Fairview, Indiana

The first actual settlers in Green Township iire supposed to have been Alexander Gan-inger and Martin Boots, opposite Fairview. They entered their land in August and October, 1832, and were living there in March, 1833, and probably in 1832. AVhen the Greens and Bro^vns came from Tennessee in March, 1833, Garringer and Boots were the only families in the township. In the spring of 1833, a comj)any from Tennessee (see biography of Thomas Brown and Jonathan Green) settled not far from Steubenville, on both sides of the river, which colony made a brave beginning for that township of at least nine and perhaps more families in one group.

Passage source: History of Randolph County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers : to Which Are Appended Maps of Its Several Townships, published 1882.

Philip Berger. who came in 1838, says: "The country was all woods. A few settlers were scattered here and there, but they had only cabins with small clearings like deep caves simk far below the tops of the thick, almost unbroken forest. These little clearings made hardly a perceptible break in the vast, untrodden wilderness." When he came he says the residents were as follows: Alexander Garringer, across the river from P'airview; Mai-tin Boots, across the river from Fail-view; Mr. Porter, on the present site of Fain-iew - did not stay; Daniel Culver had bought out Mr. Porter, and was there at the time of Mr. Berger's arrival; Naselrod had been on Thomas Hubbard's i)lace; Hubbard bought out Naselrod in 1837: Alexander Stevens had sGttlod in the east part about 18:](), ponuips the first iu the township; John Bono lived below Faivview, and now resides in the town; Anthony Wayne McKinney came in lyiH. and his son, John B. McKinney, lives now opposite Fairview in a splendid and costly mansion, beincr the owner of fourteen or fifteen hundred acres of land and of great herds of cattle and stock; Nathan Godwin came in l!S37. and his son, Thomas Godwin, is a resident of Fairview; John Garringer came in 18:^0, and resided where Baldwin now lives; Martin Smith bought out Garringer in the fall of 1830; Bennet King, father of William O. King, residing near Deerfield, lived iu the northwest corner of the county, northwest of Fairview; Bennet King went to Missoiu-i and lives there yet; Elijah Harbour was west of Samuel Caylor's, in the fall of 1835; The Browns (Thomas and his three sons) had settled south of the river, perhaps in 1833 or 1S84. They sold to Zebulon Ganti-eH in lS39, and left for Iowa; Israel Wirt entered south of Brown's in 1S30, and moved there in the fall of 1837; ho died in the summer of iSSO, eighty-four years old; Tunis Brooks lived on Brook's Prairie. He had been there two or three years. Benjamin Mann was on the south side of the river, one mile west of Fairview. William Vineyard lived above Fairview. He was uncle to Edward Starbuck's first wife, her father being John Vineyard, brother to William, and a very nice and estimable gentleman, and much less backwoodsish than some others of the connection. James McProud was a very early .settler, and is still living, having been a prominent citizen. Elijah Hurbom- came in 1834, settling north of Mississinewa and oast of Fairview. He was buried in Fairview. having the largest country funeral ever known in that rogioQ. His death took place in ISGU or 1870. Nathan Davis, on tlie John Life farm; Ulrich Keetlor was on the Nancy Boots fal-ini David Milbura was on the nortli side, two miles east of FairvioW; Jonathto. Joel and Julian Green lived near Stenbenville; thb BrowHs were north of Cht'istian Lifer's, south of the river; Martin Boots was south of the fiver, near Fairview; Samuel Caylor caiuo in 1S37; John Life, came in the spring or sumulef bf 1838.

Passage source: History of Randolph County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers : to Which Are Appended Maps of Its Several Townships, published 1882.

The first Justice was John Garringer in 1838. People say that he kept his docket on slips of paper and stuck them in cracks in the logs of his cabin, and that nobody but himself could read them. The fir.-st burial in Fairview graveyard was that of an old lady, Mrs. Shirley, mothor-inlawof Kauben Eppart. Mr. Godwin laid oft' the graveyard. Thomas Powell was buried in what is now J. B. McKinney's pasture bafore 1838. The spot is unknown, The first wheat in thesettlamant w.israisei by Ttio-Tiis Hubbard, three acres, produoing sisty bushels. Flat-boats and pirogues used to float down the river with apples, pork, flour and what not. One spring five boats came down loaded with charcoal. They were stove in, and the coal was lost. One broke in pieces going over McKinney's dam. Mr. Hubbard set out an orchard iu 1840. getting the trees of Joab ^Vard, at Ridgeville. There were 120 trees, and ho gave $9 a hundred, bringing them down the river in a canoe. The brick kiln of Thomas Hubbard was the first. William Ore. Samuel Caylor and J. B. McKinney each, burned his own bricks for his house. There are no brick factories in the township, neither are there any tile factories, though much ditching has been done. However, there are no long company ditches made under authority of law. No pikes had been made in Green Township, strange as the fact may seem, till the summer of 1880. The people there made a beginning upon the east and west road leading from Ridgeville to Fairview, an old throughf are laid out some fifty or more years ago.

Passage source: History of Randolph County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers : to Which Are Appended Maps of Its Several Townships, published 1882.

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 Green Township - it names this place 23 more 23 times.