Liberty Township in Tipton County, Indiana

The glaciers, thousands of years earlier, had leveled the high hills and gouged shallow depressions that over time had been filled by erosion and dead vegetation. It was a land of shallow lakes, swamps and wetlands, and some of the largest hardwood trees in America. The "Big Woods" was a forest swampland with only a few small clearings between the West Fork of the White River to the south, and the Wabash River to the north. The future Liberty p was primeval virgin land; inhabited by bears, timber wolves, timber rattlers, and the dreaded panther. It was as wild as when the Indians first came.

Tipton County was formed by a decree of an Indiana State Law, in 1844, from the northern portion of Hamilton County, and the southern portion of the Great Miami Indian Reserve. At that time, when Tipton became the 89th county in the state of Indiana, there were nineteen states in the Union. The northern 2/3 of the county, taken from the "Old Reserve" had no permanent Indian villages but it was the hunting grounds of the Miami, Delaware, and Pottawatomie tribes. The southern 1/3 of the new county contained only settlements due to the harshness of the land, and for some time it was not considered a good place for new settlements. In 1846 the Indians were moved, under duress by the Army, west to Kansas; but nearly half of them, those with some white blood, or who owned land, or had influence with authorities were allowed to stay. When the Indian lands were offered for sale in 1847 the "wild land where fallen trees and beaver dams held the water in overflows and swamps" was still the hunting grounds of those Indians that had not been moved.

Due to the dense forest and swamp, transportation was by horse, and baggage had to be by packhorse. The first roads were short, crooked paths through the trees and around the pools, generally following the Indian trails. Even following the Indian trails, it was hard to keep man and horse dry.

In 1849 Liberty Township was formed from half of Wildcat Township to the east, and a portion of Prairie Township to the west. A year later, the census of 1850 recorded 26 homes and 144 inhabitants within the new township, and E. M. Sharp had plotted a new town that was named Sharpsville. In 1854, Sharpsville's streets were still full of stumps and logs, but there was a railroad, and the new town contained 200 people. Harrison Burns, in 1855, wrote that the spring and summer were very wet, and that the entire county was covered with water. It was impossible to haul anything. There was a great deal of malaria, nearly every one had the "ague". He stated, "I have seen a team with an empty wagon stalled in the streets of Sharpsville."

Gradually, "dirt roads" were built on each line of the mile square. The trees were cut to make a path sixty feet wide while the stumps, cut low enough for the wagon axles to clear, were left in place. In the spring and after heavy rains the people were "mudded in", and sometimes a good wheat crop could not be hauled to market.

In 1880, the first county road was graveled, parts of the land had been cleared, open ditches were cut to enable tile field ditches to function, and people were astonished at the land's high fertility. In the ensuing years, the settlers turned a wilderness into the most productive county in the state of Indiana.

The preceding material is taken from works by Blanchard, Cline and other early historical papers. Phillip A. Hawkins, 15 October 1996.