JOHNSON COUNTY, INDIANA
(A historical sketch of Johnson county, Indiana
By David Demaree Banta)
BLUE RIVER TOWNSHIP
About the year 1814, John Campbell, a young man, left his native State,
Tennessee, to find a home north of the Ohio. Fate directed his
footsteps to the vicinity of Waynesville, in that State, where he
married Ruth Perkins, who was born near Columbia, S. C., but was living
at the time with an aunt. In 1817, he moved to Connersville, and, in
1820, he moved to the New Purchase, reaching Blue River near the
present site of Edinburg on ' the 4th of March of that year. His wife
and four sons accompanied him, and four little girls were left behind,
but afterward came through on horseback. Benjamin Crews helped him to
drive his team and stock through to Blue River. The road which they cut
out must have been the most primitive of paths, for two years after,
when Alexander Thompson, Israel Watts and William Runnells came over
the same general route, they found a wagon road to the Flat Rock Creek,
south of Rushville, but from there on they had to cut their own way.
Campbell settled on a tract of land lying immediately south of the
present site of Edinburg, while Benjamin Crews, who at once returned to
Connersville for his own family, stopped on the south side of the
county line. A little cabin was presently erected in the woods, and the
venturesome Campbell set about the preparations for a crop of corn, and
patiently awaited the arrival of neighbors. But he did not have to wait
very long. The great Indian trail led from the Kentucky River through
this township, and Richard Berry had come out upon it and located in
the edge of Bartholomew County, at the mouth of Sugar Creek, and
established a ferry. His place was known far and near. It is said that
a half-dozen or more families followed Campbell into the Blue River
woods the same spring, but there is much uncertainty at this time, as
to this ; but it is certain that there was, during the year, a larger
accession to Campbell's settlement. The lands, since incorporated into
Blue River Township, were surveyed in August of that year by John
Hendricks, a Government Surveyor, and on the 4th day of October, these
lands were first exposed for sale at the land office in Brookville.
That day, three purchases were made of Blue River lands, and the first
in the county, by James Jacobs, William W. Robinson, and John Campbell
(of Sugar Creek), while on the day following, nine purchases were made
by the following persons: Zachariah Sparks, John Campbell (the first
settler), Alexander Thompson, Thomas Ralston, Amos Durbin, Jonathan
Lyon, Isaac Wilson, Robert Wilson, and Francis Brock. There were
thirty-nine entries in all made before the close of the year, making a
total of 4,400 acres, and of these entries eighteen were of
quarter-sections, and the remainder of eighty-acre tracts.
In so far as is now known, eighteen families moved into the new
settlement in 1820, and of these Henry Cutsinger, Simon Shaffer, Jesse
Dawson, Zachariah Sparks, Elias Brock, Joseph Townsend were Kentuckians
; William Williams, and, as already said, John Campbell, were
Tennesseans ; Amos Durbin was from Virginia; John A. Mow and Joshua
Palmer, from Ohio; Isaac Marshal and John Wheeler, from North Carolina;
Samuel Herriott, from Pennsylvania, while Louis Bishop, Thomas Ralston
and Richard Connor's natal places are unknown.
The new settlement was auspiciously begun, and had a remarkable growth
for its day. The hardships that usually attended the backwoodsmen of
their times, fell to their lot,1 and it is remembered that death made
an inroad into the settlement, carrying off that fall, first the wife
of Joseph Townsend, and next, Richard Connor. When John Williams came
to Bartholomew County in September, 1820, with his father, he visited
Campbell, and, at that time, Joseph Townsend was living in a cabin next
the hill whereon stands Mr. John Thompson's residence. When his wife
died, Allen Williams knocked the back out of his kitchen cupboard,
arid, with the lumber thus obtained, made her a coffin. She and also
Richard Connor lie buried in the hill west of town, but their immediate
places of sepulture are forgotten. Mrs. Townsend was, it is believed,
the first white person who died within the township, and also in the
county.
The second year of the settlement, twenty-seven families are known to
have moved in. John Adams came from Kentucky and moved to the north end
of the township, and founded the Adams neighborhood. Richard Foster and
John and William, his brothers, Patrick Adams, Patrick Cowan, Arthur
Robinson, Curtis Pritchard, David Webb, William R. Hensly, William C.
