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 3
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ORGANIZATION AND DIVISION OF NORTHWEST TERRITORY
On the 13th of July, 1787, Congress passed an ordinance for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio River, which had been ceded to the United States by Virginia three years before,
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
and in October following Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair was elected by Congress as governor. In July, 1788, the governor arrived at Fort Harmar (now Marietta, Ohio), where during that year, the temporary government of the territory was organized. During the first two years of his administrations St. Clair was busily engaged with the details of government organization and negotiating with the Indian tribes, who found it difficult to understand the principles upon which the whites made war. On the 8th of January, 1790, the governor found leisure to proceed to Kaskaskia to organize the government in that quarter. In August, 1788, Congress had provided for the adjustment of land disputes among the settlers at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and on the arrival of St. Clair early in 1790 this matter engrossed the larger part of his attention. Among the earliest acts of administration was the erection of the first county under the . ordinance of 1787, including all the present State of Illinois ex- tending as far north as the mouth of Little Mackinaw Creek, and named St. Clair after the governor.
THE COUNTRY OF THE ILLINOIS AND WABASH (1790)
The general situation is described by the governor in his report to the Secretary of War as follows: "The Illinois country, as well as that upon the Wabash, has been involved in great distress ever since it fell under the American dominion. The people with great cheerfulness supplied the troops under George Rogers Clark and the Illinois regiment with everything they could spare, and often with much more than they could spare with any convenience to themselves. Most of the certificates for these supplies are still in their hands unliquidated, and in many instances, when application has been made to the State of Virginia, under whose authority the certificates were granted, payment has been refused. The Illinois regiment being disbanded, a set of men pretending to the authority of Virginia, embodied themselves, and a scene of general depredation ensued. To this succeeded three successive and extraordinary inudations of the Mississippi, which either swept away their crops or prevented their being planted; the loss of the greater part of their trade with the Indians, as well as the hostile incursions of some of the tribes which had ever before been in friendship with them ; and to these was added the loss of the whole of their crops of corn by an untimely frost. Extreme misery could not fail to be the consequence of such accumu- lated misfortunes."
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INDIANA TERRITORY CREATED AND DIVIDED
On the 7th of May, 1800, the President of the United States ap- proved an act of Congress, entitled "An Act to Divide the Territory Northwest of the Ohio into two Separate Governments." The one retaining the former name was composed of the present State of Ohio, a small part of Michigan, and a small part of Indiana, being that part in the southeast corner which had been ceded to the United States by the Indians, in the treaty of Greenville. The other district
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON
was denominated the Indiana Territory, and embraced all the region east of the Mississippi and between the lakes and the Ohio. The population of all this tract of country, by the census of 1800 was 4.875, of which a small portion in Clark's grant was of English descent ; the remainder, mostly of French extraction, resided at or near Kaskaskia, Vincennes and Detroit.
William Henry Harrison was appointed governor of Indiana Territory, and during his administration he discovered and thwarted the reckless speculation in public lands, which was greatly interfering with the prosperity of the new territory. Governor Harrison thus describes the situation in a letter from Vincennes to Mr. Madison :
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
"The court established at this place, under the authority of the State of Virginia, in the year 1780, assumed to themselves the right of granting lands to every applicant. Having exercised this power for some time, without opposition, they began to conclude that their right over the land was supreme, and they could, with as much pro- priety, grant to themselves as to others. Accordingly an arrangement was made by which the whole country, to which the Indian title was supposed to be extinguished, was divided between the members of the court, and orders to that effect were entered on their journal, each member absenting himself from court on the day the order was to be made in his favor, so that it might appear to be the act of his fellows only. The authors of this ridiculous transaction soon found that no advantage could be derived from it, as they could find no purchasers, and the idea of holding any part of the land was by the greater part of them abandoned. A few years ago, however, the claim was discovered, and a part of it purchased by some of those speculators who infest our country, and through these people a number of others, in different parts of the United States, have hecome con- cerned, some of whom are actually preparing to make settlements. The price at which the land is sold enables anybody to become a purchaser, one thousand acres being frequently given for an indiffer- ent horse or rifle gun." By the treaty of 1795, the whole of the Indian Territory was reserved to the Indians, and, during his admin- istration, Governor Harrison was engaged in negotiating with the natives for further cessions of their lands.
