SCOTT COUNTY, INDIANA
HISTORY
The county was organized in 1820,
while the State capital was at Corydon, Harrison county.
It was named in honor of General
Charles Scott, an officer of the revolutionary period, and, at a later
period, governor of Kentucky. The county was formed from portions of
Jefferson, Jennings, Clark, and "Washington counties. The first county
commissioners were Joseph Switzer, Reuben Johnson, and John Herod. Wm.
K. Richey was the first sheriff, by appointment from the governor. The
first sheriff elect was Jesse Jackson, who afterward served in the
legislature, and also as register of the land office at La Porte. Other
original county officers were : James Ward, clerk; John Prime,
recorder; James Lochrane, treasurer, and Robert Warder — an old
revolutionary soldier — as coroner.
The county was first settled in 1805,
by John Kimberlin, who removed to this section of the State from
Kentucky, and who built, in the same year, the first house erected in
the county. Among the early settlers were: Wm. E. Collins, Dr. John
Richey, Eliab Collins, Samuel P. Devore, Robert Wardle, John Morris,
Jeremiah Paine, Dr. Jonathan Carter, John Finley, Dr. James Hicks,
David and Charles Eastin, Eli and Joseph Harlan, Kindred Ferguson, Wm.
Nichols, John Wingate, Zebulon Foster, James Lemaster, Wm. Norton,
John Dickey, Jacob Cutler, Asahel Passwater, Daniel Hough, John
Stucker, Robert Brenton, Wm. Fleming, Peter Storms, Daniel Serls, and
many other brave and hardy pioneers, whose names are in the past.
Kindred Ferguson is still a resident
of Scott county, where he had lived for sixty-five years, and has
reached the extraordinary age of one hundred and four years.
In 1820, the county seat was located
at Lexington, by Wm. Fleming, Dennis Pennington, Hardin H. Moore, Abel
C. Pepper, and two others. The town was originally laid out by Jesse
Henley, General Wm. McFarlane, Adam Steele, Richard Steele, and
Nehemiah Hunt, in 1811, on grounds owned by these gentlemen. The first
house in Lexington was erected by John and Jacob Stucker. Gen.McFarlane
built the first brick house. The first public improvements were made by
private enterprise. Wm. Fleming and Moses Gray were the pioneer
merchants. The first marriage solemnized in the county was between
Daniel Kimberlin and Ursula Brenton. A child born to them is claimed to
be the first white person born in the county. Among the early lawyers
of Lexington and Scott county, and who have since become prominent in
the State, may be mentioned: Henry P. Thornton, the first prosecuting
attorney of the county; the Campbell Brothers; Major Elisha G. English,
many years in State legislature; his son, Hon.Wm. H. English, who for
many years represented the district in Congress, was born in Lexington,
as was also his grandson, Wm. E. English, now a promising lawyer of
Indianapolis. The seat of justice was continued in this place for over
fifty years, but was removed in 1874 to a more central point, a place
formerly called Centerville, but now known as Scottsburgh. This town
was laid off in 1873, by Lloyd S. Keith, being surveyed by Thos. K.
Wardle and Wm. Estel. It is located on the Jeffersonville, Madison and
Indianapolis railroad, eighty miles south of Indianapolis, and now
contains a population of about four hundred souls. Among the other
towns of Scott county, are Austin, Vienna, New Frankfort, Wooster, and
Holman. Iron ore and salt abounds in the county. A good article of salt
is manufactured, and numerous wells are sunk for salt water near
Lexington, one of which is seven hundred feet deep. Good building stone
is had in the same vicinity, and also a kind used for making a very
fine quality of water cement. As these quarries are located near' the
railroad, and of easy access, it is believed that a factory for the
manufacture of this cement will be erected at no distant day.
This county is the scene of the
celebrated Pigeon roost massacre, a full account of which will be found
elsewhere in this volume. It is also a witness of the depredations
committed by the rebel General John Morgan, in his raid through
southern Indiana during the civil war. The depot at Vienna was burned
by him, and many are the farmers through this county who have bewailed
the day when they "swapped" their fine fat, sleek horses, for the worn
out, sore-backed jades of the rebels. Scott county possesses good
railroad facilities. The Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis road
north and south, and the Ohio and Mississippi road traversing the
county in the same direction.
An Illustrated History of the State
of Indiana By De Witt Clinton Goodrich, Charles Richard Tuttle