Johnson County, Indiana - V D. D. Banta, 1888 (part 2 of 2)

Hardly were the teams unhitched that evening, when it was discovered that the meal and sieve had been left at Adam's, whereupon King and Gilchrist and McCaslin returned, leaving Covert and Voorheis to occupy, the camp alone. Other things it seems had been left behind, also, for the campers milked into and drank milk out of the bells, which had been brought for use in the range. The next morning on the return of King and McCaslin the pilgrims sought for and found a place to safely cross the " swollen stream." A beautiful tract of high and dry land on the north bank of Young's Creek, which has since been graded down and is now occupied by the residence of Judge Woollen and of others, was their objective point, but such a network of down logs overgrown with spice wood and other bushes all woven together, with wild grape vines, not to mention a forest of beeches, maples, hackberries, sycamores and buckeyes, did they encounter that the whole day was consumed in reaching their destination. The writer has repeatedly talked with

* In the early records this name is spelled Gilcrees. The family have since changed the spelling as in the text, t This is the motto placed on the seal of Franklin College.

three of the men who cut the first road through what is now known as the Old Bear Plat of the city of Franklin and also with others who saw the place before the town site was cleared off and all agreed in pronouncing it the most impenetrable thicket in all the country round about. A hurricane not many years before had passed down Young's Creek and up Camp (now Hurricane), leaving a wide swath of fallen timber in its wake and it was through this the road was made that day.

In the evening, wearied and hungry, the emigrants reached the high ground King had selected for his cabin site. A tent was erected and a hasty camp made. The meal bag and the seive, having been brought up from Adams', a supper of corn cake and bacon was enjoyed. Tin cups took the place of cow bells for drinking vessels. At an early hour the men lay down on a browse bed before a glowing camp fire, under cover of a tent to sleep. They were too tired to talk and soon were in the land of dreams. During the night, however, a tempest of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning and wind arose, and such commotion ensued in the forest around them that they felt their lives were in peril. At intervals the crashing of falling trees could be heard, and before the blast had expended its force a large tree, close by, was wrenched from its roots and fell thundering to the earth, but happily in a direction from them. More than fifty years afterwards Col. Simeon Covert, speaking of that falling tree, said: " It shocked us greatly," and sure it must, as it crashed to the earth amid the blackness of night, in a tempest-tossed forest. The next morning work was begun on King's cabin, a two-roomed structure with an entry between, which served as a house for all, till the little fields were cleared and the crops laid by. That cabin stood on the highest part of the knoll which has since been cut down, crosswise of the present line of Jefferson street. The next step taken was to make clearings for corn. Covert's patch was amid the fallen timber in the track of the old hurricane. Over three acres he grubbed, chopped and burned, clearing after a fashion, and planting on<J||&- 30th of May. At the end of seventeen days he laid his corn"%v-* and the following fall gathered at the rate of fifty bushels to the acre, of good corn. The particulars of King's and McCaslin's planting has not been remembered.

In the latter part of September, Simon Covert, having returned during the summer to Kentucky, moved his family to his new home. Quite a company accompanied him. John B. Smock, and his brother Isaac, who settled at Greenwood, and Daniel Covert, Moses Freeman and Joseph Voorheis, who subsequently settled on Young's Creek, in what was afterward known as the Hopewell neighborhood, were of the company. About the time Cover set out for Kentuucky after his family, Thomas Williams, a Pennsylvanian by birth, but hailing from Washington County, in this state, came to the neighborhood, and began the erection of a cabin on the south side of the creek; and in the same month Covert returned, Williams moved his family and goods into his new home. He brought with him the first yoke of Oxen that ever came to Franklin.

Five commissioners had been named, in the act of organizing the county, whose duty it was to meet on the first Monday in May, 1823, and select a town site for the new county. For some reason the meeting was deferred, till the 22nd of the month, at which time three of the five met at the house of John Smiley, on Sugar Creek, whence they proceeded to discharge that duty. "A paper village " had been laid out by Amos Durbin, near the mouth of Sugar Creek, the site of which the three commissioners went to see. On the northeast quarter of Section 8, in Township 13 north, Range 4 east, which lay a half mile from the geographical center of the county, was the highest, dryest and best drained tract of land to be found short of the Sugar Creek or White River highlands - a tract on which was an elevation, now known as Donnell's Hill, and there were some who thought the commissioners might make the location in that place. George King, sharing in that thought, had already entered the quarter section, but it is quite evident he preferred the location to be made on his Pritchard purchase. While at his house, and after examining the proposed site in the angle of the creeks, the commissioners inquired about the country at the center of the county, and even set out through the pathless woods to examine the place for themselves. But, for some reason, they went without a guide, and in a violent rain storm, that came up while they were on the journey, they lost their way, and finally, came back to King's cabin, without having seen the hill, whereupon, they 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 locating committee to report their action to the county Commissioners, and this being done, Samuel Herriott suggested that the new town be called Franklin, and it was so done.

