A Yorktown native, Dr. Theodore Sidney, was the son of Yorktown physician Carl H. Wright. His brother, Marcellus Phillip Wright was also a doctor. Theodore practiced in Chicago for 40 years. He is buried in the Yorktown Cemetery.
The PDF below is an Ancestry file that has information about Dr. Wright and his family. The source documents are listed as well.
Wright-Dr.-Theodore-S-Wright-Ancestry-file-JH
Dr. Carl Huston Wright had a medical practice in Yorktown from 1903 until his death in 1938. He graduated from Indiana Medical College in 1903. He and his wife, Josephine (Barido) are buried in Yorktown Cemetery. His two sons also became doctors: Theodore Sidney Wright and Marcellus “Cell” Phillip Wright.
Theodore Wright practiced in Chicago for 40 years but he and his wife are buried in the Yorktown Cemetery. Marcellus was a teacher at Yorktown High School for 5 years before going into the medical field. He practiced in Montana, Chicago, and Peoria, Illinois. He is buried at Elm Ridge Cemetery. Although the big 1913 Patterson Building/IOOF fire said that Dr. Wright’s office in Yorktown was destroyed by the fire.
The PDF file below is a list of the Ancestry file for Dr. Wright. There are records listed there that can further research he and his family.
Wright-Carl-Huston-MD-Ancestry-file-JH
The following articles describe a troubling racial incident in Indianapolis and, later, Yorktown in the 1970’s. Fifty years later, I think we can speak to this part of our local history.
The 1960’s and 1970’s were a time of great political unrest and tension. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1965. People were dying in Vietnam nightly on our television. Although the Vietnam War ended for the U.S. in 1975, the fight for civil rights continues even today.
In 1970, we lived in an emotional tinder box. The first article was on the front page of the Daily News on March 20, 1970. It discusses the removal of a black student teacher, Myron Richardson, from teaching at Yorktown High School. Richardson’s removal happened after a semi-state brawl in which black students from Indianapolis fought with white Yorktown students post game. Four Yorktown students were beaten.
The game was win for Muncie Central against Crispus Attucks in Indianapolis. The Yorktown team wasn’t playing.
BSU Junior, Richardson had nothing to do with the fight, he happened to be the only black person within Yorktown Schools. Yorktown had never had a black student or a black teacher prior to this time. YHS Principal Vories dismissed the black student teacher but under pressure reinstated him days later. The dismissal was to ease tensions at the school said Vories. Although some said that there were no tensions at YHS until Richardson was dismissed.
Many saw the dismissal of the student teacher as racist and not a safety issue at all. I applaud the students who stood up for Mr. Richardson, the vocal teachers, and Dwight Hoover, BSU historian, for trying to ensure Richardson was reinstated and black BSU students would be treated equally as they went to communities to student teach.
Then YHS teacher, Larry Carmichael said that “the [Yorktown] community was a privileged community money-wise but culturally deprived.” I would have to agree with him.
There is history to back Carmichael’s statement. According to one older, lifelong Yorktown resident, Yorktown was a Sundown Town. That meant that only whites were allowed in the town after dark. I’m unsure of how long Yorktown was a Sundown town–whether by legal means or not.
In doing research on land sales in Yorktown, I see on deeds even in the mid 1960’s that state the property may not be sold to a black person.
A historical fact: when Indiana was founded, the original 1851 state constitution barred people of color from settling in the state with some exceptions. Eventually that was overturned or repealed by the Supreme Court during Reconstruction following the Civil War.
On the other hand, slavery was also outlawed in Indiana (with some exceptions). Indiana also outlawed indentured servitude calling it “near slavery”.
Please add to the discussion below. What do you remember about this specific incident in 1970? I caution in advance that absolutely NO RACIST or HATEFUL statements will be tolerated.
One final note about our community’s progress towards diversity. We are now all welcoming but the 2010 census shows that 96% of our population are white. The black population was only 1.5% in 2010. About the same for the Asian population. If the same as the nation, there would be about a 10% black population in our town. The continuing effects of being a Sundown town are evidenced even today. The 2020 census will be interesting.
