Before he had reached his majority, Samuel McClure, Jr., became an employee of W. G. and G. W. Ewing, the Fort Wayne Indian traders, and in their interest erected a small trading house adjacent to his father's residence on the north bank of the Wabash below the treaty grounds in Wabash County. It has been stated upon apparently good authority that the young man opened his store for the sale of goods to the Indians and others on the 28th of August, 1827.

In 1833 Samuel McClure, Jr., and his brother, Robert, cut out the first state road that ran through Wabash County. This road commenced at the "twenty-mile stake" in Wabash County, running thence to Wabash and thence to Eel River, near North Manchester. Their com¬pensation was $7.58 per mile. The family of Samuel McClure is generally considered to represent the first permanent settlers in Wabash County.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

Frederick R. Kintner, after residing for a number of years at Logansport, died on July 1, 1835. James H., soon after the organization of Cass County, at the general election in August, 1829, was chosen the first sheriff and served as such during two successive terms. He afterward held the position of school commissioner, and was for many years prominent and popular both in Logansport and throughout the county.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

Peter Ogan settled within the limits of the present North Manchester. He erected a flouring and saw mill on the bank of Eel River; in 1837, with William Neff, platted the town, and for a number of years, or during his residence in the place, was a strong figure in its progress.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

Not long after locating, Mr. Abbott sold a portion of his land to a Mr. McBride upon the stipulation that the purchaser should erect a grist mill thereon. As Mr. McBride was unwilling or unable to do this, in 1836 he transferred the land and the obligation to John Comstock who had just located.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

OLDEST COUPLE PRESENT IN 1912 In the Old Settlers' record for September 5, 1912, David C. Ridenour and his wife, Catharine (formerly Smith), took the prize for being the oldest continuous residents of the county, both having been born and raised in the county. He was born April 1, 1843, and she, December 13, 1846; they were married March 9, 1865, and have lived in the county ever since. This prize of $3.00 cash was for the oldest couple present.

OLDEST MAN AND WOMAN (1913) At the reunion of 1913 it was developed that Peter T. Spence, of Liberty Township, was the oldest man in Wabash County. He was present at the gathering and, despite his 96 years, was one of the happiest at City Park.
The oldest woman and the oldest person was Mrs. Sarah Derrickson, a colored lady living on Noble Street, Wabash, who celebrated her hundredth birthday in April, 1913.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

The European origin of the Comstock family was Austrian. In the United States various members planted themselves as stanch New Englanders, and the special branch from which John Comstock budded was early rooted in Rhode Island. He was born in that state, at Greenwich, February 21, 1802. His father, also John, served in the Rhode Island Legislature, and was evidently a man of consequence in the little state. When John, Jr., was two years of age the family moved to Dutchess County, N. Y., where the father invested heavily in a cotton factory. He was ruined by the rascality of partners, his wife died and his large family of children was scattered. The three younger sons were bound out to service, but John, Jr., ran away from his master and located in the town of Lockport, New York.

The youth was now sixteen, weighed 160 pounds and was eager to pit himself against the world. His legal freedom having been obtained, he chopped wood, did chores around the farm, milked the cow, ate frozen lunches, went around thinly clad, fiercely economized, and, while he saved money, nearly ruined his health. Then he commenced to fight for an education with the same dogged persistency. He returned to Dutchess County and, while attending school as a preparatory step toward teaching, acted as an all-around man for one Deacon Whiting. Having mastered the common branches, he attended a high school at some distance from home. But incessant study, coupled with intense physical work, brought him low-almost to the status of an invalid in body and mind. But his vitality was naturally so great that he finally recovered sufficiently to venture upon a Western trip.

In the fall of 1822 John Comstock started afoot from Lockport, New York, and when he reached Bristol, Ohio, had three shillings in his pocket. This capital he laid out in the purchase of a penknife and other essentials for teaching school, and was at once employed at a salary of $8 per month and "board round." He taught in that vicinity until 1828, having married two years before.

But John Comstock was an instinctive landsman, and in the winter of 1825-26 bought a quarter section of land adjoining the one on which stood the schoolhouse wherein he taught. Erecting a cabin, he next commenced to clear his land. He chopped away morning, noon and night, when not teaching, married his wife on New Year's Day of 1826, raised a good crop of potatoes, bought more land, and so on. In the spring of 1831, in company with his brother, William, he opened a store at Bristol, and from that time on, his career was outside the walls of a schoolhouse.

