Johnson County, Indiana - Chapter 7: Progress of Settlement, 1881

A review of the progress of the colonization of the county subsequent to its organization and up to the time when every section of land had its cabin, falls within the scope of this history ; but the data necessary in order to a fairly satisfactory record have been so eluding that the writer enters upon the theme without confidence as to results.

On that last day of the year 1822, when Gov. William Hendricks approved of the act which brought Johnson County into the sisterhood of counties, there was living within the limits of her boundary lines, according to the best estimate that can now be made, about five hundred and fifty souls, all told. Of these, at least three hundred and fifty lived within the present limits of Blue River Township. Edinburg, the oldest town in that township, and also in the county, was staked off probably in the spring of 1822, and a dry goods store, a smith-shop, and a house of public entertainment, the first of these in the county, were shortly afterward opened therein. This new town with these conveniences attracted emigrants to the neighborhood, as also did the fertile and well-drained lands of the township. The fame of the Blue River country,, its timber, its rich soil and its dry slopes was carried abroad by every traveler and land-hunter who followed the Indian trail from the river counties or beyond to the new capital grounds of the State. We have had occasion heretofore to note the approving exclamation of John Tipton as he went by on his way to locate the capital. Men hunting homes, came trooping in, and, by the time the county was organized, nearly one-half the lands of the township had passed into the hands of private owners. The first year, purchasers covered 4,400 acres, the highest number of acres ever bought in that township in any one year, and a number not reached in any other township before 1883. In 1821, the purchases run up to 2,480 acres, but, from that time on, they fell below 1,000 per year, until the whole was consumed. The last entry was by Lewis J. Henderson, in 1846, of a 40-acre tract lying just above the mouth of Young's Creek.

But the reader of tract-books and deed records must ever bear in mind that it is not every man who becomes a land-holder in a new countrv that becomes an inhabitant. And so we are driven to the few and often defective tabulated statements of the votes cast at the elections of the period, which have escaped the ravages of time and fire, and are compelled to read therein as best we may the record of the annual growth of the county in population. But, while studying the tabulated votes, we do not forget that voters stayed at home in those days as well as in these, and, besides, that the voter then could lawfully cast his vote at whatever precinct in the county he happened at the time to be. Other disturbing elements might be suggested, but enough have been given to convince the reader that the population for any year can be given only approximately, save the years of the census. «

There was a steady and uninterrupted growth in -Blue River from the beginning. In 1825, the population had reached at least 400, and, in 1826, 470, and, in 1827, 550, and, in 1828, 600, after which there seems to have been not any specially noticeable increase of growth before 1835.

At the August election for 1823, there were nineteen votes cast in Nineveh Township, but of these, eleven lived without the borders of the Congressional Township which now constitutes Nineveh. But there were men living in the township who did not vote, and, from the names of voters given, as well as from other sources, the population for that year may safely be computed at 128. The lands entered in 1822 run to 880 acres, and were in three localities, one in the southeast corner of the township, one on the Nineveh, in the neighborhood of the after-site of Williamsburg, and one near the center of the township. The southeast corner entries made by Bartholomew, Applegate and others, were a continuation of the entries made in Blue River, but the settlements established by Robert Worl, Joab Woodruff, John S. Miller, David Trout, Daniel and Henry Mussulman and others on the Nineveh, and the settlements made by Robert and David Forsyth, Daniel Pritchard, and others near the center of the township, grew from the beginning. By the close of 1826, a fraction less than a quarter of all the lands of the township had been taken up, and the principal entries had been made in a line running from north to south through the township, and in a crossing line running with a slight obliquity from the southwest to the southeast By the close of 1830, a little less than one-half the lands had passed from the United States, and, in 1847, the last forty-acre tract, situate in the southwest section of the township, was purchased from the Government by Elijah McEndree.

Here, as well as elsewhere, settlers moved in steadily until the township was fairly peopled. In 1825, the population was not less than 250, and, by the election of the following year, it had come up to about 350. In 1827, there were not less than 480, and at this rate the increase kept up to 1830, when there were fully 650 souls living within its borders.

No one has ever cast his eye over the map of the townships of Johnson County without being struck with the disproportion in size between Franklin and the other townships. It contains an area of seventy square miles as against forty-eight in White River, forty-two in Pleasant, thirty-six in Union, Nineveh and Hensly each, thirty-five in Clark, and twenty-four in Blue River. It would be in vain to lament the failure of the Commissioners appointed for the purpose to locate the county seat at the center of the county; but, if this had been done, it is evident that the territory now comprised within the boundaries of Franklin Township would have been organized into two townships, and the map of the county have presented a less unequal appearance.

