Cynthiana, Indiana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Town of Cynthiana, Indiana | |
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| Coordinates: | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| State | Indiana |
| County | Posey |
| Township | Smith |
| Area | |
| - Total | 0.4 sq mi (1.0 km²) |
| - Land | 0.4 sq mi (1.0 km²) |
| - Water | 0.0 sq mi (0.0 km²) |
| Elevation | 472 ft (144 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - Total | 693 |
| - Density | 1,732.4/sq mi (668.9/km²) |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 47612 |
| Area code(s) | 812 |
| FIPS code | 18-16534[1] |
| GNIS feature ID | 0433272[2] |
Cynthiana is a town in Smith Township, Posey County, Indiana, United States. The population was 693 at the 2000 census. It was founded in 1817 and named for Cynthiana, Kentucky, where the first settlers had come from.
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[edit] Geography
Cynthiana is located at (38.188006, -87.706730)[3].
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.4 square miles (1.0 km²), all of it land.
[edit] Demographics
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 693 people, 265 households, and 195 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,725.1 people per square mile (668.9/km²). There were 286 housing units at an average density of 711.9/sq mi (276.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.56% White, 0.43% Native American, 0.29% Asian, and 0.72% from two or more races.
There were 265 households out of which 34.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.2% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.4% were non-families. 24.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.11.
In the town the population was spread out with 27.7% under the age of 18, 7.1% from 18 to 24, 29.7% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 13.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 96.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.2 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $37,589, and the median income for a family was $42,000. Males had a median income of $35,286 versus $20,583 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,313. About 5.3% of families and 9.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.9% of those under age 18 and 18.5% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] History
WILLIAM DAVIS GAVE CYNTHIANA HER TOWN SQUARE AND A KENTUCKY NAME
Two Kentucky girls who never saw the pioneer Indiana community bequeathed Cynthiana her name. These two, Cynthia and Anna, were the daughters of Robert Harrison, Kentucky blacksmith and land speculator. On December 10, 1793, the General Assembly of the newly organized Kentucky State granted Harrison a charter for 150 acres (0.61 km²) along the South Licking River as the County seat. In a short time, Harrison sold out his holdings to settlers after donating a center plot as the town square in honor of his daughters. The Harrison family moved on to Portsmouth, Ohio, along the Ohio River. One of the daughters later married a Philadelphia merchant.
The name of the Kentucky County seat was brought along by the residents of the county who moved into the Indiana Territory. Many of these came from the Indian Creek neighborhood, five miles (8 km) east of Cynthiana. The largest recorded group who came from Harrison County to Indiana was the party of forty-four who arrived on September 25, 1815, six months before Indiana became a State.
The designation Cynthiana was given to this community when the town was laid out on March 6, 1817 by the founder William Davis. Like the founder of the Kentucky original, Davis designated that the center lot in his community be a public square to be kept free of any building. In this act the community acquired a "Public Commons" in the tradition of England and a New England town.
On March 24, 1817, the organization of Smith Township was recorded by the Posey County board. It was named in honor of George Smith, an early and prominent settler, at whose home the first elections were held.
It was not until April 22, 1896 that the Town of Cynthiana officially came into being. For years the merits of incorporation had been debated. The final count of the vote was 56 in favor and 49 against. The 105 voters who participated did not, of course, include women who did not have their franchise at this time.
In commenting upon the final approval of the 1896 incorporation the editor of the ARGUS said:
"The majority, though not large, is sufficient evidence that our people do not want to be a back number, but came out and declared to the world that we are for Cynthiana first; the world afterwards. Let us work a unity for advancement of its interests-strike now while the iron is hot and success will surely crown our efforts."
The proprietor of Cynthiana, William Davis, was not a member of the party of forty four. In the Deed Record of the original Cynthiana Plat witnessed by Davis on March 17, 1817, the description of the town plan is given. "Cynthiana is laid out in squares of 16 by 20 rods, those squares are subdivided each way, making each lot a corner lot, and to contain one half acre, the streets passing the Public square on the north and south sides are 50 feet (15 m) wide, the most eastern and western streets are one rod wide, all other streets are thirty-three feet wide throughout."
The present owner of plot No. 9 and a descendant of William Davis, Mr. James Davis, has a title description which shows the original owner of the Cynthiana plot as the United States Government. The 160 acres (0.65 km²) were sold to Thomas Duncan in a transaction which was recorded on September 23, 1815. On March 24, 1818 the sale of 58 1/2 acres by Thomas Duncan and his wife to William Davis is recorded. This land is in the Original Plat of the town of Cynthiana.
There is a record of the presence of William Davis in Posey County in 1811. Thomas Endicott, Sr. and his son, Aaron, Jonathan Jacquess, William Casey, Sr., and Joseph Endicott, Sr. had come along with William Davis from Kentucky. Davis and Thomas Endicott, Sr. and Aaron stayed on here. Why did it take four years for the others to return? The battle of Tippecanoe and the War of 1812 certainly had some importance. It was not until August in 1815 that Harrison County records show that William Casey, Sr. and others sold their land in the Indian and Beaver Creek areas to return to Indiana, where Wm. Davis was waiting.
There is an earlier record that a William Davis landed near Mayesville in Kentucky in 1788 with a group of persons coming in from the Pennsylvania and New Jersey area. Daniel Drake was one of those who settled there about the same time. The Cynthiana proprietor died in 1820. He lost a son John in 1818 at Camp Shiloh when he was struck by lightning. A final court record shows that in August of 1832 a payment was made from the estate of John Davis for a shroud and a coffin for his son William Davis (grandson of the original William), who died in his early teens. Other sons of the founder were ministers.
There has been an assumption that William Davis was related to Jefferson Davis, the leader of the Confederacy. The Carroll Coxes have concluded, after intensive search of Kentucky records that this is probably not so. There is also every possibility that Davis never lived in Indian Creek, coming to Indiana from Washington, Kentucky.
