The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-04-03
THE PIONEER FARMERS.
EARLY DAYsIN THgcoMMoNwEALTH
Settlement of Indiana-The Territory-The
First Farmers-The Various Soil and
Crops Discussed-Early Cotton
Raising Grasses-Topics.


Franklin several addresses were made by
prominent gentlemen. The following, by
Judge Banta, will be found exceedingly
entertaining to the iarmer-readers of THE
SENTINEL Judge Banta said:
Mr.. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
have been asked TO talk of the pioneer
farmer and of pioneer farming in Indiana The
subject is attractive one TO me, and / trust
the little [ shall say may not be without IN
terest 10 you, and | hope that it may not be
altogether without profit to us all
According to the latest judgment Of the his
torian, Indiana was first settled by Europeans
"abOut 1727." This is the conclusion reached
BY Mr. Dunn in his late history of Indiana,
and the evidence seems TO sustain him. The
first settlement was by the French at Vim
cennes. Other French settlements followed, all,
so far as | now remember, being confined to
the rivers. One on White river In the ex-
IRENE northwest corner OF this tJOhnson)
county. When the pioneers moved 10 the
W hite river country In 1920, they found on the
high ground, on the west side of the river,
tract OF land containing several hundred acres,
covered with dense growth OF Young timber.
The original forest had been cut of at a former
period and the land had been under cultivation.
There were the remains OF cabins and also
stone wall. John Upton, who was one OF the
commissioners for the location OF the state
capital, saw the place in 1920 and wrote about
il in his journal. From the scant information
tied not later than 1850, almost one hundred
and forty years ago and the first white mans
farming in our county must have been done at
that place and almost that time.
The first settlers found on the east side OF
White river mile or less below the site OF
that old French and Indian town, cabin and
clearing There had been the house and the
farm of Capt White, Delaware Indian. Not
far off his neighbor, Johnny Duck, lived but
Johnys farm, II he had one, seems
70 have attracted but little atten-
ton from the early settlers. IL was otherwise
with Capt. Whites. A pioneer moved into his
abandoned cabin and planted his little field IN
corn. mile or so below Capt. Whites place
was another ancient clearing There Bluetire,
an Indian chief and his band, had once lived
and hunted while their squaws cultivated corn
and pumpkins IN the clearing. On Indian creek
and on Sugar creek and on Stotts creek remains
of other Indian cleanngs were found by the
pioneer settlers of this county. But 1t Is not OF
Indian farming nor of French, which doubtless
was little better than indian, that j propose
talking on this occasion This is not the time
10 90 into discussion OF the settlement OF In
diana Up TO the close of Tecumseh's war, the
settlers within the present state boundaries
were few and confined to the southern border.
The Indiana territory was the best advertised
of any of its day. The Kentucky pioneers
drew the enmity of the Wabash and White
river Indians from the beginning. Bands of
these Indians were every now and then making
raids upon the Kentucky settlements and the
Kentucky volunteers were not slow IN carrying
the war back to them. In 1871 Gen. Charles
Scott, at the head OF seven or eight hundred
men, marched from the mouth Ofthe Kentucky
river, "tht most direct route" to the Indian
towns near Lafayette, and he must have
passed through our county. During Iecum-
seh's war the citizen sOldiery of Kentucky
marched and countermarched through and
through the state. Now, all this marching up
and down the country between the Ohio and
the Wabash made Il the best known wilderness
Il. ! ~. IL
fighting, all the Kentuckians had TO do was TO
come over and take possession, and they did it.
One-half If not more, of the pioneer settlers OF
southern and central Indiana came
directly from Kentucky. The state
that sent the next largest number was
Virginia. After Virginia came North Carolina,
and not much behind North Carolina, if any,
Western Pennsylvania. good many
came from East Tennessee and sprinkling
from South Carolina. All the states east of
the Blue Ridge and north OF the Potomac con-
tributed, but of all, New Jersey, think, sent
the most. At the close of the war; the emil
grafton to Indiana was as great, If not greater,
than had eyeri before been known in the MS
tory of any American state, and in ten years
the population ran up from fifty or sixty thou
sand TO a quarter OF million.
In 1916 Indiana made state and two
years thereafter all the great fertile region
waIered by White river and its tributaries, now
known as Central Indiana was ceded by the
Indians, and after another two years it
thrown open to settlers; and within a year
thereafter 1t is not too much TO say that there
was not an area OF territory since organized
into q county from the Muscatuck to
the head waters of the Wabash, in
which more settlers cabins
were not erected, save the places kept as ere
serves" Thence on the state filed up rapidly,
and IN a few years neighborhoOd was linked 10
neighbOrhOOd all over that part of the state,
from the Wabash southwark. These pioneer
settlers were the pioneer farmers OF Indiana.
All had been farmers whence they came. 1t
was only one here and there who come TO the
state for any other purpose than 10 engage in
farming There were no cities nor towns to
draw settlers; no mines, no lumber interests
cattle MISUNDERSTANDING but the hope and
prospect OF clearing out farms and making
homes Have you, sons and daughters of the
pioneer settlers, forgotten the stories they used
70 tell Of their poverty IN the beginning? OF
all the men who moved to johnson county in
the early days there was not one whom i now
call 10 mind that entered, or was able 70 enter,
a section Of land IN one lump. A few were
able to purchase a half section, and great
many a quarter section. Still, there was a
large number that could not purchase more
than eighty acres, and more than are apt to
think unable to buy any land at all; and what
was true of the pioneers of this county
true in the main in this respect of the pioneers
of all the counties,
But the poverty of the pioneer farmers Of
Indiana was not the greatest of their draw
backs. Did you ever stop and think over the
unfavorable conditions that surrounded your
fathers in the beginning here in Indiana? How
they were hedged in by nature and compelled
10 fight. as II were, for their daily bread? What
one Of you, that has descended the Ohio river,
that has not observed along the Indiana shore
all the way from the Big Miami to the Wabash,
range OF high mills, now down TO the river
shore and now receding therefrom? Along
this range of hills there is the highest ridge
the line where the rainfall divides are part
running in rills, or small creeks, down into the
Ohio, and the other slowly flowing northward
into the water-courses of the Wabash system.
So near 10 the Ohio lies this watershed
that there is hardly mill stream all the way
from the Miami to the Wabash How is it to
the northward OF this watershed? The coun-
try opens out in one vast plain occupying the
greater part of southern aud central Indiana
q plain that when the pioneer farmers came
was filed with marshes and swamps and
lagoOns. / know there were hilly regions
within the territory | allude to, but | am
speaking Of it in a general sense. | haven't
the time to dwell upon this feature of the new
state of Indiana, but we can gain no adequate
idea OF Indiana farmers and of Indiana farm
ing in the early days, taking into the account
the peculiarly wet and spOngy condition of the
country in the beginning.
Let me call your attention 10 another fact in
this connection. The physical geOgraphers
speak Of our American continent as the Forest
continent for the reason that the American
forests excelIed in growth and magnitude the
T. H. - ~ ~ a.