USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume I > Part 6
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72
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
As far as the formation of the surface of Boone county is concerned it is evident that there are no evidences of violence or internal forces of nature. There are no evidences of upheavals, for as deep as man has penetrated the surface by drilling (1,300 feet) every layer of sand, clay or rock seems to be regular. The crust that underlies central Indiana prevails. As under Boone county in the same even form that it does over the state. There is no evidence of any force except that caused in the drift periods. Just how many drifts were used in laying the foundations for the rich soil that blesses this section of the state is not known. There must have been as many as there are dis- tinct veins of coal and other layers of drift.
This reading in the record of the rocks and strata of drifts is a little un- reliable, but enough is known to satisfy the mind that the icebergs traversed this section several times in fitting it for the habitation of man. Layer after layer of sand was carted in by giant streams of ice that bore along with its pressure great boulder tracks that show its stately steppings. This sand and clay was carted into the low places to build them up above the sea and make this country inhabitable for man. Just when the work was finished is not known. It was not ready for the mound-builder in his day, for there is no evidence that he ever dwelt in this section of Indiana. The Indian found a foothold here but no one knows when he came. There are no marks to tell us how long he preceded the white race. We found him here, but he has never revealed to our fathers how long he had lived in these woods. We can safely say that it was a long time ago, far beyond the memory of the white or the red man and the rocks do not reveal to us the hidden secret.
73
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Longitude West &G from Greenwich
Coldwater
LAKE
M
1
I
G
AUTAUT
4
1826 October 16 Mississinewa 1821 October 29, Chicago
Pottawattomies Prairie
South ottaratiomics& Ottawas.
10 . 1.528 CanEysMission St. Joseph
Westville
O
VAlphahe
Pottawattomies. Warto Cy Betei
Crowe Polat
Plymouth O
Hcbrus
MA
2
$1826 October
105
Kankabe+
H
riverypottawattomies
ississi naw
Fort W
l'yandottes
41
4
... .
@1826 October 23
Huntington
Van Wert
1834
October 256
RESERVES
Oround
1838
November 6,
1840 November 28,
Dunkira
altica
T
Miamis
ClareA
NAM
Crawfordsville.
1-
Newcastle
1818 October 2 St. Marys !!
FREANAPOLIS
Futeks Weas .
Dayto
Greencusto
Greenwood
Anhville
Monrovia
JOHN
Shelbyynils
Franklin
Ouraul
Einerab
Greensbuj
Asmilion
DEC
-
Hamevitte
Columbus
w Werikjesten
Lawn
Cincinnati
an
& Delawares
*
LENCE
605 Aug.
HATOY
VinceringE Se
1803 June 7, Ft. L'ayne
Piankeshaws & Weas.
Pelez born
1783
Virginia to Clark.
Cynthiana
Now ALE
Lovtfulls
Corydon
MAP OF
0.55
2
Mt. Verpen I
Goodrich
Etnine
Czynelto
3
Mend
EXPLANATION
10
20
-
40
Capliat
N
Coubly Ton B
K
E
City or Turn
Langl
Looglinde West 9
From Washington
\1809 October 30, Ft. Wayne
elawares, Miamis & Others
ismile Purchase.
1795 Aug. 2, Greenville Chio,
Delawares, Miamis & Others.
ning Sun
September 30,Ft.Wayne Harrison Purchase
Miamis, Eel rivers, Pottawattomics
Y
Kickapoos & Weas.
Batti-
Marion
1818 October 6, St.Marys
Delamarcs&Miamis
1809
1818 October 2 St.MARYS
Pottawat tomies&Miamis
Miamis & Pottoattomics
1812 September Ft. Wayne
Pottawattomies
1832 October 23 Tippecance
MAP OF INDIANA SHOWING TREATIES WITH THE INDIANS
1804 Aug. 18-27
Piankeshaws, Miamise
IPÍ
INDIANA
Toll City
Beale' of Mncs
50
Delawares, Miamis, Weas, &Pottawattomis
21, Harrison Housc.
Adrian
CHAPTER IV.
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND ITS SURVEY.
