USA > Indiana > Washington County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 23
USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 23
USA > Indiana > Crawford County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 23
USA > Indiana > Clark County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 23
USA > Indiana > Scott County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 23
USA > Indiana > Floyd County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 23
USA > Indiana > Jennings County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 23
USA > Indiana > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
KENT, Republican township, is in section thirty-two, town V north, range VI east. Was platted by James Blaukinship, April 9th, 1853, and for- merly called Ramsey's Mills post office. There are three good stores, two churches, a good school-house, a large flour mill, two doctors' offices, a black- smith shop and post-office. The popu- lation is about 350. It is a nice clean, tidy-looking little place. It is eight miles west from Madison.
LANCASTER, Lancaster township, is in section thirty-three, town V north, range 1X east. Post office, several stores, one church, a fine merchant mill and school-house. Situated at the con- fluence of Big Creek and Middle Fork, on the north side of Big Creek.
COLLEGE HILL is just across Big Creek from Lancaster. Subjoined is a sketch of the college formerly located there.
College Hill .- This institution was founded in 1850 by Elder Thomas Cravens and son, John G. Cravens. It was called an Elentherean college.
It was located at Lancaster, Lan- caster township, Jefferson county. It was intended as a school where all
203
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
could be educated without regard to color, but especially in the interest of the negro.
It was founded by Elder Thomas Cravens and his son John G. Cravens. They came to Lancaster in 1848 and taught school in a church house that year. In 1849 they built a boarding house. In 1850 they began building the college edifice. Their ideas were so obnoxious to some of the neighbor-
ing citizen that the church and some of the boarding houses were burned, and the founders of the institution were persecuted in various ways. Notwithstanding all these hindrances, they persevered, and erected a large stone college and a stone boarding house. In 1855 they commenced teaching in the new building.
The organization was: President, Elder Thomas Cravens ; John G. Cravens, Professor and Business Man- ager. Trustees : James Nelson, John H. Tibbets, Lyman Hoyt, David Hughes and Lemuel Record.
After some months they had from seventy-five to eighty students and boarders, about equally divided as to color. It was in its prime from 1857 to 1860, and has gradually dwindled away until the school ceased to exist and the building now belongs to the township, and is used as a public school building.
NORTH MADISON, Madison township. Section twenty-seven, town IV north, range X east. It was platted by Robert J. Elvin, Wm. H. Branham, and David Branham, October 27th,
1846. It has a post-office, several stores, a Baptist, Methodist and Cath- olie church, a fine public and high school building, and a large number of railroad buildings. Its population is 1,000. It is located at the head of the inclined plane of the railroad, one and three-quarters miles from Madison.
WIRT, Madison township, is in sec- tion seven, town IV north, range X east, was laid out by John W. Parsons and James Burns, July 18th, 1837. There is a store, blacksmith shop and post office here. Population of about fifty. There is a Baptist church and a school-house in the town. There are two resident physicians.
COL. JOHN PAUL was the fourth child and second son of Michael Paul and Ann Parker, who were married at Germantown about the year 1751 or 1752. Michael Paul was a native of Holland. The time and place of his birth is unknown, as is also the date of his emigration to this country, and the fact as to whether he came alone, or with others of his father's family; however, it is known that he had two brothers who lived at the same place -Germantown, Penn. He left Ger- mantown in the year of 1766 or 1777, and went to Redstone, Old Fort, now Brownsville, Penn. From there he went to what is now West Virginia, and from there, in 1781, to Hardin county, Kentucky, where he died in 1801.
Ann Parker was born in German-
204
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
town, Penn., in the year 1724. She belonged to the order of the Dunkards. She was a cousin to Rev. Samuel Davis, D. D., a noted Presbyterian preacher of that day, and president of one of the early theological schools of Pennsylvania or New Jersey (perhaps of Princeton.) She died in Hardin county, Ky., in June, 1813, at the age of 89. They were the parents of seven children.
John, the subject of this sketch, being the fourth. He was born in Germantown, Penn., November 12th, 1758, and died June 6th, 1830, in Madi- son, Ind. He went with his father to Brownsville and to Virginia, and after- wards to Kentucky.
