The Spokesrider » Henry County IN

Circleville

Spokesrider — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:37:29 +0000

(Sep 28, cont.) There were no roads that would take me west through Summit Lake State Park, so I rode on US-36 for a few miles to get around it. The road had a decent shoulder, but it was nice to get back to quiet county roads. The one in the photo follows the boundary between Stony Creek and Blue River townships in Henry County. The road wasn’t in very good shape, but compared to the roads back home it was fine.

I haven’t learned anything about the history of this house. You could probably say I know more about its future than its past.

Back home in Michigan, Greek Revival and Federal style houses are a common sight. They are not so common in east-central Indiana, so I took a photo of this one.

I’ve now learned from the county histories and atlases that this intersection, which is part of a 5-way intersection, was once called Circleville. The 1871 county history says of the place: “On the dividing line between Blue River and Stony Creek townships, founded a score or more of years ago, has passed the zenith of its glory, and now, as a village, scarcely exists, save in memory.”

The writer of the 1906 county history said, “Its former site is now known commonly as “Five Forks,” for the reason that the turnpikes from here lead to five different points of the compass. Circleville never reached the dignity of a postoffice….The author of this History has been unable to find any old settler who can give a reason why this place was named Circleville.”

googlemap

The 1875 atlas shows it here. (I pasted portions of two township maps together, which resulted in an imperfect matchup.) My route took me along the township line, from west to east. I’ve circled the general area of Circleville with a large red circle, and the location of the house in the photo above with a smaller one inside it.

The map indicates that this land was owned by a D. Cory. There were a lot of Cory’s (aka Corey’s) in the area. The county histories and census records suggest that two patriarchs of the clan were Abraham and Joseph, who were among the early settlers who came in the early 1820s. The name seems to have been quite common in the area at one time, but I found only one instance of that name in the area using the modern telephone book at switchboard.com.

BTW, I got the above map snippets from an online digital collection at IUPUI – Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. I just now learned about this resource. I haven’t learned my way around the collection yet, and haven’t learned just how complete a collection of county atlases is there. I am looking forward to exploring it to find out.

Honey Creek

Spokesrider — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:38:26 +0000

(Sep 28, cont.) Honey Creek, Indiana is way too new a town. When I’m Spokesriding in this part of the world I like towns that were established no later than the 1820s or early 1830s. But I’m trying to overcome my bad habit of riding through these places without getting so much as a single photo by which to remember it. So in Honey Creek I stopped twice.

The town didn’t exist until modern inventions such as the railroad created a need for it. The 1960 county history says it was established in 1858 when the railroad came through. The 1864 history writer wasn’t exactly sure when it was established — other than that it was some time in the 1860s.

It doesn’t matter. Everything is a blur after the settlement days.

Even though it was harvest time, the grain elevator didn’t seem to be doing much business. I’m not sure the train comes by anymore, either.

googlemap

The red pushpins mark the photo stops.

Oblivious to valley connections

Spokesrider — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:30:00 +0000

(Sep 28, 2009) For this day’s ride, I started at Anderson (again) and ended up at Arba, near the Indiana-Ohio border. There was a brisk wind from the west, so I went east. After maybe 7 miles of flatland riding, I came to a place where the road dropped down into a little valley.

At the time I didn’t have a mental map of the waterways in this part of Indiana. So it wasn’t until I got home and studied the maps that I realized this was the valley of an upper portion of Fall Creek. Fall Creek I knew about. In 1824 an event known as the “Fall Creek Massacre” had taken place near it. That event was providing the main destinations for this 3-day outing, where I would head just as soon as the winds shifted. But on this ride I was oblivious to the fact that I was already in the valley of that very same Fall creek.

A dozen more miles of riding west brought me to the edge of another fine-looking little valley. I stopped again for a photo, but just like at Fall Creek, I was oblivious to the connections on the landscape. It turns out this valley belongs to the Blue River. I had never even heard of the Blue River at the time of this ride, but I got to know it a little better the next day when I went to some of my Fall Creek Massacre destinations.

googlemap

I like the way the two valleys stand out on Google map’s satellite view. The two photo locations are shown by blue pushpins.

YTD mileage: 2181.5

Not the Blue River Valley

Spokesrider — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:45:41 +0000

(Sunday September 27, cont.) At Luray, a small place with a name that lies a few miles south of Muncie, I stopped for a photo. I didn’t pay any attention to the words “Blue River Valley” on this church sign at the time. I was only trying to remember to get at least one photo in each of the small towns I rode through, and this is the one for Luray. According to the sign this is an outpost of a church based in Middletown, the town where I had bought lunch 10 miles back.

But now that I see the words “Blue River Valley” I have to grumble a bit. I had never heard of Indiana’s Blue River before this trip, but I was introduced to some memorable views of it on the next two days’ rides. I’m always looking for themes for my outings and it would be nice to find now that all three days included rides through the Blue River Valley. I could then refer to this as my Blue River Valley trip instead of the Anderson, Indiana vacation. Anderson just doesn’t have the same cachet as Blue River, and besides, we didn’t really get to know Anderson. We just stayed in a motel near the Interstate.

Unfortunately, despite what the sign says, this village is not in the Blue River Valley. It’s not far from that valley, but it’s in a neighboring drainage basin to the north. I suppose you could call it the edge of the Buck Creek valley. Buck Creek flows into the White River at Muncie.

I like it better when church signs display accurate information.

googlemap

The Painters of Henry County

Spokesrider — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:10:11 +0000

(Sunday September 27, continued) It was about noon when I had started on my ride. When I got to Middletown I was glad to see it was big enough to have a gas station and large convenience store. I grabbed a fresh eggroll and large cookie to go, then continued my ride looking for a better place to eat than the parking lot.

A few miles later I decided that this cemetery was it. I wandered around with eggroll in one hand and camera in the other, and found that the cemetery is on a hill where the land drops off quickly on three sides. I now see from my maps that the famous Fall Creek runs behind it. I wish I had been more aware of it at the time.

Four or five miles later I stopped to take a photo of this falling down house with a mobile home behind it. The older building may not be here when I ever come this way again (if I ever have an opportunity to do so).

Last night I tried to find out from the county histories and atlases who might have lived here in settlement era days. I didn’t check the land entries, but it looks like a family named Painter owned this land for several generations. A Painter may still own it for all I know.

I also learned that the cemetery I had stopped at for lunch is known as the Painter Cemetery. A large clan of Painters had come from Virginia in settlement era days. I didn’t try to figure out which of the many Painter branches produced the families that had lived at this old house. The genealogy is too complicated and their earliest settlements (i.e. those that most interest me) seem not to have been here in Jefferson Township, but back in Fall Creek township nearer the cemetery.

(Here is a 1902 article by a local writer who wrote about the Painter family.)

YTD mileage: 1940.0

[edits]

Sunday afternoon walk

Spokesrider — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:12:58 +0000

There were many fine sights on today’s ride from Anderson to Portland, Indiana, but I especially enjoyed seeing this couple who were out for a Sunday afternoon walk. They were somewhere near the line between Delaware and Henry counties, south of Muncie.

Today’s mileage: 68. YTD: 1830.5.