----- Forwarded Message -----
From: lchesser4(a)comcast.net
To: lchesser4(a)comcast.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 6:03:39 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: 1819?
Although some of us have ancestors who were said to have settled as early as 1816 when
Corydon was the capital, in what wouldn't become Shelby County until 1821 , some land
purchases were made at Brookville, Franklin County before that time. Example: The Wilsons
of "Little Marion", the Nails of Brandywine Twp., etc. Counties south to the
Ohio River had settlements much earlier. In 1818, Jacob Whetzel followed a buffalo trace
from Laurel on the Whitewater River, to about 5 miles north of where Shelbyville would be
platted, to the White River a few miles south of where Indianapolis would later stand. He
platted the "Whetzel Trace". There was an 1820 agreement with the Delaware
Indians and other tribes to be out of the area by 1822. Whites were not to settle the new
land until 1820 or later. Some did anyway like the James Wilson family above. "The
Bears of Blue River " takes place in the 1820s-30s, and was written in 1944. It is a
historic fiction. It has enough facts and surnames to make it totally believable.
I'm not sure how someone arrived at the date of 1819 for the book's setting.