On Hamilton Township - Excerpts from Our County, Its History and Early Settlement by Townships, John S. Ellis, 1898
As to the first settlers in this township we know very little, aside from what we may learn from the tract book of entries of public lands. The first entry of land in the township was made October 21, 1829, by Owen Russell, grandfather of Isaiah Russell, grocer, now of Muncie. Mr. Russell. coming to Hamilton at that time, found a settler on the land he entered by the name of Boggs, and traded him a yoke of oxen for the improvements he had made before going to the land office and proving his title, but we have no way of ascertaining when Mr. Boggs came to the township. The land he settled on was the southeast quarter of section 26, now owned by Milton Hamilton.------ Adam Shafer entered land in section 22 and Peter Williamson in section 25. These two pioneers were brothers-in-law, of the hardy, honest and industrious type, the kind of men who have made Delaware county to stand in the front rank among the counties of the Union. These two lived to raise large, respected families of children, and to enjoy the fruits of their early labor for many years, and their children and grandchildren still own and occupy the early home of their honored parents.------The first elections which the writer has any knowledge of were held in the cabin on the southeast quarter of section 15. This land was entered by Archibald Smith in 1833, afterwards owned and occupied by William Wire, then owned by the widow and heirs of Samuel Collier, then Abraham Sheets, and now owned by R. W. Stradling. The cabin stood on the west shore of a rising ground near the foot of the hill or slope not far from a fine spring of water and about fifty rods north of the road running west from Royerton. Here the elections were held until Center school house was built (No. 5) of hewn logs by the settlers in 1850 or '51. And here at this cabin would also assemble the several candidates for the various county offices and discuss the political issues of the day, and get acquainted with the people.------ During one campaign there were a dozen or more candidates for sheriff, and at an appointed day they came to Hamilton township to electioneer the inhabitants who might assemble. On this occasion there were, perhaps, a dozen farmers to hear the candidates talk. We remember the candidates, for thev were looked on by us boys as the great men of the community. At this particular meeting we remember Clark McCauley, James Trimbell, StephenKennedy and Solomon Barrett as candidates for sheriff. And while some talked, others sat around on logs and listened or interrupted the speaker with questions as they were suggested to their minds. One of the candidates we remember as sitting on his horse during the meeting. He was in his shirt sleeves and barefoot. He was not elected, the prize being carried off at the election by Clark McCauley. At one of these meetings is the first time we ever remember seeing our fellow citizen, Mr. Marck C. Smith, who was then a young man and a candidate for member of the legislature.------The first apple orchard in Hamilton was set out by Owen Russell in 1830. This consisted of one hundred seedling trees purchased of a man in Wayne county. Stephen R. Martin and Joel Russell were the first to build brick dwellings in the township early in the forties. In the year 1832 the dark pall of death was first thrown over the settlement by the demise of Charles Hopkins, who came here with the family of Owen Russell, in delicate health, his malady subsequently developing into consumption, from which he died. There being no cemetery then in the township, he was buried at Muncietown. For several years the deceased members of the community were buried on their own or their neighbors' farms. We remember several graves in different localities. There were several (as we now remember in 1850) in the southeast corner of section 15, adjoining the present village of Royerton. At that time these graves were covered with rails, and these were even then quite old and rotten, indicating that the graves had been there for several years. Another group of graves similarly protected were located on the northeast quarter of section 22, and near the northwest corner of that quarter. They were on the south side of where the road running west from Royerton now runs, and nearly a half mile west of that village. But the first cemetery (or grave yard) in the township was deeded to "the clerk of the court, and to his successors forever, for the use of the public as a burial ground" by Thomas Reeves. This deed was executed in 1840. The cemetery was on the southeast quarter of section 24, and a portion of the 80-acre tract now owned and occupied by John Cullen, and is still used for burial purposes.------- The act which constituted Hamilton a civil township was passed by the commissioners in 1838. However, all records of this first township meeting are lost (if ever made), as the trustee's once contains no records earlier than 1853 The constitution of the state, as revised two years previous, made the keeping of the records obligatory upon the township clerk, and these records have been preserved. The first entry in this volume is a record of a meeting held by the trustees April 11, 1853. The members present were: Stephen R. Martin, Aaron Moore and Jacob H. Slonaker, trustees, and A. J. Green, clerk. Stephen R. Martin was chosen president of the board for a term of three years, and Samuel Strohm (who had been previously elected) took his seat as a member of the board of trustees.------ April 16, 1853, the board met pursuant to adjournment, and transacted no further business than to levy a tax of ten cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property, for township purposes.------ At the next meeting, May 10, 1853, we find the first record of money paid for school purposes. William N. Jackson was allowed $41.30 for services as teacher of school in district No. 5 (although other schools had been taught here previous to this. The first school here was taught by Dr. Boyd, then came William Sleeth, then Benjamin Halcomb.)------Money was also disbursed as follows: To John Robinson for services as trustee, $2.00; to George Northcutt for services as township clerk, $9.00; to Jonathan Martin for teaching school in district No. 2, $23.70; to John Hatfield for teaching in district No. 1, $9.10; Jacob H. Slonaker for services as trustee, $1.75; Isaac Shideler, township trustee, $3.20; Isaac Freeman, receiver for Wilson F. Steen, teacher in district No. 4, $18.95; to Stacy A. Hains, teacher in district No. 7, $60; to Isaac Freeman for services as school trustee, 81.25; to John B. Armstrong, $6.00 for extra labor as supervisor; to Seth R. Martin, $1.00; Levi Beal, $4.25; Alexander Snyder, $5.25, and William McCormick, $2.25, for services as supervisors.