News from Lyles Station, Indiana

Happy New Year from Lyles Station, Indiana.

The New Year brings new hope, new ideas and much planning to this community. The early settlers would be planning for their future crops, gardens, tending to the livestock and growing their families.

During the early years the three rivers were the main source of travel: Patoka River, White River and the Wabash River. The Patoka River was a 167-mile-long tributary of the Wabash River. Starting at the Hoosier National Forest Southeast of Orange County near Paoli, Indiana. It meanders downstream through Dubois County, through Pike County and into Gibson County before joining the Wabash River east of Mount Carmel, Illinois.

You could also travel to nearby communities by buggy and horseback. Taking a trip to Patoka, Indiana, was not out of the question. That community was up and coming to those living nearby. It was not always called Patoka; other names were Smithfield, Smithville, then Columbia. When the postal service was started there was already a Columbia, Indiana, so it was then changed to Patoka. The name originated from an Indian name “log on the bottom” since so many logs were in the Patoka River. Patoka was considered the county seat at the time, but due to low lying areas with the river, higher ground was found four miles south and eventually named Princeton. At one point Owensville was the temporary county seat since Princeton was not laid out until 1814, one year after Gibson County was organized.

One of the first white settlers to the area of Patoka was John Severns from Wales. He had traveled with his parents and siblings to America before the Revolutionary War. He settled in Gibson County in 1789-90. He located himself on the south side of the Patoka River at the place known as Severns Bridge. (As you read this it might strike memories of your younger years. Some went to Severns Bridge with their sweethearts, some in my generation went there to race their muscle cars or at least watch the race, some had gone there for a picnic and fish from the bridge.) Severns built a river ferry with the approval of the Indians who occupied the Riverbank across from his settlement. The Indians and Severns agreed the Indians could use the ferry as well. The Severns Bridge was updated from an 1819 wooden structure to the current metal structure in 1924. Severns Bridge remains just off Indiana Highway 65 North.

Rev. Joseph Milburn and his son Robert arrived in 1803 from Kentucky. They settled in an area between the Patoka River and the White Rivers, not far from Lyles Station. The Rev. Milburn was a Baptist minister and he established the first church in the area, while his son Robert established the first distillery in Indiana. That distillery was identified as one of the largest and most extensive distilleries in the United States for its time.

Keen Fields built the first grist mill (gristmill grinds cereal grain into flour and middling). David Robb established both a carpenter and blacksmith shop.

The Parrett Brothers had the first sawmill in Patoka. Many came from miles around to bring their timber or to purchase lumber for their projects. Lumber could be purchased or bartered to make furniture, tools and other items needed on the homesteads. It was delivered by buggy or sent by way of the Patoka River.

Indiana was considered a “free state,” and the Abolitionist movement was strong in Gibson County. There were many who were active in the Underground Railroad. Some of the locals included David Stormont and his wife, who lived approximately three miles northwest of Princeton, near the Lyles Station area.

John Carithers also aided the runaway slaves; he lived east of Princeton. Sarah Merrick of Princeton was jailed in Gibson County for helping a runaway slave and her children escape to the free territory from Henderson, Kentucky. Reverend Thomas B. McCormick, a Presbyterian minister, was also known as an abolitionist. He fled to Canada when Kentucky filed extradition for his return to Kentucky. James Washington Cockrum, located in Oakland City, first hid slaves in the root cellar of his log cabin. William Cockrum, his son, aided him in helping the runaway slaves. Their home in Oakland City was known as Cockrum Hall, and it was located on the grounds of the present-day Oakland City University. It is recognized as a prominent location of the Underground Railroad.

Connecting the dots on the map from one community to another, one river to another.