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Town of Franklin Officers

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Franklin Business Directory

JOHNSON COUNTY, INDIANA

CITIES AND TOWNS
(History of Johnson County, Indiana
By Elba L. Branigin 1913)

By the organic act creating the county of Johnson a commission was named to select a county seat and the commissioners were required to meet at the house of John Smiley on the first Monday in May, 1823, to fix the permanent seat of justice for said county. Of the five commissioners named, three met at the time and place set apart : Col. James Gregory, of Shelby county, Major McEwan, of Bartholomew county, and a third whose name is not known. The commission considered two locations, one on the lands of Amos Durbin and near the mouth of Sugar creek, and the other on the lands of George King at the mouth of Hurricane creek. These places were inspected by the commissioners and King also agreed to show them over the southeast quarter of section 18, in Franklin township, which cornered with the center of the county and which tract had been purchased by King as a possible location for the new county seat, but a storm coming on, without inspecting the other site, the commissioners decided to locate the town on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 13, in township 12 north, of range 4 east, which forty-acre tract King donated to the county, together with eleven acres lying between it and Young's creek.

It was not, however, until January 2, 1827. that George King delivered his deed for the lands donated to the county as a seat of government. In the early history of the town of Franklin, George King was a leading actor. When he came to the county in 1820 he was then about forty years of age and, while not a man trained in the schools, was a leader in all business
affairs. He was born in Wythe county, Virginia, and had moved with his widowed mother to Kentucky while quite a lad. He had been apprenticed to a wheelwright, of whom he learned his trade. The story of King's first visit to Franklin for permanent settlement is thus told by Judge Banta : "It was in the latter part of February or first of March. 1823, that, accompanied by his two unmarried daughters and his married daughter and her husband, Daniel McCaslin. and Simon Covert, whose wife stayed behind until the ensuing fall, and Isaac Voorhies, a young and unmarried man. King left his Kentucky home and came to Johnson county. The movers found a road cut out to Elisha Adams' place and thence on, assisted by Robert Gilchrist, they made their own road up the east bank of Young's creek to the mouth of Camp creek (Hurricane). "

It was late in the day when the axmen, followed by the teams and cattle, reached the creek, where they found a dark and turbulent stream running between them and their destination. Not knowing the fords, the teams were driven back to a high, dry knoll where a camp fire was started and a camp made. Little did the campers on that knoll, as they watched by the light and warmth of their camp fire that night, dream that they would live to see the day when that knoll would become the site of a college devoted to Christianity and culture. "

Hardly were teams unhitched that evening when it was discovered that meal and sieve had been left at Adams'; whereupon King, Gilchrist and McCaslin returned, leaving Covert and Voorhies to occupy the camp alone. Other things, it seems, had been left behind also, for the campers milked into and drank milk out of the bells which had been brought for use in the range. The next morning, on the return of King and McCaslin, the pilgrims sought for and found a place to safely cross the swollen stream. A beautiful tract of high and dry land on the north bank of Young's creek, which was afterward graded down and occupied by the residence of Judge Woollen and others, was their objective point, but such a network of down logs, overgrown with spice-wood and other bushes, all woven together with wild-grape vines, not to mention a forest of beeches, maples, hackberries, sycamores and buckeyes, did they encounter, that the whole day was consumed in reaching their destination.

"In the evening, wearied and hungry, the emigrants reached the high ground King had selected for his cabin site. A tent was erected and a hasty camp made. The meal bag and the sieve having been brought up from Adams' a supper of corn-cake and bacon was enjoyed. Tin cups took the place of cow bells for drinking vessels. At an early hour the men lay down on a browse bed by. a glowing camp fire, under cover of a tent, to sleep. During the night, however, a tempest of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning and wind, arose and such commotion ensued in the forest around them that they felt their lives were imperiled. The next morning work was begun on King's cabin, a two-roomed structure with an entry between, which served as a house for all until the little fields were cleared and the crops all laid by.

