In order to get a clearer picture of this section as it existed in the early pioneer days, blot out all existing roads and the community of Mt. Gilead where it touches upon this section.

The Benny Gray school house set in the northwest corner of No. 1.

Your county map does not show the break in the sectional lines, but this school would have set astride the line if it had not been for this break; about 60 rods east of the school house and close to the north line in No. 1 was a log cabin that many of you remember.

Charles Jacobs states that this cabin was moved from the Amos Garretson farm sometime in the early 1880s, so I have crossed it out as an original site.

This land is now owned by Ed Haines. At one time a toll gate and general store stood up in the northeast corner of No. 2. This would have placed it across the road from the present church.

This has little to do with the early history, for the toll gate did not come into existence until after the Knightstown and Pendleton turnpike was built in 1870.

Down in No. 6 about 20 rods east of the west line of No. 6 and about the same distance north of the midsection line is another cabin site.

This is on land now owned by Fred Harrison.

Many of you will remember it as the Jay Boston farm.

On down in No. 14 about 40 rods north of the county line is another site. A few of the old logs are still there. This was the Madison Keller home.

Mr. Keller entered a quarter section in the early 1830s. This land is owned by Mrs. William Gard.

This is all the cabin sites I was able to locate in the west half of Section 1.

I could find no trace of any early trail or road that passed through here, although some sort of an outlet must have existed for the Gray place, and the cabin in No. 6 and the road may have angled south and east along the general route of the present road.

This would have served the Keller place and also a site in No. 15.

Some say there was a cabin here, and others say no.

The tax records of 1843 show that Hardy and Brown, a real estate firm, owned this quarter section, and it is possible that this land was not developed until after the sawmills came in.

Up in the northwest corner of No. 9 is a sort of sugar loaf mound.

In early settler days this was surrounded by swamps and low marshy ground, and it is improbable that any trail or road passed near this location.

Several years ago Cash Keller excavated part of this mound for gravel, and in near the center he uncovered three human skeletons.

Two were of matured persons, and the other was of a child.

The manner of their burial indicated that they may have been white people, as they were laid out in fan shape with their feet close together.

All known Indian burials in this community are in a sitting position, but whether white or Indian, time has erased all trace except that found in their graves.

I have mentioned roads or trails angling southeast out of this section and Section 2.

I base this (on) evidence that (I)have found and the fact that the Knightstown road was one of the oldest roads in this part of the country and Nashville, which is only one and one-quarter miles below the county line was the first trading center in this community.

It may surprise some of you to know that this village was plotted and laid out for a town in 1834.

There were 32 lots in the original plot. This was only four years after Pendleton and Huntsville were plotted.

The number of lots and streets indicated that Daniel Blakely and John Kennedy, who partitioned for the town, had high expectations or that several people were living in the community at that time.

I again want to mention the fact that these two men represented families from the Cuberland Gap region.

Taking up the east half of this section, I think it best to forget the cabin site in No. 15 but in Section 12 some 10 rods north of the south line and about 40 rods west of the east section line was a cabin site.

Some of the older people may remember the Frank Abner family who lived here.

This land is now owned by Floyd Reger.

About 20 rods north of the midsection line and the same distance west of the east section line in No. 8 was the Grandma Ebbert home in the same square, up close to the quarter section line, and about 30 rods from the east was another place that I found evidence that indicated a possible cabin site.

I found no color in the broken pieces of china picked up here, but pieces of bottles and other glass looked as if they had been in a fire. So far I have found no one who could remember a house at this site.

Mrs. Ellis Ebbert owns this farm at the present time.

Up in No. 4 about 20 rods from the north line and the same from the east line is a cabin site that I had hunted for several times before locating it.

David Combs lived here at one time, also a family by the name of VanMeater.

Thomas King Jr. owns this farm now. His abstract shows that Elias Fisher entered this land Sept. 3, 1833.

In 1839, Fisher sold to Moses Bunker, who was the grandfather of Miles Bunker, Smith Bunker, Alice Bunker and Rebecah Bunker Fesler.

I mention these names as they were known to many of you.

One of the few log houses still standing in Madison County is at the Anthony Reger home; while this house has not been used as a dwelling for 70 years or more, it is in a good state of preservation.

It is hardly necessary to say that this is located in the northwest corner of No. 3.

The Mt. Giliad church stands in the northwest corner of the same square. The old church stood diagonally across the road from the present church.

It was a Methodist church and after being disbanded for some time it was moved across to the present site of the E.U.B. Mt. Gilead church.

Mrs. Jesse Hoss owns the land at this time. If you have followed me in locating cabin sites on your sectional square, you can readily see that the present road in and around this section could have been placed in the early period of the community.

We know that there were cabins built in some places where it was impossible for a road to have reached them, but where a string of cabins stretch out along some general line, such as those on the east side of this section and others that I know of in adjoining sections, you are convinced that some road or trail had to pass in that direction.

To get a better idea of what this community was like 130 years ago, the adjoining sections in Adams Township should be worked out, as there would be much that would tie in with our story.

For instance, I have heard about an old road that wound along this township line connecting the early communities of Ovid and Nashville.

This would have linked the old Cadiz road with the Nashville trail.

Also a story is told about a road out of this neighborhood connecting up with the Mendon road.

I wish those of you who are interested would help work this out.

The present landowners in Section 1 besides the ones I have mentioned are Homer Haston and Charles Shields. Fifty years ago it was James G. Boston, George Keller, Anthony Reger, Seigle Reger, Ellis Ebbert, Margaret Boston, Dave Ebbert and Madison Brooks.

In 1843, we find these names: Charles Druery, Aeeon Baid or Boid, Miles Birnard, Moses Bunker, Hardy and Brown and Madison Keller.

Next time we will take Section 36, Township 18, Range 7, East. Don’t let these figures fool you, for this is the adjoining section on the north of Section 1.