USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A standard history of Elkhart County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume I > Part 5
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
great council of the Indians was held at one of their villages on the Mississinewa River, at which nearly all the northwetern tribes were represented. The general expression at this council was in favor of maintaining peaceful relations with the United States, though at the same time refusing to surrender those who were guilty of the murders mentioned. Tecumseh, dissatisfied with the action of the council, left with his following, and soon successfully attacked, with the assistance of the British, the northern forts at Mackinaw and Chicago. On the 16th of August, General Hull surrendered Detroit, which so emboldened the Winnebagoes, Pottawattamies and Kickapoos that they sent out war parties to prey upon the fron- tier settlements. Two men were killed while making hay near Fort Harrison on the 3d of September. On the 4th, an attack was made on the fort, during which one of the blockhouses was set on fire, the garrison, however, eventually repelling the attack. On the 3d oc- curred the "Pigeon Roost massacre." Two men hunting bee trees were surprised and killed by a party of ten or twelve Shawnees, who that night attacked the Pigeon Roost settlement, situated within the present limits of Scott County, and in the space of an hour killed one man, five women and sixteen children.
THE HARRISON CAMPAIGNS
In August, 1812, Governor Harrison was appointed major- general of the forces being raised in Kentucky, and in the middle of September arrived with a force of 2,700 men at Fort Wayne, where a force of Indians had been besieging the place since the beginning of the war. They retreated on the approach of the relieving force, General Harrison sending out several detachments in pursuit. These detachments failed to overtake the savages, but destroyed the im- portant village of O-nox-see, on the Elkhart River, Little Turtle's town on the Eel River, and a Miami village near the forks of the Wabash. In the latter part of September, General Harrison was invested with the command of the Northwestern army, and assign- ing the duty of operating against the Indians on the Wabash and Illinois Rivers to a force of 2,000 troops stationed at Vincennes, he began preparations for his campaign against Detroit. The force at Vincennes, under the command of General Hopkins, set out early in November for the purpose of penetrating the Indian country as far as the Prophet's town, which had been rebuilt. This village
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
and a large one in the near vicinity belonging to the Kickapoos were destroyed and a detachment sent out to destroy one seven miles out on Wild Cat Creek. Here the detachment met with a repulse. The whole force then prepared to attack the savages, but were delayed by stress of weather for a day or two, and when they reached the point, though naturally easy of defense, the Indians were found to have deserted the place. The lack of clothing and the severity of the weather made the further pursuit of the savages impracticable, and the expedition returned to Vincennes in safety.
In pursuance of his plans against Detroit, General Harrison had established a depot of supplies at the rapids of the Maumee, with the intention of moving thence a choice detachment of his army, and, while making a demonstration against Detroit, to cross the straits on the ice and actually invest Malden, the British stronghold in Canada. Before attempting this, however, it became necessary to break up the Miami villages on the Mississinewa River, and thus cripple any attack that might be attempted from this quarter. Although the Miamis professed to be neutral, their participation in the attacks upon Forts Wayne and Harrison made it probable that a favorable opportunity would render them susceptible to the in- fluence of the hostile tribes. A detachment of 600 troops pro- ceeded from Dayton, Ohio, in the middle of December, and a few days later surprised an Indian town occupied by a number of the Delawares and Miamis, and advancing down the river destroyed three other villages, when the expedition returned and encamped on the site of the first village. On the following morning, about a half hour before day, while the officers were holding a council of war, the savages made a determined attack upon the camp. In this engagement, which lasted about an hour, the troops suffered a loss of eight killed and forty-two wounded. The Indians, who numbered about 300 and were under the command of Little Thun- der, a nephew of Little Turtle, suffered a much heavier loss, and were forced to make a hasty retreat, leaving the whites in pos- session of the ground and of a large number of prisoners captured in the surprise of the first village. The want of provisions and forage, the severity of the cold, and the rumor that Tecumseh was at the principal village further down the Mississinewa River, deterred the troops from making any further advance, and a retreat toward Greenville was begun and accomplished without serious annoyance from the savages. In the following summer Perry's victory on
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
the lake paved the way for Harrison's victory over the Indians and British in the battle of the Thames River, on the 6th of October, which ended the hostilities in the Northwest. On the 22d of July, 1814, Harrison concluded a treaty at Greenville, Ohio, by which the Indians buried the tomahawk, whether the war ceased with the British or not, but this proviso was put out of the question on the 24th of December by the treaty of Ghent. With the return of peace, further treaties were negotiated with the various Indian tribes, and the survey of the lands thus made secure, was rapidly pushed forward.