Robinson, James Farrell, John Adams, John P. Barnett, Jacob Cutsinger,
Isaac Harvey (a Baptist preacher), Lewis Hays, William Rutherford,
Jefferson D. Jones, Thomas Russell and Samuel Aldridge, all
Kentuckians; and Isaac Collier, Israel Watts and Jonathan Hougham,
Ohioans ; and Alexander Thompson, from Virginia; Jesse Wells and Thomas
Doan, from North Carolina, and William Runnells, from Tennesee, moved
in. By the close of this year, the lands contiguous to Blue River were
taken up, and a line of settlement extended nearly across the south
side of the township, while John Campbell, an Irishman, had laid the
foundation of a settlement at the mouth of Sugar Creek, and Louis Hays
and William Rutherford had joined John Adams' settlementTiigher up the
creek.
In 1822, fourteen families moved in. Of these Able Webb, James Connor,
Hezekiah Davison, William Hunt, James M. Daniels, John Shipp, William
Barnett, David Durbin, Hiram Aidridge and Thomas Russell were from
Kentucky. Charles Martin and Samuel Umpstead were from Ohio, and it is
not ascertained whence came Baker Wells and Samuel Johnson, who came in
this year. In 1823, William Freeman moved from Bartholomew County into
the township, and Richard Shipp and John Hen- drickson also moved in.
All these were Kentucky born. By the close of 1823, there were at least
sixty-three families living in the township.
It is uncertain when the town of Edinbarg was laid out, but, from all
the evidence that has been adduced, it would seem that it could not
have been later than in the spring of 1822. It is hard to reconcile
this date with certain records in existence, but so many of the old men
during the past fifteen years have asserted their confidence in a date
not later than the one given, that it would seem to be safe to follow
it. Louis Bishop and Alexander Thompson were the projectors of the
place. They early saw that a town would be a necessity to the country
which was destined to grow up about them within a few years, and
determined that the necessity should be supplied on the banks of the
Blue River. This was the center of a thriving settlement. The lands
surrounding it for many miles were of the finest quality, and the
"rapids " in Blue River offered a splendid mill site, and so the town
was located.
If the date of its location is uncertain the origin of the name is
equally so. One account attributes it to a circumstance too trifling
for historical belief. It is said that, on the evening of the day the
new town was platted, Edward Adams, a brother-in-law of Bishop, "a good
easy soul," familiarly known by the diminutive, "Eddie," having been
encouraged by a too frequent use of the bottle, to demand some
recognition, asked that the new town be named in honor of himself, and
that, by common consent, the place was named Eddiesburg, and that, in a
short time, it took on the statelier name of Edinburg. That it was
understood at the time by many that the name was in some manner
connected with Edward Adams, there can be no doubt, but there is other,
and I think better, authority that the name was given by Alexander
Thompson, who was a Scotchman by birth, in memory of the capital of his
native country. In the first records which we have, the name is spelled
with over-exactness, '' Eding- burg," an orthography which scarcely
could have grown out of Eddiesburg in its transition state to Edinburg.
The new town had a recognition from the start. Booth & Newby,
merchants in Salem, Ind., determined on opening a stock of goods
suitable to the wants of the backwoods, at some point in the Blue River
country, and selected Edinburg as the place. Alexander Thompson was
accordingly employed to build them a suitable storeroom for the
purpose, which he did in 1822. This house was built about eighty feet
south of Main cross, on Main street, and, in the fall of the year,
William R. Hensly, agent for Booth & Newby, brought a boat-load of
goods up the Blue River to the mouth of Sugar Creek, and, "on a Sunday,
the boys" went down and carried his goods up to the store on their
shoulders. This was the first stock of goods exposed for sale in both
township and county.
While Thompson was building the new stone house, Isaac Collier, William
Hunt and Patrick Cowen were erecting dwelling- houses on Main street,
and John Adams one on Main street cross. Collier soon after set up a
blacksmith-shop, the first in the county, and Louis Bishop opened the
first tavern.
" In the fall of 1822," says Ambrose Barnett, "the place contained four
families, whose log cabins were scattered over a considerable tract*of
ground in the midst of the native forest trees."