In the following fall the town of Franklin was surveyed and the first sale of lots took place on the 2nd day of September 1823. It was conducted by John Campbell, of Sugar Creek, the first county agent, and, to encourage bidding, he laid in a plentiful supply of whiskey for the thirsty crowd. One of the earliest records of the county is an allowance to John Campbell, agent, .for two dollars and sixty-one and three-fourths cents for whiskey and stationery furnished and evidently used on just such occasions as these. Of the first settlers in the town of Franklin was a man by the name of Kelly, who built a cabin on the west side of the square and kept a bakery, where he sold beer and cakes. The log court house was built in the year 1824, and about the same time the sheriff, John Smiley, built a log house where the Franklin National Bank now stands and where for many years a tavern was kept. Just west of the tavern Daniel Taylor built a log store house, the first store in the new town. On the west side of the square William Shaffer, the county recorder, erected a dwelling house near where the jail now stands, and in 1825 Samuel Herriott and Joseph Young built a store room on the northeast corner of that block. The new settlement grew slowly, and it was not until May, 1827, that the brush was cut out of the public square.

It is not known definitely when the new town was incorporated. An election was ordered held upon the question of its incorporation on the 5th of May, 1834, but no record of the vote at that election is recorded, and there is no evidence that a town government was formed at that time. The only mention of a town government prior to the year 1855 is found in a record in the commissioners' court, under date of August, 1850, authorizing "the proper authorities of the town of Franklin to maintain a market house at the northwest corner of the public square." The first record of a meeting of the board of trustees of the town of Franklin now preserved was dated April 10, 1854. At that time Trustee Benjamin Davis, Ephraim Jeffrey, Barney W. Clark, Henry Kneaster, M. M. Tresslar and Andrew B. Hunter met at the office of Overstreet & Hunter and proceeded to organize a town government. William P. Douthitt served as the first clerk of the town. The first town election recorded in the clerk's office was held on the 7th of May, 1855.

In 1859 an enumeration of the citizens of Franklin was taken and the following figures showing the population of the town are recorded : "In the corporate limits, 1,134 ; in the suburbs and Hog Chute, 115; in West Franklin, 204, and in East Franklin, 280." This enumeration was taken as a step toward incorporation, but after such census disclosed the fact that the population was under two thousand, further steps toward incorporation as a city were abandoned. Among the early officers of the town corporation were Samuel P. Oyler, assessor ; Duane Hicks. J. Hillman Waters and J. O. Martin, clerks ; and P. Birchard, W. A. Owens, W. H. Henderson, Leon Richey, Duane Hicks, Byron Finch and Amos Birchard, marshals.

An enumeration of the children and youths of the town was taken in October, 1858, showing a total enumeration between the years of five and twenty-one of two hundred and eighty-five. A year later this number had increased to three hundred and seventy-six.

The first fire department of the new town was organized on the I2th of December, 1859, and its equipment consisted of four ladders, two hooks and a wagon, purchased at an outlay of one hundred dollars and forty cents. James Wilson and Henry Kneaster were appointed foremen of fire apparatus.

On August 15, 1861, it was resolved by the town board that inasmuch as the recent census showed a population of over two thousand, and as one-third of the votes of the town asked for an election upon the question of incorporation as a city, a vote was ordered taken on August 2th at the following houses : Henry Surface's shoe store ; the district school house ; the court house: the residence of G. M. Payne: at Duane Hicks' furniture store: at J. Holmes' store, on the corner of Main and Jefferson streets, and at the residence of Samuel Lambertson. The vote at that election was canvassed on the day succeeding the election, showing an affirmative of one hundred and sixty- nine, and a negative of five.

The city authorities took no steps toward public improvement until after the year 1866, and even then the common council were inclined to move slowly in the matter of public improvement. For example, to encourage property owners to lay sidewalks of brick fronting their residences, it was ordered on January 5, 1867, "that any owner of a lot or part of a lot in the corporate limits of said town should be entitled to a receipt for all corporation taxes thereon for the year 1867, by paving or graveling the sidewalk in front thereof to the acceptance of any of the trustees of said town." During the years 1866 to 1870 all the sidewalks of the town were improved under the order of the city council.

