History of Pike and Dubois counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. : together with an extended history of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the state of Indiana, Part 1

Author: Goodspeed Bros. & Co. 4n
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago : Goodspeed Bros.
Number of Pages: 784


USA > Indiana > Pike County > History of Pike and Dubois counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. : together with an extended history of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the state of Indiana > Part 1
USA > Indiana > Dubois County > History of Pike and Dubois counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. : together with an extended history of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the state of Indiana > 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



Gc 977.201 P63h 1320222


M. L


GENEALOGY COLLECTION


Please check Index in back pocket of book after each use ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00827 6773


HISTORY


OF


PIKE AND DUBOIS COUNTIES


INDIANA.


FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT ; WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, REMINISCENCES, NOTES,. ETC .; TOGETHER WITH AN EXTENDED HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST, THE INDIANA TERRITORY AND THE STATE OF INDIANA.


ILLUSTRATED.


A Reproduction by Unigraphic, Inc. 4400 Jackson Ave. Evansville, Indiana


CHICAGO: GOODSPEED BROS. & CO, PUBLISHERS, 1885.


1320222 PREFACE.


O UR history of Pike and Dubois Counties, after months of per- sistent, conscientious labor, is now completed. Every impor- tant field of research has been minutely scanned by those engaged in its preparation, and no subject of universal public value has been 4 omitted save where protracted effort failed to secure trustworthy re- Q sults. 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 con- flicting traditions. we make no pretension of having prepared a work devoid of blemish. Through the courtesy and the generous assist- ance 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 future, will recognize and appreciate the importance of the undertaking 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 for 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, and in the ample and comprehensive index. We also, with pride, call the attention of the public to the superb mechanical execu- tion of the volume. While we acknowledge the existence of unavoid- able 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.


December, 1885.


THE PUBLISHERS.


CONTENTS.


PART I .- HISTORY OF INDIANA.


CHAPTER I. PAGE.


PREHISTORIC RACES.


17


Antiquities.


19


Chinese, The ...


18


Discovery by Columbus.


33


Territorial Legislature, The First ..


84


Western Sun, The.


84


CHAPTER V.


ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE, ETC. 121


Amendment, The Fifteenth


Black Hawk War. ... 1.90


Constitution, Formation of the. 121


Campaigns Against the Indians. 128


Defeat of Black Hawk 130


Exodus of the Indians ..


General Assembly, The First .. 122


Guadalupe-llidalgo, Treaty of. 142


Harmony Community 134


Indian Titles 132


Immigration. 1.25


Lafayette, Action at 127


Land Sales


133


Mexican War, The. 136


Slavery


144


CHAPTER VI.


INDIANA IN THE REBELLION. 148


Batteries of Light Infantry 182


Battle Record of States. 188


Call to Arms, The ... 149


Colored Troops of Indiana ..


182


Calls of 1864. 177


Field, In the .


15º


Independent ('avalry Regiment


181


Morgan's Raid 170


Minute-Men .. 170


One Hundred Days' Men. 176


Regiments, Formation uf. 151


Regiments, Sketch of ... 153


Six Months' Regiments. 172


CHAPTER VII.


STATE AFFAIRS AFTER THE REBELLION .. 189


Agriculture 20


Coal 2


Divorce Laws 193


Finances 194


Geology 205


Internal Improvements. 199


Indiana Horticultural Society. 212


Indiana Pomological Society 213


Special Laws. 190


State Bank .... 196


State Board f Agriculture. 209


State Expositions 210


Wealth and Progress 197


CIIAPTER VIII.


EDUCATION AND BENEVOLENCE 215


Blind Institute, The 232


City School System. 218


Compensation of Teachers. 220


Denominational and Private Institu-


tions.


230


Deaf and Dumb Institute ..


Courts, Formation of .....


County Officers, Appointment of .. I19 Corydon, the Capitol. 117


Governor Posey. 117


Indiana in 1810. 84


Population in 1815. 118


Explorations hy the Whites. 37


Indians, The ... 31


Immigration, The First. 18


Immigration, The Second.


20


Pyramids, etc, The .. 21


Relics of the Mound-Builders. 93


Savage Customs


34


Tartars, The. 23


Vincennes


39


Wabash River, The 39


White Men, The First. 37


CHAPTER II.


