USA > Indiana > Kosciusko County > A standard history of Kosciusko County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development. A chronicle of the people with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 2
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DECISIVE BATTLE AT STARVED ROCK
There Tonti, La Salle's lieutenant, left in charge of the fort, found himself weakened by the early desertion of most of his force, and now, an object of suspicion to his allies, in an awkward and danger- ous predicament. Undaunted by the untoward circumstances, he joined the Illinois, and when the Iroquois came upon the scene, in the midst of the savage melee, faced the 580 warriors, declared that the Illinois were under the protection of the French king and the governor of Canada, and demanded that they should be left in peace, backing his words with the statement that there were 1,200 of the Illinois and sixty Frenchmen across the river. These representations had the effect of checking the ardor of the attacking savages, and a temporary truce was effected.
It was evident that the truce was but a ruse on the part of the
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Iroquois to gain an opportunity to test the truth of Tonti's state- ments, and no sooner had the Illinois retired to their village on the north side of the river than numbers of the invading tribes, on the pretext of seeking food, crossed the river and gathered in increasing numbers about the village. The Illinois knew the design of their foe too well, and, hastily embarking, they set fire to their lodges and retired down the river, when the whole band of Iroquois crossed over and finished their work of havoc at their leisure.
The Illinois, in the meantime, lulled into a false security, divided into small bands in search of food. One of the tribes, the Tamaroas, "had the fatuity to remain near the mouth of the Illinois, where they were assailed by the whole force of the Iroquois. The men fled and very few of them were killed, but the women and children were cap- tured to the number, it is said, of seven hundred," many of whom were put to death with horrible tortures. Soon after the retreat of the Illinois, the Iroquois discovered the deception of the Frenchmen, and only the wholesome fear they had of the French governor's power restrained their venting rage upon Tonti and his two or three com- panions. As it was, they were dismissed and bidden to return to Canada.
. LA SALLE HEADS NORTHWESTERN INDIAN LEAGUE
It was in the wake of these events that La Salle returned in the win- ter of 1680 and found this once populous village devastated and de- serted, surrounded by the frightful evidences of savage carnage. Dis- heartened but not cast down, he at once set about repairing his for- tune. Discerning, at once, the means and object of his enemies, he set about building a bulwark to stay a second assault. Returning to Fort Miami, on the St. Joseph by the borders of Lake Michigan, he sought to form a defensive league among the Indians whom he proposed to colonize on the site of the destroyed village of the Illinois. He found ready material at hand in remnants of tribes fresh from the fields of King Philip's war; he visited the Miamis and by his wonderful power won them over to his plans and then in the interval, before the tribes could arrange for their emigration, he launched out with a few followers and hurriedly explored the Mississippi to the Gulf.
Returning to Michilimackinac in September, 1682, where he had found Tonti in May of the previous year, La Salle, after directing his trusty lieutenant to repair to the Illinois, prepared to return to France for further supplies for the proposed colony; but learning
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that the Iroquois were planning another incursion, he returned to the site of the destroyed village and with Tonti began, in December, 1682, to build the Fort of St. Louis on the eminence which is now known in history as Starved Rock.
Thus the winter passed, and in the meantime La Salle found em- ployment for his active mind in conducting the negotiations which should result in reconciling the Illinois and the Miamis and in cement- ing the various tribes into a harmonious colony. The spring crowned his efforts with complete success.
AT THE FORT OF ST. LOUIS
La Salle looked down from his rocks on a concourse of wild human life. Lodges of barks and rushes, or cabins, of logs were clustered on the open plain, or along the edges of the bordering forests. Squaws labored, warriors lounged in the sun, naked children whooped and gamboled on the grass. Beyond the river, a mile and a half on the left, the banks were studded once more with the lodges of the Illinois, who, to the number of 6,000, had returned since their defeat, to their favorite dwelling place. Scattered along the valley, among the ad- jacent hills or over the neighboring prairie, were the cantonments of half a score of other tribes and fragments of tribes, gathered under the protection of the French-Shawnees from Ohio, Abenakis from Maine, and Miamis from the sources of the Kankakee and the valleys of the St. Joseph and the Tippecanoe.
