McCormick Family - Ourfolk

James McCormack, son of John and Cathanne (Drennan) McCormack, was born in 1797 in Hamilton, Butler Co., Ohio, and was only a boy when his parents came to Indiana. While still young he learned the trade of millwright, which he followed all his life, and many of the old-fashioned water-mills in central Indiana were of his construction. His brother, John (born in Hamilton county Ohio, Sept. 25, 1791-died Aug. 25, 1875) had moved out with his family to the paternal home neat Connersville after the war of 1812, in which he served. There he remained until after the treaty of St. Mary s (1818), when he decided to remove to the 'New Purchase,' the tract of land in central Indiana secured by that treaty.

He and his family started for the new location Feb. 18, 1820, accompanied by twelve men, who helped to cut the road, and though the distance was but sixty miles the journey by sleds took eight days, the party landing on the banks of the White river Feb. 26, 1820. They camped on a spot near where the old National road bridge was afterward erected, and the double log cabin which was to become historic as the first white man s dwelling in what is now the-capital city of Indiana was commenced at once. It was located on the White river, on the narrow, wedge-shaped piece of ground lying between what is now West Washington street and the National road, and stood between the two bridges which later were built across the river at the base of the wedge, being just north of the east end of the Washington street bridge. Some years ago there was a popular movement on foot to secure this piece of ground for a public park, to contain a reproduction of the McCormack cabin, which went to ruin many years ago, but nothing has been accomplished in that direction. The log house was typical of the times. It contained two rooms, each eighteen feet square, separated by a passage eight to ten feet wide, and the outside was often decorated with coonskins, bearskins and more frequently deerskins, stretched out to dry. The early settlers often wore breeches made of deerskin.

John McCormack located on the east bank of the river because the stream could not be forded, and moreover, the abundance of fish was an advantage not to be overlooked in the days when the immediate food supply was a question of even greater importance than it is now. James and Samuel McCormack, brothers of John, were of the party mentioned as helping him to move and erect his cabin, after which they returned to Connersville. Part of James McCormack s family had made the journey, and he came back with his wife and the rest of his household in March. Samuel McCormack removed hither in the fall. The Indians were still in the neighborhood at the time of John McCormack s settlement, and the nearest white settlers were those on the bluffs of the river near what is now Waverly. He kept the first tavern at that point, and when the commissioners chosen to decide upon a location for the seat of government visited this section they boarded with him part of the time. On June 7, 1820, Indianapolis was chosen, and the members of the delegation were greeted at the McCormack cabin by the few settlers of the vicinity.

The McCormacks John and James and their families lived here for two years, and then moved about four miles up the river, to what is now the Pitts farm, on the south edge of Washington township. They bought government land, and built on the east bank, almost directly west of the present site of the Country Club. There John McCormack built the first saw mill in the county, and some of the timbers of the old dam can yet be seen at low watermark. The brothers continued to live together and operate the mill until James moved to Rush county, in 1824, after which John ran it until his death, in 1825. He had married in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1811, Bethiah Case, and they had a family of eight children, their twin daughters, Tabitha and Lavina, celebrating their fourth birthday the day after the family arrived at Indianapolis. After her husband s death Mrs. Bethiah McCormack married a Mr. King, by whom she had four childdren, and he pre-deceased her. She continued to live near the bluffs until after the close of the Civil war, when she moved to Arcadia, Ind., to live with her twin daughters until her death, in 1879.

James McCormack, who as related made the journey from Connersville to Indianapolis with his brother John, and himself settled here in March, 1820, went back to Rush county in 1824. In 1826 he moved to Marion, Shelby county, whence he returned to Indianapolis in March, 1832. His home was on the ground now included in Crown Hill cemetery, which he had bought the previous year. There he built a house in which he lived for three years, when he moved to Millersville to build a mill for Noah Leverton, on the site of the present mill at that point. His stay there was limited to a single season, and the following spring, 1836, he located on what was known as the Morrow farm, now a part of Riverside Park, and traversed by the Big Four railroad. In 1838 he bought the old mill site where his brother John had built a mill, putting up one which he conducted for some years. Disposing of this he moved to the Huston farm, and thence to the Hoover Mill, on the other side of the river. In 1845 he made his home on the Baldwin farm, where he lived a year . and then he returned to the Hoover Mill, where he remained until the big freshet of 1846-47. After that he had his home on the Martindale farm, on Eagle creek, whence he moved to a place he had bought a little south. This farm he sold and in 1853 moved into Hendricks county, near Cartersburg, where he bought land and built the mill which he was operating at the time of his death, Oct. 6, 1858.

Note: This bio states that John McCorminck was born Sept 25, 1791. Other sources show the dats as Sept 15, 1791.

See http://members.tripod.com/~debmurray/marion/marbioref-16.htm#lmccormack LYCURGUS P. McCORMACK