USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume I > Part 21
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
home of David Hoover, then clerk of the circuit court, and was continued to be held at the home of said Hoover up to the November term of 1832. From that date until November, 1833, it was held at the home of Abner H. Longley in Lebanon. From the first term until the seventh term there was no business except to meet and adjourn. At the eighth term the appoint- ment of one guardian and one administrator was all the business transacted.
The first term of the circuit court was held at the home of John Galvin in Jamestown, beginning on Thursday, April 19, 1832, at which time a grand jury was inpaneled. Two bills of indictment were found. No civil business was transacted. An order was then made for holding the next term of court at the home of Cornelius Westfall, in the town of Thorntown, on the 18th day of October, 1832. It was further ordered that the clerk be authorized to keep his office at his residence in Lebanon, except during the sittings of courts.
At the October term, 1832, of said court, an order was made for hold- ing the next term at the home of Abner H. Longley, in the town of Lebanon. At the April term, 1834, said court was held in the court house at Lebanon, David Hoover died in office in January, 1836. Samuel S. Brown was ap- pointed in his place January 4, 1836, and was elected to the following office and continued in the position until 1843.
In 1845 Levi Lane was appointed clerk by the board of commissioners. Henry Shannon died on the evening of March 27, 1860, in his office at the court house, it being on the second judicial day of the March term of the circuit court. William C. Kise was appointed clerk in his stead pro tem until the vacancy should be filled. On March 29, 1860, Americus C. Daily was appointed by the board of commissioners to fill said vacancy and served until November, 1860.
Andrew J. Boone was elected and commissioned August 12, 1841 as auditor and resigned before the expiration of his term of office. He was the first auditor of the county. In the same year James McCann was the first recorder elected. Prior to this date the clerk of the court discharged the duties of these offices. In the same year the office of treasurer was created and J. T. Mclaughlin was the first person elected to this office and was so faithful that the people kept him in the position for nine years.
On the 12th day of October, 1856, the records of the auditor, treasurer and recorder's offices were destroyed by fire. Andrew J. Boone was ap-
219
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
pointed a commissioner to take and hear proofs relative to the preparation of the papers and records destroyed by the fire. He entered upon the duties of his commission November 24, 1856, and closed his labors in 1860.
Samuel Cason was the last associate judge, having served fifteen years, from 1837 to 1852, when the office was abolished by the new constitution. David M. Burns served as surveyor for sixteen years from 1860 to 1876.
A. J. Boone was born in Preble county, Ohio, July 17, 1820. Son of Benjamin Boone, who was born in 1795, in Kentucky. His grandfather, Daniel Boone, was the famous Indian hunter of Kentucky. His father, Benjamin, was an abolitionist, and lived in Union .county, from 1827 to 1834, where there was an underground railroad.
In 1838, A. J. Boone moved to Boone county and settled on a farm. He represented Rush county in the Legislature in 1837-8 and Boone county from 1843 to 1844. His early life was devoted to farming and milling. He taught school, gaining a fine reputation as a teacher, and applied all his leisure hours to the study of law, which he had chosen for his life work. At the age of twenty-one he was elected auditor of Boone county, and served in that capacity until December, 1843. He resigned his office and entered Indiana University in view of better preparation for a professional life. In 1848 he was licensed to practice law in Boone county. From 1849 to 1853 he was assistant clerk in the House of Representatives of Indiana where, by his efficiency he won universal approbation. In April, 1851, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Eliza Mclaughlin, a native of Boone county, and opened a law office in Lebanon. He rose rapidly in his profes- sion, practiced in many of the courts of the state and his name was connected with many of the principal cases which had been before the supreme court of the state for adjudication. The work was too much for him and his health failed, causing him to retire to his farm four miles out of Lebanon. He resumed the practice of law in 1867 in partnership with R. W. Harrison. For eight years he walked from his farm to his office for the sake of his health, making the round of eight miles dailv.
