The Indianapolis journal., 1899-02-26
IN THE WABASH COUNTRY
NATURAL FEATURES OF THE REGION
AS SEEN BY FIRST SETTLERS.
A Wealth of Timber Such as No Othez
Region Knew-An Advance Guard
of Remarkable Men.

Aol0 q ucW Country can DO COuSlueT6u d.
being permanently settled, and Indiana was
no exception to the rule. The first hardy
pioneers who came to the lower Wabash
region at the opening of the present century
were drawn thither by the vivid narratives
OF hunters and trappers who had roamed
over the entire country and who were able
to locate the most promising fields for future
enterprise and development. A large pro-
portion of these early pioneers were hunterss
who, as soon as they saw strange faces ap-
pearing among them. grew restless and dis
satisfied, and, disposing of their possessions,
started westward in search Of new range,
always keeping in advance of the onAow-
ing tide of humanity. They were contented
only with the free, open life of the woods
and far away from the conventionaiities and
artifcialities of civilized life. like Daniel
Boone their prototype and ideal hero, their
occupation was principally hunting, and
more than one, like the great Kentucky nim-
rod, lived hunting up to ninety"
But there were attempts made in a ruda
sort of way at settlement by those hardy
adventurers on the lower Wabash They
would clear little ground and erect cabin,
very much after the plan of Thomas Lin
coins cabin in Spencer county, with mother
earth for a floor and with row of pins
driven in the wall up which not only little
Abe, but many another boy before him, had
to climb in order to reach the loft. Al
cleared space generally surrounded the cabin
and in this patch" was planted a little
corn and sundry vegetables, but large
part of the food supply came from the for
est. Everything was done in the most prim-
tive fashion.
In the lower Wabash region there was
scarcely an acre of open land. Everywhere
there was timber. and such timber! Oaks
of every species, majestic hickories mann
moth elms, sleek and fat sycamores all
hanked by an jnnumerable host of walnut,
cherry ash and many other varieties both
great and small of deciduous trees-a wealth
Of timber such as no other country was
ever blessed with. The sycamore seems to
have been king of the forest in those days.
In his winning of the West" Theodore
Roosevelt speaks of giant sycamore which
party of Kentucky surveyors, under COM
mand of John Floyd, a pioneer, saw on the
Indiana shore as they were on their way
down the Ohio The tree was thirty-seven
feet in diameter. In an anonymous publica-
ton entitled 'tOld Times in West Tennes-
see," / find mention of a tradition which
was current among the pioneers of Ten
nessee of a sycamore at the mouth OF
Pigeon creek, which empties into the Ohio
at Evansville, which measured seventy-five
feet in circumference at its base and which
was capable of stabling in its capacious
hollow twenty-four horses at a time. But
the Wabash, while it has never been noted
for trees Of such generous girth, has long
been famous for it's tall sycamores. 1t re-
quired about a century and a half for our
forefathers to reach the summit of the Alle-
ghenies from the Atlantic seaboard but
when the frontiersmen gained that vantage
point and cast their wistful gaze down the
western slope, they possessed a natural
curiosity to know what was on the other
side, and, shouldering their axes, gradually
but surely, the forest melted before them.
How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy
strokei" 1t was not long until the choppers
were at work in the Wabash country and
soon 'ghastly wounds began to cape in the
bosom Of the forest" But it does seem that
our ancestors entertained at least one very
erroneous notion with regard to clearing
their lands We can easily see why they
should have piled and burned timber which
would now be worth a fortune. but It is
not so easy to discover why they should
have exercised so little forethought con-
AS a general rule all the trees about the
dwelling house were destroyed and the
woodlands which were preserved were not
always situated in a position to add any ate
tractiveness to the landscape. But perhaps
it was only the survival of an old-tims
custom. that of preventing a covert for lurk~
WE'LL IRRIGATED.
It cannot reasonably be claimed that the
Wabash country was ever a sterile or an
arid region From time immemoral there
have been periodical inundations of the low
lying lands adjoining the stream and its
tributaries. The drainage of the system Inc
cludes the greater part of Indiana as we1
as a bit of Ohio and much Of Illinois. The
general features of the region drained have
much in common, yet there are geological
conditions which give some portions of the
country a distinctive character White
river. in the opinion of some of the more
observant pioneers, bore evidences of hav-
ing at one time emptied into the Wabash al
a point considerably below its present juno
ton with that stream The reasons they
assigned for this supposition were the ex-
istence of numerous remains OF beaver dams
in what appeared to have once been the bed
of a river and also the shape and direction
of a lengthy ana narrow lake VI pOltu ia
the southern part of Gibson county, known
as Foote's pond. through which they
imagined White river once flowed and
emptied into the Wabash at the mouth OF .
stream now known as Black river, few
miles above New Harmony. While this
NAV have been only fanciful speculation
vet there was a great deal in 1t to suggest
such a conclusion.
A pathetic incident is connected with tha
"Foote's pond above mentioned. AT thu
beginning of the present century a young
man named Ziba Foote, cultured, handsome
and brilliant, after graduating at one of this
Eastern colleges, entered the service of the
government as a surveyor and was ordered
TO make a survey of the lower Wabash coun-
try. on the night of April %, 1885, he stayed
with Walter Montgomery in Gibson county.
and the next morning started towards the
Wabash. In attempting to swim across this
pond or lake which bears his name he be-
came entangled in the moss and reeds and
sank His BODY was recovered and buried at
the foot of a large oak, where it remained
some forty years. when it was removed TO
Bedford, Ind, and given permanent sepul-
ture among the bones of his ancestors.
Nature. having placed the State of Indi-
ana in the very heart of the continent.