USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 43
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This ends the second day's proceedings. On the third day (February roth) rates were estab- lished for the observation of tavern-keepers throughout the county. Joseph Green was ap- pointed constable for New Albany township for one year, and Jacob Garrettson, Jr., was ap- pointed supervisor for the State road from Gut ford, on Silver creek, to the top of the knobs.
Thus ends the business of the first session of
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the first commissioners of Floyd county. The next regular meeting was held on the 4th of March, 1819, and Charles Paxson's name appears on the records as commissioner in addition to the other two. This meeting was mostly taken up with matters relating to the establishment of a seat of justice.
MORE LEGISLATION FOR NEW ALBANY.
April 19, 1819, there was a special meeting of the commissioners for the purpose of changing the boundaries of townships, and New Albany town- ship was bounded and described as follows:
It is ordered that all that part of Floyd county beginning at the Ohio river on the line which divides fractional sections numbered twenty-nine and thirty-two, in town Three south of range Six east, running thence west to the corners of sec- tions numbered twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, and thirty- two, in said town; thence north to the corners of sections numbered nineteen, twenty, twenty-nine, and thirty in town Two, south of range Six east; thence east to the corners of sections numbered twenty, twenty-one, twenty-eight, and twenty-nine, in said town; thence north to the corners of sec- tions numbered sixteen, seventeen, twenty, and twenty-one, in said town; thence east to the corners of sections numbered fifteen, sixteen, twenty-one, and twenty-two, in said town; thence north to the corners of sections numbered nine, ten, fifteen, and sixteen, in said town; thence east to the corners of sections numbered ten, eleven, fourteen, and fifteen, in said town; thence north to the corners of sections numbered two, three, thirty-four, and thirty-five, in said town; thence east with the section line to the Grant line; thence up the Grant line to the line that divides the counties of Floyd and Clark; thence down the county line of Floyd to Silver creek; thence down said creek to the Ohio river; thence down, with the meanders of said river, to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby made one township, to be known and desig- nated as New Albany township; and it is further ordered that the bounds of said township called by the name of New At- bany township, which was made an order at the session in February last, be and the same is hereby made void and of no effect.
As thus described, this territory forms one of the most irregularly shaped townships in the county, being some twelve miles in length and five in its greatest width. Its edges are indented on all sides by the Ohio river, Silver creek, and the various townships bounding it on the west. Its boundaries have been changed slightly from time to time, but its western boundary line has generally followed the knobs, and it may be said to include all the territory in the county east of this range of hills. The object of the commis- sioners was to create a territory, all parts of which would be within easy reach of the city of New Albany, which was a matter somewhat diffi- cult, on account of the location of the city, the
latter being, from the necessities of the case, located on the Ohio river, and thus at one edge of the township and county.
TOWNSHIP APPOINTEES.
The following from the commissioners' records continues the names of some of the first officers appointed by the board to perfect the machinery of organization: For the year 1820 Seth Wood- ruff was re-appointed inspector of elections for New Albany township, and Moses Kirkpatrick for Greenville township. The fence viewers for the same years were Henry Sigler, Sr., James Akers, and Robert Brown, for Greenville, and David M. Hale and Ashel Clapp for this town- ship. John B. Howard was appointed constable for Greenville, and David H. Allison lister. Absalom Littell was appointed lister for New Albany township. At the May session of the same year Thomas Kurtz was appointed con- stable for this township; and John Quackenbush and John R. Kendall for Greenville. Absalonı Littell is allowed $25 for his services as lister of this township for the year. At the February ses- sion of 1821 Paul Hoye is appointed constable of this township.
TOPOGRAPHICAL.
Like nearly or quite all of the county of Floyd, this township was found to be heavily timbered at the date of the first white occupa- tion. The bottom lands along the Ohio were especially noted for the immense size and vigor- ous growth of the timber. Giant sycamores, black walnut, hickory, and all other varieties of hard wood, except oak and chestnut, grew lux- uriantly and wonderfully large on the rich, broad bottoms where are now cultivated farms and gardens, and the city of New Albany. Oak and chestnut grew abundantly on the high ground and upon the knobs.