NATIONAL POLICIES, ETC. 41


American Policy, The .. 46


Atrocity of the Savages 47


Burning of Hinton. 48


British Policy, The 46


Clark's Expedition.


52


French Scheme, The


41


Gilbault, Father.


G5


Government of the Northwest


67


Hamilton's C'areer 64


Liquor and Gaming Laws. 74


Missionaries, The atholic. 42


Ordinauce of 1787. 70


Pontiac's War.


46


Ruse Against the Indians.


Vigo, Francis 06


CHAPTER III.


OPERATIONS AGAINST THE INDIANS. 75


Battle at Peoria Lake. 104


Campaign of llarrisoo. 92


Cession Treaties. 93


Defeat of ~+. Clair 79


Defensive Operations


76


Expedition of Harmer 75


Expedition of Wayne .. 79


Expedition of St. Clair. 78


Expedition of Willianison 78


Fort Miami, Battle of. 80


Harrison and the lodians 87


Hopkins' Campaign 105


Kickapoo Town, Burning of .. 78


Maumee, Battle of. 75


Massacre at Pigeon Roost. 103


Mississinewa Town, Battle at. 106


Oratory, Tecumseh's .. 114


Prophet Town, Destruction of.


Peace with the Indians


106


Siege of Fort Wayne ... 10]


Siege of Fort Harrisou. 103


Tecumseh 111


Tippecanoe, Battle of. 98


War of 1812. 101


War of 1812, Close of the. 108


CHAPTER IV.


ORGANIZATION OF INDIANA TERRITORY.


Bank, Establishment of ..


Eoumeration of Scholars


Free School System, The ..


Funds, Management of the


PAGE.


vi


CONTENTS.


PAGE


Female Prison and Reformatory 241


House of Refuge, The 243


Insane Hospital, The .. 238


Northern Indiana Normal School. 229


Origin of School Funds.


221


. Purdue University.


224


School Statistics. 218


State University, The. 999


State Normal School 228


State Prison, South. 239


State Prison, North .. 240


Total School Funds 220


PART II .- HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY.


CHAPTER I.


GEOLOOY


245


Economic Geology 249


Fossils 246


Local Details 247


Precious Minerala.


Paleozoic Geology. 250


246


Surface Features.


245


Streams .. 245


Section of the County 246


Section at Peteraburg.


247


Stone and Water. 250


Section at Pikesville.


248


·Section at Martin's Bank


249


CHAPTER II.


SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY 251


Arrest of Harrison 256


Adams Towoship. 260


Counterfeiting. 267


Clay Township. 257


Early Elections 253


Early Marriages. 268


Hunters and Trappers 252


Internal Improvements


266


Indian Stories.


268


Jefferson Township


253


Land Entries ..


257


Logan Township.


257


Mound-Builders' Works 270


Mills and Postoffices. 251


Militia Musters ..


25-4


Madison Township 255


Mineral Springs, Mines, etc.


258


Monroe Township.


259


Officers, The First


255


Settlers, The First. 251


" Snake Knob" 262


Underground Railroad 264


Voters, List of. 264


Wild Hogs 263


Wolf Hunting


262


Washington Grange. 260


CHAPTER III.


ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY 273


Associate Judges. 687


Act of Creation .. 273


Agricultural Society


283


Auditors 287


Acts of the County Board


274


Boundary 274


Collectors and Commissioners


276


Court Houses and .Jails.


277


County and other Libraries. 285


Corouers 286


Clerks 287


Circuit Judges. 289


County Agents


289


County Commissioners


288


Defalcations. 279


Elections. 291


Finances 280


Falr Receipts and Expenses. 285


Justices of the Peace.


289


Later Acts of the Board


278


Later Finances 281


New Townships. 276


Probate Judges. 289


Population. 282


Paupers, The 282


Representatives 290


Recorders


287


Sheriffs 280


Surveyors 287


Senators


290


Treasurers.


287


Taxes


275


CHAPTER IV.


