6. Mrs. Louisa Smith Remembers Winchester

  Mrs. Louisa Smith, Winchester's oldest resident, celebrated her ninety-sixth birthday last thursday. Mrs Smith was born in 1824 near Eaton, Ohio and came to Winchester with her parents in 1833 and first lived in a little log cabin on Main Street where the Central Hotel now stands. [118 N. Main St., a city parking lot 2018.]
  At that time Winchester was nearly all a forest and the few cabins which composed the town were built in a small section which had been cleared of trees from what is now North Street.
  There were no schools, no churches, no streets and only one store, the contents of which would scarcely fill a wheelbarrow. Religious services were held once in a while in the old cabin where court was held and would be conducted by a circuit riding preacher.
  The first school was a private one established in 1834 in a cabin located where doctors Hunt and Brenner have their office. [103 North East St.. Randolph Central School Superintendents Office 2018.]
  She was married when fifteen years of age in 1839 to William Smith in her father's tavern, it being the first tavern in town. They went to housekeeping in a cabin where the J.C. Hirsch residence is [103 South East St. 2018] and they then purchased a lot, a quarter of a square where the present home stands at the corner of  West North and North Meridian St. [Winchester's Post Office sits there today, 2018.] She says the entire cost of the house and lot with fence and painting was less than $250, the lot costing only $5 and it was the best house in town at that time. When the house was built, Mr. Smith hired a man to paint it and also put a paling fence around the lot for which he paid a pair of shoes, he being a shoemaker.
  Mrs Smith remembers the first log court house and jail, the first church, school house and tavern. She says that bear and deer would steal into town in the early days and eat fruit and vegetables from the garden. She relates that a bear was killed near the present site of Governor Goodrich's home. [226 East South St. 2018] She remembers well the Indians coming to town to trade furs for ammunition. Sometimes they would get whiskey, get drunk and raise a disturbance. She was present when Judge Leander J. Monks, Judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana for many years was born seventy-six years ago and dressed him for the first time. Mrs. Smith is a most interesting lady.

Winchester Journal 1920


This photo shows Mrs. Smith sitting in front of her home on North Meridian Street which is now the site of the Post Office building.

Mrs. Smith only lived another year past the publishing of this article. She died in 1921.

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Randolph County, Indiana 1818-1990
Commonly referred to as "The Red History Book"
Compiled by the Randolph County Historical Society, 1991, Second reprint 2003.

To obtain your own copy of "The Red History Book" stop in at The RCHS Museum Shop or send an email to arrange placing a mail order.

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