Vermont, Indiana

The Vermont Methodist Episcopal Church is an oiFshoot of the Hopewell Methodist Church, and dates its history from the year 1875. The principal cause which led to its formation was the difficulty experienced by the members living north of the creek in reaching their place of worship during inclement seasons. The class was organized with a membership of twenty-five, and attached to Jerome Circuit. A beautiful temple of worship was erected shortly after the organization, on land donated for the purpose by James Miller and Jacob Brunk. The building is brick, cost the sum of $2,500, and is the best church edifice in the circuit. The present membership is about thirty. Rev. Mr. Wilcox is pastor.

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

In the year 1845, Milton Hadley, a native of Ohio, came to the township, and settled near the southeast corner, where he took a claim. He made a treaty with the Indians, and secured from them a valuable tract of land in Section 7, in which he laid out the village of Vermont four years later. Hadley appears to have been a man of some energy and forethought. He platted his town for the ostensible purpose of securing the county seat, but the selection of Kokomo for that purpose proved a death-blow to the village, and put an effectual check upon its development. One of the first houses in the town was erected by Charley Ellison, and used by him for a grocery store and dram shop. His saloon was the general resort for the hard characters of the surrounding country, a fact which caused the place to be looked upon as a rough locality. An early merchant was Benjamin Jackson, who sold goods for about three years, when he disposed of his stock to John Colescott. The last store was kept by Charles Lindley. Joshua Galway started a tan-yard in the village about the year 1850, and kept it up five or six years. It proved a paying venture, and was conducted very successfully. Galway had a blacksmith shop also, which he operated in connection with his other business.

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

The city of Kokomo on the west and Greentown on the east absorbed the business interests of Vermont to such an extent that the town plat was finally abandoned, and of the city of large pretensions nothing now remains but a plowed field. On the completion of the Toledo, Delphos & St. Louis Narrow-Guage Railroad through the township in 1880, a station was established near the original village, and a good business house erected. There is a good store at the present time kept by James Miller, a grain house belonging to Russell, Dolman & Co., of Kokomo, and a post ofiice.

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 Howard Township.