RUTH  and JOHN HEADINGTON

Ruth A. Headington, wife of Col. Jim Headington, but 

known and loved far and near as "Aunt Ruth," is one of the pio-

neer women of Jay County. Of the women identified with the 

earliest history of Portland, she alone remains ; and Hon. Robert 

Huey, who will soon celebrate his 86th birthday, is the only man 

now living who was here w4ien she first came to this place. 

Mrs. Headington's mind is stored with many interesting re- 

miniscences of the earlier settlers of Portland and vicinity. When 

she first came to Portland our populous little city could boast of 

but two houses. One of these was a log house, occupying the 

ground where the Silvemale store now stands. It was used as a 

court house, and the hickory trees stood so close that in the fall 

the nuts beat a lively tattoo upon the clapboard roof. The other 

house was a long,double log house, and stood where the Miller 

& Huston building now stands; this was the residence of Chris- 

topher Hanna. 

In building the first hewed log structure in the town, it took 

all the men within five miles two days to raise it and several 

gallons of whiskey to keep up the steam. This building after- 

ward became famous as "Hickory Hall." 

The first frame house was built by Dr. Dixon Milligan, where 

the "Trade Palace" now stands. The lumber was hauled from 

Richmond with oxen, and it often took seven or eight days to 

bring one load. This eventually became the first tavern in the 

town. The first store of any note was started by William Shull, 

and was afterward transferred to William Brandon. 

JOHN M. HEADINGTON. 

I was born in Knox County, Ohio, December 13th, 1833. 

My parents were Nicholas and Ruth (Phillips) Headington, who 

emigrated from Maryland in the early part of the present cen- 

tury. I was educated in the common schools of Ohio and came 

to Portland in September, 1853, where I have lived ever since. 

In 1856 I commenced the study of law with Hon. J. M. Haynes, 

and was admitted to the bar in 1858. In May, 1858, I was mar- 

ried to Miss Nancey Bosworth, a daughter of Dr. Jacob Bos- 

worth, who died in 1874. In August, 1862, I enlisted as a private 

in Co. H., 100 Regiment Indiana Vol. Inft. On the organiza- 

tion of the company I was elected captain of the company at 

Wabash, Indiana, where we first went into camp. We were at 

once ordered to Indianapolis and in old Camp Morton we began 

to school ourselves as soldiers. We graduated early, partly on 

account of our proficiency and partly because of necessity. On 

the lithe of November, 1862, we started for the field of battle 

and landed at Memphis, Tenn., where we joined Grant's army on 

his campaign through Mississippi, which was defeated by the 

fall of Holley Springs in our rear, and we were forced to retire to 

Grand Junction, Tenn., here we spent the winter (1862 and '63) 

guarding the Memphis & Charleston railroad until June, 1863. 