* There is no written evidence of the date. Of two men who remembered the circumstances, one said it was, in August, and another September. In my history of Johnson County, published in 1881, I adopted the latter date, but the fact that the sale of lots took place on the second of September, of wfifteh there is written evidence, excludes that month.

Campbell, of Sugar Creek, who had been appointed county agent, superintended the sales, and to encourage bidding he laid in a supply of whisky, with which to treat the thirsty crowd. The record shows that he presented a claim for whisky and paper of " $1.18^," and George Adams, who was present, and still survives, remembers that " there was plenty of whisky on hand." This was not the first whisky which had been at the new county seat. The surveyor, who ran the town lines, was drunk at the time, and the bend in Madison street remains a silent witness of that fact, to this day. Nor was it the last. Jn 1826, a further allowance was made to the agent of $2.61^, for " whisky and paper." At the time of the first sale of lots, the town site was covered with trees, logs, bushes and vines. The bush had been cut out enough to mark the lines, but it was several years before the streets and public square were entirely clear of bushes and logs. In the fall of

1824, when Daniel Covert made his second visit to view the country, the town site was yet uncleaned. During that year, however, improvements were begun. A man by the name of Kelly, from Jennings County, built a cabin on the west side of the square, and under the pretence of keeping a bakery, sold beer and cakes. In the same year of 1824, a log court house was erected on lot number 22, the site now occupied as a dwelling place by Christian Axt. William Shaffer, the county recorder, who was a carpenter by trade, had the contract for building the court house, and no sooner was that contract off his hands, than he erected a dwelling for himself on the southeast corner of the square. While he was at that work, John Smiley, the sheriff, built a log house on the northwest corner of Main and Jefferson streets, and about the same time a log cabin was erected on the lot west of Smiley's house, in which Daniel Taylor, hailing from Cincinnati, opened the first store in the new town.

1825, Joseph Young and Samuel Herriott erected the first frame building in the town which adjoined Shaffer's home on the north, and in which they conducted a general store and tavern business. The town developed slowly. The brush and logs and trees were still in the public square and the roads wound in and out among the trees and around the largest logs. Fire wood was convenient, and as late as 1828, when John Tracy came to the county, he found the town "still full of logs. The trees had been cut down and the tops used for firewood." The brush was grubbed in the public square by Nicholas Shaffer, who was paid for the work out of the county treasury, $6.58. Preparing the logs for rolling, and rolling and burning, seems to have been done voluntarily by the citizens, but they evidently made a long job of it. In the fall of 1826, Daniel Covert helped roll logs on the public square. The late John Herriott said: " I came here in May, 1827, and helped to cut the brush out of the public square. We met every evening for two or three weeks to burn logs and brush.* " After the logs were ready for rolling," said the late Jefferson D. Jones, " the citizens would meet about sundown and roll a few heaps." In 1828, the work was still going on. " All the trees were down in the public square" when John Tracy came in that year, " but a good many were still on the ground." When these were rolled and burned, the historian has been unable to learn. There are some secrets sealed even to him.

In 1826, one John Williams put up a saw-mill, which was propelled by oxen on a tramp-wheel; but it seems to have been a failure. Among the early settlers was John K. Powell, a hatter. It is remembered that for want of better material, he made his " sizing " of wheat flour, and that his hats in consequence had the infirmity of melting in rainy weather and of breaking in dry. Caleb Vannoy started a tan yard, in those early days, and Pierson Murphey and James Pitchey came as physicians and Fabrius M. Fuch and Gilderoy Hicks, as lawyers and Samuel Headly and Samuel Lambertson, as tailors. Others remembered were : Robert Gilchrist, Hezekiah McKinney, Harvey Sloan, Eli Gilchrist, James Frary, Simon Moore, Jesse Williams, John High, the Joneses and others.

