Warren County IN Archives History - Books .....Re-Location Of The County Seat 1883
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 11, 2007, 12:02 am

Book Title: Counties Of Warren, Benton, Jasper And Newton, Indiana

RE-LOCATION OF THE COUNTY SEAT.

   On the 22d of January, 1829, the act was approved to re-locate the county
seat of Warren County, the Commissioners being Ezekiel McConnell, of Montgomery
County, Peyton Wilson, of Parke County. John Porter, of Vermillion County, S. M.
George, of Tippecanoe County, and Jonathan Birch, of Fountain County. All the
reasons why a re-location was demanded cannot be stated. It was soon found that
the site was not as good as farther west, and even at other points, and,
besides, the donations did not prove as valuable as expected, or half as
valuable as might have been obtained. Excellent donations were tendered the
county by William Harrison and Thomas Gilbert, the first of whom had laid out
Williamsport in November, 1828, and this induced the citizens to wish a
re-location of the county seat where the county could receive much greater
benefit, or a re-establishment of it at Warrenton if the proprietors of that
town would come down, in a handsome manner, with satisfactory donations. These
and other matters led to the passage of the act of re-location. This act
provided that the Commissioners should meet on the second Monday of June next
(1829), at the Clerk's office, examine the various eligible sites in the county,
and if, in their judgment, the donations of any other suitable place than
Warrenton were sufficiently valuable, and if the sale of lots would probably be
sufficiently large to defray the expense of erecting the necessary county
buildings, then the Commissioners were to re-locate the seat of justice at that
point; but nothing was to prevent the Commissioners from continuing the county
seat at Warrenton, providing the donations were made sufficiently valuable by
the proprietors of that town. The Commissioners met on the day fixed, and after
receiving valuable offers of money and lands from the proprietors of
Williamsport and others interested, established the seat permanently at
Williamsport. The act of re-location provided that the lots in Williamsport
should be numbered as nearly as possible as those in Warrenton, and that persons
who had purchased lots in the latter town should have the right to exchange them
for lots similarly located in the new county seat, provided the exchange was
made within twelve months after the re-location. It was also provided that the
depreciation in the value of buildings at Warrenton, owing to a change of the
county seat, should be made good by the county. As soon as suitable buildings
could be prepared at Williamsport, the county officers were ordered to remove
there. The provision in the enactment creating the county, regarding the
reservation of 10 per centum of the proceeds of the sale of county lots for the
establishment of a county library, was reaffirmed and made binding. William
Harrison, Jr., proprietor of the county seat, deeded to the county eighty acres
of land, where Williamsport had been laid out, reserving for his own use the
greater portion of the original plat of 1828, consisting of four blocks of eight
lots each, besides one-fifth of the lots that should be subsequently laid out
from additions from the donation of eighty acres. The first addition was laid
out southwest along the river's bank, in July, 1829, by Thomas Gilbert. In
August, 1829, Isaac Rains, County Agent, laid out the celebrated West Addition
to Williamsport, from a portion of the Harrison donation. On the day of the
public sale of lots, free whisky was furnished at the county's expense!


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

PART II.
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
County Organization
========================

COUNTIES OF 
Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton,
INDIANA

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL
ILLUSTRATED.

CHICAGO: F. A. BATTEY & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1883.


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