Settlement of Ohio Township

    Ohio Township has the distinction of being the scene of the first white settlement in what is now Warrick County. This was made by John Sprinkle, in the spring of 1803, near the present site of the town of Newburgh. He had been born in Pennsylvania, whence, in the year 1772, he moved to Kentucky. He came from the latter State to Warrick County in the year 1803, and remained until his death in 1821. His family consisted of ten children, of whom some are yet living. Scarcely had John Sprinkle settled in his new home ere he looked around upon others who had followed him. In the fall of the same year Felty Hay and James Lynn moved into this township, and others came in straggling groups after. As the land in Warrick County was not surveyed until 1805, all settlers before that time were from necessity squatters, and it was some time even after that before the  land was placed on sale by the Government.

    Up to the year 1820 the land entries for what now constitutes Ohio Township were made as follows:

  • Brittain West, 1816

  • John Hale, 1816

  • William Johnson, 1818

  • Lewis James, 1813

  • William Hancock, 1814

  • William G. Buckler, 1819

  • Adam Snyder, 1817

  • John Alexander, 1818

  • William Bullitt, 1819

  • John Miller, 1819

  • Daniel James, 1817

  • Gains H. Roberts, 1817

  • Alva Pasco, 1819

  • Richard Vankirk, 1811

  • Annanias S. Merrit, 1819

  • Nathaniel Ewing, 1814

  • Nicholas Boswell, 1815

  • Fred C. Graff, 1815

  • Gen. W. Johnson, 1807

  • Felty Hay, 1811

  • Simon Lane, 1811

    The tract entered by Johnson in 1807 was the first in the county, and comprised 205 acres at the present location of Newburgh. Some of these persons had been in the county for a considerable time before purchasing land. They had come to their new homes without money, and it required time for them to stem the current and be able to buy a home.

    On August 1, 1814, an election was held in Ohio Township for Representative in Congress and members of the Territorial Legislature. Fifty-five votes were cast. Samuel Snyder, Thomas Morton and William Berry were Judges; James G. Jo9nes and William Ross, Clerks at this election. At that time the township was larger than now, and comprised much of what is now Campbell.

Early Elections

    On the 13th of may, 1816, an election was held at the house of William Berry, in this township, for the purpose of choosing a delegate to the Constitutional Convention preparatory to the admission of Indiana into the Union as a State. Thirty-eight votes were cast, of which Daniel Grass received thirty-five, Bailey Anderson two, and Eneas McAllister one. Samuel Snyder was President of the election board, and William Berry, Joab Garrett and Fulkerd Fulkerson were Judges, and the Clerks were Azel W. Dorsey and William Ross. By order of the Board of County Commissioners an election was held on the 4th of August, 1817, for the purpose of electing a member of Congress and a Representative in the State Legislature. The candidates were respectively Thomas Posey and Ratliff Boon, and they received all the votes of Ohio Township to the number of thirty-seven. The election place was at the house of John Wilkerson, and the names of the voters at that time are here given: Josiah Woodruff, John Gunterman, William Jones, William Berry, Jr., John M. Brady, Jesse Tinkler, Willis Snyder, William Berry, Sr., Samuel Hamilton, James Herald, Joab Garrett, James Abshire, Spencer Nanny, Martin Studiwell, William Ross, John B. Dismer, John Wilkerson, Mason Jones, Samuel Hadley, James Vanzant, John A. Miller, John Langley, William Vest, William Briscoe, Christopher Romine, Joseph Walker, Silas Garrett, James Morton, William Ritchie, John Shales, John Abshire, William Wright, Daniel Grass, Isaac B. Wright, James Nanny, Sr., James Addington and Jonathan Harvey. The last five were Inspector, Judges and Clerks. At this time there were not more than a dozen land owners in the township, and the number of voters will give some idea of the proportion of squatters then located in the county. Already the rivalry of Daniel Grass and Ratliff Boon had begun, and on this occasion Grass refused to vote for Boon as Representative in the State Legislature.

    Early Mills

    The first settlers for a few years went to Kentucky for most of their milling, but this was too laborious and the distance too great. Hand-mills and hominy mortars were early brought into use, and on the course product of these the people lived and prospered. The next step in advance of these primitive articles for the manufacture of flour was the horse-mill, and for a time they flourished. The water-mills soon superseded them, and they in time have given place to the large steam grist-mills of the present day.

    As early as 1815 the hand-mills had become quite numerous, and one of the earliest was kept by John Hale on the farm now owned by Frank McCool, near Chandler, in the northern part of the township. It is little more than a corn-cracker, yet it did a considerable business for many years and in 1815 was in full operation. About three miles southeast of Millersburg, near the Ohio Township lien, John Luce had a horse-mill in 1818, which he continued until his death some years later. A tread-mill was put in operation by Chester Elliott, about one mile southeast of Chandler, in 1825, and it was at once resorted to by a large number of the settlers for their grinding. Prior tot his many had gone to Manson's Mill, in Vanderburg County.