USA > Indiana > Washington County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Crawford County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Clark County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Scott County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Floyd County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Jennings County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 2
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This first county seat of Clark coun- ty has wholly disappeared.
Not a vestige of it remains to tell the curious where it once stood.
The site where it stood is now sim- ply an open country. Charlestown, with its vigorous and robust growth absorbed it and it soon passed away.
But few of the present inhabitants of Clark know that any such town ever existed.
The history of this first county seat is brief.
Early in 1800 a settlement was made upon grant No. 115 and from some canse a town sprang up as the township began to be settled.
Near this village was a spring which furnished good water for do- mestic purposes, and it is probable from this fact the village took the name of Springville.
The place grew to some size, per- haps numbering in its most prosper- ous days one hundred inhabitants.
Close by a still house was in active operation, several stores of trading posts came into existence which neces- sarily made it a great rendezvous for Indians.
A short distance west of Springville lived Jonathan Jennings, the first Gov- ernor of the State of Indiana, who was also engaged in maunfacturing whiskey.
Ile also had a mill which he op- erated in connection with his distil- lery and for the neighborhood accom- modation.
But all this prosperity was soon blighted.
The title to the lands became in- volved in dispute.
Law suits sprung up, trials were had, enemies were made which ended only in the ruin and abandonment of the town.
All these transactions took place within eight years. This settlement had been founded, had grown to be the most important place in the cen-
6
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
tral part of the county, had been fos- tered by being made the seat of gov. ernment for the county and died a nat- ural death, all within eight years.
There was no public court house at this time, nor was there any ever built at this place as far as can be discov- ered. The only court house at this time was simply a large room in one of the business buildings of the place, and was eminently lacking in the elegance of our modern temples of justice. But as short-lived as it was, the county seat was removed from it some years before it finally expired, and was taken to the town of Jeffersonville.
But here on this site where no hab- itation now stands, then the designated capital of the new county of Clark, assembled in solem conclave on the Tth day of April, 1801. the first court of justice ever held in southern Indi- ana. east of Blue river, in and for the body of Clark county in the Territory of Indiana.
It was named the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace. It was composed. under the commission of Governor William Henry Harrison and the seal of Indiana Territory, of Justices Marston Green Clark, Alma- ham Huff, James Noble Wood, Thomas Downs, William Goodwin, John Gib- son, Charles Tuley and William Har- wood. These were all good and sub- stantial men and stood prominent in the early history of the county.
It would afford an interesting chap- ter in the history of the pioneer settlements of southern ludiana to
trace the subsegment life of some of these men.
Samuel Gwathney, who had been appointed and commissioned the first clerk of the county, took his seat as «Jerk of this court.
Hle was also appointed clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and the clerk of the Orphans or Probate Court of the county.
Sammel Hay, the ancestor of the present sheriff of the county, Charles S. Hay, was appointed the first sheriff of the county.
The first and most important duty of this first session of the Court of Gener- eral Quarter Sessions of the Peace was to divide the county into civil town- ships and put the county administra tion of government into active and effective operation.
Its first act was to divide the county into three civil townships, and to ap- point peace officers, supervisors of roads, levy commissioners, overseers of the poor, etc. They divided the county into three townships which they designated as Clarksville, Spring- ville and Springhill.
The first named township covered the territory now included in Floyd and Harrison counties; the second, that of Springville, included within its boundaries all of what now constitutes Clark county between Silver Creek on the west to Fourteen Mile creek on the east and to its northern limits, and Springhill all east of that.
In the development and growth of the county in wealth and population,
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY
the necessity for frequent changes of the civil divisions of the county, from time to time for administrative pur- poses, have gone on until, at this time, not a single one of the names of these three original townships remains in the county.
Many and important changes in the divisions of the county into civil townships, to accommodate the people of the county in the management of their local interests, have been made since its original organization.
The county is now divided into twelve civil townships with which the people are satisfied.
Five of them, to-wit : Jeffersonville, Utica, Charlestown, Owen and Beth- lehem townships, border upon the Ohio river.
