Danville Main Street Historic District

During tlie late war the people of DanriUe and vicinity were very strong in tlieir Union sentiments, and so wrought up were they in 1864 that luetliods were pursued in the political campaign that would tind few defenders now, and which were palliated, not excused, by the peculiar conditions of tlie times. Returned soldiers and otlier Unionists held the polls, and by one means and anotRer kept the Democratic vote down to three, while 457 votes were given for the Union ticket. Tliis and other incidents caused many of the Democratic citizens of the county to conceive a dislike for Danville which has lasted to this day, and which has had a permanently injurious effect upon the business of what ought to be a more thriving town. The ill-fetling was such during the later years of the war that some Democrats threatened to come and burn the court-house, and for a time this structure was carefully guarded and the streets regularly patrolled by the patriotic Danvilleites.

Passage source: History of Hendricks County, Indiana, Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, published 1885.

In the winter of 18S2-'3 there was the first Methodist preaching in this region at the house of Kobert "Wilson, near present Shiloh church, and a class was organized with Robert Wilson as Leader. This was the first class establisjied in the county. Soon after prosperous classes were organized at Xorth Salem, Danville, Stilesville, "Wesley Chapel and at or near Lizton. At the first quarterly meeting for White Lick Circuit, held at Robert Wilson's on Oct. 25, 182S, there were present John Strange, P. E.; Joseph Tarkington, A. P.; Peter Monicle, L. P., and Robert "Wilson and "Wesley Monicle, Leaders. At that meeting Aaron Homan, Gideon "Wilson and Elisha Kise were appointed a committee to make an estimate of the^amoimt necessary to build a meeting-house near Eobert Wilson 8. Early the next season tbe arrangements were perfected and ^le house built-the first Methodist meeting-house !n Hendricks County. At that same meeting the receipts from the different classes were shown to be as follows: Martinsville, $4 3U- White possessed they gave more than we do from our abundance, and more than that it is by the work so well done by those that have passed away that the possibility is given us to enlarge the offerings they laid upon the altars of the church.

Passage source: History of Hendricks County, Indiana, Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, published 1885.

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 Center Township - 36,715 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.