As a lawyer, Mr. Boone possessed all the qualities necessary to make a successful attorney. He was a safe and honest counselor and a good pleader, and examined witnesses with skill and ingenuity. He was also a good advo- cate. Although thoroughly attentive to the duties of his profession, he was at the same time actively identified with the general improvement of his
220
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
county ; and all enterprises having that object in view found in him a general and able advocate and a generous supporter. He advanced the major por- tion of the amount necessary to establish the Boone county Pioneer, the first newspaper printed in Boone county; and although not its editor, he wrote its salutatory and many other articles of eminent ability which were copied and approved in high terms by many established and reliable papers throughout the state.
For twenty-five years he was correspondent of the agricultural depart- ment at Washington, reporting the resources of his county and their de- velopment. He was one of the prime movers in establishing The Agricul- tural Society of Boone county, and for eighteen years was its secretary and business manager, co-operating with H. C. Hazelrigg, Levi Lane, Will- iam Zion, L. C. Daugherty, John Higgins, Thomas R. Cobb, J. M. Ball, Samuel S. Heath, Jesse Neff, Adolphus Wysong, T. J. Cason, W. C. Kise, Jacob Kernodle and others. In politics he was a Democrat, but always very liberal in his views and tolerant and charitable towards those of opposite views. From his earliest manhood he was frequently called upon to fill offices of responsibility. At the urgent request of friends and neighbors, he consented to become a candidate for the State Senate, and was chosen by the united vote of good men irrespective of party. His health became permanently impaired early in the session of the Senate of 1875, and from the effects of the impure air of the old Senate chamber he never recovered. After the sessions were over, he appeared and practiced in the Boone and Clinton circuit courts in May and June. About the first of July he was con- fined to his bed and died on the 12th day of that month. He was a man of sterling integrity and his counsel was sought by all classes, in matters relat- ing to the farm, the household and the public. He was liberal to a fault and was often known to sacrifice his own convenience and comfort to ac- commodate a friend and has repeatedly loaned money to poor men on their own note without security or interest. He was a member of the Christian church and as such lived an exemplary life. He was one of the pioneers of Boone county and one of the pioneer lawyers of Lebanon. He witnessed its growth from a backwoods settlement to a cultured and refined com- munity, and has mingled in its achievements, progressing with them and assisting them by his influence and means. He was one of Indiana's best and most reliable men.
22I
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
HON. STEPHEN NEAL, LEBANON.
The subject of this sketch was born in Pittsylvania county, Virginia, June II, 1817, and moved with his father's family to Kentucky when three years of age. Living remote from any town or village, his educational privi- leges were limited to a few months, sufficient only to enable him to read. When he had reached his fifteenth year, his mother died and in the following year his father gave him the privilege of choosing a profession for himself. He continued to labor on the farm two years longer, when, at the age of eighteen years, he began attending a country school, paying his expenses by his earnings. After attending this school about one year, he entered the academy at Mooresfield, Kentucky. It was at this academy that Mr. Neal acquired a knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages and laid the founda- tion for his subsequent professional and literary attainments.
He is essentially a "self-made" man and is indebted, mainly, to his own exertions and indomitable energy for his success in life. His mind naturally studious and contemplative, seemed actuated by a desire to grasp all possible knowledge; hence, his studies were extended and various, and being blessed with a vigorous constitution, he met with few impediments in the pursuit of knowledge, excepting poverty.
He quit school in his twenty-second year and soon afterward engaged as a school teacher, but while instructing others, did not neglect the culture of his own mind, but was at all times a more diligent student than any of his pupils. During his labors in this capacity, in the year 1839, he married Miss Frances Ann Atkinson, in Nicholas county, Kentucky. Unwilling to accept school teaching as a life-time pursuit, he resolved to enter upon the study of law ; but, as his means were limited, continued to teach for a time, improving his leisure time in the study of his chosen profession, reciting oc- casionally to his preceptor. In the spring of 1841, he removed to Madison, Indiana, where he studied law in the office of Hon. Joseph G. Marshall, re- turning to Carlisle, Kentucky, in the same year. There he passed an exam- ination, conducted by Judge Reed, of Maysville, and Judge Simpson, of Mount Sterling, Kentucky, and by them was licensed to practice in all the courts of that state. He was first admitted to the bar at Carlisle, Kentucky. During his sojourn in Indiana, he formed the purpose of emigrating to this state and in the year 1843 located at the town of Lebanon, in Boone county,
222
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
and, although he has traveled over a number of other western states, this was his residence since that date.
