Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 2: Pioneer Settlers of Each Township, 1916

Just as the vast domain first organized under the title "Territory Northwest of the Ohio River," and later Indiana Territory, was reduced by successive divisions to the final limits of the commonwealth as it stands today, a similar process of elimination was followed in practically all the earliest counties of Indiana, so the extensive and unwieldy area of Perry County as created in the original enactment was gradually diminished by the respective organization of Dubois County, December 20, 1817, Spencer County, January 10, 1818, and Crawford County, January 29, 1818. Such, therefore, shall be the geographical boundary circumscribing the region whose historic events it is the purpose of this chronicle to consider.

Section 5 of the Act approved September 14, 1814, reads: "And be it fm'ther enacted, That William Barker, Jesse Emmerson and James Stewart, of Gibson County, Joseph Paddox and Ignatius Abell, of Harrison County, be and are hereby appointed Commissioners to fix the seat of justice in Perry County, who shall meet at James McDaniel's in said Perry County on the third Monday of November next and proceed to fix the seat of justice for the said county of Perry agreeably to the provisions of an act entitled 'An act for fixing the seat of justice in all new counties hereafter to be laid off,* " These commissioners, therefore, or a majority of them, met at the appointed time and place, pursuant to the Act quoted, to begin their labours.

phrase interpreted as meaning that it was a maritime city whose site was determined upon as convenient abode for sea-faring men. Similar considerations, beyond doubt, had strong influence with the earliest pioneers who came down the Ohio River, and among these voyagers James McDaniel, Joseph Wright, John Bowie and perhaps some few others had found a haven just above the mouth of a stream which later became known as Anderson River. Here they located, with their families, negro slaves and household goods brought from Virginia, and while the exact date, claimed by some of their descendants as 1793, is undoubtedly too early, and now quite impossible to verify, it is certain that they entered land in Perry (then Knox) County during the first few years of the Nineteenth Century.

Thus sprang into existence a tiny hamlet, one of the first-born below the falls of the Ohio, sheltered under the wing of a protecting hill, a part of the lofty sandstone elevation in Southern Indiana which physical geographers classify as the extreme foothills of the Cumberland Range. Even as Mount Ida (Tennyson's "many-fountained Ida") overlooked the walls of storied Ilium, this majestic ridge dominated the landscape and watched the feeble beginnings of Hoosier Troy. It is unknown to whom the name owes its being, or just when it came into use, since it does not appear in the act quoted, and its sponsorship has never been claimed.

With constantly increasing frequency south-bound vessels passed by, among them the brig St. Clair, the first ocean-rigged craft in the West; the sea-going schooner Amity and the ship Pittsburg built at Pittsburg in 1801, which made the long river voyage to New Orleans, thence to Philadelphia and across the Atlantic to Bordeaux. Of these the Tarascon Brothers, whose name still lives on western waters, were the owners and builders.

Others constructed later at Marietta, Ohio, were the Muskingum, Indiana, Eliza Greene and Marietta, also the Dorcas-and-Sally, built at Wheeling, ra^'iing in tonnage from 70 to 250. But after some few successes and numerous failures it was realized that river conditions were unfavourable for the operation of such deep-bellied ships, so shallower bottomed boats superseded them as better able to negotiate an upstream voyage against floods, rapids and snags.

As all floating craft formed the habit of stopping at McDaniel's the spot became gradually recognized as a convenient landing place and its selection as a meeting point for the commissioners was a natural choice. The same arguments, added to the persuasiveness of material donations, no doubt carried weight in affecting the commissioners' decision, and after viewing several places along the river they finally fixed upon a tract of one hundred and twenty acres offered as a gift by James McDaniel, Sr., and James McDaniel, Jr. Solomon Lamb, who had come from New York state to these parts, also gave ten acres of land, and his brother, Israel Lamb, a cash donation, while among the other citizens of the vicinity sufficient money was subscribed for erection of the necessary court house and jail.

