Thomas Warnick by W. D. Ritter

was the first clerk of Greene county, and he held the office for fourteen years consecutive years. He was the son of JAMES WARNICK, Sr., who came from North Carolina and entered the and where Joseph Leavitt lives, taking in the Bloomfield Cemetery, March 16, 1818. In 1821 the father was one of the first county commissioners; in that year the county was organized. His home was on the knoll just north of Mr. Leavitt’s. On the land where the cemetery is a cabin was built in the thick woods for a residence. I should think, because it was like a residence cabin and not like a school house.

In 1832 the cabin had fallen to decay. Myself and another boy five years old were out to see it; looked in and saw that a person had been buried inside; no floor in it. Child-like, we ran with all out might. This was the beginning of the cemetery, others being buried near with the consent of the land owners on down to the forming of a public ground for the purpose. Such a rumor as that Mr. Warnick, Sr., had kept school in the cabin existed in the long ago. If he did, it was the first school probably in this vicinity. I knew old Mr. Warnick very well. He was such a man as might have kept a school – intelligent, capable, trustworthy in office or in any thoer way.

April 27, 1821, Thomas Warnick was commissioned clerk of Greene county for seven years. June 4< ^th following he was qualified. For some years he lived with his father, where he was not very far from Burlington, then the county seat. The first two or or three courts were held at Thomas Bradford’s, a mile south of Bloomfield, at the place where THOMAS PATTERSON lives.

In the Revolutionary was a certain boy served in the army until he was of age and the war over. His name was Gillam. On coming home in South Carolina he married, went out in the woods to cut logs to build a house became so lonesome, being used to the bustle of camp nearly half of his life he concluded to run away Just then his beautiful young wife came to him with his dinner. This reconciled him, the logs were cut, house built, and there he lived, raised a family and died. One son Edward Gillam, was one of the very first settlerd of Greene county. He lived and died where Dan M. Bynum lives, two miles east of Bloomfield. April 26, 1824. Thomas Warnick issued his own license to be married to Lydia daughter of Mr. Gillam.

When the Warnicks came her there were still a few Indiana wandering about, and frequent were the tradgedies which occurred in the silent forest between them and the white men. Thirty years ago JAMES WARNICK, son of our subject, told me "if that old hill could talk (the hill where JOSEPH LEAVITT lives) it could tell of some of the Indians being laid out". When a child I heard a story that THOMAS WARNICK met an Indian and they passed each other till fifty yards apart, when Warnick turned around and shot him.

While serving as county clerk the three years that the county seat was at Burlington Mr. Warnick made his home with his parents. When Bloomfield was laid out he built his house where the Sarget-McCannon residence is – a hewed log, two-story, with an "L" for a kitchen. This was a very great house for Bloomfield then.

It had to have a brick chimney. One of the most active men was then working his way through college at Bloomington. He could lay brick, walked to Bloomfield and got the job of building the chimney. In after years he never made a speech in our town while running for congress and governor (he was elected to both) without speaking of his brick chimney. He was Governor Joseph A. Wright, appointed by Lincoln minister to Prussia.

Towards the last of the fourteen years during which Mr. Warnick served as clerk he bought the farm where THOMAS PATTERSON and CLIFT DIXON n ow live and oved to it

In the decade of the forties the upper story of the old residence in town was used as the Bloomfield High School.

Grammar schools and other schools select schools were kept there several years, at nights as well as day. "The Comet" was published there by ALFRED EDWARDS. This was a Whig paper, advocating the election of William H. Harrison for President. I remember to have bseen a press in the kitchen, so this might have been called a "printing house".

Under the militia law each county had a colonel. Mr. Warnick for some of these years was colonel of Greene county. The fashion then was that officers wore on parade, as part of the uniform, a Suarrow hat with a plume in the top. This was the most showy hat ever worn. It was flat from front to rear, stuck out wide at the corners and high up where the plume was attached; in front a silver eagle. Wellington wore one at Waterloo, as did Napoleon. No one bore himself with more pride on parade than Mr. Warnick.

While living on his farm my father sent me, then seven years old, to ask him to com immediately for some business to town. I was on a very old horse and he was on foot, but bantered me for a race – said he could beat me to town, and started to run. All I could do was to whip up and follow. He laughed at me heartily. The neat-shaped foot and active form I well remember. Where is the man now who would like to run a foot race a mile against a horse?

After fourteen years of service, October 1, 1835, his successor in office, SAMUEL R. CAVINS, was qualifeid.

At the old sand hill cemtery at Cliff Dixon’s and the Gillam graveyard, two miles east of Bloomfield, the Warnicks and Gillams, most of them, rest.

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Biographical Memoirs of Greene County, Ind. With Reminiscences of Pioneer Days, Illustrated (1908, B. F. Bowen & Co. Indianapolis, Indiana) Vol. 1 Pg. 118-22