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 8
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
Indiana, in which his age is stated to be 35 years, it is altogether likely that he was born in the year 1776. His father was an Englishman by birth and held a commission as captain of British Marines. He resigned his commission and came to Virginia, bought a large estate, and on the breaking out of the war of Independence, cast his lot with the oppressed colonies, and fought through the war till near its close, when he lost his life in defense of his adopted country. He left three children, Isaac, Thomas and daughter Katie. The first lost his life at Tippecanoe and the second was shot through the body in that battle. It was he of whom it is told that the surgeons several times drew a silk handkerchief through the wound to cleanse it. Though supposed to be mortally wounded, he recovered.
"On account of the unsatisfactory second marriage of their mother these two brothers were impelled to seek a new and more adventurous career in the Northwest Territory. They made their way to Vincennes, soon to become the capital of Indiana Territory, in the year 1800. They were not heavily cumbered with property but had a wealth of determina- tion and energy. Isaac White, the subject of this sketch, soon after his arrival met the lovely and accomplished daughter Sallie of Judge George Leech, who came to Vincennes from Louisville, Kentucky, as early as 1784, but after many hardships, ending with the burning of his home over his head by the Indians, returned to Kentucky and did not again take up his residence at Vincennes till 1796. * * * Soon after the organization of Indiana Territory, and the coming of Governor Harrison to Vincennes, the Harrisons and Whites became very intimate friends. A striking evidence of this is shown by the appointment of Mr. White as agent of the United States at the Salt Works on Saline Creek, in Gal- latin county, Illinois. The following is a copy of this appointment :
" 'Indiana Territory :
" 'William Henry Harrison, Governor and Commander in Chief of the Indiana Territory.
" '[SEAL.] To all who shall see these presents, greetings :
"Know ye, that in pursuance of instruction from the President of the United States, I have constituted and appointed, and do by these presents constitute and appoint Isaac White of Knox county to be agent for the United States, to reside at the Salt Works on Saline Creek, for the purpose of receiving and selling the salt, and to perform such other acts and things as the Government of the United States may think proper to charge him with. This commission to continue during pleasure.
" 'Given under my hand and the seal of the Territory, at Vincennes, this 30th day of April, 1805, and of the Independence of the United States the Twenty-ninth.
" 'WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
" 'By the Governor.
" 'Jno. Gibson, secretary.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
"During the year 1806 Governor Harrison appointed Mr. White a captain in a regiment of Knox county, commission dated Sept. 10th, 1806. (The commission by copy is now before me). After a short serv- ice as agent for the Government at the Saline, he on the change of the Government as agent, became a lessee with partners and during this relation acquired considerable property. This interest he sold during the summer of 1811 and removed with his family to Vincennes.
"It is claimed by some that he was appointed colonel of Illinois Militia during his sojourn at the Saline. (Illinois was organized as a Territory Feb. 3rd, 1809.) But I am quite sure this is a mistake. He never was colonel of an Illinois regiment, and never brought an Illinois company with him to the Battle of Tippecanoe, but he was colonel of the 3rd Regiment of Indiana Militia and tendered this regiment to Governor Harrison for the expedition to the Prophets' town.
"A very important incident occurred in Col. White's life just before leaving the Saline in Illinois during the year 1811. He was challenged to fight a duel by one Mr. Butler. Though, unlike most Virginians of that day, he was morally opposed to dueling, yet he thought there were cases where it could not be avoided. Particularly a military man when challenged could not decline. Col. White accepted, chose horse pistols as the weapons, and six paces as the distance. The meeting place was Union Springs, Kentucky, opposite Shawneetown, Illinois. All parties were on time at the meeting, but when the terms became known, the challenger and his friends objected to the conditions as not offering any chance for the escape of either challenger or challenged. Col. White and his friends stood firmly by the terms, and the challenger and his friends abruptly and precipitately withdrew. The want of space forbids the insertion of Col. White's letter to his wife on the eve of this occurrence.