Some confusion appears to exist in the minds of land owners as to the source of title to lands within this state, and, to make this plainer, a short summary of the manner in which title to various lands as obtained by the general government and the state is given. The title to the lands within the present limits of Indiana was obtained by the United States by cession from the state of Virginia, March 1, 1784. These lands were surveyed upon the extinction of the Indian title, or Indian right of occupancy, and were sold to settlers. These lands are commonly known as government lands. A map of state is herewith given showing where the treaties with Indians were held ceding lands to the United States and the boundaries of the different treaties.
For the convenience of settlers and those desiring to purchase the public lands of the United States, the state, as the lands were surveyed and opened for settlement, was divided into land districts and offices opened in each. The land districts were known as the Vincennes, Jeffersonville, Indianapolis, Crawfordsville, Winamac and Ft. Wayne. As the lands were disposed of, these districts were abolished and at this time any government land remain- ing unentered must be disposed of through the general land office at Wash- ington. For various purposes the United States ceded large tracts of land to the state of Indiana and they are known by the following names, viz. : Canal lands, Michigan Road lands, Swamp lands, Saline lands, University lands, Seminary lands and School lands, and a summary is given of the man- ner of the accession of these lands. The state sold these lands under various acts of the general assembly, and patents were issued to the individual pur- chasers in the name of the state. All of these patents are recorded in the office of the auditor of state, except those for schools lands, which are re- corded in the records of the board of commissioners of the counties in
75
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
which the land is situated. Prior to this the patents for Wabash and Erie Canal lands were issued by the state. But upon the state surrendering its title to these lands to the board of trustees of the Wabash and Erie Canal in that year, they were issued thereafter by that body. All these records of that body were given in the custody of the Auditor of State in 1883, by an order of the United States Court for this state. Copies of all these patents can be obtained from the Auditor of State.
CANAL LAND.
The land known as Canal land was granted by the United States to the state of Indiana to enable the state to construct what is known as the Wa- bash and Erie Canal, and is embraced in three separate grants. The first of these grants was approved March 2, 1827 (see Statutes-at-large, vol. 4, page 236), and granted a quantity of land equal to one-half of five sections in width on each side of said canal (and reserving each alternate section to the United States), for the purpose of uniting the waters of the Wabash river with those of Lake Erie. The second grant was approved February 27, 1841 (see Statutes-at-large, vol 5, page 414), and confirmed to the state the selections made for that portion of the canal which lies between the mouth of the Tippecanoe river and Terre Haute. The third and last grant to the state of lands for this purpose was approved March 3, 1845. To enable the state to complete the canal from Terre Haute to the Ohio river, there was granted to the state a moiety of the unsold lands in a strip five miles in width on each side of said canal, as likewise a further grant of a moiety of all lands remaining unsold in the Vincennes land district with provisos. These three grants and the selections made under them embrace an area of 1,457,366.06 acres, as shown by the report of the commissioners of the gen- eral land office.
MICHIGAN ROAD LANDS.
By. Article 2 of the treaty held and concluded near the mouth of the Mississinewa, on the Wabash on October 16, 1826, between the United States and the chiefs and warriors of the Pottowattomie tribe of Indians, there was ceded to the United States a strip of land commencing at Lake
76
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Michigan and running thence to the Wabash river one hundred feet wide for a road; and also one section of good land contiguous to said road for each mile of the same, and also for each mile of a road from the termination thereof through Indianapolis to the Ohio river, for the purpose of making a road as aforesaid from Lake Michigan by way of Indianapolis to some convenient point on the Ohio river.
On the second day of March, 1827, the state was authorized to locate and make the road and dispose of the lands.
This species of land lies principally in northern Indiana and embraces according to the selections that were confirmed, an area of 170,580.24 acres. The state's title was confirmed to the above lands by act of Congress ap- proved March 2, 1831 (see Statutes-at-large, vol. 4, page 473).
SWAMP LANDS.
These lands were granted to the state by the act of Congress approved September 28, 1850, entitled "An act to enable the state of Arkansas and other states to reclaim the Swamp lands within their limits." The act re- quired the proceeds of the sale of these lands to be used exclusively, as far as necessary, to the purpose of reclaiming these lands by means of levees and drains. Under the present law of this state and proceeds of the small amount of this land remaining unsold becomes a part of the permanent com- mon school fund. Patents have been issued to the state by the United States for these lands covering upward of 1,257,588.41 acres.
