Beacon Aug 2023

Page 8A THE BEACON August 2023
Ewbank-Smith Pioneer Days Celebration For All
Continued from page 1A
moldboard plow. “
The 1878 Tanners Creek
Pioneers Association Reunion
was held at Hunts Grove.
Chaplain Chidlaw conducted
an opening religious service
and read a paper on the
“early settlers, their character
and deeds, and a biographical
sketch of Ezekial Hughes. The
Hunts Grove Reunion was
advertised earlier with transportation.
The round-trip fare to the
pioneer picnic at Hunts Grove
next Saturday will be as follows:
From Aurora 35 cents
From Lawrenceburg 25 cents
From Elizabethtown 20 cents
Both trains will make a
close connection at Valley
Junction, and there will be no
transfer. (Valley Junction was
on Oberting Road).
In 1881 we know that the
Pioneer Association was held
at Liddles Grove, which was
just beyond the entry to Sawdon
Ridge on the other side of
Tanners Creek.
Story of the Early Pioneers
At the end of the eighteenth
century, John Ewbank had
become a successful farmer
and businessman. He pledged
part of his savings as surety
in a business venture with a
partner. In the early 1800s,
England was in a deep financial
depression caused by the
disruptions of the Napoleonic
wars. The business went under,
the partner disappeared,
and John’s investments disappeared
also. To top things off
and make matters worse, his
landlord would not renew
his lease, because John and
Ann Ewbank had converted
to Methodism. The final blow
came when John was passed
over by the landholder and
the tenancy of the family farm
went to someone else.
By 1805 John and Ann
Ewbank had nine children
with a tenth on the way; they
were disinherited, broke, and
discriminated against because
of their religion. Following
Mark Twain’s advice, John
decided it was time to “light
out for the territories”.
After immigrating near New
York City, John prospered
as a partner in a stockyard
and saved enough money to
buy land in the “Gore”. The
Gore was the result of a treaty
settlement that granted the
United States ownership of
land bounded by the Ohio
River to the South, the Indiana-Ohio
border to the east,
and the Greenville Treaty
line to the West. The western
boundary of Dearborn County
follows the Greenville Treaty.
This land was open for sale
by the government at $1.25
an acre, payable in annual installments.
The sales required
a purchase of 640 acres,
which represented a section of
land. The attraction of owning
property rather than being
forever a landlord’s tenant
was irresistible. After a long
journey by flatboat down the
Ohio River from Pittsburg,
John Ewbank and his family
arrived at the head of the
navigation on Tanners Creek
at the Cambridge Settlement,
near where Perfect North
Slopes is located. The Cambridge
Settlement was made
up of Revolutionary War
Veterans who accepted new
land in lieu of back pay from
the War owed to them by the
Continental Congress. The
leader of the community was
Lt. Jacob Blasdel, a Veteran of
the Massachusetts continental
line, and another one of our
grandfathers.
From Cambridge, the
family loaded their property
onto sleds and dragged them
across the rocks of Tanners
Creek three miles to the new
land holding. They arrived in
November 1811 and camped
for the winter in an abandoned
one-room squatters’
cabin by the creek. At that
time the Ewbank family was
the deepest settlement on the
Indiana frontier. They arrived
in a time of war. The great
Shawnee Warrior, Tecumseh,
had raised a confederation
of tribes to evict Americans
from the Northwest Territory,
encouraged by the British
with army units who remained
stationed in Detroit in defiance
of treaty obligations.
The very month of the family’s
arrival, William Henry
Harrison won his greatest
victory over the Shawnees at
the Battle of Tippecanoe. But
the frontier remained closed
for several years.
It was a cold, dangerous
place for a single family to
live. In September of 1812, a
Shawnee war party massacred
civilians at Pigeon Roost, not
fifty miles away. During this
time, the Pioneer families
found solace and the rare
opportunity to interact with
other people when they could
draw upon their religion.
The Ewbank homestead
became the headquarters of
the Methodist movement in
the area. With the coming of
Peace in 1815, the settlement
of the Indiana frontier began
Ewbank Smith Family reunion Sept. 3, 1887.
in earnest. One of the new
families to settle in the valley
of the Tanners Creek was
that of John and Jane Smith
also from Thirsk, England, a
market town in York Shire,
not far from the home of John
Ewbank’s ancestors.
This new family settled less
than a mile north and west
of the site of the old East
Fork Church. The ten Smith
children became the nearest
neighbors of the ten Ewbank
children.
After so many years in isolation,
nature took its course,
and by 1820, no fewer than
three Smith children had married
Ewbanks.
John Ewbank, Jr. and Ellen
Smith were one of these marriages.
John, Jr. inherited the
family Homestead. With their
fine English education, they
were gifted storytellers. They
are the source of much of our
knowledge of the early settlement
of the area, telling the
stories to their grandchildren,
who in turn passed them on to
the following generations.
John Ewbank, Sr. maintained
extensive correspondence
with friends and
relatives in the old country.
The BEACON - Great News for Great People.
He announced in a letter back
to his brother, Pylus, that
America was a great country
for a poor man. Most of the
new immigrants, along with
many of the children of the
Ewbanks and Smiths moved
westward as soon as new land
opened up. We find them in
farming communities across
the United States and into
California and Oregon. In
August, many of the descendants
will find their way back
to the Homestead for another
reunion.
One of the return letters
we found was addressed on
the envelope to “John Ewbank,
Tanners Creek, North
America”. Some of these
early settlers remained, and
you can hear their names on
some of the ridges, including
Kaiser Ridge, Collier Ridge,
and Sawdon Ridge.
The settlers soon constructed
more permanent dwellings
for the worship of God
and themselves. An Uncle
named Christopher Brown
came to America with John
Smith. Christopher Brown
was a skilled builder and a
Veteran of twenty years in His
Majesty’s service as a Royal
Marine. He is buried at the
old East Fork Cemetery and
constructed several of the
stone homes in the Tanner
Valley, including the Homestead
and the stone church.
The old Homestead is
now owned by Robert and
Mary Ewbank and has been
renovated to stand for at least
another one hundred years
and will open its doors for the
Ewbank and Smith descendants
and all others who want
to celebrate Pioneer Days on
Aug. 5, 2023. The event will
begin at 11 A.M. and will
include lunch and a program.
Tickets are available to the
public. For more information,
email EwbankSmith@gmail.
com or call the Ewbank Law
office at 812-537-2522.
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