ORIGINAL INDIANA COUNTIES
In 1805, Michigan was made a separate territory, and the same year the first Legislature for Indiana Territory was assembled at Vincennes. There were then five counties in the territory-Knox, Dearborn and Clark within the present bounds of Indiana, and St. Clair and Randolph within those of Illinois. At the session of 1808, the County of Harrison was formed, and an apportionment of the representatives to the Legislature was made, by which three mem- bers were to be elected from the County of Knox, one from Harrison, two from Clark and three from Dearborn-nine in all. The Territory of Indiana was divided in 1809, and the western part denominated Illinois. The boundary then, as now, was the Lower Wabash, and the line running north from Vincennes, where it last leaves the Wabash. In 1810, the counties of Gibson, Warwick, Washington, Perry, Swit- zerland and Posey were added, and in 1815 the law creating Jackson Vol. 1-2
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and Orange was passed. Governor Harrison having been appointed, in the fall of 1812, to command the Northwestern army, Thomas Posey was appointed governor of the territory, and in the following year the seat of government was moved from Vincennes to Corydon.
INDIANS CROWDED BY WHITES
It will be observed that when the colonies had achieved their independence, and as a nation, through the cession of Virginia, became heir to the vast territory northwest of the Ohio, there existed a prior claim to that country, and one that was not likely to be easily extinguished. Notwithstanding the repeated attempts of the national Government to obtain a peaceable possession and its partial success in securing favorable treaties with the various tribes, it required the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne, before the Greenville treaty in 1795 gave to the whites the undisputed possession of what is now the State of Ohio. But the boundaries established by this treaty gave the Indian nations all the territory within the present State of Indiana, except the following tracts :
1-One tract six miles square, where the City of Fort Wayne is now situated.
2-One tract two miles square, on the Wabash River, at the end of the portage from the Maumee River, about eight miles westward from Fort Wayne.
3-One tract six miles square, at the old Wea towns on the Wabash.
4-The tract called the "Illinois Grant," made to Gen. George Rogers Clark, near the Falls of the Ohio, consisting of 150,000 acres.
5-The Town of Vincennes and adjacent lands, to which the Indian title had been extinguished, and all similar lands at other places in possession of the French and other settlers.
6-The strip of land east of the boundary line, running directly from the site of Fort Recovery, so as to intersect the Ohio River at a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky.
When General Harrison became Governor of Indiana Territory, he was invested with authority by the general government to make such further treaties as would best extinguish the claims on the Indians. Accordingly at Vincennes, September 17, 1802, a meeting of certain chiefs and head men of the Pottawatomie, Eel River, Kick- apoo, Piankeshaw, Kaskaskia and Wea tribes, appointed the chiefs, Little Turtle and Richardville, to settle a treaty for the extinguish- ment of Indian claims to certain lands on the borders of the Wabash, in the vicinity of Vincennes. On June 7, 1803, at Fort Wayne, cer-
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
tain chiefs and head men of the Delaware, Shawnee, Pottawatomie, Eel River, Kickapoo, Piankeshaw and Kaskaskia tribes ceded to the United States about 1,600,000 acres of land. Again at Vincennes. on the 18th day of August of the following year, the Delawares ceded their claims to the tract of land lying between the Wabash and the Ohio rivers, and south of the road which led from Vincennes to the Falls of the Ohio, the Piankeshaws relinquishing their claims to the same tract a few days later. By a treaty concluded near Vincennes, August 21, 1805, the governor secured from certain chiefs and war- riors of the Delaware, Pottawatomie, Miami, Eel River and Wea tribes the cession of their lands lying southeast of the line running northeasterly from a point about fifty-seven miles due east from Vincennes, so as to strike the general boundary line (running from a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky River to Fort Recov- ery), at the distance of fifty miles from the commencement on the Ohio. On the 30th of December, this year, at Vincennes, the Pianke- shaw tribe ceded about 2,600,000 acres of land lying west of the Wabash, and at Fort Wayne, September 30, 1809, the chiefs of the Delaware, Eel River, Pottawatomie and Miami tribes ceded about 2,900,000 acres of land lying principally on the southeastern side of the Wabash, below the mouth of Raccoon Creek. The chiefs of the Wea tribe in the following month met Governor Harrison at Vin- cennes, and acknowledged the validity of the treaty, which was also confirmed by the sachems and war chiefs of the Kickapoos December 9, 1809, besides ceding a further tract of 113,000 acres of land.
