James Warnick, born on May 10, 1774, was one of the first settlers in what became Greene County, arriving from North Carolina in 1818. At the beginning he bought land that includes the Bloomfield Grandview Cemetery, although it was not then a cemetery. ...

As recent articles of Footprints have reviewed, Indiana became a state in 1816 and early pioneers began to settle in what became Greene County about that time. We know that Peter VanSlyke came to Indiana in 1816 and bought 1,000 acres of land, paying $2 per acre in gold. But he returned to New York, leaving his daughter Catherina with her husband John VanVorst to begin farming that land. Peter VanSlyke returned with his wife and other family members, including another daughter Sarah, in 1818...

The first order of business of the new County Commissioners was to appoint Thomas Bradford as Clerk of the Board. Four days later, on March 10, 1821, Amos Rogers, Abraham Cass, Charles Polk, and William White, as State Commissioners to locate the county seat for Greene County, made their report, locating the county seat in sections 9 and 10, in township 7 north, of range 5 west. ...

After the land donated to the county by Peter VanSlyke was selected as the new county seat, replacing Burlington which had insufficient water, and after notice of the sale of lots was published in the Indianapolis newspapers on April 22, 1824, Hance Stalcup, one of the earliest settlers surveyed the new town, and laid it off in lots...

In the last article of Footprints, I shared the published memory of Ann VanSlyke, widow of Cornelius VanSlyke who had died in 1834. She had remarried and was known as Ann Wines when she shared her memory in the Bloomfield News on March 11, 1881. In the last article of Footprints, she remembered traveling with her father-in-law, Peter VanSlyke, as he journeyed with his family from their home in the Mohawk Valley of New York to Indiana. ...

In the last article of Footprints, I shared the published memory of Ann VanSlyke, widow of Cornelius VanSlyke who had died in 1834. She had remarried and was known as Ann Wines when she shared her memory in the Bloomfield News on March 11, 1881. In the last article of Footprints, she remembered traveling with her father-in-law, Peter VanSlyke, as he journeyed with his family from their home in the Mohawk Valley of New York to Indiana. ...

Peter VanSlyke is remembered today in Greene County history as the man who donated land for the site of the new county seat of Greene County, later named Bloomfield. VanSlyke has an interesting history. Peter Cornelius VanSlyke was born on April 5, 1766, near the Mohawk River in Schenectady, New York, the son of Cornelius VanSlyke and Catrina Veeder...

In 1816, Peter Van Slyke came to Indiana from New York and bought 1000 acres of land in what became Greene County, paying $2 per acre in gold. But he then returned home to New York. The country in this vicinity was at that time without an inhabitant. It was home only to panthers, wolves and other wild animals...

The First Presbyterian Church of Greene County, located in Bloomfield, will mark its 200th birthday on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. The church was founded in 1823, one year before the town of Bloomfield was created. In 1818, before Greene County was organized, Peter VanSlyke and his two sons-in-law, Carpus Shaw and John VanVorst, arrived in the area and began farming. ...