Hendricks County celebrated its 150th birthday in 1974.
The county celebrated with a Sesquicentennial festival at Danville Community High School that featured a queen contest, a program about the county’s settlers, live music, and of course, cake and punch.
Current senator and former Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar was the keynote speaker at the celebration. Lugar’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Hugh Wilson, was an early Hendricks County pioneer. A Hendricks County Flyer article from 1974 said Wilson couldn’t read or write but he wove his signature into numerous coverlets, many of which were on display at the Sesquicentennial.
A program presented sketches of Hendricks County settlers from 1812 to ‘50. Some of their descendants were special guests at the ceremony.
Indiana became a state in 1816. In 1818, Jonathan Jennings, the first governor, negotiated a treaty with Indian tribes to relinquish land south of the Wabash River, including hunting grounds that would become Hendricks County.
By 1820 settlers had made their way through the thick woods here to establish communities along White Lick Creek and Eel River. They used the oak, sycamore, beech, walnut, and poplar trees that grew in abundance to build houses and the foundations for roads. Hendricks was the first county surveyed in 1819. It became official April 1, 1824. The county was named after William Hendricks, the governor at the time.
Plainfield was the first town settled. Quakers from North Carolina began arriving in 1820. By 1824 Guilford Township had more people than the other nine townships combined.
Avon was first settled in 1830 and went through a series of names (Hampton, White Lick, Smootsdell, New Philadelphia) before someone from the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad posted a sign that read “Avon” and the name stuck.
Danville came along in 1824 when four men each donated 20 acres to establish the town. A traveling judge, William Wick, came up with the name, suggesting they call the town after his brother Dan. By 1878, Danville had not only schools, churches, and county government, but a college.
Smaller communities that still dot Hendricks County followed. Belleville thrived alongside the National Road, as did Cartersburg along the Vandalia Railroad. Towns like Stilesville, Coatesville, and Lizton remain despite suffering calamities that nearly wiped them off the map.
Brownsburg was platted in 1834 and originally known as Harrisburgh. Because of its proximity to Indianapolis, it became a popular stop for travelers heading west. Many Irishmen who came to the area to help construct a railroad eventually settled here. St. Malachy, established in 1867, was the first Catholic church.
Once Indianapolis was chosen as the permanent state capital in 1824, it was a forgone conclusion that Hendricks County’s population would explode, being so close by. And so it did, surpassing 100,000 in the 1990s.
