USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, 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 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
Gc 977.201 Sa 2hi 1142790
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00805 6035
HISTORY
OF
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
INDIANA;
TOGETHER WITH SKETCHES OF ITS CITIES, VILLAGES AND TOWNSHIPS, EDU- CATIONAL, RELIGIOUS, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND POLITICAL HISTORY; PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT PERSONS, AND BIOGRAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
HISTORY OF INDIANA,
EMBRACING ACCOUNTS OF THE PRE-HISTORIC RACES, ABORIGINES, FRENCH, ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CONQUESTS, AND A GENERAL REVIEW OF ITS CIVIL, POLITICAL AND MILITARY HISTORY.
ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO: CHAS. C. CHAPMAN & CO., 1880
BLAKELY, BROWN & MARSH, PRINTERS, 155 & 157 DEARBORN ST., CHICAGO.
DONOHUE & HENNEBERRY, BOOKBINDERS, 105 & 109 MADISON STREET., CHICACO
1142790
PREFACE.
Over half a century has rolled its years away since this section of Indiana was first chosen for a home by the white man. Trials, suf- ferings and struggles which were experienced in converting even this fertile land from its virgin wildness into the Inxnriant and densely populated country now existing can never be fully portrayed. Although, as in many frontier settlements, the ground was not con- secrated by the blood of pioneers and their families, yet human tongue or pen can never accurately picture the vicissitudes and trials of the van-guard of civilization who "pitched their tents " in St. Joseph county. Their labors were as trying to their minds as to their bodies. Physical and mental strength waste together, and the memory of names, dates and events is gradually lost under the confusion of accumulating years. Events that were fresh in mem- ory ten to twenty years after their occurrence are almost if not entirely forgotten when fifty years have passed.
As a consequence there will be many irreconcilable statements concerning the matters of pioneer history, and it becomes a labori- ous task to compile a full and satisfactory account of many affairs in the career of the community. We have particular tronble with the spelling of names. We once saw in a cemetery the name " Orvillee " on the headstone of a certain grave, and " Orval Lee " on the footstone. Of course, then, some errors will be detected here and there by parties who happen to know the truth concerning such and such little items. We have not flinched from the labor and expense required to make the history as full and accurate as any history ever published,-indeed, we have the satisfaction of know- ing that our local histories are more reliable than general histories are, as we are exposed to the crucial test of a local patronage.
We desire our readers first to scan the table of contents, to become acquainted with the arrangement, and to make it easy for themselves
Schopflin Bo Ka 20.00
PREFACE.
to find anything in the volume. The history of the respective town- ships is given alphabetically, and the biographical matter is also arranged alphabetically under the respective headings of the town- ships. For example, the sketches of South Bend parties will all be found under the general heading of " Portage Township," and under the specific heading of "Biographical." The first portion of this work gives the most complete history of the State of Indiana yet published, while the remainder of the volume, by far the largest portion, is strictly the history of St. Joseph county.
As one of the most interesting features of this work, we present the portraits of several representative citizens. It has been our aim to have the prominent men of the day, as well as the pioneers, rep- resented in this department. Of course we could not give portraits of all thic leading men of the county, nor even half, but we have done our best to give a fair representation.
In conclusion, we render our heartiest thanks to those who have so freely aided us in collecting material. To the county officials, pastors of churches, officers of societies, pioneers, and the editors of the press, we are particularly grateful for the many kindnesses and courtesies shown us while laboring in the county; but most of all, we wish to thank those who have so liberally and materially aided the work by becoming subscribers for it, for without such aid no history of St. Joseph county could have been published.
C. C. CHAPMAN & CO.
CHICAGO, December, 1880.
CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
FORMER OCCUPANTS 17 18
The Firet Immigration.
The Second Immigration. 20
The Tartars ... 23
Relics of the Mound-Builders.
