(INDIANA TERRITORY, NOW MADISON, JEFFERSON COUNTY, INDIANA) [William Vawter]

1815 manuscript tax poll book and memorandum kept by William Vawter, Virginia native and Indiana Territory pioneer, Baptist pastor.

: , . 8vo, limp calf binding, crudely made and hand-sewn with two hand-cut flaps and hand-stitched + reinforced edges; [40] ff., [ie.] approx. 80 pp. Text of first leaf pale, (a complete transcription available for this leaf) + all else is easily legible. Old Indiana Territory newspaper pasted to endpapers. An excellent rustic artifact.

Vawter’s tax poll notebook records, in alphabetical order, names of fellow Indiana territory pioneers, their lot numbers, and taxes paid, at least one individual singled out as being a colored. The first two pages are notable in that they list all of the banks whose notes were to be rejected: the Bank of Augusta, Georgia; Middleton Bank of Conn.; Orange County Bank in New Jersey; Bank of Northern Liberties near Philadelphia; the Farmers + mechanics Bank of Cincinnati, and so forth. One leaf within records an 1821 account of monies paid out for firing, transporting, and make mortar from sand and water for bricks for a building. Beneath this account is a detail of monies paid regarding a rent situation that involved payment in the form of a young woman coloring 3 pounds of cotton. William Vawter, (1783-1868). A Virginia native, William was the son of Jesse Vawter, a Baptist preacher. His parents took his twin brother and left William behind in Virginia, but the family rejoined in Kentucky in 1790. About 1800, during the great revivals in Kentucky, Vawter became greatly exercised about his religion, found the Lord, and eventually became a preacher like his father. When the father lost his land due to a defective title in Kentucky, the family moved to Mount Glad, near Madison, in Indiana Territory, in 1806. In Indiana Territory, William married his cousin, Frances Vawter, and helped establish constitution of what was then Madison Baptist church, afterward Mount Pleasant. During the “Indian troubles” of 1811 and 1812, Vawter was a militia captain. Later, in the 1830’s, William Vawter helped organize and served as the pastor of Zoar Church, now known as First Baptist Church in North Vernon, Indiana. [144156]

$500

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