Delaware County, Indiana - Chapter 16: Tales from the County Plat Book, 1924

Chapter 16: Tales from the County Plat Book

The story of the plat book is about as interesting a one as can be turned up with reference to a county, and Delaware county is no exception. In addition to the plats of the towns that secured for themselves a permanent place on the map, there are found on the plat book numerous evidences of hopes blasted - plats that were recorded in high hope of realizing the promoter's fond ambition to be a town builder but which came to naught through circumstances which his foresight had not discerned and which now have no place on the map of the county.

For instance, one of the oldest plats on the book, save that of the county seat town of Muncietown, which is referred to elsewhere, is that of the town of Georgeville, which was laid out on the east bank of the Mississinewa river in section 32, township 22, range 11 (Niles civil township), by John G. Deeds and William Batterall on September 28, 18382. This prospective town was laid out as a tract of six blocks, with Main street (the only one given a name on the plat) 66 feet wide and the cross streets 49 feet, the alleys 12. The neighboring Granville settlement a bit farther down the stream and on the other side which took on a new impetus about that time proved too much in the way of competition for Georgeville and the latter subsided. Among other towns which lost their places on the current maps of Delaware county may be mentioned Anthony pestoflice, in the northwest part of Hamilton township; Bethel, in the southwest part of Harrison; Tabor and Richwood postoffices on the line between Monroe and Salem townships, and Cross Roads postoffice, in the south part of the latter township.

Smithfield, which still holds its place on the map, but whose dream of commercial importance long ago passed, was one of the very earliest contenders for commercial honors in the county, its projectors considering its position on White river as most advantageously designed for a trading point, and it did enjoy considerable distinction along this line until the coming of the railroad in the early '50s diverted its trade to the new railroad town of Selma which was established about a mile north. Smithfield was laid out by David Stout and William Duncan, joint proprietors, March 12, 1830, and the original plat covered four blocks, split north and south by Liberty street and east and west by Main street.

Albany also got its start as a river trading point. It was laid out there on the Mississinewa at the crossing of the county roads in section 2 of township 21, range 11 (Delaware), by William Venard on December 11, 1833. The original plat is a plat of six blocks cut by the county road (now Water street )on the north and Main street, ' east and west, and the county road (now State street) and First and Second streets, north and south, the streets being four poles in width and the alleys twelve feet. The plat was surveyed by Samuel R. Collier, the first surveyor of Delaware county, afterward county recorder, who was perhaps the most highly cultured man of his generation in this county and whose characteristically graceful and flourishing quill so unmistakably adorned the pages of the deed records of this county during the years 1834-37.

Granville, the old river settlement on the left bank of the Mississinewa in the southwest corner of Niles township (section 31, town 22, range 11), was platted as a townsite by John Gregory, David Shideler and Peter Thomas, joint proprietors, May 9, 1836. The original plat covers twelve blocks lying south of the river, with Water street on the north, the other east-and-west streets being Market, Jackson and South. The north-and-south streets are Thomas, Walnut, Main and Gregory. Granville in the old river days was an excellent trading center and its "boomers" felt that the county seat ought to have been located there and worked to that end, but the Muncietown influence was too well directed for them to overcome.

Yorktown got its place on the map about three years later, when on November 5, 1836, Oliver H. Smith, "the proprietor of the within town," filed his plat of a townsite there at the mouth of Buck creek on White river in the northwest quarter of section 22 of township 20, range 9 (Mt. Pleasant), the river forming the north boundary line of the plat. In the original plat the first street at the north is Canal street, the proprietor at that time having entertained high hopes of a canal coming along there, with his townsite as a logical port on the expected waterway. Smith and High streets are the other east and west streets in the original plat, the north and south streets being, from the east, Elm, Broadway, Walnut, Market, Pine, Plum and West. In the center of this plat a quarter of a square (south- west corner of Smith and Market streets) was set apart as a market place. Four lots on the south edge of the plat were "reserved as special donations for religious purposes." The original plat carried 104 lots. In the next spring, May 26, 1837, the proprietor made an addition to his plat, carrying from lot 105 to lot 108, this extending the western limits of the town by the extent of two lots on the west and adding Arch and South streets on the south, with a tract of one and one-half acres donated at the southwest corner of the plat for a graveyard. At the northeast corner of this addition, corner of Elm and Arch streets, a quarter square was reserved "for the use of a seminary of learning."