In May, 1826, Thomas Carter was licensed by the Board of Justices of
the county to keep a tavern, and the next March, Patrick Cowen received
the like privilege, and in May following Louis Bishop again took out a
license. About this time, one David Slip, also appears as a
tavern-keeper.
How long Booth & Newby continued in the mercantile business is
uncertain, but in July, 1826, Gwin & Washburn, and also Israel
Watts went into the business, and in July, 1828, George B. Holland
likewise.
In 1832, Austin Shipp and Timothy Threlkeld were licensed to vend
merchandise, and the same year, Simon Abbott, in addition to the right
to retail "foreign and domestic goods," added " spirituous liquors,"
also.
The location of Edinburg was unfavorable to good order during the early
years of its existence. It soon became a common rendezvous for the hard
drinking and evil disposed from all the surrounding country, and it was
an easy matter for the law-breakers to mount their horses and flee
across the line into Bartholomew or Shelby Counties, and then defy the
pursuing Constables. Some time in 1830, a man by the name of Jesse Cole
was killed in a drunken row in the town, and not long after, Lunsford
Jones and John Frazier had a quarrel while in their cups, but renewing
their friendship the same day. set out for their homes after nightfall.
Both were intoxicated, and while crossing the river, Jones lost his
seat and was drowned, while his horse went home. Frazier was suspected
of having somehow brought about Jones' death, but the fact was never
proven against him. Frazier was a desperado of the worst type. In 1838,
he and one Valentine Lane had a difficulty at Foster's Mill, when Lane
chastised him personally. Thereupon, Frazier left, and arming himself,
returned, and renewing the fight, he stabbed his antagonist till he
died.
In August, 1840, Frazier maltreated his wife, so that she was compelled
to leave him and swear out a peace warrant against him. Being arrested
and on his way to Edinburg, he passed the house of Allen Stafford,
where his wife was staying, and obtained leave to stop and talk with
her. On stepping out of the door, as he requested her to do. he struck
her a blow with his knife, inflicting a wound from which she ultimately
died. Then he stabbed himself, but not fatally. Being put to his trial,
he was sentenced to fourteen years in the penitentiary, and Isaac
Jones, who was then Sheriff, and his brother William C. Jones and Elias
Voris, conducted him to Jeffersonville, where he, too, soon died. On
their way home they passed through Salem, and there they got in a
quarrel wi'th a party of strangers, when Voris, wlio was a very
powerful man, whipped the crowd. Warrants were then put out by the
civil authorities for the arrest of Voris and the Joneses, when they
fled the place, but by some means Voris became separated from his
companions. The strangers pursued and overtook him, and most foully
murdered him in the woods, severing his head from his body. They in
turn made their escape.
In 1827, James Thompson availed himself of the splendid water power on
Blue River, opposite the town, and took steps to secure the right of
erecting a mill at that place. A jury was summoned, under the law, one
of whom, Thomas Barnett, is still living. The condemnation was made,
and Thompson built a grist and saw mill. This enterprise was not only
an immediate benefit to the place, but in the hands of the Thompson
family has ever since been a source of strength to the town.
Other mills were afterward built. Both Blue River and Sugar Creek are
well adapted to mill purposes in the township.
NINEVEH TOWNSHIP
Nineveh Township is one of the oldest townships in the county, having
been organized the same spring the county government was inaugurated.
In the spring of 1821, Amos Durbin, who was from Kentucky, settled over
on the east side, and thus became the pioneer settler of the township.
In the fall of the same year, Robert Worl, an Ohio man, floated down
the Ohio River to some point on the Indiana side, and thence picked his
way to the New Purchase, mostly by the Indian trace. Reaching the Blue
River settlement, he journeyed on and arrived on the Nineveh in the
month of September, and built him a cabin about a mile east of the
present town of Williamsburg.
In 1822, eleven new men are known to have come in. On the 15th of
March, Joab Woodruff and William Strain came from Ohio, and as they
passed through the Blue River settlement, their old neighbor, Ben
Crews, picked up and came over with them. Henry Burkhart and George,
his brother, from Kentucky, settled in the north side, on the Indian
trail, and left the Burkhart name in Burkhart's Creek. Adam Lash is set
down as coming that year, and also Daniel and Henry Mussulman, and
James Dunn, from Kentucky, and David Trout, from Virginia, and John S.
Miller, from North Carolina.
