Table Of ContentHistoric, Archive Document
Do not assume content reflects current
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Reserve
aF526
. S54
Jnited States
1992
department of
igriculture
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ervice
LOOKING AT HISTORY:
INDIANA’S
HOOSIER NATIONAL FOREST REGION,
1600 TO 1950
By:
Ellen Sieber and Cheryl Ann Munson
Drawn prior to the Civil War, this is the oldest known picture of the Jasper mill, operated by the Eckert
family from the late 1800s to about 1930, and the covered bridge over the Patoka River.
Besides a water wheel, power was also furnished by a steam engine, [and] wood was used to
fire the boiler.... Grain was brought to the mill in buggies, on buckboards and across the backs
of horses.... In the early days much of the flour manufactured was placed in barrels and hauled
by wagons to Troy where it was placed on boats going either to the east or west. For such delivery
it was necessary for the mill owners to operate a cooper shop [right edge of picture] in order to
make barrel staves and hoops.
Cover Photo: “Going Home,” photograph from the Hohenberger Collection, Lilly Library, Indiana
University, Bloomington, Indiana. Reprinted with the permission of the Indiana University Foundation.
Looking at History
WINDOWS ON THE PAST
The hills and hollows of the Hoosier National Forest region stretch from Monroe County and Bloomington
in the north to Perry County and Tell City in the south. This region-south central Indiana-is home
today to small cities, towns, and rural communities and farms, as well as nearly 190,000 acres of national
forest lands. Our landscape is truly a patchwork quilt of private and public land, forests, pastures, and
fields, and man-made constructions both new and old.
Our nine-county region is rich in cultural heritage. People of the past- prehistoric Indians, pioneer
settlers, families in the early 1900s-made their homes here. All had their own achievements and
adaptations, and most left some mark on the land.
Scanning the landscape from the fire tower at Hickory Ridge or one of the scenic overlooks from the
steep bluffs near Hemlock Cliffs, it is possible to imagine how peoples once lived on this landscape.
But there are limitations to imagination: a truer picture of past times is based on knowledge. This
knowledge comes from a variety of sources. It comes from human patterns left on the land itself, from
written scraps of information left behind in county courthouses or private attics, and from the memories
of our older residents. Our prehistory and history is also a patchwork quilt, one still in the making.
The U.S. Forest Service is committed to being a ‘Steward of the Past," documenting and protecting
the prehistoric and historic sites and structures on lands that we manage. As we continue to learn
more about our region’s past, we also want to help the public appreciate its cultural heritage. To this
end, we arranged with Indiana University in 1991 for the writing and publication of two booklets in the
■Windows on the Past" series.
Looking at Prehistory: Archaeology and Early Native American Cultures of Indiana’s Hoosier National
Forest Region covers the period from 12,000 years ago to the earliest written accounts.
Looking at History: Indiana’s Hoosier National Forest Region, 1600 to 1950 covers the most recent 350
years of our past.
The year 1991 was a good time to look back in time. We celebrated the century mark for the National
Forest system. We also noted the 40th birthday of the Hoosier National Forest. Whether you are a
visitor to the Forest or one of our neighbors in the region, we trust you will regard the past with the
same sense of stewardship. If you read these books from afar, we hope you will come visit and enjoy
our historic landscape and sites. If you live nearby or come to the Forest to sightsee, hike, picnic,
camp, hunt or fish, we hope you will appreciate knowing more about our region’s heritage.
The Forest Service also looks toward the future of our heritage. We hope you will join in some of the
regional activities that contribute to historic knowledge and protecting sites. Also, as government funds
become available to acquire new U.S. Forest lands from willing sellers, the significance of cultural
resources in the region will be a factor in our decisions about which tracts of land should become part
of the public domain.
Frank Voytas
Forest Supervisor
1
Looking At History
T ;v
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2
Table of Contents
.Page
Introduction.5
Sources for History.9
Geographical Setting.10
History of South Central Indiana.16
Cultures in Transition: Native Americans, 1600-1800. 16
Transplanted Cultures: Pioneer Settlement, 1800-1850 . 24
Regional Distinctiveness: Tradition and Change, 1850-1915 . 45
Twentieth Century Changes, 1915-1950 . 85
History in the Making.101
The Forest Service and the Public.101
The Public Role.102
Local and State Historical Organizations and Museums. 109
End Notes. Ill
Sources for Further Reading.123
Illustration Credits. 125
Acknowledgments.131
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Looking At History
4
Looking at History
INTRODUCTION
This book explores three and one-half Culture history covers people, place, and
centuries of south central Indiana history. Our time. Let’s take a closer look at each of these
purpose is to bring to life our region’s historic elements.
