By: Stan Jordan
Yes, there are badgers in the area, they are not plentiful, but there are some here. They are extremely fast and shy, and you are lucky to see a live one.
If you do see one, he is always running for cover. He will dive into his hole or a catch basin or a ground hog’s hole. They are shy around people.
Over the years they have been seen here in the Antwerp area on T.R. 31, one down in Crane Twp. and also on the Flat Rock Creek.
They are mean and will fight if you try to catch one and I doubt if that will happen, but they are wild.
Hold the press! Hold the press! This is June 20th and there was a man in the office from up around the St. Joe area and his son is a hunter, trader and trapper and he has caught five badgers in the last few years and have turned them over to the DNR.
This gentleman was a delight to talk to and he said he will send some pictures soon.
See ya!
Some of the Early
Settlers
By: Stan Jordan
In 1827 David A. Applegate was the first settler in Carryall Township. He located on a farm across the river from what is now Antwerp. That is the place where Mrs. Carl Heckleman now lives.
When I started on R-1 our in Antwerp in 1949, John and Mirnerva Harris lived there. Then John moved to Antwerp after Mirnerva passed away and John married Rosa Applegate.
The reason David Applegate settled at that place was he could ford the river there in the summer time as there was no bridge yet. He would end up on this side of the river about where Sharold Jailor now lives.
I imagine that Mr. Applegate has some children because later on in Antwerp’s early history we find O.S. Applegate.
I don’t find anything about this Applegate until 1887. He was in charge of the delegation of dynamiters that went to junction and blew up the locks there at the canal.
You see, there was a number of groups of men that worked with the dynamite as it was set to blow up at midnight of April 27th of 1887. There was no compromising. The reservoir had to go, and it did.
During the 1880’s this O.S. Applegate owned a grocery store, where now the Antwerp Hardware is, but later on the name of Applegate appeared on a lot of school boards.
See ya!
Sam Rivers, Indian Agent Chapter 38: Getting Back To Normal
By: Stan Jordan
The soldier on guard at the gate first recognized Rooster’s horse and that something was wrong with Rooster and the fact he just left the fort yesterday morning. Then he called the corporal of the guard, so he could get some help.
They grabbed Rooster – he was more sleepy and dizzy than injured – but he told them what had happened and they all helped him off the horse and took him to see Dr. Grooms to look at his left forearm. As the doc was giving Rooster a once over after he relayed the story of the wolf again, all he could think to say was, “Would you take care of my horse? He and I covered about 140 miles in two days and we are both pretty tired. I need to see the doctor, the general, Sam and Callie and the twins. Are they all right?”
The nurse helped take off Rooster’s clothes. She laid Callie’s scarf and shawl off to the side to give them to Callie. He lowered his long johns down to his waist. The nurse washed the blood and mud from his face and he dozed off till the doctor arrived.
Dr. Grooms said, “You should know better than to wrestle with a low bow wolf.”
Rooster countered with, “Well he’s dead and I’m alive, worn out, but alive.”
The doc examined his break pretty good, and said, “I think it is only a broken ulna. You have digs and abrasions to on your face and hands. It is good you thought to use a sling on your broken arm.”
He sent a runner down to the carpenter shop to get some light boards to make a splint. He said he had the bones set right and now the splint goes on. “Your arm is swelled up quit a bit. I will have you come back in three or four days, maybe next Frida afternoon. If the swelling goes down, I will make the splint a little tighter, okay?”
Doc cut the left arm off Rooster’s long johns so he could put his arm and splint through the hole. He said, “You wear this splint every minute of the day. You come back Friday and I’ll check it over and the nurse will give you a bath.”
“Oh no she ain’t, I’ll wash myself. Ain’t no woman give me a bath.”
The doc said, “I thought you were brave and tough, you just fought four wolves and won, but I guess you are a little chicken yet. See ya Friday.”
Rooster went to see Callie and the twins, and to return her clothes to her and to tell her and Sam all what had happened, and that he left some dirty dishes on the hearth.
Yes, the house was very cold, but all else was okay. Then yes, I got the barn closed up again. Those wolves could reach the buffalo meat. We can discard when we go back to the store.
The sergeant major came into the hotel lobby and talked a little bit and made a fuss over the babies a little. He then said to Rooster, “ If you can tear yourself away from the twins, the general would like to talk to you.
Rooster thanked the sergeant and said, “I will be right down.” Rooster reported t the general’s office in a military manner. The general gave him the “To be at ease.”
The general said, “Now tell me all that you can remember about this incident, maybe we can save some other soldiers some pain and anxiety.”