In 1835, with his brother-in-law, John Newhouse, Judge Comstock attended the land sales at Fort Wayne, when, aside from other tracts at less figures, he bought the fractional eighty acres just west of the site of Liberty Mills, paying for the same, "in the green woods," $10 per acre. Next, with the enthusiastic cooperation of his wife, he sold all his Ohio properties and in the spring of 1836 loaded his big wagon with household goods. To this he hitched two yoke of oxen. His faithful young mare, Kate, he hitched to a single covered wagon, into which he loaded his wife and six children. Mrs. Comstock, with a six month babe in her arms, drove the family rig, while the future judge managed the big wagon and the oxen. A hired man was also of the party; he drove the six cows, and did such work as clearing out roads, lifting the vehicles out of the mud, foraging for fuel, and other camp duties.

Twenty-seven days were consumed on the trip, as the party was only able to make four or five miles per day while passing across the Black Swamp. They reached the west bank of Eel River on June 26, 1836, but upon their arrival were disappointed to find that the house Mr. Comstock had expected to occupy was located upon the land of another and already occupied. Thereupon he pitched his tent beside an unfinished cabin already eight logs in height, and, with the help of four men, soon shaped it to accommodate the family. They threw brush over one corner for covering and chimney. A portion of the floor was laid with puncheons. Bedsteads or bunks were fixed in the corners of the room . For the inner post to each, a stout sapling was driven into a large hole made in the floor, while in lieu of the other posts holes were bored into the logs of the wall, poles being used for bed and side rails. For a window an aperture was made through the logs at the side, and a blanket was hung for the door. Fire was then kindled upon the ground in the corner beneath the brush opening, and the family moved in. A patch of potatoes was next planted, which yielded a heavy crop in the fall.

In August of the same year, while Mr. Comstock was two miles distant from home making marsh hay, some drunken Indians of the Pottawatomie tribe, in war-paint and heads decorated with feathers, came galloping along on their ponies, causing the woods to ring with their savage yells. Indian Bill, of this party, stopped at the cabin, dismounted and entered, when casting around and seeing some bottles of medicine upon a shelf, he demanded of Mrs. Comstock some "goodentosh." Being refused, he drew his knife and brandished his tomahawk over her head, swearing he would kill her if she did not give him "goodentosh." Then she coolly told him that unless he behaved she would call "white man," and went to the door calling loudly for John. This had the desired effect, for although John was two miles distant Indian Bill mounted his pony and was soon lost in the woods. These Indians were on their way to the burial of one of their tribe who had been killed in an affray about two and a half miles northeast of Liberty Mills while they were returning from an annuity payment at Fort Wayne.

The following year (1837) Mr. Comstock erected a double-hewed log cabin, with porch between, the north end being used as a store room. During the same year he bought the forty acres of Mr. McBride, a portion of which he laid off into town lots. Then came his venture into the live stock business.

He first bought a drove of hogs which he sold to "neighbors" ranging as far away as thirty miles; the second drove he sold in Michigan City. This was all in 1837. In the following year he and his nephew, Christopher Watkins, bought and drove out a herd of cows and heifers, and after supplying his neighbors found a market for the balance at Michigan City.

Mr. Comstock built his first saw mill in the winter of" 1837-38, but it had hardly been completed before it was burned to the ground. But it was quickly rebuilt and in the following winter he erected a grist mill. His tannery, under the supervision of a Mr. Collins, was put in operation in 1839, and in that year he also moved his store into town. In the spring of 1841 he started his carding machine, or woolen mill, its location being about five rods below the present river bridge. In the fall of the same year he erected a distillery. Quantities of corn and rye were used in this factory, and a large number of cattle and hogs were fattened from the slops.

About this time Mr. Comstock brought from the East a large flock of sheep, but the wolves were so plentiful he was obliged to watch them day and night, although enclosed in a yard protected by a twelve-foot picket fence. As he found the project on a large scale unprofitable, he sold out his flock.

The tanning business proved so profitable that in 1844 Mr. Comstock enlarged his plant to sixty vats and took one of his brothers (Ichabod) into the business. In 1849-50 he built his new grist mill of four run of buhrs . He then moved his carding machine into his old mill building, to which he added another carding machine, as well as one for dressing and fulling cloth, and this was continued in successful operation until destroyed by fire in 1866.

