BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY DIRECTORIES
"Indiana Gazetteer, or Topographical Dictionary of the State of Indiana"
Published by E. Chamberlain, Indianapolis, 1849
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Bartholomew County is bounded north by the township line which separates townships ten and eleven, dividing it from Shelby and Johnson counties. East by
Decatur and Jennings counties, south by Jennings and
Jackson, and west by Brown county. The county contains 405 square miles. Its name was derived from Gen.
Joseph Bartholomew, long a distinguished citizen of
Clark county, and a Senator in the State Legislature
from 1821 to 1S24. The name was given at the instance
of Gen. Tipton. Gen. Bartholomew was a Lt. Colonel,
commanding a battalion of infantry at the battle of Tippecanoe, where he was severely wounded, for which he
received a pension until his death, which took place
exactly twenty-nine years afterward^, on the day
of the Presidential election, 1840. Gen. Bartholomew
was a self-taught, modest, brave and honest man, who
rose from obscurity and obtained distinction solely by his
merits as a man and a soldier. In all the difficulties
with the Indians along the frontier, he was always foremost in times of danger.
The voters of Bartholomew in 1848, were 2,513, and
the population a little over 15,000. In 1840 it was
10,042. The county is divided, for local government,
into fourteen townships, viz: Nineveh, Union, Harrison,
Ohio, Wayne, Sand Creek, Rock Creek, Clifty, Clay,
Haw Creek, Flatrock, German, Columbus and Jackson.
The east and central part of the county is generally level,
the west mostly hilly, and particularly so near the Brown
county line, where the hills resemble broken mountains
or the spurs of the Alleghanies. They are commonly
called the "Salt Creek Knobs." At least one-fourth of
the county is bottom land, on Driftwood or East Fork of
White river, Clifty and Flat Rock. There is not much
poor land in the county, though along the extreme margins of the bottoms there are a few bogs which are unfit
for cultivation. The soil in the bottoms and level lands
is a rich alluvion, mixed with limestone-sand and gravel.
That part of the county called the "Haw Patch," twelve
miles long and six wide, is not supassed for beauty and
fertility by any part of the western country. Between
Flatrock and Driftwood, there were originally native
forests for miles, without any undergrowth, and where
the tall and thinly scattered walnut, blue ash, and
sugar trees no more interrupted travellers on horseback
or in carriages, than would open parks, where the trees
had been planted and trimmed for the purpose. The
more hilly part of the county has a clay soil, and the
timber there is white and black oak, hickory, beech, sugar tree and poplar. In the balance and larger part of
the county, walnut, sugar, ash, buckeye, haw, pawpaw,
burr oak and poplar are the most common. Not exceeding one-fourth of the land is yet in cultivation. The
surplus of agricultural products has increased rapidly
every year since the completion of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, and as there is now a good prospect
of making a Railroad also to Jeffersonville, and extending another from Columbus in the direction of Bloomington, these improvements, in different parts of the county,
will develop still more its agricultural capabilities, which,
at no distant time, will yield a surplus of five times the
present amount.
There have been exported in a single year from Bartholomew county, 25,000 hogs, 200,000 bushels of corn,
6,000 barrels of flour, 20,000 bushels of wheat, and oats,
hay, beans, barley, rye, hoop-poles, horses, mules and
beef cattle, in all to the value of at least $500,000; and
when such articles are in demand, they may and will be
all largely increased.
There are in the county ten tanneries, with a capital
of $17,000, which employ 45 hands and yield 4,800
sides of sole, and 6,300 of upper leather, annually.
There is one large distillery, recently erected, nine flouring mills, moved by water power, six do. saw mills, five
steam saw mills, four wool carding machines and three
fulling mills. The mill streams in the county, Driftwood,
Flatrock and Clifty, admit of a large and very valuable
increase of water power, which will be used at no distant day. The taxable land amounts to 218,084 acres,
6,413 have been entered and are not yet taxable, and
the Congress land still lor sale amounts to 34,503 acres,
It is much to be regretted that education has been but
little attended to, and that "no certain account can possibly be given of the management of the schools."
Clifty, a fine mill stream about fiftv miles in lengrth,
rises in the south-east corner of Rush, runs through Decatur into Bartholomew, and empties into White river
three miles below Columbus. The Indian name of this
stream was Es-the-nou-o-ne-ho-neque, or Cliff of Rocks
River.
Clifty, an eastern township in Bartholomew county,
with a population of 900.
Columbus, the Seat of Justice of Bartholomew county,
is situated on the east bank of the east fork of White
river, just below the mouth of Flatrock, forty-one miles
south south-east of Indianapolis, forty-five north-west of
Madison, forty east of Bloomington, and eighty west of
Cincinnati. The situation is a very fine one, on high
ground which overlooks the valleys of White river. Flatrock and Haw creek which nearly surround the town,
and each of them embraces a large and very fertile body
of land. Columbus was first settled in 1819, by Luke
Bonesteel and John Lindsey. For several years at first,
it was usually visited, each autumn, by bilious and intermittent fevers, but a fair portion of health is now enjoyed
here; and the opening of the railroad to Madison, which
took place in 1844, the active commencement of the
railroad from Jeffersonville, and the prospects of completing a railroad to Bloomington, have awakened such
industry and enterprise as will make Columbus one of
the most important points in the State. It has now a
population of over 1,000, and it is rapidly improving. It
has an excellent Court House, good churches built by
the Catholics, Christians, Presbyterians and Methodists,
about twenty good stores, groceries and ware-houses,
and 250 other houses.
Flat Rock, a large and valuable mill stream, which
rises in the north-east corner of Henry county, runs
south-west through Rush, Decatur, Shelby and Bartholomew, and empties into the East Fork of White river at
Columbus. Its whole course, with its windings, is about
100 miles, and the country through which it passes is
rich and fertile the whole distance, and is now becoming
as well cultivated and productive as any part of the
State. The Indian name of this stream was Puck-op-ka.
German, a northern township in Bartholomew county,
with a population of 1,100.
Harrison, a western township in Bartholomew county, population 600.
Hartsville, a small town in Bartholomew county,
with a population of 150, laid out in 1828 by Andrew
Calloway.
Hope, a small but well situated town in Bartholomew
county, twelve miles north-east of Columbus. It is in
the midst of a beautiful and well improved country, and
contains a population of 300.
Jackson, a south-west township in Bartholomew
county.
Newbern, a small town on the east bank of Clifty, in
Bartholomew county, nine miles east of Columbus, population 200.
Nineveh Creek, a mill stream, rising in Johnson, runs
south-east into Bartholomew, and falls into Blue river
eight miles above Columbus.
Nineveh, a north-west township in Bartholomew,
population 800.
Ohio, a south-west township in Bartholomew, population 1,000.
Rock Creek, a south-east township in Bartholomew,
population 900.
Sand Creek in Indian, Laque-ka-ou-e-nek, which means
"water running through sand," rises in the centre of Decatur, runs south-west through Jennings, and falls into
the East Fork of White River, forming for the last four
miles the boundary between Bartholomew and Jackson.
It is about fifty miles in length, and for more than half
the distance is a good mill stream.
Sand Creek, a southern township in Bartholomew,
population 750.
Union, a western township in Bartholomew, population 600.
Wayne, a southern township in Bartholomew, population 1,200.
White Creek, a mill stream that rises in Brown
and Bartholomew, runs south into Jackson, and falls into
the east fork of White river, near the centre of the
county.
This website created January 30, 2014 by Sheryl McClure.
� 2015 Indiana American History and Genealogy Project
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