USA > Indiana > A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 > Part 17
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The next Captain Taylor heard of them was when he was awakened at eleven o'clock that night by the report of a sentinel's rifle. The captain rushed out of his quarters to find that the Indians had fired the blockhouse at the lower
9 Blanchard. Discovery and Conquest of the Northwest, 289; Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field. Book of War of 1812. 315: Historical Regis- ter, II, ch. 3, No. 2; Wallace A. Bryce, History of Fort Wayne; Mann Butler, History of Kentucky.
10 Charles Martindale, Publications of Indiana Historical Society, II ; Dillon, History of Indiana, 492; Good accounts are in Western Sun, Sep- tember 26 and October 6. 1812. Lossing, Field Book of War of 1812, 314; John Ketcham, Reminiscenses ; John C. Lazenby, in Indiana Maga- zine of History, X, 263.
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corner of the fort. Of the fifty men in the garrison over half, including Captain Taylor himself, were on the sick list. By the time Taylor had paraded his troops the block- house, where all the supplies except the powder were kept, was burning rapidly, and the Indians were pressing the at- tack. The prospect looked gloomy. Some of the soldiers who responded were too weak to stand up. Two of the ablest jumped over the palisade and attempted to escape. Nothing saved the fort from destruction but the spirit of the captain. The blockhouse burned, but the barracks were saved by heroic efforts. The gap in the wall was only twenty feet and no Indian dared enter it. The troops were properly placed, order was restored, men repaired the fort where the fire had damaged it, and by daylight the Indians were repulsed.
The Indians merely drew back to the cover of the woods. It was necessary to get word to Vincennes. At length after several failures a messenger, on a dark night, succeeded in passing the Indian lines and reaching Vincennes. Col. Wil- liam Russell, who was collecting an army to make an attack on the upper Wabash towns, pushed on up the valley after receiving Taylor's letter, and soon relieved the fort. Cap- tain Taylor had lost six men, three killed and three wound- ed. Of the two cowards who attempted to run away, one ran directly into the hands of the Indians, by whom he was killed; the other was driven back to the walls of the fort by the Indians, and sneaked inside after they were re- pulsed.11
General Harrison reached Fort Wayne September 12, 1812, with over 2,000 men. Disappointed in not meeting the Indians in battle, he determined to punish the tribes- men at once. After resting his men a few days he divided them into several battalions. One of these, under Colonel Simrall, was sent to destroy the town of Little Turtle on Eel river. Col. Samuel Wells led another division against the town of Chief Five Medals of the Pottawattomies on
11 Niles' Register, III, 90; this gives Taylor's official report. Loss- ing, Field Book of War of 1812, 317; Historical Register, II, ch. 3, No. 8.
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the Elkhart. Colonel Payne led still another division down to the forks of the Wabash to destroy the Miami towns in that neighborhood. All these towns were deserted by the Indians.
Years of peace had taught the Indians many of the simpler arts of civilization. Large fields of growing corn surrounded the villages. Log huts had largely taken the places of the earlier wigwams. Everything nevertheless was included in the vengeance of the invaders except the house of Little Turtle, built for him by the government at his village on Eel river. That aged chief had passed away July 21, 1812, and had been buried with military honors by the garrison at Fort Wayne. A worse blow than the destruction of their towns could not have been inflicted on the savages. During the approaching winter there was nothing for them to do but go to Malden and beg from the British.
Harrison left his army under command of Gen. James Winchester while he hastened over to Piqua to organize forces for the recovery of Detroit. Winchester soon moved down the Maumee and the scene of war drifted over into Ohio.12
The urgent message of Captain Taylor, as noted above, brought Col. William Russell posthaste from Vincennes with 1,200 men. Russell reached Fort Harrison with his army September 16, without having seen the enemy, but his provision train, together with an escort of eleven men, fell into the hands of the savages. A regiment of Ken- tucky volunteers under Colonel Wilcox remained at Fort Harrison. Russell with the remainder hastened back to Vincennes, as he had been on his way to join Governor Ninian Edwards of Illinois in an attack on the Kickapoo Indians on Peoria Lake.
