Washington Township

Washington Township is located in the southwest corner of Noble County.  It is the smallest township in the county with the exception of Albion, as in 1860 a strip two miles in width, was cut off its southern portion and added to Whitley County, the reasons for which action are explained in the second chapter of this volume.  The first settler in Washington was a mn named Roop, who arrived about the year 1833, and built a small log cabin about twelve feetsquare.  In this he resided with a sallow-looking wife and some half dozen children, the latter of whom habitually went naked in summer.  When cold weather set in some rude clothing was sewed upon them and was not removed until the following spring.  How they managed to live was a mystery.  It is said that the children were so dark from exposure that when sitting on a rail fence they loked [sic] like turkey buzards.  Some curious stories were told of this family.  On one occasion Mr. Roop called on a few of this nearest neighbors to assist him in raising a log stable, and to entertain them Mrs. Roop prepared a large pot-pie.  At the conclusion of the meal one of the men asked the children what had become of the three or four young wolves whic had been captured and tied near the house, when one of the children answered:  "Why, mam cooked 'em in the pot pie."  After a comparatively short residence, the Roops left the township and journed to some other locality.

In 1836 the Scott family arrived, and in the same year there were about ten settlers in the township.  In five years more there were enough to enter all the land.  Among the first to appear were Joseph E. Adair, and his sons John, Samuel and George, Hugh Allison in the southern part, Joseph Galloway, Noah Myers, James McEchron, James Duncan, Isaac Stewart, John Prickett, Thoams Scott, David Wiley, Phillip Hite, Richard Neal, John Spear, Lindsey McKinson, Frederick Starkey, Elisha Moore and others.  Later arrivals were Andrew Rarick, Ross Rowan, John Spooner, Asron Bouse, Smith Hunt, Charles Hunt, R. D. McKenney, Levi Kesiter, Roger McDonald, John Ogden, Jacob Grumleich, Peter Gordy, Abraham Goble, Jonathan Hartsock, Fred Harper, John Humphreys, John Blain, Joshua Benton, Paul Beezley, James Campbell and others.

The first township election was held at the house of Joseph Adair on April 3, 1837, and Mr. Adair was elected justice of the peace.  In the spring of 1838 he performed the marriage ceremony for Jacob Scott and Lydia Lamson, the first couple married in the township.  The first birth was that of Mary Prickett (later the wife and widow of Aaron Metz) and occurred February 20, 1837.  The pioneer settlers were much troubled with wolves and had to carefully guard their sheep, swine and fowls.  The deer were also troublesome, as they raided the wheat fields usually in the erly morning before the settler had arisen, but their flesh formed a fequent and welcome addition to the family larder.  Occasionally a ber was seen, but after a few years this animal disappeared, taking his departure for wilder regions as yet untrod by the foot of man.

The first saw-mill was erected by Hugh Allison in the southern part which afterwards became a part of Whitley County.  It was probably erected about 1837, and the early settlers in that locality went to it for their lumber.  In 1848 John Ryder built a saw-mill in the western part, on Tippecanoe River, and his mill, after some improvements, was said to be one of the best in the county.  It continued in use until about 1880, when the old mill water ceased to be.  Seven years after the erection of his saw-mill Mr. Ryder built a 2 1/2 storied grist-mill on the same dam, which also had a long career, both in his and other hands, though the qualify of flour manufactured was not of high grade.  Noah Myers owned and operated a saw-mill for a few years, and another, operated by steam, was conducted about 1867 by Mr. Sawyer.  A tanyard was established and operated for a few years by Joseph Evans, who came to the township about 1840.  The old mill-dam built by Mr. Ryder became locally famous as a good place to catch fish.  The largest haul is said to have been made by Alfred Yohn, Lindsey Makenson and another man, who in three hours cught 155 buffalo fish, averaging twenty pounds each, the smallest weighing sixteen pounds and hte largest thirty-seven pounds.  There were two wagon loads of them.

The early schools were held in the log cabins of the settlers until the first log schoolhouses were built, or sometimes a deserted cabin would be used and rudely fitted up for the purpose.  The people were so poor that some of the children were without shoes even in winter, and owuld cover their feet with any rages they could get hold of.  By 1848 almost every district had its own schoolhouse in which regular school was held.  The Free Will Baptists organized the first religious society in the township in 1837 at the home of John Prickett, but it had a short existence.  Other societies subsequently started, and in 1861 the Lutherans erected a building in the western part.  The locality known as Stringtown is marked only by a Christian Church, there being no village there, or in any other part of the township.

In erly years two well traveled Indian trails traversed Washington Township, one running from the Indian Village in Sparta to Fort Wayne, and the other extending east and west.  The former trail led along a divide, whence, it is said, two streams force their way, starting within a few feet of each other, one flowing into the Tippecanoe, thence onward to the Wabash, Ohio, Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico, and the other into the Elkhart, thence into the St. Joseph, the Great lakes, River St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean.  Quite a number of those peculiar earthworks attributed to that mysterious people known, for want of a better name, as the Mound-Builders, have been found in the township.

Robert M. Waddell, History of northeast Indiana: LaGrange, Steuben, Noble and DeKalb Counties, Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1920, Noble County, pgs. 443-444.