Parties on the prairie #3

•February 25, 2026•

by Janet Roney

In the mid-1820s, when white settlers first began arriving in Moultrie, they found most of the county covered with swampy tall grass prairie, which was too wet to farm and almost impossible to travel across except on a few trails. However, the southern part of the county was different. It was covered with a much drier prairie because from Whitley Creek south, the elevation of the land gradually rises towards the Shelbyville Moraine that runs along the south boundary with Shelby County. 

Along the south side of the moraine in Shelby County, there were several groves of trees with freshwater springs feeding little creeks flowing south. The largest was Cochran’s Grove (located a mile or two southeast of the present Shelby County town of Windsor), where Samuel Little settled in the fall of 1825. (Please note. Samuel Little was not John Whitley’s son-in-law, as I wrongly stated a couple of weeks ago. Two of Samuel Little’s sisters were married to two of John S. Whitley’s sons, Mills and Sharp Whitley, making Samuel Little their brother-in-law. Sorry for the error.)

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