The county was next divided into the townships of Troy, Tobin, Anderson, Clark, Oil and Hurricane. This last-named appears for a time as Lamar Township, extending on the west of Anderson River from the Ohio as far north as Dubois County. As a division of Perry County, however, its existence was brief, only until the organization of Spencer County, (1818) when it became the present townships of Hammond, Huff, Carter and, lastly, Harrison in that county. Subsequent township changes in Perry County were the creation of Union, Smith, Athens and Deer Creek, all but the first having been re-absorbed into the original districts, while Leopold, the latest civil division set apart, was not created until 1847, ten years after Deer Creek had been formed.

With no intention of awarding any precedence in antiquity to one portion of the county over any other, in here enumerating some few of the earliest settlers in

Troy Township's name was derived from the same source as that of the village itself, and a very early entry at the Vincennes Land Office appears as that of Elias Rector, in 1809, taking up Section 31, Fractional Sections 32 and 5, all in Township 6, South; Range 3, West, This lay about midway between Troy and the present city of Cannelton and became the later site of Tell City.

Elias Rector was the third of nine sons born in Fauquier County, Virginia, to Frederick Rector and his wife, Elizabeth Connor, a daughter of Lewis and Ann (Wharton) Connor, of Norfolk, and probably a sister or cousin to Terence Connor, the pioneer of that name in Perry County. All these nine sons were educated as civil engineers, and in 1808 came in a body to Indiana Territory, whose area then extended from the Mississippi River to Lake Superior.

They established themselves at Kaskaskia, and formed a clan of remarkable brothers, who surveyed for the Government all the district known as Illinois after 1809, when set apart from Indiana. Besides this work, performed under appointment from Jared Mansfield, surveyor general of the Northwest Territory, whose headquarters from 1803 to 1812 were at Cincinnati, they were required to survey the lands of private individuals, many of which were old French grants difficult to outline, and for such intricate labour Congress, in December, 1809, allowed additional compensation to William and Elias Rector, upon the report of Senator Richard M. Johnson.

The nine brothers were strikingly clannish, each six feet in height, straight as an arrow, fearless yet quiet, with a chivalrous sense of honour and manners of courtly dignity. However interesting their personality, it is, notwithstanding, scarcely correct to designate Elias Rector as an actual pioneer resident of Perry

County. His entry was transferred within a few years to Nicholas J. Roosevelt, of New York City, a greatuncle of Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, 1902-1908.

Roosevelt's purchase of the land may be accounted for by the circumstance that he commanded the first craft propelled by steam upon Western waters, the New Orleans, built after Robert Fulton's model, which made one successful trip from Pittsburg to New Orleans in the late autumn of 1811. That this boat landed at Troy is a longstanding tradition of creditable probability, and may be readily accepted ,as true, though equal credence can not be given to the parallel story that Robert Fulton, the inventor, was himself in Troy at the same time. The most reliable contemporary records accessible give no indication whatever that he was on board the New Orleans, even as a passenger, when the steamer left the upper Ohio.

Nicholas Roosevelt's idea was, most likely, the establishment of a wood-yard as a depot of fuel supply for future passing steamboats; such as the Tarascon family early maintained at Shippingport (Louisville), but his sojourn in the Middle West was of short duration and his lands were soon transferred into the name of Robert Fulton.

Abraham Smythe Fulton, a brother of Robert, is said to have come to Troy, making plans for a residence upon the highest eminence near by, and a famous 'logrolling' was arranged for. With the boundless hospitality of the age, people were invited from many miles around, even as far as the scattered pioneers in Pike (later Dubois) County, along the "Buffalo Trace'^ whose existence had a singular influence in the settlement of Southern Indiana.

Only the seal of the commonwealth is today a reminder that buffaloes once ranged in countless numbers all over the state, and so many thousands of the animals made their annual pilgrimage between the licks of Kentucky and the prairie savannas of Illinois,

A winter of extraordinary severity near the close of the Eighteenth Century froze so completely all vegetable growth that hundreds of wild animals perished from starvation and the buffalo herds never regained their loss, the last ever seen coming or going being within the first years of the Nineteenth Century.

