Sycamore, Indiana

Lemuel Powell settled near Sycamore Corners in the year 1847, and made his first improvement on what is known as the Warnock farm, where his son still lives. Like many of the first settlers, he came to the country with but little of this world's goods ; but, being a man of great industry and business tact, soon acquired a competency and became the owner of a valuable tract of real estate. His death occurred many years ago. Will- iam Golden and Jonathan Wright settled' in the eastern part of the township near the county line about the year 1847 and entered land the year following. They were both men of some note as hunters, and subsisted principally on game, from the sale of which sufficient money was realized to keep their respective families in such articles of clothing and groceries as were needed.

Passage source: Counties of Howard and Tipton, Indiana. Historical and Biographical.., published 1883.

In the year 1847, P. S. Maxwell came to the county on a tour of observation and passed through the southern part of Jackson. Being favorably impressed with the country, he marked out a claim a short distance north of Sycamore* Corners, on what is known as the Samuel P. Thompson farm. He afterward sold this claim and entered the land where he still resides in the year 1848. He is one of the oldest citizens of the township living at the present time.

Passage source: Counties of Howard and Tipton, Indiana. Historical and Biographical.., published 1883.

It is not positively known who taught the first school in Jackson Township, though it is supposed to have been a man by the name of Stanfield. From the most reliable information at hand, it is safe to say that Stanfield taught a term as early as the year 1849, in a little abandoned cabin which stood in Section 5, near the northeast corner of the township. This building was a very diminutive affair, about 12x16 feet in size, and had been fitted up by the neighbors for school purposes with the least possible outlay of money and labor. There were a few rough puncheon benches which rested on a floor of the same material, and a large stick fire-place in one end of the room which could accommodate logs of almost any dimensions. There were no desks for the pupils' accommodation, little and big being compelled to sit on the narrow pole benches from 8 A. M. until 5 P. M., with nothing to rest their aching backs against. School books were in keeping with the house and its furniture, and the curriculum of study embraced reading in the old English reader and Testament, arith-, metic, and writing about twice a week. The first schoolhouse appears to have been used but once. It was torn down and replaced by a more commodious structure the following year. The fate of Schoolmaster Stanfield was to be drowned in the Iowa River about the year 1860. The first house built eigpecially for school purposes stood near Sycamore Corners, and was first used by Charles Somers, the date of whose term cannot now be ascertained. Other early teachers were Z. Rider, Asa Gossett, William B. Morris, B. Ladd, W. C. Miller, William R. Parker, Edward

Passage source: Counties of Howard and Tipton, Indiana. Historical and Biographical.., published 1883.

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 Jackson Township - it names this place 9 more 9 times.