Johnson County Celebrating 200 Years

What’s your Johnson County

How well do you know Johnson County?

Throughout 2023, the local community has come together to celebrate the county’s 200th birthday. There have been special bicentennial events, historical lookbacks and commemorative swag. A big bicentennial bash is planned for the end of September, and a lavish gala in November will serve as a wrap-up.

In the midst of all that, we want to test your knowledge of 200 years of county history. The following 25 questions range from easy to hard, and hit all areas of county life.

The Daily Journal will reveal the correct responses in the Oct. 7 Accent section.

iQ?

1. What Indian tribes had settled in Johnson County before the arrival of settlers in the 1800s?

2. What early pioneer highway led to the settling of Johnson County?

3. What Nineveh-area painter was a leading innovator of the American impressionism movement and went on to found one of the most influential art schools in the United States?

4. The Red Gold brand of tomato products got its start in what Johnson County community?

5. What Franklin College graduate went on to invent the Doritos snack chip?

6. Johnson County native Lewis Terman was a leading psychologist in the early 20th century. What common educational tool is he best known for inventing?

7. What Civil War-era military company and regiment, made up mostly of Johnson County residents, figured prominently in battles such as Second Bull Run, Antietam and the Battle of the Wilderness?

8. For a period of time in the 1940s, the largest hospital in the United States, Wakeman General Hospital, was in Johnson County. Where was it located?

Pictured clockwise from top: This Civil War-era military company and regiment, made up mostly of Johnson County residents, figured prominently in battles such as Second Bull Run, Antietam and the Battle of the Wilderness? // A historic photo of Old Main on Franklin College’s campus. // The Red Gold brand of tomato products got its start in a Johnson County community. SuBMitted PHotoS

9. What member of the “Franklin Wonder Five” went on to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame?

10. What former Franklin business was famous for its offerings of Wonder Orange, Lemon Sour and Jumbo Cola?

11. What Franklin High School graduate was named Indiana’s first Mr. Basketball in 1939 and later played baseball for the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals?

12. What Greenwood native was part of a nationally known Big Band music group in the 1930s, playing saxophone and singing some of the vocals?

13. When Franklin College was founded in 1834, what was its name?

14. What two Indiana governors were born in Franklin?

15. What iconic Johnson County structure features architectural features such as brick Roman arches, Greek temple-style balconies and carvings of ears of corn decorating the tops of columns?

16. What Johnson County town calls itself “The Veneer Capitol of the World”?

17. What downtown Franklin building is infamously reported to be haunted by a woman in white?

18. What Greenwood company was named the largest food packer west of Maryland in the late 1800s?

19. Why was Center Grove High School given its name?

20. Mauxferry Road connected Mauckport with Indianapolis via the Madison State Road, running through

Johnson County. One of its claims to fame was that the Indiana State Treasury used that road when the state capitol moved from Corydon to Indianapolis. What year did Indianapolis become the state capital?

21. What famous director attended Franklin College and is known for directing “The Sound of Music,” “West Side Story” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture?”

22. What is unusual about the burial site of Blue River Township resident Nancy Kerlin Barnett?

23. What Franklin native won an NBA title with the Milwaukee Bucks and was known as “Mr. Buck”?

24. Who was the actress best known for playing Ma Kettle in the “Ma and Pa Kettle” series? She attended Franklin College before her movie career.

This Franklin High School graduate was named Indiana’s first Mr. Basketball in 1939 and later played baseball for the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals

25. John Campbell, his wife Ruth, and their eight children are considered the first permanent pioneer settlers in Johnson County. Near what Johnson County community did they establish their cabin in 1820?

SuBMitted PHoto

200 years sHaPing

10 people to know in Johnson County history

John Johnson

John Johnson is the namesake of Johnson County, though historians know little about him.

Johnson was born in Kentucky in 1776. The earliest record of him is a commission in the Knox County militia, issued in 1797, according to the Indiana Law Review’s “Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices.”

He had been active in Indiana politics, working on the codification of Indiana law in 1806 while also serving as a delegate for Knox County to the 1816 Indiana Constitutional Convention.

Johnson was appointed as the first Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. However, he died in 1817 during the court’s first recess, never having the opportunity to deliver significant opinions or get his portrait done.

Indiana officials in 1822 decided to name the new county after Johnson as a way to honor him.

George King

George King is often referred to as the founder of Franklin or “The First Proprietor of Franklin,” as his tombstone reads.

King was born in Virginia in 1782. He first explored the soon-to-be Johnson County area in 1820, and bought land there in 1822, envisioning that plot to become the seat of the future county. King led the petition to the Indiana legislature to establish Johnson County in 1822.

The county was officially established in May 1823. King’s land holdings lay in the center of the county, and he donated 51 acres for the county seat, which became Franklin.

King lived in Franklin for 45 years, until his death in 1868. He was a wheelwright, merchant, farmer, postmaster and Justice of the Peace. He was also described as a “generous philanthropist.”

John Campbell

John Campbell and his family were the first recorded settlers in the not-yet-established Johnson County area in 1820.

Campbell’s family settled near the Edinburgh area, and eventually established the town as the first settlement in the Johnson County area. He has been referenced as a founder of Edinburgh.

John smiley

The first government official in Johnson County was Sheriff John Smiley, who was appointed by Gov. William Hendricks.

Smiley lived at Greensburg Road and County 700 East in a place that came to be called Smiley’s Mill, because of the mill that was constructed there. He opened his home to serve as space for court and government meetings after the county’s founding in 1823, as no government buildings were yet constructed.

Smiley’s two-room log cabin served as the first courthouse, where one room was occupied by the judge and another by the grand jury. The jury room was also where Smiley’s ill wife laid.

During his time as sheriff, Smiley was forced to be innovative about how to enforce the law with limited resources, according to a summary on the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office website.

It is recorded that Smiley once chained a prisoner to a stump in the public square to serve his time before there was a jail. He was sheriff until 1827.

