Franklin TOwnship history
Franklin Township is located on the east line of the county, bounded on the south by Walnut Township, west by Union and the North by Sugar Creek. Parts are level and adapted to grain and stock raising (People’s Guide). Franklin, early on, was a heavily timbered township and had much wild game which thinned out to very little. Great forest trees also were plentiful but cultivated farms have deleted much of those. Darlington is located on Sugar Creek with for many years, the LC&SW Railroad running through the lively little town.
In 1822 settlers in the township included James and John Abernathy; Lewis Cooper; Abner Crane; Samuel Flanigan; William Guthrie and Joseph Scott, plus a name I don’t think I’ve ever searched, James Ventioner. Other families who came and entered large tracks of land were Bigler; Binford; Booher; Burroughs; Carr; Carter; Clark; Cook; Cox; Craig; Custard; Evans; Harland; Inlow; Johnson; Mendenhall; Michaels; Morgan; Nicholson; Oxley; Pickett; Stewart; Stipe; Sutton; VanDain; Wilcox; Winston; Wisehart and Young. Would like to know more about Lucy and Sally Brockman who together tallied 160 acres in Section 34. Were they sisters? In-laws? What? It was unusual to see women purchase original land. I’ll add that to my very long research list.
Not many of those names still were farmers by 1874 (according to the People’s Guide) – Binford, Booher, Burroughs, Craig, Cox, Harland, Johnson, Pickett, Sutton, Stewart and Wisehart but you saw new large land owners appear – Armstrong; Beck; Bundy; Butler; Cain; Casner; Carson; Caster; Coltrain; Coleman; Dittmore; Doty; Endicott; Francis; Griest; Gearhart; Guntle; Hiatt; Hopper; Lynch; Lafollette; Lackey; McClaskey; McCalister; McDaniel; Martin; Miller; Mikels (which may be the Michaels family with the original grant); Mount; Peebles; Seller; Sands; Tribbett; Vannice and Wilson.
Speaking of the 1874 People’s Guide, this is a great source to discover what businesses were available at the time, as well. Shannondale, of course was and is another town in Franklin and in 1874, Dan Shaver was a stock dealer there and JJ Shannon the physician and yes, Shannondale was named for this family. J.B. McAlister was a farmer but also a lawyer; S. Cline was a carpenter; a sawmill was ran by N. and IL Booher; the only merchant was TA Adkins, but it doesn’t list what type of business he had and several farmers were listed as living in or near the little town. JF Adams, T. Hubbard, P. Hollingsworth, GT Kingen; Moses McClure were blacksmiths at Darlington with John Parish’s blacksmith shop at the toll gate. Jackman & Aldridge had a firm there but not sure what it was for; B. Brown had a grocery and P. Beck who was over 80 ran a hotel; EM Barnhart owned a dry good store and M. Barton was a peddler. Those who were merchants (again, not the types given) were: JM Hollingsworth, H.C. Hulet; CE Thompson; W. Blue owned a coopery; VE Barnum was a mechanic; Noah Clodfelter and J. McClaskey were teachers; the druggists were AT and JS Carson, as well as IE Kirk; J. Lewellen, IEG Naylor and TF Griffith, physicians. Carpenters were: W. Grist; J.D. Hurt; N.J. Lee; JM, JD and WH Murphy; L.A. Shriver; PE Wheeler; HP Wheeler; JP Thompson, was a Justice of the Peace. Ed Cadwallader and Ed Jennings had a boot and shoe shop; M. Carson had a chair factory; DD Dyson was a harness maker; JM Griffin, a butcher; blacksmiths M. Gaskill and C. McClure; livestock traders A. Harper and George Guntle; and one I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before, Jasper Hornbeck was a “Traveling Agent for Darlington.” Wonder what that was? Have ideas, but not sure! J.F. Hall was listed as county commissioner and JP Henry was a bridge builder. R. Jackman had a nice big grocery store with WW Milner also in that business; A.M. Kelsey was a plasterer; T.B. McCune was a Railroad Agent, WH Rhorer a section boss and E. Russell a railroader. Rev. McClane served as the Methodist Minister. H. Mote was listed as a miller with Marshall & Brother having a sawmill. M. Partridge had a barber shop; D. Rhoads was a wheat merchant; a W. Smith was a chair maker, WHH Smith a wagon maker as was WS Wheeler plus many farmers were listed.
Besides person, occupation, where they lived when they were born (and where) when they came to Montgomery County, what politics they were (looked like it was about ½ and ½ Democrats and Republicans), it also gave their religion and “other” which mainly just in Franklin, were bunches of “Grangers” listed for that. Religions were the norm, Baptist, Christian, Methodist, Lutheran, Friend, with an occasional Universalis, New Light and Catholic. Besides the large amount of Grangers, there were several other organizations to join, the F&AM; IOOF; Laboring Men’s Club; Theological Societies; Sabbath Schools; and as mentioned several churches. The 1880 census reflected about the same.
