INACCURATE GOVERNMENT SURVEYS-- CHRISTOPHER VANDEVENTER, FIRST SETTLER-- LAND ENTRIES IN 1838-48— POLITICAL TOWNSHIP OF CASS— PIONEER SCHOOLS— NUCLEUS OF HEADLEE— LAND ENTRIES IN 1849-52-- MRS. JOHN E. TIMMONS AND JACOB D. TIMMONS-- NON-RESIDENTS HELD [i.e., HOLD] TWO-THIRDS OF TOWNSHIP-- EARLY DEARTH OF MARKETS— THE TRIPS TO LOGANSPORT— NORWAY TO THE RESCUE— IMPROVEMENTS--HEADLEE.
Cass is one of the three townships in White County which conforms to the congressional dimensions of thirty-six square miles, or six miles square; Jackson, to the south, and Round Grove, in the southwest corner are the others. It is all of congressional Township 28 north, Range 2 west, and is bounded on the west by Liberty, on the south by Jackson, on the east by Cass County and on the north by Pulaski County. In the northeastern corner of the county, well out of the valley of the Tippecanoe and away from both canal and railroad communications, it was for years known as the "lone township." To add to the drawbacks which retarded its progress, two-thirds of its area, small though it was, was taken up by land speculators who lived outside the township. The first Government surveys were so imperfect as to throw not a few of the early buyers and actual residents into great confusion and frighten others who were inclined to locate.
Milton M. Sill, county surveyor in 1859, thus explains the matter which has created such disturbance in the early land transactions within the township: "On the west boundary line the section corner for Sections 1 and 12, Congressional Township 28, Range 3, was placed twenty-four rods west of the true line, and there was no evidence that the line had been extended from that corner north to the northern boundary of the township. Two or three years afterward the errors were discovered and a resurvey of the township made, but this only created confusion in the minds of the settlers, and the notes of the first survey having been forwarded to the county and duly recorded, county surveyors were presented with a problem difficult of solution, finding two government corners plainly marked at nearly every section and quarter section corner in the township. It was not solved for nearly twenty years after the first survey was made.
"In 1859 the county surveyor was called on to make a survey in the township, and finding, as others had before him, a large surplus of government corners not down in his notes, called on the commissioner of the General Land Office in Washington for explanation, and in reply the notes of the resurvey were forwarded with directions to follow them as the true notes. The change in the western boundary line of the township by the substitution of the field notes of the resurvey had the effect of reducing the population of the township by one family, that of Edward McCloud, who had built his residence near the western boundary line as indicated in the notes of the first survey, and had been exercising his rights as a citizen of Cass township for more than twenty years, when in reality he was a resident of Liberty township."
The first settlements in what is now Cass Township were made in the late '30s, more than a decade before it was set off from the eastern portion of Liberty. They were in its extreme northern sections--3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10.
By common consent, Christopher Vandeventer, of an old Dutch family from New York, is accorded the post of honor as the township's first permanent settler. In the spring of 1837 he threw up a cabin of unhewn logs, 20 by 26 feet in size, in section 7, on the south branch of Indian Creek, and his followers of the succeeding two years in the north tier of sections also chose the heavily timbered lands and the high and dry prairie tracts. White oak prevailed and nothing could be better for substantial building purposes.
It is claimed that Daniel Yount located in section 12 in 1837, and that Edwin Perry settled on section 27 (in the southern part of the township) in 1838, but the Tract Book indicates only the following entries of land previous to 1840: Christopher Vandeventer, in section 7, December 1, 1838; Samuel Burson, in section 6, on the 3rd of the month, and Joseph Smith, in the same section, on the 17th; Leonard Shoemaker, in section 3, July 30, 1839, and Thomas McMillan, in section 4, on June 21st of that year.
From 1840 to 1848, inclusive--the latter being the year when the township was formed—the following entered lands: In 1840, John Layman, in sections 5 and 6; John Smith, in section 7, and Edward McCloud, in section 10; Daniel Yount, in section 8, September 24, 1842; David VanBlaricum, in section 1, and John W. Williams, in section 24, both in August, 1843. In 1844, Levi Hartmann, in section 2; William McBeth, in section 6; Samuel Fry, in section 24; and Thomas Townsley, in sections 33 and 34. In 1845, Tavner Reams, in section 5; Isaiah Broderick, in section 27, and Ephraim Million, in section 28. In 1846, Wesley Noland, in sections 1 and 2; Isaac W. Hunt and John Harro, in section 11; Albert Bacon, in section 18, and Edwin Perry, in section 28. In 1847, Benjamin Mattix, in section 7; John Cromer and James R. Fowler, in section 32; Benjamin Bare, in section 34, and Robert Acre, in section 35. In 1848, Gideon Irwin and Alexander Bailey, in section 3; Jonathan Reams, in section 5; Gideon Irwin, in section 10; William Poole, in section 22; George Dixon, in section 26; Harrison Dixon and Charles Reed, in section 27; Noah W. Ausman, in section 29; Elias Vanaman, in section 35, and Daniel Vanaman, in section 36.
