SMITH TOWNSHIP-SCAFFOLD PRAIRIE-ITS BEAUTY IN EARLY YEARS-TOWNSHIP FORMATION-ITS RE-DIVISION LATER-THE FIRST SETTLER, JESSE ELGIN-REMINISCENCES OF THE DAYHOFFS-DEER AND BUFFALO LICKS-WAGONING TO LOUISVILLE—FIRST SCHOOL TEACHERS DEER PETS-LONE TREE PRAIRIE-DEATH BY DAMPS-THE FIRST WEDDINGS -CHURCHES.


THE township of Smith is one of the best for agricultural purposes in the county. The soil contains much alluvium, without which the poorest crops would be much poorer. In short, the soil is such that crops of all kinds, especially the valuable cereals, are grown in great profusion, to the material advantage of the residents. There is also enough silica in the soil to furnish food for the stalks of wheat, oats, rye, barley, etc., and without which all such grain falls on the ground before ripe, thus giving to the husbandman for his labor scarcely any recompense, besides the heavier burden of care which the loss places upon his shoulders, where families are to be supported and debts paid.

SCAFFOLD PRAIRIE.

Originally, the township was almost or quite a beautiful prairie, interspersed with numerous island- like groves that greatly heightened the effect of beauty, and created an irresistible charm in the beholder. Running around and extending over these hills of grove were numerous paths made and traveled over by herds of buffaloes in former years. On any early summer morning at the time of the first settlement of the county, herds of deer could be seen cropping the rich verdure on the prairie expanse, or bounding away over the green velvet at the sight of man. Crossing, the township here and there are small streams, not so large as to cut the surface into precipitous hills too abrupt for cultivation, but small enough to leave the slopes in gentle curves, over which the plow can run with ease and profit. Some portions of the township, notably the hills in the northern end, are too clayey for profitable cultivation, and other portions pretty well south in the township are too level, and require open or under drainage, but as a whole the land is of the best in this portion of the State. The portion that at present is too level is in reality the richest for agricultural purposes, and is destined in the future to be the garden spot of the county.

FORMATION OF THE TOWNSHIP.

Greene County was organized by act of the Legislature in 1821, and at the meeting of the first County Board at old Burlington, the first county seat, early in that year the entire territory was laid off into four townships, as will be found fully detailed elsewhere in this volume. The township of Highland was one of the four, and comprised all of the present townships of Highland, Jefferson, Smith and Wright. This was a large extent of country for one township, but it was no larger proportionately than the settlers were few. Besides this, office-seeking had not yet been reduced to a science, as it has at the present day, and the dear people were not pestered and importuned for months beforehand by political imposters to induce them to go often and early to the polls on election day. People then had something else to think of than the welfare of politicians, though they usually managed to attend elections more from a sense of duty as citizens, and from a desire to enjoy the visit with their neighbors, to gossip of local affairs, and guess of the outcome of intrigues in national affairs which they had just heard of, though occurring several months before, and also to become acquainted with new settlers and learn of the more interesting county affairs, than from any hope of gain at the elections. But the large township answered the purpose for a number of years, or until the settlement had become so aug- mented by arrivals as to warrant a division. In the month of May, 1828, the County Board divided Highland Township, and created all of the present townships of Jefferson, Smith and Wright into a new township, to be known and designated by the name of Smith; but about a week later, all of the county lying in the forks of White and Eel Rivers was in turn separated from Smith, and named Eel River Township, to which a separate organization was given. This left Smith Township with the present territory of Wright, Smith and Jefferson, except the portion lately known as Eel River Township. In 1828, when old Smith was first created, the elections were ordered held at the residence of Frederick Dayhoff, where they continued to be held for several years, &aiming thus the prominence the elder Mr. Dayhoff had in the northern portion of the county.

THE RE-DIVISION.

