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Gc 977.2 W88b 1152349
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
lit 15-
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00821 3032
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BIOGRAPHICAL
AND
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF
EARLY INDIANA
WILLIAM WESLEY WOOLLEN
Hle that writes Or makes a jeast, more certainly invites His judges than his friends; there's not a guest But will find something wanting or ill-drest. -SIR R. HOWARD.
INDIANAPOLIS PUBLISHED BY HAMMOND & CO 1853
( ,
COPYRIGHT BY EMMA W. HUBBARD, 1883.
-
CARLON & HOLLENBECK, PRINTERS AND BINDERS, INDIANAPOLIS.
goodspeed- $15.00
1152349
TO
EMMA W. HUBBARD
WHO GREATLY AIDED ME IN THE PREPARATION OF THESE
SKETCHES, THIS BOOK IS
Affectionately Inscribed
BY HER FATHER
THE AUTHOR
PREFACE.
MANY of the sketches contained in this book were originally published in the Indianapolis Journal. These, and such as have been given the public in other papers, have been carefully revised and rewritten. Some of the sketches, how- ever, were prepared expressly for this work.
I have not written of living men, but only of those who have passed away. . The dead Governors of Indiana-both Territorial and State-are sketched, and monographs of other distinguished men are given, The book contains other papers, of a historical character, the whole making a work which, I hope, will prove of permanent value.
The information contained in this book, which necessarily develops much of the early political history of the State, was obtained from various sources, and can not elsewhere be found without great research and labor. No inconsiderable part of it is derived from the author's own observation and recollection, and would pass away with him were it not committed to writing.
Should this book be favorably received by the public, it will, most probably, be followed by another of similar character, for the author is in possession of abundant material for such a work.
Such as the book is, I send it forth. Whatever may be the verdict of the pub- lic upon it, I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that it was conscientiously written. It contains nothing which I do not believe to be true, and in its prepa- ration I accepted nothing as evidence which I did not regard as conclusive. I ask for the work the public's considerate judgment, and I shall be content to abide its verdict.
WILLIAM WESLEY WOOLLEN.
INDIANAPOLIS, MAY, 1883.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON,
1
JOHN GIBSON, 11
THOMAS POSEY, 21
JONATHAN JENNINGS, 29
RATLIFF BOON, 42
WILLIAM HENDRICKS,
51
JAMES BROWN RAY, 56
NOAH NOBLE,
65 70 77 81 94
JOSEPH A. WRIGHT (with plate),
ASHBEL P. WILLARD,
104
ABRAM A. HAMMOND (with ptate),
113
HENRY S. LANE, 120
OLIVER P. MORTON (with plate), 130
JAMES D. WILLIAMS, 147 160
CHRISTOPHER HARRISON,
MILTON STAPP,
168
DAVID HILLIS,
173 178
JAMES NOBLE,
JOHN TIPTON, 185
OLIVER H. SMITH, 196 204
ALBERT S. WHITE,
EDWARD A. HANNEGAN, 211
JESSE D. BRIGHT, 223
JOHN W. DAVIS, 233
GEORGE G. DUNN, 241
WILLIAM W. WICK, 252
TILGHMAN A. HOWARD,
262
DAVID WALLACE,
SAMUEL BIGGER,
JAMES WHITCOMB,
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
JAMES H. CRAVENS,
PAGE. 273
ANDREW KENNEDY, . 281
ROBERT DALE OWEN, 289 THOMAS SMITII, 309
JOIIN L. ROBINSON,
315
CYRUS L. DUNHAM,
321
JOHN LAW,
MICHAEL C. KERR (with plate),
ISAAC BLACKFORD,
STEPHEN C. STEVENS,
CHARLES DEWEY,
360 366
JEREMIAH SULLIVAN,
A HISTORICAL TRIO,
373
BENJAMIN PARKE,
384
THOMAS RANDOLPH,
391 400
WILLIAMSON DUNN,
407
JOSEPH LANE,
412
JAMES GREGORY,
426
JOSEPH G. MARSHALL (with plate),
432
MICHAEL G. BRIGHT, 449
NICHOLAS MCCARTY, 457
CALVIN FLETCHER, 464
WILLIAM H. MORRISON,
475
JAMES S. ATHON,
478
MICHAEL C. GARBER,
480
JOHN D. DEFREES, 485
FREE MASONRY IN INDIANA,
489
MADISON FROM 1844 TO 1852, 513
INDIANA PRESS IN THE OLDEN TIME, 538
332 335 344 353
ABEL C. PEPPER,
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
INDIANA TERRITORY, when organized, embraced all the coun- try lying between the present Ohio State line and the Mississippi river, the great northern lakes and the river Ohio, excepting a small part of Michigan and that portion of Southeastern Indiana ceded to the United States at the treaty of Greenville. It was created by an act of Congress passed May 7, 1800, and re- mained under territorial government until December 11, 1816, when the State of Indiana was admitted into the Federal Union.