In the year of 1778, he went with the expedition of Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark in the campaign against the Indians in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. The expedition went by boats from Louisville, Ky., to Kaskaskia (now) Illinois. When they debarked at Kas- kaskia, the soldiers had to wade for a great distance in water up to the armpits, carrying their guns and pow- der horns above their heads to keep them dry, before reaching the fort. In 1794, he was married to Miss Sarah Thomberry Grover, at Danville, Ky. She was born in or near Baltimore, Md., March 21st, 1775, and went to Kentucky with her parents somewhere in the decade of 1780. They had four children, Mary Berry, the oldest, dying quite young.
In 1809, Col. Paul left Xenia and came to the Indiana Territory, landing
with his family at the point where Madison now stands, on October 6th. Previous to this, he had gone to the "Vendue" of public lands at Vin- cennes, where he bought the land upon which New Albany now stands. Upon his trip home from that sale he stopped at his purchase to fix a home, but concluding that it was an unhealthy locality, he prospected along the river for a more healthy situation. He decided upon the present site of Madison as being best suited to his wishes, and went home to Ohio to await the opening of the sales at Jefferson- ville where this land was to be sold. In the spring of 1809, he went to the sale and bought the land, and returned home and arranged for the immediate removal of his family to this place, where he afterwards lived till his death.
Col. Paul was a man full of the milk of human kindness. His benefactions in the way of property for public uses are seen all along the pathway of his life. At Xenia, Ohio, he gave the site for the court house. In Madison, the ground for the old graveyard, on Third street ; the site for Wesley Chapel Church, now the opera house. In Rip- ley county, Indiana, the ground for the graveyard in Versailles, and ground for the Academy. He was a practical surveyor, and a very good judge of the quality of land; as is proven by the fact that a great many tracts of the best land in this county and Ripley were bought by him from the United States government.
205
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
He was a man endowed by nature with all of the elements of a leader amongst men, and he was one. In this day and generation he would have been called an athlete on account of his strength, activity, and powers of endurance.
He was tall, of a fine attractive physique; he had a commanding appearance. Kind hearted, he was gentle in manner to all, tender to those in distress ; magnanimous, he was generous to a fault, always a friend to the poor and helpless, and ready to lift up and help forward young men. He was beloved by his friends, and respected by all men who knew him, even by his enemies,-for, like all men of positive character, he had them. He was an energetic busi- ness man, and engaged in farming, milling and real estate business. He was the first representative in the Territorial Assembly from this part of Clark county, and was a member of the Legislature after this county was organized. He was elected as Senator from Switzerland and Jeffer- son counties to the first Legislature of the State of Indiana, which convened at Corydon, Monday, November 4th, 1816. He was called to the chair of the Senate as President pro tempore, and was the first presiding officer of the State.
He was the first Clerk and Recorder of this county, which offices he held for many years.
Col. Paul was the first clerk of Greene county, Ohio, and laid out the
town of Xenia in that county. He also named Jefferson county and Mad- ison town.
Col. John Vawter, in a letter written in 1850, says of Col. Paul : "He was one of George Rogers Clarke's men in the expedition against the British posts at Detroit, Mich., and Kaskaskia, Ill. He was at the capture of Vin- cennes in 1779, February 24th."
At the time he located in this county, his family consisted of him- self and his wife, Miss Ruth Grover, a niece of his wife who made her home with them, and three children : The eldest, Ann Parker, was born March 18th, 1799, in Harding county, Ky., Jobn P., who was born in Greene county, Ohio, December 23d, 1800, and Sarah G., who was born March 21st, 1802, in Greene county, Ohio.
Ann Parker was married May 19th, 1816, to William Hendricks. From this union were born nine children. She died September 12th, 1887, in the 89th year of her age. John Peter Paul was a graduate of Washington College, and became a surveyor. He was married to Miss Eliza Meek. He died in September, 1835, in Clark county, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. Sarah G. Paul was married three times ; her first husband was Dr. Robert Cravens, who died leaving one son, Judge John R. Cravens (who still resides here in Madison); her second husband was Dr. Samuel M. Goode, who died leaving one son now living here in the city, and known as Dr. Goode. Her third husband was
206
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
B. C. Stevenson, a Methodist preacher. She died in September 14th, 1877, aged -. Mrs. Paul, the mother of the family, died May 8th, 1866, in the 92nd year of her age.
Col. Paul and his wife and daughter, Mrs. Stevenson, are all buried in the old graveyard on Third street, in the city of Madison.
