Dann Lynn: Pioneer

Mary Smith Fay*

Dann Lynn was a delegate from Posey County to ’s constitutional convention in 1816. He was elected from Posey County to serve in the Indiana House of Repre- sentatives in 1816, reelected in 1817, and again in 1819.’ Lynn operated the ferry across the River above Diamond Island, now West Franklin, Indiana, and he died of cholera in 1833 at West Franklin, Marrs Township, in Posey County.2 Very few other facts have been recorded about him, and there seem to be no diaries or similar mem~rabilia.~ During the late nineteenth century William H. English, Indiana politician, banker, and author, attempted to discover some additional facts about Lynn. Two letters in the English Collection, located in the Indiana Historical Society Library in , form the basis for many of the facts and much of the conjecture about this early Indiana settler.*

* Mary Smith (Mrs. Charles H.) Fay, a long time member of the Indiana Historical Society, now resides in Houston, Texas, and is a descendant of Dann Lynn. * Dorothy Riker and Gayle Thornbrough, comps., Indiana Election Returns, 181 6-1 865 (Indiana Historical Collections, Vol. XL ; Indian- apolis, 1960), 183-84, 186. See also Indiana, House Journal (1816-1817), 4, (1817-1818), 4, (1819-1820), 4. 2 Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Posey County, Indiana (Chi- cago, 1886), 414. 3 It should be noted that when Dann Lynn spelled out his given name or when papers were prepared by people who knew him, his first name was always spelled “Dann,” and it appears in this form on the Indiana Constitution of 1816. Charles Kettleborough, Constitution Making in Indiana: A Source Book of Constitutional Documents with Historical Int.roduction and Cm’tical Notes (3 vols., Indiana Historical Collections, Vols. I, 11, XVII; Indianapolis, 1916, 1930), I, 125. 4 William H. English apparently intended to compile a book of biographies of Indiana legislators and collected considerable material toward that end. Although the book was never published, the papers which English amassed are located in the William H. English Collection (Indiana Historical Society Library, Indianapolis). Leona T. Alig, Manuscripts Librarian, Indiana Historical Society Library, to Mrs. Charles H. Fay, August 3, 1973. 174 Indiana Magazine of History

Current attempts to verify the leads contained in the two letters have not only unearthed much information about Lynn but have also revealed considerable interesting material about life in pioneer Indiana and about the methods and rewards of research into family history. In 1889 Edward A. Pitts, grandson of Dann’s brother, Pitts Lynn, wrote to English about his great uncle: Biography of Hon. Dann Lynn was born in Christian County Ken- tucky January 24th 1782 Moved to Indiana in the spring of 1798 and located at or near Springfield Posey County and remained in that locality until the year 1828 and then removed to West Franklin on the Ohio River of the same County Where he died in 1832 with cholera and was buried on the hill known as Lynn’s family Graveyard only his im- mediate family being there buried His family consisted of eight (8) Daughters and Four (4) Sons all of whom are dead. His occupation was that of a farmer and trader and was a man of considerable wealth at one time consisting of Cheap Land and Slaves. Being a Slaveholder in he brought his Slaves to the then Territory. After the territory was admitted as a State he liberated them, they being the greater part of his wealth, at that time. He represented the county in the Legislature. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1816. The 1st Court ever held in the County was at Absalon Duck- worth’s house on the 20th of March 1815, and was presided over by Dann Lynn with Thomas E. Casselberry and Isaac Bradley as asso- ciates. His Politics was Democratic, was a very sociable man, also very charitable, not only with his money, but in his business, always willing to concede to all the priveledge of differing, without disputing their rights to their opinion. He was firm and consciencious in all his deal- ings. Education limited but possessed a vast amount of common sense. Has 5 Grand children living. Thomas & Dann Martin of Martins Store Ills, Elias B. Kincheloe & Mary S. Stallings New Harmy Ind, & Dan[]] Kincheloe of Equality. Mrs. Stallings now lives on the Lynn farm near Springfield Posey Co Indiana. Most Respectfully, Ed. A. Pitts5

6 Ed. A. Pitts to William H. English, February 13, 1889, English Collection. Edward A. Pitts’ mother was Jane Lynn (1818-1890), who married James Brown in Hopkins County, Kentucky, in 1833. After his death she married in 1838 the Honorable William Carroll Pitts (1814- 1884) in Hopkins County, then moved to Posey County, Indiana. Edward Pitts was born in 1843, ten years after his great uncle’s death. For records confirming the relationship of Edward Pitts to Dann Lynn see Marriage Records, County Clerk’s Office, Hopkins County Courthouse, Madisonville, Kentucky; Will Book 4, p. 123, Circuit Clerk’s Office, ibid.; Deed Book 2, p. 97, Deed Book 9, p. 14, Deed Book 19, pp. 423-26, County Clerk’s Office, ibid.; Civil Court Order Book A, 401, County Clerk’s Office, Posey County Courthouse, Mt. Vernon, Indiana. Jane Lynn Brown Pitts’ death date can be found in the Posey County Health Department, Mt. Vernon, Indiana. See also Goodspeed, History of Posey County, 653. Dann Lynn 175

