M-2

M-2 Delaware County, Indiana KITH AND KIN CONNECTION

On Monroe Township - Excerpts from Our County, Its History and Early Settlement by Townships, John S. Ellis, 1898

-------------------Start-------------------- As to the first settler in Monroe township, there seems no doubt of his being Mr. Jonathan Mills, who came with his family from Wayne county to Monroe township in Delaware. This was in the fall of 1821. Mr. Mills was related by marriage to the Gibson family, also pioneers of Monroe and Perry, and a name as familiar in the southern part of the county as is that of Black and Stafford in the northern part. Mr. Mills seems to have been a perfect type of the woodsman and hunter, never clearing more land than was needed for raising grain and vegetables for home consumption, depending on the chase for his exchangeable commodities. It is said of him that whenever he could hear a neighbor's chickens crow the neighborhood was too crowded for him, and he at once broke camp and went in search of more retired territory, And so in the case of his Monroe township home, as he remained here but a few years (about 1830), when he moved on to the westward, locating near Anderson. Mr. Mills never entered land in the township, but, it would seem, just squatted and remained until the settlers began to get thick and game scarce.----The first entry of land ever made in Monroe township was on January 15, 1827, by Amaziah Beeson. The tract purchased was the east half of the northeast quarter of section 10 (80 acres). This tract of land lies on the east side of the Muncie and Newcastle pike, five miles south of Muncie, and is owned by W. F. Anderson, M. Losh and James Watson.----The next entry in the township was the east half of the southeast quarter of section 3 (80 acres), and was entered on March 3I, 1827, by Benjamin Antrim. This tract lies adjoining the entry made by Mr. Beeson, on the north, so all the lands entered in Monroe township prior to 1828 was this strip of land, one mile long by one-fourth of a mile wide. During the year I828 Valentine Gibson entered the west half of the southeast quarter of section 2; Robert Gibson the west half of the northeast quarter of section 12, and Zenas Beeson the east half of the northeast quarter of section 23. Thus it will be seen that in the space of two years five settlers only had taken up their abode within a territory of about two and a half miles each way, and this was about the time that Mr. Jonathan Mills concluded that the neighborhood was becoming entirely too thickly settled for him. During the year 1829 there were five entries in the township. They were Peter Simmons, in section l0; Willliam Gibson, in section 12; Rebecca Gable, in section 15, and Laurel(Samuel) Brown and James Mansfield, in section 23. Thus in three years from the time of the first purchase of public lands in Monroe township there were but ten entries of about 800 acres. However, it should not be presumed that there were only ten families living in the township at this time, for we find many settlers lived on and improved their land extensively before making their purchase. This was, perhaps, in many instances on account of financial inability, and, perhaps, sometimes neglect. Be that as it may, it is a matter of history that these delays very frequently caused neighborhood troubles and feuds that required years to heal, as sometimes one man would improve land that some one would enter and dispossess the original squatter. (Pages 123 and 124)
---------------------------------------- On the 19th day of February, 1836, Harvey Heath entered the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter (40 acres) of section 7, and the following May he entered 40 acres just north of this tract in section 6 (before mentioned.) Here Mr. Heath built his cabin and brought his wife, and here the two have lived continuously ever since, and still live, one of the few instances of where a Delaware county pioneer can be found occupying his original home that he purchased of the government, and the only case we have yet found where the husband and wife are still enjoying that first home together. Mr. Heath is in his 86th year, and his wife is his senior by a few years. They have accumulated a competency and are prepared for the other home at the Master's call. (Page 128) --------------------End Monroe--------------------

On Mt. Pleasant Township - Excerpts from Our County, Its History and Early Settlement by Townships, John S. Ellis, 1898

-------------------Start-------------------- The first school taught in Mt. Pleasant township was by Judge David Kilgore in a deserted cabin. This was in 1831, and the teacher afterwards became one of the most prominent men in Delaware county history, leaving behind him a numerous posterity, many of whom are still prominent citizens of our county. During the next year (1832) the first house was erected especially for school purposes. This was built of hewed logs. It was located near where school house No. 6 now stands in section 16, and the first teacher in this first school house was Mr. Sargent. This house, at that time and for years after, was known as the "Reed School House." The next school houses erected in the township were, Mt. Pleasant school house in 1841, Antioch, Yorktown and Nebo in 1842, and the Shepherd, (since known as the Lincoln School House) in 1844. These were all of the pioneer style of architecture, and presented a striking contrast to the neat and substantial school buildings in every school district of the township today. (Page 152)
---------------------------------------- Section 22 has the honor of being the first settled section in the township, if not in the county, if we can call it settlement, as the most done in that direction was the purchase of land on September 16, 1820, by the half-breed, Samuel Casman, under the provisions of the St. Mary's treaty. This was the north half of the section, containing 320 acres, with White river crossing the northwest part and Buck creek the center, in a northwesterly course, furnishing excellent water power for mill sites, which were in later years utilized. It is said of this first land owner (Casman) that in the purchase of land and his love of "fire-water" were found his only traits of the white man. His first wife was a negro woman, who died here at their home. He married again, sold his land to Hon. Oliver H. Smith, moved to the Indian reserve on the Missinewa, near Peru, and was finally found dead in a hollow log.------ Although Yorktown would strike the stranger passing that way now as a staid and steady-going old town, yet I can assure my readers that Yorktown was at one time a dashing, jolly place, a kind of "rounding-up" town for hunters, horse racers, etc., where it was supposed one could find about as much "fun" and "frolic" as any other place of its size in the country. Yet Yorktown always had her steady-going, law-abiding citizens. (Page 162)
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