The first African American settlers came to Orange County, Indiana
before 1820. Led by Jonathan Lindley, eleven families traveled with a group of sympathetic
Quakers in search of a new land which forbade slavery.
Jonathan Lindley settled in Orange County in 1811, five years before the County was
established and Indiana became a state. These settlers were free citizens who fled
racial persecution and increasingly restrictive laws for free blacks in their previous
home in North Carolina. Traveling with the Quakers offered some protection on their
journey and the promise of supportive neighbors upon their arrival.
According to the census records, there were 96 blacks living in Orange County
in 1820. As more blacks came in to the area they
purchased land from the United States of American (patented) in what we call
the Lick Creek settlement area. The first African Americans to purchase land in the Lick Creek area were Benjamin
Roberts, Peter Lindley, and Elias Roberts all in 1832. By 1855, the settlement reached its
maximum size of 1,557 acres. (For more information on the settlement and research to
investigate it see the Bedford Times Mail article "Digging up History" of June
11, 2000)
![black farmer plowing](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081027043630im_/http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/images/historical/ox_team.jpg) |
By 1860, 260 blacks lived in Orange County.
Almost a third of them lived in Southeast Township in the Lick Creek Settlement, at that
time a racially integrated community. |
One of the few sources of information on the residents of Lick Creek settlement comes
from their freedom papers filed in the County Courthouse. When the slave trade ended, the
practice of kidnapping free blacks and selling them into slavery in Kentucky became
prevalent. Once kidnapped, the free blacks had little recourse. There is also a County
Register of 1853 which Indiana law required of all negroes and mulattos. A physical
description, often including distinguishing marks, is listed and statements by white
witnesses vouching for the registrants free status and character.
![church drawing](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081027043630im_/http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/images/historical/churchdrawing.gif) |
A focal point of the settlement was the
church. In 1843, Thomas and Matilda Roberts sold one acre of their 120 acres to five
trustees for its establishment. The deed states the trustees (Elias Roberts, Mathew
Thomas, Thomas Roberts, Isaac Scott, and Samuel Chandler) were to erect or cause to erect
a house or place of worship for use by the members of the African Episcopal Church (AME)
of the United States of America. This church operated from 1843-1869. |
This AME church was near the site of the colored Methodist Union Meeting House. The
Methodist Union Meeting House was built in 1837 on land owed by Ishmael Roberts. (This is
not the same Ishmael Roberts who served in the Revolutionary War in 1778 as a private in
the 10th North Carolina Regiment. This soldier's grave was discovered in Chatham County,
North Carolina by writer Paul Heinegg). It is unclear when the Methodist Union Meeting
House was abandoned, but it was probably replaced by the new AME church.
Many volunteer efforts throughout the years
have helped maintain the Thomas and Roberts family cemetery near the site of the former
AME Church. There are at least 14 marked headstones. Burials occurred between 1856-1891. |
![children looking at gravestone](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081027043630im_/http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/images/historical/lick_creek/lickcreekkatie.jpg) |
The presence of professionally made stones
attest to the family wealth. The last person to be buried there was Simon Locust in 1891.
He served in the Civil War in Company E of the 13th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Colored
Troops. |
![USCT gravestone](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081027043630im_/http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/images/historical/lick_creek/usct.jpg) |
![tombstone.jpg (45263 bytes)](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081027043630im_/http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/images/historical/lick_creek/tombstone.jpg) |
Shown here is an order form for the tombstone
of Mathew Thomas, born October 8, 1808 and died December 10, 1870. The tombstone was to be
3 foot tall and 12 inches wide inscribed with a hand and "gone home". The fee
for the tombstone was $22.50 with a $1 fee for setting the stone. |
Shown here is a page from the probate records
of Banister Chavis. The page is a record of the estate as appraised by Hiram Lindley and
William Chambers on November 20, 1855. It gives an interesting picture of what a typical
Lick Creek farmer would have owned. Each item of property is listed with its appraised
valuation. Included are such items as 4 split bottom chairs, 2 beds, 1 lot of cupboard
ware, 1 lot of bed clothes, 1 chopping axe, 1 2-horse wagon, 1 mattock, 1 wedge, and 3
clevises, 3 weeding hoes, 1 cary plow, 1 loom, 2 wash tubs, 1 shovel plow and singletree,
1 scythe and cradle, 2 bay mares, 2 bridles, 6 head of sheep, 1 spotted sow, 1 black sow
and six pigs, 6 fat hogs, 5 geese, 1 stack of oats, 1 red cow, 1 red heifer, 2 yearling
calves, 1 lot of tobacco, 1 lot of shock corn, 1 field of corn, 1 note on Elias Roberts
due twelve months after date for $425. |
![probate_list.jpg (70686 bytes)](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081027043630im_/http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/images/historical/lick_creek/probate_list.jpg) |
According to early histories,
Chambersburg was a station on the underground railroad. Apparently it was the first stop
north of the Ohio River. The Quakers in the area were instrumental in this effort and the
Lindley House may have been this station. |
![chambersburg underground railroad site](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081027043630im_/http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/images/historical/lick_creek/chambersburg.jpg) |
Shown here is Howard Hall of
Chambersburg in what remains of his family's cabin that was once a
station on the underground railroad. Hall's family were Quaker and this
cabin had stood near Lick Creek since before Indiana was a state. Hall
was born in this old log house in the 1920's. He explained the fireplace
hearth in the house had a trap door that opened into a 8' x 6' pit. A
rug covered the trap door, and according to stories his parents told
him, during daylight hours, fugitive slaves were hidden out of sight. |
At the end of the Civil War, the population at Lick Creek began to sharply decline and
by the early 1900's the African Americans were gone. In fact, many left in the year 1862.
Why they left is still somewhat of a mystery. Several factors probably contributed to this
decline. The war was in progress, a boom of industry occurred in nearby cities, and racial
pressure was increasing with the establishment of anti-black organizations. The last
resident of Lick Creek Settlement was William Thomas who sold his land in 1902.
Further sources of information:
Robbins, Coy 1994; Indiana Negro Registers, 1852-1865. Heritage Books.
Robbins, Coy 1994; Forgotten Hoosiers: African Heritage in Orange County, Indiana.
Heritage Books. Orange County Historical Society
Robbins, Coy 1884; History of Orange County. Republished by the Orange County
Genealogical Society in 1985.
Heinegg, Paul 1992; Free African Americans in North Carolina.
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