Chapter 10 -- continued |
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First School, etc. |
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 The year 1835 witnessed
the opening of the first schools in Jay County. The "red man of the forest"
was followed by daring old hunters like Jesse Gray, who found these woods
against which the axe had never been raised, delightful fields for the pursuit
of game. Their campfires succeeded the wigwam, while soon the rude cabin
came. Now, when the wild man was only an occasional visitor, and many hunters
were tramping the forest, schools were opened, and the few children of the
settlement taught to read and spell. In the summer of this year, two schools
were taught. One in a cabin built my a Mr. Wringer, situated where Liber
College now stands, and the other in a similar house, situated on what was
afterward the farm of James Rhine, in Madison Township. The former was taught
by Miss Sarah Tharp, later the wife of Mr. Thomas Ward, of Winchester and
the latter taught by Mr. Edward Bell Wotten, who had recently settled there.
These pioneer teachers have long since gone to their final reward. The exact
date cannot be given when either of the schools commenced, and it is unimportant
- both these persons are equally deserving the profound respect which the
people of Jay will not cease to cherish for the memories of their first teachers.
Soon log schoolhouses dotted the county. Of the teachers officiating in them,
some were wise and some were "otherwise." Now the neatly painted frame
schoolhouse is taking the place of the dear old cabin with its mud-and-stick
chimney, its clapboard and weight-pole roof, its knotty, unpeeled, sapling
benches, wide fireplace and bush of wild roses clambering upon the gable
ends. An embryo college now stands upon the very spot made sacred by such
a cabin.
The first mail carried through this county was in 1829, by Mr. Ellis Kizer, from Winchester, by way of the Godfrey Trace, to Fort Wayne. The mail was not opened then in the county, but this pioneer herald picked his way on horseback along a barely discernible path, through three score and ten miles of wilderness. At the Godfrey village he could count several times as many Indian huts as there were white families along the entire route. He carried it until 1833, when Samuel Hawkins got the contract, and the route was changed so as to pass through the Hawkins settlement. On the 11th of June 1835, the first Post Office was established in Jay (then called Randolph) County, at the house of Daniel Farber, who was Postmaster. The office was then called Salimonie. It was a great convenience - persons receiving their mail there from all parts of this, and some from Adams County. The postage on letters was then from ten to twenty-five cents. Mrs. Nancy Farber performed most of the few duties connected with the office. Mr. John Conner carried the first mail by this office, and with the exception of four years, continued carrying it until 1862, since which time Mr. Jacob Conkel has been the carrier. In May 1837, the office was removed to H. H. Cuppy's, who became the Postmaster, and the name was changed to Jay Court House. The following shows by township all the land entered in Jay County prior to 1836, in order of date, and name of the person making the entry, as taken from the record of the County Auditor's office:
In April 1836, Mr. Joseph Wilson, afterward County Auditor, selected land near Samuel Grissell, who accompanied him to Fort Wayne, to make the entry. They struck the Wabash at Adam Miller's, went down stream to Henry Miller's, where Bluffton now stands, arriving after dark. Here they met John Conner, carrying the mail - an occurrence familiar to all northward travelers for twenty-five years afterward. The next morning, crossing the river in a canoe, and swimming their horses, they proceeded on their journey. Everywhere the streams were overflowing, and several times the water ran over their horses' backs. At the St. Mary's River they left the horses. Crossed in a canoe, and walked to the land office. Early in the July following Mr. Wilson brought his family from Campaign County, Ohio. From Joab Ward's they came via John Brooks', which place they endeavored to reach in one day. Failing in this they were compelled to camp out. They were greatly troubled by the myriads of bloodthirsty mosquitoes that swarmed around them. Having located wife and children upon the load, protected by the wagon cover, he spent most of the night lying upon a log not far distant, with three or four smoke-fires around him, and bush in hand to fight off the biting, buzzing torments. The next evening they reached Moses Hamilton's, having been two days coming sixteen miles. Sometimes the road was too crooked for their long team, and had to be cut out. In about a week they moved into their own house, and began clearing away the woods around it, "to make it look a little like home," - the first work of every pioneer family. For nearly two months during the following winter all the bread for the family of eight was made by pounding corn in a hominy mortar, sifting out the finest for bread, the next for "mush," while the coarsest was boiled of hominy - a convenient variety. Which no mill of later invention can produce from one hopper. |
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