74                  HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

which were heavily timbered with oak, to feed upon the abundance of
acorns.
    Turkey creek, in Sugar Ridge township, has its source on the Huff,
or Wilkinson place, flowing south and emptying into Eel river a little dis-
tance above the old Feeder Dam, crossed by the Bowling Green-Saline
City road west of the Fatch Chapel, so named from the many turkeys
found thereabout in the early settlement and improvement of the county.
    Knob creek, a small stream rising in the south part of Cass township,
flows to the southwest through Washington township, crossed by the
Bowling Green-Poland road at what is known as the Knob Creek school-
house, and empties into Eel river less than half a mile from this point:
so called, presumably, from the knobs, or breaks, along its upper course.
Clear Branch, a gurgling miniature water course in Perry township,
its source a short distance southeast of Cory, flows southward, emptying
into Eel river a half mile or more southeast of “the Junction.”
    That part of the county drained by Otter creek, including all of Dick
Johnson township and parts of Van Buren, Brazil and Posey townships,
about one-tenth the area of the county, does not belong to the basin of
Eel river, but tributary to the Wabash. The main creek rises in Jackson
township, Parke county, crosses the Dick Johnson township line three-
fourths of a mile west of the northwest corner of Van Buren, and flows
across the township into Vigo county. A second branch rises south of
Carbon and forms the junction with the north branch near Lodi. A third
branch rises south of Calcutta, flows southwest, intersecting the north
part of Brazil township and the south part of Dick Johnson. A consider-
able branch of this stream rises near Staunton, crossed by the National
Road near Williamstown, and forms the junction with the south branch
at the point of its crossing the Vigo county line. In the southwest corner
of Nevins township, Vigo county, Otter creek proper is formed, and flows
thence into the Wabash. This creek is crossed by the C. & I. C. Railroad,
on the high stilted trestle two miles north of Brazil, and by the Leachman
gravel road at the former Dunlavy, now the Hoch place. Evidently this
stream was so named from the otter, found plentifully along its course
in the early settlement of the country.
    A quarter of a century ago the notion prevailed on the part of many
of the interested landholders, shared largely by the public, that the prac-
tical, effectual, permanent and, therefore, the economical way of averting
the overflow and inundation of the large area of valuable lands in the big
bend of the river, was to change the course of the stream by cutting a
channel through from the Rhodes Bluff, or thereabout, to a point below
New Brunswick. With this object in view an informal survey and profile
of the lands subject to overflow and sought to be reclaimed, conducted by
Elias Cooprider, was made in the fore part of the year 1884, showing an
area of forty sections, something more than twenty-five thousand acres,
lying between the Rhodes Bluff and the county line above Johnstown.
Upon this basis of estimate it was shown, also, that there could be pro-
duced annually a half million bushels of corn, worth approximately
$2000,000 on these reclaimed lands. In the month of January following,
petitions were put in circulation asking the legislature to make an
appropriation of $40,000, to aid in the excavation of the proposed channel
and the straightening of the stream, the cost of which was estimated at
$60,000, setting forth that such improvement would reclaim lands the