THE BENCH AND BAR 298


Ad Quod Damnum. 307


Admitted to Practice. 308


Change of Venue


301


Crime at Camp Meeting


300


Contested Election, Case of. 313


Compensation of Judges 304


Divorce Suit 307 Early Attorneys 305


First Grand Jurors. 299


First True Bill 299


Fornication. 309


Forgery, Cases of. 311


" Judge Lynch " 315


Judges, First .. 304


Kidnapping, Case of. 309


Official Negligence 310


Probate Court, First Session 315


Slander Suits. 302 Record of First Court 298


Various Cases enumerated 312


CHAPTER V.


MILITARY HISTORY 317


Aid to Soldiers and their Families 334


Eightieth Regiment 330


Fatalities of Regiment. 323


Fifty-eighth Regiment. 327


Forty-second Regiment 325


Incidents 330


331


Mexican War


319


Mustered Out


323


"Not worth a duro " 328


On "The March to the Sea "


326


One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment 333 One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regi- ment 331


Officers of Regiment . 3.


Pike County in the War 320


Quota For Last Call. 334


Revolutionary Soldiers. 317


Rebellion, The Great 319


Sixty-fifth Regiment .. 329


Soldiers Furnished 333


Twenty-fourth Regiment 321


Twenty-seventh Band 324


CHAPTER VI.


TOWNS AND VILLAGES 335


Alexandria, I. irst Town. 335


Alfords 355


Algiers City


Arcadia 358


355


Augusta. 356


Arthur 356


Bauk .. 348


Business Men. 339


Commissioners, Report of .. 335


Cholera .. 340


First Sale of Lots. 336


Fires 346


Indiana Legion


PAGE.


vii


CONTENTS.


PAGE.


First Flat-boat


354


Hosmer.


354


Highbanka.


355


Incidents


353


Liquor, Rate of Prices


338


Lodge, I. O. O. F. 353


Manufacturing Enterprises 338


Merchants, First ..


338


CHAPTER VIII.


RELIGIOUS HISTORY 369


Baptists, General. 375


Bethlehem Congregation .. 371


Pikeville, Location


353


Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 370


Camp Meetings 369


First Ministers. 369


Flat Creek Church 376


379


Missionary Baptists.


379


Mount Pleasant Class


374


Methodist Church 372


Patoka Association 378


Pleasant Ridge Church 377


Presbyterian Church 380


Regular Baptists. 376


South Fork Church 377


Sabbath Schools 373


United Brethren 374


White River Church 378


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.


Clay. 464


Jefferson


Lockhart 431


Logan 461


Lockhart Schoola


358


Madison 439


Marion 449


Monroe 468


Patoka


413


384


PART III .- HISTORY OF DUBOIS COUNTY.


CHAPTER I.


GEOLOGY. 469


Coal Mines 474


Drainage 469


Fossila 471


Glass Sand 473


Act of Formation 483


Associate Judges 496


Auditora 496


Agricultural Society 498


County before Creation, The. 483


Commissioners' Districts. 487


County Buildings. 490


Clerks .. 495


Coronera 496


Division into Townships.


487


Donationa of Land, etc.


489


Election Returns. 499


Governors of Indiana Territory 50L


Governors of the State .. 501


Judges of the Supreme Court. 505


Location of the County Seat. 488


Later Public Buildings. 491


Lieutenant-Governors 502


New Townahlps 491


Origin of the Name Dubois. 484


Portersville 488


Proceedings of the Board 489


Poor Farm, The 490


Probate Judges 496


495


Representatives


496


Purchasers of Land


480


Slavery In Indiana ..


481


Squatters. 475


Settlers, The First 475


Tousaint Dubois 478


CHAPTER III.


ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY 483


Auditors of State, 502


Attorney-Generals 505


Alterationa in Boundary


484


Local Details .. 472


470


Rock Houses. 471


Sandstone and Limestone. 474


Section of Paint Mine. 473


Section of the County 470


CHAPTER II.


SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY. 475


Boone Townahip. 476


Block-houses. 477


Coon Skina. 482


Entries of Land. 481


Government Survey. 476


Harbison Township 481


Intoxicated Indiana .. 482


Incident of Gen. Harrison 478


Jall at Portersville, The. 479


Killing of an Indian, The 482


Land Entries.


476


"Mud-hole Trace"


475


Madison Township.