PROPHET'S TOWN FOUNDED
Thus far the Indians had maintained amicable relations with the whites, though it was becoming evident that there was a disturbing element among them brewing discontent. In 1805, Tecumseh and his brother La-le-was-i-kaw (Loud Voice) resided at one of the Dela- ware villages on the west fork of the White River, within the present limits of the County of Delaware. Some time during that year, Loud Voice took upon himself the character of prophet and reformer, and earnestly inveighed against the use of whiskey, the practice of Indian women marrying white men, and the selling of lands, pointing out the deterioration of the natives by their contact with the whites and the tendency of the policy adopted. His crusade against these evils attracted quite a band of Shawnees about him, who about the end of 1805 moved to Greenville, Ohio. The increase of their numbers and the knowledge of their sentiments with reference to the whites
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aroused considerable alarm among the settlers until the spring of 1808, when the band moved to the Wabash near the mouth of Tippe- canoe Creek, where they establishd the famous Prophet's Town.
HARRISON, TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET
These proceedings had not escaped the watchful eye of Governor Harrison, who sent repeated remonstrances and warnings to the band. The only result was to call forth from the Prophet a deprecatory reply and a profession of friendship for the whites. The matter pro- ceeded until in 1810 a rupture seemed likely to occur at any moment.
In August, Tecumseh, accompanied by seventy-five warriors, came to Vincennes to have an interview with Governor Harrison. From the 12th to the 22d there was a series of conferences which developed the grievances and determinations of the natives.
Tecumseh said: "Since the treaty of Greenville you have killed some Shawnees, Winnebagoes, Delawares and Miamis, and you have taken our land from us; and I do not see how we can remain at peace with you if you continue to do so. If the land is not restored to us, you will see, when we return to our homes, how it will be settled. We shall have a great council, at which all the tribes will be present, when we shall show to those who sold, that they had no right to the claim they set up; and we shall see what will be done with those chiefs that did sell the land to you. I am not alone in this determination. It is the determination of all the warriors and red people that listen to me." -
At a subsequent talk Governor Harrison asked Tecumseh specific- ally if the Indians would forcibly resist an attempt to survey the lands ceded at Fort Wayne, and was answered in substance that they would resist. Said he: "We do not wish you to take the lands."
Governor Harrison replied that his "claims and pretensions would not be recognized by the President of the United States."
"Well," said Tecumseh, "as the great chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great Spirit will put enough sense into his head to induce him to direct you to give up the land. It is true he is so far off that he will not be injured by the war. He may sit still in his town and drink his wine while you and I will have to fight it out."
In the meantime the disaffection among the Indians was increased by the action of the British authorities in Canada, though no posi- tive hostilities occurred until the middle of 1811. During the sum- mer of that year depredations were committed by straggling parties upon the property of the settlers. Several surveying parties were
.
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
driven away, and others killed. During this period Governor Harri- son was striving by peaceful means to break up the confederation of tribes, and preparing to erect a fort on the Wabash for the protec- tion of the settlers of that region. In the latter part of June, Harrison sent an address to Tecumseh and the Prophet, to which the chiefs made a long reply and proposed again to visit the governor in person. In pursuance of that project, Tecumseh came to Vincennes late in
TECUMSEH
July, with about 300 attendants; but, being met by a formidable array of troops, repeated his assurances of amicable intentions, and immediately left to draw the southern tribes into the confederation.
"FOUGHT IT OUT" AT PROPHET'S TOWN
During these negotiations, the governor suspected the designs of the Indians, and, though at one time partially convinced that the
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
chiefs would allow matters to be adjusted without an appeal to arms, had finally become impressed with the necessity of suppressing the confederation centering at Prophet's Town. To this end, acting under the authority of the general government, a force of some 900 men set out in September from Vincennes under command of Harrison. The little army moved up the Wabash and erected Fort Harrison on the east bank of the river, above where the City of Terre Haute now stands. Leaving a small garrison there, the remainder of the army moved in the direction of Prophet's Town, encamping on the 2d of November two miles below the mouth of the Big Vermillion River, where a small block house was erected on the west bank of the Wabash. Leaving a sergeant with eight men to garrison it, with orders to protect the boats employed in transporting supplies to the army, the remainder of the force proceeded to the Indian village. arriving at that place on the 6th of November.
As the Indians showed no disposition to give battle, the little army selected a camping site on the banks of Burnett Creek, seven miles northeast of the present City of Lafayette. The troops encamped in order of battle, with clothes and accoutrements on, firearms loaded and bayonets fixed.
