his wife Janie
(Easter) and their children Helen, Orville, Gladys and
Nova, carried on until moving to
Needham in 1930. Then William A. Dillard and his wife Emma
(Limp) purchased the sought for place and lived there as the writers good
neighbors before moving to Paoli. They built all new farm buildings and
modernized the home. Then here lived Ronnie Merter and his wife
Phyllis (Radke). They sold the 100 acre farm to Forest Hills
Corporation which also has the George Deel and Jacob Partenheimer
farms. Altogether the 337 acre tract is owned by six Jasper people and named
Forest Hills. The
Murray
farm will be a part of the Indiana Park and the George Deel farm will
be a part of the Lake and Park. The Partenheimer farm will be outside.
George Summers and his wife Linda ( ) and Dougie
and Daniel now live on the
Murray
farm
Next on the left of the road going towards Wickliffe is the Painter -
Dillard farm (Painter Place), that I have written about in
“The Little Picture with the Big Story.”
Next going toward Wickliffe on the left is the William Sinclair - Hiram
Gottfried farm. This is the one that I wish to describe as a self
sufficient farm in the day of the so called one family farm. By self
sufficient farm we mean one on which all the products were produced almost
entirely on the farm itself. Fertilizer in small quantities and tools were the
chief items of expense.
Note:
The memoirs of Fred Dillard will be continued in the next issue.
Squire Kesterson
Killed in Fight
At John A.
Wininger's store near Hillham Zack Nicholson shot and killed Squire Kesterson.
It is said that there was bad blood between them and they happened to meet at
Wininger's store. Kesterson was advancing on Nicholson with a knife and
Nicholson told him to stop or he would shoot him but Kesterson kept on coming.
To be sure his rifle would fire it is said that Nicholson "licked the flint"
and fired. This incident happened in 1849 shortly after the Mexican War.
Kesterson was a soldier in the US Army during the war. His grave was on the
hill North of the Cuzco High School. Many of the early pioneers of Dubois
County were buried in this cemetery but now all traces of it are gone and so
is all the information that once was there for all to see. Lou Burton once
told me that when she attended high school there she remembered the old grave
yard and many stones with no inscriptions.
This story was taken
from George W. Milburn's "Pioneer Days in Columbia Township."
Editor’s note:
This old graveyard is believed to contain the bodies of Robert M. Beatty’s
three wives, who were Phoebe Wininger, Sarah Wininger and Sarah Morris. All
traces of this cemetery are now gone.