Notes for: Charles Franklin MCINDOO
Charles lived on the old homestead in Owen Co for about 48 years, then 10 years on a farm near Middletown, IN, next 6 years on a farm near Coal City, IN. He finally moved to Lyons about 1916 and he sold each farm before buying another. When Charles moved to Lyons, he was the last of John McIndoo and Sarah Bevis' children to move to this county, although his two daughters, Minnette Skomp and Sarah Criss had long preceded him to Lyons.
Charles F. McIndoo, whom the family called Uncle Doc related the following experiences that he had when a small boy. Once he went with his oldest brother and mother to visit their relatives at Freedom, 10 miles away. Their means of travel in those days was a wagon pulled by a team of oxen, called Tom and Buck. They left home early that morning and by noon had come to the river, where they decided to water the oxen which were unhitched and driven into the water so that the animals could drink. The oxen instead of stopping at the edge of the water went all the way across and would not come back. After much difficulty the stubborn oxen were induced to return to the wagon. The travelers finally reached Freedom, made their visit, and returned home late that day. That same 20 mile trip today can be made by automobile in 30 min.
A man built a small water-power mill on Rattlesnake Creek two miles north of the McIndoo farm. Many such water mills have recently been restored and we now have one in Washington, D.C. Uncle Doc said that all the corn to be ground was taken to the gristmill. The corn was shelled, put in a sack, and then placed on a horse in front of a boy who took it to the mill. Sometimes this trip took nearly all day, depending on how long the boy had to wait at the mill before his corn could be ground.
Uncle Doc's father build a water-power sawmill in the 1850's on the same creek. It, like the gristmill although larger, was run by water falling on a large wheel which turned the machinery that sawed the logs. The lumber used in construction the McIndoo home was sawed in the mill. People miles away also hauled their logs to this mill to have them sawed into lumber. By Norman Eugene McIndoo 1949