This Yorktown site was a Hake of the north half of the Cassman Indian reservation lands which Samuel Cassman (Cosman) and his wife Thirza had on August 30, 1830, sold to Goldsmith Gilbert, who meanwhile had bought the Hackley Indian reserve at the site of the old Munsee town, as is narrated elsewhere. On October 9, 1836, Gilbert sold this half section of the Cassman reserve to Oliver H. Smith, who immediately proceeded to lay out his townsite. According to the deed record, Gilbert paid Cassman $500 for the tract and sold it to Smith for $1,500, thus clearing $1,000 on his less than six years of possession. Smith, who was perhaps the most diligent "boomer" of Delaware county lands in the days when things were getting a good start here and who became a large landowner here, had high hopes of the development of his town of Yorktown and his promotion plans contemplated making of it a better town than the county seat, but the central location of the latter and the advantage which accrued to it as a county town were factors in favor of Muncie which he could not overcome. Smith, who afterward became a United States senator from Indiana, exerted a powerful influence in securing the survey of the first railroad through this county and through his town of Yorktown (old Indianapolis & Bellefontaine, now the "Big Four" road) and was made first president of that road, but even this added prestige could do little toward overcoming the natural disadvantages under which his town labored and he died knowing it never could become | a city, Muncie and Anderson by that time having acquired advantages and a status which left no room for a city to grow up between them, only six miles away from the first named county seat.

New Burlington, a historic old hamlet in the northeast quarter of section 8, town 19, range 11 (Perry civil township), was platted on August 22, 1837, by George Pribble. This tract, there at the cross roads, Ir'sected by the old state road, the Burlington pike, carries four full squares of eight blocks to the lot and several fractional lots. Main street (the Burlington pike) is paralleled by Spring and High streets and the plat is divided in cross streets by First, Second, Third and Fourth. On the highway between Muncie and Richmond, this old town in the days before the coming of the railroads was an important stopping place for teamsters and drovers and two taverns flourished there. Good business also was done by the wagon shop and the blacksmith shop and a couple of general-goods stores accommodated the needs of a wide trade area thereabout.

Daleville, down the river about five miles southwest of Yorktown, got on the map two years after Smith's ambitious plans were projected, Campbell Dale having filed his plat of a townsite there along the river in the northwest half of the northeast quarter of section 1 of township 19, range 8 (Salem), November 10, 1838. This townsite evidently was laid off in the expectation that the projected canal would prove a permanent thing, which it then promised to be, for the plat is laid out at the junction of the "canal" and White river, with the "feeder dam" marked in accordance with the plans of the engineers, but the canal collapsed and the town went to sleep, only to be awakened by the whistle of the railway locomotive when the railroad came along there in 1852, when it was made a station and became a good trading center. Mr. Dale's original plat of his townsite shows three full blocks, three and one-half blocks and two lesser fractions, on the state road with the east and west (at variation) streets being Dale and Washington, the north and south streets (also at variation) being Pearl, Main and Water. It is proper to note that the original plat as recorded carries the name of Dalesville, though the gazetteer and the maps make it Daleville, which also is the postoffice and railway station name.

Mount Pleasant is another of the old townsites of Delaware county and in its day before the coming of the railroads was a thriving center of trade for a wide neighborhood thereabout. Mount Pleasant (on the maps Mt. Pleasant) was laid out by John Lewis, William Heaton and Samuel Paff in September, 1837, and the original plat shows a tract of seven blocks at the crossing of the highways along the west branch of Prairie creek, in sections 19 and 20 of township 19, range 11 (Perry). Macedonia, another ancient settlement, at the crossroads a couple of miles west of Mount Pleasant, is another townsite that never got as far as its projectors had hoped for it.

Elijah Collins laid out and had platted a townsite of this name along the Mississinewa at the junction of sections 17, 18, 19 and 20 of township 22, range 10 (Union), which must have seemed to them a promising site for a trading center and settlement. A plat of eight blocks, with the river at the east, was laid out, Granville street being the north boundary, with Main and South streets the other two east and west streets, and Walnut, Market, Plum and West the north and south streets running back from the river. This is not the only town laid out in the '30s that failed to realize the hopes of its projectors.