But along the pathway beaten by their hoofs, followed by the swift coureurs des hois, missionaries, salttraders and other French pioneers, the eager feet of ambitious Virginians had already begun to press, and its eastern end was surveyed in 1805 by William Rector, while Buckingham's "Base Line" was run practically parallel with the original Buffalo Trace across Pike County some miles north of what was once Perry County.

A swiftly tragic end came, however, to the merriment on Fulton Hill. A mighty forest monarch, hewn through by sturdy hands, caught in its fall Abraham Smythe Fulton himself, crushing out his life beneath its ponderous weight. The material already prepared was left to decay upon the ground and Fulton's was the first body interred in the Troy cemetery. No stone ever marked the spot, but old inhabitants of Troy long pointed out the grave. His mercantile interests in the village were transferred to Vivian Daniel and John Daniel (the later a son-in-law of Joseph Wright,) but the woodland acreage stood in Robert Fulton's name for another generation, known as the 'Fulton Tract' event through several interesting changes of ownership.

Aaron Fontaine, of Jefferson County, Kentucky, entered land near by about 1813, but was also a non-resident owner, always making his home some miles west of Louisville, where he kept a ferry which still gives its name to Fontaine Ferry Park, an attractive pleasure resort in the now immediate suburbs of that city.

Cannelton's present site, entering on Section 15, Township 6, South; Range 3, West; where his grave, with some others of his family, is still marked by inscribed stones standing on a hill-slope of "Wilber Farm," long the property of the late Ebenezer Wilber and now the home of his eldest son, Henry H. Wilber.

Cavender, Cummings, Hoskinson and Thrasher were other pioneer landholders, besides Dosier and Casselberry whose names are preserved by two small creeks, respectively north and south of the original plat of Cannelton.

Tobin Township, unquestionably, can boast the greatest number of very early settlers, as well as some of the most prominent if not actually the first in point of time, while no other portion of the county has retained perhaps so many of its pioneer families to the present day, lineal descendants in the same name occupying the identical lands entered over a century ago by their ancestors.

This is due to the inducements for permanent residence offered by the fertile soil of the rich 'bottom,' almost surrounded by an immense horseshoe bend of the Ohio River, scant two-and-a-half miles across at its narrowest point although washed by some fifteen miles of the stream's devious course. A hundred years of continuous abode, with the resulting intermarriages, have brought about a mingling of relationship in every degree among the old families, involved almost beyond the most expert genealogist and requiring a Herald's College to disentangle.

At the extreme southern end of the bottom, land was entered in November, 1807, by the Rev. Charles Polk (then spelled Polke), the pioneer member in Perry County of a prominent and widespread American stock tracing their direct descent from Robert Polk and Magdalene Tasker, his v/ife, of Somxerset County, Maryland, a stronghold of Irish Presbyterianism whither they had fled with other families of high position, leaving behind them valuable estates in the

In 1689, the names of Robert Polk and some of his sons appear among the list of loyal subjects in Somerset County who addressed a letter to King William and Queen Mary. "Whitehall," the handsome estate, descended to William Polk I, the second son among nine children, himself the father of six. From his eldest son, William Polk II, who married M. Margaret Taylor, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, sprang eight children, of whom Thomas I became a general in the American Revolution and father of William IV, a Revolutionary colonel, whose son, in turn, Leonidas, Bishop of Louisiana, was a general under the Confederacy.

Of the same generation (sixth) as the Bishop, James Knox Polk, of Tennessee, (grandson of Ezekiel, brother to Thomas I, of North Carolina, who signed the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence,) became eleventh President of the United States.

Nine children were the fruit of Edmond's marriage, the second being Charles III (the Reverend) whose wife, Willey Dever, bore him ten children. Several died in infancy, and the most conspicuous survivor was perhaps Greenville Polk, who became a colonel in the Indiana Militia.