479


Recordera


Railroads 497


Representatives in Congress. .506


Surveyors 495


Sheriffa


495


Senators 499


367


Schoola in Clay 362


Schools, The First. 357


Shooting Deer.


360


Teachers and Their Peculiarities 364


Washington, School of.


365


Otwell. 356


Officers Chosen


345


Press, The .. 349


351


Pleasantville.


355


Petersburg, History of ..


335


Surveyed, When. 336


Secret Societies 346


Stendal 352


Town Council Proceedings ..


343


Union .. 353


Winslow, Location of.


354


CHAPTER VII.


EDUCATIONAL HISTORY 357


Alumni, High School 365


Blythe-Wood Academy. 367


Early Schools, Primitive Character 359


First Schoolhouses. 358


Free Schoola Provided For 361


First Teachers. 363


Hogs, Going to School 860


Incidents aod Anecdotes 357


Jefferson, Schools of 362


Logan, Number Pupila 362


List of School Booka 361


Madison Schools 362


Monroe Schools 364


Washington


PAGE.


Petersburg Schools ..


Pugilistic Propensitles,


481


Paleozoic Geology Recent Geology 469


Lutheran Church ...


Present Industry.


viii


CONTENTS.


PAGE.


Secretaries of State .. 502


Treasurers. 495


Territorial Delegates ... 506


Treasurers of State. 505


United States Senators 506


CHAPTER IV.


HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR ... 509


Attorneys, The Early 510


Ad Quod Damnum 511


Court, The First. 509


516


Innovations on Old Forms. 513


Judges, The First 510


Later Attorneys 519


Murder Trial, the First. 517


517


New Constitution, The ... 513


Officers, The First Court 509


Prominent Practitioners. 511


Professional Character of Attorneys 514


Probate Court 515


Records, Perpetuation of. 512


Sundry Crimes 518


CHAPTER V.


MILITARY HISTORY 520


Additional Volunteers


535


Bounty


537


Civil War, Beginning of ..


523


Conscripts of 1864


536


Departure of Companies


528


Doctrine of Secession


524


Draft of 1862, The.


533


Mexican Campaign, The


523


Number of Men Furnished


532


Other War Meetings


527


Public Sentiment


525


Roster of Mexican Soldiers


523


Relief for Soldiers' Families.


530


Recruiting.


531


Rejoicing over Victories


534


Rebel Raids.


534


Surrender of Fort Sumter.


525


Training Days. 520


Twenty-Seventh Regiment 529


Volunteers, The First


526


Veterans, The. 536


Volunteers for the War 528


War Meetings


526


CHAPTER VI.


TOWNS AND VILLAGES.


Bank, Dubois County 546


Buard, Members of.


550


Rode the Circuit 574


BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.


Bainbridge.


585


Harbison 655


Jackson. 771


Cass


687


Jefferson 716


Columbia


765


Madison 735


Ferdinand


670


Marion 749


Ilall


757


Patoka


618


PORTRAITS.


Brittain, W. C.


593-594


Ilaskins, N. 665-666


Beckmann, J 11


683-684


McMahan, W. R.


611-612


Bretz, W. H.


557-558


Rothert, Herman


539-540


Catholic Church


575-576


Schuhmacher, Isidor.


503-504


Court House.


485-486


Williams, G. P. 629-630


Fisher, Morman


521-522


Wilson, N II


647-648


Fleming, A T


701-702


Birdseye 561


Bretzville.


563


Donated, By Whom. 538


Early Settlers Disappointed 554


Families, The Earliest 541


Ferdinand. 553


Hook and Ladder Co. First ..


544


Huntinghurgh


546


Holland .. 556


Hillham ..


564


Haysville


564


Ireland


559


Industries.


552


Incorporated, When.


549


Jasper, The Town of ...


538


Merchants. 541


Newspapers


545


Portersville.


565


Postoffice Established


555


Physicians, Early


548


Schnellville 563


Shively Post No. 68 550


Settlers, First. 556


Various Industries


555


CHAPTER VII.


EDUCATION 566


Bonds, Sale of 571


Catholic Schools 571


Conflict of Method. 573


First Teachers 570


New Schoolhouse in Jasper


572


Public Schools 567


Pioneer Schools. 569


Revenue, Other Sources of 568


Schools, Early


566


Section 16 set Apart


567


Surplus Revenue.


