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John Work Home and Mill

Location: 3709 Tunnel Mill Road, Charlestown, IN 47111 (Clark County)

Installed 2012 Indiana Historical Bureau and Descendants of John Work

ID#: 10.2012.1

Text

Side One

John Work, born 1760 in Pennsylvania, came with family to Clark County, Indiana Territory circa 1804. He purchased land along Fourteen Mile Creek in 1805 and later acquired extensive property in the county. Federal-style brick home here built circa 1811. Work successfully operated grain and saw mills along the creek below, including one known as Tunnel Mill.

Side Two

To power this mill, Work planned a tunnel to carry water through the limestone hill at the bend in the creek below. The 1833 Indiana Gazetteer provided a description: 5 men worked for 2½ years and used 650 pounds of gunpowder to blast a tunnel 314 feet long, 6 feet deep, and 5 feet wide. John Work died in 1832; he is buried nearby in the family cemetery.

Keywords

Early Settlement; Business, Industry and Labor; Buildings and Architecture