Johnson County, Indiana - Chapter 2: The Wilderness Invaded, 1881

Some time during the latter part of 1817, Jacob Whetzel, then living in Franklin County, in this State, bought a tract of land in " Harrison's Purchase," near the mouth of Eel River, in Greene County. The usually traveled route from the White Water country, where Whetzel lived, to the "Purchase," was by the way of the Ohio and the Wabash Rivers, or from the Falls at Louisville, overland to that place. Jacob Whetzel was a born and trained woodsman. He had been hunting wild beasts and fighting Indians all his life. He had served as a spy and scout with the armies of St. Clair and Harrison, and, now that a pathless woods lay between him and his purchase, he determined to cut through rather than go around.

The Delaware Indians were at that time in the undisturbed possession of the White River country, and Jacob Whetzel, early in the summer of 1818, applied to the Delaware Chief, Anderson, at his village on White River, where Andersontown has since been located, and obtained his permission to cut a road through from near Brookville to the bluffs of White River. In the month of July, in company with his son Cyrus, a youth 18 years of age, and four good, stout axmen, Thomas Howe, Thomas Rush, Richard Rush and Walter Banks, he set out for the nearest point on White River, intending to work from thence back to the settlements. Taking one of the men, Thomas Rush, with him, he went in advance, blazing the proposed road, while young Cyrus, with the rest of the men, followed after, carrying their axes and nine days' provisions. These had not entered the wilderness very far, when, one evening late, they met a party of Indians, whose actions, notwithstanding their warm protestations of friendship, excited suspicion. The two parties passed each other, but the white men, without arms, kept a more vigilant guard that night than was common even in that day. The night set in cloudy, and rain soon began falling, but the hours passed quietly on, until the camp-fire burned low, when the man on watch discovered Indians lurking in the vicinity. Quietly waking his sleeping companions, they as quietly abandoned their camp, and, notwithstanding the darkness of the night, followed the track of Jacob Whetzel and his associates, by " feeling of the notches and blazes cut in the trees." Whatever motive led the

Meeting with no other hindrances save such as were incident to the trackless wilderness, Cyrus Whetzel and his comrades journeyed on, crossing Flat Rock about seven miles below the present site of Rushville ; Blue River, four miles above Shelbyville, and Sugar Creek a little north of Boggstown. On reaching a water-course, a few miles east of White River, a nest of honeybees was discovered in the hollow limb of a walnut tree, which yielded a large supply of honey ; but, being too bitter to be eaten, because made from a bitter honey-bearing bloom, it was reluctantly thrown away. Nevertheless, from this circumstance originated the name of " Honey Creek," the first creek within the borders of this county to receive a name at the hands of white men.

White River was struck at a place Jacob Whetzel and his party called the Bluffs, and we may well imagine that the scene which met the gaze of these pioneers was such as they little expected to behold. Jacob Whetzel had set out to reach, by a short cut, a prospective home at the mouth of the Eel ; but, standing on the bluff, in those July days, he looked out over a wide, deep and rapidly-flowing river, through whose clear depths the eye could penetrate to the white pebbles that lay on the bottom far below, whose waters swarmed with fish, and whose level bottoms and rolling uplands were covered with great forests that grew from a soil of wonderful richness, and there, on the banks of the Waw-pe-kom-i-ka of the Miami red men, he resolved should be his future home.

Jacob Whetzel went on down the river alone, while young Cyrus and the axmen turned back and began the work of cutting out what was long known as " Whetzel's Trace." Their progress was slow. A path had to be cut of a width sufficient to admit the passage of a team. After passing the rolling land extending a few miles back from the river, the country through which they went was level, and, at that season of the year, was almost an endless swamp. Their first day's work took them to an old beaver dam near the present east boundary line of Pleasant Township. It was built across the outlet of a swamp, and made a pond of water a half-mile long and several yards in width at the narrowest places ; but at that time it had apparently been long deserted. Presently they reached the Hurricane, and there they established their camp, and, as this stream afforded the only running water between Sugar Creek and Honey Creek, it was surmised that here would be a noted camping-ground in the future, and the stream they named Camp Creek ; and subsequent events proved the surmise to have been well founded. Slowly hewing their way through the woods, the axmen came at length to a deep swamp, some two miles west of the present east boundary line of the county, which was known in the early day as the Great Gulf. This was a mile in width and two miles in length. Two streams, Flat Creek and the Leatherwood, entered the gulf at its northern end, and their combined waters made Little Sugar Creek. Sugar Creek was already named when the Whetzels came. It was noted for the large forests of sugar-trees that grew at intervals on its banks, and to this circumstance, is it supposed, that its name is due. The entire distance to Sugar Creek, after passing the skirt of rolling lands lymg back from the river, is said to have been at the time a continuous swamp. The axmen were often "mid-sides in water " while cutting their way, and at night they cut brush and made heaps on which to sleep.

Arriving at the Brandywine late one evening, the party encamped, when Jacob Whetzel rejoined them. After their scanty meal had been eaten, Jacob produced a bottle of peach brandy which he had obtained in Owen County, and over this the party pledged the memory of the wives and sweethearts at home. To the inspiration due to that bottle are the people of Shelby County indebted for the name of one of their prettiest streams - Brandywine. The name was given on that night.

The provisions giving out, the party was soon after compelled to push on to the settlement, and leave the work unfinished ; but in a short time Whetzel returned and completed it.