23
Guarding against Indians. 168
The Bright Side. 171
What the Pioneers Have Done. 173
Military Drill. 175
"Jack, the Philosopher of the 19th Cen- tury." 176
"Too Full for Utter nce. 177
Thieving and Lynch-Law .. 179
Cuing the Drunken Husband. 180 The "Choke Trap." 181
MICHIGAN BOUNDARY. 185
MEXICAN WAR. 196
SLAVERY 194
15th Amendment.
197
THE WAR FOR THE UNION 198
Clara's Ingenious Ruse. 64
Subsequent Career of Hamilton. 64
Gibault
65
Vigo 66
GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTH- WEST
67
Ordinance of 1787. Liquor and Gaming Laws 74
MILITARY HISTORY, 1790 TO 1800. 75 Expeditions of Harmar, Scott and Wil- kinson. .. Expeditions of St. Clair and Wayne .... Wayne's Great Victory 75 78 79 82
TERRITORIAL HISTORY
Organization of Indiana Territory .. 82
First Territorial Legialature. 84 8
The Western Sun ..
Indiana in 1810 81
GOVERNOR HARRISON AND THE INDIANS ....
87
92
Battle of Tippecanoe 98 WAR OF 1812 101
Expedition against the Indians 103
Close of the War. 108 TECUMSEH. 111
CIVIL MATTERS 1812-'5 116
118 Population in 1815.
General Vie v .. 118
ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE 121
BLACK HAWK WAR 123
LAST EXODUS OF INDIANS. 131
INDIAN TITLES ... 132
LAND SALES 133
134
HARMONY COMMUNITY. PIONEER LIFE 136
The Log Cabin .. 136
Sleeping Accommodations 138
Cooking. 141
Women's Work 142
Dress and Manners. 143
Family Worship 145
Hospitality 147
Trade. 148
Money 148
Milling. 150
Agrlenitural Implements. 150
Hog-Killing. 151 Prairle Fires 152
Wild Hogs 156
Native Animals 157
Wolf Hunta. 157 Of U. S. Senstore. 316
Bee-Hunting.
158
THE SUPREMACIES
319
Snakes.
158
Shakes
159
Education 160
"Past the Picturee." 164
Spelling-School. 165
Singing-School 167
Indians . 31
Manners aud Custome. 3-1
EXPLORATIONS BY THE WHITES. 87 Earliest Explorers 37 Ousbache 39 Vincennes 89 41
NATIONAL POLICIES
The Great French Scheme. Pontiac's War
41 46 46
American Policy
46
Iodian Savagery.
EXPEDITIONS OF COL. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.
52
Lincoln did not seek the Presidency Statee Seceding
198 199 200
The Fall of Sumter.
A Vast Army Raised in 11 Days. 201
Sherman's March to the Sea .. 202
Character of Abraham Lincoln. 202
The War Ended-The Union Restored .. 204
The Morgan-Raid Regiments .. 227
Six Months' Regiments. 229
The 100-Daya' Volm teers 233
294 The President's Call of July, 1864 .. Dec., 231
Independent Cavalry Company of Indi- ana Volunteers 23.9
Our Colored Troopa 239
Batteries of Light Artillery. 239
After the War 246 250
DIVORCE LAWS
FINANCIAL.
251
State Bank,
253
Wealth and Progress. 254
Internal Improvements. 256 GEOLOGY 262 COAL. 264
AGRICULTURE.
266
State Board of Agriculture.
266
The Exposition.
267
269
270
EDUCATION
272
Public Schools
272 279
Indiana State University.
281
Indilos State Normal School. 285
Normal School, etc., at Valparaiso. 286
Denominational and Private Institutions 287
BENEVOLENT AND PENAL INSTI- TUTIONS 291
Institute for the Education of the Blind 291 Institute for the Deaf and Dumb., 293
Hospital for the Inesne. 295
296
66 North 297
Female Prison and Reformatory. 298 Indians House of Reinge. 300 STATE CAPITOL .. 301
STATE OFFICERS.
302
U. S. SENATORS FROM INDIANA. 306 REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. 307 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: Of Governors 310
STATES OF THE UNION
319
British Policy.
