HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY LOCATION, ORGANIZATION, AREA, ALTITUDES, SOILS, ETC. In the year 1800, the territory northwest of the Ohio river, including Indiana, comprised seven counties—Brown, Crawford, Jersey, Knox, Michilimacinac, Randolph and St. Clair. The Brown and Crawford coun- ties of that day are now found upon the map of the state of Wisconsin, Jersey, Randolph and St. Clair within the state of Illinois, Michilimacinac within the state of Michigan, while Knox, named in honor of General Henry Knox, of the Revolution and Secretary of War under President Washington, comprised, in the main, what is now the state of Indiana. By the terms of treaties made with General Harrison, in 1809, at Vincennes and Fort Wayne, this territory was ceded by the Delaware, Miami and other Indians. In the year 1810, Indiana Territory proper comprised four counties —Clark, Dearborn, Harrison and Knox, the last named including what is now Clay county. In 1820, at the time of the taking of the first census succeeding the admission of the state, the number of counties had increased to thirty-five, when the territory of what is now Clay county was included within Sullivan, Vigo and Owen counties. In 1817 Sullivan county was organized out of Knox and included all the territory now comprised within Vigo and Clay counties and parts of Greene and Owen. When Vigo and Owen were organized, in 1818, the former included 132 square miles and the latter 168 square miles of the area afterward organized into Clay county. In other words, the dividing line between Vigo and Owen was range line number 6 west of the second principal meridian. By observing the map it is seen that Clay county ex- tends six miles farther south than Vigo—that town line number 8 north is the south boundary line of Clay, and town line number 9 north the south boundary line of Vigo. Then, that part of Clay county lying in town 9, which is 60 square miles, continued to be a part of Sullivan county until the organization of Clay, in 1825. Thus, it is seen, that in the make-up of Clay county, territory was taken from Vigo, Owen and Sullivan. not with standing the prevailing impression that the whole area of the county was previously comprised within the two counties, Vigo and Owen. Range line number 6, which was the dividing line between Vigo and Owen counties to the point of intersection with town line number 10, lies immediately west of the town of Middlebury, crossing Eel river just west of the Evansville & Indianapolis Railroad bridge, touching the east side of Saline City, and passing through the City of Brazil on Forest Avenue. At the legislative session of 1825, nine years after the admission of the state, and very soon after the removal of the seat of government from Corydon to Indianapolis, a bill was introduced by Daniel Harris, then the member of the lower house of the General Assembly from Owen county, providing for the organization of the new county of Clay, which was enacted, and approved by the governor on the 12th day of February. Whether the act was approved by Governor William Hendricks or by Acting Governor James B. Ray is not popularly known, the latter execu- tive having succeeded the former on this day, and, presumably, at 12 o’clock M. Representative Harris then resided upon the extreme west- ern border of Owen county, on what was afterward for many years known as the Connely place, at what is now Eel River station. At a later day he crossed the river and settled what is now the Jacob Baumunk place. The following is the act of the legislature organizing the county: SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That from and after the first day of April next, all the tract of country included within the following boundaries, shall form and constitute a new county to be known and designated by the name of the county of Clay, to wit: Beginning at the south- west corner of township 9 north, range 7 west, thence east ten miles, thence north twelve miles, thence east six miles, thence north nine miles, thence west four miles, thence north nine miles, thence west ten miles, thence south six miles, thence west two miles, thence south twenty-four miles to the place of beginning. Sec. 2. The said new county of Clay shall, from and after the first day of April next, enjoy all the rights, privileges and jurisdictions which to separate and inde- pendent counties do or may properly belong or appertain. Sec. 3. That John Denny, of Putnam county, John Bigger, of Owen county, Rezin Stulby, of Vigo county, Jacob Bell, of Parke county, and James Smith, of Greene county, are hereby appointed commissioners agreeably to the act entitled “An act fixing the seat of justice of all new counties hereafter to be laid off." The said commissioners shall meet at the house of David Thomas, in the said county of Clay, on the second Monday in May next, and shall immediately proceed to discharge the duties assigned them by law. It is hereby made the duty of the sheriff of Owen county to notify said commissioners, either in person or by writing, of their appointment, on or before the first Monday in May next, and for such services he shall receive such compensation out of the county treasury of the said county of Clay as the board of justices thereof may deem just and reason- able, to be ordered and paid as other county claims are paid. Sec. 4. The county board of justices of the said new county shall, within twelve months after the permanent seat of justice shall have been selected, proceed to erect the necessary public buildings therein. Sec. 5. That all suits, pleas, plaints, actions, prosecutions or proceedings here- tofore commenced and pending within the limits of the said county of Clay, shall he prosecuted to final issue in the same manner, and the state and county taxes which may be