Eagle Village, Indiana

Eagle Village, one of the oldest towns in Boone County, was laid out in 1831. It is located on the Michigan Road, in the southeast part of Eagle Township, about one mile east of Zionsville. Until 1852, when the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette Railroad was built, the village was a place of some importance. From the year 1850, when it was at its zenith, it gradually went down, until now there are but few houses left. Many of the buildings were removed from there to Zionsville in 1852, when the latter place was laid out. Among the early merchants and business men of Eagle Village, most of whom are now deceased, we find the following: Daniel and James M. Larimore, Reuben Price, J. F. Daugherty, John Harden, Addison Nicholas, J. B. Pitzer, John P. Welch, Oel Thayer, T. P. Miller and Fielding Utterback, all of whom sold goods from 1835 until 1851. Among the physicians who practiced here from time to time, were H. G. Larimore, S. W. Rodman, Jeremiah Larimore, J. M. Gaston, Nathan Crosby and Dr. Johnson. H.G. Larimore died in Fayette County, Ind., in 1874, aged near ninety years. S. W. Rodman lives in Washington Territory. J. M. Gaston, who did not remain long in Eagle Village, lives in Indianapolis. Dr. Johnson's whereabouts are unknown. Jeremiah Larimore died in Indianapolis about the year 1880. He is buried at Mount's Run, in this county. Nathan Crosby, quite an old man, lives in Zionsville. He came from the East to Eagle Village in 1849. Of the early merchants we give the following: Daniel Larimore came from Fayette County, Ind., in 183-, was engaged in business only a few years when he died. He died in 1839, and is buried at Eagle Village. J. M., his son, succeeded him, and was engaged in active business until March, 1849, when he died of consumption. He was a fine-looking man, was never married, and is buried by the side of his father. He was the first Odd Fellow in Boone County. J. F. Daugherty came in 1836, and was in business a number of years. He finally moved to Zionsville, where he sold goods a number of years. He now resides in Indianapolis. John Harden engaged in business in 1842. He died in Ohio, February, 1877, and is buried at Zionsville, Boone County. Fielding Utterback was engaged in business several years. He was elected county sheriff in 1845. He went West and died there ten or fifteen years ago. Oel Thayer came to Boone County in 1839; was first a merchant in Clarkstown, then in Eagle Village. He finally removed ta Lebanon, where he died February 4, 1877. John Welch engaged in business with J. B. Pitzer (his brother-in-law), in 1846. He died in September, 1850, and is buried on Eagle Creek, six miles southwest of Zionsville. J. B. Pitzer was in business several years. He was elected county auditor in 1863. He resides in Zionsville, and is seventy-four years old. er. Miller was born in Tennessee. He came with his father to Eagle

Passage source: Early Life and Times in Boone County Indiana, published 1861.

Creek in 1829. He-was engaged several years at Eagle Village as merchant, postmaster and justice of the peace. He was the second Odd Fellow in the county. He resides in Indianapolis, aged seventy-five years. James McCoy, Jesse Essex, William Gouge, William Lakin and John Gates were early blacksmiths. McCoy was married five times and then said he was on his first legs. He lived to be ninety-five years old. Mr. Gouge was a local preacher, and lived to be quite old. Mr. Essex died a little past middie life. He was the son of Jesse Essex, Sr., and the father of George Essex, of Lebanon. James Handly 'was the tailor; he moved West, and the last account of him he was still living. Andrew Hopkins was about the first saddler. He was born in Ohio, married a daughter of Austin Davenport, and died at Lafayette, Ind., in 1852, in middle life. William Farlan, an attorney, was born in New York. He resided in Eagle Village many years, where he taught school in early times. He went to Wisconsin, where he died about 1865, aged seventy years. Jesse Essex was the first tanner, followed by William Manteeth and M. S. Davenport. The carpenters of that time were Starling C. Rose, Luther M. Oliphant, Isaac L. Davenport and Thomas Oliphant. The shoemakers were Henry Breedlove, A. W. Larimore, Henry Davenport and Mr. Danforth. James Armstrong and Henry Gardner made saleratus here at an early day. 'The ashery," as we called it, was started by J. M. Larimore and Mr. Bishop in 1846. Mrs. Polly Larimore kept the tavern many years after her husband died. T. P. Miller also kept the " Pavilion." The " Eagle Village Hotel" was kept by Mrs. Larmac, Joseph Larimore, George Craft and Mr. Hurd. It went down about the year 1852, with Joseph Larimore at the helm. The Odd Fellows organized a lodge here about the year 1846 or 1847, with the following as first members: J. M. Larimore, T. P. Miller, J. F. Daugherty, Joseph Larimore, James Handly, Oel Thayer, [. L. Davenport, Jacob Tipton, T. W. Oliphant and L. Oliphant. Among the early preachers were James McCoy, Jacob Myers,

Passage source: Early Life and Times in Boone County Indiana, published 1861.

Statement by Thomas P. Miller, who was born in Dickson County, Tenn., on the Ist of December, 1812- When I was about one year old my father, Wm. Miller, moved to Butler County, Ohio, where he remained long enough to raise one crop. He then moved to Union County, Indiana, five miles southeast of Liberty, eight miles west of Oxford and three and one-half miles southwest of the College Corner, where we remained until April, 1831. Father had sold his farm the winter before and entered eighty acres of land in Boone County, where he afterwards laid out the town of Eagle Village. In the meantime he went to Cincinnati and purchased a stock of dry goods, groceries, hardware, queensware, etc. He hired my cousin, James McClelland, to haui his goods from Cincinnati to Boone County. With three yoke of large oxen and a large wagon, James brought the goods from Cincinnati to our house. With our household goods loaded into a wagon, we all started together for Boone. We got along tolerably well until we passed Rushville. It had been raining considerable and finally turned up with a blustering sdow storm, which compelled us to stop. We stopped at the farm house of Rev. James Haven, who kindly gave us the use of a school house near his residence. The next day, continuing our journey, we came to the Little Blue River, where we remained all night on account of high water. The next day we came on to Big Blue. There we crossed in a ferry boat by making several trips. Our next drawback was at Big Sugar, where we were compelled to unload our goods and cross in a large canoe. The wagons were taken to pieces and the horses and cattle allowed to swim across. Crossing White River at Indianapolis in a boat we arrived at Uncle Frank McClelland's and Uncle Thomas Martin's, seven miles west of Indianapolis. We were now but fourteen miles from our destination. Cousin W. B. McClelland, brother John and I started ahead with our axes. From David Hoover's we cut our road through the thick woods and underbrush, crossing Eagle Creek to a point about two hundred yards south of the line of the Michigan Road. We then built a camp, enclosing three sides. The roof, which extended several feet farther than the open front, was covered with clap-boards. The next day our household goods were unloaded in the camp. Our next mission was to build a store-house. This we built of logs scratched inside and out with the broad axe. The size of this large and commodious store room was about sixteen feet square. When we were ready for the goods it was not long before we heard brother Jim hallooing " Mike and Jim; Duke and Darby," more than a mile away. When he came up the remarks he made about the new road we had cut were not very flattering. Of course it was not an air line. It was a singular and lonesome looking place for a dry goods store, but it was not long before the men commenced to drop in through the woods, generally with a gun on their shoulder.. Our next work was to build a double log house for a family residence, which was of the same architectnre as the store room.

Passage source: Early Life and Times in Boone County Indiana, published 1861.

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 Zionsville Town - it names this place 9 more 9 times.