THE DEATHS OF LA SALLE AND TONTI
In the meantime a party was sent to Montreal to secure supplies and munitions to put the colony in a state of defense, which, to the disappointment and chagrin of the sorely beset leader, he learned had been detained by his enemies, who, by a change of governors, had come into official power. Devolving the command of the enterprise upon Tonti, La Salle set out in November, 1683, for Canada and France, where he hoped to thwart his enemies and snatch success from threat- ened defeat. Triumphant over his enemies, he returned to America in 1685 and, after wandering ineffectually for two years in the wilderness of Texas, fell dead, pierced through the brain by the bullet of a traitor in his own band.
It was not until late in 1688 that Tonti heard, with grief and in- dignation, of the death of La Salle. In 1690, the brave and loyal lieutenant of the great chevalier received from the French govern-
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ment the proprietorship of Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, of which he continued in command until 1702, when by royal order the fort was abandoned and Tonti transferred to the lower Louisiana. The Fort of St. Louis was afterward reoccupied for a short time in 1718 by a party of traders, when it was finally abandoned.
VINCENNES AND FORT CHARTRES FOUNDED
The French early improved the opening thus made for them. From 1688 to 1697, little progress was made in colonization, owing to the wars between France and Great Britain, but after the peace of Ryswick the project was taken up with renewed activity. In 1698 large num- bers of emigrants, under the lead of officers appointed by the crown, left France for the New World, and in the following year founded the settlement of Biloxi, on Mobile Bay. In 1700 the settlement of the French and Indians at old Kaskaskia was moved to the site where the village of that name now stands. A year later a permanent settle- ment was made at Detroit by Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, who, in July of that year, arrived from Montreal with a missionary and 100 men, and in 1795 was authorized by the French government to grant land in small quantities to actual settlers in the vicinity of Detroit.
In 1702 Sienr Jucherau and a missionary named Mermet estab- lished a post at Vincennes. Trouble with the Indians, and the wet, swampy condition of the surrounding country, delayed the develop- ment of the little settlement there but throughout the early history of the country this post continued to be of the first importance.
In 1718 Fort Chartres was erected on the Mississippi, sixteen miles above Kaskaskia. About the fort rapidly gathered a village, which was subsequently called New Chartres; five miles away the village of Prairie du Rocher became a growing settlement, while all along the river, between Kaskaskia and the fort, a strong chain of settlements was formed, within a year after the latter was finished. The erection of Fort Chartres at this point was dictated by national considera- tions, rather than by fear of the Indians.
The colonization of Louisiana consequent upon the exploration of the Mississippi and the influx of colonists who found homes at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, made this section the key to the French possessions in America, the connecting link between Canada and Louisiana. In that region the French settlers, little disturbed by the forages of the Sacs and Foxes, pushed their improvements to the Illinois, while lands were granted, though perhaps never occupied some distance up
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the stream. The military force found occupation in supporting the friendly Illinois tribes against the Iroquois and Sacs and Foxes, and in unsatisfactory or disastrous campaigns against the Chickasaws. In the meantime, from the Southwest the Spaniards were jealously watch- ing the French colonists, while the British, gradually pushing west- ward, were building forts near the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
FRENCH EVACUATION OF THE COUNTRY
The European war of 1741-46, in which France and England were opposed, was echoed in these western wilds, and it was found that Fort Chartres must be strenghtened or abandoned. The former course prevailed, and in 1750 the old fortress of wood was transformed into one of stone, and garrisoned by a full regiment of French grenadiers. It was from this point that an important contingent sallied for the capture of George Washington and his forces at Fort Necessity, on July 4, 1754, and thus furnished to George II one of the causes for a declaration of hostilities and the beginning of the old French war.
During the ensuing year a detachment burned Fort Granville, sixty miles from Philadelphia; another party routed Major Grant near Fort Duquesne, but, compelled to abandon the fortress, fired it and floated down the river by the light of its flames ; again, a large detach- ment, with some friendly Indians, assisted in the attempt to raise the British siege of Niagara, leaving the flower of the garrison dead upon the field.
