George Boxley was born in 1780, a native of Virginia, and came to Indiana as a fugitive from justice, the first settler in Adams Township. Details vary, but the facts are that of Boxley, who was a merchant, mill owner, and himself a slaveowner, opposed - or came to oppose - the institution of slavery. Boxley was accused of helping slaves to escape and of fomenting a slave rebellion in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Jailed, he made his escape aided by his wife Hannah. After fleeing Virginia, Boxley may have spent a brief time in Pennsylvania. Various accounts indicate that he lives in Ohio and the Missouri Territory at different times, and that at least once he was confronted by bounty hunters but was able to elude them. His family eventually joined him each time he relocated. Finally, Boxley headed to Indiana, pausing first at Strawtown with the idea of continuing westward to settle along the Wabash River. Sources indicate that on his way west through the heavily forested land, Boxley took note of what was to become his future home and decided to stake a claim there.

Accounts vary as to the exact year that Boxley arrived to stay in Adams Township, but it was about 1828. His family soon joined him. Boxley recorded the eighty acres of land on which he had built his cabin in 1830, the earliest one in the township. Boxley was a well-read man and believed strongly in education. On his land he soon constructed a small log school for his own children and those of other settlers starting to come into the area. Boxley is credited with establishing the first school in the township. He taught his pupils from the books in his own library, educating them in history, literature, law and politics, about which he held strong views. How long he kept the school going is unclear, but at least until about 1838, when a subscription school became available in the settlement of Englewood (later, Bakers Corner) roughly four miles to the east, and possibly even longer. In 1851 a township school was finally established near the southeast corner of Boxley's land.

Local folklore holds that George Boxley participated in the Underground Railroad by hiding runaway slaves in his alleged excavation beneath the cabin. Certainly his abolitionist views were widely known, but there is no concrete evidence to support this contention at this time. Such activity is known to have taken place to the east in the Westfield area, and some sources indicate there was a route that would have passed and could have included Boxley's cabin. On the other hand, since Boxley's eccentric libertarian and abolitionist sympathies were public knowledge, logic suggests that the Boxley property might be a too obvious - and thus insecure - hiding place for fugitive slaves. But this would not have prevented him from helping them in any number of other ways.

George Boxley had 11 children. While some were young adults when Boxley arrived in Indiana, the youngest among them were born in his years on the run. His youngest child became the first recorded death in the township: Benjamin Boxley was killed by a tree that fell on him during a severe thunderstorm. In 1836, Boxley's two oldest sons, Thomas and Addison, founded Boxleytown about four miles to the northeast of the Boxley cabin on the old Lafayette Trace, which remained a significant road for decades. In the 1830s, a state road had been routed to the south that ran diagonally across George Boxley's property. After the death of his beloved wife in 1853, George Boxley's health deteriorated and at some point he left the cabin to live with his son Caswell (1817-1891), a lawyer and schoolteacher. Caswell's first wife died in 1858, and possibly his father came to live with him at that time. Caswell wasted little time, however, in finding a second wife, Sarah Ann Kercheval, whom he married the following year. He also purchased his father's land at this time. George Boxley died in 1865 and is buried in the cemetery at the town that bears his name.

Now on the National Register of Historic Places, George Boxley's cabin homestead was restored to showcase the pioneer roots of the Sheridan community. The restoration initiative represents a $120,000 initiative led by the Sheridan Historical Society - a collaborative with the Town of Sheridan.