A footnote: I did check on Myron Kenneth Richardson to see what became of him. He is now retired from Human Resources at GM and was also the Executive Director of Flanner House in Indianapolis, a non-profit which feeds the hungry and helps people become self-reliant. He lives in Carmel with his family. I may try to interview him in the future.
By Julie Musick Hillgrove
The sewing machine moved quickly along the fabric as I constructed my first year 4-H project at the Home Economics room at Yorktown School in the mid-1960’s.
“I hear someone who needs a speeding ticket”, yelled the instructor. Of course, she meant me—the 10-year-old, heavy-footed, sewing speedster, who just wanted the project done.
The project was a simple, green and white-checked apron. Unable to keep the machine stitching perfectly straight stiches, I was asked to sew, rip out the seam, sew it again, rip out the seam, etc. Making the apron didn’t seem very fun at all! At some point the instructor let my less-than-perfect-seam pass because the cheap gingham was barely holding together.
My experience wasn’t unique; the apron was often a child’s first sewing project.
My mother-in-law, Donna Nelson Franklin of Daleville, always wore an apron. She used it to carry “a mess” of green beans from the garden or use its edge as a potholder to grab steaming hot pans. She was the iconic homemaker of the 1940s and 50s. On her, the apron symbolized mother and family. I never saw her in the kitchen without it.
Conversely, my mother, Rosie Meyer Musick, had beautiful, stylish aprons, many acquired through “serving” in weddings. Those aprons from the 60’s were see-through, giving the illusion of wearing an apron without really being an apron.
I learned that the mighty apron could serve many purposes. From Crete’s fertility goddess to the jeweled aprons of Egyptian pharaohs, aprons have been the attire of the religious and the mighty. By the Middle Ages, tradesmen and artisans joined homemakers in wearing aprons. Barbers, butchers, stonemasons, gardeners, butlers—all had their own distinctive aprons that indicated their trade or status. During Bacon’s Rebellion (Virginia 1675-1676), Nathaniel Bacon rounded up the wives of his opposition and had them stand with their white aprons around his men as they dug trenches around the heavily fortified Jamestown. Women were too valuable to the fledgling colony to risk injury. The apron defense worked!
By the time I sewed my little apron in the 1960s, the apron was something grandmother wore. After I baked my 4-H cookies that year, I railed against wearing an apron, especially the green and white-checked one. My aspirations did not include being a homemaker.
Times change. I now wear a black-bibbed apron in my art studio every day, my logo prominent in the center. There are 50 identical aprons for use when I teach art—so no excuses. I confess that I spend an extraordinary amount of time every day looking for my cell phone, so the apron has become a handy place to keep it safe. As I’m looking for said phone, I often forget it’s in my apron pocket. Only once did I take the cell phone from my apron pocket and use its flashlight to look for my cell phone.
Today, the apron is back in vogue, even for me. During this pandemic, people have returned to the kitchen. Millennials want aprons that speak to their individuality. Although I struggled to sew cheap, checkered gingham fabric into a less-than-perfect apron, the experience did not discourage my eventual love of sewing. I have sewn many aprons as gifts. My sewing machine still races along but I rarely rip out a seam. Sewing perfectly is overrated!
Though Memorial Day has past, it is fitting to remember our war veterans. A booklet published by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), was my first reference. It names 18 Revolutionary War veterans buried in Delaware County. More have been identified.
One, William Henry Daugherty, Sr., is buried in Mt. Pleasant Township in the Stewart Cemetery. A government monument was erected through the efforts of Linden B. Moffett for Daugherty. We know of at least two other Revolutionary War veterans in Mt. Pleasant Township: John Quinn, buried in the Yorktown Cemetery, and John Gordon, buried at Hawk Cemetery. Of note buried in Salem Township is Campbell Dale, founder of Daleville. He is laid to rest at Little Dale’s Cemetery. More on these veterans later.
