USA > Indiana > Knox County > History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present; with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. ; together with an extended history of the colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the state government > Part 1
USA > Indiana > Daviess County > History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present; with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. ; together with an extended history of the colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the state government > Part 1
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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01703 9808
Gc 977.201 K77hi History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana
HISTORY
OF -
KNOX AND
DAVIESS COUNTIES
INDIANA.
FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT; WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, REMINISCENCES, NOTES, ETC .; TOGETHER WITH AN EXTENDED HISTORY OF THE COLONIAL DAYS OF VINCENNES, AND ITS PROGRESS DOWN TO THE FORMATION OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT.
ILLUSTRATED.
Gc 977.201
CHICAGO: THE GOODSPEED PUBLISHING CO., 1886. K 77 hi
CHICAGO: JOHN MORRIS COMPANY PRINTERS.
1318016
PREFACE.
28/17 . 19 -11-6
$42.50
UR history of Knox and Daviess Counties, after months of persist- ent, conscientious labor, is now completed. Every important field of research has been minutely scanned by those engaged in its preparation, and no subject of universal public value has been omitted save where protracted effort failed to secure trustworthy results. The impossibility of ingrafting upon the pages of this volume the vast fund of the counties' historic information, and the proper omission of many valueless details, have compelled the publishers to select such matters as are deemed of the greatest importance. Fully aware of our inability to furnish a perfect history from meager public documents, inaccurate private correspondence, and numberless conflicting tradi- tions, we make no pretension of having prepared a work devoid of blemish. Through the courtesy and the generous assistance met with everywhere, we have been enabled to rescue from oblivion the greater portion of important events that have transpired in past years. We feel assured that all thoughtful people in the counties, at present and in the future, will recognize and appreciate the importance of the un- dertaking and the great public benefit that has been accomplished.
It will be observed that a dry statement of fact has been avoided, and that the rich romance of border incident has been woven with statistical details, thus forming an attractive and graphic narrative, and lending beauty to the mechanical execution of the volume and ad- ditional value to it as a work of perusal. We claim superior excel- lence in our systematic manner of collecting material by workers in specialties; in the division of the subject matter into distinct and ap- propriate chapters; in the subdivision of the individual chapters into topics under subheads, and in the ample and comprehensive index. We also, with pride, call the attention of the public to the superb mechan- ical execution of the volume. While we acknowledge the existence of unavoidable errors, we have prepared a work fully up to the standard of our promises, and as accurate and comprehensive as could be expected under the circumstances.
May, 1886.
THE PUBLISHERS.
Property of Mus. Horace Schow 1504 E. Locual l'incerner And
5
flow- Mus. Lucile Bonner Padget 10-17.45
CONTENTS.
PART I.
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE.
COLONIAL HISTORY OF VINCENNES. 11
Aboriginal Customs. 13
Chippecoke Town ...
13
Carignan-Salieres, The Regiment. 18
Canadian Residents, The First 15
Ecclesiastical Mysticism .... 16
Feudalism, A Species of. 19
Fur Trade, The 17
Indian Villages. 12
Miamis, The .. 11
New Village, The .. 20
Religious Enthusiasts 15
Shawanees, The .. 12
CHAPTER II.
COLONIAL HISTORY, CONTINUED. 21
British Indian Policies. 32 Analysis of Coals. 68
Braddock's Defest 30
Burning of Vinsenné, The. 26
Church, The First ... 23
Commerce, etc .... 24
Conflict at Detroit, The .. 2 26
Chickasaw Campaign, The.
Croghan's View of Vincennes. 28
Demands of Gen. Gage .... 32
Epidemic, A Destructive .. 22 English Government at Vincennes. 31 29
French and English Contests
Government of St. Ange .. 27
Manitou, The Indians' 22
Pontiac's Conspiracy .. 31
23
St. Ange Belle Rive ..
27
Vincennes, Establishment of .. 21
Vinsenné's Promotion. 25
Western Company, The 23
CHAPTER III.
