Micajah Walden House

In 1836 Michael Shiel came to the county and settled near the present site of Atlanta. Allen Sumner and George Tucker settled near the Shiel cabin on the opposite side of the line later followed by the Lake Erie & Western railway. Later comers included James Thompson, Alexander Smith, John Ehrman, Frederick Smelce and Caleb Sparger. Sparger's land joined Shiel's on the west. Later both Sparger and Shiel laid out a town, calling them, respectively, Spargerville and Shielville, which towns later were merged into one called Buena Vista, and which at present is called Atlanta. Other settlers included the following: Phillip Roads, Peter Miller, Daniel Smith, Daniel and William Haskett, John Harrington, John and Jacob Crull, George Hives and Jacob Whistler.

Passage source: History of Hamilton County Indiana, published 1915.

Jackson township is unique in one respect, as it has within its limits more towns and settlements than any other township in Hamilton county. Cicero, Arcadia and Atlanta are about equal distance apart, along the eastern part of the township, with Deming, a village in the southwestern part, and the Roberts settlement slightly northwest of the center of the township.

Passage source: History of Hamilton County Indiana, published 1915.

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 - 6,516 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.