THE BRITISH MASTERS
The fort was no longer in condition to maintain the offensive and, learning that the British were preparing to make a hostile descent from Pittsburgh, the commandant writes to the French governor general as follows: "I have made all arrangements, according to my strength, to receive the enemy." The victory of the British on the Plains of Abraham decided the contest, but the little backwoods citadel, knowing but little of the general nature of the struggle, dreamed that it might be the means of regaining, on more successful fields, the possessions thus lost to the French. The news that Fort Chartres, with all territory east of the river, had been surrendered without so much as a sight of the enemy, came like a thunderclap upon the patriotic French colony. Many of the settlers, with Laclede, who had just arrived at the head of a new colony, expressed their disgust by going to the site of St. Louis, which they suppossed to be still French territory.
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Though transferred by treaty to the English in 1763, the fort was the last place in North America to lower the white ensign of the Bourbon King, and it was not until the latter part of 1765 that the British formally accepted the surrender of Fort Chartres. Pontiac, the unwavering friend of the French, took upon himself, unaided by his former allies, to hold back the victorious English. Major Loftus, Captains Pitman and Morris, Lieutenant Frazer, and George Croghan, some with force, some in disguise, and others with diplo- macy, sought to reach the fort to accept its capitulation, but each one was foiled and turned back with his mission unaccomplished, glad to escape the fate of that Englishman for which Pontiac assured them he kept a "kettle boiling over a large fire."
Wearied with the inactivity of the French, the Indians sought an audience with the commandant, and explained their attitude. "Father," said the chieftain, "I have long wished to see thee, to recall the battles which we fought together against the misguided Indians and the English dogs. I love the French and I have come here with my warriors to avenge their wrongs."
But assured by St. Ange that such service could no longer be accepted, he gave up the struggle, and the flag of St. George rose in the place of the fair lilies of France. Thus another nationality was projected into this restricted arena, a sitnation which was imme- diately afterward still further complicated by the secret Franco- Spanish treaty, which made the west bank of the Mississippi the boundary of the Spanish possessions. "It is significant of the differ- ent races, and the varying sovereignties in this portion of our coun- try," says a writer, "that a French soldier from the Spanish City of St. Louis should be married to an Englishwoman by a French priest in the British colony of Illinois."
At the first announcement 'of the treaty, the natural hostility of the people to the English induced large numbers of the colonists to prepare to follow the French flag, and a hegira followed which swept out of the colony fully one-third of its 3,000 inhabitants. There was still a large number left, forming the largest colony in the West; but there were forces constantly at work which gradually depleted its numbers. Under the British rule, an abnormal activity among traders and land speculators was developed. The natives were constantly overreached in trade by unscrupulous persons protected by the domi- nant power, and representative of land purchasing organizations were acquiring vast tracts of country from ignorant savages, who had little comprehension of the meaning or consequences of these transac- tions. These schemes and practices, though happily brought to naught
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by the Revolution, rendered the Indians, for a time, savagely hostile, and left their blighting influence long after their removal. The lack of proper sympathy between the governing race and the governed, the hostility of the savages in which they were involved with the British, induced many of the French colonists to leave their homes as rapidly as they could make arrangements to do so.
The British garrison had hitherto occupied the old French Fort Chartres, but one day in 1772, the river having overflowed its banks and swept away a bastion and the river wall, the occupants fled with precipitate haste to the high ground above Kaskaskia, where they erect. ed a palisade fort. This was the principal achievement of the British forces, up to the beginning of the war with the colonies. In this struggle removed from the scene of active operations, the commandant, resorting to the favorite means of the British during their entire early history on this continent, furnished supplies and munitions of war to the savages, and thus equipped, incited them to war upon the un- protected frontier settlements in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Vir- ginia.
THE BRITISH NORTHWEST
During the decade 1764-74 the Indians who occupied the country northwest of the Ohio River remained at peace with the English, although in the meantime many English colonists, contrary to the proclamation of the king, the provisions of the treaty and the earnest remonstrance of the Indians, continued to make settlements on Indian lands.