THE PUBLIC LAND SURVEY
The public lands of the General Government were all surveyed upon the same general system. To this end, "meridian lines" run- ning due north from the mouth of some river are first established. These are intersected at right angles by "base lines" running east and west. The "first principal meridian" is a line running due north from the mouth of the Miami, and is, in fact, the east line of the State of Indiana. The "second principal meridian" is a line run- ning due north from the mouth of Little Blue River, eighty-nine miles west of the former. The only base line running through this state crosses it from east to west in latitude 38° 30', leaving the Ohio twenty-five miles above Louisville, and striking the Wabash four miles above the mouth of the White River. From this base line the Congressional townships of six miles square are numbered north and south, and from the second principal meridian all the ranges of townships are numbered east and west, except the coun- ties of Switzerland, Dearborn, and part of Franklin, Union, Wayne and Randolph. This part of the state was surveyed in townships from a base line of fifteen miles north of the former, and in ranges west of the first principal meridian. The "Clark Grant" in Clark County and the old French lands in Knox County are also excep- tions to the regularity of the general survey of the state. Townships are subdivided into thirty-six equal parts, or thirty-six square miles, containing 640 acres each, called sections. These sections are sub- divided into halves, of 320 acres, and quarters, of 160 acres each, which last are again subdivided into halves, of eighty acres and quarters of forty acres each. "Fractions" are parts of sections intersected by streams, or confirmed claims or reservations, and are
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
of various sizes. The sections of a township are designated by numbers, beginning with the northeast corner and following in regular order to the west side, the second tier of sections beginning on the west side of the township and proceeding east. That portion of the state in the southeast corner, which was included in the Ohio survey, was disposed of at the Cincinnati land office. The rest of the public lands in this state were principally disposed of at offices established at Jeffersonville, Vincennes, Crawfordsville, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Winamac.
ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE
The restoration of peace with Great Britain, and the pacification of the Indians in 1815, brought a great increase of population to the territory, so that in December of this year the General Assembly of the territory adopted a memorial to Congress asking the admission of Indiana into the Union as a state. Under an enabling act of Congress, a convention to form a constitution was elected, and held its sessions from the 10th to the 29th of June, 1816, and, on the IIth of December following, the state was formally admitted to the Union by a joint resolution of Congress.
Until the close of the territorial government, more than three- fourths of the state was in possession of the Indians, or had been so recently purchased as not to have been surveyed and exposed to sale. The maps of the state, even as late as 1818, represented the Indian boundary as starting from a point in the northern part of Jackson County and running northeast to the Ohio line, near Fort Recovery, and northwest to the Wabash, a few miles above Terre Hante. Vincennes was then by far the most considerable town in the new state. The Indian trade was then large ; there was generally one or more companies of United States troops at Fort Knox at that place; the business at the land office and the bank, and the inclination of the French to settle in a village rather than on a farm, brought together a population of nearly 2,000.
Corydon, the seat of government, had a good stone court house built by the speaker of the Territorial Legislature, who, it is said, was often called from the hammer and trowel to the chair. The other buildings there, not exceeding 100 in number, were either cabins or of hewn logs. The sites of New Albany and Madison
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
presented here and there a few comfortable houses, and perhaps 100 cabins. Jeffersonville and Lawrenceburg had been longer set- tled, but except the then fine residence of Governor Posey at the former place, there was no other good building in either, and Charleston, Salem, Vevay, Rising Sun and Brookville were then talked of as having magnificent prospects for the future. There were very few large farms in the state in 1816. The range of wild grass, the mast and roots were so abundant in the woods that hogs, cattle and horses required but little other food, and that was in general corn alone. It is probable that a single cornfield of from five to twenty acres constituted at least seven-eighths of the farms then cultivated in the state.
