PHYSICAL AND AGRICULTURAL FEATURES-- FIRST SETTLER, JOSEPH H. THOMPSON-- GEORGE A. SPENCER AND BENJAMIN REYNOLDS— SPENCER-REYNOLDS COLONY— THE HISTORIC SPENCER HOUSE— BENJAMIN REYNOLDS' AFTER-CAREER— JOHN BURNS-- MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM BURNS— LAND OWNERS AND SETTLERS OF 1830-33-- CHILLS AND FEVER— FIRST TOWNSHIP OFFICERS-- FIRST SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY— LAND ENTRIES IN 1835-36-- ELECTION IN 1836-- THE GREAT HUNT OF 1840-- THOSE WHO BOUGHT LAND IN 1837-51-- INCREASE OF REAL SETTLERS— B. WILSON SMITH'S PICTURE OF 1846— FIRST FRAME SCHOOL HOUSE— MUDGE'S STATION AND CHALMERS— FIRST IRON BRIDGE— SWAMP LANDS RECLAIMED— SMITHSON OR WHEELER— LEADER IN GOOD ROADS MOVEMENT.
Big Creek was one of the four original townships created by the county board of commissioners at its first meeting July 19, 1834. It was designated as Congressional Township No. 26, "with all the territory attached thereto," contained ninety-seven and a half square miles, or 62,200 acres, and comprised substantially a strip of territory six sections from north to south, extending through the county north of Prairie Township. In 1845 fifty-four square miles of its original area was carved away to form West Point Township, and at still later dates both Honey Creek and Union townships abstracted enough sections from its remaining body to reduce it to thirty-two and seven-eighths square miles.
The township derives its name from the stream which rises in the southwestern part of West Point Township, about two miles from the western county line, thence flows northeasterly to a point just south of Smithson, or Wheeler, and thence, after a course due east for about a mile, turns abruptly to the south and southeast. Big Creek crosses the line into Prairie Township, cuts off the northeast corner of that township and discharges into the Tippecanoe River a mile south of Oakdale Mills, in Carroll County.
The surface of the township is varied—in the northern part, broad and level stretches of prairie bordered by timber, in the western sections more generally prairie, and in the eastern portions, the heaviest wooded lands. The best timbered tracts are confined to Big Creek and its branches.
Although both the timber and prairie portions are somewhat broken and rolling, this natural condition has never interfered with the cultivation of the rich, deep loamy soil which predominates throughout the township. The subsoil is chiefly sand and gravel, though clay is found in the lowiands of the northern sections. Grain, grass, vegetables and fruits flourish, especially since the swampy lands have been ditched and drained. It has always been considered one of the best live stock regions in the county, and not a few of the early settlers gave much attention to the breeding, purchase and sale of cattle, horses and hogs. Prominent among these may be mentioned George A. Spencer, Benjamin Reynolds, John Burns, Thomas Bunnell, Thomas Spencer, John Roberts, Jeremiah Bisher and Philip Wolverton—names that stand for much that was best in the early progress of the township.
Big Creek Township was the first portion of the county to be permanently settled, and the agreement is quite general that Joseph H. Thompson led them all. He followed close on the heels of the Government surveyors, who had been running their section lines for several months in the northwestern part of the state. Although he came early in 1829 and brought his family with him to occupy the rough cabin he had erected in section 25, Thompson did not enter his land until December 19th.
In the meantime George A. Spencer and Benjamin Reynolds, two young men from Perry County, Ohio, had arrived on foot and pitched their camp, consisting of a carpet-bag and a blanket, at a spot which might now be described as the borderland between Big Creek and Union townships. The time was in the autumn of 1829. Selecting a site on a hillside in what was then section 13, Big Creek Township, they decided to build a round-log cabin twelve feet square, so as to secure their claim. They commenced at once to cut logs, but after a few had been laid, it was agreed that Spencer should return to Ohio for the families about to migrate west, while Reynolds was to have the cabin ready when needed. Winter was already well advanced before Spencer started for Perry County, and it was the middle of the season before he reached home.