William W. Wick

William Wick was the first judge to preside over the court in the newly-established Johnson County.

Wick was born in 1796 in Pennsylvania. He moved to Indiana in 1819. In Indiana, he served as President Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit

from 1822 to 1825. He presided over the first court in Johnson County inside Sheriff John Smiley’s two-room cabin in 1823.

He resigned from his judge seat to become Indiana’s second Secretary of State in 1825, and he held that office until 1829. Wick was in public life for nearly 40 years, also serving as a U.S. Representative in Indiana’s Fifth Congressional District. He moved to Franklin in 1860 to live with his daughter, Laura W. Overstreet.

In an 1843 sketch written by John Coburn, Wick was described as “the best looking man in town, as he was called. He had a grand and commanding figure—a great, massive head, a lofty and columnar forehead projecting far over a pair of bright eyes … he excelled in conversation, had a good memory; he had talked much and was adroit in expression, often humorous, always entertaining.”

John b. and Isaac smock

The Smock brothers are known as the first pioneers to settle in what is now Greenwood.

John B. Smock and Isaac Smock migrated from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, and eventually settled in the Johnson County area just south of Indianapolis. They each purchased 160 acres of land for $1.25 an acre.

John B. Smock built the first log cabin in the area and Isaac Smock settled near the creek that runs through what is now Old City Park.

Greenwood was originally called Smocktown because most of the settlers there were named Smock. The first postmaster there was named James Smock. The Smock settlement became popular over time because it was seen as a “halfway point” between Indianapolis and Franklin, according to documents from the Johnson County Museum of History.

benjamin davis

Benjamin Davis was the first mayor of Franklin from 1861 to 1862.

Davis was born in Butler County, Kentucky, in 1811, and he moved to Franklin in 1818. He

King

CamPbell

operated a brick yard and was sometimes called “Uncle Ben,” according to an Aug. 5, 1946, article in the Franklin Evening Star.

His obituary, published in February 1893 in the Franklin Democrat, called him “one of the oldest and best-known citizens of Franklin.” The obituary also described him as “a man who stood high in the estimation of all and was a man above the average intelligence.

Wayne burkhart

Wayne Burkhart, a Democrat, became the first mayor of Greenwood in 1961, after the town became a fifth-class city.

Burkhart owned a funeral home business in Greenwood prior to his time as mayor. One of his first priorities as mayor was to manage the city’s growing pains, and he guided Greenwood through changes officials encountered when it became a city.

Burkhart’s philosophy was to make

sure everything in the city grew proportionally, according to a summary of his mayorship at the Johnson County Museum of History. Under his administration, a new shopping area, Greenwood Plaza, was built, and North Madison Avenue was widened. Southwest Elementary School was also constructed.

roger d. branigin

Roger D. Branigin was born in Franklin and served as governor of Indiana from 1965 to 1969.

Most people who live in Franklin are familiar with the Branigin name, as streets, neighborhoods and meeting rooms are named after the governor.

Branigin was born in Franklin in 1902. He graduated from Franklin Community High School in 1919, and he then went on to graduate from Franklin College. He later earned his law degree from Harvard University. He continued to stay heavily

involved at Franklin College as an alumnus.

Branigin practiced law in Franklin, Louisville, Kentucky and Lafayette prior to leaving to serve in World War II. In 1964, he was elected the 42nd governor of Indiana, winning by a record plurality. While governor, the poll tax and personal property tax on household goods were abolished and the “rightto-work” law was repealed, according to his page on the Indiana Historical Bureau website.

Branigin was a highly entertaining public speaker, storyteller and wit, known for his “salty language.”

Franklin was also the birthplace of another Indiana governor, Paul V. McNutt. McNutt was born in Franklin in 1891, and his family moved to Indianapolis in 1893. He was governor from 1933 to 1937.

Jeanette surina

Jeanette Surina made history as the first woman to be elected mayor of Greenwood in 1983.

In her first term, Surina guided the city to acquire the Skyway Airport and

led the way in applying for grants to build the Greenwood Municipal Airport. She was instrumental in persuading several large corporations to build in Greenwood, including Nachi Technology, Alpine Electronic Manufacturing of America and Aldi Foods. She also pushed to build a fire station at Stop 18.

Surina made history again when she won reelection in 1987, and she became the first Greenwood mayor to serve more than one term. In her second term, she moved forward the $8.5 million project to build a new community center, firehouse and police station.

She was unopposed in the 1991 primary and intended to run for a third term. But Surina resigned in July 1991 due to her deteriorating health while battling cancer. She died on July 24, 1991. To honor her, the city in 1992 named the government complex with the community center and police station Surina Square. Surina Way in the city is also named after her.

“Selling homes fast for the highest profit margin.”

burKhart

branigin

surina

Johnson County

then and now

Changes in the daily lives of county residents

By Andy Bell-BAltAci | Daily Journal

When Johnson County was first established 200 years ago, survival was the main priority as settlers grew food and built shelter.

Now, Johnson County has become one of the largest counties in Indiana, with improved access to health care, larger schools and a wide variety of industries employing local workers.

From the earliest settlers to the developed suburban county it’s become today, Johnson County has undergone changes throughout its history, from

Wthe jobs people have to their daily lives and the way they get around.

200 years ago

After Indiana’s statehood was established, the first settlements in Johnson County were made in 1820. Some pioneers visited the county and selected their future property before moving, some bought land that already had cabins built from earlier settlers and others built on property themselves, or with hired or volunteer help. Others moved to the county without knowing where they’d live, according to historical records

Pictured from top: Present day Jefferson Street in downtown Franklin, looking west. // The automobile was invented in 1886. Over time, it became the predominant mode of transportation in Johnson County and most of the U.S. Andy Bell-BAltAci | dAily JournAl;

from the Johnson County Museum of History. A cabin of two rooms at the time typically cost about $50, according to a book on Johnson County history, which includes an account from Samuel Herriott, who moved into a cabin in Sugar Creek in Dec. 1820.

