Johnson County, Indiana - Chapter 6: County Government Organized, 1881

Johnson County now had a name. Its boundaries were defined by law. A Sheriff of the county had been appointed by the Governor of the State, and there was a population of about 550, livino- in its one hundred cabins, and that was all. There were no other county officers than that Sheriff. There was no county revenue. There were no county buildings, and the wild deer sported in the runways that threaded the spice thickets which grew upon the land lying between Young's Creek and the Hurricane. County officers had to be elected ; a revenue created ; a county seat located : public buildings erected ; roads cut out ; markets created ; churches and schools founded, and the wilderness cleared out ; and the men living in the little cabins on Blue River, Sugar Creek, Nineveh, White River and the head-waters of Pleasant Run, set about the work with an earnestness that augured well for their ultimate success.

John Smiley was appointed by Gov. Hendricks as Sheriff of the new county, and a writ of election was issued to him appointing the 8th day of March, 1823, as the day on which the qualified voters of the county were to assemble at the house of Hezekiah Davison, on Blue River, and at the house of Daniel Boaz, on White River, and elect two Associate Judges, one Clerk of the Circuit Court, one Recorder and three Commissioners. The Sheriff gave due notice of the election, and the places at which it was to be held, "by setting up written notices thereof in three of the most public places in each election district" ten days before the time designated. No record of voters' names or of the number of votes cast at that election can be found. But the certificates issued to the Associate Judges by the Sheriff have been perpetuated in the records of the Circuit Court. Israel Watts and Daniel Boaz were elected Associate Judges, Samuel Herriott, Clerk, William Shaffer, Recorder, and William Freeman, John S. Miller* and James Ritchey, Commissioners. It is not in memory whether Watts and Boaz had opponents or not ; nor is it remembered that the Recorder did ; but there were three candi-

* I here is authority for saying that William Reynolds was chosen, and not Miller. Ambrose D. Barnett, a young man at the time the election was held, remambers the fact thus. But Samuel Herriott, who was an actor in the scenes of the time, and who transacted business with the Commissioners, always spoke of Miller as one of their number, and so have other old men, notably the late Thomas'Williame. The matter is in doubt, and it is to be greatly regretted that the written records of the first Commissioners have been lost.

dates for Clerk - Samuel Herriott, John A. Mow and William Williamson. The two former lived in the Blue River neighborhood, while the latter was stopping at the house of Joab Woodruff, of Nineveh, whither he had lately gone from Bartholomew County for the purpose of standing as a candidate for Clerk of the Circuit Court.* Of the contest in White River, nothing whatever is known, but m Blue River much has been kept in memory. On the morning of the election, a keg of whisky was caused to be brought upon the ground by Williamson - the first full keg ever brought into the county - and was tapped for the use of all thirsty voters. And, not content with offering ttfe beverage freely to all on the ground, jugs of it were sent out by the hands of trusted friends, and voters were intercepted on the trails and paths and liberally treated to " Williamson whisky" before they reached the polls. There were not many in those days who would refuse a drink of whisky, and, as this was a rare commodity in the woods at the time, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the potations were frequent and deep on the part of many present. Certain it is. that many of the voters grew so noisy that the immediate friends of Herriott and Mow became despondent, while Williamson's following became correspondingly elated. Then followed boasting and bantering, upon the heels of which came fighting. How many fisticuffs took place is not known, but the combatants beat, bit, scratched and gouged each other, and wallowed in the mud and mire, as was never known in the country before, and not for many a day after. But, when the vote came to be counted, it was found that Herriott had received more votes than both his competitors, and he was declared elected. Five men were candidates for County Commissioners, the three chosen, and Joseph M. Townsend, of Blue River, and Nathaniel Bell, of White River. By the organic act, the new county could not assume political functions until the 1st day of May, 1828, but the County Commissioners were required to meet on the second Monday of that month at the house of John Smiley, and thereafter at the usual places of holding the Circuit Courts on the second Mondays in August. November, February and May of each year. No record remains of the official action of the first Board of Commissioners of the county, nor have I met with any one who specially remembered anything of its proceedings except the late Samuel Herriott, who kept in his mind the circumstance of the naming of the county seat.

At the first election held in Shelby County, Samuel Aidridge, living in Johnson County, on the lin^, wished t<> be h candidate fur Clerk, and "the boys" moved his cabin over into Shelby. He was a candidate, w is elected, an I b hup a permanent ritizen of that county.

On the same day that the County Commissioners were required to meet at the house of John Smiley and organize the first Commissioners' Court of the county, the Commissioners named in the organic act of the county, for the purpose of locating a county seat, were required to meet at the same place in the discharge of their duty. Of the five men appointed, three met at the time and place set apart - Col. James Gregory, of Shelby County, and Maj. McEwen, of Bartholomew ; but the name of the third is forgotten.

Two localities were submitted to the Commission, one on the lands of Amos Durbin, near the mouth of Sugar Creek, where a " paper village " had already been laid out, and the other on the lands of George King, at the mouth of the Hurricane. These places were duly examined, and then George King proffered to show them over the southeast quarter of Section 8, in Township 12, Range 4, which cornered with the center of the county, and which tract King had purchased with a view to the possible location of the county seat at that point. But a heavy rain came on, and the Commissioners were driven in, and at once proceeded to locate the town on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 13, Township 12 north, Range 4 east, which forty-acre tract King donated to the county, together with eleven acres lying between it and Young's Creek.

It was made the duty of the Commissioners, after making the location, to report the same to the County Commissioners, and, on this being done, on the suggestion of Samuel Herriott, who had recently read a life of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and was a sincere admirer of that great man, the new county town received the name of Franklin.