When the British extended dominion over the territory of Indiana by placing garrisons at the various trading posts, in 1764-65, the total number of French families within its limits did not probably exceed eighty or ninety at Vincennes, about fourteen at Fort Ouiatenon on the Wabash, and nine or ten at the confluence of St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers, near the Twightwee Village. At Detroit and in the vicinity of that post, there were about 1,000 French residents- men, women and children. The remainder of the French population in the Northwest resided principally at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher, and in the vicinity of these villages ; and the whole French population northwest of the Ohio, at. the time, did not exceed 3,000 souls.
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CHAPTER II
THE AMERICAN NORTHWEST
CLARK AS ITS FATHER-CONQUERED TERRITORY ERECTED INTO COUNTY OF ILLINOIS-FRENCH REBEL AT LIBERTY-ORGANIZATION AND DIVI- SION OF NORTHWEST TERRITORY-THE COUNTRY OF THE ILLINOIS AND THE WABASH-INDIANS CROWDED BY WHITES-PROPHET'S TOWN FOUNDED-HARRISON, TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET "FIGHT IT OUT"-INDIANA AND HARRISON IN THE WAR OF 1812-BATTLE OF THE THAMES RIVER, DECISIVE AMERICAN VICTORY-PEACE MOVE- MENTS-THE PUBLIC LAND SURVEY-CREATION OF THE STATE AND ITS ORIGINAL COUNTIES-STATUS OF THE COUNTRY IN 1816- DEPARTURE OF THE REDS-PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES.
The time came when the cultured people from the old Eastern, Middle and Southern states, as well as those who were instinctively adventuresome, not only filtered into the Northwest Territory along the borders of the Ohio, but commenced to sift down from the Ca- nadian north and the country of the former French Louisiana. The Americans, from long military experience with the French and British and backwoods warfare with the Indians, had at last obtained the upper hand in the control of the vast stretch of prairies, lakes, wood- lands and forests between the Ohio and the headwaters of the Missis- sippi, and were now to subdue the dusky occupants of that wonderful region, who still claimed it by virtue of the fact that, as far back as tradition went, they had hunted and fished over it, and wrestled back and forth over it in the course of their tribal quarrels and wars of extermination.
The time was at hand when a higher civilization placed no light hand upon this glorious land of possibilities and, according to the ways of the world and the course of human history, the weaker were to be crowded out that a better period for America and the world might be introduced. No people were ever better trained, or more admirably adapted for the work in hand than the keen, hardy Amer- ican soldiers and pioneers of those days. Never in the world's history were such brave and intelligent leaders at hand, who combined strong traits of statesmanship and conciliatory talents, with absolute fear-
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lessness and rare military ability. Such men as Clark and Harrison were shrewder than the wiliest savages, in the ranks of their sol- diers were woodsmen who could outtrack and outscent the most skillful Indians of the Northwest; and their muscles were of iron and their nerves steel in the shock of physical combat. Sustained by more sanitary and generous physical conditions than were enjoyed by the Indians of the wilds, the whites of this period and country were even superior in physique to the reds. That fact, added to their mental advantages, made only one outcome possible when the final clash came.
Following the subjugation of the Indians of the Northwest, espe- cially those who then roamed or tarried in what is now Northern Indiana, was the preparation of the land for the establishment of the homes and families of the whites. This included surveys of the unorganized territory, and afterward the political and civil creation of counties and other divisions indicative of American order, govern- ment and general development.
The story of these phases of Indiana history so closely linked with the birth of Kosciusko County is one of rare interest, and the main features of that narrative are set forth at this point.
CLARK, FATHER OF AMERICAN NORTHWEST
Had there been no George Rogers Clark, or someone with his military and diplomatic genius, it is doubtful whether there would ever have been an American Northwest. So disastrous in their con- sequences and distracting in their influence were the Indian attacks incited by the British during the earlier period of the Revolutionary war that to Colonel Clark was assigned the delicate and arduous task of counteracting them, so as to render the frontiers of the North- west comparatively safe.