Jacob Weatherholt, who was a Revolutionary veteran of the Virginia Department, took up land in October, 1808, near the Rev. Charles Polke, and during the same year a tract two miles farther up the river was purchased by Alexander Miller. The Polk and Miller lines were early united through the marriage of his grandson, Henry J., son of Robert and Mary

John Winchel was born, 1760, on the estate of the "Great Nine Partners," Dutchess County, Nev/ York, and at the age of nineteen v^as married there to Rachel, daughter of Alpheus Avery. They came in 1809 to Indiana, and although John Winchel lived but two years in the new home, dying September 14, 1811, - perhaps from som.e of the strange ailments which mysteriously swept away so many sturdy pioneers in their prime - nine out of his ten children grew to maturity and married, rearing families of their own.

These Winchels of the second generation may be here named, with their marriages, although considerations of space forbid carrying the line further. 1. John, Jr. 2. Smith, m. Annie Mallory, 1805. 3. Catherine, m. Arad Simons. 4. Phoebe, m. Daniel Ryan. 5. Charity, m. Benjamin Wilson. 6. Margaret, ("Peggy") m. Israel Lamb. 7. Uriah, m. Sarah Weatherholt. 8. Roxana, m. Robert Graham. 9. Mary, m. Edmond Polk. 10. Cassandra, m. Matthew Ferguson.

Perry County, as such, was unthought of when John Winchel's family settled in one of its choicest spots, as may be noted in the entry of the land which he bought in 1809, and for which a final grant was issued by the Government in 1818. In faded yet still legible ink, on parchment yellowed by ninety-seven years, one may read:

To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Know ye, that John Winchel, of Knox County, Indiana, having deposited in the General Land Office a Certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Vincennes, whereby it appears that full payment has been made for the west half of section thirty-three, of township seven (south,) in range two (west,) of the Lands directed to be sold at Vincennes, by the Act of Congress, 'An Act Providing for the Sale of the Lands of the United States in the Territory northwest of the Ohio and above the mouth of Kentucky River/ or the Acts amendatory of the same ; There is granted by the United States unto the said John Winchel the half lot or section of Land above described, To have and to hold, the said half lot or section of Land, with the appurtenances, unto the said John Winchel, his heirs and assigns forever.

"Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the twentieth day of December, in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the forty-second.

This interesting document, one of very few - if not the only original - of its kind preserved in this vicinity, is now owned by a direct descendant of John Winchel (Doctor Arad A. Simons, of Cloverport, Kentucky,) through the marriage of Catherine Winchel to Arad Simons II, who came in 1816 to Perry County. He was born February 18, 1783, in Mansfield, Connecticut, a son of Arad Simons I (who had been in the Connecticut Marine Service, later a civil engineer) and his v/ife, Bridget Arnold. The Simons relationship in Tobin Township is extensive through the female line, though the name itself, as a consequence, is not so frequently met in the present generation as that of many other pioneer families.

In this same region lands were taken up during 1814 by Thomas and Henry Drinkwater; in 1815 by Nathaniel Ewing; in 1816 by Smith Winchel, George Tobin and Thomas Tobin (the latter of whom married Sarah, a sister to the Rev. Charles Polke,) George Ewing and

Lemuel Mallory, Revolutionary soldiers from New Jersey and Connecticut respectively, entered lands in 1817; Abraham Finch, 1817; Martin Cockrell, 1819. Farther from the river settled Alexander Van Winkle, 1815 ; Samuel and Daniel Hinton, 1817 ; Charity Sandage, 1818 ; John Crist, 1818.

Near the present site of Rome, in Section 3, Township 7, south ; Range 3, west; on August 21, 1807, 182.3 acres were bought by Samuel Connor, who was a conspicuous figure in his generation. The son of a Revolutionary veteran, Terence Connor (or O'Connor) he was himself a captain during the War of 1812, and later a brigadier-general of militia. Terence Connor entered land in 1812, and two other Revolutionary soldiers, Richard Avitt and Abraham Hiley took up claims in 1816 and 1817 respectively.

