Recollection of Thomas P. Miller

COMMUNICATION FROM T. P. MILLER, OF INDIANAPOLIS.

Statement by Thomas P. Miller, who was born in Dickson County, Tenn., on the 1st of December, 1812: When I was about one year old my father, Wm. Miller, moved to Butler County, Ohio, where he remained long enough to raise one crop. He then moved to Union County, Indiana, five miles southeast of Liberty, eight miles west of Oxford and three and one-half miles southwest of the College Corner, where we remained until April, 1831. Father had sold his farm the winter before and entered eighty acres of land in Boone County, where he afterwards laid out the town of Eagle Village. In the meantime he went to Cincinnati and purchased a stock of dry goods, groceries, hardware, queensware, etc. He hired my cousin, James McClelland, to haul his goods from Cincinnati to Boone County. With three yoke of large oxen and a large wagon, James brought the goods from Cincinnati to our house. With our household goods loaded into a wagon, we all started together for Boone. We got along tolerably well until we passed Rushville. It had been raining considerable and finally turned up with a blustering sdow [sic] storm, which compelled us to stop. We stopped at the farm house of Rev. James Haven, who kindly gave us the use of a school house near his residence. The next day, continuing our journey, we came to the Little Blue River, where we remained all night on account of high water. The next day we came on to Big Blue. There we crossed in a ferry boat by making several trips. Our next drawback was at Big Sugar, where we were compelled to unload our goods and cross in a large canoe. The wagons were taken to pieces and the horses and cattle allowed to swim across. Crossing White River at Indianapolis in a boat we arrived at Uncle Frank McClelland’s and Uncle Thomas Martin’s, seven miles west of Indianapolis. We were now but fourteen miles from our destination. Cousin W. B. McClelland, brother John and I started ahead with our axes. From David Hoover’s we cut our road through the thick woods and underbrush, crossing Eagle Creek to a point about two hundred yards south of the line of the Michigan Road. We then built a camp, enclosing three sides. The roof, which extended several feet farther than the open front, was covered with clap-boards. The next day our household goods were unloaded in the camp. Our next mission was to build a store-house. This we built of logs scratched inside and out with the broad axe. The size of this large and commodious store room was about sixteen feet square. When we were ready for the goods it was not long before we heard brother Jim hallooing “Mike and Jim; Duke and Darby,” more than a mile away. When he came up the remarks he made about the new road we had cut were not very flattering. Of course it was not an air line. It was a singular and lonesome looking place for a dry goods store, but it was not long before the men commenced to drop in through the woods, generally with a gun on their shoulder. Our next work was to build a double log house for a family residence, which was of the same architecture as the store room.

At that time there were a few families about three or four miles east of us on Williams Creek and McDuffey’s run, in Hamilton County. There were also several families on Crooked Creek, in Marion County about five miles from us. There were quite a number of families in Marion County on Eagle Creek, below the Boone County line, who were our neighbors and traded at our store. The rest of our neighbors were in Boone County, on Eagle Creek above the Marion County line. I believe I can give the names of nearly all of them. Squire, Jacob Sheets, grown sons, Andrew and George, John Sheets, Patrick Sullivan, John Sargent, David Hoover, first clerk of the circuit court, sons Jacob and Isaac, Elijah Cross, Austin Davenport, first sheriff, Jesse Davenport, one of the first county commissioners, Wesley Smith, first county treasurer, James G. Blair, John King, Rev. Benj. Harris, Captain Frederick Lowe, sons John and George, Wm. E. Lane, Jesse Lane, Samuel Lane, Elijah Standridge, Jacob Johns, John Robert Johns, Henry Johns, Johns, Renny Johns, Rev. George Dodson, Elijah Dickerson, Aaron Phipps, Ruel Dodson, Thomas Dodson, George Walker, Thomas Walker, Texes Jackson, Edward Jackson, and perhaps a few others whose names I have forgotten. The above were all, or nearly all living on Eagle Creek, above the Marion County line, a distance of eight miles. There were two or three families living on Whitelick, near the edge of Hendricks County – I believe one by the name of Dollerhide and one Specklemuir. There was another small settlement at Jamestown and one at Thorntown, which made up the inhabitants of Boone County at that time. The next year the emigration to Boone County increased rapidly. Dozens of families had settled within three miles of us on the west side of Eagle Creek. I will give a few of their names: Abram Phillips, Lewis Dale, Noah Byrket, Jesse Harden, Joshua Foster, James and Robert White, Wm. Beelar, and many others. I remember well of Joshua Foster asking me to hew a set of house logs for him. I think it was the same year we came to Boone County that Austin Davenport was elected representative to the state legislature from Boone and Hamilton counties and a scope of territory north and east of Hamilton County, beating William Conner, of Noblesville. The voting precincts at that time were from ten to twenty miles apart. On election day I went to Jamestown to electioneer for Mr. Davenport, bought a quart of whisky, and in the language of Captain Rice, “gin a treat.” Mr. Davenport got about all the votes at the precinct. Bro. Wash went the same day to a precinct at or near the falls of Fall Creek and done some electioneering for Mr. Davenport, which precinct is now a part of Madison County. I believe at that time there were only three voting precincts in Boone County; one at David Hoover’s, on Eagle Creek, one at Thorntown and one at Jamestown. The same year Austin Davenport, James McClelland and I, took a trip to Lafayette on horseback via Thorntown. We passed through the place where the city of Lebanon now stands but did not see a house from the time we left Eagle Creek till we came to Thorntown. We saw several deer but no Indians. Between Thorntown and Lafayette we saw several houses, many gopher hills, prairie chicken, sand-hill cranes and sod fences. Mr. Davenport stopped at his brother-in-law’s, Samuel Hoover, while James and I crossed the river, going about four miles in the country to Uncle Moses Meek’s. Jim was riding a pretty fair looking white horse which he was praising to Uncle. “Yes,” said uncle, “I know that to be a good horse; I knew him twenty years ago. He belonged to a man by the name of Harter who lived near College Corner, in Union County. The only objection any one had to him at that time was that he was a little too old.”

