Kingston, Indiana

Jesse lived until his death. George Cain emigrated to the west and within a few years the family name disappears from the records of both Decatur and Rush counties. McCoy first located near Grififith and then moved over into what is now Adams township north of Downeyville. The McCoy family have been prominently identified with the history of the county from its beginning down to the present time. Ishmael Grififith married a daughter of William Walters, near Kingston, and at his death left two sons, John and James. John was accidentally killed near Downeyville and James served in the Civil War as a member of Company F, Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. This disposes of all the important incidents connected with the immigrants of 1819.

Passage source: History of Decatur County, Indiana : Its People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915.

It might be well at this point to make mention of the colored settlement in Fugit township. Early in the forties a few colored families located a few miles east of Clarksburg and by 1852 they numbered about seventy-five souls. Some of them owned small farms, but the most of them depended for a livelihood on working on the farms of the white citizens. They took an active part in helping fugitives slaves to make their way across the county and over into Union count}^ Their participation in the "underground railroad" enterprise is mentioned elsewhere in this volume. When the fugitive slave law of 1852 was passed many of them left the county, some going to other parts of the state and many of them finally reaching Canada. There is now only one left in the township, Margaret Wilson, of Kingston.

Passage source: History of Decatur County, Indiana : Its People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915.

The first store in the township, and perhaps in the county, was started at Spring Hill by James Conwell, of Laurel (Franklin county), in 1823. Conwell was a thrifty trader and established the store here as a branch of his large store in Laurel. He placed Martin Benson in charge of the store at Spring Hill. The first postot^ce was at this place and John Bryson became the first postmaster. Bryson was later an associate judge. Nathan Lewis had a corn-cracker, operated by horse-power, early in the twenties. Later Lewis converted his mill into a bark grindery and pulverized slippery elm, dogwood and sassafras barks for the Eastern markets. Edward Jackman was the first to install a carding machine and found plenty of husiness to keep him busy. William Henderson was interested in a number of enterprises; he operated a grist-mill, a carding factory and a distillery and found a ready sale for the products of all three establishments. He was located a short distance east of Spring Hill. A grist-mil! was operated at an early date about a mile south of Kingston by a man named Smith. Lewis Lacker opened up a tan yard on the farm later owned by Everett Hamilton and furnished the community with leather for several years. Joseph Henderson opened the first tavern in the township a short distance east of Spring Hill.

Passage source: History of Decatur County, Indiana : Its People, Industries and Institutions, published 1915.

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 Fugit Township - it names this place 6 more 6 times.