DECEMBER 6, 1814
On Tuesday December 6, 1814, Josiah
Meigs as Commissioner of the US General Land Office issued deeds to eight
settlers of Washington County, Indiana Territory in the name of President James
Madison. These pioneers were: Ezekiel
Blanchard, the Bullitt Brothers, Charles Coulter, Jeremiah Lamb, Joseph Sires, George Short, Richard Wall and Noah Wright.
EZEKIEL BLANCHARD perfected
his land claim on this date for the southeast quarter of Section 31, T2N, R3E. He had purchased the rights to this claim
from William Ervin of whom nothing is known.
Blanchard’s land today lies west of the intersection of SR 56 and West Washington
School Road. This tract was highly prized in late autumn as it was a prime
flatwoods wetland replete with migratory birds.
Ducks and geese had been harvested here in abundance in the pre
settlement days. Wetlands such as this
one were found where the slight southwest tilt of the Mitchell Karst Plain butts up against the outlying ridge of the Crawford
Upland thereby ponding the surface water of the area. The northeast corner of
this tract was crossed by the road that led from the Poplar Cabin store of
Abraham Reiff to Beck’s Mill. This road
also forked east to Salem just east of Blanchard.
Ezekiel Blanchard was born
near Rutland, Vermont in 1779. He may
have been the only Green Mountain state native to settle in Washington County
when Indiana was still a US Territory.
He was a bachelor when he purchased his land. He married Elizabeth Colglazier in 1819. She was born in Clermont County, Ohio in
1794 and had come to the
Indiana Uplands with her parents, David William and Christena May Colglazier.
The Colglaziers were living in 1819 on a land claim where Goose Creek enters
Mill Creek on the new road to Salem. Fifteen years later Ezekiel and Elizabeth
Blanchard moved to Des Moines County, Iowa Territory where they purchased 520
acres from the US. Their time in
Washington County, Indiana must have been productive for them.
CUTHBERT AND THOMAS BULLITT
purchased the northeast quarter of Section 20, T2N, R4E, on this date. This real estate bounded the William Lindley
farm on the east with Royse’s Fork of Blue River flowing through the northern
part of it. The land was on the road
that went from Salem to the Falls of the Ohio. Some of the Roscoe C. Morris
Additions to Salem are located within this tract. This is where John DePauw was
living while serving as the commander of the local militia unit and while
acting as the agent for the establishment of Salem. DePauw sold this claim to the Bullitt
brothers who he was aggressively cultivating as investors in the nascent Washington
County seat of government. John DePauw
continued to rent from the Bullitt Brothers until he selected a site south of
the Brewer Blockhouse for his home in his second addition to Salem in 1824. The
Bullitt family was one of the founders of Louisville, Kentucky and was a major
holder of land in the Louisville, Kentucky area. They were active in land speculation
throughout Indiana once it became a state in 1816. This purchase of the DePauw claim was the
beginning of their extensive Indiana land dealings. Bullitt descendants are
still involved in the Oxmoor complex of properties in Louisville, Kentucky
today.
CHARLES COULTER selected the
southwest quarter of Section 21, T1N, R2E, as his land claim. This 160 tract is presently located in
Madison Township between Locust Grove Road and the Orange County line in a
north facing valley surrounded on three sides by hills on the east face of the
Crawford Upland. Coulter lived in Henry County, Kentucky at the time he
registered his land claim. Shortly after
starting to clear the land on his claim his wife died in 1813 making him a
widower with seven minor children. He
was remarried in 1818 to Elizabeth Fisher of Orange County. They had three children together. Many of
Charles Coulter’s descendants still live in western
Washington County.
Washington County.
JEREMIAH LAMB completed his
payments for the northwest quarter of Section 6, T2N, R4E, in order to receive
his deed on this date 200 years ago today.
Lamb’s acreage is found now at the southeast corner of the intersection
of Water Tower Road and Highland Road.
This land had access to the trail between the ford on White River and
Royes’s Lick where his father, Simeon Lamb, owned the trading post from about
1804 to 1814. Jeremiah Lamb married
Rachel Hoggatt in Clark County, Indiana in 1810 as that was then the nearest
public office for the registration of the marriage. Lamb registered a second
land claim in this neighborhood for the northeast quarter of Section 1, T2N,
R3E. This claim was sold to Adam Cauble on January 4, 1830 when the families of
Jeremiah and Simeon Lamb moved to Crittenden County, Kentucky on the Ohio River
downstream from Shawneetown, Illinois. This
second land claim of Lamb was where the Washington County Landfill is located
today. The Lambs were Quakers from Guilford County, North Carolina. Simeon Lamb
was the only physician in the early days of settlement in this area and was of
considerable influence as he was appointed by Governor Thomas Posey to be one
of the first three judges of the Washington Circuit Court. The failure of Simeon Lamb’s commercial
ventures with Jacob Mendenhall left him in an impecunious state. One of Washington County’s founding fathers
moved to Kentucky with his son’s family to leave his creditors behind. The Lambs
must have had a saline imperative as the former operator of the locality’s only
store at Royse’s Lick moved to a location on the Ohio River near to the
productive salt springs of Gallatin County, Illinois.
JOSEPH SEIRS took title to land located in a
fractional part of Section 15, T5N. R4E, in Driftwood Township of Washington
County, Indiana Territory. This tract
laid along the Grouseland Treaty line. A
full section could not be surveyed at this location because of the
northeast/southwest bearing of the 1804 treaty line. Seirs’ claim was located on a consolidated
sand dune that gently sloped west toward the Driftwood Fork of White
River. This homestead was located on what
the early settlers called the “dead line”.