COLONIAL HISTORY, CONTINUED. 33
American Flag ever Vincennes, The. 42 Early Residents of Harrison,
British, Surrender of the 39
Clark's Second Project. 35 Grants to Settlers at Vincennes 125
Conquest of Kaskaskia 37
Capitulation of Fort Sackville. 50
Consultation Between Hamilton and Clark
49
Conquest of Vincennes. 40
Excitement among the Inhabitants. 45
Filibustering Expedition, The First. 34
Fort Sackville, Investment of. 46
George Rogers Clark. 34
Gibbault, Gratitude of ... 39 Hamilton'a Creditable Designs. 43
Incidente of the Siege ...... 47
Seizure of Spanish Property .. 35
Vincennes' Defenses, Description of. 36 Prehistoric Relics. 75
Vincennes, British Occupation of .. 42 Vincennes Campaign, The. 44
CHAPTER IV.
PAGE.
COLONIAL HISTORY, CONTINUED.
51
Capture of the English Fleet. 51
Court, Establishment of the .. 54 Distinguished Prisoners, Disposal of the 53
Delawares, Punishment of the .. 54
Enthusiasm of the Inhabitants 52
LaBalm's Expedition and Fate .. 55
Lstroumelles, Massacre of the 56
Officers of the Garrison .. 54
Promotion of Clark and Bowman. 53
Peorias, Defeat of the. 55
Surrender, Ceremonies of the. 51
Vincennes, Pen Picture of ... 56
CHAPTER V.
GEOLOGY OF KNOX COUNTY .. 58
Bunker Hill Section, The. 61 Boundary and Drainage 58
Coal K, Fossils over. 65
Connected Section of the County 58
Coala near Edwardsport. 65 Economic Questions .. 67
Limestone and Sandstone. 66
Local Details. 60
Merom Sandstone, The. 61
Other Sections. 63
Strata in General, The., 59
Sections in Harrison Township. 62
View of the Coals, A .. 60
CHAPTER VI.
SETTLEMENT OF KNOX COUNTY. 68
Ancient Titles or Land Grants. 91
Busseron Township. 73
Claimants, Catalog of. 104
Decker Township ..
85
Distilleries and Ferries
86
Early Settlers.
69
77
Forts, Block-houses, etc ..
72
Heads of Families at Vincennes. 110
Harrison Township. 77
Industries of Widner. 72
Johnson Township. 80
Land Claims at Vincennes ... 99
Militia Company, Roster. 70
McGowen, Massacre of ... 74
Milling Interests .... 79
Mound Builders, The. 92
Miscellaneous Items .. 88
Notes on the Northwest Territory 144 Other Important Surveys .. 112
Pioneers of Busseron. 73
Pear Tree, The Great .. 77
Palmyra Township
90
Policy of the French King.
vi
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Shakers, The. 75
Steen Township. 87
- Tan-yards, Mills, Forts, etc .. 92
Vincennes Township. 68
Vigo Township. 89
Washington Township. 82
Widner Township
71
CHAPTER VII.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY ... 147
Asylums, The .. 168
Acts of the County Board ... 163
Bonds of the County. 162
Boundary and Early Government. 147
County Officers .. 167
Court House, The New. 151
Displays at the Fair. 154
Election Returns ... 164
Finances of the County. 159
Jail, The New. 152
Knox County Fair, The.
153
Medical Society, The .. 156
Name, Origin of ...
148
Population of the County. 166
Paupers, The ...
167
Plank Road, The. 152
Public Buildings 150
Prisons .. 151
Railroads. 153
Receipts and Disbursements, Fair 154
Townships, Formation of. 148
Taxation.
161
Votes Polled 166
CHAPTER VIII.
BENCH AND BAR .. 168
Attorneys of the Present 200
Bar, The Local 194
Court, The First .. 170
Character of Judges
175
Circuit Court, The. 183
Common Pleas Court .... 176
184
Courts of 1853.
181
Death Penalty, The First ..
