Ed Wilkerson, who lived on a farm down in the Elkinsville area, enjoyed a quiet, rather uneventful life for about 70 years. Then, things started popping.
First, he lost part of his land to the state when it built Monroe Reservoir. Then, he, at long last, managed to get a telephone installed after more than 10 years of waiting for a service the rest of us take almost for granted.
Then there was the proposed Nebo Wilderness area study. If such a preserve came into being, Ed and some of his neighbors might lose their homes.
Ed was born and lived most of his life on the farm where he was born and raised. His parents, Thomas and Alice Wilkerson, were also born in Brown County, and his father lived to be 92.
Ed married the former Alice Hatton and continued to operate his 60-acre spread until the state took 16 acres for Monroe Reservoir. “They didn’t actually need the ground,” Ed said, “but they wanted it, just in case the water backed up along Salt Creek.”
He leased the ground back from the state and subleased it to a neighbor who put it back into production. Of the remaining 44 acres, he kept about 18 in corn and soybeans. He worked the farm alone after his boys grew up and moved away.
The home which Ed and Alice built was a modest gray block house, “set back about a quarter of a mile” from the Story-to-Elkinsville road in what was then Johnson Township. That whole area of Johnson Township was later absorbed into Van Buren Township.
Ed was born in another little house on the family farm. He worked at Arvin’s for 20 years and drove to and from Columbus all the while he continued to farm.
The Wilkersons eventually moved to Columbus and stayed for 18 months, when Alice’s heart condition was bad and she suffered a nervous breakdown. Every Friday evening they would come back to the farm for the weekends. When her health improved, it was back to the farm to stay.
After Monroe Reservoir was built, the Wilkersons were more secluded than ever. They lost several of their neighbors. But they had some tourist traffic driving past in the summertime.
The Wilkersons and others credited William S. “Bill” Miller as one of the most vocal opponents if the wilderness study, which would have included the Elkinsville area. Miller was also said to be the most influential person in getting the telephone for area residents, including the Wilkersons, Will Bohal, Alex Blaney, Jim Green, Miller himself and Orville Rodgers from Indianapolis who had a summer home there.
The Wilkersons lived in historic surroundings. William Elkins (for whom Elkinsville was named) was there as early as 1816. Some say he was the first white man to live with his family in what is now Brown County.
The Village of Elkinsville was started during the 1850s. It was isolated and became a good trading center for years. Elkinsville, which once boasted a store, grain mill, school, church and a post office, is now deserted.
Parts of this story appeared in the Brown County Democrat on Oct. 3, 1973.
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WHAT: Community Christmas Tree Lighting
WHEN: Friday, Nov. 23. Begin coming together at 5:30 p.m.; the tree lighting will be at at 6 p.m.
WHERE: Brown County History Center, 90 E. Gould St.
All are welcome.
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