A few years earlier General Alvin P. Hovey, on the letter- head of Hovey & Menzies, attorneys at law, Mount Vernon, Indiana, had also written to English concerning Lynn: Nov. 22 1885 Hon Wm H English Indianapolis Ind Dear Sir: I have your letter of the 20th and would be pleased if I could fully comply with your request- Dann Lynn came to this locality sometime be- tween 1806 and 1808, from Caswell County North Carolina- He died with the Cholera in this County in 1833, one son and daughter dying in the same house about the same time- He was quiet, cautious and very polictic man, and with a fair English Education, and was a natural leader of men- This is about all that can be said about him, except what your Journals will show, in regard to his political career. It is said that after he was elected representative of this County, he refused to go to meet the General Assembly, and took a boat load of corn to New Orleans- Old men say, this County may never before or since, [have been] so ably represented as when Dann Lynn went to New Orleans- Lynn must have been about sixty years old at the time of his death- I regret that I cannot give you a better sketch of his life- He died poor and some of his descendants are still living in this County- He is said to have been a cousin of Senator Lynn of Missouri Yours truly in haste Alvin P. Hovey6 Although search in Caswell County, North Carolina, has not turned up Lynn family footprints, the Hovey letter is of in- terest in other respects because the general, born September 6, 1821, and his family certainly would have known Lynn.7 There is a good possibility, as Hovey’s letter suggests, that Lynn was a flatboat operator and river pilot and made many trips to New Orleans. In a history of Posey County, published in 1882, William P. Leonard wrote: “Wm. Hunter, in 1810, at the present site of the town of New Harmony, built and launched the first flatboat that ever carried produce

1; Alvin P. Hovey to William H. English, November 22, 1885, English Collection. In the handwritten comments w$ich accompany this letter English apparently felt compelled to note: Of course what is said in this letter about Posey County never having been so well represented in the Legislature as the year her Representative, Dann Lynn, went off to New Orleans with a boat load of corn and did not attend the Legis- lature at all, must be understood as a good natured joke, since General Hovey was himself a member and Posey County can boast of having been represented by Robert Dale Owen and others of as bright and able men as ever sat in a Legislative body in this or any other state.” 7 Goodspeed, Histovy of Posey County, 498-99. 176 Indiana Magazine of History to a Southern market. It was built for John Gresham, but who, on account of his great fear of the earthquakes referred to above, sold it to Wm. McAdoo, his father-in-law, who went South with pork and corn in the winter of the year 1811.”* Another early resident of Posey County elaborates on this same story and ties it to Lynn: “It is more likely that this William McAdoo was the father-in-law of Dann Lynn, or at least some relative of his wife, Ann Elizabeth McAdoo.”“ James Wier, a prosperous Lexington, Kentucky, mer- chant, frequently mentioned in his business correspondence a Captain Jonathan Taylor of Union County, Kentucky, and Taylor’s presumed partner, a Captain Lynn. On May 13, 1805, for example, Wier wrote to John Clay in New Orleans: “I have shipped on board Taylor and Lynns boat and con- signed to you 66 bales and 5 hogsheads spun yarn and 60 coils bailing rope as requested January.” Also, on July 3, 1805, Wier wrote to Taylor: “I expect eer this, there is at the lower landing (including the hhd not sent on) twenty nine hhds spun yarn and nineteen coils white rope which I wish shipped to New Orleans before the water falls, and to which I beg your attention. They will be sent as heretofore to Mr. Clay, New Orleans, if you should be fortunate as to get them off.” The postscript adds: “Hogsheads left at Captain Lynn’s.”1o Pitts’ letter to English also contains possible, and per- haps more accurate, clues concerning Lynn’s life. For ex- ample, the birthdate of January 24, 1782, as suggested by Pitts, may be correct since the great nephew may have had access to a Bible record or since someone in his family may have remembered the date. Pitts may also have been correct about Lynn’s place of birth. That section on the Red River

8 William P. Leonard, History and Directory of Posey County (re- print, Evansville, Ind., 1974), 106. The earthquake referred to occurred in 1811 and was centered at New Madrid, Missouri, on the Mississippi River below the mouth of the Ohio. The earthquake sent tremors along the entire Ohio River Valley. Rufus Blanchard, History of IZZinois to Accompany an Historical Map of the State (Chicago, 1883), 49. 0 Alice Harper Hanby, “Eliminating of the Lynns,” 1922, typescript (Alexandrian Free Public Library, Mount Vernon, Indiana). Hanby’s rambling manuscript states without proof that Dann Lynn married Ann Elizabeth McAdoo, probably daughter of William McAdoo for whom McAdoo Creek in Lynn Township, Posey County, is named. James Wier to John Clay, May 13, 1805, Lyman C. Draper Col- lection 21CC4-5 (The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison) ; James Wier to Jonathan Taylor, July 3, 1805, ibid., 21CC9. Dann Lynn 177