due on the first day of April next, within the bounds of the said county of Clay, shall be collected and paid in the same manner and by the same officers, as if this act had not been passed. Sec. 8. The county board of justices shall meet at the house of David Thomas in said county, on the first Monday in November next, and then and there proceed to do and transact all such necessary county business as may be required by law. Sec. 7. The said county of Clay shall be attached to the first judicial circuit and shall continue to be attached to the several counties from which it has been taken for the purpose of electing senators and representatives to the state legis- lature and the other state officers, and in all elections for any of said officers the citizens thereof shall vote in the same places and in the same manner they would have done if the erection of said new county bad not taken place. That part of the area of the state of Indiana as now constituted, known as Clay county, comprising an extent of 360 square miles, lies between the thirty-ninth and fortieth parallels of north latitude, the inter- mediate line of 39* 30’ crossing the county six miles from the north line, along the north boundary line of Jackson and Posey townships, through the city of Brazil, and that of 39* 15’ intersecting Harrison and Lewis townships about mid-way. The meridian of 10 degrees of longitude west from Washington, which corresponds with that of 87 degrees west from Greenwich, crosses the extreme east side of the county, intersecting only Washington township, touching closely on the west border-line of the town of Bowling Green. The north line of the county is 140 miles south of Lake Michigan, the east line 115 miles west of the Ohio border-line, the south line 90 miles north of the Ohio river, and the west line 15 miles from the Illinois-Indiana border-line, which locates the county within the southwest quarter of the state. In the system of United States surveys a strip of land extending north and south and lying between two meridian lines six miles apart is known as a Range. So, too, a strip of the same width extending east and west lying between two parallel lines is known as a Town. Ranges are numbered in regular order, beginning with one (1), both east and west from a principal meridian, as range one (1) east, range one (1) west, etc. Towns are numbered correspondingly, beginning at a base line, as town one (1) north, town one (1) south, etc. The lines which define or mark out these divisions intersect each other at right angles, forming squares of thirty-six miles, or sections, which areas, or squares, are designated as congressional townships. Under the government sur- veys all the lands of Clay county are comprised within towns nine (9), ten (10), eleven (11), twelve (12) and thirteen (13) north, and within ranges five (5), six (6) and seven (7) west. In town nine (9) are sixty sections, in town ten (10) sixty, in town eleven (11) ninety-six, in town twelve (12) eighty-four and in town thirteen (13) sixty; in range five (5) are thirty-six sections, in range six (6) one hundred and fifty- six, in range seven (7) one hundred and sixty-eight. The line between towns eight (8) and nine (9) is the south line of the county, and that between towns thirteen (13) and fourteen (14) the north line; so, range line number five (5) is the line between Putnam and Clay counties, from the northwest corner of Cass township to the southeast corner of Parke county, a length of nine miles, and range line number seven (7) the line between Clay and. Vigo, a length of eighteen miles, and between Clay and Sullivan counties, a length of six miles. The border lines of the county as defined in the act of organization have never undergone any changes. The length of the county is thirty miles, the width from ten to sixteen miles, average width twelve miles, making a total of 360 square miles, or 230,400 acres. The aggregate extent of border line, which describes ten right angles, is ninety-two miles. All the counties bordering on Clay, six in number, antedate it in organization. On the north lies Parke, organized in 1821; on the east Putnam and Owen, in 1822 and i8i8, respectively; on the south, Greene, in 1821, and on the west, Sullivan and Vigo, in 1817 and 1818, respec- tively. Comparatively, of the ninety-two counties of the state, sixty-six are of greater area, twenty-two of less, and two others are the same as that of Clay. The territory of Clay county is, practically, just the one hundredth part of that of the state, which means that it is thirty miles less in area than the average county. It is four times the size of Ohio county, which is the smallest in the state, and just a fraction more than half the size of Allen, which is the largest county in the state. Clay county is a part of the elevated lands of the Wabash Valley. The general surface of the county is neither level nor hilly, but undulated. It is, therefore, not marked by any great topographical diversities and contrasts. The most elevated point within the territory of the county, with respect to the level of the ocean, is estimated at 800 feet; the lowest at 533 feet. The approximate average elevation is 667 feet, 68 feet less than that of the general average surface level of the, state, which is 735 feet. The maximum plateau elevation of the state, which is in Randolph county, is 450 feet higher than that of Clay county, notwithstanding the average difference of but 68 feet. With respect to the level of Lake Erie, the extremes of the county are estimated at 227 feet above and 40 feet below, an approximate average elevation of 133 feet. The mean surface level of the county lies 234 feet above low water mark in the Wabash, at Terre Haute. The estimated elevation of the Old Feeder Dam above the Wabash, at Terre Haute, is 