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SPARTA TOWNSHIP
Sparta Township, situated in the western
central part of Noble County, was first settled by an eccentric
individual named John L. Powers, who had previously kept tavern
in a small log cabin in the southwestern part of Perry Township.
He had been one of the earliest settlers in the county, and it
was some time in the year 1832 that he established himself and
his family a short distance north of where the railroad crosses
the Goshen road. He also lived for some time in a cave in the
western part of the township. After a few years he and his family
moved West and were no more heard of. The second settler in Sparta
was undoubtedly John Dillon, who arrived in the same year as
Powers, resided for a number of years in the eastern part, and
then moved to Washington Township, where he was still living,
an old, but well preserved man, in the early '80s. Within the
next three or four years, and previous to the organization of
the county in 1836, the above mentioned pioneers or [sic] Sparta
Township were followed by a number of others, including John
Conklin, Richard Bray, Richard Jeffreys, James Mael, Robert McAfee,
Mitchell McClintock, John Johns, Jacob Baker, Charles Murray,
Obadiah Tilton, Hartwell Coleman, Daniel Ohlwine, Andrew C. Douglas,
Henry Weade and John Davis. Soon after them came Aaron Noe, Michael
Beam, Daniel Beam, Charles White, Andrew B. Upson, Nathaniel
Prentice, Richard stone, William Weade, John Spear, John C. Johnson,
Jacob Kiser, Daniel Stall, John Moore, G. W. Mitchell, James
marrow, Elisha Mayfield, Lawrence Miller, Samuel Dungan, Alexander
Doud, John Earnhart, William Glayd, Andrew Humphreys, James Smalley,
John Spencer, William H. Upson, Thomas H. Wilson, John Pollock,
Samuel Mars, Henry Miller, Richard Noe, George Prentice, George
Platter, Erastus Atkins and others. A few of these men owned
land in the township but did not reside there. McClintock and
Tilton were both squatters on the Indian reservation, and when
the land was thrown on the market, George Platter entered both
of their farms before either had an opportunity of going to the
land office for the same purpose. McClintock soon after died,
and it was said that his death was largely due to his being cheated
out of his land. Tilton returned to New York. Many mean actions
of this sort were done in pioneer days, the greed for land, and
the desire to profit by the mistakes or negligence of others,
overpowering the better instincts. John Johns, who was among
the early settlers mentioned, after many years went west to Iowa,
and was finally made a delegate to Chicago Convention which nominated
Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. Charles White had been made
an orphan at the age of two years by the massacre of his parents
by the Indians at Wyoming, Pennsylvania. He was rescued from
the savages by a man named White, whose name he took. David Stall
also bore the name of a man who adopted him, both of his parents
having died on the voyage from Germany to the United States.
The first election in the township was
held at Sparta in about the year 1838, only seven votes being
polled, though there were probably twice that many voters then
living there. Richard Bray was inspector of election, and he
appointed two judges and two clerks. Election to township office
was then merely an empty honor, there being no remuneration for
service, and it is said that on a subsequent occasion, when two
men had received the same number of votes for an office, they
played euchre to see which should serve, the loser to take the
office. The first court in the county was convened at the house
of Adam Engle, on Perry's Prairie, and for a short time Sparta
had the honor of being the county seat, though no courthouse
was ever erected there. Forty votes were polled at the election
in 1840.
The first sawmill in the township was built
in the southwestern part, on Turkey Creek, about 1847, by Thomas
H. Bothwell and Thomas H. Wilson. It had a capacity of about
2,000 feet a day, and was operated until about 1862, when it
was replaced by another erected half a mile further down stream
by Leander Eagles and Thomas H. Bothwell. The second mill was
afterwards bought by David Gauz and George Mellinger, who removed
it to Kosciusko County. A new mill was erected on its sit by
Leander Eagles, in the spring of 1865. It was a more modern structure,
provided with a thirty-five horse-power engine, and having a
capacity of 6,000 to 8,000 feet per day. In 1853 a sawmill was
built by Mr. Stall, one mile west of the Prentice residence,
but in a short time it was removed to Cromwell, where it was
operated for a number of years by various parties, its timbers
being finally used in the construction of a large gristmill at
Cromwell, erected by the Miller Brothers, which was operated
until the early '80s. A sawmill put up by Hezekiah Mayfield in
the eastern part of the township, was also moved to Cromwell,
where, under the management of different parties, it turned out
large quantities of native lumber. It was finally replaced by
a better structure. Other sawmill proprietors in former days
were Mr. Herron, Mr. Cavanaugh and Joel Sechrist, whose mills
were all in the southern part of the township.
