USA > Indiana > White County > A standard history of White County Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and county, Vol. I > Part 7
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE
The judges and juries were soon in action and in July, 1805, the first Legislature of the Territory of Indiana met at Vincennes. At that time Indiana had been shorn of Michigan for about six months, and in 1809 Illinois was carved away, leaving its territory as at present.
GOVERNOR HARRISON, FATHER OF INDIANA
Governor and General Harrison is acknowledged to be the father of a settled and secure Indiana. Within five years from the time he assumed control of affairs, both civil and military, he had perfected treaties with the Indians securing cessions to 46,000 square miles of territory, including all the lands lying on the borders of the Ohio River, between the mouth of the Wabash River and the western boundary of the State of Ohio. At the same time, in co-operation with the Legisla- ture, he guided the revision and improvement of the territorial statutes, and at his recommendation Congress established several land offices. In 1804 three were opened-at Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, re- spectively-and in 1807, a fourth at Jeffersonville, Clark County.
INDIAN COMPLAINTS NOT GROUNDLESS
But despite treaties and the protection of the National Government, personified by such a rugged character as Harrison, the original lords of the soil continued to show just causes for uneasiness and indignation. Even the governor, in his 1806 message to the Legislature, remarked that they were already making complaints, some of them far from groundless. While the laws of the territory provided for the same pun- ishment for offenses committed against Indians as against white men, unhappily there was always a wide difference in the execution of those laws. The Indian was, in all cases, the sufferer. That partiality did not escape their observation. On the contrary it afforded them an opportunity of making strong comparisons between their own observance of treaties and that of their boasted superiors.
During the period from 1805 to 1810, especially, the Indians com- plained bitterly against the encroachments of the whites upon the lands which they had not ceded. Not only the invasion of their favorite hunting grounds, but the unjustifiable killing of many of their people, were frequent charges which they brought to the attention of Harri- son. An old chief, in laying the troubles of his people before the gover- nor, said earnestly : "You call us your children ; why do you not make us as happy as our fathers, the French, did? They never took from us our lands; indeed, they were in common between us. They planted where they pleased; and they cut wood where they pleased; and so did we. But now, if a poor Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own."
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET IMPLACABLE
All such complaints found voice in Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet, the one playing upon the superstitions and passions of the Indians and the other organizing them into a strong confederacy, which was to control the disposition of lands instead of allowing them to be ceded by separate and disunited tribes. Both in 1808 and 1809 the Prophet visited Harrison at Vincennes to assure him of his friendliness and to protest against the charge that he and Tecumseh were in league with the British. In the later part of the year 1809 it was estimated that the total quantity of land ceded to the United States under treaties which had been effected by the governor exceeded 30,000,000 acres; and all of these concessions were accomplished in direct opposition to the influence of Tecumseh and the Prophet; but the break between these powerful leaders of the white and the red races was near at hand.
In July, 1810, Governor Harrison made an attempt to gain the friendship of the Prophet by sending him a letter offering to treat with him personally in the matter of his grievances, or to furnish means to send him, with three of his principal chiefs, to the President at Wash- ington. The bearer of this letter was coldly received both by Tecumseh and the Prophet, and the only answer he received was that Tecumseh, in a few days, would visit Vincennes and interview the governor; this he did, with seventy of his principal warriors, in the following month. For over a week conferences were carried on with the haughty Shawnee chief, who on the 20th of August delivered an ultimatum to Harrison, to the effect that he should return their lands or fight.
While the governor was replying to Tecumseh's speech, the Indian chief interrupted him to declare angrily that the United States govern- ment, through General Harrison, had "cheated and imposed on the In- dians." Whereupon a number of the Indian warriors present sprung to their feet and brandished their clubs, tomahawks and spears. The governor's guards, which stood a short distance off, marched quickly up, and the red men quieted down, Tecumseh being ordered to his camp.