Meanwhile Kentucky volunteers kept arriving at Vin- cennes and joining Gen. Samuel Hopkins until that com- mander found himself in charge of a well-equipped army of 4,000 men, 2,000 of whom were expert riflemen well mounted. On October 10, he left Vincennes with the
12 Historical Register, II, ch. 3, No. 11.
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mounted riflemen on an expedition against the Illinois tribes on the Illinois river. In four days he reached Fort Harrison, crossed the Wabash, and camped on the edge of the great prairie. On October 20, after meeting a prairie fire which did no damage, the army refused to march further. The general called for 500 volunteers to go on with him, but no one responded. The infamous rabble then came back to Vincennes and was dismissed from the service.
As mentioned above, Colonel Russell was to join the governor of Illinois and cooperate with Hopkins in an at- tack. Russell with two companies of United States regu- lars left Vincennes October 11, 1812, and, joining Gov- ernor Edwards, fell on the principal Kickapoo town at the head of Peoria Lake, inflicting a severe defeat on the Indians. More than a score of warriors were killed.
After returning to Vincennes and dismissing his muti- nous troops, General Hopkins organized an expedition of 1,200 infantry, with which he set out up the Wabash for the purpose of destroying the Prophetstown. His three regiments were commanded by Colonels Barbour, Miller, and Wilcox, while Captain Taylor led the regulars. On November 11 he left Fort Harrison by the road Governor Harrison had made the previous year. The expedition con- tinued up the east side of the Wabash and reached the Prophetstown November 19. Butler was sent from there with 300 men to destroy a Winnebago town near the mouth of Wildcat creek. The Prophetstown and a large Kickapoo village of 160 huts, a short distance down the river, to- gether with a large amount of provisions stored in the three towns, were destroyed.
No Indians were met until two days later when a small force of soldiers were attacked and one man killed. On the next morning a party of sixty horsemen were ambushed on Wild Cat creek and eighteen killed. The Indian camp was broken up, but, the weather suddenly turning bitter cold, the army returned hastily to Vincennes.13
Driven from their home towns, the Miamis, now nearly all in the service of the British, had gathered in the Mis-
13 Hopkins' Reports are given in Niles' Register, III. 171, 190 and 204.
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sissinewa towns. There they had been joined by the Dela- wares and the Munsees from White river. They were in threatening distance of the settlements both in Indiana and Ohio. For this reason General Harrison, then at Frank- linton, Ohio, decided to destroy them. A strong column was accordingly made up of Colonel Simrall's Kentucky dragoons, some United States dragoons under Maj. James V. Ball, a corps of United States regulars, and some Penn- sylvania riflemen. The force numbered about 600 men.
On November 25, 1812, Col. John B. Campbell, who com- manded the expedition, left camp for the attack on the Mississinewa towns. His route led by Springfield, Xenia, Dayton, Eaton, and Greenville. At Dayton he was delayed till December 14, by the lack of horses. Winter had set in and the frozen ground was covered with a mantle of snow. By forced marches he covered the remaining eighty miles in three days.
In the early morning light of December 17, the troops attacked an Indian town, killed eight warriors, took forty prisoners, and burned the town. Leaving the prisoners in charge of the infantry, the horsemen pushed on down the river and destroyed three villages, among them that of the Munsee chief, Silver Heels, with their winter stores, in- cluding quite a number of cattle and horses. That night they returned to the infantry and went into camp. This camp was on the north bank of the Mississinewa river, near the mouth of Metociniah creek, about a mile from the pres- ent village of Jalapa, in Grant county. The troops camped in the form of a square, the angles protected by light forti- fications.
Here about five o'clock the next morning they were furi- ously attacked by a force of about 300 Indians who had crept up under cover of a rocky bluff on the north bank of the river. For over an hour a bloody battle raged at close quarters. The onslaught was desperate and it was met bravely. Captain Pierce, who commanded the guard, was tomahawked as he stubbornly contested the battle. With the coming of daylight the fire of the riflemen put the Indians to rout, but not until they had killed eight
(14)
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and wounded forty-two white men. Fifteen Indians were found dead on the field. The expedition made its way slowly back to headquarters at Franklinton, and the fight- ing in Indiana was over for the year.14
§ 37 LIFE ON THE FRONTIER
EVERY possible precaution was taken by the territorial and national governments to protect the Indiana frontier during the year 1813. Three plans were adopted to insure the safety of the settlers.
