OFFIELD, William
Family Fact Sheet
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Review, Oct 15, 1881
Sid. Speed, yesterday planted a large granite boulder on the site of the residence of William Offiel. The stone bears the following inscription: William Offiel, settled here Feb. 1821.
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 24 January 1896
These words are graven in a gigantic granite boulder which lies in the center of a big cornfield owned by old Grandfather Weir, whose farm is near the mouth of Offield’s Creek. The big boulder was placed there some years ago by the County Commissioners to mark the site of the first house erected in Montgomery County. Old Mr. Weir protests, however, that it does not mark the site and he wishes to remove to stone to a spot where it can be seen by all who pass along the beautiful and romantic creek drive. He is willing to remove the rock and to enclose it by a neat fence so that it can be easily seen. At present the rock is seen by no one, being isolated in the great cornfield. If, as Mr. Weir says, it does not mark the site of Wm Offield’s cabin, it would be far better to remove it to a spot near the road.
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 24 January 1896
Upon investigation we find that our correspondent, who states in an article on page 6 of this paper that the stone which marks the site of William Offield’s cabin, is in the wrong place, was mistaken, and that the stone is on the veritable spot where stood the first cabin ever built in Montgomery County. The planting of the stone was the work of T. D. Brown and P. S. Kennedy, who took every pain to ascertain the proper place for the monument. At the time the site of the cabin was marked, old man Robert Weir was yet alive, and he had often been in the cabin. Messrs. Brown and Kennedy took him in a buggy and had him point out the place and the stone was planted precisely on the spot designated by him as the location of the cabin. As proof that he was correct in his recollection about the locality, Mr. Brown hunted around for some evidence that a human habitation had once stood there, and found many pieces of broken cupboard ware. The confusion as to the locality has perhaps grown out of the fact that Mr. Offield’s first cabin was burned down while he lived in it, and that a second cabin was built by him not far from the site of the first one. Mr. Weir had often been in both of them, and was well acquainted with William Offield and his family. The stone is where the burnt cabin stood. Mr. Weir entered the land soon after Offield left it, and still owned it at the time of his death, and at the time he visited the spot with Messrs. Brown and Kennedy, arranged with them to make the county a deed to the site of the cabin if the County Commissioners would make it with a stone. But before the deed could be executed the old man died. Hon. Arch Johnston was well acquainted with Mr. Offield before he came to Montgomery County, and knew a good deal of his history. He was a Tennesseean and came about 1818 or ’19 to near where Martinsville, in Morgan County, now stands, and the year before he came to Montgomery County, raised a large crop of corn in one of the bottoms of White River, for he was quite an experienced and thrifty farmer as well as a backwoodsman. When he lived on the little stream which perpetuates his name, he had much stock and raised good crops. Mr. Offield was one of the first commissioners of the county and his name as signed to the records now in the Auditor’s office, shows that he was an educated man and wrote an excellent business hand. His wife also could write, as her name is found signed to the deeds she executed and now on record in the Recorder’s office. A large proportion of both men and women of Mr. Offield’s time made the proverbial cross mark.
Mr. Offield did not remain long in Montgomery County. He disappeared suddenly and for many years no one knew what had become of him. But in the year 1840, Chris Walkup, of near New Ross, in this county, was traveling in southwestern Missouri, beyond the Ozark Mountains, and stopped at a little cabin in the woods to stay over night, and found it occupied by the same William Offield who settled in Montgomery County in 1821. When P. S. Kennedy wrote the history of Montgomery County some years ago, for a firm of Chicago publishers, he made diligent inquiry by letter, in many of the counties of northwestern Missouri, but could find no trace of Mr. Offield or any of his family.
Many have inquired why Mr. Offield settled in such a rough and uninviting locality. It is perhaps true that several reasons conspired to fix his choice. His main reason, however, as related by Mr. Johnston was that the National Government had donated to the state the 16th section in every Congressional township for school purposes, and these sections were not subject to entry by settlers, but could be occupied without danger of molestation for many years. Mr. Offield’s cabin was on section 16, township 18 north. Besides this, a small tribe of friendly Indians occupied the territory just across Sugar Creek from Mr. Offield’s cabin, and he perhaps wanted to make neighbors of them. At any rate he did so, for an old Indian lady waited on his wife when a child was born in the cabin in question, the year after Mr. Offield settled in the country.
It is now within a few weeks of seventy five yeas since Mr. Offield came to Montgomery County. The exact day is not known, but it was in February 1821. What a change has taken place in seventy five years! In 1821 no plow had ever disturbed a single foot of soil within the limits of the county. No ax save that of the government surveyors had defaced a single tree in her dense forests. All was a wilderness. Today the county has a population of 30,000, and a wealth running up, on a fair estimate, perhaps to $30,000,000; nearly 300 miles of free improved gravel roads, and more than 125 miles of railroad. There are in the county nearly a hundred and fifty schools, and none in the limits of the county, of full age, except a very few old people, who cannot read and write. There is a daily newspaper in almost every substantial home, and before dinner is eaten the events of the day throughout the world are known to all.