Dunfee, Indiana

When the township was first organized, in 1845, the law provided for a board of three trustees and from that date to 1859 a number of citizens of the township served in that capacity, among whom may be mentioned : Latham Blee, Leonard S. Maring, Chancy Hadley, Thomas Neal, Samuel Braden, William M. Gillespie, Abram J. Gillespie, William Callison, etc. When the new law, providing for one trustee, became operative in 1859, David Allen Quick was elected trustee on the first Monday in April of that year and served one year. He was succeeded by Chancy Hadley, who was elected in i860 and re-elected in 1861, but he resigned in March, 1862, and Abbott Green was appointed to fill the vacancy. Mr. Green was elected in April, 1862, and served one year. Thomas Kemp was elected trustee in 1863 and re-elected in 1864, 1865 and 1866, serving in all four years. George Jeffries was elected in 1867 and served one year and was succeeded by Otho Clark, who was selected at the April election in 1868, but the law was changed, fixing the term of the township trustee at two years and providing that the election of township officers should be at the regular state election in October. At the election of the second Tuesday in October, 1870, William Bell was elected trustee, defeating Otho Clark, who was a candidate fof re-election, by a majority of one vote. Mr. Bell served two years and was succeeded by Frederick Brock, who was re-elected in 1874 and served four years. Henry Vogely was selected trustee in October. 187O, but the law was again changed and provided for the election of township officers on the first Monday in April. Mr. Vogely was re-elected in April. 1878. and served four years lacking six months. At the April election in 1880, James Jeffries was elected trustee and served about one year when he resigned and John L. Mc- Laughlin was appointed and after serving about one year was succeeded by Levi Ebersole. Mr. Ebersole served two years and was succeeded by Joseph B. Plnmmer, who held the office two years when he turned it over to James W. Burwell. Air. Burwell was succeeded by Albert Bush, who held the office two years and four months. Harvey Beard was elected trustee on the first Monday in April, 1890, but there had been another change in the law which provided that the township trustee should hold his office four years, beginning on the first Monday in August following his election in April. Mr. Beard held the office until the spring of 1894. when he resigned and William Schoenauer was appointed to fill the vacancy. At this time the law was changed again and provided for the election of township officers at the regular state election in November. William G. Bowman was elected trustee on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1894, and took charge of the township business on the first Monday in August. 1895. Mr. Bowman resigned his office in 1899, and Thomas J. Smith was appointed as his successor. About this time another change in the law provided that the township trustees and assessors should hold over until the general election in November, 1900. Owing to ill health, Mr. Smith resigned as trustee early in 1900 and Oliver J. Crowel was appointed as his successor. At the regular election in November, 1900, Louis W. Dunfee was elected trustee and held the office four years and was succeeded by Oliver J. Crowel. who was elected in November, 1904, and is the trustee of the township at this writing and is the twenty-first trustee of Jefferson township since the spring of 1859, when the law providing for one trustee for each township was adopted.

Passage source: History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907.

During the summer of 1874, a frame schoolhouse was built at Brimstone Corners by Frederick Brock, trustee, and the house is still standing on the original location and is used by the Free Methodist congregation for a house of worship. James E. McDonald taught the first term of school in the new schoolhouse during the winter of 1874-75, and was followed by John A. Price, John P. Hornaday, Alonzo B. Goble, Barbara E. Howenstine, R. H. Maring, Arthur M. Gillespie, Althea M. Dunfee, J. Monroe Baker, Horace S. Kaufman and others.

Passage source: History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907.

Some time in the early '50s, a schoolhouse was built about one-half mile north of the present schoolhouse in district number four, in Jefferson township. The building stood on the land of Jonathan Dunfee, in section 17, on the east side of the public highway, was a frame structure and stood with the side to the public road with the door in the south end. Three windows were placed in each side and two in the north end, with a blackboard between the. two end windows. It was a frame structure about twenty by thirty, and the room was furnished with rude desks made of poplar lumber. The building was erected by William Andrews, contractor, who also taught the first term of school. He was followed by William Bell, Rufus King, Rebecca Swain, Reuben Priest, Philander Ginger, Mary S. Truman, Henry C. Crowel, Zenhaniah Hadley, Levi W. Bell, Elizabeth Shriner, Nancy Crissinger, Francis M. Ihrig, Elisha Swan, Miss Allie Austin and Miss Sarah Brown.

Passage source: History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Jefferson Township - it names this place 14 more 14 times.