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THE SHELBYVILLE REPUBLICAN, MONDAY, JULY 3, 1922.FIRST BARBECUE 100 YEARS AGOAYAS HELD OS THE FOURTH OF •JULY EAST OF THE WALKEK-YILLE SCHOOL HOUSE.KILLED A DEER FOR DINNERThe first recorded public gathering held in Shelby county was a picnic onthe Fourth of July 1822. The ground where this was held is the knoll immediately east of the school house in 'Wulkerville. The authority for this statement came straight from at least two persons who were present on that occasion and who lived to good ripe .ages. One of these was Harriet (Goodrich) Lowe, the other Nathan Goodrich. Mrs, Lowe was born near Wheeling, West Virginia, where the Whetzel family came from, in 1811 and her brother was born at the sanle place in 1813. With their parents they came in a wagon froru the Vlace of their birth to Sommerset, now Laurel, in Franklin county. From there they came into this wilderness at the close of 1819. With this family was the parents of William Goodrich, Nathan and Susan Whetzel Goodrich. This pair of husky children was respectively eleven and nine years old and it is not likely that in the matured years of their lives they would forget the first picnic or where it was held. In addition they lived where Walker-ville is. Their mother died in 1872.*Frequently she related the incidents of this gathering.The first picnic was not held to celebrate the organization of Shelby •county, which took place during the .previous April, nor to celebrate theselection of and the naming of Shelby -villc as the county seat. It was purely a Fourth of July celebration. These people were living' only forty-seven years away from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Even the flag was new. It was a part of their religion to observe the Fourth of July as regularly as it arrived. This celebration was planned weeks before the contest between Shelby* ville and Marlon was settled in the county seat controversy. There was but one way to get a crowd together and that was to spread the news through the various settlements,largely by couriers on horseback.The story has been handed down that ne.r 250 persons assembled on this occasion. The place was selected tor the reason that there was less underbrush covering the ground there than on any of the other high spots. The trees were truly magnificent, many of them remaining in all their beauty until a few years ago. Forty years ago this spot was a noted camping place for ail the roving band of gypsies who came^this way. Captain Stanton, a famous gypsy and his sister, known as the “Queen of the Gypsies’* camped here every summer for a number of years. Their outfit rivaled the red wagons of the early day circuses and they had many horses, some of high breeding and quality. 1Unfortunately it is not recorded who the speaker was at this Fourth of July celebration held 100 years ago. Infact there is very little of the detail. It Is known that the women had prepared food for the occasion, all of it in pots swinging from cranes in the fireplace and in Dutch ovens that were covered with coals of fire on the open hearth. They had prepared no meat but this was % easily provided when one of the men went out and shot a deer. This was dressed and barbecued. When it was near dinner time it was found that no one had brought dishes. Under the directionof Susan Whetzel. Goodrich, bark was cut from trees. From this bark she fashioned dishes from which this dinner was served and eaten. She had learned to make those bark re cep-\ tacles when she was a captive held by the Indians. When she was a girl her parents had been killed by a mzyauding band of Indians and she was not recovered by her brothers and the man who married her until the close of the war of 1776, in which her husband participated. She died here in 1828 in a cabin on the brow of Forest Hilt cemetery. The date of the death of her husband Is not known .at this time. ^This little story of the first Fourth of July celebration held in Shelby county is ag near to the facts as will 'ever be known. There were present a few' men who were soldiers in the war of 1776 and a still larger number Iwho participated in the war of 1812. While it is a matter of regret it is 'very probable a fact that a number of the graves of these men were unmarked and in consequence were lost to , posterity. The statement is made that only fourteen graves of soldiers of ‘ 1776 are marked in this county. It Is well to keep in mind that two years elapsed from the coming of the first settlers to the first Fourth of July celebration . In that interim there were doubtless a number of deaths. The burial places of these people will never be known. Doubtless they are plowed over every year. Who they were, what they did. where they came from no one can now tell.Old Residences Very Numerous(Continued froru page 14.)(seventy years is the one occupied by Elmer Bilimau. East Mechanic .street; The Ollie Harrison home, West Mechanic street; the Mrs. P. G. ' Kamp home on North Harrison street.This house was built by_ Samuel D-. Day about seventy-five years ago. A picture of the First Presbyterian church that stood at the corner of Harrison and Jackson streets, clearly shows Dr. Day and Mrs. Day and Samuel Hamilton and wife. Other old bouses are those of Dr. H, E. Phares and the Kennerly home across from the court house. Another of (he land marks is the home of Robert Harrison on East Franklin street across from the school building. Perhaps the oldest brick residence is the two story structure on East Washington trert across the Big Four railroad. It was built by Major John Hendricks, inthor of Thomas A. Hendricks. The Ray House was opened for business in J title 1S57.There never has been but one residence on the Public Square, that being the Solomon Gorgas home. - It stood where the Strong hardware store now is, the store being in the brick building on the corner of the Public Square. This residence was probably built in 1850. The little frame building on the East side of Harrison street, between The Public Square ami Jackson street, and known as the Kentucky Liquor House for many years, is truly a landmark In the business district This building was showiug marks of age previous to the Civil war. It was one of the very first frame buildings erected in Shelbyville.The log cabins that were construct-er here previous to organization of the county were mostly in the northeast part, this for the reason that the original town as platted was under wuter most of the time. Duriug the early life of the town East Washington street, east of where the railroad tracks are. was inhabited by the ‘'Aristocrats/* among these being Major John Hendricks. Captain John Blair, Major Dodds, Henry Doble, Marshall Stoddard and others. All the original buildings on the Public Square were primitive log cabins.S33|Si
Newspaper Details
Shelbyville Republican
Shelbyville, Indiana, US
Mon, Jul 03, 1922
Page 30
Full Page
Clipped by
Elyria P.
OH, USA 03 Mar 2021
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