On the first of the following June, George A. Spencer and James Spencer, with their families and supplies, as well as the Reynolds household, were loaded into three two-horse wagons and commenced to move toward the farther West. After a journey of twenty days they arrived in sight of the Hoosier home, which had been prepared by Mr. Reynolds, and resided therein until late in November. By that time Mr. Reynolds had erected a cabin in section 13 and the two Spencers had completed their houses in section 12. The first shack was then discarded by the fifteen Spencer and Reynolds colonists, being easily thrown to the ground, and the three families divided into separate households.
George A. Spencer's house was the first of the three to be completed. It was built of hewn logs, 16 by 20 feet in size, and in the middle '80s is thus described, with all the old-time associations clinging to it: "This house is still standing and most of the logs, though placed in position fifty-three years ago, are as sound as if it were but yesterday that they were taken from the forest. In 1831 there were two additions attached to the original building, and a few years later the same part was weather-boarded, and this is the reason, no doubt, that it is in such a good state of preservation. Mr. Spencer set out the first orchard in Big Creek township. The first lot of trees was planted in the spring of 1834, two of the trees remaining, either of which is thirty inches in diameter. A ten minutes' ride on horseback from the present residence of Calvin C. Spencer (son of George A.) will bring you to the site of the old historic Spencer house.
"This structure of the long-ago was, in early times, a welcome mansion to many a lone and weary Tippecanoe Indian, a home to all new-comers, and a place of rest and refreshment to all those of whatever color or tongue that needed rest. Though this house was the second in the township, though it was one of freedom and much welcome to whomsoever could ask admittance to its threshold, it has a more extended history, for here it was that the first Circuit Court in White county was held. In this cabin the White Circuit Court was held for two years. The first term of court was commenced on the 13th day of October, 1834. At this bar a number of the most prominent lawyers of those times practiced, and on this bench some of the best jurists of that day sat. Among those who dealt out justice at this bar may he mentioned the names of Rufus Lockwood, John U. Pettit, Albert S. White, Samuel Huff, Ira Ingraham and James Lane. The lawyers all boarded in the cabin Court House, and Mrs. Spencer did the cooking for the 'loose-tongued' gentlemen, while Mr. S. cared for the lawyers' horses and spent the remainder of his time in keeping the 'boys' straight.
"Mr. Spencer was a strict temperance man, and always clung to the fittest of things of life; as a natural consequence, he would not allow swearing in his house. A large oak tree stood about ten rods distant from the house, and it is said that Mr. S. would not allow any swearing between that tree and the cabin. Some time elapsed before the lawyers could prevail upon Mr. Spencer to get them their kind of liquid refreshments, but finally the old gentleman brought home a keg of the most approved brand of Kentucky whiskey, and that night the cabin of justice lost all its dignity. Conviviality reigned until far into the night and did not end there, as after the lawyers went to bed they indulged in hilarious pillow-fights, kicked and pulled each other around, and in various other ways spoiled their case with the sober landlord, who never again allowed them to 'whiskey-up' in his house. But Mrs. Spencer, or Aunt Sally, held them to the Spencer House, notwithstanding this check, and what time the lawyers were not engaged in the court room, or playing ball, they were bragging about Aunt Sally and her cooking."
In the general history of the county we have given the main facts of Mr. Spencer's life, including its official, agricultural and social identification with this section for nearly forty years. He was the father of eight children, several of whom, like Calvin C., were also leading citizens. A number of his sons served in the Union army.
