USA > Indiana > Rush County > Centennial history of Rush County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 18
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Legislative-Several changes have been made in the legislative district comprising Rush county since the beginning and there is therefore some difficulty in arriv- ing at a definite conclusion with relation to those who early served from this district in the state legislature. but the state representatives from here since 1888 have been William A. Cullen, Elijah T. Oldham, Gates Sexton, J. O. Thomes, Leonidas H. Mull, Will M. Sparks, Henry E. Guffin, Cary Jackson, William P. Jay, Nathan Weeks, Oliver C. Norris, William R. Jinnett. The joint senators who have served during the same period are John W. Comstock, David S. Morgan, Thomas K. Mull, Elmer E. Stoner, Edgar E. Hendee. E. E. Moore, Cary Jackson. Ora Myers, Lem P. Dobyns and Rowland S. Hill. Under the legislative reapportionment act of 1921 Rush county loses its individual representative in the state legislature. being thrown into a joint representative district with Hancock county. It is in a joint senatorial district with Henry county. In the chapter relating to the county seat mention is made of the representatives from this district in earlier days.
CHAPTER IX
TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES
The historiographer who attempts a compilation of records and a narrative of events of a neighborhood which has been forming for more than a century amid the changing conditions which mark the erection of an Ameri- can community faces a task which would seem well nigh hopeless save for the initial work done along similar lines by those who were contemporary with those events. Happily, in the case of the present compilers there have been earnest, thoughtful men here who, in their genera- tion, "blazed the ways" for those who might follow them along the gentle paths of local historical research, light- ening the labors of inquiry and investigation and making clear what otherwise might be but a confusing tangle of myth obstructing the differentiation between fact and tradition that so often confronts the seeker after state- ments regarding the days of "lang syne." And to those who thus "blazed the ways" grateful acknowledgment has been made by all who have had to do with adding to the store of historical knowledge relating to Rush county. Two names particularly are mentioned in this connection --- two dominant figures are recalled, those of Dr. John A. Arnold and the Hon. Elijah Hackleman. As the late John F. Moses, in the preface to his admirable but all too brief "Historical Sketch of Rush County," said in acknowledging his indebtedness to these early writers: "They were eye-witness from the beginning and a part of the events which their pens have so faithfully and ably recorded. No one can ever write about Rush county history without being greatly indebted to them." And in presenting this chapter on the townships and towns of the county the present compilers make similar grateful
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acknowledgment. particularly to the notable work of Doctor Arnold, without whose illuminative "Reminis- cences" the list of pioneers of the respective townships of the county would have been lost forever, or at best preserved in so fragmentary a fashion as to be valueless for the definite purposes of a volume of this character.
In preceding chapters considerable detailed attention has been given to some of the incidents attending the set- tlement of the county in general and a narrative also has been made of the organization and outline of the several townships of the county. To these details the attention of the reader is recalled in this connection. for the plan of this work so correlates the several headings under which the history of the county is presented as to make a faithful and comprehensive narrative when taken as a composite. To the elder generation this correlation will be instinctive : associations of recollection will supply the connection. To the readers of the younger generation it will be no great mental task to keep in mind the connect- ing incidents and dates essential to the continuity of the work. Chronologically. the order of presentation of the records of the several townships of the county may be criticised. but it is believed that the presentation of these several narratives in alphabetical order is preferable for the sake of convenience to the reader, and in following this order the first township to be given mention will be
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP
This township. in the southern part of the county, was one of the first sections of the county to secure the overflow of immigration which began to come this way after the admission of the state to the Union in 1816 and at the time the county became a separate civic entity in 1821 had a considerable pioneer settlement. The town- ship is at the southern border of the county, bounded by Toshville township on the north, Richland on the cast,
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Decatur county on the south and Orange township on the west. The town of Milroy, situated at almost the exact geographical center of the township, is the center of the township's commercial and social activities and the people are energetic and progressive. Milroy, however, was not laid out as a town until about ten years after the county had been organized and in the meantime and even prior to county organization local business had been carried on in other pioneer trading centers nearby, the first of these, according to an older chronicle, having been a small store which was opened by William Brown in a building he put up adjacent to Miller's mill, at a point about a mile south of the present town of Milroy, this mill having been the first grist mill erected in that section of the county, a con- venience for the pioneers thereabout for some years before the organization of the county in 1821. It also is said that John Julian, who was afterward a member of Rush county's first board of county commissioners and an influential factor in the carly doings of the county, had carried on a considerable "huckster" business thereabout. There also was another neighborhood store, this having been operated by Wilson Stewart in a little log house at a point a mile west of the present town of Milroy. Nathan Tompkins presently erected a tavern on Little Flat Rock adjacent to a mill which Gossett & Miller had set up there, and Nathan Julian opened a store at the same point, this industrial center becoming a nucleus around which other settlers gathered, and in 1830 the town of Milroy was formally platted and officially placed "on the map." In 1832 Thomas J. Larimore put up a mill at that point, thus giving the place two mills, and Ander- son township thus early became widely recognized as a busy and "going" community. Williamstown was a small village on the Decatur county line in this township, Upon the advent of the V. G., & R. railroad, one-half mile east, this town began its decline, and is now but a mem- ory. Earl City was platted along the new railroad and
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the postoffice was moved to the new town, retaining the name " Williamstown."
