Who was the first to settler and build a cabin on the present site of the City of Indianapolis -- George Pogue or John McCormick?

No one knows for sure to this day although George Pogue more often than not is conceded to be the "traditional" first settler.

There is, however, strong evidence it might have been John McCormick.

THE CONTROVERSY began in 1823. Up to that time Pogue generally had been accepted as the first settler, but a letter written to the Indianapolis Gazette and signed by the little village's first doctor, Dr. S. G. Mitchell, challenged Pogue's claim.

The honor of being first, Dr. Mitchell argued, belonged to John McCormick and his brother, James.

Others came forward to support the doctor's opinion, among them a Mrs. King, a widow of one of the McCormick brothers, and Cyrus Whetzel, who had built the first settlement on the White River bluffs.

GIST OF their argument was that Pogue had visited the future site of Indianapolis, but he hadn't stayed. John McCormick, on the other hand, had not only visited the site in 1820 but built a cabin with the help of his brothers, James and Samuel.

The three brothers returned to their homes in Connersville, where James and Samuel remained, but John and his family returned to the site and took up residence in the newly built cabin. James and Samuel came to Indianapolis about a year later.

As for George Pogue, they argued, the earliest he came to the future city, was in March, more than a month after the McCormicks settled in their new home.

POGUE'S SON, John, offered yet another version. He gave the date of their settlement as March 2, 1819, nearly a year before the McCormick's arrival. One of the McCormick children supported his story. She remembered the Pogue cabin was standing and occupied when she arrived with her family.

Mrs. Pogue entered a new chapter in the debate in 1854. She declared at an Old Settlers' Meeting in Indianapolis that her husband and family had settled in the future capital on March 2, 1820, and the McCormick family appeared on the scene five days later.

Two local historians, W. R. Holloway and B. R. Sulgrove, accept Pogue as the first settler, but cover their bets by referring to him as the "traditional first settler," leaving the way open for future claims put forth in behalf of the McCormick family.

In any event, there is no dispute that the Pogues and the McCormicks were the town's first settlers, nor is there any doubt that they were preceptors or "squatters."

The land, in 1820, belonged to the United States government as the result of an Indian treaty, commonly called the "New Purchase," which had been negotiated in 1818.

BOTH families had staked out their claims and were taking their chances that eventually their blazed boundaries would be translated into legal titles through purchase at the government land sales in 1821.

George Pogue was a native of North Carolina, who had homesteaded in the "Gore" near the Ohio line, then moved to Connersville where he became the first blacksmith in the "New Purchase."