USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana: containing a history of the townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies, etc., etc. > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
In 1832 Elder John O'Kane settled in Milton, com- ing from the village of Lebanon, Ohio, though by birth a Virginian. He engaged in school teaching, and on Sundays preached the doctrines of the Ref- ormation. He was a co-laborer with Elder Thomp- son, and one of the most eloquent preachers of the Reformation. These two gentlemen traveled through eastern Indiana, and made many converts every- where, forming the nucleus around which have gath- ered the flourishing churches of to-day.
Benjamin F. Reeve, R. T. Brown, George Camp- bell, Elias Stone and John Langly were among the early preachers of the Reformation in this section of the country.
SCHOOLS.
Subscription schools were the only schools known to the pioneers of Fayette. The schoolhouses were not unlike the cabins of that day; first was the round- log-house with its puncheon floor, door and seats, the latter backless; its heating apparatus, a hnge fire- place in one end of the room, or, perhaps, a contrived receptacle for fire in the center of the room with no exit for the smoke other than an opening in the roof, and the only means of light through greased paper. Next came the hewed-log-house, and finally the neat frame and the substantial brick. Says a pioneer:
Berry Thomas
53
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
"The price of schooling was 75 cents to $1 per quarter, and the schools generally lasted three months per annum, and the masters were paid in wheat at 37} cents per bushel, or corn at 8 or 10 cents and deliv- ered-which was done on a sled, very few having wagons. In fact, they had no use for any, as every- body made his own sled, and that was sufficient."
In order to be a teacher then, the person must be able to teach reading, writing and arithmetic to the single rule of three. This was the standard of learn_ ing that the teacher had to attain in order to be classed as an educator. It was plainly to be under- stood that the people of those times wanted nothing better.
Under provision of Congress, one square mile in each Congressional township was reserved for edu- cational purposes. The Territorial Legislature on October 26, 1808, invested the Courts of Common Pleas with powers to lease such lands, the proceeds resulting to go to the benefit of educational enter- prises. By further enactments, Trustees were ap- pointed to take charge of these school lands. In 1816 the General Assembly passed an act providing for the appointment of Superintendents. Numerous subsequent acts from time to time for the advance- ment of education in the State have been passed, and the result is the present high degree of excellency. By the law of 1824, for building schoolhouses, each voter was made a builder. When a schoolhouse was to be built, the people would meet and each was assigned to some particular class of work-there were choppers, masons (daubers), howers, etc. A fine of 372 cents per day was required of those who did not work or pay an equivalent. One section of the law provided that each schoolhouse should be eight feet
betweon the floors, and at least one foot from the sur- face of the ground to tho first floor, and finished in a manner calculated to render comfortable the teacher and pupils, with a suitable number of seats, tables, lights, and everything necessary for the convenience of such schools.
The law creating the office of County Superin- tendent was enacted in 1872-73, prior to which time the duties of that officer devolved upon the School Examiners, excepting school·visiting.
In the pioncer day, the Trustee of the school dis- trict, by virtue of his office, was the examiner and sole judge of the qualifications of the teacher, and in all probability a majority of the Trustees were wholly incapable of deciding the merits of such qualifica- tions; in fact, little attention was paid to this branch of the subject. Some years later, a little subsequent to 1833, says Uncle Sammy Little "when I taught I was examined verbally by Dr. R. T. Brown, while he strapped his razor in his own parlor."
The following resolutions were adopted at a meet- ing held at a schoolhouse near Col. Crisler's, in Col- umbia Township, December 31, 1829, for the purpose of taking into consideration the practice of burring out school teachers on Christmas and New Years. Col. Crisler presided; Benjamin Smith acted as Sec retary, and Dr. Philip Mason delivered a lecture on the subject.
Resolved, That in our opinion it is both immoral and impolitie to celebrate the 25th day of December, and the 1st day of January, as is the practice of some persons, and par- ticularly in stopping the neighborhood schools on those days.
Resolved, Also, that it is the bounden duty of parents, who are subscribers to schools, to present, as far as is in their power, their children from the various injurious practice of barring out school teachers.
CHAPTER V.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
GEOGRAPHY-TOPOGRAPHY-GEOLOGY.
