USA > Indiana > Washington County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 3
USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 3
USA > Indiana > Crawford County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 3
USA > Indiana > Clark County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 3
USA > Indiana > Scott County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 3
USA > Indiana > Floyd County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 3
USA > Indiana > Jennings County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 3
USA > Indiana > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 3
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Oregon is wholly in the Illinois grant and is composed entirely of five hundred acre tracts, or what was so intended, by the surveyors that laid off these old soldiers' lands.
It is five tracts wide and ten long, with the exception of three or four fractional or parts of tracts lying in
15
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
Scott county, making the township contain about 18,500 acres of land.
It is bounded on the north by Scott county; on the east by Washington township; on the south by Charles- town and Owen townships, and on the west by Charlestown'and Monroe townships.
But little can be said in favor of the soil in this township.
The lands are light, putty colored clay, wet during a great portion of the year and invariably cold and soggy.
The surface of the greater portion of the township is level, and no part of it is so badly broken as to render it unfit for cultivation.
Parts of the land are well adapted to clover, and elegant fruits are grown upon that part which lies nearest to the river.
Even in many parts of the township the soil is adapted to blue grass.
The only stream of any importance is that of Fourteen Mile Creek which, in a crooked manner meanders through the township from north to south and empties into the Ohio at the division line between Charlestown and Owen townships, fourteen miles from Louis- ville, which gives it its name.
Nothing need be said about the character of its inhabitants, further than they are a hardy industrious community, and in religious and edu- cational matters are not behind their neighbors. The total valuation of all taxables of the township for 1886 was 8240,783.
MONROE TOWNSHIP.
This is the second largest township in the county. It contains over thirty- five thousand acres of land and is situ- ated in the extreme north part of the county.
It is bounded on the north by Scott county; on the east by Oregon town- ship; on the south by Charlestown and Union townships ; and on the west by Scott county and Wood township.
It has not always been included in its present boundaries, nor even has it been known as Monroe township.
It has undergone many changes.
It would be of but little interest to the general reader to follow all the changes that were made in recon- structing this township.
It was first known as Collins town- ship and its present name was given it about the year 1826, as it is referred to in an order appointing fence view- ers for Monroe township under date of January 1st, 1827. The west line, between it and Wood township, was established as early as 1816, but not under the name of Monroe.
As Monroe is a very large town- ship, being about twelve miles long from east to west and six miles broad from north to south, it has a greatly diversified soil in point of fertility and of local value.
It reaches from the low bottom lands to the highest knobs in the county.
As we travel north on the J. M. & I. R. R. we find up grade until we reach the northern limits of the coun-
16
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
ty, and here we come to the summit, the highest ground in the county.
The knobs seem to terminate here and spread out in a sort of table land. On the east, the land is hilly and but poorly fit for anything but grazing.
Around Henryville, the most im- portant village in the township, of about 400 inhabitants, situated on the J. M. & 1. railroad nineteen miles from Jeffersonville the ground is roll- ing, but presents a pleasing view to the passenger.
To the west the knobs rise to great height, and render the landscape mag- nificent and picturesque.
These knobs range west and south- west through Monroe and Wood town- ships into Floyd county until they terminate at the Ohio river a short distance below the city of New Al- bany.
It was thought, at one time, that these knobs were of but little use but for their timber.
But they have been found well adapted to peach culture and the knob lands are being extensively utilized for that purpose, and will no doubt in time all be used for this purpose.
Although scattering settlements were made in this township as early as 1806, the soil of a large portion of it being undesirable for agricultural purposes, its settlement was very slow.
Much of that portion of the county lying in the northwest part, now in Monroe township, was hardly known to the people along the Ohio river and
in the older and more central portions of the county.
The northern boundary of Clark county was uncertain.
Scott county, which was largely taken from Clark county, was not organized until 1820, which left the north and northwest boundary of Mon- roe township in doubt and uncer- tainty.
Even after the organization of Scott county it was thought that the scene of that noted event in the history of Indiana, the Pigeon Roost massacre, took place in a Clark county neigh- borhood.