SALINE LANDS.
The Saline lands of the state lie in the counties of Orange, Washing- ton, Monroe and Brown; but the greatest amount, in fact nearly all of it, lies in Orange county. This species of the lands was granted to the state by act of Congress approved April 19, 1816 (see U. S. Statutes, vol. 3, page 390), and comprise an area of 24,435 acres.
77
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
SEMINARY LANDS.
Prior to the organization of the state government, Congress granted a township of land (5.2 S. of Range II, W.), to the territory to enable the territory to endow a college; and by an act of Congress approved April 19, 1816 (see Statutes-at-large, vol. 3, page 290). A second grant of a town- ship of land was made to the state; township 8 N. Range I, W. in Monroe county, was selected, which lands have been sold and the sums applied to the State University at Bloomington, excepting, however, about 4,000 acres, part of township 2 S. Range II, W. in Gibson county, which was sold by authority of the Territorial Legislature and the proceeds applied for the benefit of the Vincennes University.
UNIVERSITY LANDS.
By a decision of the United States Supreme Court the state of Indiana lost one of the two townships of land granted to her for the use of a State University, and became liable to refund to a private corporation the proceeds of a township heretofore appropriated to the support of the State Univer- sity. By an act of Congress approved February 23, 1854, the governor of the state of Indiana was authorized to select out of the lands of the United States subject to entry, 19,040 acres and certify the same to the Secretary of the Interior, who was required to issue patents for the same to the state of Indiana. It was further provided that the proceeds of said lands should forever remain a fund for the use of the Indiana University (see U. S. Stat- utes, vol. 10, page 267). These lands were selected in the counties of Craw- ford, Fulton, Dubois, Greene, Warrick, Jasper, Newton, Knox, Perry, Pu- laski, White, Spencer, Pike, Martin, Sullivan, Orange and Miami.
COLLEGE FUND LANDS.
The proceeds of the sale of the Seminary and University lands are paid into the state treasury and loaned to individuals by the Auditor of State upon niortgage security. Upon the failure to pay the principal or interest upon
78
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
these loans the lands mortgaged to secure them are forfeited to the state for the use of the College Fund, and are advertised for sale by the Auditor of State. Upon their forfeiture and sale they become known as College Fund Lands.
SCHOOL LANDS.
The act of Congress of April 19, 1816, to enable the people of Indiana Territory to form a State Government, granted to the inhabitants of each Congressional township Section 16 in each township for the use of the schools thereof, and it was further provided that when such section had been. sold or disposed of, other land equivalent thereto and most contiguous to the same shall be granted. (Statutes-at-large, vol 3, page 2.) In addition to these classes of lands in some sections lands were divided into locations sur- veys, donations to heads of families, military donations and Indian reserva- tions. These occupy a very small part of the area of the state and it is not necessary to particularize them.
CHAPTER V.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.
An Act approved January 29, 1830, viz. :
That from and after the first day of April next, all that tract of country which is included within the following boundaries shall form and constitute a new county, to be known and designated by the name of the county of Boone (in honor of Colonel Daniel Boone, the pioneer of the west), to wit: Beginning at the southwest corner of Hamilton county; thence north seven- teen and one-half miles to the center stake of the east line of section 13, township 20 north, range 2 east; thence west twenty-four miles to the middle of the west section line of section 18, town 20 north, range 2 west; thence south seventeen and one-half miles to the southwest corner of section 7, town- ship 17 north, range 2 west; thence twenty-four miles east, to the place of beginning, containing four hundred and twenty square miles or 268,800 acres. It is located in the central part of Indiana, longitude (court-house) 86° 28' west, latitude 40° 4' north, and bounded on the north by Clinton county, on the west by Montgomery county, on the south by Hendricks and Marion counties and on the east by Hamilton county. Its general altitude above sea level is from 850 to 950 feet, the highest portion being on the divide or table-land in Worth township 1,000 feet. There are some hills or knobs in the county that will exceed this height by 50 or 100 feet. At the time of the organization there were 622 white people in the county, and a few lingering Indians loath to give up their old hunting grounds and the burial place of their fathers. The country was one wide expanse of wild woods, with here and there a little cleared spot that began to look like the home of civilized man. It was an unpromising place to build homes. It took brave hearts to make the start and overcome the great barriers that met them at every turn. There was nothing to encourage, and yet the faith and hope that inspired our fathers overcame everything.