175
Grand Jury, The First ... 171
Jurisdiction of the Early Courts 169
Judges, List of ... 173
Judges of Probate .. 179
Knox County Organized ... 170
174
Public Buildings. 177
171
Probate Court. 178
Professional Sketches. 185
Preliminary History 168
Sheriffs, List of. 173
Trial of Offenses. 171
Territorial Courts. 174
CHAPTER IX.
MILITARY HISTORY .. 204
Artillery Company, The 218 Aid Societies. 229
Battle of Tippecanoe .. 207
Black Hawk Campaign, The. 210 Bounty and Relief, 229 Casualties at Tippecanoe .. 208 Companies, The First 214
Camp Knox.
229
Companies at Tippecanoe.
208
Dodge's Company .
211 Drafts, The ..... 227
Eightieth Regiment, The 223 Enlistments Under Last Call. 227
Fifty-first Regiment, The .. 222
Flag Presentation 215
Interview of Harrison and Tecumseh ... 205
Militia Companies, The Old. 204
PAGE.
Mexican War, The ....... 211
Mass Meetings ..
213
Officers of the Fourteenth 216 One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment. 225 Revolutionary Soldiers. 204
Rebellion, Outbreak of the. 212
Sketch of the Fourteenth .. 217
Sixty-fifth Regiment, The. 223
Twenty-sixth Regiment, The .. 219
Tippecanoe Campaign, The. 206
Thirty-third Regiment. 220
Views of The Sun. 212
CHAPTER X.
HISTORY OF THE TOWNS. 230
Additions to Vincennes .. 247
Business Houses. 250
Bicknell.
266
Bruceville 267
Busseron. 272
Chip-pe-co-ke ... 232
Commandants, The French. 233
Description of Fort Sackville. 239
Date of Founding Vincennes 233
Dispute about Fort Sackville. 238
Deckertown. 270
271
Edwardsport.
262
Emison.
272
French and Jesuit Missions.
231
French Fort, The Old ..
232
Fisherman, The 231
Incorporated Companies. 248
Land Grant, The Oldest. 237
Later Business Establishments.
251
Manufacturing Establishments ...
Monroe City 264
Newspapers ... 259
Ordinances of Vincennes 246
Oaktown. 268
Plantation of Grouseland. 243
Present Business. 252
Recorded History, The First.
237
Richland ...
272
Religious Condition, The. 236
Sandborn .. 269
Secret Societies. 255
Slavery .. 245
Town and City Officers ... 255 Vincennes, Old Town of. 234 Vincennes, The Territorial Capital .. 240
Vincennes in 1805 240
Wheatland
270
Westphalia. 272
CHAPTER XI.
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY .. 273
County Seminary, The. 276
Disposal of the University. 276
Education in Busseron Township. 284 Harrison Township Pedagogues. 285
Johnson Township Schools. 287
Management of the Seminary. 274
Palmyra Educators. 283
Public Schools, The 276
Schools of Decker 284
Seminary Township, The.
273 Suits over the Property. 275
Schools of Washington. 280
Statistics, Enumeration, Etc. 277
School Examiners .. 276
Township Educational Affairs. 278
Teachers of Steen Township. 281
University, The Vincennes .. 275
Vigo Schools. 282
Vincennes Public Schools .. 279
Widner Township Teachers. 286
-
Freelandsville ...
265
Dicksburg ..
Mound Builders, The .... 253
230
Circuit Judges, List of ..
Oyer and Terminer Courts.
Presentment for Murder.
vii
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
PAGE.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 288
African Methodist Church 297
Bishope, The ...
291
Busseroo, The Shakere ..
76
Baptist Church at Vincennes.
296
Church Records, The Early 289
Catalog of Priests .. 290
Church of St. John. 290
Clasees in Johnson
301
Christian Church at Vincennes. 294
Churches of Vigo.