When Mr. Reynolds came to Big Creek Township he had suffered reverses which made him almost penniless; he was, however, pluckily "starting over again." He had enjoyed little education in schools, but was practical, honest and hard-working. He had operated a stage line from Vincennes to Toledo for a number of years previous to 1828, when a distemper carried away so many of his horses as to ruin him financially. Mr. Reynolds had made little headway toward recovery when he ventured beyond the Tippecanoe with his friend, George A. Spencer. His stage line had followed the valleys of the Wabash and Maumee rivers and he had become well acquainted with Northwestern Indiana before he located in Big Creek Township. Being a man of more active temperament, both of mind and body, than his good friend Spencer, he soon became the agent for various eastern parties in the location of lands on commission, which enabled him to become the owner of some 15,000 acres in Indiana and Illinois. At a later day he obtained the contract for excavating many miles of the State Ditch, portions of which he sublet. He was largely influential in building the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad, as well as the Pan Handle Line, in both of which he became a large stockholder. He was also interested in the Junction Railroad and had the misfortune, about 1855, of losing $100,000 through his investments therein. The year before, he had founded the Town of Reynolds. During the Civil War Mr. Reynolds met with his third serious financial reverse, as he was obliged to pay fully $40,000 in bail debts. But he was vigorous and elastic and had nearly recovered his former standing before his death in his home township, on June 6, 1869. His son, Isaac Reynolds, born in 1831, was the first native white child of the township. Two of his sons (Levi Reynolds and a younger brother) cultivated the home farm after the father's death until the estate was sold under administrator's sale, when it was bought by the widow and divided. Levi Reynolds moved to Monticello in 1878, but after three years' residence there returned to the old homestead and became quite well known in local affairs, both official and agricultural. Large tracts of land in sections 6, 7 and 13, of what is now Union Township, are still held by the Spencer family.
On November 2, 1830, John Burns entered land in section 30, southeastern part of the township, and in the following year settled upon his "eighty," with his young wife. Although then only in his twenty-third year, he had been married since 1826. The young people commenced their married life in White County in a rude log cabin with a dirt floor, but they prospered in amassing both property and a large family. Before Mr. Burns' death he had become the owner of 1,200 acres of land and was probably the largest land owner in the township. He was widely known as a breeder of cattle, hogs and horses.
William Burns, the eldest of the six children of John Burns, was born in Big Creek Township April 23, 1831, soon after the family came from Ohio, and is claimed to have been either the first or second white child born in the county. Until he was twenty-three years of age he was employed on his father's farm, by which time he had saved $700, with which he bought a partially improved farm of 120 acres near the family homestead. In October, 1860, he married Miss Etna McIntyre, an Ohio lady, who for ten years had been housekeeper for her twin brother on the old Burns Farm. As man and wife they lived a peaceful and useful life for more than fifty-two years, not far from where they commenced housekeeping. Like his father, William Burns became well known as a live stock farmer. His wife died March 19, 1913, and he followed her three days later. They were buried side by side in Riverview Cemetery, Monticello, and left a son and a daughter--Samuel M. Burns, of Chalmers, and Mary Etta Brown, of Urbana, Ohio.
On the same day that John Burns entered his land, November 2, 1830, James Kerr bought 80 acres in section 24; John Miller, in section 19; Mahlon Frazer, in section 9; on the following day Daniel Baum entered 80 acres in section 8 and Robert Newell 80 acres in section 18; John Bostick, 80 acres in section 12, on the 12th of October, same year; Joseph H. Graham, 80 acres in section 8, November 15, 1830; John Stockton, 80 acres in section 7, on November 20th, and Jeremiah Bisher filed his claim on December 20th, also of the year 1830.
About the time that John Burns located, in 1831, Samuel Gray and John Roberts became residents of the township, the latter having entered land late in the preceding fall. Samuel Alkire entered a tract within the township August 18, 1832, and the following became land owners in 1833: Stephen Bunnell, John Wesley Bunnell, Nathaniel Bunnell, Sr., and Nathaniel Bunnell, Jr., December 10th; Benjamin Reynolds, Christmas Day; John C. Kilgore, June 4th; John Barr, Jr., June 10th; William M. Kenton, November 26th.
