In a message dated 11/27/00 7:05:21 PM Mid-Atlantic Standard Time, APUND@aol.com writes: << Couchman or Steele >> Sorry, no Couchman or Steele on the Old Settlers list -- However, in a book written by David E Beem in 1917, "The Daniel Beem Family", the Steele family is mentioned as early settlers of Owen County in the years 1817 or 1818, "in what is now Montgomery Twp". In the same book, an address by William Payne states...I emigrated to Indiana in the autumn of 1822. ...We[Payne & Valentine Lyon] settled in what was then called the STEELE neighborhood in this county... Later Payne states ... I went [yr -1822] to Mr. John Hudson's to look after the horses and stay all night. Mr. Ninian STEELE and wife had come to pay Mr. Hudson a visit by staying all night. The same book states - At a meeting of the board of commissioners held September 2, 1819 .... a new board consisting of John Johnson, James A. STEELE, and Jesse Evans, came in. ....February 12, 1820, ....present, James A STEELE, John Johnson, and Jessie Evans, county commissioners. Per David E. Beem - STEELE, Samuel A. married Marianne Beem b. March 26, 1835, Children: Levi Samuel Steele, Edgar C. Steele, Horace Beem Steele, Harry Steele OWEN COUNTY MARRIAGE LIST 1819-1834 COUCHMAN, John - Rachel Evans, lic 8-31-1825 STEELE, Jesse - Jane Fain, 12-13-1821 STEELE, Joseph H. - Margaret KILLOUGH, 3-23-1826 STEELE, Margaret - John MODREL, 12-13-1827 STEELE, Ninian - Joanna WESTFALL, 10-4-1825 STEELE, Robert - Nancy PAYNE, 11-10-1829 Hope some of this is a hit for you, Pat

This may give several of you some hints... Terresa The following was written by Alice Milligan, a daughter of Rev. Thomas Milligan. This is an account of the Bethany Presbyterian church located in Owen County - Montgomery Township >From "Fact and Folklore of Owen County Vo. II" written by Dixie Kline "Just before our father became home missionary to Owen County in 1853, two large colonies had removed from Bethany, one to Iowa, the other to Texas and the church never afterward regained its original size. With this migration there slipped away from the Bethany roll most of the Couchmans, Taylors, Ivanses, Lees, Lindseys, and Snoddys. There were left most of the Steeles of Tennessee, the Steeles of Kentucky, the Walkers, Hills, Willoughbys and Westfalls. Of the Tennessee group the king-bolt was Sloan Steele, father of six sons and three daughters who lived to grow up. He died so long ago that he leaves only the dimmest picture of a pleasant-faced, gray-haired old man who entertained three little children at his knee by teaching them: "Shoe the horse and shoe the mare/But let the little colt go bare," meanwhile beating the rhythm on the sole of the baby's bare foot. His widow Margaret Nail Steele held her family toghether with strength and dignity. Her sister Elizabeth Walker, also a woman of fine brain and character, had come with the Steeles from the Knoxville region... all Presbyterians, dyed in the wool... Mrs. Walker's husband George, a born wag, while a faithful attendant at all services, never made a profession of his faith. The Steeles of Kentucky were a remarkable family. The father Ninian Steele entered the land and built the large double log house in which Bethany was organized. This fine old house sheltered a large family. Those whose names I recall are Ninian Jr., Samuel, James, Jesse, Howe, and Nancy. (Miss Milligan went on to tell that Ninian Jr. and his wife Johana Westfall moved to Bambridge. Samuel, grandfather of the late Levi Steele, lived and died on a farm near Gosport.) James moved to Montgomery County. Jesse was one of the Iowa band, a man whom we knew through his widow, "Aunt Jane" of blessed memory. She and Jesse had married when she was 15. She died in Iowa past 90 years of age. Another saintly character, Miss Milligan wrote, was Nancy Westfall whose husband Issaac was reared in the region of Vincennes and was once a member of the Indiana legislature. They were the parents of James Westfall, a member of the church, and at least one other child, William. Nancy Westfall was "lame in one hand and foot" from a fall as an infant. She died in 1860 at 59. Her brother was Howe Steele. The Willoughbys were a family most devoted to the church. 'The pioneer father, I can just remember, as an aged, whitefaced man, whom his children called 'daddy' a term then little used. His faithful daughters, Ann and Polly, and their motherless niece Hannah whom they reared, were constant attendants at church, always coming on horseback with Hannah riding behind." Rev. Mr. hill none of us ever saw, but we knew the story of the Maine sailor of reckless life wonderfully converted like Saul of Tarsus... His plain, outspoken speech was a constant source of anxiety to his gentle wife, Clarissa Huey Hill of North Carolina. On horseback they took their wedding journey from North Carolina to Indiana, she on an Indian pony... Mrs. Hill, the mother of James Hill, a lieutenant in the Civil War, lived long in the Bethany community. Thomas Robertson, Miss Milligan describes, was almost a giant in size and strength, and a famous feller of trees summoned for all the Wood-choppings and log-rollings far and near. His iron will made him a born fighter and woe awaited the young man who attempted to court any of his five daughters. He and a group of his daughters mounted on gray horses were a familiar part of the company that gathered in the hitching grove of o1d Bethany. One of the finest of the girls married John S. Johnson, late an elder in the Spencer church... Many of the Bethany fathers and mothers were laid to rest in the Surber graveyard. On March 20, 1820, Rev. Isaac Reed met with several people at Ninian Steele's home and organized the church with charter members Mr. Steele, Jane Steele, John Mitchell, Mary Ann Mitchell, John Hudson, John Martin and William Hudson. For several years the Steele home was the meeting place except for outdoor services when weather permitted. The first "house of worship" was erected on land that was later owned by Thomas Surber, In a few years it was moved two miles west and rebuilt on land donated by Ninian Steele. In 1873 the congregation built a "neat frame building" on the land of James M. Hill and that's where it stands in 1982, and where there are still decendants of old families actively involved. Among their activities was the recent publication of a more complete history of Bethany.