The country around Franklin was settled slowly. One of the first to move in was John Harter, who settled on Young's Creek, about a mile below town, where he built a mill. He bought his mill irons of John Smiley, for which he agreed to pay in corn, two bushels to be due every other week, until the irons were paid for. The late Jefferson D. Jones, used to tell that Harter had no bacon and he no meal, and that by agreement, he took a half bushel of meal every other week from the mill, for which he left with the miller, its worth in bacon.

In 1825, Simon Covert and George King made an exchange of lands whereby the former became invested with title to King's 160 acres at the center of the county, to which he at once cut out a road and moved. Shortly after, Thomas Henderson, from Kentucky, located the quarter section containing the Big Spring, and made preparation to move to it. A large immigration soon followed, of Presbyterians, all of whom were from Henry, Shelby and Mercer counties, in Kentucky. Most of them were related, and all were descendents of Dutch or French families, that had settled in or around New Amsterdam (New York), during the seventeenth century. Among those who moved to the Hopewell neighborhood, as it has since been called, during the early years of its history, may be mentioned, Moses Freeman, Daniel, John and Cornelius Covert, brothers of Simon; Joseph Voorheis and Isaac, the latter of whom came to the country as we have seen, with George King; Isaac Vannice and Samuel Vaunuys, Stephen Luyster, David Banta, Peter LeGrange and his sons, Peter D. and Aaron; John Voris, Simon Vanarsdall, Zachariah Ramsdall, Melvin Wheat, William Magill, John P. Banta, John Bergen, Peter Demaree, Andrew Carnine, Theodore List, Stephen Whitenack, Peter Banta, Henry Vannice, Peter Shuck, John Davis, Simon Vanarsdall, Joseph Combs and Thomas Roberts. On the south and west sides and southwest corner of the township, we find that Thomas Mitchel, Michael Canary, Dr. Robert McAuley, Jacob Demaree, Henry Byers and Ebenezer Perry, John Brunk and Joseph Hunt moved in quite earh", and passing up the south side are the names of Major Townsend, John D. Mitchell, John Gratner, Joseph Ashley, John Harter, Alexander McCaslin, John C. Goodman, John Gibben and Jonathan Williams. In the central and northern parts were William Magill, Garrett C. Bergen, Peter A. Banta, Milton Utter, Henry, James, John and William Whitesides, Stephen and Lemuel Tihon, Thomas J. Mitchel, John Brown, Elisha Dungan, Edward Crow, David McCaslin, Harvey McCaslin, Robert Jeffrey, John Herriott, Middleton Waldren, Travis Burnett, David Berry, Samuel Overstreet, John Wilson, David, Thomas and George Alexander, and William and Samuel Alison.

Needham Township was originally part of Franklin Township, and was settled as such. The first settlement made within its borders is generally accredited to William Rutherford, who built his cabin in the fall of 182 1, a short distance below the place where Smiley built his mill. The same year John Ogle settied within Johnson County, near the present site of the mill now owned by William Clark, Esq., where he himself built the first mill on the site about 1826. In 1822, John Smiley, as we have seen, moved to his place on the creek. The next year, the same in which King and Covert and McCaslin began the settlement at Franklin, John Mozingo, Squire and Lewis Hendricks, Abner Taylor, and William D. Smith, moved in. Afterward, in quick succession came Landron Hendricks, Jacob Fisher, Thomas Needham, Samuel Owens, William and Isaac Garrison, Jacob Wiles, James Tetrick, Jacob Bowers, and Jesse Beard.

have seen, made a tour through Central Indiana, during which tour they passed the crossing of Whetzel's trace and the old Indian trail, where they discovered a little cabin, newly built and with the roof partly on. It had never been occupied, but as the travelers rode by they noticed a wagon containing movers close at hand, coming through the woods, from the east, and they surmised that the movers were coming to the cabin. This is the first that is known of the cabin, at that crossing, and whether the movers then seen by King and his companions, took possession or not, it was Daniel Loper's cabin, and he moved into it about that time. He was distinguished for being the first white man to make a settlement in two townships of Johnson County- - Pleasant and Clark - and yet of him very little is certainly known. No one knows whence he came nor whither he went. He seems to have been a genuine backwoodsman, a lover of the forest solitudes, and gave his confidence to no one. With him came a man by the name of John Varner, who was reputed to be of somewhat feeble intellect, and was his dependent and henchman. Loper owned a wagon and a yoke of oxen, with which Varner is known to have made several trips to the White Water country with the fruits of the chase which he exchanged for provisions and whisky.

