A historical sketch of Johnson county, Indiana, Part 11

Author: Banta, D. D. (David Demaree), 1833-1896
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 186


USA > Indiana > Johnson County > A historical sketch of Johnson county, Indiana > Part 11


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106


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


COUNTY TREASURERS.


Joseph Young. 1823 to 1827


John Adams


1828 to 1836


John Herriott. 1861 to 1863


Robert Gilcrees 1836 to 1841


Hascall N. Pinney 1863 to 1865


Madison Vandiver2 .1841 to 1842


William S. Ragsdale. 1865 to 1869


William C. Jones 1842 to 1843


John W. Wilson (died be- fore term commenced).


William F. Johns1 .1843 to 1844


William Bridges2 .1844 to 1850


George Cutsinger .. 1869 to 1874


Henry Fox 3 1850 to 1853


John W. Ragsdale. 1874 to 1878


William H. Jennings. 1853 to 1856


George W. Gilchrist. 1878


...


SHERIFFS.


John Smiley 1823 to 1827


Robert Johnson, Nixon


Hughes and Wm. Bridges .. 1847


John Thompson


1831 to 1835


William H. Jennings. ... .. 1847 to 1851


David Allen


1835 to 1839


H. L. McClellan .1851 to 1855


Isaac Jones


1839 to 1841


Noah Perry 1855 to 1857


Unknown. 1841 to 1842


Eli Butler. .1857 to 1861


Austin Jacobs 2 1842 to 1844


John W. Higgins 1861 to 1865


William W. Owens 1865 to 1869


Samuel Hall3, John Jack- son3, Wm. C. Jones3 *1844


Robert Gillaspy 1869 to 1873


David Allen 1844 to 1845


James H. Pudney 1873 to 1877


William Neal. 1877


COUNTY AUDITORS.


Jacob Siberti. 1841 to 1846


William H. Barnett 1868 to 1871


Jonathan H. Williams. .. 1851 to 1855


E. N. Woollen


1871 to 1875


George W. Allison. .1855 to 1859


W. C. Bice


1875 to 1879


Elijah Bennett 1859 to 1863


W. B. Jennings. 1879


COUNTY ASSESSORS.


William C. Jones 1840


Jeremiah M. Woodruff. 1846


James Hughes.


1841


Malcolm M. Crow 1848


Daniel McClain


1843


Fortunatus C. Buchanan, 1850


David R. McGaughey 2 1844


Hume Sturgeon. ±1851


John Ritchey 3


1844


COLLECTORS OF COUNTY REVENUE.


Robert Gilcrees. ........ 1826 to 1827 - David Allen (Sheriff) .. 1835 to 1838


Joab Woodruff (Sheriff ) ... 1827 to 1831


Hiram T. Craig.


.1838 to 1839


John Thompson (Sheriff) .. 1831 to 1835


Arthur Mullikin. 21839 to 1840


RECORDERS.


William Shaffer.


1823 to 1836


Willet Tyler


1863 to 1867


Pierson Murphy. 1836 to 1843


Jacob Peggs.


1867 to 1875


Thomas Alexander3 1843 to 1844


George W. Demaree. 1875 to 1879


Jacob Peggs.


1844 to 1859


J. R. Clemmer 1879 ......


William S. Ragsdale 1859 to 1863


*Great confusion seems to have existed from 1844 to 1851 in the Sheriff's office. All the persons named seem to have served during that interval.


+Business transferred to Clerk's office by Act of Legislature.


+Office abolished, and work given to township officers. 2Office consolidated with County Treasurers.


Jacob F. McClellan 1856 to 1861


Joab Woodruff. .1827 to 1831


107


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


COUNTY SURVEYORS.


The following persons are known to have served. The list is made up mainly from memory : James H. Wishard.


Thomas Williams.


P. K. Parr. William W. Hubbard.


Franklin Hardie.


Joseph J. Moore.


John S. Hougham.


William M. Elliott.