Among the pioneer settlers of Anderson township the names of the following have been preserved by the older chronicles: Jesse Winship. James Tyler, Beverly Ward, JJacob Hackleman, James Fordyce. John Cooper, William Earlywine. Eli JJ. Elstun. Joseph Spurgeon, James Thompson. William Julian, Michael Miller, James Logan, Adam and Daniel Conde. Lawrence Vanausdale, William Beal, William Bell. John Enos. James W. Stew- art, Hugh Stewart, Daniel Thomas. William Hill, Nathan Tompkins. Jacob Hooten. William Minton. Alexander Innis. Richard Harcourt, John and William J. Brown, John Julian, Andrew Seright. Adam Richey. JJacob Whiteman. Ithamar P. Root, John Mann. Aquilla Humes, Leonard Burton, David Witters, Capt. William Rice, Capt. JJohn Boyd. John Bell. Robert Bowles, Will- iam Thomas. John Aldridge. William Duncan, George Somerville and Nathan Harlan.
Milroy-It was on November 3, 1830, that Nathan Tompkins and Nathan Julian, as noted above. filed the plat of the town of Milroy, thus officially identifying the village which was growing up around the tavern of the former and the store of the latter. Other stores were beginning to start up. the carly merchants of the town being noted as having been John Corbin. Harvey Hed- riek. Seneca E. Smith. Richard Robbins, Sanmel Green, George B. Elstun. Reuben Johnson, John L. Robinson. Aaron VanKirk, James Cox. Alexander & Thorne, Wes- ley Morrow. Alonzo and Frank F. Swain. Joel F. Smith, John Barton and William Burton & Son, Hugh C. Smith, who came from Cincinnati, was one of the carly tavern keepers. Robert Scott was Milroy's first doctor, and among other early physicians in the place are mentioned : Doctors Barber. Reynolds. Sharp. Robb, Bracken, Day, Russell. Tompkins, Inmis, Thomas. Pollitt. Riley and Rogers. When the railroad reached Milroy in 1881, the
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village took "a new lease on life," and has since enjoyed a steady and substantial growth, its various commercial and industrial interests being well established. When natural gas was "struck" in this county Milroy secured an ample supply and still enjoys the use of this convenient fuel.
The first newspaper in Milroy was the Advertiser, established in 1882 by Charles F. Pollitt, who presently changed the name of the paper to the Times, and con- tinued to carry on his newspaper business until 1887, when he sold the paper to George W. Rowe, who changed the name to the News, under which name it continued until bought by F. C. Green, who gave it the name of the Press, which it still bears, now under the capable editorial direction of Dewey Hagen, the present owner of the paper. Mr. Hagen also publishes the Laurel Review, which he owns, and in addition to getting out these papers prints several school publications. Milroy has an excel- lent school building, built about 1907, as a consolidated township high school, in which a commissioned high school course is taught, George J. Bugbee, principal. There are three churches, the United Presbyterians, the Methodist Episcopalians and the Christians being repre- sented, and there are four lodges of secret societies, the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen being represented, each owning their own buildings. A local post of the Grand Army of the Repub- lic was actively maintained for many years, but the dwindling number of the comrades of late years has all but extinguished the post. To take the place of this ven- erated patriotic body, however, there is a vigorous young post of the American Legion, which will be prepared to take the lead in patriotic activities formerly taken by the elder soldiers. The town has three physicians; Dr. Will T. Lampton, Dr. E. L. Hume and Dr. C. S. Houghland ; two dentists, Dr. H. F. Thomas and Dr. A. C. Ross, and a veterinarian, Dr. J. S. Francis. The First National Bank
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and the Milroy Bank offer admirable exchange facilities to the community. The flour mill, operated by the Milroy Milling Company, has a capacity of better than two hun- dred barrels a day, and the grain elevator operated by W. M. Bosley, offers a local market for grain. A trans- mission line of wires from the I. & C. Traction Company's power house at Rushville, carries electricity for lighting purposes. There is a hotel, the Milroy Hotel. Schlosser Bros. conduct a local cream station ; the Allen A. Wilkin- son Lumber Co. operates a lumber yard, and the Milroy Stock Co. offers a market for live stock. Other business in the town is represented as follows: General store, W. S. Mansfield: hardware, W. S. Mercer. W. L. McKee & Son ; grocers, C. H. Harton, Tompkins Bros., W. A. Al- dridge: drugs, Norman Harcourt, Sheppard's drug store ; jewelry. E. F. Starks : millinery, Betty Wilson : automo- biles, Milroy Motor Sales Co. : garages, F. O. Hillis, Gol- dia HI. Carr: harness shop, Charles Stewart: poolroom and barber shop, Harry Richey; blacksmiths, Francis, Turner & Brooks and Marion Tague. Milroy has ever since along in the '80s made much of its annual Chautau- qua meetings and the presence of a flourishing Chautau- qua cirele, which has done much in the way of social and cultural promotion in that community, the influence of which has been reflected throughout that whole region.
