MORGAN COUNTY INDIANA

SETTLERS OF 1821-1822

In these sketches we write of the men and women who gave character and standing to our county in its earliest development, who left their impress for good on the next generation, who stood in the front rank of the army of progress in educational and church work in the moral and spiritual elevation of the rising generation, men of whom we may say, "They builded better than they knew," even though they well knew how to build, of whom and their sons and daughters we write in general terms, accounting them all well worthy to be remembered by every true and loyal son and daughter of the commonwealth.

We would that their names were written on a granite shaft instead of this perishable page, that the men and women in time to come, when this Republic will far surpass all that has yet been dreamed of its future greatness, might, at least, read the names of those who first came to make their dreary little cabin homes in the green wilderness of Morgan county.

As we write many of the names almost entirely from memory and at an age when this faculty oftentimes shows unmistakable signs of decay, we trust the indulgent and interested reader will supply our lack, by calling to mind the names of those we have forgotten or never knew. It is practically impossible, at this late date, to give all the names of those who took part in the first settlement of the county or to do full justice to those who, from time to time, were sedulously engaged in the moral, spiritual, and intellectual advancement of the community at large, principally at their own expense; for in those days teachers, preachers, and moralists were usually the poorest paid of all the professionals. For fifteen years the schools were paid by private subscription; term, sixty five days, at $1.25 per scholar; with an average of about twenty five scholars. Payments were often made in "truck and turnover."

Local preachers were treated to a Sunday dinner by some liberal brother and sister and that squared the account to date.

Itinerants received from $100 to $300 per annum. But the power behind the great "White Throne" of truth and light was, and still is, the Christian life lived out every day at home as well as abroad. Christianity is life in the highest, truest sense, and nothing else is. Preachers may talk long and loud and bang the bindings off their Bibles, the laity may possess more zeal than knowledge, and sound may, in many instances, take the place of sense, but only the steady, constant firing from the battery of faith, hope, and love can drive the rank and file out of the enemy's entrenchment's. If it be true that love laughs at locksmiths, so does Satan at empty professions.

A first settlement is somewhat like a net cast into the sea, it catches alike the good, bad, and indifferent. The bad may soon be weeded out, but the indifferent, like the tares, grow with the wheat. However, there is generally enough salt in every settlement to save it from utter putrefaction.

We call attention to the names nothing else of the families who were "homed" in the county prior to the last day of December, 1822. And here we acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. Blanchard for many tabulated statements found in his history of the county.

Township 12 N., R. 2 W., was surveyed in 1816 by William Harris, and was therefore the first land measured by a surveyor's chain and compass in the county. This land had been ceded by the Indians prior to that year; but this township was re-survey by Thomas Brown in 1819, who also made the original survey of five other townships the same year. John Milroy surveyed three others, making nine townships surveyed in 1819.

In 1820, three townships were surveyed by B. Bentley and one by Stephen Collett. Charles Beeler was the first county surveyor, but William Hadley did most of the surveying for fifteen or more years.

The exact date of the arrival of the first settlers cannot be given, though it was probably in 1818. Ten or fifteen families came in 1819 and many more in 1820. All who came prior to the 4th day of September, 1820, and indeed many who came after that date were "squatters," not owning the land on which they lived until they had taken out preemption papers under the Ordinance of 1787, and later Congressional enactment's granting and modifying the right.

It is estimated that fifty or sixty families were living in the county on New Year's day, 1821. On the 4th of September, 1820, the lands of the county were formally thrown on the market for the first time. Those who had come in previously hastened to the land office at Brookville and entered the claims they had squatted on, or preempted.
And many others, who had not been in the county, came in the search of homes.

The following persons entered lands after the 4th of September, 1820, in township 11 N., R. 1 E.: Philip Hodges, Joseph Townsend, George Matthews, Benjamin Freeland, Benjamin Hoffman, John Case, Jacob Cutler, Jacob Lafever, John Gray, Joshua Taylor, Joshua Gray, Thomas Jenkins, Chester Holbrook, Jacob Case, John Reed, Nancy Smith, Isaac Hollingsworth, and Presley Buckner.

