Illustrious Men of Owl Creek

Benjamin R. Kelley

Owl Creek was so named from the many owls that once infested the lonely regions. The owls have disappeared; the round log school house has long since crumbled into dust. The hewed log school house is now used as a stable. It stands as a memento of other days, a relic of the past, inviting owls and bats to come in and chant a requiem to departed cheerfulness. Is it any wonder then it has so long borne the name of classical Owl Creek for in its lovely valley has lived and loved some illustrious men whose works shall follow them. To the legal profession let us named the late Judge James Hester, Hon. Anderson Percifield and Hon. Ed Campbell. Among its preachers and divines have arisen from humble birth the Rev. Berg Frost, Rev. Daniel Campbell, and Rev. Ira Yoder. Some of its teachers have been Joel R. and John W. Carter, William and James Bowden, James L. Campbell, Jennie Wilson, Sylvester Barnes and Joshua Bond.

Owl Creek has not been without her worthy and competent officials. Let us mention Wren Brummet, township trustee and sheriff of Brown County, Stephen A. Kennedy, sheriff of Brown County, John S. Williams, auditor of Brown County and afterwards member of the State Legislature, Charles Taylor, township assessor, William O. Barnes, eminent physician and afterwards member of the legislature in the state of Kansas, Captain James M. Yoder, chairman of the Republican central committee of Brown County.

We cannot close this article without mentioning some the brave Owl Creek boys who offered their lives a sacrifice on the alter of their country in the dark hours of the great Civil War. Let us mention them: John Matheney, Col of the 82nd Regiment Ind. Vol; George and Samuel Goffland (Coffland), James M. Yoder, George Bowden, Benjamin Kelley, Manvill Tomlinson, Caleb & Daniel Ferguson, William and Sail Barnes. Some of the boys returned to happy homes and some were left in lonely graves in that distant southern sunny land.

J.W.C.
(Brown County Democrat, Feb. 8, 1906)


James M. Yoder

Being the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, I'm particularly looking for info on the Civil War soldiers mentioned in this article.

1940 Census Index for Indiana is Done

I've been anxiously awaiting the time that I can actually use an index to find my family in the 1940 census. I did look for them before and found a few of my families in the places I knew they would be. Now I can look for those others that liked to move around a bit at least in Indiana. I heard that Family Search has now released their index at: https://familysearch.org/

So I set to looking through my PAF for those family I wanted to look for. That was taking too long. I know I should have been preparing my list a long time ago. There has been family I've been wanting to find in the 1940 census soon after I found them all in the 1930 census ten years ago. Well, I went about to set up an Advanced Focus Filter in my PAF and put in the dates I wanted to look for, 1940+, and it gave me a list of Surnames. At least now I have something to start with. I've been trying not to get too excited, the waiting has been killing me.

My first find was my dad and his family. I've put a copy of the image above. His father, George Allen Dunn, and mother, Golda Edith(Roberts)Dunn were living in Brown County. This I suspected although they had been known to have lived in Johnson and Hamilton counties before. In Brown County, Indiana living in Hamblen township, Enumeration Dist. 7-1 on page 8B my dad's family is the 187th Household.
George and Golda Dunn and children are: Vonda, Jean, Doris, David, Ruth, Mahlon, Frances, Marcus, and Joel. My Aunt Doris made it on the Supplemental Question line 55, but I found no new information there that I didn't already know.

I did find out something new that I didn't know - the area they lived in at that time. Dad has told me some of the places they lived, but this one was new. So I did find something new to add to my family history. My dad's family were pretty poor and his father moved around quite a bit to get work wherever he could find it. He worked for farmers, gas stations, as a school janitor, and was a truck farmer himself. This was fun finding my first family in the 1940 census. Now I just have to wait for the rest of the states to be indexed so I can look for those families that moved out West.

New Info Found in Tax Lists for my Kentucky Ancestor, Henry Bolen

1816 Wayne County, KY Tax List

This spring I was able to find and rent a microfilm from the Family History Library for some early Tax Lists for Wayne County, Kentucky. I had a lot of gaps that I wanted to fill in on some of my mother's line. Most of my mom's side came from Wayne and Clinton County. On mom's side I have Guffeys, Smiths, Adams, Pierce, and Bell that I have been particularly interested in to get more info. Also, there are two lines from my father's side that went through Wayne County on their way from North Carolina to Indiana, the Lovells and the Bolens. Taking the advice I learned from the blogger, "Brickwall Protocol," I made my timelines and have been trying to fill in some of the gaps on my dad's Bolens. (See my blog post on Henry Bolen for background.) The only evidence that I had on Henry Bolen in Wayne County was from my previous data collection. He had signed as Bondsman on his two daughters' marriage bonds. There were no land transactions in his name. Other than that I wasn't even sure he actually stayed any time at all in Wayne County. I was convinced that getting these tax lists I could at least prove to myself that he actually existed.

I was right. I was actually able to find Henry Bolen in Wayne county as a poll tax payer. It showed that he only paid tax as a 'male over 21' for the years 1816 to 1821. I just knew he had to be there, but why didn't he show up in the 1820 census. I'll probably never know the answer to that one. Then I found another curious entry, in one of the years he was listed with an Ezekial Bolen - a new name! This might be worth pursuing, he could be a son or a brother or a cousin. That's why I just love these tax lists, I always find some little tidbit of information that could prove very valuable. At least I was able to fill in five years of Henry Bolen's life. In the 1820 census both daughters were married by then and had moved into Pulaski County. I still need to fill in several years in between 1821 until his wife is found living in Jefferson County, Indiana in 1830 next to her two married daughters. Somewhere along the timeline we lost Henry Bolen between 1821 to 1830. It could be a long, winding road, but I'm going to keep plugging away at Henry Bolen, my brickwall!