PIONEER DAYS
Settlement of German Township
How the People Worked, Eat, Slept and
Lived, With Names of the Old Settlers.
[Clipping from the Columbus Republican, Bartholomew County, Indiana, April 10, 1886]
I promised some time ago that I would give a short sketch of the settlement of German township and of the old settlers, but I cannot do it justice after so many years, having forgotten much that would be strange and interesting to the present generation.
German is bounded on the east by Flatrock, on the west by Driftwood, had many excellent wells and springs and is therefore abundantly supplied with good water. It is one of the best townships of land in the county and produces abundantly everything that grows in this altitude. It was originally covered with a heavy growth of fine timber consisting principally of oak, poplar, walnut, ash, wild cherry, sugar maple, beech and much of this timber remains yet. The township has three good church buildings and six large brick school houses besides the graded school at Taylorsvile, and many fine and tasty private residences that would be a credit to any community and the whole township has an air of thrift and solid prosperity hard to excel.
The township derives its name from the fact that it was settled principally by Germans and those of German descent.
The younger generation who enjoy all these blessings now can scarely form a picture of the way their forefathers lived fifty or sixty years ago, but I will try to give them an idea of it. Each family had only one small field of corn and we had to watch them every day after the corn and we had to watch them every day after the corn got into the roasting ears to keep the gray squirrels form eating it up, and sometimes they were so bad that we had to gather it in September and dry it to keep it from spoiling. If it were cut and put in the shock coons and squirrels would eat it all. I have known men to hire hands to stand around the fields with a gun and shoot squirrels day after day. They would just shoot them and leave them where they fell. A man could just load and shoot all day and the squirrels would never seem to be any scarcer at night than in the morning. In that early day the land was covered by underbrush as well as large timber. There was also what we called peavine that grew luxuriantly everywhere. It was very useful and stock lived on it principally. Very little grain was to be had, and, after working the horses or oxen all day, they would be turned out at night to graze. Many oxen were used for hauling, which was done chiefly on sleds, and for breaking ground with the wooden plows. Harrow teeth were made of wood, poles with pins in them being used instead of log chains. Wagons were scarce, and if a man had ridden up in a buggy the people would have thought it was Elijah in his chariot.
The people lived in log cabins, with a hole cut out for a door, but seldom any window. Their tables were made by splitting a broad slab out of a log, having the upper side as smooth as possible, and putting legs in it. Table cloths were unknown. Part of the family usually had to wait because there was not room enough nor enough dishes, knives, forks, spoons for all at the same time. Bedsteads were made by boring holes in one side of the cabin and driving forked sticks down further out in the floor and sticks laid across these, throwing over them some clothes and covering them with leaves or straw, and this was the bed. Some would hollow out a place in the corner of the floorless cabin, fill the place with leaves and use it for a bed.
Meal waas made in this way: A block of wood about three feet long was cut from a tree, one end hollowed out by boring and burning until it was smooth and would hold from a peck to a half bushel. This was the mortar block. A pestle wa made by taking a stick of wood and fastening an iron wedge, (such as is used in splitting timber) in the end of it. The corn was poured in the mortar and pounded as fine as possible. It was sifted and the finer portion used for meal and the coarser for hominy. The meal was made into dough spread on a clean board and put up before the fire to bake. This was called "johnny cake." Sometimes the dough was rolled up into a ball or "dodger," placed in the embers and baked when it became "hoecake." The hominy was cooked and seasoned well with coon grease, when it was, "eat and be merry for tomorrow you must beat more meal and hominy." There was abundance of game at that time such as deer, bears, panthers, wolves, catamounts, wild cats, coons, opossums and wild turkeys. It was a good thing too, as game and corn bread was the chief diet. Some few had beds and other articles of convenience they had brought with them; but this was the exception.
The nearest place to get any meal or four was Connersville or Brooklyn, in Wayne county. Old Mr. Barlow put up the first horse mill to grind corn. Each man had to take his own team to run the mill and grind his "grist" and then it was slow work. A couple of years later one Cox put a temporary mill on Flatrock, near what is now called "High Field ford." He felled a tree across the creek where it was swift for a dam, fixed a paddle wheel on it and ground some corn, but it had to be watched closely or the coons would eat it as fast as ground. In 1823 or 1824 John Pence built a mill on Driftwood where the old Tannehill mill now stands and after that there was no trouble in getting grinding done, providing you had anything to grind.
The first ground that was ever cleared in the township was what has always been known as "The Big Field." John Pence in 1817 or 1818 sent some hands from Champaign county, Ohio, who thinned out the timber and built a brush fence around about twenty acres and this was the "Big Field." The first main road that was opened through this county extended from Connersville to Brownstown and ran on the south side of this field. Afterward, there was a small field cleared on the south of this and the road between the two formed the first lane in the county. It was called the "Big Field Lane" and for many years was used as a race track. The people would come from far and near to enjoy the sport of horse racing and many a merry gathering of that kind was held at this place. Jos. Steenbarger and Ab Kyle own this land. It will bring from 20 to 25 bushels of wheat or from 45 to 65 bushels of corn per acre, which shows that the land does not readily wear out. There are many other old fields in the township just as good.
