Harrison County, Indiana
B I O G R A P H I E S

He was the eldest son of George Gresham, who was born near Petersburg, Virginia, October 9, 1776.
Lawrence Gresham, the father of George, was born in England. In 1759,
when a small boy, Lawrence was sent to Virginia to live with his uncle -"indentured," it was called.

After securing his "freedom" at his majority, Lawrence served for a time in the ranks of the
Continental army.

While yet a young man, George Gresham joined the stream of emigrants pouring into Kentucky.
He "carried along" with him his father, Lawrence, then in feeble health, and his mother.
In 1801 in Mercer County, Kentucky, George Gresham married Mary Pennington,
the only sister of Dennis Pennington.

In 1809 George Gresham moved his family, and entered land in Harrison County, Indiana,
where the hamlet of Lanesville is now located. He gave ground for the churches and graveyards.
In one of these cemeteries there are buried Lawrence, George and William Gresham,
representing three generations, and representatives of several subsequent generations.

November 3, 1825, William Gresham married Sarah Davis.
They went to live in a log cabin on land his father had entered, within a mile of the father's house.
On this spot Sarah lived eighty-one years.

William Gresham was elected by popular vote a colonel in the State militia, and in 1833,
although a Whig, was almost unanimously elected sheriff of Harrison County. January 26, 1834,
he was stabbed and instantly killed while aiding a constable to arrest a desperado named Levi Sipes.
There survived William Gresham, his widow, Benjamin and two younger sons,
Walter Quintin, born March 17, 1832, and William G, born July 30, 1833.