John Lamb, 1809 ; Benjamin Huff, 1811 ; John Riggs, 1813; William Frymire, 1813; (both near the "Big Hill" west of Rome;) John Crist, 1814, (the ground afterward a donation toward the county seat;) and John Claycomb, 1816; were all in the same general locality. Just south of where Derby now stands, along the river, John Faith bought 255.62 acres in Section 4, August 21, 1807; Thomas Cummings, 208,03 acres, in Section 9, September 26, 1807; Abraham Barger and David Groves, 1810; Dade Connor, 1815, Adam Shoemaker, 1815; John Shoemaker, 1817; Ansel Hyde, 1817, and Adam Glenn, 1818.

Anderson Township took its name from the river, or creek, whose meanderings water its entire extent, and owing to the consequent irregularities of surfacehigh rocky hills intersected by deep valleys - but few entries of land were made prior to 1820 in a region now thickly dotted with comfortable homes of prosperous farmers.

The earliest pioneers recorded were William Horner, Section 25, Township 5, South; Range 3, West; Ephraim Cummings, Section 6, Township 5, South ; Range 3, West ; John Donnelly, Section 8, Township 6, South ;

Range 3, West. These, however, do not strictly coincide with the present boundary lines of Anderson Township, which then probably extended farther east than now.

At an election held August 7, 1820, at the house of Daniel Purcell in Anderson Township, twenty-nine votes were polled, but it must be remembered that voters in that day were permitted to cast their ballots at any convenient polling-place, wherever they might be. Precincts, registration, Australian Systems, or voting machines were then undreamt of. Only a few names, therefore, are recognizable in this list today as still of Anderson Township: Jesse Barber, John Beardsley, John Cassidy, John Davis, Richard Davis, Theodorus Davis, Gideon Draper, Samuel Eslick, John Farris, Thomas Fitzgerald, David Gregory, Daniel Hendricks, James Hendricks, Caleb Hicks, William Hicks, Smiting Irish, ( ! sic Goodspeed's History, 1885.) John Jarboe, Richard Kennedy, John Lanman, Samuel Morgan, Stephen Owens, Daniel Purcell, William Royal, John Stuck, William Taylor, John Terry, Thomas B. Van Pelt, John Wheatley and William Woodall.

John Terry, with his wife Esther (Brown) and their family, came on packhorses about 1815 from Botetourt County, Virginia, into Perry County, and during their journey of several weeks met many wild animals and Indians. The twelfth of their fourteen children, Elias Terry, whom his mother carried all the way in front of her saddle, married four times, becoming himself the father of eighteen children. He was *a mighty hunter before the Lord,' having in early times killed as many as six deer in one day.

Two of his wives were of the Sandage family, daughters of Thomas and Nancy (Simonson) Sandage, who came on horseback from South Carolina to Indiana, settling in Perry County about 1812. They had seven children, of whom the eldest, Nathan, married twice and had twelve children. Powell and Royal were other

American families coming early into Anderson Township, but its later settlement and development has been more marked through the thrift and industry of many Belgians, French, Swiss and Germans.

Clark Township is said to have been thus designated to honour a prominent early settler, Robert Clark, who on November 27, 1819, was chosen a justice of the peace at an election polling fifteen ballots. Robert McKim also v/as elected to a similar position, and besides the two candidates the other votes were cast by John Asbell, Solomon Byrne, Ephraim Cummings, Alexander Cunningham, John Faith, Thomas Faith, William Goble, George Hensley, Wilson Hifel, Henry Hill, Robert Hills, James Lanman and William Rov/e.

