N
Delaware County, Indiana
KITH AND KIN CONNECTION

New Corner, Indiana (Gaston) - about eight miles over west of Eaton in Washington township, was laid out in the next year (1855), upon the completion of the survey of the railroad (present C. & 0.) through that part of the county. The formally recorded name of this place on the original plat is Town of New Corner. It was platted and opened as a townsite by David L. Jones on February 27, 1855, the original plat of the town being a part of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 33 of township 22, range 9. The plat carries three full blocks with the same number of half blocks, the whole cut diagonally northwest and southeast by Railroad street, laid off eighty feet in width. North, Mulberry, Walnut and Elm are the east-and-west streets and Sycamore and Main the north-and-south streets. When the gas "boom" struck in there back in the late '80s the name of Town of New Corner was formally changed to Gaston, which it since has borne.
(Source: History of Delaware, County Indiana, Frank D. Haimbaugh, 1924, Vol 1, page 406)

New Burlington, Indiana - New Burlington, a historic old hamlet in the northeast quarter of section 8, town 19, range 11 (Perry civil township), was platted on August 22, 1837, by George Pribble. This tract, there at the cross roads, b'sected by the old state road, the Burlington pike, carries four full squares of eight blocks to the lot and several fractional lots. Main street (the Burlington pike) is paralleled by Spring and High streets and the plat is divided in cross streets by First, Second, Third and Fourth. On the highway between Muncie and Richmond, this old town in the days before the coming of the railroads was an important stopping place for teamsters and drovers and two taverns flourished there. Good business also was done by the wagon shop and the blacksmith shop and a couple of general-goods stores accommodated the needs of a wide trade area thereabout.
(Source: History of Delaware County, Indiana, Frank D. Haimbaugh, 1924, Vol 1, pages 402/3)

On Niles Township - Excerpts from Our County, Its History and Early Settlement by Townships, John S. Ellis, 1898

