USA > Indiana > Hancock County > History of Hancock County, Indiana, from its earliest settlement by the "pale face," in 1818, down to 1882 > Part 8
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The following are the present officers : Wm. Marsh. W. M .: J. A. Eakin, S. W .; J. A. McDaniel. J. W. : Wm. Trees, Treasurer ; J. D. Hedrick, Secretary ; G. W. Coon, S. D. : J. S. Orr, J. D. ; F. M. Graham, Tylor.
The past masters of this lodge are W. G. Caldwell. William Marsh, and George W. Summerville.
The lodge is in a prosperous condition, and owns a lodge-room valued at $800. The total membership is twenty-five. Nights of meeting: Wednesday evening. on or before the fulling of the moon in each month.
There was a lodge of Masons in Warrington organized in 1856, prior to the above, which continued for ten years. when the lodge-room was consumed by fire, the charter surrendered and the organization discontinued till the establishment of the above.
Among the first members of the original lodge were the following: W. P. White, J. K. King, Lysander Sparks, John Vandyke, James McCray, Moses Cottrell. J. A. McDaniel, Wm. Marsh, W. G. Caldwell, Thomas Walker, F. L. Seward, Andrew Vandyke, Ananias Conk- lin, and James Daugherty.
10.4
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
I. O. O. F. No. 4H ( WARRINGTON).
This lodge dates from the issuing of their charter May 21, 1873.
The charter members were William Trees, J. D. New- kirk, J. G. Trees, William Kenyon, and Henry C. Garriott.
Officers : R. R. Hays, N. G. : William Kenyon, V. G. ; John G. Trees, Secretary ; William Trees, Treasurer.
The total membership at present is forty. It is in good condition financially and otherwise. It owns the room where it meets, built at a cost of $1,000. Regular night of meeting, Saturday evening of each week.
DAUGHTERS OF REBECCA ( WARRINGTON).
Friendship Lodge No. 138 of the Daughters of Re- becca was organized in Warrington in 1874. Date of charter, December 16, 1874.
Charter members : C. C. Loder, Jennie Loder, W. 11. Power, William Marsh, Sarah Newkirk, William Trees, Henry C. Garriott, John Miller, M. L. Miller, Wil- liam Kenyon, J. D. Newkirk, Matilda Trees, and A. M. Smith.
The regular meeting of the society occurs on Thurs- day on or before the full moon in each month. The meet- ings are held in the Odd Fellows' hall.
BENJAMIN F. REEVES, ESQ.,
was born in Brown county, Ohio, on the second day of May, 1828. In the fall of 1837 his parents moved to Rush county, Indiana, and three years later came to Hancock county and settled on Brandywine Creek, in Brown town- ship, their home being a rude log cabin in the wilderness. His father had a large family of small children, and he. being the oldest, was compelled to work out from home to aid in maintaining the family.
By the time he was grown he had obtained, what was considered in those days, a good education, and taught
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BROWN TOWNSHIP.
school in the winter and worked at moulding brick in the summer.
On the first day of November, 1849, he was married to Caroline Harlan, a daughter of Stephen Harlan, one of the first settlers of the county. The result of this union was ten children-five girls and an equal number of boys, eight of whom are still living.
In the summer of 1863 he united with the Baptist church, and is still a member thereof.
On the 25th of March, 1873, he had the misfortune to lose his wife, who was a most estimable lady, and sincerely mourned by all who knew her. On the 15th day of August, 1874, he was again married, choosing for his companion Nancy Garner, with whom he is still happily living.
Mr. Reeves is well-known throughout the county, and perhaps no man in his township enjoys in a higher degree the confidence and esteem of the people ; and, as a result, he has held many offices of trust. In 1851 he was appointed school trustee by the county auditor, and in the spring of 1858 was elected township trustee, and again elected in the spring of 1862. In the spring of 1866 he was elected justice of the peace, and was re-elected in 1870, 1874, and 1878, having served continuously for fifteen years in that capacity, and, probably, married more peo- ple than any man in the county. In addition to his duties as justice, Mr. Reeves attends to a large share of probate business.
By his thrift and industry he has secured to himself one of the best farms in the county ; and now, in the even- ing of his days, surrounded by all the comforts of life, and enjoying the confidence and esteem of all who know him, he can look back over the record of a life well spent and forward to a crown well won.
Dr. H. J. Reeves, a young physician of good standing in "Liztown," Henry county, is his son. Another son is teaching school and studying law, preparatory to entering the legal profession. 8
BENJAMIN F. REEVES, ESQ.