H AYETTE COUNTY is located in the southeastern portion of the State, and is bounded on the north by Henry and Wayne Counties, on the east by Union, on the south by Franklin, and on the west by Rush. Connersville, its seat of justice, is in latitude 39° 36' north, and longitude 7º 54' west, being by rail distant 67.2 miles a little south of east from Indianapolis, aud 57.1 northwest of Cincinnati, Ohio. Fayette is one of the smaller counties of the State, and contains an area of 211 square miles, as given by the "Indiana Gazetteer."
TOPOGRAPHY.
The surface of the county is rolling in the east and south, and level or gently undulating in the north and west, with a large proportion of bottoms, and every part of the county is susceptible of protit- able cultivation. Dense forests of ash, sugar-tree, beech, walnut, poplar, oak, sycamore, elm, hackberry, buckeye and cottonwood originally covered most of the county, which is well watered and drained by per- manent streams. The principal water-courses are tributaries to the Whitewater River, and reach that
3
54
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
river through the West Fork of the samo river, which is the largest stream in the county, and passes from north to south nearly through its center.
Of the soveral notable tributaries of West Fork, Lick Creek, the most northern, has its source in eastern Posey Township, flows in a southeastern direc- tion out into and through Harrison Township, to a point near its southern boundary, where it makes a turn and flows noarly north for about one mile, then east, and empties into West Fork, which serves as the boundary line between the townships of Harrison and Waterloo.
The next water-course south is Little Williams Creek, which has its source in Harrison Township, flows southeasterly through Harrison and Conners- ville Townships, and joins Williams Creek propor about one mile from the latter's mouth at West Fork.
Williams Creek proper rises in the northwestern part of the county, flows south for some miles through Posey, Fairview and Harrison Townships, when it enters Connersville Township in the extreme north- west corner, and takes a southeasterly course and con- veys its waters into West Fork, a littlo south of the dividing line between Connersville and Columbia Townships, at a point about five miles from the Franklin County line.
. South of Williams Creek is Fall Creek, which takes its beginning in the western part of the county, near the line dividing Orange and Connersville Townships, flows east and joins West Fork. At the mouth of Williams Creek, Garrison's Creek, which is understood to have taken its name from Samuel Garrison, who settled at its mouth during the war of 1812, being tho first settler in that vicinity, rises in Orange Township in the western part of the county, flows in two separate channels about one mile apart in a southeastern direction. and parallel with each other for as much as six miles, when they unite at a point in southeastern Columbia Township, and con- tinne by one stream for about a mile, where its mouth is reached probably ono mile above Laurel, in the county of Franklin.
The tributaries to West Fork from the east are Nolan's Fork, which has but about one mile's course in the county, flowing from Wayne County, and waters a portion of Waterloo Township; Village Creck, flowing in a southwestern direction from the eastern part of the county, Jennings Township; Wilson's Creek from Jennings, flowing west through Jackson Township, and Bear Creek, next south, through the same township.
Othor than these, in the eastern part of the county, aro the sources of Simpson's Creek, Turkey Creek and Ellis Creek, all of which are tributaries to the East Fork of Whitewater, and drain small portions
of Waterloo, Jennings and Jackson Townships. The Whitewater River is a very rapid stream, having upon an average, a fall of six feet to the mile from Hagerstown, in Wayne County, to Elizabethtown, in the State of Ohio. The West Fork has not quito so great a fall as this, yet all along its courso it affords an ample power to propel almost any amount of machinery. It is said that in former times the stream was bordered by trees, and the water was so trans- parent in the fall and winter, that the bottom could be seen at a depth of twenty feet. It is still a very clear stream, but by no means equal to what it was formerly. None of the streams furnish upon an average more than one-third of the amount of water they did forty or fifty years ago. This failure is caused by the destruction of the forests, and by draining the flat uplands. Whilst the surface was covered with trees, brush and leaves, the water after rains was prevented from flowing rapidly into the streams, so that the rises were gradual; but since the side hills have been cleared and set in grass, and the level lands drained, the water rushes rapidly into the streams, causing great floods, which wash the banks, overflowing many of the bottoms, and as quickly sub- side, leaving a deficiency of water as compared with former years. These floods have greatly marred the beauty of the river, by washing away the banks and leaving great accumulations of gravel and sand in its widened bed. The Whitewater was once a navigable stream for some miles, and some of the early settlers were possibly engaged in trafficking upon its bosom. There is a logend that as early as 1813 the first Terri- torial Legislature made an appropriation for improv- ing the navigation of the Whitewater, and that W. H. Eads was the Commissioner for expending the money. Mr. Eads had been a member of the convention from Franklin County which had formed the State con- stitution, and had acquired quite a reputation for business capacity, and it is possible that he might have wanted such an appropriation. It is within the recollection of the living that several boats were built and launched at Brookville, but as to their size, description, and whether any ever succeeded in get- ting out of the river, the writer has no knowledge.