-------------------Start--------------------
Mr. Ellis writes: Note.--Through the kindness of R. S. Gregory I am enabled to give information relative to Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Shaw. They were English people, he a bright, scholarly young man, but unfortunately for a young man in England, was poor. She was a daughter of one of the noblemen of the country. Winning her affections while they were quite young, they concluded to marry and hide themselves in the "new world," knowing they could never get the consent of her father to their union. So, about 1835 or 1836, they proceeded to carry out their former plans, came to New York and started for the then "far west." On March 16, 1836, he entered two forty acre tracts of land in Niles township, near Granville. Here Mr. Shaw and his royal-blooded wife lived happily together, and both being well educated, taught school at different times and different places. Early in the fifties, Mr. Gregory remembers Mr. Shaw and his wife coming to his father's house with the statement that they had just received the news from England that Mrs. Shaw's father had recently died, and before death, (or his representatives after his death) had relented of the hardness toward the American daughter and her husband, and had invited them to return to England to receive her share of the estate, which they hastened to do. Mr. Shaw, being a scholar and a gentleman, besides having added largely to his store of political knowledge by his sixteen or twenty years residence in Delaware county, was (shortly after returning to England) elected to the honorable position of mayor of Southport, in which capacity he served until his death which occurred about 1875 or 1876.------Loxley A. Rickard, in company with Daniel Bosman and Richard Higman and their families, left their former homes in the state of Delaware in the year 1835, and plodding slowly westward with their teams and covered wagons, fording deep streams or camping on the banks until the waters would fall, they finally, arrived in Ross county, Ohio, where they remained during the following winter. Then again starting westward they arrived at Muncytown (now city of Muncie) about the first of August, 1836. Here they arranged to leave their wives and children until they could select their future homes. Striking out to the northeast, they finally selected land in Niles township, Mr. Rickard in section 22, Mr. Bosman in section 23 and Mr. Higman in sections 14 and 15. The next object was to secure their title of the government. To do this they employed a man by the name of Pendroy, who had settled in section 35 the previous year and was now considered an old settler, to proceed to the land office at Ft. Wayne and make their entries for them. Their title secured, they at once went to work to build their cabins that they might bring their families to their new homes. Mrs. Rickard states that their cabin walls were erected and the roof put on when they, moved out to their home. The cabin had no floor or chimney. A large stump stood in the center of the room, against which they built the fire of cool evenings. Their fire for cooking was made against a log outside the cabin. Some large slabs, or puncheon, were split from logs and lain across the back end of the cabin to keep their bedding off the damp ground The old lady adds that "we got on very nicely, but were a little crowded at first, as Mr. Higman and his family stopped with us the first night, as his cabin was not quite so nearly completed." ------ Besides clearing up a fine farm, Mr. John Wilson instituted a tannery in early days. Crude, of course, as conpared with that industry of our day, but nevertheless a great blessing to the community at that time. Here the settler brought the pelts of game and hides of animals, and in (which was a long) time had them converted into leather. When the leather was received, the next process was to call the family together, and to have each one to stand with the heel of the foot against the door post, a small stick placed lengthwise under the foot was cut off at the end of the big toe, thus obtaining the exact length of the foot. Sometimes a string was placed around the instep to get the measurement of the foot in circumference, but most frequently the length only was taken, and whoever went to the shoemaker's would have to remember if the person needing shoes, had a high or low instep.------ Small tanneries were quite numerous in the early days of our county. Another of these useful manufacturers was that of Ralph Stafford. This was located about a mile above Black's mill, on the southside of the Mississinewa river. Mr. Stafford once told me of a man who had brought him a beef hide that he wished to sell. Mr. Stafford said the hide was quite wet, the man stating that he had dropped it in the river when crossing in the canoe. Mr. Stafford placed the hide on the scales, and it being so very heavy excited his suspicions, and unrolling it he found the hair filled with sand. It seems that the owner had saturated the hide with water, then taking it by the tail had dragged it through the sand until it became many times heavier than it naturally was. But, like many do, he overdid the natural so far that he missed the sale entirely. Mr. Stafford afterwards (in 1853) bought a farm and removed his tannery west of Black's mill, on what was then the upper Granville road, now Muncie and Granville pike, where he farmed and operated his tannery for many years.------ One of the first organized churches in the township has its house of worship in the southeast corner of this section. We allude to the Bethel Methodist Episcopal church. Some time in the year 1836 Rev. Wade Posey, a missionary of this church, organized a class at the house of Eli Anderson, who had settled about a quarter of a mile south of where Bethel church stands. This class consisted of seven members, and here in this cabin these faithful few met and worshiped for three or four years, until about 1839 or 1840, when their increasing numbers made the erection of a church building a positive necessity. John Shrack, one of the members of the class, donated a lot in the southeast corner of this section (it being the southeast corner of his land also), on which was erected a hewed log house of worship, or the "Bethel church."e; Some years later this first building was entirely destroyed by fire, but not discouraged, the members with commendable energy very soon erected another house similar to the first, on the same site. This second Bethel church stood, and was used for worship, until 1859, when it was torn away, and the present (Bethel) neat and commodious church took its place. "Bethel" has ever been a prosperous society, in a prosperous community.------About the center section 28, in a pleasant grove, is where the famous "Gregory camp meetings" were held for a number of years, and here during weeks in August each year assembled the worshipers of God (and mammon). They erected substantial wooden tents, (they forming a hollow square) came with their families, brought their provisions and bedding, and thus spent many pleasant days in the cool grove, mingling with kindred spirits in the worship of God, and social friendships. And while this was the programme at the "camp ground," the "grocery wagons" (for that is what they were called) would locate two miles away (required by law), near the village of Granville, and there do a lively business vending gingerbread, cider, melons and candies. Wrestling, jumping and not infrequently fighting was indulged in, so that within two miles you could see the two extremes of morals, even in those early days of long distances.------The village of Granville, the only town or village in the township. Granville is the successor of Georgetown, which was situated a short distance above Granville on the Mississinewa river, but from some cause refused to grow to a large city, and was finally sub merged into its more prosperous rival. It is stated that Price Thomas, (grandfather of "Budd" Thomas, one of our ex-po lice commissioners of Muncie), hewed the logs for the first house in Georgetown, in 1833. John Gregory, (uncle to Ralph S. Gregory of Muncie), purchased the west half of the northeast quarter of thc section. On April 17, 1832, and in 1836, divided aportion of his purchase into town lots, thus founding the village of Granville. Afterward Peter Thomas, (whose purchase joined that of Mr. Gregory's on the east, the line being where the Muncie pike now enters the village), also laid out town lots, and Granville soon become a thriving town, known for many miles around for its commendable enterprise, and questionable practices, for Granville, like many of our more modern places, had all kinds of people, and many anecdotes are told of its early days. And while the morals might have been somewhat slack in some things, yet honesty was always strictly guarded, and dishonesty summarily punished. A fellow was arrested on one occasion for horse stealing, taken before Squire--------, of Granville, the evidence heard, the prisoner found guilty, sentenced to the state prison for ten years, tied to a horse, and with a constable in charge started for Jeffersonville. Arriving at Muncietown, some one inquiring the circumstances of the constable, was told that he was on his way to the penitentiary with the prisoner who had been sentenced by Squire------'s Court at Granville. The constable was finally persuaded to turn his victim over to the county sheriff until the Squire could change his papers to committal in the county jail pending trial by a higher court, where more money could be expended and less justice had. Granville is situated in one of the most fertile and picturesque spots in Delaware county. As a commercial point it has passed through many changes of prosperity and adversity. She has had her taverns, blacksmith and wagon shops, dry goods and grocery stores, her schools and churches. The two last named still remain, but most of the others are gone. Eaton, two and a half miles northwest, and Albany four miles east, both being situated on railroads, have taken the life away from Granville and left but little in a business way, save the postoffice and not much of that.------The name "Ellis hills" in Section 33 derived from the fact that Capt. John H. Ellis at one time lived there. He was at that time a carpenter and erected many frame houses built in the northeast part of the county. He afterwards lived in the village of Albany, where he served for a number of years as justice of the peace, and employed his spare time in reading law, and came to Muncie a short time before the beginning of the war of 1861. In 1862 Captain Ellis assisted in raising a company of men, of which he was elected captain, mustered into the service as Company B, 84th regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, at Richmond, Ind , September 3, 1862, served with his company until killed in battle at Chickamauga on the 20th day of September, 1863, just one year and seventeen days after being mustered. The command of Company B was then given to the captain's son, Frank, who served with his regiment and was mustered out with it June 14, 1865, and who has held several positions of trust and profit in Delaware county in subsequent years. (Pages 61-70)
--------------------End of Niles Township--------------------

Use browser to go back; or
To O
or
HOME