HUGHART MIGRATION TO LIBERTY TOWNSHIP IN 1835

Source: The Stroller. 1981. Hugharts Give Up West Virginia for Liberty Township. The Vidette-Messenger (January 31):13.

HUGHARTS GIVE UP WEST VIRGINIA FOR LIBERTY TOWNSHIP
by "The Stroller"

Thirty years before West Virginia became a state, when the population was growing too fast in the eastern valleys for the limited amount of farm land available, the large, hard-working family of Hugharts decided to sell out and go west, where good virgin prairie land could be bought for $2 an acre.

Of the Hughart family, there were father and mother, two grown sons with their wives, a younger unmarried brother, a still younger sister and a combined group of 11 children.

A total of 17 to be fed and clothed with the products of one small farm originally sufficient for a family of five or six. The Hugharts owned all the available land in this small Greenbrier County valley, and their was no possibility of further expansion. On three sides were the jagged Alleghenies and on the fourth, the grotesquely piled rocks of the sulphur springs.

The family planned long and carefully. There was no enforced nor sacrifice sale. They disposed of their property and equipment at good prices.

They bought and built good, substantial vehicles and two yokes of oxen. And eventually they started for the newly opened territory of Indiana.

This was the spring of 1835. Never did a family start out so hopeful, jubilant, and so well prepared. But in spite of an intelligent preparation, adversity and vissitudes [vicissitudes] accompanied them all the way.

Small Child Died
Before they reached the new city of Columbus, one of the smaller children became ill and died and was mournfully buried in a little newly dedicated churchyard cemetery.

After a week's delay, the party again started onward. Thieving Indians, unprincipled tavern owners, and unscrupulous land dealers impeded their way. And at Fort Wayne, where a long uphill road made it necessary for the man and older children to "get out and walk," father Hughart succumbed to a heart attack.

There was another week's sorrowful delay. But there was no turning back. So with mounting difficulties, continual breakdowns and almost impossible crossings, the family continued its way westward. To average 10 miles a day was an attainment.

After 45 days, the party arrived at Chicago. Instead of being "Beyond those awful Indians," the women found to their horror that they were in the midst of greater numbers of savages.

Tales of Scalping
All along the route, they had been regaled with tales of scalping, Indian tortures and the kidnapping of Frances Slocum and other children. The tales were told the women and children by tavern servants.

And now, added to all of this was the oft-repeated tale of the Fort Dearborn massacre. But upon the advice of an intelligent French-Indian trader named Alex Robinson, they were soon again on their way to Bailley's Place, from which, Robinson said, they would be guided to some fine, unclaimed prairie land.

And so it was. The feeling of apprehension gradually lessened. They found a highly desirable site in Liberty Township.

There they built a big log cabin, 16 x 26 feet with a sort of temporary partition making it into two rooms where, for several months, the whole family of 15 lived.

Large Loft
There was a large loft, the whole outdoors for cooking, washing and similar activities. The only objection was that almost within seeing distance there was an encampment of Pottawatomies.

Every few days, David and William Hughart and some of the older boys went southward into the Many Lakes region to hunt, and sometimes they went far south to Eagle Creek and to the Kankakee.

It was on the second day of one of these hunting trips that "Mamma" Hughart saw Indians approaching the cabin. Hurriedly, she gathered the children in, barred the door and fearfully waited.

Five drunken Indians came howling and stomping and battered at the door, demanding admission. Every time an Indian got drunk within the vicinity of a white settlement, he went to recruit some other evil-minded redskin, equally drunk, and they as a group tried to abduct any young wives or growing girls in the settlement. There were several maturing young women at the Hughart cabin.

"Mamma" Hughart rushed all the children "upstairs" into the loft and then drew the ladder up after them.

For an hour or more, the five drunken Indians circled the cabin, yelling and pounding on the logs with their store-bought tomahawks and demanding admittance.

The early October sun was unusually hot. The crowded loft was an oven in which 10 people were crowded. But the heat of the sun soon prompted the attacking redskins to desist and seek the shade of woods located southwest of what is now the U.S. 6-Meridian Road intersection.

When the returning hunters got as far as Damon Run, they felt for some unknown reason that something was wrong. They hung their game in trees at the flowing well and ran to the cabin.

Suffer From Shock
The family was quickly rescued for its hot, crowded loft but William's wife and "Mother" Hughart were in precarious condition, suffering from shock.

Asa Zane and Ira Biggs, who had cabins nearby, were notified of the attack, and the men started out to get the Indians. At Baileytown, where they had got their liquor, there was an attempt to minimize the affair - "just showing off," said Bailly. "No, I don't know who they were," he said. "There are so many that all look alike."

Every wooded area clear down to Wauhob was combed by the white men - but the redskins got away.

Two Women Die
Mrs. William Hughart died and in a few days, "Mother" joined her. They were buried in or near the site now known as Gosserts' Cemetery.

Soon thereafter, the Hughart boys built another cabin, and the two families were more comfortably situated in more spacious quarters. But the motherless family of William Hughart was a pathetic group.

The Biggs women and the Zane women came often and helped Mrs. David Hughart sew and mend for the destitute family, but that winter was long, cold and sorrowful. If it had not been for the attention of Elizabeth Zane, they would have suffered unmercifully.

By June of the following summer, both William and Elizabeth knew they were mutually needed and on June 14, 1836, Elijah Casteel, the Liberty Justice of the Peace, performed the first township marriage.

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