But when the county line was set- tled by actual survey, the neighbor- hood where the massacre took place was found to be in Scott county.
The history of that massacre is most horrible in detail.
Men, women and children, who had no thought of danger, were cut down, and their bodies were thrown into their cabins and burned with them.
This occurred on the 3rd of Septem- ber, 1812, the year after the battle of Tippecanoe.
The place where it occurred is known as the Pigeon Roost neighbor- hood, which derives its name from the fact that the wild pigeons had made it a roosting place for years.
From the best information that can be obtained of the events of that mas- sacre the whole number that were killed were twenty-one; three men four women and fourteen children.
"The first victims of this tragic af-
17
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
fair were a Mr. Paine and a Mr. Coff- man. These two persons were about three miles from the settlement and wholly unarmed.
The Indians came upon them wholly by accident and murdered them upon the spot.
Coffman lived in Kentucky and was on a visit to Paine.
They next found a Mrs. Collins, the wife of young Henry Collins, who had been visiting a neighbor living near the present site of Vienna.
She was killed while returning home.
The family which they fell upon next was that of Mr. Paine, whom they had already killed. It appears that they killed them in different di- rections from the house and then dragged their bodies, trailing the ground with their blood, and threw them into the house, which, after plundering, they set fire to and burned it to ashes.
Nothing remained of the bodies but a mass of offensive matter.
This attack was made in the even- ing, the sun being only about an hour and a half high.
Richard Collins' family consisted of his wife and seven children, who were all brutally murdered.
Their bodies were found in differ- ent places as they were ent down while attempting to make their es- cape.
Mr. Collins was absent from home at the time.
He belonged to a company of rang- ers and was then at Vincennes.
At the same time they killed the family of John Morris, composed of his wife and three children.
These two families lived but a short distance apart. Mr. Morris was also from his home.
He had been drafted on the call of Governor Harrison for service on the Wabash and was at that time at Jef- fersonville.
This horrid butchery of men, wom- en and innocent children fell like a thunder-bolt from a clear sky. It threw the whole country into such a feverish state of excitement, that for many years afterward the least sign of Indians would cause a general panic and no doubt greatly retarded the early settlement of this part of the county.
UNION TOWNSHIP.
This is the youngest, the last born of all the sister townships of the county.
The same reason that operated upon the public in the organization of the previously constructed township, op- erated in this; public convenience de- manded it. It was organized in 1858 and was taken from Monroe, Charles- town and Carr townships.
It occupies the central portion of the county and has an area of some thirteen thousand acres. It is bounded on the north mainly by Monroe town- ship; on the east by Charlestown township; on the south by Charles-
18
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
town and Carr townships and on the west by Charlestown and Carr town- ships.
It takes its name from the fact that it was made up of fragments taken from the three surrounding townships, Monroe, Charlestown and Carr, and united into one.
Silver Creek is its principal stream, flowing entirely through it from north to south, with its branches, Bhie Lick, Caney Fork and Cane Run, of which Blue Liek is the largest.
It runs through the northern part of Union township and takes its name from the blue slate which forms its bed.
Caney Fork and Cane Run take their names from the canebrakes that once grew along their streams.
In this township lies the great Silver Creek valley, which in early times was so celebrated as hunting ground of Indians, because of the fact of the shelter which its undergrowth afforded the wild game of that day as a hiding place, and there it was hunted for by the savage hunters.
This Silver Creek valley was called by the settlers the Pea Vine Valley, because of the fact that pea vines lit- erally covered the face of the earth and afforded excellent pasture for their cattle.
But with the advance of civilization and the attendant cultivation of the soil, the cane and the pea vine, with the Red Men of the forest and the wild game, have all disappeared.
South of Memphis, the principal vil-
lage in Union township, the country is mostly level, but the soil is heavy and not of easy cultivation.
For some reason even the bottom lands are not productive and require a great deal of care and nursing to make them yield paying crops.
In the hilly portion of the township, lying east of Silver Creek, the soil is of the poorest quality.