The Michigan road was cut out from Madison, Ind., to South Bend in the year 1829, 1830 and 1831. When we came to our camp in Boone County the road was cut as far as the top of the hill at White River, five and a half miles from Indianapolis. About a year later the cutting and grubbing was finished through Boone County. The road is one hundred feet wide. Thirty feet of the center the trees were grubbed out by the roots, leaving thirty-five feet on each side that was cut off nearly level with the ground. Thousands of dollars worth of fine walnut, poplar, oak and other valuable timber was literally ruined. When one of those fine, large trees was grubbed out by the roots it would leave a hole as deep as a man’s head. As soon as a tree would fall two men would jump on it with axes, both on one side, about six or eight feet from the roots, cutting right and left. As soon as one side was cut half through they would turn to the other side, cutting the same manner the timber in such lengths as suited them to haul out of the road. Those large tree roots, logs, brush and rubbish hauled out on each side of the road made it almost impossible to get either in or out of the road. Thos. Martin of Marion County, and Jas. Sigreson, of Hendricks County, had the contract for cutting and grubbing seventeen miles of the Michigan road, from Indianapolis north, which extended about four miles into Boone County. As soon as the Michigan road was cut out, Wm. Miller laid out the town of Eagle Village, which was surveyed by Geo. L. Kinnard, of Marion County. T. P. Miller, a son of Wm. Miller, carried one end of the chain to lay off the town, although only eighteen years old. Wm. Miller, in 1836, sold his farm, including all unsold lots in Eagle Village, to Daniel M. Larimore, who afterwards laid off an addition to the village. Wm. Miller was the first postmaster, Fielden Utterback the second postmaster, Thos. P. Miller was third postmaster. He was then serving as justice of the peace, holding that office ten yeas and the office of postmaster nearly nine years. Jos. F. Daugherty was fourth postmaster, Nathan Crosby the fifth and last postmaster, the office having been abolished. As soon as the cutting and grubbing of the Michigan road was finished, the contracts for grading were let to the lowest bidder. The sale took place at Indianapolis. Austin Morris was the auctioneer and Robt. B. Duncan clerk. J. C. Walker got most of the contracts on this part of the road. When the grading was finished and the holes where the large roots had been taken out filled up, the contract for bridging the streams was let. The bridges when finished were very rough but substantial. The road was now ready for the four-horse coaches which were soon carrying the daily mail from Indianapolis to Logansport.

For months at a time while I was postmaster, I had to get up at three o’clock in the morning and change the mail. When the roads were bad they had to use what they called mud wagons. When we first settled in Boone County the woods were covered with pea vine, which afforded excellent pasture for cattle. There were a good many black and yellow rattlesnakes. Just west of Squire Sheets place there was a little mill, or corncracker, which had been built by the neighbors for their convenience. Jesse Davenport said when it was in use it was a faithful little mill. Just as soon as it would finish one grain of corn it would jump right on to another. At that time there was no regular miller, each person doing his own grinding. One of the neighbors took a little sack of corn to the mill, put it in the hopper, started the mill and went home, to return when his grist should be ground. Having accidently [sic] shut his dog in the mill, he returned to find the meal eaten out of the chest as fast as it had been ground in. The county seat of Boone was located about 1832, and named Lebanon. The board of the county commissioners were called to meet and let the contracts for building a court house and jail. The court house was a hewed log house, about 16 x 24 feet, two stories high, and was built on a lot on the north side of the public square. The first jail was built east of the public square and was made of hewed logs about a foot square. After the contracts were let for the building of the court house and jail, Jesse Davenport, who was one of the county commissioners, returned home. Several of the neighbors called to learn the result of the first meeting of the board at the new capitol. In answer to the question regarding the size of the court house, Mr. Davenport said: “It is to be ten feet square and ten rails high.” There were some mud and several log shanties scattered around in different parts of the town. There was one log shanty on Main street, near the southwest corner of the public square, that seemed to attract as much of the crowd as the court, which was then in session. There was a man in that log house who was retailing whisky by the drink. The floor of the cabin was laid with round poles about four inches in diameter, and in walking over these they would spring down into the mud and water until it was a perfect loblolly. At that time I believe there was no license required for selling whisky, which retailed at twenty-five cents a gallon. At the first court in Lebanon there were not many cases on the docket. Nearly half the cases were called hog cases, persons indited [sic] for stealing hogs. At a subsequent court held in the same court house, Mr. Thos. Kersey, a respectable farmer, and three or four other gentlemen who had been summoned on the jury, were sitting in a room in the hotel. Col. C. C. Nave, a prominent attorney of Hendricks County, was walking back and forth across the room with his thumbs stuck in the armholes of his vest. Suddenly facing those jurors he said: “I am hell on a hog case.” Mr. Kersey said he supposed the colonel took them all to be hog thieves.