First-Enough blockhouses were constructed so that each farmer could leave his family in one. This necessi- tated one in every settlement. Within the present limits of Knox, Daviess, Martin, Orange, Jackson, Bartholomew, Jennings, Ripley, Franklin, Decatur, and Wayne counties most of these forts were located, although some were lo- cated farther from the border in Gibson, Pike, Clark, and Washington counties.
Second-The militia were organized carefully and some of them kept on duty all the time. The reports show that Indiana had 4,160 men enrolled. Added to these were large numbers of Kentuckians who volunteered for duty in Indiana. While the militia were not under very strict discipline they did much hard service, usually furnishing their own arms and provisions. There were five or six regiments. Sixteen companies were called into active service.
Third-The United States employed from one to five companies of rangers-militia sworn into United States service. At first a single company was organized to guard the country around Vincennes. On November 23, 1812, Jonathan Jennings, the Indiana delegate, offered a resolu- tion in Congress giving the President power to organize two more companies. Reports were coming in daily show- ing that raids were being committed by the Indians along
14 Lossing, Field Book of the War of 1812, 347; Niles' Register, III, 300; Sarah J. Line, in Indiana Magazine of History, IX, 187; Camp- bell's Report to Harrison is in the State Papers, 152, and Historical Register, II, 40.
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a border of 200 miles in Indiana. By act of February 25, 1813, the President was given authority to raise ten addi- tional companies. Acting under this law, the President au- thorized Acting Governor Gibson to organize four new com- panies of rangers. Each company consisted of about 100 men commanded by a captain.
No attacks in force were made by the Indians in Indiana during the latter years of the war. During the early months of 1813 they kept the border in terror by a series of petty raids. Scouting parties penetrated deep into the settle- ments to steal and murder. A man was killed on the Wa- bash below the mouth of White river; a week later two men were killed just below Vincennes on the Illinois side. Ten days later, March 13, two men were killed ten miles from Brookville in Franklin county. On the same day three men were killed in Wayne county. Five days later one man was killed and three wounded near Vallonia, in Bartholomew county. On March 28, a party of men in boats were at- tacked below Fort Harrison, two of whom were killed and six wounded. On April 16, two men were killed eight miles west of Vallonia.15
Such outrages as those just mentioned naturally called for vigorous effort on the part of the rangers. The In- dians found the swamps and dense forests of Driftwood a complete mask to their depredations. They would slip into a neighborhood, kill a farmer, preferably at daybreak when he came out to feed his stock, gather up the horses on the place, and disappear into the impenetrable thickets of Drift- wood before the rangers could get on the trail.
At first the rangers tried to patrol the whole frontier, but this was soon found useless. Next, small companies were stationed at advantageous places with orders to pur- sue any savages that made their appearance.
As stated above, a man was killed near Vallonia March 18. Maj. John Tipton, the most skillful of the rangers,
15 The best accounts of these outrages are given in Niles' Register, and the Western Sun. These were contemporary papers; for other accounts see John Ketcham's Autobiography; writings of John Tipton ; letters printed in Cockrum's Pioncer History of Indiana; and various county histories.
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with twenty-nine men took up the trail of the savages. Twenty-five miles up Driftwood he found them camped on an Island. Several of the Indians were killed, the rest escaping by swimming the river. On April 16, the same captain with thirty-one men took the trail of a band of Indians who had murdered two men west of Vallonia. Swimming five streams, wading for miles in swamps waist deep, in almost continuous rain, he followed them three days before he overtook them. He intended to surprise them in their camp that night, but following too closely, they came upon an Indian who had stopped to fix his pack. Warned by the shot, the Indian's companions abandoned their horses and fled, following the high hills bordering Salt creek toward the Delaware towns on White river.
These and other evidences led the people to believe that the Delaware Indians on upper White river were doing the mischief on the border. For the purpose of destroying these towns Col. Joseph Bartholomew, commander-in-chief of the militia, mustered an expedition of 137 men at Val- lonia in June, 1813. There were three companies of rangers under Captains Williamson Dunn, James Bigger, and C. Peyton, John Tipton and David Owen acting as guides.16
They left Vallonia June 11, and in four days reached the Delaware towns 100 miles distant. The towns were already deserted and most of them burned. Twelve miles lower down, another town was found with a plentiful sup- ply of corn. A small party of Indians on their way to this town after corn was attacked and one of them killed. It was thought that the Indians were using these towns as a half-way place in their attacks on the settlements. Every- thing was destroyed and the expedition returned home, ar- riving June 21.