“It had been erected the fall before, and was unfinished, having ‘neither door, floor, nor chimney.’ His wife, after raking a six-inch snow out, drove forks in one corner of the cabin and poles therein, crossed them with clapboards on which she made the bed. This she curtained with the wagon-sheet, making it quite comfortable,” the account says. “In the center of the floorless cabin against a stump, she set a fire burning, which gave warmth to the family, and over which she hung the pot when she wanted it to boil.”

With interurban train lines not yet built and the invention of the automobile almost a century away, people got around using horses, which pulled covered wagons. The pioneers also didn’t have access to modern conveniences like supermarkets, and had to farm or hunt to get food, said David Pfeiffer, director of the Johnson County Museum of History.

“The first priority was obviously food, there

were no supermarkets or anything,” he said. “So you got to clear the land as fast as you can to start farming and then, after a bit of time, you start building and move beyond just the bare necessities to see what kind of crops they could raise. But the vast majority of early settlers had to be farmers just for necessity.”

Common tools included axes, which could be used to cut trails and to cut wood for cabinbuilding or to create firewood. Pistols and rifles could be used for hunting. People also used melted beef fat or beeswax, pouring the melted wax into a candle mold to create candles. Surviving in the early days of the county required everyone in the family to pitch in, according to an exhibit description at the history museum.

“Early pioneers struggled to survive each day, even after they arrived and settled their new homes,” the description says. “Most early settlers had large families and each person had chores to complete each day. Pioneer women made clothes, helped harvest crops and prepared meals while men farmed the land, hunted and provided shelter for the family. Providing shelter, food and clothing was an endless task.”

Pictured from top: The Hendricks Cabin, one of the earliest settlements in Franklin, has been preserved outside the Johnson County Museum of History. // Johnson County’s pioneers often traveled in covered wagons pulled by horses.

Andy Bell-BAltAci | dAily JournAl

100 years ago

Life in Johnson County had developed tremendously by the time the county reached its 100th anniversary.

During the second half of the 19th century came the expansion of commuter train lines that would connect cities and towns across the state, peaking during the last decades of the 1800s and start of the 1900s. The interurban train line brought people from town to town, with stops in local communities such as Greenwood, Franklin, Amity and Edinburgh on a route that spanned from Indianapolis to Louisville. When the Great Depression hit in 1929, the interurban faced funding struggles and eventually shuttered in 1941, according to records from the history museum.

“By 1941, it was done, but for 20 or 30 years it was a really big deal. You could get from Indianapolis all the way down to Louisville on one train,” Pfeiffer said. “The interurban was an easy way to get back and forth between the communities because we had four stops in Johnson County.”

By the county’s centennial, cars had been invented and were on their way to becoming the predominant mode of transportation. It was common for cars to be a status symbol, and people who had them often took pictures with them. As the novelty wore off and prices became more affordable, car ownership became more and more common, Pfeiffer said.

Along with automobiles, personal convenience also increased with other new inventions. With the invention of electricity in 1879, people could use lightbulbs rather than candles to light their houses, and with the invention of the telephone in 1876, people could communicate with each other without leaving their homes. In 1891, Franklin officials approved the installation of street lights. The first telephone lines were installed in Johnson County in 1882 and by 1912, at least five different telephone exchanges had opened in the county, according to information from an exhibit at the history museum.

New technology also improved home entertainment. The radio was invented in the 1890s, and carried

live programming to people’s homes in the decades that followed. The phonograph, invented in 1877, allowed people to listen to recordings of speeches or music.

New inventions also led to jobs. With the invention of the motion picture in 1895 came movies and movie theatre. The Historic Artcraft Theatre opened Nov. 1, 1922, creating not just a venue for entertainment and leisure, but a place of employment, as was the case with other movie theaters, such as the now shuttered Community House in Greenwood. The manager of the Community House, George Kenny, reviewed magazines such as the Motion Picture Herald, which had statistics about which movies would sell the most tickets, according to a photo caption in The Greenwood News in 1937.

“This (magazine) tells plain facts, such as how much money certain theatres took in on certain pictures,” the caption for a photo of Kenny says. “By scanning these facts, Mr. Kenny is able to judge which films to book for the Community House shows.”

Other jobs included in the “People at Work” series in The Greenwood News include a car mechanic, hardware salesman, welding machine operator, beauty parlor owner, a street sweeper and a gas station operator, occupations that did not exist in the county a century earlier.

present day

After World War II, the population of Johnson County exploded, and development has continued through the present day. In 1950, the county’s population hovered around 26,000 people, last year, that population was more than 165,000 last year, more than five times that amount. While Franklin, as the county seat, had also long been the county’s largest population center. However, Greenwood eclipsed it around 1970, and is now more than twice its size.

“You start to see that postwar, suburban growth quite a bit,” Pfeiffer said. “The Greenwood Park Mall opened in the mid-60s, so I was looking to see how that affected the population as you start to see that shift northward. It had started a bit before. Greenwood started annexing a lot of land in the 50s. From ’50 to ’60, the population doubled from 3,000 to 7,100. And then by 1970, it had overtaken Franklin. (Greenwood) went from 3,000 people to just under 12,000 in 20 years.”

With the booming population came new job opportunities. With new homes and warehouses being built, construction work has become one of the largest industries of employment in the county, with 8.4% of county workers employed by general or heavy construction industries, according to data from Aspire Johnson County.

Medical work also became a predominant source of employment in the county. A century ago, there weren’t any large hospitals. Instead, healthcare needs were met by local doctors, such as the Province family, which owned a small hospital northwest of Main and Madison streets in Franklin.

When Johnson County Memorial Hospital opened in 1947, it gave people a place to get treated for major illness, have X-rays taken and deliver their babies in a safe and sterile environment without having to drive to Indianapolis. The hospital has since become Johnson Memorial Health.

Just north of the county line in Indianapolis, Franciscan Health and Community Hospital South also employ significant numbers of Johnson

iMAge froM JoHnSon county MuSeuM of HiStory

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the interurban railway connected people in different cities and towns throughout Indiana. Above, an interurban train is seen in Greenwood.

