Posted on: Warren Co. In Biographies
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Surname: Cunningham, Harrison, Buell, Wilson, Seamans, Clark, Robb, Hickenbotham,
Kent, Clinton, King, Shanklin, Jameson, Hall, Butterfield, Purviace, Boggs,
Enoch, Farmer, Samuel, Ensley, John, Cox, Seavers, Mickle, McMahan, Soloman,
Munroe, Waymire, Cicot, Yandes, Gooden, Crow, Ridinour, Seymour, Roads,
Railsback, Kerns, McCords, Clark, Fenton, Magee, Mace, Davis, Reed, Johnson,
Munson, Stewart, Moores, Bowyer, Stinson, Kirk, Hodgen, Bunton, Brockman,
Armintrout, Graves, Roger, Babcock, Ross, Kilgore, Hill, Usher, Michael,
Douglass, Armstrong, Bunnell, Allen, Brown, McQueen, Timmons, Oence, Good
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Old Settlers
And
Recollections
Sanford Cox
1860
Surnames in this biography are: Search, Cunningham, Harrison, Buell, Wilson,
Semans, Clark, Robb, Hickenbotham, Kent, Clinton, John B. King, Shanklin,
Jameson, Hall, Butterfield, Purviance, Boggs, Enoch Farmer, Samuel Ensley,
John, Joseph Cox, Seavers, Mickle, McMahan, Solomon Munroe, Isaac Waymire,
Cicot, Yandes, Gooden, Crow, Ridinour, Seymour, Roads, Railsback, Kerns,
McCords, Clark, Fenton, Magee, Mace, Davis, Reed, Johnson, Munson, Stewart,
Moores, Bowyer, Stinson, Kirk, Hodgen, Bunton, Brockman, Armintrout ,Graves,
Rogers, Babcock, Ross, Kilgore, Hill, Usher, Michael, Douglass, Armstrong,
Bunnell, Allen, Brown, McQueen, Timmons, Pence, Good
OLD SETTLERS OF WILLLAMSPORT AND SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOODS
FINE CREEK-KICKAPOO--CICOT' S LANDING-DOCTOR YANDES
AND ANOTHER MAN DROWNED-RAINSVILLE AND ITS VICINITY-
REED AND DAVIS' SETTLEMENT-JACK STINSON AND THE GAMBLERS-JACK INDICTED-HIS
TRIAL-HIS SPEECH-Is ACQUITTED-NATUAL SCENERY AROUND WILLIAMSPORT-TIIE FALLS
OF FALL CREEK MINNERAL SPRING BELOW TOWN-LARGE STONES ON THE SURFACE
OF THE GROUND-A BOARDING HOUSE SCENE-SOMNAMBULISM-
ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.
On my first visit to Williamsport, the county seat of Warren County, I
stopped with William Search, who kept a boarding house on Main Street,
near where the Warren Republican, an excellent newspaper, is now printed
and published by my old friend, Enos Canutt, Esq.
Cunningham, tile clerk and recorder of the county, boarded and kept his
office in Search's house; and as the most of his time was occupied in building
a couple of flat boats to carry corn to the New Orleans market the next
Spring, he employed me to write in his office of nights, and on Saturdays,
which would not interfere with my school hours.
The town then consisted of five families, viz: William Harrison, the proprietor
of the village, who kept the ferry, and a little tavern and grocery at
the foot of Main street; Dr. Jas. H Buell, Ullery, Search, and a man called
Wild Cat Wilson. Two only (Harrison and Wilson) of the families above named
had children large enough to go to school. The rest of my patrons lived
in the country, some two or three miles from town, and consisted of John
Semans, sheriff of the county, Wesley Clark, Robb, Hickenbotham, and one
or two more. At this time Warren County was but thinly settled. Perrin
Kent, county surveyor, Tillotson, Clinton, and a few other families, lived
down towards Baltimore and Mound prairie. On Redwood, and sprinkled through
the woods, and on the edge of Grand prairie, lived John B. King, Shanklin,
Jameson, Hall, Butterfield, Purviance, and a few others. On Kickapoo, a
small stream lying north of Big Pine creek, was a settlement composed of
Boggs, Enoch Farmer, Samuel Ensley, John and Joseph Cox, Seavers, the widow
Mickle, McMahan, the widow Cox, Hollingsworth, Solomon Munroe, Isaac Waymire
and Zachariah Cicot, a French and Indian trader, who was born on the place
where he lived (near where the town of Independence now stands) more than
forty years before the organization of Warren county. -
It was at this place-Cicot's landing-in the spring of 1829, if my memory
serves me correctly, that Dr. Simon Yandes, with two other men, attempted
to cross the Wabash river in a canoe, and were thrown out in the middle
of the river, and the doctor and one other were drowned; the third with
difficulty made the shore, and escaped a watery grave.
Up Pine creek, in the Rainsville neighborhood, lived James Gooden and Benjamin
Crow, county commissioners, William and Jonathan Roads, Dickson Cobb, Ridinour,
Seymour Roads, William Railsback, Medseker, Esq. Kearns, McCords, and a
few others. Above Cicot's was Judge Samuel B. Clark, Fenton, Magee, Edward
Mace (father of the Hon. Dan Mace), Jerry Davis, John and Gabriel Reed,
Thomas Johnson, Dawsons, Orrin Munson, Sino Munson, James Stewart, Moores,
Bowyer and John Stevenson, alias "Jack Stinson," who, in his earlier and
palmier days, taught school in the Reed and Davis neighborhood, and perpetrated
none of the eccentricities which filled up the last twenty years of his
life.
OLD SETTLERS OF CLINTON COUNTY-TWELVE MILE PRAIRIE-JEFFERSON, FBANKF0RT,
AND MICHIGAN LAID OFF-ELECTION OF COUNTY OFFICERS-FIRST RELIGIOUS MEETING
HELD ON THE TWELVE MILE PRAIRIE-ADVENTURE WITH A SUPPOSED ROBBER IN THE
WILDER NESS.
Clinton County contains 432 square miles. It was organized in 1830. Its
principal streams are the middle and south forks of Wild Cat, Sugar, and
some smaller creeks. Its rich and fertile soil is well timbered, with the
exception of that portion known as tile Twelve Mile prairie, the borders
of which contained the first settlements made in the county. Nathan Kirk
settled near its east end, William Clark near its west end, as early as
the year 1827, and their houses were stopping places for travelers, Indian
traders, and land hunters for many years.
It may not be uninteresting to give here a list of the old settlers who
resided in Clinton county at the close of the year 1828, as furnished by
one of the number, in whose statements implicit confidence may be placed.
Add to the names of Kirk and William Clark, those of Mordicai, McKinsey,
Robert Dunn, William Hodgen, John Bunton, Moses Brockman, Eli Armintrout
(to