In support of the statement that the river was navigable, it was recorded and classified as such in a Geography and History of the Western States, pub- lished in 1828, wherein the number of miles of navi- gation was given as forty. The following description of the river was given in that work:
" Whitewater is a branch of the Big Miami, and is a very interesting rivor. It rises near Fort Green- ville, in Ohio. Not far from its source it crosses in- to Indiana, and in its dovious course waters a large extent of fertile country. The West Fork unites
55
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
with it at Brookville, thirty miles above its entrance into the Miami. This beautiful stream is supposed to water nearly 1,000,000 acres of land. It abounds in fine fish, and exceeds all other rivers of the coun- try in the unusual transparency of its waters. It has its source in copious springs, and its waters are uncommonly cold. The people in its vicinity have an idea that its waters are too much wanting in spe- cific gravity, or from other causes too little buoyant, for ordinary swimmers to trust themselves to bathe in."
In further support of the early navigation of the Whitewater, we quote from the notes of Rev. Thomas Goodwin:
" One of the early acts of the Territorial Legisla- ture was to make the Whitewater a 'navigable stream.' This was done as early as February, 1813. This may provoke a smile, but the West Fork up to the vicinity of Waterloo, and the East Fork to Dun. lapsville, were navigable, and sent out many a cargo of produce that floated to New Orleans."
In the earlier history of the country there was a lake or pond of considerable size located in the north- ern part of the county, in Sections 31 and 6, Town 15, Range 13 east, which, according to a published account in 1833, covered some sixty or seventy acres, and was thien fed by a small stream, but from which issued no stream except during the spring freshets. This body of water, by drainage and evaporation, has long since disappeared.
The summit west of Big Williams Creek is the highest point of land on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis Railroad, between Hamilton, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Ind. Its elevation above tide-water is 1,126.68 feet.
The following table will exhibit the elevations of land at different points in the county. For the pur- pose of comparison the elevations of several points in adjoining counties are given. The altitudes as given are abovo tide-water:
FEET.
Surface of the ground at the court house iu Conners- ville. 845
Base of rail on branch of J., M. & I. Railroad at Bentonville 1,066.74
Base of rail on branch of J., M. & I. Railroad at Falmouth . 1,061
Whitewater River at Connersville .. 817.68 Summit east of Big Williams Creek. .1,060.68 Summit west of Big Williams Creek .. .1,126.68
Track of the Fort Wayne, Muncie & Cincinnati Railroad at Fayette County line. 881 Track of the Fort Wayne, Muncie & Cincinnati Railroad at Cambridge City (Wayue County) 957
Whitewater and Brownsville (Union County). 778 Summit east of Hanna's Creek (Union County). .1,077 Whitewater River at junction of East Fork at
Brookville (Franklin County). 620 Rushville Station (Rush County). 976
The surface of the ground at Connersville is 393 feet above high-water mark in the Ohio River at the head of the falls, and 259 feet above Lake Erie. At the old Conwell dam below the city the elevations above the same points are 348 and 214 feet respec- tively.
OEOLOGY.
The dividing ridge in the counties of Switzerland, Dearborn, Franklin, Union and Fayette, between the waters of the Wabash and those of the Ohio, may be considered the eastern boundary of the magnesian limestone group of Upper Silurian, date. On the western borders of Fayotte and Franklin Counties these rocks are occasionally to be seen; but the greater part of these two counties, as well as the whole of Switzerland, Dearborn and Union, is occu- pied by the inferior blue, fossiliferous, shell lime- stones and alternating marls. These rise to their highest elevation near the eastern limit of Indiana, and decline toward the east as they pass into Ohio.