By 1900, there was an amazing six barbers, five blacksmiths; 18 working as carpenters or in similar businesses (paper hanger; painter); 54 as day laborers; 105 farmers, plus another 25 fellas who worked for them; ten owned or aided grocers with one specializing in fresh fish; five were housekeepers outside of their own homes and five were landlords. There were 11 millers (several of those having saw mills) and four milliners; seven working on the railroad; salesmen and women in furniture, books, groceries, dresses, lumber and more with 14 listed; six dress makers; eleven merchants of buggies, hardware, dry goods and an odd one - salt; four doctors; seven school teachers and four worked in the telephone world. This list had one-three in these fields: well digger; washerwomen; vet surgeon (Jonathan Booher); Undertakers (Mount and Brainard); ministers; newspaper reporters; shoe maker; tinner; saloon keepers; retired (with John Peterson, age 70 also listed as a Capitalist); newspaper reporters; Bertrum Martin, photographer; fence manufacturer; lawyers; log driver (not real sure what that is but I have a couple of guesses); natural gas inspector; livery stable; janitors; ice dealer; John and Alice Cox ran and assumed owned the only hotel with a cook, clerk and seven boarders; hostler; harness maker; butcher; baker (no candle stick makers as far as I saw); bookkeepers; bankers; dairymen; dentists; doctors; druggists; engineers and a fruit tree agent.
Newell and Julia Cain had been married 50 years, no children, he 73, she 66 and they were keepers of the cemetery. Interesting there were four soldiers: Homer Heffner, 18; Clarence Peterson, 25; Peter Hamilton, 17 and George Lynch, 28. Mary Corbin, 64 was a Land Lady and Minerva Hubbard, mother of two, wife of farmer John was a minister (clergy woman).
Some of the larger farmers then were: Cox, Coltrain, Ditamore, Faust, Guntle, Hampton, Martz, Paddack Peacock and Proffitt, plus more.
By 1950 it seems many of these farming names were gone replaced by Booher, Budd, Caldwell, Edwards, Endicott, Hole, Holt, Groves, Patterson, Threlkheld, Vannice and Weliever. Oddly, there were about the same number of farmers, though. There were several in the auto world: mechanics, salesman and gas station owners and a wow number of truckers. Haskell Rennick and Harold Hardaway both had auctioneering businesses.
Something I have never personally seen written in an old census was in the LaFollette family. Charles was 65 and listed as a ditcher. His wife, Lena was 64 with this note: This person hardly alive at this time. Ahhhh ☹
IN 1950, Darlington had two cigar stores, three either owning or working in a hardware; a grain elevator; three barbers; a lumber company; five electricians/plumbers; Robert Holt a timber cutter; 16 teachers; four in the decorating business; a newspaper; 11 carpenters. The Maxwell family has been in the well and ditching business for many decades and in this 1950 census, Elmer and Byrl were indeed working that job as well as Younts and Holts; another Maxwell (Marion) was postmaster assisted by Loren Bowen and Damon Thompson was the rural carrier; there was a dry cleaners, too.
Billie Edward Biddle, age 24 this year cared for the cemetery. Five telephone operators and three linemen were listed; Charles Marshall managed the theater; Henry Lidikay was the Vet and Royden (?) Paddack was care taker for the Armory. In this census, it was pretty obvious several were going to Crawfordsville (binders, proof readers, printers – to RRDonnelleys) or Lafayette (aluminum plant) to work. Gladys Remley was the county attendance (school) officer; Cecil and Mable Cox had their wonderful restaurant; Jess Delano was the library with one assistant; Tony Endicott, 69, was the town marshall; Clarence Dain, town board member cleaned the streets. Interesting census, giving a great view of Franklin Township.
Today, (pretty much) gone are the small farmers with 100 acres or less and we see a few large (thousands of acres) farmers in each township and the counties. Many of the small towns are completely gone (Darlington seems to hold its own – big YES here - and with the prices so high now, wonder if we will again see restaurants, newspapers, carpenters, schools back where they should be (in the small towns) doctors, dentists and the like – returning to those days of the 1910-70s. For one, I’d love, love, love it – guess time’ll tell! One thing exciting about Franklin Township is that if you check the names above for the first 50 years or so, there are still a few of those around and that in itself is mighty nifty.
NOTE: Being a librarian and English teacher it drives me nuts if someone lists no sources - I did some above but I honestly do not know where this came from but it is SOOOOOOO greatly appreciated. I may have taken it from various sources and written it (kind of seems like that BUT it may have come from the 1881 Beckwith History OR it could be from Butch Dale