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BROWN TOWNSHIP'.
STEPHEN HARLAN
was a native of the old " Palmetto State." and dates his earthly career back to the first year of the present century. He came to Hancock county in 1834, and settled in Brown township, on the farm which he entered, and where he lived and died. He was, consequently, one of the first settlers in this section.
Mr. Harlan was married, near Connersville, to a Miss Sparks, a tall, slender, noble woman, still living beyond her three score and ten.
The first brick house and the first mill in the township were built and owned by Stephen Harlan, who was not only an enterprising, thrifty farmer, but a miller and mill- wright, having built two grist-mills and a saw-mill, the first in 1835.
He was a zealous member of the Baptist church. It was at his house that the meetings of this society in Brown were first held.
This liberal-hearted, brave pioneer " shuffled off the mortal coil" and bade adieu to earthly scenes April 19. 1877, and was buried at the Concord Baptist church among his brethren in the faith.
JOHN NIBARGER,
a native of the "Buckeye State," was born in Green county, just at the beginning of the second war with the mother country. He emigrated to Hancock county in 1830 and settled on Sugar Creek, near the Concord Baptist church, in Brown township. He was married to Miss Julia Ann Walker in 1837. She dying, he was married the second time to Margaret Asbury April 3, 1845 ; and a third time to Sarah Mead, on February 20, 1853. He had three children by his second wife. He obtained all of his wives in sight of his farm.
Mr. Nibarger was a consistent member of the M. E. church, a thrifty farmer, an exemplary man, and a good citizen.
.
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
PHINEAS THOMAS,
a native of the "Keystone State," began his earthly pil- grimage about the year 1765. He came to Kentucky at the age of nineteen, being about the year 1784, and under- went the hardships of a Daniel Boone life. He lived in a "block-house," with other families, as a protection from the ill-treated, wily red man, who encompassed them about so closely that they were compelled to place guards at the house while a few of the men worked in the adjoining field.
From Kentucky he went to Ohio, to engage in the United States survey, which he followed till the Indians became so hostile he was compelled to decline further employment. From Ohio he came to Rush county, just as she was first being peopled by the "pale face," where he remained for a few years; thence to Hancock county, Brown township, in 1836, where he remained till his death, in about the year 1847, at the good old age of eighty-two .. Mr. Thomas was fond of frontier life, and was truly a pioneer from first to last.
He left four sons and an equal number of daughters, viz. : Martha, Elizabeth, Margaret, Nancy, Alfred, John M., David, Ephraim and Taylor W .; five of whom are living at this date, three sons and two daughters, all use- ful, good citizens.
Mr. Thomas was a highly esteemed citizen that under- went the hardships incident to pioneer life. His remains. lie buried in the Pleasant Hill cemetery, on the line between Jackson and Brown townships.
THOMAS COLLINS,
of Brown township, was born May 9, 1806, in Gallia county, Ohio. He was married in the twentieth year of his age to Miss Sarah W. Bray, of the same state, where he remained for three years; then, with brave hearts and determined hands, they set out to seek their fortune in the unknown forest, and, in 1829, stopped in Madison county, bought a little farm and remained four years ; thence to
F
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Hancock in 1833, where, for $400, he purchased one hun- dred and sixty acres of good land in the native green. Here he toiled and endured the privations of a pioneer till 1834, when his companion died and left him in the wild woods with five little children to care for. In a short time he married Rachel Blakely, with whom he shared the fruits of industry for forty-four years.
Mr. Collins succeeded in raising a large family, and provided well for their wants. He set off eleven children with over $3,000 each, and provided for the widowed mother her life-time.
Mr. Collins attached himself to the M. E. church in 1837, and remained an earnest, faithful member till death. He was ever a liberal supporter of church and schools, :and ready to lend a helping hand to the advancement of vevery good cause. He died July 9, 1878.
WILLIAM TREES, M. D.
Dr. William Trees, of Warrington, Brown township, Hancock county, Indiana, is a native of the "Buckeye State," born in Clermont county September 9, 1816; and is, therefore, able to compare ages with the State of Indi- ana, and lose but little by the comparison.
He emigrated to Rush county, Indiana, in 1826, while the county was yet new, and Hancock county not known, and studied medicine in Milroy with the well known med- ical firm of Doctors Day and Sharp, active physicians of their time. He then attended lectures, and took a course of study and instruction in the Indiana Medical Institute. receiving a diploma of which the following is a copy :
INDIANA MEDICAL INSTITUTE. (CONSTITUTED FEBRUARY, 1839.)
