Highway to Mixerville

American, 1867

Turnpike to Mixerville

It is in the interest of the millers, merchants, mechanics and all businessmen of Brookville to make the above named road immediately. The building of the road secures a bridge across the East Fork of this place, beyond all question. The road is of more importance to Brookville directly than is a railroad up the East Fork to Richmond.

It is not possible that the businessmen of our town can be so indifferent to their best interests as to allow this golden opportunity to pass without lending a helping hand to this enterprise.

We say to our friends along the line of the proposed road, take courage and be of good cheer; hurry up your subscriptions until you can show our citizens that the work will be done with their proportionate aid, and our word for it, they will take hold and do their part.

The trade that flows from East Brookville, Bath and Springfield Townships is of too much importance to Brookville to be tampered with or thrown away.

Oxford and Brookville Turnpike

The meeting on Friday night of last week at Whitcomb gave good indications of the final success of the building of a turnpike road from Brookville to the state line near Mixerville. A considerable amount of stock has already been taken, and when it becomes understood that it is fully determined to have the road built, the requisite amount will no doubt be forthcoming.

Another meeting will be held at Whitcomb next Saturday night when Col. Farquhar is expected to address the people. Let there be a full attendance of all who are interested.

Notice

Persons owing toll to the Brookville and Fairfield Turnpike Company will save costs by settling the same with Fielding Berry before the 4th day of March 1867. Persons owing toll at the Fairfield gate can settle with Thos. Logan. All having claims against said Company for repairs on the road will please settle with F. Berry or Mr. Logan before the 4th of March.

The Valley Railroad

The Connersville Times understands that about the 15th of April, regular trains will commence running to Connersville on the Valley Railroad. The depot is to be erected immediately, the timber being already prepared.

The company is doing excellent work in town. The bridges across the canal have been lowered and are being widened to the width of the streets. The company deserves great credit for the energy displayed in pushing ahead the work during a very inclement season.

Real 1898 news

Democrat, November 1898

FAIRFIELD NEWS

John Watterson shot a wild hog last Friday that has been recuperating in Manfred Crocker's corn field all summer. It weighed over 200 pounds.

*

His many friends in this county regret that better business prospects has induced Dr. Thomas Cooksey to move from Fairfield to Wilmington, Ohio. During his eighteen months residence at Fairfield, he built up a nice practice and was held in high esteem as a physician and citizen.

*

Fishermen report that the East Fork of the Whitewater is alive with bass, catfish and carp.

*

Harry Ogden has attached a corn crushing machine to his engine and is prepared to grind corn for farmers.

*

The bridge spanning the mill race is badly in need of repairs. The township trustee and the county commissioners should come to an agreement and make the necessary repairs before an accident occurs to someone.

The end of 1865

Brookville Democrat, December, 1865

Large Hogs

Mr. James Rucker of this township has lately butchered four hogs, none of them over seventeen months old, the four averaging the high figure of 410 pounds, the heaviest weighing 425. This is the heaviest average we have heard of this season. The hogs were of the Ferguson breed, and this is not an unusual weight for them to attain at that age.

Tobacco and Cigars

"The moment a man puts a pipe to his mouth, he becomes a philosopher," said Sam Slick, and we endorse it.

The best place to purchase your smoking or chewing tobacco is at Adam Hegg's, Brookville, who has a splendid assortment in large quantities on hand. He also manufactures every quality of cigars, which he can furnish saloon and hotel keepers at lower rates than the can be purchased in the city. In addition to all this, he keeps for sale a hundred varieties of smoking pipes, tobacco and snuff boxes. Patronize home manufacturers.

Money Lost

On Tuesday last, Mr. Hiram Brooks, a poor hardworking and respected citizen living a couple of miles below town, met with the misfortune of losing his pocketbook, containing about $115, money which he had earned in the sweat of his brow. He supposes, it to have been lost near the White bridge and will feel himself under deep obligations to the finder if they will return it to him and will liberally reward them for their trouble.

Correction

It now appears evident that the McNeely boy who went before the Commissioners last week with such a pitiful story of harsh treatment at the hands of John Barber of Springfield Township has imposed upon the board and the community at large.

Mr. Barber informs us (and his statement is corroborated by disinterested witnesses) that although he did whip the boy, it was with a small switch and could not have inflicted the wounds which he exhibited here.

They must be self-inflicted with the intention of exacting a heavy fine from Mr. Barber, who knew nothing of the matter until he saw it in the Democrat. 

We are confident now that Mr. Barber did not punish the boy beyond what he deserved and warn the public not to be longer deceived by the boy's invented tale.

Bridge

The bridge across the Whitewater at Harrison, which was burned by Morgan during his raid through this state in 1863, is being rebuilt. The work is rapidly reaching completion and will be a much more durable and imposing structure than the old one. 

Civil War tales as they were reported

Brookville Democrat, July 17, 1863

The John Morgan Raid

The knowledge that John Morgan with his band of marauders was demonstrating in this direction, created the wildest excitement among our citizens from one extent of the White Water Valley to the other.

From Sunday until Wednesday, our town was in a perfect uproar and preparations for defense were to be seen in every direction.

On Monday, learning that the rebels were in the vicinity of Sunman's Station, 14 miles southwest of this place, every conceivable mode of conveyance was procured to convey our armed citizens to the locality where it was supposed a collision would take place.