Wheeling, two or three miles down the river from the site of the vanished Pitts Burg, was laid out but a few months following the platting of the latter, and for reasons which now could only be conjectural overshadowed its neighbor, made a place for itself and has kept its place on the map. Wheeling was laid out by William Mc- Cormick in September, 1837, there at the horseshoe bend of the Mississinewa, along the left bank of the stream, in the northeast quarter of section 14, township 22, range 9 (Washington). Its original plat shows Walnut, Muncie, Main and Elm streets to have been the original east and west streets in this town, with Broadway and Vine the intersecting north and south streets, all laid out sixty feet in width, alleys sixteen and one-half feet and lots sixty feet frontage.

Desoto, on the Lake Erie railway about midway between Albany and Muncie, really had its start as a trading center at a point about a mile north at the mouth of Campbell creek, which was platted by Abraham Cline under the name of Clifton on June 7, 1849. Clifton was a tract of three blocks and a fraction at the mouth of the creek there at the bend of the Mississinewa in the east half of the southwest quarter of section 16 of township 21, range 11 (Delaware), with Buckeye, Main and Cherry streets the east and west streets and Mulberry and Locusts streets north and south. With the coming of the railroad in the '70s Clifton lost its value as a trading point in favor of a stop that had been established by the railroad company at a point on the road a mile or more south and on January 8, 1881, Luther L. Perdieu, owner of the tract where the railroad crosses the creek in the west half of the northeast quarter of section 28 of the same township, laid out and platted the town of Woodlawn, a tract of sixteen lots cut diagonally northeast-southwest by the railroad, with four streets, Perdieu and Delaware east and west, and Market and Main north and south, and opened the sale of lots as a townsite. When it came time to establish a postoffice there the postoffice authorities declined to accept the name Woodlawn as likely to become confused with the name of the postoffice of Woodburn in Allen county and by agreement with the proprietor of the townsite and the railroad people the name of Desoto was given to the place and this it since has held.

Selma, the chief village of Liberty township, about five miles due east of Muncie, is a product of the coming of the first railroad through this part of the state, the old Indianapolis & Bellefontaine road, now familiarly known as the "Big Four," a part of the New York Central lines. Upon the completion of the survey of the railroad this townsite was laid out on the line of the proposed railroad at about the central point in the township and when the railroad came along it became a good shipping point and neighborhood trading center, diverting the trade from the older neighboring village of Smithfield, as has been set out above. The Selma townsite was laid out on a part of the north half of the northwest quarter of section 15 of township 20, range 11 (Liberty), on February 9, 1852, following the survey of the railroad through that section, the east half of the platted tract having been in the land of Joseph Greenwalt and the west half in that of Francis M. Dowler, who thus became joint proprietors. The original plat shows a tract of four blocks comprising thirty-two lots, and six out lots, the latter of varying dimensions, including a tract of two acres designated as a steam mill site, south of the railroad. Railroad street, eighty feet wide, with the line of the I. & B. railway, split the tract in the center east and west, the north east-and-west street being Muncie street. The north and south streets were East, Green, Albany, Union and South, with the county road as the west line of the plat.

Eaton is a product of the coming of Delaware county's second railroad, the old Ft. Wayne & Southern railway (present Lake Erie & Western - F't. Wayne division), and was laid out along the line of the survey of that road at its junction with the Greenville and Marion state road there along the right bank of the Mississinewa in the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 23 of town 22, range 11 (Union), on June 19, 1854, by George H. Babb and Joel W. Long, guardian for Reason T. Harris and David Harris. The original plat provided ample space on the west side of the tract for railway depot grounds. North, Harris and South streets were the east-andwest streets and Hartford, Center and Front were the north-andsouth streets, the latter fronting the railway grounds, all sixty feet in width.

New Corner (Gaston), about eight miles over west of Eaton in Washington township, was laid out in the next year (1855), upon the completion of the survey of the railroad (present C. & O.) through that part of the county. The formally recorded name of this place on the original plat is Town of New Corner. It was platted and opened as a townsite by David L. Jones on February 27, 1855, the original plat of the town being a part of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 33 of township 22, range 9. The plat carries three full blocks with the same number of half blocks, the whole cut diagonally northwest and southeast by Railroad street, laid off eighty feet in width. North, Mulberry, Walnut and Elm are the east-and-west streets and Sycamore and Main the north-and-south streets. When the gas "boom" struck in there back in the late '80s the name of Town of New Corner was formally changed to Gaston, which it since has borne.

