This reminiscence is a priceless glimpse of history. If we all could have been so fortune to have a letter like this from one of our ancestors, many mysteries would be solved. Stan PEGG, HEITMAN, TODD, MALICOAT, SCOTT, DAY ----- Original Message ----- From: <rjcksn@earthlink.net> To: <INGREENE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 3:54 PM Subject: [INGREENE] Reminiscence of His Pioneer Journey From New York in 1837 and Early Settlement Life in Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana, by Wakeman W. EDWARDS, Abbeville, Louisiana, June 8, 1917. > This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. > > Surnames: CAVINS, CONDE, DOWNING, EDWARDS, FERGUSON, HILL, INMAN, KELSEY, LEARNED, LOCKWOOD, PATTERSON, RITTER, SHRYER, STROPES, SULLIVAN, TIBBETS, VANSLYKE, VANVORST, WEST > Classification: Biography > > Message Board URL: > > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Ci.2ADE/4530 > > Message Board Post: > > THE BLOOMFIELD DEMOCRAT, Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana, Tuesday, June 19, 1917, Volume LVI, Number 51, Page 1, Columns 3 & 4, “SKETCH OF EARLY LIFE IN GREENE COUNTY.” [Transcribed 8 May 2002 from Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County Public Library’s IHS Microfilm Records.] > > The following interesting reminiscence of the early days has been sent the Democrat by W. J. EDWARDS, of Abbieville, La., who was a resident of Bloomfield several years ago and who is now editor and publisher of a paper in the South. Speaking of the sketch, he says: > > “This is one of a series of sketches dealing with the early settlement of Bloomfield. > > “It was written, without the aid of spectacles, by my father, Wakeman W. EDWARDS, now in his 92nd year, a hale, well-preserved specimen, physically and mentally, of the type of sturdy pioneers who blazed the pathway of civilization through the primeval wilderness of the “Northwest Territory.” His life span reaches back to the days of the stage coach, the canal boat, the post trader, the circuit rider, the log cabin and the flat boat.” > > A Reminiscence of an Old Timer. > > In the autumn of 1837 my grandfather, Henry EDWARDS, Sr., and his wife, and my father, Henry EDWARDS, Jr. and his wife and myself, removed from the Mohawk Valley in the State of New York, to Bloomfield, Indiana. As there were no railroads in those days, the journey was made in covered wagons of the Prairie Schooner type. > > We camped along the roadside at night and slept in the wagons. We were forty-two days on the road. In Rush County, near Rushville, lived an old friend and neighbor of ours from the Mohawk, named Adam CONDE, who had been living there several years. In those days the people along the Mohawk, about Schenectady, spoke the Dutch (not the German, but Holland) language, at times. When we got to Rush County we were very weary and fatigued. We made inquiries for Adam CONDE and found that he lived on a farm along the road we would travel, so we concluded to stop and pay him a visit. It was some ten years since we had seen him and father thought he would play a little joke on him, so when we got to his farm, father stopped the teams and went to the barn, a little distance from the road where Mr. CONDE, with his boys and some carpenters, were at work building a new barn. Father recognized Mr. CONDE at once, but of course Mr. CONDE did not recognize father. When father told Mr. CON! > DE that he was traveling with his old father and mother and that they were tired and wanted to rest a day or so; that they were poor and had but little money, but the neighbors told him that Mr. CONDE was a very kind and charitable man, and would probably let them stay over Sunday with him, free of cost, as it was then Saturday afternoon, Mr. CONDE stood up and looked at the wagons and replied, There is a host of you!” “No,” father said, “only four or five.” “All right” said Mr. CONDE, “drive up, I will entertain you.” Father beckoned to me (as I drove the front wagon) to drive up there and we all drove up. Grandfather, who drove the second wagon, got out and walked up to Mr. CONDE and spoke familiarly to him in Holland Dutch. Had a thunderbolt at that moment fallen from heaven Mr. CONDE would not have been more astonished. He had probably not heard a word of Dutch, outside of his own family, in man! > y years. Greatly excited, he replied in Dutch, “Who are you? Grandfather replied in Dutch, “I am what is left of Old Henry EDWARDS.” Mr. CONDE seized him and replied, “God bless you, I would not have you go by without stopping for a hundred dollars; where is your wife?” “In the wagon there.” Mr. CONDE rushed to the little wagon, where grandma rode and recognizing her at once, grasped her hand and helped her out of the wagon, then he called to the men working on the bar: “Come here, take these horses and unharness them, and give them a good feed.” “Come now, we will all go to the house.” We stayed Saturday night and all day Sunday and had a delightful visit. They talked Mohawk Dutch to their heart’s content; all about old times and old friends. We were well rested by the next Monday morning and took our leave of our old friend and resumed our journey. > > Perhaps some reader may say, “What has all this to do with Bloomfield? Tell us something about Bloomfield.” Be patient, gentle reader, I have not yet got to Bloomfield, never saw the town, how can I tell you about it before I get there? I’ll be there soon and then I will tell you all about it. > > I had an uncle and aunt living in Bloomfield at that time, Reuben H. EDWARDS and his wife, who had lately moved from New York. > > My father had an old copper bugle in York state, which he used as a dinner horn and he used to play a few simple airs on it and a few cavalry calls. My uncle and aunt were familiar with these bugle calls in New York, and they were expecting us to arrive soon in Bloomfield; so when we got on the outskirts of the town, father got out the old bugle and sounded a call. My uncle and aunt heard the sound of the bugle and at once recognized it and came to meet us. It was a joyful meeting, for now our long and tiresome journey was at an end. It was now the middle of October and the nights were beginning to