GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP
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     Georgetown township lies in that portion of the county which is south and east of the center.  It is in the second tier of townships from the south boundary line of the county, and has the Indiana state line on its eastern border.  It embraces all of the congressional township 18 north, range 11 west, and the fraction of 18-10 which lies between the former and the state line, and six sections in the southeast corner of 18-12.  The Vermilion River runs across its northeastern corner for about five miles, and so deep down is its bed that the surrounding country is easily and perfectly drained into it.  The Little Vermilion makes a short tern into its southern border, running through sections 33 and 34.  The "State Road," from Vincennes to Chicago, runs across the township, and the "Salt-works Road," on which the products of the salt springs were carried into eastern Indiana (long before commercial intercourse had become so perfected that salt, boiled at Syracuse, could be transported to Danville and sold cheaper than it could be made here), ran diagonally across it.  The Danville & Southwestern railroad runs through the town almost parallel with the "State Road," and has on it the two stations of Georgetown and Westville.
     The township was originally nearly all timber, there being only about one-third of it along its western border and in its center which was prairie.  Some of the earliest settlements in the county were made within its borders, and considerable farms were cleared before people learned that they could live on the prairie.  Coal is known to be under pretty much all of the territory comprising this town; and along the streams which flow into the Vermilion its outcroppings have been freely worked.  It was one of the first to be generally settled; the abundance of its timber, the water supply, the general make of the land, and its proximity to the salt-works, - which was the center of settlement at that day, - drew to it those who first came to the county to make their pioneer homes.
     The first one to make a home here was Henry Johnson, who settled on section 36 (18-12), just two miles west of the village of Georgetown, in 1820.  It was the same year in which Butler made his home at Butler's Point, and Seymour Treat at the salt-works.  These three
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worthies were the pioneers of this county, and were here at nearly the same date.  Mr. Johnson has been long gone from here, but he is remembered as a man of generous impulses, and as a neighbor was little, if any, less than a "Good Samaritan."  It is told of him (and in the light of the present day it seems hard to believe) that he would not make interest of his neighbors to whom he loaned money for a time, simply because he did not believe it was right to do it.  Very soon after him came his brother-in-law, Absalom Starr, who took up his claim the following year, 1821, on the same section, south of Johnson's where the then Mr. Starr (now Mrs. Jones) yet resides.  For fifty-eight years this good woman has lived here, performing all the arduous duties which mothers in the pioneer days were called on to do, and has seen the wild home of the red man converted into the busy abode of progressive civilization.  Without seeming to realize it, she is now a wonder and a surprise, and is to-day the oldest living resident of Vermilion county, the story of whose life, trials, labors triumphs and good deeds would make of itself a volume of fair proportions and enduring interest.
     Henry Johnson, Mr. Starr, Jotham Lyons and John Jordan, all settled near each other, and their several histories are, when put together, so near a history of those times, that they will be grouped together here.  Mr. Johnson, after living here about twelve or fourteen years, sold to Levy Long and went farther west.  He purchased a fine farm on what was known back in the thirties as the "Military Tract," - though that name has largely passed out of memory now, - that productive and beautiful region of country between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.  Here he was making a good farm, when it was discovered that his title was worthless, and like so many others of his neighbors there, this kind, generous man, was rendered penniless by the fraud of those land-sharks who gave the people of that beautiful tract so much trouble in the early days, by forged land titles.  His place here was for a long time known as "Johnson's Point."  John Jordan had his far where John Jones now lives, east of the others.  He was a good farmer, but his weakness was his generous desire to help others.  "Security" ruined him.  Jotham Lyons took land just west of Johnson's where Cooper now lives.  "Uncle Jackey McDowell" says that "fifty-six years ago this summer he tended corn on that farm,"  and he thinks it has never failed to produce a crop in its season from that time to this.  Lyons died here and his children were scattered from Wisconsin to Texas.  Absalom Starr came here from Palestine, where the land-office was located, before it was moved to Danville, in the spring of 1821, and selected a piece of land which he
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MORE TO COME.....

