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COURT HOUSE, New Castle, Ind.
HENRY COUNTY;
PAST AND PRESENT:
A BRIEF
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY
FROM
1821 TO 1871.
BYELWOOD PLEAS
.NEW CASTLE, IND.:
PUBLISHED BY PLEAS BROTHERS.
1871.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
ELWOOD
PLEAS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
PREFACE.
The following pages are the result of a desire to collect and preserve facts connected with the early history and growth of our county, which are constantly becoming more difficult to obtain, as the pioneers of the county are rapidly passing away. It is not supposed, however, that what has been done in these pages is all that can be done in this direction, as I have met with several persons since portions of the work were closed up, who were in possession of a fund of facts of which I would gladly have availed myself at an earlier day.
This pioneer essay, it is hoped, will not close the effort in this direction, but may stimulate some one to begin the collection of material at once, and at no distant day present something more thorough and worthy of our county and the memory of those who have gone before, and through whose patient endurance and hardships we now enjoy so many of the blessings of life.
It is proper, also, to state that the work of collecting material was begun late in November last, with a view to issuing only a small pamphlet of some forty or fifty pages at most. It was soon determined to enlarge the scope of the work a little, and it was advertised to contain page: iv[View Page iv] one hundred pages, and the price fixed accordingly. As fast as the material for the first chapter was collected, the "copy" was placed in the hands of the compositor, there seldom being so much as five pages ahead, and when one hundred pages were completed, many topics too important to be omitted had not been touched, and now, with nearly one hundred and fifty pages, a large portion of the notes collected, especially those relating to the hardships and incidents of early times, with brief personal sketches of some of the early men of note, have to be omitted in toto. For nearly three months, one hundred and twenty pages have been in the binder's hands, while an unexpected pressure of other work has prevented any attempt to complete the remaining pages till within a few days.
I take especial pleasure in acknowledging my obligations to Messrs. BENNETT and EVANS, of the Auditor's office; Messrs. HAZZARD and ROGERS, of the Treasurer's office; Mr. KINSEY and the late Mr. HIATT, Clerks, and Mr. BOND, Recorder, for furnishing every possible facility for examining the county records.
For items of information and other aid, I also take pleasure in expressing my obligations to Judges ELLIOTT and BUNDY, C. C. and M. L. POWELL, ASAHEL WOODARD, and W. W. SHELLEY, of New Castle; Dr. Ross, J. LUELLEN, and Dr. KERR, Stony Creek township; D. REES and S. JULIAN, Cadiz; J. WOOD and E. SPENCER, Greensboro; M. F. EDWARDS, Dr. WHITESEL, J. A. DEEM, and others, Knightstown; to B. S. PARKER and BENJ. STEWART, Lewisville; S. W. STEWART and D. REYNOLDS, Dublin; J. R. LEAKY, C. RATLIFF, and D. PAUL, Dudley; WILLIAMS NICHOLSON, Liberty, and scores of others, who have kindly aided me in various ways.
E. P.
New Castle, Ind., August, 1871.
