So far as we know today the first white man to settle permanently in the McCutchanville area was a widower, Charles McCutchan-Johnstone, who came from County Longford, Ireland, with seven children. The McCutchan-Johnstone family, which shall hereafter be referred to as the McJohnson family, sailed down the Ohio River from Pittsburg on flat-boats and landed in March 1819 at the crude little riverbank settlement called Evansville.
Things had not been going too well for Evansville. Its bright prospects had been dimmed in 1814 when it lost the county seat of Warrick County, in which it was then located, to Darlington. When Vanderburgh County was organized in 1818, Evansville became its seat of justice, but the advantages of this were not yet evident. In 1819 the town had a population of about one hundred. Charles McJohnson, with the sturdy spirit of pioneer, left the settlement behind, turned his boats into Pigeon Creek, and pushed up into the wilderness as far as Skelhorn Hill (now Stringtown Hill) and disembarked. He had brought with him, besides some household goods, a wagon and headed northward on what was later known as the Old State Road (now Stringtown Road merging into the Old State Road) running from Evansville to Vincennes. In 1819 and for some years after this was nothing more than a winding path through the forest--a path from which the saplings and underbrush had been cut, but which had giant forest trees standing in its center along its entire course.
Instead of following the road northward into the area of Scott Township (organized in 1821) as earlier arrivals had done, Mr. McJohnson struck out eastward on an Indian trail (now Petersburg Road), crossed the valley, and climbed the next ridge of hills. The hill country was a wise choice because the marshy valley lands along the creeks were malarial, and the was much trouble from that disease in the years that followed. The land had been government property since the Indian treaties and was open to claim. He registered approximately one thousand acres at the Vincennes Land Office. He named his estate Goshen after the village that had been his home in Ireland. It is believed that the property extended from the property extended from the Petersburg Road east as far as the Green River Road or beyond. There is no record of exactly where the first McJohnston house was built. Many, many years ago, it was said, folks of the community would in the summertime "go blackberry picking at Goshen." This meant a trip over the hills around the present Seib farm on Seib Road. Perhaps this was the site of the first McJohnston dwelling.
It must have been lonely that first year being the only family for miles. How Mr. McJohnson managed is difficult to imagine. His oldest son was only thirteen years old, and the oldest daughter only seven. The youngest child was just four. One may wonder why a widower with seven small children would have attempted such a long journey. It seems that the real reason he came to America in the first place was to escape trouble he was having with the courts in Ireland.
In 1816 he had killed a man. As the story goes, he owned a shop in the town of Granard, and one night, discovering someone prowling in the shop, he got his gun and shot the intruder dead. It turned out that the man was one of his employees. McJohnston was cleared of a murder charge, but was sentenced to assume the maintenance and guardianship of the family. A letter from an attorney in Dublin addressed to Charles McCutchan-Johnstone, Esq., Granard, dated 1816, warned him that he had no other alternative, except go to jail. There was, however, another alternative. That was to sell out and go to America, which he did two years later; but things must have been very difficult here at first.
The end for now. I will later resume more of the book of: From then til now: History of McCutchanville. Written by Kenneth McCutchan who is now deceased.
