In the late 1600's the first 'whitemen' arrived, French fur trappers, who respected the customs of the Indians they traded with.
Some of the Indian Nations who setteled and hunted in these lands of eastern Indiana in large groups known by identity to early 'White' historians circa 1600 included the Weas, Potawatomie, Miami, Shawnee, Kickapoos, Wyandottes, Piakeshaws. Mascounten and the Delaware (Lenape).
The Miami Nation refered to themselves as the 'first men to have arrived' in these lands, while their proven capabalities and inter-tribal absorbtion afforded them to become the dominate people by the 1600's. By circa 1740 the Delaware Tribe, through agreements with the Miami Indians, had becomne the dominate Nation of peoples upon these lands. During the 1750's other less friendly European White squatters arrived from the east. They were primarily the English along with other Europeans who sought to drive away and kill off the Native Americans by sending their well armed Army troops from Ohio Forts led by civilian mercenaries into the lands of present day Indiana to include areas east of present day Muncie, Indiana where unprovoked surprize murderious attacks were launched by the 'whites' upon every gender and age of person living in those peaceful Indian villages. With the relentless intrusionary genocide attacks by the heavily armed European squatter Armys and their paid civilian mercenaries the battles of extermination continued to be waged but established a new threshold against isolated villages of both Indian and 'Whites' when both sides fought a 'tit-for-tat' war of vendettas. Around 1809 the great Shawnee Chief Techumseh, his brother Tenskwatawa "The Prophet" (a clairvoyant, who also was acknowledged predicting the solor eclipse of 1806) and their supporters organized a multi-tribe confederation to preserve the old ways and stand against the invasion of agressive White skinned squatters into these Indiana lands, where on a cold day on the 7th of November 1811 near present-day Tippecanoe in north-central Indiana was fought the biggest, bloodiest battle ever waged anywhere in North American history between Indians and 'Whites'.
In 1818 a Treaty was signed, which included stipulation that "all Indians" had to be removed from these Indiana Territory Lands begining immeadiatly.
The lands becoming free of Indians, and without further fear of blood shed, the Whiteman squatters living in Ohio and to the east were being coaxed into the Indiania Terroritory by land holders eager to sell property and their inflated price controlled merchandise to arriving homesteaders. One dominate land holder merchant made an agreement with holders of ajoining lands to establish property lots for sale to develope a city at the location where their lands bordered one another, giving birth to "Muncytown" that grew into present day Muncie, Indiana.
One last calculated manouver against the last eliments of the Indians who resided on Reservation Treaty lands opposite present day Muncie, on the north side of the White River, was to buy those lands without the legal approvial of the President of the United States as so required for such transaction,.....................( while ever since then in a few households generation after generation is found an occational moment to tell younger ones their concerns that no one may have ever disputed the matter of those Indian land sale legalities. )
Our "Morningside" land is today located a couple miles north-east of the old Indian Reservation lands, where the land here in this vicinity was first deeded by the government to a private citizen on 21 Oct. 1829, who paid $1.25 (one dollar and twenty five cents) per acre of land................... Then one hundred years later on 7 June 1929 the land was sectioned off into measured property lots and given the official title of "Morningside", which was further developed into a small community and has since became the name for these former Indian occupied lands we live on today.
We live in a residential neighborhood that was former farm land opened for developement in 1929 where 'then' property lots -- (as example, roughly ; 150 feet by 50 feet in size ) -- sold during the early 1930's for US$35. to US$50. (price based upon location & description) which attracted persons from rural area farming situations into the city proximity four miles away from the factory jobs while providing a primative country atlosphere to construct a meager home Today equivalant property values have esculated to an expected US$1,000. saleable price per lot, although 1997 price quotes from Realistate Agents suggesting a fair market value of approximatly US$4,000. to US$8,000. per same sized vacant property lot value located in THIS VICINITY,.......... or around US$32,000. to over US$40,000. per same generalized size property lot only some four miles south-west in the prominate wealthier districts on the westside of the adjacent metropolitan Muncie, Indiana.
To give you something more useful to compair generalized descriptions of land prices here, with land prices where you live at, is to compair the price of tillable farm land, which here sells for a high-end 1996 dollar price of around US$35,000. per acre for Realitor prefered home sites, or the same description land sold by a farmer for a HIGH dollar end around US$4,500. per acre. AVERAGE farming land prices -- ( land used specificly for farming ) -- has a 1996 HIGH dollar value of around US$2,500. per acre. On the LOW dollar end, the same acre description might sell from a private farmer for around US$1,800. to US$1,200. ,...., especially when multipul acres are sold together hence providing more of an opportunity for accumulated price reductions. Also particular zoneing and land use application, as well as land useage intent could result in drasticly higher land costs than those included above, which are intended only for a generalization referance to afford the reader a better generalized glimpse into our environment here.
Our home, like nearly every other home in our vicinity, is a single family structure of wood (pine variety wood) frame construction with wooden board exterrior walls.
If you are not familiar with our regional housing here in North America, our home --as example-- has the floor boards elivated about three feet from the ground surface and the underside air flow space is enclosed with concrete blocks resting on top of a poured concrete 'footer' which serves to stabalize the structure with a firm foundation on which to errect the home.
In our neighborhood the home enclosure living quarters are generally around 1,200 square feet and smaller sized downward to those averaging around 750 square feet,........ the smaller of which were generally a common size 'starter home' built in the 1940's and before.
The some larger homes in our area approach the 2,000 square foot size and a few exceed 2,000 square feet in occupancy space.