Our mothers and sisters manufactured all the clothes we wore and if the boys and girls of today had to work as we did and wear such clothes it would break their hearts if not their constitutions. They would spin and weave flax and tow for pants and shirts, card the wool by hand, spin and weave wool for their own wear. Made their own buttons for all the clothes, out of wood or thread. I was a large boy before I saw any other kind of button. There were few coats then and men wore "hunting shirts." They were made like other shirts, only open in front, and had from one to three capes on them, from the collar down over the shoulders. They were of all colors and most every material. I shall never forget my first hunting shirt. It was bright red, and when I got it on I felt as big as General Jackson.
About 1824 or 1825 there were two log school houses built in the townships. The floors were made of huge puncheons and the lofts of clapboards five feet long. A log was cut out of one side of the house and greased paper pasted over the opening, this served as a window. For a writing desk we had a large puncheon placed on pins driven in the wall. We had writing paper but little better than ordinary wrapping paper now, ink was made from maple bark and pens from goose quills, such a thing as a lead pencil was unknown. For seats a log would be split open, the flat side turned up, and legs put in it. A large wooden fire-place and chimneys were built at one end and plastered with mud, the mud being mixed with straw or hog's hair to make it stick. The fire place would be filled with logs six feet long, which would burn nearly all day. The pupils would burn their shins and freeze their backs at the same time. There were only two or three months of school in the year and not many attended who were old enough to work. We did not have free schools then, as now, nor any money to hire a teacher. If a man could be found who would teach and take his pay in "truck," sheep, a piece of linen a few bushels of corn, etc., they would hire him and when he had taught the amount would quit. Webster's spelling book was about the only book we had to study. The young folks would meet at each other's houses and have spelling schools and learn a good deal and have much fun. How would our young folks now like this plan of getting an education?
The following is a list of those who settled in this township between 1819 and 1825:
Thos Wells Wm Beatty
Jno Pence John Steenbarger
Henry Steenbarger John Steenbarger
Reuben Steenbarger Fred'k Steenbarger, Sr.
John Van Norman John Harper
Valentine Miller Jos H Van Meter
Wm S. Jones David Hall
Benj Irwin James Blair
Thomas Harker Henry Bozzell, Sr.
Henry Bozzell Legran Bozzell
Soloman Steenbarger Isaiah Steenbarger
Henry Mogert Jos Swisher, Sr
Levi Lowe Jos Swisher, Jr
Jacob Barlow John Conner
Jerry Barlow Edward Carven
John Lays David McCoy
James McCoy Nathan Kyle
John Wilson Wm Depew
John Taylor Wm Record
Laban Record Jas Marr
Henry Mogart Benj Pence
Geo Pence Job Pence
John Ensley Jos Taylor
David Webb Jno Thomas
Henry Picard Densey Scott
Wm Williams Jos Norman
David Mogart Geo Bozzell
Samuel Williams Jos Lee
Robert McKibbons, Sr Jeff McKibbons
S. H. Steenbarger J. S. Steenbarger
Scrauder Bozzell Francis Hartman
D Stoner Wm Lunback
Brice Summers Henry McKibbon
Samuel Smith Nelson Smith
Gideon Steenbarger Henry Sarvin
Joseph Chambers William Schooler
Wm Lard
The above are all dead now except Jas. H. Van Meter, over 90, now living, in Iowa; Gideon Steenbarger, also in Iowa about 80 years old; S. H. Steenbarger, now of Kansas, 70 years old; J. M. Steenbarger, Eli Pence, and Struder Bozzell, who live here, each 70 years old.
The following is a list of those who are living, and have been in the county fifty years or over:
Levi Bozzell Thos Bozzell
Jos Steenbarger Alfred Carvin
Cyrenus Chambers B. F. Ensley
R. T. Harris J. Hendrickson
John Hartman Mike Hartman
N. S. Jones Henry Pickens
B. F. Pence Isaac Sarvins
C. W. Smith Ezekiel Bozzell
Frank Hartman John Pickens
Frederick Hartman Jacob Hartman
Wm Carvin J. A. Pence
[Note by Richard A. Pence: The preceding is unsigned, but it may have been the same person as the one who wrote the following article, William P. Records. The John Pence mentioned above was my third great grandfather. He moved from Champaign County, Oh., to German Township in the fall of 1820, having bought 42 80-acre parcels from the U.S. Land Office at Brookville, Ind., in October of that year. It was said in Bartholomew County that he could "walk from the Flatrock to the Driftwood without stepping off his land" and a map of his holdings shows this to be true. When the county was organized in 1821 he was elected one of two associate judges and he held the office for three terms. He carried the title of "Judge" the rest of his life.]