USA > Indiana > Sullivan County > A history of Sullivan County, Indiana, closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth, Volume I > Part 26
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The boundaries of the state of Indiana, as fixed by the enabling act
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of congress, approved April 19, 1816, and as agreed to by an ordinance passed by the constitutional convention, at Corydon, June 29, 1816, are as follows: On the east, "the meridian line which forms the western bound- ary of the state of Ohio"; on the south, "the river Ohio, from the mouth of the great Miami river to the mouth of the river Wabash"; on the west, "a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash, from its mouth to a point where a due north line drawn from the town of Vincennes would last touch the northwestern shore of the said river; and from thence, by a due north line, until the same shall intersect an east and west line drawn through a point ten miles north of the southern extreme of Lake Michi- gan"; and on the north, "the said east and west line, until the same shall intersect the first mentioned meridian line, which forms the western boundary of the state of Ohio." It was provided in the enabling act of congress that if the constitutional convention of Indiana should fail to ratify these boundaries, then the boundaries of the state should be as fixed in the ordinance of 1787.
It would seem that the boundaries as fixed by the enabling act of congress, and as agreed to by the constitutional convention of the state, were so definite that no dispute could arise concerning them; yet each of the boundaries, except that between Indiana and Illinois, has been the subject of contention. The western boundary is exactly that fixed in the ordinance of 1787; and also that fixed by the act of congress, approved February 3, 1809, setting off the territory of Illinois from that of Indiana ; except that the ordinance of 1787 fixes simply the "Wabash river," from its mouth to Vincennes, as part of the boundary ; and the act setting off Illi- nois territory defines that territory to be "all that part of the Indiana terri- tory which lies west of the Wabash river," and the direct line north from Vincennes. The wording of the ordinance of 1787, "the Wabash river," would doubtless be interpreted to mean the middle line of that river ;
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and the line is so defined in the enabling act providing for the admis- sion of Indiana as a state. In the act setting off the territory of Illinois, however, it might be contended that as Illinois "lies west of the Wabash river," the boundary must be the west margin of that river. No such con- tention has ever been made by the state of Indiana. Yet such a conclusion has been reached as to the southern boundary of the state. The enabling act provided, as we have seen, that the state should be bounded on the south "by the river Ohio"; and this would seem to mean the middle line of the river. The ordinance of 1787 also provided that "the middle state," that is, Indiana, should be bounded on the south "by the Ohio." The plain interpretation here also would seem to be that the middle line, or thread of the stream, should form the southern boundary of the state. But the words have not been so interpreted. In the act of cession by the legisla- ture of Virginia, passed December 20, 1783, and in the deed of cession, made March 1, 1784, the territory ceded to the United States is described as "being to the northwest of the river Ohio." The territory on both sides of the Ohio, and the river itself, were at the time a part of Virginia ; and the contention was early made by Kentucky, as succeeding to the rights of Virginia, that no part of the river was included in the northwest territory, and consequently that no part of it could pass by the deed of cession. The ordinance of 1787 itself was "for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio." The claim of Kentucky has been sustained by the courts; and the southern boundary of Indiana is the low water mark on the northwest bank of the Ohio river, as the same existed when the boundary was fixed. As the river has since receded to the south in some places, we have the anomaly that parts of the state of Kentucky are at present located on the Indiana side of the river.
The rights of Indiana, however, as to the use and navigation of the Ohio, and also as to civil and criminal jurisdiction on the river, have been
ยท
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made secure. By section seven of an act concerning the erection of the district of Kentucky into an independent state, passed by the common- wealth of Virginia, December 18, 1789, it was provided, "that the use and navigation of the river Ohio, so far as the territory of the proposed state of [Kentucky], or the territory which shall remain within the limits of this commonwealth lies therein, shall be free and common to the citi- zens of the United States; and the respective jurisdictions of this com- monwealth, and of the proposed.state, on the river as aforesaid, shall be concurrent only with the states which may possess the opposite shores of the said river." The framers of the constitution of 1816 seemed satisfied simply to declare the boundaries of the state; but the framers of the con- stitution of 1851, while repeating this declaration, took pains to add, in accordance with the act of the commonwealth of Virginia, that "the state of Indiana shall possess jurisdiction and sovereignty co-extensive with the boundaries declared in the preceding section ; and shall have concur- rent jurisdiction, in civil and criminal cases, with the state of Kentucky, on the Ohio river, and with the state of Illinois, on the Wabash river, so far as said rivers form the common boundary between this state and said states respectively."