With a view to further punishment of the Indians, Col. William Russell of the Seventh United States regulars, and commander of the department, gathered another force at Vallonia as soon as Bartholomew had returned, to strike
16 The roster of these companies is given in John Ketcham's Auto- biography.
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the towns on the lower Mississinewa. He left camp at Vallonia July 1, with 573 men and marched by way of the Delaware towns to the Mississinewa. He found these towns all deserted. It seems no Indians had been there since early spring. From there, Russell marched to the Eel River village, thence to Winnamac, Prophetstown, the Winnebago town on Wild Cat creek, and thence to Fort Harrison. Not an Indian was seen. Small parties left the main force at the Prophetstown and crossed over to the settlements on the Ohio river, but no trace of savages could be found. All the old Indian fighters of Indiana and Ken- tucky, among them Maj. Zachary Taylor, joined Russell in the invasion. It showed beyond a doubt that the Indian power in Indiana was broken.17
Aftr the Indians had been defeated at Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison, especially after the bloody disaster on the Mississinewa, the discouraged warriors began to withdraw out of harm's way. The Miamis and Delawares, who had avowed friendship for the white people, moved over into Ohio under the immediate protection of the American army. The Shawnees, together with those Miamis who had joined them, under the Prophet returned to Detroit and placed themselves under the protection of the British.
The British were forced to evacuate Detroit in Septem- ber, 1813. A few days later they were annihilated at the Battle of the Thames. Tecumseh was killed. There was no choice left for the Indians but to make the best possible terms of peace with their enemies, the Americans. Otta- was, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, Kickapoos, and Miamis came to Detroit and asked that the war cease. Their con- dition was pitiable. The women and children were naked and starving. They hardly dared go on hunting trips for fear of the American rangers, who took no prisoners. The haughty warriors, who a year before had met in high spir-
17 Dillon, History of Indiana, 520, seq. An Autobiography, by John Ketcham, gives an excellent picture of conditions around Vallonia. The muster rolls of the ranger companies are given, those of James Bigger and Williamson Dunn entire. An excellent contemporary ac- count of the War of 1812 is a History of the Late War, by an American, Baltimore, 1816.
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its and plotted to drive the Americans across the Ohio, were now compelled to beg bread at the hands of their con- querors.
An armistice was agreed to between Major General Harrison and the assembled tribes at Detroit October 14, 1813. Over 3,000 Indians at Detroit and 1,500 at Fort Wayne had to be fed by the government during the follow- ing winter. The women and children were provided with clothing and shelter and the warriors with guns and ammu- nition that they might again engage in the chase.
On July 8, 1814, General Harrison and Gen. Lewis Cass met the tribes at Greenville and explained to them the terms of a new treaty. This treaty, the Second Treaty of Greenville, did not materially change the relation between the whites and savages.
The war was extremely disastrous to the red men. It left them a hopeless, sullen, broken people. Had it not been for the interference of the English they could have been spared the humiliation. The English drew the storm down upon them and then gave them no aid. From the fall of Detroit to the defeat on the Thames the British troops did none of the fighting. The conduct of the Eng- lish was as cowardly as it was disastrous to the Indians. The latter had made considerable progress in civilized life before the war, but this was all destroyed. What was worse, the pioneers lost all respect for them, and began a systematic effort to drive them from the border.
CHAPTER IX
FROM TERRITORY TO STATE
§ 38 NEW SETTLEMENTS
THE year 1800 found very few settlers in what is now Indiana. The Treaty of Greenville in 1795 had established the boundary line between the land of the United States and that set apart for the northwestern Indians and had given to the Indians all lands within the State except a small tract six miles square where Fort Wayne now stands; a tract two miles square on the Wabash, where the portage path from Fort Wayne struck the river; a tract six miles square on the Wabash river at Ouiatanon; 149,000 acres at the Falls of the Ohio, known as Clark's Grant; the land around Vincennes, and a strip of land lying east of the line drawn from Fort Recovery down to the Ohio river oppo- site the mouth of the Kentucky.