"Soon after Col. White's sale of his interest in the Illinois Salt Works and his return to Vincennes, he was entered and passed as an apprentice and fellowcraft Mason in the Masonic Lodge at Vincennes then under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, and on the 18th of September, 1811, he was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason by his friend the celebrated Colonel Joseph H. Daviess, Grand Master of Kentucky, who had come to Vincennes to offer his services to Governor Harrison in an expected campaign against the confederated Indians at the Prophet's town.
"Col. White earnestly solicited Governor Harrison to have his regi- ment (the 3rd Indiana Militia), or at least a part of it, included in the forces of the expedition but was told that the United States troops then on the way-the 4th Regiment from Pittsburgh and the other forces already organized, would be sufficient for the expedition. But he was not to be deterred, and with Thomas Randolph, late Attorney General of the Territory, he enrolled himself in the company of dragoons com- manded by Captain Parke, which company and two others were placed, as a squadron of dragoons, under command of his friend Col. Daviess. An incident of this early soldier association is worthy of mention. Col.
26
HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
Daviess and Col. White exchanged swords, and on the fatal November morning, November 7th, the sword of Col. White was found buckled to the belt of Col. Daviess, and the sword of Col. Daviess was found held in the iron grip of his friend Col. White. They had fallen side by side in that fatal charge. White was stark and cold in death, and Daviess, though living, was pierced by three balls in the breast, either of which would have been fatal. The flash of his pistol had exposed him to the deadly aim of three savages.
"At daylight the Battle of Tippecanoe was won-but at what a fear- ful price! Of the nine hundred men, one hundred and eighty-three killed and wounded, of whom thirty-seven were killed in action and twenty-five died of their wounds.
"And now, side by side, these two noble patriot friends sleep their last sleep, and with them in the same grave, their common friend, Col. Owen, an aid to General Harrison, who fell early in the action at the side of his commander. On the battlefield markers tell where Daviess and Owen fell, but by inexcusable ignorance no marker tells where Col. White fell, nor is his name on the monument among the officers, but in the list of privates. Will White county permit this neglect of the gallant soldier whose name she bears ?"
INDIAN STRAGGLERS SETTLE IN WHITE COUNTY
Milton M. Sill, in his unpublished "History of White County," has this to say about one aftermath of the battle which specifically relates to home matters: "After the decisive battle of Tippecanoe with the Pot- tawattamie Indians, and their defeat and the destruction of their prin- cipal town at the mouth of the Tippecanoe river, the remnant of that tribe, fleeing north, settled at various points on the river (two within the limits of White county) and built villages. One of their villages was located on the west bank of the river half a mile above Monticello, and the other five miles further north on the east bank near what was after- ward known as Holmes' ford. At both the villages a small patch of ground was cultivated in corn, all the labor being performed by the squaws, the men deeming it beneath their dignity to perform menial labor until they became too old for war or the chase; and even then they avoided any manual labor by being installed members of what they called the Council.
"The Pottawattamies were divided into two distinct and separate bands or tribes, each having a head man or chief, and having little, if any, communication. By far the larger section of the tribe inhabited southern Michigan and a part of northern Indiana. They were under the guidance of a chief called Pokagon, who lived to a great age, and was distinguished for his firm and unswerving friendship for the white settlers and his unflinching integrity, as well as his scholarly attain- ments which were by no means limited." As we know, the other tribe was controlled by the unfortunate Prophet.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
CHANGES IN GOVERNORS AND CAPITALS
Governor Harrison's prolonged absences from the seat of government on military duties made it necessary to place the civil administration in other hands. In 1812 and the first four months of 1813 these responsi- bilities devolved on John Gibson, secretary of the territory. In February of the latter year President Madison nominated Thomas Posey, United States senator from Louisiana, for governor of Indiana, as General Har- rison had been made commander-in-chief of the American forces in the West. Governor Posey arrived at Vincennes in May, 1813, and in December of that year the Legislature met at the new capital-Corydon, Harrison County. The State House at that place had been partially erected in 1811, but was not entirely completed until 1815.