47
Harrison's Campaign
Indians Hor.icoltnral Society. " Pomological 66
Purdue University ...
The State Prison South.
CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
CHAPTER I.
First White Men in the County. 331
Original Inhabitants. 333
Area of the County 336
Topography ..
337
The Watershed
337
Rivers of St. Joseph County 338
First Entries of Land. 338
First Road
339
CHAPTER II.
NATURAL HISTORY 340
Quadrupeds 340
Birds
340
Reptiles.
344
Fish.
344
Botany
315
CHAPTER III.
Organization of St. Joseph County. 358
Acts of the Board of Justices. 359
Acts of the Board of County Com'rs. 361
CHAPTER IV.
PIONEER LIFE
370
CHAPTER V.
Circuit Court. 374
Common Pleas Court. 377
Probate Court .. 378
The Bar.
378
The Present Bar.
380
St. Joseph Bar Association. 381
The Bar in a New Role 386
CHAPTER VI.
Northern Indiana Medical Society 389 St. Joseph County Medical Society. 390
St. Josephi Valley Medical Society 395
Diseases of the St. Joseph Valley .... 397
CHAPTER VII.
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY IN THE WAR ... 408
9th Infantry 414
15th 417
29th
419
48th
422
73₫ 66 426
87th 6.
430
128th 66 433
138th 66
437
155th
438
12th Cavalry. 439
21st Battery
442
Roll of Honor 411
Officers: ... 414
Non-Commis'n'd Officers and Privates 445
The First Martyr. 448
Black Hawk War. 449
CHAPTER VIII.
Railroads .. 454
Terrible Railroad Accident. 459
The Telegraph 460
Ferries.
460
CHAPTER IX.
BIOGRAPHICAL:
Alexis Coquillard. 462
Hon. Mark Whinery 467
Hon. Wm. Miller. 46S
Dr. Louis Humphreys. 470
Jacob Harris.
473
Solomon W. Palmer. 473
Col. Norman Eddy. 477
Mrs. Hannah D. Matthews. 479 Father Laurence. 481
Rev. Augustus Lemonnier 482
Rev. N. H. Gillespie 483
Prof. Benj. Wilcox 484
Elder C. Wenger. 486
Judge Powers Greene 456
487
Jolın Mack. 488
Ariel E. Drapier. 490
Geo. W. Matthews. 492
Col. Alfred B. Wade 493
Horatio Chapin. 495
Samuel Byerly 496
Elisha Egbert. 498
Dwight Deming. 500
John A. Henricks. 502
Mrs. Frances C. Coquillard. 503
John M. Stover. 504
John T. Lindsey. 504
Isaac Eaton. 505
Judge Johnson.
Charles M. Tutt. 506
Archibald Defrees. 506
J. G. Bartlett 507
James A. Ireland 507
Henry Stull. 507 -
CHAPTER X.
REMINISCENCES :
By Judge Stanfield 509
By Dr. Jacob Hardman. 512
By Thomas P. Bulla 514
By Dr. E. W. H. Ellis. 517
By John D. Defrees. 519
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:
Rev. P. Dillon 523
Rev. Wm. Corby. 524
Very Rev. Alexis Granger. 524
Rev. Francis Cointet. 525
Rev. Richard Shortis. 526
Rev. N. H. Gillespie. 526
Rev. James Dillon 626
Prof. J. A. Lyons 527
Rev. Michael B. Brown
527
Rev. D. J. Spillard.
528
Prof. Michael A. J. Baasen
529
Prof. Michael T. Corby. 529
Prof. Wm. Ivers .. 529
Rev. Joseph C. Carrier 530
Lucius G. Tong 530
Rev. J. A. Zahm 531
Mrs. Flora L. Stanfield 631 Prof. T. E. Howard. 532
Daniel Kotz. 632
Prof. Luigi Gregori 632
Alfred Bryant Miller ..
532
E. Burke Fisher 532
CHAPTER XI.