Cowan, down in the south central portion of the county in Monroe township, four or five miles south of Muncie, was the next townsite to get a place on the plat book. It was platted, and so recorded, as Cowen, but the maps and gazetteer now make it Cowan. The townsite was laid out by Charles McCowen, Noah Harrold, Milo Harrold and John Rinker on November 5, 1869. The original plat covers a tract of 7.22 acres, containing three blocks, two on the east side of the railway survey line and one on the west, the line of the old Cincinnati, Muncie & Ft. Wayne railway practically following the section line and the center of Monroe street, the chief street east and west, being the line dividing sections 9 and 16 of township 19, range 10. The north and south streets of the plat are Colfax and Grant. Provision is made in the plat for a warehouse and railway depot grounds.

Oakville, two miles south of Cowan, on the southern border of Delaware county, on this same railway (present L. E. & W.), was laid out as a townsite under the name of Pleasant Hill by John Holsinger on December 30, 1873. The original plat of Pleasant Hill covered a tract of 7.25 acres on the east side of the survey line of the Cincinnati, Muncie & Ft. Wayne railroad, the same covering six blocks, divided north and south by Mulberry street and east and west by North, Main, Elm and South streets. Later the name of this town was changed to Oakville, the postoffice authorities declining to accept. the name of Pleasant Hill as likely to become confused with a postoffice of the name of Pleasant Mills in Adams county, and additions to the townsite have been made under the name of Oakville. On April 1, 1884, Oakville was swept by a cyclone which killed four persons and destroyed all but four houses in the town.

Shideler, a bit more than two miles south of Eaton, on the line On April 1, 1884, Oakville was swept by a cyclone which killed four persons and destroyed all but four houses n the village. between Union and Hamilton townships, is a shipping point that also got its start with the coming of the old Ft. Wayne, Muncie & Cincinnati railroad. It was platted by Isaac Shideler on December 15, 1871, and the original plat shows a tract covering seven blocks, the line of the railway bisecting the plat, with Block 4 to the west of the track. Union, Main and Hamilton are the east and west streets and Chestnut, Market, Railroad and Shideler are the north and south streets.

Reed's Station, on the old Lafayette, Muncie & Bloomington railway (present Lake Erie & Western), in Mt. Pleasant township, was platted by William Reed on February 6, 1877, the original plat consisting of seventy-seven lots with the line of the railway on the north; Short, Fourth, Jefferson, Cherry, Washington and Jackson being the east and west streets and Walnut, Main and High being the north and south streets. The plat covered 22.6 acres in the northeast quarter of section 5 and the northwest quarter of section 4 of township 20, range 9. Though recorded as Reed's Station, the maps and gazetteer give the town as Reed.

Cammack, another station on this railway, hardly two miles east of Reed and four or five miles up the road from Muncie, in Mt. Pleasant township, was laid out by David Cammack, who operated a mill there, April 15, 1882, and the original plat shows a tract of seven lots lying between the railway and the Jackson street turnpike in the east half of the southwest quarter of section 3 of town 20, range 9.

Royertown, four or five miles north of Muncie, in Hamilton township, is another of the railway stations that were established in this county upon the coming of the Ft. Wayne, Muncie and Cincinnati railroad. It was laid out by John Royer on December 17, 1870, in the southwest quarter of section 14 of township 21, range 10, and the original plat shows a tract of 40.05 acres, with the line of the railway on the east, the first north-and-south street from the railway being Railroad street, then Walnut and Vine streets, the plat bearing west to the Studebaker pike. The county road was the southern line of the plat and Ann and Main streets were the east-and-west streets. In 1874 Royer laid out an addition to his townsite, carrying it a couple of squares east of the railroad and adding Elm and Ash streets to the townsite.

township, was platted on September 18, 1901, by Clarissa Phillips. The original plat of Medford shows a part of the southwest quarter of section 6 of township 19, range 11, and covers a tract of seventeen lots along the railway, with Washington and Main streets crossed by Walnut street. Medford is a little more than a mile west of the ancient trading point of New Burlington.