The Beazy family also arrived in 1833—Isaac Beazy, wife and six children —but evidently were in no condition to invest in land. They came all the way from Perry County, Ohio, and the different members of the family rode two horses, in shifts. They were old friends of George A. Spencer, who made room for them in his own house until he and Mr. Beazy could erect a separate cabin for the newcomers. Mr. Beazy was employed by Mr. Spencer, and his family lived on the Spencer farm for a number of years.
Big Creek Township, in common with other sections of the county which had any considerable portion of lowlands, was scourged with ague, or chills and fever. The trouble would generally commence in July and continue until midwinter; and the shakes of 1833 were long remembered as the most severe and prevalent of any recorded in the history of the township. It is said that only two residents escaped their onslaught—Calvin C. Spencer and a small, tough negro boy. Although boneset and other tried remedies were freely used, chills and fever continued to grip the township for at least a decade, or until the settlers became convinced that stagnant water and their drinking supply were largely the cause of the scourge, and acted accordingiy.
At the first meeting of the board of county commissioners, in July, 1834, when Big Creek Township was created, the house of George A. Spencer was designated as the place for holding elections the first year, and James Kerr was appointed inspector. Benjamin N. Spencer was also named as supervisor of roads, George A. Spencer and Armstrong Buchanan, overseers of the poor, and Benjamin Reynolds and Henry Barcus, fence viewers. As the Spencer home was the headquarters of the county government for several years while the official quarters were being prepared at Monticello, Big Creek Township was, if anything, overburdened with circumspection; it had more government than it could well bear.
The creation of the county was the signal for the inauguration of its educational forces. In 1834 its first school was taught by Clinton Munson in a cabin which stood on George A. Spencer's land—a round-log affair, 12 by 15 feet; as several log houses had been built on his land, it is impossible to say what one was thus honored. It is stated that the expense of its erection was borne by the resident families of George A. Spencer, Benjamin Reynolds, John Burns, Robert Newell, William M. Kenton, Zebulon Dyer, James Shafer, John Phillips and perhaps a few others. It was the first schoolhouse built within the limits of White County. A log had been omitted from the south wall to admit the light; two puncheons, fastened together with wooden pins and hung on wooden hinges, formed the door, which was securely closed with a wooden latch in a wooden catch; a string passed through the door above the latch and served to raise it from the outside on ordinary occasions—the exceptions being when the bad boys arrived before the schoolmaster, when it would be drawn in, the window barricaded with benches and otherwise placed in a state to withstand a siege. The first teacher of this particular school was Matthias Davis.
The following entered lands during 1835: Barzilla W. Bunnell, January 9th; James Barnes, December 10th; John Lewis, September 9th; Benjamin Reynolds, December 8th; John Brady, November 23d; William Cornell, October 20th; John Beaver, December 19th; Levi Johnson. November 16th.
In 1836: Thomas Spencer, January 1st; Mahlon Fraser, May 9th; Isaac N. Parker, January 4th; David Fisher, May 9th; William Warden, May 24th; Nimrod Warden, May 24th; Noah Dixon, November 28th; James Barnes, January 2lst; Joshua Rinker, January 13th; Mary Thompson, June 15th; Nathan Goff, December 13th; John Brady, same date; and Eliza N. Bunnell, February 23d.
At the fall election of 1836, held at the house of George A. Spencer, on the first Monday in November, the following voted, most of the names being already familiar: Nathaniel Bunnell, Sr., Joseph H. Thompson, Thomas Donavan, John Luce, Jesse Grooms, William Carr, Benjamin Reynolds, Thomas Bunnell, James Shafer, Joseph Phillips, George A. Spencer, Isaac Davis, Ellis H. Johnson, John W. Bunnell, Daniel Lane, Nathaniel Bunnell, Jr., B. Bunnell and Armstrong Buchanan. Nathaniel Bunnell, Isaac Davis and John Bunnell acted as judges.
