"COUNTIES OF MORGAN, MONROE & BROWN, INDIANA.  HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL."
CHARLES BLANCHARD, EDITOR.  CHICAGO:  F. A. BATTEY & CO. PUBLISHERS.  1884.
F. A. BATTEY.  F. W. TEPPLE

MORGAN COUNTY, INDIANA
MONROE TOWNSHIP

PAGE 273-276

EVAN HADLEY was born in Chatham County, N.C., September 26, 1816, the year
in which Indiana was admitted to the Union.  His father, JAMES HADLEY, died
in 1843;  his mother, MARY HADLEY, died in 1874.  In 1819, the parents came
to Orange County, this State, where a number of relatives and acquaintances
had settled within a few years, and after the harvest of 1820 James Hadley
and others made a careful examination of a large portion of the "New
Purchase," selected land in the White Lick country, and bought at the public
sale at Terre Haute.  The settlement of this land is thus described by Evan
Hadley:  "As father had with his brother ELI HADLEY been first to leave his
native State, he was first, with a brother-in-law, JOHN JONES, to move to
the newer part of the country, where many of their friends and relatives
expected to follow as soon as circumstances permitted.  So they loaded the
two families and provisions for the winter in wagons, and set out for the
promised land, accompanied, as I have heard my parents say, by seven men,
including a hand that father hired, to stay and assist in clearing land for
a crop the next season.  This hand assisted my father seventy days, and they
cleared and fenced ten acres of ground and raised a corn crop on it the next
season.  The wagons and emigrants arrived on the twentieth day of eleventh
month, 1820, at the cabin of THOMAS BALLARD, near where the WILLIAM MACY
brick house now stands, and by the kindness of the newly formed neighbors,
the women and children obtained shelter with them, and the men of the party
proceeded to camp on my father's land, being the quarter section adjoining
south of the Macy farm.  They entered at once on the work of building a
cabin for a residence, and in seven days they had a house completed with
stick and clay chimney, cracks well stopped, door, shutter, floor, and all
complete without a nail, pane of glass or scrap of sawed lumber;  what light
there was when the door was closed came down the chimney;  the family and
assistants took possession and proceeded to housekeeping in a comfortable
manner, and the men all joined in the erection of a smaller cabin on an
adjoining tract of land, for the use of Uncle and Aunt Jones, before
mentioned, which was soon completed, when those who came to assist returned
to Orange County, taking the wagons and teams with them.  A few families had
'squatted' on some tracts of land the previous spring, and had partially
cleared some patches of ground, and had raised a small supply of soft corn,
pumpkins and squashes.  I remember two families of BALLARDS, MCCRACKENS,
VIRTREES, LOCKHARTS, BARLOWS, REYNOLDS and perhaps others, all of whom have
long since disappeared, except THOMAS LOCKHART, who, something over ninety
years old, resides in Hendricks County.  In the spring following, father and
his hired hand walked back to Orange County for the team and wagon and
stock, of which there were cattle, sheep and hogs, some assistance coming
back with father to help get the stock along. An additional supply of
provisions was also brought out;  a cow and a young calf had been procured
from a neighbor, which had supplied a much needed article of diet for some
of the children, and I have heard my mother say that cow did as well without
feeding any as others have done since with plenty of food given them.  Some
of the hogs 'went wild;'  the old ones being ear-marked, gave a right by law
of custom  to a 'wild-hog claim,' and the proprietor of the 'mark' was
justified in taking what he could capture that herded with those of his
mark, as the addition was supposed to be the natural descendants of the
original marked ones, and sometimes by strategy all would be decoyed into a
kind of trap pen by finding where they bedded in winter,and erecting the
strong pen near the place, then continuing to place corn around and leave it
for them to find it until they would follow it into the pen, and by
interfering with a bait, properly arranged, spring the trap, and find
themselves confined, when the young would be marked, and thus perpetuate the
claim.  Wolves were some trouble to the sheep, but as the wool was
indispensable for winter clothing, much care was taken to protect sheep by
housing them of nights, and at times wolves howl around the sheep house very
tumultuously when disappointed by being unable to reach their prey.  Wolves
were sometimes caught in strongly constructed pen traps, by baiting with the
fresh carcass of sheep which they had recently killed.  Summer clothing, bed
cords and plow lines were sometimes made from the lint of the native nettle,
after the woody portion had became sufficiently tender to be separated from
the lint in the same manner that flax is prepared for spinning.  I recollect
a visit from a large black bear to our house, or near there, where he
stopped when passing, sat down on haunches like a dog does, and elaborately
viewed the surroundings for some time, turning his attention towards the
house, where he could see the persons, though my mother and the children
were all there were at home at the time.  Late in the evening, too, some of
the children were a good deal alarmed, but mother did what she could to
convince us that there was not likely to be any danger, at any rate when we
were in the house.  After satisfying his curiosity, he deliberately walked
away in the same direction he was going when he stopped, as though he knew
where he was going;  After he was gone, mother went to my uncle, WILLIAM
HADLEY'S, about a quarter of a mile, and informed him of our visitor;  he
procured some company hastily and attempted to pursue with a view of
capturing or at least attacking "Bruin," but it soon became so dark that the
chase was abandoned.  Bears frequently in the fall of the year, and
especially when there was a good crop of mast, came in quite plentiful, but
were seldom killed, as there were few, if any, expert bear hunters amongst
the settlers.  I remember seeing a few young bears after they were killed,
but never saw a grown one caught or killed.  Deer were plentiful, and in
winter would come around the clearings and pick buds form the green brush,