The next year, James and William Gillaspy. William Spears, Curtis
Pritchard, Louis Pritchard and Richard Perry, Kentuckians, and Jeremiah
Dunham, an Ohioan, and Elijah DeHart, from North Carolina, moved in.
In 1824, Robert Moore and Aaron Dunham, of Ohio, arrived, and Isaac
Walker, Perry Baily, George Baily, Joseph Thompson and Robert Forsyth,
all from Kentucky. Forsyth was delayed at the driftwood by high water,
but when he did cross, Mrs. Nancy Forsyth, his wife, mounted upon the
back of a horse, with a bag of meal under her, rode out to their new
home, carrying her child, James P., who was two years old, in her arms,
and he carried a house-cat in his. It was late when they reached their
place, but John S. Miller, Henry Mussulman and some others "whirled in
" and helped to clear four acres of corn ground, on which a fair crop
of corn was raised, and the bean vines grew so luxuriantly that they
mounted into the lower branches of the trees.
The year before that, David Trout was prostrated by a long and severe
sickness, but his neighbors did not neglect him. On stated days they
met at his place, and his corn was planted and plowed with as much care
as any man's in the neighborhood.
In 1825, Daniel Pritchard, John Parkhurst, William Irving and Amos
Mitchel, from Kentucky, and Jesse Young, from Ohio, moved in; and, in
the year following, came Thomas Elliott, Pret- tyman Burton, William
Keaton, Clark Tucker, Daniel Hutto. John Hall, John Elliott, all
Kentuckians, and Thomas Griffith, Samuel Griffith, Richard Wheeler,
James McKane, James and John Wylie, Ohioans.
In 1827, of those who came, John Kindle, Aaron Burget and the
Calvins—James, Luke. Thomas and Hiram—Milton Mc-Quade, John Dodd,
Robert Works and, as is supposed. George Harger and Jeremiah Hibbs, are
all believed to have been from Ohio, and James Mullikin, David Forsyth
and James Hughes, from Kentucky. The next year, Joseph Featheringill,
Gabriel Givens, Mrs. Sarah Mathes and James White came, followed by
Hume Sturgeon, in 1829, and by Walter Black, David Dunham, John Wilks
and Aaron Burget, in 1830. Sturgeon was from Kentucky, Mrs. Mathes from
Virginia, and the others from Ohio, save Black, whose native place is
uncertain.
It is not pretended that these were all the men who moved into Nineveh
up to the last year mentioned, nor is it claimed that the true date is
given in every instance. The list and dates are only approximately
correct.
The first election held in Nineveh Township was at the house of John
Henry, in August, 1823, and nineteen votes were polled, but as all the
territory comprised in the present townships of Franklin, Union and
Hensley, as well as Nineveh proper, comprised Nineveh then, and as some
voters came from Sugar Creek to vote, these nineteen votes do not
measure the strength of Nineveh at that time. On the 25th of September,
1825, an election was held for the election of a Justice, at the house
of Daniel Mussulman, and thirty-nine votes were cast. Of these, David
Durbin received twenty, and Jesse Young, nineteen. On the 12th of
November following, another election for Justice was held at the same
place, when thirty-one votes were cast, Joab Woodruff receiving
twenty-four, and Edward Ware, seven. In 1827, at an election for
Justice, Curtis Pritchard and Amos Durbin were voted for, and each
received nineteen votes, and thereupon lots were cast, and Pritchard
was declared elected. In 1824, the like thing happened in White River
Township, Archibald Glenn and Nathaniel Bell each receiving seventeen
votes for Justice. Lots were cast and Glenn won.
The early residents of Nineveh were fairly divided between Ohio and
Kentucky men. While the Kentuckians constituted a majority in nearly
every township, there were but few Ohioans in any one save Nineveh.
Williamsburg, laid out by Daniel Mussulman, was, during its infancy, a
rival of Edinburg. Joab Woodruff brought an assortment of dry goods to
his house and sold them at an early date in the township's history,
and, in 1830, the record of the Board of Justices shows that Daniel
Mussulman was licensed to vend foreign and domestic groceries, and that
Woodruff held a license to sell at the same time. In 1831, Henry
Mussulman procured a license to keep a grocery, and, in the next year,
A. H. Scroggins & Co. went into the mercantile business in the
place. Glancing along the pages of the old records, the further fact is
disclosed that, in 1838, Thomas Mullikinwas licensed to vend "domestic
and foreign merchandise," and, in the year following, James Mills
obtained a permit to sell whisky and dry goods.
