Tipton Courthouse Square Historic District

The first settlers in the township of Cicero were the Miami Indians, who resented the first few scattering white men who entered the territory to make settlement. The portion north of the Indian reserve line was occu¬ pied by these Indians, and was then called Hamilton county, but later was severed from the name by act of the Legislature, approved January 15, 1844, and the county named Tipton created. The Miamis were forced to relin¬ quish . their hold upon these lands in 1845 and were transported to the reservation set aside for them in the state of Kansas. The first permanent white settlements were made in the territory south of the reserve line, while that portion was still a part of Hamilton county. There were no entries at the government land offices prior to the year of 1834; in fact, there were but twro during that year, Absalom Sumner and Philip W. Barger. During ing the following four years all of the remainder of this portion of the township was entered, several land speculators, among them Stoughton A. Fletcher and Nichols McCarty of Indianapolis, taking a large portion of the ground. The name of the first settler in this locality known as the "Old Purchase" cannot be ascertained with any certainty. Suffice to say he came very early and pitched his rude hut in Hamilton county. One Charles Freel, a trapper, came early and settled in the eastern part of the township, but disappeared when the other settlers begun to build up homes.

Passage source: History of Tipton County Indiana, published 1914.

From Wayne county, Indiana, in 1837, came Isaac J. Parker, and he settled one mile east of the present site of Tipton, where he lived until his death in the year 1866. Parker was a native of New Jersey. He encoun¬ tered the usual strenuous hardships of the pioneer and was forced to carry on his ordinary trade at Strawtown, in Hamilton county, twelve miles distant. Joab E. Parker, a brother, came into the county about the same time and entered land farther south. He passed to his reward in 1859. In 1836 Thomas Corbin located in the eastern portion of the township, with no neighbor within a distance of five miles. Allen and James Goodpasture came in 1836, also, and remained until their death. Land was entered in this same year by Joseph Shank, and he moved his family thereon, died in 1882, and. left a good estate to his widow. James Egler settled later in the western part of the township. He died in 1882. Land was purchased by William Bishop in 1835, but he did not make a settlement on it until a few years later; Daniel Smith also lived in the southern part as early as 1835 or 1836.

Passage source: History of Tipton County Indiana, published 1914.

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 Cicero Township - 9,569 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.