DEVELOPMENT OF STATE AND FORMATION OF COUNTIES
In 1828 the General Government purchased the "ten-mile strip" along the northern end of the state, and, in 1832, extinguished the remaining claims of the Indians, save the numerous reservations in the northern part. In 1835 the greater part of the natives were removed west of the Mississippi, and by 1840 all save a few had emigrated from the special reservations. Among these were several bands in the St. Joseph Valley, Michigan, whose picturesque departure is given elsewhere. As the state was thus left free for settlement, the surveyor pioneered the advancing civilization, and counties were rapidly organized in response to the growing demand of the increasing population. The tide of immigration came prin- cipally from the South at first, and later from the East, the organ- ization of counties giving a pretty clear indication of the nature of this development. At the organization of the state government, fifteen counties had been formed, and others were organized as follows: 1817, Daviess, Pike, Jennings, Sullivan ; 1818, Crawford, Dubois, Lawrence, Monroe, Randolph, Ripley, Spencer, Vander- burg, Vigo; 1819, Fayette, Floyd, Owen; 1820, Scott, Martin ; 1821, Bartholomew, Greene, Henry, Parke, Union ; 1822, Decatur, Marion, Morgan, Putnam, Rush, Shelby ; 1823, Hamilton. Johnson, Madison, Montgomery ; 1824, Allen, Hendricks, Vermillion ; 1825, Clay ; 1826, Delaware, Fountain, Tippecanoe; 1828, Carroll, Hancock, Warren; 1829, Cass; 1830, Boone, Clinton, Elkhart, St. Joseph ; 1831, Grant; 1832, LaGrange, LaPorte ; 1834, Huntington, White ; 1835, Miami,
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
Wabash; 1836, Adams, Brown, DeKalb, Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall, Noble, Porter; 1837, Blackford, Lake, Steuben, Wells, Jay; 1838, Jasper ; 1840, Benton; 1842, Whitley; 1844, Howard, Ohio, Tipton; 1850, Starke; 1859, Newton.
CHAPTER II
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY
PRESENT ELKHART COUNTY DEFINED BY CREATIVE ACT-THE STATE, A WATER-CUT PLAIN-ST. JOSEPH RIVER IN PREHISTORIC TIMES-FOSSILS OF THE VALLEY OF THE ST. JOSEPHII-SURFACE GEOLOGY-WATERSHED BETWEEN THE GREAT LAKES AND THE MISSISSIPPI-GLACIAL DRIFT AND SOILS-BILLOWS OF LAND AND PRAIRIES-WATERSHED BETWEEN THE BIG AND LITTLE ELKHART-THE COUNTY A CHILD OF THE ST. JOSEPH RIVER- THIE ST. JOSEPH AND ITS TRIBUTARIES-THE LAKES OF THE COUNTY-MINERAL SPRINGS, OIL AND GAS-BEASTS AND REP- TILES IN PRIMITIVE TIMES-THE FEATHERED TRIBE-DISAP- PEARANCE OF CERTAIN BEASTS AND BIRDS-THE COMING OF NEW BIRDS AND ANIMALS.
By somewhat circuitous routes we have reached our destination, Elkhart County ; but it was necessary to traverse them in order to lay down an illuminating background for the central figure. As will be noted in the creation of the counties throughout the state, St. Joseph County was organized at the same time as Elkhart, and to them were attached for political purposes the region afterward divided into Lake, Porter, LaPorte, LaGrange, Steuben and Kosci- usko counties.
PRESENT ELKHART COUNTY DEFINED BY CREATIVE ACT
During the '20s, and covering the period of the first pioneer set- tlement of Elkhart County, Allen County embraced the territory which was later subdivided into Elkhart, Noble and LaGrange coun- ties. In 1830 the territorial limits of Elkhart were literally fixed; for they have never been changed. Therefore this history, in all
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SCENES IN ST. JOSEPH VALLEY
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
its phases, is henceforth confined to the Elkhart County of the present.
The influx of settlers during 1827-28, both from the East and down the St. Joe Valley from the more populous regions of south- west Michigan, was a stimulant to the formation of new counties in northern Indiana. The old Anglo-Saxon idea of cooperation through law and government had its way, and an appeal of a suf- ficient number of pioneers to the Indiana Legislature of 1829-30 resulted in the erection of the County of Elkhart through an act approved in January, 1830. The northern boundary of Indiana had been fixed, and that, of course, constituted the northern line of the new county, the limits of which were described in the creative act as follows : Beginning on the north line of the state where the center line of range 4 strikes the same, thence east to the line dividing ranges 7 and 8, thence south to the line dividing townships 34 and 35 north, and thence west to the central section line of range 4 east, thence north to the place of beginning. These are the legal bounds of the territory described, in the following pages, from the standpoint of natural history.
