Little Point

 

Little Point, Indiana can be found in Adams Township, Morgan County, around the intersection of Little Point Road, (1100W), and State Road 42. There is no real town left in existence. A store once stood at the location of Curtis Wrecking Service, and the Little Point School was once nearby but it too is gone. There are several businesses in the area and homes dot the landscape but there is only a road sign to declare the name and location of a town. On the Morgan County map, Little Point is shown in west central Section 16, and east central Section 15, of Adams Township. It is about four miles south of Stilesville, Indiana of Hendricks County, and three miles west of Crown Center, Indiana which is in Adams Township.

 

Truck-stops at the junction of 1100W and Interstate Highway 70 add to the local economy and have become modern landmarks of Little Point. Throughout the written record of the village the phrase "on the little point" is repeated. This suggests the name of the community refers to a hill or raised area. Directions given for Oak Grove School state it was, "on the little point", two miles north west of Crown Center, at the site of a home built by Carl Sims.Northwestern Morgan County was settled later than other areas. The earliest settlers in the township were the Staley family in 1825 or 26, the Shoemakers in 1826, and the Treat families. John, Richard, James, William, and Stephen Treat moved to the area in 1828 or 29. David A. Curtis, Bright Pruitt, Garland Gentry, Eli Pruitt, and Jesse Pritchett were also an early settlers in the area. The village of Little Point grew from a settlement started about 1829. By the 1840s there were four schools in place and several churches in the township.

Game and wildlife were still in large numbers in Adams Township after they had been driven from the more populated areas along the White River. Benjamin Cuthbert of Brown Township is said to have earned his entire income from deer hunting in Adams Township. His profit came from the sale of venison and the deer hides which sold for from 75 cents to $1.50 each. Wolves were also abundant in the township and reportedly killed livestock at the Staley farm.

 

 In 1842 the Poll Tax lists the Staley, Smith, Treat, Wood, Wheeler, Pruitt, Gentry, Mcullum, Shoemaker, Prichett and Curtis families as residing in the township. Many lived in the area of Little Point.

     On June 16, 1876, Allen R. Smith opened the first post office. The office name was not Little Point. There is no record of what the original name of the office may have been. Messena and Oak Grove are village names that were in the vicinity of Little Point. Oak Grove seems to be a good candidate because of the timing of the change, June 4, 1894. In the 1890s there was a disagreement in the Mount Tabor Christian Church about the purchase of an organ for the sanctuary. Some of the members felt so strongly that a musical instrument did not belong there that they the left the congregation and joined Oak Grove Christian Church. Oak Grove Church was about one mile north of Little Point. Around the same time the community of Mount Tabor applied for a post office and changed their name to Crown Center. It is possible that Oak Grove changed to Little Point because of religious differences in the village. Postmasters listed in the records are; Shaw, Halton, Lambert, Springer, and Curtis Shaw.

Edgar Curtis owned a store on Stilesville Road in Little Point. The store is gone but the site has been used for Curtis Wrecking Service and operated by his grandsons Larry and Bud Curtis. Interstate Highway 70 was built around 1970 and the local truck-stops were erected in the community about that time.