HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                  69

ing the contracting and rebuilding of this bridge, petitions were filed with
the board of commissioners for its location at a point directly south of
Cherokee and near the railroad bridge crossing, which, however, was not
the order of the conrt.
    The first cost of construction of these bridges, including the rebuild—
ing at the Feeder Dam and at Neal’s Mill, and excluding the first one at
Bowling Green, was, in round numbers; $75,000.
    The course of Eel river, in Clay county, is also spanned by two rail-
road bridges. The original Evansville & Indianapolis bridge, a wooden
structure, at Connelv, was erected in 1872, the first iron rail laid on it
Friday, August 2d. This temporary bridge was displace by the present
permanent iron one in 1891.
    The Monon bridge, north of Howesville, was built in 1906-7, pro-
nounced by experts to be one of the most permanent and safest railroad
bridges in the state.
    Eel river basin, that scope of territory drained by this stream, covers
an area of probably one thousand square miles, including, practically, all
of Clay county, with parts of Owen, Putnam, Boone, Hendricks and Mor-
gan counties. Tributary to that part of Eel river lying within the borders
of this county, including its lower and middle courses, are as many as
thirty smaller streams, of which the larger number are affluents from the
west side. On either side are three principal branches—Jordan, Six Mile
and Big creek on the east, Croy’s creek, Birch creek and Splunge creek
on the west.
    Jordan has three distinet sources, rising in Jackson, Jennings and Mor-
gan townships, Owen county. The main source is near Cataract. The
three branches flow together one mile north of Jordan village, a mile and
a half east of the county line, the main stream then flowing westward
into Eel river, at Bowling Green. This stream bears the most remarkable
name of all the water courses of the county. At the time of the organiza-
tion of the Old Settlers, at Center Point, in 1873, James P. Thomas made
the statement that his father, David Thomas, who settled on Eel river
some years hefore the organization of the county, gave it this name. On
arriving at the creek, coming from the east. and beholding the stately
timber, the beautiful verdure. and the fertile virgin soil of the plain lying
between the creek and the river, he thought of the Land of Promise, and
as he passed over and took possession, christened the stream the “Jordan.”
This stream is about twelve miles long.
The surface drained by this stream is uneven and rugged, at places
precipitous and hilly, affording sufficient current for motor purposes and
the operation of mills of minimum capacity. There have been on this
water course as many as four mills for the production of breadstuff and
feed. At an early day Oliver Cromwell, Sr., built and operated a corn-
cracking mill at a point several miles up the creek from Bowling Green.
at a later day known as the Fritz Schroer mill. The "Jordan" mill, near
the mouth of the stream at Bowling Green, was at first a sawmill, built,
it is said, by Hickman Carrel, then converted into a gristmill, now the
only flouring mill in Washington township. operated by Stewart Drake.
Between these mills was that of John Phegley, on the Edward Thompson
place, and that of William Nees, between the Schroer and Phegley mills.
Of these three upper mills, operated up to the time of the Civil war, the
Nees mill ran later than the others. There were also several saw and
lumber mills. Jordan was bridged at Bowling Green in 1859, the wooden