The first Governor of Indiana Territory was William Henry Harrison. He was born in Berkeley, Charles City county, Vir- ginia, February 9, 1773. He was the youngest son of Benja- min Harrison, one of the foremost men of the revolutionary era, and he lived to add new luster to his father's name. When nineteen years old he entered the army as an ensign, and fought under both St. Clair and Wayne. In 1795 he was appointed a captain, and assigned to the command of Fort Washington, a fortress standing on the present site of Cincinnati. Two years afterward he resigned his place in the army, and was appointed Secretary of the Northwestern Territory, of which his old com- mander, General St. Clair, was Governor. On the 3d of Oc- tober, 1799, the Territorial Legislature elected him a delegate to Congress by a vote of eleven to ten, the latter number being cast for Arthur St. Clair, Jr., a son of the Governor. On the 13th of May, 1800, he was appointed Governor of Indiana Ter- ritory, and on the 10th of January following he arrived at Vin- cennes and took possession of his office. He remained in con- trol of the executive department of the Territory until Septem- ber, 1812, when he was appointed a brigadier-general of the army and assigned to the command of the northwestern fron-
2
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
tier. The next year he was promoted to the rank of major- general, and continued in the military service of the country until the close of the second war with Great Britain, when he threw up his commission and retired to his farm near Cincin- nati. But he did not remain long in private life. In 1816 he was elected to Congress from the Cincinnati district, and con- tinued a member of that body for three years. In 1849 he was chosen a member of the Ohio Senate, and served two years as a Senator. In 1824 Ohio sent him to the Senate of the United States, where he sat until 1828, when President John Quincy Adams appointed him minister plenipotentiary to Colombia. But his residence abroad was short, as General Jackson recalled him soon after becoming President. On his return to the United States he went back to his old home at North Bend, and soon afterward was elected clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton county, an office he held for twelve years. In 1836 he was a candidate for President of the United States and re- ceived seventy-three electoral votes, being those of the States of Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. The electors who cast the vote of Indiana for him were John C. Clendening, Achilles Williams, Hiram Decker, Austin W. Morris, Milton Stapp, Albert S. White, Enoch McCarty, Marston G. Clark and Abram P. Andrews. In 1840 he was again the Whig candidate for the presidency, and this time was triumphantly elected, receiving 234 electoral votes to 60 cast for Martin Van Buren. The electors for In- diana this year were Jonathan McCarty, Joseph G. Marshall, John W. Payne, Joseph L. White, Richard W. Thompson, James H. Cravens, Caleb B. Smith, William Herod and Sam- uel C. Sample, several of them being among the most brilliant men Indiana has ever produced. " Thus, for the second time, did Indiana vote for her first Territorial Governor for the high- est office in the gift of the people. He was bound to her citi- zens by the strongest ties, for he had scattered the savage hordes at Tippecanoe, and at the Thames, and saved the homes of the pioneers from pillage. General Harrison was inaugurated Pres- ident of the United States, March 4, 1841, and in one month afterward-on the 4th of April, 1841-he died. His remains were taken to his home at North Bend and there interred. The
3
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
soil of Ohio never hid from sight one more dearly beloved than he.
General Harrison was educated at Hampton Sidney College. and afterward studied medicine. But his entrance into the army, and his subsequent active service in the military and civil departments of the government, made its practice impossible. America has had no more illustrious family than that of the Harrisons. For four generations its members have sat in the national councils. General Harrison's father, Benjamin Har- rison, was a delegate to the Continenal Congress, and signed the Declaration of American Independence. He was three times elected Governor of Virginia, and was a member of the convention called to ratify the Federal constitution. The Gen- eral's son, John Scott Harrison, was a member of Congress from 1853 to 1857, and his grandson, General Benjamin Harri- son, is now a Senator of the United States from Indiana. What a line of glorious ancestors has the Senator !