CENTER TOWNSHIP
This township's situation in the northern tier of townships of the county did not attract any considerable number of settlers for several years after the general set- tlement of the southern part of the county had well set in and it was not until 1823 or later that there were suffi- vient numbers of settlers there to begin to regard them- selves as a neighborhood. Center township is bounded on the north by Henry county, on the east by Washing- ton township, on the south by Jackson and Union town- ships, and on the west by Ripley township. It is trav-
SCENES IN MILROY
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ersed by Little Blue river, which rises in the northeast corner of the township, and by Three-Mile creek, admir- able natural drainage thus being afforded. It is said that the first physician in the township was Dr. Robert Moffett, after whose death his widow married Dr. Abner Dillon, who continued the practice. Alfred Reeves estab- lished the first store in the township and John Waggoner was the first blacksmith. The state Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, proper mention of which is made else- where in this volume, is situated in the northwestern cor- ner of Center township. It was not until the coming of the railroad in the early '80s that Center township had established trading points, local trade having prior to that time gone to Knightstown, just over the line in the neigh- boring county of Henry, and to Carthage, the business center of Ripley township, but with the building of the railroad north and south through the eastern part of the township two railway stations were established, that of Hamilton (now called Sexton) on the border line be- tween Center and Jackson townships, and Mays, in sec- tion 17, both of which at once became convenient shipping and commercial points.
In the considerable list of pioneers of Center town- ship that has been preserved by the older chronicles ap- pear the names of William, Robert and John Huddleston, David Price, John James, Robert Hamilton, Robert. John and Joseph Knox, Hiram Bitner, William, Samuel and John Shields, John Bell, David McBride, Moses Clif- ford, John Ruby, George Heffner, John Reddick, George Brown, George and Abraham Rhodes, George Appel, Zachariah Sparks. Aaron and John Purcell, William Mc- Bride, John Brooks, William Bell, Jabez and Ila Reeves, William James, James Ewing, William Kirkpatrick, Peter Siler, Cordil Dimmick, George Grandstaff, Will- iam Baker, Asa Blanchard, Asa Reeves, Levi James, Joshua Florea, Burrell Akers, Thomas Craft, Thomas Brooks, Joseph and Samuel Barrett, Jesse Garten, Jacob
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Ruby. JJohn Walker, JJohn Mallis, JJohn Brown, James Oldham, John Peters, Robert Brooks, Jacob Shiveley, John Waggoner, Joshua Sparks, Dr. Abner Dillon, Al- fred Reeves. Samuel Huddleson, James Cochran, Sammel Maze, James and Samuel Young, James Gray, James Johnson, David Sutton, Thomas Atkins, Leroy Pugh, Daniel Bayliss. Thomas C. Stewart, Nelson Sisson, Jacob Cooper, Jonathan Kirkham, John Somerville. Jacob Buck, John R. McBride, James Pinkerton. Arthur Boyd, Leroy Scott. William Reeves, Samuel Kirkpatrick. James Henry, Bailey Pendergrast, Alexander Sears. Benjamin Pritchard, James English, Linden Addison, Jonathan Hulley.