These counties are remarkably interesting to the geologist on account of the numerous marine fossils found imbedded in the blue limestone formation. Some of them are in a wonderful state of preserva- tion, and so abundant that the rock is almost an ag. glutinated mass of marine shells and corals, which lived, died and became entombed in the sediments and precipitates forming in the ocean during the earliest period to which geologists are able to trace back organic existences.
The county of Fayette is of both the Upper and Lower Silurian formation. A little more than the western half of its territory is of the Upper Silurian while some less than the eastern half is of the Lower Silurian. The soils of the latter formation are most excellent for the growing of what is known as the famous blue-grass of Kentucky. This can be made a most profitable crop in such formation, hence let the farmer of eastern Fayette experiment more largely in its production.
During the years 1859-60 there was made under the direction of the late David Dale Owen, M. D., State Geologist, by Richard Owen, M. D., then Prin- cipal Assistant, afterward State Geologist, a Geolog- ical Reconnoissance of Indiana, from the report of which the following pertaining to Fayette County is extracted: "Passing from the northern line of the county toward Connersville, the county seat, we trav- eled through parts of the valley of Whitewater to extensive bottoms rising into gentle and undulating drift elevations, exhibiting fine farms and the pros- pect of abundant corn crops. Near town the osage hedges betokened high cultivation, and the mill race with extensive buildings indicated where a part, at least, of their staple product, wheat, receives its
56
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
preparation for the flour market. Pork and beef are also largely produced in this county. Although the soil in places appeared clayey, indicated by the ponds along the roadsides, yet it was susceptible of pulverization by the harrow, and the wheat which on the 19th of September (the day we passed through Connersville) had already been put in on several farms, was much of it drilled, and in excellent order. This system of drilling wheat appears to be rapidly gaining in the estimation of our farming community, as rendering it less liable to freeze out besides saving, seed and distributing it more rapidly than even a long experience in broad-cast sowing can possibly secure. " The prevailing timbor is oak and beech, occa- sionally thinned out so as to form fine wood pastures, in which the blue-grass (*Poapratensis) thrives kindly. " Building materials are abundant, rock being extensively quarried in tolerably heavy layers at sev- eral places near the county line of Franklin, and across the line at Somerset as well as on Williams Creek, near which locality they also manufacture hydraulic cement from limestone.
"Adjoining Williams Creek two or three miles west of Connersville, we found in about twenty-five feet, vertical thickness, of blue limestone, inter- spersed with martite, abundant samples of the follow- ing fossils: Choetetes petropolitanus, Streptelasına corniculum, Rhynchonella, (Atrypa) increbescens, Strophonsena (Leptæna) Alternata, S. planumvona, Leptona sericea, Orthistestudinaria, portions of caly- menesenaria, and of Asaphus canalis, (Isotelusgigas).
"In traveling toward the extreme western limit of Fayette, about four and a half miles from the Rush County line, we found at a deep, natural cut a fine exposure of the upper members in the Lower Silurian formation, surrounded by a reddish Silico-calcareous rock, apparently of Upper Silurian age, although we failed to find any fossils in it."
[In this natural exposure of 110 feet these gen- tlemen made au examination of the succession of strata, which is illustrated by plates not here found practicable to give, but an examination made near Connersville revealed the following strata in the de- scending order: Three feet of soil, twenty-five feet of gravel, ten feet of sand, six feet of blue clay and twenty feet of bowlders intermingled with gravel.]
"Soon after passing this locality we ascended still higher, over coarse gravel and bowlders, to about the highest land in the State, the barometer at 2 P. M. falling to 28.97 inches, although it stood a few hours before at 29.28 at Connersville. Allowing that it had fallen, as it often does in the afternoon, about two-hundredths, still we had ascended 270 feet after leaving Connersville. We continued some time on this elevated plateau with but little variation in the barometer, passing some very fine farms and a dense growth of large beech, sugar maple and oak timber, with pawpaw undergrowth even beyond Vienna, the western limit of the county, that town be- ing built in Rush up to the Fayette line.
" We readily perceive from observation that a great portion of the surface soil in this county is drift, amounting sometimes to fifty or sixty feet in vertical thickness, which has thus greatly modi- fied the soil from that of pure Upper Silurian detritus.
