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

Author:
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Chicago : Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 928


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


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81



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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