a family neighborhood

How many houses were once occupied by Brushfield families in Madison, Indiana? Excluding those in the next block down (Filmore and Vaughn) so far I have a record of them living at  NINE separate addresses, which will be clarified at some point by deeds:

1010 E. First (Sutton Directory has Benjamin (son) there in 1887)

1017 E. First

1001 Park (Henry Kriel, Mary Brushfield Kriel’s son and family)

1013 Park (Mary Brushfield married to William L. Kriel) 

1015 Park Avenue (Matthews Directory shows Henry C. Brushfield there in 1890, when he worked as a harnessmaker)

1016 Park Avenue  Brushfields and Kriels

1028 Park Avenue (1890 directory listing has William Brushfield at this address)

1030 Park Avenue (two houses on the lot, hard to say who was in which house most of the time)

1032 Park Avenue  (see Brushfield-Cunningham post for more info)

1034 Park Avenue  (see Brushfield-Cunningham post for more info)

 I AM aware that some of the Brushfields lived on Filmore and Ohio/Fulton/Vaughn, which is still part of this east of Ferry thing, and I will add those properties as I get more information. This truly was a “family” neighborhood, since obviously the family houses were close together.

It’s not only that this neighborhood was a Brushfield family neighborhood, there are many other families who have kin who have resided in this neighborhood since the beginnings of Madison. I think it is important to draw the lines from each dot left. Meanwhile I will keep doing what I’m doing.

MUCH MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED.

To put a bridge through the middle of this neighborhood would certainly destroy a lot of the 150-plus-years of intact physical history in Madison, Indiana’s east-of-Ferry-Street neighborhood. I hope the people that make decisions about preserving history in Madison, Indiana are paying attention about where the Milton-Madison bridge should go, considering so much information has not even been touched or researched to date. One would think that a family’s history of  creating and living in a neighborhood would be an important study, at least from a  cultural standpoint.

I’m no expert, but a number of families lived in close proximityto one another in this family neighbrohood, so it IS worth researching. It does make me wonder how many families in town had houses built in the same neighborhood to house their own families. Frankly, I doubt such information has been compiled.

More to come on those other families in THIS neighborhood!