In the opening and construction of public highways, Mr. Comstock was always foremost. Requiring himself a large amount of transporta¬tion, he repeatedly tried to organize a joint-stock plank road company to connect La Gro with Liberty Mills, the same to fork four and a quarter miles south of the last named place and run to North Manchester. But in this he failed for want of co-operation. He then made a proposition to the leading citizens of Huntington looking to the building of a plank road from that town to Liberty Mills. This proposition being accepted in 1851, the road was completed in 1854. At that time, La Gro was handling more grain than either Wabash or Huntington. In 1852 he held the position of vice president of the Eel River Valley Railroad, but withdrew from all connection with the enterprise and publicly exposed the corruption practiced by some of its managers. Nearly twenty years later (1871) he became a director of the latter enterprise, which was completed.

In 1851 there existed an organization of horse thieves, burglars and counterfeiters, extending from Ohio across Northern Indiana into the Mormon district of Illinois. Members of this gang plotted at various times to intercept Mr. Comstock, William Thorne and other prosperous business men who traveled lonely routes with large sums of money on their persons. Although Mr. Comstock escaped personal molestation, his store was finally robbed of $1,000 worth of goods, and he and his friends and relatives decided to act. Their first step was to organize a private detective service, the members of which were Mr. Comstock, William and Isaac Thorne, John J. Shaubert (Mr. Comstock's son-in-law) and his three sons, Thomas, Henry and William Shaubert. In less than one year this self-constituted detective committee learned the names of more than two hundred of that band of evildoers, several of whom were well known characters living in this vicinity. In a short time the Wabash County force sent to state's prison a neighbor's son for breaking into Mr. Comstock's store, a professed minister who planned the burglary, two horse thieves and a counterfeiter. Two other noted characters barely escaped prison walls-the one by forfeiting his bond, the other by a fatal accident just before the time set for his trial. After a few other arrests had been made, quite a number of men of former good repute in the community settled their affairs and left hurriedly for parts unknown. The Comstock-Thorne-Shaubert Detective Agency was a great success.

At one time Judge Comstock (as he was usually known) was the owner of more than 1,600 acres of land, but sold from time to time until only 600 of it remained. In July, 1869, he sold his mills and water-power privileges to C. T. Banks & Company, giving thereafter increased attention to his live stock interests.

In politics a whig, up to the organization of the republican party, he was ever earnest and active in support of the party of his choice, and transferred his faithful allegiance to the latter body. In politics, as in all other affairs ill which he participated, Judge Comstock's natural leadership came promptly to the surface. In April, 1834, while residing in Wayne County, Ohio, he was elected a justice of the peace in a township which was largely democratic. This position he resigned at leaving the state, and for several years after coming to Indiana served as postmaster. In June, 1846, he was appointed commissioner for the Northern District of Wabash County to fill out the unexpired term of William Johnson. In the fall of that year he was elected probate judge, serving thus until the office was abolished in August, 1852, thus acquiring the legitimate title of judge.

In 1858-59 Judge Comstock served his county as representative ill the state legislature. During the dark earlier days of the Civil war he gave evidence of his loyalty in many ways, being among those well-to-do patriots who turned over to the Government, at the solicitation of Oliver P. Morton; the war governor, all his available private fortune in support of the Union, in order to add to the fund necessary to carry on the state government and to arm and equip its soldiers for the field. At that stage of the war, there was no assurance that any money loaned to state or nation would ever be returned, as the results of the conflict were extremely doubtful.

Judge Comstock was a pioneer in agricultural matters in Wabash County, and did more than any other man to improve its stock of fine cattle. He was one of the organizers of the Wabash County Fair, filling for several years the office of director, and from its first session in 1852-then located between the Wabash River and the canal-he largely patronized this institution by exhibitions of his fine stock. About 1843 he bought of Jacob Stevens, living four miles north of Liberty Mills, five head of thoroughbred short-horns. But they proved frail, short-lived creatures and for a time disappointed his hopes of improving his herd. The summer of 1854 was very dry, cutting short the pasturage, when he drove 120 head of native steers to Toledo, thence shipping them by rail to New York City. He there sold them at $27 per head, paying out of that sum a commission of $2 per head for selling. He said: "I could have stood this better, had I not seen a Dutchman in one corner of the stock-yard surrounded by Jews, who were trying to buy his old barren short-horn cow for less than $90, which they finally paid him. " This was one of the first steps in the establishment of the meat trade of the "West," which for a generation has been planted in the Mississippi Valley, instead of in the Valley of the Wabash.