In January, 1838, the County Board again divided Smith Township as follows: Beginning at Township 8 north, Range 6 west, on the line dividing Sections 4 and 5 in said township, the said line dividing the counties of Greene and Clay, running thence south to the south line of said Smith Township, said line dividing the townships of Smith and Stockton. All of Smith Township west of that line was created as Wright Township, and all east of that line was still to be known as Smith. The latter then included the present Smith and Jefferson Townships, except Eel River Township. Thus Smith remained until Jefferson was created, at which time the western boundary was removed two miles further west where it now is. At the division of 1838, above mentioned, elections in Smith were ordered held at the house of John Fuller.

JESSE ELGIN, THE FIRST SETTLER.

The settlement of. the township began early, as the country was beautiful, the soil promising and the location apparently healthful. It is highly probable that the fret permanent settler was Jesse Elgin, who was a native of Kentucky, and came to the township, if reports are reliable, in the year 1820. Among the others who came about the same time or earlier were Frederick Dayhoff, Elias Dayhoff, Abraham Dayhoff, Cyrus W. Conant, Alfred Buskirk, Charles Walker, John Stanley, Rev. Nathaniel Moss, Mr. Goodale, Abraham Wood, Samuel Wilkes, Byrum Combs, Je:mes Frazier, George Shrikes, and later Rev. Richard Wright, Kinsie Moore, Daniel Wood, Richard Lambert, Mr. Whittemore and Bartholomew Ellinsworth. These were all early settlers, and nearly all became prominent in the affairs of the county. Several reached ripe old ages, and went down in honor to the grave full of years, beloved and revered by all the country for miles around. It is pleasant for the descendants of the early settlers to remember all that has been done to make the wilderness the happy abode of educated and prosperous people. The heart goes out in gratitude, and tears come to the eyes when the tottering forms of the old settlers go limping by. When we remember the hours they spent in toil and self-denial that we, their children, might be made comfortable and happy, to deny them the only sought boon, to end their days happily, would be the basest ingratitude.

RESIDENTS OF 1821.

By the time the county was organized, in 1821, there were several famlies living in what is now Smith Township. Log cabins dotted the land and around them were small fenced tracts for gardens and grain fields. Several of these families were obliged to give up their new homes and go back whence they came. The following, taken from Baber's history, is worthy of preservation in this volume:

THE DAYHOFF REMINISCENCE.

" By request, I give, as one of the first settlers of Scaffold Prairie, a sketch of its history from memory, as also of the township of Smith, as originally organized, and of its subsequent division: This township derived its name, originally, from old Thomas Smith, who kept the ferry across White River, on the old Indian trace from Louisville to Fort Harrison, a short distance below the mouth of Eel River, and embraced the present townships of Smith and Jefferson, and extended above the mouth of Eel River a short distance, embracing the old Craig Mill, at which elections were first held in the township. In the year 1825, I attended the election at this mill for the first time after I came to the State. As the township originally derived its name from the old ferryman, the district that contained his residence should have retained his name; but instead of that, it has had given to it tha name of Jefferson, and a district west of that, embracing Scaffold Prairie, has the name of Smith. On the old trace from Smith's Ferry to Fort Harrison or Terre Haute, there was no one living from where Worthington now stands to where a family by the name of Shumaker then lived, about where old Mr. Myers now lives, until you came to Scaffold Prairie. My father entered 160 acres of land in Scaffold Prairie on the 9th of August, A. D. 1824,'and in the fall, after the lapse of a month or two, moved to his land in the prairie, and took me with him. " My father, Frederick Dayhoff, as also my mother, were natives of Maryland, but were residents for a long time of Kentucky, after which they settled in Scaffold Prairie, Greene County, in 1824. Being single, I came with them, and remained until the first crop of grain was raised. I then returned to Kentucky, and remained six or nine months, and married a young lady whose maiden name was Mary Thomas whose character was such that it never was tarnished by the tongue of malice. She died of consumption, and left me three children. My mother died in Scaffold Prairie in July, 1833, of cholera, the only person's death by that disease in the country around, aged fifty-seven years, nearly. My father died ten years and two days after, by the infirmities of age, being over seventy-seven years old. " When my father came to Scaffold Prairie, in 1824, he found there two families who had been living there a year or two. The head of one was Jesse Elgin, a native of Kentucky, and son of old Jesse
Elgin, of Washington County, in this State, and the other family was by the name of Woodsworth, from Ohio. Among the subsequent early settlers of this prairie was Charles Walker, a family from Kentucky, who settled where David Fuller now lives, and George R. Taylor, now of Worthington, who bought out Woodsworth and lived in the settlement many years. But, that I may not weary the reader in speaking of additions and changes in the settlement, I decline this course for the present. I conceive you may inquire of me what gave Scaffold Prairie its name. I can very briefly and fully satisfy you on this question.

