History of Indianapolis and Marion County Indiana; 1884; by B. R. Sulgrove,
Pages 506-507
DECATUR TOWNSHIP
This township, named in honor of Commodore Stephen DECATUR, is the extreme
southwestern township of Marion County. It is bounded on the north by Wayne
and, for a very short distance, by Centre township; on the east by White
River, which marks the boundary against Perry township; on the south by
Morgan County; and on the west by Hendricks County. The population of
Decatur, as shown by the returns of the United States Census of 1880, was
then sixteen hundred and forty-seven.
Originally the territory of the township was very heavily timbered with
black walnut, poplar, the different varieties of oak, blue and gray ash,
beech, sugar-tree, red and white elm, and hackberry, and on the bottom-lands
sycamore, button wood, soft maple, buckeye, paw-paw, and in early times
spicewood and prickly ash. The heavy timber was a great drawback in the
early settlement, requiring a great amount of very hard labor to clear the
land sufficiently to furnish the settlers with bread and feed for their
stock, although the stock usually required (or at least received) but little
feed, subsisting largely on the "range," while hogs lived and were fattened
on the mast, ---acorns, beechnuts, hickorynuts, etc. The land was at first
cleared of the grubs, logs, and smaller trees, and the large ones
"deadened," as it was termed by girdling , and thus the clearing was
sometimes many years in being completed. As years passed on and the
clearings extended, the custom of deadening all timber, where the land was
intended to be cleared, was introduced.
The streams of the township are White River, which forms its entire eastern
boundary; Eagle Creek, a tributary which enters the river at the extreme
northeast corner of the township; and a number of smaller and unimportant
creeks and runs, which flow thru Decatur southeastwardly to their junction
with the White River. The surface of the township is sufficiently rolling
to admit of good and easy drainage of the lands. There are in the township
two considerable elevations of ground, one known as Marr's Hill, near the
residence of Patrick HARMAN, the other as Spring Valley Hill, owned jointly
by Mr. Elijah WILSON and Isaac B. DEWEES, Esq. It is an isolated point or
knob, rising one hundred and forty feet or more above the general level of
the surrounding country, and two hundred feet or more above the level of the
river, which is nearly a quarter of a mile east. From this point, when the
air is clear, an extended view may be had of the surrounding country,
including the buildings of the insane asylum, the spires and many of the
highest buildings in the city of Indianapolis, and even Crown Hill, north of
the city, and fully twelve miles from the point of observation.
The lands of the township consist of a variety of soils; alluvial or bottom,
along the valley of White River; second bottom underlaid with gravel; and
upland of which the soil is underlaid with clay. All the soil of the
township, with proper cultivation, produces largely of cereal, vegetables,
clover, timothy, and blue grass, for all of which crops it equals the best
in the county or State.
In the first settlement of the township the large yellow and spotted
rattlesnakes were numerous, and the cause of much terror among the settlers.
Cattle and other animals were frequently bitten, and died from the effects
of the poison, though there is no account of any person having died from
that cause. During the Fall of 1824 some of the settlers became convinced
that the reptiles had a den in the vicinity of what is now the village of
Valley Mills, and in the following Spring a close watch was kept for their
appearance in that locality. On one of the earliest of the warm days their
den was discovered by John KENWORTHY and the inhabitants of the neighboring
settlements were notified of the fact. The able-bodied men of the region
for several miles around gathered at the place, and with mattocks, shovels,
spades, and hoes proceeded to dislodge and slay the serpents. Their den was
in the side of a ravine on the land of Isaac HAWKINS; now owned and occupied
by William SANDERS, about a half-mile east of Valley Mills Station of the
Indianapolis and Vincennes Railway. One hundred and seven rattlesnakes were
killed (most of them of large size), besides a number of other and less
venomous snakes. This general slaughter of the reptiles seemed to almost
entirely rid the township of them, as but few were seen afterwards, most of
them, however, in the vicinity of Valley Mills, and near the high bluffs
along White River. A few of the black variety, known as the prairie
rattlesnake, were found around the bog prairie, situated partly in Decatur
and partly in Wayne townships, until quite recently, but now they appear to
have been exterminated. Many years ago, Ira PLUMMER was bitten (while
gathering hazel-nuts), by a snake of this kind, but survived and recovered
wholly through the efficacy (as was said) of whiskey and a tea made of
blue-ash bark.
Decatur, like the other townships of the county, was set off and erected
into a separate township by the board of county commissioners, April 16,
1822, and on the same date it was, by the same authority joined with Perry
and Franklin townships for organization and the election of justices of the
peace, for the reason that none of the three contained a sufficient number
of inhabitants for such organization. This arrangement continued until
August 12, 1823, when the commissioners ordered "that Decatur township be
stricken off from Perry and Franklin townships, and form from this date a
separate and independent township of this county, in every respect, as if it
had never been attached to the said townships of Perry and Franklin;" and
the board assigned one justice of the peace to be elected for the township
of Decatur, at an election ordered to be held at the house of John THOMPSON,
on Saturday, August 30, 1823, John THOMPSON to be inspector of the said
election.
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