rich and productive. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, Indian corn and all kinds of grain and vegetables do well here, while blue grass, timothy and other grasses seem to be a spontaneous growth of the county. Apples, peaches, pears, cherries, and in fact all kinds of fruit, large or small, that are grown in this kind of a climate, are to a considerable extent cultivated here, and I think that the horticulturist can receive as profitable returns for his labor here as in any other part of Indiana. The timber of the county is of fine quality, consisting of maple, walnut, poplar, oak, and other varieties. From the first settling of the county up to the present time there has been great waste of timber, but still there is enough, if taken care of, to last the county for a great many years for all necessary purposes. The gravel and sand beds of this county are numerous, and almost inexhaustible; and in some parts of the county there is a considerable supply of limestone rock.

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

The settlement of this county began in the year 1819; prior to this time all the territory of this county was in possession of the Indians; but in 1818 the United States Government negotiated a treaty with the Indians, purchased their lands and made this county, along with other portions of Central Indiana, subject to settlement by the whites. Some of the first settlers of this county we will make mention of, hoping that they will be held in remembrance as pioneers who withstood the toil and privations incident to the pioneer life. It being impossible to give them in the order of their coming, I well pen them down as follows:

Andrew Shannon, George Hobson, Asel Woodard, Allen Shepherd, Wm. Shannon, Benjamin Harvey, George and Charles See, Moses Keens, Josiah Morris, J. R. Leakey, Daniel Paul, Jonathan Bundy, Daniel Jackson, Thos. Greenstreet, Samuel Carr, Allen Hunt, A. Heaton, John Huff, W. M. Carey, Jacob Woods, Roderick Craig, Wm. Owen, John Hart,

William Harvey, Samuel Howard, Uriah Bulla, J. P. Johnson Joseph Corey, Jonathan Bedwell, Samuel Furgason, Danie Heaton, Eli Stafford, Joseph Ratliff, John Koons, A. E. Konn, Samuel Goble, Jacob Elliott, T. R. Stanford.

COUNTY OFFICERS.

The first County Commissioners were appointed by the Legislature, in the year 1821, and, by the way, were all citizens of other counties, namely: Richard Biern, of Jackson; John Sample, of Fayette, and J. W. Scott, of Union. Said Commissioners met at the house of Joseph Hobson, which was located about two miles south of where Newcastle now stands. They located the county seat and made all the necessary arrangements for holding an election to elect the first county officers. The first elected County Commissioners were Wm. Shannon, Samuel Goble and Allen Shepherd. The first Clerk of the county was Rene Julian, who did the business of both Clerk and Recorder, besides having considerable time to spare from his office to work in the cornfield or clearing. The first Sheriff of the county was J. H. Healy, by appointment; he was also the first elected Sheriff. The first Associate Judges of the county were Elisha Long, and T. R. Stanford. The first Court held in the county was held at the house of Joseph Hobson. The first Treasurer of the county was Wm. Shannon, and the first Prosecuting Attorney was Lot Bloomfield. The office of Auditor, for this county, was not called into existence, as a separate office, until the year 1840. The first Auditor elected was James Iliff. The first County Surveyor was Thomas R. Stanford, who held the position for twenty years. The first Judge of the Common Pleas Court was M. L. Bundy.

The first newspaper published in the county was published at Knightstown. The Newcastle Banner was the first paper published at Newcastle, which was established by J. B. Swayze in 1836. The first church built in the county was

the Friend's meeting house, erected, according to the best information I am in possession of, in the year 1824.

Prior to the year 1818 this county was in possession of the Indians; its inhabitants were the savage red man and the wild beasts of the forests. No white man had as yet settled on her soil; no trace of civilization could here be found; no vestige of a cabin or dwelling, save now and then an Indian wigwam. Not a tree had been felled by the settler's ax; the underbrush was matted with thorns, briars and brambles, and the streams. were choked with driftwood to overflowing; green ponds stood full of stagnant water, the home of the bull frog, mud turtle and water snake; all things, then, in a state of nature, it surely was a gloomy prospect to the first settlers of this county.