It is fitting to recognize Daugherty at this time because the Yorktown American Legion is dedicating a memorial to him in Yorktown Cemetery in September 2021.
Daugherty was born in 1754 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, son of Michael Daugherty, II and Mary Clarke Daugherty. In August 1777, at the age of 23, William enlisted in the colonial militia in the fight for independence. He began his service under the command of Colonel Thomas Gaddis who led his troops to Fort Swearingen “about one mile from the Monongahela River and about one mile below the mouth of Cheat River.”
He stayed at Fort Swearingen for about three weeks and assisted with the capture of a number of Tories. Two of them, William White and Isaac “Boses” were hanged by Colonel Gaddis but Daugherty cut them down “before they were dead and saved their lives”. Of course, with that insubordination, Daugherty was verbally discharged by Gaddis.
Leaving Ft. Swearingen, he went to Ft. Beach Bottom [in West Virginia] on the Ohio river near the mouth of Buffalo Creek. There he served under Captain Samuel Swindler and Lieutenant Michael Cat guarding against Indian invasion from the east. After several months, about September 1778, he and others volunteered to join Colonel John Evans on a special mission.
Evans led the volunteers to join with General Lachlan McIntosh at Cat Fish, near Ft. Pitt. There, the troops built Ft. McIntosh on Beaver Creek. The fort, large for a frontier setting, at one time had a garrison of about 1,500 men. After building the fort, the group left for the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum River and built Fort Laurens. [Daugherty calls the fort “Lawrence”.] After that fort was completed, Daugherty returned to Ft. McIntosh and remained there until 1883. He received his discharge papers in March 1778 and returned to his home in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.
But his time with the military wasn’t over. By April 1779, he was called out to John Statler’s Fort. Daugherty was with the troops when the fort was abandoned and subsequently burned by Indians in June 1779. Daugherty said that the troops returned after the attack to rebuild the fort. (The structure was used from 1794 to 1850 as a schoolhouse and a church.) For several years later, he was called out frequently for 10 to 15 days-at-a-time in service of the military.
Daugherty married Lydia Cox on September 19, 1776 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Daugherty moved into Clinton County, Ohio (Census 1820), then to Kentucky, and finally into the wilderness of Mt. Pleasant Township in 1829. (After Daugherty’s death, Lydia returned to Clinton County to be near family.)
In 1832, he first purchased Lot 1 in block 25 “in Brown’s Donation” in Muncietown which he sold in 1834 to J.E. Beck for $48.00. [Book 1, page 267]
The congressional act of June 7, 1832 allowed for Revolutionary War soldiers to file for a pension. Daugherty filed for his pension in Delaware County in 1832. Daugherty’s discharge papers had burned. He was only able to prove a little more than nine months of service to the court. He received just $8 a month for his services. Quotes from Daugherty come from this court case.
Public land in sections 14, 15, and 20 was purchased by Daugherty between 1835-37. He sold 40 acres in section 20 to son William Jr. in 1836 for $200 and 80 acres in section 15 to son James for $300.
William Sr.’s children were: 1) William Jr. married Deborah Koontz; residence Delaware County, IN; 2) James married Mary Ann Reed; residence Clinton County, Ohio; 3) Bridget married Mr. Bell; residence Highland County, Ohio; 4) Hannah married David Reed; residence Clinton County, OH; 5) Lydia married Lewis Ludwig Summers (aka. Somers) in 1805 in Highland, OH)
William Daugherty, Sr. died in 1841. He is buried in the Stewart Cemetery on the bank of White river below Yorktown. His wife, Lydia, moved back to Clinton County, Ohio to be near family. She died there on May 9, 1851, at the age of 89 years. Pension records exist for both William Daugherty and his wife.
