INDIANA TRAILS
HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
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Owen County, Indiana
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OWEN COUNTY.
Owen County was
settled in 1816-17. The first settlers were David Thompson, Philip
Hart, Captain Bigger, John Dunn and Robert Blair. The county was named
for Colonel Abraham Owen, who was in the battle of Tippecanoe, on the
eighth of November, 1811. He was a volunteer aid-de-camp to General
Harrison.
The first court
held in the county took place at the residence of John Dunn, in March,
1819, located about one mile east of Spencer, Judge Blackford
presiding, when Philip Hart, the second settler, was fined twenty-one
dollars and costs for committing an assault on Dr. David Thompson, the
first white settler of the county. Here is a case where the second
settler whipped the first settler. The respect shown to "first settlers
" in those days, however, is evinced by the fine. The first white child
born in the county was John R. K. Dunn, whose father established the
first ferry on the west fork of the White river. In the year 1818,
William Baker built a mill on Raccoon creek, and soon after a few of
the early settlers " rigged up a corn-cracker" on a small stream near
the present town of Gosport.
John Dunn was the
third settler of the county. He came in the winter, when the ground was
covered with eight inches of snow, and arriving on the banks of the
White river in February, 1817, with his family, without a house of any
kind to protect them from the cold, he commenced life in a rude camp,
and at once set about building a log house, which he accomplished after
great difficulty and suffering.
Spencer, the county
seat, was located in 1820. The site was donated by Richard Beem, Isaiah
Cooper, John Bartholomew and Philip Hart. It was laid out by James
Galletly and others. Spencer is very pleasantly situated in the valley
of the west fork of the White river, on the Indiana and Vincennes
railroad. It has a population of about fifteen hundred, and is in a
flourishing condition. The town is named for Captain Spier Spencer, who
fell at Tippecanoe.
There is some of
the finest landscape scenery in this county to be found in the State.
The county has also its curiosities, in the "Boone Cave," and the
various Indian mounds. We have been unable to procure as full
statistics from this county as we desired, but have ascertained that
the schools in the rural districts are in a fair condition, while those
in the towns are equal to any in the State.
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