The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1860-10-18

Old Settlers "G SVayae County.
The followins interesting sketci was pre-
pared by our v-n-rabl. fri.1d Jeremiah
Cox at the request of an Old Settlers Meet
ing held in this city las, summer. and wa
Designed to be rad ., = meeting. which VA
proposed to be held Oh Saturday last. Tn,
excitement incident to the late election hav
ing prevented the assembling Of the propo
sed meeting. We take the liberty Of publish
ing il in our paper. It Is to be hoped thai
= meeting Of the pioneers in the settlement
Of this county will be held as aeon as the
Presidential election is over, and our Poo
pie feel inclined 10 attend such interesting
ecc asions ~ those have been heretofore
held:
l attended the Old Settlers Meeting some
days since. and desire having been mani
tested by several persons present TO hear
what could tell in regard to the early SET
.lenent OF Wayne county. will endeav or
TO comply with the desire thus expressed.
for their entertainment. and that Of y chill
drsn and grand children. am now in my
sev~ntieth year. and shall have to rely co.
trely upon memory. therefore some mistate.
msnts may reasonably be expected. Ago
clouds the memory Of Us all. and henc., il
any inaccuracies are found. trust they will
be regarded with charity.
First will state, my grandfather Benia-
min Cox. e'nisrated from P-nnsyivanis. du.
ring the first settling Of the Carolinas by
white men. l think he first went 10 Sou,h
Carolina. but afterwards settled permanent
~ IN Randolph county, North Carolina,
where he remained un il his d-cease From
the many hunting exploits he related to us.
his grand children, | inter. that he was.
like Nimrod Of old. ga mi shty hunter.
tie said when he came III re. Wild horses
were plenty in that country. The people
caught them by shooting them across the
head just where 1t j''Ins the neck. When
The ball hit the right spot. it would bring
lhe' tn the ground. and whilst in that con
i''ion. they placed a strong rope hal-r on
their head, and tied 1t To small tree. aud
when they would come TO little from the
shock Produced by the shooting. there
w"ulf oe grra. pitching. rareing and kick
ing Tor some time. but when The animal wos-
riod itself nearly 10 stuff ,cs ion, it w,uI
give M struggling When Thoroughly
broke az il was called hey made YER, d.
CHE and selviceabie work horses. Some OF
the horses in use when | was = boy. were
said to be of the wild stock Grandfather
md Others said Carolina was very good
country tor : DOR folks to settle in. there be-
ny plenty of wild game, with excellent
,a-turage or range" for stock
My father. Jer miih Cox, was born and
aised in North CSroi'is-married aud set
led within mile ut his fathers place. whore
re remained until the Fifth month, 1885,
ie then sold most ot his possessions for
92 500. and started tor the o 10 Country
by some said to be the "lsnd ot promise y
In about six weeks travel. We reached Lob
anon. in the Miami country. Ny father
procured a school house in which to shelter
his family, and started the mex, day but one,
TO Whitewater. He vas accompanied by
John Smith, David Hoover and several 9TH
ers. They made selections of land, aud
entered the same At the land Office in Gin
cinnau. Ny father sel-c ed An entered the
quarter section where the mill IF Strickland
Il Bridg~land now stands We ret,iaiaed
in OHIO one month and then started for
Whitewater. We came BY Eston. which
had been laid out the Third month pr.vi.
ously. Several cabins had been built. and
the streets were SO FULL Of logs and brush
that it was with difficulty we could pass
along them From thence We followed
trace or trail thar John Harden, Owen Oar
by. and perhaps . fe others. had moved
along \ few weeks previous TO our coming to
where they had settled IN Elkhnrn creek.
near the western boundary line IF the State
IF Ohio. From thence We had our road 10
cut through the wilderness of trees. logs,
brush. weeds, nsttles, &c. to where Rich
mond now stands. A few days after our
arrival my IA her purchased Two quarter
sections Of land Of Joseph Woodkirk. who
had built small pole cabin. cl-ared fenced
md planted tour acres OF land 10 corn,
which my faIler bought. TITS land lay
where Richmond. north oI Main rect has
since been built. l will here remark that I
helped to cut out the two FIRST roads which
we're made through what is now the CITY Of
R,chmond-the one We moved on when we
came. the other west from that on our south
line 10 the river. The first ran where Main
street now is, the latter was cut to haul
stone from the river To build our chimney
with.
| will here remark that we we're the first
family of The Soci-ty of Friends tina, set
tied within the limits of Wa,ne county,
Robert Smith came soon afterwards. John
Smith. Elijah Wright and friedrich Hoover
came in tn- fall following. Severed Oh the
Hoover ismily came out hen We m we'd.
TO build cabins and >ox ,uraip seed. In the
following spring Andrew Ho ever. David
Hoover and William BuliA csme Some later
IN the spring John Harvey. and john Small
came. and perhaps some others not new rec.
objected. -Four or FIVE meiis down the riv.
er he'e was = settlement, Of pea haps eight or
ten fam lies. hrch came II ON ksntsc., in
the spring Of 1905. These we're G-.rxe
Holman. Richard Rue, E~el Kendall. Thorn
As Mccoy. William BiAk. Joseph Cox J ,hn
Boyl-s. aud perhaps les others. There
we're . few families Oh the East fork o.
Whitewater. who came, believe, in the
spring of 1906. | think they were all Oh
the Ohio side OF the STATE line, except Rich.
ard Maxwell
The next two or three years after our ar
rival. the people setlled hers very fat Tn.