Sample Chapter – A History of Switzerland County

Sample Chapter
A History of Switzerland County, Indiana
Switzerland County History

The Indiana Territorial Assembly created Switzerland County two years before Indiana became a state in 1814. The legislature named the county for the native land of many of its early inhabitants, Switzerland. The first commercial wineries in the United States were located here, and the county considers itself the birthplace of commercial winemaking in America. Residents celebrate this heritage yearly during the Swiss Wine Festival in late August.
Early Settlement
The first known settlers to migrate into what is now Switzerland County were escapees from the whipping post in Kentucky. These settlers came to Posey County where they cleared small plots of ground to plant crops. They also hunted game and fished in the rivers and streams. James H. Merit, Sr. and his family came into the area, also from Kentucky, in 1809. Other families followed, native to Ireland, purchasing 2100 acres of land in the region just upriver of Patriot on the banks of the Ohio River. Prior to its organization as an independent county, the region that now comprises Switzerland County had been part of Dearborn County, when it was attached to Dearborn County. Sometime in 1810 the region was attached to Jefferson County. In the years before the Swiss began migrating in pioneers had settled in the region at the mouth of Hunts Creek and around the site Vevay now occupies. The Cotton and Dickason families followed in 1798.
Swiss Settlement
June 11, 1802 – Swiss Colony Lands Selected – Southern Indiana
John James Dufour immigrated to the United States to develop European style wines from American grown grapes. Thus far, American attempts to make a good wine had been a failure. Due to the efforts of John James Dufour, the commercial wine industry in the United States began in Switzerland County, Indiana.
John James Dufour (1763 – 1827)
A native of Canton de Vaud, Switzerland, Dufour studied viticulture for twenty years in Switzerland before coming to the United States in 1796. He had come representing the Vineyard Society of Switzerland and purchased 2560 acres near the future town of Vevay. The members of the organization were considering immigrating to America to make wine, escaping war torn Europe. He landed in Philadelphia in 1796 and embarked on a tour of vineyards across America that included stops at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, St. Louis, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. He eventually ended up at a site on the Big Bend of the Kentucky River about twenty-five miles south of Lexington. He established an experimental vineyard at this site, planting thirty-five varieties of European grapes.

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