Settlers' Cabin 

 

The first settlements in Wabash County soon followed the Treaty of 1826. The Treaty Grounds became known as the Headquarters for New Comers.

 

The Samuel McClure, Sr. family moved to the Treaty Grounds in January 1827. They later built a cabin on the north bank of the Wabash River, three miles below the Treaty Grounds. They are regarded as the first settlers in Wabash County. :  Samuel McClure was the first acknowledged settler of Wabash County.  Originally a trader at the treaty, he returned with his wife and ten children on January 15, 1827.  The family stayed until June 10th when he built a cabin three miles west of Treaty Grounds where Samuel and his son Samuel Jr. began a fur trading post for the Ewing Company. Another son, Robert, built a log cabin at Lagro on Chief LaGros’ property and moved there for a short time before moving on to neighboring Grant County.

 

Samuel McClure, Jr, soon located an Indian trading business adjacent to the family cabin. He, along with his brother Robert McClure, constructed the first state highway through Wabash County in 1833. They were compensated $7.58 per mile.

 

Around the same time, Joel and Champion Helvey squatted until the spring when they settled at the mouth of the Salamonie River. There they operated a ferry across the Wabash and a public house. 

 

In May 1826, Benjamin Hurst, accompanied by Robert Wilson who was the first blacksmith in the county, came to check out the area. Wilson soon found employment as the government blacksmith at the Indian Mills near the Keller’s Settlement and brought his family out to settle there.

 

In 1832, Joseph McClure, son of Samuel McClure Sr, was to marry Elizabeth Keller, daughter of Johnathon Keller, owner of a farm near Richvalley. At this time there was no Wabash County, but Cass and Grant counties met along a boundary line about a mile east of Richvalley. The Kellers were living in Cass County and the McClures in Grant County. The couple traveled to the village of Marion to get their marriage license, and to arrange for an official to travel to the Keller cabin to perform the ceremony. When the official arrived at the cabin, he realized that he had no jurisdiction in Cass County, so the entire wedding party rode by horseback a mile to the east into Grant County, where the wedding was performed in the shades of the forest.