which became Christian County, Kentucky, lies adjacent to Robertson County, Tennessee, and Lynn was living in Robert- son County, Tennessee, on January 23, 1800, when court met and ordered him to attend the next court as a juror.\l He did serve as a juror at the April term of court, and, if his birth was indeed in 1782, he was only eighteen years old.12 In fact, through 1804, Lynn continues to be mentioned prom- inently in Robertson County official records. On March 25, 1800, William McAdoo, for the consideration of two hundred dollars, deeded to Lynn seventy-four acres in Robertson County on the South Fork of Red River, part of 274 acres granted McAdoo by the state of North Carolina July 11, 1788.13 On January 10, 1802, Lynn deeded this seventy-four acres to his father, James Lynn, Sr., who was then living in Logan County, Kentucky.I* In the October, 1802, term of court, Lynn sued John and he was sued by William P. Anderson in May, 1804.16 One unexplained court action took place in July, 1803, when allowances of $1.50 each were ordered for Daniel McKinley, Jr., David Jones, Jr., James Appleton, Jr., and Thomas Appleton for guarding one “Dan Lynn to Nashville Joal.” Constable Robert Warren was allowed $3.93 3/4 for that ~1ssignment.l’ The exact date of Lynn’s departure from Tennessee is unknown. On March 4, 1804, the Lynns’ twin daughters, Margaretta and Polly, were born on Red River.lx However, before April 1, 1806, Lynn had moved to Henderson County, Kentucky, for on that date he sued Robert Byers for trespass

1’ Minute Book 1 (1796-1807), 129, County Clerk’s Office, Robertson County Courthouse, Springfield, Tennessee. A WPA typescript of the Robertson County records is located in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. The court order here referred to can be found on page 86. This evidence, of course, negates Pitts’ statement that Lynn came to Indiana in 1798. Ibid., 136. (WPA typescript, 91). 13 Deed Book B (1797-1800), 331, Registrar’s Office, Robertson County Courthouse. The deed was made March 25, 1800, and recorded October 16, 1800. 1‘ Deed Book F, 78-79, ibid. This deed was made January 10, 1802, and was not recorded until February, 1805. Minute Book I (1796-1807), 232, County Clerk’s Office, ibid. (WPA typescript, 147). l6 Ibid., 309. (WPA typescript, 190). l7 Ibid., 259. (WPA typescript, 163). IxLewin D. McPherson, Kincheloe, McPherson, and Related Families (privately printed, 1951), 370; tombstone of Polly Lynn Saltzman, Reed Cemetery (near Polo), Ogle County, Illinois. 178 Indiana Magazine of History Outline Map of POSEYCOTMTY,~~.

Keprodueed from Goodspeed Publishing Company, History of Pose?! Count?] (Chicago. 1886). 261. Dann Lynn 179 and complained that in 1805 Byers “took, chared, drove spoiled and killed divers cattle, to wit fifty hogs and fifty pigs of him the said Dann Lynn of the price of one hundred dollars.”19 According to Goodspeed’s history of Posey County, Lynn was at Diamond Island, Indiana, as early as 1807.’‘’ There is no evidence, however, that Lynn received a deed to property in Indiana before March 14, 1815.*’ Nevertheless, he had be- come a well established citizen by September 14, 1814, when he was appointed associate judge of the newly created Posey County.*’ Lynn Township was formed and named for him in January, 1817.23 Lynn had apparently been among a number of citizens who were interested in getting the Indiana territorial as- sembly to lay out a new county between Vincennes, the territorial capital, and the Wabash River. In 1814 a religious society of Germans under George Rapp and his adopted son, Frederick, had purchased land on the Wabash, some twenty- five miles above where it flows into the Ohio, with the inten- tion of founding a settlement there.24 On September 21, 1814, G. Michael Friz, a member of the society, wrote to Frederick Rapp, who was still at the group’s old headquarters in Harmony, Pennsylvania, relative to both Lynn and the county seat of the new Indiana county:

1:) Circuit Court Case No, 764, Office of Clerk of the Circuit Court, Henderson County Courthouse, Henderson, Kentucky. ”0 Goodspeed, History of Posey County, 414. 21 Records of the Vincennes Land Office District show that Lynn purchased the SE 1/4 of Section 28, Township 5 South, Range 13 West, containing 160 acres, on March 14, 1815. This land lies in present Lynn Township, Posey County. The Vincennes Land Office District records can be found in the Archives Division, Indiana State Library, Indian- apolis. 2’ Probate Order Book A (January, 1815-April, 1827), 1, County Clerk’s Office, Posey County Courthouse. Lynn served as associate judge for Posey County along with Thomas E. Casselberry while the Honorable Isaac Blackford was the presiding judge who held court ‘In several counties which constituted his circuit. Goodspeed, History of Posey County, 420. In his letter to English, Pitts erroneously promoted Lynn to the office of presiding judge, but the records which have been found show that Lynn was never higher than an associate. See, for example, Dann Lynn to , August [?I, 1816, English Col- lection. 23 Goodspeed, History of Posey County, 304. Z4Karl J. R. Arndt, comp. and ed., A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society, 1814-1824. Volume 1, 181.4- 1819 (Indianapolis, 1975), xi-xiii; Logan Esarey, A (reprint of 1915 edition, two vols. in one; Indianapolis, 1970), 248; Good- speed, History of Posey County, 134. 180 Indiana Magazine of History