Gilman, though treated by the cartographers and gazetteers as of the neighboring county of Madison, really may be said to belong to Delaware county, for the original plat of this townsite, on the county line where the Lake Erie & Western railway passes out into Madison county, covers Delaware county lands, though the village seems to have developed on the other side of the line. Gilman was laid out on June 15, 1893, by the Gas Center Land Company, by George L. Bradbury, president, and W. E. Hackedorn, secretary, under direction of the company's board of directors, John Miller and John Parker, owners of the legal title to part of the land included in the plat, concurring therein. The plat covers a part of the north half of the southwest quarter of section 36; part of the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of 'the same section, part of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 25 and part of the south half of the southwest quarter of this latter section, all in township 21, range 8 (Harrison), where the Lake Erie railroad passes out of Delaware county westward. The plat was drawn on somewhat pretentious lines, the proprietors evidently being expectant that a city would grow up around the gas development then being projected there, but like so many of the projects of that period, the greater part of their hopes were blasted. Main street is the chief east and west street of the plat, beginning at the railroad crossing, and the other east and west streets are Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth, the north and south streets being (from the east), White, Harvey, Hill, Neely, Jacobs, Bradbury, Central, Jay, Parker, Hackedorn and Huffman.

West Muncie is another of these industrial dreams that did not come true. Though no lakes are revealed on the topographical map of Delaware county, the plat book reveals "Delaware Lake." And thereby hangs a tale. During the gas "boom" back in the early '90s some local promoters and the Big Four railroad people fostered a suburb just across the creek east of Yorktown, which was given the name of West Muncie and which its projectors designed should eclipse Muncie in industrial and commercial importance. Some of the old factory buildings still standing there are interesting relics of this boom that died of inertia. The plat of West Muncie, according to the plat book, was worked out by Augustus S. Cooley on December 31, 1891, and was received for record on January 4, 1892. The striking feature of this plat is "Delaware Lake,' which apparently was to be formed by the damming of Buck Creek at a point about where the Big Four railroad crosses that stream. The plat shows this "lake" skirted by a wide boulevard. The north and south streets of the town of West Muncie were Grieve, Parkison, Benger and New York avenues, named from the east, and Forest, Woods, Sprankle, Clement, Church, Andrews, Hemingway, Hall, Hollenbeck, Cooley and Sutherland, from the south, the whole embracing thirty-eight blocks. Considerable initial work was done in the way of development in West Muncie, but it was not long until its projectors found that their calculations had not been well based. One of these calculations was based upon the creation there of a summer resort alongside the "lake," and a hotel was erected to accommodate the expected resorters. For a time the town even had a newspaper, financed by its promoters. The early demise of this town and the disappearance of Delaware lake was the subject of an article in the Muncie News of March 24, 1898, six years after the town was platted, this review of the town's day of departed greatness concluding with the statement that "the large dam has broken away and the lake has long since disappeared. The big dancing pavilion and boat houses are almost ready to fall down."

Business In The Villages Forty Years Ago

A list of the business men of Yorktown published forty years ago reveals the following persons who then were engaged in commercial or professional pursuits in that village: Seth Allen, physician; Thomas Allen, general merchandise; William Brown, gunsmith; W. S. Brundage, general merchandise and postmaster; Jacob Erther, blacksmith; J. Hinne, drugs; B. F. Hittle, physician; W. W. Horne, physician; Lydia Hugs, milliner; F. L. Keener, cooper; J. H. Koontz, general merchandise; Charles Mathew, blacksmith; Henry Overmire, harness maker; Joseph Overman, blacksmith; W. G. Patterson, furniture; Mary Reelon, milliner; D. M. Shevely, physician; Hugh Shields, general merchandise; A. Sibring, carpenter; G. W. Slack, physician; G. W. Spann, druggist; Charles Warfel, carpenter; J. H. Williamson, flour mill; Mrs. Williamson, hotel.

At the same time at Eaton, it being remembered that this was before the gas "boom" had set Eaton on the path of a new development, the following were found in business: W. A. Blair, undertaker ;

Brant & Carter, general merchandise; George Brown, saw mill; Carter & Stone, flour mill; John Dragoo, general merchandise; S. Echellman & Son, saw mill; Endee & Carmichael, general merchandise; A. N. Foreman, groceries; Eli Foreman, drugs; J. C. Ginn, physician; C. O. Gunkle, blacksmith; M. Hyland, woolen mill; William Keller, hotel; R. M. Morris, blacksmith; J. T. Sage and J. W. Sage, physicians; E. Shideley, shoemaker; S. W. Thomas, hardware; George W. Thompson, hotel; A. Younce, cooper; W. H. Younce, attorney, and D. Young, hardware.