past by telling the story of its peoples and their
People
lifeways. The context of our story is the Hoosier
National Forest and its surrounding area, a unique Many people view the pioneers as being
"the" people of history, but this is not an accurate
geographic region.
picture. American Indians were the first people
to tame the wilderness. These Native Americans
The point of view we bring to our task is
not only preceded the pioneers in the area but
not the one many people may think of when the
occupied the region for thousands of years before
word “history" is used. We are most interested in
written accounts began. A separate book in the
presenting a picture of what life was like for
“Windows on the Past" series covers the prehistory
“ordinary people" at different times in the past,
of the region.
rather than giving accounts of political happenings
or descriptions of the careers of famous people.
Despite the thousands of years that various
Native American groups had lived in our region,
Another goal of this publication is to expand the period of time in which they interacted here
interest in historical preservation and research in with Europeans was limited. The most extensive
south central Indiana. There are standing historic contact between Europeans and Native
structures and many historic archaeological Americans in what was to become Indiana
sites located in the Hoosier National Forest and occurred before the Revolutionary War. During
surrounding areas. The Forest Service is this time, Native Americans associated with and
dedicated to preserving historic resources, and sometimes settled near the French who
to interpreting them to the public, so that visitors established trading posts on the Wabash River
to the Hoosier National Forest may learn about at Vincennes and at Ouiatenon, near the present
the region’s past. Historic resources are not city of Lafayette.
merely “relics" to be saved. They can provide a
wealth of information on how former residents European settlers came to the area in far
greater numbers after the Revolutionary War.
lived, played and worshipped, and how they
Most of these pioneers were not truly Europeans,
interacted with the natural environment.
but were European Americans-people of
European descent whose families had immigrated
Our study looks at both the day-to-day
to this continent during the Colonial period.
living patterns and the material side of how people
Historians recognize regional distinctions among
lived: where they built their houses, churches,
cultures that developed in different sections of
stores and schools; how they made a living;
the original colonies. These differences in northern
what kind of houses they built; what kind of
and southern cultures were reflected in our region
tools they made and used; how they farmed. We
in the lifestyles of the European American pioneers
will also try to picture how people carried out
who settled here.
their social and religious lives. What kind of
households did people live in? Where did they Other early settlers were true Europeans,
worship? When and where did they gather for immigrants who came almost directly to southern
social occasions? In addition to discussing Indiana once land was available for purchase.
lifeways, we will note how everyday people were African Americans were also among the pioneers:
connected with events and culture changes that “free black" farmers and others who came to our
took place on a larger scale. area from southern states.
5
Introduction
Figure 1: This log house was built about 1830 in the Crawford Upland hill country of Greene County by the Bingham family. It was
dismantled in 1984 and now stands reconstructed in the Monroe County Historical Museum, in Bloomington. The display includes
pioneer era furnishings as well as the house itself.
Edmund Bingham died in 1852 at the age of 78. An appraised inventory of his belongings has been preserved and shows that
the home was prosperous and comfortable. The following listing reproduces the original spelling and notes (*) those items that
were selected by Bingham's widow as her share of his estate:
*2 hogs 2 tables 19 hogs
2 barrells bees & honey 1 red cow 1 lot queen[n]sware & other articles
1 heifer ? 1 Bay Horse
1 womans sadle 1 Bay Mare 1 lot ketching (?) articles
*10 bushels wheat *13 1/2 bushels wheat *1 flat iron hand irons and other irons
*1 loom 1 lot oats 2 water buckets
15 barrels Come 1 lot pot vessels 1 plows
1 trundl [bed] & beding syth and cutting knife *1 umbrella
some gearing (?) *1 jug <S bottle 2 hoes, 2 axes, 1 mattock
1 lot bottls jugs & articles 1 wedg and 1/2 log chain * 1 bedstet Bed <£ Beding
1 man's saddle 1 cupbord 1 lot Cabbage
1 burow *1 lot soap & stand 1 clock
*2 lard stands & tray *1 chest 1 barrel salt
4 chairs 1 lot barrels *1 looking glass
*1 lot flax swingle (?) 1 (?) stid bed & beding 1 lot flax in the straw
1 lot bed clothing
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