Public Buildings. 534
Navigation of the St. Joseph River. 535
Marriages Licenses 536 A Counterfeiting Reminiscence. 536
Still-Born Villages. 537
Flood
539
Gold-Hunters
540
Map and Atlas of the County
543
CHAPTER XII.
POLITICAL HISTORY.
514
Election Returns.
555
CHAPTER XIII.
AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY
561
Agricultral Societies
561
505
John Studebaker ..
CONTENTS.
Products.
666
Taxahle property etc .. 567
County Expenditures. 567
Census. . .
568
Aged Persons ..
568
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PRESS.
571
CHAPTER XV.
COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY. 580
County Total Abstinence Society 580
What a Pint of Whisky Cost. 582
The Temperance Crusade 582
Red-Ribbon Movement. 585
CHAPTER XVI.
DARK DEEDS 586
ST. JO. RIVER AND ITS VICTIMS:
Four Young People Drowned. 592
Mysterious Disappearance of Henry F. Porter. 592
Henry Sherman ..
593
Found a Watery Grave.
594
Katy Fleck's Tragic Death. 594
Mysterious Disappearance of J. C. Mar- vin. 595
Death in the River. 696
Drowning of Jacob Bauer. 597
Strange Disappearance.
597
John Schuman. 598
Whisky Did It.
598
Another Victim 599
CHAPTER XVII.
County Historical Society 601 The First Brick House in South Bend ... 603
Pioneer Meetings.
608
CHAPTER XVIII. SOUTH BEND FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE .. 618 CHAPTER XIX.
University of Notre Dame. 627 St. Mary's Academy 634 Northern Indiana College 636
CHAPTER XX.
AUTHORS AND SELECTIONS.
Mrs. Flora L. Stanfield. 638
Miss Eleanor J. Wilson 642
Prof. T. E. Howard. 614
Alfred Bryant Miller 618
E. Burke Fisher.
651
CHAPTER XXI.
Public Schools 656
County Examiners and Supts. 658
County Seminary 659
Congressional Representation 660 State Senators and Representatives 661
County Officers. 662
A Retrospect .. 664
St. Joseph County of To-Day 666
TOWNSHIP HISTORIES:
Centre 66S
Clay. 676
German 682
Greene. 696
Harris. 713
Liberty. 718 -
Lincoln. 733
Madison 751
Oilve. 764
Penn.
788
Portage
813
Union.
950
Warren
965
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Scene on the Ohio River .. 25
Hieroglyphics of the Mound Builders
La Salle Landing at the Mouth of the St. Joseph's River ..
43
Gen. George Rogers Clark. 53
Gen. Arthur St. Clair. 89
Tecumseh ... 109
Indians Attacking Frontiersmen, 123
A Pioneer Dwelling. 139
Hunting Prairie Wolves. 153
Trapping. 169
Pontiac. 183
The Shawnee Prophet. 195
Lincoln Monument at Springfield. 201
Opening an Indiana Forest .. 235
View on the Wabash River. 947
Surrender of Indians to Wilkinson 289
Court-House. 329
Jail. 541
Notre Dame University 721
PORTRAITS.
Colfax, Schuyler 475
Coquillard, Alex. Frontispiece
Coquillard, A. T. 703
Coquillard, A .. 739
Ham, L. J ... 757
Holloway, W. J. 917
Howard, T. E .. 847
Knoblock, J. C .. 865
Longley, W. H .. 811
Lederer, John N. 883 Corby, Wm .. 793
Miller, Wm .... 829
Partridge, J. M., A. M., M. D. 935
Sorin, E. 775
1
10
12
15
TERRE COUPEE
25
22
GER
30
29
28
27
30
29
PLAINFIELD
NEW CARUSLEL
WARREN 34 LE 36
31
(
L
LAKE Centre
SHOP
4
.3
2
8
10
15
18 P
GRAND TRUNK
24
10
CHICAGO
30
GRUMS POINT
Runkakee
5
3
(
7
9
16
15
14
19
20
21
24
20
Hc
25
30
24
27
26
25
30
29
NORTH LIBERTY
.36
B
6
5
3
/2
10
7
10
C
LŃ
WALKERTON
S
26
25
35
36
17
16
15
22
24
20
ITERREOCOUPEE SIMA KCAL
E 5
13
25
30
.39.
