Salem, Indiana

In 1820 Blue Creek township was the home of one of the first white residents of Adams county. His name was William Lowe, and his cabin was built at the east end of Thompson's prairie on what then was known as the Godfrey trace. This was an Indian trail from the Saint Mary's to the Wabash ana) Salamonie rivers. It connected the Godfrey reservation with the Rivare reservation just across the river from Pleasant Mills. Mr. Lowe remained in this part of the country until 1822, at which time his IKissessions went into the ownership of a Mr. Thompson, after whom the prairie was named. It is said that Mr. Thompson died in the winter of 1831 and was buried by some residents of Willshire. Ohio. That as ihere was no lumber 'at that time to make his coffin, a large ash tree was cut down, a -«g cut from it and split in halves; that a trough was made' for his coffin. It was placed upon a sled drawn by oxen to the place of burial. This township has one of the oldest public roads in the county, the Quaker trace, or the Fort Recovery road, as it is sometimes called. Several old residents state that they well remember seeing Indian families passing to and from their reservations along the Godfrey trace; that it was not unusual to see a squaw leading a pony well loaded with lodge poles, sheet-iron kettle, skins of animals and other trappings; that there were frequently several ponies passing along one after another at the same time; that some had as many as three or four children on one horse; that the Indian man seemed to have little to do but to follow along the trail with the dogs; that in the main these Indians were a very dirty, shaggy-looking set of people; some wore blankets and others were dressed partly in skins, with some white men's clothing; that some of the children and squaws had highly colored scarfs of vellow, red or blue cotton goods wrapped around their bodies over their clothing of skins; that the men all were armed with rifles, knives and tomahawks, and usually carried them wherever they went. Blue Creek is one of the smaller civil corporations and has but one town; that is the village of Salem, which was platted on the 14th day of November, 1867, by George W. Syphers. This town is located at the crossing of the Willshire and Fort Recovery roads in section 17, and has a blacksmith shop, a church, two general stores and some pretty good residence properties. This little town has the distinction of having the only Presbyterian church in the county south of Decatur. This was built here about 1850, was a log structure and has long since been torn away. A few years later the Methodist people erected a frame church building that served their purpose for about twenty years, at which time the present frame church building was put up. Jn east of Salem is the Union chapel, a United Brethren frame church building in section 10. Blue Creek township was organized in JS38, and is a part of what was originally Wabash and Saint Mary's township. Some of its other oldest residents were Denison Tinkam, Tunis Young, Michael Eley, T. D. Braddock, Elijah Gilpen and George Campbell. This township is within less than a mile of the town of Willshire, which was laid out in 1823, and as there were mills, stores and markets there at an early dr.y, and on the plank road, it was

Passage source: Snow's History of Adams 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 Blue Creek Township.