The enabling act defines the eastern boundary of Indiana to be "the . meridian line which forms the western boundary of the state of Ohio." The ordinance of 1787 provided that "the eastern state," that is, Ohio. should be bounded on the west by "a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami" to the British possessions. In the enabling act of congress for the admission of Ohio, approved April 30, 1802, the same western boundary was fixed for that state. But in the act approved May 7, 1800, separating Indiana from the northwestern territory, the east- ern boundary of Indiana, as we have already seen, was declared to be "the line beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of Kentucky river,
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and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north, until it shall in- tersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada." Yet, in the same act, it was also provided, "That whenever that part of the territory of the United States which lies to the eastward of a line begin- ning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, running thence due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall be erected into an independent state, and admitted into the Union on an equal foot- ing with the original states, thenceforth said line shall become and remain permanently the boundary line between such state and the Indiana terri- tory ; anything in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding." As Ohio was admitted with the Great Miami meridian as her western boundary, it would seem that she could have no claim to this irregular line by way of Fort Recovery ; and, indeed, such imaginary claim, as a practical question, has long since been relinquished. Indiana has never stood out for the three mile strip west of Fort Recovery, now a part of the state of Ohio ; and Ohio has abandoned any fancied claim to the wedge-shaped territory south of Fort Recovery, now a part of the state of Indiana. The old Indian boundary line, described in the treaty of Greenville, and extending southwesterly from Fort Recovery to a point on the Ohio oppo- site the mouth of the Kentucky river, is, however, yet found on many Indiana maps, as a historic reminder of the contention once entertained between the two states.
But it was as to the northern boundary of the state that there was chief contention. The ordinance of 1787, after providing for the bound- aries of the minimum number of three states into which the northwest territory should be divided, provided further that, if deemed expedient, congress should have authority "to form one or two states in that part of said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." The enabling act,
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however, provided that the northern boundary of Indiana should be "an east and west line drawn through a point ten miles north of the south- ern extreme of Lake Michigan." The state of Indiana, therefore, ex- tends ten miles north of the line provided in the ordinance of 1787 as the boundary between Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, on the south, and Michi- gan and Wisconsin on the north. This east and west line through the southern bend of Lake Michigan is sometimes called the ordinance boundary line and sometimes the old Michigan or Indiana boundary line.
The people of Michigan contended earnestly for the ordinance boundary line, claiming that any other boundary would be illegal and un- constitutional, for the reason that the provisions of the ordinance of 1787 in this regard were irrevocable, as defining the boundaries of the five states to be created out of the northwest territory. It appears that when the ordinance of 1787 was passed the true latitude of the southern ex- tremes of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie was not known. At any rate, the people of Ohio at that time seem to have been of the opinion that an east and west line through the southern bend of Lake Michigan would strike Lake Erie north of Maumee bay. As if to force such an interpre- tation of the ordinance, a line was actually surveyed from the southerly bend of Lake Michigan to the northerly cape of Maumee bay. The order for this survey was made by act of congress; and the intention of con- gress was to mark the old ordinance boundary. The survey was, how- ever, made under direction of the Ohio surveyor general, and he had the survey made according to the views of the Ohio authorities. This line is called the Ohio line, and also the "Harris line," from the name of the surveyor. In the final settlement of the dispute, Ohio succeeded in making, or retaining, the Harris line as the northern boundary of that state. Michigan was reluctantly persuaded to receive in exchange for the territory taken from her the upper peninsula of that state; and a most
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.4
valuable exchange it has turned out to be. The Harris line was never accepted as the northern boundary of Indiana; neither did this state ac- cept the ordinance boundary, but took an independent, or perhaps, we might say, an arbitrary, position, insisting upon a ten mile strip north of the ordinance line, and giving as a reason for such insistence that other- wise she would be cut off from the navigation of Lake Michigan and the other great lakes. The Harris, or Ohio, line would not satisfy Indiana any better than the ordinance line ; for both would prevent her from having a harbor on the great lakes. Michigan did not at first make a very strong contention against Indiana's claim. There were then no settlements in northern Indiana or southwestern Michigan; whereas the territory in dis- pute between Ohio and Michigan included the town of Toledo and a rapidly growing district in the vicinity. The northern boundary of Indi- ana is an east and west line, but the northern boundary of Ohio, the Har- ris line, runs a little north of east, beginning on the east line of Indiana, at a point about four miles and a half south of the northern boundary of Indiana and running east by north to include the city of Toledo and Maumee bay. Neither did the ordinance line mark the boundary between Illinois and Wisconsin. Had it done so, Chicago would have been in Wisconsin, as it was at one time supposed to be. The northern boundary provided for in the ordinance of 1787, "an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan," has therefore been wholly obliterated.
The name of our state, "Indiana," does not appear in our history until the passage of the act of congress, approved May 7, 1800, providing that all the northwest territory, west of a line through Fort Recovery, should "constitute a separate territory, and be called Indiana Territory." The name thus given is very dear to the people of this state, not only from the beauty of the word itself, but even more from its association
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with our history, as a territory and as a state, now for over a hundred years. Indiana territory included at first not only the territory now form- ing our state, but also a part of that of Ohio and Michigan, all of Illinois and Wisconsin, and even part of Minnesota. As the successive territories were set off, however, and the territories themselves were erected into states, the beloved name remained with us. Other names were found for . our sister commonwealths: Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota ; all indeed beautiful, with their melodious French and Indian suggestions, but none of them comparable to our own Indiana.