When we arrived here we attracted a great deal of attention among the people. The inhabitants between Wincins [Vincennes] and the Ohio were much interested in laying out the county. They came to us divided into three parties to get our votes. We examined the matter and dis- covered their intentions. We therefore gave our votes to a man known to us as honest, a judge named Linn, according to whose plan the court- house would have been built 7 miles from our town, but what happened? The other parties opposed this one and it lost. Now the courthouse came near the Ohio and the county line runs right through our land.25 As indicated in Friz’ letter, when the Indiana territorial assembly organized Posey County, effective November 1,1814, at least half the land belonging to the Harmony Society lay in Gibson County, north of Posey. Although later, in 1815, the boundary between the two counties was adjusted north- ward and the town of New Harmony was thus transferred to Posey County, Blackford, near the Ohio River, remained the county seat.26 After Indiana achieved statehood, Lynn, as a representative from Posey County in the General Assembly, continued to work diligently to have the county seat moved to a more central location. Lynn’s letters to Frederick Rapp concerning this project reveal the legislator’s close association with the Harmonists.2i Indeed, George Rapp’s Harmony Society was an impor- tant force in southern Indiana’s history and therefore had an important influence on Lynn’s political life. Originally from Wurtemberg, Germany, the Harmonists stopped for ten years at Harmony, Butler County, Pennsylvania, before moving to Indiana Territory in 1814. Soon after their arrival on the Wabash the society built schools and a church; opened farms; planted orchards and vineyards; built factories to produce broadcloth, tinware, shoes, saddles, flour, beer, and other com- modities; and carried on extensive commerce with firms and individuals for miles around. By the spring of 1815 the settle- ment of New Harmony had between eight hundred and a

23 Arndt, Documentary History, I, 43. 26 George Pence and Nellie Armstrong, Indiana Boundaries: Terri- tory, State and County (Indiana Historical Collections, Vol. XIX ; In- dianapolis, 1933), 680-83. See also Arndt, Documentary History, I, 21711. 2’ Arndt, Documentary History, I, 264, 268. Lynn’s efforts were eventually successful. In May 1817, Posey County was again enlarged at the expense of Gibson, and the county seat of Posey moved from Blackford to Springfield, which was located on one hundred acres of land donated by the Harmonists for that purpose. Pence and Armstrong, Indiana Boundaries, 684-85 ; Arndt, Documentary History, I, 264n. Lynn may have suggested Springfield as the name of the county seat in honor of his former residence in Robertson County, Tennessee. Dnnn Lynn 181 thousand persons.28 Considering that the official census of Posey County in December, 1815, showed a total of 1,619 persons, of whom 320 were white males of twenty-one and upwards,2!’ Lynn’s need for the political support of the Harmony Society members is clear; and he seems to have kept his political fences mended. Lynn’s easy, trusting relationship with the Harmonists is reflected in the letter he wrote to Frederick Rapp from Corydon, the state capital, on January 5, 1818:

CORYDON Jany. 5th 1818 Dr. Sir Yours I recd. by mail. I have been at the point of death but thanks to Heaven I am much mended I lay for nine days without one drop of nurishment never did one mouthful of any kind of food whatever for the time mentioned enter my mouth. The Doctors took me through a regular course of Sollovation the only remedy and last resort. I am trying to pay off the Doctors but find it will be hard to do for it appears money is the object. I wish to inform you of the Bill for relief of Thomas E. Casslberry the bill brought before the house contemplated to remove Colo. Love and give the Clerkship to Casselberry and in that shape it passed the low house and was taken up in the Senate and is there yet though I am of opinion it will be so amended as to order a New Election altogether. The militia Bill is now before the house and from its length I think it will take a week to pass it. We are trying to remedy some defects in the Bill, all those concientiously scruplas We want to place them on an equal footing with other Militia men and give them a chance to make their Excuse if there be any from home on business or sick give them a chance to make their Excuse is what we are trying at. I am rather of opinion the Bill will pass in that way. Colo. Neeley has forwarded to the speaker a letter setting forth you are Germans and will not give a fair list of your Militia men. If I mistake not on hearing the letter in house he says Mr. Jones applied to you for a list of names and you refused to give him a list &c. by which no fines could be collected, &c. &c. The Session is drawing to a close. I will only add Colo. Boon has come out as a candidate for the senate at the next Election. I am with sentiments of yours DANN LYNN30 Lynn’s illness was mentioned also by Richard Daniel, repre- sentative from Gibson County, to Frederick Rapp in a letter dated January 6, 1818: “Judge Lynn has been very sick but