In 1846-47, he was chosen to represent his county in the state Legis- lature. In 1851, his wife died and six years later, he was a second time mar- ried, choosing for his companion Miss Clara, daughter of Charles Davis, Esquire, of this county. During his practice he has gained as much pro- fessional distinction, perhaps, as any member of the bar of Boone county and has always possessed the warmest friendship of contemporaries. It was he who prepared the original draft of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, letters acknowledging the receipt and adoption of which were received by him, sent by ex-President Garfield, congressman Godlove S. Orth, congressman Stevens and many others of equal prominence.
In the winter of 1846-47, when a member of the Legislature, Judge Neal introduced a resolution changing methods of granting divorces in the state of Indiana. Up to that time the power of granting divorces resting entirely with the Legislature, but the judge's resolution which became a law, provided for the county courts to act upon divorce matters, taking that power out of the hands of the Legislature. Judge Neal was elected to the Boone county bench, serving out his entire term. He was distinguished in the theory and practice of war and the law and died full of honors and emolu- ments.
BOONE COUNTY TWENTIETH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, LEBANON.
Judge of Circuit Court, Samuel R. Artman, Lebanon.
Prosecuting Attorney, John W. Hornaday, Lebanon.
Clerk, George E. Adams, Lebanon.
Sheriff, Benjamin B. McRoberts, Lebanon.
Terms-First Monday of January, April, September and November, and to continue as long as necessary.
Roy W. Adney (Terhune and Adney), Lebanon.
Samuel R. Artman, Lebanon.
Raphael P. Bundy (Bundy & Hornaday), Lebanon.
James C. Darnell, Lebanon.
William J. Darnell (Darnell & Darnell), Jamestown
223
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Patrick H. Dutch, Lebanon.
Charles W. Griffin (Griffin & Griffin), Sheridan. Clarence Griffin (Griffin & Griffin), Sheridan. Barton S. Higgins (Higgins & Holloman), Lebanon. John W. Hornaday (Bundy & Hornaday), Lebanon. Frank E. Hutchinson, Lebanon.
Jesse Neff, Lebanon. Charles D. Orear, Lebanon. Willett H. Parr (Parr & Rogers), Lebanon.
George W. Piersol, Jamestown. Elza O. Rogers (Parr & Rogers), Lebanon. Ira M. Sharp, Thorntown.
Andrew J. Shelby (Shelby & Worley), Lebanon. Jesse Smith (Smith & Coulter), Lebanon. James M. Worley (Shelby & Worley), Lebanon. Charles E. Young, Jamestown.
CHAPTER X.
AGRICULTURE.
Boone county is centrally located in the state of Indiana, northwest of Indianapolis, the capital. It is twenty-four miles long east and west and seventeen and one-half miles wide north and south, containing four hundred and twenty square miles or two hundred sixty-eight thousand acres of land, as good as a crow ever flew over. Originally it was heavy timbered and full of bogs and morasses. The table-lands between the Wabash and White rivers, extended across the county from the southwest to the northeast. Within this table-land all the streamis wholly in the county had their source. The high lands were in the central part of the county making it difficult to drain until generally cleared of woods. That was why the county was hard to develop into its present splendid farming condition. There are now within the county upwards of ten thousand miles of ditches, most of them tiled, some of the larger are open, forming for miles the heads of streams. All the streams that flow into Sugar creek, Eagle creek and form Raccoon creek and Eel rivers, are first tile ditches, then open ditches until they widen into the free streams. To do this great work took years of patient toil by our forebears. The reward of their toil has been the opening of one of the best agricultural counties of the state.
Boone is pre-eminently an agricultural county. It has no mineral re- sources except the best of sand and gravel in abundance for building and road purposes. There are very few factory industries in the county except those that are necessary for the immediate wants of the people such as mills, sawmills, planing mills, and later canning factories and dairies. The great resources of wealth are the products of the rich soil. The soil is very arable and susceptible of fertilization by rotation of crops and commercial aids. Its primitive fertility has been preserved, and in fact by the system of farm- ing now in practice, is increasing in productiveness until the aspiring tiller of the soil is now hoping to reach one hundred bushels of corn and forty bushels of wheat to the acre.
