Old Knightstown Houses

238 East Brown Street

238 East Brown last November

The house on the Northwest corner of Brown and Adams Streets was built in the Italianate style in 1874 for Charles Dayton Morgan. Mr. Morgan was another early Knightstown mover and shaker. He and Robert Woods organized the first bank in Henry County in 1865. I found a biographical sketch of Mr. Morgan and I’ll copy it here as follows:

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHARLES DAYTON MORGAN.
LAWYER, BANKER, LEGISLATOR, PATRIOTIC AND PROSPEROUS CITIZEN.

Charles Dayton Morgan was born at Richmond, Indiana, July 31, 1829. His father, Nathan Morgan, was a pioneer of Wayne County, Indiana, who removed from New Jersey to the neighborhood of Richmond soon after that town was laid out in 1806. He was a farmer and cabinet maker, having served an apprenticeship to that trade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had also been a boatman on the Delaware River in his early manhood, and retained the memory of his old sailor days through life. Mr. Morgan remembers that when delirious during his last illness, which occurred when he was ninety years old, his father imagined himself to be a boatman again and gave the orders of command as he was wont to do so many years before. Nathan Morgan came to Indiana with his little family and such household goods as he possessed in a one-horse wagon, but he was industrious and frugal and soon accumulated a competency. He was twice married and was the father of a large family of children, who like himself were prosperous people and good citizens.
Charles D. Morgan’s mother was Nathan Morgan’s second wife. Her maiden name was Margaret Holloway. She was a sister of the late David P. Holloway, who was, for many years, editor of The Richmond Palladium, and was once a member of Congress from the old Fifth District of Indiana, and who was also commissioner of patents under President Abraham Lincoln”. She was a woman of great force of character and notable for her motherly tenderness and sympathy. Mr. Morgan’s great-grandmother on the maternal side was a daughter of Rowland Richards, who came over with William Penn, and seems to have had much to do with the early life of the Quaker colony in Pennsylvania.
In a sketch of Mr. Morgan’s life in a book entitled “Men of Progress of Indiana,” published by The Indianapolis Sentinel Company in 1899, it is said that “the ancestors of the family, on both the paternal and maternal sides, were Welsh, traced back for two hundred years.” Since that was written, however, the record has been followed much further back and it is believed that, on the mother’s side, there is an almost, if not wholly, unbroken line of descent extending back to Charlemagne. Mrs. Francis Swain, wife of President Joseph Swain of Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, and former president of Indiana University, who is Mr. Morgan’s daughter, has recently made many researches in Wales, in England, and on the continent of Europe, on the descent and lineage of the family, and has visited many of the places occupied by her father’s ancestors, one of which is the famous old seat of the Townsends, from whom Mr. Morgan’s mother was descended, and one member of which family, John Townsend, made a notable journey across the American continent, from east to west, and by vessel to the Sandwich Islands, about 1838, following much the same route as that followed earlier in the century by Lewis and Clark. Returning to Philadelphia, Mr. Townsend published an account of his expedition in 1839, which very Interesting volume is among Mr. Morgan’s most highly prized books. Mr. Morgan’s interest in these matters of genealogy is only such as any right-minded American citizen should cherish for their historical value and because family relationships, lineage and antecedents are really very important matters, which in the hard struggles of the immediate past the American people have for the most part greatly neglected.
Of his father’s immediate family there were five sons and five daughters, of whom the one best known in this section of Indiana, next to the subject of this sketch, was the late Nathan Morgan, of Richmond, Indiana.

Charles D. Morgan was educated in the public school of Richmond and graduated from the high school of that city. After completing his school life he entered the law office of William A. Bickle, of Richmond, as a student of the law and spent two years with Mr. Bickle, followed by one year’s study in the office of James Perry, one of the old time circuit judges, who was held in much esteem for his learning and impartiality.

Mr. Morgan was admitted to the practice of the law by the Wayne Circuit Court in 1850. He opened an office in Richmond, but two years later, in 1852, removed to Knightstown, Henry County, Indiana, and entered upon the practice of his profession at that place, which has been his home ever since. He found it advisable to piece out his income from the law by other labors, and accepted the place of operator for the company that owned the first telegraph line in Eastern Indiana, which line ran along the National Road. Mr. Morgan had to learn telegraphy from the start, but soon mastered it sufficiently to manage the office, which was located in the book store of a young friend of his, Tilghman Fish, and held the place for a year.

