history of this county we find the names of William Conner, who was the founder of Connersville, in Fayette county, and represented that county in the Legislature of 1821-2, and came here a few years later. Wm. Warwick was the first Sheriff of the county. Gen. John D. Stephenson, who was born in Lewis county, Ky., in 1801, came to this county, or rather to White River, in 1822; he and his good wife are still living, honored relics of the olden times. Judge Jonathan Colburn, who was born in Somerset county, Pa., in 1799, came first to White River in 1820, in the surveying service, with Major John Hendricks, the father of our present Governor. Judge Colburn in many respects is a remarkable man. He served extensively in surveying the sectional boundaries of a number of the eastern counties of the State, and came to this county to settle in 1823. He assisted in raising the first log cabin which was built in Noblesville, in 1824, by Dr. John Finch. He served the county as Associate Judge, and afterward as Sheriff. In some way or other the Judge has been associated with the courts of this county ever since. At the present period, 1874, he is still, for his age, a vigorous minded, hale old man, having outlived the wife of his youth and nearly all of his children; but, like many a worthy relic who has gone before him, he is now blessed with a second wife, and seems

As young in years and full of joy,

As though life was but a happy spring tide."

H. G. Finch, who was born in New York in 1807, and who is the son of John Finch who had settled here in 1819, might almost be said to be "to the manor born." He has witnessed every step of the civilization of the country, and while he has figured for many years as one of the first business men of the county seat, he yet carries about him the energy of an active life.

Dr. John Finch was the first physician who settled in the county, but a few brief years carried him to his grave.

A. J. Lacy was the first white child born in the county. Malvina, daughter of Gen. John D. Stephenson, was the first female child born in Noblesville, which occurred in the year 1825. The first male child was a son of Col. F. B. Cogswell, who is now Col. Milton Cogswell of the U. S. Army, and at this time is living in Indianapolis.

The first Sunday school was taught at "Horse Shoe Prairie " as early as 1820 by Curtis Mallorey, a Presbyterian.

The first day school was taught by Miss Sarah Finch about the same time.

The first baptism administered was in White River, the subjects being Margaret Finch and Sally Finch, and the first marriage in the town was performed by 'Squire F. B. Cogswell, Mr. Goe and Miss Garrett being the happy contracting parties. The first marriage of the settlement, however, was William Conner and Elizabeth Chapman.

Within a year after the organization of the county, the county seat was located, and called Noblesville in honor of James Noble, United States Senator. The removal of the civil records and of the court from the cabin of William Conner, up the river five miles, was of course an easy work, and in a little while several cabins were erected, and the town of Noblesville began to be known as a place of some business and promise.

The rich soil and the beautiful plain on which the town was located, in a short time drew many families to settle in it, and though for many years the Finch's, Conner's and Stephenson's were the leading families of the place, the numerous immigrations soon gave it as well as the county considerable geographical importance. As early as 1830 Noblesville had grown to be quite a village. It had its courts and civil magistrates, its merchants, lawyers and doctors, who through the wants of the country, the litigations of the courts, and the autumnal miasms of the White River bottoms, managed to keep up the usual

show of civilization, and to furnish a living for all such officials. The necessaries of life were of course generally cheap, and they dwelt pretty much as one people.

A year or so after this the Jackson men started up a printing office and published a paper called The Little Western, Lucius H. Emmons being the editor. Of course they soon made things rather hot around the heads of those on the other side of politics, and it was not long until a company was organized and another paper was instituted, called the Intelligencer. Both of these newspapers must have had a hard time to live; but as the fight waxed warm between them, one of the stockholders of the Intelligencer, becoming a little tired of being bled so often to keep it up, suggested the happy idea that they could kill off their Jackson opponents with a great deal more certainty if they would only run the type of their offices into bullets and use their rifles on them. But like all other paper wars the revelations of coming events taught these rural parties wisdom, and they quit the fight for the time being at least, well satisfied that it was a little difficult to attempt to run newspapers with wind only. The newspaper history of the county generally would show that the profession had been a precarious one throughout, for the changes have been numerous both in publishers and editors, and in many instances, as it has been also elsewhere, the dignity of the Tripod, like the old woman's marriage life, has only had a "poor house" finality.

And yet it will not be denied that in the citizenship of the county through all its history, the standard of respectability has been quite a substantial one. Whether in the town or county, the order of intelligence as well as morality has been almost uniformly of the better school, and the consequence has been that Hamilton county has always been able to present as fair an average of citizenship as any other in the commonwealth.

George Shirts kept the first hotel ever known in the county.

His wife was a daughter of Solomon Finch, and it was said of her that she knew how to bake as nice a corn pone as could be ate between Indianapolis and the Wabash. Mr. Shirts erected the first frame house ever built in Noblesville. At his "tavern" the whole court used to domicile during its session, and Judge Wick used to remark that "it was the best corn pone stopping place in the Fifth Judicial District." George Shirts died in

1840.

Among the physicians of the county, Dr. Raymond W. Clark, who is yet in active life as a retired physician and resident of Noblesville, has officiated with no ordinary success in many cases of human suffering. Though now classed among "the fathers in materia medica," the doctor is still "dealing out pills" to his special friends as if resolved on doing good with all his harness on. The doctor has a fine library to which he is still deeply devoted.

Dr. T. T. Butler, who passed away in 1870, had been since 1832 a practicing physician in the town and county, and to his medical skill and kind attentions many no doubt have been indebted for the improvement of their health and the continuation of their lives. The personal dignity and high integrity of Dr. Butler had given him a high standing both as a citizen and as a Christian gentleman, and when he died, in August, 1870, at the age of 65, his death was universally and deeply lamented.

The farm of Charles Lacy, some three miles below town, has been known for many years as one among the best in the county. Mr. Lacy was classed as a farmer with the first among the honest and economical. This memorable example, it may be said, still shines. His valuable farm is now the property of his son John, who still holds it in cultivation.

The first office built in the county seat, which was erected for the clerk of the county, is yet standing on the southwest corner of the public square. It is of brick, and is some fifteen feet

square and one story high. It is said that when they got this office room plastered the exhileration of the citizens was so great that they celebrated the event with a big Indian dance, which, as one tells us, "would have done honor to the best days of Davy Crocket."

When Dr. John Finch died, in 1826 or 7, he was succeeded in his practice by Dr. Amos Palmer, who was for many years a successful and popular physician, and died about 1848.

An interesting story is told of the first landlord of Noblesville, Mr. George Shirts. Of course the pristine village was without a market house, and the good lady of the hotel sometimes was a little pushed to supply her table with meat. On one occasion, when she had company, she said to her husband, "George, what will I do for meat for dinner?" "How long can you wait?" he asked. "Why, half an hour," she responded. The landlord, who was a shoemaker, threw off his apron and seized his rifle, and went out of the village about five hundred yards to a big spring toward the river, where in ten minutes he shot a nice young buck, and in twenty minutes more he was back again with as fine a supply of meat as any market of the world could have afforded.

The bar of Hamilton county has always held a high rank among the other bars of the State. It is true but few of the members of this bar have ever won much of a State reputation, because but few of them ever turned politicians. For the most part they have aimed to be lawyers and nothing else. The just settlement of judicial difficulties they have known was the legitimate purpose of their calling, and to this end the most of them. have devoted both their time and energies. Earl S. Stone is now the oldest lawyer at this bar. He is perhaps 60 years of His peculiar distinction has been as a special pleader, and in this role but few lawyers who have plead at this bar have excelled him.

age.