Washington and Oregon are in the northeast, Monroe and Wood on the north and northwest ; Carr and Silver Creek on the west, and Union in the center of the county. Jeffersonville township, including the city of Jef- fersonville and its suburban towns, contains near one-half of all the popu- lation and wealth of the county.
The immediate surrounding coun- ties have all been formed out of the original territory included in Clark county at the time of its formation. Floyd was organized in 1819, Wash- ington in 1814, Scott in 1820 and Jefferson in 1810.
In the organization of Scott county in 1820, part of its territory was taken from Clark county, and this was the last act reducing it.
Nor is it probable that it will ever again be further reduced.
It now has an area of 367 square miles, somewhat below the number of square miles, that of four hundred, which the constitution of the State prohibits a county to be reduced.
It is not likely that an amendment of the fundamental law of the State will be made for that purpose, or that a majority of the citizens of the county, would, under any circum- stances ever consent to it. The peo- ple of Clark county are proud of it as it stands and will hold it with an iron grasp complete in all its present proportions.
As before stated the county is now divided into twelve civil townships in such manner as supposed to be best adapted to the public convenience in voting at the annual elections, and the transaction of local township business and the maintenance of their public schools.
It must not be inferred that these local sub-divisions of the county have always existed as they are now found.
Many changes and reconstructions have been made in these divisions since the organization of the county.
As the population of the county in- creased, changes for their better accom- modation in the transactions of their township business became necessary, and the old boundary lines were altered and sometimes new townships were created.
It is not thought to be of sufficient importance to the general reader to
8
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
enter into an elaborate and detailed history of these changes until the present time.
Some of the older townships have undergone many changes since they were originally constructed, and new townships carved out of them.
To give the history of all these changes would require considerable space, too much in a short sketch like this.
But a brief reference to the organ- ization of the twelve townships into which the county now stands di- vided, is deemed necessary to complete the history of the county.
JEFFERSONVILLE TOWNSHIP.
This is now, in many respects, the most important township in the county.
It includes within its limits the city of Jeffersonville, the old town of Clarksville, the town of Fort Fulton and that of Claysburg.
It> wealth, as shown by the books in the county auditor's office and its population as shown by the census of Isso, make it nearly equal to that of all the remainder of the county. As now known, it was organized on the joth February, 1817.
A- then established, it included a much larger area of territory than now. Later in the same year, May 12th, however, the western boundaries of the township were changed by the formation of a new township west of Silver Creek which later on was made part of the new county of Floyd.
And two years still later, on the 12th of May, 1819, the boundary line be- tween Jeffersonville and Charlestown townships was changed, making it begin at the mouth of Pleasant Run, then in a direct line to the upper cor- ner of lot seventeen on the Ohio river, opposite the lower end of Dia- mond Island.
In 1831 when Utica township was established, the boundary line between the two became the permanent line between the two and remains so to this time.
UTICA TOWNSHIP.
This township, which lies joining to Jeffersonville township on its north- eastern boundary, was organized in 1831, and was taken principally from the territory of that and of Charles- town townships.
It took its name from the village of the same name, located on the banks of the Ohio river, about eight miles north of the city of Jeffersonville.
The township is bounded on the north by Charlestown township, on the east by the Ohio river, which washes from eight to ten miles of its territory, on the south and southwest by JJetfer- sonville township, and on the west by Jeffersonville and Silver Creek town- ships.
Upon an average it has the richest soil and is best adapted to agricultural pursuits of any township in the county.
During the early settlement of the county, on account of the lowlands
9
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY
along the river, there was a good deal of sickness, and especially ague and fever.
But since the high state of cultiva- tion to which these bottom lands have been subjected, that has all disap- peared and Utica is as healthy as any township in the county.
From the fact of its rich soil it has become noted as a market garden locali- ty, supplying Louisville and the cities around the Falls with a large quantity of garden products.
Indeed, agriculture, in all its varied departments, prospers in this rich township.