County residents, with almost 2,200 workers employed in hospitals, according to data from Aspire.

A few of the most common occupations in the county include retail work (22.8% of workers), sales (12.9% of workers) and office and administrative support (12.7% of workers), according to the data.

Warehouses also employ large numbers of people. During recent years, warehouses, factories and logistics buildings have sprung up in Johnson County along Interstate 65 from Greenwood to Edinburgh. Companies such as Amazon, Ulta Beauty, KYB Manufacturing and Mitsubishi employ thousands of Johnson County workers. Of the almost 49,000 people employed in Johnson County, more than 3,500 people work in manufacturing, according to the data.

With times, transportation and technology have also changed. While the interurban railroad was a popular way for people to get around 100 years ago, Johnson County residents almost exclusively commute by car now. The most popular ways of getting to work are driving alone (80.3%), and carpooling (6.1%). While remote work is a relatively

new phenomenon, about 12% of county residents now work from home, according to data from Aspire.

With more people driving, roads have expanded and improved. During the second half of the 20th century, the interstate highway system was introduced in the United States. Interstate 65 was completed in 1976, running through Johnson County from Greenwood to Edinburgh. Interstate 69 will be completed through Johnson County later this year with the opening of the Smith Valley Road interchange, part of an over $1.5 billion project to complete the highway from Martinsville to Indianapolis.

Technology has also changed rapidly within the past century. Radios and newspapers used to be the sole sources of news people received at home. During the 1950s and 60s, television sets were introduced to American households, providing live visual news and entertainment. Since 1990, technology and communication have evolved to become portable, with cell phones and laptops that access the internet, things that were unfathomable to residents 100 and 200 years ago.

Andy Bell-BAltAci dAily JournAl

The Historic Artcraft Theatre opened in 1922, serving as a source of entertainment and employment for Johnson County residents. It remains open to this day.

TBy emily Ketterer | Daily Journal

Towering over structures in the heart of historic downtown Franklin, the courthouse sits as the icon of Johnson County.

The current courthouse, constructed in the summer of 1882, is the fifth the county has built. Some of the previous courthouses were found to be too small as the county grew, and two of the five were destroyed by fires.

Court in a cabin

Johnson County was established officially in May 1823. A petition to establish the new county was brought before the Indiana General

Assembly in 1822, under the leadership of local landowner George King. The petition was signed into law by Gov. William Hendricks on Dec. 31, 1822.

Hendricks appointed John Smiley as sheriff, making him Johnson County’s first public official. The bill also named five commissioners, who were instructed to meet in Smiley’s home to establish the new county. It also stated that the Circuit Court was to meet in Smiley’s home as well, until the commissioners built a permanent place for the seat of justice.

With no public buildings yet constructed in the county seat of

Pictured: Smiley Mill, owned by John Smiley, the first sheriff if Johnson County. Smiley also lived there and opened his home to be the space to hold the first court, before the county built a courthouse. JoHnSon county MuSeuM of HiStory

Franklin, the first term of the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court convened inside Smiley’s log cabin under Presiding Judge William W. Wick.

The cabin on Sugar Creek had two rooms, one of which where Wick held court, and another where the grand jury presided. The jury room was also occupied by the ill Mrs. Smiley. A story passed down over the years accounts Daniel B. Wick, a prosecuting attorney and brother of Judge Wick, often walking into the jury room offering whisky first to Mrs. Smiley and then to other jurors, according to “History of Johnson County Indiana” by Elba Branigin.

The next term of the court was held in King’s home, which was larger and closer to Franklin.

the first courthouse

Work began on a permanent courthouse in spring of 1824. The construction contract was awarded to William Shaffer, a carpenter who was also the county recorder at the time. This courthouse was located on a plot of land near where the Historic Artcraft Theatre sits today.

The building was a two-story hewn log structure with an exterior staircase to the second floor. The first

floor was a public meeting space, and the second was the courtroom. The court space was furnished with a table and two chairs for the judge and clerk, and benches for attorneys, litigants, jurors and spectators, according to documents from the Johnson County Museum of History.

An exact date of completion is unknown, but it was ready for the fall term of the court in September 1824. No other county office was allocated space in this building, but the commissioners used the ground floor for their public meetings.

s econd and third courthouses plagued by fire

At a January Board of Commissioners meeting in 1830, it was decided to advertise for bids to build a new, larger courthouse. This one would be brick and two stories high, documents said.

A contract for a new courthouse in the square was let in March 1830 to Samuel and John Herriott for $1,027. Construction was underway by spring of 1831. The commissioners ordered several changes along the way during construction over the two years, slowing the building process.

The second courthouse was

completed in May 1832. Additional interior work was done over the next three years adding space for the clerk, recorder, a jury room and other improvements to the courtroom.

Over a decade later, in August 1848, a committee was formed to build another bigger courthouse. However, the issue was continued the following year in January and no action was taken on a new building proposal.

This construction problem solved itself on May 18, 1849 when the courthouse was destroyed by a fire.

Acting on urgency caused by the fire, the commissioners quickly adopted plans for a new courthouse. The new building was to be fifty feet wide by eighty-four feet long with a limestone foundation and brick exterior. A contract was awarded to Edwin May on July 4, 1849 for $10,084.

Out of concern for fire safety, the commissioners ordered two Canon Coal Stoves for use in the courtroom and five smaller coal stoves in other offices. This was the first recorded use of coal heating in the county.

The building was ready for occupancy in 1850, and for the first time in

Johnson County’s history, all county officers were ordered to keep office at the courthouse.

Once again, fire destroyed this courthouse on Dec. 12, 1874. The fire broke out in the stairway leading to the cupola, and it destroyed the building, along with many records.

the fourth and fifth courthouses

The fourth courthouse was a temporary frame structure hastily built by the county on the south end of the square. Though it was meant to be temporary, this building was used from 1875 to 1882.