THE STATE A WATER-CUT PLAIN
Indiana is nearly a plain, from the Ohio River to the lakes, and a product of the glacial period. The rivers and other water courses then cut their way through the plain and the bordering hills. The general trend of the plain is to the southwest. The elevation above the sea level is about 1,000 feet in the northern and eastern section, and at the mouth of the Wabash 313 feet. In the northeastern part of the state is a small section where the flow of the water is toward the north. This section is drained by the Maumee, which flows northeastwardly into Lake Erie, and the St. Joseph, which flows northwardly into Lake Michigan. All the other streams, of any importance, find their way to the Ohio, and then to the Gulf of Mexico. This watershed toward the southwest has had a ten- dency to lower by several hundred feet the general surface of what was originally nearly level.
ST. JOSEPH RIVER IN PREHISTORIC TIMES
It is a well established fact that lakes Michigan and Huron were at one time connected by a great river, or estuary, which passed
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
almost diagonally across the southern peninsula of Michigan and penetrated far into northern Indiana. The present valley of the St. Joseph River, with its numerous branches and network of lakes, was in those times a section of this connecting band between the two lakes, and the floor of its beautiful prairies was laid by deposits which sifted down from these ocean waters which then mingled with the great sea stretching over the northern portion of the United States and the northeastern section of Canada to the British Isles.
FOSSILS OF THE VALLEY OF THE ST. JOSEPH
In many portions of the St. Joseph valley geologists have found many rare specimen belonging to the Silurian, or reptile age, and the Carboniferous, or coal age, when that section of the country was under the dominion of the sea. A list of some of the more important specimens is here given :
Fossils of the lower Silurian age, Trenton period: Radiates- polyp corals, the petraia corniculum, columnaria alveolata, taeniasta spinoza. Mollusks-chateles lycoperdon or costalis leptaena placi- fera, ptilodictya fenestrata, retepora incepta, trilobites, calymene senaria.
Hudson period: Radiates-favisstella stellata.
Upper Silurian, Niagara period: Radiates-chaeteles-corals, chonophyllum Niagarense, favosites Niag. Mollusks-fenestella. Radiates-crinoids, caryocrinus ornatus. Brachiopods-atrypa nodostriata ; spirifer sulcatus occidentalis; O. testudintaria.
Carboniferous : trigoncarpum, tricuspidatum and lepidodendron. Some very perfectly preserved crinoid stems, showing the star- shaped joint most distinctly.
Devonian period: Radiates-Zaphrentis gigantes, Z. Rafin- esquii, Phillipsastrea verneuill; cyahophyllum rugosum; favosites goldfussi ; syringopora Maclurii; aulopora corunta.
Following the geological ages when the limestones and other rock deposits were crudely formed in northern Indiana was what is known as the Glacial epoch, when the great glaciers from the north- east crept over a large portion of Canada and northern United States, not missing southern Michigan or northern Indiana in their resistless onward movement. It is probable that they assisted in forming the valley of the St. Joseph River and scooping out some
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
of the lake basins. From some cause which is still unsolved .by scientists and geologists, the climate of this portion of the globe was so moderated that the glaciers melted and retreated northward, forming gradually, as is supposed, the nucleus of the chain of great lakes.
SURFACE GEOLOGY
The surface geology of Elkhart County, in common with Indiana's three northern tiers of counties, is of glacial origin, and that section of the state is covered with drift. The moraines, or accumulations of ground material at the glacial edges, are plainly marked in various sections of the county. The finest and softest of the accumulations were filtered through the coarser material and formed beds of clay, and wherever a huge piece of ice gouged out the clay, there the ice melted and left an inland lake. Other material that was coarser and harder was washed together and formed beds of sand.
WATERSHED BETWEEN GREAT LAKES AND THE MISSISSIPPI
The great Valparaiso moraine, extending in a generally north- westerly direction, and several miles in width, crosses the south- western part of the county (its course being readily observed between Nappanee and Wakarusa), and the crest of this is the dividing line of the watershed between the north and the south. Owing to this feature of the topography, nearly all the drainage of the county is into the great lakes via the St. Joseph River, while a small division of land about Nappanee drains into the Kankakee and thence into the Mississippi River. It is said that one street of Nappanee forms the dividing line between the waters which flow into Turkey creek and those which go south into the Kankakee.
