Settlement of Owen County

            Owen County was settled in 1816-17. The first settlers were David Thompson, Philip Hart, Captain Bigger, John Dunn and Robert Blair. The county was named for Colonel Abraham Owen, who was in the battle of Tippecanoe, on the eighth of November, 1811. He was a volunteer aid-de-camp to General Harrison.

            The first court held in the county took place at the residence of John Dunn, in March, 1819, located about one mile east of Spencer, Judge Blackford presiding, when Philip Hart, the second settler, was fined twenty-one dollars and costs for committing an assault on Dr. David Thompson, the first white settler of the county. Here is a case where the second settler whipped the first settler. The respect shown to first settlers in those days, however, is evinced by the fine. The first white child born in the county was John R.K. Dunn, whose father established the first ferry on the west fork of the White river. In the year 1818, William Baker built a mill on Raccoon creek, and soon after a few of the early settlers rigged up a corn-cracker on a small stream near the present town of Gosport.

            John Dunn was the third settler of the county. He came in the winter, when the ground was covered with eight inches of snow, and arriving on the banks of the White river in February, 1817, with his family, without a house of any kind to protect them from the cold, he commenced life in a rude camp, and at once set about building a log house, which he accomplished after great difficulty and suffering.

            Spencer, the county seat, was located in 1820. The site was donated by Richard Beem, Isaiah Cooper, John Bartholomew and Philip Hart. It was laid out by James Galletly and others. Spencer is very pleasantly situated in the valley of the west fork of the White river, on the Indiana and Vincennes railroad. It has a population of about fifteen hundred, and is in a flourishing condition. The town is named for Captain Spier Spencer, who fell at Tippecanoe.

            There is some of the finest landscape scenery in this county to be found in the State. The county has also its curiosities in the Boone Cave, and the various Indian mounds. We have been unable to procure as full statistics from this county as we desired, but have ascertained that the school in the rural districts are in a fair condition, while those in the towns are equal to any in the State.

Source: An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana by DeWitt C. Goodrich and Charles R. Tuttle, 1875.