There has been comparatively little discussion as to the origin of the name. It would seem indeed that the origin should be evident. When the territorial government was set up in the year 1800, the country was almost wholly occupied by the Indians. So far as occupancy was con- cerned, it was the Indian land. In ancient and modern times, in Europe as well as America, the suffix a, when added to a word, has been under- stood to mean land, country or place. Greece was known as Grecia ; Italy, as Italia; Germany, as Germania. So we have Russia, Prussia, Austria, Australia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Louisiana and many others. Indiana means nothing therefore but Indian land or Indian country.
It appears, however, that our state was not the first to bear the pleas- ant sounding name. In an interesting paper read before the Wayne County Historical Society, Mr. Cyrus W. Hodgin tells the story of an older Indiana.
At the close of the French and Indian war, in 1763, says Mr. Hod- gin, a Philadelphia trading company was formed to engage in the fur trade on the Ohio. The company sent its agents into the Ohio valley with large quantities of goods to exchange for furs and other products which the Indians were accustomed to bring to the trading posts. In the fall of that year, certain bands of Indians who were tributary to the Iroquois
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confederacy attacked the agents of the Philadelphia company at a point a little below the site of the present city of Wheeling, and seized upon the goods of the company, which they appropriated to their own use. In compensation for this loss, the Iroquois transferred to the company a tract of nearly five thousand square miles of land lying south of the Ohio and east of the Great Kanawha-a tract equal in extent to the state of Connecticut. To this princely domain the company gave the name of Indiana-Indian land. In 1776 the tract was conveyed to a new com- pany, known as the Indiana Land Company. Virginia, however, refused to acknowledge the Indian title held by the company. A resort to the courts was equally unavailing. The eleventh amendment to the constitu- tion of the United States, denying to citizens of one state the right to bring any action or suit against another sovereign state of the Union, was declared adopted, by proclamation of the president, issued January 8, 1798 ; and so the long contested case was stricken from the docket of the supreme court of the United States. The Indiana Land Company having lost its claim, the company itself passed out of existence ; and the name "Indiana" was but a memory, until, in 1800, it was bestowed upon this commonwealth, now the great central state of the Union. It is not at all probable that the naming of our state had any connection with the name of the eastern Indiana. Accidentally the name is the same ; but in each case, undoubtedly, the name given had direct reference to the Indians who occu- pied the country.
1
The publishers, in acknowledging their indebtedness to the editor, Thomas J. Wolfe, whose knowledge of persons and of facts and incidents in the county's history for nearly seventy years, and whose unabating interest in every department of this undertaking insure to the public the faithfulness of the endeavor and the value of this work as a history of the county, take this opportunity, in the closing pages of the volume, to publish the following reminiscent and historical sketch of his long and interesting life.
On the 25th day of January, 1832, in the little town of Merom on the banks of the Wabash, Dr. Elliott announced to a small coterie of old ladies, in waiting, that a son had been born to Benjamin and Isabella (Shepherd) Wolfe. This bit of news in a town where everybody knew everybody's business created no surprise as it was not unexpected.
A little later a family convention was called, and grandmothers, uncles and aunts were there, and to distinguish this particular child from all those bearing the same patronymic they decided to call him Thomas Jefferson. There was, no doubt, partiality shown in this ; as the delegates were all Virginians, by blood or marriage, they desired to thrust addi- tional honors on their state and its citizens, but it was all done without the consent or connivance of the parties in interest.
The boy took the prescribed course for boys of his age-hives, stomach-ache, whooping cough, measles and mumps. When about six years old he entered the high school (it was on top of the bluff just west
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Lucia Smith Wolfe.
Tho & Hraje, com L& G
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of Uncle Jimmy Reed's store) and kept his little "footies" dangling be- tween the floor and ceiling, his legs not yet having come up to the standard prescribed by Lincoln that they should be long enough to reach the floor. He was often reprimanded by the master for whispering and talking, and was punished (?) by being compelled to sit between two girls. This punishment failed as Tommy was often caught trying to talk to both girls at once, and another diagnosis was had and the treatment changed. .
His mind developed so rapidly that his father became alarmed and apprenticed him to his grandmother on Shaker prairie to learn the science and art of farming. He did not know "gee" from "haw," and in order to know on which side to hitch Jack he hacked the swingletree, but while the boy was gone to dinner the hands turned the doubletree over, and that afternoon the starboard horse worked on the larboard side, but neither the boy nor Jack knew the difference, and the joke failed. After the crop was laid by the boy returned home to nurse a stonebruise and Jack went to grass.
