Harbison Township

Harbison Township

This township honors the name of a pioneer family of Dubois county. The first land entered in the township was the southwest quarter of section thirty-six, township one, north, range five west, under date of May 29, 1807. It is on the "Buffalo Trace," and the entry was made by Samuel McConnell.

Among the early settlers of Harbison township may be mentioned James Hope, who was born in Kentucky. November 9, 1789, and who served as a justice, in Harbison township, for twenty years. He entered land on the "Buffalo Trace," in the above named section thirty-six.

In Harbison township lived General John Abel, a surveyor, assessor, and a member of the thirty-seventh session of the Indiana legislature. It is said Andrew F. Kelso, who came to Dubois county, in 1817, erected one of the first grist mills in the county. His mill was at Dubois. Later in life he had a mill at Ireland. Andrew F. Kelso was born in 1807, and is the father of Lemuel L. Kelso, formerly of Boone township.

"Buck Shoals," on White river, above Haysville, was a mining camp about 1886, and small traces of silver ore have been found, but no ore was found in sufficient quantity to justify extensive operations.

Among the citizens of Habison township are found members of these churches: Cumberland Presbryterian, United Brethren, Christian, Methodist Episcopal, and several divisions of the lyUtheran faith. Parochial schools are supported by the last named denominations, and the larger portion of the citizens of the township are members of the Lutheran faith.

Haysville is the oldest town in the township. On April 30, and on October i, 1816, and again on November 28, 1S17, Joseph Kelso entered land upon which Haysville is situated. The original plat of Haysville is lost. It is said to have been laid out in 1835, as a town, by Judge Moses Kelso.

Judge Willis Hays donated part of the land upon which Haysville is located. He built the first Methodist church at Haysville and was its minister. His remains lie buried at Sherritt's. He was the father of Mrs. Allen McDonald.

Joseph Kelso is said to have been the first settler at Hay.sville. Judge Moses Kelso was a leading citizen of this village, and he was for a while a judge of the court. In 1840, there was a wool carding machine at Haysville. The early merchants include the names of Johnson and Mahan, Gibson Brown, Elias and Bruner, and James S. Brace.

The original founders of the town of Haysville, with their descendants, and with their church, political, school, and social ideas have passed away. The present town contains no trace of its original founders, except that shown by nearby cemeteries and the official title deeds. In 1850, the population of Haysville was 188; in 1909, good authority places it at 300.

Dubois is a town on the boundary of Marion and Harbison townships, and about equally divided by the township line. It is frequently called Knoxville. Dubois is one of the ^^oungest and most prosperous towns in the county. In 1907, the Southern railroad was constructed nearthe town, and it added much to its prosperity. Dubois, as a town, was surveyed and platted November 5 and 6, 1885. It is an educational and church center for the surrounding territory.

Andrew F. Kelso entered eighty acres in section twelve, at Dubois, on March 3, 1829. This was the first land entered at Dubois. He may have built a mill there before he bought the land. Other land, at Dubois, was entered as follows: Thomas W. Poison, in 1838 and 1839; Shiloh Poison, 1836; Wm. Hardin, 1856, and Samuel R. Williams, 1857. The above are in Harbison township. At Dubois, in Marion township, Shiloh Poison entered land in 1836; Robert S. Poison, 1839; Wm. Hardin and Robert S. Poison, 1852; Thomas Poison and Robert S. Poison, 1856; and John C. Albert, in 1857.

Col. B. B. Edmouston is authority for the statement that years ago a town was laid out at Dubois, and that the place was named Knoxville. To this day, the name is unofficially applied, but no old plat exists.

Rev. Charles W. Ellis, a native of Dubois county, born March 17, 1845, and for many years a leading citizen of the town of Dubois, has this to say:

"It was in 1855 or 1856, that I became acquainted at Knoxville. Then as a mill-boy, I was sent wath grinding, on horse back, from my father's farm, seven miles away. In 1866, I chose Dubois for my home, with milling as my occupation. I continued to reside thereuntil 1891. The first mill built at Knoxville, was made of logs, by Andrew F. Kelso, about 1830. It stood on the left hand bank of Patoka river, and at the end of a dam built across the river, for power. A mill dam has been kept there ever since. This Kelso mill was a corn-cracker, almost exclusively, thoiigh there was a small amount of wheat ground, just as it came from earthen tramping floors, where it had been tramped out by horses, and was consequently mixed with much dirt. As there was no machinery to separate it, all was ground together, then bolted on a rude hand machine. Each customer had to bolt his own 'turn.'

"The next mill was a frame one, built on the opposite side of the river, about 1842. Its owner and builder was Shiloh Poison. It was extensive for the time. Besides a corn-cracker, it had French burrs, on which to grind wheat. There was machinery to screen the wheat, and bolt the flour. There was also a carding machine for carding wool. It was extensively patronized.

"Dr. Thomas Poison practiced medicine at Dubois about forty years. He died in 1886, and lies buried in the little cemetery that overlooks Patoka river. At the time of his death, he had lived at Dubois longer than any one else. Robert Poison was a flat-boat man. He died during the Civil War and his remains are in the Sunny South.

"In 1871, the last flat-boat went out of the "port of Knoxville." It was loaded with hoop-poles, and owned by John Buchart. In 1876, I engaged in the general merchandise at Dubois."

In 1850. the population of what was then Harbison township, was 750; in 1900 it was 121 1. In 1907, there were 212 men in the township between the ages of twenty-one and fifty. The township is estimated at $750,000.

Originally, Harbison township was settled along the "Buffalo Trace," by Americans from the South; but farmers of German parentage have purchased practically all the farms of the township, and thus made farming the principal occupation of the township. The citizens of Harbison township, are conservative and prosperous.