But a small portion of the township may be said to be at all productive, where hay, oats, wheat, corn, rye and potatoes can be raised to advantage.
West of Memphis, along the Blue Lick branch, the soil is adapted to grass; considerable attention is given to stock raising and large dairies are in active operation.
One characteristic of Union town- ship which gives it a strong recom- mendation is the purity and abundance of water.
There is hardly a farm of any size in the township, upon which there is not a stream of running water sufficient for stock at all seasons of the year.
Mineral water is found in abun- dance in the northwest portion of the township.
Memphis, the principal village in the township, is located on the J. M. & I. railroad, fifteen miles from Jeffer- sonville ; has a population of about 500 inhabitants.
Flour, hunber and staves are its principal shipments.
Woon TowxSHIP.
Wood is one of the oldest townships in the county.
19
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
It was organized as early as 1807 at the time of its first settlement.
It is located in the extreme north- west part of the county.
In fact it is almost entirely isolated from the rest of the county, only connected with it on the east end of the parallelogram, being bounded on two sides, the north and west, by Washington county; on the south by Floyd county, and on the west by Carr and Monroe townships.
Although it was organized as early as 1807 it was not organized by com- plete metes and bounds until 1816.
But many changes have been made in its boundary lines since then until its present bounds were established.
The counties of Floyd and Scott have both been organized since then ; taken partly from Clark county, and the boundary.lines between those two counties and that of Clark fixed the lines on three sides of Wood township and when Carr township was organ- ized in 1854, which was struck off almost entirely from the eastern side of Wood, the eastern line of Wood was established.
It took its name from an early set- tler by the name of George Wood, who, from the best information attain- able at this time, settled on the Muddy Fork of Silver Creek as early as 1807.
He was a native of South Carolina, and emigrated north in 1802 and first located in Charlestown township, but as said before, removed to Muddy Fork and located there in 1807.
The soil in this township is quite diversified, made up of all kinds . of hills and valleys, poor hills and knobs, and fertile bottoms.
The valley lying at the foot of the knobs, which were called "Silver Hills" by the early settlers is about eight miles long and from one to two miles wide.
Down this valley winds the Muddy Fork of Silver Creek, the shiftings of which have created a rich surface loam, enriched by the decaying leaves and other vegetable matter from the adja- cent hillsides and a deep subsoil of gravel.
This soil is well suited to the growth of all the staple farm products and fruits of all kinds. Strawberries grow to great perfection here and their cul- ture has become quite an industry.
Thousands of gallons are raised and shipped to distant markets every year.
The Muddy Fork of Silver Creek and its tributaries, Dry Fork, Giles Branch, Morris Branch, and Kelly's Branch, is the principal stream in the township.
Why the knobs were called "Silver Hills," or the stream which winds down its bottoms was called Silver Creek, will never be satisfactorily ex- plained.
Another of the unaccountable things connected with the early naming of things in this settlement, as remarked by one of its oldest settlers, is "why this fork of Silver Creek, of all others, should have been designated as 'mud-
20
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
dy' when in fact its waters are clear and silvery and no stream can boast of purer and more sparkling waters."
New Providence, the only village in the township, is situated on the line of the L. N. A. & C. railway, in the valley of Muddy Fork, midway between the knobs. It has a popu- lation of about 400, and is a growing and prosperous place.
The white sand used by the De- pauw Works at New Albany for the manufacture of glass, is procured a short distance from here and shipped to that city.
Large quantities of tan bark, leath- er, tobacco and other farm produce are also shipped.
And in season the shipping of strawberries is quite a business, giv- ing in their picking and preparation, employment for numbers of women and girls.
The Borden Institute, a school in- tended for the education of school teachers has been founded here by Prof. William W. Borden. It prom- ises to be of inestimable benefit to the ranse of education in the State.
CARR TOWNSHIP.
This township lies on the western border of the county.
It was organized in 1854, being taken in a great part from the east- ern portion of Wood township.
While it has an area over the aver- age of the other townships, having over seventeen thousand acres, it is small in population and in wealth.
