|
Grant County was organized in 1831, and was named in honor of Captain Samuel Grant and Moses Grant, who were killed in 1789 in a battle with the Indians near the creek since called by their name in the Northeast part of Switzerland county. Grant County is bounded north by Wabash and Huntington, east by Wells and Blackford, south by Delaware and Madison, and west by Howard and Miami. It is twenty-two miles in length from east to west, and nineteen in breadth, and contains 418 square miles. It is divided into the following townships: Van Buren, Washington, Pleasant, Richland, Center, Monroe, Jefferson, Union, and Liberty. The population in 1840 was 4,875; at this time it is about 8,000. Except along the borders of the Mississinnewa, which are beautifully rolling, the balance of the county is quite level and nearly all originally covered with heavy timber. The soil without exception is rich and well adapted to the cultivation of all kinds of grain, grass, fruit, &c., suited to the climate. There are in the county eighteen stores and groceries, fourteen mills propelled by water, eight lawyers, eight physicians, six preachers, twelve churches, belonging to the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Friends, or Quakers, and the taxable land amounts to 162,268 acres. A considerable part of Grant lay in the bounds of the Miami Reserve, and has been but recently settled; but except in facilities for the transportation of produce, there are few parts of the state that are better calculated to sustain a dense and prosperous population. |
