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Foreword
Hendricks county will celebrate its ninety-first birthday on December 20, 1 9 14. The eighth General Assembly of Indiana met at Corydon on the first day of December, 1823, and created three counties before the close of the session, among them being Hendricks, the fifty-first county to be organized in the state. The bill creating the county was introduced in the Senate on December 9th and, after passing both houses of the Legislature, was signed on December 20th by Governor William Hendricks, in whose honor the new county was named. The county had been a part of the so-called New Purchase which was secured from the Indians in the fall of 1818, and, previous to its organization, had been under the civil and criminal jurisdiction of contiguous counties.
It is difficult for the people of Hendricks county today to realize the wonderful changes which have come about since the organization of the county. In 1823, Indianapolis was a mere village, with a few log cabins and a population not to exceed two hundred. In fact, the whole population of the state did not exceed one hundred and fifty thousand and practically all of this was south of the present National Road. Not a railroad, canal or improved road of any kind was to be found within the limits of the state and all transportation was confined to the trails through the dense woods and to the streams and rivers flowing into the Ohio and Wabash. The farmer had only two implements, the plow and harrow, which were not operated by hand; he planted and harvested all his crops by hand and frequently had to grind his corn and wheat in the same way. He sheared his sheep and cut his flax, while his good wife took the raw product and made the family clothing. The farmer was his own blacksmith, shoemaker, mason, carpenter and clothing manufacturer and frequently was his own doctor, dentist and lawyer. The division of labor as we know it now was practically unknown to the early settlers of this county.
From a trackless wilderness Hendricks county has come to be a center of prosperity and civilization with millions of wealth, systems of railways and interurbans, schools and colleges, marvelous industries and immense agricultural productions. Conditions have changed so much since those early
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