8                           HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

    Petitions were then filed with the board of commissioners asking
for the organization of a new township out of the territory of Washington
township, when, at the March term of court, 1854, the following order
was made and put to record:

    “Now the board proceeds to consider the petition heretofore presented for the
division of Washington township, whereupon it is ordered that said Washington
township be divided and a new township be organized to be called Sugar Ridge
township, of Clay county, Indiana, of the territory described and bounded as fol-
lows, to wit: Commencing at the northwest corner of section 2, township 11 north,
of range No. 6 west; thence south on the line dividing sections 2 and 3, 10 and 11,
14 and 15, 22 and 23, 26 and 27, 34 and 35 in said township, to where said line inter-
sects Eel river; thence with said line to where Birch creek enters into it; thence
up Birch creek to where it crosses the range line between ranges 6 and 7; thenco
north with said line to the northwest corner of section 6, in township 11 north,
range 6 west; thence east between townships 11 and 12 to the place of beginning;
and it is further ordered that Grimes schoolhouse be the place of holding elections,
and that Charles W. Moss be appointed inspector of elections for said township,
and that the auditor advertise the election immediately.”


    Two names were suggested to the board for the new township, that
of Sugar Ridge, by Charles W. Moss, and that of Birch Creek, by John
J.  Peyton, who then resided on what is known as the Fogle place, near
Center Point, of which the board chose the former. It was so named
from the high ridge abounding in sugar timber in the central part of the
territory.
    The order of the board of commissioners constituting Brazil town-
ship was made at the December term, 1868, on a petition signed by
John B. Richardson and 175 other citizens of the territory, the reason
offered in support of its organization being simply that of convenience.
The territory comprised within this township is but two and a half miles
square, a total area of six and a fourth square miles, of which two and
a half miles was taken from Dick Johnson and three and three-fourths
miles from Van Buren township. Of the eleven townships two are
interior—Brazil and Sugar Ridge—and nine are border townships. The
greatest extent of border line is that of Lewis which is fifteen miles and
the least extent that of Cass, but seven miles.
    The areas of the eleven townships, in square miles and acreage, are
here given approximately, if not accurately:
                            Square miles                Number of acres.
    Brazil                      6 1/4                           4,000
    Cass                        12                              7,680
    Dick Johnson                21 1/2                          13,760
    Harrison                    68 1/2                          43,840
    Jackson                     36                              23,040
    Lewis                       40 1/2                          25,920
    Perry                       44                              28,160
    Posey                       36                              23,040
    Sugar Ridge                 27                              17,280
    Van Buren                   32 1/4                          20,640
    Washington                  36                              23,040

    From these figures it is seen that in the comparative areas of the
townships of this county there is a marked inequality. Harrison is prac-
tically the size of two congressional townships, while the other extreme,