Born in Virginia, George Boxley, the first settler in Adams Township, Hamilton County, came to Indiana as a fugitive from justice. Accused in 1816 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, of helping slaves escape and fomenting a slave rebellion, he fled from jail with aid from his wife Hannah. After spending 12 years on the run from Ohio to the Missouri Territory, Boxley arrived here about 1828, and his large family soon joined him in the wilderness. He staked an 80-acre claim and is credited with establishing the first school in the township by building a nearby log structure where he taught his own children and those of other settlers entering the area. In 1851, a township school was established nearby. His son Caswell, a lawyer and teacher, bought his father's land in 1859, platted lots along the south edge for the new town of Sheridan, and built a fine house in front of the cabin; that house burned in 1997.