On the 7th of June, 1848, it was ordered by the Board of County Commissioners that all that portion of Liberty Township contained in congressional township 28 north, range 2 west, be declared a political township and receive the name of Cass. It is supposed to have been thus designated in honor of Lewis Cass, who is one of the most prolific godfathers of political bodies identified with American history and geography. It was further ordered by the board that the place of holding elections be at the house of Daniel Yount; and Albert Bacon was appointed inspector of elections for the year 1848.
Soon after the civil organization of the township preparations were made to open a school in a log cabin which stood on the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 6, near the Pulaski County line. Its first term was taught by Samuel Gruell in the winter of 1848-49, and Mrs. Anna McBeth taught the summer term of 1849. To that school Christopher Vandeventer sent five pupils; Daniel Germberlinger, two; Tavner Reams, two; William McBeth, two; Peter Prough, two; John Baker, of Pulaski County, two; Daniel Yount, two; Albert Bacon, three, and a man by the name of Horim, four.
The second school was taught by Mrs. McBeth in the log house that stood on the land of William McBeth, on the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 6. The term, covering the winter of 1849-50, was attended by about twenty pupils.
As a number of settlers were locating their claims toward the south a schoolhouse was built in 1850 on the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 8. It was constructed of hewn logs, 22 by 26 feet, and was a marked improvement over all that had gone before. Among the teachers who held forth therein were William McBeth, Alvin Hall, Milton Dexter, Walter Hopkins and James Potter. What was long known as King's Schoolhouse, on section 6, was built about 1853, and four years later two frame schoolhouses were erected—one on the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 7 and the other near the center of section 9.
The first settlers of Cass Township had scarcely got the roofs of their log cabins over their heads before Rev. Abram Sneathen, the pioneer circuit rider of Northern White County and Southern Pulaski, began his spiritual visits, but the first regular class was organized at the house of Harvey Headlee in 1851. A sabbath school, the first in the township, was organized about the same time. The first members of the class were Harvey Headlee, Margaret Headlee, Garrison Q. Lister, Joanna Lister, John Wiley, Mary Wiley, Silas Headlee, Jane Reames and John Downs. These religious organizations resulted from quite a settlement in the northern portions of sections 8 and 9, which, over thirty years afterward, found further expression in the platting of the Town of Headlee. A postoffice by that name was established as early as 1870.
In 1849 the following entries of land are recorded for Cass Township: Elam Yount, in section 9; Jacob Young, in section 7; William Poole, in section 23; William Baker, in section 25; David Younkman, in section 27; William Timmons, in section 33, and Jacob Yanney, in section 36.
In the fall of the year named (1849) the widow of John E. Timmons, with a large family of children, moved to Cass Township to join some of her relatives who had already settled there, Her son, Jacob D. Timmons, was then two years of age, his father having died when he was but eight months old. The family came from Pickaway County, Ohio, and upon her arrival in the southern part of the township Mrs. Timmons sold her horse, to which she added $50 in cash, for eighty acres of unimproved land in the east half of the southeast quarter of section 32. There the neighbors erected for her a round log cabin, and she set pluckily to work to rear and educate her children. As time passed and they increased in years and capabilities, they assisted in the work, but the heavy burden fell on her willing shoulders. She spun the cloth and made their garments, lived economically and worked incessantly and lovingly until her task of years was done. In 1856 the round log cabin gave way to one of hewn timber, to which was added a frame lean-to for a kitchen. This good pioneer mother died in 1889, a member of the Dunkard Church. The son, Jacob D., became the well known banker of Monticello, who located there in 1898 and was afterward president of the State Bank and the Farmers State Bank. Mr. Timmons is yet the owner of about 1,000 acres of White County land, and his holdings include the eighty acres first purchased by his mother, where he was reared and educated as a boy and passed the greater part of his life.
In the year 1850, following that which marked the coming of the Timmons family, the following entries were made: Thomas Wiley, in section 5; Samuel L. Steele, in section 8; John S. Beaver, in section 9, and Daniel Dilts, in section 15. In 1851 I. Shepard entered land in section 15, and in 1852, Thomas Townsley, in section 21; Noah Davis, in section 29, and Peter Roller in section 35.