During the same period the question of lighting the streets of the town began to attract much public discussion, and on May u, 1869. the Franklin Gas Company was organized with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, an ordinance granting a franchise to D. G. Vawter, N. M. Scofield, L. W. Fletcher, John Clark, John T. Vawter, P. W. Payne, A. Alexander, W. S.
Ragsdale and R. T. Overstreet having been passed by the common council on February 27. 1869.and operation of a water works system in the city. The water company's plant was completed in November, 1891, sixty-five water plugs being ordered by the city and one hundred and twenty-five private consumers availing themselves of the privileges of the new utility. An electric light franchise was granted to the same company on June 9, 1891, the same to run for a period of eighteen years. The present expenditures of the city for street lighting averaged about six thousand and twenty-five dollars yearly, and for water protection about four thousand two hundred dollars.

On July 12, 1892, the first ordinance was passed for the improvement of a street with brick. The ordinance contemplated the improvement of Jefferson street from Jackson street east to the Pennsylvania railroad, and bids were invited during the months of August and September, but no contract was let until the spring of 1893, an injunction suit having been instituted in an effort to stop the improvement. The street was finished and accepted by the city on June 19, 1893.

EDINBURG

Edinburg is situated in the extreme southeastern section of the county in the area cut off by Blue river, located on the line of the old Indian trails leading from the Ohio to the north and west, and the first section of the county to be settled. Louis Bishop, William Hunt, Isaac Collier, John Campbell and Alexander Thompson were the owners of the lands included in the original plat of the town of Edinburg laid off probably as early as 1822. but the plat was not. recorded until about the year 1825. Among the very first merchants of the new town were Booth and Newby, who located there in the year 1822. This was the first stock of goods exposed for sale in Johnson county. Before the fall of the year 1822 the town contained but four families scattered over quite a considerable area. In the year 1825, Israel Watts kept a store on the west side of Main street, and in the year following Thomas Carter was granted a license to keep a "public house" in the town, the board of commissioners having been satisfied that he had the necessary house room, bedding and stabling. Other early merchants of the town prior to the year 1830 were Otto Lyman, John Givens, George B. Holland, Austin Shipp and Timothy Threlkeld. Holland's license under date oft July, 1828, reads as follows: "George B. Holland having produced the certificate of twelve freeholders of Blue River township that he is of good moral character, and that a grocery is wanted in
the town of Edinburgh ; it is therefore ordered that said George B. Holland have a license to vend foreign and domestic groceries in the town of Edinburgh for one year from this date by paying the county treasurer five dollars and entering into bond and security required by law."

These mercantile establishments were quite successful, being at that time the only market between White river and Madison. The town grew very slowly, however, during the first twenty years of its history, its population in 1845 numbering not to exceed two hundred and fifty, but the construction of the Madison & Indianapolis railroad to that town about that time gave new life to the place and within a very short time the population was more than doubled. It early became the leading grain and pork market of the central part of the state, the merchants coming to the railroad from towns as far distant as Knightstown, Danville, Gosport, Spencer and Bloomington. After the railroad was continued to Indianapolis in 1847, the growth of the town was checked somewhat, but it has always remained the principal manufacturing center of the county. Among the prominent industries of the town which
contributed to its early prominence were the flouring mill which James Thompson built at the "State Falls" as early as 1826; a distillery built by Otto Lyman as early as 1835; and a second distillery built about the year 1850; a tannery established by Pulaski Runkle about 1837; a hominy mill erected in 1857 by Theodore Hudnut; a second hominy mill erected in 1871 by J. L. Toner ; a woolen mill built in 1 863 by a stock company ; a furniture factory also built by a stock company about 1868. All these, however, have long since been abandoned and a new line of industries have taken their place. Of the present factories, by far the most important is the Union Starch and Refining Company, owned by the heirs of Joseph Irwin, deceased, late of Columbus. This factory is the successor of the Blue River Starch Works, organized by a stock company in 1868. When the National Starch Company
formed a trust and obtained control of this plant, it was closed down for many years, but when the Irwins started the street car line and obtained control of the plant, ostensibly as a power station they converted the old starch works into a modern plant for the manufacture of syrup, glucose, starch and sugar, and the factory is now the largest manufacturing plant in the county, employing two hundred and fifty men. Among the other thriving industries of the town are the Edinburg Cabinet Company, manufacturing sewing machines and employing about one hundred men ; the W. T. Thompson Veneer Company, employing twenty men in the manufacture of oak veneer; the Muloda Veneer Company, employing fifteen men; the Maley saw mill, now owned and operated by Henry Wertz and Ora Amos, employing thirty-five men: the Naomi Canning Company, employing from one hundred and fifty to three hundred men in season; the Wood Mosaic Company, manufacturing hardwood flooring and employing twenty-five men. In addition to these manufacturing plants, the town is favored with a very enterprising and successful group of merchants.

