History of Hancock county, Indiana

This volume has been prepared with one object in view — to trace the growth of the county from a wilderness to what it is today. In this development, difficulties and obstacles have been surmounted. All the elements of human nature, the progressive, the conservative and the ultra-conservative; the liberal, the public-spirited and the selfish, have been thrown together in the melting pot. Differences of opinion have caused bickering and strife. They may have checked for a season, but they have not stayed, the growth of the institutions which constitute our richest heritage today. Our roads, our drainage, our churches, our schools, all of which seem so natural, have been provided by the people who have persisted and won in the struggle for better things. If this volume awakens trains of pleasant reminiscences in the older people; if it awakens a new sense of appreciation in the younger generation; if it impresses on them the fact that the choicest blessings of the present have been provided through the constancy and labor of men and women who have gone before and by those upon whom has fallen the pure while snow of years, then the author will have accomplished his entire purpose.

 

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I — GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, ETC. 33
CHAPTER II — EARLY INFLUENCES 50
CHAPTER III — THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT 58
CHAPTER IV — COUNTY BUILDINGS 85
CHAPTER V — GENERAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTY 102
CHAPTER VI — EDUCATION 182
CHAPTER VII — MILITARY ANNALS 255
CHAPTER VIII — POLITICS 329
CHAPTER IX — TEMPERANCE 393
CHAPTER X — LITERATURE AND ART 424
CHAPTER XI — THE HANCOCK BAR 438
CHAPTER XII — THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE 465
CHAPTER XIII — BLUE RIVER TOWNSHIP 490
CHAPTER XIV — BRANDWINE TOWNSHIP 513
CHAPTER XV — BROWN TOWNSHIP 526
CHAPTER XVI — BUCK CREEK TOWNSHIP 556
CHAPTER XVII — CENTER TOWNSHIP 577
CHAPTER XVIII — CITY OF GREENFIELD 595
CHAPTER XIX — GREEN TOWNSHIP 700
CHAPTER XX — JACKSON TOWNSHIP 714
CHAPTER XXI — SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP 741
CHAPTER XXII — VERNON TOWNSHIP 783
CHAPTER XXIII — FORTVILLE 798

 

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All life and achievement is evolution; present wisdom comes from past experience, and present commercial prosperity has come only from past exertion and sacrifice. The deeds and motives of the men who have gone before have been instrumental in shaping the destinies of later communities and states. The development of a new country was at once a task and a privilege. It required great courage, sacrifice and privation. Compare the present conditions of the people of Hancock county, Indiana, with what they were a century ago. From a trackless wilderness and virgin land, it has come to be a center of prosperity and civilization, with millions of wealth, systems of railways, educational and religious institutions, varied industries and immense agricultural and dairy interests. Can any thinking person be insensible to the fascination of the study which discloses the aspirations and efforts of the early pioneers who so strongly laid the foundation upon which has been reared the magnificent prosperity of later days? To perpetuate the story of these people and to trace and record the social, religious, educational, political and industrial progress of the community from its first inception, is the function of the local historian. A sincere purpose to preserve facts and personal memoirs that are deserving of perpetuation, and which unite the present to the past, is the motive for the present publication. The publishers desire to extend their thanks to those who have so faithfully labored to this end. Thanks are also due to the citizens of Hancock county for the uniform kindness with which they have regarded this undertaking, and for their many services rendered in the gaining of necessary information.