JOSEPH STEWART, MIGHTY HUNTER— THE PALESTINE SETTLEMENT-- THE GODFATHER OF THE TOWNSHIP— THOMAS GILLPATRICK-- BLACK OAK SETTLEMENT— TOWNSHIP CREATED AND NAMED— STATE AND TOWNSHIP ELECTIONS— THE NORDYKE SETTLEMENT— THE SCHOOLHOUSE COMPETITION— LAND ENTRIES, 1842-47-- SADDLED WITH LAND SPECULATORS— FEVER AND AGUE, OR CHILLS AND FEVER— IS IT ANY WONDER?— RECLAIMED LANDS AND GOOD ROADS— PIONEER SETTLEMENT DETERMINED BY NATURAL CONDITIONS— CATTLE RAISING AND HERDING— LIGHT AHEAD— WOLCOTT AND ITS FOUNDER-- SEAFIELD.
Princeton Township is one of the few portions of White County in which pioneer settlement and civil organization were almost coincidents. As created in 1855 by the board of county commissioners, it comprised seventy-eight square miles— not only its present area, but the fifteen westernmost sections of Monon Township. Legally and specifically, its bounds were thus described: Commencing at the northeast corner of section 1, township 28 north, range 5 west, and running south on said section line to the north line of Big Creek Township; thence west along said line to the west line of White County; thence north along this line to the corner of White County; thence east along said county line six miles; thence north on said county line five miles; thence east three miles to the place of beginning. Monon Township afterward regained its three western tiers of five sections each, thus reducing Princeton to its present area of sixty-three square miles—nine miles from east to west, and seven from north to south.
Joseph Stewart, a young hunter and trapper without family, was the first white man to settle within the limits of Princeton Township. He entered forty acres in section 2, in the northwest corner of the township, on the 10th of December, 1841, but probably in the early spring of that year had built his shack on a sand ridge which ran through his tract. Unincumbered [sic] as he was, the young sportsman had little use for a dwelling except as a storehouse for his guns, traps and skins. At that time there was no habitation within ten miles of his hut. A winding path through the brush led to the front from the west, and shortly after his arrival Stewart fenced and cultivated a few acres of land in his back yard. For several years his cabin was a favorite resort of hunters and travelers in that region. Stewart could narrate marvelous tales of his narrow escape from the horns of wounded bucks, from packs of wolves and individual catamounts, panthers and lynx. The sides of his cabin, well covered with the skins of deer and wolf, bore some evidence as to a portion of these blood-curdling tales, but signs-manual as to his prowess against the wild cats of the forest were lacking.
After Stewart, the mighty hunter, came such modest tillers of the soil as Henry Pugh, Nathaniel Rogers and John Gain, all of whom located in 1842 on sections 5 and 8 and commenced what was long known as the Palestine settlement. Of this colony the family of Henry Pugh is said to have been the first to arrive, moving from Union Township in January, 1843, and installing themselves in the hewn-log cabin erected by the father and husband during the previous fall in section 8. Pugh was one of the most noted woodsmen in the township and cut the logs for not only his own house but for the cabins erected by his two neighbors, and his services in that line were often called into requisition as other settlers came into the northern part of the township. He was what you might call a handy man to have 'round in those days.
In the spring of 1843 Messrs Rogers and Cain became residents of the Palestine settlement, building their cabins in section 5, to the north of Pugh's house. The cabins erected by Pugh and Cain were 16 by 20 feet each, while the one built by Nathaniel Rogers was 16 by 22 feet.
The Tract Book shows that John Cain entered land in section 32, north of section 5, in January, 1842, and that Nathaniel S. Rogers purchased a tract in the same section during the following month.
In June, 1842, Daniel and John Nyce entered lands in section 2 and settled on their tracts soon after Rogers and Cain had completed their cabins.
In 1843 Cornelius Vandervolgen came over from England in the good ship "Princeton" and located in section 1, thus becoming a resident of Palestine. As will be seen, the township received its name at his suggestion. Anson Jewett, in section 7, Cornelius Stryker in section 10, and others, also settled in that part of the township, investing quite largely in canal lands.
