Joseph Malcom was the first road supervisor, and John Ray was the first inspector of elections; they were appointed by the county commissioners on May 9, 1820.

19, T. 12, R. 9 W. Previous to this date coal had been dug at different places, but no regular mining for profit was carried on until Mr. Broadhurst had sunk his shaft.'

These institutions were largely patronized by those who were employed in the construction of the National Road, which was winding its way westward through the site of the future metropolis of Sugar Creek Township.

The town has now a population of 250; two stores which do a fair business, blacksmith and wheelwright shop for custom work, saw-mill, shingle machine and cigar factory.

Its manufactures, therefore, consist of lumbar, shingles and cigars, and the present strongly indicates that in the near future grape wine will be added.

The most notable event which has transpired in its history of forty-four years is the murder of Eva Peters, which was committed on the morning of March 15, 1875.

Miss Peters had deposited in bank in Terre Haute a few dollars, the earnings of toil which she was saving to be expended to give her a "Christian burial."

The possession of this small sum is supposed to be the incentive to the commission of the bloody crime; if so, the murderers were disappointed, for the money was found, after the body was discovered, concealed in her bed.

For a number of years the manufacture of lumber was a leading source of employment and revenue, as the bottom was densely covered with black-walnut timber.

In religion the villagers are Catholic, who have been induced to locate here because of the growth and prosperity of the Academic Institute, so successfully conducted by the Sisters of Providence.

Samuel Baldridge, a native of North Carolina, was an eloquent and enthusiastic advocate of temperance, and an uncompromising anti-slavery man.

At that day the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage was a prevailing custom in almost every family throughout the township, hence temperance lecturers were regarded as disturbers of the peace.

The society is in good working condition, and since 1840 has under its watchcare a Sabbath-school which numbers sixty scholars, which also meets in the district school-house.

15, T. 11, R. 10 W.' In the early days of the township, there was no system of public instruction; the means for acquiring an education were very limited and discouraging.

It was not unusual for boys to travel three or four miles (6 km) through dense woods, to school, blazing their way the first time going over the route.

It is now divided into ten districts, and in each is located a comfortable and substantial school-house of modern architecture, within a short distance of each child.

Every boy and girl in the township, between the ages of six and twenty-one years, can now obtain an education that will fit them to transact the ordinary business of life.

C. de la Hailandiers, his vicar-general, who was then in France, to apply for some sisters who would be courageous enough to leave the land of their nativity and devote themselves to the instruction of youth in the wilds of America; bid adieu to all that was near and dear to them in the world, for at that time going to America was considered in the same light of going to the country beyond the grave, without the faintest hope of ever returning.

He spoke so forcibly to Mother Mary, superior-general at that time, of the spiritual wants and destitution of the children of his diocese, that she, with the approval of the bishop of Le Mans, consented to send a colony of sisters.

Mother Theodore and her sisters, having received the blessing of Bishop Bouvier, of Mans, proceeded to Havre, where they embarked for New York on July 26, and arrived on September 8, after a painful sea voyage of forty days.

Father Buteux, a French priest who was residing at St. Mary's, came to the Episcopal city and conducted the weary travelers to their destination, where they arrived on October 22, 1840, after a painful and tedious journey of ninety days.

Mr. Thrall shared his house with the sisters, of which in a few weeks became sole possessors by purchase; it had four small rooms, and the best one was immediately converted into a chapel.

In November, 1841, Sister St. Frances, who had been detained by ill health, arrived at St. Mary's, to the great joy and delight of the little community.

During a space of about seven years the young community was submitted to the greatest tribulations that can be imagined; it proved a time of almost constant struggle, anguish and agony.

Those days of pain were succeeded by peaceful ones, only occasionally illness came to threaten the lives of Mother Theodore and Sister St. Frances.

Great is the difference between the first house occupied by the pioneer sisters and the present beautiful and imposing Academy of St. Mary's of the Woods and the comfortable mother-house adjoining it.

Then a log house was the chapel and at the same time the residence of the priest; two small rooms, half the dwelling-house of a kind farmer, constituted the convent home.

The academy building in process of erection then was a neat, small, brick edifice, with basement and attic, consisting of six rooms.

The railroad was not made then, and sometimes all communications with Terre Haute were prevented by water that filled the river bottom, which extended halfway between the two places.

The Sisters of Providence have under their direction thirty-three branch establishments, located in the states of Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, and two orphan asylums; one for boys at Vincennes, the other at Terre Haute, for girls.