For the Indianian-Republican
Reminiscences of Early Times in Kosciusko County
By Reub Williams
Coming to this county when but a small boy my recollection of
some of the scenes and incidents connected with the early settlement
of this region is quite vivid. There are, at present, but few
individuals now resident of the town who were here when I first
came to Warsaw. Among these are Benjamin Richhart and family;
Joseph A Funk and brothers; Mr. and Mrs. S. E. Loney (then, but
recently married); P. G. Frary (then a young man); Judge James
S. Frazer (who had just came to Warsaw from Wayne county this
state and had just begun the practice of law, and perhaps a few
others. I am speaking now of those only who resided in town at
the time referred to and who are still residents of the place.
Others, of course, arrived soon afterwards and they are now numbered
among our old settlers. Among those can be named the Milice family,
Mr. and Mrs. A. T. S. Kist, the Wynants, and others. Indeed Champaign
county, Ohio along about that time and the following few years
sent a large delegation to this region, among whom, especially
was my old and esteemed, life-long friend, Thomas Woods, still
a resident of this place.
At the time I first came it was not an uncommon thing for there
to be more Indians in the place than there were whites. However,
Warsaw, proper never was a favorite point for the Indians, and
the occasions to which I refer were only the periodical visits
of the Red Men. Leesburg, Oswego and indeed, all along what was
then called the Big Prairie, were the places at which the Indians
mostly congregated. On Trimble's creek near what is known as the
Wooden farm, was quite an Indian village of which a chief, or
sub-chief, by the name of Topash was the head. This old Indian
had two sons by the name of Joaneta and Dominique who were of
about the same age of myself and Marion Warner - who still lives
at the point near where his father first settled. I speak of him
for the reason that on one occasion Marion and myself paid the
village a visit and made the acquaintance of the two boys which
afterwards kept up until they, along with their father and others
who elected not to be removed to the west in 1848, took up their
abiding place in Michigan. I then lost track of the family only
hearing from them occasionally.
In 1848, as stated, the remnant of the Potawatomies and Miami
tribes living in this county were removed by the government to
Indian territory, Ezekiel French, then a prominent citizen of
Oswego, having the contract for their removal. A more motley looking
crowd than this remnant as it passed through Warsaw on its first
day's march, I never beheld before or since! They had assembled
at Oswego as the starting point and consequently, as they passed
through Warsaw they were much like a brand new regiment during
the late war--wonderfully encumbered with impediments such as
coops of chickens, pet coons, boxes and barrels, and the hundred
and one things that would attract an Indiana family, and which
it was thought impossible to leave behind. Each wagon was piled
so high as to apparently be in danger of toppling over, and I
feel sure that within two or three days afterwards much of the
surplus goods such as empty boxes and barrels --for it must be
remembered that a box or a barrel in an Indian family was something
of considerable value--was relentlessly thrown away at the command
of the wagon-masters in charge of the train; for it must also
be remembered that the entire march to the Indian territory was
to be made with wagon, on horseback and on foot.
As they passed through this town I very well remember that "Bill
Squawbuck," an Indian quite well known to the whites, sold
a favorite pony for the insignificant sum of $10. "Bill"
was quite a character among his brethren, and even more so to
his white friends, with whom he as on terms of intimacy, and aside
from his occasional indulgence in the use of "fire-water--at
which times he was somewhat dangerous--he was a clever, good-for-nothing
doless sort of an Indian. The fellow disliked very much, to part
with his pony. It was a very fine little animal; far better in
style and get-up than those belonging to the caravan; but $10
in silver in those days was a big thing, and "Bill"
fell a victim to its seductive influence, as better men--those
possessing more knowledge, at least--have done, both before and
since. Old "Bill" when he finally gave up the little
animal to its owner, I remember, hugged it around the neck; talked
to it in endearing terms and the tears rolled down his cheeks
when it was led away.
As an evidence of the rapid and vast advance this country has
made; how greatly it has developed, in material wealth, it is
only necessary to say that the writer--young as he is --has witnessed
the removal of the last of the Red Men from Ohio, and also from
this State. The Wyandottes and Senecas, in the first instance,
and the Miamis, & Potawattomies in the second. Think of it!
The Red Man still a resident of Northern Ohio within the memory
of one but a little over fifty years of age! It is a marvelous
thought and when one looks at the bountiful farms, the vast orchards,
every tree bending low with rich fruit in its season; the well-filled
barns; the evidences of peace and plenty on every hand--covering
a region that less than half a century since was still inhabited
by the original owners, even to the one who has seen it all with
his own eyes, it is still a stupenduous thought! What a vast amount
of history has been made in these fifty years! No other half-century,
of either ancient or modern history can point to so much; such
wonderful events successfully accomplished, the full fruitation
of which is just before us! When I was a boy I sometimes asked
myself the question at what period in the world's historysupposing
that I had the choosing of it myself--would I prefer to have lived,
and my answer to myself always was, that wonderful period of discovery;
of chivalry--when literature took a new bound--now known as the
Elizabethan Era. Asking the same question now, I would answer
by saying that I would not have missed living during the past
third of a century even were that much more time have been added
to my natural life! And of this period, how great has it been
in grand results! A nation freed from the internecine strife that
had agitated it for the past seventy-five years; the shackles
smitten from the limbs of four millions of human beings, the Continent
spanned from the Atlantic to the Pacific with bands of steel;
the iron horse stopping at almost every farmer's door; that subtle
fluid known as lightning made to enter the service of man as a
motive power; as a means of talking with one another even beyond
the seas, as a means of conversation, and to light the street,
the palace and the hovel! These and many inventions almost equally
as startling, have been brought out within the lifetime of the
writer! Why, then, should I not prefer to have lived during a
period so wonderful, rather than in the days of old Queen Bess?
More anom. Reub
Indianian Republican Thursday June 7, 1888
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