On south from Broad Park, near the site of the pioneer homestead of William Parker's, was platted on May 14, 1893 a village named Mount Washington. It was located in the southeast corner of the west half of the north west quarter of section 17 east of the Walnut Chapel Church. Lots one through nine were platted from the land of Elizabeth Hill and Benjamin Parker. Later an addition was proposed, but the village did not last. However, they managed to have a post office there for about three years. Harmon J. Hurst was appointed the postmaster on November 1891. He was succeeded by Benjamin A. Parker on February1894, but on August 10th of the same year the mail was changed to Belle Union. Mount W

There were several communities close to each other in Jefferson Township in southeastern Putnam County, and we will discuss each in turn, starting with Broadpark. Broadpark was located about two and a half miles south of U. S. 40 where U. S. 75 terminates, and about the same distance northeast of Belle Union, along the border of Sections 5 and 6 of Old Mill Creek Township. J. C. Broadstreet and Hugh Parker owned land on each side of the road and decided to put up a store, with each owning land on their respective side of the road. A lot for a school was also set aside. After surveying the place on June 25, 1893, Broadstreet and Parker decided to sell lots on their respective sides of the roa

Before we move onto the communities in Jefferson Township, why don’t we clarify the events surrounding the addition of the former Mill Creek Township in to Putnam County? Many thanks to local resident Jordan Vaughn, who supplied valuable information regarding the Jefferson Township area. Please check out his posts: You know you are from Belle Union if… The Vaughn’s of Belle Union The McCammack’s of Belle Union What was once Mill Creek Township was formerly a part of Morgan County. The residents of that place probably got tired of sloughing across Mill Creek and travelling the thirty plus miles to the Morgan County seat of Martinsville to pay their taxes and petitioned to become a part of Put

Since there were few small communities in Cloverdale Township, I am going to highlight the original township schools. These schools were discontinued in 1921-1922 and were consolidated into the Cloverdale school system. The locations of the schools can be a bit confusing because Cloverdale Township is split north and south as legal Township 12N and 13N, and also east and west by Range 3W and Range 4W. Cloverdale Township was originally part of Warren and Jefferson Townships, and some of the early land records for property in what is now Cloverdale Township reflect that fact. Unless otherwise noted, photographs of these schools are from Schools in Our Time, and photograph of Eckles Covered Br

Horntown was a small community with a general store, school and a cluster of homes in section 35, Twp 13N, R 3W, in the northeastern corner of Cloverdale Township. It was about six miles east of Cloverdale and a little north, and about four miles south of Belle Union. This part of Cloverdale Township was originally part of Jefferson Township, and early newspaper accounts reflected that fact, and it appears the community identified itself more with Jefferson than with Cloverdale Township to a certain extent. There was once a post office at Horntown, until it was discontinued with the advent of rural free delivery out of the Cloverdale post office in 1901. The primary families in the early day

Jenkinsville was a community that was platted in the extreme southern part of Section 29 of Warren Township, along the south bank of the Rocky Fork branch of Deer Creek, abutting Cloverdale Township. The area was first settled by Worthington B. Williams, who came from Poughkeepsie, New York, about 1835. Williams ultimately had extensive land holdings in Warren Township. On some of this land about three miles south of Putnamville, John Sinclair and his wife Louisa platted Jenkinsville in 1836, with the faith that their sash type sawmill, which was powered by steam and not dependent on the ebb and flow that plagued water powered mills, would draw enough settlers to become a proper town. But th

Oakland was a stop on the L. N. A. & C. Railroad at the north end of Section 16 of Township 12N Range 3W, about three miles southeast of Cloverdale. I did not find much in researching this community, which appeared to have been near School No. 11 and contained a sawmill at one time. There was enough interest in the place that the newspapers had just a few instances of “news from Oakland” and there were a few other newspaper items that mention the community, but not many. If anyone knows more about this place, feel free to add to this information.