The Story Inn, formerly the Wheeler Store in Story, Indiana
Dr. Story was another one of our early doctors that settled in Brown County. He was born about 1809 in Pennsylvania and first settled in Ohio as a young man. He was first married to Catherine Shelenburger and they had their first and only child, David. After Catherine’s death while still in Ohio. Doc Story married a second time to Jane Morrison with whom he had two more sons, Enoch and George Story.
Dr. Story moved his family from Morgan County, Ohio to Van Buren Township, Brown County about 1851. In that year he got a land grant from the government for 173 acres and settled in what is now the village named after him, Story, Indiana. At the time he received his land grant the county was still considered mostly wild country although most of the Indians had left by this time. The description on his land patent read, “south of the Indian Boundary Line.” If you visit Story, Indiana there is a sign here that marks the area as being on the Ten O’Clock Line boundary.
Doc Story served the area as their physician for about thirty years. He was postmaster of a post office called Valley Hill from 1860 to 1879. This may have been what Story was called before it was named after him. The post office of Story was never officially named until 1882. His sons all married women from Brown County, but didn’t stay here long. His wife, Jane died in 1872 and is buried in the Christiansburg Cemetery. He then married a third time to a lady named Sandusky Percifield. By 1880 his sons had moved west from Brown County to Kansas and Missouri. Doc Story sold his land in 1882 to John Noblet. He then headed west himself. He is said to have moved to Dudleyville, Illinois. That is the last anyone from Brown County had ever heard from him.
His house still stands in the little village of Story just west of the Story Inn. The small community where he had lived and practiced medicine was called Storyville for many years, but had been shortened over the years to Story, Indiana. In the photo above you can see Dr. Story's house in the distance on the left of the photo.