The total valuation of all property for taxation purposes in 1886 was only $105,178, and its total vote cast at the presidential election in 1888 was 210 votes.
The township is bounded on the north by Wood, Monroe and Union townships; on the east by Union and Silver Creek townships; on the south by Floyd county ; and on the west by Wood township.
Some of the boundary lines of this township are very irregular, running zigzag with dividing tracts of land and with the meanderings of Muddy Fork of Silver Creek, which forms part of its boundary. Carr township has a large proportion of knobs with- in its lines. In the southwest corner it has a large tract, at least four thon- sand acres, and in the northeastern cor- ner it has nearly as large an area of knobs.
Out of its seventeen thousand acres, more than one-third are knobs, and al- most worthless, which can account satisfactorily for its sparse population and its poverty.
It is claimed that iron ore of a good quality is found in certain localities in this township. What may be its future possibilities is for the future to develop; but up to this time its de- posit of iron ore has not been utilized in the manufacture of iron.
The Muddy Fork of Silver Creek, which we found meandering its crooked way between the knobs in Wood township, we find entering C'arr township on the west and passing
21
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
through it in nearly an easterly direc- tion, cutting the township nearly into two halves.
.
From a half mile to three-quarters of a mile wide on both sides of the creek are bottom lands, but not as would naturally be supposed, very productive as farm land.
Whatever it may have been when first opened to cultivation three-quar- ters of a century ago, it has become exhausted and its vigorous fertility impaired.
But it won't do to say that farming is a failure in Carr township, for such would not be true, for there are many prosperous and well-to-do farmers in that township.
There are a number of mineral springs in portions of Carr township, whose waters are said to be, in certain diseases, of great medicinal value.
The time may come when they will be utilized as sources of health more than they are now.
The first great necessity in the way of manufactures in these new settle- ments was a grist mill to grind their corn and wheat to give them bread, and mills sprang up as soon as settle- ments were made.
Close upon the heels of grist mills came still houses for the manufacture of whiskey, not as a food necessity but as a necessity to convert their surplus corn into an article they could easily convert into money.
Muddy Fork afforded excellent water power for mills, and the emi- grants availed themselves of it. Wher-
ever a mill was built a still house was apt to be found close by.
The very best men of that day thought it an honorable, legitimate business, and saint and sinner alike used it, as all then supposed, for the benefit of their health.
In the early settlement of this county it was thought absolutely necessary, in order to preserve their health, that every member of the family should take a dram of whiskey before break- fast.
And the bottle of whiskey ever stood upon the sideboard of all, with an open invitation to all comers to take a drink.
Whiskey was a necessity at a log rolling, a house raising, and in the harvest field.
It was thought impossible in those days that any man could work in the harvest field without the use of whiskey.
What a change in public sentiment- since that day, and none more so than upon the question of the use of intox- icants as a preservative of health.
Carr township had its full share of mills and still houses at its early set- tlement.
But distilleries in Clark county, as well as in Carr township, are things of the past.
There is not a single distillery now in Clark county.
The educational affairs of Carr township have been well managed and its schools are up to the highest stan- dard in the county.
22
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
The township is divided into six school districts for the convenience of the school children.
There is nothing of any special im- portance connected with Carr town- ship to give it historical importance.
Like the other portions of the coun- ty it has gradually advanced in wealth and population; nothing phenomenal or out of the usual path of progress.
One of its earliest settlers attained sufficient public importance to give the township historical fame.
General John Carr, after whom the township was named, was one of the oldest pioneers in the township, having settled there with his father in 1806. He served his country in its military defence against the Indians at the age of eighteen.
In the fall of -1811 he joined, under Capt Biggs, the Tippecanoe expedition and was on Nov. 7th in that bloody fight with the Indians.
He served all through the war of 1812 and was in several important engagements.
Through all that war he proved himself to be a brave soklier and an able and efficient officer.
After the close of the way he was honored by his fellow-citizens of Clark county, in choosing him to fill several civil offices of trust and profit.
