HENDRICKS COUNTY INDIANA
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
TOPOGRAPHY
On the east line of Hendricks county
is located Washington township, bounded on its north side by Lincoln
and Middle townships, on the east by Marion county, on the south side
by Guilford and Liberty, and on the west by Center township. White Lick
creek flows across the west side of this township and the East fork of
this same creek touches the southeast corner. Along the creek valley
the land is rolling and fertile; the central and eastern portion of the
civil division is very level and, before the day of artificial
drainage, was rather swampy. It was not, however, equal to other
townships in this respect. The early growth of timber, now gone,
was largely composed of beech, but embraced many valuable varieties.
The soil is clay and alluvial, being well adapted to grasses and grain.
EARLY DAYS
The first settlement in Washington
township was made in the northeast corner, near the site of Shiloh
church, by Robert Wilson, Gideon Wilson and Elisha Kise in the year
1822. The next year Daniel Tryer, Aaron Homan, the Griggs family,
Joseph Fausett and others came into the same neighborhood in the
same year, 1823, James Dunn, John Givens, Abner Dunn, for whom Abner's
creek was named, and others, settled on the west side of the township
on the above named creek. James Dunn settled on the Rockville road.
Among those who came into the township within the next few years were
David Cox, Alexander McCammock, Enoch Barlow and his sons Harvey
and Harrison, the Thornbroughs, Hurons, Huffords and Gossetts.
This township was
one of the four which were organized at the same time as the
organization of Hendricks county and received its name from George
Washington at the suggestion of Aaron Homan, who was the first justice
of the peace and married the second couple to be wedded in the county.
FIRST ELECTION
The first general election in
Washington township was held August 7, 1826, at the home of Daniel C.
Hults, and eleven persons voted. These were: Sidney Williams, Daniel C.
Hults, James Merritt, Joseph Runyan, Isaac Williamson, Daniel B. Tryer,
James Higgenbotham, Joseph Phillips, William S. Merrill, Robert Wilson
and John Triggs. In its political history, Washington township was
at first Whig and after the death of that party followed the fortunes
of the Republican organization.
AVON
Avon, the capital of Washington
township, is at a point very near the center of the township. The first
settlement of the neighborhood was about the year 1830. Among the first
settlers were the Hurons, the Rosses, the Gossetts, the McClains, the
Jenkinses, Abram Harding, Absalom Payne, Dr. Malone, R. J. Barker, G.
W. Merritt and James Siggurson. It was dense forest everywhere: deer
and wolves were a common sight; but in small clearings little
cabins of round logs sprang up and in a very short time this became a
"neighborhood." The whole settlement was made up of people of energy
and enterprise who came here to make a home that was to be their home,
so their plans took in the question of church and school and roads and
a post office. In 1833 Absalom Payne, who entered the land and lived
where J. H. Wear now lives, was commissioned postmaster of Hampton
post office, with a weekly mail carried on horseback from the east to
the west, but no one remembers where from or where to. In a few years
Mr. Payne tired of the empty honor and the office passed to Dr. Maloner
where J. H. Winings lives, and a little later to W. T. Ross, where E.
E. Blair now lives. Mr. Ross also tired of the office and, no one else
wanting it, is. was allowed to die, and Hampton was no more. In 1852 O.
J. Huron, newly married, was persuaded to accept a commission as
postmaster, naming the office White Lick and locating it in his log
cabin, one fourth mile west of present Avon. Just three months
satisfied Mr. Huron and White Lick died and was laid away, in memory,
besides Hampton. Along in the fifties John Smoot began making visits
here as a pack peddler; soon he added a horse and wagon and came
weekly, and, after a time, about 1858, leased ground and built a small
room in the corner of J. H. Ross's yard, where William Shipman now
lives. Smoot emptied his pack and put a few more items on a
few shelves, and this was the beginning of the town.
But Mr. Ross was a strong Republican and Mr. Smoot an ardent
Democrat, and it was not long until Smoot moved his store to Democratic
ground, across the road, on the land of John Dickerson, and thus, at
the very first the town began to move.
Mr. Dickerson
not being willing to sell a lot to Mr. Smoot, the latter sought one
elsewhere and, November i, 1862, R. J. Barker deeded Smoot a half
acre a mile farther west and the following winter he moved his store on
a couple of log-sleds to his own lot; this was the third
town site. Mr. Smoot prospered and enlarged his store and
added more goods, and in 1867 ne headed a petition to Washington for a
post office, and for R. M. Bartley to be made postmaster, but no name
was suggested for the new office, and the authorities used the first
name on the petition; when Mr. Bartley's commission, dated April 28,
1868, reached him it gave the office the picturesque name, Smootsdell,
located it in Smoot's store and gave us two mails a week, carried
horseback from Plainfield by D. S. Barker. When the I.
& St. L. railroad was being surveyed, the man who, with a blue
pencil, marked the stakes, made fun of the name of our post office, and
said, "I'll name the town." Artistically he penciled
"New Philadelphia" on a stake and drove it down. When
the road was completed the company drove another stake, with "Avon"
painted on it. The people liked the name and petitioned to have the
post office name changed to Avon. This was done and Smootsdell was laid
away beside Hampton and White Lick. In May, 1871, Mr. Smoot sold all
his property, building, lot and goods to Mr. Bartley and moved to
Kansas. A little later the Barker brothers erected a
building at the railroad crossing, put a stock of goods in one room,
the other being used by the company.
The Barkers soon tired
of the store and quit, then J. L. Middleton, in 1875, added a general
store to his shoe shop south of the railroad. In 1889
E. T. Huron was made postmaster and purchased the
Middleton store. In
1893 William Taylor became postmaster. Mr. Taylor was
full of enterprise and built a new post office building and put in a
stock of goods, and Avon, for the first time, had three stores at one
time. From the very first there was a rivalry among the
people as to the location of the post office and the future town; the
east side wanted it and the west side wanted it more. The
Big Four folks soon learned of this feeling and sought to use it
in securing bonuses. The station was at first a half mile
west of the Plainfield road, then on the road, then three fourths of a
mile east, where trains stopped at an old box-car in the middle of a
farm for passengers, and patrons carried trunks down the track till
they were tired, then changed hands and carried again.
The
west side complained and grumbled, than begged and finally won the
station, and thought themselves secure; but in 1891 private citizens
bought a little yellow dwelling and moved it to the crossing a mile
east, and the company slid its telegraph office into it. The old sad
look came again to the west-sider's face; the company
saw the look and smiled, then moved their station also to the yellow
dwelling, using it for all purposes until 1894, when, with generous
help of east-side citizens, the company erected a neat three room
building. The east side countenance broadened; the little
yellow building was moved back and a stock of goods put in and, for a
little while, Avon had four stores, three at the west side and one at
the east, a mile away, but trade was backward and the new store soon
closed, the yellow dwelling was sold again and this time was moved
three miles away, when it ceased to worry the west side, with her three
stores and the post office left. In 1900 the first rural
free delivery in the county, and among the first in the state, was
established in Danville, route No.1, and its first delivery was made
April 2d, of that year. While this has proven one of the
greatest blessings ever bestowed on the common people, it crippled the
Avon post office, reducing the salary from thirty five dollars to six
dollars per quarter, and when, on November 1, 1902, the first
Plainfield route was opened and passed the Avon post office door, the
office was discontinued, and now Hampton, White Lick, Smootsdell and
Avon all lie buried side by side. But the town survived,
holding its own till the Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern
traction line was opened, September 1, 1906, when it began to improve
and has continued to do so, until today its two general stores sell
several times the amount of goods sold then, and property values have
about trebled.