Hiram Graves.


Wilson T. Hougham.


G. M. Overstreet.


David A. Leach.


CORONER.


This has been a county office from the beginning, but there are no records or other sources of information accessible which would afford aid in the compilation of the names of the persons who have held the office.


108


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


CHAPTER XV.


BLUE RIVER TOWNSHIP.


About the year 1814, John Campbell, a young man, left his native State, Tennessee, to find a home north of the Ohio. Fate directed his footsteps to the vicinity of Waynesville, in that State, where he married Ruth Perkins, who was born near Columbia, S. C., but was living at the time with an aunt. In 1817, he moved to Connersville, and, in 1820, he moved to the New Pur- chase, reaching Blue River near the present site of Edinburg on the 4th of March of that year. His wife and four sons accompanied him, and four little girls were left behind, but after- ward came through on horseback. Benjamin Crews helped him to drive his team and stock through to Blue River. The road which they cut out must have been the most primitive of paths, for two years after, when Alexander Thompson, Israel Watts and William Runnells came over the same general route, they found a wagon road to the Flat Rock Creek, south of Rushville, but from there on they had to cut their own way.


Campbell settled on a tract of land lying immediately south of the present site of Edinburg, while Benjamin Crews, who at once returned to Connersville for his own family, stopped on the south side of the county line. A little cabin was presently erected in the woods, and the venturesome Campbell set about the preparations for a crop of corn, and patiently awaited the arrival of neighbors. But he did not have to wait very long. The great Indian trail led from the Kentucky River through this township, and Richard Berry had come out upon it and located in the edge of Bartholomew County, at the mouth of Sugar Creek, and established a ferry. His place was known far and near. It is said that a half-dozen or more families followed Campbell into the Blue River woods the same spring, but there is much uncertainty at this time, as to this ; but it is certain that there was, during the year, a larger accession to Campbell's set- tlement. The lands, since incorporated into Blue River Town- ship, were surveyed in August of that year by John Hendricks, a Government Surveyor, and on the 4th day of October, these lands were first exposed for sale at the land office in Brookville. That day, three purchases were made of Blue River lands, and the first in the county, by James Jacobs, William W. Robinson, and John Campbell (of Sugar Creek), while on the day following,


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


nine purchases were made by the following persons : Zachariah Sparks, John Campbell (the first settler), Alexander Thompson, Thomas Ralston, Amos Durbin, Jonathan Lyon, Isaac Wilson, Robert Wilson, and Francis Brock. There were thirty-nine entries in all made before the close of the year, making a total of 4,400 acres, and of these entries eighteen were of quarter-sec- tions, and the remainder of eighty-acre tracts.


In so far as is now known, eighteen families moved into the new settlement in 1820, and of these Henry Cutsinger, Simon Shaffer, Jesse Dawson, Zachariah Sparks, Elias Brock, Joseph Townsend were Kentuckians ; William Williams, and, as already said, John Campbell, were Tennesseeans ; Amos Durbin was from Virginia; John A. Mow and Joshua Palmer, from Ohio; Isaac Marshal and John Wheeler, from North Carolina; Samuel Her- riott, from Pennsylvania, while Louis Bishop, Thomas Ralston and Richard Connor's natal places are unknown.


The new settlement was auspiciously begun, and had a remarka- ble growth for its day. The hardships that usually attended the backwoodsmen of their times, fell to their lot; and it is remem- bered that death made an inroad into the settlement, carrying off that fall, first the wife of Joseph Townsend, and next, Richard Connor. When John Williams came to Bartholomew County in September, 1820, with his father, he visited Campbell, and, at that time, Joseph Townsend was living in a cabin next the hill whereon stands Mr. John Thompson's residence. When his wife died, Allen Williams knocked the back out of his kitchen cup- board, and, with the lumber thus obtained, made her a coffin. She and also Richard Connor lie buried in the hill west of town, but their immediate places of sepulture are forgotten. Mrs. Townsend was, it is believed, the first white person who died within the township, and also in the county.