Unto whom this may come, greeting:
Know ye, that Mr. William Trees having completed all the requirements of this institution, and been duly examined according to its regulations in the various branches of medical science, and found to be well qualified therein,
We, therefore, by the power invested in us by the act of
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
incorporation of this body, do authorize him to practice medi -- cine, surgery, and obstetrics, and recommend him to the favor -. able notice of the profession and the patronage of the public.
DAVID A. Cox. President.
W.M. H. MARTIN, Secretary.
H. G. SEXTON, R. ROBBINS,
R. T. BROWN, DAVID A. Cox,
WM. H. MARTIN, I. HELM,
Board of Examiners.
Dated at Rushville, May 6, 1839.
Dr. Trees moved to Warrington, his present home, June 10, 1841, where he soon built up a good practice, an impregnable character, and a name that will go down to posterity loved and honored by all.
Dr. Trees has been a liberal, consistent, zealous mem- ber of the M. E. church 'ever since its organization in Warrington. As previously remarked, it was at his house the meetings of this society were first held in Brown township.
The Doctor is an intelligent, social gentleman, and generally well informed.
JONAS MARSH,
a native of the " Ancient Dominion," was born in Lancas- ter county in 1796. His father moved to East Tennessee in 1800. In 1837 Mr. Marsh came to Hancock county, where he remained till his death, in March, 1877. While in Tennessee he followed wagon-making for about ten years ; but after coming to Hancock county he successfully engaged in farming.
Mr. Marsh was married in Tennessee to a Miss Ken- nedy, by whom he had five children : George, Henry, Elizabeth, Rebecca, and Mary Jane ; the first of whom is now living in Missouri, and Henry is well known to our citizens. By his second wife (who was a sister of the first) he raised six children : William, Montgomery, Ma- tilda, Martha. Ephraim, and John; the latter three of whom are natives of the township, the others are Tennes-
BROWN TOWNSHIP.
seeans. The youngest is a practicing physician ; Ephraim is county clerk ; Montgomery is one of the older attorneys of the county ; and Martha is the wife of William Pratt.
Mr. Marsh was one of the early settlers of the town- ship who helped to clear the forests, make the roads, and convert the wilderness into broad grain fields. Though not a member of any church or secret order, he was a firm, honest, exemplary man, unpretentious and devoid of deceit. He died on his farm, and his remains lie buried at the McQuary graveyard, near his home, where loving hands have placed a plain monument to mark the final resting place of his mortal remains.
DR. JOHN L. MARSH.
The subject of this sketch was born in Brown town- ship, this county, December 27, 1851. At the age of eight- een he entered the office of Dr. William Trees as a medi-
DR. JOIN L. MARSH.
cal student. In 1872 and 1873 he attended a course of lectures in the Louisville Medical College. The next year he attended the Ohio Medical College, receiving the
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
degree of M. D. at the close of the term. He was the youngest member of the graduating class, having just attained his twenty-first year. After leaving college, in 1874, he located in Warrington and entered upon the prac- tice of his chosen profession. The following year he mar- ried a daughter of John W. Trees. In the spring of 1877 he moved to Greenfield, put out his shingle, and entered upon a lucrative practice. In the fall of 1879 he com- menced the publication of a medical journal, which soon gained an extended reputation. During the winter of ISSO, 1881 he delivered a course of lectures in the Indiana Eclectic Medical College. In addition to his professional duties, he has contributed papers on scientific and medical subjects to various journals.
BUCK-CREEK TOWNSHIP.
CHAPTER VII.
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Scale: Two miles to the inch.
MAP OF BUCK-CREEK TOWNSHIP.
SHOWING THE SECTIONS, TOWNSHIP AND RANGES OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED.
THIS township took its name from the stream that flows through it, which, in turn, is supposed to have derived its
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
name from the numerous " buck " once found on its banks. It was struck off from Sugar-creek in 1831, and then con- sisted of the territory now embodied in both Buck-creek and Vernon. For five years it consisted of sixty-seven sections, when, in 1836, it was reduced to thirty-six sec- tions, its present size, by striking off the northern portion, which took the name of Vernon. In 1838, Buck-creek was still further reduced in size (see map on p. 32) by striking off two tiers of sections from the south and adding to Jones township and one tier from the remainder on the east and adding to Union township, leaving it diminutive in size, of only twenty sections, from 1838 to 1853, at which time it was restored to its former size of six miles square, which it still retains. It is located in the central western portion of the county, and is bounded on the north by Marion county and Vernon township, on the east by Center, on the south by Sugar-creek, and on the west by Marion county. It is all located in township sixteen north and ranges five and six east. Township line sixteen forms its southern boundary and seventeen its northern. Two tiers of sections are in range five west and four in range six. The range line extends a half mile west of Mt. Comfort.