This name came from the fact that the area to the northwest of the
Grouseland Treaty line was still under the control of the Indians that were
free to occupy the area. Many of the
deaths of early settlers at the hand of Indians taking exception to their
presence occurred within a few miles of this treaty line. The Seirs homestead
is located today at the southwest edge of Brownstown at the US 50/SR 135
intersection. Joseph Seirs was born in
Hampshire County, Virginia. He married
Elizabeth McDade in Greenbrier County, Virginian in 1787. They settled in Dearborn County, Indiana Territory
in 1806, served in the Indiana Militia and lived in Franklin County, Indiana
Territory when they registered their claim on the “dead line”. The Seirs would have come to this northern
part of Harrison/Washington County along the Cincinnati Road that ran from
Vincennes to Cincinnati along Kibbey’s Trace. Their trip to Jeffersonville to
enroll their claim and make their land payments would have followed a trail
that skirted the Knobs along the general route of SR 39 in northeastern
Washington County and Old Bloomington Road in Scott County. Joseph Seirs did not live to enjoy the fruits
of his trailblazing as he died on May 2, 1816.
There are several variants of the spelling of his last name in various
records. These include Sires, Sawyers
and Cyrus. Given regional accents and
illiteracy, many pioneer names took alternate forms.
GEORGE SHORT perfected his
claim to the southwest quarter of Section 14, T2N, R4E, which was immediately
east of the saline reserve where Royse’s Lick was located. Short’s claim was in the center of the most
heavily settled part of the county. The
two tributaries of the Harristown Branch of Royse’s Fork of Blue River flow
meet as they flow through this land.
George Short married Catherine Monical in 1809 in Nicholas County
Kentucky. The Shorts sold their land
next to Royse’s Lick to Peter Simpson of Jessamine County, Kentucky on April
10, 1818 for $980. The proceeds from
this sale were used to make final payments
two claims for 320 acres in the
east half of Section 35, T2N, R4E. This
land lies today on both sides of the Middle Fork of Blue River east of the SR
60 bridge. George Washington Short was
born in Botetourt County, Virginia to Jacob and Eva Gottschalk Short. The Short name was derived from the German
name Schwartz. Family research of George
Washington Short is somewhat confusing as there were at least four different
members of this family with this name in Washington County, Indiana.
RICHARD WALL who was born in
Pennsylvania in 1777 obtained his first title in the Indiana Territory on this
date to the northwest quarter of Section 10, T2N, R2E, on the north bank of Lost
River where Claysville is located. Wall bought the adjoining northeast quarter
on September 30, 1818 and sold his unperfected claim to the east half of the
southeast quarter of Section 3 to Joseph Bates. Richard and Theodocia Wall came to this area
from Shelby County, Kentucky. They didn’t
put down roots in Lost River Township as they patented three different parcels totaling
160 acres in Bartholomew County, Indiana in 1821 through 1823. This Bartholomew county land was located on
the west bank of the Driftwood Fork of White River upstream from the inflow of
Sand Creek east of present day Jonesville, Indiana. This was about a mile north from where
Nagonin and his band of impoverished Delaware Indians had camped seven years
before. The Walls sold their Washington County holdings shortly thereafter. Richard Wall apparently decided that he didn’t
want to dedicate years to the development of the swampy bottoms of the
Driftwood as he moved north to Tippecanoe County, Indiana after it was
established in 1826. The Walls took out
four different land patents there totaling 160 acres in the 1830s. They lived in the Clark’s Hill area for the
duration of their lives. Richard Wall
died in Laurimie Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana on March 30, 1861.
NOAH WRIGHT began building his Indiana domain on this
date with the acquisition of the southeast quarter of Section 25, T2N, R4E, which
was well drained land located north of the Middle Fork of Blue River. The farm was a short wagon ride southeast of
Royse’s Lick and is seen today on the east side of County Farm Road south of SR
160. Wright had first come to Clark
County, Indiana in 1803 from Randolph County, NC. He manufactured brick and then farmed for the
Isaac Holman Estate near Charlestown, Indiana. He then served in the Indiana
Militia. He later worked clearing land
for Arthur Parr and married Susannah Parr on July 28, 1814. His brother, Levi Wright, came to Indiana with
him and took out a land patent nearby.
Noah Wright became Washington County’s second sheriff in 1816 and was
elected to the first state legislature when Indiana became a state that
year. There apparently was no
prohibition at that time from holding multiple public. The office of Sheriff was often lucrative as
the collection of taxes provided for a percentage of the revenues collected.
Wright apparently did well as he started investing in 15 land patents in
Lawrence, Bartholomew, Marion and Hamilton Counties. In 1831, Washington County determined that a
poor farm/asylum was needed. The county
bought Wright’s farm for the sum of $1000 that year. Noah and Susannah Parr Wright moved to one of
their properties in Perry Township, Marion County, Indiana where they lived out
their lives. Noah Wright’s financial success
in serving as Washington County Sheriff caused Levi Wright also to be
interested in public service. He
followed his brother in this office while acquiring 12 different land patents
in Washington, Harrison, Putnam and Marion Counties, Indiana. It would appear that the office of Sheriff in
Indiana in the 19th century was quite a political plum.
EZEKIEL BLANCHARD CLAIM
BULLITT FAMILY HOME
OXMOOR FARM
CHARLES COULTER 1814
CRAWFORD UPLAND/MITCHELL PLAIN
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