390
Decker Township Church
302
Fathers, The Early. 288
Harrison Churches .. 299
Methodiet Church at Vincennes. 293 Old Church Buildinge .. 289 Palmyra Organizations .. 303
Religious Condition of the French ... 290 Religion in Washington Township ... 297 St. Francis Xavier Cathedral. 288
St Vincent's Asylum 303
Steen Religious Organization6. 302 St. James' and St. John's Churches. 296 Vincennes Presbyterian Church. 292
Widner Township Classes, 298
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Bueseron Township. 448
Decker Township. 533
Harrison Township. 499
Johnson Township .. 542
Palmyra Towochip
669
Steen Tow nehip. 553
Vigo Township 470
Vincennes Township ... 305
Washington Township 410
Widner Township ..
621
PART II.
HISTORY OF DAVIESS COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY 563
Analysis of Coala. 664
Alfordsville Sectione .. 566
Boundary and Extent 563
Building Stone. 570
Drainage ..
563
Fossile .. 664
Iron, Clay, Ochre, etc .. 670 Local Details. 666
Section of the County. 668
Sundry Bores ..
568
Section at Haye' Farm. 667
Timber, Varieties of .. 670
CHAPTER II.
INDIAN HISTORY .. 671
Attack on Smith, Perry, etc. 572
Courage of Miss Case .. 575
Design of Gen. Harrison. 571 Description of a Rlock House. 574 Forts, The Various. 572 Indien Alarma. 578 McGowen, Killing of ... 572 Murder of Bogard and Hethaway 574
Murder of Thomas Eagle. 577 Occupants of the Forte ... 573 Pureuit of the Savages 575
"Pioneer Papere," Extract from. 580 Rangers, The .. 579
Shooting of Big Indian .. 676
Smothers, the Indian Hater 577
CHAPTER III.
SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY .: 681
Bears, Hunting of. 687 Bogard Townehip. 699
Barr Township ... 695
Clothing Materials. 591
Distilleries 591
Deer at Bay, A .. 596
Entries efter 1813 585
Elmore Township. 598 Population 620 Election of a Colored Man. 598 Representatives .. 628
696
Grain, Early Cultivation of.
Harrison Township. 692 Senatora 628 Silk Culture, Encouragement of .. 613
Kidnaping of Colored Persons 601
Land Deeds, The First 682 Sheriffs ... 627
Locations and Donetions. 583 Surveyors. 627
Local Names, Origin of. 586 Madison Township. 597 Pioneer Implements of Lahor. 588 " Poetry " of the Pioneers .. 593 Reeve Township. 594
Settler, The First .. 581
Subsistence, Early Sources of. 587
Steele Townehip .. 600
Slavery in IndiaDe 600 Supreme Court Decision 605 Titles to Land Before 1814. 584
Threshing Machine, The First. 590
Trustee Warrants, The Township. 602
Township Orders Issued ..
604
Veal Township.
691
Van Buren Township. 696
CHAPTER IV.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY. 606
Act of Formation 606
Agricultural Societies. 624 Acts of the Board, Sundry 609
Auditors .. 627
Board of Justices. 611
County Board, First Meeting. 608 Clerks ... 627
Creation of Townahips, Later. 610
Coroners 627
Court House of 1841. 612 Court Houses, The First .. County Commissioners. 627 609
County Library, The.
614
Elections to Aid Railroads .. 617
Election Returns, Presidential. 620
Finances, The ... 618 Jails, The Early .. 610
Location of the County Sest .. 607
Miscellaneous Acts of the Board 611 New Counties Projected .. 614
Original County Bounds. 607 Public Buildings, Later. 615
Paupers, The.
623
Railroad Stock Taken. 613
Fight of Rear and Dogs
689
Recordere ..
627
PAGE.
viii
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
608
Treasurers
CHAPTER V.
HISTORY OF THE COURTS, 629
Attorneye Admitted, The First. 629
Ad Quod Damnum ... 631
Assassination of Capt. McCarty. 640
Big File, Indictment of .. 630
Bar, The Local. 636
Common Pleas Court .. 643
Circuit Judges, Catalog of. 634
629
Circuit Court, First Session
Lettsville 707
Montgomery 702
Newspapers .. 689
681
Odon 703
Original Ownership of Washington 675
Professional Meo, Early 678
Present Business. 692
Plain ville 708
677
Raglesville
706
Smiley & Farlen
709
South Washington 707
882
Secret Societies
Temperance Soclety, An Early 700
Trustees of Washington. 680
674
Washington
CHAPTER VIII.
SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY 711
Attendance, etc .. 720
Barring out the Teacher. 712
County Seminary, The .. 713
Congressional Fuud, The 719
County Institutes ... 716
Common School Fund, The 718
Enrollment, Attendance, etc 716 Enumeration of Children. 722
Early Schools of Washington 711
Graded Schools, The 716
Graduates of the High School. 716
Other School Bulldings 714
Statistics of Schools ... 719
Superintendents of Schools, 716
Township Schools 719
Teachers of Washington 713
CHAPTER IX.
CHURCHES OF THE COUNTY. 723
Articles of Falth, Baptist 735
. Baptist Congregations. 735
Cumberland Presbyteriane 740
Catholic Buildings.
Christian Classes. 738
Colored Churches 742
Early Presbyterians 724
Methodist Episcopal Churches. 729
Other Methodist Pastors 731
Presbyterian Congregatione 723
723
Pioneer Circuit Riders ...
Presbyterian Elders 725
727
Roman Catholic Churchee
725
Sundry Methodist Classes 732
United Brethren, The 741
Various Baptist Organizations 737
Washington Methodist Ministers 730
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Bogard Township 884
808
Barr Township.
Elmore Tow Dehip. 906
Harrison Towoship. 858
Madison Township .. 836
Reeve Township. 873
Steele Township. 911
Veal Township. 693
Van Buren Township. 901
Washington Township. 743
PAGE.
City Charter, The. ..... 681
Cannelburg
705
Chelsea and Corbytown. 709
Cornetsville .. 706
Eloora 706
708
Eldon
707
Epsom
709
Glendale and Mayeville
Growth of Washington, Later. 678
Hudsonville and Tom's Hill. 709
Incorporation of Washington 679
Lot Buyers, The First 676
Leading Business Enterprises 693
Criminal Trials, Early 632
Epitaph of Capt. McCarty 643
637
Grand Jurors, The First. 630
Indictments, The First.
Judges, The Early .. 631
Murder of David Young 639
643
Present Attorneys ..
Petit Jury, The First 630
Sentence of McCarty's Murderers. 642
Sundry Trials of Offenses. 633
Scott's Murder Trial, 638
834
Trials of Note
CHAPTER VI.
MILITARY HISTORY 644
Bounty and Relief. 672
Bolton's Company 653
Calls for Troops 673
Company for the War, first. 648
Casualties of the Sixth .. 651
667
Deeds of Patriotism
654
Events Preceding the Rebellion
644
Fall of Sumter, The
647
Flag Presentation, Ceremony of
649
Forty-second Regiment. 658
660
Fifty-eighth Regiment ....
663
" Legion," The.
671
MeCarty's Company.
673
"Minute Men," The.
872
Mexican Soldiers, The. 644
Mass Meetinge 647
Military Items, Sundry. 659
646
Ninety-first Regiment. 665
866 Roll of Honor. 644
Revolutionary Soldiers. 648
Resolutions of Loyalty .. 668
Recruits, Veterans, etc ... 650
Sixth Regiment .. 653
Sketch of the Twenty-fourth.
664
Sixty-fifth Regiment
Statistical Tables 669
Twenty-seventh Regiment 665
Views of the Telegraph. 645
CHAPTER VII.
HISTORY OF THE TOWNS. 674
Additions to Washington 679
Alfordsville .. 710
Business, The First 677
662
Deaths of the Twenty-fourth.
Fifty-second Regiment
661
Home War News.
657
Military Credits, Summary of ..
Newspaper Extracts
Conscripts, Disloyalty, etc.
Probate Court .. 638
Residents, The First
Officers of Washington.
Eminent Practitioners 629
627
Townships, Creation of.
726
Priests, The Catholic.