The second year of the settlement, twenty-seven families are known to have moved in. John Adams came from Kentucky and moved to the north end of the township, and founded the Adams neighborhood. Richard Foster and John and William, his brothers, Patrick Adams, Patrick Cowan, Arthur Robinson, Curtis Pritchard, David Webb, William R. Hensly, William C. Robinson, James Farrell, John Adams, John P. Barnett, Jacob Cutsinger. Isaac Harvey (a Baptist preacher), Lewis Hays, William Rutherford, Jefferson D. Jones, Thomas Russell and Samuel Aldridge, all Kentuckians; and Isaac Collier, Israel Watts and Jonathan Hougham, Ohioans ; and Alexander Thomp- son, from Virginia ; Jesse Wells and Thomas Doan, from North Carolina, and William Runnells, from Tennesee, moved in. By


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


the close of this year, the lands contiguous to Blue River were taken up, and a line of settlement extended nearly across the south side of the township, while John Campbell, an Irishman, had laid the foundation of a settlement at the month of Sugar Creek. and Louis Hays and William Rutherford had joined John Adams' settlement higher up the creek.


In 1822, fourteen families moved in. Of these Able Webb, James Connor, Hezekiah Davison, William Hunt, James M. Dan- iels, John Shipp, William Barnett, David Durbin, Hiram Ald- ridge and Thomas Russell were from Kentucky. Charles Martin and Samuel Umpstead were from Ohio, and it is not ascertaincd whence came Baker Wells and Samuel Johnson, who came in this year. In 1823, William Freeman moved from Bartholo- mew County into the township, and Richard Shipp and John Hen- drickson also moved in. All these were Kentucky born. By the close of 1823, there were at least sixty-three families living in the township.


It is uncertain when the town of Edinburg was laid out, but, from all the evidence that has been adduced, it would seem that it could not have been later than in the spring of 1822. It is hard to reconcile this date with certain records in existence, but so many of the old men during the past fifteen years have as- serted their confidence in a date not later than the one given, that it would seem to be safe to follow it. Louis Bishop and Alexan- der Thompson were the projectors of the place. They early saw that a town would be a necessity to the country which was des- tined to grow up about them within a few years, and determined that the necessity should be supplied on the banks of the Blue River. This was the center of a thriving settlement. The lands surrounding it for many miles were of the finest quality, and the "rapids " in Blue River offered a splendid mill site, and so the town was located.


If the date of its location is uncertain the origin of the name is equally so. One account attributes it to a circumstance too trifling for historical belief. It is said that, on the evening of the day the new town was platted, Edward Adams, a brother-in-law of Bishop, "a good easy soul," familiarly known by the dimin- utive, "Eddie," having been encouraged by a too frequent use of the bottle, to demand some recognition. asked that the new town be named in honor of himself, and that, by common con- sent, the place was named Eddiesburg, and that, in a short time, it took on the statelier name of Edinburg. That it was under- stood at the time by many that the name was in some manner connected with Edward Adams, there can be no doubt, but there


111


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


is other, and I think better, authority that the name was given by Alexander Thompson, who was a Scotchman by birth, in mem- ory of the capital of his native country. In the first records which we have, the name is spelled with over-exactness, " Eding- burg," an orthography which scarcely could have grown out of Eddiesburg in its transition state to Edinburg.


The new town had a recognition from the start. Booth & Newby, merchants in Salem, Ind., determined on opening a stock of goods suitable to the wants of the backwoods, at some point in the Blue River country, and selected Edinburg as the place. Alexander Thompson was accordingly employed to build them a suitable storeroom for the purpose, which he did in 1822. This house was built about eighty feet south of Main cross, on Main street, and. in the fall of the year, William R. Hensly, agent for Booth & Newby, brought a boat-load of goods up the Blue River to the mouth of Sugar Creek, and, "on a Sunday, the boys " went down and carried his goods up to the store on their shoulders. This was the first stock of goods exposed for sale in both township and county.