Mays-This pleasant village in section 17 of Center township was established with the opening of the railroad through that part of the county, and was laid out as a town by Samuel Kirkpatrick and Charles H. Thrawley, March 25, 1884. The present population of the village is about 250, and it is the center of trade for a consider- able area thereabout. The village has a bank. an elevator, a sawmill and the usual complement of stores. It has an excellent school and two churches, the United Presby- terian and the Christian.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP
On account of a heavy percentage of swamp land in Jackson township in the days of the settlement of this county, the population of the township was a little back ward, but with the digging of drainage ditches to help out sluggish little Mud creek. the natural but inefficient out- let for the swamp, these swamp lands were reclaimed. opening the way to settlement and this reclaimed land is now among the most valuable in the county. In the old days the dreaded Burr Oak swamp was considered well nigh irreclaimable. but with drainage it was turned into fine farm land. Jackson township is bounded on the north by Center township, on the east by Union, on the
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south by Rushville township and on the west by Posey township. The Little Blue river crosses the northwest corner of the township. Henderson is the only hamlet in the township. It is situated on the Big Four railroad, in section 10, and was platted by Ida M. Henderson, August 1, 1890. Its conveniences as a railway station and as a local trading point were welcomed by the people of the neighborhood. The first store opened in the township in the early days was that of Jones & Parker, in the once locally famous, but long since abandoned hamlet of "Tail Holt," later called Occident, which was a postoffice for a number of years.
Sexton-This hamlet was laid out as a town site on May 25, 1883, following the completion of the New Castle & Rushville railroad, since taken over by the Lake Erie & Western. The name of the platted town as recorded is Hamilton Station. When the postoffice was established it became necessary to rename the town on account of another town of the name of Hamilton in Indiana, and the postoffice was named Sexton, by which name the vil- lage generally is known. The first house in the hamlet was built by Mathias Knecht.
Following are some of the names that are associated with the days of the settlement of the township: Thomas Burton, John Souders, John Bowne, John Castle, Jacob and William David, William Truitt, Shipman Newkirk, Jacob Gobel, William Kirkpatrick, Samuel and Isaac Newhouse, William Jones, Elijah Billings, Stephen Sparks, James Jones, Robert Berry, Elder William Cald- well, Thomas Mckinnon, Philip Barger, Daniel Gorman, William and Nathan Porter, Harmon Osborne, John Smelcer, George Winship, David Gilson, William O'Ban- ion, James Oldham, William Bodine, James Downey, William Moffett. Brook Talbott, Aaron Mock, George Kirkpatrick, Azahel Griffith, James Fry, William Beale, Sr., Benjamin Kendall, John Newhouse, Solomon Steph- ens, William Armstrong, David Kenning, Washington Barger, Isaac Ploughe, Jonathan Fleener.
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NOBLE TOWNSHIP
There is a pretty strong presumption of truth in the statement long maintained that the first permanent set- tlement in Rush county was effected in that section of the county which became organized as Noble township, as now located, the character of the lands lying along the several tributaries of the Little Flat Rock, which has its headwaters in this township, having proved attractive to prospective settlers seeking overflow from the earlier set- tled counties of Fayette and Franklin on the east. The honor of having been the first settler is thus given to Isaac Williams, who is reported to have put up, in Sep- tember, 1819, a cabin on what afterward became the An- drew Guffin farm, but Elijah Hackleman's reminis- cences have it that the first to settle in the Little Flat Rock neighborhood was Enoch Russell, who settled there in March of that same year. The old Williams cabin is still standing, a part of an old barn on the Guffin farm. Early in the spring of the next year William Merryman put up a cabin on the farm, which afterward became the home of Benjamin F. Reeve. These early arrivals of course were "squatters." for the land here was not opened for legal entry until in the fall of 1820. After the first land sale settlement was effected rapidly and Noble township became one of the most populous sections of the county at an early date. Perhaps what may be regarded as the first commercial enterprise carried on in Rush county was the store of Conrad Sailor, in that see- tion which became organized as Noble township. As has been noted heretofore. Sailor was the agent appointed by the legislature to organize Rush county upon the passage of the enabling act in December. 1821. He had repro- sented Franklin county in the first state legislature which met at Corydon, and was active in the public af- fairs of the pioneer community which began to develop in the new lands west of that county, not only carrying on the business of his little pioneer store and taking an influ-
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ential part in politics, but being accounted a leader in the work of the Baptist church hereabout.