In February, 1844, Thomas Gillpatrick entered lands in section 22, southeast of the central part of the township, in what afterward became the Nordyke settlement. He probably located in the following spring, as he was on hand to vote at the fall election of 1845.
About this time a settlement to the northwest of Palestine was formed in Princeton Township. James Brown, an Ohio man, was the first to arrive in that locality. His cabin was even smaller than those first erected by the founders of Palestine, being only 14 by 18 feet. He was soon followed by Jacob Myrtle and Messrs. Gooddale and Hemphill, who called their little cluster of cabins Black Oak settlement.
By the spring of 1844 there were enough settlers in the western part of Union Township to warrant a separate government, and in March they presented to the Court of County Commissioners a petition looking to that end. At the same time Mr. Vandervolgen suggested that it be called Princeton, in honor of the grand old vessel in which he "came over." As now known, that body accepted the name and announced the boundaries of the new township.
The first election held in Princeton Township was for state officers, the following voters discharging their duties at the house of Daniel Nyce, in section 2, on the 4th of August, 1845: Nathaniel Rogers, Cornelius Vandervolgen, William Bunnell, John C. Lielfor, Nathaniel B. Volger, Daniel Nyce, John Cain, Mortimer Dyer, Henry Pugh, R. C. Johnson, Joseph Stewart, Isaac Chase, Elias Esra, Adin Nordyke, John C. Morman, Israel Nordyke, Thomas Gillpatrick and Anson Jewett.
At the first election for township officers, held on the first Monday of April (6th), 1846, the following cast their votes: Elias Morman, Israel Nordyke, John Cain, John Birch, John Moran, John Lear, Thomas Gill, Joseph Lear, Anson Wood, Henry Pugh, Daniel Nyce, J. H. Benham, Andrew Morman, Mortimer Dyer, James Street, Adin Nordyke, Benjamin Gillpatrick, Elias Esra, Cornelius Stryker, Anson Jewett, Nathaniel Rogers and Leander H. Jewett. Elias Esra was chosen supervisor of roads, twenty votes being cast for him; Robert Nordyke, inspector of elections, by the same vote; Elias Morman and Anson Wood were tied for the office of fence viewer, two votes being cast for each; James Street, constable, with twenty votes to his credit.
Although the first recorded entry of lands by Adin and Israel Nordyke is given as October 13, 1846, in section 21, it is evident from the foregoing list of voters that various members of the family had already effected a lodgement in the central portion of the township. Within the succeeding few years the well known Nordyke settlement sprung up in that neighborhood, and vied for superiority with the Palestine people, several miles to the northwest.
Perhaps the most earnest contest was over the matter of schoolhouses. The Nordyke institution was opened about 1848, with B. Wilson Smith in charge; was built of hewn logs, and was 16 by 18 feet on the ground. But it had only one window!
The Palestine schoolhouse that stood on Mortimer Dyer's land was of the same dimensions as those of its rival, but had two windows—one on each side— extending the entire length of the building. To modify this advantage over the Nordyke schoolhouse it was only a round-log structure; so that the most unprejudiced judges said that honors were even.
This state of affairs existed until 1854, when the Nordyke settlement erected the first frame schoolhouse in the township, about half a mile north of the first log building, which lost the day to the Palestine settlement.
Among those who entered lands in Princeton Township previous to 1848, not already mentioned, were John Porter, in section 36, northwestern part of the township, August 26, 1842; Comfort Olds, January 11, and William Coon, May 29, 1843, both in section 2, just southeast of the Porter claim; Elizabeth Pugh, in section 8, September 5, 1845; Mortimer Dyer, in section 9, August 10, and in section 36 (range 6), August 18, 1845; Robert C. Johnson, in section 15 (range 5), and Hiram F. Lear, in section 33 (township 28, range 5).