GLACIAL DRIFT AND SOILS
In Volume XXV of the Indiana Geologic Reports, is the fol- lowing statement: "In common with all the counties in which lakes occur, the surface of Elkhart County is wholly covered with drift, the thickness known at three points: Elkhart, Goshen and New Paris, 122, 162, 90 feet respectively." Some years ago a well was
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
sunk at Elkhart to a depth of 125 feet, with hope of securing an artesian flow, but the drill coming in contact with boulders, further drilling was discontinued. The material passed through for the first twenty-five feet was gravel, and all the succeeding 100 feet was "hard-pan," or indurated glacial clay with occasional thin strata of quicksand. Continuing, the above report says: "The surface of this drift is more level than in counties to the east and south, an area of about two hundred square miles in the northwestern and southeastern parts being of extensive gravel plains. The uplands consist of till plains, with an area of 125 square miles in the south- western part of the county, and of morainic belts, more broken, in the south and west parts. The elevation in feet above tide, of some railroad stations is: Bristol, 783; Dunlap, 747; Elkhart, 725-755; Goshen, 796; Millersburg, 885; New Paris, 813; Vistula, 808. The gravel plains in general are below 800 feet level, uplands mainly between 800 and 900 feet, and several above 900." The surface of Lake Michigan is reckoned as 600 feet above ocean level, from which it is seen that certain points in the county are from 200 to 300 feet higher than the lake.
Of this glacial drift, covering the county at such varying depths, a comparatively very thin layer at the surface has, by the well known processes of nature which are continually taking place before our eyes, been transformed into "soil," from which the animal and vegetable kingdoms have for centuries drawn their sustenance. In few counties of the state could there be found greater diversity of soil than in Elkhart County ; often a restricted area of a few square miles will contain several varieties of land, adapted to various agri- cultural products. Thus it is impossible to classify, otherwise than roughly, the different qualities of land and their extent. But an attempt at classification would result merely in the following : Sandy soil, timber loam, prairie loam and some vegetable loam. The first named prevails most generally in the northeastern quarter of the county, in Washington and York townships. It will not produce wheat as abundantly as other kinds of soil, though the quality of what is produced is excellent. But it is warm, and especially adapted to the production of the potato and of fruits, especially small fruits. In some places on the hills the soil is a strong clay. The timber loam, which prevails over a large part of the central and southern areas of the county, is of great depth and richness, and has fully rewarded with abundant harvest those
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
who have persevered in clearing it and subduing the natural obstacles to cultivation. The prairie loam, peculiar to the prairie belts, which formed only a minor portion of the county originally, may be described as a sandy loam resting on a subsoil of gravel and sand with some clay, and is exceedingly productive. It is well adapted to raising all sorts of cereals as well as horticultural products. What has been termed the vegetable mold is found in more restricted areas in this county than in some other districts of northern Indiana. It is composed of decayed vegetable matter, formed in extinct lakes and marshes, being, in fact, a peat bed, and where not cultivated is covered with a rank growth of marsh grass and flowering plants. By drainage and proper treatment it is rendered exceedingly fertile.
Discussing these aspects of the county, a state report says : "A part, perhaps a third, of the surface of the county at the time of first settlement was covered with a growth of very large trees and a dense undergrowth of bushes and shrubs; the remainder is mostly 'burr-oak openings' and prairie, while a small per cent is covered with peat bogs, lakes and marshes. The soil of the 'open- ings' is a sandy loam, with clay subsoil, and highly esteemed for its large yield of wheat and grass; after years of successive crop- pings this is promptly restored to its original productiveness by turning under a crop of clover. The strong clay soil of woodland is very productive, especially of corn and grasses. The black, peaty loam of prairies and drained swamps is famous for corn and grass, except during seasons of long drought."
BILLOWS OF LAND AND PRAIRIES
Elkhart county is fitly described as having a rolling surface. It was therefore with admiration and delight that the pioneer, having struggled through many miles of forest and crossing over numerous swells of land from one high horizon crest to another, viewed such a beautiful level expanse as Elkhart Prairie presented. And then also there were Pleasant Plain, a little oasis south of the present City of Elkhart, and Two-Mile Plain, directly east of the same city and extending along the course of the St. Joseph. The prairies were eagerly sought by the early settlers, who all concurred in describing these virgin spots as of surpassing loveliness, the ground Vol. 1-3
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