Snowhill

Snow Hill Settlement.

Some twenty years or more ago, several colored families had their attention called to
the fact that there were cheap lands at a point between Winchester and Lynn, not far
from Snow Hill. They resolved to settle there, and did so, and by and by a settlement
of several families had grown up in that region. They are located in Washington
Township, and form a separate school district. Their children appear to be making
good progress, and the settlers in general are approving themselves to the people in
the region round about. Since these various settlements began to be formed, many
have emigrated to other places - to Grant County, Ind., to Paulding County, Ohio, and
elsewhere. But a considerable number remain in each neighborhood still.

It is a somewhat remarkable fact, and one favorable to the colored settlers, and to the
people of Randolph County at large, that in 1851, Randolph County gave a good
majority against the famous thirteenth article of the new constitution adopted for
Indiana in that year.

The People of these settlements belong mostly to the African Methodist Episcopal
and the Wesleyan Churches. They have meeting-houses and preachers, and, on the
whole, are a church going people.

The first settlement at Snow Hill was made about 1838. Gabriel Moore came into the
region in 1838. Michael and William Benson moved there in 1840. Benjamin
Copeland settled there about 1847. Davison Copeland settled there about 1850;
Littleburn Winburn, about 1848 or 1849. Prentiss Copeland came just before the war.

Afterwards came Meredith Small, Elisha Boon, Wiley Lawrence and son, Jesse
Winn, Thomas Watkins, Henry Watkins, John Bragg, Isaac Watkins, James Watkins,
William Culfer.

No more than ten or twelve families have been here at one time.

The families resident now are Wiley Lawrence, William Benson, Mrs. Michael
Benson, Thomas Watkins, Henry Watkins, Asbury Benson, Mrs. Elisha Boon, John
Bragg, Isaac Watkins, James Watkins, William Culfer.

There is an African Methodist Episcopal society and a public school. some of the
residents own the land on which the dwell; others live on rented farms. The people of
the settlement are moral and industrious, and the young are intelligent and well
behaved, and, by their discreet deportment, merit the confidence and esteem of the
community in general.

(Tucker's History Page 134)