Ward Township District No. 5 School

A few settlers found their way upon the Mississinowa very early in the history of the county.' When, in August, 1818, the first election was held in the then new county of Randolph, several families resided in the Mississinewa Valley, and most of them east of Deerfield. Just who were there at that early time cannot now with certainty be determined. The Ih-st entry in the Mississinowa Valley and in Ward Township as well, appears to have been near the river, and not far fi-om the east side of the, township. It comprised a whole section, Section 13, Town 21, Range l-f-. and was entered by .Tames Strain. The tract lies betvteen Judge Miller's old farm and the Mississinewa. Whether Mr. S. settled on the tract is not now known. We have not met his name in any account of the primitive settlement of the valley.

Passage source: History of Randolph County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers : to Which Are Appended Maps of Its Several Townships, published 1882.

The next entry was by Daniel Rifhardson, S. W. Section 12, Town 21 . Range 14, May 21, 1817. The land lay directly north of Strain's section, and on both sides of the river. June 10, 1817, or three weeks after Ricliardsons entry, eight other entries were made, all quarter sections but one, 1,360 acres in all. The parties wore James Wilson, Benjamin Lewallyti, David Kite, Daniel Kite, James and John Jacobs, Joel Oanady, James Reed. These tracts all lay in Sections 7, 8, 9 iind 10, Township 21, Range 14, comprising one-quarter of Section 7, throe-quarters of Section 8, one half of Section 9 and three eighties in Section 10. These lands extended from Burkett Pierce's, on the west, to one and one half miles oast of Deerfield, three miles in length, but did not include the town itself. AVith Meshach Lewallyn's and James Strain's, the whole extent of the river for seven miles had been takcu up, except one and thi-ee-f ourths uiiles in two " gaps." In the course of three years, or by October, 1820, most of the rest of the land on and near tlii^ river and several tracts along Mud and Hickory and Goshc»n Creeks, had been pm-chased.

Passage source: History of Randolph County, Indiana with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers : to Which Are Appended Maps of Its Several Townships, published 1882.

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 Ward Township - 10,585 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.