568


Table Showing Number of Houses,


Teachers, etc 571


CHAPTER VIII.


CHURCHES 574


Benedictine Sisters, The. 582


Catholic Churches. 579


Catholic Congregation at St. Anthony. 584


Convent 582


Congregation at Ferdinand 581


Congregation at Henryville 584


583


Cumberland Presbyterians.


Denominations, First 574


Early Fathers Enumerated. 580


Early Preachers 578


Methodist Church. 577


Presbytery for Indiana 577


Boone


700


Common Pleas Court.


Destruction of the Records. 512


Murder Trial, The Second.


PAOE.


538


Congregation at Celestine 577


HISTORY OF INDIANA:


FORMER OCCUPANTS.


PREHISTORIO RACES.


Scientists have ascribed to the Mound Builders varied origins, and though their divergence of opinion may for a time seem incom- patible with a thorough investigation of the, subject, and tend to a confusion of ideas, no doubt whatever can exist as to the compar- ative accuracy of conclusions arrived at by some of them. Like the vexed question of the Pillar Towers of Ireland, it has caused much speculation, and elicited the opinions of so many learned antiquarians, ethnologists and travelers, that it will not be found beyond the range of possibility to make deductions that may suffice to solve the problem who were the prehistoric settlers of America. To achieve this it will not be necessary to go beyond the period over which Scripture history extends, or to indulge in those airy flights of imagination so sadly identified with occasional writers of even the Christian school, and all the accepted literary exponents of modern paganism.


That this continent is co-existent with the world of the ancients cannot be questioned. Every investigation, instituted under the auspices of modern civilization, confirms the fact and leaves no channel open through which the skeptic can escape the thorough refutation of his opinions. China, with its numerous living testi- monials of antiquity, with its ancient, though limited literature and its Babelish superstitions, claims a continuous history from antediluvian times; but although ite continuity may be denied with every just reason, there is nothing to prevent the transmission of aohieroglyphic record of its history prior to 1656 anno mundi, since many traces of its early settlement survived the Deluge, and became sacred objects of the first historical epoch. This very sur- vival of a record, such as that of which the Chinese boast, is not at variance with the designs of a God who made and ruled the universe; but that an antediluvian people inhabited this continent,


18


HISTORY OF INDIANA.


will not be claimed; because it is not probable, though it may be possible, that a settlement in a land which may be considered a portion of the. Asiatic continent, was effected by the immediate followers of the first progenitors of the human race. Therefore, on entering the study of the ancient people who raised these tumu- lus monuments over large tracts .of the country, it will be just sufficient to wander back to that time when the flood-gates of heaven were swung open to hurl destruction on a wicked world; and in doing so the inquiry must be based on legendary, or rather upon many circumstantial evidences; for, so far as written narra- tive extends, there is nothing to show that a movement of people too far east resulted in a Western settlement.


THE FIRST IMMIGRATION.


The first and most probable sources in which the origin of the Builders must be sought, are those countries lying along the east- ern coast of Asia, which donbtless at that time stretched far beyond its present limits, and presented a continuous shore from Lopatka to Point Cambodia, holding a population comparatively civilized, and all professing some elementary form of the Boodhism of later days. Those peoples, like the Chinese of the present, were bound to live at home, and probably observed that law until after the con- fusion of languages and the dispersion of the builders of Babel in 1757, A. M .; but subsequently, within the following century, the old Mongolians, like the new, crossed the great ocean in the very paths taken by the present representatives of the race, arrived on the same shores, which now extend a very questionable hospitality to them, and entered at once upon the colonization of the country south and east, while the Caucasian race engaged in a similar move- ment of exploration and colonization over what may be justly termed the western extension of Asia, and both peoples growing stalwart under the change, attained a moral and physical eminence to which they never could lay claim under the tropical sun which shed its beams upon the cradle of the human race.