In 1846 settlements in the township became more numerous. The following entered lands in township 27, range 5: Peter Penham, in section 1; Jonathan White, section 15; Adin and Israel Nordyke, in section 21, and Alfred Harrison and Benjamin Harrison, in section 28.
In 1847 Hiram F. Lear purchased land in section 4; Richard J. Tilton in section 7; Anson Jewett in section 8; James McKillip and James Holliday in section 10; John Burch in section 15; Richard J. Tilton and Rebecca J. Tilton in section 17; William W. Wynkoop in section 25; Christopher Burch in section 32; James E. Adams and John Stewart in section 33; David Wright in section 34, and Isaac Beasey in section 26. In section 35, township 28, range 6, Newton Stewart entered lands on October 25, 1847.
There was a period of several years after 1847 when few settlers came into the township, but the influx commenced again in the early '50s. by the latter portion of that decade was quite brisk, and between 1856 and 1860 the population nearly doubled.
Princeton Township shared the fate of Honey Creek and most of the other northern townships, in the matter of having its lands monopolized by non-resident speculators in the early period of its development. First they bought up large tracts of swamp land and canal lands, and later added to their holdings by purchasing all the land warrants they could lay their hands on, and paying ex-Mexican soldiers a song in cash for good Government titles. These large areas they held at prices far in excess of the regular Government price, and as settlers were able to avail themselves of the cheaper rates in neighboring townships or counties, Princeton and all the other speculator-ridden sections were carefully avoided by those who really sought land upon which to found homes. It was not, in fact, until the Government lands, at $1.25 per acre, had been exhausted in adjacent territory, and there had arisen a general economic and sanitary demand for the drainage of the swamp lands, with a consequent increase of taxes upon the properties, that the speculators were routed in favor of the homeseekers.
When the non-resident landlords found that they could not hold these tracts for a rise without paying something in return for their increase in value, they attempted to unload them on residents. Even as late as 1855 the land held under the military land warrants was offered at less than the Government price. But no purchasers were found as residents had all the land they wanted, and many of them were deeply in debt for the tracts they had purchased from the trustees of the Wabash & Erie canal. Much of this land had been sold on time, with a small advance payment, the certificate of purchase stipulating that in case of non-payment of the balance, when due, the first payment would be forfeited and the land resold. Thousands of acres of canal lands were thus sold in Princeton and other townships of the county at $2 per acre, the first payment being sometimes forfeited two or three times on the same tract of land.
But perhaps the chief drawback to the settlement of families in Princeton Township—and until he had a family with him no man was considered a fixed asset of the community—was the unhealthfulness of the region, so much of which was covered by water a large portion of the year. Had it been flowing water, the situation would not have been so bad; but most of it was stagnant, a breeder of disease in the specialty of fever and ague, or chills and fever; it matters little which is named first or last—the combination is equally hideous.
For thirty-five or forty years Princeton Township was known as one of the bad ague districts of the county, and for a number of years after its organization the plague regularly appeared with the cessation of the rainy season and the commencement of summer heat. The worst season of all was that of 1844-45, as it continued to rage for eight or nine months. Copious rains lasted from May 10 to July 4,1844, and all but the highest ground in the township was virtually under water. One of the pioneers says that it rained so hard and long that for two days and a night the water stood six inches deep on his cabin floor, and he was obliged to get under the dining table to protect himself from the downpour. All the ground under cultivation had been prepared for corn, but planting was impossible. The rain slackened a little about the 1st of July, and by the 4th the hot season commenced. The entire country then commenced to be wrapped in heavy, oppressive vapor, and the people, soaked and weakened for the preceding two months, now began to be racked with alternate waves of chills and fever. July and August saw the epidemic at its height, and there were not enough well persons in the township to care for those who were seized with it. The trouble was not considered under control until the midwinter of 1844-45. During this period of suffering and discouragement, as well as during the successive ague seasons, the house of John H. Lear, in section 4, northern part of the township, was known as the quinine depot for the northwestern part of the county. Mr. Lear would purchase the drug in wholesale quantities, and haul it by ox-team to any stricken settlement or locality, and then the neighbors would come and get enough to meet their cases, subject to the approval of the purchaser. He was not a regular practitioner, but was known for miles around as the "ague comforter;" and there is nothing in the records to show that he ever collected for his specific unless the recipient was well able to pay.