The first entries of land made in this township were, on the east side, by John Ogle and John C. Lane, on the 27th of July, 1821. Squire Hendricks, William Rutherford and others made entries the same year on the east and south sides, amounting in all to 880 acres, while David and William Burkhart located an eightyacre tract in the west half of the township. The lands in the tier of Sections lying in Township 12, Range 5, and adjoining Shelby County, were nearly all taken up during the years 1821, 1822 and 1823, but, after that, the entries in that township (12) were only occasional until 1831. The pioneer settlers of Franklin Township were William Burkhart and Levi Moore, and next after them, in 1823, came George King, David W. McCaslin and Simon Covert into the center of the township, and, in the same year, John Mozingo, Squire Hendricks and a man by the name of Smith, and one by the name of Taylor, settled on the east side. The " Sugar Creek neighborhood " of this county was a part of the " Sugar Creek neighborhood " of Shelby, and the reason for the slow growth of the east side may be found in the fact that immigrants drawn to that neighborhood were as apt to settle in Shelby County as in Johnson.

Another neighborhood - the Hopewell - was founded on the west side, by Col. Simon Covert, who moved there in 1825. In the same year, Thomas Henderson came into Covert's vicinity inquiring for a tract of land whereon was a suitable site for the location of a church and a schoolhouse, and he entered the quarter-section at the " Big Spring." The Hopewell neighborhood thus founded had a marvelous growth. All who moved in were Kentuckians, and most of these were from Henry, Shelby and Mercer Counties, and were descended from a Dutch colony that moved from

The new town of Franklin, near the center of the township, formed a third nucleus of settlement, but for several years the country to the south and west was more thickly peopled than to the east and north.

\ study of the tract-book reveals the fact that, up to 1831, the entries on the east side were very few, while to the west of the town they were very numerous, save for 1821, as we have remarked above. Thus, in 1822, there were 640 acres purchased ,,n tin easi side to 1,040 on the west. In.1825, there were 320 acres on the east side to 1,760 on the west. In 1827, there were 80 on the east to 2,120 on the west. In 1830, there were 80 on the cast to 1,920 on the west; but, in the following year, the purchases ran up to 1,520 on the east side to 1,760 on the west, and, in 1833, there were 2,280 acres bought on the east to 3,000 on the west side, while the next year the purchases on the east side ran up to 2,800 to 2,250 on the west side ; and, the year after, there were 2,380 on the east side to 700 on the west, and now the land was all purchased on both sides, save a tract here and there, thought to be below grade.

From this review, of sales of land in the township, it is evident that the weight of population, after the first year or two, was on the west side, and that the east half of the township had no rapid growth until after 1830.

From the vote cast at an election held in Franklin in 1824. and from other sources, we may conclude that the population of the township at that time was not less than 150, but the vote the two following years would indicate but a slight increase, which accords with the fact. In 1827, however, there was a population of nearly or quite 500, and thence on to 1830, there was a steady increase, running the number of inhabitants up to at least l.<»00 or more in that year.

Passing over into the northwest corner of the county, we find that the first settlements were made in White River Township. on the high and dry uplands skirting the White River bottoms, these ridges producing a heavy growth of wild cherry, hackberry, buckeye, blue ash, sugar tree, chinquipin, black walnut, butternut, poplar, honey locust and beech, the last of which, carrying the most beautiful spreading tops anywhere to be seen, must have presented a charming view to the first comers. At the date of the organization of the county, the population could not have exeded fifteen or twenty voters, if so many. Two years after, it had increased at least to 165 souls, and the next year it ran up to 375, and steadily grew, until, in 1830, it must have reached a figure very little, if any, below 600. A study of the tract-book discloses the fact that the line of settlement began on the north side, well up toward the northeast corner of the township, and swept thence, with a curve to the west, down to the point where Crooked Creek crosses the county line. This line of settlement gradually pushed to the southeast, and, by 1836, the lands of the township had been absorbed by buyers.

