Granville

Township Niles

Location:
Coordinates: 40°19′02″N 85°19′07″W / 40.31722 -85.31861

CR 877N, 375E ; Sec 31, Township 21, Range 11 east

Other Names:
Georgetown:
Georgeville: [S15] -

Date Platted: 1836

Town Plat Map - 1874 [S16 p 14] -
- North-South Streets: Gregory, Main, Walnut, Thomas
- East-West Streets: Water, Market, Jackson, South

Maps:
1870: "Granville" [S14] -
1874: Town Plat Map and Business Directory [S16 p 14] -
1876: "Granville" [S13] -
nd: Georgeville Plat map (Transcription) - [Ball State University Delaware County Collection, Map 36-1] - Doc2713.pdf

Population:
1880: 140 [S6 p 3]

Post Office Data:

Post Office Established: 8 May 1840
Post Office Closed: 14 Oct 1901
Post Office Names:
PO location: None shown -1887 [S6 IBC]
- Postmark [S4, p 447]
-

Postmasters:

Isaac C. Helm -- 8 May 1840
William H. Stewart -- 5 Sep 1849
David T. Hunter -- 6 Jul 1852
Jesse Brackin -- 18 Feb 1854
John A. Watchell -- 18 Dec 1854
John Dragoo -- 24 Jun 1859
David R.P. Slonaker -- 13 Sep 1871
Calvin Crooks -- 6 Sep 1872 (also ran a general merch. store [S12, p 275])
Isaiah Dudelston -- 7 Aug 1882
Mail To Eaton 15 May 1888
Benona R. Thomas -- 1 Jun 1888
Closed, mail to Eaton -- 14 Oct 1901

Georgeville:
- Founded by George Deeds in 1833 [S12, p 275]
- Residents of "Georgetown" moved their houses to the site of Granville by floating them on the river where they built them at the new site. [S3, p 100] -
- "Georgetown" was located a short distance further up the river [from Granville]. Price Thomas having hewed the logs for the first house on that site in 1833. [S3, p 99]
- Mentioned [S15] -
-

Sources: [S3 p 99, 100] - [S4 p 945] - [S5] - [S6 pages 3, 13, 24, IBC] - [S7 p 227] - [S8 p 63] - [S9 p 5] [S10, 15 Feb 1994, p 4A]

Abbreviations: IBC = Inside Back Cover

Roswell Barton Proprietor; 18 lots, 3 streets [S11, map 36-1]

Granville founded in 1836 and named for Granville Hastings, who had established two mills and a store [S8 p 63]

Founded by John Gregory in 1836 [S3, p 100] -

A legend has it that Granville was a competitor for the county seat against Muncietown (Muncie).
- A legend is all it is because Delaware County chose Muncie as its seat of government in the 1820's and Granville was not platted until 1836. [S10, 15 Feb 1994, p 4A]
- "Legendary story of County Seat's location surfaces again" by Bill Spurgeon - The Muncie Evening Press, 3 Oct 1996, p 2C - Doc2820.pdf

Granville Delinquent Taxpayers, 1847 - [Delaware County Genealogist and Historian, March 1996, p 15, 16] - Doc2714.pdf

Georgeville "...in Niles Township, a mile or more up the Mississinewa River from Granville, and it predated both Granville and Albany. it was settled in the early 1830s, according to Frank Haimbaugh's 1920s History of Delaware County. So Was Granville, Haimbaugh points out. And it wasn't long before the residents of Georgeville, as few or as many as there were, loaded their worldy good son flatboats and floated down the Mississinewa to the newer and more thriving community of Granville." [Source Unknown, Feb 1994, p 4A]

Granville: "...most of the trappings of it being a town are long gone - the hotel, the retail stores, the physician's office, the Masonic Lodge, the blacksmith shop, the sawmill. But people still live there. So it's probably not realistic to call it a ghost town. There's an interesting historical legend that concerns Granville. The legend says it once competed with Muncietown (Now Muncie) to be the seat of Delaware County government. Not so. When Muncie was chosen to be the county seat in the 1820s, Granville, platted in 1836, did not yet exist. But it makes for a nice story." [Source unknown, Feb 1994, p 4A]

Sources

Source Citation

Image
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Google Earth

WikiPedia Article

Kemper, G.W.H., M.D., ed. A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County Indiana, 1908; reprint ed., Evansville, Indiana: Whippoorwill Publications, 1984. Bk3012.