28 Karl J. R. Arndt, George Rapp’s Harmony Society, 1785-1847 (Philadelphia, 1965), 141-63. 29 Kettleborough, Constitution Making in Indiana, I, 69. 3” Arndt, Documentaw History, I, 445-46. The explanatory notes accompanying this letter are available in the volume cited and are not transcribed here. 182 Indiana Magazine of History is recovering. He (Lynn) makes a good member [of the House of Representatives] .31 Another letter in the Harmonist collection further clari- fies Lynn’s political career. In 1937 historian John D. Barn- hart cited Lynn as a supporter of Territorial Governor and his coterie of Virginia aristo- crats as opposed to , territorial delegate to Congress and later first , and his follow- ers.R2 Barnhart’s conclusion may have derived from Lynn’s having brought slaves into Indiana Territory and from the belief that it was Dann Lynn whom Governor Harrison had appointed captain of the militia of Dearborn County in 1803.33 A letter from James P. Drake, county clerk of Posey County, however, suggests that Lynn may have been aligned with Jennings: Springfield August 2nd 1819 Mr. Rapp Dear Sir There has been some dely about the Inspector of your Township gitting his appointment and as he is a new hand in the Buis- ness we are some what Doubtful1 that the Buisness without your at- tention will not be conducted a write and we are anxious that you should all vote. There is Peter Saltzman a Justice of the peace who can swear the officerers of the Eliction-and it is not to late for you all to vote yet we are voting and all of us are doing what we can for Jonathan Jennings Elisha Harrison & Dann Lynn and hope that these measures will meet your aprobation. I have not an further time to write. Accept assurance of my Respect and Esteem James P. Drake34

31 Ibid.. 447. The Indiana House Journal shows that Lynn did not vote from Monday, December 22, 1817, until Thursday, January 7, 1818, although a request for a leave of absence was not recorded. Indiana, House Journal (1817-1818), 84-146. 32 John D. Barnhart, “The Southern Influence in the Formation of Indiana,” Indiana Magazine of History, XXXIII (September, 1937), 262n, 269. 33 Although the two have often been confused, Dann Lynn of Posey County is NOT the Daniel Lvnn of Dearborn County who is “credited with having located on Loughery Creek in 1796,” whose son Joel was born on that creek in 1799, and who was appointed captain of the militia for Dearborn County by Governor William Henry Harrison on August 15, 1803. Weakley and Company, pubs., History of Dearborn and Ohio Counties, Indiana (Chicago, 1885), 100, 119, 490. Daniel Lynn of Dear- born County outlived Dann Lynn by seventeen years; and his will, made October 13, 1849, and admitted into probate court in Dearborn County, May 31, 1850, mentions wife Elizabeth H., sons Joel and Daniel, Jr., and daughters Rebecca Conaway and Elizabeth Criswell in addition to his “thrice youngest children: Amanda, Nancy, and Jesse B. Lynn.” Will Book 3, p. 76, Office of Clerk of the Circuit Court, Dearborn County Courthouse, Lawrenceburg, Indiana. a4Arndt, Documentary History, I, 754. James P. Drake was clerk of Posey County from 1819-1829. Goodspeed, History of Posey County, 345. Dnnn Lynn 183

In addition to the Harmonist documents, the journals of the Indiana Constitutional Convention of 1816 and of the Indiana House of Representatives provide interesting, though sketchy, information concerning Lynn’s political character. Lynn was not, of course, supported by all the voters of Posey County. In fact, his first election as delegate to the constitu- tional convention was contested by Peter Wilkinson.35 The convention’s committee of elections decided that Lynn had been legally chosen, and he was appointed to the “Committee relative to education, and the universal dissemination of use- ful knowledge, and other objects which it may be proper to enjoin or recommend to the legislature to provide for? Al- though another Hoosier legislator, speaking one hundred years later, classified Lynn as one of the members of the committee on education “whose letters still in existence prove that they could neither spell conventionally nor express them- selves gram ma tic all^,"^^ Lynn’s extant correspondence seems quite typical for his time. Indeed, it could be conjectured that the Posey County delegate’s contemporaries considered him well educated for his day, hence his appointment to the com- mittee on education. Whatever the truth of the matter Lynn apparently attended and voted regularly during the conven- tion sessions. A careful perusal of the state legislative journals for the three sessions during which Lynn served as representative from Posey County also reveals a conscientious legislator who by today’s standards might be called “liberal.” Lynn voted for granting divorces to three of the four couples petitioning; he was for the formation of new counties; for good roads; for good wages for the clerks employed by the House and for judges; for lotteries to pay for erecting bridges, seminaries, and libraries; and he was against any civil officer holding any office in any bank in the state and against electing or appointing any member of the legislature to the office of circuit judge, auditor, or treasurer of the state.:3XAs a state