CHARLESTOWN TOWNSHIP.
The next township up the river ad- joining Utica is that of Charlestown.
It was organized in 1817, but has undergone many changes in its boun- daries since then.
Other townships were created around it as the convenience of the people required and it was made to contribute of its territory for that purpose until it was cut down to its present boundary.
From the time Clark county was organized until 1817, Charlestown, or the territory out of which Charles- town was formed, included the cen- tral and most promising portion of the grant. It was centrally located and afforded about equal facilities to the people of adjoining townships, in the transaction of their official busi- ness.
But as time increased the popula-
tion in other portions of the county, and distance was something of an item when it came to traveling some ten, twelve or fifteen miles to vote, changes were made to accommodate the pub- lic, in the organization of new town- ships out of the territory of the old ones.
In this way, Charlestown township was reduced in size by the organiza- tion of Owen on the north in 1830, that of Utica on the south in 1831, that of Oregon on the northeast in 1852, and Union in 1858, which was the last reduction made.
It is still a large and wealthy town- ship, being second only in wealth and population to that of Jeffersonville township.
The general surface of the township is undulating. The soil is a limestone loam, mixed with sand and is gener- ally productive.
While this is true in a general way, there is a good deal of thin land and it requires careful and intelligent management on the part of its own- ers to make it pay for the labor be- stowed upon it. The farms are gen- erally large and have the appearance of being the homes of thrift and cul- ture.
The only town of any importance in the township is that of Charlestown.
In connection with the county seat controversies during the history of the county, Charlestown has already been brought into prominence.
As a town, historical reminiscences of pleasing interests cling around it,
10
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
and at times played a highly impor- tant part in the history of Clark county.
About the time of the death of the town of Springville, which had been boosted into undue importance by being made the first county seat of the new county, and died as sud- denly by its removal a year afterward, a new town was laid off a few miles from where its predecessor had lived and died.
In 1808, the town of Charlestown was laid off in the woods.
Its god-fathers were Barzella Baker and a Mr. MeCampbell, the father of Mr. Samuel MeCampbell, the tan- ner known long afterwards, and the grandfather of James H. McCampbell, the banker, who recently died in the city of Jeffersonville.
Surveyors were set to work plat- ting it into lots still covered with the tall forest trees.
Charles Beggs and John Hay were the surveyors.
Charles Beggs, who was afterward one of the men who took a prominent part in the free state convention, held at Springville October 10th, 1807, contributed his name, with which to christen the new-born town, and it was named Charlestown.
Additions were made to the origi- nal plat, from time to time, until there were three hundred and ninety-nine lots, or about two hundred and forty acres of ground included within the town incorporation.
After it became the county seat, in 1811, in the manner detailed in the history of Jeffersonville by an act of the Legislative Assembly, (and what influences brought that about ought not to be hard to guess, remembering who was the godfather of the new town, and who was in the Legislature at the time, ) Charlestown had a boom and soon became a growing and pros- perous town.
The prestige of being the county seat where law and justice were dis- pensed for the large and growing county of Clark, soon attracted to it professional men, merchants and me- chanics of all trades.
Charlestown was noted from its start for the intelligence and high moral character of its citizens.
Some of the first and most distin- guished men in the State resided there.
Here resided such distinguished lawyers as Judge Charles Dewey, who served as Judge of the Supreme Court ; James Scott, a distinguished lawyer, a delegate to the convention that framed the State Constitution, and was afterwards one of the first Su- preme Judges of the State; Jonathan Jennings, delegate in Congress, dele- gate to the Constitutional Convention, and its president, and afterward the first Governor of the State; Isaac Howk, the father of Judge George V. Howk, of the Supreme Court, himself a distinguished lawyer, member of the Legislature several times and Speaker of the House; Judge James Ross,
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HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
presiding Judge of that Judicial Cir- cuit; Judge John II. Thompson, his successor in office; Benjamin Fergu- son, a distinguished lawyer and an associate Judge, the father of Judge Charles P. Ferguson, the presiding Justice of the Fourth Judicial Circuit; and many more, all resided in Charles- town.