Although Whetzel's trace and the great Indian trail crossed each other within the confines of Pleasant Township, yet it is a curious fact, that, of the first settlers of that township, no more than two are believed to have availed themselves of either of these roads when moving in. Daniel Loper, as we have seen, came to the crossing in the fall of 1820, and he must have come by the wav of Whetzel's trace. Nathaniel Bell entered Loper's claim from under him on December 3, 1821, and he moved in by the way of the trace, while Loper went back to Whetzel's old camp on Camp Creek. From the time when Bell entered and moved in. up to 1823, no others came in. In that year, Isaac Smock, Cornelius Smock, John B. Smock and Peter Vanarsdall, entered a quarter-section each in the northern part of the township, and Isaac and John B. Smock moved in the same year. The growth of this township was very slow for several years. The number of entries, in 1824, was only five, and it was not until 1830 that there was any marked emigration to the place. In 1829. the territory east of the present east boundary line of White River Township was stricken off from the latter and organized into Pleasant Township, and, in 1830, at the first election held in that township, there were thirty-five votes cast ; but, as there were living at that time at least twenty voters within the present boundaries of Clark Township, who could have voted at Greenwood, it is impossible to fix with any certainty upon the population at that time from the election returns ; but from other sources the population in that year may be estimated at 250. Up to that year, the highest number of persons making entry any one year was in 1825, when there were seven. The Smock settlement at and about Greenwood was the center of the Pleasant Township settlement for a number of years. Nathaniel Bell, who was located west of the center of the township, and near the west line, was in ill repute wherever known, and he repelled, rather than draw settlers to him. But in 1824, the Mauks Ferry road was cut out, and shortly after, probably the same year, the Madison State road, and it became the fashion to settle on the line of road, south of Smock's; and, while the Smock settlement gradually lengthened its borders, the settlements planted on the road grew to the east and to the west, until the work of colonization was done. In 1830, as above indicated, there was a perceptible impetus given to emigration. The entries for that year aggregate 1.440 acres, and, for each of the following years we have as the acres entered - 1,840, 2,140, 2,320, 3,040, 3,600 - which brings us up to the close uf 1835. The best lands had now been taken up, but in 1836 buyers were able to pick out. here and there, tracts containing in the aggregate 1,360 acres, and the next year 160 acres were entered, which closed out the public lands in that township.

In 1825, Richardson Hensly, a native of Virginia, but who had moved to Kentucky when quite a young man, and, after a time, from there to Jackson County, Ind., where he had resided a short time, came to Johnson County in search of a home. Hearing that the southwest corner township was a wilderness, he picked his way through the brush thitherward, and made a settlement on a quarter-section cornering with the center of what has since become Hensly Township.

Richardson Hensly moved to his place in March, and was accompanied by William Davenport and William Mitchell, his sons-inlaw, and their families. Within a short time after Hensly, Davenport and Mitchell had reached their destination, John Stephens, a Tennesseean, came in with his family. Two or three families followed Hensly the same spring, and quite a number came in during the fall and purchased lands. Of these, Richard Perry bought in the northeast corner of the township late in December, and it is not unlikely that he moved to his purchase at once. Mitchell Ross, and Charles, his brother, bought in December also, but on the extreme west border of the county, and they at once moved to their purchases. The following year, there was quite an accession to the township, but principally to the Hensly neighborhood. Not less than a dozen families settled on Indian Creek. A few went into the Ross neighborhood, and some into the northeast corner. The entries in 1825 footed up an aggregate of 1,360 acres; the next year, 1.640, and, in 1827, 1,680 ; but, in 1828, the acreage fell to 320, and, in 1829, it was no more than 240. In 1830, it arose to 1,280, and, with the exception of 1831, when it sank to 640, varied not far from 1.000 acres per year, up to 1836, when it suddenly shot up to nearly 5,000 acres. More than fifty families must have moved in about this time. In 1837, the entries fell to 1,320 acres, after which there were occasional purchases up to 1850, when the last eightyacre trad ^ as bought by Morgan Ford.

By the close of 1827, there must have been thirty voters in the township, which, by the rule recognized by legislators, would give a population of 150, though the actual population was settled at 200 or more, and it is at this time that the township was organized and received its name, at the suggestion of the late Samuel Herriott, in honor of its pioneer settler. By 1830, as many as 300 in all must have been living in Hensly.

Bartholomew Carroll pushed out upon the banks of the south fork of Stott's Creek as early as 1823, and made the first permanent settlement in Union. But the Congressional township now comprising Union was literally "backwoods" in that day, and no others went in to keep Carroll company for three years.

In 1823, David Scott had made an entry in the township but no other entries were made until 1826, when Peter Vandiver, Garrett Terhune, Henry Banta, Josiah Simpson, John Garshwiler, Isaac C. Disbrow and Thomas Roberts bought. Four settlements were soon founded, one by Peter Vandiver, on the south side ; one on the east side, extending to the northeast corner ; one in the center, and one in the north and northwest corner, on the North Fork of Stotts Creek. That settlement was made up principally of Virginians, who belonged, in fact, to a White River neighborhood, but the other settlements were filled mainly by Kentuckians. In 1827, there were 1,200 acres entered by thirteen men, and, in 1828, 1,960 acres by twenty-two men. The next two years the entries fell more than half from that year, but, in 1831, they run up to over 3,000 acres, and, from that on, the entries are large each year, being 2,120 acres in 1832, then 2,040, then 1,640, then 2,800, and, in 1836, running up to 3,120, when the main body of the lands was taken up.

Clark Township was the backward township of the county. No settlements were made here of consequence before 1825 and 1826, and even then, up to about 1834, pioneers came in slowly. After that, there was a decided increase, until the township was fairly stocked with inhabitants.