Dann Lynn: Indiana Pioneer Mary Smith Fay* Dann Lynn was a delegate from Posey County to Indiana Territory’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 Ohio 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 Indianapolis, 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 Kentucky 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.