While Thompson was building the new stone house, Isaac Col- lier, William Hunt and Patrick Cowen were erecting dwelling- houses on Main street, and John Adams one on Main street cross. Collier soon after set up a blacksmith-shop, the first in the coun- ty, and Louis Bishop opened the first tavern.


" In the fall of 1822," says Ambrose Barnett, "the place con- tained four families, whose log cabins were scattered over a con- siderable tract of ground in the midst of the native forest trees."


In May, 1826, Thomas Carter was licensed by the Board of Justices of the county to keep a tavern, and the next March, Pat- rick Cowen received the like privilege, and in May following Louis Bishop again took out a license. About this time, one David Stip, also appears as a tavern-keeper.


How long Booth & Newby continued in the mercantile business is uncertain, but in July, 1826. Gwin & Washburn, and also Israel Watts went into the business, and in July, 1828, George B. Hol- land likewise.


In 1832, Austin Shipp and Timothy Threlkeld were licensed to vend merchandise, and the same year, Simon Abbott, in addi- tion to the right to retail " foreign and domestic goods," added " spirituous liquors," also.


The location of Edinburg was unfavorable to good order during the early years of its existence. It soon became a common ren- dezvous for the hard drinking and evil disposed from all the sur- rounding country, and it was an easy matter for the law-breakers


112


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


to mount their horses and flee across the line into Bartholomew or Shelby Counties, and then defy the pursuing Constables. Some time in 1830, a man by the name of Jesse Cole was killed in a drunken row in the town, and not long after, Lunsford Jones and John Frazier had a quarrel while in their cups, but renewing their friendship the same day, set out for their homes after nightfall. Both were intoxicated, and while crossing the river, Jones lost his seat and was drowned, while his horse went home. Frazier was suspected of having somehow brought about Jones' death, but the fact was never proven against him. Frazier was a desperado of the worst type. In 1838, he and one Valentine Lane had a diffi- culty at Foster's Mill, when Lane chastised him personally. Thereupon, Frazier left, and arming himself, returned, and renew- ing the fight, he stabbed his antagonist till he died.


In August, 1840, Frazier maltreated his wife, so that she was compelled to leave him and swear out a peace warrant against him. Being arrested and on his way to Edinburg, he passed the house of Allen Stafford, where his wife was staying, and obtained leave to stop and talk with her. On stepping out of the door, as he requested her to do, he struck her a blow with his knife, inflict- ing a wound from which she ultimately died. Then he stabbed himself, but not fatally. Being put to his trial, he was sentenced to fourteen years in the penitentiary, and Isaac Jones, who was then Sheriff, and his brother William C. Jones and Elias Voris, conducted him to Jeffersonville, where he, too, soon died. On their way home they passed through Salem, and there they got in a quarrel with a party of strangers, when Voris, who was a very powerful man, whipped the crowd. Warrants were then put out by the civil authorities for the arrest of Voris and the Joneses, when they fled the place, but by some means Voris became separated from his companions. The strangers pursued and overtook him, and most foully murdered him in the woods, severing his head from his body. They in turn made their escape.


In 1827, James Thompson availed himself of the splendid water power on Blue River, opposite the town, and took steps to secure the right of erecting a mill at that place. A jury was summoned, under the law, one of whom. Thomas Barnett, is still living. The condemnation was made, and Thompson built a grist and saw mill. This enterprise was not only an immediate benefit to the place, but in the hands of the Thompson family has ever since been a source of strength to the town.


Other mills were afterward built. Both Blue River and Sugar Creek are well adapted to mill purposes in the township.


113


HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


CHAPTER XVI.


NINEVEH TOWNSHIP.


Nineveh Township is one of the oldest townships in the county, having been organized the same spring the county government was inaugurated.


In the spring of 1821, Amos Durbin, who was from Kentucky, settled over on the east side, and thus became the pioneer settler of the township.


