EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY:
THE FOUNDING OF NORTH MANCHESTER
One of the earliest settlers in this vicinity was Daniel Swank (1799-1860). His
oldest son, Martin Swank (1820-1906), has provided some interesting
recollections of pioneer days (North Manchester Journal, February 23,
1893):
“Daniel Swank, my father, came from Montgomery county, Ohio, in August, 1836. I
was 16 years old the week we landed at Richard Helvey’s cabin on the spot where
Thomas Cook now lives. We were one whole day in traveling from Freshour’s to
Helvey’s about eight miles, but that was good headway to make and chop out the
road before us. From Helvey’s to the land where we were to make our home was all
woods and brush, no road. I remember the little field or cleared patch on the
bank of the creek near where the graveyard is now situated [Ed: Swank Cemetery].
As we came near we discovered the Indian squaws and children gathering their
green corn as they had a town or camping place there.
George Ruse and Jacob Ruse each had brought a four-horse wagon load for us. In
the same company was a Mr. Baker who was bringing Frederick Weybright’s family
and household goods to the promised land. As we unloaded the wagons, the Indians
crowded around in plenty but were not warlike. They seemed to take a liking to
father, for they called him “Heap big smoke man.” Some of us began cutting and
making clapboards for a temporary home and in one day’s time we had a wigwam
about 9x20 feet roofed and floored.
When our uncles and friends came to start on their return to Ohio, was the
trying time. I remember one of our uncles telling father to not let his family
starve in this spot and “Just to send us word and we will come and move you
back.”
We began building a house 24x18 feet. In four weeks it was finished and the
family moved in. About that time Lizzie, now Mrs. Harwick, was born. Mrs. Knoop,
wife of Michael Knoop, officiated as midwife. My recollection is that there was
no doctor in the country at that time.
I will revert back to things that transpired earlier in our attempts to settle
in this country that I had not in my mind when I began this letter.
Father had come to Fort Wayne in 1835 and bought his land and took a notion to
come out the next spring and build a house that he might have a house to move
to. But after we had come as far as Newport [Ed: in Wayne County, IN] an
accident to one of our horses which came near defeating that project. Five of us
packed provisions and tools on one horse and came.
The Wabash river was high enough to swim the horse with me on his back. An
Indian ferried the party and plunder across at 25 cents apiece and we came to
where North Manchester now is the same evening.
Peter Ogan camped with us that night. He had just arrived [Ed: Late Spring of
1836]. The next day we went up to father’s land. Dick Helvey lived above the
village but we could get nothing to eat of him.
Comstock had not come to the country yet, neither had Michael Knoop. [According
to Helm’s History, Comstocks arrived in June 1836]. We did but little at house
building. Father and Uncle George Swank started home via Fort Wayne, myself and
the others were to meet them at Marion. [Ed: Presumably referring to Marion
Township, Allen Co.]
Before we started back we assisted in raising Ogan’s cabin, the first in the
town. It stood near where Williams’ drug store is now.
I will take up the thread where I broke off at getting into our two-story log
house. The times were rough enough indeed the first years. Father took bilious
fever and came near dying, and the family were all sick except mother and
myself.
The Weybright family was all sick and had nothing except what the neighbors
brought in. Father informed Weybright’s brother that this family was starving
and sick and in a week or two after he got the letter the brother came bringing
a wagon load of provisions and clothing. In the meantime one of the boys had
died and there was no one to help me prepare the corpse for burial. I made a
coffin and buried the boy on the Knoop land. While I was digging the grave
Mother Knoop and son George came but both took sick before I had finished the
grave. It was the time of the day for their “shake” to come on. I buried the
body and went home to have my chill.”
According to pioneer reminiscences, Daniel Swank soon had raised wheat to sell
but where to sell it was the question. He reportedly made a trip accompanied by
a neighbor to Michigan City and Fort Dearborn [Chicago]. To get salt was the
prime object of the undertaking however. On their arrival at Michigan City they
could sell their wheat but could not buy salt, consequently the trip had to be
lengthened to Fort Dearborn, now better known as Chicago. They obtained the
coveted article and had salt to sell to the neighbors on their return. Such
incidents illustrated the indomitable will and courage possessed by the early
settlers of this country. [NM
Journal, February 23, 1893]
Ed: Martin Swank’s eyewitness account lays out a fairly reliable timeline for
events leading to the founding of North Manchester. Daniel Swank had bought land
at the Fort Wayne Land Office in 1835, the same year that Peter and John Ogan
acquired their land. The Swank family then made a trip to this vicinity in the
Spring of 1836. The Swanks returned to Ohio before finally arriving in August of
1836. The Swank house was then built in the Fall of 1836. The Ogan cabin had
earlier been raised in the Spring of 1836. The Comstocks arrived in June of
1836. Peter Ogan surveyed and platted Manchester in 1836, while Comstock laid
out Liberty Mills in 1837.
W.E. Billings in his Tales of the Old Days inexplicably wrote that the
Ogans and Swanks came in 1834 to this area [Tales, p. 17]. Helm’s
History of Wabash County also compounded the timeline problem [Helm, 280].
Harry Leffel [News-Journal, February 1, 1940], Dr. Bunker and other
writers have similarly resorted to such dates unsupported by researchable
historical data.
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