Controversy delayed construction of a new courthouse. One point of contention was Main Street running through the center of the public square, and there were concerns about the cost of a new building.

The Johnson County Courthouse standing today started construction in 1879, designed by architect George W. Bunting. The construction contract was awarded to Farman and Pierce for $79,100.

Work took a little more than two years to complete. It was ready to move in by the end of August 1882, and all county officers were ordered to move in by Sept. 5, 1882. That same

Pictured from left: People pictured on the Johnson County Courthouse lawn in November 1974. // The Johnson County Courthouse pictured in 1885. JoHnSon county MuSeuM of HiStory; dAily JournAl ArcHiveS

month, a telephone was ordered to be placed in the courtroom, the first recorded use of a telephone in a county office.

This courthouse served the needs of the county for a century, with some remodeling work done over that 100 years to make room for more employees as Johnson County continued to grow.

Growing pains

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Johnson County government was running out of space for its growing services.

In 1979, commissioners paid $5,000 to a firm to conduct a feasibility study on the county’s current buildings. A push was coming from county departments for more space, since offices were outgrowing the courthouse. This push was mostly coming from the courts, and judges were “not-so-privately” hinting that if the commissioners didn’t do something soon, they would, according to an article in the Daily Journal published April 6, 1979.

Johnson County, at that time, had just built a new jail and sheriff’s

office, and many offices once inside the courthouse were shuffled around to different buildings in Franklin.

In 1983, the Courthouse Annex was built on the west side of the courthouse, the former site of the jail. This building became home to the prosecutor’s office, the commissioners, zoning department, the auditor and more.

Once the annex opened, the courthouse underwent a significant $2.3 million renovation that was completed in 1984. The renovation restored the marble floors, historical molding and lighting fixtures. It transformed old storage rooms into office spaces, adding about 4,000 square feet for county offices to use.

A second courthouse annex was opened across Jefferson Street to the north in the 1990s.

Johnson County again is facing growing pains, with different departments outgrowing their offices today. Since the two new annexes were built, other county offices have been shuffled around again over the years to make room or get away from flooding. Departments such as the health

department and prosecutor’s office moved out of the annexes and into their own spaces. Other spaces are crowded. The coroner’s office, for example, currently works out of three different places.

County officials are working to solve this problem, and one of those solutions is underway now with the construction of a new combined health department and coroner’s office building on Drake Road in Franklin. The new building is expected to open in the summer of 2024.

the courthouse today

The Johnson County Courthouse today is home to the county circuit court and Superior Courts 1 and 4 and those court’s magistrates. It also houses the clerk’s office and voter registration.

A few projects to improve the outside of the 141-year-old courthouse were commissioned this year.

Crews poured new sidewalks and walkways outside the courthouse, and added new railings at some entrances. New exterior lights also have been installed as a part of a project pushed

by a Franklin resident to have the courthouse lit up at night.

Another major project focused on the fountain on the Vawter statue, which is running water again for the first time in 25 years.

Part of the 1984 renovation also included getting the fountain to work again on the statue. The monument features an unnamed Union soldier atop and was built in 1905 with funds donated by Franklin hardware store owner and philanthropist John T. Vawter.

The fountain at the bottom has worked on and off over the decades. A story in the Daily Journal following the 1984 renovation reported the plumbing to the fountain had been repaired. But it stopped again sometime in the 1990s before being restored this year.

High winds from severe storms on March 31, 2023 caused significant damage to the exterior of courthouse tower. Portions of the tower’s facade on two sides of the courthouse were blown off. Work is underway to get the tower repaired, county officials have said.

eduCation tHrougH

two Centuries

County schools grew from one-room schoolhouses

TBy Andy Bell-BAltAci | Daily Journal

Two centuries ago, schools didn’t exist in Johnson County.

An act of Congress in 1816 enabled the people of Indiana to form a constitution and the section numbered “16” in every township be granted to township residents for the use as a school. But that land couldn’t be sold before 1820, and none of the sections in Johnson County were sold for schooling until 1832, according to a document on the history of early education in Johnson County from the Johnson County Museum of History.

“The earliest school houses were built of round logs with spaces between the logs chinked,” the document says. “A wide stick and mud chimney and floor made of split logs completed the building. Window panes were made of thick

greased paper. Seats were made of split halves of logs with wooden legs. A large writing desk was held by wooden pegs driven into the wall.”

One of those early buildings was in Whiteland. Built in 1835, the town’s first known schoolhouse was a log cabin about 24 feet long and 10 feet wide, according to a document provided by Clark-Pleasant schools.

In the 1840s, two log churches in the area were used as schoolhouses, and when a new Indiana Constitution allowed trustees to build schools, Pleasant Township had ten schoolhouses, according to the document.

By 1888, the six Johnson County townships had at least seven schoolhouses for students who lived in the country. Blue River Township had the fewest students, with 232 students attending seven schoolhouses.

Pictured from left: Education in Johnson County started with one-room schoolhouses, such as this one in Hensley Township. // A school on the hill where the Edinburgh Water Tower now stands served first through 12th graders in the 1800s.

White River Township had 11 schoolhouses, with a total enrolment of 682 students.

Incorporated areas had five schools. The city of Franklin had three schools serving 1,257 children. The school in Edinburgh served 694 while the Greenwood School served 275, according to the museum’s records.

The final one-room schoolhouses were sold by an auctioneer in August of 1939, marking the end of an era.

The Samaria and Buckner school structures sold for a combined $997, a fraction of the construction cost, according to an article from Aug. 31, 1939 in the Franklin Evening Star.

Center Grove schools

Before Center Grove schools was a district approaching 10,000 students, education in White River Township started in the room of a house.

The school district, named for the founding of the schools in the center of a grove of trees, is the culmination of 198 years of education in White River Township.

The earliest lessons in the township likely occurred in 1825, when

the widow of Samuel Parks taught a school in her house following her husband’s death. As early as 1826, schoolmaster John Collins taught a school in one room of a double-log cabin on Bluff Road, according to a book on the history of White River Township schools.