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of the military renown of the man who was so famous about those times.
     Mrs. Starr was the mother of eleven children, most of whom grew up.  After Mr. Starr's death, Mrs. S. became Mrs. Jones, and resides in a large brick house on the land which she first helped get into cultivation.
     Achilles Morgan became a resident of this township as early as 1825.  He lived where Joseph Stewart resides, on section 15, and was from the first recognized as one of the leading men of the county.  He was one of the first county commissioners' court at Butler's Point, by the appointment of Amos Williams as clerk, and Charles Martin, constable, in March, 1826.  His family had been a famous one in Virginia, and were  known as great Indian fighters.  The traits which had made the family prominent there were not wanting in him, and it is more than likely that name given him was the selection of some one who intended to perpetuate the direful recollections of "Achilles wrath:"

     Some of the earlier settlers here and in the township

MORE TO COME

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     The settlements in and about Brook's Point were made along the earliest in the town.  Benjamin Brooks came from Indiana and looked out the place on what is called the Spencer farm, now owned by Mr. English, and made claim to it.  He went back to Indiana, and before he returned here Spencer had taken the land, and Benjamin Canaday gave him the claim at the point of timber, which from that time was known by his name.  Bob Cotton and Mr. O'Neal has moved in in the meantime, and made quite a little neighborhood.  It was here that James O'Neal was born, - probably the first white boy born in the county, - in 1822.  Mr. Brooks died here and left five children.  His son Benjamin, who was two or three years old when he came here, resides now in Danville township, and John lives in Catlin.
     James Stevens came from Indiana in 1826, and bought a claim which Mr. Crane had taken on section 9.  He died in 1876.  His son James H. lives yet on the same section.  H. P. Stevens lives on the old homestead, and William I. on section 7.  Mr. Crane had been here about two years.
     James Waters, who came here in 1832, lives here yet, on a farm in section S.  Though now eighty years old, he is still able to attend to his work.  He looks as though he would outlast his hat yet.  His wife died three years ago.  His father came here to live at about the same date.
     Isaac Gones came here about 1825.  John L. Scounce came from Kentucky and settled in the same neighborhood.  He also died in 1876.  His son Philemon lives near here, and John L. at Eugene, Indiana.  John and James Black came at the same time from Kentucky, and settled on sections 4 and 5.  They are both dead.  James left no children.  John's son Robert lives just east of where his father settled, and Samuel in Catlin.  Mrs. Lockett lives in Catlin and Mrs. Eli Henderson in Georgetown.
     John Cage and O. S. and L. H. Graves, from Kentucky, with their father, James Graves, made homes on sections 17 and 18 about 1828.  They have been prosperous farmers and useful, enterprising citizens.
     James Sandusky resides on section 9 where his father, Isaac, first took a claim when he came to this state from Kentucky.  Isaac had been in the war of 1812, and had been taken prisoner at Hull's surrender, and escaping from captivity, he made his way back to Kentucky through this region of the country.  He decided then, standing on the mound at Catlin village and viewing the landscape o'er, to some day own an eighty, or at least a forty, on that beautiful prairie.  In 1828, in pursuance of this decision, he came here and  made his home first at Brooks' Point.  He was a man of energy and thrift, and soon had land
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enough to satisfy his youthful aspirations, but not enough to give homes to his seven children.  He left James here and went himself to the mound at Catlin, where he and his sons Harvey and Josiah bought pretty much all the land lying around Butler's Point.  At one time it became something of a question whether he or Henry Jones should own the township.  James Sandusky has ten children, eight of whom live here with him on the farm.
     South of this Brooks' Point neighborhood, Subel Ellis was among the first to make a farm.  He was on section 29, and died there, leaving a son and four daughters, who remained here some time, and Mrs. Dukes lives here yet.  Achilles Morgan lived three miles east of this for a while before going to Danville.  James Ogden lived south of Morgan's and had a considerable farm there.  John and Lewis Ritter were in this neighborhood, then called Morgan's, but since known as McKindry.  Lewis died here, and Mr. Calhoun bought his land.  John went to Texas.