Descendants of Governor John Endicott of Massachusetts Were Leaders of Migrations From Kentucky To Cynthiana
The story of Cynthiana, Indiana is in the main stream of the movements and personalities which created a distinctive American civilization out of a wilderness continent. One of the resourceful and determined American pioneer families were the Endicotts of Salem, Massachusetts and Cynthiana, Indiana.
In September 1628 there came sailing into the harbor of Naumkeag, afterwards called Salem, a ship bearing John Endicott and forty persons. They were not adventurers, not vagabonds, but virtuous. well-educated, courageous men and women who for conscience' sake left comfortable homes in England. John Endicott was chosen governor of what was to become the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A zealous Puritan. bound by covenants both to God and the welfare of his entire company, John Endicott was first known in American history for the ousting of the roisterers of the "Merry Mount" because of the dancing, maypoles, and frivolous behavior in God's New England. In 1629 Governor Endicott also shipped off to England two brothers Browne, advocates of the Church of England, as "factious and evil conditioned."
By Christmas day in 1815 the same Endicott family had reached Cynthiana, Indiana. They were part of the 44 persons who made the journey down the Ohio River from Cynthiana. Kentucky earlier in the year. On this first Christmas the Endicott Posey County pioneers were surrounded by a deep snow. And in Cynthiana a child was born to the Endicotts on the night of Christmas.
Very early in the morning of Christmas 1815 the family of Jonathan Jacquess heard a noise outside their home. Joseph Endicott was running round and round the house exclaiming, "It's a girl, Becky!! It's a girl". Already the father of five sons, Joseph was rejoicing in the - birth of the family's first girl born on Christmas in Indiana. The girl was christened Elizabeth Fraser in honor of her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Fraser Casey, wife of William Casey and sister of Mrs. Jonathan (Rebecca Fraser) Jacquess. This was a joyous omen of the future in their new home in Indiana.
Leaving Massachusetts in 1698, Joseph Endicott, grandson of Governor John, settled in Northampton, Burlington County, New Jersey. There is no final answer to the reasons for his leaving New England. He lived in a Quaker settlement in New Jersey. Whether Joseph became a Quaker before his marriage to Hannah or as a result of that marriage is not known. New Jersey records list "Joseph Endicott" among those friends who conscientiously objected to joining the militia against French alarms. Joseph became a Quaker despite the stern opposition of his grandfather, Governor John, to these quiet intense people in the Massachusetts Colony. It was part of the Endicott heritage of independence
By 1759 Thomas Endicott, grandson of the Quaker Joseph, was married and ready to push on from New Jersey. The new home was probably established near the North Carolina - Virginia border. From Surrey County, North Carolina, the lad Moses Endicott, eldest son of Thomas, enlisted as a soldier during the Revolutionary War. An affidavit made by him on March 12, 1833, states that he was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1759. Young Moses Endicott enlisted in October, 1777 and served during the entire War of Independence. About March, 1780 he undertook the dangerous duty of packing lead from the mines on New River, Virginia. The mines supplied lead for the patriots in the Revolutionary War. Tories attempted to seize them in 1780 but were repulsed.
(In the Indiana Magazine of History in June 1933 Mabel Nisbet McLaughlin outlined the history of "The Endicotts of Indiana". Her account follows):
It was in 1786, according to the deposition of Thomas Endicott, Jr., dated September 14, 1832, that the Endicotts left their Carolina home and moved to Kentucky. Details of this journey are meager, but we know that Thomas Endicott, then a man of about forty-nine,. and his wife Sarah (Welsh) Endicott, with their seven sturdy sons-Moses, Joseph, Aaron, Thomas, Samuel, William, and John-made the trip. With them came also the joy and pride of the family-Nancy-the only Daughter. It was in January, 1804, that Nancy married Memorial Forest. It is likely that she was a very small girl when she made the trip to Kentucky eighteen years earlier for pioneer marriages usually occurred early in life. Thomas Endicott, Jr. and Milly Grubbs were married in November, 1795; William Endicott, and Mary Trousdale in December of 1801; John Endicott and Ann Kimbrough Davenport Saddler in September 1811. Some years previous to the migration of Thomas Endicott and family, at least two weddings had occurred-Moses to Martha. Hill, and Joseph, who settled in Nicholas County, Kentucky, to Wilmot Phillips.
Another member of the party of Kentucky colonists was Joseph Endicott, son of Moses and Martha (Hill) Endicott, who was born in North Carolina on December 6, 1784. The little Joseph probably made the journey in a saddlebag, as did many babies of pioneer times, for the "road cut by Boone in 1775 through the Wilderness from Cumberland Gap to Boonesborough was only a path for horses. Early emigrants either walked or rode horse-back prior to 1796."
Thomas Endicott, Sr. must have had an unusual sense of land values. In April, 1789, he bought one hundred acres of land lying on Greer's Creek, paying sixty pounds for it. Woodford County Court records show that on February, 1790, ten months later, this land was sold to Henry Shous for one hundred ten pounds, the deed being signed by Thomas Endicott and his wife, Sarah.
One of the first acts of the Endicotts on coming to Kentucky was to build a meeting house. The early records of the Cynthiana, Kentucky Christian Church contains many names of persons who transferred their memberships from the "Endicott Meeting House," now known as The Indian Creek Baptist Church. It was nonsectarian prior to 1840. Built in 1791, it stands on land once owned by Moses Endicott, and its graveyard is probably the last resting place of many Endicotts. The tombstone of Mary Trousdale Endicott (wife of William), born October 3, 1781-died July 24, 1853, is still standing. The logs of the original meeting house remain beneath the present weather-boarding. The pulpit is at the back, facing the center window of the front. There were two doors, since it was the custom in the early days for the men to enter by the left door and the women by the right. With the men carrying rifles as a precaution against prowling savages, the pioneers worshipped in the old "Endicott meeting house on Millersburg Road."