In the fall of the same year, Robert Worl, an Ohio man, floated down the Ohio River to some point on the Indiana side, and thence picked his way to the New Purchase, mostly by the Indian trace. Reaching the Blue River settlement, he journeyed on and arrived on the Nineveh in the month of September, and built him a cabin about a mile east of the present town of Williamsburg.


In 1822, eleven new men are known to have come in. On the 15th of March, Joab Woodruff and William Strain came from Ohio, and as they passed through the Blue River settlement, their old neighbor, Ben Crews, picked up and came over with them. Henry Burkhart and George, his brother, from Kentucky, settled in the north side, on the Indian trail, and left the Burkhart name in Burkhart's Creek. Adam Lash is set down as coming that year, and also Daniel and Henry Mussulman, and James Dunn, from Kentucky, and David Trout, from Virginia, and John S. Miller, from North Carolina.


The next year, James and William Gillaspy, William Spears, Curtis Pritchard, Louis Pritchard and Richard Perry, Ken- tuckians, and Jeremiah Dunham, an Ohioan, and Elijah De Hart, from North Carolina, moved in.


In 1824, Robert Moore and Aaron Dunham, of Ohio, arrived, and Isaac Walker, Perry Baily, George Baily, Joseph Thompson and Robert Forsyth, all from Kentucky. Forsyth was delayed at the driftwood by high water, but when he did cross, Mrs. Nancy Forsyth, his wife, mounted upon the back of a horse, with a bag of meal under her, rode out to their new home, carrying her child, James P., who was two years old, in her arms, and he car- ried a house-cat in his. It was late when they reached their place, but John S. Miller, Henry Mussulman and some others " whirled in " and helped to clear four acres of corn ground, on which a fair crop of corn was raised, and the bean vines grew so luxuriantly that they mounted into the lower branches of the trees.


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


The year before that, David Trout was prostrated by a long and severe sickness, but his neighbors did not neglect him. On stated days they met at his place, and his corn was planted and plowed with as much care as any man's in the neighborhood.


In 1825, Daniel Pritchard, John Parkhurst, William Irving and Amos Mitchel, from Kentucky, and Jesse Young, from Ohio, moved in ; and, in the year following, came Thomas Elliott, Pret- tyman Burton, William Keaton, Clark Tucker, Daniel Hutto, John Hall. John Elliott, all Kentuckians, and Thomas Griffith, Samuel Griffith, Richard Wheeler, James McKane, James and John Wylie, Ohioans.


In 1827, of those who came, John Kindle, Aaron Burget and the Calvins-James, Luke. Thomas and Hiram-Milton Mc- Quade, John Dodd, Robert Works and, as is supposed, George Harger and Jeremiah Hibbs, are all believed to have been from Ohio, and James Mullikin, David Forsyth and James Hughes, from Kentucky. The next year, Joseph Featheringill, Gabriel Givens, Mrs. Sarah Mathes and James White came, followed by Hume Sturgeon, in 1829, and by Walter Black, David Dunham, John Wilks and Aaron Burget, in 1830. Sturgeon was from Kentucky, Mrs. Mathes from Virginia, and the others from Ohio, save Black, whose native place is uncertain.


It is not pretended that these were all the men who moved into Nineveh up to the last year mentioned, nor is it claimed that the true date is given in every instance. The list and dates are only approximately correct.


The first election held in Nineveh Township was at the house of John Henry, in August, 1823. and nineteen votes were polled, but as all the territory comprised in the present townships of Franklin, Union and Hensley, as well as Nineveh proper, com- prised Nineveh then, and as some voters came from Sugar Creck to vote, these nineteen votes do not measure the strength of Nineveh at that time. On the 25th of September, 1825. an election was held for the election of a Justice, at the house of Daniel Mussulman, and thirty-nine votes were cast. Of these, David Durbin received twenty, and Jesse Young, nineteen. On the 12th of November following, another election for Justice was held at the same place, when thirty-one votes were cast, Joab Woodruff receiving twenty-four, and Edward Ware, seven. In 1827, at an elcetion for Justice, Curtis Pritchard and Amos Dur- bin were voted for, and each received nineteen votes, and there- upon lots were cast, and Pritchard was declared elected. In 1824, the like thing happened in White River Township, Arch- ibald Glenn and Nathaniel Bell each receiving seventeen votes for Justice. Lots were cast and Glenn won.