The auditor’s, treasurer’s and recorder’s offices were all destroyed by fire in October, 1856. The auditor, James A. Nunn, succeeded in saving one book, which was of but little value. The treasurer, John C. Daily, got the tax duplicate for that year, which was of more value to the county than any other book in the office. There was nothing saved in the recorder’s office. Thomas P. Miller was not at the fire, but could not have saved anything if he had been there, as the recorder’s books were all at the back part of the room, the most remote from the head of the stairs. The three offices were in the same room, in the second story. The entire block was consumed by fire. In the recorder’s office there were at least one thousand deeds burned, that had been recorded and not taken out, which made it necessary to get a proof record and also a record of deeds heretofore recorded, which made much trouble, expense and some litigation. The two first brick dwellings built in Lebanon were built by Samuel S. Brown and William Zion. Thomas P. Miller had the first brick business house, which was built for William Bowers, the saddler, and was built of brick out of the old court house. William F. Boyd was the bricklayer, Frank Williams the carpenter, and George James and Allen Coombs the tin roofers. When the house was finished a scuttle-hole was made in the roof and Billy Bowers constructed a rope ladder, so as to have easy ascent to the roof in case of fire. That house stands on the south side of the public square, and is joined on the east by Dr. James Evans’ building, the second brick building erected in Lebanon. Lebanon’s second jail was built on the same lot that the first log court house was built, and was of hewed logs a foot square. The third jail was built on the same lot. It was of brick, stone and iron. It was about the size of a hen-coop and a perfect nuisance. The fourth jail, which stands near the northeast corner of the public square, can be seen with the naked eye. The third court house can also be seen without a spy-glass. The names of the four county officers who were in office at the time the court house was built were cut in a stone and placed over the north door of the court house, viz.: W. C. Kise, clerk; J. A. Nunn, auditor; J. C. Daily, treasurer; and T. P. Miller, recorder. Thomas P. Miller is the only one now living, although the eldest of four. Hugh O’Neal, a prominent attorney of Indianapolis, who practiced in Boone County at an early day, said he thought Boone would be a very good county some day, but it would have to be jerked up about three feet. The man that did the first surveying in Boone County (before it was a county) was Col. Thomas Brown, of Union County, Ind. I saw a small boy, but remember when he surveyed the new purchase, as it was called. Brown’s Wonder took its name from a remark he made while surveying near that creek. Setting his jacob-staff down and looking all around, he said, “I wonder where we are?” In his field-notes he said the undergrowth consisted principally of hazel brush, prickle-ash and black rattlesnakes. Austin Davenport built the first brick house in Boone County, which is on the Michigan road, a half mile north of Eagle Village. T. P. Miller built the second house in Eagle Village, a hewed log house, one story, sixteen by eighteen feet, and a brick chimney, the first in the neighborhood. W. W. Miller built the first house in Eagle Village, which was a cabinet shop, sixteen by tweenty-four [sic] feet, hewed logs. The first dry goods establishment in Eagle Village, after the town was located, was the firm of Williams, Conner & Russell. At one time Eagle Village had two hotels, four or five dry goods stores, two groceries, two tan-yards, two saddle shops, two blacksmith shops, cabinet shop, tin shop, chair shop, and half dozen carpenters. The Indianapolis and Lafayette State road was surveyed in 1829. James McFalin was the commissioner; Col George L. Kinnard, surveyor; Robert Martin, the bush-whacker; James McClelland and William W. Miller, chain-carriers. The first survey made from Indianapolis missed Lafayette two miles, but when there, the colonel knew where Indianapolis was, and had no trouble in correcting back. When they arrived at the point where Lebanon now stands, Col. Kinnard turned to the chain-carriers and asked how many pins they had. When told, he stuck his jacob-staff down and said: “Here is the center of Boone County.” It was not long after that till Gen. James P. Drake and Col. George L. Kinnard were the owners of the land that the original plat of Lebanon was laid out on. Rose, Harris and Longley made the first addition. Spencer and McLaughlin made the second addition.

Source Citation: Boone County History [database online] Boone County INGenWeb. 2007. <http://www.rootsweb.com/~inboone> Original data: Harden & Spahr. "Early life and times in Boone County, Indiana." Lebanon, Indiana. May, 1887, pp. 101-109.

Transcribed by: Julie S. Townsend - July 8, 2007