Bio:  John Severns, Gibson County, Indiana, from "Pioneer History of
Indiana" by Col. William M. Cockrum, published 1907, Press of Oakland City
Journal

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The first man to make a permanent settlement in what is now Gibson county
was John Severns, a Welshman who emigrated to Virginia with his parents.  At
the beginning of the Revolutionary war he enlisted as a soldier and was in
the army for a while.  Before his time was out he secured a furlough and
visited his parents in the wilds of West Virginia and together with all the
family was captured by the Indians.  His father, mother, a younger brother
and sister were murdered by them while he and his older brother were held as
prisoners and taken back to the Indian town somewhere on the headwaters of
the White River.  Mr. Severns claimed that during the years that he was a
prisoner, many times on a hunting excursion with the Indians with whom he
lived, he had hunted over all the land tributary to the White and Wabash
Rivers and over the same land on which he afterward settled.

After being a prisoner for seven years he made his escape and soon afterward
married and settled in Kentucky where he lived for three years.  In 1790 he
came to this dense wilderness and settled on the south bank of the Patoka
river, two and one-half miles north of Princeton at a point now known as
Severns' Bridge.  By his knowledge of the Indian dialect, their manners and
customs, he was enabled to make friends with them and they permitted him to
settle among them.  At that time there was a large Indian town on the north
bank of the Patoka river, nearly opposite his home.  Mr. Severns was a very
useful man to the other settlers who came some years after.  The Indians had
the utmost confidence in him and on this account he rendered very helpful
aid to his white neighbors.  His older brother, who was captured with him
was given to another family of Indians and taken away and he never saw him
again.  This brother was adopted by a prominent chief and later married an
Indian woman.  Many years after Mr. Severns had settled in this country, two
of his brother's sons visited him.  They were half breeds and were dressed
in the Indian costume.  He tried to prevail on them to leave off their
Indian costume and adopt that of the white man but they refused, saying that
their father was dead and they only knew how to live as their tribesmen did
and they would not leave their friends.

Mr. Severns lived to a good old age and left several children.  One of his
daughters married Robert Falls and from that union there has been a large

family of that name in this part of the state ever since, some of them
becoming very prominent.  William Leathers married one of the daughters and
many of their descendants are in this section yet.