Ben Colter Polygonal Barn

Its history would be interesting reading if all were given. The Hope Well church building to the cast of Pleasant Mills, in section 28, is a log structure, but has long since been used as a residence. This township has two railroads, the Clover Leaf, which passes through Pleasant Mills, and the Chicago & Lrie, through Rivare.

Passage source: Snow's History of Adams County, Indiana, published 1907.

183S. This was the fust white child born in this township. Some of the other early residents of this tosvnship were a Mr. A.yres, who came in 1S21, and settled in section 16, on the Wayne trace; that John Ross came in 1S29 and settled in section 28. and Esias Daily in 1833 and settled in section 26 ; that Zachariah Smith and William Heath, Sr., came in 1S36. Andrew Teeple, Robert D. Tisdale, Elisha Gulic and Ardillas Carter were all early settlers. The Wayne trace passes along the Saint Mary's river and through the Rivare Reservation, which was platted for allotment on the 26th day of May, 1S55. This township has two towns, Rivare and Pleasant Mills, also two railroads. The plat of Pleasant Mills was recorded on the 8th day of September, 1846. The town was laid out by F. A. Goddard and George W. Heath in thirty iots, sixty-six by one hundred and thirty-two feet in size. On the 27th day of December, 1850. an addition of thirty-two lots was made by the original proprietors of tins town site. Pleasant Alills is on the plank road route connecting Saint Mary's with Fort Wayne, and in the fifties was a flourishing town. Eefore that time the river was used as a means of travel and for carrying produce to market. The boats and large canoes conveyed grain, lumber, furs and other produce from Goddard's stores and mills down the river to market. The first mill was on the east side of the river and was built in 1834. The next was on the west side and was built four years later, with buhrs for grinding grain. This mill changed to a woolen factory and a new grist mill built in 1846. This was operated for about fifty years, and rebuilt in 1896 by J. C. Cowan and W. W. Smith.. In this village many of the old buildings have outlived their usefulness and have been torn down. However, one of the old Goddard store buildings is yet standing at the corner of Main and Jefferson streets and is used as a residence and baiber shop. Pleasant Mills has three churches, the Baptist, a brick building, put up in 1878; a United Brethren structure that shows its age, and a new frame house, built by the Methodist congregation. This town, unlike Monmouth, when its railroad was completed in 18S0, regained some of its lost vitality and took on new life. It opened up a grain market and now has several good general stores. This town has a large brick graded school building. The original was a two-story, two-room brick building that was put up in 1881 by Trustee A. M. Fuller. This was remodeled and enlarged in 1897 and an additional primary room built in 1906 by Trustee William II. Teeple. Pleasant Mills has one brick residence, one restaurant, one blacksmith shop, one barber shop, one grain elevator, one livery stable, one butcher shop, one hardware store, threegeneral stores and one doctor, Dr. J. W. Vizard, state representative for Adams county at this time.

Passage source: Snow's History of Adams County, Indiana, published 1907.

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 St. Marys Township - 1,069 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.