HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

                    INDIAN OCCUPATION, RELICS, ETC.

    By the conditions of a treaty concluded by Governor Harrison with
the Delaware, Miami, and Pottawatomie tribes, at Fort Wayne, Septem-
ber, 1809, the Indians sold and ceded to the United States several million
acres of land east of the Wabash, including the present territory of Clay
county. In October, 1818, at St. Mary’s, Ohio, the Delawares made a
final cession of all their claims to the lands lying within the borders of the
state of Indiana. The tribes named were the occupants of this territory
when the white man first became acquainted with it. Just at what time
the white man first put foot upon the soil of the county may not be
known, but certainly at as early a date as that of the war of 1812, when
it was crossed by United States soldiers in the campaigns attending that
war. It is traditional that in marching from Vincennes to Fort Harrison
a detachment of soldiery crossed Eel river near the site of Bowling
Green, among whom was Samuel Rizley, who afterward located near
the point of their crossing. So, too, what was known in pioneer days
as “The Harrison, Trail,” crossing the south part of the county, by way
of the site of Howesville, was so named from the current belief that
General Harrison conducted his troops over this route on his march from
the frontier capital, civil and mlitary, to the point on the Wabash at
which was built the fortification bearing his name, and that he encamped
one night on the knoll near the head of “The Lake,” a little distance
northeast of the Howesville town plat. Which of these traditions is the
more entitled to credence at this day the writer can not assume to say.
    Though many of the Indians vacated the ceded territory as early as
1819, going to Missouri and Kansas, yet their camp-fires did not die
out here until about the time of the organization of the county, when
many went to the reservation in Miami county, and there were those who
still lingered for several years later. There are no historical
reminiscences nor traditions extant detailing any hostilities nor serious
troubles between the natives and the pioneers of the county during all
the time they associated. They seem to have been on friendly terms, and
at peace. Nor did the aboriginal inhabitants of the territory of this
county leave behind them many well-defined and noteworthy marks or
traces of their occupancy. Sandy Knoll, about a mile west of Eel river,
east of a line from Coffee to Howesville, has attracted more attention, as
such, than any other or, perhaps, all other points, in the county. In
its primitive state, this knoll was elevated from four to five feet above
the surrounding level, circular in shape, and several hundred feet in
diameter. Though the surrounding surface is a clay soil, the mound is
sand, the same as that on the margin of the river, which leads to the
conclusion that the natives carried and deposited this sand. To strengthen
this theory, its advocates assert, with a great deal of assurance, too, that
the depression, or channel, yet plainly visible just a few rods to the east,
was the bed of the river at the time the mound was made. Furthermore,
the assumed artificial construction of this knoll is attested by the fact
of an underlying foundation of timber, as though to provide a burial
ground above high water mark. But whether or not the natives made
the knoll for the purpose, it is evident that they used it as a burial place.
It has been frequently visited by curiosity seekers at home and from
abroad. Dr. Absalom Briley, deceased, who was somewhat of an
archaeologist, gave the matter much thought and attention, and in his
researches exhumed bones, teeth, beads and other specimens. Others
have also digged out similar remains. Som,e of the beads and trinkets
exhumed were in a state of good preservation. One family near the
knoll, during, the time of these investigations, collected about a half
bushel of the beads exposed by the excavations made from time to time,
which were preserved for some years as curios, then buried out on the
farm at the request of the woman of the house, who thought it wrong
to despoil the graves of the simple natives of their treasures to gratify
the curiosity of their pale faced cousins. The place of their deposit in
Mother Earth was unmarked and efforts since made to locate and recover
them have been unsuccessful. All the skeletons discovered were of
giant proportions, a stature of seven feet, or thereabout, all in the sitting
posture, with fractured femurs, or thigh-bones, a phenomenon unex-
plained. John B. Poe, one of the early pioneers, himself six feet in
height and proportionately developed, who made many excavations and
tests, found the tibia (bone of the lower-leg) in all cases from one to
two inches longer than his own, and could place the maxillary (lower
jaw-bone) over his own, flesh and all.
    It is related that a party of young folks from Illinois, on a visit to
friends in the locality, some years ago, visited the knoll to test the truth
of what had been told them of its history. The party consisted of
several young men and women. They carried with them the necessary
implements to make the desired excavations. Soon after the work had
been commenced, one of the young men uncovered and exposed the skull
of a huge Indian, of which the open mouth and protruding teeth pre-
sented a sight so unexpected and ghastly that the doubting and inquisi-
tive Sucker scattered unceremoniously his implements of research and
beat a hasty retreat.
