The Vidette-Messenger Centennial EditionThe 1936 special edition celebrating Porter County's centennial year . . . .
The following article has been transcribed from the August 18, 1936, issue of The Vidette-Messenger, published in Valparaiso, Indiana. This particular special edition focuses on Porter County's centennial celebration and contains a 94-page compendium of Porter County history up to that time.
Return to the index of articles from The Vidette-Messenger's Porter County Centennial special edition.
Source: The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso,
Porter County, Indiana; August 18, 1936; Volume 10, Section 4, Page 12.
Two Vets of Revolution Buried in Porter County
Despite the
fact that Porter county was not settled until fifty-three years after the close
of the Revolutionary war, two veterans of that war resided in this county, and
their bodies are resting in Porter county soil.
They are Henry Battan and Joseph Jones. Henry Battan settled in Westchester
township about the time or soon after the county was organized. According to
military records, Battan was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1750;
enlisted in August or September, 1776, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, as a
member of Captain William Harrod's company, Colonel Thomas Gaddis' regiment of
the Pennsylvania line, and served with that command until the following
February. In April, 1777, he enlisted in Captain Cross' company and served for
four months, when he became a member of Captain Theophilus Phillips' company,
under Colonel Minor and served eight months. He was then for two months in the
company commanded by Lieutenant McKinley, after which he returned to Captain
Phillips' company and served until in September, 1778, when he left the army.
On March 11, 1833, he applied for a pension, being at that time a resident of
Fountain county, Indiana. On July 3, 1840, he united with the Presbyterian
church of Valparaiso by letter from a congregation in Virginia, and the records
of the church show that his death occurred on February 1, 1845, at the age of
ninety-four years. He is buried at Gossett's mills, at the crest of a lovely
hill overlooking Salt Creek, in Portage township.
Little is known of Joseph Jones other than before coming to Porter county he had
resided for some time in Holmes county, Ohio; that he was married to the
grandmother of Thomas G. Lytle, mayor of Valparaiso; that in the spring of 1841
he came to this county and settled at Boone Grove; that after a few years he
died at an advanced age and was buried in the Cornell grave yard near Boone
Grove.
Several years ago a pilgrimage to the graves of Jones and Battan was conducted
by the William Henry Harrison chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of
which Mrs. Marie Chester was president. Six members of the G. A. R., and members
of the American Legion participated in the services at the graves. Bronze
markers were unveiled at each grave.
A large number of relatives of Battan attended the services at the grave.
Battan's daughter, Mrs. John Hageman, lived in the Gossett Mills when her father
came to this county to live.
Susannah Fifield, a Revolutionary widow, came to Indiana from Enfield, N. H.,
and located in Porter county at a comparatively early date. The records of the
Valparaiso Presbyterian church show that she was received into the congregation
by letter, August 22, 1852. She drew a pension out of which she annually gave
ten dollars to foreign missions. She died in 1856.
The War of 1812 closed more than twenty years before the organization of Porter
county, but several veterans of that war afterward became citizens of the
county. Among these were Isaac Cornell, Robert Folsom, John and Eliphalet Curtis
and Myron Powell. Of the first two little is known, further than that they are
buried in Cornell grave yard, both having died within a few years after settling
in this county.
John Curtis enlisted in New York, came to Porter county in 1836, settled near
Wheeler, and died there in 1865. E. D. Curtis also joined the army while living
in New York. He came to the county in 1838, and settled near Porter Cross Roads,
where he died in the spring of 1865. Myron Powell enlisted in Vermont, came to
Western Reserve, Ohio, shortly after the war and from there to Porter county,
where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1865.
Ruell Starr and James M. Buell, who afterward became two of the most prominent
of the early pioneers of Porter county, served in the Blackhawk War in 1832.
They are buried in the Old City cemetery in Valparaiso.
Article transcribed by Steven R. Shook