but were very shy of exposing themselves to danger, so that it required
considerable strategy to secure them, though many were killed and furnished
a very agreeable change of diet.  Wild turkeys were abundant, and I suppose
all the families had considerable supplies of that luxury in the fall and
winter.  After corn crops had become plenty,  and some remained in the
fields till winter closed in, so as to shut off access to the mast in the
woods, both turkey and deer would congregate in the cornfields, when turkeys
could be caught in rail pens, by building a few rails high, and covering the
top with rails, then making a narrow ditch from the outside through under
one side to the inside, coming up toward the middle;  a few rails were
placed over it next the wall of the pen then bated by sprinkling shelled
corn in the ditch clear through to the inside, and some was scattered around
on the ground outside to first arrest their attention;  when they had used
up what was scattered around, they would follow the trail through the ditch
to the inside, and as soon as they would discover they were inclosed, they
would devote themselves to active efforts to escape through the openings
between the rails of the walls and overhead, and when the proprietor of the
pen discovered them, he would readily capture them by placing a man or boy
inside (I have been used for that purpose), who would catch and hand them
out.  A few panthers and wild cats or catamounts infested the country and
did some damage by destroying young stock, but nerer, that I know of,
attacked any person.  During the first year, there was no use for mills, as
there was nothing to grind;  all provision was brought from older
settlements.  The first mill was built where MCDANIELS' Brooklyn Mill now
is;  that served to grind corn;  the buhrs were cut out of native bowlders.
A mill was early built by JOSEPH MOON at the present Moon Ford, which had a
bolt to separate bran from flour;  the customer had to do his own bolting by
turning a crank similar to the operation of turning a grind stone.  He also
had to elevate the ground flour from the flour chest on the lower to the the
third floor, by hand, to the hopper of the belt.  My father sowed an acre or
two of wheat about the second year, which made a crop of very poor grain, on
account of the wild, green nature of the soil;  he had some of it ground as
corn,and sifted by a fine hair sieve, and from this flour our first native
wheat bread was made.  The people became quite anxious for religious
association, and the Friends first met in voluntary meetings for worship in
1822, if I mistake not, at the cabin of ASA BALES, on what is now the Moon
farm;  in 1823, they obtained authority, according to their rules, from the
organized superior meetings in Washington and Orange Counties to organize
religious meetings in these parts, which was done, and they have from that
beginning originated all the meetings of that order in Central, Northern and
Western Indiana and Eastern Illinois.  My father and his brother-in-law,
Jones, before spoken of, with their families, were the first members of the
Friends' Church who settled in Central Indiana.  The Methodists (Episcopal)
had some religious services in the neighborhoood of the present White Lick
Church of that denomination, perhaps a little earlier that the Friends had.
The education of the children of the new settlement early claimed attention,
and a cabin for the purpose of a schoolhouse was built near where R. R.
SCOTT'S brick dwelling now stands in Mooresville, and Asa Bales was the
first teacher.  This schoolhouse at first was designed to accommodate both
sides of White Lick, but as the crossing was often difficult then as well as
now, and as the settlement on the south and west of the creek soon increased
sufficiently to sustain a school on that side of the creek, in 1824 the
original Sulphur Spring Schoolhouse was built, and school was opened in it
by my father, who taught several terms of three or six months, counting
thirteen weeks of five days' school to each week for three months;  the
schools were paid for by the patrons by subscription of about $1.50 per
scholar for three months.  I omitted to mention in connection with the
introduction of milling another device for preparing grain for bread now out
of use, called a hominy mortar, made usually by burning out of the top of
some solid green stump, a bowl-shaded cavity, which was dressed out smooth
after burning to a sufficient size;  a post was then placed at a suitable
distance for the mortar, and a spring pole placed on the top of the post or
fork;  a pestle was then fastened to the end of the pole over the mortar,
then the corn was placed in the cavity, and the pestle brought down on it
with a sudden jerk, when the elasticity of the pole would immediately jerk
the pestle up.  So, by oft repeating this operation, the corn would be
mashed into good hominy, and sometimes could be made into bread.  A
water-power hominy mill was sometimes erected by balancing a considerable
beam, leaving one end heavier that the other.  A cavity was made in a
substantial block and placed solidly under the heavy end of the beam, water
was then conveyed by a small race across some creek of a branch, and
conveyed by some kind of spout into a trough prepared in the light end of
the beam, till the weight became sufficient to lower that end and lift the
other up till sufficient water ran out to reverse the balance of the beam,
when the pestle would down on the corn with forcible effect, and thus the
operation would continue as long as was necessary. * * *  In conclusion, I
might state I have continuously resided within six miles and less of the
place where my father first located, and I think I have had the longest
residence in that White Lick part of the county than any now living.  My
father's family are all gone to the next world, except a sister, who has
long resided in the West.  I might further say that my wife, who was MARY
ANN BALLARD, daughter of JESSE and SARAH BALLARD, both deceased, was born in
Monroe Township in 1826, and has continuously resided in the township ever
since, and is believed to be the oldest native born person in the township."

Data Entry Volunteer:  Diana Flynn 

    Source: geocities.com/heartland/meadows/8056/bios

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