225
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Since the organization of the county in 1830, it has grown from a wilderness of miasmic swamps to fine cultivated farms well ditched and well tiled. There are over 600 miles of gravel roads, the streams are all bridged with steel bridges and the farms well ditched. The census of 1910 gives the number of farms, 2,867; number of dwellings, 6,354; number of families, 6,414: number of population, 24.673; males 12,464, females 12,094, colored males 58, females 65. The number of foreign born people, 131, showing that as a county we are nearly all native-born Americans. The total assess- ment of the county for taxation is given at $23,929,910, or about $1,000 per capita of the entire population. The assessed value of the land of Boone county is $44.78, which is the highest in the state outside of Marion except Benton county which is $51.98, which was ditched out of the Kankakee basin. The lowest counties in land value in the state are Crawford, valued at $4.54; Perry at $4.67, and Brown $5.10. The total receipts of the county in 1910 from taxes and sale of bonds was $400, 124.95. Disbursements, $447,178.83, leaving a net indebtedness at the close of the year of $47.053.88. The county expended for roads in 1911, $30,524 and for bridges $21,487.
The people of this county have always had a high standard of morals, believing in the eternal principles of justice and sobriety. On the 24th of July, 1911, the citizens of Lebanon voted to refuse to license men to sell intoxicating liquor as a beverage. The vote stood 667 for wets and 861 for drys, giving a majority of 194 for temperance. Two years later the vote on the same issue was taken and resulted in a larger vote against the saloon than the first, showing that there is a trend in the county against the licensed curse. Thorntown and other points in the county were pronounced against the evil, so we now have a county not only rich in soil, rich in wealth, rich in a high standard of morals and on record to stay, opposed to the licensing of men to destroy our homes by making drunken its inmates. There is not a county in the state that excels uts in so rich an investment for peace, pros- perity and happiness. As one of the happy results we give the licenses to marry and the divorces showing, although they are bad enough, yet the divorces are not so numerous as in rum-cursed localities. Marriage licenses in 1910, 190, divorces, 24; 1911, marriages 205, divorces, 17; 1912 mar- riages 203, divorces 22. If you will follow the statistics of Boone and compare with sister counties in the state you will find that no other county excels in the essentials of happy homes and a prosperous people.
(15)
226
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
The chief industry of Boone county is agriculture. Her wealth comes from the fertility of her soil. She has no mineral wealth except an abund- ance of sand and gravel for building purposes and for the construction of roads. There is no building rock in the county, no oil, no natural gas, but her rich soil which abundantly makes up for whatever else she may lack. It was the richness of her soil that attracted the pioneer when she was yet a wilderness. He braved the hardships and privations of the wilderness in the hope that he would build a garden of a home. He was not mistaken; his hopes have been fully realized. The axe that leveled the forest, the spade that drained the boggs and morasses, with brawny arms and brave hearts to push them, the full fruition of all his hopes have been fully realized -the transition from less than a century ago to the beauty and wealth of today. The beautiful homes and magnificent farms that adorn every sec- tion of land in the county attests their judgment and is material testimony of their toil and energy. The position that the county holds today with sister counties of the state is additional evidence of her worth. She holds her place among the ten best in the state in all agricultural interests.
When we take into consideration that Indiana ranks among the fore- most agricultural states of the nation we will be able to comprehend more fully what it means to rank among the first of so great a state. The leading field crops are corn as king, with wheat the queen as next in order. Then follow in order oats, hay, barley, rye and other grains. There is also a large cultivation of tomatoes, melons, berries, onions and tobacco. In these later years more attention is given to the cultivation of fruits and large areas are being devoted to orchards in the southern and northern parts of the state. The up-to-date methods of fruit culture is bringing good returns and the fruit is of excellent flavor and quality. It is now concluded that with the same care and attention that this receives in what are termed fruit sections, fully as good returns may be had in sections of Indiana as in any other country.
In 1910, Boone county was among the ten leading counties of the state in total yield of corn, also in the average yield per acre, 44.32 bushels per acre. She was the fifth in rank in the state in the number of horses sold in 1910. She was also fifth in number of horses and colts on hand in 1911, and fourth in 1912, 11, 185. In 1910 she was eighth in the production of milk and third in the production of pounds of butter, 810,558 pounds. She was in the ten counties with cattle on hand and sold in 1910 and 1911, 7,660.