On the following day Tecumseh apologized and requested another interview. The council was thereupon reopened, but while the Shawnee leader addressed Harrison in a respectful manner, he did not recede from his former demand as to the restoration of the Indian lands.
The governor then requested Tecumseh to state plainly whether or not the lands purchased at the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809 could be surveyed without molestation by the Indians, and whether or not the Kickapoos would receive their annuities in payment for such cession. The proposed grant was partly in Illinois. Tecumseh replied : "Brother, when you speak of annuities to me, I look at the land and pity the women and children. I am authorized to say that they will not receive them. Brother, we want to save that piece of land. We do not wish you to take it. It is small enough for our purpose. If you do take it, you must blame yourself as the cause of the trouble between us and the tribes who sold it to you. I want the present boundary line to continue. Should Vol. 1-2
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
you cross it, I assure you it will be productive of bad consequences." This talk terminated the council.
On the following day Governor Harrison; attended only by his in- terpreter, visited Tecumseh's camp and told him that the United States would not acknowledge his claims. "Well," replied the Indian, "as the great chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great Spirit will put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct you to give up this land. It is true, he is so far off 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."
Tecumseh's last visit to the governor previous to the battle of Tippecanoe, which crushed the red man's power in Indiana and the Northwest, was on July 27, 1811. He brought with him a considerable force of Indians, but that showing was offset by the 750 well-armed militia which Governor Harrison reviewed with some ostentation. The interview was conciliatory on the part of Tecumseh, who, however, re- peated that he hoped no attempts would be made to settle on the lands sold to the United States at the Fort Wayne Treaty, as the Indians wished to keep them for hunting grounds. He then departed for the express purpose of inducing the southern Indians to join his confederacy.
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE
While Tecumseh was absent on that mission the battle of Tippe- canoe was fought under the leadership of the Prophet, and Indiana be- came white man's land forever. After Governor Harrison had exhausted every means to maintain peace with the Indian leader he resorted to decisive military measures. His army moved from Vincennes in Sep- tember, 1811; he built a new fort on the Wabash in the following month, resumed his march, and on the 6th of November, after an unsatisfactory conference with a representative of the Prophet, about half a mile from the town, encamped on the battleground, six miles north of the present City of Lafayette. The selection of that location is said to have been at the suggestion of the Indians, who pronounced it a good place for a camp; the Prophet may therefore to be said to have selected the ground on which his people met with such signal defeat.
General Harrison's force consisted of about 250 regular troops, 600 Indiana militia and 150 volunteers from Kentucky. Just before day- break of the 7th of November the Indians made a sudden attack on that part of the camp guarded by the militia. They broke at the first on- slaught, but soon reformed, and the entire body of Americans presented a determined front to the wily foe, but did not attempt an offensive until it was light, when several gallant charges were made by the troops and the Indians totally defeated. The Indians being familiar with the ground had been able to inflict severe losses on the Americans. Among the killed were Maj. Jo Daviess, the gifted and brave Kentuckian and Col. Isaac White, the gallant Virginian, who fell side by side while lead- ing a charge of dragoons.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
SKETCH OF COL. ISAAC WHITE
By George F. White
It is gratifying to know that the county was named in honor of so brave a gentleman as Col. Isaac White, an interesting sketch of whom has been written by his grandson, George F. White. As stated by the author, "much of the information was gained orally from his father, some from his cousins in Virginia and some from old letters."
The article follows : "Isaac White was born in Prince William County, Virginia, shortly after the beginning of the Revolutionary war. The exact year is not known, but from the record of his initiation in 1811, as member of Vincennes Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M., in which he states his age was then thirty-five years and from certain interesting family notes written by Mrs. Sarah M. Hayden, it is likely he was born in 1776. His father was probably of English origin and was a man of education, refinement and good standing for before he settled in Virginia, he held a captain's commission in the British Merchant Marine Service. Sur- rendering this office he purchased a large tract of land in Prince William County, and devoted himself to farming until the Revolution began when he took up arms with the colonies and lost his life, near the close of the conflict, nobly battling for his country.
