Looking back
Henry Burgess platted the town in 1839 and borrowed a name
He called it New Haven after the one in Connecticut. The brick he left on Summit Street is still the oldest argument in Jefferson Township.
Henry Burgess platted New Haven in 1839 and named it for New Haven, Connecticut. The town incorporated under Indiana law in 1865 and became a city in 1963. Between those dates it was a canal port, then a two-railroad town, then a place that built handles for axes and an opry house over its jail.
Several Burgess houses remain. A house on Summit Street is the oldest brick structure in Jefferson Township. E. W. Green, Burgess’s son-in-law, built a frame Greek Revival on the hill above what is now Schnelker Park. Another Burgess building stands at Summit and Eben.
This is not an obituary. The man has been gone long enough to be public record. It is a notice, in the old sense: the town should be able to find its own beginning without sending away for it.