Whiteland, Indiana

As soon as settlers began coming in, Bell built a horse-mill, the first of the kind in the county. This was a very primitive affair, the tub in which the stone revolved being a section of a hollow sycamore, and the harness with which the horses were hitched to the levers being of rawhide. But Bell was an unworthy miller, and so managed the grists that came to his mill as to steal more of the corn and meal than he took by lawful toll. He wore the sleeves of his hunting shirt open and large, and he not only managed to pick up a few extra grains while tolling the grist, but, on the pretense of examining the meal as it came from the spout, he managed to catch in his open sleeves a good share of the meal, and then folding his arms about him he sauntered to his own chest or to his cabin and unloaded. Sometimes his victims would remonstrate with him, but his usual reply was, " Well, the little old man must live." On one occasion, it is said that the miller's sleeves being well gorged with meal, the horses took fright, ran away and knocked the mill stones from their frail scaffolding, and otherwise damaged the property. Bell himself received a blow from the flying debris that knocked him down and scattered the meal stored in his ample sleeves. Shame or conscience so worked upon him that he promised to do better in the future, but his promise was soon broken ; he never mended his ways. For many years after the settlement of the county, every man's stock ran in the range, and hogs soon became wild, and, when fattened on the mast, were hunted and shot by their owners the same as were the deer. Bell, it was believed, made a practice of killing other men's hogs, and once at a log-rolling, Permenter Mullenix, who had lost hogs, charged Bell with the theft. Apparently much shocked that such a charge should be made, he went to Indianapolis and employed Judge Wick, then practicing law, and Calvin Fletcher, to prosecute Mullenix for slander. The action was accordingly begun, but Mullenix made good his defense by proving the charge to be true, whereupon the grand jury indicted Bell, and he was tried, convicted and sent to the penitentiary, the first convict sent from the county.

Passage source: A Historical Sketch of Johnson County, Indiana, published 1881.

On the 4th day of May, 1829, Pleasant Township was created by striking off from White River all the territory east of the range line, making the west boundary the same as it now is ; but, up to 1838, Clark Township formed a part of Pleasant. Elections were ordered to be held at the house of Isaac Smock, and Isaiah Lewis was appointed inspector. The township took its name from its principal stream, Pleasant Run. Two explanations have been given, accounting for the name of the creek, one of which is, that when the country was first settled the stream was a gently flowing, pleasant running stream ; and the other that it was the reverse of this, and the name was given by way of irony.

Passage source: A Historical Sketch of Johnson County, Indiana, published 1881.

The first sermon preached in Pleasant Township was at the house of John C. Smock, in 1824, by the Rev. George Bush, who afterward became a professor in a theological school in New York, and wrote "Bush's Notes on the Gospels," and a life of Mohammed. A Presbyterian Church was organized in the Smock neighborhood, the first in the township, after which a meeting-house was built, which was used for a time as a schoolhouse.

Passage source: A Historical Sketch of Johnson County, Indiana, published 1881.

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 Pleasant Township - it names this place 11 more 11 times.