Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
“The Jane Ross Reeves Octagon House was originally located between Wilkinson, Indiana and Willow Branch, Indiana. It was moved to its present location in 1997.”
Wikipedia article Jane Ross Reeves Octagon House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 13 National Register listings published here for Hancock County · listed in 2001 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
An account from the chapter on Brown township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
On May 12, 1886, Wilkinson was partially destroyed by a cyclone, in which Glenn Smith, little son of John Smith, also Samuel White, who resided just east of the town, were killed, and Mr. White's daughter was seriouslv injured. Wilkinson was also visited by the storm of June 25, 1902, in which one glass factory was blown down and several men seriously injured, two of them dying from the effects of their injuries.
The chapter on Brown Township in History of Hancock County, Indiana, from Its Earliest Settlement by the "pale Face," in 1818, Down to 1882, published 1882; History of Hancock County, Indiana; Its People, Industries and Institutions, published 1916 names Shirley. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
First Settlers. - The first settlers in tliis t(nvnship were James JUirris, John Shirley, Thomas Craig, William Smith, William Arnett, Obadiah and John Eastes, J. A. Dunn, Thomas Rodgers, Isaac Snider, John Dance, Daniel Skinner, Archy Smith, Benjamin Percell, Charles Fish, Landis Eastes, ITance Steel, and the Beechman family. Burris, Smith, Rodgers, and Dance were from Ohio ; Shirley and Craig were from Kentucky ; Snider from Virginia ; and Skinner from Delaware. At a little later date came George Grist, Joseph Wright, J. W. Shelbv. John and wSamuel Steel, John and William Collin-;, Jacob Smitli, W, A. Dunn, Lawrence and O. O. II u-voy, E, Sco::Len, S. Arnett, Owen Gritlith, J. II. M ir V.iy, J. W. Jam ob^ll,. and the Barnards and Parkers.
Passage source: History of Hancock County, Indiana, from Its Earliest Settlement by the "pale Face," in 1818, Down to 1882, published 1882.
Shirley, although a town with a population of about one thousand and two hundred, has never appointed a school board to take charge of its schools. For several years during the growth of the town, rooms were rented here and there, and schools conducted in various places. A four-room building, however, was erected in 1900, which burned during the winter of 1907-08. In f9o8 the present six-room building was constructed, during the trusteeship of John S. Mooney.
Passage source: History of Hancock County, Indiana; Its People, Industries and Institutions, published 1916.
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 Brown Township - 34,023 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shirley, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2000 and 2023: 4 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shirley | $15,000 | Large tree limb of unknown size downed onto car by thunderstorm wind gusts. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shirley | $10,000 | Roof damage to a church steeple caused by thunderstorm wind gusts with the bell dislodged from the steeple. Tree damage noted nearby. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shirley | $5,000 | Utility pole and lines downed by thunderstorm wind gusts at the intersection of State Road 234 and Shirley Road. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shirley | - | no account filed |
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 01000620 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Hancock County | All 13 listed properties in this county. |
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