That mysterious people who, like the Brahmins of to-day, wor- shiped some transitory deity, and in after years, evidentiy embraced the idealization of Boodhism, as preached in Mongolia early in the 35th century of the world, together with acquiring the learning of the Confucian and Pythagorean schools of the same period, spread all over the land, and in their numerous settlements erected these raths, or mounds, and sacrificial altars whereon they received their


19


HISTORY OF INDIANA.


periodical visiting gods, surrendered their bodies to natural absorp- tion or annihilation, and watched for the return of some transmi- grated soul, the while adoring the universe, which with all beings they believed would be eternally existent. They possessed religious orders corresponding in external show at least with the Essenes or Theraputæ of the pre-Christian and Christian epochs, and to the reformed Theraputæ or monks of the present. Every memento of their coming and their stay which has descended to us is an evi- dence of their civilized condition. The free copper found within the tumuli; the open veins of the Superior and Iron Mountain copper-mines, with all the modus operandi of ancient mining, such as ladders, levers, chisels, and hammer-heads, discovered by the French explorers of the Northwest and the Mississippi, are conclu- sive proofs that those prehistoric people were highly civilized, and that many flourishing colonies were spread throughout the Missis- sippi valley, while yet the mammoth, the mastodon, and a hundred other animals, now only known by their gigantic fossil remains, guarded the eastern shore of the continent as it were against sup- posed invasions of the Tower Builders who went west from Babel; while yet the beautiful isles of the Antilles formed an integral portion of this continent, long years before the European Northman dreamed of setting forth to the discovery of Greenland and the northern isles, and certainly at a time when all that portion of America north of latitude 45° was an ice-incumbered waste.


Within the last few years great advances have been made toward the discovery of antiquities whether pertaining to remains of organic or inorganic nature. Together with many small, but telling relics of the early inhabitants of the country, the fossils of pre- historic animals have been unearthed from end to end of the land, and in districts, too, long pronounced by geologists of some repute to be withont even a vestige of vertebrate fossils. Among the collected souvenirs of an age about which so very little is known, are twenty-five vertebræ averaging thirteen inches in diameter, . and three vertebræ ossified together measure nine cubical feet; a thigh-bone five feet long by twenty-eight, by tweive inches in diameter, and the shaft fourteen by eight inches thick, the entire lot weighing 600 lbs. These fossils are presumed to belong to the cretaceons period, when the Dinosaur roamed over the country from East to West, desolating the villages of the people. This animal is said to have been sixty feet long, and when feeding in cypress and palm forests, to extend himself eighty-five feet, so that he may


20


HISTORY OF INDIANA.


devour the budding tops of those great trees. Other efforts in this direction may lead to great results, and culminate probably in the discovery of a tablet engraven by some learned Monnd Builder, describing in the ancient hieroglyphics of China all these men and beasts whose history excites so much speculation. The identity of the Mound Builders with the Mongolians might lead us to hope for such a consummation; nor is it beyond the range of probability, particularly in this practical age, to find the future labors of some industrious antiquarian requited by the upheaval of a tablet, written in the Tartar characters of 1700 years ago, bearing on a subject which can now be treated only on a purely circumstantial basis. i


THE SECOND IMMIGRATION


may have begun a few centuries prior to the Christian era, and unlike the former expedition or expeditions, to have traversed north- eastern Asia to its Arctic confines, and then east to the narrow channel now known as Behring's Straits, which they crossed, and sailing up the 'unchanging Yukon, settled under the shadow of Mount St. Elias for many years, and pushing Sonth commingled with their countrymen, soon acquiring the characteristics of the descendants of the first colonists. Chinese chronicles tell of snch a people, who went North and were never heard of more. Circum- stances conspire to render that particular colony the carriers of a new religious faith and of an alphabetic system of a representative character to the old colonists, and they, doubtless, exercised a most beneficial influence in other respects ; because the influx of immi- grants of such culture as were the Chinese, even of that remote period, must necessarily bear very favorable results, not only in bringing in reports of their travels, but also accounts from the fatherland bearing on the latest events.


With the idea of a second and important exodus there are many theorists united, one of whom says: "It is now the generally received opinion that the first inhabitants of America passed over from Asia through these straits. The number of small islands lying between both continents renders this opinion still more probable; and it is yet further confirmed by some remarkable traces of similarity in the physical conformation of the northern natives of both continents. The Esquimaux of North America, the Samoieds of Asia, and the Laplanders of Europe, are supposed to be of the same family; and this supposition is strengthened by the affinity which exists in their languages. The researches of Hum-




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.