    This knoll has not been well preserved, having been plowed over
and cultivated for several years past, so that, partially, it has lost its
identity. In making the excavation for the foundation of the brick
dwelling-house erected on this knoll, by Foster Miller, several years ago,
numerous relics were thrown out similar to those mentioned.
    On the east side of Eel river, about three miles above Bowling
Green, in the Walker settlement, on the former Toelle place, was an-
other aboriginal burial ground. At this point a natural elevation was
selected. Here, too, excavations were made and the remains of bodies
exhumed, but not at any late date. It is related of Dr. Davis, a pioneer
physician near Bowling Green, that he collected “several sack-fulls of
bones,” intending to construct an artificial skeleton for professional use,
but deterred by public sentiment from doing so, re-interred them. A
gun-barrel was at one time found in making an excavation on this
ground. Arrowheads of different sizes, carved out of flint not native
to this territory, but of sections of the country farther east, have been
found on the uplands of the county. Stone axes and fragments of
implements and utensils used in their domestic arts are not wholly want-
ing. In 1823 there were Indian villages on Eel river, near the site of
the present Centennial Mills and just below the Woodrow or former
Sanders mill-seat.
    Of the pioneer population of the county who, in their boyhood days,
associated with the native children of the forest, were James P. Thomas,
Absalom Briley and Athel Staggs. Thomas said at an Old Settlers meet-
ing, at Center Point, many years ago, that when his parents settled on
Eel river, he played much of the time with Indian boys, because there
were no white ones within reach of him. When asked what tribe of
Indians, he replied “The Miamis.”
    Dr. Briley having said in an address delivered at a Sunday school
celebration, near Middlebury, that in his youth he enjoyed going in
swimming with the Indian boys, when asked “what Indians,” answered
“The Delawares.”
    Staggs took delight in relating his experience with the natives over
in the wilds of Vigo county, before coming to Clay, having associated
with them in the days of his early manhood. The favorite sport in which
they mutually indulged was wrestling. “A white man can throw an
Indian,” he used to say, “but he’s so slippery that you can’t hold him to
the ground.”
    Of the earliest settlers of the county, who mingled with the natives,
none survive to relate personally the reminiscences incident to their joint
occupancy of the territory.

                    EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND PIONEER NOTES.

    The earliest settlements in the county were necessarily made on the
higher lands, largely on the bluffs and knolls along the river and other
streams. At that day the lowlands and flats were entirely too wet for
settlement and cultivation. The pioneers planted their habitations upon
the seemingly most inviting and promising dry spots, shunning, as prac-
tically worthless, the lands which by the lapse of time and the arts of
civilization, have become the most desirable and valuable. Usually, a
spring was sought, the location of which determined the point of settle-
rient. Many of these originally preferred and selected sites for homes
are now the least valuable lands in the county. An additional reason
for the first settler, or squatter, choosing to plant his primitive cabin on
the elevations, or bluffs, adjacent to the streams was that such a location
afforded him the more convenient facilities for fishing and trapping, his
reliance, in part, for a livelihood during the first years of his experience in
the wilderness.
It is generally conceded that to David Thomas belongs the honor of
having made the original settlement on Eel river, on the bluff on which
his son, James P. Thomas, lived up to the time of his death and where
James M. Campbell now resides. As nearly as can be ascertained, he
came there in the fall of 1818. Two years prior to that time, Mr.
Thomas came to White river, near the present site of Spencer, and was
also the first white man to settle within the bounds of Owen county. In
the spring of 1819, Samuel Rizley came from Knox county and located at
the point which we have already designated. Here, on the 13th day of
February, 1820, was born to him a daughter, Eliza Rizley, the first white
child born within the territory of the county, who was later the wife of
Simeon Stacy, residing on the river, near the place of her birth. As
early as 1821, the highlands and bluffs on the west side of the river, south
of Splunge creek, were settled by Peter and John Cooprider, Robert Grose
and James Delay, and a year later by James Briley, Elijah Rawley and
Elijah Mayfield. Peter Cooprider built the first cabin within the present
limits of Lewis township, on the Kossuth bluff, near the Centennial Mill,
at a point very near the present residence of Alfred Shidler. In the
original entries at the land office at Vincennes by the Coopriders a mis-
take was made in descriptions, by which the government conveyed the
wrong tracts of land, as afterward discovered by Surveyor William
Maxwell. As the sequel to this error the Coopriders abandoned their
location on the west side of the river, crossed over and settled on the
Sand Hill, in 1823, on the site of the present town of Middlebury. Sub-
sequently, the lands west of the river were disposed of as opportunity
offered, one eighty-acre tract having heen traded to a peddler for several
wooden-wheeled clocks of the Seth Thomas make, who neglected to have
his deed recorded, and later the land was sold for taxes, Cooprider de-
clining to repossess himself of the property, for the reason that he had
his pay for it.