Recognizing the British posts at Kaskaskia and Vincennes as the source of the Indians' supplies and inspiration, Colonel Clark directed his efforts toward the capture of these points and, enlisting the interests of Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia, and securing such help as he could give, Clark was able, on June 24, 1778, to start from the Falls of the Ohio with 153 men for lower Illinois. So skilfully did he manage his movements that he caught the garrison napping and captured, on the 5th of July, both force and fort, without shedding a drop of blood. Cahokia, in the like manner fell without a blow.
Clark's original plan contemplated the attack of Vincennes as the first object of his campaign, but on reaching the Falls of the Ohio,
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his force being so much smaller than he had expected he found it necessary to change his plan of operations. In his journal, Clark gives his reasons for the change as follows: "As Post Vin- cennes, at that time, was a town of considerable force, consisting of nearly 400 militia, with an Indian town adjoining, and great numbers continually in the neighborhood, and, in the scale of Indian affairs of more importance than any other, I had thought of attacking it first ; but now found that I could by no means venture near it. I resolved to begin my career in the Illinois, where there were more inhabitants, but scattered in different villages, and less danger of being immediately overpowered by the Indians; in case of necessity, we could probably make our retreat to the Spanish side of the Missis- sippi; but if successful, we might pave our way to possession of Post Vincennes."
CONQUERED TERRITORY ERECTED INTO ILLINOIS COUNTY
This shrewd forecast of the situation dealing with the conquered posts of Kaskaskia and Cahokia was re-enforced by the announce- ment of the treaty entered into between France and the colonies, and in August the delegation of French citizens, which had been sent from Kaskaskia to Vincennes, returned bearing the joyful news that the whole population had sworn public allegiance to the United States, and had displayed the American flag. On receipt of this intelligence from Clark, the Virginia Assembly in October erected the whole territory thus conquered into the County of Illinois and provided for its government. This first attmpt to organize the county west of the Ohio was thwarted, however, by the descent of the British from Detroit in the following December.
The French population had garrisoned the fort at the suggestion of Clark, who subsequently sent Captain Helm as a representative of the American government and an agent to the Indians. On the approach of the British Captain Helm and one private alone occupied the fort, who, by putting on a bold front, obtained from the besiegers the honors of war. This sudden change in the situation boded serious evil to the Kentucky frontier, and necessitated prompt action upon the part of Colonel Clark. Learning in December, 1779, that the English commandant, Henry Hamilton, had greatly weakened his force by sending detachments elsewhere, Clark determined to attack the enemy at once with what troops he could collect. After enduring almost incredible hardships and overcoming obstacles that would have been insurmountable to any less determined officer, Clark found
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himself once more before the enemy. Here his skilful disposition and unparalleled audacity were again crowned with success, and on February 24th, he received the capitulation of the English garrison.
The temporary success of the English did not long defer the plans of the Virginia commonwealth and the conquered territory was at ouce placed under control of civil authority, John Todd representing the sovereignty of Virginia as county lieutenant. This was the fore- runner of the Northwest Territory and the birth of civil government in the Northwest. Todd's instructions were broad enough to meet the whole case; he was to conciliate the French and Indians; to inculcate in the people the value of liberty, and to remove the griev- ances that obstruct the happiness, and increase the prosperity of that country. These certainly were the great ends to be achieved if possible.
FRENCH REBEL AT LIBERTY
The French population was easily conciliated, but the education of a lifetime, and the hereditary characteristics of the race rendered them incapable of appreciating the value of liberty. They had grown up under the enervating influence of the most arbitrary manifestations of monarchical government, and self-government involved too great a risk for this simple folk. The result was a lack of sympathy with the new order of things; more decided, perhaps, than under British rule. To this was added a business competition, to which they were un- accustomed; more frequent hostile incursions of the Indians in which the savages gradually forgot the old-time love for the French, and the repeated losses by the inundations of the river, made up a sum of discouragements which gradually depleted this country of the French inhabitants. This loss was but imperfectly repaired, notwith- standing the fertility of the soil had been widely published, and a considerable number had already found much better advantages there than the older colonies afforded; yet the Indian depredation that followed the Revolutionary war deterred others from following until the general pacification at Greenville in 1795.
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