John Ketcham (Indiana surveyor)

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Col. John Ketcham

John Ketcham (September 10, 1782 – February 5, 1865) was an American self-taught surveyor, building contractor and judge.

Early years[]

John was the son of Daniel Ketcham and Keziah Pigmon Lewis and born in Washington County, Maryland. His father signed the Patriot's Oath of Allegiance in 1778.^[1] In May, 1784 the Ketchams left Maryland to Louisville, Kentucky eventually settling near Shelbyville, Kentucky where John spent his early years.^[2][3]

Native fighting[]

From 1809 through 1818 fighting Native Americans was almost an everyday occurrence with the few settlers in south central Indiana. In 1811, Ketcham moved to Fort Vallonia.^[4]

Ketcham's Fort was built on Ketcham's land and lay between Huff's fort and the Fort Vallonia in what is now Jackson County making it of vital importance for settlers for security and safety prior to and after the Treaty of Grouseland. Most of the fighting between settlers and Indians took place from 1812 to 1813. In his own words:

In June 1813 I enlisted in the United States service as a mounted ranger. In my first month's service I killed and scalped an Indian, was very proud of it, got leave to go home and show it to Daddy and Mama. I guess they thought I had done about right. I continued in the rangers two whole years, saw some hard times, was eighty days from my family on one campaign, and lived seventeen days on seven days' rations.

— John Ketcham^[5]

In Jackson County[]

Col. John Ketcham, founding father of Brownstown, gained both fame and fortune from his military escapades against native Americans performed as a young man in this very area. His father was supposedly held captive by the native Americans.

John Ketchum was awarded a few titles during his life. Among them were colonel and judge honorable (from serving the State Legislature). he was also a self-taught surveyor and building contractor. One of his most highly prized titles, however, was that of one of Gen. Andrew Jackson's electors. He also was listed as one of the first trustees of Indiana University.

The Ketcham family can trace its history back to 1590 when the original Edward Ketcham was born in England. He emigrated to America in 1629 and the Ketchams remained in the East until a great grandson of Edward, Daniel Ketcham, came to the West in 1784, settling in Shelby Co., Ky. Daniel was the father of Col. John Ketcham and eight other children.

John was two years old when his father made the trip to Kentucky and has mentioned the journey in his memoirs.

He was said to have told his story about the trip: "When coming down the Ohio river on a raft, a wildcat was spotted on a tree branch over-hanging the river, was shot and it fell before me on the boat."

Though John's father was presented with 1,400 acres of land by the government in Shelby County, Ky., things were not to be easy for him and his family.

In 1792, Daniel was carried away by a small band of Tawa (Ottawa) who led him on a march lasting several days.

Daniel claimed his captors forced him to many hardships, namely carrying a full pack while marching through the wilds and fording rivers. After several days of this, Daniel pretended to be injured and began limping.

The Tawas relieved him of his pack and he proceeded easier. However, while crossing a log bridge, he ran and forgot to hobble. His captors noticed and immediately loaded him with all he could bear.

Supposedly the group came to a large camp near Detroit where Daniel was kept prisoner until, one day, his captors led him to a stake where a fire had been prepared. He was blackened and made ready to die in the fire when a maiden decorated with "fully 500 silver broaches," came forth, denounced the group and took the man to herself.

Supposedly she cared for him until later, he was able to escape the tribe and made his way into Canada, then back to his original home in Maryland. Finally he was able to return to Kentucky. It was said his wife and family there never had given up hope for his return.

His wife, when he had been captured, kept the neighbors from pursuing the group lest Daniel be the victim of a tomahawk death, for she believed that God, in His Providence, would bring him back to her. Two years later Daniel returned.

In 1803, John Ketcham was married in Kentucky to Elizabeth Pearsy.

They had 12 children, six were born in Kentucky and six were born in the Indiana Territory, for in 1811 the family traveled to Indiana and settled in Jackson County, very near to the property that later John sold to the county.

The area was still controlled by the natives, some willing to have peaceful relationships with the settlers, although most of them were unhappy over the constant threat to their lands by white settlers. by the signing of treaties with the white men their lands were diminishing.The Ten O'Clock Treaty, signed in 1809, and the Treaty of Grouseland, signed in 1805, formed a triangular boundary, of which this area was in the southernmost part.

With forts in Vincennes, Terre Haute and Fort Wayne, the area was not particularly well guarded. But, eventually the natives were to be forced from it. During the period from 1809 through 1818, fighting was an everyday occurrence with the natives in attempts to claim the area.

Temporary forts were built to allow the homesteaders to clear and till the soil and find safety at night inside the protecting walls of the forts. They were built on a line south of just south of Vallonia through Brownstown and on toward the east.

The Vallonia fort was manned with 100 troops of the territory militia and afforded protection nearby to the other small forts on up the way. Ketcham's Fort was located on or near the spot where the Asher Woodmansee home now stands and was occupied by a few families. Only the other fort, Huff's Fort, lay between Ketcham and Vallonia all that time.

Col. Ketcham became one of the fiercest killer of natives in this area of the Indiana Territory, though most of the information comes from memoirs that the colonel wrote himself a few years before his death in 1865.

Most of the action took place during the years of 1812–1813.

The troubled area, as he put it, was in that portion of the Indiana Territory, commonly called the "Forks," situated between the Muscatatuck and Driftwood fork of the White River. The Indians were numerous and friendly in that area before the Tippecanoe battle in 1811.

However, the Delaware tribe expressed disapproval of the battle and many left the territory then, but several remained. Constant harassment was given the settlers with occasional killing and horse thievery being committed by the natives, but no large battles occurred at that time.

