Hancock County, Indiana - Chapter 5, 1882

This little village is located in the south-west part of the township, on the C, H. and I. R. R., about seven miles south-west of Greenfield. The railroad gave the station at this point the name of Reedville, but the town has always borne the name above.

It was laid out bv Hiram Comstock, on the 25th of February, 1854, ^^^ consisted of twenty-five lots. The first and only addition ever made to the town was by Rev. M. S. Ragsdale, in 1870.

It contains a school-house, one church, one steam sawmill, two merchants, one grain shipping firm, two blacksmiths, one wagon-maker, one phvsician, two carpenters, one painter, one postmaster, one shoe-maker, and one barber.

Ainono- tho tirsi business men dI" this little bury were : John Elmore and the tirni ot' Andrews and Roseberry. merchants; Hiram Comstock and Warren Kinix, physicians ; Frank Lucas, blacksmith ; ]Martin Eakman, wag'onmaker. and William Eskew, shoe-maker. The lirst postmaster. (). II. P. McOonald.

in lManil\ wine township, located one and one-halt' miles north ot" Carrollton. and or<]fanized in the vear 1831. tirst met at the private house of William Thomas, senior.

The tollowing" were among the original members : William Thomas, sen., father of Ex-Sheriti' Thomas: Elizabeth Thomas, Helry Thomas, John liaker, Elizabeth Haker, William McConnell and wite, James and Margaret Anderson, and Eleazer Snodgrass.

Among the more recent Elders were Arthur Miller. David Franklin, Robert Edmondson. and Elder Bennett. The present preacher is Elder Coffield.

About 1866, they sold their house to the Radical Methodists, who are still holding forth in the same house, with Rev. Callahan as their present minister.

The United Brethren removed the class to Carr(jllton about the year 1879, ^^^^ held their meetings in a small building formerly the old public school-house. Present minister, R.ev. McNew.

This church has a prosperous little Sunday-school. Willard Low, Esq., superintendent. There are several small Sunday-schools in the school-houses. In 1866, the Brandywine Union Sunday-school was organized at Cowden's School-house. J. P. Banks, superintendent. Robert Williamson has been superintendent for about eight years. There are also Sunday-schools at Porter's, Scott's, and Pleasant Hill.

The Brandywine Township Brass Band was organized October 10, 1880, with the following members: Aaron W. Scott, Edgar B. Thomas, J. W. Thomas, Charles Scott, John Liming, Carson W. Rush, Emanuel Smith, Frank Kinder, James Scott, William Scott, John Gwinn, and Aaron Alyea. All young men living in the township. Cost of instruments, $146.

In 1^32 he came to Hancock county and entered one hundred and sixty acres of land in Brandywine townshiji. where he remained till his death, in 1866.

He raised three sons. J. W. and F. M. Porter are both respectable citizens and prosperous farmers in their natiye township. William H. Porter is engaged in butchering in Greenfleld.

This good lady, the mother of John Roberts, is the oldest resident citizen in Brand}' wine township, haying come to the "new purchase" prior to the organization of the territory into Madison county and settled on the farm now owned by Marion Steele.

She was married in New York just at the close of the war of 181 2. Her husband was a faithful, yalient soldier of said war. They came through on foot, carrying their effects, and crossed the Ohio River in an Indian canoe. They settled in the dense forest, making a temporary room by piling brush against a large log and covering it with bark until they could erect a small pole cabin.

During the Indian troubles following the " Indian massacre " in Madison county, of which this later formed a part, her husband and Mr. Rambo went to Pendleton, the count}' seat at that time, to attend the trial and act as guards. There was great uneasiness all over the country at this time, the whites not knowing at what time thev might be murdered by the justly indignant Indians. These two women remained alone during their husbands' absence at the trial, a lull account of which will be found further on. During this time one evening Mrs. Roberts, hearingconsiderable noise, opened the door to discover the trouble, when Mrs. Rambo, more thouo-htful, bid her come in, which she did just in time to escape the jaws and chuvs of a hungry panther, which prowled around and over the cabin and against the door till the morning light.

Mrs. Roberts tells of another narrow escape from a panther on a certain occasion when she and her little boy, eight or ten years of age, were in the r^'e patch. She was laying up the gap, when the little boy said, '"Mother, what is that in the weeds?" She, seeing that it w^as a panther just in the act of springing on the boy, snatched him from the spot, and, putting him in front of her, made for the house ; but it was not so easy to escape the cunning of the blood-thirsty panther, which intercepted their path in the rye and sprang for the boy, who, being active, barely succeeded in escaping unhurt. The mother, in seeing the ferocious beast ali'ght on the spot where her darling boy had just saved a precious life, was so frightened that she was unable, for some time, to move from the spot.