No portrait of Moses Endicott, the Minute Man of the War of Independence, exists, but a word picture handed down among descendants, shows a portly man, with ruddy complexion-a genial soul, who often spoke of freedom to a faithful Negro mammy. However, his sudden death in 1834, caused by a stroke of apoplexy, prevented the fulfillment of his promise. Let us hope some of his heirs made his word good.
Spanning almost one hundred years, Thomas Endicott lived through two wars. The part he played in the Revolutionary War is a matter of surmise. He may have been a Tory, but this is hardly probably with his eldest son, Moses, espousing the American cause. He was not, however, a pensioner, and search for his Revolutionary War record has, to date, been unfruitful. In 1812-14 he probably sought frequent news from the front, for he had at least five grand-sons in the American Army. According to a deposition of Wilmot Phillips Endicott, three of these soldiers of the War of 1812 were sons of Joseph Endicott of Nicholas County, and two (John A. and Joseph), sons of Moses, the Minute Man, and Martha (Hill) Endicott.
Accounts of the death of the famous Tecumseh have been handed down in the Endicott Family. Will H. Davis, of Poseyville, Indiana, a grandson of Joseph, wrote under date of July 18, 1931, at the age of eighty: "Grandfather lived near us and often came to see us and spend the night. He enjoyed telling his grandchildren tales. I remember he told us about shooting at Tecumseh during the battle in which he was killed. He said there were (sic) a number who shot at the Indian and that it was never positively known whose bullet hit him." In May 1932, John A. Blakely of Platteville, Wisconsin, a Civil War Veteran, wrote:
My grandfather, John A. Endicott and his brother, Joseph, enlisted in Kentucky in Col. Richard Johnson's regiment of mounted infantry. They fought in the Battle of the Thames (1813) with the British and their allied Indians. Col. Johnson was the man who killed the noted Chief Tecumseh, and my grandfather said it happened this way: "Col. Johnson had his horse shot under him and in falling caught his leg under it. Tecumseh, seeing his plight and thinking to get an easy scalp, rushed out, but the Colonel drew his dragoon pistol from his saddle holster and killed him."
After the arduous labor of clearing land on the North Carolina-Virginia border, and later in Kentucky, one would suppose that the adventurous spirit of Thomas Endicott should have been satisfied. But true to the Endicott tradition, he could not resist the lure of the unconquered forest. In 1799, he deeded land to several of his heirs. His charming wife Sarah Welsh Endicott, whose name has been handed along to so many of her descendants, had recently died. It could not have been long after the death of his wife and the bestowal of his Kentucky lands on his heirs this hardy pioneer migrated to Posey County, Indiana Territory. Probably, the distribution of his lands in 1799 was made to avoid complications should he marry again. Some years later, in October 1814, the old pioneer returned to Kentucky to wed Susanna Young of Nicholas County.
The exact date of the migration of Thomas Endicott into the Indiana wilderness is not known, but it is certain that his last years were spent in Posey County. In Mount Vernon, Indiana, his will is recorded. It was drawn up in October, 1827, and includes the assertion that he was "very old and infirm of body." He made bequests to his sons, Moses, Joseph, Aaron, Thomas, Samuel, John, to his daughter, Nancy, and to his son William's heirs. The bulk of his estate, however, was left by his will to "My little son, Absolam Turner Endicott." His wife, Susanna is also mentioned. The will contains the following paragraph of peculiar interest to his descendants: "I also give extra to my little son, Absolam Turner Endicott, my large Family Bible."
It was on the first day of September, 1815, that Joseph Endicott, eldest son of Moses Endicott, the Minute Man, left Harrison County, Kentucky for Posey County, Indiana. The colony of forty-four persons of which he was a member divided into two companies, a part of the men traveling by land with horses, wagons and cattle. The women and children with men enough to man the boats embarked at Augusta and traveled by water, landing at Diamond Island, now known as West Franklin, from which point the journey was continued by land. We have little conception of the hardships of the journey, its hazards, and the trials which came to these sturdy pioneers, but it was not until September 25 that they arrived in Posey County.
Included in the colony were William Casey and his two sons-in-law, Joseph Endicott and Stephen Eaton, with their families; the families of Jonathan Jaquess, his son-in-law, Samuel Hirons, and step-son James Rankin, who became one of Posey County's first teachers; also the family of Alexander Ferguson, whose wife was another of the Fraser sisters (Mary).
A trip, via horseback, to Vincennes was made by Joseph Endicott for the purpose of obtaining patents to his lands. Then the temporary cabin home was built, though it was soon replaced by a large log-house. A part of this more pretentious and carefully built structure of logs is still preserved. Unseen, but well protected, some of the original walls are incorporated in the house still standing on the old Endicott place near Poseyville, Indiana.
The fortitude and courage of pioneer women is graphically portrayed by Rebecca Casey Endicott, who journeyed from Harrison County, Kentucky to Posey County, Indiana, in September 1815, endured the hardships of travel, established a home for her husband and five boys in the golden autumn days, and when the snows of Christmas fell welcomed her first daughter.
The country was an almost unbroken wilderness. Game was abundant. Venison and wild turkey were common articles on the daily menu. Bears, panthers, and wolves added to the daily hazards of life, not to mention the prowling Indian. The flaming plumage of pheasant and parrotquet brightened the dark green of the forest; the sweeping eagle menaced the safety of the flocks.
But joy reigned in the log cabin home of Joseph and Rebecca (Casey) Endicott. Christmas was always a gala occasion, which at dawn was heralded by the firing of a home-made cannon. The Endicott sons made such a cannon by hollowing a log.