The surface in general is very flat, the only rolling por- tion being in the south-west corner. The surface being low and wet, was once rather uninviting for settlement. It was very heavily timbered with beech, oak, ash, elm, sugar-maple, walnut and poplar, and especially abounded in fine burr oak. It has been ascertained since being cleared and drained that it is very productive. The soil is a black loam. The low portions previously thought unfit for tillage proves to be the most productive.
Streams .- Buck-creek, a small, sluggish mill stream, enters the township on the north line, at the north-east cor- ner of section five, and flows in a general south by south- west direction through the center of the township, a half mile cast of Mt. Comfort, passing out on the south line near the south-west corner of the township. This stream
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BUCK-CREEK TOWN SHIP.
has no banks at all in the township, except for about a mile through the Fish farm, on the south line. It has, therefore, been found necessary and expedient to deepen the channel in order to reclaim the overflowed land along the stream. Sugar Creek, a brisk mill stream, the largest in the township, cuts off the south-east corner of section twenty-seven, and extends through section thirty-four.
First Settlement and Land Entry .- This township was first settled about the year 1827, in the southern portion. The first entry of land was made in the year 1822, Janu- ary 18, by George Worthington, being the south-east quar- ter of section thirty-four, in township sixteen north, in range six east. The second entry was made by John Chamberlain, and the third by John Smith.
First Settlers .- The first settlers in this township were James Burris, John Shirley, Thomas Craig, William Smith, William Arnett, Obadiah and John Eastes, J. A. Dunn, Thomas Rodgers. Isaac Snider, John Dance, Dan- iel Skinner, Archy Smith, Benjamin Percell, Charles Fish, Landis Eastes, Hance Steel, and the Beechman family. Burris, Smith, Rodgers, and Dance were from Ohio ; Shirley and Craig were from Kentucky ; Snider from Vir- ginia : and Skinner from Delaware. At a little later date came George Grist, Joseph Wright. J. W. Shelby, John and Samuel Steel, John and William Collins, Jacob Smith, W. A. Dunn. Lawrence and O. O. Hirver. E. Scotten, S. Arnett, Owen Griffith, J. H. Murphy, J. W. Campbell, and the Barnards and Parkers.
Births, Deaths, Marriages. ctc .- The first child born in the township was Permelia Craig. the wife of O. O. Harvey. The second, Archibald Smith. son of Jacob Smith.
The first death was Thomas Rodgers, buried at the Scotten graveyard in about 1833.
The first burial at the Arnett graveyard was Jennings Henderson, who was found frozen to death, one mile from his home, in 1847. He had gone to Greenfield to get his
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
gun repaired, and starting home late, night overtook him, and the next morning was found dead.
In about 1847 James Burris, a very industrious, quiet man, and one of the earliest settlers in the township, after giving some directions to his son, left the house, and going into the woods, sat down by a tree and opened the veins in his arms and bled to death.
The first grown person buried in, the Steel graveyard was a daughter of Hance Steel. The first in the Dunn graveyard was the mother of William A. Dunn. The first in the Millard graveyard was Sarah Hodges, a sister of William A. Dunn. The first in the Snider graveyard was the wife of Isaac Snider. The first in the Eastes grave- yard was Lucinda Arnett, wife of William Arnett, junior.
The first marriage in Buck-creek township was that of George Shirley and Fanny Crump.
Among the first physicians were Doctors John H. San- ders, Lyman Carpenter, and J. W. Hervey.
Ebenezer Scotten was the first blacksmith in the town- ship. George Grist, located near Mt. Comfort, is the only .son of Vulcan following the trade in the territory now under consideration.
The first resident preacher was Stephen Masters, and the second Philip Thurman. The first postmaster was Robert Wallace. The first teachers were Philip Masters and a Mr. Tisdell.
The first school-house of any kind built in the town- .ship was erected near Isaac Snider's, senior, in the south- west part of the township. It was quite a rude affair.
