By Marianna Reed
February 13, 1968
This Was Home. It can't have looked much like it, this unbroken forest, to the people who started coming more than 150 years ago, even before Indiana became a state.
These settlers, many of them from the Carolinas, some from other states, had been caught up in that wave which was carrying so many inland from the seaboard, farther and farther from the familiar things, into the unknown country to the west.
Sometimes families came singly. Sometimes the men came first and then returned to bring their families and friends. In each case the decision had to be made. Then they packed up and left their homes and began the slow, arduous journey. And as they arrived, family after family, this was home--now--from now on.
But journey's end was not an end at all; it was the beginning of the new life for which they had sacrificed the old. These people had a heritage--a strong, brave heritage from those who hadn't been afraid to cross an ocean to look for freedom. But they weren't content to relax in the comfort which their ancestors had wrested for them. They had a horizon to travel toward, and they could not rest until they had done their best to attain it. It took a heap of living, and some dying, to make this home what they had in mind. It took lots of chopping and digging and building, lots of sweltering and freezing. It took getting sick and getting hurt, and somehow, if they survived, getting patched up well enough to work again. It took teaching and preaching and praying, and planning for the future. These people were not wanderers in the forest. They were men and women who were building a new county government--from scratch. They were founding Randolph County.
From the moment they arrived, this county-to-be, our county was their home. But they had to continue working and thinking ahead, all the time, to make it the kind of place they wanted to leave as a heritage for their children and all the generations to follow. A horizon can never be attained; it always lies ahead. But they kept progressing toward it. May we do the same.
This was their home and it is ours. If you live in Randolph County, whether you trace your ancestry to the pioneer founders or to people far removed, whether you represent the seventh generation on the family farm or you moved just yesterday into one of our towns, this is your county. Be very proud of its past and full of hope for its future during this year of celebration.
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Would you like a book to learn more about local history?
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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Facebook group: Randolph County Indiana Historical and Genealogical Society
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