Before their arrival, however, Morgan had commenced his march in the direction of Harrison, Ohio, which place he reached on that day at 11 o'clock and remained until 4 o'clock. His depredations at Harrison were pretty extensive in the way of horses, goods and such other valuables as he could carry away. In his march he is making wholesale work in the way of stealing horses and his men are mounted on the finest stock of the country.

Several of the citizens of this county who happened to be in Harrison and vicinity on the day Morgan passed through, were relieved of their horses by the freebooter and his men.

Mr. Albert Loper of this county who had a considerable amount of money with him, escaped by laying down unperceived in an open field near at hand. 

Morgan burned the bridge across the Miami at New Baltimore after crossing over it.

Note: It's not known if Morgan came as far north as New Trenton, but it's likely some of his soldiers did.

Connersville Weekly Times, July 20, 1863

Doing the Clever Thing

During the Morgan raid in this state, some 40 or 50 citizens of Posey Township, this county (Fayette) responded to the call of Governor Morton, by volunteering to assist in driving the invaders from our soil, a number of them actually abandoning their harvest field, leaving their grain uncut.

These "citizen soldiers" assembled at Dublin, the nearest station on the Central Railway, to take passage for Indianapolis. While waiting for the train, the people of Dublin who are unanimously for the Union, treated them with the utmost courtesy and kindness, supplying them with the best refreshments and insisting on their taking a supply along for future use.

And one or two persons in the village learning the condition in which our volunteers had left their ripe grain, word was passed around among the farmers of the neighborhood, and arrangements were soon made for a general turnout to complete the work of harvesting thus abandoned. 

It was performed in good style; and the Posey Township folks returned from the pursuit of Morgan to find their grain harvested and saved from damage or waste, and no expenses to pay.

The Quakers generally are opposed to war but well know how to do the clever thing, at the right time, in behalf of those who will fight in defense of their country.

Note: Bentonville is the "capital" of Posey Township.

Connersville Weekly Times, March 26, 1863

Morgan Whipped

The great horse thief, John Morgan, was thrashed in splendid style near Milton, Tenn., on Friday. This is, we believe, the first fight Morgan has been in. His business, heretofore, has been to make raids, steal horses, burn railroad bridges and gobble up small garrisons. On Friday he had an opportunity to distinguish himself as a fighting man, if he had any qualities in that line.

He came across Col. Hall, who was out on a reconnoitering expedition, with 1,400 men. Morgan had nearly 4,000. He made an attack and was most disgracefully defeated. Thus has the bloated reputation of one of the greatest braggards in the rebel service, been effectually punctured. Ohio, Illinois and Indiana boys won the victory.

Note: It appears this story was somewhat premature by about 3 months. Facts were optional in those days. 

Another link on this blog to Morgan's Raid

More traction action --1906

Rushville Republican, Feb. 26, 1906

WORKING EAST

OF CONNERSVILLE

Route of I & C Out of That City is Being Laid Out

Saturday's Connersville News says Chief Engineer J.W. Moore, resident engineer Karl Harrison and Division engineer Claude Ott have spent three days past southeast of the city.

They are taking barometrical measurements of the elevations and depressions of the ground, over which it is proposed to build the I & C line from this city (Connersville) southeast. The News has been advised of their presence at or near the villages of Fairfield, Dunlapsville and Everton and there is much pleasurable excitement in those vicinities in consequence.

While this work is thought to be preliminary to determine exactly the most direct and desirable route, it is said to be practically settled that the line will cross the east fork of the Whitewater. about a mile north of Fairfield.

From that point there is little elevation to reach the broad,  level plateau that extends throughout Franklin County and beyond.

May 18, 1906

Track is Laid on I & C to the Flatrock Bridge

Eleven miles of grade will be done June 1st -- Work on Connersville Extension.

The work of laying the track for the I & C traction line, east out of Rushville, has been finished as far as Flatrock Creek. The big steel girders on the bridge across Flatrock wee all put in place and completed this week. 

Poles for the wires have been put up and already for quite a distance out of this city and much other work in the way of getting ready for the track has been done.

A great deal of material which has been distributed along the grades is now being shaped into condition, and a large force of men is at work at various points to push the construction to completion as rapidly as possible.

It is thought by traction men that cars will be running into Connersville sure the latter part of October. At the moment there are enough ties, rails, poles and other materials at the fairgrounds for the construction of the lien between this city and Glenwood.

Note: Traction lines were being proposed and imagined for decades, but nobody ever got around to building a line to Brookville. 

  

Your bad bridge story

 Lawrenceburg Press, July 14, 1870

THE FALL OF THE WHITE WATER BRIDGE

---

The long iron bridge over White Water River, about a quarter of a mile below Harrison, fell on Monday with a terrific crash, carrying with it Mr. Jerome Johnson, who was crushed to death.

Mrs. Johnson as hauling an enormous saw log of green sycamore about four feet in diameter, and was accompanied by four other men -- named Essex, Dow Pelton, Hatfield and Geo. Bartlet. Of these only Mr. Bartlet was injured and he not seriously.

When the bridge fell, Mr. Johnson who was walking alongside of his wagon, was thrown down and partly under the wagon, being entirely under water when taken out of the wreck. He lived only about 30 minutes. 