Joseph Endicott was a hunter of exceptional prowess. Invitations to log raisings, always ended with, "And Joseph, you bring the meat." To such an invitation he responded when the pioneers of Posey County erected a log fort, about 30 x 30 feet (9.1 m), as a common place of refuge from the numerous Indian depredations. This fort was located about one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Stewartsville. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth Fraser, frequently spoke of the time when the family was compelled to flee to the Fort for safety. They had only recently returned to their home after a period of refuge. The cry, "Indians"! "Indians"! was heard. Rebecca was preparing breakfast. Joseph hid his family in the corn field and went to investigate. Returning he had difficulty in locating them, so well had he hidden them, but he went up and down the rows, whispering, "Indians, Becky! Indians." To hasten their progress to the Fort, Rebecca and Joseph took charge of the larger of the smaller children, while the older children, with the precision of trained soldiers, took charge of the smaller and more easily managed children.
The year 1816 brought log rolling for the school house, with its greased paper windows and log benches. These were without backs, and at least one pupil who attended the school never used the back of her chair. This was Elizabeth Fraser Endicott who married Alfred B. Nisbet. Erect and proud of carriage, she scorned a chair-back until well past eighty. It is not known what part the Endicotts played in the organization of this school, but it is known that Samuel Endicott, uncle of Joseph, was "a distinguished classical teacher" of Harrison County, Kentucky. It is also known that the Endicotts contributed to the medical fraternity of Posey County, since Samuel, brother of Joseph. following in the footsteps of his ancestor Zerubbabel, dispensed pills and powders to his neighbors.
Today as one drives through the rich, well-tilled farm lands of Posey County thoughts turn back to the time when ancestors labored to wrest homes from the wilderness. The clearing of a quarter of an acre a day was considered a good day's work. Joseph Endicott, at lunch time, cut his bread with an axe, resorted to flint and steel to kindle a fire, and warmed the frozen hunks of food until they were fit to be eaten.
This old home place was the scene of the weddings of the three Endicott daughters - Elizabeth Fraser (Betsey), who married Alfred Berry Nisbet; Martha (Patsy), who married William Calvert; and Mary Casey (Pop), who married Joseph Davis. The old log schoolhouse saw the beginnings of courtship for at least two of these sisters. Here Young Alfred Nisbet presented to Elizabeth a gift the memory of which brightened her eyes after more than a half a century-just an egg shell blown out and filled with maple sugar from his father's camp. Here, also, Joseph Davis, near kinsman of the Joseph Davis of the Confederacy, instructed Mary Casey Endicott in English Grammar. Evidently the parsing pages were stressed for it is said that one day the sunny "Pop" was moody, and, either by accident or intent, several members of the family inquired, "What are you doing: Pop, parsing?" The dreamy girl ran weeping from the room. They were fair, these Endicott sisters, made fair by pure rain-water and the dew of the wheat fields, to which they repaired early in the morning for the purpose of dashing the dew upon their faces.
To acquire a proper trousseau for his eldest daughter, the devoted father rode horseback all the way to Cincinnati. White satin slippers and a large white leghorn hat were among the purchases that were carried back to Posey County. The home furnished hand-woven linen, since on Good Friday of each year, Joseph sowed his flax patch.
The trio of young women were missed in that home after they were married. In July, 1851, a few years after the third daughter was wedded, the mother died. Then indeed was the home circle broken. On February 12, 1854, Samuel, the youngest son, married Elizabeth Schrader. The bride, whose father, John Schrader, was a pioneer preacher, was brought to the Endicott home. A capable and much loved mistress did this daughter of the parsonage become. Soon she was known as "Aunt Liz" and warmly did she welcome one and all of the eighty-two grand children who, from time to time while the years passed, sought the old Endicott home's comforting hospitality.
Within sight and sound of the walls which echoed the merry shouts of his children, grandchildren and great grand-children, on land that he cleared himself, sleeps Joseph Endicott, soldier of 1812. By his side rests the comrade of his life-Rebecca Casey Endicott. Near them sleep some of their children: Joel claimed by the wilderness ere he reached his thirteenth birthday-crushed by a felled tree; and James, who contracted the dreaded plague, cholera, while serving in the Indiana Legislature. Returning on horse-back from Indianapolis, while desperately ill, James Endicott was nursed by his wife, Mary (Nisbet) Endicott. Within five days both slept in the family burying ground. At least three grandsons of Joseph Endicott of Posey County marched away with the Indiana troops in the stirring conflict of the eighteen sixties-Samuel, son of William, and two sons of James Jesse and the young Alfred who sleeps on southern soil. To this list we can add the name of Alfred Berry Endicott, son of Samuel and Zerelda (Nisbet) Endicott and grandson of 'Moses, the Minute Man. The World War's call was answered by Byron, Ralph, Russell and Shirley Endicott, and it is probable that there were also other Endicotts who enlisted with the Indiana troops.
The Endicotts were pioneers--"going before to prepare the way for others." Through the almost tractless wilderness they passed, facing privation and disease, Indians and wild animals, the biting cold of winter and the blazing heat of summer. In their wake, they left roads and settlements, schools and churches. Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana have felt their touch. Many of the Indiana descendants of Endicott pioneers have pushed westward into Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma, and California, And ever they have been mindful that their ancestor first to come to America, John Endicott, Governor at Salem, "sought not the treasures of the mines, nor the wealth of the sea, but a faith's pure shrine," and ever they have sought to keep undimmed the luster of the jewel he found on American shores-Freedom to worship God.
Indiana Red Bank Trail Linked Both Historic Cynthianas; Buffalo Were Original Trail Breakers For Pioneer Roads
Cynthiana in 1967 awaits the completion of Indiana's first section of the Interstate Highway which will eventually connect Louisville and St. Louis. As we watch the bulldozers prepare the road, for use by 1968 there are memories of other great trail-blazers who passed this way. The original Kentucky and Indiana trail builder was the thundering herd of the American Bison, commonly called buffalo. Before the founders of Cynthiana, Kentucky, had come to their new home in Cynthiana, Indiana, the buffalo had left a wide and high trail.
Near Cynthiana, Kentucky are the salt springs of Blue Licks. Excavations at Blue Licks have brought to light the remains of the prehistoric mammoths who roamed in the central part of America half a million years ago.