In the year 1852 the Henry County turnpike, the first gravel road in the county, was completed through the county on the line of the National Road, and the Indiana Central Railway, now the first division of The Pennsylvania System, west of Pittsburg, was in course of construction. The old flat-bar railroad from Knightstown to Shelbyville and on to Madison on the Ohio River, was still doing business, and Knightstown was the most important business point in the county.
The men then prominent in the affairs of the bustling town have nearly all passed away; but among them were such men as Joel B. Lowe, James Woods, Robert Woods, John Weaver, Harvey Bell, George. S. Lowery, Peter C. Welborn, Moses Heller, Lemuel Murray, Morris F. Edwards and others, who have departed, while a few, like Sol Hittle, John W. White and Tilghman Pish, remain. In the surrounding country were such well remembered people as Gordon Ballard, Edward Lewis, John H. Bales and many another honored pioneer.
Mr. Morgan was a young man of great intellectual as well as business activity, of correct morals, good habits and possessed of positive convictions on moral and political questions and business propositions. Especially was he an earnest champion of the temperance reform which in the early fifties swept over the country like a mighty tide. Being a captivating public speaker and possessed of a fine presence, he was called for, far and near, to address Washingtonian gatherings or to make speeches at celebrations of the Sons of Temperance. His Sundays were particularly devoted to that line of work for several years. It brought him little or no immediate pay, but it won for him many friends, whose faithful adherence through a long and active life has been of inestimable value to him, which he has endeavored to reciprocate. He also made literary and educational addresses and political speeches, as occasion offered, or his political convictions required.
In the law he was a safe counselor and a reliable adviser. He has always despised shystering and crooked practices and has maintained a sincere contempt for the arts and subterfuges to which dishonest attorneys sometimes resort.

When Mr. Morgan made a successful banker and financier of himself he evidently accomplished it at the expanse of the popular and able jurist which he would otherwise have been.
Charles Dayton Morgan was married November 13, 1856, to Alvira Holland Woods, daughter of Robert and Hannah Woods, of Knightstown, by the Reverend David Monfort. Mrs. Morgan was a refined and noble woman and the twain lived happily and prosperously together until April 17, 1889, when she died after an illness of many months’ duration and was laid to rest in beautiful Glencove Cemetery, Knightstown.

They were the parents of six children, three of whom died in infancy. The three who remain are Frances, wife of Joseph Swain, president of Swarthmore College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Raymond C, a farmer and stockman at Knightstown, apd Erie C, assistant cashier of The First National Bank of Knightstown.
Among the diversions of his early career before locating in Knightstown Mr. Morgan recalls with pleasure a few days spent in carrying the chain for the engineers who were establishing the grade of the Indiana Central Railway.

The inconvenience caused by the want of banking facilities, for there was then no bank in the county, early called Mr. Morgan’s attention to the subject of banking, and as a result he was mainly instrumental in establishing and was the manager of the first bank started in Henry County. It was what is now known as a private bank and was opened in 1859 under the firm name of R. Woods and Company. This bank continued to do a good business and to be a great convenience to the business men of Knightstown and the surrounding parts of Henry, Hancock and Rush counties until the establishment by Mr. Morgan and others of The First National Bank of Knightstown in 1865, which is its lineal successor.