There is more level land in this township than in any other in the county. In fact, nearly all of the township, lying as it does at the foot of the "Silver hills" (the musical name given the knobs by the Indians), is level or "second bot- tom" land. That part of the township which lies south and southwest of New Albany extends beyond this range of hills, and includes within its limits a beautiful tract of comparatively level country west of the hills and joining Franklin township. By climbing the knobs north and
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west of the city, the larger part of the township -all of the northern part-comes into view. A beautifully undulating country spreads out in every direction as far as the eye can reach, and the view is grand. The cities of New Albany and Louisville are in view, and a great expanse of country far beyond these. Silver creek, the eastern boundary line of the township, winds like a silver thread through the cultivated farms, lost here and there behind green patches of woodland, and reappearing again and again until it touches the horizon and is gone. The Ohio makes a broad sweep and disappears be- yond the city of Louisville. Bald knob, referred to in the history of Lafayette township, is the usual place of resort for an extensive view in that direction; but there is a knob near it, known as " Big knob," that is superior to it as a lookout station to the east, being higher by fifteen or twenty feet and standing in a rather isolated po- sition east of the main range of hills. For a view westward, however, Bald knob is probably superior.
Prior to the date of the first white settlement the bottom land in the neighborhood of the pres- ent city was an almost impenetrable wilderness. Along the banks of the Ohio was a rank growth of canebrake and willows, and these, mingled with drift-wood and fallen timber, rendered a landing almost impossible. Were it possible to reach the bottom and second bottom upon which the city stands, the bold explorer would find himself stopped by the dense growth of underbrush, inter- laced over every portion of this bottom with wild pea-vines. Great numbers of fallen trees, some or them of immense size, blocked his way. The forest was dark, the sunlight being almost obscured by the density of the foliage above his head. Grape-vines of great size were here and found their way to the tops of the highest trees, often spreading over many of them, and at the proper season were loaded with rich clusters, that had perchance for centuries been dropping and wasting. Other wild fruits and nuts were very abundant. Wild animals of every variety known to the American forest at that date, roamed through these silent woods undisturbed. The foot of the hunter or explorer was in continual peril of being bitten by venomous reptiles creep- ing under the wild pea-vines, wild flowers, and other abundant and luxuriant vegettion.
Rapidly, indeed, this condition of things dis- appeared before the axe of the pioneer and the steady encroachments of civilization, about the beginning of this century, until in a few years the transformation was complete, and beautiful farms, villages, cities, and homes took the place of the wilderness. The southern part of the township, between the river and the knobs, pre- sented the same densely wooded and wild ap- pearance; but in the northern part the woods were more open and more easily penetrated. Perhaps this is the reason why the old Indian trail from the Falls to Vincennes passed north- ward along Silver creek and through the north- ern part of the township, instead of taking the more direct route immediately west from Fort Clarke; and this, too, may be the reason why the northern part of the township contained the earliest settlers-they dreaded the miasmatic bottoms and the long and fearful struggle that must ensue before a home could be hewn out of this dense forest. The Indian trail cannot be definitely located by description, but it passed up the east side of Silver creek after leaving the Falls, crossing that creek at what was called by the first white settlers "Gut ford," and crossing the level bottom land between that and the knobs, through the more open woods, passed up north along the foot of the knobs, crossing them somewhere in the northern part of the township. It is stated by some of the oldest settlers who are yet living-among them David Lewis-that the main trail did not pass over Bald knob, but passed near the foot of it, and crossed further north.