35 Gayle Thornbrough and Dorothy Riker, eds., Journals of the General Assembly of Indiana Territory, 1805-1 815 (Indiana Historical Collections, Vol, XXXII ; Indianapolis, 1950), 1015. “Journal of the Convention of the Indiana Territory, 1816,” In- diana Magazine of History, LXI (June, 1965), 10, 13-14. 37 Merrill Moores, “Indiana in 1816,” ibid., XI1 (September, 1916), 271-80. 3x See, for example, Indiana, House Journal (1816-1817), 28, 63, 69, 103, 115; ibid. (1817-1818), 20-21, 163. 184 Indiana Magazine of History legislator Lynn frequently served on committees providing for the organization and regulation of the court system in Indiana, considering the formation of new counties, and pro- viding for various facets of county government, as well as on all committees relative to Posey County. Other assignments included service on committees discussing the disposal of public lands granted to the state by the federal government and the alteration of laws relative to public roads and high- ways."' Lynn apparently retired from politics following the 1818- 1819 legislative session, before the Harmonists sold their en- tire holdings to philanthropist Robert Owen of Scotland and before the county seat of Posey County was moved to Mount Vernon on the Ohio River, both in 1825.40 Lynn's relations with the Owen communal experiment at New Harmony are unknown, as is his role in moving the county seat. Lynn had, however, evidently disposed of any lots he wished to sell in Springfield before the move to Mount Vernon; at least, his name does not appear on the list of citizens who recovered damages when the legislature passed an act early in May, 1827, for "relief of property owners" because the seat of government had moved away.41 Throughout his tenure as state legislator Lynn had con- tinued to keep Frederick Rapp informed of pending legisla- tion of interest to the Harmony Society and to ascertain the society's opinion about various political Apparently Lynn also had business dealings with the Harmonists, as, for example, when he gave Rapp first chance to buy the ferry at Diamond Island. Harmonie Apl 13th-1818 Dear Sir- I have this day been in Harmonie to see you but am disappointed my business with you is simply thus I am call'd on by Mr. Ingram of the red Banks to know my price for the Right I hold on the Ferry at the Diamond Island-but having some conversation with you on that

:+'I See, for example, ibid. (1816-1817), 22; ibid. (1817-1818), 40. 1"For the sale of Harmonkt holdings in Indiana to Robert Owen and the Harmonists' return to Pennsylvania see Arndt, George Rapp's Harmony Society, 298. See also Indiana, Laws (1825), 90. Goodspeed, History of Posey County, 412. See also index to Com- missioner's Record Book B (November, 1820-May, 1829), Posey County Courthouse. 42 See, for example, Arndt, Documentary History, I, 796. Dann Lynn 185 subject, I would wish to know whether you have any pretentions on that subject or not. I also would wish you to purchase the fraction above which will be entered in a few days by Mr. Ingram and Co.-if you do not enter it- I can have a fair price for the Right I hold at that place I would be more than satisfied if you would secure the fraction above, &c. I am sir yours &c. Dann Lynn43 This business venture did not materialize; Lynn retained the ferry and moved his family to nearby West Franklin, Indiana, before the 1830 federal census was Another “good neighbor” opportunity arose when Frederick Rapp was equip- ping one boat to carry flour and pork to New Orleans and wanted a second one. On that occasion Lynn agreed to sell his boat and pork, as Rapp reported to John L. Baker, the local merchant who was in St. Louis on Lynn’s association with Frederick Rapp and the Harmo- nists, as revealed in their correspondence, corroborates Pitts’ assertion that Lynn was sociable and charitable to his friends and constituency. Such pleasantness, however, apparently did not lead to financial success, although Lynn did have sources of income not available to everyone of that day. He was, for example, allowed thirty-five dollars at the November, 1815, term of court for his duties as associate judge. The number of months he worked for this thirty-five dollars is not known; but, on May 14, 1817, he was allowed only twelve dollars for the full year 1816.46 During the constitutional convention he received two dollars per day and two dollars for each twenty- five miles traveled to and from Corydon and from and to his place of residence by the most usual He received like remuneration during the three sessions he served in the In- diana legislat~re.~~ After August 11, 1817, when Lynn applied for and was granted permission to keep a ferry across the Ohio River above Diamond Island,49he must have had the income from

43 Ihid., 496. 44 U.S.,Fifth Census, 1830, population schedules for Posey County, Indiana (National Archives Microfilm Publication No. 19, roll 29), IV, 206. 45 Arndt, Documentary History, I, 613. 40 Commissioner’s Record Book A (March, 1817-August, 1820), 14, Posey County Courthouse ; Goodspeed, History of Posey County, 333. 47 “Journal of the Convention of the Indiana Territory,” 62. 4X Indiana, Senate Journal (1817-1818), 19. 49 Commissioner’s Record Book A (March, 1817-August, 1820), 37, Posey County Courthouse. 186 Indiana Magazine of History