The first officers of the national bank were Robert Woods, president; Charles O. Morgan, cashier, and William P. Hill, assistant cashier, or teller. To anticipate a little here: The career of The First National Bank of Knightstown, which has from its start been practically under the management of Mr. Morgan, has been a most remarkable one in three respects; first, for its unprecedented record as a sound and stable institution; second, for its undoubted preparation and readiness, in the times of panic and financial craze through which it has passed, to have met every legal demand against it from cash in its own vaults; and, third, for the few changes that have occurred In its official household. The American Financier in its Bank Roll of Honor, made up from the verified statistical reports, for many years placed The First National Bank of Knightstown at the head of the Indiana banks. For the past two years, however, The First National Bank of Washington, Indiana, has surpassed it slightly in certain particulars, so that the Knightstown bank now stands second in the State in proportion to the amount of its surplus to its capital stock.
The first change in the bank’s household was made when Noah P. Wagoner was added to the force. Upon the death of Robert Woods, Mr. Morgan became president, Mr. Hill cashier and Mr. Wagoner teller. After the demise of William Penn Hill, Noah P. Wagoner became cashier and the three men, Charles D. Morgan, Noah P. Wagoner and Krie C. Morgan are now its working force. While so few changes have occurred in the official roll of the bank during its forty years of existence, all the original stockholders except two have passed away.
Charles D. Morgan was early in life a Whig of anti-slavery convictions. With the political revolution that swept over the Northern States after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill by Congress and the opening of Kansas and Nebraska to the incursions of slavery, he was one of that great host of young men, who in Indiana broke away from old party lines and in 1854 carried the State for a party of protest, known as the “”People’s Party,” which two years later formed the nucleus of the young Republican Party, into the support of which he threw the strength and force of his young manhood. From 1856 to 1896 Mr. Morgan was an active and earnest supporter of the Republican Party, but since the latter date he has acted independently, voting for the men and measures of his choice. .
It was as a champion of the Union cause during the Civil War that his most signal public service was rendered. Mr. Morgan had been elected in October, 1862, to represent Henry County in the lower house of the General Assembly—Joshua H. Mellett being the senator from the county at that time. When the session opened January 8, 1863, the old distinctions between Republican and Democrat seemed to be in abeyance and the lines of political conflict were drawn between supporters and opponents of the Civil War. The latter had elected so large a majority of the General Assembly as to permit the carrying of its measures over the vetoes of Governor Morton, but in the lower house the anti-war party lacked a few votes of a two-thirds majority and could not maintain a quorum in the absence of the supporters of the Governor. This crisis called for courage, wisdom and prompt action to meet the responsibilities of the hour, qualities granted in abundant measure to the supporters of the war and to none more than to the senator and representative from Henry County.
The majority, under the leadership of Bayless W. Hanna, on February 5, 1863, proposed an enactment depriving the Governor of the military authority vested in him by the State constitution and vesting it in a commission of State officers opposed to the Governor and the conduct of the war, to be known and designated as The Executive Council. Numerous other bills and resolutions were introduced by the majority, the adoption of which must have resulted in crippling the powers of the State and Federal administrations in their efforts to sustain the Union.
Fortunately the Federal army under General Rosecrans had won a signal victory at Stone’s River, December 31, 1862, and January 1-2, 1863, just before the meeting of the General Assembly, which elated the friends of the government and dampened the ardor of its opponents, who could not in the face of victory discountenance the soldiers and their achievements. To put the matter to the test, Mr. Morgan, of Henry, on the afternoon of the first day of the session, introduced a resolution “tendering the thanks of the House to Major General Rosecrans and the officers and privates under him for their heroic conduct at the late battle at Stone’s River and that we sincerely sympathize with the friends and relatives of the many patriots who there sacrificed their lives on behalf of their country, and that the clerk transmit a copy of this resolution to the commander of each regiment engaged in that battle.” The result was as Mr. Morgan anticipated; the anti-war party refused to vote in the negative and the resolution was adopted by an affirmative vote of ninety-two.
The ground was fought over day after day and the session became one of continued anxiety and dread to the friends of the government and supporters of the war. At length, on February 25, 1863, when the military bill of Mr. Hanna reached engrossment, and was to be put on final passage, in compliance with a predetermined program, a sufficient number of the minority to break the quorum walked out and, taking a train to Madison, on the Ohio River, remained there until the expiration of the session. The risk involved was great and the attitude of the minority required great moral courage, but the action taken by them blocked and eventually defeated a course most injurious to the best interests of the State and Nation.
The subsequent failure of appropriations and the enhanced difficulties of the administration resulting from this session of the General Assembly are matters pertaining more particularly to State and National history. How the counties and people of the State rallied to the aid of Governor Morton and how the great banking house of Winslow, Lanier and Company—former citizens of Madison, Indiana—evinced their faith In Hoosier honesty by large and unsecured loans which enabled the Governor and his patriotic advisers to continue their active and effective support of the National administration, are most interesting details of this stormy period in State history; but beyond all doubt the salvation of the State from graver internal troubles was due to the courageous action of the minority in breaking the power of the majority in the General Assembly of 1863, and for the part he bore in this memorable crisis Henry County loves Charles D. Morgan and honors him as a man of sterling ability and character and a good citizen. Mr. Morgan has always regarded David C. Brannum, of Jefferson County, as a most able and conscientious leader of the minority in that historic session. Others of the strong men of the minority were Thomas J. Carson, of Boone; David R. Van Buskirk, of Decatur, and John S. Tarkington, of Marion.
Charles D. Morgan is of Quaker origin and was reared in that faith and though he does not now claim membership in that society, its principles of peace, probity and good will more nearly accord with his own thought and life than do the more pretentious creeds. He is an Odd Fellow of probably fifty years standing and because that society’s teachings and ministrations are such as meet his approval he is and has ever been an active and earnest member of the Knightstown Lodge, to whom the performance of the duties it imposes is a pleasure. During the Civil War he gave freely and liberally to the Union cause through many channels. Through life he has been steadfast in his friendships, as a husband and parent, true and tender, and as a citizen, beyond reproach.
Mr. Morgan is a great reader and lover of books and his library attests his taste for the best literature as well as his devotion to history and the masterpieces of forensic effort, both ancient and modern. Nothing delights him more than a walk with a friend who has a regard for books and for nature. It is exceedingly pleasant to stroll with him on such occasions and listen to him as he unfolds the wonderful stores that are retained by his clear and appreciative memory.
He has never lacked the confidence and esteem of his neighbors and both have been worthily bestowed.

