Those Eternal Muskrats

I am in the process of indexing a daybook that begins in 1848. Early on, I came across another muskrats-vs.-dam story that took place in May of 1850. Muskrats tried to undermine what I believe is the Earle's Mill dam — but Isaac Spencer foiled their scheme.


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society.

Did he spend all those marked days working on the muskrat hole? — that must have been a very impressive hole.

The journal-keeper uses only his first initial, I, so I went looking in the 1850 Census and found Isaac Spencer, a 35-year-old carpenter, living in Hobart with his wife, Lucretia, and their children, Orsemus, Caroline, and Charles. We have previously heard of Orsemus, who married Lucy Hanks, sister of Henry Chester's second wife. Caroline eventually married Jesse B. Albee. As for Charles, he made music for local entertainments until his death in 1920.

According to Early Land Sales, in 1853 Isaac purchased Lots 57 and 58 in Section 32 of Hobart Township, which — assuming those lots are part of the original town of Hobart — would be on the northeast corner of Center and Second Streets, the site of the Rifenburg house and the parking lot next to it.

Isaac and Lucretia show up in Hobart Township in every census through 1880, then they vanish. I can't find out when either died or where they are buried.

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Below Isaac's entry in the ledger, we find someone who, it appears, may have worked with him on the dam for the last two days of May 1850. I had to stare at that name for about 15 seconds before I realized that it wasn't a woman's name, but a phonetic spelling of Lucius.

The 1850 Census shows Lucius in Hobart, working as a cooper (barrel-maker) like Edward Ensign, whom we've met before (and who also was born in Ohio, so I suppose there was some family connection). Lucius' household included his wife, Ellen, and four children, ranging in age from 13 to 3. Per the Indiana Marriage Collection, Lucius and Ellen were married in Porter County in 1845, so only the two youngest children could be theirs; the other might be from a previous marriage. Also in the household is a 70-year-old Hannah Ensign — perhaps Lucius' mother.

After 1850 the whole family vanishes, except for the youngest child, Linus, whom I think I've found in the 1870 Census living and working on the farm of Jacob Hale, along with Jacob's son-in-law, Edmund Ensign … who might be the same person as the Edward Ensign I mentioned above. (Exactly what relation he was to Linus, I don't know.) If I've found the right person, Linus soon married and moved to Kansas.