Jefferson County, Indiana
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Jefferson County was created on November 23, 1810 and was formed from Clark and Dearborn Counties. The County was named for U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. The County Seat is Madison . See also County History for more historical details.

Counties adjacent to Jefferson County are Ripley County (north), Switzerland County (east), Carroll County, Kentucky (southeast), Trimble County, Kentucky (south), Clark County (southwest), Scott County (west), Jennings County (northwest).

Jefferson County is divided into 10 Civil Townships as follows: Graham, Hanover, Lancaster, Madison, Milton, Monroe, Republican, Saluda, Shelby and Smyrna.

Cities, Towns and Communities include Barbersville, Belleview, Bryantsburg, Canaan, Chelsea, China, Deputy, Dupont, Foltz, Hanover, Kent, Madison, Marble Hill, Paynesville, Ringwald, Saluda, Smyrna, Swanville, Volga, Wakefield, and Wirt.

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Extended History

1849 Adams County Retrospect - Based on "Indiana Gazetteer," published by E. Chamberlain

Jefferson County, named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, was organized in 1809. It is bounded on the north by Ripley, east by Switzerland, south by the Ohio River, and southwest and west by Clark, Scott and Jennings Counties, and it contains about 375 square miles. It is divided into ten civil townships, viz: Madison, Hanover, Saluda, Republican in the south; Milton, Smyrna and Graham in the center; and Shelby, Monroe and Lancaster in the north part of the county. The population in 1830 was 11,456, in 1840, 16,614, and at this time [1849] about 20,000.

Jefferson County presents a great variety of soil and surface. The bottoms on the Ohio and along the principal creeks are a rich loam mixed with sand, and the lofty and steep hills near them have also a rich soil. On the tableland, back of the hills, there is more clay, and still farther in the interior, a considerable portion of the land is nearly level, covered mostly wit beech timber, unfit for corn or grain, and suitable only for grass. Probably near one-half of the county is of this character.

About half of the population of Jefferson County resides in Madison, the County Seat. There are in the county about 120 stores and groceries, thirty lawyers, forty physicians, forty preachers, twenty Methodist, fourteen Baptists, and ten Presbyterian churches, besides several for the Reformers, Universalists, etc.

Hart's Falls, near Hanover, and the Falls of Clifty, tow and a-half miles northwest of Madison, are well worth a visit from the admirers of grand and beautiful scenery. The taxable land in the county amounts to 184,994 acres.

Hanover, a beautiful town on the high bluffs of the Ohio in Jefferson County, six miles below Madison, was first settled in 1810 by the Hon. W. Dunn, who was soon after joined by the Rev. J. F. Crowe, D.D. Under the auspices a flourishing Literary Institution has been built up, and the village for its accommodation now contains about 100 houses, and, including students, 600 inhabitants. Hanover has just suffered severely [1849] from a visitation of the cholera, in which the President of the College, Dr. Scoville, and several other valuable citizens, died suddenly; but no place on the Ohio has usually been more healthy, nor is there any one, where more attention has been paid to the cultivation of the morals and intellects of the youth.

Madison, the County Seat of Jefferson County, is beautifully situated in a valley averaging three-fourths of a mile in width and about three miles in length, at a northern bend of the Ohio River, which is nearest to the center of the State. About half of this valley is from thirty to forty feet above the highest floods of the river, and on this stands much the largest and best part of the city. Steep and rugged hills, from 400 to 500 feet in height appear to surround this valley, except where the river winds along, and from their tops, or when seen from below, the most delightful and romantic scenery is presented. Among the first settlers of Madison, in the year 1808, or soon after, were John Paul, Governor, W. Hendricks, J. Sering, Messrs. N. & J. Hunt, and others, who have since participated in transacting much important public business. In 1816, when the writer of this article first saw Madison, there were not exceeding three or four brick and twenty frame houses, and probably 100 cabins. It improved, however, rapidly for a few years, but after the unhealthy seasons and "Hard times" of 1820 and 1821, the prospects were very gloomy and the business dull until 1824, when improvements again commenced and have continued to this time [1849], except an interruption of near five years between 1838 and 1843. In 1834 the population of Madison was estimated at 2,500, in 1840 it was 3,798, and at this time [1849] it is over 7,000, and with better prospects of increasing than at any former period. The public buildings in the City are the Court House, Jail and county offices, tow large market houses, the branch of the State Bank, a large Railroad Depot, two fine buildings for City Schools, three Methodist Churches, two Presbyterian, do., one for each branch of that denomination, one for the Episcopalians, one for the Catholics, all which are excellent buildings, and the Baptists, Christians, and other denominations have also convenient buildings, making about fifteen in all.