While he loves the entire State and country, Knightstown, where he has lived so long and well, is to him the one best spot of all the world. He has always been a lover of the soil and while his accumulations in other lines of property have been large, he has invested in a number of good farms in the vicinity of Knightstown. not only for his own profit and pleasure, but as the best investment for his heirs.
Charles D. Morgan was married a second time, his present wife being Rebecca F. daughter of the late William Brinkley and Margaret Ann (McCabe) Gray, of Knightstown, Indiana. Mrs. Morgan is a lady of sprightly intellect and kindly disposition, who has a wide circle of friends and seems well suited to be the partner of a thoughtful man of affairs like Mr. Morgan.

238 East Brown sometime in the early 1970s
That old fence is probably original from the 1870s

Mr. Morgan lived at 238 E. Brown until his death in the teens. I don’t know who lived there from that time until 1924 when C.A. Thompson, a chiropractor, is listed there. I guess he lived there and also had an office there. Thompson was listed there until 1954 when coach Harlan Clark and family moves there. He was renting the house and only lived there a few years. I don’t know who lived there after Clark left.
Jack Avery bought the “Morgan” house sometime in the 1970s and completely restored and modernized it. It’s a beautiful house..!

126 West Pine Street

126 West Pine Street last November

The house at 126 West Pine Street is one of the most appealing looking houses in K-town. I think it’s been written up in architectural publications but I can’t find a reference. It’s older than it first appears having been built in 1866.
Once again I quote Frank Edwards’ comments about the property.

Almost directly across Pine Street, where Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Cortner now live, is a house unique in the annals of Knightstown. It was selected a few years ago as the subject of an article in a book issued by the State Historical Society by reason of the fact that the architectural design is “Gothic-Italiate”, for an “old K-town” house, THAT IS something to mention! The architect is unknown. For details, I suggest that you knock on the door of the State Library.
That part of town was the new (1861) Caleb White addition to the town of Knightstown. It was about the time young Dayton Heritage started a retail Furniture Store and married. It was he who had the house built in 1866. There, it was that he and his wife brought up their attractive daughter who married John Morris a native of Knightstown. This young man studied law and became our Circuit Judge at the turn of the century. His son, John Morris II, later became our Judge, he, the late Judge Morris whom many of today knew, was the grandson of Dayton Heritage
As may readily be understood, the Heritage family were among the outstanding citizens of Old Knightstown.
I remember Dayton. Heritage well, a tall man, athletic build, quick in his movements and a somewhat modified Charlie Chaplin stride. He was a hustler. With a few pounds off under his vest what a basketball player he might have made.

The Heritage house in the 30s or 40s.

