Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Plaques: first cabin

Do you know where the plaque shown above is located? It reads:

This tablet marks the site of the first cabin in Rensselaer, built and occupied by Joseph Yeoman and wife, December 1836
Marked by General Van Rensselaer Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution 1938.

It did not go well with Yeoman. According to the website of the Jasper Count Economic Development Organization:
The county was opened by the federal government for settlement in 1832. Shortly after, William Donahue, a hunter and trapper, established his home here. In 1835 Joseph Yeoman built the first cabin on the land now known as Rensselaer. However in 1839, James Van Rensselaer came from New York bringing with him a "float" from the government which entitled him to the land already fenced and cultivated by Yeoman. He laid out a town, which came to be know as Newton. This was later changed to Rensselaer.
For more, see here and here and here.

If you need some more help, it is very near this sign:
Update: I am disappointed that no one guessed the correct location. The plaque is on the northeast side of the Washington. As for the no-parking sign, I cannot find the matching sign, so I guess that there should be no parking on the east side of Washington Street anywhere in the downtown.

3 comments:

flatbow said...

This may be a wild guess, but I'm going to say it is in Iroquois Park.

Anonymous said...

I think we have that plaque on our Preservation map of the county. This town should have been called Yeoman, I think.

Unknown said...

I know exactly where it is but I feel like I'm cheating if I say. Yeoman picked a lovely spot by the water. ;-)