Newspaper article below 10 Dec 1931, Muncie Evening Press, Page 5
William_Daugherty__Revolutionary_War_hero__PA___Ohio
Who wouldn’t want a nuclear sub during the Cold War? I sure did! The ads were prevalent in the 1960’s when I was a child. The sub came in a box filled with cardboard pieces to assemble. Check out the assembly below.
| BAKER Sarah | HARRISON Myrtle | SEARS Love |
| CAMPBELL Lulu | HENSLEY Helen | SHIDLER Nelly |
| CASE Rilla | HINES Maggie | SHIREY Hazel |
| COX Lizzie | HINES Maggie | SKILLEN Effie |
| CURTIS Eleanor | KAUTZMAN May | SUTHERLAND Fleda |
| DONOVAN Eithel | KIDD Flossie | SUTTON Margaret |
| FENWICK Laura | LEADER Effie | WARFEL Hester |
| FITCH Lulu | LEUDTHE Edith | WARFEL Mayme |
| FRANKLIN Emma | OVERMIRE Belle | WILLIAMSON Bess |
| GOINGS Antoinette * | OVERMIRE Emma * | WILLIAMSON Carrie |
| GOODIN Maude | OVERMIRE Gladys Miss | WILLIAMSON Mary |
| GORDON Rebecca | PRILLAMAN Lulu | WRIGHT Josephine |
| HAHN Mary | PRILLAMAN Mary | WYNANT Elizabeth |
| HALBERT Elizabeth |
Below is a 1908 clipping from the History of Delaware County by William H. Kemper, M.D., about the “Yorktown Woman’s Club”.
Woman’s Clubs were a social movement throughout the United States. Looking through the many bi-monthly programs of the club, it is clear that this local organization was far more than a social meeting. The Yorktown Woman’s Club presented information, ideas, music, drama, and literature of an educational and historical nature. As Kemper states, they were a progressive club.
Our January 2021 newsletter, “Once Upon a Time” featured a 1921 meeting. The women were talented. The program is now interactive. Take a listen here.
The club was organized on February 11, 1893 and the first meeting took place in the home of Mrs. Martha Flowers. Others mentioned are: Cynthia Paulin, Elizabeth Matthe, Minta Greer, Emma Overmire, Virena Colvin, Mayme Warfel, Miss Melissa Helvie, Lizzie Downing, Ella Shirey, Rose Fowler, Mary Williamson, Helen Hensley, Effie Skillen, Hester Warfel, and Mayme Warfel.
Clipping from the column written by Becky Sears Monroe
Several months ago, one of our board members suggested that we might do a mural on the windows just west our building. I talked with Christine Whittemore, president of the Yorktown Council for the Arts, and she suggested that instead of a mural we ask local artists to do individual pictures and make a collage.
We put the word out and several people responded by submitting historic related pictures and paintings. The pieces of art were recently put on display. The response has been good. The historic topic of each picture was selected by the artist with most using pictures from our collection as their inspiration. Topics include the: Interurban Office, Train Depot, Delaware Lake and Hotel, Rock Wool Factory, Solomon Donovan House, Round Barn, Stained Glass Window, The Old Fire Station and Fire Truck, among many others. We still have some spaces for additional art if any of you are interested in adding to the collage.
Our June 12th meeting included information prepared by English 11 Honors classes from Yorktown High School and a Power Point presentation explaining each picture in the collage and its significance in history.
Students from the English 11 Honors classes wrote historic related articles about people, places, and events in the area. These articles were divided into four different categories and then driving tours were created. The information on the tours as well as the students’ papers can be found on their website: Tiger Township Tours. There are brochures on each topic at the Historical Alliance Museum.
We have some new displays inside the museum. Hope you can drop by for a visit in the near future. ~Becky
Photo of the Yorktown Dairy Queen circa 1963 was painted by Julie Musick Hillgrove. Copyright 2021.
Two-hundred-years ago, Delaware County began recording the first permanent white settlements on public land. In 1818, the Treaty of St. Mary’s was signed as six individual treaties with many Native American tribes. The treaties resulted in the purchase of 8,500,000 acres of Native American land within central Indiana by the federal government. The land is often referred to as the “New Purchase” or “public land”.