Center Grove High School was founded in 1884 and was advertised as a new graded school building. Originally a two-story structure, consisting of three school rooms and a recitation room. It was continuously added on to, standing at three stories before it burned down in 1952. Since that first school, the high school has been located at the southeast corner of Morgantown Road and Stones Crossing Road, according to the book. Another school building, serving first through eighth grade, opened in 1913 as the Bargersville School, located on three acres of land a quarter-mile west of the railroad tracks on Old Plank Road. The school had 149 students on its first day, and four teachers taught two grades each. Tom Baker, who taught seventh and

Pictured from top: A historical photo of a grade school building in White River Township. Schools in the township eventually consolidated as Center Grove schools. // A historical photo of the Bargersville school, which served students in lower grades. Schools in White River were consolidated as Center Grove schools. HiStoricAl iMAgeS

eighth grade, also served as the chool’s principal, the book says.

The first graduating class in 1888 featured four students, while the most recent class featured 657. The 11 school buildings held 682 students that year, while the school district now has nine schools, which had a population of 9,434 pupils last fall.

Clark-pleasant schools

Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation was the result of the consolidation of schools in Clark and Pleasant townships, hence the name.

The first known schoolhouse in Whiteland was built in 1835, a log cabin 24 feet long and 10 feet wide. In 1869, a schoolhouse serving first through 12th grade opened in Whiteland, and by 1889, there were 12 schools in Pleasant Township serving 409 students, according to documents from Clark Pleasant schools.

The first graduating class in 1894 featured one senior, but by 1930 there were 25 graduates, the largest class up to that point.

With population growth came the need for a new school. In 1902, a larger school building opened in Whiteland where Clark-Pleasant school’s administration building now stands.

Although the building was eventually torn down, the exterior was recreated and is displayed on one wall of the administration building with the original school bell and door knobs. When it opened, the school, which held classes for grades one through 12, included a

basement, two halls, six rooms and a superintendent’s office, according to school documents.

A new high school, now known as Whiteland Community High School, was built in 1957, where it stands to this day.

Clark Township featured nine schoolhouses with 451 students in 1888, and Clark High School was built in 1911. The building continues to serve students as Clark Elementary School.

While Pleasant Township has developed to become the most populated township in the county with more than 60,000 people, Clark Township has remained largely rural, with fewer than 3,000 people. Today, Clark Elementary School is the only one of eight school buildings in Johnson County located within the boundaries of Clark Township.

In 1965, Clark High School and Whiteland High School united to form Clark-Pleasant schools during an era that included the opening of many other schools in the district, including Break-O-Day Elementary School (1960), the first ClarkPleasant Middle School (1970) and Whiteland Elementary School (1976). The most recent additions to the school district include Pleasant Crossing Elementary School (2007) and Ray Crowe Elementary School (2021).

Pictured from top: A recreation of the original facade of Whiteland High School stands inside the Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation administration building. // Original school bells and door knobs from Whiteland High School, which became Whiteland Elementary School before the building was demolished in 1976, are located in the Clark-Pleasant administration building. // Records of students from first graduating classes in Johnson County history are often incomplete. Here, a photo of the Class of 1903 at Whiteland High School is missing several names.

Andy Bell-BAltAci | dAily JournAl; HiStoricAl iMAge

edinburgh schools

The early days of schooling in Blue River Township featured seven schoolhouses during the late 1800s, according to information about Edinburgh schools from the Edinburgh Public Library.

The first public school building opened in Jan. 3, 1856, under Principal J. Albert R. Woodfill at East Main Cross Street and Grant Street, but the school burned down in 1865, according to information from the library.

In 1869, a school was constructed on a hill on the west side of town where the water tower now stands. The school was the first to house first through 12th grade. When that school building burned, classes were held in various places, including a hotel, a library, multiple churches and even an opera house.

In 1912, a new school building opened on the same site as the original school, serving high school students on the second floor and lower grades on the first floor. Another high school building, just north of that site, was completed in 1925, and included a gymnasium and auditorium. Once it was completed, high school students attended the new building, and junior high school classes moved to the second floor of the original building, according to museum records.

Elementary school students remained in the same building until 1963, when East Side Elementary School opened, according to historical records. The school’s opening followed the school district’s consolidation in 1962, when students from the rest of Blue River Township joined students from the town of Edinburgh.

While most school districts have increased in population until the present day, Edinburgh schools peaked shortly after consolidation. During the 1963-64 school year, 1,488 students were enrolled, compared to 806 last fall.

The current academic wing of Edinburgh Junior/Senior High School was dedicated on Oct. 27, 1971 in a building southwest of Keeley Street and Campbell Street, where students from sixth through 12th grade attend to this day. The school on the hill became a community center and remained one until 1980, when the building was torn down, according to information from the library.

Franklin schools

Franklin had nine schoolhouses by 1888, serving 408 students, but the history of its high schools is the most complex of any township in Johnson County.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, the township had three different high schools serving students, distancing itself from other areas of the county which just had one high school standing at a time. The first school building in Franklin to hold classes for students in first through 12th grade was called the North School, said Jane Hughey, education coordinator for the museum. The school opened in 1871 on Water Street as the first all-grades school in Johnson County and later became Payne Elementary School.

In 1887, Franklin High School changed locations from Water Street to a new building on Monroe Street, initially named the South School and later renamed Kitty Palmer School. When another high school was built on Hurricane Street in 1909, Kitty Palmer School became an elementary school. Kitty Palmer School served students until 1938, Hughey said.

In 1872, Franklin Township High School opened in the building Heritage Baptist College now occupies in Hopewell. The school was renamed the Hopewell High School in the 1920s, and burned in 1932 before it was rebuilt. A midnight fire resulted in an over-heated boiler and the building collapsed into smoldering rubble,” according to an essay by Charles B. Van Nuys. After the fire, students already enrolled in the high school got to graduate, and the final graduates got their diplomas in 1935, according to records from the museum.