The bridge has for a long time been deemed unfit for travel and only a short time ago, some of the Commissioners by request of the citizens, visited and inspected it and pronounced it unsafe. They at the time and since until the accident of Monday that resulted so disastrously, neglected to put up any warning or close the bridge from public travel and -- we hope we have been falsely  informed -- one of the commissioners at the time of viewing the bridge, said that they would not spend any money upon it until after the election, as it would be used  against them as an electioneering hobby!

Certain it is, however, the bridge being unfit for travel, should have been closed against all vehicles and repaired. It has been a bad job from the beginning and the commissioners who received it from the contractors had no more brains nor honesty than the builders, or they would never have received so rickety a structure as the property of the county. 

The other two spans are racked until they are more than three feet out of a straight line and are liable to fall the first time the wind strikes it. 

NOTE: Try not to blame the guy who thought taking a 4-ton sycamore log across a rickety bridge was a good idea. 

1897 -- sinnin' and grinnin'

 

Brookville Democrat, April 1, 1897

It is a fineable offense to drive faster than a walk over the bridges of Franklin County, yet a lot of young hoodlums run horses through the Fairfield bridge at night.

A little paint used judiciously on many of the residences of our village would add greatly to the comfort and appearance of many homes.

James R. Johnson is again on his pins after a severe tussle with throat trouble. He can talk McCormick Harvester now equal to Bill Nye, Jr.

It is hinted that a certain egg buyer has not made a "square deal" with some of his lady customers who sell hen fruit. This is only a rumor.

The side ditches on the Brookville and Fairfield new gravel road are not cleared of debris sufficient to carry the water off. A few days work done in season will be a great protection to the highway.

We are authorized to say that farm tools, implements, vehicles, harness or property borrowed of the late Douglas F. Dickerson should be returned at once. Parties, please remember this timely notice and save trouble.

Owing to business calls requiring our time and attention out of town for two weeks past, your unworthy reporter has not been able to capture many news items. The newest live specimen of mankind is the new baby girl at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cary east of town. From rumors afloat there are other parties sleeping with a lantern burning ready for an emergency call.

We must compliment our friend Mrs. Martha May (Butler) Shaw for her quiet plunge into the matrimonial sea which is full of bubbles and breakers, but she done so with her glasses on and eyes open, and never even hinted to us of her intention of passing through the ordeal from single to wedded felicity. If congratulations are still in order we add our kindest wishes by hoping she may have a "stick" full of happiness with an abundance of "clean proof." May she never "slug" the fortunate husband of her choice, but in the future, as in the past, may she "distribute" her smiles on "Jack," who should rejoice at his "fat take."

Bridges were needed, he said

 Brookville American 1856

Bridges, Bridges, Bridges

Franklin County is peculiarly situated. From the line above Laurel, to the line below New Trenton, the river runs a course of about 30 miles. From the line above Fairfield, to the same point below Trenton, over 20 miles. Bridges over these streams at suitable points have become a necessity to accommodate the wants of her citizens. Difficulties, dangers, accidents and deaths are constantly occurring for the want of these erections.

The people are abundantly able to build them, and the only question which presents itself is, as to the manner of building them. The fords across these streams are annually becoming more dangerous, and therefore the erection of bridges more imperative.

The County Commissioners under the Act of 1855 are clothed with ample power to meet these wants and demands, and in my opinion ought to exercise these powers.

We will at once be met by the objector who says that our taxes will be increased and that the people are already burdened enough in that way. I know that taxation sometimes becomes onerous and ought never to be exercised but with propriety, discretion and good judgment.

All the bridges necessary in the county can be erected within the next two years, without increasing the taxes one cent -- without seriously affecting the most humble citizen, with great advantage to our entire population, and cannot be done in any other way.

Efforts have been made at various points within the last few years to accommodate these wants, and the result invariably has been, pecuniary loss to the very persons who are least interested but who have generously come forward and hazarded their time, means and property to advance the public interest, while the very men who are really interested stand back and shirk responsibilities, but enjoy all the advantages. 

Look at Laurel, Metamora, Brookville, etc. -- the truly equitable method of accomplishing these objects of a general nature is by general taxation.

My plan is to build five bridges across White Water river within the next two years, to be paid for, say in one, two and three years, out of the county treasury. It can be done, as I have already stated, without increasing taxation, and no man will seriously feel the expense.

Build one at Laurel, one near Fairfield, two at Brookville, one over the east and the other over the west fork, and one near New Trenton. These will accommodate our entire population and will be a good investment of means. 

The bridges can then be free for all, under the entire control of our county authorities.. And when finished, with our numerous turnpikes and other good roads, public and private buildings, and improvements, will make Franklin County one of the most desirable places of residence in the West.

The County Commissioners have concluded to receive proposals for the construction of these five bridges up to the meeting of the board in June. I hope our good generous and high minded citizens will look at the matter in a proper light -- talk about it with the neighbors and urge forward our Commissioners in the laudable enterprise.

Our people will never complain of such an expenditure of their money.

GEO HOLLAND

March 6, '56

NOTES: Holland was a Brookville lawyer with some interest in Republican Party politics. He was involved in many social and civic organizations, including Brookville College. 