Rooster told him everything and about the cold weather also. The general thought that the idea of using a wire to hold his coat closed, since he only had one hand to use, was a very smart idea. It is now into March and the general wanted to hear what Rooster had planned for the coming summer.
Well, we have to go over to the agency and get the fires started to get the house warmed up so Callie and the twins, and Sam of course, can go back to the Indian Agency. The general asked, “Do you still want to be a liason between the agency and the fort?”
General Rooster said, “I sure do, I like the people and the natives and I like to help and know that everyday we are helping both of those tribes. Most of them want to help themselves, sone don’t of course, some white folks don’t like progress either.”
Rooster asked if that new plow that Sam ordered was in yet. The general had said it had arrived and was still in a wooden crate in the warehouse. Rooster said he had talked with Sam about this and since we still have the army’s plow over at the agency, why don’t we keep the army’s plow and you folks keep the new one that’s in the warehouse” We really nee that plow in those three locations. The general said, “That could be done and I will talk to Sam about that.” They talked on for many minutes yet.
See ya!
AUTO BY OTTO
Our First Studio: 2
I started to make photographs in 1900 when I purchased a 4 X 5 plate box camera for about three dollars from Sears and Roebuck. Reading the instruction book that came with the camera it mentioned that it would require a dark room for processing the plates. As we didn’t have no place on our premises for a dark room, my only solution was our straw stack. With a wooden hook, I dug a tunnel in the stack, I rolled in a large wooden box that I got at John Adcock’s store, I filled in around the box with straw, there was my dark room. I left a hole in the tunnel large enough so I could crawl in, the box (my dark room) contained a dark room lamp, a metal container with a candle inside and covered with a red glass. The box was big enough for the lamp and three 4 X 5 trays, and so I could crawl in head & shoulders and after kicking in the straw so it would keep the light from coming through the tunnel, I would light the candle and lay on my belly and develop the plates. My first photo was taken of my sister in September 1900. Sixty years later, I still have the negative.
A week or two later, an old buddy of mine came to our house, and told me that they had heard that I could take pictures. I told him I could, ( I had already taken four or five of them ) so I knew all about taking pictures. He told me their baby had died and his folks wanted me to take its picture. So I picked up my camera and we started for their log cabin in the woods, about a mile from our house. As we arrived, he opened the door and pointed to the baby, then he turned around and started to run to a near by neighbor. There I was alone with the dead baby. The parents had went to make arrangements for its burial. The corpse was laying on a board that put on the back of two kitchen chairs, it was dressed and the body covered with a sheet. My instructions that came with the camera stated – in order to take pictures, place the subject in bright sunlight, the subject facing the sun. There I was no sunlight in the room. I began to think I would have to take the baby outdoors. I began to look around, on the back of another chair I saw and old diaper. I removed the sheet the covered the corpse, I raised up the dress and with the diaper I tied the baby to the board, , pulled down the dress, picked up the board and baby and took it outdoors and set it up against a fence, facing the sun, took up my camera and took its picture. The results were as good as any that I had taken. I sold them one dozen 4 X 5 photos mounted on cardboard mounts for $1.00. My first money earned in the photograph business.
Several weeks later I received another call, they wanted me to take a picture of an old man who was seriously sick. It was about a mile from our home, south east. When I got there, the man had passed away. Another corpse. I didn’t want to pass up the business so we put on his coat and pants, slipped on his leather boots, put him in an old rocking chair, picked up the chair and with the corpse, carried it outdoors in the sun and took his picture. I also sold a dozen 4 X 5 photos for $1.00.
Business began to pick up. Nearly every Sunday when the weather was nice I had some picture to take. When winter set in, I began to get some information of flash light. The formula for flash powder was prepared at drugstores. My first photo taken by flash light was a pet opossum. It was in a cage and after night. I used two blocks of stove wood, set on end, placed my camera on one block, I placed some cotton on the other block, I sprinkled about a teaspoon full of flash powder on the cotton set the shutter on time exposure, opened the shutter, struck a match to the cotton and jumped back and the powder exploded. The results was a perfect negative for those days. This opened up a new method for taking pictures indoors. After a few experiences, I made me a flash stand, used a strip of lumber about one inch square, length just above my head. I nailed a base on it so it would stand up, another small base on to top to hold the cotton and flash powder. As the flash was above my head, I didn’t have to jump back when I would light the cotton and explode the powder. By the coming summer in 1901 I had enough money so I could buy me a 5 X 7 folding camera from Sears and Roebuck. The complete outfit was $27.00. Now I really went into the picture business.