PART I. HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
CHAPTER I .*
PREPARED BY ORLAN F. BAKER, A. M.
COLONIAL HISTORY OF VINCENNES FROM 1608 TO 1702-THE MIAMIS AND OTHER TRIBES - CHIPPECOKE-SAVAGE STOICISM-THE CANADIAN VOYAGEURS-COLONIES ESTABLISHED BY RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASTS- THE INDIAN FUR TRADE-THE REGIMENT CARIGNAN-SALIERES --- COLONIAL GOVERNMENT-THE "NEW VILLAGE."
A T about the period of the advent of the Europeans on the North American Continent, a division of the Algonquin race of savages left their country, bordering upon the waters of the Bay of Puans (Green Bay), and wandering south and eastward, acquired a permanent lodgment at isolated stations along the River St. Jerome (Wabash), from the Scioto to the Mississippi. Early in their migration they encountered the in- domitable missionary and the alert trader from the French settle- ments upon the St. Lawrence. From these they learned to speak the salutation prescribed by the early code of the forest-"Mon ami" (my friend)-and whether, as claimed by a painstaking writer, t out of these French words was carved their family name
* The author is under obligations for access to valuable records and documents to Ralph H. Donavan, Thomas P. Beckes, Hon. Henry S. Cauthorn, Charles P. Lasselle, Bishop St. Palais (de- ceased ), Fathers Adrian and Peythien, Mrs. Helen Hediker, of Ft. Wayne, and the heirs of Robert Buntin ; and has consulted in the succeeding four chapters, among others, the following authori- ties : Dr. Francis Parkman, Judge James V. Campbell, John B. Dillon, Judge John Law, H. M. Brackenridge, Count C. F. Volney, Jared Sparks, C. C. Jones, Dr. Daniel Wilson, C. P. Drake, Mann Butler, Lewis Collins, "Transactions of New York Historical Society," "Transactions of Wiscon- sin Historical Society," " The Discovery of the West," Law's " History of Vincennes," "Historical Series," " Records of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral," "Clark's Campaign," Butler's "History of Kentucky," "Political History of Michigan," Western Sun (sketches), 1804 to 1845, " Acts of Con- gress."
+Prof. Hough, Cincinnati Public School.
-
12
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
-- Miami-or not, they were, of all the Western nations, the most faithful in their relations with their white neighbors. Although these ceremonious greetings have been obsolete for a century, and the dusky race of "friends" has disappeared with the vast forests in which it was cradled, rivers and hills and municipal divisions perpetuate in their names this meeting of races in the wilderness of America.
At the junction of the rivers St. Joseph and St. Mary's, the site of the present city of Fort Wayne, stood Ke-ki-on-ga, the chief Miami village; seven miles below the modern city of Lafay- ette, Ouitenon, and "two hundred leagues farther down by the windings of the current, on the left bank of the St. Jerome, sur- rounded by good lands for beaver," Chip-pe-coke (Brushwood), the Indian predecessor of Vincennes. Lodges and less impor- tant villages, inhabited by Weas, Mascoutins, Pottawattomies, Puans, Piankashaws, etc., "all speaking dialects of the same lan- guage, having the same customs and ceremonies as the Miamis -- all Miamis," in many lines, extended from these principal towns eastward to Lake Erie, and southwest to the Ohio. Relics res- cued from shell-heaps, and the evident disposition of the dead revealed in exhumations, indicate that earlier than this possession by the Miamis the site of the village of Chip-pe-coke had been, for many years, the home of a people practicing the ceremonies and observing the customs peculiar to the Mandans, who, also, were wanderers from the sea-coasts of North Carolina.
THE SHAWANEES.