get cool. > > WAKEMAN W. EDWARDS > Abbieville, Louisiana, June 8, 1917. > — > THE BLOOMFIELD DEMOCRAT, Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana, Tuesday, June 19, 1917, Volume LVI, Number 53, Page 1, Columns 3 & 4, “BLOOMFIELD—Reminiscences of an Old Timer No. 2.” [Transcribed 8 May 2002 from Bloomfield-Eastern Greene County Public Library’s IHS Microfilm Records.] > > Bloomfield in 1837 was a hamlet or small village of about one hundred fifty or two hundred inhabitants. It was surrounded on three sides by three small hills with a big gully in the middle. There was a good spring at the head of the gully and no doubt this spring had much to do for the selection of the town site. > > The county seat had been lately removed from Fairplay, I think, to this place. About one-half of the houses in the town were log houses, built of hewn logs; the newer ones were frame buildings. The courthouse was of logs, also the jail and the school house, and were located in the southwestern part of town. > > The public square was at the head of the gully and Andrew DOWNING had the contract to build a new brick court house on the public square and he was preparing the ground for the building which he erected in the summer of 1838, a building some forty or fifty feet square. The gully occupied the south side of the square and the town the other three sides. > > On the northwest corner of the public square was a new frame building occupied as a store by Mark SHRYER. This building remained there in 1897 when I last visited Bloomfield. Opposite the store was the tavern, kept by Peter HILL, I believe, who was at one time Sheriff. On the north side of the public square Stephen LOCKWOOD had a cabinet maker shop and there were several small stores and at the northeast corner was a new two story frame store owned by Mr. NORRIS and Joe WEST had a saloon in a part of it. Diagonally across the street, John INMAN owned a store, one of the largest in the town. His wife was my cousin, Margaret VANSLYKE. Further down on the east side lived my uncle Henry KELSEY and my aunt Esther. > > >From the northeast corner of the square a road ran to Richland Creek and on the next square from the corner, my uncle, Reuben H. EDWARDS lived. He had a carding machine on his lot which was run by horse power, and he cared the wool for all the housewives to spin and weave into “Blue-Jeans” which was the clothing used in those days. No broadcloth, or store clothes were to be seen in those days, all was home-made, and the “Hoosiers” of those days felt as proud to be in his suite of blue jeans as he does now in “store clothes” or tailor made. > > While on the subject of clothes, I might as well state her that in those days the boys and girl in summer time wore only one single garment, a long shirt made of coarse cotton goods. They went bare foot and often without that; bare feet and bare heads were the style for children up to ten years in Bloomfield in those days and this style dress gave rise to the phrase “shirt tail boys.” > > East of Bloomfield Ruel LEARNED had a saw mill on Richland creek. He also had a small farm just south of town, which my grandfather purchased and on which he lived until his death and where my grandmother and uncle Lewis B. EDWARDS lived long afterwards. About a half mile west of the public square lived John VANVORST, and also my aunt, widow Cornelius VANSLYKE and her two sons, Henry VANSLYKE and Peter C. VANSLYKE. Nearly the entire town was built around the public square. There were not more than tree or four families living between the lots on the public square and the branch or brook west of the square; the woods began at the branch. On a street running west from the southwest corner of the square were the school house and jail and few families living. > > No one lived out where the seminary is now. The lot was there but nothing on it. > > My father had a wagon makers shop and a blacksmith shop on the street running from the northwest corner of the public square to White river. It stood about halfway between the square and the brook. He imported a wheelwright named Michael SULLIVAN, an Irishman, and a blacksmith named Robert TIBBETS, an Englishman, from New York, to operate the shops. The business was not a success. > > On top of the high hill north of the public square were two houses; one was owned by Dr. FREELAND, I think, but I do not remember who owned the other. > > On the street running from the northeast corner of the square up north to the hill, lived several families. One of these families was that of Uncle Sammie CAVINS, who was then, I think, Clerk of Court and for many years afterwards. His eldest sons, John and Aden CAVINS, were then shirttail boys, and I remember them as they chopped wood out in the street in front of the house in their long shirts. John CAVINS was one of the noblest boys that ever trod the streets of Bloomfield. The old saying “The good, whom the Gods love, they take early,” applied to him. He died young. Of Aden CAVINS it is only necessary to say that he was a good boy and lived long. Bloomfield people know more about him than I do. > > On this street was a saddler’s and harness shop owned, if I remember right, by one Tom PATTERSON, and there was also a tin shop on the street, but I do not remember who ran it. > > On the street running out east from the northeast corer of the public square lived three or four families. A Mr. FERGUSON was one of them and he had a blacksmith shop and a wheelwright shop on this street, and I think Mr. STROPES lived there. Mr. STROPES was a teamster and hauled goods from Louisville, Kentucky, to Bloomfield in a four-horse wagon. Everything in those days came from Louisville in wagons. That is about all there was of Bloomfield in 1837 and at that time Chicago was only a small town struggling for supremacy. > > Down the gully south of the public square there were very few houses. Moses RITTER had a mill on Richland creek, higher up than the LEARNED Mill. > > WAKEMAN W. EDWARDS > Abbieville, La., June 8, 1917. > > > > ==== INGREENE Mailing List ==== > Need to reach Colleen, the discussion coordinator? Send her an email at <ladyaudris@earthlink.net>. > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >