WHITE COUNTY, INDIANA
JACKSON TOWNSHIP
HISTORY
Jackson was one of the four townships
created when White County was set
off into civil divisions at the first meeting of the board of
commissioners in July, 1834, and included all of its territory east of
the Tippecanoe River. It assumed its present area of thirty-six square
miles through the creation of Cass and Liberty townships, in 1837. and
the subsequent demarcation of the eastern boundary of Union Township.
South Half First Settled
The south half of the township was
first settled, as it was
comparatively level, well timbered and not subject to overflow, as were
the lands in the northern sections. The rich loam, with subsoil of
clay, was found to be adapted to the raising of wheat especially, with
corn, oats, rye, roots, fruits and vegetables following closely as
second choice. As most of the first settlers were thrifty farmers from
Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York, with quite a number from Virginia,
Kentucky and Tennessee, who usually came stocked with horses, cows and
poultry, and provided with farm implements and enough cash to "pull
them through until they got on their feet," they naturally selected the
southern portion of the township in preference to the dreary-looking
swamp lands, interspersed with high ridges, which stretched away to the
north. They could not await the time when that waste would be reclaimed
and brought into the market as even more productive than the tracts
favored by nature.
Pioneer Settlers And Land Owners
The dispute as to priority of
settlement in Jackson Township is even
more lively than in the majority of such discussions, since several
located in the vicinity of the present Town of Burnettsville, about
1831, Eliab Fobes, John Scott, Joseph James, Thomas Harless and Aaron
Hicks. From the records showing the entries of Government lands it
seems that Fobes filed a claim on land in section 25, at or very near
the present site of Burnettsville, and that the Hicks tract, about an
equal distance from that place and Idavilic, was not entered until June
18, 1834. Mr. James, also mentioned as one of the pioneers, selected a
tract earlier in the month in section 18, on the western border of the
present township.
Robert Ginn entered lands in section
10 (the only early landsman to
venture into the wet tracts of the north) in May, 1830, and in May,
1836, he filed a claim in section 22. And he later became well known in
local affairs.
The Hannas
Robert Hanna appears to have been the
prime mover in the list of those
who purchased Government lands in the township and afterward resided
therein, they and their children. On June 21, 1831, he entered
land in
section 35, just north of the Carroll County line. Several of his
grandsons, now well along in years, are farmers in that locality. Two
of his sons, Andrew and John Hanna, became prominent residents of the
township.
Andrew came with his father from Ohio
in 1833; was present at the first
town meeting and cast the only whig vote. He prospered as a farmer to
such an extent that he became the owner of 900 acres of land, served as
county commissioner, was an influential churchman, and founded Idaville.
John Hanna, the elder brother,
located in Jackson Township in 1834, the
year after his father's arrival, and after farming for many years
became prominent in the mercantile affairs of both Burnettsville and
Idaville. He also was present at the first township election, and was
one of the first petit jurors of the county. He assisted in building
the first schoolhouse and was considered one of the founders of
Burnettsville.
Entered Land Before Township
Organization
The tract book of the county giving
the entries of Government land in
Jackson Township indicates that the following also had become land
owners previous to the first election for township officers held in
November, 1834: Thomas McCormick, in section 33, November 23, 1831;
John Scott and Thomas Martindale, in section 24, on February 8 and July
30, 1832, and William James, in section 35, on October 5th of the same
year; Joseph Belen, in section 24, March 6, 1833; T. J. James, in the
same section, on August 15th, of that year; Daniel Dale in section 25,
August 22, 1833; James James, in section 36, January 26, 1833, and in
section 11, June 4, 1834, as well as in section 18, on the same date;
James Davis, in section 23, July 14, 1834; George Gibson, in section
25, September 22, 1834, and John Vinnedge, in the same section,
November 17th of that year; William R. Dale, in section 26, June 18,
1834; John Tedford, on the same date, in section 31; Christopher Birch,
in section 34, May 9, 1834; George Hornback, same section, May 19th,
and the following, also in the same section, with dates of 1884 as
given: Amos Barnes, May 29th; Allen Barnes, May 29th; Thomas Harless,
October 6th; and John McDowell and Solomon Burket, same date; Thomas
McLaughlin, in section 36, July 23, 1834.
Pioneers Of 1835-38
The years from 1835 to 1838,
inclusive, brought many of the residents
of the township who joined in her progress of many subsequent years.
Those who entered lands during that period fairly cover the list of
these pioneers. The tract book gives them as follows: 1835--Jonathan
Shull, in section 23, September 25th; Ephraim Miller, in section 24,
September 4th; Delaney Marvin, in section 26, October 2d; Andrew
Renwick, September 9th; Daniel I. Skinner, October 2d; Joseph D. Beers,
December 2d, and Jeremiah Sullivan, December 2d also, all in section
28;
James McCain, in section 31, November 12th; Samuel Smith, April 30th,
and John Dille, September 1st, both in section 32; Solomon McCully,
June 15th; Ephraim Chamberlain, November 7th, and James Hamill, also
November 7th all in section 33; Charles B. Hamilton, January 16th, in
section 35; and James Williams, in section 36.
1836 - Thomas B. Ward, July 12th, in
section 13; Stephen Nutt, September
30th, in section 14; Robert Ginn, May 28th, and Thomas McCormick,
October 4th, in section 15; Robert Ginn, May 28th, in section 22;
Dennis Springer, November 14th, in section 23; C. J. Hand, January
26th, in section 24; Ezekiah S. Wiley, January 8th, Dennis Springer,
November 14th, and William Wiley, December 5th, all in section 26; Seth
Irelan, January 13th, and Thomas Beard, April 30th, in section 27; John
Parr, July 15th, in sections 30 and 31; James Courtney, January 18th,
John Hamill, January 19th, Andrew Hanna, February 4th, and Aaron Hicks,
March 30th, in section 33.
1837 - John Miller, May 31st, in
section 10; James Hicks, September 27th,
and A. T. Stanton, September 14th, in section 13; Lewis Shull, January
6th, John York, August 15th, and Robert Gibson, December 19th, in
section 14; John Miller, May 31st, in section 15; Samuel M. Cochran,
February 15th, in section 21; George B. Garlinghouse, September 29th,
in section 22; John A. Billingsley, April 26th, and Andrew Hanna,
January 13th, in section 26; William Burns, April 26th, William W.
Mitchell, May 22d, Benjamin Durn, June 24th, and Cyrus B. Garlinghouse,
September 2d, in section 27; Samuel M. Cochran, February 15th, and
Benjamin Deen, April 26th, in section 28.
1838 - Jeremiah Dunham, October 15th,
in section 13, and William York,
February 3d, in section 23.
Quite a number of those who entered
lands during this formative period
of the township became well known both in township and county affairs.
Solomon McCully, who settled in section 33 during 1835, became one of
the commissioners, and Thomas McCormick, who came in 1836 and located
in section 15, nearly in the center of the township, was appointed an
associate judge of the Circuit Court. Aaron Hicks, who took up land in
that year in section 33, in the southern part, served as the first
sheriff of the county and was its probate judge for some time. Andrew
Hanna, who first became interested in lands in section 26, just west of
the present site of Burnettsville, afterward became one of the founders
of Idaville. Lewis Shull and John York took up tracts further north in
section 14, and their families became well known both at Burnettsville
and in the farming communities of section 10. The names of others who
settled in Jackson Township in the decade previous to 1840 will be
drawn into the current of this history as the story progresses.
First Recorded Election
The first recorded election in
Jackson Township was held at the house
of Daniel Dale, on the present site of Burnettsville, November 7, 1834,
and the following cast presidential ballots: Jonathan Shull, Ephraim
Million, Lewis Shull, James Courtney, Robert Hanna, Ezekiel S. Wiley,
Joseph James, Eliab Fobes, George Gibson, Hugh Courtney, John Gibson,
Joseph James, John Morris, Joseph Winegarner, Allen Barnes, George
Hornbeek, William Wiley, Aaron Hicks, John Hanna, John Smith, John
Lowery, William Gibson, Stephen Nutt, Robert P. Gibson, William Price,
John D. Vinnage, William R. Dale and William James. Of these
twenty-eight votes, twenty-six were cast for the Van Buren, or
democratic electors, and two for the Harrison, or whig ticket. At the
time of this election, which is the first recorded as having been held
in the township, voters were legally entitled to cast their ballots
anywhere in the county of their residence, so that the foregoing list
is not a true index of settlers in Jackson Township, although many
names are recognized as actual residents.
Daniel Dale, Leading Politician
Aaron Hicks was the first justice of
the peace elected after the
organization of the county and the township, and to Daniel Dale was
accorded the privilege of naming it. As he was a staunch Jacksonian
democrat, he named it accordingly. It was Mr. Dale's house which was
the political center of the township for a number of years and, as per
the order of the county commlssIoners, most of the early elections were
held there. In 1837 and 1838 the poll lists show the following new
names: Dennis Pringer, Enos H. Stewart, William W. Mitchell, Solomon
McCully, Madison Reeves, Lewis J. Dale, Jephtha York, Thomas
McLaughlan, Andrew J. Hanna, Silas Gitt, Alexander Hornback, John A.
Billingsley, Samuel Smith, John Street and James T. Mitchell.
Hanna Rejects Democracy
The township continued to be
overwhelmingly democratic, and at one of
the early elections the whigs were able to marshal only Andrew Hanna as
a supporter of their ticket in Jackson Township. Dale and the other
good democrats tried to induce Hanna to make their vote unanimous, but
the lone whig was firm and cast his ballot as his conscience dictated,
and he enjoyed his brief triumph in 1840, when Harrison was elected
President, but died in office after only a few months of service. Old
settlers used to smile at the sanctity of the ballot box, as gauged by
the accommodations furnished by Brother Dale, which consisted of an old
weather-beaten hat over which was spread a handkerchief,
sometimes gay,
but never any too clean. The Dale house in which these early elections
were held stood for many years unmoved and almost unchanged.
The Wheel Of Life
Joseph James, whose homestead was in
section 18, in the western part of
the township, first appeared on the records as a land owner in 1831,
which is given as the year of his actual settlement. He had a large
family, several of them small children, when several other pioneers
took up claims previous to 1834. The inference is that some one of his
babies was the first child born in Jackson Township, although the first
record of a birth is that of Alexander Barnes, in February, 1835, and
George H. Mitchell, deceased, of Idaville always claimed this honor.
Two of Mr. James' children also appear to have died previous to
December 2, 1835, when Amos Barnes, the father of Alexander, passed
away. His was the first death. The family had lived in the township
about a year.
In the spring of 1836, John D.
Vinnage and Rachel Gibson were married,
the first couple to be united in the township. Thus the wheel commenced
to revolve of marriages, births and deaths.
Pioneer School Matters
In other respects, the year 1836 was
an uneventful one. In that year
the first schoolhouse in the township was built near what is now the
southeast corner of Burnettsville, a log cabin, like all of its kind in
those days, and William Dale was selected to teach the children of the
neighborhood. It is said that even before this first regular
schoolhouse was thrown open, a vacant house in the southeast quarter of
section 33, near the Carroll County line, had been occupied with a
small class under the instruction of James Renwick. But that
arrangement lacked the permanency attached to the schoolhouse of 1836.
The second schoolhouse in the
township was built about 1842, and stood
on the farm afterward owned by Thomas Barnes. Among the early teachers
in that house were William Barnes, Melinda Noah and Henderson Steele.
The third schoolhouse was built about
1847 on Solomon McCully's land,
in the same neighborhood, and George Hall was the first teacher.
followed by Joseph Thompson, George Barnes, John Bright, Ashbury
Shultz, William P. Montgomery and Josephus Tam.
Burnett's Creek Postoffice
In the eventful year of 1836 a
postoffice was established to
accommodate the settlers of the township, who had largely concentrated
in its southeastern sections in the neighborhood of what is now
Burnettsville. It was called Burnett's Creek (named after the stream
which waters the eastern half of the township), and William R. Dale was
appointed postmaster, thus continuing the importance of the family
name. The postoffice was located at Farrnington, now Burnett's Creek,
and it is still thus designated, although the village is incorporated
as Burnettsville.
High Standard Of Morality
From very early times the type of the
communities in Jackson Township
was fixed as one of morality and religious conformity. The pioneer
settlers largely belonged to the Seceders' Church and strictly enforced
morality among their members and children. The first meetings of the
sect, known as the Christian Church, were held at the house of
Alexander Scott near Farmington, or Burnettsville. The Methodists
commenced to organize classes about 1837 and, at a somewhat later day,
the Baptists. In the early '40s, members of the Associate Reformed and
kindred churches formed societies at what is now Idaville; so that at a
very early date, Jackson Township was noted as a section of the county
which was especially moral and religious, if not austere in its type.
Drunkenness, carousing, swearing and fighting, which were so prevalent
in some other sections, were uncommon in Jackson Township, and the few
saloons opened were not supported, and never have been to any extent.
In fact, the high standard of conduct fixed so early has been, on the
whole, well maintained.
Smith's Distillery Of 1840-50
In the early '40s two events occurred
to especially stir the moral
sense of the communities of Southern Jackson Township; the first was
the establishment of a distillery and the second, the planting of a
branch of the Mormon Church. About the year 1840 Samuel Smith set up a
small still on his land, about a mile southwest of where Idaville now
stands and near enough the Carroll County line to draw custom from its
people. He bought or bartered small quantities of corn whieh he made
into whiskey, his orders from the Jackson Township people consisting in
great bulk, of stock for vinegar and liniment, bitters to ward off the
ague, and the straight liquor for snake bites and general emergencies.
Notwithstanding the scandal it produced among the strict
disciplinarians of the township, the distillery was operated by Smith
until his death in 1850.
Violent Deaths
A number of violent deaths have
occurred in Jackson Township which have
caused much excitement and justly so, as some of them were in the
nature of horrors. In the spring of 1860, Albert Burns, a man somewhat
past middle age, who had resided on his farm two miles north of
Burnettsville, for several years, shot his wife, from whom he had once
been divorced; attempted to kill her youngest child whom he disowned,
and then, after having placed two chairs between his wife and the
fireplace that his victim night not get into the fire in her death
struggles, turned the weapon upon himself. His death was probably
instantaneous. The wife and mother lived until the following morning.
In 1877, a bartender at Idaville
named Richard M. Herron, was found
dead, his face and clothes covered with blood, about two miles east of
Monticello. John Kelly, proprietor of the saloon at which he was
employed and John Toothman, whom he had displaced as bartender, were
arrested on the charges of having murdered Mr. Herron. The victim,
after he received his injuries, stopped at the house of John M. Shafer,
three miles east of Monticello. At the time he was covered with blood,
but proceeded on his way. That was the last seen of him until his body
was discovered about two days afterward. A nolle pros was entered as to
Toothman, and he became a witness for the state against Kelly, who was
convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to the penitentiary for six
years. He obtained a new trial, which resulted in a sentence of
eighteen years. Mr. Herron was an old soldier and some of his relatives
yet live in White County.
About 1855 William Crose shot himself
about a mile southwest of
Idaville. It is believed he committeed suicide while in a state of
religious excitement.
In 1854 Silas Tam was killed by
lightning just outside of
Burnettsville. About 1861 a conductor named Anthony had his leg
terribly crushed by a freight train, in consequence of having his foot
caught in a frog, and died at the house of Alexander Rodgers, Idaville.
In the following year three men were severely injured by the derailing
of a train east of that place, one of whom died within a day.
About the summer of 1870, Daniel
Leslie was killed by lightning, which
struck the postoffice. The bolt also tore the boots from the feet of
James C. Hutchinson, so that he had to wear felt slippers for several
weeks because of the soreness of his feet.
The Mormon Branch of 1842-45
The Mormon Society, or branch,
continued to proselyte from 1842 to
1845, when its members scattered, several of them joining the migration
to Nauvoo, Illinois. Their bishop, Alva L. Tibbetts, organized his
converts at a private house about three miles north of where
Burnettsville is situated, and within the following three years
gathered a membership of sixty-five, of whom about two-thirds resided
in Jackson Township. Three families whose homes were within its limits
joined the migration to Nauvoo; one of them returned to the home
neighborhood in Jackson Township, after an experience of two weeks
which tended to sober, if not subdue; another crossed the Mississippi
into Iowa, when the Mormons were expelled from Nauvoo in 1846, and the
third followed the general exodus to Salt Lake City. During the
existence of the branch near Burnettsville, the Mormons established a
cemetery two miles north of Idaville in which several interments were
made.
Farmington Male and Female Seminary
In 1852, two years before
Burnettsville was platted, and while the
locality was known as Farmington, the famous Male and Female Seminary
was founded by Isaac Mahurin. Aaron Hicks and William York, Joseph
Thompson and Elijah Eldridge were its first trustees. The Farmington
Male and Female Seminary, as it was called, became quite noted as an
educational institution, as has been more fully described in the
chapter devoted to such matters.
Burnettsville Founded
In March, 1854, Franklin J. Herman, a
settler of 1839, laid out the
Town of Burnettsville on his and, in the northwest quarter of section
25. The original plat comprised thirty-eight lots, and in 1855,
Prudence Dale, widow of William Dale, made the first addition to it, a
tract of sixteen lots.
Mr. Herman, the founder of
Burnettsville, served as justice of the
peace for twenty-five years and died in 1861, one of the most respected
citizens of the township. He was the father of eleven children and
several of his descendants have been identified with Burnettsville and
its progress. One of the sons, F. A. Herman, was its postmaster for a
number of years.
Sharon And Burnettsville Consolidated
In 1860 Thomas Wiley and James B.
Eliott laid out the Town of Sharon
near the northern limits of Burnettsville. As it was a station on the
new railroad known as the Logansport, Peoria and Burlington (now the
Panhandle of the Pennsylvania Company), the new town grew rapidly, the
business interests of Burnettsville being soon transferred to it
bodily. In 1864 the postoffice of Burnett's Creek was moved from
Burnettsville to Sharon, and later the two villages were consolidated
under the name of the old town. As stated, it is still Burnettsville
town and Burnett's Creek postoffice, but Uncle Sam, through his postal
department, may in time correct the incongruity.
Idaville Founded
In July, 1860, Andrew Hanna, John B.
Townsley and John McCully, all
pioneers of the township, also laid out another town on the Panhandle
line three miles west of Sharon, or Burnettsville. At first it was
called Hanna, but the name was soon changed to Idaville. The original
plat was on the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter and the
northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 28 and comprised
twenty-two lots; the first additions to it were made by Mr. Townsley in
1865. Idaville has never been incorporated as a town. It has suffered,
both by storm and fire, the conflagration of 1902 destroying the
business portion of the village.
Burnettsville and Idaville are pretty
towns, and, as centers of trade
and banking, are supported by a prosperous country both to the north
and south. Burnettsville has a slight advantage in population and
business, and both are pleasant, homelike places.
Drainage and Good Roads
Jackson Township is practically an
agricultural section of the county,
and contains about one-ninth of its entire population. Its northern
sections have been artificially drained through several large systems
of ditches which are carried through Liberty and Union townships to the
Tippecanoe River; so that at least half of the township, which was
originally considered waste land, has been reclaimed and brought under
productive cultivation. Its only natural waterway is Burnett's Creek,
which drains its central, eastern and southeastern portions into the
Wabash River.
In the matter of good roads, although
Jackson Township is not foremost
in the movement, much progress has been made in the construction of
highways of macadam or gravel, so that few farmers are now
inconvenienced when they desire to market their produce. The township
is bonded for nearly $35,000 on this account, the indebtedness being
apportioned as follows: Personett Road, $1,920; Brown, $4,000; Reiff,
$3,800, Mortz, $4,800; Bryan, $11,550; Bishop, $4,140; Harvey, $4,700.