Pleasantville
During the present decade the town of Pleasantville in Jefferson Township has become an active center for the coal mining industry. Several companies secured acreage in this vicinity, and a considerable number of miners lived and worked in the shafts in and about Pleasantville. The working of the coal deposits in this locality is an old story, coal having been taken out by "slope" and "stripping" process by some of the early residents, among them being the O'Havers and Timmermans. Jesse Beck, James Mayfield, James Harvey, Nathan Hinkle, Elias Newkirk were among the other first residents of this vicinity. Elias Newkirk built a blacksmith shop just south of the village site many years ago, and his son, F. M. Newkirk, was the village blacksmith until within recent years. A steam mill was constructed early in the sixties, and this was the real nucleus of the village of Pleasantville.
When the townsite was laid off a few years later it was named for Pleasant O'Haver, who was the first postmaster and who also at the time had become owner of the mill. Jackson Hinkle and W. P. O'Haver were also early postmasters and merchants. In 1871 a two-story brick schoolhouse was built. The citizens took much pride in their school, and the record of the township in education stood high at a time when free school facilities were very imperfect in the county.
Source: A History of Sullivan County, Indiana. Closing of the first century’s history of the county and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth. Thomas J. Wolfe, Editor. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909.