227
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
In hogs on hand she was the seventh in 1911 and in 1912 sold 45,074. In 1910 and 1911, she was the ninth county in rank in hogs sold, 62,450. In 1910, in the loss of hogs by disease, she was second in the state, only being outranked in this misfortune by her sister county, Tipton. In 1911 she ranked as the ninth county in the loss of hogs by disease, having lost 14,353. In I911 she was the fourth in the state in the production of sheep, 23,612. In 1911 she was ninth in number of sheep sold, 13,066. In the same year she was tenth in wool clipped, 83,354 pounds, selling value, $15,592. In 1910 she was third in poultry sold, 12,177 dozen. In 1911 she was seventh in laying hens, 13,362 dozen. In 1910, Boone county stood first in the state in the production of eggs, 1,842,006 dozen, selling value, $206,389. In 1910 she produced 275.966 bushels of wheat, an average of 15.98 bushels per acre. Her average yield in 1911 was 16.73 bushels per acre.
Her crop of corn in 1910 was 3,112,930 bushels. Average yield per acre, 44.32. In 1911, she produced 1,033,286 bushels. Rye, 4,802 bushels ; barley. 500 bushels. This county was more on the bread and meat side of life than on the rye and barley product. The annual product of timothy hay about 20,000 tons annually ; 22,177 tons of clover hay, and about the first county in the state in the production of clover seed, 9,215 bushels in 1910.
The alfalfa has been introduced of late years and is rapidly growing in favor both as to quality and quantity of provender. In 1910 there were two hundred and ten acres and a yield of three hundred and seventeen tons was reported. There has been a rapid increase of acreage since that date also in the yield per acre. Some report as high as six tons per acre in three cuttings. In connection with the growth of the agricultural interest of the county, we would mention the introduction of ensilage within the last few years and the favor with which it is being received; it promises to become one of the leading processes of preserving the crops of the county.
One of the characteristics of the Boone county farmer is to keep abreast of the progress of the world. Under the new intelligent system of farm- ing that is now coming in, we will expect this county with its base of rich soil, to hold its place with sister counties of the state. It was among the first in the state to avail itself of the provision of a county agent provided by law to look after the agricultural interests of the county. With her ten thousand miles of ditching and more coming, her six hundred or more miles of good roads and a spirit that will soon make every road in the county gravel or macadam, we will be placed in the front rank of the state.
228
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
We as a county, hold the distinction of having more miles of gravel roads than any other county in the state. Our soil, our roads, our schools and churches, and the progressive intelligent spirit of our people will keep us in the foreground of advancement and we may expect as much uplift in the next three-fourths of a century as there has been in the past. The brush and bogs are now out of the way. The roads are built, streams bridged and public buildings in position, so there is nothing for us to do except to grow in beauty and strength. The same energy and push that characterized our ancestors, if projected into the future, will realize all our expectations. In our imagination we look ahead seventy-five years and behold Boone county a very paradise of prosperous homes and a happy people.
BOONE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
Early in the history of Boone county, her progressive citizens began to talk around about an agricultural fair. Other counties were holding them and she did not want to be behind any of her sister counties. She wanted to enter the arena of competition and show her "pumkins" and other farm products against the world. She felt confident that there were none that could excel her in these products. As early as 1853, they began to take steps for an organization. From that time to the present, there has been more or less interest manifested in this enterprise to place the farmers of this county before the world. There were times when things went slow and it took hard pulling by the enthusiasts to keep it going. Its interest was kept alive and like other enterprises it has grown into a permanent institution. It has become a fixed institution of the county and the farmer, the merchant and the mechanic of this day would not know how to do without the annual meeting of the association. Among the men that were active at the very first were H. G. Hazelrigg, A. J. Boone, Levi Lane, William Zion, L. C. Daugh- erty, John Higgins, Thomas R. Cobb, J. M. Ball, Samuel S. Heath, Jesse Neff, Adolphus Wysong, T. J. Cason, William C. Kise, Jacob Kernodle and many others who can be named and that have pushed the car along the past decades.
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.