Baber's Early History of Greene County Indiana Chapter XIV

General Recpitulation of the County,

Greene County was named in honor of the memory of one of our Revolutionary sires of notoriety, General Nathaniel Greene.

Greene County is located in the southwestern part of Indiana, seventy-five miles southwest of Indianapolis, and is the second county from the western boundary of the State. It was organized in the year 1821, and contains 540 square miles or sections of land - fifteen square Congressional Districts, each containing 640 acres; and the county is subdivided into sixteen civil townships.

The population of Greene County, in 1875, is about twenty-six thousand, and within the next ten years, we confidently expect an increase to forty thousand people.

The west branch of White River divides the county almost equally. Eel River, Richland, Plummer, Beech and Black Creeks are all streams of water of considerable notoriety.

The face, of the country, on the east side of the river, is mstly hily, some portions considerably broken, and many roks bluffs. It was originally very heavily timbered with oak, poplar, walnut, sugar-tree, sycamore, ash, beech, cherry, locust, gum, hickory, and many toher varieties which had attained their full proportion.

Almost every person of the territory on the east side of the river is underlaid with coal and iron ore in great abundance, and of an excellent quality. Greene County has the best beds of rich iron ore of the county and the State.

The surface of the county on the west side of the river is mostly level. Half-Moon, Nine-Mile, Scaffold and Four-Mile prairies, make up a very considerable portion of the territory. The timber on the ridges, is, for the greater part, what is usually called barrens - consisting mostly of small hickory, short and rough black oak, white oak and some walnut. The soil is diversified. The barrens are somewhat sandy, and the other portions are rich alluvial and stony clay soil, varying greatly in quality.

Some of the prairie land is rather low and wet, and better adapted to meadow and pasturage than to the cultivation of grain.

Coal is found in abundance in many localities, and several beds of a good quality have been opened and worked for a number of years.

Bloomfield, the capital of the county, is centrally located, one mile east of White River, on elevated ground. Its altitude at the river is 467 feet above high tide.

In August, 1819, the Indians, who reserved a hunting privilege when they ceded their lands to the Government, were here for the last time. They camped on the river and creek to the number of six and seven hundred. In September, 1819, they moved off in a body in their bark canoes down White River.

In the closing chapters, we will give the names, location, description and population of each town and village in Greene County. [part of pg. 46]