SILVER CREEK
is a rapid, beautiful little stream, rising in the northern and western part of Clarke county and pursuing generally a southward course to the Ohio. It forms about one half of the boundary line between Floyd and Clarke, and generally runs over a hard rock-bed. In places it seems to have cut it way through solid layers of lime and sandstone, so that its banks form solid walls of stone and are often nearly perpendicular. At the point known as the Gut ford the land on the Clarke county side slopes gradually to the water, but on the Floyd county side there appears to have been a solid wall of rock, through which, however, was cut by natural causes a narrow gorge, or cut, or ravine, about wide enough for a
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
wagon to pass, which the emigrants denominated a "gut." This "gut" had a natural slope for sixty or seventy yards to the water's edge, and hence assisted in forming an excellent ford. Here the old Indian trail crossed, and here the earliest settlers, following the trail, crossed into what is now Floyd county, and in later years the trail grew into a great State road, which con- tinued to cross at the "gut."
" SPRINGER'S GUT."
There was in an early day another "gut" or narrow cut in the rocks by the action of the water, in this township, which came to be known as "Springer's gut." Its location was within the present limits of the city of New Albany. There was a beautiful spring at the head of this cut (now on ground owned by the Star Glass works), and the latter seemed to form an outlet to the river for the surplus waters of the spring. What caused this washout or gully is unknown, as it appeared to have been cut through layers of soft slate and sand rocks; but there was probably a break in the rocks which was filled with loam or soil, and this was gradually washed out by the action of the waters of the spring, assisted by the rainfall.
David Lewis is authority for the following statement as to the manner in which this gut re- ceived its name: A man named Moses McCann owned and operated the ferry across the river from the somewhat ancient town of Clarksville- probably the first ferry established at the falls, as it was in operation some time prior to the begin- ning of the present century. It was his daugh- ter, Sarah McCann, who made the statement to David Lewis that a man named Springer was killed by the Indians in the gut. Springer, who lived at the fort at Clarksville, was out hunting on the west side of Silver creek, in the dense thicket where New Albany now stands. It was in the days when the Indians were hostile, and Springer was discovered and pursued by a party of them. In his flight toward the fort he came suddenly to this ditch, and either fell into it ac- cidentally or fell into it in the attempt to leap across it, and was here overtaken by the savages, killed, and scalped. McCann was one of the party that went in search of Springer's body, and assisted in bringing it to the fort, where it was buried. The place has since been known as Springer's gut. It is now mostly filled up.
This is probably the only known instance of the killing of a white man by the Indians within the limits of this township, though others may have been slaughtered on its soil, and doubtless were, as it was in close proximity to the fort, to- ward which the Indians were very hostile for many years prior to the first settlement. This, and the killing of the white hunters in what is now Greenville township, are the only known instances of Indian barbarity in Floyd county.
OTHER WATERS IN NEW ALBANY.
The whole northern part of this township is watered by the tributaries of Silver creek, the two principal ones being little brooks, each known as Slate run. They rise in the knobs, and cross- ing the township in a general course southeast, empty their waters into Silver creek about a mile apart.
The principal streams in this township are Falling run and Middle creek, the former passing through the western and central portion, and the latter and its tributaries watering the southern part. Middle creek, rising in a spur which the knobs throw out to the westward from near the city of New Albany, runs eastward until it reaches the Ohio river bottoms, then hugs the foot of the knobs, running parallel with the Ohio southward until it passes out of the township.
Falling run also hugs the foot of the knobs in the greater part of its course from north to south through the township, receiving nearly all its waters from the eastern slope of this range of hills. Near New Albany it makes a bend sweep- ing around the principal part of the city. Its waters fall rapidly over a rocky bed-hence the name. In an early day there was very near the bank of this creek, and within the present limits of New Albany, a spring known as Boiling spring, which issued from a stratum of greenish- colored rock. This spring emitted a gas which, when confined, would readily burn until extin- guished by artificial means. The young town re- ceived considerable free advertising on account of this spring; but if it contained properties of any value they have never been utilized. It is not unlikely that gas in considerable quantities might be obtained here at little expense, and this ground may yet become valuable.
LOOP ISLAND.
