

In November, 1920, the English and Princeton Coal and Oil Company opened a mine on Henry Wright's farm south of Taswell under the supervision of M.S. Spurling who was a licensed coal miner. The vein was about 4 ft thick and the coal of a fine grade, containing a good quantity of carbon. The mine was opened on November 20th. There was a ready market for all the coal that the company could dig from the mine.

In the good old days one made shoe polish out of elderberries. The ripe berries were gathered and the juice squeezed out of them in a coarse cloth. Then the juice was boiled down till it became thick. One generally applied the polish with a feather. The juice also made an excellent quantity of ink, but was never as popular as pokeberry juice for ink.

It was a custom of binding out boys and girls till they were 18 or 21 years old. It existed in the early days. The following ads appeared in the Leavenworth Arena on November 21 1839, "One cent reward. Run away from the subscriber on November 4th 1839, A bound boy by name of Simon MaComb. Supposed to be about 14 years old, very small for his age. Has heavy eyebrows, rather flaring look about his eyes. Anyone returning him to the subscriber will receive one cent and no thanks. Stephen Roberson, Union Township." Also Mr. James B. Humley escaped without paying his grog bill: "Reward of one cent. John Tadlock, hotel keeper. December 5, 1839."

The people in those early days were required to do militia service. As early as 1838 one finds in the Leavenworth Arena a notice warning all the militia within the boundary of these points: Commencing at Big Blue River where the Governor's Old Trail crosses the river and following the trail west to Milltown and Leavenworth road, thence down the road to the Rome road, then to the Ohio Township Line, then South to the Ohio River, then up the river to the Big Blue River. That will include most of all Jennings Township east of the Fredonia and Paoli roads. The militia in that territory were to meet on July 28th, 1838, at Leavenworth and elect a captain, one lieutenant and one ensign to command the company which was the 23rd Regiment of Indiana Militia. Notice was signed by William Mansfield, Colonel. Not all the men attended these muster days willingly. One finds this notice: David Cole was ordered to attend the Battalion muster, May 29,, 1841, at John Martains with his company as the law required.

Many interesting items of news are found in the Whig Arena. The notice of the lost child was given. It seems that the little son of Silas Davidson had left home with his dog to hunt. The boy was not over 10 years of age. He never returned. A thorough search was made for the boy by over 300 people but no trace of the lad was ever found. The dog and child were probably eaten by the wild animals. The child was lost on December, 1841.

Sports in the early days consisted of wrestling, foot racing, jumping, sticking pegs and many other contests. Hardly any great barbecue would be held without a foot race. At the great Whig barbecue held in Fredonia in 1840 the race between Asa Buckles and Tom Tarr attracted as much attention as the Whig speeches.

The old-fashioned games of three corner cat, round town ball, long town ball, hat ball, baseball and many others were played by the boys. Hat ball was a very brutal game. The victim was placed with his face to the wall while the other boy were allowed so many throws at him. The suspense under which the victim was under while waiting for the ball to strike was telling.

The social evenings were spent in old fashioned apple cuttings, "shucking bees," dances, play parties and spelling matches. At the spelling bee old-fashioned Japanese lanterns were hung up in which a candle was placed. The teacher chose two to divide the house. After spelling for about one hour there was an intermission at which the young people crowded out to play games of various kinds. Tag was one of the favorites. After rest the crowd was divided and some time spent in spelling. The climax came when the crowd stood up around the wall and spelled for major. One had a fair chance. If he missed the word then he sat down. The man who stood the longest carried away the floor.

Crawford County produced some of the best spellers in the state. One may name Jephtha Turley, Thad Riddle, Logan Riddle, "Farmer" Brown, Sherman Smith and George C. Smith. In later years Alfred Turley won a wide distinction for his success in winning the floor on all occasions. As far as ever known George C. Smith was the only man who ever spelled Jephtha Turley down.

But the old time sports are gone. New sports have come to claim our attention. Basketball came into our midst. Men fought it's advent. At Leavenworth the town "dad's" tried to enact an ordinance prohibiting basketball. They claimed that it broke down the code of ethics established by their grandfathers. Later the basketball faction won out.

With these scattered remarks about the early pioneers and their occupations this discussion comes to a close. (HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY, INDIANA-Pleasant 1926)