There is a record, based mainly on tradition,
that a man named Beers, under instructions from the United States
Government, at some date previous to the white settlement of
Sparta, made a brick kiln and manufactured enough brick from
the soil or clay of the township to build a brick house for the
Indian chief Wah-wa-es-sa, or Flat Belly, as he was more familiarly
called. The date of this event is placed variously in different
years between 1816 (when the Indian treaty was signed), to 1821.
however it may be, the work was poorly done, or the material
worthless, as the building soon tumbled down, and the pioneer
settlers used the brick for building hearths and chimneys. The
kiln from which the brick was made must have been the first one
constructed in Northern Indiana.
In June, 1836, Isaac Spencer and R. I.
Dawson laid out the plat of a village on sections 13 and 24,
which they called Sparta. Two hundred and thirty-six lots were
laid off into blocks of twelve lots each, certain lots and blocks
being reserved fro a public square and for school and church
purposes. A postoffice was established as early as the fall of
1836, with Isaac Spencer as postmaster, and within a couple of
years Col. John Spencer and Wesley White opened general stores.
The first county seat of Noble County was fixed at Sparta early
in May, 1836, and a small building was erected for public [sic]
offices; but the honor was of short duration, for in July of
the following year the county seat was removed to Augusta. The
population of the village had never exceeded twenty-five, and
it soon dwindled to almost nothing. In 1838 there was a postoffice
at New Hope, in the northern part of the township, and there
Nelson Prentiss opened a store, an enterprise, however, which
he soon abandoned. The little village of Kimmell sprang up in
more recent times, owing chiefly to the construction of the Baltimore
& Ohio Railway, on whose line it is situated. It practically
occupies the site of the former Village of Sparta, and has now
a population of about 250, with elevators, stores and churches,
and the Kimmell State bank, which was organized in 1918, previous
to which time the nearest banking point was Ligonier.
The Village of Cromwell, a larger community
settlement, was laid out in June, 1853, by the county surveyor,
who was employed by Harrison Wood, the proprietor. The location
was at the juncture of Jefferson and Orange streets, twenty-eight
lots being laid out from the northwest quarter of the southwest
quarter of section 16. Previous to this, in 1849, Abel Mullen
had built a log house on the site, and also a small building
in which he began the manufacture of black salts from ashes obtained
from the surrounding cabins and log heaps. This business he gave
up within a few years, having found it unprofitable. The village
was named by Mr. Wood in honor of the great Protector, and because,
as Mr. Wood said, he "was a good Republican." Its early
growth was low. Aaron Moore opened and conducted a general store,
of which he continued the proprietor until the construction of
the railroad. Other early merchants were A. D. Maggert, Jeremiah
Carstetter and Abel Mullen. There is some doubt as to who was
the first postmaster, as in a former record that honor is ascribed
both to Abel Mullen and James Parks. Aaron Moore was probably
the second or third. Isaac McCammon opened the first blacksmith
shop, and about 1866 George H. Reed started a shop for the manufacture
of wagons and sleighs, which he carried on for ten or twelve
years. Charles Gran and Eli Messimore were merchants in the early
'80s, or about that time. The first doctor in the village was
probably Dr. John Gants, who located there in the spring of 1858.
Doctors Tucker and Crump also settled there at an early date.
The place of the early business and professional men has been
taken by later comers, some of whom will be found mentioned in
other parts of this volume, as also are its churches and schools.
The Advance, a republican newspaper, was established in 1912,
by F. B. Robbins, who is conducting it successfully. In 1904
the Cromwell State Bank was organized and furnishes convenient
financial accommodations to the people of the village and the
surrounding country. The population of Cromwell is now about
550.
Indian Village is an old settlement in
section 30. It contains several stores and two churches, both
of the United Brethren sect, one of which belongs to the radical,
and the other to the liberal branch of the society.
Robert M. Waddell, History
of northeast Indiana: LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties,
Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1920, Noble County, pgs. 431-433. |