Those who entered land the same year in township 12 N., R. 1 E., were John Butterfield, David Matlock, Enoch and Benjamin McCarty, Jonathan Lyon, Martin McCoy, Samuel Elliott, Jonathan Williams, Devault Koons, John Conner, Andrew Maymore, Larkin Reynolds, Thomas Jenkins, Joel Ferguson, Reuben Most, and John Graves.

Francis Brock, William Ballard, Thomas Lee, Charles Vertreese, James Hadley, Eli Hadley, William Rooker, Charles Reynolds, Josiah Drury, and Benjamin Barns entered land at the same time in township 12 N., R. 1 E. William Pounds located in township 14 N., R. 1 E.

In township 11 N., R. 1 W., James K. Hamilton, John Burnett, Samuel Newall, Fred Burkhart, Daniel Stout, John Kennedy, Rice Stroud, Isom Stroud, Anthony Vernon, Presley Buckner, and Thomas Hodges entered at the same time, 1820.

The above fifty four persons were the only ones who entered lands in the county in that year.

Perhaps there is no date in the county's history that can show so large a per cent, of owners of their homes as on the 31st day of December, 1822; but there were still thousands of acres of vacant lands, many tracts of which were as good as those that had been entered, and immigration continued to flow into the county for several years at a rapid rate. Marvelous have been the changes since the first settler pulled in and unloaded his household goods (if he had any) in Morgan county.

The following persons entered land in 1821: Samuel Scott, James Clark, Jacob Cutler, Thomas Hadley, Henry H. Hobbs, Charles Reynolds, George Matthews, Jonathan Lyon, W. W. Drew, Elisha Hamden, Thomas Irons, James Stott, Jonathan Williams, John Hodges, John Butterfield, James L. Ridds, Edward Irons, David Allen, Jacob Chase, John Marker, Edward Jones, Jacob Case, Joseph Henshaw, Abner Cox, David Matlock, Thomas Dee, Joseph Frazier, William McDowel, Samuel Jones, Thomas Beeler, John Leavill, Jesse McCoy, Christopher Ladd, Joseph Bennet, Samuel Blair, David Price, Joseph Sims, John Hamilton, John Barnes, George A. Beeler, Joseph Beeler, Benjamin Mills, Robert Stafford, William Gregory (father of twenty nine children), Cyrus Whetzel (first settler), Jesse Tull, Henry Rout, John Paul, Thomas Ingles, Joseph Bennet, Thomas Gardner, William Goodwin, James Burch, Ezekiel Slaughter, John McMahan, Jacob B. Reyman, John W. Reyman, Christopher Hager, Thomas and Benjamin Gary, George Moon, Samuel Dodds, Joseph Tomlinson, Eli Hadley, Abner Cox, James Curl, and John Sells, all of whom located east of the second principal meridian; and David Fain, Hiram Stroud, Thomas Hodges, Philip Hodges (the first to enter land in the county), Wiley Williams, Abner Alexander, Samuel Goss, William Anderson, Joseph Ribble, James McKinney, Thomas Thompson, and Reuben F. Allen, on the west side of the meridian.
The following entered land in the year 1822: Allen Gray, John Gray, Alexander Rowland, Isaac Gray, William Townsend, Josiah Townsend, Presley Buckner, James Reynolds, John Cutler, Joshua Carter, Benjamin Cuthbert, Martin McDaniel, Isaiah Drury, William Bales, Elias Hadley, Jehu Carter, Moses Anderson, William McCracken, B. F. Beeson, John A. Bray, Jesse Overman, Charles Vertreese, Jacob Jessup, Andrew Clark, Richard Day, William Ballard, Stewart Reynolds, Eli Mills, Isaac Price, John and Enoch Summers, Charles Ketchum, George Crutchfield, John Martin, Levi Plummer, David E. Allen, Benjamin Mills, Hiram Matthews, Abner Cox, William Landers, Thomas Ballard, Harris Bray, John Kennedy, Abraham Stroud, Fred Burkhart, John Buckner, and John Mannan; all locating east of the meridian line except the five last named.