General Harrison's career as Territorial Governor of Indiana was an eventful one. For a time faction was rampant about him, fomented by able and ambitious men. These men sought to break him down, but he was too strongly entrenched in the affections of the people. Among the private papers of Thomas Randolph, a warm personal and political friend of General Harrison, is an unfinished and unsigned letter, believed to have been written by Benjamin Parke, the first delegate to Congress from Indiana Territory. It has never hitherto been published, and is exceedingly valuable, giving, as it does, a graphic ac- count of the intrigues against Governor Harrison, and naming the men engaged in them. It is to be regretted that the narra- tive was not brought down to a later day. The following is a copy of the paper :
"VINCENNES, 5 September, 1808.
"SIR-The moral and political history of the people of this government exhibits numberless instances of the most barefaced inconsistency, duplicity, cunning and depravity. Remorse has lost its sting, shame its blush, and probity, justice, honor have all been supplanted by the most unblushing hypocrisy.
" To comply with your request, it will be needless to enume- rate many cases. The leading features will enable you to form
+
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
a complete idea of the whole. In fact, a profile will give you ample materials for a miniature.
·· In 1801, about a year after the Territorial government com- menced, I came to this place. At that time I found Colonel Edgar and Robert Morrison eager for the establishment of the second or representative grade of government. The partisans of the measure were principally in the two western counties.
"R. M. went so far as to address circular letters to the peo- ple of the Territory, showing the ease with which it might be attained and the advantages that would result from it. It was notorious that he expected, from the standing of himself and party, to be the first delegate to Congress. But the measure
was opposed upon the following grounds : By the census of 1800 the population of the Territory amounted to about 5,600 souls. Comparatively speaking, there was no emigration and no prospect of there being any for some time. The county of Dearborn was then within the limits of the Northwest Territory. No purchase had then been made of the Indians, and they all appeared to be averse to selling a single acre, and boundaries between us and the Indians on the Mississippi and in this county were not defined. The lines of Clark county, containing 150,- 000 acres, had been run. In fact there was scarcely an acre of ground for settlement save in Clark county and the two do- nations. Those who had removed to the county had principally to settle on the public lands in the neighborhood of the old set- tlements, and, in fact, to which we had no title, as the Indian lines had not been run. The expenses of the second grade were, by some, estimated at about from $12,000 to $15,000. How- ever, the smallness of the population ; the barren prospects of a speedy increase of it; our confined situation with regard to the Indians ; their aversion to selling any of their lands, and the supposed expenses of the establishment, influenced a great majority of the people against the measure. Some expressed their sentiments on the subject to the Governor, by petition. However, the project failed. There was little stir made in regard to it for some time after.
" In 1803 the politics of the West took a new direction. Sat- istied with no establishment from which they could not derive either office or emolument, they seized with avidity every cir-
5
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
cumstance that might effect a change in our political situation. In the summer of that year we received information of the ces- sion of Louisiana. Instantly the project was formed by the Edgar and Morrison party to connect the counties of St. Clair and Randolph to the country now called the Louisiana Terri- tory, and make one government of the whole. Edgar was to be the Governor and R. Morrison the secretary, and all the posse were to be amply provided for in this new arrangement. A slight schism, however, took place in their party about this time. James Higgin, an attorney, notorious for his avarice, impudence and cowardice, proposed Judge Dowis as Governor of the new Territory, promising himself an office if the Judge succeeded. These projects failed also.
" It ought to have been observed that in 1802 a convention ot delegates assembled at this place to take into consideration the situation of the Territory, and to petition Congress for redress on certain subjects. The petition was agreed to, and the major- ity of the delegates voted a clause for the introduction of slavery for ten years, or rather a suspension of the sixth act of the compact for ten years. It was then proposed to elect an agent to go forward with the petition. I, with others, was proposed. Morrison was violently opposed to my being appointed. I have been told, for I was in Kentucky at the time, that he wished the appointment himself. I was appointed, and this affair satisfied him and his party that their influence was trifling, and some change must be wrought to place them in the situation desired.