When I grew up in Yorktown, my playground was the woods along the White River. I had great curiosity about the Native Americans in our area. Who were they? Where did they go? This was Miami territory, although the Miami lived mostly in the north of present-day Indiana. The Delaware tribe, forced from the east, were latecomers to the area, arriving about 1790. The Delaware were here with permission of the Miami.
My brothers, Brad and Chris Musick, often found arrowheads in the woods and field behind our Pleasant Hills subdivision and validated the existence of REAL Indians HERE. I sat often in a special, majestic Sycamore tree branching over the White River, reading and reflecting. It was peaceful and I felt close to the land. I wondered how many had sat in that tree in reflection before me.
Of the tribes signing treaties in 1818, the Delaware (Lenape) reserved the right to occupy their lands on the White River for an additional three years, giving them until 1821 to leave. The tribe moved earlier than the deadline so, by 1820, most Native Americans in present-day Delaware County had moved west of the Mississippi River or to reserves in the north. Watch a film about the Lenape. http://delawaretribe.org/blog/2014/05/24/the-lenape-on-the-wapahani-river/
A few special land reserves were set aside in the treaties for individual Native Americans. One included 320 acres for Samuel Cassman at the confluence of the White River and Buck Creek.
Cassman’s is the earliest recorded land registered in Delaware County on 16 September 1820. It was a prime location in the north half of section 22 in what is now the town of Yorktown, Indiana.
Besides Cassman, there were three other Native American reserves in Mt. Pleasant Township adjoining Cassman’s land: Solomon Tindell, received the southeast quarter of section 15, (160 acres) to the north of Cassman in 1824; Benomi Tindell, received the northwest quarter of section 23, (160 acres), east of Cassman in 1824; and Isaac Wobby, received the south half of section 14, (320 acres).
Wobby claimed to have cleared and planted 10-acres of the land in an 1818 letter but he was tenaciously following the Delaware Indian Agent to Ft. Wayne and then Piqua, Ohio in 1818. Isaac Wobbly died soon after the treaty was signed. There was a court battle over whether his widow, Jane, could inherit and sale his land. His land wasn’t registered in Delaware County until 1832 and was in litigation for many years thereafter. Ultimately, Goldsmith Gilbert purchased all Indian Reserves in Delaware County. He sold Cassman’s reserve to Oliver H. Smith who platted the town of York Town in 1837, naming the town after the Indians from New York.
The 1818 treaty wrongly identifies these individuals as Delaware Indians in full or part. In truth, all but Cassman were Brothertown (Brotherton) Indians.
The New Purchase land was not yet surveyed and could not be legally sold, although that fact deterred few. In May of 1822, the Ft. Wayne land office was created. According to Kemper in A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County Indiana (1908), the land in Delaware County was sold through the Ft. Wayne office with few exceptions.
Many people flooding into the central part of the state were squatters. The pressure was on the tribes in the east to move away from the aggressive trespass of white settlers onto their agreed land reserves. The Native Americans were moved again and again westward.
Who were the Native Americans with land reserves in Mt. Pleasant Township?
While Cassman was said to be half-Delaware, (Cassman’s son refers to his father as a “York” Indian), it is still unknown why he received such a generous grant. The others, the Tindells, father and son, and Wobby, were part of the Brothertown (Brotherton) Indian Nation (Moravian or Christian Munsee)—a Christian tribe formed in 1785 from many related tribes including some Delaware (Lenape), Pequot, Stockbridge-Munsee, Mohican and Oneida.
The Delaware and Miami gave permission to all related tribes in the east to live along the west fork of the White River prior to the treaty but things didn’t quite work out for those invited.
In 1818, while cementing the final details of their move to live along the White River as invited, a delegation from the Brothertown tribes arrived from New York and Massachusetts to Indiana. The Brothertown delegation stopped at villages along the White River, but learning of the treaty, hurried to Ft. Wayne to find Elder Isaac Wobby. Wobby had already gone to observe the negotiations of the Treaty of St. Mary’s, Ohio.
