Firsts of Morgan Township
The first settlements were along Grindstone Creek,
and were among the. first in Daviess county. The nearness to and the
abundance of water and timber and the fertility of the soil were the
chief considerations that induced the settlement in this territory
to the exclusion of other locations now regarded more valuable. The
pioneers of this township bore their full share. of the privations
and hardships of frontier life, and have left behind them . not only
an honorable memory, but a goodly heritage of fertile territory,
which is now being turned to good account by their successors and
.
The first practicing physicians in Marion township were Doctors J.
W. Hightree and Whitley Miller. The former still lives and is in
active practice at Civil Bend.
The first school-house was a small shanty built of small logs or
poles, and stood near the Swaney settlement. It bore no comparison
to any one of the eleven roomy, comfortable school houses in the
township today, being built in the homeliest, simplest, fashion and
furnished in the most frugal, primitive style. The first teacher in
the pioneer school-building was Jonathan. Trotter.
In nearly every family there was. a weaver of more or less
proficiency,. who wove the cloth used by the family, but Mrs.
Rebecca Clevinger and Mrs. William Roper were especially noted as
accomplished weavers in the. early days of this township. They wove
nearly all the cloth requiring considerable skill and knowledge of
the loom and shuttle.
Among the first settlers, not mentioned in the foregoing list, there
was John McCulley, who improved the Grantham and Hightree farms. Mr.
McCulley afterwards went to Texas, but returned, and when last heard
from was living at Stewartsville, DeKalb county.
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