An all-ages boarding school was open at the Indiana Masonic Home from 1916 to 1944. The students who attended school there were often orphans. They helped staff the kitchen, tended crops, milked cows and loaded coal. The school eventually closed in 1944, as an improving economy decreased the number of students who lived at the home.

leeAnn doerflein dAily JournAl

Pictured from left: A historic marker for The Payne School stands in Franklin’s Payne Park. // The Payne School was the first all-grades school in Franklin but is now part of the Franklin Active Adult Center, 160 E. Adams St. Senior citizens who once attended elementary school there now enjoy games, activities and fellowship.

In 1928, Franklin High School was renamed Alva Neal High School with a new annex for students in sixth through eighth grade. The building was named after a teacher and principal at Franklin High School, but the name changed back to Franklin High School in 1939.

The high school remained on the corner of Hurricane Street and Jefferson Street until a new one opened on U.S. 31, in 1961. The site of the Jefferson Street school is now the Boys & Girls Clubs of Johnson County and the U.S. 31 school is now Franklin Community Middle School. Franklin Community High School opened at its current location, at 2600 Cumberland Drive, in 2007.

Greenwood schools

Greenwood’s first school was built in 1864, the same year Greenwood became a town. The school served first through 12th graders, and burned down two years after it was built. A new school to replace it was built in 1868, said Hurley Davis, whose father was a historian. Davis himself worked for Greenwood schools for 47 years,

serving as a bus driver, maintenance superintendent and a supervisor, he said.

“They had churches around town that served as schools until they built one,” Davis said. “It was like watching ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ Almost all regional schools were churches on Sunday and schools the rest of the time.”

When the second school was built in 1868, there were so few students that as many as three grades would be put in the same classroom. Older grades weren’t introduced to the school until the 1870s, he said.

“There were probably between 60 and 75 students. The first graduating class they ever had was in 1877,” Davis said. “Whether you stayed in school depended on if your father was in business. If you were 15 or 16, a lot of times you didn’t go to school, you just went to work.”

During the 1881-82 school year, Greenwood’s population was about 600, with 229 students enrolled at the school, according to historical records from “Memories of the Wonderful

Andy Bell-BAltAci | dAily JournAl

Pictured from top: Historical images of the Greenwood High School building in 1942, before and after the fire that destroyed it. // Greenwood schools historian and 47-year employee Hurley Davis looks through photos and information about the history of the school district.

World of Greenwood” by John Myers and Elaine Hullinger.

Last fall, Greenwood schools enrollment stood at 3,937 pupils.

The second Greenwood school building, located on the present-day southeast corner of Wiley Street and Meridian Street, was condemned in 1899, and a new school, called the Central School, opened in 1901. That school also burned in 1942. Safety standards were almost non-existent back then, resulting in so many blazes, Davis said.

“They would put real candles on a Christmas tree and that would burn the school,” Davis said.

In 1954, a new high school was built where The Madison at Greenwood apartments are now being constructed between Madison Avenue and Meridian Street. From there, school leaders began to open separate schools for elementary and middle school students.

Northeast Elementary School opened in 1959, Southwest Elementary School opened in 1962, and Isom Elementary School, which has a parking lot where the original high school once stood, opened in 1976. Greenwood Community High School opened in 1970 at its current location, Westwood Elementary School opened in 1996 and Greenwood Community Middle School opened on Averitt Road in 2016, Davis said.

Indian Creek schools

Indian Creek schools represents the largest geographical consolidation among Johnson County schools.

The school district, formally known as the Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corporation, consolidated in 1967 from separate schools in Johnson County’s Nineveh and Hensley townships and Morgan County’s Jackson township.

Before that point, the two-thirds of the district belonging to Johnson County featured several of its own schools. During the early years of schooling in the township in the 1820s and 1830s, there were three schools, with the first of those schools welcoming students during the winter between 1826 and 1827, according to documents from the museum.

By 1888, there were 487 students in 10 Hensley Township schools. Trafalgar High School opened on Pearl Street in 1880 and the first graduating class in 1885 featured two students: Lillie Lochry and Alva Richardson.

A campus housing students of all grades later opened just north of Pearl

Street and Virginia Avenue, where it served students until the consolidation and formation of Indian Creek schools.

The first school in Nineveh Township was formed when a man in a covered wagon approached the settlement then called Williamsburg. The man was Aaron Dunham, a teacher from Ohio who was looking for work. He signed a contract to educate the township’s students at $2.40 a scholar, according to the documents.

Education in the township would grow to include 11 schoolhouses, holding 508 students. When Nineveh High School was built in 1873, it was one of the state’s first township high schools, and the principal made $3 a day. The class of 1879 featured one graduate. Subjects taught at the school included: writing, reading, philosophy, zoology, chemistry, literature and Latin, according to the documents.

The student population outgrew the school building in 1906, and it was torn down, with a new building including eight rooms on the two floors. Exterior shots of the high school were included in the 1986 movie “Hoosiers.”

The high schools in Nineveh and Trafalgar closed in 1967, and the consolidated Indian Creek school campus opened in the same location it stands today.

Pictured from top: Nineveh had its own high school, with exterior shots featured in the movie “Hoosiers,” before Indian Creek schools opened as a consolidated school district in 1967. // Indian Creek Elementary School was located on Pearl Street in Trafalgar before moving to its current location south on the Indian Creek schools campus. HiStoricAl iMAge; Andy Bell-BAltAci dAily JournAl

‘Hensley town?’

‘Williamsburg?’

Communities see name changes over 200 years

GBy noAh crenshAw | Daily Journal

Greenfield. Liberty. Wheatland. Williamsburg.

At one point or another, each of these names referred to a Johnson County community.

However, over the course of 200 years, the names became what we know now: Greenwood, Trafalgar, Whiteland, Nineveh and New Whiteland.

There were a variety of reasons for the name changes, though most of them were primarily because of two reasons: another community had claimed the name first and the U.S. Postal Service had already established a post office with the name.