But although the township was organized and its citizens were exercising their full American rights, it was still a frontier country, and continued to be so considered for years. A good illustration of that fact is the Great Hunt of 1840. The district in which the chase occurred was bounded north by Monon Creek, east by the Tippecanoe River, south by the Wabash River and west by the line between White and Benton counties. Men and boys were stationed along these boundaries a quarter of a mile apart, and at 8 o'clock on the morning of the "drive" commenced to "close in" at a rate of advance which would bring them to what is now known as Reynolds' Grove at 2 o'clock P. M. In that grove three scaffolds had been erected on which the marksmen of the day were stationed. No other members of the party were allowed to carry guns. It is said that men attended this chase from a territory twenty-five miles distant, and the spoils of the chase comprised fifty deer and many more wolves. The reward of the marksmen was, as usual, a specially large portion of the whiskey and provisions which had been hauled to headquarters for the consumption of all the participants in the hunt.
The entries of land in Big Creek Township continued until the early '50s, although they were quite rare during the hard times of the late '30s and the early '40s. This period, 1837-51, records the following as new land owners, with dates of entry: Jonathan Johnson, February 1, 1837, and Henry Linda, October 20th, of the same year; Joshua H. Scarf and Jacob Hanaway, October 5 and January 25, 1839, respectively; Okey S. Johnson and Catherine E. Davis, both on June 2, 1842; Moses Karr and Joseph Karr, January 24 and May 23, 1848; John Holliday and John R. Jefferson, January 31 and May 28, 1844; Robert Bartholomew, September 20, 1845; Ellis H. Johnson, May 28th of that year; John Burget, July 29th, also 1845; in 1846—Abel T. Smith, May 26th; David W. Parker, August 19th; John W. Johnson, June 29th; John Matthews, April 25th; John Bunnell, July 18th; and Silas Adams, April 13th; in 1847—Bushrod W. Cain, December 18th; John Friend, September 11th, Abraham Lukens, June 21st; Ambrose Mudge, December 14th; John Alkire, March 5th; Ezekiel Matthews, June 26th; Thomas Chenoweth, August 17th; in 1848— William Vanscoy, January 26th; John R. Jefferson, October 5th; Ellis H. Johnson, January 26th; and Abel T. Smith, same date; Joseph D. Moore, June 19, 1849; Ira M. Chenoweth. August 20, 1850; and David Parker, July 28, 1851.
All of the foregoing entries (and the statement applies to those which have preceded the immediate list) were made by White County settlers, but not all of them were by residents of Big Creek Township. A few of them relinquished their interests and migrated to other parts, but the majority improved their properties, founded homesteads and added to their holdings, either by the purchase of adjoining Government lands or of tracts which had been thrown upon the market by non-residents. Especially was this the case with those who had early begun the raising of live stock. Others became the owners of larger farms than they could profitably cultivate, and were forced to lease portions of their land to tenants, who would pay them in rental or in a stipulated proportion of the crops.
Although Abel T. Smith entered his first lands, a short distance southwest of Smithson, or Wheeler, in the spring of 1846, he did not start with his family from their old Virginia home until the fall of the year. More than sixty years afterward, one of his sons, B. Wilson Smith (then four-score years of age), was writing as follows:
"We left our home near Bridgeport, Harrison county, Virginia (now West Virginia), October 17, 1846. There my father, mother and six children—the oldest (Mrs. Haymond) nearly 18 years, and youngest a babe less than two months. I write this on the 64th anniversary of our departure. We came overland all the way—saw but one railroad track in all the way—at Springfield, Ohio. We had a three-horse wagon and carriage. I was past 16 years of age. I drove the wagon all the way.