STATE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED AT CORYDON
In December of the latter year, the Territory of Indiana applied to Congress for admission into the Union as a state, since more than 60,000 free white inhabitants then resided within its limits-to be exact, 63,897. Congress passed the enabling act in May, 1816, and the delegates elected to frame a state constitution held a convention at Corydon, lasting from the 10th to the 29th of June, of that year. Instead of deliberating in the stuffy little State House they held most of their meetings under a huge elm tree on the banks of Big Indian Creek, several hundred feet north- west of the capitol. The grand old tree still stands, fifty feet in height with a spread of branches nearly 125 feet across. The first session of the Legislature of the State of Indiana opened at the Corydon State House on November 4, 1816.
INDIANAPOLIS FIXED AS PERMANENT CAPITAL
Corydon remained the state capital until 1825, although the site of Indianapolis had been selected by the commissioners appointed for that purpose by the Legislature in 1820. In 1819 Congress had donated to the state four sections of land to be selected from any tract of the public domain then unsold, and in May of the following year the locating com- missioners fixed upon a tract on the west fork of White River near the geographical center of the state and platted the new capital as India- napolis. The seat of government of the commonwealth was moved thither in 1825, as stated, and the first state house completed in 1836. As desig- nated in the congressional grant, Indianapolis was fixed as the perma- nent capital of Indiana, and all its counties have since looked to that city as the seat of their governmental authority. The transfer of that center from Corydon was effected seven years before White County was created.
18
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5
CHAPTER III
LIFTING OF INDIAN CLAIMS
POTTAWATTAMIES, THE HOME TRIBE-THEIR CHIEF VILLAGE IN THE COUNTY-HOW THE LANDS PASSED TO THE UNITED STATES-THE FOUR BASIC CESSIONS-FIRST MIGRATION OF THE POTTAWATTAMIES-THE FINAL REMOVAL EN MASSE-THE TRIBE GATHERS AT PLYMOUTH-THE MARCH WESTWARD-POKAGON'S PROPHECIES-ANOTHER PICTURE OF THE MIGRATION.
Historians concede that the Miamis preceded the Pottawattamies in the occupation of the soil included within the present limits of Indiana. When the French first came into the country they were both being crowded south by the Sacs, Foxes and other northwestern tribes, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century the Pottawattamies had been circumscribed to the country around the southern shores of Lake Michi- gan and extending over northwestern Indiana to the Wabash River. They were inferior in every way to the Miamis and acknowledged their dependence upon them by insisting in every cession which they made of the lands they were occupying that the Miamis should sanction such action.
POTTAWATTAMIES, THE HOME TRIBE
At the beginning of the War of 1812 the Pottawattamies occupied Northwestern Indiana from the north bank of the Wabash and had sev- eral prosperous villages along the Tippecanoe and its branches. As we have seen, after the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, at least two villages of considerable size were founded in White county, the larger being on the east bank of the Tippecanoe River, at what afterward became known as Holmes' ford in Liberty Township, seven miles north of Monticello.
THEIR CHIEF VILLAGE IN THE COUNTY
When the whites first came into the county in the early '30s this Indian village consisted of nearly 100 wigwams and some 300 Pottawat- tamies. They had three or four acres adjoining the village which they cultivated to corn, pumpkins, squashes and potatoes with which to vary their meat diet of possum, venison and other wild game. They were hospitable, dirty beggars, and neither their cooking nor their personal habits appealed to the settlers, who were glad to see the last of them,
29
30
HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
mournful and romantic as was their departure for their western reserva- tion a decade later.
HOW THE LANDS PASSED TO THE UNITED STATES
Without going into the intricacies of the general, or blanket treaties, by which Great Britain and the United States secured their color of title from the Indians, it is sufficient to know that the specific treaties by which the primitive owners transferred the White County lands to the general Government were made in 1818, 1826 and 1832.
THE FOUR BASIC CESSIONS
On October 2 and 3, 1818, the Pottawattamies, Weas and Delawares -all closely related in tribal affairs-ceded their lands in Indiana west of the Tippecanoe River, the last two relinquishing all claims to real estate within the limits of the young commonwealth. The Pottawattamie treaty of October 2d, which is the most important from a White County stand- point, was concluded at St. Mary's, Ohio, between Gov. Jonathan Jen- nings, Lewis Cass and Benjamin Parke, United States commissioners, and the principal chief and warriors of the Pottawattamie nation. The fol- lowing tract was thus ceded to the general Government: Beginning at' the mouth of the Tippecanoe River and running up the same to a point, twenty-five miles in a direct line from the Wabash River, thence on a line as nearly parallel to the general course of the Wabash River, thence down the Vermillion River to its mouth, and thence up the Wabash River to the place of beginning.