Greenwood

Today, the county’s largest city, Greenwood, could have been known by a very different name, or a very similar one, had events turned out differently.

The greater Greenwood area was first known as “Smock’s Settlement.” Jacob Smock first bought land in May 1822, and by the summer of 1823, the land was cleared and the first cabin was raised, according to historical accounts and newspaper archives.

The first families of the settlement were Issac Smock’s, John B. Smock’s and Jacob Smock’s from Mercer County, Kentucky, according to the Illustrated Historical Atlas of Johnson County, Indiana. The atlas, printed in the 1980s, is comprised of information from county atlases, histories, historical accounts, newspaper articles and more.

As more people moved into the area, the time came to name the community.

In July 1825, the name “Greenfield” was chosen by “mutual agreement between those immediately concerned,” according to the atlas. A post office bearing the name “Greenfield” was established in the center of town in 1828.

However, in March 1833, the post office was renamed to Greenwood. Soon after the community’s name was changed to Greenwood too.

Why the change? The name “Greenfield” had already been taken.

Sometime before March 1833, residents had discovered that a post office in Hancock County had already officially adopted Greenfield for its name. So the name had to be changed, and they chose “Greenwood.” trafalgar

The area that is now Trafalgar once bore two other names: Liberty and Hensley Town.

It was first called Liberty in official records as soon as 1851, after Avery M. Buckner and Elijah Moore paid a surveyor and had a plat of 27 lots laid out. As early as 1852, Buckner applied for a post office for Liberty, according to historical accounts.

But he ran into a competitor: George

Pictured from top: This map featured in the Illustrated Historical Atlas of Johnson County, Indiana, shows the Greenwood area in the 19th century. // This 1866 map shows the plan of Trafalgar.

Bridges, who had laid out his own small plat about a half-mile west of Liberty in 1853.

Bridges named his plat Hensley Town, and had applied for his own post office.

Quickly a rivalry developed between Liberty and Hensley Town, and for a time it was uncertain who would get a post office.

The Postal Service ultimately gave the post office to Liberty, but its name had to change on account of another already-established post office. The name ultimately chosen was Trafalgar, the atlas says.

From 1853 to 1867, Liberty and Hensley Town continued to remain separate despite being considered by many to be one town. This would end in April 1867, when Joseph Moore laid out a plat south of Hensley Town, naming the area Trafalgar.

At the same time Moore laid out his plat, the county courts and commissioners decided to change the names of Hensley Town and Liberty, unifying them under one name: Trafalgar.

This was the name that stuck, and eventually both the Liberty and Hensley Town names were abandoned in favor of Trafalgar.

Whiteland

Before there was Whiteland, there was “Wheatland” — sort of.

As early as 1858, the area that

would become Whiteland came into prominence on account of a small country store and two shops. But the idea of establishing a town did not come up until several years later, according to historical accounts.

A post office with the name “Wheatland” was established around 1861. Jacob White was the first postmaster.

However, the post office’s name was changed sometime later to Whiteland. This was because there was an older, more established post office with the name Wheatland already existing elsewhere in Indiana, according to the atlas.

Historical records list the Wheatland name as being in effect from 1858-1863. The Whiteland name is listed from 1858 on for both the post office and the town. nineveh

The area that is now Nineveh at the southern edge of Johnson County was known in its earliest days at Williamsburg.

Williamsburg was the site of one of the oldest settlements in Johnson County, as Joab Woodruff built a residence as early as 1822 just east of the village.

Musselman opened a store in Williamsburg as early as 1830. In 1834, in an effort to attract more settlers to the area, he paid for a surveyor and laid out a plat of 36 homes.

A post office was established in 1839, however, it was named the Nineveh

Post Office. This was likely because the Williamsburg name had already been taken.

The atlas does not say when the name of the community was changed from Williamsburg to Nineveh.

Historical maps in 1866, 1880 and 1890 list the Williamsburg name, though the maps in 1880 and 1890 also mention the post office being named Nineveh.

By 1880, business directories say that Williamsburg was the former name of Nineveh, spelled “Ninevah.” By 1892, the directories only said Nineveh, using the spelling used today.

new Whiteland

One of the more recently established towns, New Whiteland was once proposed to be called West Whiteland in the early 1950s.

New Whiteland came into existence in 1954, following a petition and legal battle. On the 10th anniversary of the town’s establishment, then Daily Journal Society Editor Ruth Chaney wrote that the town was established due to a refused annexation request.

“Back in the early 1950s, houses were being constructed west of U.S. 31 in Pleasant Township (near Whiteland) but Whiteland officials refused an annexation request,” Chaney wrote.

However, a few homeowners, along with the owners of the land marked

for future building sites, petitioned the Johnson County Commissioners to incorporate a town. The commissioners denied the petition, according to newspaper archives.

That petition, according to the Franklin Evening Star on March 23, 1954, was for the incorporation of “West Whiteland.” On April 20, 1954, the Evening Star reported that the petition had been rejected.

But the petitioners’ plans for a new town didn’t stop there. Three months later, they got the answer they were hoping for.

On July 2, 1954, a special judge issued a decree reversing the commissioners’ decision and ordered that the land be incorporated as a town known as “New Whiteland” if the “qualified voters, therefore, assent to the incorporation by election,” according to newspaper archives. Before this, in June 1954, a developer for the homes had asked officials to not name the new town “West Whiteland.”

Based on a census of the population taken in March 1954, it was determined there were six qualified voters for the election. On July 20, 1954, an election was held with eight voters unanimously casting ballots in favor of incorporating the town of New Whiteland, newspaper archives show.

The first minutes of the town government are dated Aug. 4., 1954, newspaper archives show.

Pictured from left: This map featured in the Illustrated Historical Atlas of Johnson County, Indiana, shows the Whiteland area in the 19th century. // This map shows Williamsburg as seen in 1866. The area later took on the name Nineveh, which was the name of the post office in Williamsburg. Provided By JoHnSon county MuSeuM of HiStory