But Loper did not remain long at the crossing. The following year, Nathaniel Bell, from Ohio, traveled the Whetzel trace in search of a home. " He rode on horseback with a sack under him, in which he carried his provisions. His horse carried a bell around his neck, which was kept silent by day, but when night came Bell made a camp, unloosed the bell, hobbled the horse, turned him out to graze, and then lay down to sleep. Bell having explored the Eel River lands, and not liking them, returned and called at the cabin of John Doty. * * Here he disclosed his purpose, and that was to get a description of the land at the crossing of the traces and enter it at Brookville, on his way home, and then settle there and keep a tavern and build a house, mill and a distillery for whisky. Applying to Peter Doty, son of John Doty, for aid in getting a description of the land, Peter agreed to furnish it for $i, but Bell declared he had no money beyond the sum necessary to enter the land. Finally, Peter agreed to accept the bell on the horse and the desired information was thus obtained." *

In December, 1821, Bell entered Loper out, and the latter seems to have moved shortly after, to Whetzel's old camp, on Camp Creek, where he put up a cabin and thus became the first settler of Clark Township. Sometime after his removal to that place, John Varner died of a sudden illness, and was buried in a walnut trough, covered with a slab, by Loper, with the assistance of the Dotys, a mode of burial not unfrequently adopted by the Indians. When they reached the place of the funeral, they found Loper digging a grave with a garden hoe and throwing the dirt out with his hands. A belief prevailed among some of the early settlers that Loper had been instrumental in the death of Varner, which was, no doubt, groundless. Soon after his death, Loper left the country, and his going was as mysterious as his coming had been. No one knew when he went nor to what place. Jacob Fisher, who saw his place in 1825, says: "It looked like it had been deserted two or three years." He was a thriftless, and doubtless a harmless frontiersman, who was mean-spirited enough to flee from a rumor, however groundless it may have been, rather than stay and fight it. After Loper left, his place continued to be a camping-ground for movers, but it ultimately gained the reputation of being haunted by a ghost. Old John Varner's spirit was believed in some quarters to rest uneasily in its walnut coffin. On one occasion, it is said, a company of movers were "aroused in the dead hour of night by a mysterious appearance, and horror stricken they hitched up their teams and fled in hot haste, not halting until they reached John Doty's, at the hill.

If Loper was shiftless, Bell was worse. Loper courted the solitudes and meddled with no one ; Bell loved company and that of the worst. He courted the patronage of land-lookers, and other travelers, but it was told of him and generally believed, that he or his confederates extorted money from his guests, by secreting their horses in the woods and demanding rewards for their return; and in consequence his cabin soon ceased to be a stopping place. Judge Hardin, in his account of a journey, made by himself and mother, through Johnson County in 1825, says: " Bell's location * * was renowned for a hundred miles away in every direction, and was a prominent point in all the travels of the pioneers in the New Purchase." At an early day he built a mill at the crossing which for a few years served to furnish an occasional sack of meal to the settlers. Judge Hardin who saw the mill, thus graphically describes it. " It was a strange piece of machinery, and when in motion produced unearthly sounds in its rattlings and creakings and rumblings. The hoop inclosing the runner was a section of a hollow log, sitting loosely over and around the grinder, to prevent the escape of the meal. When the team made a sudden movement, the revolving momentum often communicated to the enclosed hoop, and it, too, was thrown into a sudden circular motion. The strange drummings so frightened the horses, that they increased their gait beyond control, and the increased whirl of the grinder overcame its gravity

It was current report that Bell so managed matters at his mill as to steal more of the grist in corn or meal, or both, than he took by lawful toll. He wore the sleeves of his " warmus" or hunting shirt unusually large, in which he not only managed to pick up a few extra grains while tolling the grist, but on the pretense of examining the meal, as it came from the spout, he caught in his large open sleeves, a tolerable share of the meal as it poured to the chest below, after which folding his arms about him, he would saunter off to his own chest or cabin and unload. Sometimes his victims would remonstrate with him, but his usual reply was, " Well the little old man must live." On one occasion, it is said, his sleeves being well gorged with meal, the horses became frightened and ran off, knocking the mill-stones from their frail scaffolding to the ground below. Bell received a blow that knocked him down and scattered the meal, stored in his ample sleeves, in every direction. He was not seriously hurt, but he was badly scared and promised to do better in the future, a promise he soon forgot.