Soon after his return from the East, Judge Comstock bought a number of short-horns in the southern part of Indiana, and a cow each from Hon. James D. Conner of Wabash and Judge Stuart of Logansport. He afterward added to his stock from such herds as those of Jerry Duncan, J. A. Goff, Van Meter, George W. Bedford and William Warfield, of Kentucky; Ira S. Adams, of New York, and M. H. Cochran, of Compton, Canada. He not only aided the people of his own county and state in the improvement of their stock, but helped to enrich the "blood of many herds throughout the Union . In time he became one of the leading dealers of fine cattle in the country, and his annual sales were largely attended by buyers of blooded cattle from all sections of the United States.

By reason of his large and varied interests, Judge Comstock was compelled to employ a large number of laborers. From about 1840 to 1860 (especially up to 1850) many farmers each fall come in to husk corn and do other work by which to obtain winter outfits for them¬selves and families. To Judge Comstock this class never applied in vain. Indeed, the needy of both town and country, when desiring work from him at any season of the year, were given employment at fair cash wages. No one has probably ever lived in the county who has been helpful to so many of its people in so many ways as Judge Comstock. When the energetic, helpful, kindly and generous citizen was therefore first stricken with paralysis, in the spring of 1879, it seemed like an impending misfortune which would overshadow hundreds of homes. It was inconceivable that anyone could take his place, either as a guarantor of the necessities of life or as a good and trusty friend.

Judge Comstock rallied from the slight paralytic stroke of the spring and seemed to enjoy better health during the coming summer than for several previous years. But on the morning of September 30, 1879, he complained of a pain in his shoulder, at the same time objecting to the application of any liniment, fearing that the trouble might be there-by driven to his heart. Finally, however, he allowed it to be applied, was quite cheerful during the day, walked out among his stock, read his Bible and talked freely with his daughter Anna, who was then visiting him. At 4 o 'clock, while sitting in his old arm chair conversing, his premonition of the morning was verified and the pains of the earlier day clutched his heart. In a moment he was unconscious, and he expired while being borne to a settee in the arms of his daughter Sarah and his grandson, Harry Comstock. On the 3d of October his honored remains were laid in Greenwood Cemetery-a beautiful plat of ground taken from his own estate west of Liberty Mills-his wife lying upon one side and his son John on the other.

There were seven children in the Comstock family. Three of the four sons died before their father, two of them having entered the ministry. The mother died about a year before her husband, on August 18, 1878.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

In the year 1854 there lived near Rich Valley, or Keller's Station, on the north side of the Wabash near the western county line, a quiet, inoffensive man named Aaron French, with a wife and five children. He was willing to work, but lacked ambition to go abroad for it, when he could not find it near home. Although not naturally lazy, he lacked both ambition and thrift.

French owned no land, but "squatted" on Keller's farm. In the summer season he worked at such odd jobs as the neighborhood afforded, such as chopping, digging and clearing. He and his family shifted along in out-of-doors weather, but often with the coming of winter were pitiable objects of charity. Thus they lived in a little cabin for several years, when there appeared to them a couple named Hubbard, who offered to pay for the shelter of even such a roof. The Frenches were only too glad to thus add a bit to their scant income.

One October day in 1854 French was sick abed and some of the neighbors called to see him, among whom were Stearns Fisher and James Lewis. The latter came on Saturday evening, October 6th, and listened with sympathy to the invalid's story of his troubles, his fears that he would not recover if he could not get to a milder climate, and his wish to sell what little property he had in order to carry out that plan.

On his way home, Mr. Lewis thought the matter over and decided it would be a kindness to the French family, and perhaps a relief to the neighborhood, if the sick man's plan could be realized. A morning or two afterward he started to see French and buy him out, and thus afford him the necessary means with which to leave the country.