The bridge at Fairfield was most likely the covered bridge, built about 10 years later in 1866. Most useful bridges were washed out during the 1913 flood. This blog covers much of that.

Turnpikes were roads that were kept up by tolls. They were badly managed. 

News from '97

 Brookville Democrat, 1897 news

Devastating fire Oct. 28

Small Farms For Sale April 1

The undersigned has two small farms for sale which she will sell at a reasonable price and on easy terms. One is known as the Sol Petra pace, contains 47 acres and is situated on Wolf Cree, 3 1/2 miles south of Fairfield. The other is the Moses W. Cory farm of 60 acres, on Hanna's Creek, 3 miles north of Fairfield. For full information, call on or address Mrs. Mary P. Cory, Fairfield, Ind.

Levee Leverage March 11

Gravel roads and public highways suffered serious damage from the recent flood. Bridges are down, culverts washed out and the soil in many sections has changed residence. Real estate owners find that warrantee deeds are no good when water gets on a high-lonesome, and streams act like mountain torrents. 

The East Fork of the Whitewater at this place did not reach as high a mark as last autumn but the volume of water did more damage, as no vegetation was in its way to impede its progress or check its force. If a levee is not thrown up on the west side of Fairfield bridge, the river will leave its present channel in one or two more big floods.

Lumber On The Lot Sept. 30

The  lots around the Liberty Manufacturing Company's works are decorated with huge piles of valuable lumber, the most of it being quarter-sawed oak. There is about five hundred thousand square feet there now, brought in by a Rushville furniture company. This lumber was all sawed at Fairfield and hauled here the ten miles since the first of last January. That sawmill is business from manager to log hauler.

K of P fools June 24

It is hinted that a couple of K. of P. boys were victimized for two dollars by a stranger hunting for a supposed stolen horse. Perhaps the presumed doctor had discovered indication of a revival of business in our village and was testing the "endurance" of his brethren of the K of P fraternity.

Meanwhile, in Old Bath ....

Dunlapsville bridge

 Ball State collection 

 

The flood of '52

 Here and there, we are reminded that over the centuries of human population in what we know as Indiana, there is occasional heavy rain. As the purpose of the Fairfield 200 blog is to acknowledge two of those centuries as our history, it’s worth noting that flooding caused our demise.

Flooding elsewhere. But in 1852, it’s doubtful anyone blamed the problem on Fairfield, although they suffered all the same. This dispatch published in an outpost paper in Aurora (Dearborn Co.) called the Independent Banner:

A deluge of rain!

“The heavy and continued rains of Wednesday and Thursday (Dec. 25-26, 1852) in the Valley of the two Miamis caused a sudden rise of water in those streams and their tributaries, which yesterday swept in a flood over their banks, carrying away fences, out-houses, dams, mills, lumber and in many places, bridges in its course.

“A larger portion of the Eaton Railway is submerged and several bridges carried away. The Venice bridge on the Brookville and Oxford Pike was so obstructed with floating drift as to prevent it being traveled through.

“The passenger train on the Hamilton Railway that left yesterday with a large number of passengers, passed the bridge beyond Hamilton when a messenger on horseback announced to the conductor that the flood had risen to such a height and bore with such force on the middle pier of the Twin Creek Bridge that it had burst it asunder, and that the adjacent embankment in many places had been washed away.”

In another column:

“At Connersville the river at that point was high and rising rapidly and the water had come so near the telegraph wire which extends over the river that it had to be taken down to prevent the driftwood from carrying it off.”

* * *

Near Fairfield, while the covered bridge was still 2 decades in the future, one assumes a bridge across the river existed, and it probably washed out. A mill on the river there was destroyed (see clip at right).

The Brookville American, on Jan. 7, 1853, published an article saying the Whitewater Canal had been damaged and would be repaired and in working order within a short time.

“The canal must and will be repaired. And it can be done in three months as well as nine. Then there will be six months for the mills and merchandise to be making money – and six months to collect toll. Repair quick and $40,000 in tolls will be saved to the canal and ten times as much to the business of the valley.”

The lot of damage occurred at Cambridge City. “The destruction of private property has been immense.” Serious damage also occurred at a feeder dam near Harrison.

A woolen factory and bridge were destroyed at Laurel, The paper said that “it was supposed in January 1847 that the destructive flood that occurred on the first day of that month was probably a centennial visitor.”

The problem was, people believed it and built their structures along the river assuming it couldn’t happen again. “The ruin and desolation cannot be particularized.”

The paper went on to speculate that farming methods of the time, the digging of drainage ditches, was messing with the ecology of the swamps near the rivers and that they could expect more flooding in the future, perhaps every year. It would be many years before they learned their lesson about tampering with the river.

In the same article, the paper said the Spear and Stevens paper and flouring mills would be repaired as soon as they had the money. The paper said the Spears mill had been damaged several times in the previous 5 years and invoked some patriotic zeal toward the challenge.

“Some Generals by an adroit maneuver, turn defeat into victory. Some men by commercial failure thereby learn to lay a sure foundation for future success and final wealth. In others, their real resources and true greatness are never developed until they are brought out by adverse fortunes.”

Amen.

I don’t know specifically where the Venice bridge was located, but it might have been the one at the state line east of Bath. That bridge was dismantled and rebuilt in Butler County.