     Jacob Brazelton was in just north of them very early, and was the first justice of the peace in this part of the county.  He is spoken of as a man of excellent character, and was everywhere respected.
     Joseph and Abraham Smith came as early as 1828, and lie on the edge of the timber west of Brazelton's.  Abraham went to Indiana, Joseph died here, and his children, W. D. and J. L. Smith, Mrs. Ganse, Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Spicer, live here yet.
     The old salt-works road ran nearly diagonally across the township, striking the township line near the present residence of Mr. Alexander Campbell.  Mr. Stark first settled this place about 1828.  He died there in 1850.  His daughter, Mrs. Smith, lives near by in Elwood township.  Mr. Campbell's first residence was farther down, in Elwood township.  The farm upon which he lives, in section 36, is one of the finest in the township.  Farther west Mrs. Davis settled early with several children, where Wm. Davis's widow still lives.  Mr. Lacey lived next west.  He sold to Henthorn.  Wm. Moore lives on the place next northwest, where A. J. Richardson now lives.  Mr. Denio took up land, and Cyrus Douglas, who now lives in Fairmount, entered land near here.  Mr. Denio sold to Mr. Williams, and he to Malon Haworth.
     James Pribble entered land next along this road.  He is dead, and Thomas Pribble live on the place.  Daniel Darby lived near here, and had a wagon shop.  He went to Missouri, and Mr. Jeffries has the land.  Wm. Haworth lived half a mile farther north.  Mr. Stowers
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lived early where H. Yoho lives.  Moses Scott was one of the earliest settlers near Brooks' Point.  He died there, and his family went to Iowa.  The Dukes boys live there, John on the Brooks land.
     John Kyger and Wm. Sheets came to the Little Vermilion in 1833, and in 1835 came to this neighborhood to live.  Mr. Kyger bought land of James Sprawls, Mr. Kirkpatrick, David Wand and Mr. Lemley.  Since that time he has been an honored resident of this township, fulfilling every duty to his family, to the church of which he is a member, and to society.  As old age is coming on him, surrounded by beloved children, and grandchildren, he feels the rewards of his early years of trial and privation.  He lives now with his son-in-law, Levi Underwood, just east of McKendry church.  Age is never looked forward to with the pleasantest feelings; but there is a pleasant side to it when, as in the case of Mr. Kyger, we see it made happy by the smiling faces of bright little ones, who love and revere him who possesses its silvery.
     Wm. Sheets, till his death, lived on the beautiful farm which he purchased of Mr. Ritter, or, rather, the one his labor and excellent taste has made beautiful, an honored and respected citizen, beloved and admired by every one who has known him.  It gives us great pleasure, as it doubtless will our readers, to be able to present the portraits of three two worthy old pioneers.  Near Mr. Kyger, on the farm just north, lives Andy Reynolds, now well advanced in years.  He came to this county a poor orphan boy, more than fifty years ago, and lived for several years in Catlin, where his youthful days, which under brighter circumstances would have been spent in school, were given to earning enough to keep him clothed in winter.  He has now one of the pleasantest homes in town, where he delights to dispense cheerful hospitality in his happy way.  One of the earliest of his recollections is standing on the mound in Catlin a cold winter day to see a wolf hunt on the surrounding prairie.  He had grubbed roots in the timber so long that he thought a prairie could only be of value as a place to have grand wolf hunts on.
     George Nelson lived early just north of him near Barzelton's  He went to Indiana.  Moses Darby was another early settler in here.  Aaron Howard settled first in this county north of Danville; but milk sickness drove him out, and he bought a portion of the Brazelton land in section 15, on Big Branch, where he engaged in coal mining and farming.  His son Henry still lives on the farm.  Elwood Bates took up a farm on section 30 as early as 1830.
     Georgetown has supplied the county with many of her officials, and has been extremely fortunate in giving to official life men not to be

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to his home near Georgetown, where he made a nice farm, reared a large family, and died on the 5th of September, 1851.