The new Episcopal Church, on Mulberry Street, (Christ Church, under the Rectorship of Rev. Dr. Claxton) is a fine specimen of the early English style of Gothic architecture with an open timbered ceiling handsomely finished, a tower, porch and all the leading characteristics of the old English Parish Church. The design was prepared by W. Russell West, Esq., Architect, and the engraving here given is copied from a picture of the building in the Western Art Union, Cincinnati.

Among the manufactories are Lewis & Crawford's and Farnsworth and Honore's foundries and machine shop, Gregg's oil mill, Whitney & Hendricks's oil mill and woolen factory, King and Ely's cotton factory, Heberhart's, for candles, Lane's, for lard oil, and Page, White & Griffin's large and convenient steam flouring mills.

There are more brick houses, and the dwelling houses in Madison are better in quality, in proportion to their number, than in any other town in the State, and the cost of their construction is, in general, cheaper than in other parts of the State. A fine hotel, to cost over $30,000, is now building by a company, to atone, in some measure, for the deficiency in this respect heretofore. Madison is situated in latitude 38 deg. 46 min. north, and in longitude 8 deg. 20 min. west. It is eighty-six miles southeast of Indianapolis, fifty, by the river, above Louisville, and ninety below Cincinnati.

1938 Adams County Retrospect - Based on "Indiana Review," published by the State Legislature

Jefferson is a county of extremely varied surface. In the western section the land is rolling, the center is level plateau, and the eastern part is a series of hills and vales. The "Indiana-Kentucky" Creek traverses this eastern part. In addition, there are numerous watercourses in the county, many with cataracts quite a picturesque as Minnehaha, comparing favorably with it in height and volume. The geological formation following the line of the north bend of the river bounding Jefferson County forms a watershed about two and one-half or three miles west and north of Madison, which divides the flow of the streams between the Ohio and the Wabash by way of the White and Muscatatuck Rivers. Kentucky Creek rises in Ripley County, flows through the eastern part of Jefferson County into the Ohio. Big Creek flows through the northwestern corner of the county into the Muscatatuck and the Middlefork. Harbert's, Bear's, Lewis, Marble and Camp creeks are all tributaries of Big Creek, Crooked Creek parallels the Ohio River for some seven miles, beginning far up the Canaan Valley, running through the full length of Madison and falling into the river beyond the western corporation line of the city.

Jefferson County is noted for its wealth of romantic spots. Just across the river on the Kentucky hill is a prehistoric Indian fort, near which in ante-bellum days stood the cabin of Delia Webster, a station of the "underground railroad" operated through Madison. Three miles east of Madison on the Indiana side, is Cedar Cliff, a sheer precipice one and one-half miles long, and hundreds of feet high. Little Cedar, nearer town, has quite as fine an outlook. Possibly the most noted scenery is Clifty Falls State Park, a territory of 570 of rugged natural beauty, three and a half miles northwest of Madison. The series of falls is 200 feet in height, one pitch being over a jutting ledge of rock eighty feet above the receiving basin into which plunges an immense volume of foaming, spraying water. A shelving rock canopies the North Madison Pike for a stretch of 100 feet, veiling it with mist or ice, according to the temperature. Chain Mill Falls, near North Madison, guards the mouth of an unfinished railroad tunnel, making a unique combination. Crowe's, Chain Mill, Hart's, Deadman's and Butler's falls cluster around Hanover most invitingly.

The soil character varies with the topography. In the river bottoms are rich alluvial deposits, while loam and clay distinguish other parts. In the central portion is an abundance of tile clay. An excellent quality of building stone is found, and quarrying is an important part of Jefferson County activity. In the southern part is an excellent grade of marble. Crops in the county include corn and wheat as well as other grains, an abundance of fruit, and tobacco.

The history of Jefferson County is as colorful as its scenery. Its early settlers were ex-soldiers from the George Rogers Clark Campaign, and it was one of them, Colonel John Paul, who suggested naming the county in honor of the great Thomas Jefferson. This election of the name was a great deal less impersonal than in the case of many of the counties, for Jefferson had taken a deep interest in the army of George Rogers Clark.

Jefferson, one of the southeastern counties, has an area of 364 square miles, embracing ten townships. Its incorporated city is Madison, 6,530; towns: North Madison, 573; Hanover, 390, and Brooksburg, 112. County population in 1890 was 24,507; 1900, 22,913; 1910, 20,043; 1920, 20,709; 1930, 19,182.