They were huge creatures requiring several hundred pounds of vegetation each day. Their trails led from a riffle in the Ohio River which provided a natural crossing, to the salt springs at Blue Licks. Their hunger for salt brought them to Kentucky, their grazing lands were in Ohio and Indiana. After the mammoth became extinct the smaller animals took over the trails and the quest for grass and salt.
Among these were the buffalo which roamed the Ohio and Mississippi Valley by the millions. Before the blooded horses of English and Scotch-Irish invaders tasted the Blue Grass of Central Kentucky, the buffalo had feasted upon it for centuries. In their migrations the herds came from the salt springs and the blue grass to a ford of the Ohio at Henderson, Kentucky. Here was Diamond Island and north on the Indiana Side West Franklin.
The settlers of Cynthiana, followed two routes to their new homes. One was by flat boat down the Ohio to Diamond Island. The other was the overland route by the Buffalo Trace. Some companies sent their women and their tools and furniture down the Ohio River, on flat boats while they walked along the trace with their animals.
The trails the buffalo cut were tailored for the needs of the Kentucky emigrants. The buffalo was a large heavy animal with small feet. He could not cross, low swampy land. Being a gregarious animal, not willing to travel alone, his trails were wide enough for later wagon trails. The high solid ground they chose became the pathways for the founders of Cynthiana.
After crossing of the Ohio at Henderson known to the pioneers as Red Banks, the pioneers took the Red Banks Trail North to Vincennes, following the buffalo traces. Inhabitants of Vincennes in 1800 and 1802 petitioned the Senate and the House of Representatives to grant 400 acres (1.6 km²) to any person the governor might select who would erect "houses of entertainment", and open good wagon routes on the trails from Henderson to Vincennes. "Houses of Entertainment" (forts or taverns) were not to exceed twenty miles (32 km) apart.
The Old Red Banks trail was patrolled in pioneer days for the protection of the settlers coming to Indiana. In an order on April 20, 1807, the Governor gave these orders to Captain William Hargroves:
"You will divide your force and form a squad of six men under a reliable man who will act as sergeant to patrol the main travelled way from your settlement south to the Ohio River at Red Banks. Instruct the sergeant to make two trips each way every ten days. I will send a scout who will come with the men and cattle that bring the supplies."
Later on May 23, 1807 the Governor of Indiana granted a license for a ferry across the Patoka River at Patoka in Gibson County. Along this trail came many of the settlers to Cynthiana as well as to Northern Vanderburgh and Gibson Counties. Along this Red Banks Trail lived the , picturesque Major Sprinkles.
Another trail came close to Cynthiana. It was known in 1807 as the "Salt Trail". Its destination was the great salt deposits along the Saline River near Shawneetown, Illinois. The "Salt Trail" came from Vincennes to Princeton and then Southwest to the Wabash River near the mouth of the little Wabash.
Along these trails and traces came the settlers and the civilization of the Eastern States to the Northwest Territory lands. Other wild animals and the Indians were using the trails when the first settlers appeared North of the Ohio.
And what happened to the buffalo? One explanation is that in the early 1800s there was a great cold in Kentucky near Cynthiana. The winter resorts of the buffalo at Big Bone and Blue Licks and the Blue Grass were covered with snow for many months. All of the buffalo perished that winter. By the time the human migration to their new home in Cynthiana, Indiana got under way, the trails of the thundering herds were silent.
It is generally accepted that the Red Banks Trail came through the area of the present Mt. Pleasant Church, south of Cynthiana. It ran due north and south, one mile (1.6 km) west between range lines 10 and 11, parallel to the present C. and E. 1. Railroad and the old traction line from Evansville to Princeton for part of the way. There were many inter-connecting trails with the Red Banks and Salt Trails, forerunners of our twisting Posey County Roads.
Three Daughters of Scotch Boy Kidnapped In 1707 Unite Jacquess, Casey, Ferguson, Fraser Pioneer Area Families
On September 25, 1915 on the centennial of the arrival of the Cynthiana, Kentucky settler! in this area, the descendants of many of the original settlers held a celebration at the old Jacquess homestead, just west of Poseyville on the Stewartsville Road.
It was a celebration of "The Fraser Clan". But the Frasers by 1915 included the Jacquess, the Casey and the Ferguson families, long established in the Cynthiana area.
The centennial gathering families were all related to Hugh Fraser. As a small boy of seven Hugh Fraser was walking to school in Paisley, Scotland, in 1707. Two men invited him to go with them to buy candy. The boy consented. One of the men picked him up and carried the struggling boy under his cloak. The next thing the boy remembered was being on board a ship, seasick, homesick and heartsick, bound for an unknown port. After weeks at sea he was sold with other kidnapped persons in America. Until he was twenty-one he served as an indentured servant.
But Hugh was fortunate to fall into the hands of a humane master in Kent County, Maryland. At the age of 21, having served for 14 years like the Biblical Jacob, he married the master's daughter, Miss Mary Cummings.
The three daughters of Hugh Fraser and his wife, Mary, were Elizabeth, Rebecca and Mary. Rebecca married Jonathan Jacquess of French descent, a distinguished soldier of the American Revolution. The centennial celebration was held on their original farm. Jonathan and Rebecca Jacquess are buried only a few feet away from where the celebration took place.
Elizabeth Fraser married William Casey of Irish descent. His Irish wit and humor were well known to his Posey County family and neighbors. Mary Fraser, the youngest daughter, married Alexander Ferguson of Scotch descent, whose name appears in the Scotch Clan book.
After living in Maryland after their marriages, the three daughters and their husbands moved to Cynthiana, Kentucky. Here they lived until the memorable migration across the Ohio to Cynthiana, Indiana, arriving Sept. 25, 1815. The three brothers-in-law had bought nearly 2,000 acres (8.1 km²) of land, paying $1.50 per acre. All deeds and legal transactions were recorded in Vincennes.