the ferry. As the Old Northwest was opened up for settle- ment, many eastern families began to move West, and most of these settlers probably carried enough hard cash to pay for ferrying their livestock, personal belongings, and families across major streams. The ferry rates for Posey County had been set at the January, 1815, term of the commissioner’s court, and each ferry operator was allowed to charge for each wagon, one hundred cents; for each horse, twelve and a half cents; for each man and horse, twenty-five cents; for each head of neat cattle and each footman, twelve and a half cents; and for each man “that may cross said River between the 1st day of January and first day of April,” thirty-seven and a half cents.5o Even though an associate judge, a state representative, and the operator of a ferry should have had cash money, Lynn’s fortunes seemed to ebb and flow. On May 25, 1818, he paid off a six months note for $129.50 which he had borrowed from Frederick Rapp only seventeen days before.51 At least he kept his credit good with this influential voter. At the September, 1818, term of the Posey County Circuit Court, however, William P. Robinson and Darius North com- plained “of Daniel Lynn who signs his name Dann Lynn” that he had received $150 in advance and had agreed under penalty of $300 to deliver pork. They accused Lynn of “contriving and fradulently intending craftily and subtilly to cheat and defraud” them. The case was settled on March 8, 1819, when Lynn recovered his costs and charges.i2 Later, between 1820 and 1830, after he was no longer in the legislature, Lynn was sued for debts at least eight times and sued others twice.53 He filed a declaration August 15, 1821, requesting further credit on the remaining balance he owed the Indiana land office at Vincennes on the land at West Franklin which he had taken over from Lawrence St~ll,~~but this was fairly standard among debtors to the land office in those days. Quite aside from Lynn’s income and list of debts, one is reminded by the following note to Frederick Rapp at New Harmony that the economy was not dependent on cash:

f,o Deed Record A (January, 1815-February, 1819), 54, Recorder’s Office. ibid. 31 Ibid.. 272. 52Circujt Court Order Book A, Civil Causes, 182, County Clerk’s Office, ibid. 53 Ibid., 151-224, Book B, 189-295.

j4 Deed Book G, 453, Recorder’s Office, ibid. Dann Lynn 187

Posey County, May 11, 1815 Please to let the Bearer Thomas Ridley have one Dollar in your store and charge the same to my account and oblige. Yours D. Lynn55 In addition, on September 27, 1817, Lynn wrote to John L. Baker at New Harmony: Dear Sir Please to let the Bearer hereof Willis Barton have Ten Dollars in your Store and place the same to my account and oblige your real friend and Humble Sert. Dann Lynn N.B. I am busy in getting out my wheat at this time. I shall be to see you and if you will take Beef Cattle shall be able to pay you &c. D. Lynn56 Since Pitts describes Lynn as having at one time been a man of considerable wealth consisting of cheap land and slaves, Lynn’s attitude toward slavery must also be considered. A man who was quick to sue, who was often sued by others, and who obviously felt at home in the courts would have been expected to record legally the freeing of his slaves, if, indeed, he brought more than one with him from Kentucky. Yet searches in Posey, Warrick, Knox, and surrounding counties have not shown that Lynn recorded the freeing of any slaves after the territory was admitted as a state in 1816. He did free one slave, Joe, on July 14, 1829, when he went before Posey County Justice of the Peace Presley Pritchet and swore that he wished Joe to be enfranchised and that he had always intended this. He recounted that he was making Joe’s freedom a matter of public record at this particular time because his father, James Lynn of Hopkins County, Kentucky, was now deceased, and his father’s heirs intended to claim Joe under the act relative to fugitives from labor and to take him into slavery. Lynn set forth the circumstances under which the title to Joe had been left in his father’s name. In 1805 or 1806 he had given his father money and property sufficient to purchase Joe and took a bill of sale for him in his father’s name. This was done because Dann Lynn was

55 Dann Lynn to Frederick Rapp, May 11, 1815, microfilm reel 7, Rappite Documents (Workingman’s Institute, New Harmony, Indiana). The original of this letter is located in the Archives, Old Economy, Pennsylvania. 56 Arndt, Docurnentavy Histovy, I, 397. 188 Indiana Magazine of History

contemplating going to Indiana Territory where there might be emancipation laws which could deprive him of his property. With the papers in his father’s name he could have taken Joe to some slave state at any time to sell him. For all the ensuing years, however, Joe had remained with him, and Lynn had conceived an affection for the black man and said that he had always wished him to be enfran~hised.~?The 1820 federal census for Posey County shows one slave, age four- teen to twenty-five, living in the Lynn household.58 This was one of only eleven slaves in the By the time the 1830 federal census was recorded, the black male listed with the Lynn family is shown as free and between the ages of twenty- four and thirty-six.6n Lynn’s attitude toward his personal slave was consistent with his stand against slavery when he voted yea to inserting the following words into the Indiana Constitution of 1816:

But as the holding any part of the human family in slavery or in- voluntary servitude, can only originate in usurpation and tyranny, it is the opinion of this convention, that no alteration of this constitution ought ever to take place, so as to introduce slavery or involuntary servitude in this state, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party has been duly convicted.61 Lynn was also involved as a peacemaker in a controversy at West Franklin, Indiana, concerning two “mulatto” children, John and Isaac Goddard. Goodspeed’s History of Posey County states: “it was in 1822, when the [Goddard] boys were six years old, that they were kidnaped by Acquilla Ford and Jack Lynn, members of a gang of adventurous and des- perate men, who congregated at Diamond Island, later known