"After the golden prospects which the cession of Louisiana opened to this Territory had vanished, a project for dividing the territory and forming a distinct government of the counties of Randolph and St. Clair was brought forward. However, little more than conversation was had on it at that time. It was soon entirely suspended by the agitation produced by another project, that of going into the second grade of government.
" In the autumn of 1802 a treaty with the Indians was made at this place, by which the United States became possessed of the country from Point Coupie to the mouth of White river ; and from twelve miles west of the Wabash to the distance of seventy-two miles east. This was the first purchase that was made. In August, 1803, the Kaskaskian Indians sold their
6
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
land to the United States. In March, 1804, Congress passed a law for establishing land offices at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and authorizing the survey and sale of the lands purchased by the above treaties. In August, 1804, the Delaware treaty was made, by which the United States acquired the lands of the Wabash, south of the first mentioned purchase and the road leading from this place to Clarksville, thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the river Wabash. (See the several treaties and act of Congress in the laws of the United States. )
"In the year -, the Northwestern Territory assumed a State government, by which the counties of Wayne and Dear- born were annexed to the Indiana Territory.
·· The purchases from the Indians had increased the emigration to the Territory. It was also accelerated by the establishment of land offices at Kaskaskia and Vincennes. In the summer of 1804 the subject of adopting the second grade of government was agitated with considerable warmth.
" With agriculture improved, population increased, the coun- ties of Dearborn and Wayne added to the territory ; possessed of all the lands from the falls of the Ohio to the Mississippi, with the exception of. the Pyan Kaskaw claim, of no great extent, and which was shortly purchased ; and offices established at Kaskaskia and Vincennes for the sale of public lands, it was thought that the measure might be safely gone into. To this ad- vantageous change in our situation was added, that the expenses of the establishment would not exceed $3,500 (I thought about $3,000) ; that the people would be entitled to a partial repre- sentative government ; that they would have the absolute con- trol over one branch of the Legislature ; that it would give them a Representative in Congress, and, although he would not be entitled to vote, yet from his situation he would acquire respect and attention, and would give a faithful representation of our situation, and that some sacrifices ought to be made to obtain even the partial exercise of the rights considered so dear and of such universal importance to the several States.
" But strange as it may seem, to a case so plain, and princi- ples resulting from it so obvious, forgetting former professions, and lost to all sense of shame, Edgar, Morrison & Co. were op- posed. In 1801 raising $10,000 or $15,000 would have been a
7
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
slight tax and no burden ; yet, in 1804, with an increased pop- ulation, an immense purchase of lands, offices opened for their sale, and our situation in every respect changed infinitely for the better, between $3,000 and $4,000 would be ruin to the peo- ple ; although the office of Governor was obnoxious on account of the extent of its prerogatives, and the conduct of the Gover- nor reprehensible for the tyranny of his conduct, yet it would endanger the rights and liberties of the people to diminish his prerogatives and contract the sphere of his duties ; and although in 1801 the Edgar and Morrison party were so violently in favor of the measures, in 1804 they were its most bitter opponents.
" In this county J. R. Jones, Vigo, Hurst, the Governor, the Johnsons and myself were in favor of the measure. Vander- burg and McIntosh were opposed to it. In Randolph, Fisher and Menard were in favor of it.
" By the act of Congress of May, 1800, (the Division act) the Governor of the Territory was authorized that whenever in his . opinion a majority of the freeholders of the same were in favor of the second grade of government, to declare the Territory to be in the second grade, and issue his writ for an election of Representative. An absolute and undefined discretion was devolved on him as to the mode of collecting the evidence, its kind and qualities, upon which this fact depended in his own mind. Petitions had been presented to him both for and against the measure. From them he could form no definite opinion. He had neither evidence of the signing nor of the signers being freeholders. Thus situated, and conscious it was necessary, from the clamor, that the question should be put to rest, he wisely determined to authorize, by proclamation, an election in the several counties, on a certain day, at which, under the reg- ulations of the election law, the freeholders could express their voice.
" This was public, open, fair and just. The notice was pub- lic and general, and an opportunity afforded to all of a candid expression of their will. This was particularly the case as to Randolph, St. Clair, Knox, Clark and Dearborn. It was not the case as to Wayne, as I will hereafter explain.
" In the month of -, 1804, the election accordingly took place. The vote stood as follows :
8
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
For.
