Van Nuys Farm

In another place (Chap. VII) is an account of the drift of settlement in Franklin Township, and it only remains to add such of the names of the pioneer settlers as the memories of those caring to impart their knowledge will give. In 1825, Moses Freeman, Daniel Covert, Joseph Voris, Thomas Henderson and, probably, John Davis, moved into and not far from the Covert neighborhood, at the Big Spring, near Hopewell. Henry Byers settled near the west side, and about the same time Joseph Hunt came in by Burkhart's, and Isaac Beeson over on Sugar Creek. John Smiley, in 1822, had settled on the same creek and had built a mill. John Mozingo and Squire Hendricks were living on the east side, as heretofore stated.

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

Peter D. and Aaron, all then settled in what is now known as the Hopewell neighborhood. Following, at intervals, during the next few years, we find coming into the same vicinity John Voris, Simon Vanarsdall, Zachariah Ransdall, Cornelius Covert, Melvin Wheat, John P. Banta, John Bergen, Peter Demaree, Samuel Vannuys, Theodore List, Stephen Whitenack, Joseph Combs, Thomas Roberts and Peter Banta. On the south and west sides and southwest corner of the township, we find that Thomas Mitchel, Michael Canary, Robert McAuly, Jacob Demaree, Ebenezer Perry, James Forsyth, came in quite early, and then passing up the south side are the names of Major Townsend, John D. Mitchel, John Gratner, Joseph Ashly, John Harter, Alexander McCaslin, James McCaslin, John C. Goodman, John Gribben, and Jonathan Williams. In the central and northern parts were Wm. Magill, Garrett Bergen, Peter A. Banta, Milton Utter, the Whitesides brothers - Henry, James, John and William - and Stephen and Lemuel Tilson, Thomas J. Mitchel, John Brown, Elisha Dungan, Edward Crow, David McCaslin, Harvey McCaslin, Robert Jeffrey, John Herriott, Middleton Waldren, Therrett Devore, Travis Burnett, David Berry, Jesse Williams, Simon Moore, John High, Samuel Overstreet, John Wilson, David, Thomas and George Alexander, William and Samuel Allison and John Wilson ; while upon the east side, in addition to those mentioned in Chapter VII, may be named Landen Hendricks, William Garrison, Joseph Tetrick, Jesse Beard, Thomas Needham, Jacob Fisher, Samuel Owens, David Wiles and J. C. Patterson.

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 Franklin Township - 10,529 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.