Centennial history of Rush County, Indiana
Authors: Anonymous
City of Publication: Indianapolis
Publisher: Historical Pub. Co.
Date: 1921

Transcribed for the Rush Co. INGenWeb Project by Mark S. Mount

Introduction

The Historiographer who attempts a compilation of records and a narrative of events of a neighborhood which has been forming for more than a century amid the changing conditions which mark the erection of an American community faces a task which would seem well nigh hopeless save for the initial work done along similar lines by those who were contemporary with those events. Happily, in the case of the present compilers there have been earnest, thoughtful men here who, in their generation, "blazed the ways" for those who might follow them along the gentle paths of local historical research, lightening the labors of inquiry and investigation and making clear what otherwise might be but a confusing tangle of myth obstructing the differentiation between fact and tradition that so often confronts the seeker after statements regarding the days of "lang syne." And to those who thus "blazed the ways" grateful acknowledgment has been made by all who have had to do with adding the store of historical knowledge relating to Rush county. Two names particularly are mentioned in this connection ив two dominant figures are recalled, those of Dr. John A. Arnold and the Hon. Elijah Hackleman. As the late John F. Moses, in the preface to his admirable but all too brief "Historical sketch of Rush County," said in acknowledging his indebtedness to these early writers: "They were eye-witness from the beginning and a part of the events which their pens have so faithfully and ably recorded. No one can ever write about Rush county history without being greatly indebted to them." And in presenting this chapter on the townships and towns of the county the present compilers make similar grateful acknowledgment, particularly to the notable work of Doctor Arnold, without whose illuminative "Reminiscences" the list of pioneers of the respective townships of the county would have been lost forever, or at best preserved in so fragmentary a fashion as to be valueless for the definite purposes of a volume of this character.

Brief Township and Town Histories