Madison at one time was the metropolis of the state, settled largely by educated people from Philadelphia and Baltimore. Colonel John Paul - a soldier of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, founder of the cities of Xenia, Ohio, and Madison - purchased the site and came to Madison in 1809. In 1810, associated with Lewis Davis and Jonathan Lyons, he enlarged his original plans, and founded a city that grew to be the metropolis of the state. This it was until it was superseded by the present capital. Judge Jeremiah Sullivan, a member of the Jefferson County Bar, coined the name of Indianapolis. Jacob Burnett and Lewis Whiteman bought the share of Lewis Davis in 1813 and in 1817 and became later joint-proprietor of the town.

Very many of the 140,000 pioneers from cultured centers, who poured into Indiana between 1810 and 1819, came through Madison's portals and here many builders of the commonwealth remained. The rev. Thomas C. Searles was prominent in all early educational movements, as were General Milton Stapp, Dr. William Goode, Beaumont Park and Charles Barnes.

Early resident lawyers were Hon. Alexander A. Meek, Judge Miles Cary Eggleston, Governor William Hendricks and his kinsman, William Hendricks, Jr.; Judges Jeremiah Sullivan, Williamson Dunn, Stephen C. Stevens and Charles Test, also Joseph Glass Marshall, Milton Stapp and Nathaniel Hunt. Jesse L. Holman, Elijah Sparks, Jesse Olds, Isaac Blackford and John Lawrence were present at nearly every term of court. Hugh McCulloch and J. F. D. Lanier along with financiers Edward and George Cary Eggleston and David Graham Phillips were all Madisonians of national reputation. Harvey W. Wiley, John Merle Coulter and Stanley Coulter are scientist of note from this county. Dr. Fisk was the first physician. Dr. Hicks, Dr. Robert Cravens, Dr. Samuel MacKarness Goode, the two Drs. Howes, Dr. Howard Watts, Dr. Norwood, Dr. Hodges, Dr. J. H. D. Rogers and Drs. McClure, Lewis and Alexander Mullen followed in the early decades. Dr. Israel T. Canby, father of General R. Canby, came to Madison in 1816 and was a large owner of real estate.

Today the city, located forty miles east of Louisville is a manufacturing center and an important river port. In addition to the railroad transportation facilities, Madison is connected by steamboat traffic with Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and New Orleans. Among its manufactured products are steamboats, furniture, engines, boilers, tobacco, pearl buttons, spokes, and tacks.

Madison is one of the recognized art centers of the state. Outstanding is the Lanier Memorial, known as the Lanier Home. It is of Greek Classic style and considered the most beautiful mansion in this part of the country. It was built in 1844 for J. F. D. Lanier, first president of the Indiana State Bank of Madison. In 1925, the home was bought by the State Department of Conservation and restored as a tribute to Mr. Lanier and in recognition of his services to Indiana during the Civil War.

There are a number of fine old estates that distinguish and beautify the city, including the Schofield Residence built in 1817 by Colonel Lanier, officer of the War of 1812, and father of J. F. D. Lanier; the Sullivan House, built in 1818 by Jeremiah Sullivan, the legislator who gave Indianapolis it's name; the Fred Denny Residence, known as Colonel John Paul's House, built in 1809 by Paul, who dominated the early historical scene of the county, and the J. W. Mullen Residence, built in 1812 by Dr. Israel Canby, and at one time occupied by General Custer. These are only a few of the beautiful and distinguished estates that give Madison its reputation.

Madison also has many beautiful churches and at various points are markers of historical import. A Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument to those of the county who served in the Civil War is among those in Middleton Park. In John Paul Park, which is located on the site where Colonel Paul operated a mill, is a marker to the soldiers of all wars, erected by the local chapter of the D. A. R.

The first Public Library of the Northwest Territory was established in Madison in 1820. It is now housed on the second floor of the Masonic Temple and contains old and extremely rare volumes, and a collection of art books. The Jefferson County Historical Society has two outstanding properties. One of these is the Barnard Memorial of Sculpture, formerly a church, which contains plaster casts by the sculptor George Gray Barnard. Barnard presented it to the society to serve as a memorial to his father, Dr. Joseph H. Barnard. The "Colonial Inn" is the society's other chief attraction. This was the home of J. F. D. Lanier from 1837 to 1844. It is a fine old structure of Greek Classic Style.