Approaching the cabin Lewis encountered the Hubbard couple bearing a tub of slops between them, and Mrs. Hubbard at once spoke up and said "They're all gone," adding that they were "clearing up after them. " Lewis asked them how it happened. They told him that French's brother, from near Cincinnati, had come there in the night bringing news of his father's death in Iowa; that he had left them land and wished them to go there and live. The brother had arrived at Peru on the evening train, had come directly there, loaded the family into a wagon he had bought for the purpose and started back to Peru again in the night, so as to be able to take the early morning train, as at that time but two trains a day were run, one in each direction.

Hubbard informed Lewis that he had bought all their things, and on being asked how French could leave when he was so sick, said that the brother had given him brandy, and had him dancing on the floor overjoyed at the prospect of leaving.

There were various circumstances making Hubbard's story a plausible one, and Mr. Lewis and subsequent inquirers were easily satisfied. No investigation was made, and the disappearance of French and his family gave rise to but little or no comment.

Hubbard lived in the cabin, undisturbed, until the spring of 1855, when developments began to be made which must have disturbed his equanimity. At this time a party of young men from Wabash went down the canal for the purpose of fishing. The water was partially drawn out that the canal might be repaired. In drawing their seine they discovered the dead body of a man, which had evidently been put there during the winter previous. The body bore marks of violence, as having been beaten with a club or stone on the back of the head. The arm was also severely bruised and cut in apparent effort at self-protection.

Coroner David Squires and Constable James Wilson were summoned and an inquest held. No one appeared who could identify the dead body of the stranger and, a description of the body having been made, the corpse was buried between the river and canal.

During 1854 and 1855 the Toledo, Wabash & Western Railroad was being constructed, and a large force of men had been employed along the line. An inquiry was therefore set afoot to ascertain who might be missing from this large floating population. A. C. Gardner, one of the railroad contractors, and Dr. E. B. Thomas (afterward of La Gro) reported that the description of the body corresponded to that of one Edward Boyle, who had disappeared some months previous. The grave was opened and the body thus identified.

Up to the fall previous Boyle had worked on the railroad and had boarded with the other hands along the line. In the summer he had been taken very sick and was attended by Doctor Thomas. At one time his life was despaired of and he sent for the priest, giving him some four or five hundred dollars in silver and gold coin and directing him what to do with it in case of his death. Upon his recovery the money was returned to him.

Hubbard prevailed upon Boyle to board with him, took his baggage into the cabin and the latter shortly afterward disappeared. As Boyle had no family or intimate friends in the neighborhood, Hubbard's explanation that he had gone into the neighborhood of Lafayette to teach school was creditable, Boyle being a man of some literary attainments. But the finding of the body of the murdered man put a different phase upon the matter, and Deputy Sheriff Thomas, Constable Tyler and others, went to Hubbard's cabin to question him further about Boyle's disappearance. Arriving there and listening to the conflicting stories told by Hubbard, and his wife, who were both under the influence of liquor, the party became satisfied that their suspicions were well founded and, without waiting for the formality of a warrant, arrested Hubbard and his son and brought them to Wabash to appear before Justice James.

Hubbard conducted his own defence, pleading earnestly and ably for his release, and, indeed at this time there was but little positive evidence of his guilt. He was put under bonds of $500, failing to procure which he was remanded to jail to await his trial. Meanwhile, the officers were on the alert for further evidence and adopted, among other expedients, the plan of secreting themselves so that they could listen to the conversations which took place between Hubbard and his wife when she came to visit him. Arriving at enough facts to justify them in the belief he was the murderer, and that Mrs. Hubbard was in possession of the money taken from Edward Boyle, Constable Wilson and Deputy Sheriff Thomas went to the Hubbard cabin to search for the treasure supposed to be concealed there, and in quest of more positive proof of his guilt. Stopping at the Stone Cut on the rail¬road, they borrowed a pick and went on. Before they reached the cabin they met Constable M. H. Morgan, who told them that he and Isaac Keller had just been in the cabin, entering it by raising a window, and had noticed a very bad odor about the house.

Mrs. Hubbard was away from home, and Messrs. Wilson and Thomas broke their way into the house by pulling out the staple which held the padlock. Upon raising the floor and beginning to dig, it was not long before they encountered the dead body of a child about eighteen months of age. Sending for the coroner, the search was continued until the horrible fate of the French family was no longer a matter of doubt. There lay in one common grave, under the floor of the cabin with so light a covering of earth over them that the stench would soon have become intolerable, the remains of poor Aaron French, his wife and five children. Some of the family had evidently been murdered while asleep, but the body of Mrs. French gave indication that she had fought for her life to the last. Over this sickening mass of corruption, with barely eighteen inches of earth to cover it, and with blood on the under side of the floor, Hubbard and his wife had lived for many months, wearing the clothes of the murdered family and using their household effects, apparently unmindful that retribution was hovering all about them.