The wives and children to which had now been added Joseph Endicott and family, Stephen Eaton and family, both sons-in-law of William Casey, were put on flatboats with their household goods. They floated down the Ohio to Diamond Island, off the shore of West Franklin, Posey County. There they were met by the men who had driven the livestock overland.
After several days they obtained teams to haul their household goods to their respective places after taking the Red Banks Trail. They arrived in their future homes on September 25. William and Elizabeth Casey located on the homestead which at the time of the 1915 celebration was owned by John Ramsey; Alexander and Mary Ferguson lived on the farm owned in 1915 by Jasper Carroll; Jonathan and Rebecca Jacquess settled on the Jacquess Homestead, site of the celebration.
The saga of the FRASER-FERGUSON-JACQUESS-CASEY Clan reviewed on that day in 1915 included the accounts of the earlier settlement handed down by one who made the journey, Asbury Cloud Jacquess.
The work of clearing and grubbing the land, preparing it for cultivation, was long and laborious. The men went ten to twelve miles (19 km) to assist their neighbors at log-rollings and house raisings. Log-rolling consisted of carrying great logs on wooden hand spikes, piling them on heaps to be burned. The nearest mill was at Vincennes, where they took their corn and wheat to be ground. The trip was made on horseback. A trip to the mill took several days. For their salt they had to go to the Saline, Illinois deposits near Equality, south of the Little Wabash, along the pioneer "Salt Trail."
The women's work was no less laborious. Flax from the fields, wool from the sheep’s' backs, must be spun into cloth, cut and made by hand into household linens and garments for each member of the family. Each cabin had a big and little spinning wheel and a loom on which the cloth was woven.
However there were many compensations. Nearly every farm had its maple sugar orchard. The stirring off in camp at night was a great affair. The hollow trees contained the honey of wild bees. The nut-bearing trees, walnuts, hickory nuts, and pecans stretched out their laden arms, offering their store alike to all. The pigs grew fat on the acorn and the chinquepin. Horses and cattle had a contented winter on the sweet, tender cane harvested a few miles to the west.
Wild strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and grapes could be had for the picking. Game was abundant-deer, turkey geese, ducks, squirrels and quail. The streams furnished fish for whomsoever cared to cast a line or net.
The religious concerns of the community ran deep. One fine Sunday morning a herd of deer was seen feeding in one of the fields. One of the boys ran for his gun, but his mother said: "No, my son, the life of no dumb animal shall be taken here on the Sabbath day." The deer fed on unmolested and unafraid.
Into the home of the Jacquess family came the Methodist circuit rider, the Rev. John Schrader. He later married the daughter of Jonathan and Rebecca Jacquess and was the founder of Cynthiana's Methodist Church.
Church and school were soon built of logs, to be followed by more permanent structure. These were no foot-loose, irresponsible settlers. They had found the lands they wanted and their descendants remain to this day.
These people supported the growth of Cynthiana and Poseyville and soon had built the mills and stores they needed. At one time inspired by the Harmonist community of George Rapp in New Harmony, some of the families formed themselves into a band for mutual benefit and welfare. The first year was very satisfactory. They loaded a flatboat with produce and took it down to New Orleans, disposing of the contents with profit. They returned to Posey County by steamboat.
Cane Ridge Revival In 1801 Had Deep Influence Upon Settlers Who Migrated From Kentucky To Bring New Convictions Here
The marks of America's distinctive Pentecost, the Cane Ridge Revival, were on many of the emigrants who came from Kentucky to Southern Indiana. The origins of the Christian congregations, the Baptists, and the character of the Methodists were sharpened by this unusual frontier experience.
One of the oldest churches in Kentucky, the Indian Creek Baptist congregation, was founded in 1790. This old Endicott Meeting house was the house of worship for many who came to Cynthiana. Indiana. Some of these Baptists were at the Cane Ridge Church in
neighboring Bourbon County when the Pentecostal fire was lit in the summer of 1801. The number attending Cane Ridge was variously estimated at from ten to twenty-five thousand. At the time the largest settlement in the state, Lexington, had only 1,795 inhabitants. Subsequent revivals were held at Indian Creek.
Preachers of every denomination attended and were encouraged to exhort the throng from tree stump or the back of a wagon. People would drift from one stand to another. They gathered in small groups to hear recent converts tell of their experience, and then would burst into hymns of praise. The conversions that were effected released waves of -reeling. In the experience the traditionally slow cycle of guilt, despair, hope and assurance were compressed into a few days or even hours. The emotional stress was agonizingly intensified and it cut deep into the loneliness and restraint of many. Not only were there outbursts of weeping and shouts of joy, but frequently in the frenzied excitement of the moment men and women were suddenly swept into physical "exercises" - falling, running, jumping, jerking - which were attributed to the power of the Holy Spirit. The physical manifestations have been the source of great debate.
A visitor to the area, George A. Baxter, President of Washington College in Virginia wrote his account.
"I found Kentucky . . . the most moral place I had ever been. A profane expression was hardly ever heard. A religious awe seemed to pervade the country. Upon the whole, I think the revival in Kentucky the most extraordinary that has ever visited the church of Christ: and all things considered, it was peculiarly adepted (sic) to the circumstances of that country ... Something of an extraordinary nature seemed necessary to arrest the attention of a giddy people who were ready to conclude that Christianity was a fable and futurity a dream.
"This revival has done it. It has confounded infidelity, awed vice into silence, and brought numbers beyond calculations under serious impressions.
The man who best understood the meaning of Cane Ridge was the Rev. Barton W. Stone, the minister of the Cane Ridge Presbyterian Church who had earlier seen the two McGhee brothers preach in Logan County. The spirit of brotherhood and understanding accompanied these meetings where the two brothers in blood one a Presbyterian minister and the other a Methodist preached. These brothers alternated in expounding a simple gospel without denominational antagonism. Stone saw this as the key to revival of the Church on the frontier where so many of the habits of the traditional church had to be left behind the mountains.
