Tri-County Historical Itinerary J. W. WHICKCAR,Attica, Acting as Guide STOP NO. 1 Near the Home of Mr. Orrie Milligan on the Independence Road In the act of the legislature creating Fountain County in the session of 1825 and 1826, the following proceeding rela- tive to what afterwards became Warren County was made: Section 7. All that part of the County of Wabash lying north and west of the said County of Fountain, shall be and here- after is attached to the said County of Fountain for the pur- pose of civil and criminal jurisdiction. Act approved De- cember 30, 1825. Warren County remained under the juris- diction of Fountain County until the session of the legislature in 1826 and 1827, at which session Warren County was cre- ated. Daniel Sigler, of Putnam County; James Strange, of Parke County ; Thomas Lampson, of Montgomery County ; James Paige, of Tippecanoe County, and Robert Wilson, of Vigo County, were appointed commissioners for the purpose of fixing the permanent seat of justice of the new County of Warren. All of the above named commissioners, with the ex- ception of Mr. Wilson, convened at the home of Enoch Farmer on the first Monday in June, 1827. Enoch Farmer’s cabin where the commissioners met was one of the first to be constructed in Warren County as a permanent home for an actual settler and stood within twenty feet of where we are now standing. The little brick spring house here at the north of the road covers the spring where Enoch Farmer got the water for his family; it was this spring of pure, clear water that caused him to build his cabin here. George Hollingsworth had taken up land from the United States Government adjoining the land of Enoch Farm- 37 38 Indiana Magazine of History er, and George Hollingsworth and Enoch Farmer together had planned to lay off a town to be designated as the county seat of Warren County. The commissioners met at the home of Enoch Farmer as designated in the act and after viewing all of the various eligible sites and taking into consideration the donation of land, money, etc., finally located the county seat on the east fraction of the southwest quarter of section 31, township 22 north, range 7 west. The other sites viewed for the county seat were Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Will- iamsport. In consideration of the location of the county seat upon this tract of land, George Hollingsworth and Enoch Farmer and other citizens of Warren and Fountain counties obligated themselves to donate to the new County of Warren certain specified lands named in the papers, after the county seat had been permanently located on this land and the pay- ment to the county of certain sums of money to be paid when the cornerstone of the new courthouse was laid. And the town of Warrenton was laid out by the county agent, Luther Tillotson, early in July, 1828, just across the road east from where we are now standing. The original survey consisted of seven full blocks of eight large lots each or fifty-six lots, and a public square of almost two acres, and at the same time four additional half blocks each containing four lots, or six- teen additional lots, were platted. So the town of Warrenton consisted of a public square containing two acres of land with a street on each of the four sides and seventy-two lots. Perrin Kint, the surveyor, was assisted by Luther Tillotson, county agent, and John Whelchel, Francis Boggs, and Job Tevebaugh. Enoch Farmer assisted in the survey and boarded the men. This survey was ordered in May, 1828, by the Board of County Justices and at the same time they ordered that on the fifth day of August, 1828, a certain portion of the lots allotted to the county of Warren in the town of Warrenton should be sold at public auction, one-fourth of the purchase price to be paid in advance, and the remainder in three semi-annual install- ments. At this sale of lots free whiskey was furnished for the occasion at the expense of the county. The lots sold for from ten to twenty dollars a lot according to their location. The cash receipts of the sales were eleven dollars and ninety-four Tri-CozLnty Histmkd Itinerary 39 cents. Francis Boggs was paid seventy-five cents for the whiskey furnished by the county. The town of Warrenton only remained the county seat of Warren County until January, 1829, when an act of the legislature removed the seat of justice to Williamsport, to be effective in June following, and in compliance with this act, in June, 1829, the county seat was removed to Williarnsport. All of those who had purchased lots in Warrenton were per- mitted to transfer them for lots similarly situated in Williams- port, and most of the purchasers availed themselves of this provision. No houses were built in Warrenton, and Enoch Farmer, George Hollingsworth, and all others who had do-’ nated land, money, or other property, or service in consid- eration of having the county seat located at Warrenton, were released from all obligations. About three hundred feet northeast of the location 01. the town of Warrenton, on the first day of June, 1791, Colonel John Hardin of Kentucky with sixty mounted infantry and a troop of light horse cavalry under Captain McCoy fought a battle with the Kickapoo Indians known as the Battle of Kick- apoo. Colonel Hardin and his troops had ridden through the high gap with General Charles Scott. Colonel Hardin and Cap- tain McCoy took about four hundred men of an army of seven hundred and fifty which Scott divided at the foot of the Round Top Hills east of West Point. Scott and Wilkinson riding with their army three miles northwest and destroying the town of Ouiatenon, and Colonel Hardin and Captain McCoy riding southwest from the place where the army was divid- ed, surprised the Kickapoo Indians, who were hunting along Flint Creek. The Kickapoo Indians immediately started for their permanent camp in this locality. They crossed the Wa- bash River about a mile north of here at the Kickapoo Ford. This was the best and safest ford along the Wabash from the mouth of the Tippecanoe to the mouth of the Vermilion River because the river was very wide at this point and had a solid rock bottom. In this battle Hardin knew that he killed six warriors, and he captured a number of warriors, women, and children. This battle was fought about five o’clock in the afternoon, and when Hardin rejoined Scott and Wilkinson 40 Indiana Magazine of History about one mile east of West Point at the Round Top Hills at eight o’clock in the evening, he had with him fifty-two pris- oners. William Crumpton, who was the first general merchant in the city of Attica and who is buried in the old cemetery at Attica, was with Hardin and took part in this battle, and aftewards came back to look over and help locate the grounds where the battle was fought, and finding that a town was being laid out (now Attica) on the opposite side of the river not far from the battleground of Kickapoo, Crumpton decided to locate in the new town, and take his chances with it. He was a very active man and high-class citizen. He founded the Methodist Class in Attica, in 1829, and was instrumental in bringing about the establishment of the Central Hospital for the Insane at Indianapolis, the School for the Mutes, and the School for the Blind. He was an active supporter of doctors John Evans and Isaac Fisher, of Attica, and Doctor Jones, of Covington in establishing these institutions at Indianapolis. STOP NO. 2 Rock College The schoolhouse located on the west side of the road has always been known as Rock College. One of the first schools taught in Warren County was taught near here. It derived its name from the large boulder you see on the east side of this highway. This boulder is not as large as the one on the Harrison Trail which, before it was destroyed, was known as “Harrison’s Tea Table”. That boulder was perhaps one-third larger than this at Rock College. Since the destruction of “Harrison’s Tea Table” this is the largest boulder in Warren County, and perhaps the largest boulder in the state, brought from the north by the glacier flow. STOP NO. 8 Kate’s Pond Originally this body of water was known as Lake Kicka- poo. It then covered more than a hundred acres of land and was much deeper than it now is. It is the furthest south of Tri-County Hist& Itinerary 41 any of the Indiana lakes, and in the native wild, is said to have been a beautiful lake, full of fish, and a great resort for the Indians. The farmers round about in draining their lands have diverted much of the original shed waters that used to run into this lake carrying it in different directions and away from the lake, thus lowering the water surface of the lake until it now covers but sixty acres of land and is quite shallow. On account of the land’s being cleared around it, and the ground broken, the soil washing in is filling the lake. It was called Lake Kickapoo until 1812, and is only about two hun- dred feet northwest to Kickapoo Creek, which helped to make it a popular and much frequented camping ground for the Indians.