He continued to play school and work at mumble-peg, marbles, tops and kites, and frequently to help girls dress their dolls and, occasionally, his mother wash dishes and paddle the clothes on the old wash bench. After about two years his father made known his decision to move to his farm on Shaker prairie. The boy remonstrated that it would be lonesome and that the wild animals and Indians might get him as he came home in the dark. But the father argued that outdoor life was good for boys -- that walking was healthful when you had hold of plow handles with two big oxen to help you along, that the soil compared favorably with that along the Nile, and that corn grew as it did in Egypt, that his ex- chequer needed replenishing, that his finances had not increased as fast as his family, that we were on the eve of great prosperity, that corn had already advanced 25 per cent and was now worth 121/2 cents f. o. b. flat-
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boat at "Rankin cribs," and was likely to go higher-wheat worth 3712 cents, pork worth $1.50 per cwt. and mast plenty,-and as he closed his argument he gave a significant glance toward the smokehouse (we had no woodsheds in those days). And Tommy saw the force of the argu- ment and fearing a more striking one, said, "Pap, I agree with you, I have been thinking for some time we ought to go to the farm."
With the father to decide was to act. In a short time wagons were loaded and the overland trip of fifteen miles was made without a stop. Arriving at the destination, the future residence was found to consist of one room-were this fiction instead of a "so-tale" we should have said small room, but truth compels us to say the room was more than twenty feet long and about eighteen feet wide, boarded without and ceiled within. Still it was a problem to condense the contents of a three-room house into one room, and leave space for nine head of men, women and children, the answer to which could not be found in Smiley's or Pike's arithmetic. The mother, however, although deficient in figures, was a woman of resources, and by bedtime had made two rooms out of one by a partition of bed-clothing hung from the ceiling to the floor. The rear room con- tained three beds and two trundle beds, and the front room two tempo- rary beds on the floor, which had to be removed to get room to cook at the fire-place and to spread the table.
When the crop was started, the father, mother and oldest boy went to Vincennes, and among other things bought a cook-stove. The dealer, Nick Smith, explained that these stoves economized space, split woman's work in two, and would save half the fuel. The father said he thought they were a little high ($50.00), but he guessed they would take two, as they were scarce of room, his wife was overworked, and the boys did not like to cut wood. Smith laughed.
The stove was installed the next day, and being the first in the
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neighborhood, was more than a seven days' wonder. It was a "step-stove," or double-decker, and much contention arose as to where to build the fire. The Dutch, accustomed to bake ovens, insisted on making it in the second story, and when hot, withdrawing the fire and putting in the dough. Directions were consulted, and one woman, to the surprise of all the rest, said she "had saw a cook-stove with fire in it at Vincennes," and she took the side of the fire-box and settled the dispute.
The family continued to reside in the one-room house until after the crop was laid by, when improvements were made by moving a one-room log structure to within ten feet of the one occupied, and covering the house and open space with boards, which gave the family two rooms, an airy hall, and a bedroom in the loft reached by a ladder. For about five years this continued to be the family residence, and Thomas Jefferson had grown in stature and importance in proportion to the house, and still held his position as oldest boy of the family.
The father was much away from home, running for representative in the summer and fall, serving in the legislature in the winter, and flat- boating his crops in the spring. In the meantime he superintended the building of a large residence on the farm, and Tom, who had outgrown . his pet name Tommy, hauled the brick for the chimneys and foundation, with two yoke of oxen, from Ochiltree's, a few miles north of Vincennes -the hewed timbers from the woods, and the sawed lumber from Turtle creek, near New Lebanon. The house was considered one of the finest in the county, and required about two years in building, as everything was done by hand.
The family, to which three more boys had been added since the last enumeration, moved into the new house in 1846. and continued the routine of farm life, farming in summer and attending two or three months of school in winter, until Tom was about twenty. His chief amusements
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consisted of fishing and coon-hunting, and his outings were going to "mill and to meetin'," and selling sweet cider and gingerbread at the August elections.
About this time, his father, who had spent about two years in Miami University and had learned that "a little learning is a dangerous thing," divulged a long-cherished design of giving his children "a better bringing up than he or his had had." The father's intention was to send them to college in succession, beginning with Tom. The matter was discussed in the family during the winter, and Jake, younger by two years but about as large, insisted on going too, and maintained that he was equal to Tom in everything except age, which was no fault of his, that they had always been chums and trundle-bed fellows-and he prevailed. Then the mother put in a plea for Ann, a sister still two years younger-that the children had always been together, that no distinction should be made on account of sex, that Ann had been taught to look after the washing and sew on buttons and tie up sore fingers and toes, and that she ought to be per- mitted to go along to care for the boys-and on a final vote it was so decided.
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