It was a new land. The Revolution had cut the ties with the mother countries across the sea. There was a new nation with a unique
destiny. Might this be a time for a new chapter in the Christian religion,. a chapter which could only be written in the freedom of America, now cut off from bias and tradition of 'the Old World? Stone wrote of his experience in Logan County:
"The whole country appeared to be in motion to the place, and multitudes of all denominations attended. All seemed heartily to unite in the work and in-Christian love. Party spirit abashed shrunk back. To give a true description of this meeting could not be done; it would border on the marvelous. It continued for five days and nights without ceasing."
Now in August, 1801, the wave of humanity came to Cane Ridge. At one time an observer counted seven ministers speaking at one time.
The afterglow of the Cane Ridge meeting was remarkable. Ministers and inspired laymen believed that they had cut through the underbrush and a new vital outpouring of the Spirit of God could make this new frontier an unspoiled paradise of brotherhood and simple faith. The formality and the disputes which had disgraced European Christianity were overcome at this new Pentecost. Barton W. Stone felt that the heaviest burden on the American Church was the rigidity of European Calvinism. Stone believed that the distinctive Christian doctrine was that God loved the world-the whole world- and sent his son to save it Formal creeds and elaborate ecclesiastical organizations had confused this issue and separated believers. In the loneliness of the frontiers God had revealed again a simple brotherhood in a common faith. Stone saw in Kentucky a visible answer and hope for a new future.
In this spirit and enthusiasm there were revivals in the Indian Creek area. The Endicott Meeting House was touched by the flame. The meeting house was opened to many groups in addition to the Baptists with whom its founding is identified. As early as 1803 a Christian Church in the Stone conviction was planted along Indian Creek. The distinctive witness was preached in the Endicott Meeting House and in neighboring groves until a separate building was erected across the road on the original Moses Endicott land in 1852.
What happened to the dreams of Barton Stone? Ordained a Presbyterian in North Carolina. he was shortly removed from his Presbyterian connections after the revival. He briefly formed the Springfield Presbytery to keep alive his movement. The Indian Creek fellowship was one of the four original members of this new association. With the Harrodsburg congregation it is the oldest continuing Christian Church in existence. But like the Presbyterians who withdrew from all connections with the new ferment, the Methodists and Baptists turned away also and re-affirmed their denominational plans and procedures. On the American soil this reaction had many of the features of the Counter- Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church after the original impact of Lutheranism in Europe, centuries earlier. After the reunion and love feast of Cane Ridge, denominational disputes and proselyting entered a new era of bitterness in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois between Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and the newly organized Christians. Eventually, Barton Stone joined with Alexander Campbell to create the movement known as Disciples or Christian.
The Indian Creek Christian congregation remains to this day across the road from the Endicott Meeting House, now closed. The Indian Creek Christian group has made an effort to keep the original impulse toward unity and Gospel simplicity. It never joined the Disciples group.
From this Indian Creek beginning this concern was brought to Southern Indiana. The original New Liberty Christian Church (now United Church of Christ) founded in 1812 (eleven years after Cane Ridge) kept alive these experiences. New Liberty members founded Antioch Church, Pleasant View Church (more recently Calvert's Chapel), Haubstadt Christian congregation, and in 1901 the Cynthiana Christian Church (now First United Church of Christ.) The Bethsaida Church is a sister congregation of New Liberty.
The Baptist congregation at Indian Creek eventually became a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. Most of the Posey County Baptist emigrants became associated with the Primitive Baptist declaration of a strict theological Calvinism, concentrating on pre-destination and disclaiming any evangelistic activity. The Cynthiana Primitive Baptist Church continues to this day. There was a modified form of Presbyterian life as a result of Cane Ridge. The Cumberland Presbyterian movement eventually reached Cynthiana and established the First Presbyterian Church, now a part of the United Presbyterian Church.
This high moment of unity and vision quickly faded from American Christianity. The close relationship of Cane Ridge to the Cynthiana settlement is established. However, the records of both the Endicott Creek Baptist Church and the Christian Congregation by which this could be traced have both been destroyed in separate fires in Kentucky.
The records of the New Liberty Christian Church are also incomplete. The coals of this remarkable distinctive American vision of Christian unity were fanned into life briefly again by the Moody revivals in the late years of the previous century and in the Protestant ecumenical movement and the Roman Catholic Ecumenical Councils of more recent date. The character and the purposes of the men and women who came to Cynthiana from Indian Creek were formed in this Pentecostal flame. The community's present churches carry the imprint of Cane Ridge, either directly or in reaction to it.
METHODISM COMES TO CYNTHIANA EARLY
The close ties between Cynthiana and Poseyville communities are revealed in the history of the Methodist Churches of the two neighboring Posey County Communities. The founder of the Poseyville Church, the Rev. John Schrader, organized the Cynthiana Church. The first building was constructed in 1836 on the southwest corner of the town Park on a piece of ground given by Mr. James Nesbit. The group which had built the church had previously met in a log building near the west end of town.
The minister, the Rev. John Schrader, had come to this area from Baltimore and North Carolina. His father had dropped the "von" from his name after reaching America. At one time his circuit consisted of an area of 400 miles (640 km). He later married the daughter of Jonathan and Rebecca Jacquess, Pamela, who were among the original party of forty four who came to this area from Cynthiana, Kentucky, in 1815. There is a bronze plaque to this Methodist Circuit rider in the Poseyville Church.
Some of the pioneer families connected with the Church were the Nesbits, the Stevens, Blase, Smith, McReynolds, Fisher, Lowe, Wilson, Syrock and many others not listed in existing records.