"On portions of this plateau there is a deficiency of running water for stock, although a supply is ob- tained on many portions of the elevation by digging ten or fifteen feet through bluish clay, when they reach gravel and usually find water in that or the sand overlying an impervious substratum. It is com- monly hard, because during filtration through the superincumbent drift the water encounters fragments of limestone. Notwithstanding some inconvenience, on this score of a scarce supply in dry seasons, there are farmhouses on the plateau in Fayette and the ad joining county of Rush as fine as any we saw in the State. Some of them could have not cost less than $4,000 or $5,000. The style of architecture is elab- orate and sometimes highly ornamental.
Along the river bottoms the soil of Fayette is rich and productive, composed largely of vegetable matter or humus, with clay, sand and lime; in fact, all the elements of fertility. These lands have im- mense crops of corn for years. The constant crop- ping in corn, bowevor, is perceptibly exhausting them, and points out the necessity of a rotation in crops and the application of fertilizers if they are expected to maintain their fertility. The uplands are of clayey soils mixed with sand and gravel, on which, by good culture, rotating crops and subsoiling, fair crops are produced.
* The less common blue-grass of botanists is poe compressia.
57
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
CHAPTER VI.
CIVIL ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY. BOUNDARIES-LOCATION OF THE COUNTY SEAT-COUNTY BUILDINGS.
F AYETTE COUNTY was established by an act of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana approved December 28, 1818, and named at the same time in honor of Gen. Lafayette. The act creating the county took effect January 1, 1819, and with this date the history of the county as a civil division begins.
The county was formed of territory taken princi- pally .from the counties of Wayne and Franklin, which counties were created at the same time by an act of the Assembly of Indiana Territory passed November 27, 1810, to take effect from February 1, 1811.
Going another step backward, the counties of Wayne and Franklin were formed from Dearborn and Clark, which originally embraced a large scope of country, out of which many counties were subse- quently formed.
The western boundaries of Wayne and Franklin Counties was the western boundary line of the "Twelve- Mile Purchase," which boundary line with reference to Fayette County as it is at present, extended from a point in the northeastern corner of Posey Township, about a quarter of a mile west of the eastern bound- ary of the township, in a southwest diagonal direc- tion, passing through the townships of Posey, Har- rison, Connersville, Columbia and Orange, to a point on the northern boundary line of Franklin County as it is to-day, a half mile west of the eastern boundary of Orange Township. The line dividing the counties of Wayne and Franklin, as designated in the act, corresponded with the line which at present separates Connersville and Harrison Townships, and Waterloo and Jennings Townships.
BOUNDARIES OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
Act approved December 28, 1818.
SECTION 1 .- Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, that from and after the first day of January next all that tract or parcel of country which is enclosed within the following boundaries shall constitute and form a new conn- ty to be known and designated by the name and style of the county of Fayette, to wit, beginning at the southeast corner of Section 33, Township 13, Range 13, thence north three miles, thence east three miles to the old boundary line; thence north to fractions 28 and 33, in Township 15, Range 14, east of the second principal meridian; thence west on said line to
a line dividing Sections 27 and 28 in Township 15, Range 12, east of the second principal meridian; thence north on said line to a line dividing Townships 15 and 16; thence west six miles; thence south eighteen miles; thence east so far as to intersect the line dividing Townships 12 and 13; thence along said line east to the place of beginning.
From the boundaries above described it will be observed by comparison that the county when formed was minus the strip of country it now possesses in eastern Jackson south of Jennings, extending two miles east and west and three miles north and south; and its eastern boundary was the "Old Boundary Line," or, as it is sometimes called, the "Indian Boundary." In 1821, when Union County was created, the territory east of the present eastern boundary line of Fayette lying between said eastern boundary and the "Old Boundary Line " was given to Union. By an act approved January 16, 1826, the strip of terri- tory heretofore referred to in eastern Jackson Town- ship was attached to Fayette.
So much of the territory of Fayette County as it now exists, as lies east of the western boundary line of the "Twelve-Mile Purchase," and north of the line dividing Harrison and Connersville Townships, and the townships of Waterloo and Jennings, extending to the eastern boundary line of the county, was taken from Wayne County; that portion south between the western and eastern boundaries as above described from Franklin County, and all territory west of the western boundary line of the "Twelve-Mile Purchase," from the " New Purchase."
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.