Within the following eight years the Miamis, the Pottawattamies and the Weas ceded various tracts in central and western Indiana, which did not affect any territory within the present White County.
Both the Pottawattamies and the Miamis ceded all their lands east of the Tippecanoe by the treaty of October 23, 1826, the tract being thus formally described : Beginning on the Tippecanoe River where the north- ern boundary of the tract ceded by the Pottawattamies to the United State at the treaty of St. Mary's in the year 1818 intersects the same, thence in a direct line to a point on Eel River, half way between the mouth of said river and Parrish's village, thence up Eel River to Seek's village (now in Whitley County) near the head thereof, thence in a direct line to the mouth of a creek emptying into the St. Joseph's of the Miami (Maumee) near Metea's village, thence up the St. Joseph's to the boundary line between the Ohio and Indiana, thence south to the Miami (Maumee), thence up the same to the reservation at Fort Wayne, thence with the lines of the said reservation to the boundary established by the treaty with the Miamis in 1818, thence with the said line to the' Wabash River, thence with the same river, to the mouth of the Tippe-' canoe River, and thence with the Tippecanoe River to the place of beginning.
By the treaty with the Pottawattamies of October 26, 1832, a tract!
31
HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
of land in the northwestern portion of the state was obtained by the Government, which overlapped the Kickapoo cession in Illinois. It em- braced a portion of White County to the north and northwest. On the following day the Pottawattamies of Indiana and Michigan also relin- quished all claims to any remaining lands in those states, as well as in Illinois, south of Grand River, thus perfecting the Government title to a northern strip of what is now Liberty Township.
By the four treaties mentioned, the settlers of White County, the pioneers of whom commenced to come into the county at the time of these Pottawattamie cessions, were enabled to read their titles clear to their homesteads and mansions on earth.
On the 11th of February, 1836, the Government concluded the agree- ment with the Pottawattamies by which all former treaties were rati- fied and a stipulation made that they would migrate, within two years, to their reservation beyond the Missouri River, the United States to pay the expenses of such removal and furnish them one year's subsistence.
On April 23, 1836, there was introduced in the Twenty-fourth Con- gress a memorial from the Indiana Legislature asking Congress to extin- guish the title of the Pottawattamie and Miami Indians to all lands in said state. This memorial recites that said matter is one of the greatest inter- est and importance and asks that their titles be extinguished and the Indians removed from said state. This was referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed. Two years later the Indians were removed beyond the Mississippi River.
The last tribal title to lands in Indiana was not extinguished until 1872, when Congress partitioned the ten-mile reserve originally granted in 1838 to the Metosinia band of Miamis (in Wabash County) to sixty- three of the descendants of the original chief.
FIRST MIGRATION OF THE POTTAWATTAMIES
Dr. J. Z. Powell, in his "History of Cass County," published by the company which issues this work, gives an authentic and condensed ac- count of the various steps by which the Pottawattamies and Miamis were transferred to their reservations in the far West; the bands from White County were tributary streams to the main bodies which moved down the valley of the Wabash toward Illinois and the Mississippi River.
"The first emigration of the Pottawattamies," says Doctor Powell, "took place in July, 1837, under the direction of Abel C. Pepper, United States commissioner, and George Profit conducted them to their western home. There were about one hundred taken in this band and Nas-wau-gee was their chief. Their village was located on the north bank of Lake Muck-sen-cuck-ee, where Culver Military Academy (Marshall county ) now stands. The old chief, Nas-wau-gee, was a mild-mannered man and on the morning of their march to their western home, as he stood on the banks of the lake and took a last, long view of his old home to which he was never to return, he was visibly affected and tears were seen to flow from his eyes.