The law in force required the Board of County Commissioners to appoint a county agent, whose duty, among other things, it was " to receive good and sufficient deeds of conveyance for any land which may have been given for the use of the county, * and to lay off the same into town lots, streets and alleys, according to such plan as the County Commissioners may direct," and to sell the lots under the order and direction of the Commissioners, and pay the money into the treasury. John Campbell, the Irishman, was appointed such agent, and he seems to have set about his work soon after. Some time in September, David McCaughron, a surveyor from Bartholomew County, surveyed the new town, and, upon the authority of the late Jefferson D. Jones, it may be said that the bend in Madison street remains as a silent, though perpetual, witness to the intoxicated condition of that surveyor when he run the line of that street.

The firal sale of lota was advertised for the 2d day of September, L 823, and on that day the County Agent, provided with "whiaky ami paper" of the value of si. is -. for which the county paid, sold a Dumber of lota adjoining the public square: and, on the 14th day of the aame month, he exposed to sale other of the town lota. The principal sales were on the south and east sides of the square, and price- ranged from $19 for the lot on which the jail stand-, to SI'1--")" for No. 61, which lies immediately soutii of the jail lot. The brush was grubbed out of the public Bquareby Nicholas Shaffer for $6.58, and David McCaslin, Nathaniel Poor and Jacob Freeman performed, labor in and about, clearing the square of growing timber, while the citizens of the place voluntarily rolled and burned the logs of nights.

It was made the duty of the Commissioners to partition the count v into convenient townships, and this duty they must have performed soon after being inducted into office, for, from the August election returns for 1828. it appears that three townships had been organized - Blue River, Nineveh and White River. Blue River seems to have been confined to so much of Congressional Township 11, Range 5, as is in Johnson County. White River extended over all the territory now included in White River. Pleasant and Clark, and Nineveh extended over all of Nineveh, Franklin, Union and Hensley.

It is uncertain, at this time, when the contract for building a court house was let, but it is certain that the house was not ready for occupancy in March, 1824. but was ready in October of the same year. William Shaffer, the County Recorder, who was by occupation a carpenter, undertook the work, and it is safe to assume that it was begun in the spring of 1824, and that the contract was let by the first Board of Commissioners, but for what price is now unknown. The late Thomas Williams, however, who was the owner of the only yoke of oxen then in or about the new town, drew the logs to the building site for $1. The new court house was in keeping with the poverty of the county. It was two stories high, was built of hewed logs, and a broad wooden outside Stair led from the ground up to the second floor, which was the court room. This was furnished with a table, two " splintbottomed chairs, one for the Judge and one for the Clerk," with wooden benches without backs for the accommodation of lawyers. jurymen, litigants and spectators. This first court house was built upon the lol situate immediately in the rear of the lot on which the hank buildings are creeled.

sent from an Edinburg Justice's Court, and that John Smiley, in lieu of a better place of confinement, chained the culprit to a stump in the public square his allotted time. But the chain and stump did not serve the purpose in all cases, for, in 1826, we find the Board of Justices of the county making allowances out of the county treasury for the guarding of prisoners.

A contract for building the jail must have been let some time in the first half of 1826 to Samuel Herriott. At the July term of the Board of Justices, it was ordered that the contractor put two windows in the jail, one in each end, seven inches by eighteen, and that the logs for the jail should be seventeen feet long instead of eighteen, and that, instead of ceiling the "upper loft" with poplar plank, it be tk laid down with hewed timbers nine inches thick." From this order, the character of the structure may be perceived, and further, that the material had not yet been prepared. In the following January, the board accepted the building, but there nowhere appear sufficient data to enable us to fix upon the price paid.

Steps were undoubtedly taken by the first Commissioners to raise a county revenue, but the loss of the records has carried the financial history of the county for the first three years into irrecoverable oblivion.

The organic act required the Circuit Court to meet at the house of John Smiley, and, accordingly, on the 16th day of October, 1823, William W. Wick, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, repaired to the place indicated, and, meeting the Associate Judges, Israel Watts and Daniel Boaz, and the Clerk, Samuel Herriott, and the Sheriff, John Smiley, at that place, the Johnson Circuit Court was formally opened. The Sheriff brought in, as he was commanded, twelve " discreet householders " to serve as a grand jury, whose names are as follows : William Barnett, Thomas Doan, John Harter, George King, Jonathan Palmer, John White, John A. Mow, Joab Woodruff, William Foster, John Jacobs, John S. Miller, Simon Shaffer, Jefferson D. Jones and John Frazier. Three lawyers were present - Daniel B. Wick, James Dunlavy and Calvin Fletcher. Smiley's house was a double log cabin, one room of which the court occupied, and the other the grand jury. Mrs. Smiley was sick at the time, and occupied the room with the grand jury, but the record does not state the fact. Daniel B. Wick, the Judge's brother, served as prosecuting attorney, and Mrs. Smiley remembered that he had a bottle of whisky in his pocket, and that, with great gallantry, he offered her a drink from his bottle, which she declined taking, and then he passed it to each grand juryman in turn, but whether each or any drank with him, is not said.

As an evidence of the hospitality of the times, it may be stated thai dinner enough for all was prepared, and, on invitation, court, juror.-, lawyers, by-standers, all Bat down thereat. Mrs. Rutherwood, still living, superintended the preparation of that dinner. Three indictments were found by the grand jury, one judgment taken, and, on petition of Amu- Durbin, three Commissioners. Absalom Lowe. John Campbell and Joseph Young, were appointed Viewers, to view a proposed change in the State road. and the court adjourned in the evening of the first day.