One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XXIII  

THE PIONEER COMES

" `In the woodlands rang their axes, Smoked their towns in all the valleys, Over all the lakes and rivers Rushed their great canoes of thunder'." ... Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

EVIDENCES OF CIVILIZATION were entirely lacking in the Union Township region when the pioneers came. Wilderness was spread far and wide over the map of this part of America; there was nothing but wilderness. No railroad was to be found within a thousand miles in any direction; there was not even a stage line within forty miles when the first of the white settlers made their way in and began the mighty task of clearing the land, which was thickly timbered and full of undergrowth except that portion of the township known as the "Burr Oak Flats."

There were no white people nearer than the Michigan road, and few there. "The Indians outnumbered the whites two to one," says MC DONALD. Roads and bridges were at that time unknown in these parts. Trails and traces were the only established routes through the wilds.

It was the Michigan road, according to MC DONALD, that probably induced many of the early settlers to come here; in fact, otherwise they could hardly have found their way through the wilderness. Nearly all the pioneers that settled in the county up to 1840 came from the south on the line of that road, especially the large colony that settled in Union Township in the region of Maxinkuckee lake.

The story of the arrival of that band of first comers is picturesquely told by DANIEL MC DONALD, himself a member of one of those brave families. "It was late in the afternoon of July 26, 1838," he says, "when the tired and worn out caravan obtained the first sight of the ever beautiful Maxinkuckee lake. The glorious sun was just making its golden setting, and by the track of his fiery car, gave token of a goodly day tomorrow. It was indeed, as our own `Hoosier Poet' has so beautifully expressed it, a pictur' that no painter has the coloring to mock." None of them had ever seen a lake before.

"The final stop was made not far east of the lake, near the residence of the late DAVID R. VOREIS. It was twilight then. A signal of their arrival in the neighborhood had been agreed upon before they started, and as the ox teams were halted at the end of the journey, a long, loud blast was given on a conch shell, which resounded and echoed and re-echoed through the trees and over the hills for miles in every direction. The night birds began to carol their sweetest melodies and sing their glad songs of welcome. And then the weary travelers listened eagerly for the response. It soon came from the residence of VINCENT BROWNLEE, a short distance farther away in the wilderness." The echo of that response for many years rang loud and clear in the ears of those who had heard it. "It was in one sense a most joyous occasion. The women who had borne the burden and heat of the long and wearisome days and were well nigh exhausted, cried for joy, and even the stalwart men of the party let fall a silent tear that the hardships of the journey to the new country were at an end."

The incident of the conch shell is retold today by Mrs. JOHN C. BUTLER. The story has come down through descendants of those first comers; it is a tradition that lives on and on in memory, and it is a symbol of the first settlement. At reunions of members of these "first families," the conch shell signal has been repeated, "calling the clans" to the gathering place for rejoicing over a safe arrival. "They blew the conch shell," says Mrs. BUTLER, "for all the settlers to come together at the appointed place. The THOMPSONs and the MCDONALDs were among them, and maybe the DICKSONs. Some were already here. These had arrived; their journey was ended. Maybe all the families didn't get in at the same hour. The signal was blown so all could get together. That was July 26, 1836.

"They all camped together for the night where the old spring is, on what was later the VOREIS farm. This is now Academy property. The camping place was east of the road that passes along the east side of the Culver Bird Sanctuary, close to where the brook crosses. It was north of the present Road 10." In advance of these families came THOMAS MCDONALD. In the fall of 1835, he came from southern Indiana and bought a piece of land near Lake Maxinkuckee, upon which he built a log cabin, and in the spring of 1836 brought his family and began the labor of a pioneer in a new country.

Not far distant, in the Wolf Creek neighborhood, there were somewhat earlier settlements. One of the THOMPSON families located there. The parents of WILLIAM M. THOMPSON, who was born in Illinois, were early settlers of that state, having moved there about 1822, Later, they came to Indiana, locating in Madison County, where they resided until 1334, at which time they became residents of Marshall County, settling near Wolf Creek Mill, Green Township.

The THOMPSONs of the 1836 migration to Union Township purchased a large tract of land near Lake Maxinkuckee. In this family there was a pioneer boy, William D. Thompson, who came to this region at the age of nine years. He was born in Fayette County, Indiana. His father, Lewis, a farmer by occupation, was born in Bracken County, Kentucky.

The first settlement in the Union Township part of the so called "unorganized territory," according to ALEXANDER C. THOMPSON, was made in 1835. He says that JOHN ANDERSON's and another family or two were, however, the only ones now known (in 1890), who were here in that year. The county was first permanently settled by the whites in the spring of 1832; but it was not until 1835 that a great movement began by a public sale of the lands at the land office in La Porte. At the time Marshall County was organized, this was designated as "unorganized territory, and of course the inhabitants had no representative in the legislature of the state.

It was indeed the bravest sort of venture for these heads of families to bring their "flocks" into such a little known backwoods territory. The question is often asked; "Why did they come?" And the best answer is perhaps: "The desire for freedom and greater opportunity."

Seeking the open door to a more fortunate future, in a new land of opportunity, the pioneer reckoned not so much on the hazards and costs of the migration and the Inevitable hardships of frontier life as he did on the rewards. He came and labored hard, clearing the forest, plowing untamed soil, building homes, barns, fences, and roads, and suffering the poison of the dreaded malaria. Of those who had set out with the highest hopes, many succeeded and many failed, overwhelmed by illness or debt. Some perished, others made their painful way back to the seaboard.

The Kentuckians were the Vikings of the migration. "Inured to hardship, impatient of the restraints of civilization, they bartered their chances in the settlements for a stake in the wilderness, and pressed to the West, where land was still abundant and cheap. Inspired by the restless energy of their ancestors, the Kentuckians were always on the move. They pined for elbowroom and deemed neighbors less desirable than freedom to trap, to hunt, to pasture their cattle in the open."