Milton Hite was born October 13, 1815, in Mercer Co., Kentucky, and died September 17, 1877. in Martinsville, Indiana

Milton Hite was the grandson of a Revolutionary War soldier who immigrated to Kentucky after five years of war service. Thomas bought land on the Salt River, south of Harrodsburg, Kentucky in 1789, prior to George Washington's inauguration. Until be was about 14, Milton Hite lived in the same area where his grandparents, parents, and extended family lived.

By 1829 Milton's family moved to Mt. Tabor, Indiana. When he was about fourteen or fifteen, his father changed the spelling of the family surname to "Hite" from the original "Hight". According to family history, this was due to an argument between the brothers, William and John.

In Mt. Tabor Milton's lather, William, owned a grocery store, was the first postmaster, and served as Justice of the Peace. Milton was one of only four children, a small family in those times. From the evidence gleaned from his lifelong actions, Milton valued his family tics and provided a home, care, and concern for those in need. Milton married Margaret Hussey, ten years younger than he. Date of marriage unknown at this time.

Milton and his wife, Margaret, hail no children. However, according to the family history, they reared "many nieces and nephews". After the death of both his older brother, Felix Grundy Hite, and Felix's wife in the same year, Milton and his wife "adopted" the six year old nephew, Milton, and gave a home to some of the other children who ranged in age from eight to eighteen. The names of any other children he .ind his wife helped arc not known: possibly one of these is the girl named in the will, Ida Gardner. This compiler has not found a record of an adoption of Milton, Jr. although the Martinsville Republican stated in Milton Sr"s. obituary that young Milton was adopted. In his will, Milton Hite, Sr. called Milton, Jr. a "nephew", so it is unlikely that a formal adoption took place. However, Milton, Jr., as he became known, was treated as a son and inherited a large part of Milton Sr's. estate.

The village of Mt. Tabor lay next to Bean Blossom Creek just off White River in Monroe Co., Indiana. (Neighboring Morgan Co.) It was hilly country with die town situated along the creek and on the surrounding hillsides. Each spring Bean Blossom Creek would flood, both from local rains and from the back flow from White River, thus pushing high water with strong currents into the town. This enabled the local business men to load flat boats, built from plentiful local lumber, with tons of smoked and salted pork, corn, wheat, hides, etc. and using the downstream currents to ship these local products to New Orleans. As many as seventeen of these flatboats were known to have left Mt. Tabor in one season. A trip took six weeks, and was considered a great, but dangerous adventure for the young men. (Some deaths are recorded.) The Hites joined with partners and participated in these financial ventures. However, there is no record that they personally made any trips south.

Milton Hite in company with his brother-in-raw, Perminter Parks, combined pork packing, farming, lumbering, and flat boating with their general store business in Mt. Tabor. The farthest inland these flatboats could be assembled and started on these profitable journeys was at Martinsville, Morgan Co., Indiana, on the White River. In 1833 Hite and Parks moved from Mt. Tabor to Martinsville where they became one of the two top shippers and handled thousands of dollars worth of goods each year. They exported their goods by the flatboats, called "flats", and imported goods for sale by wagon over the muddy roads from the Ohio River. Wagons hauled ginseng, beeswax, furs, skins, and other light weight commodities south to Madison, Indiana, Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, or Louisville, Kentucky, and returned with merchandise for the community's needs.

The early "flats" were on average sixty by sixteen feet, with freight bearing capacity of 170,000 pounds. Average cargoes were estimated at $4,000.00 apiece for larger, later boats. Many of the newer boats measured 100 feet long, 20 feet wide, with a depth of 3 1/2 feet and had a capacity of 400,000 pounds. It is unknown how many "flats" Parks and Hire owned when an average of 15 flatboats went down river from Martinsville each year.

The distance by water from Martinsville to New Orleans was computed to be 1800 miles. A trip by flatboat usually required sue weeks with many dangers involved. After fighting turbulent water, the high winds of March and April, snags which could sink the boat, and a miserable diet, the boatmen faced malaria in New Orleans. Some families specialized in operating the flats. After unloading their wares, they sold the lumber from the boat at their destination and either walked, paid the fare on a river boat, or found a wagon ride for the return home.

In 1860 with $50,000-00 capital, earned from their businesses, Hite and Parks started Martinsville's first bank. In 1865 this bank merged into the First National Bank of Martinsville. At the time of his death, Milton Hite was president of
the bank and owned stock and part of the real estate related to the bank.

The Martinsville Republican reported in the Sept. 27th, 1877 edition: "Milton Hite, Sr. died this morning at 1 o'clock from the effects of a malignant tumor, which has been troubling him for two years, and for the past three months has
prostrated him on a bed of sickness. Mr. Hite was one of our oldest and best known citizens......." (Almost 62 years old.)

From MEMOIRS OF NOAH J. MAJOR, THE PIONEERS OF MORGAN COUNTY', Indiana Historical Society Publications, Vol V, No. 5.