    William Maxwell and James H. Downey had previously settled on
the Sand Hill, in 1823, and very soon after the Coopriders came the little
colony was joined by Thomas G. Gillaspie and Zachariah Denny. James
Briley built his cabin near the river, a little east of the Edmond Phegley
residence. Here Dr. Absalom Briley was born, February 21, 1823, the
first white child born within that part of the county lying west of the
river and south of the Old Hill. Elijah Rawley pitched his tent on the
hill-side near the confluence of Splunge creek with the river, where, in
the summer of 1823, he built the first mill ever put up on Eel river, which,
for a number of years, cracked the corn for the pioneer settlers through-
out a circuit of many miles. Elijah Mayfield settled on the bluff near
the Woodrow, or Sanders, cemetery, a mile east of Coffee, where, in 1822,
was buried one of his children, the first person interred within the borders
of the county west of Eel river. This locality was settled, also, before the
organization of the county, by William Stewart, Levi Reed, William
Shepperd and others.
    In 1822, William Christie settled on what is known as the Gilbert
place, just south of the Lower Bloomington road, the first settlement
made within the present limits of Perry township. His son, James B.
Christie, born here in 1824, was the first white child born within that
part of the territory of the county lying west of Birch creek,, between
the Upper Bloomington road and the Old Hill. At the time of his birth,
his mother was the only white woman within a circuit of several miles,
one or more squaws officiating as midwives. Before the close of the year
1824, Mr. Christie was joined by his brother, David Christie, and a little
later on, by Ebenezer Gilbert and others. Settlements were made at as
early a date as the organization of the county, on the river between
Bellaire and Anguilla, and at points two or three miles south. In 1824,
or earlier, Daniel Harris and his son Thomas, who then lived near
Spencer, on coming up Eel river to the Rhodes Bluff, found Michael
Luther on the present Hudson place. About this time, William Luther
settled on the Wilkinson place and Joseph Luther on the Isaac Stwalley
place. Peter Luther and son, William Luther, came in 1827 or 1828,
driving hogs with them all the way from Crawford county, on the Ohio
river. Ephraim Walker and William Cole were among the earliest
settlers in this part of the county. In 1827, this locality was settled also,
by Jacob Hudson and William Kendall.
    Between Middlebury and New Brunswick, settlements were planted
as early as 1827 by William Edmonson and James Buckallew, and a
year later by Joseph Alexander and others, who came from Tennessee.
Among the first to locate in the central part of the county, following
Levi Walker, who has been elsewhere named, were Eli Melton and
George Moss. Melton began the improvement of the C. W. Moss place,
(now the Jeffers place) adjoining the town of Center Point, in 1830.
George Moss first stopped on the John J. Peyton place, now the Fogle
farm, but in 1830 bought out Melton’s improvement, giving him in ex-
change a two-year-old colt. George Moss sowed and produced the first
wheat grown within the territory of what is now Sugar Ridge township.
which was then a part of Washington township. He procured the seed
at Spencer, Owen county, and carried it home. And his son, George M.
Moss, was the first white child born within the same territory.
    Prominent among the earliest settlements were those made on the
hills east of the river, near the present town of Poland. Among those
located in this section from 1820 tip to 1823, were Oliver Cromwell,
Nicholas G. Cromwell, Jared Peyton, Purnell Chance and sons, Daniel
and Tilghman, the Andersons, Walkers, Dyars and Lathams. At the
time of the organization of the county, 1825, this neighborhood ranked as
the most populous one within the territory. At that date, there were
not known to lie any white settlers within the present bounds of Posey,
Dick Johnson, Brazil, Van Buren, Jackson and Sugar Ridge townships.
In 1826, William McBride came from Ohio and settled on Otter Creek,
north of Cloverland, and the same year Jacob Goodrich came from New
York and built the first cabin on the site of the town of Williamsburg. In
1828, they were joined by Martin Bowles, from Virginia, and John R.
Smith, from Ohio. About 1827, Mark Bolin settled near the present
town of Harmony, and the year following, George G. McKinley located
one mile south. When Posey township was organized the name was
suggested by McBride in honor of Governor Posey. When twitted about
the inappropriateness of the name for an area of thirty-six square miles of
unsubdued wilderness, the old pioneer replied in a tone of assurance and
hopefulness:” Though we are a wilderness now, yet the day will come
when we shall bloom as the rose.” Soon after this Major Ringo, Joseph
Ringo and Morgan Bryant came from Kentucky and settled in this
territory. Among the many others who sought homes within this terri-
tory at a comparatively early (lay were Daniel Wools, Peter Eppert,
Micajah Phillips, Lewis Fortner, Charles B. Modesitt, John Frump, Sr.,
Jacob Moore, John Huffman, James W. Modesitt. William Yocum built
the first frame house erected in the township, at Williamstown.