Bradshaw, Chewning, Dyer, Goble, Hobbs, Lasher, Miles, Mosby, Van Winkle and Sumner all are names of constant recurrence in Clark Township, from its organization down to the present, as substantial citizens, landholders and politicians, no less than linked together by a network of intermarriages bringing about a perplexing entanglement of kinship back and forth unto the third and fourth generations.

As an example it may be mentioned that James Lasher, a native of Pennsylvania, who had served under General Harrison in the War of 1812, and had laid the foundation of the Perry County court house and jail at Rome about 1820-22, was married there to Elizabeth Comstock (born in Kentucky) by whom he was the father of ten children, eight living to maturity : Abraham; Clarissa, m. P. H. Esarey; Isaac; Rebecca, m. Calvin Drysdale; Jacob; Elizabeth, m. Samuel

Aders; Daniel; and Mary, m. Louis W. Goble. That both parents were of profound piety, according to the tenets of the Regular Baptist persuasion, finds evidence in the predominantly Scriptural names chosen for their offspring.

Abraham Lasher, a native of Bullitt County, Kentucky, July 11, 1823, was married June 16, 1844, to Sarah, daughter of John and Martha (Thrasher) Lanman, ten children being born to this union. Following her death, he took as his second wife, Sarah, daughter of William and Rachel (Litherland) Bennett, who bore him nine children. Nineteen grand-children in only one branch of the second generation suifice to show that the Lasher lineage can not be carried further within the limits of an ordinary chapter.

Thirteen children were born to Hardin and Maria (Combs) Chev/ning; Daniel and Nancy (Spurrier) Weedman were the parents of fourteen; and other pioneer families of Clark Township were similarly prolific.

Of famed prowess as a hunter and trapper in the central and northern part of Perry County was John Archibald, of whom an exciting adventure was related by the older generation. One day Archibald and his wife treed a bear near their log cabin, and the former proceeded to cut down the tree, but in its fall became entangled in the branches and was pinned to the ground with a broken leg.

The bear rapidly made off into the forest, followed by the dogs, who had him again treed when Mrs. Archibald arrived on the scene, panting from her swift pursuit of the quarry. With her own trusty rifle she despatched the dangerous animal before missing for the first time her husband. Hastening back she learned only then the cause of his detention, so set to work with axe and handspikes to release him. Then almost carrying him into the house, she set out for a doctor, who dressed the v/oimd and set the broken limb,

Oil Township, like Anderson, derived its appellation from a stream of similar name flowing through its borders, Oil Creek emptying into the Ohio River near Derby and along whose banks the first comers found many indications of crude oil, never sufficient, however, to prove commercially profitable.

The first permanent settler in this northeastern portion of Perry County was unquestionably John Esarey, a native of Wales, who, prior to the American Revolution, came over into Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where in 1776 he married Sarah Clark. The Clark name has been perpetuated through each succeeding generation of the Esareys down to the present, and verbal tradition has always claimed a connection with the family of George Rogers Clark. This, however, is open to doubt, in the lack of documentary evidence, as George Rogers Clark's lineage was Virginian, and it seems far more probable that Captain John Clark, of Revolutionary fame in Pennsylvania, who in 1774 was a grand juror from Northumberland County, and later lived in Union County where he died February 22, 1809, near Mifflinburg, was the military relative of Sarah (Clark) Esarey. Such is the data furnished by Miss Martha Bladen Clark, an expert genealogist, who is Corresponding Secretary of the Lancaster County Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

John Esarey emigrated in 1783 to Kentucky, living several years near Louisville, afterward on Doe Run and later at Hill Grove, in Meade County. From there he crossed over to the Hoosier State in January, 1810, at "Indiana Ferry," landing at the mouth of Little Blue River.

Through singular coincidence the mouth of Big Blue River, some twelve miles farther up the Ohio, was rendered yet more dramatically historic in the family by a grandson. Captain Jesse C. Esarey, commanding the Second Battalion of the Home Guard, which cap- tured on June 19, 1863, Captain Hines' invading Confederate cavalry, the first instance of the War Between the States where Southern troops actually crossed the border into any Northern commonwealth, antedating by a fortnight both Morgan's Raid and Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania.