At that period the following persons were representing the business and profesional life of the village of Albany: John Baird, physician; B. F. Binegar, saw mill; Mrs. Binegar, dress making; John Book, grocer; J. M. Boots, druggist; B. F. Carey, grocer; A. J. Delong, hotel; Mrs. Rhoda Devoss, milliner; Otto Dowden,, attorney; R. Dowden, blacksmith; French Bros., carpenters; W. Henderson, barber; F. M. Hobbs, carpenter; Joseph Hunt, blacksmith; Patrick Keating, shoemaker ; Joseph Lefavour, drugs; Lockhart & Straight, dry goods; J. 8S. Long, stoves and postmaster; Isaac Mann, flax mill; Maxwell & Krohn, wagon makers; Meeks & Smith, grain; Gustavus Mills, painter; L. Miller, carpenter; A. P. Murray, physician; David Nihart, drugs; I. H. Powers, physician ; G. W. Shearon, livery; Mrs. Shearon, millinery; L. A. Starr, grocer, and Mrs. Wasson, dressmaker.

At Granville at that time the following were in business: William Bost, hotel; C. Crooks, postmaster and general merchandise; G. M. Crooks, general merchandise; I. Duddleston, agricultural implements; - William Edgington, general merchandise; William Pixley, painter; W. H. Sherry, stonemason, and P. Thomas, grocer.

At Selma: William Bailey, saw mill; L. R. Black & Co., drugs and groceries; N. E. Black, carriages and harness; William Bortsfield, carpenter; S. A. Deckover, carpenter; G. W. Furtick, physician; J. W. Goings, general merchandise; William Goings, grain; A. H. Good, physician; Mrs. A. H. Good, millinery; Hervet & Clark, general merchandise; J. H. Hoover, undertaker; William Miller, grain; J. N. Orr, general merchandise; N. Patrick, groceries; L. C. Roseboom, shoemaker; Kate Simmons, millinery; J. L. Simmons, postmaster, grain and agricultural implements; Z. L. Simons, blacksmith.

At Daleville: J. M. Baker, general merchant; John Bender, shoemaker; W. D. Brown, blacksmith; D. M. Cottrell, physician; G. W. Cock, confectioner; J. Dellon, physician; S. B. Garrett, druggist and postmaster; Gray & Shoemaker, general merchandise and grain; C. E. Helvie, flour mill; 8. Laboyteaux, carpenter; William Leonard, car- penter; George Munick, plasterer; John Price, carpenter; H. Rader, blacksmith; A. L. Stewart, saloon; Stewart & Gray, agricultural implements, and H. C. Summers, physician.

At Wheeling: O. A. Anderson, physician; M. C. Braddock, justice of the peace; Mrs. E. Davis, hotel; John C. Deam, miller and grocer; EK. S. Fisher, hotel; David Heal, notary public; Job Mattox, blacksmith; Isaac N. Sleeth, grocer; Ephraim Smith, general merchandise and postmaster; H. A. Sutton, carpenter, and R. H. Trout, flax mill.

At Cowan: R. M. Ball, postmaster and general merchandise; J. S. Comstock, physician; Hartley & Jefferson, tile mill; Charles Johnson, blacksmith; Job Kirklin, cooper; A. J. Nottingham, saw mill; Isaac Tibbetts, saw mill, and D. T. Trowbridge, physician.

At New Corner (Gaston) : G. Brady, blacksmith; Elijah Case, tile mill; John Fadely, blacksmith; James Hedgeland, postmaster; Henry Higdon, blacksmith; Frederick Huber, flour and saw mill; D. Linn, carpenter; John Munsey, plasterer; W. Needham, plasterer; Thomas Stubbs, carpenter.

At New Burlington: George Coffin, cooper; E. M. Grass, blacksmith; S. V. Jump, physician; George W. Shroyer, postmaster and general merchandise; J. H. Shroyer, carpenter; Joseph Thackery, wagon maker; Phineas Tuthill, shoemaker; Peter Veal, cooper, and J. A. Williams, saw mill.

To the student of changing conditions it will be interesting to note in the above list the number of neighborhood mills, flour mills, saw mills, flax mills, woolen mills. The great flour mills had not yet driven out of business the local custom mill, there still was enough of the "big timber" left to make sawmilling a profitable industry, the flax mills still were doing a good business locally and the humble woolen mill still was a fine neighborhood convenience. At that time, in addition to the flour mills included in the above village list and a few other rural mills that continued to do grinding along the streams, there were two flourishing flour mills in Muncie. Now there is not a flour mill in the county. The greater efficiency of the big mills and improving methods of distribution have driven the local miller to some other vocation.