In addition to Bell's other misdeeds, he was accused of harboring horse thieves, and of being a hog thief himself. At a log rolling, Permenter Mullenix and he got into a quarrel, and the latter charged him outright with the crime of hog stealing. This was more than "the little old man" could stand, and so he went to Indianapolis and employed Judge Wick and Calvin Fletcher to prosecute Mullenix for slander. The action was begun, but Mullenix defended on the ground the charge was true, and making proof of the fact, to the satisfaction of the jury, had judgment for his costs. The case then went before the grand jury, the result of which was, Bell was indicted, tried and sent to the penitentiary. After serving his term he returned to his home, but soon after he abandoned the county, and his confederates were sent to the state's prison, or followed him. His place "became one of the most lonely and desolate places in the county, being overgrown by briers and brush, and deserted."

When Simon Covert moved his family to Franklin, in September, 1823, John B. Smock, and Isaac, his brother, from Mercer County, Ky., came with their families, and household goods also. The)' were destined to the neighborhood of the after site of Greenwood - a neighborhood soon to be known as the Smock neighborhood. Between Franklin and their destination, a pathless woods lay, and they were two days " bushing " a way to it. During the following year, 1824, the state road leading from Madison to Indirnapolis was cut out, over which the same year, James Smock, a brother, came to join them. In 1825, one over an even half a dozen of families joined them, viz. : Garrett Brewer's, Garrett Vandiver's, Garrett Sorter's, Robert Lyon's, and Joseph and John and Samuel Alexander's - all Kentuckians, from Mercer County. The Smock settlement was a half-way place between Franklin and Indianapolis, and from this may be accounted the fact of its comparatively slow growth, for many years. Up to about 1830, it appears that the number moving in was quite small. In addition to those already mentioned, may be named John Comingore, who came, in 1826, Cornelius Smock, in 1827, Alexander Wilson, in 1828, and Isaac Voris, in 1829.

In 1824, the state road was cut out, and notwithstanding the country in the center and south side of the township was inclined to be wet, settlers shortly began making entries of land, and, in 1828, David Trout, and a little later in the year, James Tracy and his grown sons, Nathaniel, Thomas and John, William Pierce and James Chenoweth built cabins and started clearings extending from the center of the townships outhward. All these men - excepting the Alexanders, who were Pennsylvanians, and David Trout, who was a Virginian, had moved from Nineveh - were Kentuckians.

On the fourth day of May, 1829, Pleasant Township was created by striking off from* White River all the territory east of the range line, making the west boundary the same as it now is; but, up to 1838, Clark Township formed a part of Pleasant. Elections were ordered to be held at the house of Isaac Smock, and Isaiah Lewis was appointed inspector. The township took its name from its principal stream, Pleasant Run. Two explanations have been given, accounting for the name of the creek, one of which is, that when the country was first settled the stream was a gently flowing, pleasant running stream ; and the other that it was the reverse of this, and the name was given by the way of irony.

Here, as everywhere else, it is difficult to fix upon the years when men moved in, but it is certain that an impetus was now given to immigration into the township. By mid-summer of 1834, the following persons are known to have moved into and about the Smock neighborhood, to wit: the Comingores, Henry and Samuel, the McColloughs, John Lyons, Peter Whitenack, Samuel Eccles, the Henrys, Robert, Hiram and Samuel, J. D. and William Wilson, John and'james Carson, Dr. William Woods, William McGee and sons, William and Joseph Brenton, Marine D. West, Berryman Carder, and the Todds. All these were from Kentucky, except the Henrvs, from Virginia, the Wilsons who were from North Carolina, the Woods, the McCulloughs and the Carsons, who were from Tennessee. Lower down in the Tracy and Trout neighborhoods,

Thomas Gant, the Hills, Littleton, Joseph, Squire and Charles, James Stewart, David Lemmasters, Reuben Davis, William Mc- Clelland, Daniel, David and John Brewer, Robert Smith, Abraham Sharp, and probably others, moved in, while over toward the southeast corner and east side came in Thomas Graham and his three sons, Samuel, James and Archibald, and also Lewis Graham, Isaac Clam and Andrew McCaslin, followed soon after by Ashford Dowden, Abraham Banta, Solomon Steele, Jacob Peggs and others. By the close of 1834, persons were located all over the township, but it could not be said to be fairly inhabited before 1840.