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HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
THE FINAL REMOVAL EN MASSE
"The last and final removal of the Pottawattamies was made in the fall of 1838. They were unwilling to go and Colonel Abel C. Pepper, then United States Indian agent stationed at Logansport, made a requisition on Governor David Wallace (father of General Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur) for a company of militia, and General John Tipton, of Logan- sport, was directed to enlist a company of one hundred men, which he speedily did. The recruits were mostly from Cass county. The names of the men composing this company of militia are not obtainable, but the writer's father, Jacob Powell, and Isaac Newton Clary, pioneers of Beth- lehem and Harrison townships, were among the number.
THE TRIBE GATHERS AT PLYMOUTH
"Sixty wagons were provided to haul the women, children and those unable to march. There were eight hundred and fifty-nine Indians en- rolled under the leadership of Chief Menominee. Their principal village was situated on Twin lake, about seven miles southwest of Plymouth, in Marshall county, where the entire tribe assembled and bid farewell to their old homes. The village consisted of one hundred and twenty wig- wams and cabins; also a chapel in which many of them were converted to Christianity by Father Petit, a missionary in Indiana at that time. Many affecting scenes occurred as these red men of the forest for the last time viewed their cabin homes and the graves of their loved ones who slept in a graveyard near their little log chapel.
THE MARCH WESTWARD
"On September 4, 1838, they began their sad and solemn march to the West. Their line of march was south on the Michigan road to Logans- port, where they encamped just south of Honey Creek on the east side of Michigan avenue, on the night of the 7th of September, 1838; and that night two of the Indians died and were buried just north of Honey creek where the Vandalia Railroad crosses the stream and on the east side of Michigan avenue; and their bones lie there to this day.
General Tipton conducted these Indians along the Wabash river through Lafayette, and on to Danville, Illinois, where he turned them over to Judge William Polke, who took them to their reservation west of the Missouri river. Many of the whites had a great sympathy for this band of Indians and thought they were wrongfully treated in their forcible removal, although, by their chiefs, they had agreed to move West.
POKAGON'S PROPHECIES
"A few of the Pottawattamies moved to northern Michigan and some remnants of this once powerful tribe have lived there to recent times. Among their number was Simon Pokagon, who died January 27, 1899.
33
HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY
Just prior to his death he wrote an article for an eastern magazine in which he said : 'As to the future of our race, it seems to me almost certain to lose its identity by amalgamation with the dominant race.' When Pokagon was asked if he thought that the white man and Indian were originally one blood, he said: 'I do not know, but from the present out- look they will be.'
"There were bands of Pottawattamie and Miami Indians in Cass and adjoining counties that moved to the West at different times; sometimes they went voluntarily, at other times they were escorted. The last of the Miamis were conducted to their reservation west of the Missisippi by Alex. Coquillard in 1847, and again in 1851."
ANOTHER PICTURE OF THE MIGRATION
By the fall of 1838 there were few Pottawattamies left in their old encampments anywhere along the Tippecanoe. Another eye-witness to their greatest march toward the setting sun, that of September in the year named, and toward which the Pottawattamies of White County contributed a considerable contingent, thus describes the enforced migra- tion : "The regular migration of the Pottawattamies took place under Colonel Abel C. Pepper and General Tipton in the summer of 1838. Hearing that this strange emigration, which consisted of about one thou- sand of all ages and sexes, would pass within eight or ten miles west of Lafayette, a few of us procured horses and rode over to see the retiring band as they reluctantly wended their way toward the setting sun. It was a sad and mournful spectacle to witness these children of the forest slowly retiring from the homes of their childhood. As they cast mournful glances backward toward the loved scenes that were fading in the distance, tears fell from the cheeks of the downcast warriors, old men trembled, matrons wept, the swarthy maiden's cheek turned pale, and sighs and half-suppressed sobs escaped from the motley groups as they passed along, some on foot, some on horseback and others in wagons-sad as a funeral procession. I saw several of the aged warriors casting glances toward the sky, as if they were imploring aid from the spirits of their departed heroes who were looking down upon them from the clouds, or from the Great Spirit who would ultimately redress the wrongs of the red man, whose broken bow had fallen from his hand and whose sad heart was bleeding within him.
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