It is asserted by those who came to the township at an early day that for ten years after its first settlement there was absolutely no pure water within its limits; and in that regard it was no exception to other swamp districts in the northern part of White County. The wells of the pioneer settlers were holes in the ground at the foot of the ridge on which their residences and outhouses were usually built. These sources of the family drinking supply were sometimes walled with oak plank and covered, but more often unwalled and uncovered. A downpour of rain would fill these holes with surface water and filthy washings to the very top, which abomination was drawn upon for drinking, cooking and all other domestic purposes. Is it any wonder that ague, malarial fevers and all other forms of filth diseases victimized these unfortunates, and that most of them for years were completely unfitted for labor during six months of the twelve?
Better conditions commenced to prevail with the drainage of the swamp lands, and, with the gradual extension of that work and the building of good roads so as to minimize the dangers to health from exposure in the open, the settlers of Princeton Township enjoy all the benefits of modern sanitary precautions. Within the past twenty-five or thirty years Princeton Township has been among the foremost sections of the county in the reclamation of its lowlands and their improvement in respect both to agriculture and residence uses.
In this connection high credit should be given her citizens for their faithful work in the construction of good roads throughout their territory. in this movement, which has come to be regarded as a test of public spirit in all country districts, Princeton stands second among the townships of the county, being only surpassed by Prairie. The bonded indebtedness incurred by the different roads (macadam or gravel) is as follows: Princeton Township, $14,680.25; Lear, $5,250; Diemer, $5,200; Swygman, $4,100; Dawson, $12,800; M. G. Dobbins, $9,900; Pugh, $5,400; Chenoweth, $4,400; Mooy, $3,800. Total, $65,530.25.
The first settlements in the township were made chiefly in the northern and eastern sections, or the timber regions. The western and southern portions were generally prairie lands, almost treeless and decidedly monotonous. The pioneer settlement, or Palestine, was made on the border between the timber and prairie country, and nearly all of those who located in that part of the township bought and improved the prairie land immediately adjoining their wooded farms.
A branch of the Little Monon Creek is the only running stream of water in the township and was a large determining factor in early settlement. It rises in Benton County, flows northeasternly across the northwest corner of West Point Township, enters Princeton near the center of its southern line, and continues in the same general direction diagonally through its southern, central and northeastern sections, into Monon Township, and forms a part of what is now the Hoagland ditch which drains most of this section of the county.
This stream was the only natural outlet for the vast body of water which accumulated on the lowlands of the southern, central and northeastern portions of the township, but as much of this low land area was below the bed of the creek the natural drainage was a very slow process and was to a large extent replaced by evaporation. A few who resided close to the stream resorted to artificial drainage, but most land owners preferred to cultivate their sand ridge land, which although less productive, required less care. They even favored the dreary prairie stretches of the southwest and west. In a word this branch of the Little Monon was a determining factor in the early settlement of Princeton Township, in that most of the newcomers avoided it and its overflowing borders.
But the prairie lands, especially those which were high and undulating, increased in favor. They afforded fine pasturage for cattle, of which fact the settlers of the '50s and '60s were not slow to take practical advantage. In the palmy days of the business, when the farmers were not only raising cattle of their own, hut herding large numbers for eastern dealers, the country was not unlike the Far West of a later day, albeit on a minor scale.
This interesting and important feature of the early times in Princeton Township, when all its progress seemed to depend on the development of its agricultural wealth, is thus drawn by one who witnessed most of it himself: "The business of herding cattle on the prairie became quite an industry to the settlers, and there were few of them who failed to prepare pounds by fencing from one to ten acres of their land with rails, and stake and double-rider the lot, preparatory to receiving a herd in the pasturing season. The number of cattle takcn by the settler depended upon his ability to care for a greater or a less number, ranging from 250 to 500 head; but it was found that not more than 300 head could be advantageously kept in one herd to obtain the best results.
