In the Eagle Creek valley of southeastern Boone County, a new town was planned on land owned by Elijah and Mary "Polly" Cross. Convinced by Lebanon businessman William Zion, a director of the Lafayette & Indianapolis Railroad, the Crosses decided to locate it along the planned railway. When Mary Cross declined her husband's proposal to name the town Marysville in her honor, Elijah Cross asked Zion, who had joined him as proprietor of the town, to lend his name. James Mullikin, Boone County surveyor, surveyed and platted the site in 1851, and the Town of Zionsville was entered into the record by the proprietors on January 26, 1852.