In 1821, Daniel Loper having been " entered out" by Nathaniel Bell, moved eastward on the "trace" to Whetzel's old camp on Camp Creek, where he made the first permanent home in what is now known as Clark Township. Shortly after, John Ogle moved into the northeast corner of what is now known as Needham Township (some say in the same year, but others in the year after), and, at the same time, his brother Levi, moved into the southeast corner of Clark. In 1822, a settlement was made on the east side of Sugar Creek, in Shelby County, by Joseph Reese, John Webb, and some others, and, attracted by this settlement, a few more came quite early into Clark Township, as also into Needham. In 1822, William and John McConnell came to the neighborhood, and it may be that the Ogles came the same year.

It is extremely difficult, at this time, to ascertain with any degree of certainty, the dates of arrival of the first and subsequent settlers, but next after Loper's cabin, and the Sugar Creek settlement, pioneers began moving upon the highlands in the. north. The first one to go in was Hugh McFadden, and the second, Glen Clark. Both were here in 1825, and the probability is that both came that year. In 1826, there moved into the settlement thus begun, John L. McClain and Alexander Clark, from Kentucky, and three Hosiers, Robert, Jacob and Abraham. The next year, James and Moses McClain, and Robert Ritchey came in from Kentucky, and Moses Rains from Virginia. The year after, Jacob McClain, from Kentucky, and the year after that, Thomas Clark and Thomas Robinson, Kentuckians, and Edward Wilson and Samuel Billingsly, North Carolinians. In 1832, David Justice, Abraham Jones, Matthias Parr and James Kinnick, from North Corolina; and, in 1833, Andrew Wolf, George Wolf, Tennesseeans, and all those mentioned above, save the few Sugar Creek settlers, and David Parr and John Fitzpatrick went into the neighborhood of Loper's old cabin. In 1834, there was quite an influx of immigrants: Allen Williams, John Tinkle, Robert Farnsworth, David Farnsworth, Henry Farnsworth, Aaron Huffman and Daniel Mc-

Lean, Tennesseeans, and Henry White. Ellis White, Joseph Hamilton, Henry Grayson and Taylor Ballard, Kentuckians, and Charles Dungan, a Virginian John Eastburn, a North Carolinian, and Oliver Harbert, born in Dearborn County, Ind., moved to the township in 1834. Clark Township was now filling up quite fast. The following persons are believed to have moved in during the vear 1835, t0 wit: Joseph Hamilton, Theodore Vandyke, John Wheatlv, Lyman Spencer, Parker Spencer, Caleb Davidson, Conrad McClain, Thomas Portlock and Samuel McClain; and James Williams, David McGauhey, John Harbert and James White, followed the next year, while James Magill, David McAlpin and Jacob Halfaker came in 1837.

Let us now go from the northeast corner of the county, to the southwest, and note the progress of settlement there. In the month of September, 1823, two young men, David and Alexander Stevens, sons of John Stevens, living in Jackson Countv, came to the Nineveh settlement to view the country. The best lands having been taken up in that neighborhood, Curtis Pritchard and William Spears went with them to look at the Indian Creek country in the next Congressional township on the west. It was on the 1 2th of September when the brothers and their guides reached the desired place. The latter had hunted game on Indian Creek, and had observed several choice locations. They struck the South Fork, or near the place where the Martinsville road now crosses, and going down that, not far from the confluence of the North and South forks, thev encountered a man with a deer on his back who had a camp on a mound on the south side of the creek. His name was John Davis, and accepting his hospitality, they staid with him that night. He was living in a pole cabin about twelve feet square, with the fire place on the ground in the center, with a hole through the puncheon roof for the smoke to escape. Over the door was hung a bear skin, and bear and wolf and deer skins made the bed around the fire on which Davis and his guests and his two big dogs slept that night. Before retiring, the guests partook of an ash pone and of a wild turkey, which the woodsman hung before the fire over a broken pot lid to catch the dripping gravy, with which he basted the roasting fowl, using for that purpose a wooden spoon.

Davis was a hunter and trapper, who said he had come to the county from Clark County, in 1822. One William Horton, had come with him, and for a time they had camped together, but a disagreement arising, Horton had moved by himself and was living in a hut a half mile southward. Davis seems to have been quite a successful hunter and trapper, while Horton was less so. During the winter of 1822 and 1S24, it is remembered that the former trapped six beavers on Indian Creek, and killed five bears. The raccoons, muskrats and grey foxes taken, is not known. On one occasion he caught three wolves in a pen at one time. The following summer he married Polly Elkins, and continued to reside in the neighborhood till 1827, when he moved away. Horton left the country shortly after the visit of the Stevenses.