We went to Vicksburg and participated in what is known as the 

"Vicksburg campaign." In the fall of 1863 we came to Memphis 

and thence across the country to Chattanooga, where we joined 

with the army of Thomas and fought the battle of Chattanooga 

and Mission Ridge, here our regiment lost in killed and wounded 

a greater per cent, of our force than the loss of the famous 600 

and greater than any other regiments engaged in that great battle 

except the 90th Illinois, on our immediate left, and the 40th 

Indian regiment in Sheridan's division. We marched to the re- 

lief of Burnsides at Knoxville after the battle of Chattanooga, 

though our men were worn out and barefooted or nearly so. We 

returned to Bellefonte, Alabama, where we spent the winter, and 

on the 1st day of May, 1864, we started on the "Atlanta cam- 

paign," which lasted until the 3rd day of September, and we were 

under fire every day from May 3rd to September 3rd, 1864. We 

made the march to the sea with Sherman, and after the fall of 

Savannah and a short rest, we made the campaign through the 

Carolinas and were at Raleigh, N. C, when the war closed. Our 

regiment participated in the battles of Vicksburg, Jackson, Chat- 

tanooga, Dalton, Snake Creek Gap, Resact, Kingston, New 

Hope Church, Rome, Dalas, Chattahoocha River, Big Shanta, 

Kenesaw Mountain, Manitta, Atlanta, Nickerjack Creek, Jones- 

boro, Lovejoy, Gresworldville, Savannah, Bentonville and a host 

of other smaller engagements and skirmishes, and it never fired 

a gun at the enemy when I was not: with it. In June, 1864, I was 

promoted to the rank of Major of the regiment and later on I was 

promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the regiment. On 

the 22nd of November, 1864, while on the march to the sea, our 

brigade, then numbering 1,300 men present for dvuy, had an en- 

gagement with the enemy at Gresworldville, Ga., which I desire 

to mention particularly because of the fact that on account of our 

being in the rear of the wagon train and away from the great 

body of the army, the historian has never done us justice. The 

enemy, 10,000 strong, attacked us about noon and we were com- 

pelled to fight them with our 1,300 men until darkness closed 

the bloody scene, and we held our ground and slaughtered the 

enemy the worst they ever experienced. The southern papers 

admitted a loss of 614, but the estimates of our generals place 

their loss much higher. In that engagement I was in command 

of six companies of our regiment, (the looth Ind.) and occupied 

the center of our lines where our loss was the greatest. Every 

horse in our brigade, including the artillery horses, were killed 

or wounded except mine, and six of the number (four killed and 

two wounded were killed or wounded within 30 feet of me. You 

may imagine we slaughtered the enemy when I tell you we shot 

at them 92,000 rounds of fixed ammunition besides what was 

thrown by the two pieces of artillery. After the close of the war 

I returned to Portland and resumed the practice of the law in 

this and adjoining counties, where I have remained ever since. 

I commenced in the "free for all" a poor boy and have had many 

ups and downs like most people who have to struggle for them- 

selves. In my early practice of the law, being poor in purse, I 

was compelled to practice in justices' courts all over the county, 

and occasionally a little over the line. We have had some lively 

times and many amusing incidents connected with the practice 

before justices of the peace. On one occasion I was called upon 

to defend a well-known farmer, who I will call Mr. "A." who 

was charged with the crime of perjury before one of the justices of 

was charged with the crime of perjury before one of the justices of 

the county. Mr. "A." was a very noisy man when excited, had 

a course, loud voice, and when he wanted to he could make more 

noise than a dozen wild beasts. On the way out, knowing so well 

his disposition to make a noise, I said to him, "I know your ability 

to make a noise, and I will warn you now if you don't keep still 

and let me do the talking I will withdraw from the case on the 

first outbreak, and if you don't promise to keep still I won't begin 

the case. He promised to keep still until the case was decided, 

and kept his promise, but when the justice, about midnight, in 

a room full of people waiting in breathless silence, made his de- 

cision "not guilty," he gave way to his pent-up feelings in his 

best and most improved style, so that in a few minutes he and the 

justice were alone in the room, all the balance having retreated 

as from a cyclone. In early days in our practice in this county 

turnpikes and gravel roads were not dreamed of, and we were 

■compelled to trudge through the mud on horseback. There 

were no buggies in the country to be had, and for about nine 

months of the year a horse could not have pulled them through 

the mud if we had had them. On one occasion we tried a case 

before Esquire "B." which lasted until late in the night. It was 

his first case and he tried hard to be on both sides of the case all 

through, and when both sides were done he deliberated for a time 

and finally said, "when the plaintiff rested his case I could have 

decided it easily, but since the defendant has got through it is so 

mixed up that the d — 1 can't decide it." 

Esquire C, Q Township, issued an injunction enjoining  

a party from removing a lot of corn in the shock, and on the re- 

fusal of the defendant to obey the injunction he attached him 

for contempt. His attention was called to the fact that a justice 

of the peace could not issue injunctions, he demanded to be 

shown the law that prohibited him from doing so. One justice 

of the peace, 'Squire D., who was a justice for several years in  

Township, always held that a party arrested for a crime was 

presumed to be guilty or he would not have been arrested, and it 

was his rule to require the defendant to prove himself "not 

guilty," or he was sure to convict him, and on one occasion he 

found a party guilty of grand larceny, and seeing the statute 

providede for imprisonment in the state prison, proceeded to 

sentence him to the states prison. 

In 1876 I married Laura E. Haines, with whom I am still living. 

Source
Reminincises of Adams, Jay and Randolph Counties

Author: Lynch, T. A., Mrs., b. 1854, comp. cn

Publisher: [Fort Wayne, Ind., Lipes, Nelson & Singmaster, job printers

Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT

Language: English

Call number: 31833008272400

Digitizing sponsor: Internet Archive

Book contributor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

Collection: americana

Notes: No TOC. Very tight margins. 
Some pages have text bound too far into gutters.

Scanfactors: 46

Published 1897 by Lipes, Nelson & Singmaster, job printers in [Fort Wayne, Ind .
Written in English.

Edition Notes

Compiled by Mrs. Martha C. M. Lynch. cf. Introduction.