DEER AND BUFFALO LICKS.

" There are, in the central and lower parts of the prairie, licks which were the resort of wild animals, such as deer, buffaloes, and, perhaps, elks, from the commencement of wild animals on our continent until its occupation by white men. At this lick large basins were eat out by wild animals, craving salt or something of the kind, I suppose. From these licks diverge in every direction what is generally called buffalo ditches, made by the wear of animals and the wash of water along their paths. Now, around this lick were scaffolds, constructed upon four posts set in the ground, and the scaffolds upon them twelve or fifteen feet or more above the ground. Upon these scaffolds the Indians would sit and watch for deer and other wild animals coming in to the lick. And while these animals would come spying for danger on the surface, never thinking of danger above, toward the smiling heavens, the Indian would pop them through with his fatal ball. These scaffolds were standing for years after the prairie was occupied by white men, and from these scaffolds the prairie took its name. And is it not remarkable that no effort has been made to discover what the animals sought at this lick, especially as coal and timber are plentiful around this prairie?

WAGONING FROM LOUISVILLE.

" The changes that have taken place in this part of the State in fifty or fifty-five years are astonishing. In the fall season of the year, the merchants in this county' and west had to have their goods hauled by team. from Louisville, there being no railroads at that time, and the Wabash being at that season of the year too low for steamboating. So, then, Mr. Elgin, myself and brother, having heavy teams for breaking prairie sod, would haul for the Wabash merchants in the fall of the year, and receive $1.50 per hundred for hauling to Terre Haute; and with our big wagons and teams we would haul froM twenty-five to thirty hundred. And one of the last loads that I hauled was to Robroy, I think, forty miles beyond Terre Haute; and, what is remarkable, made the trip from Louisville by Terre Haute to Robroy and back home without having my wagon sheet wet. How unlike this season up to the present ! But commerce now goes by the power and speed of steam; and we would naturally conclude that under the improved state of mechanism and arts of commerce, that we could get along in the world much easier now than in the old time, but is this the case, I would ask? Now, let us consider. Our taxes are double, and, in some cases thribble, according to amount and value of property, what they were from thirty to fifty ytars ago. And, I think, if you will look over your old tax receipts, you will be convinced of the correctness of the assertion. Please examine your old receipts, while I write you the exact copy of a tax receipt of my father's for payment on land and property in Kentucky, for the year 1814, and consequently since the war of 1812. Now comes the copy:

" ' MAY, 1814. —Received of Frederick Dayhoff, two dollars and six cents, in full of his tax, for the year 1814, on 142 3/4 acres land, one tithe and nine horses.
G. Smith, Deputy Sheriff for" O. CLARK, Sheriff Shelby County.'

" This was a good farm and well improved. But Hoosiers are to be pitied. They can call up nothing like this. But this taxation is but one item in the bill of expenses; and, further, I would state in reference to our taxes, that I have a receipt for taxes, paid for a single year on my own property, without including any former delinquencies, amounting to $126.77. Now I would say, if this is not exorbitant oppression on a citizen in Smith Township in moderate circumstances, depending upon the labor of his-hands and economy to support himself and family, and defray the other expenses incumbent upon a respectable member of society, then I may say the heavens do not cover us. But, further, have not the claims of other public functionaries increased much in the same ratio? Lawyers' fees, doctors' bills, and all other public characters and agencies. Now, good citizens of Smith Township, I leave these brief hints to your consideration; and it is'for you, whether you be called Whig or Democrat, to say whether you will continue to submit to this extortion. The late floods were beyond your control, but the expenses alluded to may be within the compass of your influence.

FIRST SCHOOL TEACHERS.