As this greater crime overshadowed the Boyle murder, Hubbard and his wife were put on trial for the murder of the French family.

On the 2d of August, 1855, the grand jury returned a bill charging John and Sarah Hubbard with the murder of Aaron French. They were afterward brought into court and tried separately. John Hubbard was first arraigned, and plead not guilty. As he claimed to be unable to hire counsel, the court appointed Hon. John P. Pettit, his predecessor on the bench, assisted by D. M. Cox and John M. Wilson, of Peru. The state was represented by Isaac M. Harlan, of Marion, prosecuting attorney, and John M. Wheeler of Wabash. Out of 115 persons the following twelve were finally selected for jurymen: Henry McPherson, Jonathan Copeland, William Stuart, Enoch Jackson, Jonathan Weesner, A. W. Grant, R. G. Arnold, John Adams, Louis B. Musselman, Elias Parret, Jesse Jackson and Hezekiah Quick.

The trial lasted from September 3d to the 7th, the jury retiring about 10 o'clock on the night of the latter date. The next morning (Saturday) they brought in a verdict of murder in the first degree, with the death penalty.

At the meeting of court in the afternoon, the defendant was brought in. Judge Wallace overruled the motion for a new trial, as well as an arrest of judgment, and then asked Hubbard if he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced against him. In reply he said he had not, but with the court's permission he would make a few remarks. He then proceeded to relate some difficulties he had had with certain Irish Catholics in the neighborhood of his cabin, and surmised that revenge might have led them to concert a deep-laid plot for his ruin. In the most solemn terms, substantially denying his guilt of the charge preferred against him, he spoke of his family and especially of his idiot son, necessarily thrown, by his ignominious death, helpless upon the world; thanked Sheriff Pawling for his humanity and kind¬ness, his counsel for their faithfulness and ability, the judge for his impartiality and evident leaning to mercy in his charge, complained of the language of certain persons outside the jail to him and his wife while imprisoned, and also that the jury had shown no mercy toward him in the rendering of their verdict. At his request ex-Judge Pettit, his counsel, then read for him the foilowing paper:

"I am asked why the extreme penalty of death should not now be pronounced on me by the court.

"In the course of human judicature, now, after verdict, I have no reason known to the law to oppose this judgment. But I have a reason in conscience, and in confidence of the terrible condition of a dying man and before the loftiest of judges, I venture, though unavailing, to urge it, that I am guiltless of this terrible charge.

"My presumed guilt is wholly without a motive and inconsistent with my past character. But Providence, careful of right and revengeful of all wrong, remains to me now my only, but a confident hope of deliverance.

"I acknowledge here, at this last stage of my melancholy cause, surrounded with its strange web of difficult, unraveled, painful and inexplicable circumstances, my grateful sense of the humane conduct of the sheriff of this county, the integrity of purpose of the human judgment on my conduct, and the humanity of the jury who have patiently taken in the most obvious sense my own and the public interest in charge.

"I press again before you that I am innocuous to this abominable and atrocious conduct, and appealing from this judgment, whose mercies are exhausted in the verdict of the jury, I prepare to go to that Infinite Judge that tries the reins and searches the hearts, not of myself only, but of all the children of men.
JOHN HUBBARD.
"Wabash, September 8, 1855."

Among other remarks in sentencing the defendant to be hung on December 13th, Judge Wallace said: "You have been found guilty of the murder in cold blood of a man while languishing upon a bed of sickness. The proof establishes the horrid truth, also, that not alone the man (the husband and father), but also the wife and children, five in number, fell victims to your unnatural thirst for blood. It appears, also, that this unfortunate victim of your cruelty, confiding in your honesty, integrity and humanity, kindly received you and your wife into his own house, humble though that home was, and to some extent, in your poverty-stricken condition, shared with you his own condition of life. This was your condition in his house, too, at a time when, without apparent cause (indeed, what cause could there be for it?) you ruthlessly murdered every member of his family-not even sparing those infant children whose sweet smiles of innocence should have awakened your own parental feeling, and deterred you from the accomplishment of the bloody purpose of your heart, or like the rays of sunshine peering in upon the terrible darkness of your soul, guided you again to your humanity, awakening a sense of gratitude to your friend and their father. "

An appeal to the State Supreme Court. failed, and at 3 o'clock on Thursday, the 13th of December, 1855, Hubbard was hung according to the decrees of jury and court. The scene of his execution was the court house square, and it was witnessed by thousands who flocked thither from distant points in Northern and Central Indiana. Legally, the hanging was private, but actually it was far from it.