Noble township is not quite a true "congressional" township, half of sections 3 and 10 being cut off to help form the eastern "jog" in Rushville township, reference to which has been made in an earlier chapter., The town- ship is bounded on the north by Union township, on the east by Fayette county, on the south by Richland town- ship and on the west by Rushville township and section 33 of Anderson township. It is well drained by Little Flat Rock river and the headwater tributaries of the same. There is no railroad in the township and there is but one hamlet, New Salem. The first mill in the town- ship was put up by William Robinson and not long after- ward Jehu Perkins put up a mill on Pleasant Run. Jehu Perkins, one of the three original county commissioners of Rush county, was the father of twenty-one children, one of whom, a son, Jehu Perkins, Jr., commonly known as "Boss," is credited with having been the first white child born in the present confines of the county. Ben- jamin F. Reeve, the pioneer school teacher in Noble township, served this district in both the upper and lower houses of the state legislature and also served for many years as justice of the peace in and for his home town- ship. John P. Thompson organized a Christian church in Noble township in 1830, this church being said to have been the first formal organization of the Disciples of Christ in Indiana.
Among those mentioned as having been the founders of Noble township were the following: John Hawkins, Abraham Hackleman, Conrad Sailors, Henry Lines, Col. John Tyner, Isaac Patterson, Edward Patterson, Jacob Sailors, Elder John Blades, Jehu Perkins, Benjamin Sailors, Jesse Winship, Thomas P. Lewis, Doctor Kip- per, John Gregg, Isaac Stephens, Jacob Starr, John Pogue, James Logan, Aaron Lines, John Laforge, John Beaver, Peter Looney, Henry Myers, Lewis Smith,
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George Taylor, Aaron Wellman, Solomon Bowen, Elias Posten, Robert Stewart, John McKee. James Wiley, James J. Armstrong, John P. Tompkins, Stephen Lewis and Joseph J. Amos.
New Salem-This, as has been noted above, is the only hamlet in Noble township, and has a population of around 250. The first settler within the limits of what is now the village was Moses Thompson, who put up a cabin there in the early '20s, he being followed shortly after- ward by Doctor Anthony, who thus became one of the real pioneer physicians of the county. Then came Reuben Runyon, who set up a blacksmith shop, and Israel Knapp with a wagon shop, these essential pioneer industries be- coming the nucleus around which gathered the present village. Among the early merchants mention is made of Thomas JJ. Larimore, Jameson & Salla. Robinson & Mil- ler. Richardson & Marsh and George and Andrew Guffin. Two mills formerly operated in the village, but one was moved to Rushville and the other was destroyed by a tornado. The town was formally platted by Moses Thompson in February, 1831. Besides the two or three stores essential to the immediate commercial needs of the neighborhood New Salem has a bank, the New Salem Bank, an excellent school and two churches, both the Methodist Episcopal and the Methodist Protestant being represented there, each having substantial church build- ings. A grain elevator was erected at New Salem a few years ago by a Brookville grain man in expectation of the village becoming a rail shipping point when the right of way through there was secured by the I. & C. Traction Company, but the hope of the villagers to have a rail out- let has not yet materialized. In the old days before rail- roads came to the county New Salem was noted as a stop- ping point for cattle drovers who would be driving their stock to market at Cincinnati. Its present commercial interests are represented by JJehu Perkins, general store ; Roy Murphy & Son, grocers: Carl W. Dausch, grocer;
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William Dausch, butcher, and Clarence Maple and Ed- ward Gwinnup, blacksmiths.
ORANGE TOWNSHIP
This township in the southwestern corner of the county is a "square" township of thirty-six sections, and is bounded on the north by Walker township, on the east by Anderson township, on the south by Decatur county and on the west by Shelby county. It is perhaps the most rugged section of the county topographically, the surface being much broken by numerous streams and hills. Big Flat Rock traverses it, entering in section 4, near the northeast corner, and flowing out in section 29, besides which Little Hurricane and Big Mill creeks and two or three other small streams afford ample drainage. Mos- cow, a village of about one hundred population, in the southeast quarter of section 18, and Gowdy, a cross-roads hamlet in section 1, are the trading centers. Moscow was surveyed by W. B. Laughlin for John Woods, who filed the plat for record May 1, 1830. The township has no railroad, but has excellent highways, as have all parts of the county. Limestone of a good quality for building crops out in the vicinity of Moscow, and quarries have been profitably worked in the past. According to Doctor Arnold's narrative, Moscow in the early days "possessed a reputation far from enviable ; in fact, it was famous for lawlessness and ruffianism, but now it is a quiet, orderly village." The village of Moscow dates back to 1822 when John Woods and David Querry built a mill on Big Flat Rock at that point. Nathan Julian presently opened a store at the milling point, which thus became the center of the community, and the village had expanded to such a point in the spring of 1830 that John Woods employed Doctor Laughlin, the pioneer surveyor, to plat the place and get it "on the map." Other early merchants were A. Musselman, John T. Drummond, O'Brien Gwynne and R. H. Johnson, the latter of whom had a
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