------ The following statement is of the condition of the public schools of Hamilton township for the year ending on the first Monday of April, 1854, as rendered and filed with the county auditor. Total number of children between the ages of five and twenty-one years, 266; number of males, 140; number of females, 126; number of children who have attended school during the past year, 225; number of males attending school, 123; number of females attending school, 102; average daily attendance, 125.5; number of teachers, 5; number of schools, 5; male teachers, 4; female teachers, 1; average wages of male teachers per month, $19.442/3; wages of female teacher, $15.331/3 per month; length of term, 62 days. Amount of expense for instruction during the year, $279.36; amount of public funds appropriated to the township, $318.12; amount charged by township officers for managing the educational affairs, $33.---------Among the early ministers of the gospel of Hamilton township were Abner Perdue, Henry Grist, Larken Mullen, Scott Richardson and Benjamin Halcomb. The meetings were generally held at the residence of some of the settlers, then later on, at the school houses. Among other settlers who opened their houses for worship were William Sleeth, Adam Shafer, William Gard and others. We remember attending religious meetings in a barn, on the farm of Nathan Dean, now owned by A. McCormick, on the Studebaker pike. This was early in the fifties, but even at that late date church buildings were very scarce.------ The northwest quarter of section 13 was know in early years as "Iowa" from the fact that William Thomas sold his home near Granville in Niles township with the avowed purpose of moving to the then new state of Iowa, but subsequently bought and located on this northwest quarter of section 13, and the neighbors gave it the name of "Iowa" by which the farm was generally known for miles around.------The first settler, where Royerton stands, was William Sleeth, who purchased the land and built a cabin early in the forties. He was an intelligent and an industrious man, going to work with a will he soon had improved a quantity of his land, and early in the fifties, he burned a kiln of brick, and erected the brickhouse just north of the village, and near the site of his cabin, he afterwards sold out to John Royer who located the village, and for who it was named.------ Stephen Kennedy, who located on the northwest quarter of section 22, was reputed one of the greatest hunters that lived in the county, and we doubt if any man ever killed as many deer in the county as did Mr. Kennedy. During the winter of 1851 and'52 he killed thirty-two deer, most, if not all, in Hamilton township. We can remember seeing him start out of mornings, in his hunting garb of light colored clothes, on his gray mare, the snow several inches deep, with his trusty rifle, his ever companion, a strap around his mare's neck, to which was attached a cow-bell. The game might just as well have made up its mind to come home with him, as he scarcely ever returned empty. If he secured but one deer during the day's hunt, he would probably throw it across "old gray" and bring it along, but, as was often the case, if he killed two or more during the day, he would hang them up in the woods, then return and hitch "old gray" to a small sled and gather up his game. The outside walls of his cabin were often nearly covered with skins of various wild animals, where they were stretched and left to dry. Mr. Kennedy was also an accomplished violinist (or as we called him, "a good fiddler"), and was at one time a justice of the peace. (Pages 89-100).

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On Harrison Township - Excerpts from Our County, Its History and Early Settlement by Townships, John S. Ellis, 1898
Joshua Howell erected a mill for grinding corn, on Big Killbuck about one and a half miles below Bethel in 1842. This was one of the primitive contrivances so often found in the pioneer settlement, and was soon dispensed with, as mills of large capacity were erected on neighboring streams, and as roads were constructed whereby the settlers could get to them. Jesse Stout, a Baptist minister, erected a distillery on the west half of the southwest quarter of section 29, in 1842. Mr. Stout had entered the land in 1836, and seeing the demand for whisky concluded he could make a financial success of his enterprise and at the same time accommodate his neighbors. However, as the capacity of his still was but about three gallons per day the demand, and subseqnent legislatures, interferred somewhat with his business, he abandoned the enterprise, which gave him more time to devote to preaching.------ Perhaps the first school in Harrison township was taught in the winter of 1834 and 1835 in a log school house built for school purposes on the land entered by John Garner, being the east half of the southeast quarter of section 29, and southeast of where school house No. 6 now stands and on the same section. Schools in these early days were very uncertain, as a teacher and an empty cabin could not always be obtained, but our early pioneers seemed to have had high appreciation of education as demonstrated in their early efforts to establish schools and which has culminated im our present healthful school system of which every Indianalan may feel justly proud. ------The first merchant of Harrison township was Jacob Miller, who erected a store room adjoining his residence in the southeast part of section 20, in 1851, then in September of that year went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and bought three wagon loads of dry goods, groceries, etc., and hauling them home was prepared to accommodate his customers with many of the necessaries of life.------Harrison has never been noted for her towns and villages, but is entirely rural , the entire territory being given up to agricultural interests. Bethel (or Stout) is the only village in the township, although Gilman is geographicaly in Harrison township, yet, in fact, in Madison county. In other words, the paper town is in Delaware county while the buildings are in Madison.------ Job Garner at one time laid out a village on his farm in the southeast part of section 20 and named it Harrison, but after the land was sold to Jacob Miller he converted the town into farm land, as others might be converted to advantage. (Pages 167-168)

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