"We reached the county of White in the morning of November 24th. Had stayed at Battle Ground the night before, then called Harrisonville. We passed from Tippecanoe county into White county at a point a little north of Forgy Kious' home and went north, crossing Moots' Creek a little west of the home of Mr. Smelser, then county commissioner. Then on north, along the county road, past John Kious', over Hickory Ridge, and northwest to Kent's Point. Mr. Kent lived there then. My father had known him and bought cattle of him when he lived on Darby Plains, west of Columbus, Ohio. He lived in a cabin near the old grave yard. John Price, his son-in-law, lived a little northeast of him. Our course was then straight on north to the home of John Brady on Big Creek, one-fourth mile west of Tucker schoolhouse, built in 1861. There was no house then where Chalmers is now, nor until we reached Brady's, except the home of Joseph H. Thompson away to the right on the hill, and the Jack Burgett cabin, one-fourth mile to the west. We passed close by their cabin on the east side. We reached Mr. Brady's at nightfall. He and his wife were Virginians—he from the south branch of the Potomac, and she from Clarksburgh. She was a Britton, a very prominent family. She and my mother had been schoolmates. Her sister had married Nathan Goff, a man of money and influence—the Goff whose name so often occurs as former owner of lands in Big Creek and West Point townships.
"We brought in our wagon a large box of clothing and valuables from Mrs. Goff to her sister, Mrs. Brady, and the family. At that time the Mexican War was on, and Mrs. Brady's brother, Major Forbes Britton, was a very prominent officer in General Taylor's family.
"Mr. Brady's house was built of hewed logs and was about 16x18 feet square. His family was seven or eight, ours eight, and the man who came with us from LaFayette, hauling a load of furniture and provisions; and yet we all stayed in that not large house of one room and ate and slept there. I mention this as a graphic picture of pioneer times in White county. This county had been organized but twelve years at that time.
"The 24th of November had been a pleasant day, a little cool and raw, but gave no indication of a marked change of weather. But before the morning dawned a fierce northwester was in full swing, and snow was falling and ice freezing fast. We had to go two miles west to our cabin, which stood about ninety rods southwest of Smithson station. We had to cut the ice to get across Little Creek and unload our furniture and provisions in the storm, and leave it till the occupant of the cabin could get his family and household effects out, which he kindly did. Father had bought the cabin and squatter right of him the spring previous. The cabin was 14x16 feet, outside measurement, of split logs, making the inside measurement 13x15, one window, one door, no loft to speak of, and yet a family of eight stored themselves, furniture and provisions, in this small cabin for the entire winter and spring, till a new addition and hall and porch could be added. Yea, more, they lived happily—toiled hard, never complained, and saw the fruits of their toil in 120 acres fenced, a good corn and oats crop, and 70 acres of prairie broken and sowed in wheat.
"At the time of our coming to White county there was not a town on the line of the Monon railroad from the Battle Ground to Michigan City. West Bedford, three miles east of Monon, was a small town with a postoffice, and New Durham was 2 1/2 miles east of the present town of Westville. Of course there was no railroad, nor till seven years later. Monticello was a small town with no mills or water power. The two princely houses were those of Chas. Kendall and William Sill, who died about that time, Monticello had a postoffice, so also Burnett's Creek and West Bedford. These were all, and they only had weekly mail, carried on horseback from Logansport to White Post. The only mills of any special import were those at Norway. They had French burr stones and made good flour. They also carded wool. The Van Rensselaer had been destroyed, i. e., the dam, by the great floods of 1844. The only church building of any pretension was the New School Presbyterian at Monticello, of which the afterward celebrated Mr. Cheever had charge. I knew him twenty years later when in the full prime of his great career. The Methodists had no church in the county. The charges were not even a circuit, but Monon Mission. The only schoolhouse in Monticello then was the frame building that stood on the lot where Mrs. Israel Nordyke lately lived. No schoolhouse in Big Creek township except an old abandoned one near old Father Nathaniel Bunnell's, built of round logs, with mortar and stick chimney, but in the last mouth of the year the neighbors joined together and built a hewed log schoolhouse about one-fourth of a mile east of the present Tucker schoolhouse, which was built 15 years later. In this log schoolhouse the first Methodist quarterly meeting that I ever attended was held in March, 1847. Rev. S. C. Cooper, Greeneastle, was presiding elder, and Rev. Burns preacher in charge.
