Who were the first settlers of Clark County?" is a question most difficult to satisfactorily answer.
There is a considerable diversity of opinion among our oldest living citizens as to the first pioneers.
There is a story extant that the first white inhabitant of Clark, as its territory is now defined,
was a man who shot and killed his brother at Vincennes, in 1810;
he escaped in a canoe and paddled up the Wabash, landing near present Chenoweth ferry, and lived a wild, semi-savage life, a fugitive from justice.
It is said he was seen by one or more of the settlers who came years later, and that the Indians asserted of his existence,
and that he was the first white inhabitant of the county.
There is nothing corroborative of this story, and we may regard it as one of the many traditions of the past.
As early as 1812, Fort Lamotte, on the site of Palestine, was built and the nearest settlement, except Vincennes, was Fort Harrison, near Terre Haute.
A family named Hutson, however, located about five miles north of Palestine, where they were massacred by the Indians, and their buildings destroyed.
As the savages were troublesome and hostile during the war of 1812, it is hardly probable that there were any settlements in Clark prior to its close,
though it has been strenuously asserted that settlements were made in the county as early as 1814.
From the most reliable information obtainable, the first permanent settlers were the Handys; Thomas, and his sons John and Stephen.
They came from Post St. Vincent, near Vincennes, to Union Prairie, in the spring of 1815;
broke ground, planted and raised a crop of corn, erected cabins, and in the fall ensuing, removed their families hither.
Thomas, the father, settled on the farm now [in 1883] occupied by James Harrison;
John, where West Union now stands,
and Stephen, on the farm occupied [in 1883] by Mrs. Sophronia Brooks.
The late Thomas Handy, son of John, once prominent and well known among our people, is said to have been the first white child born in Clark County.
This is disputed by some of the oldest living settlers, who assert positively, that Scott Hogue and Isabel Handy, born within a few hours of each another,
saw the light of day prior to Thomas.
In the year following...(1816) other families came, among whom were the Hogues, the Bells, Millers,
Megeath, Prevo, Blaze, Crow, Leonard,
the Richardsons and Fitchs, who all settled on Union Prairie, the two last named founding the town of
York in 1817.
The first house erected there, a log dwelling, was built by Chester Fitch.
James Gill, yet [1883] living and residing in Cumberland County, aided in its erection.
Henry Harrison settled in the timber, immediately west of Union, in 1818.
The Bartletts located near him about the same time.
Walnut Prairie, just north of Union, and separated from it by Mill Creek and a narrow strip of timber,
was settled in 1817 by the Archers, Neely, McClure, Welch, Chenoweth, Dunlap, Blake, Shaw, Poorman,
Stafford, Lockard, Essery and a few others.
Mr. Essery afterward entered land on Big Creek, two miles northeast of where
Marshall now stands, and opened what is known as the "Cork farm",
where he died at an advanced age.
Reuben Crow for a few years cultivated cotton on Union Prairie, with
some success, and erected, perhaps, the first cotton gin north of the Ohio
River. The experiment of raising cotton was tried with fair results, some years
later, on Walnut Prairies.
** To be continued **
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