"The old house where he lived, a substantial stone structure, indicat- ing a home of refinement and luxury, is still standing in an excellent state of preservation, near Brentsville, Virginia, the county seat of Prince William County. In this home Isaac White was born as was also his elder brother, Thomas, and one younger sister, Katie, and here he continued to live with his mother, assisting her as he grew in age and experience until he was past twenty-three years old, when an unhappy event in his mother's life impelled him and his brother Thomas to seek a more adventurous career in the great Northwest Territory.
"It seems that one day when the two sons and all the male tenants of the plantation were absent, a strange man called at the house and asked for something to eat, and in accordance with the hospitality of those days, his request was at once granted but, not satisfied with such kindly treatment, he demanded of her the keys to the drawers where the family treasures were kept. She refused and he tried to get them from her by force. Her screams attracted the attention of a neighbor who, as the account states, was 'a bachelor gentleman,' on a hunting expedition, who rushed in and brained the would-be robber at once. For this chivalrous act he was arrested, tried, acquitted and wholly exonerated from all blame. As stated, he was 'a bachelor gentleman,' she a widow. His was a heart innocent, confiding and susceptible, while she, like most widows, was conversant with all the wiles and snares which so beset the pathway of bachelors. He was weak. She was strong. He surrendered : they were married and 'lived happily ever after.'
"Of course her two sons, Thomas and Isaac, objected to this union, but to no avail. However, they remained with their mother until their sister Katie was married, and then with only a small amount of money
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
left home and went to Vincennes, which was soon to become the Capitol of the Northwest Territory. This was in the early part of the year 1800. His appearance at Vincennes created some excitement, as he was full of spirit, well bred, dashing and a general favorite with all, but especially with the young ladies. Mrs. Hayden's notes are full of references to the family of Judge George Leech, then living at Vincennes, and especially of his oldest daughter, Sallie, who soon succeeded in capturing the heart and affections of our hero.
"Such, in brief, is the account coming to us from Mrs. Hayden, whose mother was formerly Miss Amy Leech, a sister to Sallie, who became the wife of the subject of this article. This Amy Leech subse- quently became the wife of the Hon. John Marshall, for many years President of the Bank of Illinois, at Shawneetown, Illinois.
"Isaac White was somewhat aristocratic, his wife seems to have been an honest well-meaning backward girl of her period, but their marriage was a most happy one. It is thought Judge Decker officiated at the wedding which was some event as the wedding dinner is said to have been quite an elaborate affair.
"This gentleman, Judge George Leech, into whose family Isaac White married, had emigrated from Louisville, Kentucky, to Vincennes, in 1784, and the members of his family had each selected homesteads in Knox County, but after three years of hardships among the Indians, all except Francis Leech, who had died, moved back to Louisville, but nine years later, in 1796, Judge Leech moved back again to Vincennes, but the Governor of the Northwest Territory refused to allow him to re-occupy his old home, though it was vacant, and he was compelled to occupy the land which had been his brother's. After William Henry Harrison was appointed Governor of the Northwest Territory, Judge Leech was granted one hundred acres more land which he gave as a mariage present to his daughter, and to this day it is known as the 'White-Hall' farm in Knox County, Indiana, and this was the nucleus of a very considerable estate which Isaac White acquired subsequent to his marriage.
"They were encompassed with the many hardships incident to pio- neer life, but they were surrounded by good neighbors and when their home was destroyed by fire, these good friends rebuilt for them a substan- tial log residence in which their only child, George Washington Leech White, was born. That the family of Isaac White was refined and highly respectable is proven by the fact that a strong friendship was cemented between it and the family of Governor Harrison which has been transmitted to their successors ..
