Wayne county received a large number of immigrants from North Carolina at an early day, mostly Quakers.

The late Judge Test, whose father came to Indiana in 1810, and who remembered these immigrants, said: "They were fleeing from States where, at that time, the poor white man was regarded as little superior to the slave or the cattle with which they cultivated their fields. It was amusing to see them wending their way to their future homes. I have seen a family of eight or ten following on foot a cow, on the back of which was thrown a sack containing all their worldly goods, and when asked, 'Where are you from?' 'From Beard's Hatter Shop, North Carolina,' was the answer. On the next day you would meet just such another family following in the wake of a cart drawn by a poor old horse, whose ribs you could count at the distance of many yards. The cart had no tire except hickory withes, and not one ounce of iron entered into its structure. 'Where did you come from, friend?' 'From the shallow ford of the Big Yadkin, North Carolina,' would be the reply."

The judge said he became almost as familiar with the localities of the Carolinas as if he had lived there all his life.

These people were poor and ignorant, but they were the firm friends of freedom, and during the struggle to force slavery into Indiana every man fought and voted against it. The judge recalled a bit of personal experience. "It was a high commendation in those days," he said, "that a young woman was an adept in spinning and weaving. When I was a young man I occasionally visited the daughter of an old friend. The mother took me round the cabin and showed me the bundles of yarn her daughter had spun, and the beautiful cover lids she had woven. Of course, I was charmed, but I soon found my visits were far more agreeable to the mother than to the daughter, and the latter afterward married another man." The judge was never considered a handsome man. He was talented and brilliant, but he never prided himself on his good looks.