The next morning after the night of the feast, John Davis went with his guests, and showed them the lands on which John Stevens and Richardson Hensley and their families were so soon vto make settlement; and then the boys returned home. Richardson Hensley, John Stevens' neighbor, shortly before the return of the two young men, had sold his farm and proposed returning to Kentucky, but they gave such a glowing report of the country they had seen, that both Stevens and he determined to move to it. Accordingly, on Wednesday, the 23rd of September, Hensley, writh his family, and his two sons-in-law, William Davenport and Ambrose, his brother, and William Mitchell and their families, and John Stevens and his two sons, Alexander and Gideon, and a boy he had brought up, Ephraim Harrell, set out for the new country. The movers came in three wagons, Hensley and Stevens had one each drawn by three yoke of oxen, and Davenport and Mitchell joined in one drawn by one yoke of oxen and one pair of horses. Forty head of cattle and 100 hogs and a flock of sheep accompanied them.

They were five days on the road to the INineveh, and four thence to the final stopping, a distance less than seven miles in a straight course. They had to cut a road every foot of that four days' travel. John Stevens and Richardson Hensley went before and chose the way, while William Mitchell, William Davenport and Alexander Stevens followed with their axes, and made a path for the wagons. On the evening of the third day they camped by a dead poplar tree, which caught fire during the night. The next morning, Friday, October 3, the journey wras resumed, and at five o'clock that evening, they camped on a " black haw bush knoll " a half mile from what was soon to be known as Hensley's Spring. As the night closed in they looked back in the direction they had come, and were startled to see, barely two miles away, the flames blazing in the top of the poplar they had left burning "that morning. The next morning the pioneers selected their respective tracts of land, and Hensley " without saying a word," cut dowrn a straight sugar tree, measured off sixteen feet, cut it off, saying, " I've got the first cabin log cut." Cabins were erected as soon as could be, and were covered with lin bark. John Stevens returned to his family in Jackson County in about three weeks, leaving his son, Alexander, and his foster son, Ephraim Harrell, who remained during the winter, taking care of the cattle and hogs. Early the next spring they returned to their father's home, and assisted him to make the "final move, landing at their new home on Indian Creek, on Tuesday, the 6th day of April, 1S24.

The work of clearing the land was begun as soon as the men -could get at it. By the time for planting in the spring, Hensley had six acres cleared for corn and four acres for an orchard; each of his sons-in-law about three acres, and Stevens seven acres. The wild turkeys annoyed them by scratching up their corn as soon as it was planted. The squirrels followed the turkeys, and by the time for harvesting, the crop was nearly destroyed. Hensley sowed his orchard in turnips, and raised an immense - -about 500 bushels, on which he wintered his cattle. In the following fall (1824), William Holman, Isaac Holman, Arthur Bass and Nathaniel Elkins moved to the township. During the ensuing winter, "William Chase arrived, and the next season Peter Titus, and Charles and Mitchel Ross and Richard Perry. Following soon after came Henry Mussulman, Albert Roberts, John Schrem, John and Lewis Shouse and Aaron Hol- ,man : and at intervals during the years intervening between 1826 and 1833, James Taggart (who was afterward killed at the battle of Buena Vista), William Skaggs, Holland Jones, John Brunk, Nicholas Hobbs, Hiram Porter, Reason and John Slack, John Voris, Simpson Sturgeon, Montgomery Smith, Andrew Underwood, Leonard Leffler, John McNutt, William Mitchell, Thomas Lvman, S. W. Weddle, Thomas Lockhart, Thomas Alexander, John Clark, Jesse Wells, Samuel Fleener, Hiram T. Craig, John Boland, Samuel Woollard, Frederick Ragsdale, George Bridges, William Clark, Abraham Mas>ey, McKinney Burk, Avery M. Buckner, Levi Petro, James Wiley, Elijah Moore, Stith Daniel, Thomas L. Sturgeon, James Forsyth, David and Uriah Young, Godfrey Jones, R. W. Elder, James Hughes, George White, Richard Joliffe and Perrv Bailv.

