Love Jameson was the son of Alexander Jameson, son of Thomas Jameson, a Revolutionary War soldier who is buried at Hebron Baptist Church. He was probably named for his grandfather Love Humphreys. Jameson became a well-known minister of the Disciples of Christ in Indiana. This letter was printed as part of the Jefferson County section of the Historical & Biographical Souvenir, published in 1889. It is one of the earliest descriptions of the county’s history. His statement that Jefferson County was named after a settlement on the Indian-Kentuck Creek has not been found elsewhere.
EARLY RELIGION. –Copy of a letter from Rev. Love H. Jameson: Indianapolis, 5th Feb’y, 1839.
W.P. Hendricks, Esq., Madison, Ind.
Dear Sir: -Your letter of 25th ult. Received; contents carefully noted. My very imperfect vision, and the difficulty with which I write, will account for my delay in answering. Any statements which I make will be confined to the first and second decades of the century.
Any incidents occurring during the first decade, that I may mention will be as reported to me by my father and others who took part in them. The incidents of the second decade will consist mainly of personal recollection.
What is now called Jefferson County began to be settled the first years of the century; a settlement on Indian Kentucky creek gave it its present name.
In the year 1806 George Richey, my uncle, from Garrard county, Kentucky, settled on Clifty, three miles west of the present city of Madison, and one-half mile north of Edwards’ Mill, on Clifty. He was followed by my father in 1810, who settled on lands owned by Alexander McNutt, immediately opposite Clifty Falls, on the south side of the creek. This was my birthplace. I was born on the 17th day of May, 1811.
I always understood, from my father and others, that the city of Madison was laid out by Col. John Paul, Jonathan Lyons, and another whose name I have forgotten, in the fall of the year 1810, and the lots began to be disposed of in the spring of the following year.
The county was being rapidly settled, and in consequence the town grew up quickly.
During the last years of the first decade, Jesse Vawter and his brother Philemon, both of them Baptist preachers, settled in the vicinity of the site of Madison. Jesse settled on the top of what is now known as the Michigan Hill, and Philemon at the foot, in the valley of Crooked Creek, in the edge of what is now the old cemetery (Springdale cemetery is meant).
My impression is that these men were the first men in the vicinity who established a church. They subsequently build their meeting-house on the top of the hill immediately west of Irish Hollow, and called it Mount Pleasant. The preachers of the Baptist denomination who succeeded the Vawters, it will be impossible for me to name in order of succession, nor can I, with any certainty, give the date of their service or employment. Col. John Vawter and his brother James –sons of Jesse Vawter –and James Glover, a son-in-law, were largely instrumental in extending the church throughout the county.
Col. John Vawter (if my memory serves me) kept the first store in Madison; his place of business being on the southwest corner of Mulberry and Main Cross streets. (Main and Main Cross was the place.)
As early as the year 1806, Bazaleel Maxwell settled in the vicinity of Hanover; he was followed by relatives bearing the names of Maxwell, McCullough and Tilford, who brought with them from Kentucky a preacher by the name of John McClung. McClung was a licentiate of the Presbyterian Church, but had left that church before leaving Kentucky, and associated himself with Barton W. Stone. As soon as they reached the territory, McClung began to evangelize through the country and establish preaching places, from the mouth of Saluda to the east fork of Indian Kentucky, in the north part of what is now called Shelby township. He preached in the neighborhood of the residence of a Mrs. Snodgrass, on Saluda Creek; at Samuel Maxwell’s, four miles west of Hanover, on White River; at James Crawford’s, on the north bank of Clifty, three miles west of Madison; at William Richey’s, on the middle fork, just above where the railroad now crosses that stream; at Thomas Jameson’s (my father’s), on the Michigan road, nine miles north of Madison, and at George Myers’ five miles north-east of Thomas Jameson’s on the east fork of Indian Kentucky, and three miles north of Canaan. He continued to minister in these several localities till the year 1820, when he removed to Indianapolis, where he died shortly afterward. He preached the first sermon ever preached in Indianapolis, and died the week after. (See Nolan’s History of Indianapolis.)
The second of these preaching places (Kent on White River), and the last two (Liberty, on the Michigan road, and Shelby, on east fork of Indian Kentucky) became and still remain churches.
During the second decade the following traveling preachers visited and preached in these several places, viz.: Henry Brown, Joshua Lindsay, Freeman Walden, Harrison Osborne, Benj. F. Hall, John Mavity, Fletcher Mavity, Francis D. Palmer, John Rogers, Samuel Rogers, Barton W. Stone, Joseph Trowbridge, Daniel Combs, William Kinkaid, Reuben Dooley, James Hughes, and others whose names I do not now remember. These three churches, subsequently, came into what we now call the Reformation.
At a very early period, the Methodists began to establish themselves in Madison; this was during the first half of the second decade.
The first preachers, to the best of my recollection, were Dr. John Heath, who used to visit and preach at Liberty, William Wallace, the father of James Wallace, and Dr. Oglesby. They soon became the leading religious denomination in town, and from that point spread over the country.
The Presbyterians appeared during the first half of the second decade and were ministered to by the Rev. Mr. Johnson, with whom I was personally acquainted. There was a congregation of Seceders some two or three miles southwest of Hanover, ministered to by a gentleman whose name was Fulton.
Any other items (in regard to the early history of Madison and vicinity that I am able to furnish) it will afford me great pleasure to lay before you, if you desire.
Very truly yours, L.H. Jameson
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