Near the mouth of the Silver creek is a small island, known as "Loop island," formed by the
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
waters of the creek, which here make a bend in the form of a loop before reaching the Ohio.
Numerous springs are found all over the town- ship, but more especially along the knobs, while the city of New Albany is favored in every part of it with as fine drinking water as any in the world. It is underlaid with limestone, in which is found an inexhaustible supply of the purest spring water, which may be had at any point in the city by digging from twenty to thirty feet. Prior to the clearing of this ground this water caine to the surface in a score of places, and the whole tract of John Paul, the first owner, was covered with these springs.
This very excellent water was an inducement for the Indians to encamp in the vicinity and make this their hunting ground; and in the days of peace, about the beginning of this century, their camps might be seen all along Falling run and Silver creek. Here they hunted the bear, wolf, wildcat, buffalo, and elk in the bottoms, and the deer among the oak's on the higher ground and on the knobs. It must have been a very paradise for the Indian hunter. Numerous beaver dams were found on Falling run and Sil- ver creek, and the trapping was excellent along all the little streams, while the great river afforded an excellent means of getting their furs to market up the river at Fort Washington or Fort Pitt. The Indians were numerous until the war of 1812, when they disappeared from this region forever.
THE CLARKE GRANT.
This township occupies nearly all the territory in this county that once belonged to Clarke county, and more than one-half of all the town- ship lying north of New Albany was originally in the Clarke Grant. As the larger part of this Grant lies in Clarke county, it is more properly con- sidered in the history of that county found in an- other part of this work. It may be said here, however, that the western line of the Grant passes north and south through the entire length of this township. The line may be found on nearly all of the present maps. Entering the city from the northeast, it makes a sharp bend beyond the cemetery and crosses the city in a diagonal di- rection to the southeast, striking the Ohio river at the foot of Upper Ninth street. This being the first of the surveyors' lines in this county, it formed a base-line for the continuance of sur-
veys; hence there are many three-cornered and curiously-shaped tracts of land in the township. The township has a gradual slope to the south- east from the knobs to the Ohio river and Silver creek.
ANTIQUITIES.
There do not appear to be any archæological remains in the township, unless a few of the stone implements frequently found may be con- sidered such. There is a bench running for a mile, perhaps, along the side of the knobs, and bending around their face overlooking the Ohio, that has a suspicious look, as if it might have been an ancient roadway. There seems to be no explanation of it, except that it might have been caused by a land-slide; but this seems improb- able, from the regularity of the depression. It averages about twenty feet in width, and passes with great regularity along the side of these hills, gradually nearing their tops as it approaches the bluffs overlooking the river, until it finally ends near the top of the hills, where they again begin to recede from the river. Part of this bench has been utilized as a public highway.
AREA.
The township contains a little more than fifteen thousand acres of land outside the city of New Albany.
FIRST WHITE SETTLEMENT.
The question of the first . white occupation of this territory is one difficult of solution at this late day. No authentic records have been pre- served and there is no possible means of verify- ing the statements of the "oldest inhabitant." Authentic history rests upon a very slim founda- tion indeed, when it rests upon a memory de- cayed and broken by the "disintegrating tooth of time;" therefore statements as to who was the first permanent white settler, either of this town- ship or county, cannot be positively made. The best that is left for the historian is to place upon record the traditions that have been handed down.
Much has been written regarding the early settlement of the whites around the falls of the Ohio, and much more regarding the military expeditions sent to conquer this then savage wilderness; yet details regarding the exact spot upon which any of these pioneers settled are somewhat meagre and unreliable.
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
Captain Thomas Bullitt is said to have been the first pioneer at the falls. This was in 1773, about a quarter of a century before a permanent settlement is thought to have been made within the present limits of Floyd county.
The six families who settled on Corn island in 1778, formed a nucleus around which gathered the rapidly advancing tide of immigration which finally overspread this entire region and settled the great cities of Louisville, Jeffersonville, and New Albany. The details of this settlement will be found elsewhere in this work.