CHURCHES

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PRESBYTERIANS.

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MILLS.

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     Below is given, in tabular form, the names of those elected to the principal township offices since 1851, the time of the adoption of township organization:

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GEORGETOWN VILLAGE

     Georgetown village, or rather, as it was then called, the town of Georgetown, was laid out in the spring of 1827, two months after Danville was.  The plat was acknowledged before Esquire Asa Elliott,

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June 5, and contained only four blocks of eight lots each.  The only two streets were State street, running north and south, and West street crossing it at right angles.  These streets were sixty feet wide.  The public square, which remains to the present time as it was then, was laid out after the fashion of the days, as seen in Danville and other towns of that age, by cutting corners out of the four central blocks.  The naming seems to be problematical, - some asserting that Mr. Haworth named it for his son George, who was a cripple, and who is said to have entered into the frolic which was made on the opening day, with a spirit that indicated something more than "lemonade straight;" others, that Danville having been named for D. W. Beckwith, that Haworth believed it was a good stroke of policy to try to divide the sympathies of the Beckwith family by naming his place in honor of George Beckwith.  The probability is that both statements are true, and that the two considerations combined to fix the naming as it is.
     When Mr. Haworth laid out his town, Mr. Nelson R. Moore, who for a time had lived on the adjoining section, was talking of laying out one.  Haworth was more of a man of action than of talk, and one day Moore started out with his son W. M. to hunt for a deer in the bushes which grew where the village now stands, and found Haworth and his son measuring off town lots with a mammoth grapevine which he had cut a rod long.  It seems that he was afraid to call in the aid of a surveyor, as Moore might discover what he was up to.  Subsequently, additions have been platted and recorded by James Haworth, A. Frazier, Samuel Brazelton, Malon Haworth, J. B. Haworth, A. F. Smith, Mr. Henderson and others.  In laying off the lots in "vine" needed some stretching, and a little variation in the force employed to do this stretching, will account for the variation which still exists in the size of the lots, some of which are six feet longer than others.  This son George, after whom the town was named, died of cholera in 1854.
     The first building here was a doctor's office.  Dr. Smith, a man of good education and an excellent man, put up a building to hold his little stock of "calomel and jalap," salts and senna, lancet and wisdom.  Dr. Smith, after a short practice here, went to Mackinaw and died.  The next house was a blacksmith shop,"  and then came a store, or, rather, an inclosure made of poles was called a store.  It stood out on the square, in front of where the red store now stands.  It was built by Samuel Brazelton.  Here a little stock of goods was kept for sale.  The long tavern stood near where the post-office is now kept, just north of it, and a log house farther south.  This was made of huge sassafras logs as large as a small barrel.  He had to go to Butler's Point to get men to come to the raising.
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SCHOOLS.

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VILLAGE ORGANIZATION.

WESTVILLE.

     Westville, a station on the Danville & Southwestern railroad, four miles from Georgetown, was laid out by William P. West and E. A. West, on the southeast corner of section 6, in May, 1873.  Two blocks only were platted for record.  Parker & Ellsworth commenced business in 1872, wet of the railroad.  When they moved across to the east side, Cook & Alexander bought them out, and began a general mercantile trade.  Dukes & Doops succeeded that firm, and Boone & Jumps Brothers followed them.  They continued in business here only a short time, and were succeeded by J. W. Lockett & Brother, who are carrying on a fair trade in general merchandise, and buying country produce.  H. C. Myers opened a drug store in 1877, and has been succeeded by Dr. W. D. Steele, who is engaged in the practice of medicine.  Jonathan Clayton commenced the blacksmith business in 1872.  He died three years ago.  Mr. Haller had the shop for a year, and was followed  by J. F. Hutchinson.  The post-office was established in 1876, and S. W. Dukes is engaged in buying and shipping stock.
     Graves' is a flag-station about half way between Westville and Georgetown, for the convenience of that neighborhood.
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BIOGRAPHICAL
(See Biographical Index)