Doug,
I can not provide any Craig information, but I can provide some
historical background to indicate reasons for their not remaining in Liberty
Twp.
Following is information from a book that I am publishing on my Hawkins
in Liberty Township, Tipton County, Indiana. The material was gleened from
sources in the Tipton County Library.
Liberty Township, Tipton County, Indiana.
The glaciers, thousands of years earlier, had leveled the high hills
and gouged shallow depressions, that over time had been filled by erosion
and dead vegetation. It was a land of shallow lakes, swamps and wetlands,
and some of the largest hardwood trees in America. The "Big Woods" was a
forest swampland with only a few small clearings between the West Fork of
the White River to the south, and the Wabash River to the north. The future
Liberty Township was primeval virgin land; inhabited by bears, timber
wolves, timber rattlers, and the dreaded panther. It was as wild as when the
Indians first came.
Tipton County was formed by a decree of an Indiana State Law, in 1844,
from the northern portion of Hamilton County, and the southern portion of
the Great Miami Indian Reserve. At that time, when Tipton became the 89th
county in the state of Indiana, there were nineteen states in the Union. The
northern 2/3 of the county, taken from the "Old Reserve" had no permanent
Indian villages but it was the hunting grounds of the Miami, Delaware, and
Pottowatomie tribes. The southern 1/3 of the new county contained only a few
settlements due to the harshness of the land, and for some time it was not
considered a good place for new settlements. In 1846 the Indians were moved,
under duress by the Army, west to Kansas; but nearly half of them, those
with some white blood, or who owned land, or had influence with authorities
were allowed to stay. When the Indian lands were offered for sale in 1847
the "wild land where fallen trees and beaver dams held the water in
overflows and swamps" was still the hunting grounds of those Indians that
had not been moved.
Due to the dense forest and swamp, transportation was by horse, and
baggage had to be by pack-horse.The first roads were short, crooked paths
through the trees and around the pools, generally following the Indian
trails. Even following the Indian trails, it was hard to keep man and horse
dry.
In 1849 Liberty Township was formed from half of Wildcat Township to
the east, and a portion of Prairie Township to the west. A year later, the
census of 1850 recorded 26 homes and 144 inhabitants within the new
township, and E. M. Sharp had plotted a new town that was named Sharpsville.
In 1854, Sharpsville's streets were still full of stumps and logs, but there
was a railroad , and the new town contained 200 people. Harrison Burns, in
1855, wrote that the spring and summer were very wet, and that the entire
county was covered with water. It was impossible to haul anything. There was
a great deal of malaria, nearly every one had the "ague". He stated, "I
have
seen a team with an empty wagon stalled in the streets of Sharpsville."
Phil Hawkins pahawkins@earthlink 12 Dec 2001