Of course being in a very small town with no TV, things became a bit dull at times, and “Dayt ” was not loath to sitting in, now and then, on a quiet little game of five - cards - round - and -who’s –got ‘em, vulgarly known as poker. Now a few of his buddies knew that “Dayt” was a very keen one at this game, but the lads from the outlyin’ rail-fence country knew him only as that affable furniture man who always passed around the stogies, and made room for them when they wanted to edge in at the table for a few hands. So-o-o, as the story floated all over K-town, “Dayt” confided facetiously to some of his cronies at a little celebration upon the completion of the house, that if there was a brick in that house he didn’t make playin’ poker, he’d like to see it. Now, to get down to the George Washington truth, that poker story may have been started by some old K-town wag who had a penchant for posing as the Baron Munchausen of the “Clothes-line News Association”! We had several of such.

I’m not sure who lived in the house after Heritage but I’m sure the Cortners lived there for a time and I think Tom and Peg Mayhill lived there in the 40s. I’ll try to find out and update this..

39 West 3rd Street

39 West 3rd. Street last November

This beautiful old house situated on a huge lot at the southern most end of Harrison Street was built in 1868 by Joseph Woods. I think he was a farmer, grocer and real estate developer but I haven’t confirmed any of it.
Frank Edwards was not very flattering of Woods in his “History of Knightstown. Here’s what he had to say:

The other dead end street is south Harrison where Joseph Woods with about five large acres to build on, and, as they say “nothin’ to worry about but taxes”, set up house keeping smack in the middle of where Harrison Street might want to run some sweet day.

Gossip passes down word that he was eccentric. Well, I dunno ! BUT, if he wasn’t why in the Sam Hill did he add misery to misery by buildin’ a Family Burying Vault right in the middle of North Jefferson Street! That is to say, right where North Jefferson wanted to extend. itself beyond Cary Street. And there it was, year after year. Finally, much to their embarrassment, the City Administration had to do something, they did! So that’s why we have two dead end streets instead of one very proper one which was ended by Blue River. Just as Pine Street was, which I overlooked, ’scuse me!

Back there by that Woods place, where they kept house in the middle of the street. Ages ago some man wanted to build away from the growing town, have a little elbow room, perhaps keep a cow and have a little garden, built a one story brick house facing the sunshine and thought lie had built the cozies little nest for himself and his wife this side of- Paradise. Now Mrs. Patricia Gelwick has bought the place, regardless of its age, her friends say she has given it a new lease on life with modern improvements.

(I think Frank was rambling a bit there and I’m not sure I understand all of it.;Ed)

By the time 1900 rolled around Joseph had left this world and his Widow; Elizabeth, his Daughter; Eliza, a student and his Son; Wilbur, a lawyer are living there.
I can’t discover who occupied the house from 1900 until 1932 when Charles Thornburg is listed there. Thornburg is there until 1948.
Glen K. Fort, father of Kenny and Eddy Fort of my generation, is listed there in 1950 and throughout the 50s. Ed tells many good stories of growing up in the big house which was practically in the country. They even got to keep a horse there.

39 West 3rd St. as it looked before the fire. Notice the large cupola on the roof. It was destroyed in the fire and never replaced.