The town of Edinburg was not incorporated until the year 1853, but as early as March 3, 1834, an election was ordered held upon the question of its incorporation. The first record of the election of trustees relates to the election held in May, 1855. The town was incorporated under the name of "Edinburgh," but the final "h" has long since been dropped from the name. Edinburg is the only town in the county owning its own water works and electric light plant. This was constructed under authority of the board of trustees by an ordinance passed April 19, 1897. This ordinance was followed by an ordinance bearing date of July 4, 1898, fixing the rates for domestic use of electric current at ten cents per light per month, and for commercial use at twenty-five cents per light per month. These rates were increased by an ordinance in 1901 to fifteen cents and thirty cents respectively, and again in 1902 by an ordinance increasing the rates to twenty-five cents and forty cents respectively. The flat rate not proving remunerative to the town, the light service was placed on a meter basis by an ordinance bearing date of April 4, 1910, fixing the rate at ten cents per kilowatt for the use of one to ten kilowatts per month, with a sliding scale clown to six cents per kilowatt when more than seventy-six kilowatts were used. This experience in municipal ownership has not been entirely satisfactory, largely for the reason, perhaps, that the management of the plant has been entrusted to one of the trustees and no accurate account has ever been kept as to the income and expense of its operation. The town clerk, however, is authority for the statement that in the year 1912, when the town was using thirty-six water plugs and fifty arc and incandescent lights, the total cost of the water and light system to the town was about seventeen hundred dollars.

The town enjoys an excellent telephone service furnished by the Citizens Telephone Company, owned and controlled by a local stock company under a franchise granted in the year 1898. The town is bonded for a ten-thousand- dollar school debt entered into in 1912. and for a thirty-five-hundred-dollar cemetery debt entered into in 1911.

Among the recent members of the board of trustees of the town are the following: Samuel Haslam, Jr., William T. Butler, Charles Vandorn, W. D. Branigin, E. A. Sterzik Robert G. Porter, C. F. Otto, Henry Wertz, George R. Mutz, John S. Cox and John Sholler. During the same time the following have served as clerks of the town : M. Duckworth, 1902 : J. H. Beal, 1903-1906; H. M. Scholler, 1906-1907; W. N. Drybread, 1907-1910; John Payne, 1910-1912; Clarence Porter, 1912-1914. The town clerk receives a salary of fifty dollars per month, the town marshal a salary of sixty dollars per month.

The town of Edinburg has an excellent school system and has had at the head of its schools many of the ablest educators of the state. Among them are remembered John H. Martin, John C. Engle, W. B. Owen, Charles F. Patterson, E. A. Humpke, and E. M. Crouch, the present superintendent. The present corps of teachers is as follows : Smith Brewer, principal of the high school ; E. R. Phillips, Lenora M. Burnham, Fanny H. Cochran, Myrtle L. Zigner, instructors in the high school, with the following teachers in the grades : A. G. Murrey, Elsa Bowman, Hazel Pruitt, Maude Price, Gertrude Graham, Ada M. Wright and Minnie Mullen.