" The attention given to education in Smith Township, and especially in Scaffold Prairie, from the early settlement there, has been commendable. My sister, Litticia Buskirk, mother of Philander Buskirk, was the first school teacher in Scaffold Prairie settlement, and I was the second. And I can say with pleasure that I think the morals of this settlement have been above the medium standard. Religion, which' is compared to the salt of the earth, has always received attention and respect here; and I believe there has never been a dram shop in the township, and trust the fire of Tophet will never burn here. I fear, however, that the morals of this settlement now are not as good as in its infancy.
" Smith Township contributed a liberal support to the Government dur-i ing the war of the rebellion, and lost a number of her brave sons; but, with the rest of our country, enjoys the confidence that our Republic is ' not to be destroyed by internal diversions or external foes.

PET DEER.

" It the first settlement of Smith Township by white men, wild game of various descriptions was very plentiful, especially deer and turkeys—the former attracted, I suppose, by the lick in Scaffold Prairie. The hunters could have all the venison they wanted. I, besides my venison, according to the recollection of my family, had at one time nine pet deer, which I procured by offering 50 cents ahead for fawns until I got nine. We raised them, and they were very pleasant pets. They would on sight distinguish a stranger from one of our family; and, on a particular occasion, a gentleman from Terre Haute put up with us, and in going from the house to the barn, a young buck spied something red on the gentle. man. Having a horror of blood or anything red, young Mr. Buck made battle with the stranger. But ordinarily they were very pleasant and gentle- in the family; and if I could have some of them for pets at the present time, they would afford a luxurious pastime for amusement.

LONE TREE PRAIRIE.

" The Lone Tree-Creek and Lone Tree Prairie were named for the old oak tree which stood alone in the prairie for a great number of years. That noted old red-oak stood on the north side of the old Gen. Harrison trace, made by the soldiers in 1814. Many persons can yet point out the place where the Lone Tree stood, about one mile northeast of William W. Baber's. The big lake, on the county line, two miles east of Howesville, has evidently at one time been the old river bed, and a .great many stories could be told for the truth about the many exploits and adventures of the old pioneer hunters and trappers on the river from Worthington up to the old reservoir." Smith Township was 'never noted much for its bad conduct, but in an early day two festive young men—own cousins--Samuel Wilks and Byram Combs, met at a corn-shucking at Richard Wright's, and by some little difference of opinion about a girl in the neighborhood, engaged in a fisticuff fight, and after a few rounds and hard licks in the short ribs, Mr. Combs hallooed out, " Enough! enough! Boys, take Sam Wilks away! I'm not whipped, but by jinks, I just can't stand it!"" Our old neighbor and sociable friend, George R. Taylor, established the first store, sold dry goods, and made the farm, set out the apple trees and built a good substantial brick dwelling house on the place where, Rice Elgin now lives, on the old Terre Haute State road. Mr. Taylor's brick house was destroyed by fire, and afterward he came to Worthington and is now enjoying good health." Old Uncle Sammy Wilks and his brother-in-law, Mr. Byram Combs, settled near the old lake on the Sand Hill, made the farm and set out the old apple orchards near where Mrs. Elizabeth Cole now lives, north of the prairie." Rev. Richard Wright settled on the farm and built a blacksmith shop where the Widow Dean now lives. Afterward, Mr. Wright sold that farm to Richard Lambert, and Mr. Lambert buried more than half the number of his large family in less than five months' time, together with a man by the name of James Frazier, who was smothered to death by the damps while he was engaged in the work of cleaning out a well for Mr. Lambert the same summer, and on the same place that there were so many persons died."The first weddings were Cyrus W. Conant to Nancy Dayhoff; W. Y. Dayhoff to Lucy Goodale; Samuel Wilks to Celia Wright. The first school was in the Dayhoff neighborhood. Among the early teachers were Letitia Buskirk, Lucy Goodale, Elijah Godfrey, and some of the earliest scholars were Philander Buskirk, Elijah and William Elgin, Mary and Susan Walker, Eliza, Milly and Julia Elgin, Enos and William Goldsberry, Rice Elgin and Bart Ellinsworth, besides the Dayhoff and Fuller children, some six or seven in number.