    The first settlers with staying (lualities to occupy the ground now
covered by the city of Brazil, were James Campbell, Solomon Myers, Sr.,
Samuel Moore, Jonathan Yocum and James Yocum, who were there as
early as, or prior to, the year 1834, ten years before the town was founded.
Campbell’s cabin stood on the site of the present Hendrix brick residence;
Myers’, on the elevation southwest of the Vandalia depot, near the resi-
dence of William Leavitt, Sr.; Moore’s, near South Forest Avenue, on
the former Staubetcher place; Jonathan Yocum’s, at a point now in-
cluded within the court-house grounds, and James Yocum’s, on what was
formerly and is yet known as the Shattuck place. At the last named
place was born George Yocum, the first white child born within the
territory of Brazil township. C)f the pioneer population of the northwest
part of the county were the Archers, Downings, Akers, Websters and
Yocums, who settled there as early as, or prior to, 1830, and soon there-
after came Berryman James, George McCullough, Daniel Dunlavy, James
Smith, James M. Halbert and others. Ira Archer was the first-born white
child within the territory now known as Dick Johnson township.
    In the northeast part of the county were Matthew Cox, James
Roberts, Moses Parr, John Graves, Isham Steed, George Williams, David
Murphy, Joseph Mosteller, Preston Morgan, Samuel Poff, John C.
Weaver, John Pell and others, who settled within what is now known as
Van Buren township very soon after the organization of the county. It
is traditional that one Addison Pratt, a pioneer of this locality and rela-
tive of Orson Pratt, who joined the Mormons, afterwards, became very
prominent in the affairs and conduct of that church at Salt Lake City.
    The western central part of the county was colonized largely by
southern Ohioans—the Donhams, Rectors, Reeces, Wests, Hicksons,
J effers, John Crossley, William Herron, Ezekiel Pitts, William Huff,
Samuel Jackson, Robert Bennett and others. The first entry of land in
this section of the county was made by Minerva Bundy, in 1822. John
D. Christie used to locate the lands for all new-comers in this territory.
The first white female child born within the present territory of Perry
township was Sarah Jane Donham, daughter of George and Sarah Don-
ham, who, later in life became Mrs. S. J. Bannon.
    In the eastern central part of the county the primitive population
became the more numerous, comparatively, because of this territory lying
the more immediately adjacent to the locality selected for the public build-
ings. Many entries of land were made in this territory at a very early
day, a number of such tracts, however, not being occupied and improved
by the original purchasers. As to who made the first entry there is
disagreement. But whether by Cummings and White, on the i8th day
of August, 1818, or by Parks and Puett, on the 5th day of December of
the same year (as claimed), the transaction took place seven years before
the organization of the county. This land lay in the bend of Eel river,
along the Jordan, including the ground, at least in part, on which the
town of Bowling Green stands. Among the early settlers of Washington
township were the Rizleys, Walkers, Cromwells, Zenors, Thomases,
Wheelers, Elkins, Jesse McIntyre, James Crafton, Henry Moss, Abner
Hill, Lee Bybie, Jesse J. Burton, Samuel Miles, John Williams and others.
The first birth in the county succeeding the date of organization was that
of Absalom B. Wheeler, on the 30th day of April, 1825, in Washington
township, near Bowling Green.
    Although surveyed and the lands made subject to entry as early as
1816, the congressional township at a later date organized by the civil
authorities and named Jackson was not settled and occupied until about
1828 or 1830. Among those who occupied this territory at about this
time were James Green, John Sturdyvant, John Tucker, Thomas Wheeler,
Arthur Helton, Esau Presnell, George B. Zenor, George Lucas, Levi
Cromwell, Amos Hedge, Samuel Stigler, Henry Tilley, Jacob Gibbons,
the Moores, the Bolins, the Lowdermilks, the Slacks and others. At the.
expiration of a quarter of a century from the time of the white man s
coming into this territory the lands were all taken, the last entry having
been made in 1853. The first death was that of a child in the family
of Levi Cromwell, in 1834, which was buried on the ground afterward
known as the Zenor cemetery, the original spot dedicated to the burial of
the dead in the township. The first orchard planted on this territory
was set out by John Tucker. Amos Hedge, William Slack and Samuel
Stigler started their orchards at about the same time. Stephen Lowder-
milk was the pioneer justice of the peace in- this township.