Against.
"'St. Clair
22
59
Randolph
40
2I
Knox
163
12
Clark .
35 .
13
Dearborn
26
Totals
269
I31
I3I
Majority .
138
"Giving a majority of 138 in favor of the second grade of government.
"As to the county of Wayne, a proclamation was sent to De- troit by mail, and another by express by way of Fort Wayne. This to increase the chances of their receiving the information in time. However, no election was holden in that county. My memory does not enable me to state correctly the cause that pre- vented it ; but it has been said that it was received before that day elapsed, but not in time to give it the necessary publicity. as it ought to have been published a certain number of days be- fore the election ; but as the proclamation was issued on the
day of -, in 1804, and the election authorized to be holden on the - - day of the next -, and as it was immediately forwarded, and in time to attain the object in view, according to the source or mode of conveying intelligence to that county, the failure of the election in that county ought not to have affected the result of the election in the other counties. This from an obvious principle and notorious examples. In a gen- eral election the result is not to be affected by want of its possibility in every district ; or, if known, by the electors fail- ing to give their votes, or from the officers conducting it ille- gally. - - so - is this principle in elections, that had the county of Knox, which was in the majority, or the county of St. Clair, which was in the minority, alone expressed its voice, it would unquestionably have settled the question. The principle is limited to this alone : If the proper officer performs his duty ; if there is a fixed time in which proclamations shall be issued ; that it be done in the time prescribed by law ; or, if not fixed
9
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
by law, if it be issued so as to afford reasonable time for its dis- tribution ; with a view to its being done by mail or by private express ; distance of place, roads, season of the year, etc., the law and reason and common sense are complied with. As to examples, the case of Mr. Adams in -96; Governor Strong, of Massachusetts, in -; C. Mead, elected to Congress from Georgia in 1805, are conclusive.
" Upon the receipt of the returns, and learning that no elec- tion had been held at Detroit, the Governor declared the Terri- tory to be in the second grade of government, and issued writs for an election of members of the House of Representatives. Y'et it has been stated ten thousand times, and is now repeated with much confidence by Rice Jones, that the Governor thrust the people of the Territory into the second grade against their will. This view brings us down to the fall of the year 1804. I will proceed to recount a few things that grew out of this change in the political character of our government."
Here the paper ends.
I shall not attempt to do that which the author of this letter proposed to do, for I am not writing the history of the Territorial government, but attempting to sketch the life of its head, of the most influential and important man within its jurisdiction.
General Harrison was emphatically a man of the people. The pioneers of Indiana loved and honored him as they did no other man. They testified to this on every occasion that offered. Both times he ran for the presidency Indiana voted for him, although a majority of her citizens were averse to the party whose candidate he was. He was an honest man. No taint of dishonor attaches to his name. William McIntosh, his terri- torial treasurer, once accused him of official dishonesty, but was mulcted in heavy damages by a jury of his peers for the libel.
General Harrison was Southern-born, and grew up under the influence of human slavery. It is no wonder, then, that he favored the abrogation of the article in the ordinance of 1787 prohibiting slavery in the Northwestern Territory, but for- tunately for Indiana, as well as for the General's fame, Con- gress refused its consent to the change.
IO
BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCHES.
When General Harrison was a candidate for the presidency his political opponents belittled his talents, and tried to make the people believe he was an ignorant and ordinary man. They said he was a backwoodsman, living in a log cabin ; a man who treated his guests to hard cider. His supporters accepted these charges as true, and utilized them in his behalf. Log cabins, with corn-cobs tied to the latch-strings of their doors, were car- ried in the processions of his partisans and made to do duty in his cause. The result proved that it never renders a man un- popular with the people to have them believe he is one of them- selves.
The house in which General Harrison lived while Governor of Indiana Territory still stands. The intelligent stranger sel- dom visits Vincennes without asking to see it. In the yard near it stand the trees under which the Governor held his celebrated conference with Tecumseh. The house and its surroundings are held in veneration by the inhabitants of the " Old Post," and the time will come when the people of the country will visit the spot and the grave at North Bend as they now do Mount Vernon, Monticello and the Hermitage. It was in this house that the civil government of Indiana Territory was planned, and its master was the one, of all others, who did most to rear the structure. He was a master builder, and builded well.
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