"The price paid by the owners for herding was twelve and a half cents per month for each animal cared for, until competition among the settlers to secure a herd reduced it to ten cents per head. For this sum the settler must furnish the herder, and salt for the cattle at stated periods, and at the end of the season account for every animal short of the number counted in to him in the spring. If one died, the production of the hide and horns, with the owner's brand thereon, was satisfactory; otherwise, the value of the animal was deducted from the amount paid for the herding.
"The furnishing a herder was a matter of small moment to the settler, as all members of the family, boys and girls alike, were trained from infancy to be expert riders, and it was not unusual to see a whole family out on the herding ground, rounding up and guarding three or four hundred head of cattle, until they should become accustomed to their surroundings and learn the route from the pound to the herding ground in the morning and the return route in the evening; after which the herd caused little trouble during the remainder of the season, unless a hailstorm or something unusual should frighten them and cause a stampede, in which case it required good generalship and plenty of nerve on the part of the herder to save the animals from partial, if not total loss.
"A herd of cattle properly cared for during the season would take on from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds of flesh per head, and as much as three hundred pounds have been added to the weight of thirty three-year-old cattle in the six months of pasturage. This latter, however, was in exceptional cases and under most favorable conditions, largely dependent on the care and attention of the herder.
"Another fruitful source of revenue to the settlers was the feeding of the herd during the winter, if the owner desired it. In those early days a steer was not considered marketable until after he had passed the fourth year, and as food was plentiful, and practically no market available for it, the owners would often contract with the settlers to keep the herd during the winter at varying prices per month per head, dependent upon the manner and material to be used in the wintering. If the diet was prairie hay and corn fodder, with an occasional change to wheat or oats straw, a very moderate price would be charged, but if the cattle were to be fed grain, in addition to the hay and fodder, additional compensation was received. The feed lot was located on the highest ground obtainable, usually a sand ridge covered with brush and young timber, through which narrow roadways would be made for the passage of wagons containing the feed for the cattle; and the feed, whether hay, fodder or shock corn, would be unloaded along the roadways so as to give every animal in the lot a chance to get a portion of it. For water, a pond would be enclosed in the lot, and it was no difficult matter to find one sufficient to supply a large herd during the winter months; the only difficulty was to keep it open in freezing weather."Until the completion of the Pittsburgh, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad through the township on the last day of November, 1859, the farmers were unable to market either their live stock or their produce in any way which could encourage them to expand their operations. In that event and year they saw light ahead.
The comfort, prosperity and health of all the residents of the township were advanced by the advent of what is now the Pennsylvania road and by the platting of Wolcott, a conveniently situated center for the purchase of supplies and general trading, in May, 1861. It was laid out in the eastern part of section 25 and the western portion of section 30, by E. G. Wolcott and Anson Wolcott, his brother and attorney in fact, an able New York lawyer, then in his fortieth year, who had been a resident of the township for three years. In 1847 he had been admitted to practice in the Supreme Court at Buffalo, New York, and in 1852 in the Supreme Court of the United States. After the platting of this town, Mr. Wolcott devoted himself to its improvement, practiced his profession and became interested in questions of state and politics. In 1868 he had so far attained leadership in the republican party as to be elected to the State Senate, and served in the sessions of 1869 and 1871. For many years he was adjudged one of the most able and thoroughly educated men in the county, and was mentioned several times as a candidate for Congress. He died at his home in Wolcott on January 11, 1907. A more detailed biography will be found in connection with the history of the Town of Wolcott.
The Town of Wolcott, notwithstanding its setback occasioned by the fires of recent years, is one of the progressive centers of trade and civic activities in the county.
Three miles east, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, is the Town of Seafield, platted by M. C. Hamlin, in June, 1863. It is the center of a productive farming district, but as Wolcott is only three miles to the west, and Reynolds six miles to the east, there is little chance for its expansion as a village.