57 Circuit Court Order Book A, Civil Causes, 401, County Clerk’s Office, Posey County Courthouse. 58 Willard Heiss, comp., 1820 Federal Census for Indiana (Indian- apolis, 1966), 252. 59 U.S., Fourth Census, 1820, population schedules for Posey County, Indiana (National Archives Microfilm Publication No. 33, roll 13), I, 321. (10 U.S., Fifth Census, 1830, population schedules for Posey County, Indiana (National Archives Microfilm Publication No. 19, roll 29), IV, 206. “Journal of the Convention of the Indiana Territory,” 38. For the final version of the statement concerning slavery as it appeared in the Constitution of 1816 see Kettleborough, Constitution Making in In- diana, I, 117. The constitution reads: “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state, otherwise than for the punish- ment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Nor shall any indenture of any negro or mulatto hereafter made, and executed out of the bounds of this state be of any validity within the state.” Dann Lynn 189

as West Franklin.” Patrick Calvert, William Rogers, and Joe Cater, “bold and fearless spirits,” gathered a band of twenty- seven men, went to the town, and demanded to search the entire area. The villagers, however, joined with Ford’s gang, and a bloody battle ensued until Dann Lynn stopped the fight, apparently keeping Calvert, who had been wounded, in his own home until Calvert’s health improved. Later, Cater or- ganized another company of forty picked men and not only searched West Franklin (this time without opposition) but also crossed into Kentucky and scoured the entire neighbor- hood without finding the boys. About 1824 Calvert visited the Red River country in Arkansas and found that the boys had been sold into slavery. He at once instituted legal pro- ceedings to recover their freedom and returned them to their mother. She then bound them to Calvert, who “had been wounded in their behalf and who rescued them from a life of servitude.”62 A history of Vanderburgh County published in 1889 gives a shorter but similar account of the incident, call- ing Jack Lynn a “de~perado.”~~ Neither of the county histories gives the ending of this story. The Posey County Circuit Court Order Book C shows that John P. Lynn was indeed charged with assault and bat- tery and intent to murder in 1822. Among other citizens charged in connection with the episode were William and Willis Stallings, Louis B. and William Kincheloe, Francis W. Rowlett, John Henson, and Isum William Kincheloe had married Jack Lynn’s sister, Margaretta.flfi In the August, 1826, term of court it was considered by the court that all counts should be “dismissed and the defendants go hence with- out delay.”66 John P. “Jack” Lynn was the son of Dann Lynn.67 Pitts ends his biography of the Honorable Dann Lynn by listing five of Lynn’s grandchildren who were still living in 1889. Thomas and Dann Martin were children of Rachel Lynn who married Alfred Martin in Hopkins County, Ken-

62 Goodspeed, History of Posey County, 300-302. 63 History of Vandevburgh County, Indiana (reprint, Evansville, 1967), 691. 64 Circuit Court Order Book C, 70, County Clerk’s Office, Posey County Courthouse. e5 Marriage Books 1 and 2 (1815-1847), 33, ibid. 66 Circuit Court Order Book C, 2, 42, 70, 81, 82, ibid. 07 Hanby, “Eliminating of the Lynns,” 11. 190 Indiana Magazine of History

tucky, in 1831. The Martins lived in Posey County, but these two sons moved to Illinois; and, in 1883 Thomas Martin was in business in Omaha, Gallatin County, Illinois.6R Elias B. Kincheloe and Mary S. Stallings (Mrs. Calvin Stallings) of New Harmony and Dann Kincheloe of Equality, Illinois, were children of William Hopkins Kincheloe and Lynn’s daughter Margaretta who married in Posey County in 1820. Another Lynn daughter, Mary Polly, married Peter Saltzman in Posey County in 1820. The sons of Dann and Nancy Lynn were James D., who married Matilda Keister in 1834; John P. or “Jack,” who married Dorcas Day in 1830; and Bedford B., who married Ann Marrs in 1852. The fourth son and five other daughters mentioned by Pitts have not been identified with certainty.6“ Pitts’ list of Lynn’s grandchildren should have included Bedford B. Lynn’s two sons, Patrick N. and Alfred.?” Several great grandchildren were living in Posey County in 1889, and some descendants are still there today. As far as the items can be verified, then, Pitts’ bi- ography of Lynn seems to be reasonably reliable. It can be concluded that Lynn operated a flatboat as well as a ferry and that he was a farmer, a trader, and an associate judge, as well as a state legislator. As an apparently honest politician he took his public responsibilities seriously; and, even with a limited education, he seems to have maintained good com- munications with his constituency. Lynn was not wealthy or famous, but he was one of many Indiana pioneers who played a significant, if not a major, role in Indiana’s development.

68 History of White County, Illinois (Chicago, 1883), 792. 69 This list of Lynn’s descendants has been compiled from various sources, especially McPherson, Kincheloe, McPherson, and Related Fami- lies, and Nanby, “Eliminating of the Lynns.” 70 Order Book 2, p. 239, County Clerk’s Office, Posey County Court- house.