"My sister Margaret, afterward Mrs. Dr. Raymond, taught the first school. Living as we did 90 rods southwest of Smithson Station, our nearest neighbors were Mrs. Abigail Johnson and her family, nearly one-fourth mile east, Henry Lindsey one-fourth mile west, then David Parker a fourth mile further on, and then, a half mile further west, the widow Biddle, and one-fourth mile further, John R. Jefferson. There were no neighbors south nor north nor east nearer than two miles, and west (Isaac Beesy) three miles. The country was new, and the people did not crowd each other much. There was no newspaper then or before published in White county. Not much of politics or political exeitement. I remember the presidential election of 1848. My father and I left home at the same time, going in opposite directions—he east, I west. When we met again he had voted for Taylor and Filmore at the voting plate of the township, the old seat of county government, Geo. A. Spencer's, and I had secured a school in Princeton township—the Nordyke neighborhood. It was my first school, and the first taught in the township. The 18th day of November just passed was the sixty-second anniversary of its opening. May I say that all of our family (children) were school teachers, and all taught in White county except the youngest—Henry Clay.
"Do you wonder that I have a great love for White county? I never had any enemies there. I have touched shoulders with many of your early citizens in the life struggle. Your noble building, the schoolhouse at Monticello--I laid the cornerstone and delivered the oration in 1869. Every foot of your 504 square miles is destined to be valuable. Your noble river, the classic Tippecanoe, is destined to continue the most beautiful stream in the State, and every hamlet, village and town to grow in wealth and importance through the coming years. The fondest dreams of the early days will more than come true, and the civilized and cultured Anglo-Saxon continue to hold and cultivate lands where once the proud hostile Miami held savage sway."
As the population increased, especially in the northeastern part of the township toward Monticello, the settlers prepared to give their children better educational conveniences. The county was divided into school districts, No. 1 being embraced in that territory. In 1850 the first frame schoolhouse in the township was erected in section 12, not far from the original log cabin, used for that purpose, on the Spencer farm.
The settlers felt greatly encouraged when the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad was completed through the township in 1853, and Gardner Mudge contributed land in section 34 to be used as the site of a station. The locality was known for years as Mudge's Station, but it did not bud into the Town of Chalmers until 1873, when it was first platted.
In the early '70s several important improvements were made in the township, among others being the building of its first iron bridge across Big Creek, just north of the residence of John Burns. It was completed in 1872 and was 100 feet long; quite a structure for those days and that locality. It has since been replaced by a more substantial structure.
In the '80s the settlers commenced to take up the work of draining the northern swamp lands in earnest, and the result was to reclaim large tracts which had been held unimproved, some of the owners being non-residents. As these lands came into the market as fertile and valuable farm properties, they were purchased by actual settlers and divided into smaller tracts. Thus the northern part of the township received a noticeable accession of population.
One of the results of this movement was the platting of the Town of Wheeler in section 9. It was laid out on the farm of Hiram M. Wheeler, on the main line of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad. The postoffice at that point was named Smithson, in honor of Lieut. Bernard G. Smith, a veteran of the Civil war and a son of Abel T. Smith, who came to the neighborhood in 1846 and was for years prominent in township affairs. He died in 1875. Although the town was platted as Wheeler, the railroad station is usually known by the name of the postoffice, Smithson.
Besides being early in the movement of artificial drainage, the farmers of Big Creek Township, with the solid support of the townsmen of Chalmers, took the initiative in the improvement of the highways of the county, and, in proportion to their population and wealth, are still in the front ranks of the good roads reform. In that regard the bonded indebtedness of the township is the fifth largest among the eleven townships of the county. Its total of $46,977 is divided among the several roads as follows: Dobbins, $800; Bedding, $470; Anderson, $4,500; Younger, $4,500; J. H. Moore, $9,334; Friday, $4,800; Mills, $1,733; Morrison, $8,000; Lane, $12,840.