LINK TO THAT HERE 

Wright guys – Part I

 Years ago, two boys were hiking through the woods and came to a stream. The younger boy suggested they find a log and float across the stream. The older boy said, “I have a better idea. Let's build a machine and fly over!”

Thus began the legend of Wilbur and Orville Wright, who in theory did see the other side of the stream near Quakertown during their pre-teen years. Later on, they took a train to Kitty Hawk, which is in North Carolina. They'd have flown there but the airplane had not yet been invented.

A dozen definitive histories have been promoted as the legitimate story of the Fathers of Flight. Most of them offer a paragraph or two about how the boys’ mother Susan was from Union County, Indiana. This is not one of those definitive histories, but it’s still informative. Tell your friends you read it here.

That tidbit is enough to put Wilbur and Orville a whole lot closer to Brookville than you imagined, thanks to a gimmick from the Department of Arranged Facts. Or, DAFT.

It’s not like we make this stuff up. What we know is useful. It’s how we do history that can be shared, not stashed on the top shelf of a dusty old bookcase.

To get to Kitty Hawk by way of the Dunlapsville bridge, we have to go to a cozy place in Virginia, which is where John G. Koerner and his loving bride Catherine lived in the earlier part of the 1800s. For reasons uncertain – but explainable – they left Loudoun County (northern part of Virginia) and came to Union County. Before they left, daughter Susan was born. That was 1831.

Union County was still quite undeveloped at the time and it’s likely John G. Koerner seized on that as an opportunity to become king of his own destiny. That’s a common theme across the years when Indiana went from land technically owned by native tribes to parcels of taxable property owned by squatters from elsewhere.

Koerner’s history is glossed over as much as it’s fleshed out. He’s far more important to this story than we realize as we see where he landed and why. To learn that, we’ll head over to DAFT headquarters and inquire.

The early settlers to Indiana came for the same reasons they always did as America was colonized – to worship as they wanted, to start their own communities and share like goals and dreams. Koerner was a Presbyterian, at the time a very hard-core Protestant branch that despised slavery.

Fighting it in Virginia was a lost cause. Instead, the Presbyterians joined the Quakers and the Universalists and the Brethren sects in heading for places where slavery didn’t exist. Indiana had always been a beacon and, into the 1830s, it still was.

Koerner’s wife Catherine’s maiden name was Frey (or Fry.)

The name was connected with United Brethren churches, including one at Farm Hill. For the unenlightened, Farm Hill is also known as Old Franklin, the brick church you see on the left as you approach Fairfield Causeway toward the Union County line.

Since Catherine’s kin were already in the area, it’s possible she persuaded her husband to “remove the family” to Indiana. Soon thereafter, the Koerners became members of the United Brethren church. The family on Catherine’s side has a robust history from Cincinnati north to an area that eventually became Dayton. It’s interesting, not useful for our story.

Old Franklin Church, incidentally, has been conducting services on that spot since the late 1830s. It’s recognized as a historical landmark. Its cemetery includes many of the Whitewater Valley’s original families, including the Koerner family.

• John
• Catherine (wife)
• Daniel (son)
• Elmira (Daniel’s spouse)

John Koerner’s footprint is larger than his grave site, but he doesn’t present much in the way of prominence. He evidently was never an elected official or a power broker. Simply a farmer who built carriages and had a knack for fixing things. At one point he appears to have been something of a landowner and, as such, somewhat affluent for his time. An 1854 classified ad in the Liberty Herald pinpoints him.

Real Estate for Sale – The undersigned offers for sale a house, lots of ground with all the appurtenances on the State road leading from Dunlapsville to Billingsville … it is one-half mile south of Moses Freeman and about the same distance east of James Martin’s.

Or just a mile or so east of what was once Quakertown. The “State” road is most likely a well-traveled path. You could probably hike it now. Or you could drive there.

Still, a trek in those days from the Vale of Dunlapsville to Old Franklin, which was in another county, no small task. Maybe one of the kids can invent an airplane, huh?

Great idea, said Susan Koerner, who’s mysterious in this yarn as well, although the whole of the Wright story is explained away by what seems to be a form of familial tolerance. It makes sense if we want it to make sense. If not, there are other shiny objects. Just be home in time for supper and your chores.

This is inching you closer to the Flying Wrights, but you have to learn first about Bishop Milton Wright. That’s Susan’s husband, father of the whole family that netted us rocket ships to Mars. (That may have been Goddard or Einstein but neither of them caught a fish in the Whitewater River. Then again, Einstein. ...)

The accepted tale of John Koerner was that he was his own thinker (great trait) and a man who enjoyed making things from scraps of stuff just lying around. Throughout this odyssey of being a builder, waxer, painter, handyman, farmer, mogul, all-around smart guy, the story is that daughter Susan picked up on it.

Most likely she was given a broom and told to stand over in one corner and “hold up that end” and all the while asking, “Father, why is your thumb all black and blue?” (Nail jump’t up and bit me. Mind yourself, girl!)

Other histories diverge on this, claiming Susan was well-equipped to handle any tool her father gave her.

Susan was told in the early 1850s that she needed to learn something besides crude language and applying varnish to wagon seats. Off she went to college, probably because she was too snobby for the local boys and the only place to find her a husband was in Hartsville, Indiana.