The Brothertown delegation arrived within days of the treaty signing. The Miami and Delaware affirmed the agreement that they had with the Brothertown. Those rights were respected in the treaty. Isaac Wobby’s attendance and tenacity helped ensure the individual land reserves. The reserves were most likely given to sell to finance their move west of the Mississippi. The Stockbridge-Munsee received nothing and had sent no one to St. Mary’s.
None of those receiving a reserve lived on the land except for Cassman and, possibly, Wobby, for a short time. In correspondence, Wobby claimed to have cleared 10-acres on his reserve but wasn’t living on the land at the time of the treaty. There were also reserves for Elizabeth Pet-cha-ka and Jacob Dicks, both Brothertown Indians but these reserves were not in Mt. Pleasant Township.
Rebekah Hackley received a full section of land, plus additional land to compensate for the White River running through her property, 672 acres in all, at “Munsee Town”. The land was “for her inheritance”. The land became known as the Hackley Reserve and encompasses today’s Muncie, Indiana. She was living in Fort Wayne at the time of the treaty.
Although Rebekah Hackley was a granddaughter of Miami Chief Little Turtle (who had numerous grandchildren), her own father, William Wells, had served with the U.S. military after the Revolutionary War. Wells was killed in the 1812 Massacre of Ft. Dearborn (at Chicago). Wells Street, in downtown Chicago, is named for him. Rebekah’s husband, Capt. John “James” Hackley, Jr., negotiated the treaty between the Native Americans and Hackley’s boss, General Anthony Wayne. Hackley was a long-time member of the U.S. military and earlier militias. He likely ensured that he and his wife were treated generously.
Also of note, the Congressional Record of 1820 records a petition from William Conner (THE “Conner” of Conner Prairie Farm) for consideration of a pre-exemption of land in the “Delaware Towns” where he had been living among the Delaware. Conner had married a Delaware woman, Mekinges, daughter of Chief Anderson, and wanted to remain with his wife and rear his six children on lands that he had improved. The petition was tabled.
Unfortunately for Conner, the Delaware Indians had to move. The Delaware had matriarchal linage and Mekinges wanted to move with the tribe west. When the Delaware left Indiana in 1820, Conner rode with his wife and children for a day. He turned around while she continued with the children to Kansas via Missouri, later moving them to Indian Territory in Oklahoma with her tribe. Conner chose to stay in Indiana. He remarried. The six Conner children who were half-Delaware Indian were denied rights to Conner’s estate after Conner’s death.
Under pressure from the United States government in the 1830’s, the remaining Brothertown (Brotherton) in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York, together with the Stockbridge-Munsee, Moheakunucks (Mohican), and some Oneida, moved to Wisconsin, taking ships through the Great Lakes. They remain settled in Wisconsin. Other tribe members went to Ontario, Canada while others, as we see from above, had already settled in Indiana as early as 1790 had moved to Indian Territory via Missouri and Kansas. Some of the Indiana group went to Wisconsin or Canada but most ended their journey in Oklahoma.
One beautiful day, many years ago, I walked from my mother’s house, down the dirt path, with an eye always looking out for arrowheads. I was walking to see the mighty Sycamore tree along the river. I stopped in my tracks in shock. The tree was lying dead—bulldozed among many trees in the woods—a senseless slaughter evidenced by piles of decaying, unused wood. I crawled on top of that downed, old tree and cried. The feeling of loss was great. The “Keep Out” sign I saw in the corner of my eye only added insult. Soon, the landowner approached asked me to leave. The woods and fields of childhood were now off limits. Déjà vu?
~Julie Musick Hillgrove
9132 W Smith St., Yorktown, Indiana 47396
Next to Osborn County Kitchen
Free Parking in the Town Lot
Museum is Open
12 Noon-4:00 PM on Thursdays and Fridays
Other hours by appointment
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