The land that makes up the current southwest section of Brown County was first acquired from the Native Americans by the United States government in the 1809 treaty of Fort Wayne. The treaty of St. Mary’s in 1818 allowed more Brown County territory to become property of the government. Settlers were not allowed to be in the area of this newly acquired land until the government survey of the area was completed in 1820.
The first European settler in what became current day Brown County is presumed to be Johann Schoonover, or ‘Old Man Schoonover’ a German immigrant who traveled to the area around 1820 from the Ohio River on an ox-drawn cart following Native American trails or buffalo tracks. From Jackson County, where he originally landed he traveled through the thick wilderness to settle on a creek in the future Washington Township. This creek and surrounding area has since been given the name Schooner Creek and Schooner Valley after Schoonover. He preferred to live in the wilderness and did not want to settle in nearby localities
Some state his first appearance in the area to be 1817, but there is evidence that he was living on the creek in 1820, according to the book, County of Brown, Indiana Historical and Biographical.
Schoonover kept trade with Native Americans in the area, trading ammunition, guns, trinkets and other things that he brought with him for furs. The tradition ended when the majority of Native Americans were removed from the area in the 1820s.