A man named France rowed the pioneer Esarey family in a small canoe, while the laden packhorses bearing the household effects were encouraged to swim across. From the landing point on Little Blue River, John Esarey, aided by his several sturdy sons, hacked a way twelve miles through the virgin wilderness, locating at length upon what is now known as the A. W. Walker farm in Perry County, then a part of Knox. From that day to the present there have been Esareys in Perry County, and their Centennial Reunion in September, 1910, was the first of its kind ever held in the county.

One of John and Sarah (Clark) Esarey's sons was Jonathan David, who married Sarah Shaver, a daughter of Jacob and Nancy (Allen) Shaver, whose brother, Peter Shaver, married an Esarey daughter, thus early beginning the complication of intermarriages following ever since.

Jonathan D. and Sarah (Shaver) Esarey were the parents of twelve children, of whom only three will be mentioned, to illustrate the prolific offspring: Hiram Esarey, born April 10, 1813, married October 10, 1834, Sophia, daughter of Robert and Delilah (Phillips) Walker, born January 28, 1810. They had nine children, among whom Eliza and Matilda married, respectively, John S. and James S. Frakes, sons of Grayson and Mary (Shoemaker) Frakes.

Jesse C, Esarey married Susanna Hughes, and among their eleven children the eldest two, Mary E. and John Clark, married a brother and a sister, John W. and Barbara Ewing, children of Samuel and Maria (Falkenborough) Ewing. Another daughter became Mrs. John W. Frakes.

Jacob Esarey, born August 17, 1829, married, November 6, 1851, Barbara, daughter of Andrew and Melinda (Falkenborough) Elder, born July 28, 1832, and by her was father of eleven children. Two of these, Melinda A. and Eva E., married brothers, Emile and John A. L. Dupaquier, sons of John and Mary (Shoppie) Dupaquier, who came from France into Oil Township toward the middle of the Nineteenth Century.

In 1813 Robert Walker entered land on Section 18, Township 4, South, Range 1, West, (then Warrick County) and in 1815 William Deen came across from Kentucky and in the same section took up land which has never passed out of the family during a hundred years, but is owned and occupied in 1915 by his greatgrandson, Thomas J. Deen. He also entered land in Union Township, on which were then some interesting earthworks, remains of the Indians or of the Mound Builders, which Time has long since obliterated.

Although William Deen I and his wife, Mary Hardin, were parents of only three children, - William, Stephen and Richard - the third generation was given a good start through the marriage of William Deen II to Ary Shirley, ten children being the fruit of their union. John, their eldest, married Mary ("Polly") Abel, v/ho bore him six children, while eleven children were offspring of the second child, Richard, by his marriage with Christina Springer.

Joshua, their first born, married Helena, daughter of William and Rachel (Shoemaker) Reily, and through one of their four children - Robert L., who married Eveline Frakes - the Deen line has now been carried two generations further, to the seventh.

The custom of intermarriage was duly honoured among the other children of Richard and Christina (Springer) Deen, John H. and Mary C. marrying, respectively, Martha and Asbury V/alker, (ten children resulting from the former of these unions). Marenda m. Edward McNaughton; Willikm H. m. Tilla Dahl;

Richard W. m. Sarah Darlington ; while Oil Township connection is immediately indicated by the respective marriages of Emmeline to James Esarey, Minerva to Cyrus Holmes, and Thomas J. (the youngest) to Sarepta Frakes.

James Reily was only two years later than the Deens in coming from Kentucky, entering in 1817 the land which his family owned until 1887. By his wife, Catherine Ewing Jamison, he was the father of ten children, and the inevitable double marriage occurred when the eldest two, Elizabeth and Annie, married respectively, Phillips and Samuel Walker. From the second of these two sprang seven children, two of whom married Deens, and to Asbury and Mary C. (Deen) Walker were born ten children. Robert W. Reily, who married Rebecca Horton, had only one son among seven children, and the two children of William E. and Rachel (Shoemaker) Reily were daughters, Sarepta (Mrs. R. A. Alexander) and Helena (Mrs. Joshua Deen) so the name of Reily is now less frequently met with than sundry others.