Between the time of the Mandans and the Miamis, the Shawa- nees had adopted this favorite spot for a temporary home. One of the rambles of the latter tribe, occurring since the estab- lishment of English colonies in America, serves to delineate the unstable life, the aimless shiftings, exterminations, and overlap- pings of one population upon another, out of which, doubtless, arose the deadly feuds under which, in bloody and relentless wars, as the curtain rose to reveal to the European the red man of the woods, their numbers were even then melting away with such rapidity that, had the white man delayed his advent but a few centuries longer, he would have found an unpeopled wilderness
13
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
to welcome him. At a treaty with Penn, near Philadelphia, the Shawanees were present, and conceded to be owners of portions of the soil upon the Delaware. Soon afterward they appear to have gone to the South, as guests of the Cherokees, where, fomenting strife, they were expelled the country, and took up their abode near the Chickasaws. Next they found a more permanent home at the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio (Shawaneetown), from whence, over their old hunting grounds, they passed up the Wa- bash to southern Michigan.
CHIPPECOKE, INDIAN CUSTOMS.
The size of fields devoted to sepulture, the condition of re- mains exhumed in early excavations, almost uniformly well pre- served, and the large number of interments, indicate that while the Indian town of Chip-pe-coke was the center of a dense popu- lation, its occupancy by the Miamis had not extended, perhaps, over half a century of time when first visited by the white man. The customs of the Miamis so fully preserved by the whites, who so constantly maintained an intercourse with them, the suggestive character of individual names, and monuments of boundaries, preserved to us in ancient grants, enable us to, par- tially at least, reproduce this village of the savages as it was at the time when there came to it from the North that population of Old World origin the recital of whose history is to depict the dawn of civilization in Indiana. In person the Miamis were tall, lithe and well formed, regular featured, of a bright bronze com- plexion, in some cases, from family admixtures, however, dark- ening into the shade of the Nubians .* They were vain in dress, fond of ornaments, and lavish in the display of curious medicine pouches, charms, talismans and amulets. Eminently social in the lodge, mirthful around the camp-fire and loquacious in coun- cil, the brave, in the presence of his enemies, under the agony of torture, could remain as taciturn and unyielding as stone. Upon the war-path he spared not even the babe clinging to its mother's breast; deprived of the society of his own offspring he wasted to death with grief. The mother who toiled in the fields singing the while her affection for the child slung to her back, looked
*Volney's views.
14
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
upon its brutal murder by the foe with unmoistened eyes, suffer- ing no sigh to escape from her agonized breast, over which her tribal enemy might gloat. An incident related by a Jesuit father, who writes as an eye-witness, will well serve to illustrate how vain of the ability to exhibit brutal indifference to their own physical suffering the Indian was. The Father relates that while a religious procession at the feast of Corpus Christi was passing along the Rue Calvary, two wounded Indians just from some brawl, were observed in the street. One, bleeding from the face and neck, was moaning piteously; the other, with a gash in his abdomen from which protruded his entrails, sat quiet until the religionists arrived opposite him, when he exclaimed: "See how a brave man dies," opened still wider his wound and cut piece after piece from his exposed viscera. The Miami was especially fond of festivals and dances; some of his feasts, notably that of the "green corn," were celebrated with games and contests as exciting and honorable as those immortalized at Olympus. Upon occasion of these holidays, tales of adventure, recitals of legends, narratives of a mythological character, tribal traditions and hu- morous pantomimes, occupied the time between game and dance, contest and banquet, and never lacked an appreciative and de- lighted audience. His love of adventure was unsurpassed by any appetite except his passion for gambling. The first, with a love of gossip seemingly never satiated, sent him upon long solitary jaunts from village to village of his nation; the latter often de- taining him upon the war path until his vengeance cooled. Their habitations were constructed of bark and boughs, and one often sheltered at the same time three and four generations. The coming into existence of a new family was provided for by extending the roof of the wife's parents a few feet and kindling a new domestic fire. Upon the eastern bank of the Wabash, at an elevation some twenty feet above the immediate plain stretching to the east, from near Broadway Street to Perry, amid a few barren, stunted oaks, about thirty such lodges, containing in all over 100 families, dominated at the northern limit by a large, circular structure designated as the council-house, were grouped to form the village where the first white settlement in Indiana was effected. It was under the totem (a family badge) of the turtle, and as such
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