122 feet, hence the average elevation of the surface of the county above Eel river, at the dam, is 112 feet. Eel river, at Bowling Green, is 75 feet above the door- sill of the court-house at Terre Haute, and the bed of the old canal at Birch creek feeder 63 1/2 feet above the bed of the canal at Terre Haute. The bluff of Eel river on which stands the old court-house at Bowling Green, is 160 feet above the site on which the court-house stands at Terre Haute. The site of the present court-house at Brazil is 165 feet above that of the court-house at Terre Haute. The greatest elevation in the county is said to be in the extreme northeast corner, near the line of the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad, between Calcutta and Lena, and the lowest point in the extreme southeast corner, where Eel river flows across the line into Owen county, near Johnstown. The highest point in the county along the line of the Vandalia Railroad, is the Wools Hill, near Newburg, which is the highest point between Greencastle and Terre Haute. The altitude at the point of the Vandalia’s crossing the Clay-Putnam line is 670 feet, at Eaglesfield’s 692 feet, and at Brazil 649 feet. In the central part of the county, the Grimes Hill, near Ashboro, rises above all the surrounding contiguous country, the summit of which, some years ago, was computed to be 80 feet above the ball on the spire of the old court-house at Terre Haute. In the south part of the county. the highest point is the Sand Hill, on which stands the old town of Middlebury, the summit of which is 95 feet above the grade of the Evans- ville & Indianapolis Railroad at Clay City. The observer on the roof of the graded school-house at Middlebury is at an altitude of 125 feet above the site of Clay City, though but one mile distant. The elevation of the mouth of Eel river above the ocean level is 163 feet more than that of the mouth of the Wabash. The surface of the county presents a variety of soil, from the deep, black muck of the sloughs and marshes to the thin, gray and yellow clays of the uplands. On the small openings, or prairies, the low surface is a dark muck, and the high, a black sandy loam. The bottom land on the margin of the streams is a rich clay loam, with a clay subsoil. These loamy soils of the prairies and the first bottom are the most productive lands of the county, yielding large crops of wheat and corn, vegetables and grasses, with but comparatively little attention to cultivation. That part of the bottom farthest from the stream and skirting the hills is mostly a tough, gray clay, with a surface deposit made by successive overflows. Between these extremes, is a belt of second bottom, variable in composition. The clay soil of the flat uplands is mostly tenacious and wet, but rendered porous and abundantly productive by proper cultiva- tion, aided by alkaline and manurial applications. It yields all the varied products adapted to this particular climate. Much the larger area of the county, in its primitive state, was heavily timbered. On the bottoms the principal growth was the oaks— white, burr and water—shell-bark hickory, ash, beech, gum, elm and other varieties; on the margin of the streams, sycamore and cottonwood, and on the highest grounds, black-walnut and burr-oak. of the largest size; on the uplands, the red, black and white oaks, smooth hickory, sugar maple, beech and some ash, and on the strongest uplands an abundance of stately poplars—the undergrowth, red-bud, sassafras, dog- wood, pawpaw, black-haw, hazel, etc. In the western central part of the county are two small openings, called Clay Prairie and Christie’s Prairie, and in the southern part, a third one, known as Puckett’s Prairie. The first named covers an area, approximately, of ten square miles, the second twelve, and the third fifteen. Besides these there are several smaller areas skirting the sloughs, which have the characteristics of the prairie. Bordering all these sections the growth of timber is a scrubby oak, with persimmon, the latter found also in families, or clumps, in the interior. Approximately, the geographical center of the county is in town 11 north, range 6 west, at a point very near the town of Ashboro. Were the county a perfect parallelogram in figure, or outline, 30 by 12 miles, the crossing of midway lines of latitude and longitude would mark the exact center, a mile and a quarter southwest of Ashboro, immediately on the east line of Perry township, east side of Birch creek, between the course of the stream and the track of the Brazil Branch Railroad; but as thirty-six square miles, one-tenth the area of the county, lies east and outside of the east line of our assumed parallelogram, twenty-four miles of which lies north of a middle east-and-west line as against but twelve miles south of such line, the center is correspondingly east and north of the point defined, say one mile short eastward and a third of a mile northward, at a point within three-fourths of a mile west of south of the brick school-house, as the assumed central part of the town of Ashboro. SUBDIVISIONS OF THE COUNTY. A congressional township is uniformly an area of thirty-six square miles, as surveyed and mapped under an act of the Congress of the United States. The civil township is of variable extent, of which the area and boundaries are determined by the local authorities or by the people themselves for convenience of administration in civil affairs. In area and outline the congressional and civil township may be the same, or the civil township may be more or less than the congressional. Clay county is equal in extent to just ten congressional townships, compris- ing eleven civil townships. Of the eleven townships of Clay county, Jackson, Posey and Washington are congressional; Lewis, Harrison and Perry are larger, Dick