80
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
SURFACE AND SOIL.
If there was anything to induce our fathers to brave all these obstacles it was their hope in the soil. At that time they knew nothing about it, no survey had been made. They judged that there must be rich soil where such massive forests grew. They could not even see the general appearance of the country for the woods. After long years of slavish toil in removing the for- ests, draining the bogs and developing attractive farms, government surveys were made mapping out the county and classifying the soils. The drainage system of the county is not unlike that of the state. The table-lands that stretch across the state from the east bearing south, dividing the Wabash sys- tem from the Whitewater system, enter the northeast of Boone county and passes out at the southwest. Sugar creek and Raccoon creek, in the north and west part of the county, belong to the Wabash system; Eagle creek and Eel river, in the east and south part of the county, belong to the White river system. The general drainage of the county is very similar to that of the state. The ditching system is simply straightening out the tributaries to these main streams and extending them into the bogs and morasses that covered the table-lands of the county. This was the real hard work in the develop- ment of the county. It was a slow process. The people kept flocking into the woods and swamps from the east and south all during the thirties, so that the population of the county increased more that decade than any other period of our existence. It seems that the people came, managed to build their cabins and stuck to the job. They either could not get away or they had great hopes of developments. They could see over the tall trees, or through the thick undergrowth or under the bogs to our day, to its beauty and its glory. They must have been men of great courage and a pluck to pull through great difficulties. Three decades passed before there was much material gain for better things. The generation of toilers wore themselves out and passed to their rest and future reward. Their children took up the task, grew old and are now passing, and their children have inherited the fruits of all this toil and sacrifice, this very paradise of homes. The first toil- ers who indeed laid the mudsills of the county brought it into the open, and the world began to see and talk about it. It became the butt of the state. It was called "The State of Boone." We remember when a boy what stories were told. Some of our kin were here and the word went back and forth. It was reported so wet and swampy that the people had to go about in mud-
81
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
boats and that the people actually became web-footed. The roads were made of logs laid across the drive, called "Corduroy" and when the rains descended it floated like a raft or pontoon bridge. There was a basis of truth in all this. The poets put in the coloring, and by the time it reached the eastern part of the state became wondrous, so much so that Grandfather LaFuze traded his possessions in Boone to Anthony and Wilson Beck for their lands in little Union. If it had not been for this circumstance he might have been a native of this noted county instead of an adopted son. If we would undertake to give the individual part of each in this sea of toil the story would never end, so we are compelled to generalize in this way to give an idea of the work that it took to bring this fair land out of the woods. After all this is done the nation comes in and measures up, analyzes and spreads on paper an inventory of what we now possess. The government says the sur- face formation of this county consists of glacial material known geologically as the early Wisconsin drift. The thickness of the drift is quite variable, ranging from less than fifty to one hundred and fifty, making a general aver- age of one hundred feet. The older sheets of drift and sedimentary rock is buried so deeply that they exert no influence upon the soils. In general the first ten to fifteen feet of the Wisconsin material is a very light brown or pale yellowish mixture of fine sand, silt and clay carrying a large proportion of gravel and small stones. The latter consists largely of granites and various kinds of hard, dark-colored rocks apparently as resistant to decay as quartizitic, with some schistose and gneissic fragments. As a rule, there is not much sand stone or shale, but pieces of limestone and a high percentage of fine sand are usually abundant from within four to five feet of the surface downwards. The above description applies more especially to the uplands, but along the creek valleys and in many of the depressions, that were for- merly lakes, the light-colored bowlder clay gives place to beds of gravel. The substrata of the terraces on Sugar and Eagle creeks are irregularly stratified sand and gravel, and pockets or streaks of this material occur along many of the small branches forming the substrata of the black soils. Almost every- where the glacial material is covered with a silt or silty clay layer, to a depth of about thirty inches. This silty material forms an almost unbroken surface mantle over all the uplands, and on all the higher terraces of the larger streams. The finer and richer substances by erosion have been washed down from the higher ridges and hilltops into the lowlands, hence the difference of the fertility of the soil between the hills and the valleys. Over seventy per