Almost all of the white inhabitants lived under the pro- tection of the stockade at the post of Vincennes. What farming there was, was done in the immediate neighbor- hood of that post. Few Americans had settled at Vin- cennes thus early. On the north side of the Ohio river, at the Falls, there were a few settlers on Clark's Grant. This tract, embracing 149,000 acres, had been conveyed by the General Assembly of Virginia in 1786 to General Clark and his soldiers as payment for their services in cap- turing Vincennes and Kaskaskia.
The townsite of Clarksville had been laid out in 1783. Emigrants began to arrive soon afterwards. The village of Springville with its stockade, Fort Steuben, and its com- pany of soldiers, was most attractive to these new settlers. This village became the county seat of Clark county, and remained so until 1802, when Jeffersonville was founded
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and made the county seat. It is said that this latter city was planned by Thomas Jefferson. Only alternate squares were to be used for building sites, the others being reserved as parks and city gardens.
Among the distinguished citizens of this early settle- ment were the first governor, Jonathan Jennings, a New Jersey Presbyterian, Gen. John Carr of Pennsylvania, who served with distinction in the Battle of Tippecanoe and in the War of 1812, and Judge Charles Dewey of Massachu- setts, a leading lawyer and lawmaker in the early history of the State.
Another settlement that dates back into the eighteenth century was in Dearborn county. This settlement was in and around where Aurora now stands, and the Morrisons, Gards, Gerald, Hardins, and Grays were among the early settlers. A mill was built here in 1800. The Baptist church was organized in 1807. Lawrenceburg, the county seat, was laid out in 1802 by Samuel Vance, James Hamil- ton, and Benjamin Chambers, all of whom had seen service in the Revolution.
Switzerland county was also inhabited at this time, a settlement having been made in 1795 by Heathcote Pickett and family near Plum creek, about three miles above Vevay. This family was joined during the next two or three years by the Dickinson, Cotton, and Gullion families, who settled on the lowlands along the river. During the year 1796 there came to this neighborhood John and James Dufour from Canton Vaud, Switzerland. They were looking for a location for a colonization society, and made the selection of this land between Indian and Plum creeks, purchasing from Congress 2,560 acres. The company did not reach the new home until 1803. These Swiss reestablished their old Vevay of Switzerland in the new Vevay in Switzerland county, Indiana.
All told, the settlers in the four counties did not exceed 1,000 persons. Besides these there were numerous hunt- ers, trappers, and squatters along the western, southwest- ern and southern borders. About these there is an end- less amount of tradition in the border counties, and many
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of the traditions have been preserved in the county his- tories.
It is impossible in discussing the early settlements of any of the western States to do more than indicate the main lines of immigration. The movement was like the skirmish line of a great army searching out every nook and corner of the new country. The pioneers advanced along all pos- sible lines of travel and located in the most unexpected places. Many of their actions are unexplainable to us after the lapse of a century. The prevalence of game and pure water was an attraction that led many of them. Others kept to the highland to avoid the fevers and the ague. Some sought the timber-land; others for exactly opposite rea- sons sought the prairies. No single explanation will fit many cases.
It is impossible to get an adequate description of the migration. The progress, however, was not different from that of the settlement of the other early western States. An impartial history would compel us to tell the story of every individual settler, since there is little reason why one settler or one settlement was more significant than another. There was no waiting for Indians to become quiet, no wait- ing for roads to be built, no waiting until the government had built stockades, or sent troops to furnish adequate pro- tection. As game became scarce in the woods of Kentucky and Ohio, the hunters crossed into Indiana. When they found suitable locations, they became squatters. When the land office opened in the neighborhood, they became settlers, and when a few more joined them, a government was or- ganized and they became citizens. Thus in 1800, Woolsey Pride settled at White Oak Springs, Pike county. The fol- lowing year he was joined by the Mileys, Conrads, Tislows, Smiths, and Alexanders. By 1811 a good sized community had been formed and a stockade fort was erected on the present site of Petersburg.
As early as 1800, white men crossed over into Harrison county from Brandenburg for purposes of hunting and farming. In 1802 Squire Boone, brother of Daniel and Mose Boone, settled in Grassy Valley, back six miles from
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