From Goodspeed's "History of Knox and Daviess Counties":
STEEN TOWNSHIP
This township occupies the middle of the eastern part of the county. It
is bounded on the north by Washington and Vigo, east by Daviess County,
south by Harrison, and west by Palmyra and Harrison. The name Palmyra
doubtless took its origin from Asiatic Palmyra, where the churches
flourished at an early period. Steen was separated from Palmyra, March 5,
1857, on a petition to the commissioners presented by Andrew Berry and
others. It was named in honor of Richard Steen, who may be said to have
been its pioneer settler. The township consists of a fraction over 21,000
acres of land, wholly of donations. There is little, if any, land that
can not be rendered fit for cultivation, a little over half of which is
now in a high state of cultivation. In 1884 the assessor's report shows
4,330 acres in wheat, 4,665 in corn, 819 in timothy and 1,058 in clover.
The old source of market was by long wagon routes, or by flat-boat down
White River, thence to New Orleans. The Ohio & Mississippi Railroad now
furnished transportation for the produce of the township, which consists
mainly of wheat, corn and live-stock.
COMING OF THE PIONEERS
Richard Steen came from South Carolina in a wagon in 1806, and settled
where Wheatland now stands. The place was then as nature had finished it.
With Mr. Steen came Mr. Maxident, his father-in-law, who died at the
advanced age of one hundred and three. Richard Steen and son, James, were
in the Indian war, neither of whom were injured. James lived on the farm
now owned by Marion Dunn. John Steen lived near Wheatland; was a farmer
and stock-dealer, and became quite wealthy. William Steen, another son of
Richard, went to Oregon. James Steen, son of John, kept a house of
entertainment where Dunn now lives, and boarding a man sick of cholera
was himself stricken by the dread disease, and died soon after. Mr.
Robinson, son-in-law of Richard Steen, settled near where his son,
Richard Robinson, now lives. James Jordan, who was prominent as a
pioneer, settled, at a much later date, in the vicinity of Robinson. N.
Burriss and James Burriss, who were from Kentucky, settled near Wheatland
between 1816 and 1820. Simon Nicholson, from Pennsylvania, settled on the
old State road, a short distance from town. James Young, D.W. Ballow, the
Jackson family and Andrew Whitenack, all settled near the same
neighborhood. The latter was for a time a justice of the peace. Merrill,
another pioneer, lived east of the State road. He kept an "inn" for the
public. He lived to be quite old. Andrew Berry lived east of Steen's, at
what was known as Berryville. Here was the post-office, and Berry was
postmaster till Wheatland was laid out and the office moved to that
place. Sim Harbin lived east of Wheatland; the railroad passes through
the farm. Here he built a little horse-mill and a small still-house;
Jesse Harbin also lived near. A. Westfall was another old settler.
MILLS,ETC.
The principal food of the pioneer was wild meats, such as deer, turkey,
bear and smaller game, or hogs that were raised in the woods and were
considered common property. Bread stuff was, to a great extent, hominy.
What little meal or flour was made was cracked on hand-mills, horse-mills
or little water-mills, or beaten in a mortar. The process was about as
follows: A block of wood or stump was hollowed out by cutting or burning,
and a small mallet or hammer was used for a pestle. The corn was first
soaked in lye to remove the bran. It was then placed in the mortar, and
the work began. stimulated by good digestion, strong muscles and
sometimes hunger, the work was done. The indifferent meal or flour was
bolted by hand; at first by punching holes in a deer skin with the tines
of a fork or other sharp instrument, and this was used as a kind of
sieve. A box was sometimes made, and the bottom covered with some
suitable cloth, and the meal or flour put in this and shaken over another
box which would receive the finer particles as they fell through the
cloth. Some went to Maysville to mill, some to Harbin's horse-mill, some
to Donaldson and others elsewhere.
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