Post Offices: Westland, in Blue river township ; Warrington and Willow Brach, in Brown township; Cleve­land and Charlottesville, in Jackson township; McCordsville and Woodbury, in Vernon township; Philadelphia and Gem, in Sugar creek township; Mount Comfort, in Buck-creek township; Carrollton, in Brandywine township; Eden and Milner's Corner, in Green township: Binwood, in Center township. "

Our incorporated villages are: Fortville,  in Vernon township, and New   Palestine, in Sugar creek township. Charlottesville has been an incorporated town for a number of years until recently, when her corporation was dissolved, and a receiver appointed.

The public buildings of Hancock county consist, .at present, of a court-house, jail and sheriff's residence, poor-house, ninety two public school buildings, and about fifty church buildings.

The present court-house was built by Nathan Crawford, deceased, un old and honored citizen, in the year 1854, upon a contract of $14,480. It is a substantial, convenient, and commodious building, honestly built by an honest man, and is, perhaps, not equaled by any public building in the state, at as low a cost.

The poor-house is located on the National road, two and a half miles east of Greenfield, in section thirty five, township sixteen north, and range seven east. The building is a discredit to the county, being old and dilapidated, and not at all in harmony with the wealth and dignity of our citizens. The superintendent's residence is a plain, old fashioned, story-and-a-half brick, built many years since for a private residence. The infirmary building proper is a cheap frame, known by carpenters as a " plank house," built in the rear of, and attached to, the superintendent's residence. The building is not only cheaply instructed, and poorly ventilated, but small and wholly inadequate to the demands of the unfortunate. A new building has been contemplated for several years: but, owing to " hard times" and " indebtedness of the county," the matter has been neglected.

The county has a very elegant, commodious, and convenient jail, and sheriff's residence in front, built upon a Contract of $32,900; but costing, according to the records. $75,000. without interest, before completion. The building is a brick, with stone foundation, slate roof, and neatly furnished inside and out. The architecture is modern, and and the work all first class. The sheriff's residence is large, convenient, and furnished in good taste. Considerable complaint has been made on account of the number of escaping convicts, who have succeeded in cutting and breaking out; but this is not wholly owing to the weakness of the jail, but more, perhaps, to too great leniency to the  inmates.

The public school building, in Greenfield, is an elegant two story brick, with basement, stone foundation, slate roof, and ash finish, and will accommodate nine teachers and live hundred pupils. It was built in the year 1869 and 1870 by Harmon Everett, upon a contract of $20,000, payable in bonds on the corporation of the town of Greenfield. Everett took  $10,000 in bonds  In part  payment.  The architects were Ennis and Hubert, of Indianapolis. The School trustees were A. K. Branham. Philander H. Boyd, and  H. B. Wilson, of Greenfield. The stone for the foundation were shipped from St. Paul, in Decatur county The brick were shipped and hauled, in part, from Knightstown.  The building was begun in April 1869 and the first school was taught in the fall of the same  year.

A comparison of the taxes, mode of collecting, property, and wealth of the county, in its early history, with the present, shows that our growth has not only been steady, but rapid.
 The total taxes for 1829 were $703.17. The record shows the following:

The summary for the year 1833 shows the total tax to have been $787.88^ signed by Joseph Chapman, C. II. C. C.; which, when interpreted, means Clerk Hancock Circuit Court. The report for 1833 further shows 616 polls, 606 horses, 168 oxen, twenty-three watches, and two pleasuring carriages; being an increase in one year of ninety-two polls, twenty-one horses, and four oxen, and a decrease of four watches and one clock, there being no clock returned for the year 1833.
The reader will observe, from an examination of the summary report given above, that the ad valorem system of taxation, now prevalent, was not then used ; but a speci­fied tax was levied on each article of a certain class, regardless of value. This system continued in vogue till the year 1836.

A comparison of the two reports shows that people were increasing in numbers and wealth, and could afford more time-pieces, and other luxuries. In 1835, we find one gold watch, the first ever owned and taxed in the county; two brass clocks, and three composition watches.

Under the system of specific taxation, the following were the rates till 1832 : On each poll, 50 cents ; on each horse, 37 1/2  cents; on each ox, 18 3/4 cents; on each silver watch, 25 cents ; on each gold watch, $1.00; on stallions, the rate they stood at per season ; for land, half the rate of state taxes. From 1832 to 1834 the rates were: On each poll, 50 cents ; on town lots, 1 cent on each $1.00; work oxen, 25 cents; horses over three years old, 50 cents; watches, 50 cents ; clocks, $1.00; the tax on every 100 acres of first rate land, 40 cents: on second rate land, 30 cents; on third rate land, 20 cents. In the year 1834, the commissioners adopted the following list of rates : On each poll, 50 cents; on land, one half the state tax; on each horse, valued at over $10.00, 50 cents ; on each watch and pleasuring carriage, 50 cents ; on horses and jacks, the price of the season at which they stand ; on each yoke of oxen over three years old, 50 cents; on each brass clock, 50 cents; tavern license in Greenfield, $15.00; in other parts of the county, $10.00; license to vend wooden clocks, $10.00; foreign goods, $10.00. These rates remained in force for two years, or until the adoption of the ad valorem system, in 1836, when the rates were fixed by the commissioners at 20 cents on each $100 of real and personal property, and 75 cents on each poll.

Prior to the year 1836, watches, clocks and carriages were considered luxuries in which only the rich were at liberty to indulge, and they were compelled to pay for the privilege. Hence, the tax on a watch, though it be ever so old and cheap, was twenty five per cent more than the tax on one hundred acres of the best land, listed as " first rate ;" the tax on a brass clock, regardless of its cost and real worth, was just equal to the tax on two hundred and fifty acres of the best land, or five hundred acres of third rate land; and the tax on a pleasuring carriage was equal to the tax on one hundred and sixty six and two thirds acres of second rate land, or two hundred and fifty acres of third rate land. Again, the taxes on a clock or gold watch were equal to the tax on two head of horses, or two hundred dollars in money. The policy of the law seems to have been to discourage luxuries by high taxation, and to encourage the purchasing and owning of land by making the tax on it low.

From the year 1834 to the year 1836, it cost one as much to obtain a license to vend wooden clocks or foreign goods as it did to pay the county taxes on two thousand five hundred acres of the best land, or five thousand acres of third-rate land.

Let the critical and curious reader compare the follow­ing figures, showing the taxables of the county for 1881, with the preceding, and contrast the difference.
An abstract of the assessment of property, real and personal, in Hancock county for the year 1881,

shows the value of land to be...............$4,438,190
Value of improvements..............................681,195
Value of lands and improvements.........5,119,385
Value of lots................................................217,990
Value of improvements..............................350,IO5
Value of lots and improvements...............568,095
Value of personal property.....................2,138,390
Value of telegraph...........................................6,455
Value of railroads....................................... 394,540
Total value of taxables...........................$8,226,835

It may be seen from the above that the value of lands and improvements was $27.00 per acre. The total value of taxables in the county averages $43.00 per acre. According to the auditor's report, the following is a true exhibit of the financial condition of Hancock countythe amount of funds on hand June 1, 1881 :

From other official sources we learn that the county expends, annually, over $40,033 for school purposes. The amount expended fur the year ending September 1. 1881, was $42,562.83. Of this there was expended for tuition $26,077.07. and for special fund $16,485 86.

In further illustration of the growth of the county and her present wealth, it may be noted that the receipts of the county for the year ending May 31, 1881, were $169,-449.84, including a balance in the treasury, May 31, 1880. of $51,650.58. The expenditures, including a balance on hand of $42,612.27. are the same. Orders outstanding May 31, 1880, are reported at $695.95; orders issued within the year, $87,665.54; orders redeemed within the year, $57,973.50; orders outstanding May 31, 1881. $387.99; county bonds outstanding, $25,000.

Early in the history of our county, the poor were left to depend upon their own resources, supplemented by the gratuitous favors of their friends. But now it is otherwise. The poor and infirm, the sick and unfortunate, who are unable to care for themselves, are provided for at the county's expense. For the year ending June 1, 188?, the orders issued by the trustees of the different townships of the county amounted to $4,601.55. Of this amount Center township issued orders to the extent of $2,296.17, which was the largest amount expended by any one township, and Blue river township issued orders for the same purpose to the amount of $54.25, being the smallest amount expended by any one township. The trustee of Sugar creek township issued orders which foot up $92.11, being next to Blue river township in the ascending scale. The  trustee  of  Jackson   township issued   orders  to  the amount of $719.19, next to Center township in the descending scale.

The county is reasonably well supplied with railroads. The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis passes east and west through the central portion; the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis (Bee Line) crosses the north-western portion; and the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Indianapolis (Old Junction) crosses the south-western portion. The Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western railroad company is now extending a line across the county, entering Buck creek, crossing Center and the north-west corner of Jackson, and out through Brown. This road will probably be completed early in 1882. The county will then have about fifty six miles of completed road. Another road is contemplated, to extend north and south through the county, past Eden and the Junction, and through Greenfield to Shelbyville. The road is completed to Anderson, and if sufficient assistance is voted along the proposed route, it will be completed through to Shelby-ville. Should this road be built, as projected, there will not be a township in the county without a railroad: and without it, all but Green are partially, or wholly, crossed by roads completed, or being completed. The P., C. and St. L., being the old "Indiana Central," has a line of about nineteen miles in the county; the "Junction" ten; the " Bee Line" nearly seven ; and the I., B. and W. will have twenty miles when completed.

We have four papers now published in the county; all in Greenfield. Three political news and miscellaneous weeklies, and one educational monthly.

Our people are generally industrious, moral, thrifty, and intelligent. There is less illiteracy in the county than in the average counties of the state. According to the official returns, there were, for the year 1880, but two persons between ten and twenty one years of age in the county unable to read and write ; while in Madison, on the north, there were fifty, in Hamilton there were thirty nine, and in the state there were two thousand and forty seven, which number divided by ninety two, the number of counties, shows Hancock, on that basis, to be above an average county. The people are naturally very conservative ; and it may be recorded as a historical fact that Hancock county once bitterly opposed the establishment of free schools, as shown by the official vote, when the question was submitted to the ballot box. Though our voting population was then comparatively small, the county stood four hundred strong against the proposed establishment of free schools, and one township is said to have cast but two votes in favor of the same. But today she is not inferior to adjoining counties in the support of "free schools, the hope of our country ;" and the individual that would publicly advocate their abolition would be considered, if not non compos mentis, at least a relic of the dark ages.

Hancock county is the home, and has been the residence, of several prominent men politicians, poets, and educators. Milton B. Hopkins, late state superintendent of public instruction, and A. C. Shortridge, formerly superintendent of the Indianapolis schools, and for a time president of Purdue University, were once citizens of the county. This is the home of Judge David S. Grinding, a personal sketch of whom is given elsewhere, and of the poets James A. Riley and Lee O. Harris, who have more than a state reputation.

The county is democratic by about four hundred and Sixty majority.

The churches principally represented are the Methodist. Baptist, Presbyterian, Christian. Friends, Catholic, and Dunkard. The Methodists are found all over the county ; the Friends are principally in Blue river township; the Presbyterians in .Center township; and the Catholics in Center. Sugar creek and Vernon townships.
Hancock county is not behind her sister counties in loyalty and patriotism ; but has ever been prompt and liberal in response to the country's call. In the war with Mexico she furnished a full company, organized by Captain James   R.   Bracken,  and called into  the service   of  the United States by the President, under the act of Congress approved May 13, 1846, at Madison, Indiana, the place of general rendezvous, on the 8th day of October, 1847. In the war of the Rebellion she furnished, in response to the various calls of the President, nearly twelve hundred brave boys in blue, many of whom bled and died for their coun­try's good