Lighting a candle helped illuminate 200 years of Johnson County history Wednesday night.
Descendants of the county’s earliest settlers crowded the stage of the Historic Artcraft Theatre. Grace McCarty, the 2022 Johnson County Fair queen, stood among them holding a lighter to the oversized pillar candle specially made for this night.
As she lit the wicks, the county’s bicentennial was officially underway.
The 200th anniversary of Johnson County kicked off with a celebration of history and a nod to past milestones. Held 200 years to the day of the county’s first election, the event brought over 300 local residents together for a look back.
Historian Dr. Nicole Etcheson, a professor at Ball State University, helped the audience envision what life was like in 1823.
They examined artifacts such as photos of the Old Main on Franklin College’s campus and the Wonder Five champion basketball team. Current residents related to the earliest settlers stood together for a photograph together, then lit the special candle created by Franklin candle company Middle Davids Artisan Candles — a nod to the similar lighting celebrating the 150th anniversary of the county.
Each portion helped tie the present to the past.
“On this date in 1823, the people of the county came together to elect those first officials. We’re lucky enough tonight to show that continuity of 200 years of history that started March 8, 1823,” said David Pfeiffer, director of the Johnson County History Museum. “
As people filled the Artcraft Theatre Wednesday night, they were able to look back at their heritage and the county’s two centuries of tradition.
A slideshow of historic photos played on the theater’s big screen while people found their seats. Images of long-gone county schools, World War II-era buildings at Camp Atterbury and defunct businesses drew conversation and comments from the audience.
Out in the lobby, a display case offered a glimpse of oddities from the county’s past, including an old woolcarder and a token from Polk’s Milk. People could also pick up official bicentennial swag, from t-shirts to county-inspired candles from Middle Davids. Pre-orders were being taken for the bound bicentennial history book slated to be released later this year.
Once the audience had arrived, Pfeiffer helped get the program started.
“Historians love anniversaries — it’s like a big birthday party for us all the time,” he said. “It does my little historian heart proud to see so many people here for this kick-off event.”
Johnson County had been settled in 1822 when George King, Garrett Bergen and Simon Covert arrived from Kentucky to purchase land in the newly opened territory.
On Dec. 31, 1822, King petitioned the Indiana legislature to form a county. The petition was approved, and it was proposed to name the new entity Johnson County, in honor of John Johnson, one of the first Indiana Supreme Court Justices.
Gov. William Hendricks appointed John Smiley to be the county’s first sheriff, and instructed him to hold county elections on March 8, 1823.
As the first county election had been overseen by the sheriff and elected a variety of officials, it made sense to include their modern-day counterparts in the celebration. Sheriff Duane Burgess and Kevin Walls, a county commissioner, each spoke to the crowd about the legacies their predecessors had left them.
Walls noted that the county has come far in the past 200 years, especially in terms of economic growth and population. The county was founded with 500 people, while today the population is over 164,200. The number of Johnson County government employees alone, 650, outnumber the early settlers, Walls said.
Burgess shared one of the many unique historical oddities from the county’s past — the lack of a jail for the first years of its existence.
“Mr. Smiley was forced to be innovative in everything he did to enforce the law. It showed he once chained a prisoner, who was sent to him from the Edinburgh justice court, to a stump in the public square for his allotted time, until there was a jail,” Burgess said. “I don’t think I could get away with that now.”
The history-centric focus continued with the evening’s key speaker. Etcheson, the Alexander M. Bracken Distinguished Professor of History at Ball State, specializes in the early history of the country, particularly the time period around Johnson County’s founding.
She helped bring to life what it would have been like in Indiana at the time the county was established.
“It is an honor to be asked to give the talk to celebrate your 200th anniversary,” she said.
Her discussion was heavy on surprising tidbits and facts. She spotlighted the county’s namesake, Johnson, and his role as a judge dealing with slavery in Indiana. As many early settlers came from places such as Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina, they brought traditions from those states to the government of the time.
A large focus of her discussion was on the election held on March 8, 1823, in which 100 eligible voters picked their officials. The only contested race was for county clerk, and the eventual winner was worried throughout the day because his opponent had been giving out whiskey to potential voters.
At the same polling place, Etcheson described a fight that broke out.
“The combatants beat, bit, scratched and gouged each other, and wallowed in the mud and mire as was never known in the county before nor for many a day after,” she said, quoting county history accounts of the fight.
To close, Etcheson brought that initial election into present focus, quoting from Abraham Lincoln’s Peoria Speech from 1854.
“He says that, all lovers of liberty everywhere must join in the great and good work of holding the republic together, of keeping this government that our pioneer ancestors formed together,” she said. “Our pioneer ancestors have given us this government, it’s up to us to make it a government worth having and worth preserving in the future.”
SAVE THE DATES
Several events are planned to celebrate the county’s bicentennial this year.
Here are a few:
April 13: Johnson County Museum exhibit on Franklin bicentennial opens on this day.
Sept. 14: Johnson County Museum exhibit on Johnson County bicentennial opens on this day.
Sept. 30: An all-day bicentennial celebration during Franklin Fall Festival will happen on this day.
Nov. 10: A Bicentennial Ball will be hosted on this day.
TBD: A historical marker honoring Whiteland native Ray Crowe’s contributions to Black Hoosier history will be unveiled this year.