In the year 1819 a few settlements were made, and gradually the tide of emigration kept coming until in 1821 she had sufficient population to form a county organization. After the organization of the county, emigration from the State of North Carolina and other States of the Union became more general, and in less than nine years after the organization she had grown in population to six thousand four hundred and ninety-seven, as shown by the census report for 1830; in 1840, her population was fifteen thousand one hundred and twenty-eight; in 1850, seventeen thousand six hundred and five; in 1860, twenty thousand one hundred and nineteen; in 1870, twenty-two thousand nine hundred and eighty-six; and to-day at least twenty-four thousand inhabitants people this county. Her vote has increased in the same ratio as her population; while her increase in wealth, improvements and enterprise have more than kept pace with her numbers. Education, morality and temperance have been on the increase. Her old log school-houses and churches have gone to decay and are things of the past. She now has fine academies, seminaries, school-houses, churches, and temples of worship, dotted all over the county; in the place of her first two hundred and fifty dollar court house, she now has one of

the finest and most beautiful court houses in the State, which has cost the county one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, which is an ornament to the county and a credit to her citizens. The first jail of the county was built at a cost of forty dollars; the present jail cost forty thousand dollars; while all other public improvements of the county are in unison and harmonize with the present court house and jail.

ROADS AND MARKETS.

The first settlers of the county kept track of their roads principally by blazing the timber as a guide to direct them on their course. Wagons were very seldom brought into use, the principal part of the travel being done on foot; and the only markets needed in that day were for the fur traders, who bought their pelts and fur skins, and sold them a few articles of dry goods, tobacco and whisky; but the gradual improvement of the county and the extension of their fields made it necessary that they should have a market for their surplus produce, and consequently they had to hunt a more distant market, thereby causing them to open better roads that could be traveled with wagons. Their markets for several years were Cincinnati and Lawrenceburg; but now almost every road in the county is graveled or turnpiked, and every farmer in the county has a market at his own door-yard, and instead of traveling at the rate of from one to three miles an hour by the old process, we now travel at the rate of thirty miles an hour by steam, and instead of waiting six or eight days to get an answer to a letter from Cincinnati or Indianapolis, we now get it the same day, and in case we are in a hurry we communicate by telegraph at lightning speed. There are now in the county four railroads, making a total of near seventy miles of road.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.

For several years the first settlers of this county could not depend altogether on the agricultural products of the county for support. The amount of cleared land was not sufficient to sup

ply their demands; therefore they had to resort to the trap and the gun to supply the meat for their tables; but this state of affairs did not last long. They kept clearing the land and cultivating the fields until they had a sufficient supply, and of some articles a great surplus; and she now has one hundred and fifty thousand acres of improved land, valued at thirteen million dollars, and she raises annually over six hundred thousand bushels of winter wheat; near two thousand bushels of rye; over one million bushels of Indian corn; one hundred thousand bushels of oats; five thousand seven hundred bushels of barley; sixtyfive thousand pounds of wool; fifty-three thousand bushels of Irish potatoes; three hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds of butter, and over ten thousand tons of hay; besides thousands of dollars worth of vegetables.

DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

The total estimated value of all the domestic animals of the county, in the year 1824, would have reached but a very few thousand dollars. The estimate can not be had, as the papers and records of the county were burned with the court house that was burned down in the year 1864; but to-day the total estimate of live stock will reach near two millions of dollars.

The estimate for 1870 was one million six hundred and fortyfive thousand seven hundred and one dollars. The number of horses in the county the same year was 7,550; number of mules and asses, 1, 176; number of milch cows, 5,492; number of work oxen, 221; number of sheep, 21,460; number of swine, 30,380.

MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS.

The only manufacturing establishments of any note that could be found in this county, until about the year 1830, was the oldfashioned horse mill for grinding corn, and now and then a water mill for the same purpose. Steam power was not known to the citizens of this county; the noise of a steam whistle then