200th Anniversary of the 1st Board of Commissioners

At the February 27,2023 Board of Commissioners meeting, the Commissioners recognized the 200th anniversary of the first Board of Commissioners meeting.

Here are details regarding the first two meetings of the Board of Commissioners in 1823.

The first Board of Commissioners meeting was held on Saturday evening, March 1, 1823.

Here is the first paragraph of the minutes from that meeting verbatim including punctuation: “The Commissioners this day elected for the County of Montgomery formed a Board for the first time and each of them towit William Offield, James Blevins and John McCullough having produced the certificates of the Sheriff of said County of their having been duly elected with the proper endorsements on each of them having taken the oaths to support the constitution the oath of office and the oath more effectuate to prevent dueling,”

At their first meeting, they appointed John Vawter as Clerk Protem to the Board. They agreed to hold every odd numbered lot and proprietors would have every even numbered lot in the Town of Crawfordsville.

They also held a meeting on March 3, 1823. They appointed William Ramey as Agent, set his bond at $10,000 and ordered him to give notice and sell certain lots owned by the County. They ordered Sheriff Samuel D. Maxwell to give notice of an election for March 22, 1823 for two Justices of the Peace. One justice must be a citizen west of the boundary of the Town and the other must be a citizen east of said boundary. James Stitt was appointed Treasurer. They also appointed Joseph Hahn, John Gowan and William Miller as Fence Viewers for the entire County (there was only one township). Additional appointments included Joseph Hahn and Richard McCafferty as Overseers of the Poor and Samuel McClung as the Supervisor for the Township school. They ordered that the bond for Major Ambrose Whitlock for the sale to the County of 85 “inlots” in the Town of Crawfordsville be filed. A portion of the minutes are missing but it says “3 acres of land for a burying ground” after the mention of 85 inlots.