GREENWOOD

Much of the early history of the town of Greenwood is recorded in another connection (see chapter on Churches). The town was incorporated pursuant to an order of the county board of commissioners made on June 25, 1864, and the town government was organized on September 26th of the same year.
Its first officers were E. C. Smith, T. S. Wilson, T, B. Hungate, S. Maxfield and A. W. Gilchrist, trustees : F. M. Tague, clerk ; A. Holloway, treasurer ; James McGuire, marshal ; W. H. Thornton, assessor. The following have served as clerks since that time: J. E. McGuire, 1866; William H. Bishop, 1867; A. M. Watson, 1871; L. P. Creasy, 1873; L. H. Hopkins,
1874; W. H. Bishop, 1876; J. B. Conrad, 1880; W. H. Bishop, 1881-1888; M. L. Justus, 1888; C. C. Henderson, 1888; J. T. Grubbs, 1890; W. H. Bishop, 1891-1896; George W. Carpenter, 1896-1907; E. M. Strauss, November. 19, 1907-1910; Robert Fendley, 1910-1912; E. E. Henderson, 1912-1914.

The town had a population of but three hundred and fifty- four in the year 1869, but since the construction of the electric. line the town has thrived until it is now one of the most important towns in the county. Its era of modern improvements dates from the year 1894, when a telephone franchise was granted to a local stock company. A water and light franchise was granted to Lewis K. Davis, of Indianapolis, on March 4, 1901, but Mr. Davis not fulfilling the terms of his contract, the ordinance was repealed and a franchise
was granted on October 1st of the same year to Samuel V. Perrott and Henry Ulen under the name of the Greenwood Water Company. The plant was completed in the summer of 1902, and after a vote was had upon the question, the water plant was leased to the town for a term of thirty years at a rental of nine hundred and fifty dollars yearly, and the light plant included in the same lease for the term of ten years at a rental of three hundred forty- six dollars and fifty cents yearly. This form of municipal ownership proved unsatisfactory, and on September 4, 1905, an electric light and water franchise was granted to James A. Craig and John W. Henderson, who, somewhat later, organized the Citizens Water and Light Company and obtained a new franchise under that name. Dr. Craig, president of the company, soon obtained control of a majority of the stock and continued to operate the same until the year 1913, when it passed under the control of the present owners of the interurban railroad. The town is now using thirty- four arc lights, at a cost of seventy-five dollars per light, and forty-nine water hydrants, at a cost of forty-two dollars and fifty cents annual rental.

The school affairs of the town are under the control of David E. DeMott, Ed Day and Dr. L. E. Cox, and the following corps of teachers : J. B. Lemasters, superintendent: Hazel Wishard, principal of the high school; Oma Fix and Robert Fendley,, high school instructors, with the following grade teachers : Kate Smiley, Flora Speas, Alta Fix, Lena Drake, Mary Hanahan, Charlotte Wishard, Walter Grass, Alice Bass, Rose Meredith, Elizabeth McClain and Ella Bass.

After the former school superintendents the following are remembered : William M. Chaille, W. T. Gooden, J. Ed. Wiley, John R. Owens, Professor Tripp, Charles F. Patterson, Professor Carnine, James Robinson and M. J. Fleming.

OTHER TOWNS

The town of Whiteland was incorporated under an election held December 7, 1885, and has ever since maintained its corporate existence.

The town of Trafalgar was incorporated under an election held January 7, 1870, but after a few years the town organization ceased to exist, and the charter has never been renewed.

By order of the board of commissioners at the June term, 1866. the name "Hensley Town" was changed to Trafalgar, and shortly thereafter "Liberty" was also included within the limits of the town. On March 5, 1869, the county board also changed the name of Newburg to Samaria. All other towns whose names vary from the ones set forth in the town plats found in the appendix owe their change of names to the United States post office department. For example, Williamsburg is now known by the name of Nineveh : Union Village by the name of Providence : Clarksburg by the name of Rocklane; Brownstown by the name of Bluff Creek; and the inhabitants of all these villages, except Nineveh, being served only by rural free delivery from adjacent post offices, it would seem fitting to return to the use of their legal names.

The towns of Far West, Flemingsburg, Plattsburgh, Lancaster, Mauksport and Worthsville, sometimes mentioned in the early records, never prospered, most of them never existing except upon paper and all having been abandoned more than a half century ago.

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