Ile was elected to the office of county recorder for several terms ; the office of clerk of the Clark Circuit Court two terms; he was a Jackson elector in 1:24: he was one of the agents appointed to lay off the town
of Indianapolis, and finally, in August, 1831, he was elected a member of Congress and served in that high and honorable capacity, in all, eight years.
Ilis Congressional career was noted for industry, efficiency and usefulness.
He died on the 20th of January, 1×45.
Of him it could be truly said that he was one of the noblest works of God, a truly honest man.
The Louisville, New Albany & Chi- cago railway rums in a northwesterly direction going north through Carr township.
It enters the township at the south- east corner, follows up the Muddy Fork valley and passes through the center of the township, nearly seven miles in it.
SILVER CREEK TOWNSHIP.
From some canse or other, the rec- ords of the county do not give the exact date of the organization of Sil- ver Creek township.
It was in existence as early as 1815, because at that date, the records of the county commissioner's court show that a petition of the citizens of Silver Creek township was presented, asking for the construction of a publie road leading from the town of New Albany to Charlestown.
But the Silver Creek township of today is nothing like the one of that early day.
It originally embraced a greater portion of the western part of the county.
23
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
It seems to have come into existence upon the dissolution of the organi- zations of Springville and Clarksville townships.
These ancient townships were dropped from the records and others formed out of their original territory and they passed out of existence.
It takes its name, no doubt, from Silver Creek, the largest stream in Clark county.
How it came by its name is a matter of speculation.
It will, no doubt, be remembered that, in the history of Wood township, reference was made to the tall cone- shaped knobs, at whose base the flour- ishing little town of New Providence is situated, known by the early settlers as "Silver Hills." The creek which runs along their base is the Muddy Fork of Silver Creek. The question for the historian to settle is, did the hills give name to the creek or vice versa !
Silver Creek township has been sub- jected to the same influences in chang- ing, curtailing and modifying its boundaries; that of the law of con- venience and necessity of its inhabi- tants.
As early as 1803, in order to enable the people to attend their spring elec- tions at the time of the spring rise iu Silver Creek, it was made the bound- ary line between two townships, and all the territory `that lay west of the creek was attached to Clarksville town- ship, now known as Floyd county.
Silver Creek township, as it now
exists on the map of the county, is bounded on the north by Carr and Charlestown townships ; on the east by Jeffersonville, Utica and Charles- town townships; on the south by Jef- fersonville township and Floyd county; on the west by Carr township and Floyd county.
Silver Creek, like a silver cord, seems to wind around the township from its northeastern point to its southwestern.
It is the smallest township in the county, containing only 9,789 acres or a little over fifteen square miles.
Although it stands twelfth and last in size, it stands sixth in valuation of property assessed in 1886.
Silver Creek township was noted in its early settlement for its immense growth of timber.
Its first settlers described its timber 'as marvelous.
The low bottom lands, as also the higher uplands were literally covered with oak, poplar, hickory and beech trees of immense growth.
These forest trees furnished great sources of income to the early settlers, and gave employment to many hands and to the farmers during the winter season in cutting and hauling it to market.
This timber was used for building, purposes in the cities of the Falls, and the finest of it for steamboat building, which was carried on there at that day to a large extent.
One peculiarity about these timber lands was there was little if any un-
24
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
dergrowth, but instead of an under- growth of timber, these lands were completely covered with a rich growth of pea-vines, which was for the feed- ing of stock equal to the best clover fields.
This nutritious vine was all that stock needed while it lasted.
But by constant pasturage, in a few year's the pea-vines were destroyed.
Another peculiarity to the soil of that day was the indigenous growth of cane.
From the most reliable accounts, at an early day the whole face of the country, from the Ohio river to the foot of the knobs, was covered with a thick growth of cane from fifteen to twenty feet high and grew so thick upon the ground that it was almost impenetrable.
These canebrakes, with the wild game they sheltered and protected from the huntsman, have passed away before the advance of civilization.
Where these heavy timbers, these pea-vines, these cane-brakes grew in the long ago, now are rich harvest fields, smiling orchards and the elegant homes of a rich and prosperous people.
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