Baker, J. David. The Postal History of Indiana, Vol. 2. Louisville, Ky: Leonard H. Hartman, 1976, Bk3010.

Repositories: Bracken Library, Ball State University and Anderson Public Library

Map of Delaware County, Indiana. Compiled by H. Lester Janney. Revised by Ward M. Harlan, 1965.

An Atlas of Delaware County, Indiana. Philadelphia: Griffing, Gordon & Co, 1887, reprint ed., Knightstown, Indiana: Mayhill Publications, 1971, Bk1849.

United States Official Postal Guide. Boston: H.O. Houghton and Company, April 1875, Bk1548.

Baker, Ronald L, and Marvin Carmony. Indiana Place Names. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1975, Bk1567.

Greene, Richard A. Muncie and Delaware County: An Historical Sketch. Muncie, Indiana: Delaware County Historical Society, 1965, Bk1872.

S10

"Our Neighborhood" by Bill Spurgeon. The Muncie Star, (Muncie, Indiana), 15 Feb 1994, page 4A

S11

Bracken Library Special Collections. Ball State University.

S12

Helm, T.B. History of Delaware County, Indiana. Chicago: Kingman Brothers, 1881, reprint ed., Evansville, Indiana: Unigraphic, Inc., 1976, Bk1595.

S13

Map: Delaware County, Indiana, 1876. (Published by Baskin, Forster & Co. Lakeside Building Chicago, 1876. Engraved & Printed by Chas. Shober & Co. Props. Of Chicago Lithographing Co.) David Rumsey Map Collection. http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~23110~790090:Map-of-Delaware-County---Published-# Accessed, 27 Feb 2012. Acc002078/Ph9386-001 to 041.jpg

Detail: Granville, Niles Township

From 1876 - Delaware County Map

Ph9386-011.jpg

S14

Map: Asher, Adams & Higgins. New Topographical Atlas and Gazetteer of Indiana, multiple counties including Delaware, Blackford, Madison, and Hamilton and others. Indianapolis: Higgins & Ryan, 1870, pages 19, 20. David Rumsey Map Collection. http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~33585~1171285:New-topographical-atlas-and-gazette?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No# Accessed 28 Feb 2012. Acc002079/Ph9387.jpg

Map Detail: Niles Township, Delaware County

S15

Newsletter Article: "Ghost Towns". DCHA Newsletter (Delaware County Historical Alliance, Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana), Vol. 1, No. 1, 19 Jan 2000.

"Georgeville, in Niles Towshhiop, was located about a mile up the Mississinewa River from Granville. Settled in the early 1830s, it predated both Albany and Granville."

"Granville was also settled in the 1830's and many residents of Georgeville were said to have packed up and moved downriver to Granville which had become a thriving area. While all commercial structurs are gone, people still live in the vicinity of the town location today."

Doc2847.pdf

S16

Book: Map of Delaware County Indiana: Indexed and Printed in Atlas Form from 1874 Wall Map. Original: Philadelphia: A.L. Klingman, 1874. Reprint: Muncie, Indiana: D & N Research, 1989. Bk3642

S17

Georgeville/GeorgeTown
"Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood", Richard A. Greene. Muncie Star, Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana.

- 22 Jan 1965: http://libx.bsu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/GrnRchOrNgh/id/3013/rec/13
-

S18

"Delaware County's Delinquent Taxpayers of 1842" - Delaware County, Genealogist and Historian, March 1995, page 13 - Doc2904.pdf

S19

"Delaware County Delinquent Taxpayers of 1847" Transcribed by Joyce Colleen Libes. Delaware County Genealogist and Historian, March 1996, pages 15, 16 - Doc2908.pdf

S20

Flook, Chris. Lost Towns of Delaware County, Indiana. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2019. Bk4212

http://lostdelawarecounty.chrisflook.org/

S21

Ghost Towns, Delaware County, Indiana - Richard Greene - Muncie Star, 22 Jan 1965 "Seen and Heard in our Neighborhood"

Transcription:
"Georgeville" was on the Mississinewa east of the present community of Granville in Niles Township[p in the northeastern part of Delaware County. "Strassburg" was on the far now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert w. Strading six miles north of Muncie on Wheeling Road. and "Elizabethtown" was about one and one-half miles east of Wheeling in Washington township in the southeastern part of the county.

S22

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S24

S25