Altogether 15,280 acres of swamp, canal and military warrants lands were taken up by purchasers, or only eighty acres short of two-thirds of the entire township, and of that amount a very small portion passed into the hands of actual settlers until many years had elapsed. Now nearly the entire township is occupied by its owners.
The sections most largely covered by such claims were as follows; Section 3— Four hundred and eighty acres taken by military land warrants, forty for swamp and eighty for canal, the last purchased by Frederick Ott, March 11, 1850.
Section 4—Four hundred and eighty acres taken by military land warrants.
Section 5—Four hundred acres covered by military land warrants.
Section 8—Two hundred and forty military and 330 acres swamp lands.
Section 9—Four hundred and eighty acres taken by military land warrants and eighty acres swamp, purchased by Casper Orb, John Wiley, Daniel Dilts, Joseph Fry and William Shepard.
Section 12—Four hundred acres taken by military land warrants and 240 acres swamp.
Section 13—Four hundred and eighty acres military and 160 acres swamp lands.
Section 14—Two hundred and forty acres military and 400 swamp lands.
Section 15—Four hundred and eighty acres military lands.
Section 17—All military lands.
Section 18—Four hundred acres taken for swamp lands.
Section 19--Three hundred and twenty acres military and 160 swamp lands.
Section 20—Two hundred acres swamp, eighty acres canal and 360 acres military lands.
Section 21—Three hundred and twenty acres military and 200 acres swamp lands.
Section 22—Two hundred acres canal, 200 acres swamp and 120 acres military lands.
Section 23—Four hundred acres swamp and 160 acres canal lands.
Section 24—Four hundred and eighty acres military lands.
Section 26—Three hundred and twenty acres military and 240 acres swamp lands.
Section 30—Four hundred and eighty acres military lands and 160 acres swamp.
Section 32—Three hundred and twenty acres military lands, 120 acres canal and forty acres swamp—the last purchased by Sothey K. Timmons, of Jackson Township.
Section 36—Three hundred and sixty acres military lands.
Those who settled in Cass Township in the late '30s and the '40s were virtually confined to the northern and western sections and had no good market town nearer than Logansport, twenty-five miles distant on the Wabash and Erie Canal. Even that was not so perfect but that some of them went to Michigan City or even Chicago to trade to better advantage. The township was a great huckleberry district and Monticello and nearer points were often supplied, while grain and the less perishable products were reserved for better and more distant markets.
The early trips to Logansport were often taken over almost impassable roads, through unbridged streams and roadless bogs, but the slow but patient ox team usually managed to accomplish them in two or three days. Then the produce was sold or traded for groceries and clothes, sometimes in sufficient quantities to cover a year's consumption.
Usually five or six settlers went in company, camping wherever night overtook them, as there were few houses along the route. Every man would clean up his rifle, mould his bullets and fill his powder horn, prepared for the deer, turkeys and other wild game met along the way, and as all of them were expert hunters by both instinct and practice, they seldom reached Logansport without having added several saddles of venison to their loads of produce for sale in the market. Then, again, in case one of the teams got mired, or anything else went wrong, some one was on hand to "help out."
These periodical trips to Logansport were continued until the completion of the merchant and custom mill at Norway, eight or ten miles southwest, in Union Township. When it passed from the widow of Hans E. Hiorth to the Monticello Kendalls, in 1848, the new proprietors opened a large and quite complete general store, and the settlers of Cass Township were greatly benefited by both enterprises. They could then go to Norway, return the same day and have their grain ground, or dispose of it in the raw state for as good an assortment of supplies as they could get in Logansport. The roads, too, were in better condition, being for the great part over the high bluffs of the Tippecanoe River instead of through the marshes and over tbe sand ridges toward the east and Logansport. The burdens of the early farmers of the township were even further lightened when (in 1857) the bridge over the Tippecanoe was built at Norway.
Of course, within the past thirty years, transportation conditions have greatly improved, both through the drainage of the lowlands and the construction of better roads through the township. The work of ditching commenced in the early '80s, the first ditches constructed being the Read, Davis, Leazenby, Huffman, Headlee, Biggie and Robins. By 1884 there were over sixty miles of public drainage in the township and the good work has been continued so at the present time there are comparatively few tracts of waste land within its bounds.
The township is still without a railroad, but the settlers have a daily mail to and from Monticello, by way of Sitka and Buffalo, and north from Headlee (the only village in the township) to Winamac, which, with the extension of the telephone system over that part of the county, affords convenient communication with the outside world.
Headlee is a pleasant little hamlet in the northern part of the township. It has never been incorporated, although it was platted in November, 1888. Its proprietors were Harvey Headlee, Hannibal McCloud, Fred Reames, B. E. Dutton, J. E. Dutton and John Fry.