History of Scott County

From "An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana" 1875.

SCOTT COUNTY.

Scott county is situated in the southeastern part of the State near the Ohio river. It is of irregular shape and contains about one hundred and eighty square miles. The county, generally, is level and rolling, except a small area known as the "knobs," which is quite broken The soil is fair; the county is well watered by streams and many springs abound. The timber is of the very best, and in abundance.

The county was organized in 1820, while the State capital was at Corydon, Harrison county.

It was named in honor of General Charles Scott, an officer of the revolutionary period, and at a later period, governor of Kentucky. The county was formed from portions of Jefferson, Jennings, Clark, and Washington counties. The first county commissioners were Joseph Switzer, Reuben Johnson, and John Herod. Wm. K. Richey was the first sheriff, by appointment from the governor. The first sheriff elect was Jesse Jackson, who afterward served in the legislature, and also as register of the land office at La Porte. Other original county officers were: James Ward, clerk; John Prime, recorder , James Lochrane, treasurer, and Robert Wardell an old revolutionary soldier - as coroner.

The county was first settled in 1805, by John Kimberlin, who removed to this section of the State from Kentucky, and who built, in the same year, the first house erected in the county. Among the early settlers were: Wm. E. Collins, Dr. John Richey, Eliab Collins, Samuel P. Devore, Robert Wardle, John Morris. Jeremiah Paine, Dr. Jonathan Carter, John Finley, Dr. James Hicks, David and Charles Eastin, Eli and Joseph Harlan, Kindred Ferguson, Wm. Nichols, John Wingate, Zebulon Foster, James Lemaster, Wm. Norton, John Dickey, Jacob Cutler, Asahel Passwater, Daniel Hough, John Stucker, Robert Brenton, Wm. Fleming, Peter Storms, Daniel Serls, and many other brave and hardy pioneers, whose names are in the past.

Kindred Ferguson is still a resident of Scott county, where he has lived for sixty-five years, and has reached the extra-ordinary age of one hundred and four years.

In 1820, the county seat was located at Lexington, by Wm. Fleming, Dennis Pennington, Hardin H. Moore, Abel C. Pepper, and two others. The town was originally laid out by Jesse Henley, General Wm. McFarlane, Adam Steele, Richard Steele, and Nehemiah Hunt. in 1811, on grounds owned by these gentlemen. The first house in Lexington was erected by John and Jacob Stucker. Gen. McFarlane built the first brick house. The first public improvements were made by private enterprise. Wm. Fleming and Moses Gray were the pioneer merchants. The first marriage solemnized in the county was between Daniel Kimberlin and Ursula Brenton. A child born to them is claimed to be the first white person born in the county. Among the early citizens of Lexington and Scott county, and who have since become prominent in the State, may he mentioned: Henry P. Thornton, the first prosecuting attorney of the county; the Carpenter Brothers; Major Elisha G. English, many years in State legislature; his son, Hon. Wm. H. English, who for many years represented the district in Congress was born in Lexington, as was also his grandson Wm. W. English, now a promising lawyer of Indianapolis. The seat of justice was continued in this place for over fifty years but was removed in 1874 to a more central point, a place formerly called Centerville, but now known as Scottsburgh. The town was laid off in 1873 by Lloyd S. Keith, being surveyed by Thos. K. Wardle and Wm. Estel. It is located by the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis railroad eighty miles south of Indianapolis, and now contains a population of about four hundred souls. Among the other towns of Scott county are Austin, Vienna, New Frankfort, Wooster, and Holman. Iron ore and salt abounds in the county. A good article of salt, is manufactured, and numerous wells are sunk for salt water near Lexington, one of which is seven hundred feet deep. Good building stone is had in the same vicinity, and also a kind used for making a very fine quality of water cement. As these quarries are located near the railroad, and of easy access, it is believed that a factory for the manufacture of this cement will he erected at no distant day.

This county is the scene of the celebrated Pigeon roost massacre, a full account of which will be found elsewhere in this volume. It is also a witness of the depredations committed by the rebel General John Morgan, in his raid through southern Indiana during the civil war. The depot at Vienna was burned by him, and many are the farmers through this county who have bewailed the day when they "swapped" their fine fat, sleek horses, for the worn out, sore-backed jades of the rebels. Scott county possesses good railroad facilities. The Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis road north and south, and the Ohio and Mississippi road traversing the county in the same direction.

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