Hartsville, heartbeat of the United Brethren Church. It’s not far from Columbus. In those days, it was a lot farther from Columbus. The college doesn’t have an extensive history. Its archives are in Huntington, Indiana, which is where the school moved following a disastrous fire in the late 1890s.

Stories don’t tell us much about what Susan Koerner was expected to learn at the church-managed school, but she reportedly excelled in mathematics and science and was credited by one biographer of later being the most significant contributor to the education of her children.

It was at Hartsville where Susan met Milton, and the romance was instant. Milton, who was devout in his United Brethren principles, began to preach. Milton was born in Rush County and some of his history suggests he preached at a denominational church in Andersonville, western Franklin County.

He also preached at Old Franklin.

Pinning the Wright Brothers to northern Franklin County is a breeze now. Seats and tables in full upright position. Please fasten safety belts. Flight 1 is about to depart.

1913 -- even more fun than factual

 The origin of this blog was attached quite firmly to flooding on the Whitewater River.

The flooding created a need for a dam and the rest is history.

But some history just defies even logic of the time. In the days immediately after the Great Flood of 1913, any story that could be told was as good as any they hadn't dreamed up yet. If the story was good enough, it made sense.

Nothing made sense in the 1913 flood. The scope of the calamity defies human comprehension.

But an article on March 27, 1913, in the Richmond (IN) Palladium-Item, is frighteningly hysterical in the face of more than a century of knowing what was real and what was not. To be fair, some of this likely was factual.

• Laurel was not wiped out.
• Nobody from Metamora died in the flood.
• The story about the rockets over the river is too funny to imagine.
• There were fatalities in Brookville. One family was washed away.
• People who did not live in the valley did not abandon their homes. They made room for others.
• Getting from Liberty to Brookville on the old winding road WAS impossible for a time. On the best of days, it was a challenge.

The headline:

BROOKVILLE

IS CUT OFF

FROM WORLD

LIBERTY, Ind., March 26 (11 p.m.) – Brookville's inhabitants are quarantined tonight in the court house and the school house and the school building.

Even those residents of the higher section of the city, which has not been touched by the flood waters of the Whitewater River, have abandoned their homes to take up quarters in the two public buildings to conserve the scanty fuel supply.

Four people living in the lower section of the town are known to be dead and a dozen are missing and have been in all probability, drowned. The town is in absolute darkness.

Will Ketner, a farmer, living seven miles north of Brookville, telephoned to Liberty tonight that all today unsuccessful efforts had been made to shoot a line across the river with rockets to send provisions to the river besieged townspeople. Only one bridge is standing in Franklin County and it is impossible to enter Brookville. Every house in the lower section of the town has been washed away.

At Metamora, Franklin County, only three houses are standing. The rest have been washed down the river. The loss of life there cannot be estimated. It is believed the entire town of Laurel has been wiped out.

OUR INITIAL BLOG ENTRY ON 1913.

Street views of Fairfield

This one is from the south end of town. Looking north on Main, the Methodist Parsonage is on the right, across from the Ashland station.

This is looking south on Main at Mulberry Street

This is Bath Road coming into town from the East. 

From the west toward the covered bridge. All of this is under Fairfield Marina.

This was Columbia Street.

This is Main at the Square, looking north. 

House on the right was once the Fairfield Hotel.

Looking north on Main Street

 

 

Railroad that sort of didn't/did happen

 

The yellow line is the proposed route, so far as we can tell.

A railroad history expert says that in 1854, a rail line was being proposed from Hamilton, Ohio, across Bath Township to Roseburg, on north to Cambridge City and eventually Chicago. According to him, the line was to cross the state line a little north of Reilly, go through an area between Old and New Bath, and cross the river somewhere around Brownsville.

This rail line was platted and land evidently secured somewhere near Billingsville, although that's where most of the story ends. It's likely the plan was dropped for financial reasons and inevitably because of the civil war.

There was very little industrial population in Indiana until 1880, so the rail line would not have served many people. Most likely it was just rich people thinking they could manipulate land values. Railroads were always fond of doing that.

But we didn't get our canal either.

 Learning more about the almost-railroad through Jersey toward Roseburg. Sometime after 1858, the C&O modified its plan and decided to make the short line cross into Indiana at Peoria in Springfield Twp., where it had a grain stop in Raymond and on to a grain stop on the toll pike from Colter's Corner to Oxford. That grain stop eventually became the town of Bath. A post office was supposed to be put there but the government accidentally put it in Colter's Corner and in fixing their mistake, just changed the town to Old Bath, which then created New Bath.

The rail line went north, instead of northwest, through Cottage Grove and finally a little grain stop in Harrison Township owned by a guy named Kitchel. The train then went on to Richmond, etc.

The line had been platted in 1858, according to Reifel's history, and was put on hold until the Civil War was over and the railroad building boom made for an amazing industry. Evidently, and we can't prove this, the C&O through Bath and Kitchel was originally supposed to cut northwest through Roseburg and on past Brownsville and Connersville toward Cambridge City and thence to Chicago.

It obviously made sense to go straight north instead and connect elsewhere than to build a rail bridge across the East Fork north of Dunlapsville. Still, that's speculation.