GOV. WILLIAM HENDRICKS, L. L. D., was born in Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland county, Penn., Nov. 12th, 1782. His parents were Abraham and Ann (Jamison) Hendricks. He was brought up on a farm, and edu- cated himself, laboring at different occupations in order to make the money for his support during his school and college life.
Among other labors, he was a hand in a powder mill or factory for one year. When he was fitted by his studies for the calling, he taught school, and finally by means made by this occupation, finished his course at college at Cannonsburgh, Pa., in the year 1810. After graduating he came west to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he studied law in the office of Mr. Corry, teaching school in order to support himself for the bar. He remained in Cincinnati till the year 1812, when he came to Madison where he settled, and lived all of the remainder of his life, excepting two years which he spent at Corydon, while he was Governor of the State. In the records of the common pleas court of Jefferson
county, Indian Territory, July 5th, 1813, is this entry : " William Hend- ricks presented to the court license as counsellor and attorney at law, and thereupon took the oath required by the laws of the territory.
In connection with Wm. Cameron, he established a printing office and published a paper called the Western Eagle, the first issue of which was dated Madison, Indiana Territory, May 26th, 1813. It was the second paper printed in the State, the West- ern Sun being the first-published at Vincennes. He sold his interest to Cameron in 1815.
In the spring of 1813 he was made Secretary of the Territorial Legisla ture, at Vincennes, which was then the seat of government. "The Legis- lature of Indiana Territory was not convened in the year 1812; but on the 18th of December in that year, General John Gibson, the Secretary and acting Governor of the Territory, issued a proclamation, in which he required the Territorial legislature to meet at Vincennes, on the 1st of Feb- ruary, 1813." (Dillon's History of Indiana, page 517.)
In the summer of 1814 he was elected as a member of the Territorial Legislature.
In June, 1816 he was appointed Secretary of the Convention to form a State Constitution. This convention met at Corydon, the seat of govern- ment for the State, on the 10th day of June, and adjourned on the 29th of the same month, having completed
207
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
their work, and made the first Consti- tution for the State of Indiana.
In August, 1816, he was elected as the first and sole Representative to Congress from the State, and served three successive terms, until 1822, when he was elected Governor. He removed to Corydon (then the seat of government) in the fall of 1822, and lived there until the spring of 1825. The trip was made from Madison to Jeffersonville, in a flat boat, in which was carried all of his household furni- ture and goods, besides the horses, on which the rest of the journey, from Jeffersonville to Corydon, was made. There were three other families on the flat boat, (or broad horns as they were then called) Mr. Samuel Merrill, and family, and Mr. Douglass and family, and a Mr. Vigus and family. The last two were printers. Douglass went to Indianapolis, and Vigus after- wards to Logansport.
During the last winter of his term as Governor, he was elected to the U. S. Senate, and resigned his position as Governor, in order to take his seat in the Senate on the 4th of March, 1825. He was re-elected to the U. S. Senate in 1830-31, and served alto- gether twelve years in that body.
He made the journey to the capital, usually, on horseback, as far as Ligo- nier Valley, Pennsylvania, thence to Washington by stages. On one of these journeys, his wife accompanied him on horseback, riding the entire distance from their home in Madison, Indiana, to the city of Washington.
These horseback journeys occupied from two to three week's time, depend- ing upon the condition of the roads and the weather.
Gov. Hendricks' political opinions were truly Democratic. He was never elected to any position as a partisan, and never gave a strictly partisan vote, but voted for those measures which, in his belief, were best for his country and his constituents. When he ran for Governor he had no oppo- nent. No other man in the history of the State has been so honored.
In 1840 he was one of the State electors on the Van Buren ticket ; and it was during this campaign that he contracted bronchitis, from which he suffered all of his subsequent life. This was his last political campaign, as the condition of his throat prevent- ed public speaking, and he was after- wards engaged only in his personal affairs. May 19th, 1816, he was mar- ried to Miss Ann P. Paul; eldest daughter of Col. John Paul, of Madi- son. (See Col. Paul's sketch in this book). Gov. Hendricks and wife were the parents of nine children: William, who died an infant, Sarah A. ; John A., who was killed at the battle of Pea Ridge, Ark. ; Josiah G .; W. P. Paul-died Dec. 17th, 1885; Thomas, who died December, 1863, from effects of a wound received at Icaria, La .; Mary, who died an infant, and Ellen C. Sarah Ann and W. P. are now (1889) living in Madison, Ind .; J. Grover is living in Wisconsin, and Ellen C. in Springfield, Mo.