"On April 30, 1805, Governor Harrison appointed Isaac White Agent for the United States at the Salt works at Saline Creek, Illinois, contiguous to the village of Equality in Gallatin County, Illinois. Here Isaac employed John Marshall, a man of sterling character, who after- ward became a banker and acquired a splendid reputation in Indiana and Illinois. The following year Mr. Marshall married the younger sister of Mrs. White, Miss Amy Leech. This wedding occurred October 21, 1806, and the day following both White and Marshall, accompanied by
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
their wives, departed for the Salt works. On September 8, 1806, Gov. Harrison appointed Isaac White Captain of the Knox County Militia and on September 10th, of the same year, his oath of office was taken before 'William H. Harrison.'
"The Salt works did not long survive. The Act of Congress of March 3, 1803, authorized the leasing of the springs belonging to the govern- ment and White, in 1807, had acquired an interest in the Salt works which he held until just before his death, when he disposed of it to Wilkes, Taylor & Co., and returned to Vincennes.
"While living at the Salt works he had two daughters born to him, Harriet Grandison, June 12, 1808, and Juliet Greenville, on July 30, 1810. While he was employed at the springs, White was commissioned a Colonel, probably in the Illinois Militia, which organization was per- fected under the Act of Congress of February 3, 1809. This commission is now lost but there is little doubt of its having been issued to him. Shortly after he was commissioned Colonel, occurred one of the most important incidents connected with his life. Duelling was at that time, not uncommon, especially in military circles, but Col. White had a great antipathy to that method of settling differences that arose between men. On May 23, 1811, he wrote a tender and pathetic letter to his wife saying that on the next day he would fight a duel with one Captain Butler, who had offended him, and when his offense had been resented had challenged him and he had accepted. He tells his wife in this letter to sell 'Sukey and the children' and from the proceeds buy a slave in the Territory and then having written his will, bids his wife a tender farewell.
"Their meeting took place on time at a place now called Union Springs, Kentucky, opposite Shawneetown, Illinois, but the result was somewhat different from what might have been expected. By the rules governing the code the challenged party could choose the weapons and the distance; availing himself of this privilege, Col. White chose horse pistols at a distance of six feet. Captain Butler protested, saying that it meant certain death to both, but White insisted that he had the right to name the weapons and fix the distance whereupon Butler left the field and the little affair of honor was ended. In view of the Ordinance of 1787, which prohibited Slavery in the Northwest Territory, it may seem strange that he would advise his wife to 'sell Sukey and the children' and invest the proceeds in a slave in the Territory, but it is a fact that Slavery existed for many years in the Territory and in that part which is now comprised within the limits of our own state.
"The records of Vincennes Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M., disclose the fact that on September 18, 1811, Isaac White was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason in said lodge, by Joseph Hamilton Daviess, Grand Master of Kentucky. Daviess was a Major from Kentucky, who had come to Vincennes to offer his services to Gov. Harrison, in his projected campaign against the Indians, in the Wabash Valley. With the consent of his friend, Major Daviess, White joined the expedition in the capac- ity of a private soldier, which accounts for his name being on the south
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
tablet of the Battle Ground Monument, among the 37 privates killed in this battle. His is the last name but one on this tablet. They left Vincennes on September 26, 1811, and on their departure, Daviess and White, notwithstanding one was a Major, and the other a private, ex- changed swords, and when they were afterwards found on the battle- field, each had the other's sword. Lieut. George Leech, brother-in-law of White, says both were buried in one grave under an oak still stand- ing not far from the grave in which the other dead were placed and some logs were hastily rolled over the grave and burned that the Indians might not be able to discover and loot the grave, but all to no avail, for as soon as the soldiers left, their bodies were exhumed by the Indians and left to wither and rot on the ground. Isaac White was thirty-six years of age when he met his death, yet he left, what for that period, was a considerable fortune, for notwithstanding his well known liber- ality, he died seized of several thousand acres of land in addition to a fair amount of personal property. He was a man of chivalrous man- ner, kindly and generous disposition and well beloved by his associates. In 1816, his widow married for her second husband, Samuel Marshall, brother of John Marshall, with whom she lived until her death in 1819.
