TIMBER LANDS AND LOWLANDS— THE INDIAN VILLAGE-- CRYSTAL D. W. SCOTT— COMING OF JONATHAN SLUYTER AND MOSES KARR— THE TOWNSHIP CREATED— FIRST ELECTION AND OFFICIALS-- CHANGE OF BOUNDARIES— DIVIDED INTO ROAD DISTRICTS— SETTLERS PREVIOUS TO 1840— UNUSUAL PROGRESS IN 1840-50— PIONEERS SELL IMPROVED LANDS— NON-RESIDENT PURCHASERS— KEAN'S CREEK SWAMP LANDS-- [THE BUILDING OF GOOD ROADS]-- THE SLUYTER SCHOOLHOUSES-- RELIGION AT THE SCOTT SETTLEMENT-- FIRST MARRIAGE AND FIRST DEATH— BUFFALO POSTOFFICE ESTABLISHED-- JOHN C. KARR AND THE TOWN— THOMAS B. MOORE-- KARR'S ADDITION TO BUFFALO-- THE IRON BRIDGE-- SITKA-- THE HUGHES AND VANVOORST FAMILIES.
The form taken by the thirty-four and a half sections of land comprising Liberty Township, in the northeastern part of White County, is largely determined by the meanderings of the Tippecanoe River, which shapes about two-thirds of its western boundary, the continuation of that line northward being from a point where the southern line of section 16 crosses the stream; the northern, southern and eastern boundaries were purely land lines. The Tippecanoe passes diagonally through the three upper tiers of sections, the river, as a whole, forming the highway along which were scattered the first settlements of both red men and white.
Along the river valley, and for some distance inland, in the western and southwestern portions of the township, were forests of white oak, sugar maple, poplar, ash, hickory and walnut, with a thick undergrowth of hazel, plum, haw, mulberry and sassafras, but the eastern sections were largely marsh land, interspersed with low ridges of sand. The latter tracts were sprinkled with undergrowths, but showed nothing in the way of large timber. The lowlands were naturally last to come into the market, and were not taken up to any extent until after the passage of the state law, in the early '70s, by which ditching companies were formed and the benefited lands assessed for the drainage improvements. Then the speculators commenced to sell and subdivide their large idle tracts.
When the first settlers came into the county in 1829-30 they found two Indian villages within its present limits; the smaller one was about half a mile north of the locality now occupied by Monticello, and the larger Pottawattamie village was on the eastern banks of the Tippecanoe five miles above, near what was afterward known as Holmes' ford, some three miles west of the present hamlet of Sitka. The village embraced nearly 100 wigwams and about 400 Indians, and adjoining it were three or four acres of communal land cultivated to corn, pumpkins, squashes and Irish and sweet potatoes. As the river furnished fish, and the woods opossum, deer and other game, their diet did not lack in variety, although their cooking and seasoning were not to the white man's taste. The Pottawattamies were dirty, hospitable beggars and thieves, and the few settlers of Liberty Township who located in the valley while these red men infested it were pleased indeed when they finally abandoned their village, in 1838, and started for their Kansas reservation.
Crystal D. W. Scott is claimed to have been the first white settler in what is now Liberty Township. The date of his coming is placed as early as 1835, although he does not appear to have entered lands in sections 1 and 11 (township 28, range 8) until August 13, 1836. On the 24th of that month Greenup Scott purchased a tract in section 11. All these lots were along the river in the northeast corner of the township.
The following entered lands at even earlier dates than the Scotts: Thomas Macklin, in section 3, township 27, range 3, April 15, 1834; Amos Wiley, in same section, December 28th of that year; James Crose, December 16, 1835, in section 33, township 28, range 3; James Sampson, in section 9, November 16, 1835; John Parker, in section 21, township 28, range 3, July 21, 1836; John Cobler, in section 28, February 1st of that year; James W. Hall and Jacob Meyer, in same section, July 21st and July 25th, respectively; Thomas T. Benbridge, in section 33, April 12th of that year; John Bell, in section 34, July 14th, and the following in township 27, range 3, in the year 1836: Nimrod Warden, William Warden and Jacob Slater, in section 4; William Flemming, in section 5; Samuel Benson and Jacob Cornell, in section 9.
