Mckinges, distraught at leaving her leader Calvin Fletcher thought the mills, and a distillery. In many ways he hom , plan ted sprigs of live-forever homestead and surrounding lands may be seen as a prototype of the for each of her six children around beautiful, and newspaper owner entrepreneur. His enterprises ranged the homestead. She planted the rapid­ athaniel Bolton was enchanted by from small country stores to one in ly growing shrub, she later recalled, the view of "fifteen or twenty merry Indianapolis for which he assumed because she wanted no one else to live plowmen" spied from the second floor responsibility after the death of John in her home. of the house. The Conner home was in 1826. William Conner divided assets By the 1830s William Conner with Marshall and provided his was well established in his own own fa mily with horses and "new world." He had become a goods. Conner's fa mily and the respected figure. He made occa­ Delaware began their trek in the sional forays into politics, sup­ dwindling summer of 1820. porting Whig policies. He served Conner rode a day with his fami­ three nonconsecutive terms in ly before saying good-bye. thestate legislature from 1829 to With his family's leave-taking 1837. His motives were probably William Conner began to retire more those of a businessman his balancing act. The years than a public servant. He was a from 1820 to 1823 were ones of fo unding member of the In­ tran ition. Within three months diana Historical Society, but of his fa mily's departure he mar­ appear to have done little be­ ried Elizabeth Chapman, possi­ yond signing the charter. bly the only young, eligible white Conner, however, did not en­ woman in the area, taking her tirely abandon his old world. In into the home he had shared addition to aiding Trowbridge, with Mekinges and his family. He Conner still dealt with Indian and brother John, who had re­ affairs. He was an interpreter cently re turned to the area, set for treaties with the Miami in about acquiring land and setting Eugene Darrach 1826 and the in bought the Conner house up business ventures. William 1832. Also in 1832 he served as in 1915. Conner's tentative steps into the a guide fo r a group of wh ite world soon became deter­ militia who went off to take part mined strides. in the . The n 1823 Conner began the conflict being all but over by construction of his brick home, also the de fa cto center of the newly the time the group reached Chicago, locating it on a terrace edge over­ fo rmed Hamilton County government he led them peaceably back to looking the vVhite River less than when it hosted the county commis­ Indiana. Anecdotal evidence indicates one-half mile south of his log cabin. sioners, circuit court, and served as a that Conner also occasionally dressed ILittle is known about the building "post office." himself and his children as Indians process. Tradition says it was built by From his new home Conner entered and frolicked about in an allempt to craftsmen from the "East." A deposit fully into the teeming world advanc­ frighten visitors. of bricks later uncovered east of the ing toward him. Like his fa ther he be­ Seven of the ten children of William house supports the claim that the came a facilitator of settlement. He­ and Elizabeth Conner were born in bricks were fired on-site. The result sometimes with partners-acquired their brick home. In 1837, his sixtieth was a Federal-style house that became ever-increasing amounts of land, acre­ year, Conner moved his fam ily to a fo cus for activity of all sorts in the age that could be profitably sold to Noblesville, his last step into settle­ rapidly expanding area. new settlers. He and Josiah Polk plat­ ment. He continued to oversee his Trowbridge-who was fo rced to ted Noblesville in 1823, shrewdly do­ business interests, but eased into his send to for a Delaware who could nating land fo r the county seat, and final role as a pioneer patriarch. Life help answer his questions, so success­ later Alexandria and Strawtown. At one slowed considerably. Many of the trails fu l had been the removal effo rts-was point he owned approximately fo ur Conner helped blaze were now roads; not the only visitor to the home. It thousand acres in Hamilton County. many of the fo rests he roamed had became a stopping point fo r many In addition to farming and stock­ been cut away to reveal towns when he travelers, businessmen, and poli ti­ raising he expanded his business inter­ died in 1855. The Conner house, ris­ cians. Indianapolis lawyer and civic ests by owning or investing in stores, ing out of the prairie, remained.

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