Let us turn to Union Township on the north of Hensley. Some time in 1823, Bartholomew Carroll moved from Kentucky by the way of the Three Notched Line road, then newly cut out, and found his way through the bush to the South Fork of Stott's Creek, and settled in Section 34, where John Vandiver afterward built a mill. Carroll had a family, consisting of his wife, three sons, William, John and Samuel, and two girls. The grandfather of his children lived with him - a very aged man, who died, it is said, when he was one hundred and ten years old. Bartholomew Carroll was a genuine backwoodsman. He spent his time in the wil- derness hunting game and wild honey. The country about him was well stocked with all kinds of game, common to the country, and an experienced bee-hunter could take honey in vast quantities. It is said that Carroll would sometimes have as many as 100 beetrees marked in the woods at a time.

There is some uncertainty as to the time when many of the pioneers moved into Union Township. It is next to impossible at this time to get the names of all who came in, or the time when they came. In fifty years, much that was at the time of interest, sinks into oblivion.

In October, 1826, Peter Vandiver, John Garshuiler, Joseph Simpson and Mrs. Christina Garshuiler settled on the east side of the township, not far from the headwaters of the South Fork of Stott's Creek. The North and South forks of Stott's Creek run through this township. Both afforded mill sites in the west side of the township in the early times. They were so named from a family by the name of Stotts, who settled at the mouth of the stream in the early times. Another stream of this township is Kootz's Fork, which taking its rise between the two Forks of Stott's Creek, empties into the south one. A frontiersman by the name of Kootz lived at the outlet of this stream long enough to give immortality to his name. The same year Mrs. Gwinnie Utterback, with her family of eight sons and one daughter, settled on a tract of land lying half a mile south of the present site of Union village. In 1827, George Kepheart moved to Section 23, and Alexander Gilmer, to the northeast corner.

In 1828 there was growth. Nearly 2,000 acres of land were entered, and a dozen families moved in. Peter Zook, Samuel Williams, Henry Banta ahd John James stopped in the Vandiver neighborhood. Jacob List and Philip Kepheart located near the east boundary line. Benjamin Utterback moved near to his sisterin-law, and Adam Lash and James Rivers moved to the north side, and John Mitchell not far from the northwest corner, and Jesse Young near the center. In 1829 ten more families moved into Union, Robert Moore and Joseph Young into Jesse Young's neighborhood, afterward known as Shiloh, William Bridges and John James near Vandiver's, William Kepheart and James Vaughan in the Utterback neighborhood, and Henry Guseclore in the northwest corner. Peter Bergen and Andrew Carnine moved on the east side adjoining the Hopewell neighborhood, and John Millis settled not far from the center of the township. The next year Garrett and James Terhune, two brothers, settled a mile west of Vandiver's; Gideon Drake moved to within a mile of the Morgan County line ; Bennett, Austin and William Jacobs moved up to the

In 1 83 1, Isaac Knox, John McColgin and Joshua Hammond, who wrere Virginians, settled in the northwest corner on the North Fork of Stott's Creek. Willis Deer and Wesley, his brother, and John L. Jones, settled near Mrs. Utterback; John Henderson to the northwest of them some miles; George Kerlin and Peter Shuck on the east side of the township, and Garrett Vandiver not far from the present site of Bargersville, while Serrill Winchester and Jacob Core moved into Jesse Young's vicinity. The next year, Jacob Banta and Samuel Throgmorton moved in, and in 1833, Daniel Newkirk, the gunsmith, Peter D. Banta, Peter Banta, David Demaree, John Knox, John Gets, Joshua Landers, and, probably, Jesse Harris, Peter Voris and John Shuck. The families moving into the North Fork neighborhood were nearly or quite all Virginians, but all the others, with but few exceptions, were Kentuckians. Garrett Terhune was New Jersey born, but moved from Kentucky. Jesse and Joseph Young, Gideon Drake and Robert Moore were from Ohio. Out of more than seventy families referred to, three-fourths were from Kentucky.

What was true Qf the nativity of the first settlers of Union Township, was true of all save Nineveh. That was settled by Ohioans mainly. In all the others the majority were Kentucky born. A sprinkling from east Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, western Pennsylvania, and also Ohio, was to be found in all neighborhoods.

We have seen that the population of the county at the time of its organization was about 500. In 1828 the number of polls, as shown by a report made by the Auditor of State to the Legislature, was 506, which would give a population of between 2,500 and 3,000. In 1830 the census showed a population of 4,019. In 1832 there were 908 polls, showing a population of about 5,000. In 1835, judging from the vote of that year, it had increased to at least 6,500, and in 1840 the census showed an increase to 9,352.