In April, 1812, Ketcham recalled a man was murdered near Ketcham's fort and the colonel and another man retrieved the body, found stripped and thrown in the river. The next day, three natives came to Ketcham's door. They could speak decent English, and the colonel asked them what was new. They replied, "None." Ketcham asked them to accompany him to the site of the murder. They agreed.

However, Ketcham's wife begged him not to go with them as did his children. When they had gotten a mile or so away, the Indians said they would go no farther as it would make the white men mad. (*Makes no sense*)

So they returned to Ketcham's place to find his wife and children had vanished. They had expected an ambush from the natives and had hid in the forest.

About 10 days afterward, there came two natives with white flags and a note from the Delaware tribe that the trouble had been caused by the Kickapoo tribe, and was not the Delaware. Supposedly the two Delaware messengers stayed on in the fort working for the white men after the peaceful settlement.

There were nearly 70 families in the forts at that time, but, after several violent encounters with disgruntled natives, about 50 families left and went back to Kentucky to safer territory. The remaining settlers were determined not to leave and had built blockhouses for protection.

Once, upon discovering some natives attempting to steal horses, the settlers gave pursuit and John Ketcham, while directing the chase, was shot. Shortly after this episode, he enlisted for two years in the territory militia.

He fought under Gen. John Tipton and participated in many conflicts with the natives, including the one on Tipton's Island, which got its name from the natives fight there with Tipton's men. Ketcham murdered and scalped a native on his first trip out. He was carried on the muster roll as First Sergeant.

He wrote that On one campaign he was away from home for 88 days and lived on a week's simple rations. He was a ranger in the militia and received a dollar a day in pay, "sustaining himself" as he put it, which meant finding his own food and clothes. After Gen. Tipton's rough treatment of the natives at the battle of Tipton's Island, Ketcham wrote the natives retreated and were more wary of the invaders.

Ketcham was released from the service in 1815 and returned to his home in Jackson County. Two humorous tales he told about his service concerned fording a creek on horseback. The creek was flooded and difficult to cross. He and his friend's horses became mired and stuck fast in the mud. Hilarious.

The friend, Jack Storm, had his name attached to the creek and it remains so to this day as Jack's Defeat in Monroe County.

After Ketcham's discharge from the service, he was honored by Gov. William Henry Harrison with rank of colonel in a regiment of the state's militia. He also was presented a tract of land and named one of General Andrew Jackson's electors for 1836 Presidential election.

In 1816, before he left Jackson county, he sold to the county government 153.4 acres of ground for 8 dollars per acre, donating the block of land where the Jackson County courthouse now stands for as long as it was used for a courthouse.

He also helped lay out the town of Brownstown, the location of which was picked because of its central geographical location in the county.

In 1818, Col. Ketcham moved to Monroe County, six or seven miles from Bloomington near Ellettsville. He built a grist mill on Clear Creek the first year and became known far and wide for his service.

When the city of Bloomington was laid out in 1818, Ketcham was asked to design and contract for building of the first courthouse there. He became known for his kindness and generosity, and was said to never have turned down a request from a poor family member or traveler at his door.

He was elected to the Indiana Legislature, received a judgeship from General Harrison, was appointed a trustee of the Indiana Seminary, and served as colonel in the Twentieth Regiment of the state militia. He also established the Ketcham cemetery in Bloomington where today his remains are buried.

He and a co-worker establish a Methodist religious school on grounds at the south end of College Avenue in Bloomington. It was a frame building 30 by 60 feet and later enlarged.

It could be said that he was the first trustee of Indiana University, then Indiana Seminary and the Indiana Pioneer Historical Society lists him that way.

A chapel was built on the I.U. campus totally financed by the official I.U. chaplain, F.O. Beck and his wife, Daisy Ketcham Beck. Stone used in the building was quarried from Col. John's original farm to make the project more realistic. In 1815, Ketcham was released from the service and returned to his home in Jackson County. He was honored by Gov. William Henry Harrison with rank of colonel in a regiment of the state's militia.

In 1816, before he left Jackson county, he sold to the county government 153.4 acres (0.621 km²) of ground for 8 dollars per acre, donating the block of land where the Jackson County Courthouse now stands for as long as it was used for a courthouse. In, 1816 Ketcham received a judgeship from General William Henry Harrison and remained in that position until 1817.

In Monroe County[]

In 1818, Col. Ketcham moved to Monroe County six or seven miles (11 km) from Bloomington near Victor and Harrodsburg. He built a gristmill on Clear Creek the first year and became known far and wide for his service. When the city of Bloomington was laid out in 1818, Ketcham was asked to design and contract for building of the first courthouse there.

In 1836, Ketcham was named one of General Andrew Jackson's electors for the Presidential election of that year. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives.^[6]

Ketcham was later appointed a trustee of the Indiana Seminary which would become Indiana University. Ketcham and a co-worker established a Methodist religious school on grounds at the south end of College Avenue in Bloomington.^[7]

Col. John is buried in the Ketcham family cemetery in Monroe County. The family cemetery is still maintained by family members.

In popular culture[]

Ketcham has a similar name to a character in The Amityville Horror films and books. The fictional Ketchem is cited as a reason why the house at 112 Ocean Avenue is haunted and why Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his family. Both the film and book say that Ketcham moved from Salem and into Amityville, NY during the Salem Witch trials. This Ketcham in 1979 and 2005 films—was said to have killed multiple Native Americans and himself in a secret part of the house—in the basement. The real Ketcham is not known to have been to either Salem or New York and was born more than a century after the character in the book was said to have lived.

Sources[]

External links[]

• Ft. Vallonia
• Indiana political graveyard
• Indiana Historical Bureau
• Ketcham-Piercy family collection, 1830-1995, bulk 1854-1946 at the Indiana University Archives.
• Rootsweb, Richland Township