The following entered land in township 28, range 3, after Crystal D. W. Scott, in 1836; William Fisher, Samuel Simmons, Joseph Smith, Andrew Beauchamp, William Ross and James W. McIntyre, in section 1; Elihu Harlan, in section 11; Nathaniel Bell, in section 12; William Wilson, in section 13; John W. Berry, in section 14; George I. Baum, Jabez B. Berry, Mercer Brown and John B. Niles, in section 15, and William Greathouse, in section 23, and George Snyder, in section 34.
In 1836 Jonathan W. Sluyter left the State of New York and, with his wife and Hiram and Abraham Sluyter, his sons, began settlement on a tract of land which embraced the present site of Buffalo. The account of their trip has come down to us through his living descendants. Obviously of Dutch ancestry, his immediate ancestors settled in the Empire State while it was yet a portion of England's colonial possessions. His branch of the family took root in Sullivan County, where Mr. Sluyter himself married Elizabeth J. Hall, of English parentage. In the spring of 1836 he started with his family overland for the western prairies of Illinois. They went by way of Philadelphia, and as night overtook them in the city they camped around their wagon in one of its streets. The trip lasted all summer, through roadless forests and swamps, under chilling rains and hot suns, until the weary pilgrims finally reached Logansport, and, several weeks later, the Tippecanoe River.
On account of the high water, the travelers were unable to cross the stream, and, as the season was already well advanced, Mr. Sluyter decided to camp temporarily on the spot. The family moved into a deserted log cabin, and, after spending the winter therein, concluded to locate permanently. The deciding factor in the situation had grown out of the fact that Mr. Sluyter had built a forge and worked up quite a trade with the Pottawattamies of the village below, his specialty being the fabrication of steel arrowheads at one cent each. He had learned to talk their language and established a nice business with his red friends both in barter and cash.
Mr. Sluyter sold his original place to a Mr. Bowen, and then entered 240 acres of unimproved land in and about section 28. In that locality he continued to work at blacksmithing; also cleared and cultivated his land. Later he purchased land in section 15, and when a postoffice was established on his farm in 1857 he had it named Buffalo and was appointed its postmaster. It was at that locality that he passed his last years. His three sons were all born in New York State before he came west; one of them died when he was fourteen years of age, but the other two passed the remainder of their lives in White County, and their descendants are yet living in the localities where Jonathan W. Sluyter first invested in lands.
The year 1836 also brought into Liberty Township such men as 'Squire James W. Hall, William Fisher and George J. Baum, whose land entries have been noted. Mr. Baum cleared ten acres of his land in section 15 and built a cabin, but soon left the township.
Among those who settled in the township shortly before or about the time of its organization were Lewis Elston, in 1836, and Rev. Abram Sneathen, James Hughes, John Parker and Moses Karr, in 1837. Mr. Karr returned to his home in Butler County, Ohio, after entering his land, but brought his family with him in 1839 and became a permanent resident.
At the September term of the Board of County Commissioners it was ordered that all that portion of White County lying east of the Tippecanoe River and north of the north line of section 16, township 28 north, range 3 west, constitute a new civil township to be designated Liberty; and it was further ordered that all that portion of Pulaski County lying immediately north of the new township be attached thereto. Until 1848, what is now known as Cass Township was within the jurisdiction of Liberty Township; consequently Christopher Vandeventer and other pioneers who are claimed by Cass Township, appear among the lists of voters applicable to the period, 1838-48.
