Scotland Bridge

This township is the east center and in the north tier of townships adjoining Clinton County. It contains thirty-three square miles, six miles from east to west and five and one-half miles from north to south. Sugar Creek enters it at the northwest corner, cutting off about one section. Mud Creek and Brown's Wonder flow through the township in a northwestern direction and empty into Sugar Creek, the former just north of the center of the township in the edge of Clinton County, and the latter entering near Mechanicsburg in Washington Township. Tarepin Creek, or branch, also flows in the same direction. The soil is productive, and rapid improvements are being made in the way of ditching. The streams above referred to drain it naturally and afford an outlet to the countless ditches now being put in. The timber of this township at one time must have been grand, as there are yet standing some fine specimens of oak. The demand for walnut, poplar and cherry has about exhausted this once bountiful supply. The pioneers of this township had this to contend with in making their farms. Some of the finest timber was burned up and destroyed. There was no demand for lumber at that time. No doubt there has been enough timber burnt and destroyed to pay for the land at fifty dollars per acre. Among the early settlers of this part of the county we mention Jas. H. Sample, Geo. Fall, Henry I. Bennett, Robert Stephenson, A. B. Clark, Hoza Aldridge, Resin V. Garrett, Thos. Abernathy, Wm. West, David Evans, John Tucker, Jesse Scott, Hiram Roberts, Jesse Perkins, John Caldwell, Wm. I. Bennett, Newton Cassadav, John M. Burns, Hiram Brenton, Alexander Caldwell, (ieo, Mognett, Jas. Downing, Hugh

Passage source: Early Life and Times in Boone County Indiana, published 1861.

Clinton township is situated in the northern tier of townships bounded on the north by Clinton county, on the west by Washington township, on the south by Center and on the east by Hamilton county. It contains thirtythree sections of land. Half sections 13 to 18 inclusive, and sections 19 to 36 inclusive, in township 20 north, range 1 east, and sections 1 to 12 inclusive, in township 19 north, range 1 east. Its surface is generally level, sloping gently towards the northwest. Section 12 in the southwest corner is the highest and most level in the township, and the northwest corner is the lowest and most broken. Sugar creek cuts off a small portion of the northwest corner. Mud creek, Terrapin creek and Brown's Wonder, all flow toward the northwest and drain the entire township into Sugar creek. There is a story about the origin of the name of this latter creek. It is stated that when the surveyors were surveying this part of Boone county and came across the head waters of this stream in Center township and it twisted and flowed in so many directions that much controversy arose among them as to where the creek would empty. It was no easy work to survey this wild land. To cut a way through the brush and wade through the bogs and lazy crooked streams was a tedious task. Added to this was the difficulty of telling a stream that was lost in the woods from a regular bog or swamp. This sluggish, twisting stream was a wonder to all three of the men and especially to a young man of the company by the name of Brown. So when the riddle was solved and the perplexed stream was landed in Sugar creek, near Mechanicsburg, it was christened Brown's Wonder. The streams previously referred to drained the township naturally and made it easy to complete the work by ditching so that the rich soil was easily drained. The township is comparatively level except the northwest corner, and yet there were only forty acres of swamp land in the entire township, the southwest one-fourth of southwest quarter of section 2.

Passage source: History of Boone County, Indiana : With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Old Families, 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 Clinton Township - 2,960 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.