"COUNTIES OF MORGAN, MONROE & BROWN, INDIANA. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL."
CHARLES BLANCHARD, EDITOR. CHICAGO: F. A. BATTEY & CO. PUBLISHERS. 1884.
F. A. BATTEY. F. W. TEPPLE
BROWN TOWNSHIP AND MOORESVILLE
PAGE 242
BENJAMIN THORNBURGH (deceased) was born September 25, 1797, in Mercer
County, Ky. In 1808, his parents moved to Indiana Territory, and settled
one mile southwest of Salem, on Blue River, in Washington County. He lived
with his father on the farm until his twentieth year, when he was married to
Susan Monical on the 20th day of February, 1817, by Rev. James Harbison.
During the war of 1812, he joined the Territorial army of the frontier under
the proclamation of Gov. Jennings, and helped to build several block-houses
for defense, into which the early settlers fled for protection from the
Indians. He enlisted under Maj. William Hockett, and they sent out pickets
who passed over the country from where Fredericksburg now stands to Livonia
and Brownstown. They built a fort near Salem, in which his parents remained
about three months before the close of the war. In April, 1822, he moved to
Morgan County and settled on the east side of White Lick, near where
Brooklyn now stands. He assisted his father-in-law, Peter Monical, in
building the first permanent dam across White Lick, at Brooklyn. In about
1825, he entered the land from Congress, which he cultivated and lived upon
until his death, which occurred on the 13th of November, 1883, at the
advanced age of eighty-six. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in
August, 1816, and was licensed as an exhorter in 1833, by Eli P. Farmer. He
was a firm believer in the truth of the Bible and in the Christian religion,
and tried to follow out every day, during his long and eventful life, the
principles taught in that great Book. He was among the first to speak out
against licensed saloons in Mooresville. He never had a law suit with any
one, but peace seemed to crown his pathway, and he closed his life in full
hope of immortality and eternal life.
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