208
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
On the 16th day of May, 1850, he died at the house on his farm, where he had gone that morning, as was his custom to superintend the construc- tion of a burial vault. He climbed the hill on foot, and the exertion brought on a paroxysm of heart trouble, which he had been subject to for some years previous, from which he died that night at 11 o'clock.
Gov. Hendricks was a man of com- manding appearance ; six feet in height, handsome in face and figure ; he was of a ruddy complexion with black hair and blue eyes. He was easy in man- ners, of a kind and genial disposition. He was a man who attracted the atten- tion of all, and won the warm friend- ship of many. Ile was brought up in the Presbyterian faith in religion and early united with that church, and lived a consistent, earnest Christian life.
The literary degrees of A. B., in 1810, A. M. and L. L. D. were con- ferred upon him by Washington Col- lege, Pa.
William Wesley Woollen, in his bio- graphical and historical sketches of early Indiana, says of Gov. Hendricks : % ** Thus it will be seen that for twenty-one years - from 1816 to 1837-he served without intermission the people of Indiana in the three highest offices within their gift."
" Men who found empires should not be forgotten. They plant the tree of civil liberty, and water its roots, while those who come after them but
trim its branches to preserve its sym- metry. If they plant carelessly and in poor soil the tree will have but a sickly growth. That the men who planted Indiana in the wilderness sixty-seven years ago, planted wisely and well is evidenced by its wonderful growth. *
" William Hendricks had as much to do with laying the foundations of this great State and commencing its super- structure as any other man, excepting Jonathan Jennings only, and yet how few there are who know he ever lived."
* In the contest for fame there is sharp competition, and those only win who have endur- ance and mettle. A number of edu- cated and talented young men came to Indiana in quest of fortune, and had William Hendricks been a dolt or a lag- gard he would have been distanced in the race. But he was neither. He was talented and energetic, and he won. *
"He made the first revision of the laws of the State and had it printed on his own press. The Legislature offered to pay him for this work, but he declined all pecuniary compensa- tion. It then passed a resolution of thanks, the only return for his labor he would take."
" The Indiana Gazetteer of 1850 thus speaks of him :
""'Governor Hendricks was for many years by far the most popular man in the State. He had been its sole Rep- resentative in Congress for six years, elected on each occasion by large
209
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
majorities, and no member of that body, probably, was more attentive to the interests of the State he repre- sented, or more industrious in arrang. ing all the private or local business entrusted to him. He left no letter unanswered ; no public office or docu. ment did he fail to visit or examine on request ; with personal manners very engaging, he long retained his popu- larity.'"
" Governor Hendricks was of a fam- ily that occupies a front place in the · history of Indiana. There is probably no other one in the State that has exerted so wide an influence upon its politics and legislation as his. His eldest son, John Abraham, was cap. tain in the Mexican war, and a lieuten- ant-colonel in the war of the rebellion. He was killed in the battle of Pea Ridge, while in command of his regi- ment. Another son, Thomas, was killed in the late war, during Gen. Banks' campaign up Red river. A brother and a nephew sat in the State Senate, and another nephew, Hon. Thos. A. Hendricks, has received the highest honors his State could con- fer upon him."
Since the above was written, by Mr. Woollen, Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks was elected to the Vice-Presidency of the United States, and has gone to the grave. He was also United States Senator from Indiana, and Commis- sioner of Pensions.
JAMES F. D. LANIER was born
in the county of Beaufort in the State of North Carolina, November 22d, 1800. His father was Alexander Chalmers Lanier, and his mother's maiden name was Sarah Chalmers. His first parer- nal ancestor in this country was Thomas Lanier, a Huguenot of Bordeaux, France, who fled from the religious persecutions, about the middle of the seventeenth century, going first to England and afterwards to this country, and settling in North Caro- lina.
Soon after the birth of the subject of this sketch, his father removed to Bourbon county, Kentucky, and in 1807 he removed to Eaton, Ohio, where the childhood of Mr. Lanier was spent. In 1817 his father removed to Madison, Indiana, where he died in 1820, leaving a widow and one son.
Mr. Lanier's early education was of a limited character, both as to time and extent of studies. About eighteen months in Eaton at a common school, and in 1815-16, about a year and a half at an academy at Newport, Ken- tucky, and about the same length of time after he came to Madison, at a private school, comprises it.