Reifel concludes in the 1915 history that the land for the railroad out of Billingsville was surveyed and partially graded. The work stopped for reasons not clear -- it was probably financial. When the war started, manpower shortages doomed it.

But it was eventually built and New Bath prospered. It also has its own post office now. Colter's Corner remains just Old.

BATH AND STORIES ABOUT IT.

The above map shows the rail line. Find Cottage Grove. It's just west of there.

Cclips from the 1867 Brookville American showed an advocacy for a railroad from Ohio across through Fairfield, and to points north.  As of April 1868, people in Richmond were still bellyaching that the railroad wasn't interested in this. Turns out, they were partly right. 

In truth, some people really were interested and in the early 1870s, a line was completed from Richmond north to Fort Wayne through the town of Winchester. The towns financed their own chunk of the work through stock sales and other nefarious methods. The Cincinnati connection was completed in an alternate way around Eaton, Ohio. More or less. 

The East Fork never got railroaded, which would not have made a difference. A lot of the track between Richmond and Fort Wayne was abandoned. Most likely, people ride bikes there and never give a second thought to Fairfield.

Which was what the Cincinnati-Richmond-Fort Wayne Railroad did.

RAILROAD PANIC 1873 (OUR SIDE OF IT)

Dam construction photos

 These are from the collections of Tom Wewe and Mary Beth Siebert. More detail is available through the Brookville Library or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Links to both:

BROOKVILLE LIBRARY

DETAILS ABOUT THE LAKE

Dam construction

Fairfield south side with SR101 wrapping around the valley

Control tower, 1967

Constructing a base for the dam

The lake began to fill in the mid-70s.

Work at Fairfield Marina. Remnants of this little bridge
are still visible if you know where to look at the foot of the hill.

The dam at Brookville. It's safe, they say.

1966

Essays (the second part)

 Plenty of Fairfield history is included in this blog. Take some time to peruse the menu on the right. The oldest is at the bottom.  

