SIMON CONN, PIONEER FREIGHTER
In the early years of Munseetown, the up-and-coming city was a business center for the area. As with any bustling burg, merchants had to get their goods to the
sale floor and manufacturers had to export their production to other markets for distribution. Such transportation was provided by freighters traveling from
Delaware County to the river port city of Cincinnati, Ohio. Among those making regular treks down the rutted road was Simon Conn.
Simon was born in Preble County, Ohio, in June or November, 1817. On July 15, 1837, he and Sarah O’Neal were joined in holy matrimony there by Charles Beam,
Minister of the Gospel. Sarah was the daughter of John and Margaret (Griffin) O’Neal. The young couple promptly moved to Muncie, Indiana, living first in a home
at Mulberry and Washington (now the Moore Youse Museum).
Simon and Sarah welcomed their first child, Margaret A., in August of 1838 or 1839., not long after their arrival in Muncie. Margaret, who would later marry
Newton Marshall, was followed by seven sisters. Sarah Jane “Jennie”, born October 30, 1840, would marry Sidney Alonzo Jewett. Mary E., born about 1842, would
marry William S. Michener. Louisa, born about 1844, would marry Abraham Jay Buckles. Deborah J., born about 1846, married William J. Carson. Laura Bell “Ella”,
born September 4, 1852, married Leonard Carson. Clara “Callie”, born 1855, married Moses Warner. The Carsons, William and Leonard, were brothers. William Carson
and Abraham Buckles were both Medal of Honor recipients for actions during the Civil War.
Simon and Sarah Conn with daughter Louisa (Conn) Buckles
Author's Collection
Simon started his freighting business and by the end of the decade, he was hauling commercial freight, personal property and passengers back and forth to the
port city of Cincinnati, Ohio, and points in between. It is said that his covered wagon was pulled by a team of six black horses. Seneca Falls, New York, native
and early Muncie resident Susan Putnam recalled that, during her family’s move from Richmond, Indiana, Conn and fellow teamster Joe Davis, hauled their household
goods on the three day trip in 1839. Simon hauled flour for the millers Jacob Wysor, James Russey and John Jack from their location on the river downtown.
There are numerous references to Conn hauling the bell for the Delaware County courthouse from the river in Cincinnati. While there is no question that he did,
the story of the bell itself is not as clear. Delaware County has had four courthouses: 1829, 1837, 1887 and 1969. Local historian G. W. H. Kemper notes in his massive
1908 county history that the first bell which hung in the tower of the 1837 structure was replaced in 1848 with the new one weighing a thousand pounds. It was
said to be hung on June 30 of that year about the same time as the ‘new’ city office building was constructed nearby. Elsewhere in the book, Kemper mentions the
hanging of a courthouse bell on May 2, 1847, which would have fallen at the end of a court house square beautification program. To further muddy the water, an
Indianapolis-published obituary stated that the bell was brought to town in 1857, but the earlier dates are likely closer to the truth. Regardless of the exact
timing of the installation, the bell was thought to be the largest west of the Allegheny Mountains, and no doubt caused a stir when it arrived in town from G. W.
Coffin’s Buckeye Bell Foundry in Cincinnati. When the 1887 construction was complete, the old bell found new life and would ring over the seat of Delaware County
for another eighty years. The Coffin bell is on display in front of the Delaware County Justice Center.
There remains only other item known to be hauled by Simon Conn that is readily available for the public eye. In about 1856, Dr. Daniel Andrews and his wife Mary Jane,
purchased a Haines Brothers ‘square’ grand piano, for their daughter Julia “Jule” Andrews. Dr. Andrews, no longer in practice as a physician, was a miller for one
of Conn’s biggest customers, Wysor and Kline, formerly Wysor, Russey and Jack. From the factory in New York, the rosewood and mother-of-pearl instrument likely made
its way through the port at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a dock in Cincinnati. One can hardly imagine the care Teamster Conn would have had to provide to move such
a delicate, not to mention expensive, item. It apparently arrived intact and Julia, later Mrs. Julia Williamson, kept the piano until her death in 1928. Her son
Goldsmith “Gola” Williamson sold the piano to Mrs. Mary (Youse) Maxon. It remains as a crown jewel in the Moore Youse Museum on the corner of Washington and Mulberry
where the young Conn family resided early in the county’s history.
Simon eventually retired from the freighting business and moved to his farm on North Walnut Street just south of today’s Delaware County Regional Airport. Despite
suffering serious injuries, thought even to be fatal, in 1895, Simon and wife, Sarah, would live to celebrate their sixty-second wedding anniversary. She passed away
on October 9, 1899. He died at his farm on March, 16, 1904, and was buried at Beech Grove Cemetery with Sarah and, eventually, a large portion of his family. His
official cause of death was influenza, then referred to as the grippe, but he had been in declining health for some time. He was remembered by family and friends as
a man who loved children who flocked around to hear the old pioneer’s stories. No doubt his funeral was attended en masse.
© On The Banks Of White River/Jennifer Lewis 2015, 2021
[An earlier version of this article appeared in the Delaware County (Indiana) Historical Society Newsletter, September/ October, 2015]