In 1836 a resolution was adopted to stop members of the conference from defiling the floor of the church by spitting or using tobacco. It is assumed that many of the preachers chewed tobacco in those days, although it was not an acceptable habit to many. Indeed, Mr. James Nesbit, the donor of the Church grounds, became very annoyed one Sunday while in Church by the smoke from pipes of men standing beneath the fine shade trees on the church lawn. On Monday morning he took his axe, walked down to the Church, and cut down every tree, remarking, "No man shall smoke that filthy weed under trees I have dedicated to the Lord."
The original Church building near the Park was too small by 1900 and a new building was erected on the adjoining lot. The original building was converted into a parsonage. The second building was constructed during the ministry of the Reverend S. O. Dorsey and dedicated on January 20, by J. W. Turner.
The spectacular fire which started in the motion picture house in 1923 destroyed this second building. The present structure on Main Street was built at that time.
Among the people who worshipped in the original building erected in 1836 are Mrs. Mayme Stevens, Mrs. Gertrude Blase, Mrs. Grace Smith, Mrs. Blanch McReynolds, Mrs. Floral Fisher, Mrs. George Lowe, Mrs. Vera Wilson, Mrs. Fern Kaufman, Miss Pansy Blase, and. Miss Bess Syrock.
MOST OF 44 PIONEERS WERE IN FAMILY GROUP
The largest recorded migration from the Blue Grass country of Kentucky. to the Cynthiana, Indiana region came from near Cynthiana, Kentucky. According to records, "On the 1st of Sept. 1815 a colony of 44 persons of the vicinity of Cynthiana, Ky. bade farewell to their old homes. with all their associations, for the purpose of seeking a new home in Posey County, territory of Indiana." They were all linked together by marriage and kinship.
Their former homes were along Indian Creek, five miles (8 km) East of Cynthiana, Kentucky. The community is also known as Colville. It is on the border of the present Harrison and Bourbon Counties. The home place of the Miss Jesse Belle Endicott, the living descendant of the Endicott family and the keeper of the records of the Indian Creek Baptist Church which worshipped until a few years ago in the original "Endicott Meeting House" is in Bourbon County. The lands East of Cynthiana, along Indian Creek, are more favorable to farming than the forbidding limestone hills west of Cynthiana.
The trip of the party of 44 took place at a time of a general flow of peoples from Kentucky into Indiana. There is a hint that a cholera epidemic may have hastened the mass migration to Cynthiana, Indiana. The scourge of cholera was a devastating fear on the Kentucky frontier. As late as December 31, 1835 there is a Maysville, Kentucky diary entry by Charity Caldwell which relates the horror:
"In the last three years there have been a total of 115 deaths due to cholera. Oh, if only we could get rid of this dread disease. It is horrible beyond description. Mama still speaks in whispers about our beloved Aunt Prudence who succumbed to this menace. After all we have been through, everyone in Maysville can recognize the symptoms of the disease. The disease progresses from stomach upsets to agonizing cramps of the legs, feet, and stomach muscles. The body becomes cold and blue or purple; the skin is dry and wrinkled; the eyes are deeply sunken; the pulse is nearly too faint to count, and the voice is only a whisper. Some victims have died in less than a day, others in even one or two hours. It is the prayer of all the residents of Maysville that our doctors can wipe out this dreadful enemy, and someday someone will find a cure, so that our town may survive, and we can again go to church and mix with our friends. I just can't write anymore, dear diary, for suddenly I feel so faint, and there are severe pains in my stomach. I must lie down -oh--and rest."
Whether driven out by the pale horses of Death and Pestilence or the irresistible American tides of human migration to better, less crowded lands, the 44 came to Indiana.
The successful end of the war of 1812 and the pacification of the territory after the campaign of Tippecanoe made the old Northwest territory inviting.
1. William Casey 2. Henry Casey 3. Rebecca Casey Endicott 4. Joseph Endicott 5. William Casey Endicott 6. Henry Casey Endicott 7. James Casey Endicott 8. Joseph Endicott, Jr. 9. William Casey, Jr. 10. Sallie Casey 11. Nancy Casey 12. George Fraser Casey 13. Margaret Casey 14. Elizabeth Casey 15. Margaret Casey 16. James Casey 17. Polly Casey Eaton 18. Stephen Eaton 19. George Eaton 20. William Eaton 21. Joel Casey 22. Rebecca Fraser Jacquess 23. James Rankin 24. Mary Rankin 25. Mary Rankin 26. Garrison Jonathan Jacquess 27. Elizabeth Jacquess Hirons 28. Samuel Hirons 29. George Fraser Jacquess 30. Pamela (Permilla) Jacquess 31. John Wesley Jacquess 32. Ogden Jacquess 33. Fletcher Jacquess 34. Asbury Cloud Jacquess 35. Mary Fraser Ferguson 36. Alexander Ferguson 37. Joel Ferguson 38. Mary Ferguson 39. Asbury Ferguson 40. James Ferguson 41. John Ferguson 42. George Ferguson 43. Elizabeth Ferguson
The 44th was either Caty Moore Rankin (wife of James Rankin) or Sarah Harrington Casey (wife of Joel Casey).
Not all of the original party lived happily ever after. A postscript comes from Posey County records. In 1821, one of the 44 got the first divorce recorded in Posey County. Jonathan Jacquess' daughter, Elizabeth. came to Cynthiana as the wife of Samuel C. Hirons.
They were married in Kentucky in 1814. After her divorce she married Christopher Ashworth.
Tragedy struck two other members of the original 44. Joel Ferguson murdered his cousin Henry Casey. Joel was the community outlaw and probably was emotionally disturbed. After breaking out of jail he escaped to Oregon.
Further notes on this group, supplied by Mr. and Mrs. Carroll Cox, show that Joel Casey was a doctor whose death is recorded in Princeton in 1825. The son of Rebecca Jacquess, James Rankin was a school teacher.
[edit] References
- ^ a b American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ US Board on Geographic Names. United States Geological Survey (2007-10-25). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990. United States Census Bureau (2005-05-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
[edit] External links
- Cynthiana, Indiana is at coordinates Coordinates:
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