The first election held in Liberty Township, at the house of Crystal D. W. Scott, on the first Monday of April, 1838, brought out the following voters: Christopher Vandeventer, Joseph Smith, John McDowell, Greenup Scott, Benjamin Grant, Andrew Beechum, Jonathan W. Sluyter, Crystal D. W. Scott, James W. Hall, Thomas Hamilton, John Parker and James Baum. These gentlemen unanimously cast their ballots for Mr. Hall for justice of the peace; Crystal D. W. Scott, inspector of elections; Mr. Sluyter, constable; Messrs. Smith and Hamilton, overseers of the poor; Mr. Parker, supervisor, and Mr. Beechum and Greenup Scott, fence viewers.
At the May term of the Commissioners' Court, in 1838, a petition was presented signed by Jonathan Sluyter and other citizens of Liberty and Monon townships, asking for a change of boundaries, in accordance with which the board ordered that the east side of Monon Township, with the following bounds, be attached to Liberty: Leaving the Tippecanoe River at the point where the south line of section 16 crosses the river, thence west parallel with the section line to the southwest corner of section 16, township 28, range 8, and thence north parallel with the section line to the north boundary of White County.
In the following August (1838) the following voted: Abram Sneathen, Andrew Beechum, Evan Thomas, Christopher Vandeventer, John Parker, Crystal D. W. Scott, William Davison, James W. Hall, Thomas Hamilton, Elijah Sneathen, Benjamin Grant, V. Sluyter, James G. Brown, Joseph Smith, William Cary and W. W. Curtis.
In the early part of 1889 the township was divided into two road districts; all of the territory lying north of section 16 constituted district No. 1, and all south, district No. 2. At the April election for that year John McNary was chosen constable; Crystal D. W. Scott, inspector of elections; John McDonald, supervisor for the First district, and Andrew Beechum, for the Second district; John Morris and Greenup Scott, fence viewers; and Daniel Baum and Elijah Sneathen, overseers of the poor. C. D. W. Scott, Thomas Lansing and John McNary were judges, and S. W. Hall and Christopher Vandeventer, clerks.
The following is a list of actual settlers who located in Liberty Township previous to 1840, many of the names having already appeared: Crystal D. W. Scott, Greenup Scott, Jonathan Sluyter, Thomas Mackin, Lewis Elston, Abraham Lowthcr, Abram Sneathen, James Hughes, John Parker, Moses Karr, William Conwell, Christopher Vandeventer, Joseph Smith, John McDowell, Benjamin Grant, Andrew Beauchamp, James W. Hall, Thomas Hamilton, James Baum, Evan Thomas, William Davison, Elijah Sneathen, James G. Brown, William Carey, John McNary, John McDonald, John Morris, Thomas Lansing, William Fisher, Jacob Funk, Joseph James, George Baum, Robison Grewell, Henry Hanawalt, David Cress, Robert Scott, William Greathouse, John S. Hughes, Thomas Wiley, John Cobler, Samuel Simmons, William Ross, James W. McEntyre, Daniel Baum, Perry A. Bayard, William Fleming, James B. Cahill, Jhmes Sampson, Samuel Benson, Jacob Cornell, Jonathan Baker, James Crose, Samuel Funk, John Mikesell, David Bolinger, John Bell, George Snyder, Rodney M. Miller, Jabez B. Berry, Charles Wright, Matthew Hopper, David and Ransom McConnahay and William and James Hickman.
With the Pottawattamies fairly out of the country and the lifting of the financial clouds which for a number of years had obscured the fair prospects of the Middle West, immigration to Liberty Township took a decided forward move, in common with most of the other sections of the county. In 1840 the population of the county was 1,832; in 1850, 4,771—a larger percentage of increase than has ever occurred during one decade.
Many of those who arrived during that progressive period purchased land which had been partially improved by the pioneers, and as a rule they bought to advantage. With much Government land still accessible at $1.25 an acre, it was difficult for the pioneer farmers to refuse $6 or $8 per acre. True, it had cost them several years of labor in fencing, clearing and building, but with the money received from the later comers they figured that they could still purchase Government lands and have a neat sum in bank. On the other hand, the second generation, or incursion of farmers, were generally family men, with boys and girls of mature and helpful ages, some of them ready to assume their posts in the community as founders of households. In such cases it seemed the wiser part to obtain holdings which were already more or less productive.
