The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-08-17
QUAINT ARTICLE WAS READ !
At SETTLERS PICNIC TODAY

at the Old Settlers picnic this after
noon at Centerville was the reading
by Wilfred Jessup of an article writ
ten by jeremiah Cox of Middleboro,
| Wayne county, in June, 1850. The
style and spelling is quaint, but of ex-
ceptional interest. The article is re-
produced here verbatim:
| I attended the Old Settlers Meeting
! the other day, a desire being manifest
ed by some present, to hear what l
could tell in regard to the early sett-
ling of Wayne County, and in COM
plyence with this wish, and for the
entertainment of my children and
numerous grandchildren, 1 now COM
mence writing, in the seventyeth
year of my age and not having much
to build upon, except memory, some
misstatements may be expected.
And first, l will state that my grand
father, Benjamin Cox, came from
Pennsylvania, in the first settling of
the Carolinas, at first l think in the
south state, but afterwards settled pur
menently, in Randolph County, North
Caroline, where he remained to the
end of his days, and from the many
! hunting exploits he used to relate to
u.s., his grandchildren, / infer that he
was like Nymrod of old, mighty hunt
er; there was he said, wild horses in
that country in those days, which the
inhabytentS caught by shooting them
across the topA. of the head just where
tot
the ball hit the wright spot, would in
stantly bring thenN to the ground, and
whilst in that condition, they would
place strong ropAe halter on their
head, and tie it to a tsapling "a small
tree) and when they WOULD come too
a little, from the shock Sproduced from
the shooting, there wotS I'D be great
rareing, pitching and nxcking, for a
length of time, but wheIa the animal
worryed itself nearly to suffocation
it would give up struggling, and when
thoroughly broke (as it was called,
they made very docile and serviceable
work horses. Some of the, horses in
use when l was boy were said to be
of the wild stock. Caroline was said
by grandfather and others hp be a
very good country for poor folks to
settle in, there beeing plenty of wild
game with excellent pastureage fQr
stock. My father, jeremiah Cox, wass
born raised and settled within a mile
of his fathers place, where he re-
NAMED until the 5th month, 1906,
when he sold most of his possession
for % hundred dollars, and started for
the Ohio country, by some said to be
the land of promise, and in about six
weeks travel, we reached Lebanon in
the Miami country. My father pro.
cured school house (or cabin, to
shelter his family in, and started the
next day but one to Whitewater, in
company with John Smith, David
Hoover and several others, who made
selections of land to enter on their re-
turn; the land office then being in
Cincinnati. My father selected and
entered the quarter section of land,
on which the Brightwell Mill stands.
We stayed in Ohio month, and
started for Whitewater, and came to
Eaton, which had been laid out in
the previous third month. Several
cabins built, and the streets so full of
logs and brush that it was with diff
ficulty that we could pass along. From
thence we followed trace or trail
that John Harden and Owen Darby
(perhaps a few others) had mooved
| along few weeks previous to our
| coming, to where they settled on Elk
horn Creek, near the western bound
airy of the State of Ohio, from thence
| we had our road to cut through brush,
| nettles and logs to where Richmond
now is. And few days after, father
bought two quarter sections of land of
Joseph Woodkirk, who had built
small cabin, cleared, fenced and plant
ed four acres of corn, which my father
bought. This land lay where Rich
mond has since been built, all north
of Main street. l will here remark
that l helped to cut out the two first
roads made through what is now the
City of Richmond, one that we moov-
ed along when we came, the other
west from that, on our south line to
the river This road ran where Main
Street now is. The last mentioned
road was cut to hawl stones from
the river to build our chimney.
l will here remark that we were the
first family of the Society of Friends,
that settled in the limets of Wayne
County, tho Robert Smith came soon
after, John Smith, Elijah Wright and
Frederick Hoover came in the fall fol-
lowing. Several of the Hoover family
came out when We mooved, to build
cabins and SOW turnip seed.
In the spring following, Andrew
Hoover, VIM. Bulla and David Hoover
came. Some later in the Spring, John
Har1ay and John Small came, and per-
haps some others not now recollected.
Four or five miles down the river
there was a settlement of perhaps
eight or ten families, that had come
| from Kentucky in the third month of
1905. These We're, George Holeman.
/ Richard Rue, Ewel Kendall, Thomas
Mccoy, VIM. Bunk, Joseph Cox, John
Boyls and few others, names not
remembered. There was a few fami-
lies on the east fork that came l be-
lieve. in the Spring of 1908. think
they were all on the Ohio side of the
! line, except Richarl Maxwell.
| Tha A Of