Townsend/Layman Museum provides link to early history of Putnamville

Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Moved from its old location on the north side of U.S. 40, the Townsend/Layman Museum now stands rebuilt on the lawn of the Putnamville United Methodist Church, a monument to the town’s rich history, alongside the Dr. Horn Office Museum, also on the church lawn.
Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

PUTNAMVILLE — If a place can really have a soul, then Lee Stewart believes he’s come close to finding the soul of Putnamville in the last year or so.

Handling thousands of bricks for the reconstruction of the summer kitchen/freed slaves quarters from the old Townsend Inn gave Stewart a link to the small town’s distant past.

“One hundred ninety years ago, a freed slave laid those bricks and made those bricks,” Stewart said. “Then the next person to touch those bricks was me. That was almost a religious experience to me.”

Touching those bricks put Stewart in contact with the year 1828, when freed slaves who had accompanied former owner James Townsend from Kentucky built Townsend’s inn as well as their own quarters and summer kitchen.

The inn, along with a number of historic buildings in Putnamville, is long gone. But the small, brick structure remained and was just the kind of “small” project that Stewart, known for his preservation efforts in the county, was apt to tackle.

“We saw buildings going away and we couldn’t do anything about it,” Stewart said. “This building was small – one we can handle. Was there a big, long plan? The plan was, ‘I can save that.’ That’s as far as it went.”

So Lee and wife Susan set about in the summer of 2017 to saving the old structure.

In a little more than a year, the building was taken down, the bricks and stones moved from the north side of U.S. 40 to the south side, and reconstructed on the lawn in front of the Putnamville United Methodist Church.

On Saturday, the completion of the project was celebrated, as the Townsend/Layman Museum now stands alongside the 1884 Dr. Horn Office on the front lawn of the historic church.

The plan had a way of revealing itself as time went along, with contributions from neighbors like Tom Skene and Eric Hayman and a different sort of neighbors from up the road at Putnamville Correctional Facility.

Lee Stewart

There were also contributions from other Putnamville UMC members, the “Fillmore Boys” with whom Lee has worked on previous projects, contributions from Black Lumber and Pike Lumber and even some volunteer work from a chimney builder who saw Lee was “in over (his) head.”

Also providing motivation along the way were those who told Lee his body was too old to be handling those bricks or climbing up on that roof.

However, the septuagenarian escaped unscathed – mostly.

“I think I handled every one of those bricks at least six times before it got laid,” Lee recalled, “and I have an arthritic thumb because of it.”

The process was a learning experience for the Stewarts. In a presentation inside the church, Susan Stewart gave a rundown of what they’ve learned about the town’s early history.

Though it’s hard to tell now, with the four-lane only getting really busy when there’s a wreck on nearby Interstate 70, the National Road (rechristened as U.S. 40 in 1926) was bustling for much of its history.

“Highway 40 is really the road that was linking the country from the east to the west,” Susan Stewart said.

Among the “flood of people” who came along the road was James Townsend, who settled along the National Road in West Central Indiana, along with seven or eight slaves he freed before leaving Kentucky.

Among these was “Big Luke” Townsend, a strong and gentle man whose work for James Townsend included caring for young Mary Townsend and singing to her with his deep bass voice.

Also into this mix came Daniel Wunderlich Layman, a doctor originally from Virginia who was on his way to Terre Haute to start a practice when his horse went lame near Putnamville.

“He goes to the Townsend Inn and there’s this beautiful, young daughter of James Townsend,” Susan Stewart said.

Dr. Layman fell for young Katherine on the spot and stayed in Putnamville, earning a reputation throughout the area as a fine doctor.

These were the men who laid out and literally built the town, including building the church in 1834.

About a dozen descendants of these and other Putnamville area pioneers were in attendance on Saturday, getting in touch with their own history.

Much like Lee Stewart’s link to the past through the bricks, these folks provided a link to the early history of Putnamville as concerned volunteers strive to preserve it.

“When we started this, all we knew was it was an old brick building,” Lee said. “And now we put a personality to this place. We know the people who built it and know their descendants.”

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  • Thank you for your hard work, Lee. History matters!

    -- Posted by larry hurst on Wed, Oct 24, 2018, at 2:09 PM
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