When those who sold their farms at the advanced price attempted to purchase at the Government figures they often found that most of the choicest pieces remaining were owned by non-residents, who were holding them for a rise. Thus it was that not a few of the earlier settlers suffered eventually because they chose the immediate profits. But althongh a considerable body of the Government land passed into the hands of foreigners, as a rule Liberty Township suffered less from the manipulations of speculators than some of the other districts of the county. As much of the land held by non-residents was unfenced, also, the home farmers used it as pasturage for their live stock, and, in view of that fact, an advantage accrued to the actual settlers.
in the '70s, when the drainage of the swamp lands commenced in earnest, the situation was reversed and the stockmen, and even owners of timber farms, often objected that the construction of certain ditches, for which they were assessed, was more to the benefit of the speculators than the resident farmers. The contentions over the building of the Kean's Creek ditch, in the southern part of the township, were of the most acrimonious nature, and caused much fruitless litigation and hard feeling. It happened, too, that nearly all the members of the drainage company had lands along the line of the proposed ditch, which were assessed accordingly.
The headwaters of Kean's Creek were in a pond half a mile in width and from four to six feet deep just beyond the east line of the township and within Cass. Thence the stream flowed westward, in an irregular course, and emptied into the Tippecanoe River in section 9. The work of the Kean's Creek Draining Company, organized under the state act, consisted in widening, deepening and straightening the channel of the creek for a distance of two miles, and thereby a large tract of land was reclaimed. Thus, in the face of much opposition, was inaugurated a movement which has brought into the market for the benefit of resident farmers many valuable tracts of land.
Liberty Township is not among the wealthiest districts in the county, but in consideration of its means it has accomplished much both in the matters of draining its swamp lands and constructing gravel roads within its limits. In the prosecution of the latter work it has incurred a bonded indebtedness of nearly $16,000, divided as follows: Bible road, $3,300; Hoch, $3,600; J. T. Moore, $2,400; Holmes, $2,210; Cranmer, $4,440. Total, $15,950.
In the old rough days, when Liberty Township included so much of northeastern White County, the people were just as busy in proportion to their numbers as they are today, in the very human occupations of teaching and learning, preaching and listening, marrying and giving in marriage, being born and dying. In the summer of 1837 Jonathan W. Sluyter, one of the expert axmen of the township, got out the logs for the first schoolhouse built in the township. It stood in the east half of section 15, on his land about three-quarters of a mile south of the Tippecanoe. He did not stop to hew the timber, as half a dozen children were impatiently(!) awaiting its opening. The cabin was 15 feet square, and David McConnahay is said to have thrown it open to the neighborhood, and in came the Funks, Conwells, Halls, Sluyters, Louders, and perhaps some other children whose names have not come down in history.
When George Hall succeeded McConnahay, a little later, the attendance had reached fifteen pupils. In 1838 John C. V. Shields taught a term in the log schoolhouse, and Lester Smith succeeded him.
In 1840 Mr. Sluyter built a second schoolhouse near the first, hewing the logs and otherwise improving upon his former work, and about five years afterward a still better building was erected further south in section 22.
The means for religious instruction came hand-in-hand with those provided for the training of the mind. The first denomination to organize a class in the township was the New Light, which commenced its meetings in the cabin of Crystal D. W. Scott in 1837. Rev. John Scott, a circuit rider, held services there and elsewhere for two years. In 1839 a church was built in the new Scott settlement, northeastern part of the township; it was constructed of round black oak logs and was 25 feet square. Rev. Abram Sneathen, founder of the church, ministered to it spiritually, and the following were among its first members; Crystal D. W. Scott and wife, Greenup Scott and wife, Jonathan W. Sluyter and wife, and Mrs. Gruell and daughter, Sarah. The church was maintained, for a time with increasing attendance, during a period of about ten years.