Sumption, Frairie PO.
22
10
10
20
19
20
R
I
S
T38 N.
Notre Dique I ..
St .Mary
93
36 100
34
35M
31
92
CITYOF 2
6
2
6
SOUTH BEND
MISHAWAKA
OSCEOLA
17
T37N.
25
30
29
28
27
25
30
2.9
3/
92
5,5
3.5
36
32
.93
6
5
4
Tim
TRE
18
17
16
14
13
WOODLAND
PANE
23
24
25
25
24
20
T36N.
26
25
50
29
26
25
30
29
24
0
I 35
O 36
N
35 GA
36
31
32
LAKEVILLE
Proposed
Vazada
Southern
R
R.
6
5
4
Creek
10
12
20
4
13
18
14
15
10
SEPH
NTY,
0
24
19
20
Han. 22
25
24
19
20
P
1
14
27.00
30
29
28
Notre Dame
14
10
.3
5
7
ADY
6
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
FORMER OCCUPANTS.
PREHISTORIC 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 its continuity may be denied with every just reason, there is nothing to prevent the transmission of a hieroglyphic 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 effceted 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 doubtless at that time stretched far beyond its present limits, and presented a continuons 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, evidently 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 numcrous 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 Therapntæ or monks of the present. Every memento of their coming and their stay which has descended to us is an evi- dence of their eivilized 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 eivilized, 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 relies 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 distriets, 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 twelve 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 cretaceous period, when the Dinosaur roamned 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 eypress 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 Mound 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.
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 South commingled with their countrymen, soon acquiring the characteristics of the descendants of the first colonists. Chinese chronicles tell of such a people, who went North and were never heard of more. Circnm- 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, mnst 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-
21
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
boldt have traced the Mexicans to the vicinity of Behring's Straits; whence it is conjectured that they, as well as the Peruvians and other tribes, came originally from Asia, and were the Hiongnoos, who are, in the Chinese annals, said to have emigrated under Puno, and to have been lost in the North of Siberia."
Since this theory is accepted by most antiquaries, there is every reason to believe that from the discovery of what may be called an overland route to what was then considered an eastern extension of that country which is now known as the " Celestial Empire," many caravans of emigrants passed to their new homes in the land of illimitable possibilities until the way became a well-marked trail over which the Asiatic might travel forward, and having once entered the Elysian fields never entertained an idea of returning. Thus from generation to generation the tide of immigration poured in until the slopes of the Pacific and the banks of the great inland rivers became hives of busy industry. Magnificent cities and monuments were raised at the bidding of the tribal leaders and populous settlements centered with happy villages sprung up everywhere in manifestation of the power and wealth and knowl- edge of the people. The colonizing Caucasian of the historic period walked over this great country on the very ruins of a civil- ization which a thousand years before eclipsed all that of which he could boast. He walked through the wilderness of the West over buried treasures hidden under the accumulated growth of nature, nor rested until he saw, with great surprise, the remains of ancient pyramids and temples and cities, larger and evidently more beanti- ful than ancient Egypt could bring forth after its long years of uninterrupted history. The pyramids resemble those of Egypt in exterior form, and in some instances are of larger dimensions. The pyramid of Cholula is square, having each side of its base 1,335 feet in length, and its height about 172 feet. Another pyramid, situated in the north of Vera Cruz, is formed of large blocks of highly-polished porphyry, and bears upon its front hiero- glyphic inscriptions and curions sculpture. Each side of its square base is 82 feet in length, and a flight of 57 steps conducts to its summit, which is 65 feet in height. The ruins of Palenque are said to extend 20 miles along the ridge of a mountain, and the remains of an Aztec city, near the banks of the river Gila, are spread over more than a square league. Their literature consisted of hieroglyphics; but their arithmetical knowledge did not extend farther than their calculations by the aid of grains of corn. Yet,
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.