(6)
82
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
cent. of the surface of the county is formed of Miami-silt loam and flat phase, called Sugar-tree land. The black lands of the county that constitute over twenty per cent. of the soil area, are called Clyde silty loam, and it is dis- tinguished from the preceding type by its containing more organic matter. The latter is chiefly in the form of carbonaceous material, or vegetable tissue, when decomposed under water, or where air is mostly excluded. It is not so fertile as the brown humus which results from the decaying of prairie grasses and marshes. The abundance of this black humus, which often extends to a depth of eighteen or twenty inches, imparts a fine physical structure to a soil that would otherwise be a heavy clay loam. The remaining ten per cent. of the county is divided between Fox sandy loam found along the lower part of Sugar creek and its tributaries and the lower part of Eagle creek. Genesee loam, with patches of Genesee silt and Genesee sandy loam also along the lower parts of these streams. Fox silt loam constitutes the second-bottom lands along the streams. The meadow lands and a few patches of muck are at the heads of the streams. The muck lands of the county less than one- third of one per cent. are found in section 35, township 19 north, range I east, where the water did not know where to run to the sea until it was led out by a ditch into the headwaters of Brown's Wonder. Also lands southwest of Lebanon, in Center and Harrison townships, where the water was ditched into Eel river. If you turn to the record of deep wells you will find mention of muck found in several places about one hundred feet below the surface of the ground.
The apparently exhaustless quality of the soil of Boone county may be attributed to the happy combine of the glacial deposit and its silty covering. The latter has doubtless contributed most to the fertility on account of its greater surface exposure. The bottom lands as a rule are composed of fine sand and silt, which makes them abundantly fertile and easy to till. The prevailing color of the soil is a medium brown and is composed of a high percentage of vegetable matter. This element of fertility, this quality added to good drainage and the more modern system of aeration, make them very productive and apparently exhaustless. They possess a basis that with proper and systematic tilling will be susceptible of continuous cultivation. With as much development for the next fifty years as there has been in the past fifty, this county can be made into the very paradise of productiveness.
We submit the following table from the government, giving the names and extent of the various types mapped out in the county :
83
BOONE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Areas of Different Soils.
Per
Per
Soil.
Acres. cent.
Soil.
Acres. cent.
Miami silt loam 28,480
Genesee loam
2,240
0.8
Flat phase
166,080
71.2
Genesee silt loam
2,176
.8
Clyde silty clay loam_ 60,928
22.3
Muck
960
.3
Fox silt loam
4,864
1.8
Fox sandy loam
832
.3
Genesee sandy loam_
3,456
1.3
Meadow
3,264
1.2
Total
273,280
ORGANIZATION OF VARIOUS TOWNSHIPS.
Boone county was organized in 1831 and was called Boone as a tribute of respect to Colonel Daniel Boone, the renowned pioneer and hunter, of Kentucky. It is situated near the center of the state, and is bounded on the north by Clinton county, east by Hamilton, south by Marion and Hendricks, and on the west by Montgomery. It incloses an area of four hundred and twenty square miles of two hundred and seventy thousand eight hundred acres of land. According to the census of 1870, the county had a popula- tion exceeding 22,000; in 1890, 26,572 ; in 1900, 26,381, and in 1910, 24,673. The surface is agreeably undulating, except in the central part of the county, where it is level or flat, and originally abounded in bogs or marshes and in the vicinity of the headwaters of Big Eagle creek there are some small wet prairies. The remarkable fertility of the soil in this flat district has induced the owners of the land to resort to drainage by ditches, and at the present time, the finest crops of corn and hay are raised here. The strong clay soil of the rolling lands is in good repute for its unfailing yield of all the products of the farm in this region of country. The deep loam soil of the prairies is famous for corn and the grasses, except during seasons of long drouth. Wheat, corn, oats, blue grass, timothy and all the fruits adapted to this climate are grown to great perfection on these varied soils. The whole area of the county, excepting prairies, was originally a dense forest, but the steady drain upon it for fuel and manufacturing purposes has materially reduced the original supply. In the remaining forests may be found a good propor- tion of burr oak, beech, elm, ash, poplar, sugar tree and black walnut.
The county is on the ridge, or what was formerly called the dividing swamps, between White river and the Wabash. It is the source of Eagle
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