4 UNION COUNTY PAST AND PRESENT p
1937, did not cover it. The main channel iiows between the island
. and the Indiana shore.
4 On his way down the Ohio, Cuming stopped at this island,
which he described as having a settlement at the upper end.
Cuming also states that three miles below the island on the
A Indiana side, directly across from the mouth of Highland Creek,
filled with drift, lived three families named Robinson, the first
settlers in the district.
The first record of ownership was a deed of 1884 containing
the names of Nunn and Duncan, the latter selling out to his
partner shortly afterward. Nunn willed the island to a grand-
daughter, Mrs. William Elliott, Sr., who in turn willed it to her
five children, the present owners. William Elliott, Jr., of Hender-
son, manages the-island, which is planted in corn.
Since 1933, theoverseer has been John R. Fenwick, who lives
in a two-story frame house of twelve rooms. A two-story house
of four rooms is occupied by Fenwick’s Negro cook, and in the
busy season by workers, for whom a Negro woman is employed
to cook. The yearly average yield of corn is 20,000 bushels, but
for 1938 it reached 30,000. The corn crib has a capacity of 18,000
Y bushels; the silo is 16 feet wide and 60 feet high; and the barn,
with a shed on each side, accommodates 40 mules.
On the Kentucky side the channel is too shallow for the pas-
sage of barges, and it was necessary in 1940 to dredge the main
channel. There is a tow head of seventeen acres near the island.
To visit Slim Island from Kentucky an appointment must be
made with the overseer to meet one with a small boat, while from
the Indiana side the clanging of a large bell announces the desire
to cross. A "
Though under the jurisdiction of Union County, mail for Slim
Island is addressed to Mt. Vernon, Indiana, from which place
P it is deposited in a box on the bank opposite the island.
About four miles down the Ohio from Uniontown, below Dam.
49, lies Wabash Island at the convergence of three States. The
largest island in the Ohio, it takes its name from the river which
forms the boundary between Indiana and Illinois and which
empties into the Ohio near the middle of the island.
Years ago, one might walk from Wabash Island to Kentucky
. but a deep, wide-channel nowtlies between.¤;·An electric -. power
· line crosses the island, for lighting and the operation of small
machinery.