Jacob Dewey
Reminiscences: "A Squatter and his home"
Jacob Dewey was a squatter on the fraction north of the Alger cemetery, in early days. He was a rich study. He was as poor as a man could be, but always happy, always cheerful, always patient under the sharp and often well-merited reproaches of his better half, who would expatiate on his indolence, improvidence and recklessness in language more pointed than polite. He came from Fayette County, but what spot claimed the honor of his birth I know not, but presume he was a Yankee from the consummate skill displayed in the working of a bovine team. A pair of bulls was his most valuable and, indeed, almost his only wordly possession. With these he rolled the logs in the clearings, or with a rude sled hauled the rails for the fences of his neighbors, and thus eked out a livelihood, mainly obtained by his dog and gun, for he was a skilled hunter. He was a wild looking fellow, scarcely ever wearing anything to cover his long, tangled tawny locks except a fox-skin cap, with its pendant tail behind, with his buckskin breeches rolled up to his knees, and his shirt sleeves rolled up above his elbows. The furniture of his cabin was scanty and of the rudest description fashioned by himself with axe, auger and drawing knife.
History of Rush County, Indiana, Chicago: Brant & Fuller, 1888.
Contributed by Jill Knitl
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