This work proved to be of great importance in the settlement of Marion, Johnson, Morgan and Shelby Counties. It was known as Whetzel's trace, and hundreds of the early settlers of Central Indiana traveled along it in search of their wilderness homes.

The following March (1819), Jacob Whetzel, with his son Cyrus, returned to the Bluffs. Selecting a camping-ground about five hundred yards below the place where the Waverly Mills were afterward built, he prepared to build a shelter; but, ere this could be done, a violent snow-storm came on and lasted until the snow was fifteen inches in depth. A small clearing was, nevertheless, made that spring, a peach orchard and some corn planted, and, in the following fall, the family moved in and took up their permanent residence.

About the time Whetzel's trace was being cut, pioneers had struck the White River toward its mouth, and settlements were gradually working up stream. Late in 1818, Ephraim Goss built a cabin where Gosport now is, and, during the following year, Robert Stotts settled at the mouth of a fine mill stream, since known as Stotts' Creek. The same year, the Awfields, Doneghys, Laughlins, Dewas, Enslys, Agens and Stipps settled below Whetzel's, and Christopher Ladd, a North Carolinian, came by the way of the "trace," with his family and goods mounted upon a sled, and settled on the Bluffs, about one hundred yards west of where the county line has since been run. The Indians had at that time ceded their possessions, and there was some travel by " land-lookers " and others over the '; trace." Christopher Ladd invited the patronage of the travelers, and kept whisky for sale to them and to the Indians.

During the summer of the same vear Ladd came, a murder was committed in his neighborhood, which created a profound excitement among the few settlers on the river below. It seems that one William Agen and Ladd were out hunting in the bottom above the Bluffs, when they discovered in the distance a large number of buzzards hovering near the earth - a certain sign of the presence of carrion. Agen at once insisted on searching for the cause, but Ladd said that he had wounded a deer in that vicinity a few days before, and that he had no doubt it had since died, and was now being devoured by these birds. This explanation was, at the moment, satisfactory to Agen, but, as they advanced, and the birds appeared more numerous, he again insisted on making an effort to find the cause. Ladd was still reluctant, when his companion started in the right direction, while Ladd followed behind. The cause was soon found in the body of a dead man who had evidently been murdered, for his skull had been cloven with two blows of a sharp instrument, apparently a pipe-tomahawk," and the front of his vest, with its buttons, had been cut out and carried away. Ladd expressed the utmost surprise, but counseled silence, on the ground, that, while no good could possibly result from the fact being known, because of the nearness of the body to his cabin, he might be suspected and suffer harm in consequence. Moreover, he thought that the Indians could explain the mystery, and, if nothing was said about it, he felt sure, that, when they came to his cabin to buy whisky, he could so manage the matter as to get a full explanation.

Ladd's request seemed not unreasonable, and Agen determined to keep the matter a secret. Perhaps he never once suspected that Ladd had anything to do with the man's death, and may have entered heartily into his plans, with a view to ferreting out the guilty party. Be this as it may. the " dead secret " became a living fire in his breast, and tortured him beyond endurance. To know that a man was lying dead in the woods near by, and

Tossing wakefully upon his bed one night, he thought to ease his mind by whispering the awful secret into the ear of his wife. He did so ; but a traveler who slept in the same cabin that night, happening to be awake, heard enough of the story to warrant him, the next morning, in admonishing Agen to make a clean breast of the whole matter. Agen did so The river settlement was in commotion. Men, women and children came to see the remains of the dead. A deep grave was dug, and his bones were laid away. Then Ladd was accused of the murder, and, notwithstanding his emphatic denial, his gun was taken from him, and he was a prisoner in the hands of a self-constituted committee. For some reason, his captors went with him to the cabin ot Jacob Whetzel. Some were for hanging him on the spot; others "for tying him up and lynching him ;" but Jacob Whetzel counseled moderation. He argued the improbability of Ladd's guilt. Were he the murderer, he would have either buried the body or thrown it into the river. The argument prevailed. A vote was taken, and Ladd was set at liberty. But his wrath was up. He went at once to Brookville and employed lawyers to commence an action for false imprisonment. The action was brought, and, when the case came on for trial, it created quite a stir. Gen. James Noble and William W. Wick appeared for the defendants. Ladd recovered $94 damages, but was " ruined in paying his lawyers' fees." The costs amounted to $1,500, and the defendants were " all broken up on execution."

From the day when the murder was made public, Ladd was generally believed to be guilty of the deed. He was talked about, his cabin was made odious, and travelers were glad to shun it. He remained in the country for several years, however, and did what he could to remove the public distrust. To this end he resorted to various expedients, one of which was to feign pecuniary embarrassment, and then borrow money ; for, notwithstanding the distrust, he seems to have kept his credit good. But in more than one instance, it has been claimed, the identical money borrowed was known to have been returned. Eventually, he moved further West, and was then lost sight of.

grounds for their belief. The spring after the murder, Hiram Lewis, a worthless vagabond Indian, who had been absent from about the time when the murder was committed, returned to the neighborhood riding a valuable and well-caparisoned horse, wearing a good overcoat and carrying a red morocco pocket-book, containing some bills issued by the Vincennes Steam Mill Company. When asked how he came by all these, be explained that he had traded his blanket for them ! Shortly after the murder, a papoose in its mother's arms was observed with a string of bullet buttons, such as might have been on that part of the murdered man's vest which had been cut away. The Whetzels believed that the worthless Indian was the murderer.