Mills. - This township being poorly supplied with water-power, her streams being small and sluggish, she has not been noted for pioneer water-mills. The first and ·only primitive grist-mill propelled by water-power was a .small hominy mill on Buck Creek, north, near Mt. Com- fort, erected in the year 1854 by William Eastes, and of short duration. The next mill was a steam corn-cracker and saw-mill located west of Mt. Comfort, about the year 1860, built by Corbin. It burned down in a few years,
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and was never rebuilt. Whitlock built a steam sash saw- mill in 1863, which was operated some four years, and then moved out of the township. A steam saw-mill erected by McLain and Buroaker, in 1869, located one and a half miles east of Mt. Comfort, was run several years, when it was moved north-west of Mt. Comfort two and one-half miles, where it was operated a short time, and where a portion of the mill and machinery still remain. Maulden and Hopkins erected a steam circular saw-mill on the south side of the road, a few rods east of Mt. Comfort school-house, in the year 1874, which was operated a few years, when it was burned ; but shortly rebuilt, run about two years, and then removed to Oaklandon, in Marion county. Ebenezer Steel erected a large tile factory on his farm, one and one-half miles north-east of Mt. Comfort, about the time the ditching enterprise first struck the county, which was kept in operation, doing an extensive business, for a series of years, or till all the immediate section of country was thoroughly drained.
The above are the only mills of which we have any account, save the two circular saw-mills now in operation ; one of which is known as the Wilson mill, being located on the Adam Wilson farm, in the central eastern portion of the township, and the other erected the present season by Ebenezer Steel on his farm, located on the I., B. and W. R. R., about a mile north-east of Mt. Comfort.
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Merchandising .- From an examination of the old rec- ords in the auditor's office, we ascertain that in the year 1832 John Eastes was licensed, according to law, to vend merchandise in Buck-creek township. His place of busi- ness was in the southern portion, where he kept a few staple articles in accordance with the demands. There is no rec- ord of further business at this stand. The settlement soon extended farther north in the township, covering the north- ern portion as well as the southern, which was first set- tled, thus making it necessary, for convenience, to change the place of business to a more central location. Thus originated the first store at Mt. Comfort, kept by Charles
1
PROF.J.H.BINFORD
PROF.W.P. ITH
PROF. R.A.SMITH
PROF.
POPE
1
AARON
PROF. LEE O. HARRIS
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BUCK-CREEK TOWNSHIP.
Ray ; since which the following firms have held forth from time to time : Robert Church, Church & Vanlaningham. John N. Eastes, Woods & Steel, W. J. Woods, Church & Thomas, Woods & Eastes, D. G. Hanna, J. W. Jay, and Smith & Bro. ; the latter of whom were succeeded by the present merchant and postmaster, S. S. Smith.
Educational .- This township has nine frame school- houses, numbered, named and supplied with teachers for the present term as follows, to-wit :
District No. 1 . . . Black Hawk .. .. Frank Tibbett.
District No. 2. . . Boyd's E. E. Stoner.
District No. 3. . . Offenbacker N. P. Whittaker.
District No. 4. . . Wallace Robert Hurley.
District No. 5. . . Mt. Comfort Laura Dance.
District No. 6. . . Mints William Whittaker.
District No. 7. .. Griffith Moses Bates.
District No. S. . . Russel
S. S. Eastes.
District No. 9. . . Burris. M. O. Snyder.
These houses are numbered east and west as a boy would drop hills of corn in a row running in the same direction ; No. 1 being in the north-east corner of the township and No. 9 in the south-west. The buildings are all plain, medium-sized frame houses, plastered and painted and covered with shingles, and each consists of a single room. The greatest want in an educational line at present. perhaps, is more apparatus. The nine school-houses are estimated worth $4,000 ; apparatus, $100 ; total, $4,100. Total number of school children, 492. Township insti- tutes in this township have generally been well attended. interesting and profitable ; more so than the average town- ship, owing to the interest manifested by the trustee in the matter.
Synopsis .- This township has four churches, viz. : two United Brethren and two Methodist Episcopal ; one post- office-Mt. Comfort; one voting precinct-School-house No. 5 ; two circular saw-mills ; a pike ; one county officer ; one deputy ; two mill streams; nine school-houses ; one
I 20
HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
railroad ; five ex-county officers ; one store ; and a demo- cratic majority, on the vote for President in 1880, of twelve.
Roads .- Buck-creek township has less graveled road than any other township in the county, there being only three and one-half miles of toll pike within her borders. This is owing, no doubt, to her lack of gravel-pits, being, as previously remarked, low and wet. The roads are less improved and in worse condition in this township than in any other in the county.
Railroad .- The Indiana, Bloomingtan and Western Railway Company has just extended its line through this township ; but have established no station as yet.
Population .- The population of Buck-creek for 1850 was 420; for 1860, 999 ; for 1870, 1,227 ; for 1880, 1,460. In 1860 there were five colored persons and no foreigners, and in 1870 there were thirty-one foreigners and no colored.
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