The first church organized in the township was at the house of Daniel
Mussulman, by Elder Mordecai Cole, a Baptist preacher, and it was named
the " Nineveh Church."
It is probable that Aaron Dunham taught the first school, soon after he
came, in 1824. In 1826. Benjamin Bailey was teaching in a cabin with an
earthen floor, near the Vickerman place.
In 1831, William Vickerman moved in, and built the first wool-carding
factory that was successfully run in the county.
The first death in the township was a little child of Daniel Mussulman,
that was burned to death. Shortly after, James Dunn and Nancy Pritchard
both died; and in twenty-two months after the arrival of Thomas
Griffith, on the 21st of October, 1826, he died, leaving a widow with a
family of little children. Griffith was the first blacksmith in the
township.
About half the original settlers of Nineveh Township were Ohioans; the
others were mainly Kentuckians. Nineveh was the Ohio settlement of the
county.
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP
In 1822, in the first half of the year, as is supposed, William
Burkhart, from Green County, Ky., and Levi Moore, built the first
cabins in Franklin Township. They came by the way of the Indian trail,
and Burkhart built his cabin on the banks of the little creek, where
Michael Canary afterward lived and died, while Moore went out as far as
the Big Spring, and then turning to the east, located at the knoll, a
few hundred yards west of Young's Creek, where John McCaslin's house
stands. Moore afterward moved to the farm now owned by Aaron Legrange,
and there built a mill, the third built in the township; but he moved
to a newer country within a few years, leaving an unsavory reputation
behind him. Moore's Creek commemorates his name.
In the spring of 1823, George King, Simon Covert and David W. McCaslin,
accompanied by Isaac Voris, a young man, moved from Kentucky, and began
clearings near the mouth of Camp Creek, or, as it afterward came to be
known, Covert's Creek, after which, it took its present name of
Hurricane. There was no road cut out beyond John Adams' place, now
Amity, and the movers being joined by Robert Gilchrist, " bushed " the
way out to their future home. On the afternoon of a day in March, they
reached Camp Creek; but finding the stream high, and not knowing the
fords, they encamped for the night on the high ground, where stand the
college buildings. All returned to Adams, save Covert and Voris, who,
when night came, milked the cows, milking into and drinking out of the
cow bells that had been brought for use in the range. The next morning,
the pilgrims crossed over the turbulent stream, and at once began the
work of building King's cabin on a knoll west of the present crossing
of the Cincinnati & Martinsville Railroad and Jefferson street.
That being up, McCaslin's was built on the south side of Young's Creek,
and Covert's on the east side of the Hurricane.
During the following summer, Franklin was laid out, and made ready for
settlers; but it was not until the spring after that a house was built
within the plat. At that time, a man named Kelly put up a house on the
west side of the square, and kept a few articles in the grocery line
for sale, chief among which seems to have been an odd sort of beer and
cakes. He was for some reason unable to get whisky, and, at the end of
a year he left and went to Indianapolis.
In the summer of 1824, William Shaffer built the court house, and, in
the fall, he built himself a house on the southeast corner of the
square. The same year, John Smiley put up a log house of two stories,
on the northwest corner of Main and Jefferson streets, where Wood's
drug store now is, and moving into it the same year he hung out a "
tavern sign." At the same time, a cabin was put up adjoining Smiley's
house on the west, and into this Daniel Taylor, from Cincinnati,
brought a stock of dry goods and groceries. Edward Springer, that year
or the next, built and operated the first smithy in the township on the
west side of the square. In 1825 or 1826, Joseph Young and Samuel
Herriott, partners in business, erected the first frame building in the
town and township, near to Shaffer's house ; and, in the south side, a
tavern was opened under the immediate supervision of Young; and in the
north side was opened a general store under the care of Herriott. In
1828, George King built a brick house on Main street, in which he lived
until his death, in 1869. The somewhat elaborate beadwork on the door
and window casing, which many will remember, Was cut out by the
carpenters with pocket-knives. Among the early settlers was Thomas
Williams, who came in 1823 or 1824; John K. Powell, a hatter; Caleb
Vannoy, a tanner; Pierson Murphy and James Ritchey, physicians ; Fabius
M. Finch and Gilderoy Hicks, lawyers; Samuel Headly and Samuel
Lambertson, tailors.
