REELSVILLE, A LITTLE TOWN THAT WAS

A busy little town called Reelsville once nestled in a valley half a mile north of the village of Pleasant Garden on Road 40. Its history began in the fall of 1824 when John Reel and his brother, Henry, built a keelboat, loaded it with an assortment of flour, meal, meat, and whiskey and set out from their home in Montgomery County, Ohio.

They were the sons of Henry Reel Sr. whose father had brought him from Germany about 1776. In 1824 John was about 31 years old, had a wife and four children, but he was no stranger to adventuring. As a young man he had carried his gun and swum the Miami River to enlist in the war of 1812. His experience in the military was rather short, however. John’s army papers indicate his enlistment was for two months, May 21 to July 24, 1812, His younger brother, Henry, who was unmarried, was no doubt eager to explore with him.

The Reel brothers started their trip down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and up the Arkansas River to Little Rock where they sold their goods, bought a mule, guns, and provisions and started the long trip home. When they reached what is now Vincennes, the Wabash River enticed them further to the junction of the Eel River near the present town of Bowling Green. They continued up the Eel where they met an early settler, James Athey. With his help, John found a site suitable for a grist mill and in June, 1826, John brought his wife, Sarah, and his family, which by now included a fifth child, to the location which eventually became Reelsville. He built a log mill to grind corn, which he operated for ten years and in 1837 built a frame mill 50’ x 54’ made of local limestone. His son, Daniel, helped run it until it was swept away in a flood in 1875. Daniel rebult it and continued to operate it for several more years. The dam, which marked the site of the old mill, eventually became the place where, for many years, the local inhabitants gained their first swimming experience.

Back in Ohio, Henry married his sweetheart, Catherine Starr, and with four of their other siblings and spouses followed John to Putnam County. Other settlers came and in 1852 John formally filed a plat for Reelsville. The town grew north and south of the railroad and by 1864 it boasted two dry goods stores, a harness shop, a hotel, a carpenter’s shop, a freight house, the post office, and the mill. By 1879 there was also a telephone office, a drug store, two doctors, a grade school, and a church. Growth also spread west along the railroad tracks to accommodate two grocery stores, water tanks and coal bins to service the railroad, stock yards, and a sawmill. The railroad provided passenger service twice a day.

Eventually, with changes in the route of Road 40, business began to decline. The rail depot was closed, a truck accident caused the collapse of the old covered bridge across the river, and Reelsville was temporarily cut off from easy access to Road 40. Today, only the church and the cemetery remain of this bustling little town, now a quiet bedroom community. The school and post office are now located half a mile south to Pleasant Garden but both still retain the name, Reelsville.

John Reel died in 1858 and his wife, Sarah, in 1859. They, along with several of their 11 children and descendants, are buried in the Reelsville Cemetery. The Upper Boone Cemetery between Reelsville and Greencastle and the Lower Boone Cemetery located a mile or two west of Reelsville also contain graves of many old settlers of this region.

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