Johnson, Van Buren, Sugar Ridge, Cass and Brazil are less. From lack of the necessary data no historically accurate account can be given of the original subdivision of the territory of the county into townships. At what date the first board of justices, or county commis- sioners, was organized and proceeded to put in motion the wheels of local government is not a matter of any existing public nor private record. Doubtless, the work of organization moved but slowly. Though not posi- tively known by any one now living, it is understood, that previous to the building and use of the original court-house, the county board trans- acted business at the house of David Thomas, on Eel river, where the commission constituted by the act of organization had been instructed to meet and proceed to locate the public buildings. Territorially, the boundary lines of the first civil townships may have been defined and made matter of record sometime in advance of the election of justices and constables. Martin Bowles, one of the first settlers in the northwest part of the county, who was accepted as authority in matters of primitive local his- tory, said that the first election for justice of the peace in Posey township took place in the fall of 1828, and that the whole north end of the county was then comprised within this township. If Posey ranked as one of the original subdivisions, then there were four—Washington, Perry, Harri- son and Posey, named respectively, for the first president, the hero of the signal victory on Lake Erie, and the first and last governors of Indiana Territory. Otherwise, there were but three original townships—Harri- son, including all the south end of the county, Washington and Perry, comprising respectively, the east and west sections of the territory from Harrison north to the county line, out of which Posey was carved a year or two later. In 1832 or 1833, Jackson township was organized out of Washing- ton and Posey, including the territory as now comprised within Cass and Van Buren townships, and named in honor of Andrew Jackson, the president. At some time prior to 1840, Dick Johnson and Van Buren were organized out of Posey and Jackson. Accepting James M. Halbert as authority, their organization took place in 1837, succeeding the inaugu- ration of Martin Van Buren and Richard M. Johnson (known as “Dick Johnson”) as president and vice-president, for whom these two town- ships were named at the suggestion of Patrick Archer, a pioneer occu- pant of the territory. In 1841 Cass township was organized and named in honor of Lewis Cass, then prominent before the country as a states- man and militarist and prospective candidate for the presidency, who had passed through the county, over the old national road, at some time the year before. Among the surviving pioneers of the south end of the county there is diversity of recollection as to the time when Lewis township was stricken off from Harrison and separately organized. Of those who voted at the election of 1840 there are none now living, but it is main- tained by survivors of those who were then of minor age that at the election of that year the whole south end voted, as at previous elections, at Middlebury precinct. However, it must be conceded that there is no better authority on this point than A. J. Baber, from whose writings we quote: “Lewis township, originally included within Harrison, became a separate organization about 1835, embracing the territory from the north line of Greene county to the Old Reservoir, about eleven miles in extent, and from Eel river to the Vigo and Sullivan. county line, an average width of four miles. The township was named for John Lewis, who settled at a very early day and built the first cabin on the little creek just south of the site of Jasonville, which was supposed to stand on the Clay county side and within the borders of the new township, but on actual survey, found to lie within Greene county. ‘Uncle John Lewis,’ as he was familiarly called, was the pioneer who could play ‘Yankee Doodle’ on a mowing scythe with a whetstone, which he frequently did in the time of hay harvest just to please ‘the boys.’” Carrithers township was organized very soon after the Mexican war and at the time of the influx of population incident to the construction of the Wabash and Erie canal and Splunge Creek Reservoir. It was named for Alexander Carrithers, an exemplary young man raised in this part of the county, who lost his life at Buena Vista, the only Clay county soldier killed in battle in the Mexican war. This township had a cor- porate existence of but five or six years, the territory having been partial- ly depopulated with the completion of the canal and the feeder. It was discontinued and dropped from the map at the December term of com- missioners court, 1853, the territory apportioned out to the several town- ships from which it had been taken as follows: That part lying south of Splunge creek and Splunge Creek Reservoir and west of Eel river to Lewis township; that part lying north of said creek and reservoir and west of Eel river and Birch creek to Perry township; that part lying east of Eel river to Harrison township, and that part lying between Eel river and Birch creek to Washington township. During the time of the existence of this township, or precinct, the voting place was at Rawley’s, at the foot of the Old Hill. 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, Brazil township, is only about one-sixth the congressional area. The area of Harrison exceeds that of Brazil, Cass, Dick Johnson and Sugar Ridge combined, is three-fourths as much as that of Ohio county, and is considerably more than that of San Marino, a country of Southern Europe and smallest republic in the world. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Richard ( Fred) Finkbiner