About the beginning of the century this settle- ment began to make explorations down the river, and a few of them landed in what is now Harrison county and made locations perhaps prior to any settlement of Floyd county.
The following extract regarding the settlement of Floyd county is taken from a Directory of the Falls Cities published in 1868. Part of it appears to have been gleaned from Dr. McMurtrie's Sketches of Louisville, published in 1819:
The first settlements made in the neighborhood of the Falls on the Indiana side, were made in what is now Clarke county, at Clarksville (the first county seat of Clarke connty), Jeffersonville, and Charlestown. No settlements were made below Clarksville, or on the west side of Silver creek, in what is now Floyd county, until November 5, 1804. Prior to this time, however, several families had moved from Ken- tucky into what is now Harrison county, settling below Knob creek, and in the neighborhood of Corydon.
The first resident white woman to cross the knobs below New Albany, was the daughter of Clement Nance, after- wards the wife of Patrick Shields, an Irish pioneer settler, in what is now Georgetown township.
In considering the question of first settle- ment, it is important to know what routes were open by which settlers could enter the township with their families, baggage, cattle, etc., and, secondly, the proximity and location of the set- tlements from which the first white settlers un- doubtedly came. As to the first, then, the Ohio river was the great route, or highway of travel; and as this township touches the river for many miles, it would be reasonable to suppose that the first settlers came by that route. The next great highway was the old Indian trail from the Falls to Vincennes, which crossed this township, and it is also reasonable to presume the first settlers might have followed this trail. The very earliest pioneers in this township advanced by both of these routes, and it is a question whether, as be- tween the two, the Oatman family on the Ohio
were the first settlers, or the Lewis family and others, who settled in the northern part of the township on the Indian trail.
As to the proximity of the white settlements, the nearest was at Clarksville, situated at the mouth of Silver creek on the east side of that stream, and consequently within a stone's throw of the line between Clarke and Floyd counties, as subsequently established. Not only did Clarke's Grant include a large portion of this township, but the village of Clarksville, itself, as laid out within the Grant, extended across Silver creek into this township. From this fact it is also reasonable to argue that the first settlement may have been made in the neighborhood of Clarksville. It is not only reasonable, but prob- able, that such was the case, though there are no written records to establish the fact. It is argued by those who believe that no settlement was made here prior to that made by Mr. Lafol- lette in 1804, in Franklin township, that the fort at Clarksville was surrounded by hostile bands of Indians up to that time, and that consequently no settler ventured to establish himself on the west side of Silver creek. This is plausible, and may be true ; but such evidence as has been ob- tainable to offset this theory is here given, that the reader may be able to judge as to the facts.
Mr. John Aston is now a resident of New Albany, and upon his memory alone rests the tradition, handed down by his ancestors, that his grandfather, John Carson, was not only the first settler of this township, but of Floyd county. He says that his mother was Mary Carson, daughter of John Carson, and was born in 1786 ; that she came with her father from Kentucky to Clarksville, either in the fall of 1799 or the win- ter of 1800, settling or " squatting " immediately at the mouth of Silver creek on the west side, where Mr Carson erected the first cabin in Floyd connty. This cabin was not so far away but that it was under the guns of the fort. Mr. Carson was a "squatter," and brought with him a good-sized family, among them a son, Jonathan, who afterwards settled in a cabin that had been erected by a non-resident named Shanty, who owned the land, upon which there was a fine spring ever since known as Shanty spring. John Carson died in 1804 in this cabin, which stood on a rise of ground overlooking the Ohio and near the creek. He made it his business while
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
here to keep a boat, not only for his own use in crossing the creek to the fort, but also for the purpose of ferrying the Indians over the creek when the waters were too high for them to cross at the Gut ford. In 1806, when his mother was twenty years of age, she married Richard Aston, Jr., and the young couple immediately took up their residence with the widow Carson. The Aston family was from England, but came to this place from North Carolina.
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