The body of Hubbard was decently buried, but it is said to have been afterward disinterred in the "interest of science." The discovery was made that it had carried several bullets for many years; their presence was, of course, never explained. A plaster cast of the criminal's head and shoulders was long preserved by Dr. James Ford, and showed the likeness of a man who seemed capable of uprightness, honor and even humanity.

Mrs. Hubbard was tried for the same abominable crime in the Circuit Court of Grant County, and in April, 1856, was sentenced to hard labor in State's Prison for life. When the Woman's Reformatory was established, she was transferred to that institution, where she lived to be a matronly, white-haired old woman, one of the most obedient and bidable of its inmates, never causing the attendants any trouble whatever. She was often visited by persons from Wabash County and was friendly and talkative, but when asked about the French family, she said that was a sealed book and would not talk about it. She died in the institution.

Hubbard's is the only execution which has ever occurred in Wabash County, and it is believed that it will be the last. The case is therefore historic, as well as dramatic.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"When Daniel, poor lad! innocently offered his shining and beautiful note to Mr. Lewis Rogers in payment for his bill for supper, lodging and breakfast (62 1/2 cents), the landlord cruelly pronounced it bogus, with an intimation, moreover, that men who carried that sort of stuff were already too 'plenty in these woods.' Our young traveler explained how he came by it and declared it to be all he had, good or bad offering, however, to 'work out his bill,' which was done instanter.

"Daniel quartered a large, knotty black walnut so vigorously and so rapidly, so promptly and so nicely, that the mollified landlord hired the lad at once, and kept him at good wages for two years. Out of these wages Daniel saved enough to enter land, first purchasing 107 acres of canal land and afterward 154 acres of the same, on usual terms. The price of the former piece was $3.50 per acre, one-quarter down and the balance in seventeen years with interest at 6 per cent paid annually in advance, which was certainly reasonable enough. The second tract was $2.50 per acre, upon the same condition.

"In the spring of 1834, Mr. Sayre, then about nineteen years old, went upon his land, building a cabin, girdling and clearing and fencing twelve acres, and cutting and piling (eighteen inches and under) eighteen acres more; and letting the whole to a renter for two years to finish the clearing. He married Mary N. Grover in 1836, and they have had nine children. Seven of them grew up; one son died in the army, and six have been married and are still living. "Mr. Sayre first resided upon the clearing above described, two and a half miles above Wabash, changing his location after a few years to a farm near Hopewell Church, northeast of La Gro. After many years he moved to the town of La Gro and spent two years there, coming then to Wabash, where he has since resided, except two years spent at La Gro. Mr. Sayre has for some time been postmaster of Wabash, having been closely identified with the business and prosperity of Wabash County for more than fifty -one years.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

Mr. Wiley, with his family of nine sons and three daughters, settled a short distance west of La Gro. The entire dozen were married and reared families.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

John Todd, who died September 28, 1882, was born of Irish parents November 7, 1804. In 1811 the family moved from his birthplace in Pennsylvania to Ohio and thence, after two years, to Franklin County, Indiana. He married Elizabeth Lackey shortly before he had reached his twentieth birthday, and, in time, eight children were born to them. Soon after his marriage his father died, leaving him in care of the homestead where he remained until 1849, when he moved to Union County, Indiana. There his first wife died in 1850, and two years thereafter he married Miss Lee Dare, a native of Maryland, by whom he had two children. George was the elder of these, both sons.

In 1854 John Todd located in Wabash County, occupying his first farm east of La Gro village. He remained there for two years, when he moved into town and conducted a sawmill. His next move was to buy the large farm two miles northeast of La Gro, upon which he lived for eleven years. In this locality George reached manhood, was hardened by farm work and educated at the union school in the village.