In another place (Chap. VII) is an account of the drift of settlement
in Franklin Township, and it only remains to add such of the names of
the pioneer settlers as the memories of those caring to impart their
knowledge will give. In 1825, Moses Freeman, Daniel Covert, Joseph
Voris, Thomas Henderson and, probably, John Davis, moved into and not
far from the Covert neighborhood, at the Big Spring, near Hopewell.
Henry Byers settled near the west side, and about the same time Joseph
Hunt came in by Burkhart's, and Isaac Beeson over on Sugar Creek. John
Smiley, in 1822, had settled on the same creek and had built a mill.
John Mozingo and Squire Hendricks were living on the east side, as
heretofore stated.
The same year Franklin was located, Cyrus Whetzel ran a line and marked
it, with a compass, through the woods from the Bluffs to the new town,
and in 1824 the Bluff road was cut out, and this afforded movers easy
access to the northwest parts of the township. In 1825, Isaac V^annuys,
Stephen Luyster and David Banta moved in, and, the year after, Peter
Legrangeand his sons.. Peter D. and Aaron, all then settled in what is
now known as the Hopewell neighborhood. Following, at intervals, during
the next few years, we find coming into the same vicinity John Voris,
Simon Vanarsdall, Zachariah Ransdall, Cornelius Covert, Melvin Wheat,
John P. Banta, John Bergen, Peter Demaree, Samuel Vannuys, Theodore
List, Stephen Whitenack, Joseph Combs, Thomas Roberts and Peter Banta.
On the south and west sides and southwest corner of the township, we
find that Thomas Mitchel, Michael Canary, Robert McAuly, Jacob Demaree,
Ebenezer Perry, James Forsyth, came in quite early, and then passing up
the south side are the names of Major Townsend, John D. Mitchel, John
Gratner, Joseph Ashly, John Harter, Alexander McCaslin, James McCaslin,
John C. Goodman, John Gribben, and Jonathan Williams. In the central
and northern parts were Wm. Magill, Garrett Bergen, Peter A. Banta,
Milton Utter, the White- sides brothers—Henry, James, John and
William—and Stephen and Lemuel Tilson, Thomas J. Mitchel, John Brown,
Elisha Dungan, Edward Crow, David McCaslin, Harvey McCaslin, Robert
Jeffrey, John Herriott, Middleton Waldren, Therrett Devore, Travis
Burnett, David Berry, Jesse Williams, Simon Moore, John High, Samuel
Overstreet, John Wilson, David, Thomas and George Alexander, William
and Samuel Allison and John Wilson ; while upon the east side, in
addition to those mentioned in Chapter VII, may be named Landen
Hendricks, William Garrison, Joseph Tetrick, Jesse Beard, Thomas
Needham, Jacob Fisher, Samuel Owens, David Wiles and J. C. Patterson.
The next mill built in the township, after Smiley's, was by John
Harter, on Young's Creek, two miles below Franklin. Harter bought his
mill-irons from John Smiley and agreed to pay him in corn, two bushels
being due on Wednesday of every other week until paid for; and in this
connection, it may be stated as an evidence of the straits to which men
were put in those days, that Jefferson D. Jones had a supply of bacon
but no meal, while Harter had the meal but no bacon, and that they made
an arrangement whereby Jones took a half-bushel of meal every other
week, and gave Harter of his bacon, in payment therefor at the same
intervals of time.
About 1827, Levi Moore got a little mill in operation on Young's Creek,
at the mouth of Moore's Creek, and, still later, Cornelius Covert built
a mill on the same stream higher up.
In 1826, a little child of Joseph Young's died, the first in the
township. In 1829, a school was taught in the log court house. John
Tracy, of Pleasant Township, was a pupil, walking not less than five
miles night and morning. James Graham was the teacher. About 1825,
Thomas Williams married, as is now believed, the first couple in the
township. Their names have not been remembered, but the groom, having
no money to pay the Squire, proffered that he would make rails and his
wife work in the kitchen for Williams in lieu of money.