(Sep 29, 2009) On the previous two days I had ridden to the northeast and then to the east. This time the wind was almost in my favor for a ride to the south, to my main destination for the three-day outing. This time I was headed towards Fall Creek and to sites of the Fall Creek Massacre and its aftermath.
The trial of the killers took place at Pendleton, my first destination. When I reached the creek valley I came across this “Hoosier Homestead Farm – Owned by the same family for over 150 years.”
The barn says “Williams Homestead 1824.” 1824 was the year of the massacre. Did these people have anything to do with it or with the jury trial? I took a photo just in case.
From the 1874 history of Madison County (and the GLO land records) I learned that the name of the first settler here was William Williams. He was a Quaker from North Carolina, like so many of the settlers of Randolph County near Arba and Winchester, where I had ridden the day before. He served on a grand jury in 1829, but seems to have had no connection with the trial of the Fall Creek killers that took place in 1825.
He is said to have started the first nursery in the county. I suppose this south-facing slope overlooking Fall Creek would have been a good location for one. But I don’t recall seeing any signs of any modern nursery that may have descended from that one.
