HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY
CHAPTER 3

CRIMINAL ITEMS

This township has had its due proportion of crime and tragedy. The killing of William Charles by the Indians and the murder of Andrew Seybold are both elsewhere mentioned in this work. The suicide of Miss Malinda J. Parsons, by hanging herself to a rafter in the house where she lived with her parents, was in January, 1884. The freezing to death of a man named Elkins about twenty years ago, and the accidental death of Preston Charles some four or five years since help to make up the list of fatal accidents. In the early part of the sixties there was a considerable amount of robbing and petty thieving committed, and it was supposed to have been done by a band of men who lived in the neighborhood. One of the most important of these was the robbing of Nelson Spalding of $400 in the spring of 1863. They went to the house of Mr. Spalding and demanded admittance, which being refused, they threatened to kill him and burn his buildings. Not being able to find any money, they hung Mr. Spalding twice to make him tell where his money was hid, and they finally forced him to tell where the $400 were, but he bad about $2,000 besides this in another place which the robbers did not get. There were none of the perpetrators of this deed ever discovered, although suspicion pointed to some of its authors pretty clearly. The proof was wanting, however, to establish their guilt, and no legal steps were ever taken against them. There were some four or five in number, and were all masked and armed with muskets.

DEER HUNTING

Here as elsewhere in the county hunting has been in its glory, and from Uncle “Neddy” Moore, who is now living at Orleans, in his eighty-second year, in unusual physical and mental vigor, many interesting episodes of the chase were learned. Since the year 1811, when nine years of age, he has been a constant resident of Orange County, settling in French Lick Township in 1816, where he remained until about 1870. He early learned to use the rifle, and when but sixteen years old succeeded in killing a bear, and in 1823, when he was married, he killed a large "five-point" buck deer which lay stretched before the fire-place in his humble cabin, on the first night of their house-keeping. In the fall of 1821, on a rainy afternoon, he was at his brother's house, a short distance from his father's, and they concluded to go deer hunting. He went home for his gun, and in his hurry forgot the shot pouch. When about a mile from home, and having separated from his brother, he saw three deer, a buck, a doe and a fawn. He took aim and shot the buck "a little high" of where he intended, the ball passing through near the spine. This paralyzed the deer and he fell, but soon after got up and made an effort to escape. It was at this point Mr. Moore discovered that he had forgotten his pouch. He at once started for the deer, intending to kill it with a club or anything that might be handy. The deer was dragging itself along, and Mr. Moore gathered up some rocks from the dry bed of a creek that was near by, and after pelting it with several of these he succeeded in knocking it down. He then went to get another larger rock with which to break in its skull, but before he could return the deer again got up and after several unsuccessful attempts to kill it he abandoned the efforts with much chagrin, greatly provoked at the animal's tenacity to life.

SETTLEMENT OF JACKSON TOWNSHIP

The southwest corner township of Orange County is Jackson, created in September, 1831, out of the western end of Greenfield. It was named for Andrew Jackson, who at that time was the most prominent and honored citizen of America. This township embraces a territory of forty-two Square miles, being seven miles north and south and six miles east and west, the exact size of Greenfield Township. Tradition has it that the first inhabitants of this part of the county, other than the Indians, were some negroes, who were supposed to have been fugitive slaves. At any rate there is little doubt that some of these people were among the earliest settlers in this locality, and by some it is said they had mixed with the Indians to a considerable extent and became a race half Indian half negro. This no doubt is partially true, for nothing would be more natural than for a people thus isolated and ostracized to seek the companionship of whatever class of humanity might present it- self. The first white man to locate in this township was Lewis Allen who entered the northwest quarter of Section 27, Township 1 south, Range 2 west, on the 5th day of June, 1815. After him and prior to 1820 came the following: Daniel Allen 1816, James Rawlings 1816, Abrabam Riley 1810. John Dixon 1817, Joseph Wells 1817, Cloud Bethel 1817, John Belcher 1817, John Broadwell 1818, Henry Broadwell 1818, Isaac Eastridge 1819, John East ridge 1820, Lewis Putnam 1820, John McVey 1816, William B. Connell 1817, Christopher Flick 1817, William Miller 1816, Thomas Atkinson 1817, and Joseph Farlow 1816. Most of these men like the majority of the first settlers in the county were from Kentucky and the Carolinas.

EARLY MILLING ENTERPRISES

The land where Lewis Allen located in 1815, is the same with that now occupied by the town of Newton Stewart, in the extreme south part of the township. He seems to have been an enterprising man for his time, as he built two mills on Patoka Crcek, one at Williamsburg in 1818, and soon after this built one on his farm in Jackson Township. This was on the site of the present grist-mill at Newton Stewart. It was a rude log affair with one set of buhrs. He soon after replaced this with a better one made of hewed logs, a good one for the times, which remained in use until 1855. Allen sold to William and Henry Stewart, brothers, who were prominent members in this community for several years. They in turn sold out to Stephen and John Foster in 1855, who rebuilt the mill as it now stands in the following year, at a probable cost of $5,000. They also constructed at the same time a saw-mill upon the other bank of the creek. This said to be one of the best sites for a water-power in the county, the dam being about eight feet high. Among the early settlers not mentioned above were David Rice, Thomas Maxedon, John Glenn, David Brown, Neman Haskins, Isaac, John and James Kellams, William Walls, Andrew Mason, Elisha Haskins, John McWilliams, Joseph Kinkaid, Reuben Allen and Benjamin Carr. Later came John and David Stockinger, Dr. James Dillard, James Carr, Jabez Leonard, Fountain Tucker and J. W. Tucker. Many of the first white settlers here had to go to Kentucky for their milling before there were any mills in this section of the country. This did not long last, however, for such men as Lewis Allen took away all such inconvenience by push and enterprise in building mills, even though of an imperfect kind. Jacob Wise owned a horse-mill in the north part of the township about the year 1820, and it was the resort for grinding corn for several miles around. In the southeast part of the township were the Bledsoes, Pitmans, Walls and others, while further north along the eastern side were John Lashbrook, the Willises and Lutrell. In the northwest of the township such familiar names as Flick, Cox, Connell, Pinnick, Wise and Hubbs were among the first in this part of the county. In the northern part is Cane Creek, said to have been so named by James McMurry. an early settler here, on account of the abundance of cane he found growing on its banks.

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