Handbook N-P - Fulton County Public Library

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Here it may be of interest to mention schools and schooling in early days. Although
school districts had been laid out, there were no school funds and all teachers were supported by
subscriptions. Our father’s purse being badly depleted, he was unable to send us to school.
However, I wanted an education and began to plan how to raise the required amount. I had a fine
fur hat, which I had received as a gift some time before leaving Wayne county, and for which I
had no use in the woods. As the teacher, David Shore, in our community, was running for sheriff,
I thought he might be able to use the hat in his campaign, so I offered the hat to him for $2.50, the
same to be taken out in instructions. I received thirty days’ schooling for this.
As Brother Jonathan Dawson mentioned the spelling schools in his story, those days are
vividly brought back to my memory which were about the happiest days of my life. Whenever a
spelling school was held, the young and sometimes the older people, would go for four and five
miles to these great spelling matches, as they were about the only social events. The rooms were
lighted by common tallow candles, fastened to the walls with the blade of a pocket knife.
Although the buildings were crowded, the best of order prevailed.
With the education I received in return for the fur hat, I advanced to the rank of a county
school teacher and taught four terms with marked success, as my pupils still inform me. Although
I was urged to continue in the capacity of a teacher, and a number of schools were offered to me, I
was aware that my pedagogy was no longer up-to-date, and I went to farming and stock raising.
For thirty years I engaged in stock buying and shipping and then for four years I was engaged in
the mercantile and grain business in Tiosa.
As others have given a description of Rochester in the early days, I shall not attempt
anything in that line, except to mention James Moore’s forge, or iron works. When we hear so
much about the new steel city of Gary, and its steel mills, it may be of interest to many, especially
the younger people, to know that a little over 50 years ago there was a flourishing iron mill at
Rochester, employing from forty to a hundred men. The first plan was located just north of town,
on the west side of the Michigan road, and afterward abandoned for a more extensive plant on the
Tippecanoe river. The old plant was converted into a woolen mill for carding, spinning,
manufacturing and fulling woolen goods.
The new plant was located on the north bank of the river, just east of the Michigan road,
and part of the old dam, from which the power for the forge was procured, may still be seen. The
ore was procured from he marshes in the neighborhood and was called “bog ore.” The fuel was
charcoal procured from the woods in he neighborhood of our farm.
With all the poverty and hardships of the pioneer days, the people had time for religion
and although there were not as many churches to the number of people as today, the people, as a
rule, were deeply sincere in regard to religious life.
We had occasional services conducted by Baptist and Methodist ministers but no
organizations. The first church organization in that part of the county, was Saint Paul’s Lutheran
church, organized 1849, with five charter members. In the spring of 1852, five others and myself
were confirmed in that church, and I have since b een a member of that congregation.
Now as my story is getting somewhat lengthy, I shall close with a good word for the
Hoosier state.
I have traveled through and over twenty-seven of the northern states of the union, and in
late years especially in the northwestern states. I have seen beautiful scenery, fertile fields, large
and flourishing cities, and found the United States a beautiful and grand country indeed. I have
traveled most extensively in Indiana, and although some people have done very well by moving
out and casting their lot elsewhere, it is my sincere conviction that whoever cannot make a living
in Indiana need not try elsewhere.
[Marguerite L. Miller, Home Folks, Vol. I, 1910, pp. 104-109]
PERSCHBACHER, WM. M. [Rochester, Indiana]
See: Dawson, George V.
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