The Indians began the attack at a quarter past four in the morn- ing, immediately after the governor had risen to prepare for the busi- ness of the day. But a single gun was fired by the sentinels, or by the guard, in the direction of the attack, as the outpost retreated to the camp. Though the troops were asleep on their arms, they were soon at their stations, albeit the war-whoop and the attack so soon followed the first alarm that the lines were broken in several places, and one of the companies was driven from its position in the line toward the center of the camp.
The want of concert among the Indians and their irregular mode of warfare, did not allow them to take full advantage of their suc- cess, or of the blunders of their opponents, so that as the resistance was very obstinate along the line, in the end they were obliged to retreat in great haste. The loss of General Harrison's force amounted to 37 killed and 151 wounded, of which latter number 25 afterward died of their injuries. The Indians engaged in the battle of Tippe- canoe were probably between 600 and 700, and their loss was about equal to that of the whites.
After burning the Indian village, which had been abandoned by the savages, the army returned to Vincennes on the 17th of Novem- ber. The result of the expedition was favorable to the peace of the frontiers. Immediately after their defeat, the surviving Indians,
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having lost faith in their leader, returned to their respective tribes, the Prophet taking up his residence among the small band of Wyan- dots.
INDIANA AND HARRISON IN THE WAR OF 1812
The rupture of the peaceful relations between the United States and Great Britain by the American declaration of war in June, 1812, was foreshadowed for some time previous, and the Canadian authori- ties, taking advantage of the Indian disturbances of the preceding year, had found no difficulty in securing the support of the North- western tribes. Accordingly, the culmination of the international differences was preceded by various acts of hostility on the part of the defeated Indians.
The American government had not been unmindful of the situa- tion, and, during the spring and summer of 1812, had caused the erection of block houses and picketed forts throughout the Indiana settlements which were exposed to Indian depredations. Notwith- standing these precautions, on the 11th of April preceding the declara- tion of war, an attack was made on a settlement on the west side of the Wabash about thirty-five miles above Vincennes. The wife of Mr. Hutson, his four children and his hired man, were murdered in his absence, and on the 22d Mr. Harryman, with his wife and five children, was killed on the same side of the Wabash, at the mouth of Embarrass Creek, about five miles from Vincennes.
About the middle of May following, a great council of the Indians was held at one of their villages on the Mississinewa River, at which nearly all the Northwestern tribes were represented. The general expression at this council was in favor of maintaining peaceful rela- tions 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, with the assistance of the British, soon successfully attacked the northern forts at Mackinaw and Chicago.
On the 16th of August, General Hull surrendered Detroit, which so emboldened the Winnebagoes, Pottawatomies and Kickapoos, that they sent out war parties to prey upon the frontier settlements. Two men were killed while making hay near Fort Harrison on the 3d of September. On the 4th, an attack was made upon the fort, during which one of the block houses was set on fire, the garrison, however, eventually repelling the attack. On the 3d occurred the Pigeon Roost massacre. Two men hunting bee trees were surprised and
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
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.
In August, 1812, Governor Harrison was appointed major gen- eral of the forces being raised in Kentucky, and in the middle of Sep- tember arrived with a force of 2,700 men at Fort Wayne, where a party of Indians had been besieging the place since the beginning of the war. They retreated on the approach of the relieving force, Gen- eral Harrison sending out several detachments in pursuit. The sol- diers failed to overtake the savages, but destroyed the important 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 September, General Harrison was invested with the command of the Northwestern army. Assigning 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 command of General Hopkins, set. out early in November for the purpose of penetrating the Indian country as far as Prophet's Town, which had been rebuilt. That vil- lage and a large one in the 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 repnlse. 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 their objective, though naturally easy of defense, the place was found to have been deserted by the Indians. Lack of clothing and the severity of the weather made further pursuit of the savages impracticable, and the expedition returned to Vincennes.
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 that quarter. Although the Miamis professed to be neutral, their participation in the attacks on Forts Wayne and Harrison made it probable that a favorable oppor- tnnity wonld render them susceptible to the influence of the hostile tribes. A detachment of 600 troops proceeded from Dayton, Ohio,
.
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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 half an hour before daylight, 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 in command of Little Thunder, a nephew of Little Turtle, suffered a much heavier loss and were forced to make a hasty retreat, leaving the whites in possession 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 sum- mer Perry's victory on 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.
PEACE MOVEMENTS
On the 22d of July, 1814, Harrison concluded a treaty at Green- ville, 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.
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