Father and son formed a business partnership in 1875, and for several years conducted a profitable business in hardware and agricultural implements. At the time of his death in 1882, John Todd was accounted one of the most prosperous citizens of the place, being the owner of a one-half interest in the La Gro Flour Mills and more than four hundred acres of valuable lands.

George Todd continued the lines of business thus laid down, continually improving and expanding all branches. He also became business manager of the large flour mills situated a short distance south of La Gro, known as the Todd & McClure Mills. The younger man dealt largely in grain, and, as stated, developed a large contracting business before he moved his headquarters to Wabash. From his early manhood he had taken a deep interest in the public affairs of the township, especially in the progress of its schools. Commencing with 1880, he served for a number of years as school trustee, and was otherwise honored. Mr. Todd is a man of family, having been married in 1875 to Miss Ada Tiller, an Indiana lady. Few were better known in La Gro than they, and their fine village residence was always the center of sociability and culture. One of their sons, also now located at Wabash, is among the younger and promising members of the Wabash County bar.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

William Grant entered the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 23, on the 16th of September, 1834, and sometime during that month is thought to have completed a log hut on the north bank of Grant Creek, the first house built in Liberty Township.

Daniel Grant, a second brother made entry of part of section 27, further south and nearer the present site of La Fontaine, in October, 1834, and may be called the second permanent settler.

The Grants and Mr. Pearson were the only residents in what is now Liberty Township, in 1834, but the "settlers" therein had been increased by one-through the good offices of Mother Nature who had presented Mr. and Mrs. William Grant with a daughter- Malvina Grant, born a few days after the little cabin on the north bank of Grant Creek had been completed.

Smith Grant, the third of the brothers, occupied the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 23, in June, 1835.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

When Mr. Pearson came to take up his entry in section 23 he was in his thirty-eighth year, with a wife and five children. For years he had been "flat-boating" down the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, his home having long been in Eastern Tennessee where he had owned a farm of 160 acres. He was therefore well qualified to make progress in the Wabash Valley, and was a strong accession to the township and the county. He lived to see six more sons and daughters added to his family, to prosper himself and enjoy the prosperity and good standing of several generations of descendants. His death occurred in 1876, in his eightieth year.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

The first man to die in Liberty Township was Charles Scott, father of Rev. Jesse D. Scott and grandfather of Mahlon Pearson. He died at America in 1839, aged seventy-five.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"We had a good crop that year, and the next year we got ten acres more cleared. Father sold his oxen in the spring of 1836; one horse ran away and the other, an old mare, we kept up. Our first year's crop we let stay in the cabin loft, hauling it or bringing it, however, as we needed it. When we wished a grist of corn meal, sometimes one of us boys would go on horseback, get a sackful, ride two or three miles to a corn-cracker mill there was in that region, get our grist ground and go home again. In 1837 our bread stuff gave out and we had none for about two weeks, and the corn had not come to 'roasting ears' yet. For meat, we had venison in abundance, although we never hunted. For a mere trifle, an Indian would bring us all we wanted; and to their honor' be it said that though they had to have their 'quarter' beforehand, the venison was sure to come according to promise." Jacob Bryan died in 1852 in his sixty-ninth year.

The first school taught in Paw Paw Township is said to have been con¬ducted by Mr. Bryan in one of the rooms of his double house. It lasted five weeks during the winter of 1836-37. The school is reported to have haa ten pupils, four of whom were from the Bryan family. The others were from the Beckner and Ralston families, whose fathers (Joseph Beckner and Robert Ralston) located about the same time as Mr. Bryan Beckner on the present site of Roann and Ralston below Stockdale.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

The first wheat that the elder Gamble raised in Wabash County was hauled to Michigan City, by this son Samuel. That market was seventy-five miles distant, and the price received was 60 cents a bushel.

The youth attended school in a little log cabin, built about 1839 and situated a mile south of Roann. This was one of the first schools in the township and was taught by Ward McCleese.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

It is said that the first brick house was built by James Jack about 1840. It was a long, one-story building, and stood on the family place for four of five decades. Mr. Jack burned his own brick. The first regular brick kiln was burned not long afterward by Jacob Bryan, the supply being intended chiefly for chimneys.

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914

"History of Wabash County, Indiana"
Clarkson W. Weesner
Lewis Publishing Co.
Chicago and New York
published in 1914