In my last column I mentioned a fire at what I called the Thornburg House in Knightstown. Over the years I have mentioned this fire many times to many different people and no one ever associated the Thornburg name with this house. After writing my last column I went to the Knightstown Library and looked back in old newspaper files. I found the article about this fire and it answers a lot of questions. The newspaper was dated November 4, 1938. I mentioned previously that I thought the fire was in 1937 or 1938. In 1938 I was five years old.
The news article was headlined, “Fire Causes Death of Mrs. Emily Knowlton; Destroys Interior of Old Joseph Woods Home.” The headline alone answers two questions. It identifies the elderly lady who died — I had never known her name — and it identifies the house. This fire was listed as the most disastrous fire in Knightstown since the Masonic Temple burned in 1899. The article continued to say that the home was owned by Miss Eliza Woods and was located on South Franklin Street. The location was in keeping with my observations in the previous column.
The article states that the house was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Thornburg. When I think about it now, it amazes me that a five year-old child could remember this name for 60 years. It goes on to say that the home was almost completely destroyed by the fire, which was discovered around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning when Mrs. Thornburg was awakened by smoke in her room. She called Mr. Thornburg and when he investigated found that the basement was a mass of flames.
When the fire department arrived the entire house was in flames. With much difficulty the firemen entered the house and the room occupied by Mrs. Knowlton who was an invalid. I was always under the impression that the victim was in the wheelchair when she died, but in actuality she was in bed at the time. She had evidently tried to get out of her room but was overcome by smoke and was dead when rescued. She was a retired music teacher and had taught at the local school at one time. The 80 year-old woman was one of the town’s most beloved ladies. She had lived with her sister, Mrs. Susie Furgason, in Knightstown for several years. When her sister died she went to live with the Thornburgs. The paper stated that, “This lovely old home had been built by the late Joseph Woods, father of Eliza Woods, in 1868.” So I had misjudged the age of the home as I was guessing it was built around 1840 with the west addition being put on in 1860. It was actually built just after the Civil War Instead of before the war as I had suggested. It was listed as one of the landmarks of the city. Ed Fort had told me that he remembered that a Red Woods lived in the house at one time with his sister, “Biddy.” This was evidently Joseph Woods, the builder.
The article went on to say that Mr. Woods had built several houses in Knightstown, and some two story storerooms on Jefferson Street just north of Pennsylvania Railroad. Later, he built the Valley House in 1871. The Valley House was evidently a hotel and it and the storerooms were torn down when the railroad was double tracked. Mr. Woods also operated a general store at one time in the location of Rihm’s Meat Market which was at the time on the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets. At one time Mr. Woods owned all of the land north of the railroad between Jefferson and Madison streets. I’m not sure if Eliza was living in the home at the time of the fire or not but the article says she spent her entire life in this old home which contained some of the finest antique furniture in the whole area and many other old articles of great value.
The plate glass windows mentioned in the previous article were put in the house in 1888 by Omer Mattix. Evidently, Eliza Woods, the Thornburgs and Mrs. Knowlton had guests on this Saturday night. Miss Stella Rhodes, Mr. and Mrs. Brice Thornburg of Anderson and Mrs. Vance of Elkhart were all spending the night. Mrs. Rhodes was overcome by smoke and carried out by the firemen. She was taken to the home of her sister in Mays and later to the hospital in Rushville for care and treatment.
Mrs. Vance was unable to make her way out in the hall and was removed from her room on a ladder by the firemen. The fire damaged all the house with the exception of the kitchen and dining room. These two rooms comprised the addition made to the original house which we mentioned in the previous article. The loss was covered only partially by insurance.
The funeral service as conducted for Mrs. Knowlton on Tuesday at the Wilson Funeral Home on West Main Street. I believe this was located in the brick home with the tower, the second door east of the present day Todd (Butcher) Funeral Home. If I remember right, Orville Wilson operated the funeral home there and then moved it to its present location before it was sold to the Butchers.
Again, thanks for all your responses. Let me hear from you anytime. I would especially be interested in any old pictures of Knightstown. Darrell Deck, Knightstown.

106 North Jefferson

106 N. Jefferson Street in the early 70s

Here’s an old post card that shows a Victorian paint job on the house.
(before Jefferson was paved)

Here’s another old post card which shows the huge barn that was with the house.
That barn was still there when I was a kid. It was in better condition than the house in ‘51.

I think it was built for Jeremiah (Jerry) B. Woods. He lived here in the late 1800s and early 1900s until his death at age 80 on the 4th of July, 1924. His occupation was given as farmer and blacksmith. His first wife, Lou Sample, died at age 72 in 1921. I think she was from the wealthy Barrett clan. He married again to Eva Thomas who lived to be 90.
As you can imagine the house had been badly neglected and was in need of much attention when Fred Frazier bought it and his family moved there in about 1952. (I can remember it being covered in almost all blackened paintless bare boards in ‘52.) I was friends with the Frazier kids and was in the house a lot back then and saw the massive amounts of work being done by Fred.
Fred worked his butt off and had it in wonderful condition in the late 50s.
I guess it has suffered another long period of neglect and it’s in pretty bad shape again.
The present owners, the Bohnerts, are working hard to bring it back to life and preserve it for the future.

106 N. Jefferson Street as it is today.