Sugar Creek Township - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Township 20 North in Range 3 West, Montgomery County plants ya’ right in Sugar Creek Township, in the northeastern part of our county.  Tippecanoe is above the township and called many of the young settlers its way as did Clinton and Boone on the east and then Montgomery County townships Franklin and Madison touched on the south and west.  Several of our townships have 36 sections but there are 33 in Sugar Creek (due to the creek cutting off some of the lands).  Potato Creek and Sugar Creek are the main waterways in the township.  The name of the creek (Potato) and the town (Potato Creek) received their names because of the wild tubers that were extremely plentiful in the slough area there.  The area was also known for the deep black soil adapted to corn and other grains.  

The early people of this township were some of the most prominent in all of the county, for instance the first miller (1828) John Clouser.  Other names were: Allen, Bowers, Corns, Irvin, Kendal, Rakestraw; Peterson; and Waugh (likely many others but those you have all likely heard of).  Thus these families settled in, aided each other and enjoyed life in this wonderful area of our county.

The pioneer people here often came from Ohio in its infancy and no real school was available so one of the main concerns was for them to educate their children.  History books say that Robert McKay taught the first private school in 1831 but a small school was erected the next year in Solomon Peterson’s old farm house where George Kendall taught at $1.50 per student for a three months/term.  Bowers Station came in early with the education as well building a schoolhouse in 1833.  Until public schools came along Sugar Creek was divided into nine sections with a school in each.  

Churches began in 1832 with Roley Kendall helping to organize the Methodists.  Besides the Kendal family, the newly-formed church had the following members: Hamilton; Paris; Waugh; Mitchell; Cooley; Thurman.  A huge fire place was at the end of the 20x30 church and was used through 1860.  It was donned  Bethel, and was a log church.  At that point the church reorganized as the Methodist Episcopal  with a lovely large frame church with Thomas Hart and John Mitchell builders. Others in the group was then family members of the Kious, Mitchell, Waugh, Mitchell and Ricketts.  The Second Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1853 and held its meetings for a number of years in James Iron’s vacant house but a church was built for the purpose in 1860.  There was at least one more Methodist group – the third society of the ME Church.  The Presbyterians were also prominent, first meeting in an available school house, but in 1850 building a small frame house was built and ten years later there was a 32 x 36 building cost $1,000, with the first building sold to the German Baptists (Dunkards).  Abner Bowers was the prime mover there.  They weren’t as worried about having a church as they were showing humility, truth and honor thus any member of the group would have been honored to hold the meetings or they met in a school.  The founders were Abner and Martin Bowers with Lewis Dunbar heavily involved.

Bowers Station was likely the largest of the villages in the township (land donated by Abner Bowers) and thrived because of the Vandalia & Logansport RR  and the other semi-important place in the township was as mentioned Potato Creek.  Dr. James A. Berryman worked hard at keeping it alive and well for as long as he could.

One of my all-time favorite stories regarding Sugar Creek Township is during the Civil War, all the men in the township belonged to the Home Guards – they were all gone chasing Morgan and his raiders from the state.   Oh what to do – it was Harvest Time so the women got together heading from field to field often babe in tow to the fields to harvest the golden grain.  When the husbands returned, all was finished.  

Whether you agree with the Horse-Thief Detective Association or not, it was also a good way to protect the families of those who were gone, those who were injured or so many various reasons.  It was a fairly prominent organization in that section of the county.

The farmers early on and indeed still are knowledgeable of what is the best of the inventions and what to buy to make the best of their property.  For instance the first repeating machine was a McCormick purchased in 1848 by George Smith and Martin Bowers.  This machinery was followed closely by all the farmers for miles around to help decide whether others wanted to share it or buy it outright.  The big problem was that the early steam-powered machinery was difficult to use and could blow up at any minute.  James Cay and William Bryant purchased early planters.   ---kbz