"Isaac White left three children, one of which, George Washington Leech White, afterward became a prominent citizen of Indiana and served his country in the Black Hawk War;
"Harriet Grandison White, who married Albert Gallatin Sloo, at 'White-Hall' farm in Knox County, and Juliet Greenville White, who married James Huffman. From Isaac White's son, who marriage Miss Eliza Griffin Fauntleroy, of Kentucky, have descended many quite prom- inent people.
"By his Will, written with his own hand the day before his duel was to have been fought with Captain Butler, he ordered the payment of all his debts : to his wife he gave all his household and kitchen furniture and two hundred acres of land, in the same item charging her with the proper rearing of his children, and expresses the hope that his son, George, be given a classical education and especially that he be taught fencing : as to the two girls, they were to be given 'a good English education.' He gives to his neighbors, Charles White and John Justice 464 acres and seventy poles of land, one moiety to each, with certain restrictions, and also 'To my niece, Betsey White, one mare, saddle and bridle,' to be worth in cash $100. Let us indulge the hope that Betsey fully enjoyed her equine gift.
"The will then gives to his son George all the residue of his estate out of which he is to pay to his sister Harriet, at her majority or marriage, $1,500 and to his sister Juliet on the same contingency he is to pay $1,000. This Will is dated May 23, 1811, and is duly witnessed by G. C. Harlt and Francis Leech."
Several counties in this state are named in honor of those who were engaged in the battle of Tippecanoe, and when White County was organ- ized in 1834, it took its name from Isaac White, the subject of this article. On November 7, 1836, the twenty-fifth anniversary of this battle, John
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
Tipton, who then owned the Tippecanoe Battle Ground, and who was also present in the engagement, conveyed the grounds to the State of Indiana, and the constitution of our state makes it obligatory on the Legislature to forever maintain it in memory of those who participated in the battle. For many years efforts were put forth by various organizations to induce the state and Federal governments to erect a monument over the graves of those who were buried there; but not until November 7, 1908, were their efforts crowned with success. On the last named date, being the ninety-seventh anniversary of the battle, was unveiled the splendid obelisk which now towers over the graves where in solitude and silence for more than a century, have lain the bodies of those, who fell in this action. It was, judged from the men engaged, a mere skirmish, but in its results, it was one of the most important battles ever fought on this continent.
May we ever hold in loving memory the hero after whom our goodly county is named !
BIOGRAPHY BY B. WILSON SMITH
The author is pleased to add to the foregoing the main portions of the very interesting biography of Colonel White written by B. Wilson Smith and published in the historical edition of the Monticello Herald, December 8, 1910; the omissions are those portions of the sketch which would be but repetitions of the story prepared by Colonel White's grand- son, and even as given there are necessarily several overlappings of facts in the two papers.
"Thirteen counties of Indiana," says the Smith biography, "were named for heroes who fought at Tippecanoe-practically one-seventh. That battle is usually measured by the number engaged rather than the mighty issues involved. It is too easily forgotten that the last and great- est Indian confederacy on this continent, headed by the greatest of the great Indian warriors of our history, was overthrown just on the eve of its completion by the clear comprehension of General Harrison in crush- ing this gigantic combination of so many tribes before its consummation.
"For more than fifty years I have been a gatherer of scraps of infor- mation here and there of events of our State building, which unfortu- nately had no great chronicler embodied in one well equipped writer.
"Among the notable men and heroes who fought and fell at Tippe- canoe was Col. Isaac White, for whom our county is named. I think our school children ought to be taught thoroughly the early history of their State, county and towns-should know these by heart. These things should be taught at the fireside, in the schools and by the press. We forget that children learn history with avidity before they can grasp the problem of arithmetic. Memory antedates the reasoning faculties.
"Col. Isaac White was born in Prince William county, Virginia, shortly after the commencement of the Revolutionary war. The exact date of his birth is not now exactly known, but from the records of his initiation in 1811 as a member of Masonic Lodge, No. 1, of Vincennes,
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