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Surnames: Delvin
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/gh.2ADI/5368
Message Board Post:
"History of Huntington County, Indiana"1914 By Frank S. Bash Chapter XIX
Miscellaneous History pg. 372-73
William Delvin, who came with his parents to Huntington in 1834, and who is still living
in the city, was born on December 2, 1830. His family made the journey from Perry County,
Ohio, with an ox team and covered wagon. At the time they arrived in Huntington there were
only a few white families there, but there were plenty of Indians. Mr. Delvin remembers
that when his mother looked out of the covered wagon and saw a large number of Indians
watching their movements “she was heartbroken and burst into tears.” They slept in the
wagon until a cabin could be made ready for the reception of the family. Their first home
in Huntington County stood on the north side of Market Street, between Cherry and
Jefferson, about where the Clayton building now stands. His father had two teams and
worked on the canal. Owing to the scarcity of white children, little William made
playmates of Indian boys and he is probably the only man now living in Huntington County
who can spea!
k the Miami dialect. He tells of how an Indian squaw taught him to swim by throwing him
in deep water and forcing him, as he thought, to fight for his life. He did not realize
that the squaw was keeping close watch upon his movements and stood ready to come to his
relief if necessary to save him from drowning. Mr. Delvin is a nephew of that William
Delvin who taught the first school in Huntington, and who was one of the first surveyors’
in the county.