All the early men were famous hunters, and among them James Falkenborough once had a thrilling adventure with wolves in the dead of winter. While out in the forest, nine wolves began following him so closely as to endanger his safety, although they did not oifer to attack him. One at a time he shot several of the animals, which the others devoured as fast as they were killed, and by thus holding them in check, he was able to reach a place of security.

Another 'bear story' handed down among the Reily descendants, and told to Helena (Reily) Deen by her grandmother, Catherine Ewing (Jamison) Reily, narrates how the family were much annoyed by the disappearance of several pigs soon after they v/ere settled in their new home. One night, when her husband was away, a loud squealing among the pigs awakened Mrs. Reily. Going out to investigate, with her eldest two daughters, Elizabeth and Annie, they found a bear try- ing to carry off a pig. Giving chase, they pursued the bear some distance up the hollow before he made his escape. The pig was saved, but in her haste Mrs. Reily lost a slipper which she was never able to find again.

Since Hurricane Township within so short a time became part of Spencer County, no space will here be given to its early settlement or subsequent history. Union Township, however, was created only a few years later than the others, and among its first entries were several in that small portion of the county lying east of the second principal meridian. In 1810 Joel Suttles settled on Section 17 ; John Heddon and Joshua Richardson on Sections 20 and 29 ; Jacob Davis on Section 30. In 1811, Joseph Springer, on Section 18; Valentine Borer, Daniel and Elias Heddon, on Section 19. Also in 1811 John Davis entered Section 21, Township 5, South, Range, 1, West; Jesse Shacklett, Section 13, Township 5, South, Range 1, West; in 1813, Stephen Deen, Section 11, and William Shirley, Section 13, in 1817; Anthony Horton, Abraham and Benjamin Murphy, on Section 33, Township 4, South, Range 1, West, in 1817 ; and William Mitchell, Section 33, (later the site of Derby,) in 1818.

Smith Township was an important locality in the early decades, but will not be considered separately, its noteworthy pioneer settlers having been already mentioned in this chapter under Oil and Clark Townships, into which it was absorbed upon the reorganization of the county in May, 1840. At that time Deer Creek Township was created, but existed only until June, 1853, when abolished.

Leopold Township was formed out of Union, Oil, Clark and Anderson in June, 1847, upon the petition of sixty citizens, the petition having been presented in December, 1846, by John Courcier, a veteran of the War of 1812. It was nam.ed in honour of Leopold I, King of the Belgians, a large colony from that kingdom having emigrated hither, in conjunction with the missionary work of the Rev. Augustus Bessonies. Dur.iig its original and earliest existence entries were made by Aaron Cunningham, 1815; John Schnell, 1816; John Frakes, John Mayo, Priscilla Crist, Daniel Miller, 1817 ; James Cassidy, 1819.

The earliest available list of taxpayers is that of June-July, 1815, when the county's area was much larger than now, so that among the three hundred and nineteen names enrolled are many who were soon transferred to Spencer County, hence an accurate separate roster would be impracticable, save at labour not justifiable.

The total amount of county tax collected was $300,021/2, and of territorial tax, $70.80l^. Abraham Smythe Fulton was the highest taxpayer, $11.25, owning one thousand acres (!) of 'first-class land.' James McDaniel was the next highest, $10,881/4, on his tavern at Troy, four horses and one negro. Another negro was owned by Grace Barber, there being only two slaves in the county, and one free coloured taxpayer, Richard Partridge. In their order the next highest taxes were paid by John Stephenson, $7.0714 ; Charles Polke, $6,531/2; William Black, $5.88; James Bodine. $5.70; and Francis Posey, $5,361/2.