TRIVIA, MOSTLY  The first marriage in Fairfield was John Reed and Mary, daughter of Robert Templeton. The first death was that of Anna Cunningham, who lived near Quakertown. She was buried on the old Osborn farm in 1805. The next was Mrs. Mary Hanna, mother of John Templeton's wife, buried in 1807. The first orchard in the township was planted by the hands of Robert Hanna, Sr., who obtained the trees at Lawrenceburg. This was about 1806, possibly a year later. The name "Fairfield" was suggested by the general beauty of the country, as viewed by the pioneer band. Here the Indian tribes frequently camped for weeks at a time. A post office was established in 1820 with Charles Shriner as postmaster. The village was incorporated as a town, May 9, 1876, had a municipal existence as long as there was any demand for such corporation, and disbanded many years since. The lodges of Fairfield are the Masonic, Oddfellows, Red Men and Knights of Pythias, with their ladies' auxiliary societies. RURAL WEATHER Rural Route 2, Brookville. No ZIP Code necessary. Zip Codes weren’t even invented yet. But the mail came through every day. Rain or shine, snow or ice. And so we went. Fairfield spent more unplowed snow days than would be considered safe or practical. In spite of that, we missed very few days of school. My hunch is that it didn’t snow quite all that often, though most of us seem to insist the winters were worse “back then.” But the winding county roads presented their own obstacles. We used chains on our tires. Either that or we got stuck. In town, we just made do. Cinders from somebody’s old coal stove did the trick. Three or four shovels full of it and you could melt the ice off 50 feet of street. Grandma fell once on the ice, breaking her wrist. We used to tap on her cast. For kids, snow was its own Disneyland. We had many places to go sledding. A favorite for Joel and me was across Dimmitt Butcher’s cornfield and up the hill, not far from his pond. We built campfires there and toasted marshmallows and roasted hotdogs. I took my sled down the hill once and smashed straight into a cedar tree. Boing! I still have problems with that side of my brain. The old drainage ditches that lined Main Street made for interesting adventures in the snow. If you got enough of it, you could build a little snow fort on one side of it, punch a couple of holes to see out and pack in another wall behind you. Inside, arm yourself with hundreds of snowballs and fend off any army. One snow fort on one side of the street, another on the other side, 20 feet away. FIRE WHEN READY, GRIDLEY! We had no place to skate, so nobody did much of that. We did play basketball, no matter how cold it was. Somebody, usually me, brought a shovel, cleaned off the court and … FIRE WHEN READY, GRIDLEY! For events less pugilistic, winter nights tended to draw us inward. We did have television -- Channel 5 and Channel 9. If you turned the antenna, Channel 12, which was the channel that carried “Superman.” With 756 channels today, not much has improved in the way of content. At Christmas, we’d go around town, singing holiday carols. No single house was missed. Sometimes, when the storm was strong enough, the lights would go out. For several hours. Once, our power was out for five days. Willie Davis and Burt Luker had to give food away. The ice cream all melted. The milk spoiled. Nobody knew where the break was. We may have had only one power line into town. We didn’t need much more than that. REMEMBERING  Carl and Ruth Huber owned a farm on the hill near town that eventually became the site of New Fairfield, which exists today. The Huber home still stands and a road is named in their honor. Gayther Plummer and I shared some thoughts on the Hubers. (Mr. Plummer, of Athens, Ga., passed away in September 2014 at the age of 89.)  * * * The creamery was a small, one-story, 3-4-rooms structure located 3-4 buildings north of Jinks store, as I recall. The soda fountain area was the front, largest, room. Up front, I recall about four small tables each with heart-shaped, wire-back chairs. The building, I think, was opposite the northern half of the town square. At that time, the town square had a hitching-rail along its entire west side (in front of Jinks' store) and on the south side. We had no business on the north and east sides of the town square -- so we didn't go there and I don't remember much about that. Otherwise, buggies and wagons were parked (horses tied) along the railings -- 4-6 hitches, especially on Saturday afternoons, which was the usual time for farmers to "go to town". Autos came later into the evenings and parked on the left side of the northbound road, diagonally inward -- toward the stores. Some parked anywhere around the square -- totaling perhaps 6-10 cars. The same people would show up about the same time each week; each one had a favorite spot. The environment always meant more to me than the people -- so, I didn't know many; and those that I did learn, didn't register very distinctly. But, the 1920s and '30s were about the same everywhere. The Great Depression slowed the economy for everyone, but it really didn't change the culture in Fairfield. Not until the 1940s did life begin to prosper noticeably for a decade or so. After that, Fairfield did change and I went on to do other things. The creamery was the place in town to get an iced-cream cherry-soda. That soda-fountain was a popular spot for refreshments on Saturday evenings -- many customers. I mentioned previously that I recalled a saloon. More accurately, up front, it was a billiard parlor, where "booze" was available. The one time I went in there, I distinctly recall two brass spittoons on opposite sides of the room, each one sitting on a large piece of linoleum. Our family did not use tobacco, so those little brass "buckets" were the first I had ever seen -- and the last of that kind! That pool-hall was on a corner directly across the road from Jinks' store. Also, it was at Jinks' store that I purchased my first pack of cigarettes -- being from a big city, I thought I was a big fellow. Of course, the clerk took the 10 cents, gave me the pack, then told my Uncle Carl, who not only gave me a lecture about the dangers of fires on the farm, but gave me an uncle's stern lecture on behavior that he expected. His discipline worked -- also indelibly. Fairfield made many impressions on me in those days.   * * * The original rock river-road from Fairfield entered Brookville on the west side of the river -- intersecting the Brookville Road from Indianapolis -- then both roads crossed over an iron overhead bridge and entered town. In Indianapolis, my family lived within a half-mile from the Brookville Road, that became US 52. Because getting to Fairfield from Brookville was so difficult in 1932-'33, we customarily drove by-way-of Connersville, Blooming Grove, and then to Fairfield. The flat-lands were better to navigate than the bottom-lands. After crossing the covered bridge near Fairfield, we traveled an elevated road and met a T-shaped intersection on an upper terrace. The long end of the T went left into Fairfield. The top part of the T went straight-a-way up the Berg-Klein-Huber-hill over the top and down Rocky Hollow on the east side -- an abandoned public road and short-cut, as I mentioned before. At that time, the Klein place had been vacant for years. (I never knew the Kleins -- only by name. But it was the best place to pick the biggest blackberries on the hill; ... good place too for chiggers and blacksnakes.) Whatever, beyond the covered bridge, at the T-intersection, were three mailboxes on the right side the road and near the left-turn to Fairfield. Mail, and the Brookville Democrat, came but once a week then, and customarily we all looked forward to Wednesdays. Then, a short time later, to my surprise, only two mailboxes were newly placed along new SR 101 at the entrance to the uphill road to the Huber-place. The mail was always carried up the hill by whomever passed the boxes first. By then, I was already set-in-my-ways and the new location for the mailboxes never did seem right. But, I was really aghast when I saw the new SR101 divided the Smiester-farm into pieces. So, new SR101 was laid out freshly on the east side the river; and it made some everlasting impressions on a lot of farmers and people in general. Just think, 30 mph could get one to the McCormick-Deering store in Brookville and back home with a new part -- before noon.  Further, the blacksmith in Fairfield always sharpened sickle-blades for the hay-mowers, the reapers, and made hinges for heavy gates; but, the new road made earning-a-living a little more difficult for him, especially since horses, on the flatlands, were being replaced by Fordson tractors. From the early 70s: Carl and Ruth Huber at their home. Mrs. Huber's work in gathering documents and news articles was vastly appreciated as the history of the valley came together. She served briefly as Fairfield Township trustee. Carl made great wine. Ruth and Carl are sitting in a 1902 Holz. The Holz originally belonged to a doctor in Cincinnati who abandoned it in a barn in southern Franklin County between St. Peter's and Penntown. The barn belonged to Carl's cousin who had no interest in the auto. Carl, as a kid (1914), and others, cranked the dead-engine sufficiently over the years to circulate the oil. He rescued the auto after WW2, took it to an Amish buggy shop for re-finishing, then to a mechanic to overhaul the engine. The engine started readily and did drive the carriage. The drive-mechanism consisted of two manila-ropes, each one spliced into an oval-belt, like any drive-belt now. Each belt-rope encircled a grooved channel surrounding a wheel and ran to a pulley, on each side the carriage, connected to a common drive-shaft from the engine. The drive-lever moved idler-wheels that tightened each drive-rope, thus, turning the wheels simultaneously. Carl's right-hand is on that drive-lever and his left-hand is on the steering-lever.  --GP