These and many more, alike distin- guished in professional life, as doctors and ministers, professors and teachers, merchants and politicians have all passed away, but left their influence which they had stamped upon and gave character to Clark county as felt to-day.
The first thing to be done after be- ing made the county seat was to build a court house, which was done by erecting a commodious brick building on the public square.
This building, about thirty years afterward, was superseded by a new and larger brick building, which still stands in the public square and is now used, instead of a temple of justice, as a temple dedicated to the education of the rising generation.
Charlestown is a town of some fif- teen hundred inhabitants, one of the most healthy and pleasant places to live in, in the State. In its moral and religious aspects, and in its educational facilities, it is all that can be desired as a home.
Those who wish for a home where peace and quiet reigns supreme ; where morality and religion abound,
let them go to Charlestown, and there they will find them.
OWEN TOWNSHIP.
The next township, bordering on the Ohio river above that of Charles- town, is that of Owen.
The exact date of its organization is a little uncertain.
The records of the county court do not show the exact time of the order creating this township, but from the best data that can be had, it must have been within a year or two of 1830, and is supposed to have been named for John Owen, who was a commissioner of the county from 1824 to 1830. It is bounded on the east by the Ohio river and Bethlehem township, on the north by Oregon township, on the west by Charlestown township, and on the south and south- east by the Ohio river.
It is, in point of wealth and popu- lation, one of the smallest townships in the county.
Its population, according to the census of 1880 was only about 800, and its total valuation of property is placed at $300,000.
Part of the lands lying in Owen township belong to Clark's grant and part to the regular United States sur- vey.
Sixteen of the five hundred acre tracts of the grant lie in Owen, cut- ting the township into halves and all the lands outside the grant are divided into sections of six hundred and forty acres each.
12
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
The area of the township is a little over fourteen thousand acres of land. As a rule the soil is not rich and pro- ductive, and it requires the most care- ful treatment to make it pay a reason- able dividend to the farmers for the labor and expense bestowed upon it.
While the people of the township are not rich and make no great pre- tensions to the elegancies of life, they stand in good repute and are esteemed as a community of good and worthy citizens.
BETHLEHEM TOWNSHIP.
The village of Bethlehem antedates the organization of the township and gives it its name.
The town of Bethlehem was laid out in 1812, four years before the State was admitted into the Union.
Bethlehem township was organized in the spring of 1816; one of the four townships organized by the County Commissioners that year.
It lies wholly outside the grant lands and its land divisions belong to the regular United States Congres- sional surveys.
The township, as it now stands upon the map of the county, is bounded on the north by Jefferson county; on the east by the Ohio river; on the south and west by the Ohio river and Owen and Washington townships.
It is both in point of population and territory one of the smallest townships in Clark county; and yet in point of wealth according to the returns made for taxation purposes in 1886, at the
last land valuation, it exceeded Owen, Carr and Union.
Bethlehem township has some re- markable climatic features peculiar to itself.
It is said its climate is mild and equable.
Heavy dews are almost unknown in the summer and frosts in the winter, and even fogs are uncommon, and the people are unusually healthy.
The soil in Bethlehem township is of a diversified character, but as a gen- eral thing it is good, well adapted to the cultivation of the staple produc- tions of the farm.
Along the margins of its streams, where the beech, the white oak, buck- eye, poplar and black walnut grow in abundance, the soil is good and pro- duces well and well repays the husbandman for his toil.
"These lands," says the geologist, "will ever remain productive, because they are continually being enriched by the disintegration of the rocks above."
The soil is a dark loam, partaking of the shade of the limestones.
It has but few streams running through it.
Little Creek, a branch of Camp Creek, heads in the extreme north line of the township and runs in a south- westerly direction and empties into Camp Creek, which continues in the same direction, forming, for a short dis- tance, the boundary line between Beth- lehem and Owen townships before emptying into the Ohio river.