At Eaton he was employed in a store of general character, and there got the foundation of his business edu- cation. In 1819 he commenced the study of law in the office of Alexander A. Meek, and finished his legal studies by a course at the Transylvania Law School in Kentucky, graduating in 1823. He commenced the practice of law in Madison, practicing in the
210
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
southeastern district of Indiana, which comprised a number of counties.
In 1824 he was appointed Associate Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State Legislature, and continued in that position till 1837, when he was made principal clerk of that body. His salary as clerk was $3.50 per day. In 1833 he went into the Madison Branch of the State Bank, which was chartered in that year, and took a prominent share in the management of it. He was made Pension Agent for a portion of the Western States in 1837.
In 1849, he removed to New York City, for the purpose of engaging more largely in railroad operations, forming a copartnership with Mr. R. H. Winslow in the business of negotia- tion of railroad securities and a gen- eral banking business. He continued in this business in New York till his death in August, 1881.
In 1819, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Gardiner, of Kentucky, by whom he had eight children, of whom six are now living: Elizabeth G., Washington City, widow of Gen. Wm. M. Dunn ; Drusilla D., wife of Judge John R. Cravens, Madison, Ind .; Alexander C., of Madison, Ind., the eldest ; Margaret Pangelly, Morris- town, N. J .; Mrs. Mary Stone, New York City, and Mr. Charles Lanier, of New York City.
He was married a second time in 1×49 to Miss MeClure, of Chambers- burg, Pa., by which marriage he had one daughter, Katie, who is a widow
residing at Lennox, Mass., and one son who died young. His widow survives him and lives at Lennox.
CHRISTOPHER HARRISON was a man of strange habits and life. Born at the town of Cambridge, Dor- chester Co., Maryland, of wealthy par- entage, in the year 1775, he migra- ted to Indiana Territory in 1808. He led a solitary, secluded life for some years, avoiding all society, occupying himself entirely with hunting, and his books. Disappointment in a love affair was understood to have been the cause of his course of life at this time. He seems to have been attracted by the beauty of Fair Prospect Point, for we find him settled there probably as early as 1808. He remained there un- til about 1815, when he sold his land to George Logan. [See Logan's sketch before ].
In the records of the Common Pleas Court of the date of Thursday, Oct. 22d, 1812, we find the following entry: "Gen. Christopher Harrison took the place of Williamson Dunn as Judge of the Common Pleas Court." A previous entry of the same court shows that General Christopher Har- rison was acting as one of the grand jurors of the court. He seems to have given up the secluded life he had been living at this time, for we notice his name on the records of the court up to the time he sold out his land. . He went to Salem from here in 1815, and engaged in keeping one of the frontier
211
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
stores, dealing in all articles in use at that time by the frontier settlers. Jonathan Lyons, one of the proprie- tors of the town of Madison, was en- gaged in the business with him.
He still retained some peculiarity of character as will be seen by the following quotation from a sketch of his life in "Biographical and Histori- cal Sketches of Early Indiana," by W W. Woollen (to whom I am indebted for some of my incidents. W. P. H.): "While at Salem, Christopher Har. rison lived alone. His dwelling was a little brick house of two rooms, one of them barely large enough for a bed. An old colored woman came each morning to tidy up the house and put things in order, and, with this excep- tion, no one scarcely ever entered his door. But the lot upon which it stood was often visited. It was fifty feet one way by one hundred the other, and nearly every foot of it not covered by the house was planted in flowers. Here the boys and girls of the town would come for flowers, and seldom did they go away empty handed. The master of the house made bouquets and gave to them, drew pictures for them, and in many other ways sought to please and make them happy."
Mr. Harrison was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State of Indiana on the first Monday in August in the year 1816. First Lieut. Governor of the State. He resigned his position as Lieut. Governor because the Legisla- ture did not think as he did on a subject which has divided the Supreme Courts
of the State since that time. That is, whether a law of the State restricting the governor to that office only, is a tenable and binding one or not. It was set aside in this case and in sev- eral others, by high handed assump- tion and sustained by personal friends of Gov. Jennings who were in the Leg- lature. Soon after Gov. Harrison quit business and went onto a farm, and a few years after returned to the scenes of his nativity in Maryland, where he died at the age of eighty-eight.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.