Sweetser High School - Ti Pa Wa Ni Ca Yearbook (Sweetser, IN)

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old age of ninety-eight. One mile northeast of Sweetser was located the heshingomesia sugar camp. He and other Indiana came there yearly and camped among the hundreds of maple trees, that they might make syrup and sugar. Any modern history of these people of the forest would be incomplete without the name, Meshingomesia, the last chief of the hiamis. He was a friend to all the whites and was held in general good esteem, ' The early settlers of Pleasant Township found homes near the river, be- ' cause here they could find plenty of building material and there was natural drainage. The Mississinewa was once a navigable stream, and flat-boats passed up and down the river for commercial purposese Certain landing places were established where these boats could stop and trade with the settlers. A blowing of a horn or a bugle gave notice of their approach and all the settlers would gather at the landing and buy or trade their produce for the things they needede In 1828 Goldsmith Gilbert established a trading post on the river a mile above Suttonis Forde On the 9th day of October, lh25, David Conner purchased the store of Gilbert and made the first entry of land in Pleasant Township as well as in Grant County. Mr, Conner died in ldhh and lies buried just a short distance west of where his store stood. A Mrs, . Harter, his youngest child, was a resident of Sweetser for a number of years. In the year 1928 Samuel McClure built a saw mill along the river in Section Zh, the second mill in the county. In 1926 Henry Renbarger bought the east fraction of section 2h and shortly after three brothers, Jeremiah, Jeptha and Platt Sutton came and settled just north of the river, at the ford which now bears their name. Many, many others came later equally worthy, but too numerous to mention here. The pioneer life in this township was that of the other townships of the county. The first dwellings were cabins, one-story, often one-room only, of round logs unbarked, the chinks daubed with mud, the roof of clapboards, the same being held in place by weights instead of nails, a stick-chimney, a clay or mud hearth, windows few and small, the door homemmade, with wooden hinges, catch and latch, and the Wlatch-string hanging outen Surely his hardships were many, and to the present generation would seem unsurmountablea. Shortly, before 1912 an old lady of Pleasant township, one of the pioneers, told how the wolves at night.howled around their newlyebuilt cabin, which for the first few days and nights after its occupancy had only a quilt for a door. Although the old ioneers have raduallv gone to their iust rewards the have left 1. C tj , a wealth of stories of the Red Men, of Chief heshingomesia and his Miamis, and of their own hardships and tribulations in wresting a livelihood and a home from the wilderness. we the residents of Pleasant Township owe them our deepest gratitude for their fortitude, their courage, their bravery, and their pioneer characteristics which have given to us the green pasturelands, acres of golden grain, and many fertile fields, We are wealthy in land, tradition, and in history--we bow our heads in humble thankfulness. There were at one time several small villages in the township, but at present there are only Fox Station, Jalapa, and Sweetser. At one time Browntown was located in the southeast one-fourth of section l6. Fox Station is located approximately seven miles northwest of Marion. The Big Four Rail- POad and Union traction passed through it, and at one time it contained a grocery, smithy, a coal yard, and grain elevator, none of which are in opera- tion at Jalapa, ground, name is after a Cruz to the present time. Only a few houses now make up Fox Station. situated on a hill, across the river from the Mississnnewa battle- was laid out in 1bh9, by Jacob Sprecher, its first settler. The of Mexican origin, fSpanish pronunciation, Ha-la-pa.j, and was named town occupied by General Scott and his army on the way from Vera Mexico City. In 1877 it contained a schoolhouse, two churches, a . . ' .- .1 . r V n.,

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