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


The early residents of Nineveh were fairly divided between Ohio and Kentucky men. While the Kentuckians constituted a majority in nearly every township, there were but few Ohioans in any one save Nineveh.


Williamsburg, laid out by Daniel Mussulman, was, during its infancy, a rival of Edinburg. Joab Woodruff brought an assort- ment of dry goods to his house and sold them at an early date in the township's history, and, in 1830, the record of the Board of Justices shows that Daniel Mussulman was licensed to vend for- eign and domestic groceries, and that Woodruff held a license to sell at the same time. In 1831, Henry Mussulman procured a license to keep a grocery, and, in the next year, A. H. Scroggins & Co. went into the mercantile business in the place. Glancing along the pages of the old records, the further fact is dis- closed that, in 1838, Thomas Mullikin was licensed to vend " do- mestic and foreign merchandise," and, in the year following, James Mills obtained a permit to sell whisky and dry goods.


The first church organized in the township was at the house of Daniel Mussulman, by Elder Mordecai Cole, a Baptist preacher, and it was named the "Nineveh Church."


It is probable that Aaron Dunham taught the first school, soon after he came, in 1824. In 1826. Benjamin Bailey was teach- ing in a cabin with an earthen floor, near the Vickerman place.


In 1831, William Vickerman moved in, and built the first wool-carding factory that was successfully run in the county.


The first death in the township was a little child of Daniel Mussulman, that was burned to death. Shortly after, James Dunn and Nancy Pritchard both died ; and in twenty-two months after the arrival of Thomas Griffith, on the 21st of October, 1826, he died, leaving a widow with a family of little children. Grif- fith was the first blacksmith in the township.


About half the original settlers of Nineveh Township were Ohioans ; the others were mainly Kentuckians. Nineveh was the Ohio settlement of the county.


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


CHAPTER XVII.


FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.


In 1822, in the first half of the year, as is supposed, William Burkhart, from Green County, Ky., and Levi Moore, built the first cabins in Franklin Township. They came by the way of the Indian trail, and Burkhart built his cabin on the banks of the little creek, where Michael Canary afterward lived and died, while Moore went out as far as the Big Spring, and then turning to the east, located at the knoll, a few hundred yards west of Young's Creek, where John McCaslin's house stands. Moore afterward moved to the farm now owned by Aaron Legrange, and there built a mill, the third built in the township ; but he moved to a newer country within a few years, leaving an unsavory repu- tation behind him. Moore's Creek commemorates his name.


In the spring of 1823, George King, Simon Covert and David W. McCaslin, accompanied by Isaac Voris, a young man, moved from Kentucky, and began clearings near the mouth of Camp Creek, or, as it afterward came to be known, Covert's Creek, after which, it took its present name of Hurricane. There was no road cut out beyond John Adams' place, now Amity, and the movers being joined by Robert Gilchrist, " bushed " the way out to their future home. On the afternoon of a day in March, they reached Camp Creek ; but finding the stream high, and not knowing the fords, they encamped for the night on the high ground, where stand the college buildings. All returned to Adams, save Covert and Voris, who, when night came, milked the cows, milking into and drinking out of the cow bells that had been brought for use in the range. The next morning, the pil- grims crossed over the turbulent stream, and at once began the work of building King's cabin on a knoll west of the present crossing of the Cincinnati & Martinsville Railroad and Jefferson street. That being up, McCaslin's was built on the south side of Young's Creek, and Covert's on the east side of the Hurricane.




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