    In the extreme southwest part of the county, west side of Eel river,
within what is now Lewis township, early settlements were made by
Robert Baber (in 1822), George Hooker, John J. Lanning. Nicholas
Crist, John Stewart, James Buckallew, Daniel Goble, Sr., Henderson
Curry, J. W. McGrew, James Maloy, John Sarverce, Joseph Whiles.
Edward Braden, Samuel Chambers, Joseph T. Liston, the Starks, the
Pucketts, the Stouts and others. The first of the pioneer weddings
within this territory was a double one, at the home of Byrum Combs,
later the Harry Dalgarn place, Rev. Samuel Briley performing the cere-
mony. The couples married were Emery Rodgerson and Sallie Combs,
Edward Combs and Barbara Fry. The Listons and Crists first settled
in Vigo county, coming over into Lewis township in 1837. The father
of Joseph T. Liston and Mrs. Henry W. Crist, who came to the Wabash
country at a very early date, ploughed the first furrow on Ft. Harrison
Prairie. A. J. Baber, who was fifteen years of age when Lewis township
was organized, in his local historical notes, says that the first election of
township officers was held in the open, under the spreading branches of
a large forest tree, on the James Briley, now the Bruce Chambers place,
and that the first political speech in the history of the township was made
under the same tree, by Jesse J. Burton, of Bowling Green, when he
was a candidate for the legislature in 1836. These statements are con-
firmed by the recollections of William L. Buckallew. George Hooker
was the first justice of the peace, and at his home on the Louisville road,
afterward the Osborn and then the Dalgarn place, was established the
first postoffice in the county south of the Lower Bloomington road, at a
date early in the forties. It was known as “Davidson,” and was dis-
continued in 1845, when Hooker quit the farm and moved to Greencastle.
    In the southeast part of the county, between Eel river and the Owen
county line, aside from the earliest settlers already mentioned, who pitched
their primitive habitations upon the Sand Hill and thereabout, were David
Owens, Frank Strader, John Gray, Joseph Griffith, John Brush, Robert
Thorlton,.Warren Blevins, R. A. Ferguson, Jacob Van Trees, Abram
Vanmeter, Ivan Rawley, Jacob Luther, Abner Brothers,, the Phippses,
Lankfords, Hortons, Daltons, Duncans, Whites and Poes. The first
hewed-log house in this territory was built by William Maxwell, at New
Brunswick, and the first frame dwelling, by Joel Owens, in 1853, on what
was later known for many years as the Cook place, two and a half miles
northeast of Clay City. The first orchard was planted by David Owens
on what is now the James Moody place, at Middlebury.
    But little is known historically of the few adventurers, or squatters,
who temporarily inhabited the western part of Washington township, now
Sugar Ridge township, prior to the advent of the Moss family into this
territory, five or six years after the organization of the county. Christian
Kintzley, who came about the same time, locating on the west bank of
Birch Creek, directly west of the present town of Center Point, is said
to have settled on the site previously occupied by one Thomas Little, a
preacher, without either congregation or salary, who, after a temporary
stay, abandoned the location, moving elsewhere. Mention has been made
also, of a forerunner of civilization named Mast and another named Car-
roll, one a hatter, the other a grind-stone cutter, neither of whom found
his occupation sufficiently appreciated and patronized by the then deni-
zens of the jungles of Birch Creek to justify setting up shop along the
course of the stream. But the coming of the Tribbles, Robert and Hiram,
Samuel Steed, Thomas Carrithers, John Huffman, David Lane, George
Grimes, Jacob Bilderback, John Knighton, Ezekiel Jenkins, Martin H.
Kennedy and others of character and industry, having commendable
aspirations and ambitions to gratify in laying the foundations of society
and building for the security and happiness of the succeeding genera-
tion, came upon the scene, intent on converting the wilds into fields of
grain and gardens of fruits, gave immediate promise of a new and better
era in the development and future of this territory and the county at
large. Of the Tribble brothers, the fates dealt more graciously with
Hiram than with Robert. The latter acquired and lived on the land
afterward owned and occupied by Samuel Adams, and later by Jacob
Steuerwalt. Soon after locating here and while felling the forest trees
he was caught and crushed to death. His burial was the first interment
in the Grimes cemetery on the adjoining premises. But a few years later
Hiram was elected sheriff of the county. Thomas Carrithers built the
first frame house in this territory, which he afterward sold to Jonathan
Crimes, and he to the canal company, or Henry Jameson, and which is
still standing on the border of the town plat of Saline. George Grimes
built the first brick house, on the highest ground in the township in the
year 1842.

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