The bottom lands along these little
13
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY
streams and along the Ohio river make rich farms.
In the vicinity of the town of Beth- lehem lies a bottom of more than a thousand acres of rich land divided up into rich and cultivated farms, with well improved buildings and fences.
This body of land is known as the "Bethlehem Bottom."
The village of Bethlehem is the only town in the township.
It was located on the Ohio river about thirty miles above Jeffersonville, in 1812.
It is a place of some local impor- tance, noted as a steamboat landing place, and it ships to the markets above and below, the surplus produc- tions of the surrounding farmers.
It is a pleasant village, with some two hundred and fifty inhabitants, with good church and school facilities.
But with the few exceptions found in and around the village of Bethle- hem in the way of mechanics, mer- chants and professional men, the great body of the people of the township are engaged in farming, and, as a rule, the soil is well adapted to that pursuit.
The fruit industry is one of grow- ing importance in various portions of Clark county and especially upon the Knobs and upon the Ohio Bluffs in Owen and Bethlehem townships.
These knobs and bluffs have been found, by experiments, well adapted to the cultivation of the peach, and now the peaches grown in Clark county have taken the highest place in the fruit markets of the country.
In connection with the cultivation and shipment of these delicious fruits, large canning and preserving works at Bethlehem have been established to care for and utilize the surplus prod- uct.
This year some 20,000 peach trees have been planted along the Ohio Bluffs above Bull Creek alone.
The early settlement of Bethlehem township was made by a brave and venturesome race. Settlements were made as early as 1805. The Gittners, the Kelleys, the Hamiltons, the Sim- ingtons, the Abbotts, the Thislers, the Rodgers and Plaskets were the pio- neers of Bethlehem Township and converted the wilderness into smiling homes and cultivated fields.
The pioneers of Bethlehem town- ship seemed not to fear the Indians and cared not to provide themselves by artificial protection against danger from that source, or they felt them- selves able, open handed, to protect and defend themselves against savage aggression.
At one time, however, they did re- sort to a preparation for defence.
After the Pigeon Roost massacre they built a stockade on the high land overlooking the Ohio on the farm owned by Robert Simington.
But they soon got over their scare and had no use for their stockade.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.
This township, which was organized in 1816, lies in the extreme northeast part of the county.
14
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
It has been subjected to several changes since its original construction, until it assumed its present proportions and boundaries.
As it now stands it is bounded on the north by Jefferson and Scott coun- ties ; on the east by Bethlehem town- ship and Jefferson county; on the south by Owen township and on the west by Oregon township.
It covers an area of 22,690 acres of land, and its total valuation of lands in 1846 was 8332,410.
The topography of Washington township presents no new features to the general character of the land in that part of the county.
The surface is slightly broken along the streams.
Along the higher grounds, on the ridges from which the head waters of the creeks flow, the land is level, even sometimes to wetness.
In the vicinity of the village of New Washington, the drainage of the country is excellent and the produc- tiveness of the soil increased accord- ingly. The land in this locality is well adapted to the cultivation of wheat and even excellent erops of corn are raised. While there are no very rich men residing here, there are a number of well to do farmers seat- tered over the township, where refine- ment is found and elegant hospitality is dispensed.
New Washington is a prosperous village of some 400 inhabitants, situ- ated in this township, where they have good schools and church services
for the education and religious train- ing of their children.
OREGON TOWNSInP.
Oregon township, up to 1852, was a part of Charlestown township.
But in that year on the petition of the inhabitants of the northern por- tion of that township, setting forth the hardship and inconvenience of those living at that extreme end of the township in having to come so far to vote and attend to their township business, presented to the board of county commissioners, praying for the organization of a new township out of that portion of Charlestown town- ship.
Their request was granted and a new township was organized and named Oregon.
Exactly why it was given the name of Oregon is not apparent from any known facts, unless perhaps, about that time Oregon Territory filled a large space in the political history of the country, and those who had the christening of the new-born township had fallen in love with our far north- ern possession and named the town- ship accordingly.
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