Marriageable girls and women did not have long to wait in those days, the demand far exceeding the supply. The marriage of Mrs. Gruell's daughter, Sarah, to Elijah Sneathen, in the spring of 1839, caused therefore no surprise in the Scott aettlement. This was the first wedding in the township. It is not known who performed the ceremony, as James W. Hall, who had been elected justice of the peace the year before, died shortly before the wedding. He would have been the logical candidate for the honor and the fee. Instead, 'Squire Hall's death was the first in the township, and his remains were buried in what was afterward known as Hughes' burying ground.
In 1857 the first post office in the township was established at the farmhouse of Jonathan Sluyter, with that gentleman as postmaster. As Postmaster Sluyter had a great admiration for Buffalo, in his native state, he had induced the Government authorities to name the post office in honor of the New York city. After several years the post office was discontinued at that point, and in 1867 one was established across the river, called Flowerville, the first Postmaster was also one of the first women to hold the position, Rachel Karr, wife of John C. Karr. The latter was maintained until the Town of Buffalo was platted by Karr in in 1886, when the post office by that name was reestablished.
Buffalo, as a town, was laid out on July 24, 1886, by John C. Karr, an Ohio man, who had come with his father (Moses Karr) and settled with other members of the family about two miles west of the present site. In 1849 he had married and located to his farm lying along the east shores of the river, a portion of which he platted as the Town of Buffalo. He died in August, 1899, the father of eleven children. Both the Karr and the Sluyter families still hold valuable farming lands south of Buffalo, in sections 15 and 22.
Across the river from Buffalo are also large holdings of land representing the wisely-directed industry and ability of another early settler in this part of the township, Thomas B. Moore. He was a native of the Buckeye State and at the age of twenty-eight, in 1852, commenced to buy property in section 10 and elsewhere adjacent to the western borders of the Tippecanoe. What was long known as Moore's ford, on his farm, was one of the best crossings in the township, but has long ago given place to a fine iron bridge at that locality. Mr. Moore became the heaviest land owner resident in the township, dealt largely in live stock, served for many years as justice of the peace, was a leader in Methodism, and altogether one of the leading citizens of northern White County. His successors do him and the family honor.
Although Buffalo obtained no railroad connections, it was backed by a good country and in 1896 Mr. Karr made an addition to the original plat of thirty-four lots, by which he nearly doubled its site. Until his death he took a deep interest in the locality and passed the last years of his life there. His wife also died at Buffalo in 1896, her husband joining her three years Later.
Soon after the bridge at Moore's ford was completed, a county publication had the following description of it: "The new iron bridge across the Tippecanoe river at what is widely known as Moore's ford is one of the best in the county. The bridge is in two parts—one 165 feet long, and the other, 135 feet. It has stone abutments and was erected in 1882 at a cost of about $14,000. The Columbia Bridge Company at Dayton, Ohio, has the honor of putting up this creditable structure."
The hamlet of Sitka, in the southern part of the township and northeast corner of section 3, originated in the early settlement of the Hughes, VanVoorst and other families in that part of the township, with the usual demand for postal accommodations. In April, 1880, a postoffice was finally established at the point named, with M. Allison Hughes as postmaster. In connection with the office he conducted a small general store.
John C. Hughes owned the land on the east side of the highway and donated ground for a Baptist Church and the congregation known as the Church of God. Both of these societies erected large frame church buildings; a house built nearby for the postoffice, and stores and residences were put up on the west side of the road, on the land of Mrs. Mary VanVoorst, widow of Sylvanus. William Stitt, an old resident of the township, started a blacksmith shop, and J. A. Read purchased the Hughes business. The residences of Mrs. VanVoorst and Rowland Hughes, son of John C. Hughes and father of M. Allison Hughes, the postmaster, were situated south of the village.
Sitka is six miles northeast of Monticello, and four south of Buffalo. It has no railroad connections, is considerably off the line of travel and is only of sectional importance as being a convenient trading center for a limited territory. Since the expansion of the rural free delivery system even the postoffice at Sitka has been abolished.