The intellectual die of Hanover may have been cast when Christopher Harrison, a graduate of St. John's College, Maryland, the rejected lover of "Glorious Betsy" Patterson, sought the faraway West, and found a lone spot where he might bury his sorrow, in the point west of Hanover College point. Between the years of his coming to Hanover, 1808 and 1813, he is supposed to have been an inmate or a frequent guest of the island home of the Blannerhassets, which he left to escape the toils of Aaron Burr. His cabin on the Hanover bluff is said to have reflected the art and culture of Blannerhasset Island, its walls being covered with rare paintings by the masters, and some of his own execution. One of his own, "The Tryst," was kept veiled, and when at last revealed, showed a maid of wondrous beauty; beside her a knight, who is carving their blended initials on a majestic beech tree. Upon a noble beech that had sheltered his cabin door, felled a few years ago by a storm, was found cut deep into the bark a century before, "Christopher Harrison, July 8, 1808," and in "The Tryst" a romantic dream is read. The maid becomes Elizabeth Patterson, the lover Christopher Harrison.

Jefferson County has later artists, but the romance is not paralleled. William McKendree Snyder immortalizes the beech groves of the county, and contributes other memorials of its picturesque beauties to Indiana art. As a sculptor, George Gray Barnard is the first rank of those who have one frame. His frequent visits to the home of his parents in Madison establish a claim to citizenship.

The first newspaper established in the county, the second in the state, was the "Western Eagle," owned by Colonel John Paul, edited by his son-in-law, William Hendricks, afterward first member of Congress from Indiana, United States Senator, and second Governor of Indiana. With him was associated William Cameron. The first issue was on May 26, 1813. Editors of papers following were John Lodge, Colonel C. P. J. Arion, Judge Courtland Cushing, S. S. Jones, W. W. Crail, John R. Cravens, W. W. Woolen, Milton Stapp, Rolla Doolittle. S. F. Covington and Colonel M. C. Garber were editors of the "Madison Courier," established in 1837, and the leading paper in the county ever since. It is now under the management of Michael Christian Garber and Michael Eggleston Garber.

Hanover College grew out of Hanover Academy, which was established in the village of Hanover near Madison, January 1, 1827, by the Rev. John Finley Crowe, D. D. The institution was adopted by the Presbyterian Church in 1829, and college work begun the same year. The first class was graduated in 1834. During the early years, a theological department and a law school were maintained in addition to the liberal arts and preparatory departments. The theological department was subsequently moved to Chicago, where it became McCormick Seminary. The law school was abandoned. The total number of matriculations to the present time is something under 5,000. Of this number 1,104 have been granted the baccalaureate degree and sixty-five the master's degree. Many of the history makers of Indiana are Hanover men. Prominent among them are Thomas A. Hendricks, William H. English, Albert G. Porter, Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, John H. Holliday, Walter L. Fisher, Robert J. Tracewell and R. J. L. Matthews. The college is thoroughly equipped and throughout its history has stood for the highest educational standards. The doors were opened to women in 1880. The president is William Alfred Millis, LL. D. Among its latest buildings, Science Hall and the Hendricks Memorial Library are especially worthy of mention. The latter, a memorial of Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks, erected by his widow.

The co-education of white and colored students was tried but once in this county. A college, called Eleutherian College, was founded in 1850 by Elder Thomas Craven and his son, John G. Craven, at Lancaster. A church, in which the college was housed, and a boarding house were built, was burned by the neighbors to whom the ideas were obnoxious, and rebuilt many times. Stone buildings were at last erected and stood, but the project was abandoned in the early 1860s. From 1857 to 1860 it was in its prime, having from seventy-five to eighty students, equally dived as to color.

Central Hospital for the Insane, suffering from crowded conditions, led the General Assembly of 1905 to set aside fifteen of the thirty-eight counties constituting the central district as the southern district and to establish therein an additional hospital. On September 4, 1905, the commission created by the act, selected a site containing 363.79 acres for "Cragmont" near the City of Madison, which overlooks the valley of the Ohio River.

According to the figures of the 1935 federal census this county had twenty-three manufacturing establishments employing 337 wage earners on pay rolls of $218,479. The value of the manufactured products was $1,837,966.

The county had 2,243 farms with an average acreage of 94.2. The value of Jefferson County farms was $5,422,083. A total of 25,202 head of livestock was reported.

The total county tax valuation as of 1936 was $10,970,450.

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Jefferson County, Indiana
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Extended History

Jefferson County, Indiana History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

See Also Indiana Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

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See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Indiana

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Jefferson County, Indiana
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy