USA > Indiana > Marshall County > A twentieth century history of Marshall County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 2
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Of course the above statement was exaggerated beyond all reason, as neither sacred nor profane history gives any account of any living thing one-fifth the height or length indicated. But it had the effect of calling the attention of the people to it, and hundreds visited the residence of Mr. Bland and made an examination of the relics and locality where they were found, and numerous letters were received making inquiry in regard to them.
The specimens found consisted of two teeth almost exactly alike, each weighing six pounds. They were eight inches long, seven inches high from point of root to upper surface, and four inches wide, and contained five
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
divisions or separate grinders. The preservation was perfect, both as to the teetli and the enamel. The enamel was composed of a mixture of black, white and brownish gray. The third tooth was four and a half inches long, three and a half inches wide, three inches high, the roots having been broken off. Its weight was about two pounds. There were four sections of the vertebræ, all in a perfect state of preservation. Their measurement was about thirteen inches across at bottom part, eight inches at upper part, two and a half inches thick, twelve inches from top to bottom, and weighed four and three-fourths pounds each. The section of the skull measured twenty- one inches in length by thirteen inches in width, was about one inch thick and had about 100 brain cells. It was a grayish color, having much the appearance of the first coat of plaster on a building. One tusk was found in a splendid state of preservation. Since it came in contact with the air, portions of it have dissolved and fallen off. It was about nine feet long and about twenty inches in circumference where it joined the head. A sec- tion of the shoulder blade was also found. It measured eight inches in thickness and fourteen inches in width, and weighed thirty-six pounds. The outer extremity had been broken off, so that it was impossible to say what its length originally was. Two ribs were also found, one of which meas- ured two and three-fourths feet in length; the other, somewhat smaller. About 100 pieces of various sizes were found, a description of which is impossible. The place where they were found is low, marshy ground, on the east bank of Deep creek. All the specimens, except two of the teeth, were found in a wet place, where a branch had run into the creek, and about four feet under ground, near and under the roots of a beech tree four and a half feet in circumference. The earth under and surrounding the tree is made entirely of drift, and has undoubtedly accumulated and the tree has grown since the animal mired down and died. There is no doubt but the remains are those of a mastodon, probably about eleven feet high, seventeen feet long and about sixteen feet in circumference. They inhabited this country so long ago that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary- certainly long prior to the Christian era.
The geological position of the remains of the mastodon has long been and still is a subject of dispute among geologists; in a few instances they are said to have been found below the drift in the pliocene, and even in the miocene ; but they have generally been obtained from the post-pliocene or alluvial formations, at a depth of from five to ten feet in lacustrine deposits, bogs and beds of infusorial earth. Some have thought that the mastodons became extinct since the advent of man upon the earth, like the dinornis and the dodo; according to Lyell, the period of their destruction, though geo- logically modern, must have been many thousand years ago. The same causes probably acted in their extinction as in the case of the fossil elephant -perhaps partly climatic changes, but more probably some great convulsion on the surface of the globe at an epoch anterior to man. According to Owen, the mastodons were elephants with molars less complex in structure and adapted for coarser vegetable food, ranging in time from the miocene to the upper pliocene, and in space throughout the tropical and temperate latitudes. The transition from the mastodon to the elephant type of dentition is very gradual.
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
The Mound Builders.
Since the days of the mastodon there are traces of the Mound Builders, who are supposed to antedate the American Indian. Several years ago the writer examined two mounds situated close together, located on what was called the "Burr Oak Flats," a short distance north from Maxinkuckee lake. Digging a considerable distance into them, nothing unusual was found. The tops of the mounds arose to a height of about six feet above the surface of the ground on which they were situated, which was a level country all about, showing plainly that the mounds had been built for some purpose by human hands, but as they were composed of solid earth with nothing in them to indicate the object of their building it is difficult to conjecture what they were for. A mile or so farther west from these mounds there was also quite a large mound which seemed from the digging that had been done in and about it to have been the subject of investigation. But in that, so far as is known, nothing that would indicate what it was built for has been discov- ered. On the west side of Maxinkuckee lake, on what is known as "Long Point," was in the early days quite a large sized mound, which many curious investigators had dug into from time to time.
Whether these mounds were the work of the Mound Builders or not is not known only as a matter of conjecture. They were here, however, long before the Indians came to this part of the country, as trees and shrubbery grew on some of them and were of considerable size when they came. These mounds were supposed to have been intended as burial places for the dead, as, in excavating in some of them, human bones were found as well as tools and implements of stone, pottery, iron and copper. In digging into the mound on Long Point, Lake Maxinkuckee, a quarter of a century ago, human bones were found, also charcoal, stone arrow points and other Indian · trinkets, indicating beyond a doubt that it was the burial place of Mound Builders or of Indians of a later period who made use of it for that purpose.
The Buffalo.
When most of the Indians found their way here is not positively known -probably not until after the passage of the ordinance of 1787, establishing the Northwest Territory. At that time and prior thereto the face of the country was quite different from what it is at present. A great deal of country now covered with timber was then open prairie. A few miles west of this county was the beginning of a boundless prairie that extended west- ward to the Rocky mountains. Buffalo were numerous on the prairies of the Kankakee, and frequently many of them strayed over into this region, and occasionally still farther east. As they lived on wild grass they pre- ferred a prairie country, and therefore their regular runways were on the prairies farther west.
A pioneer who settled in a very early day on Aubenaube's prairie, a short distance southwest of Maxinkuckee lake, said :
"When we came to this country we settled on the prairie. There were the remains of beaver dams from a hundred yards to almost a mile long, and one over that length at Beaver lake. There were also round holes in the prairie covered with grass, that the Indians said were once buffalo wal- lows. Deep paths were worn in the solid prairies, the Indians said were
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
made by the tramp of the buffalo. We found some remains of the heads and horns of buffalo, and the Indians then here said there were plenty of buffalo in their fathers' time many years before that."
A little paper published in the region of the Wabash seventy years ago contained an account of the killing of the last buffalo that was probably ever in this section of the country. The story was as follows: "A young Miami Indian, who had never seen a buffalo, was riding along on his pony one day at a point between where Huntington and Wabash now stand, when he no- ticed a huge animal, the like of which he had never seen before. At first he was inclined to be scared, but as the animal moved very slowly he took courage and fired at it with his gun, and after several shots succeeded in bringing it down. He looked in wonder and amazement, not knowing what it was, until he brought some other Indians, who pronounced it an old buf- falo, in all probability the last of its kind in the state."
The presence of the buffalo in this region is further proved by adopting him as one of the emblems on the state seal. And that leads to the inquiry, does anybody know why this peculiar design for our state seal was adopted? A rampant and ridiculous buffalo, and tail and hoofs up, is kicking away at a hardy pioneer, who has stood for many weary years with an ax uplifted in front of a towering oak, which seems to have been left alone in its glory, the pioneer never making a cut, the scene illumined by the rays of the rising sun that still keeps hanging on the verge of the horizon ! The picture is well known, but the history of its adoption as a part of the state seal is shrouded in mystery. It was used by the terri- torial officers, and as the limits of the territory comprised the present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Min- nesota east of the Mississippi river, the design is not so inappropriate as it would appear at first thought, as buffalo were very numerous at that time in the western portion of the territory.
The meaning of the hieroglyphics on the seal has been freely trans- lated as follows: The scene represents the struggle for the possession of the territory. In the figure of the buffalo, we have the emblem of all the original inhabitants of the forest; the woodcutter is the type of that hardy race of pioneers who cleared the way for that civilization soon to burst in all its glory and splendor over the land, and which is fitly represented by the rising sun !
II. COMING OF THE POTTAWATTOMIE INDIANS.
The Indian Age.
In writing the history of Marshall county, it will be of interest to go back to the earliest ownership of the territory of which it is now composed, in order that those now living here, and those who may come hereafter, may be able to trace our genealogy from a state of savagery to our present state of advanced civilization. The territory now included within the boundaries of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, of which Marshall county is an important factor, was in the early days of the history of America, owned and occupied by the Miami Indians, originally known
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
as the Twightwees. It was claimed by France from the time of the dis- covery of the mouth of the Mississippi river by LaSalle in 1682, to 1763, when it was relinquished to the government of England, and held by it until 1779, as a part of her colonial possessions in North America. The state of Virginia extended its jurisdiction over it until 1783, when it came by treaty of peace, and by deed of cession from Virginia the property of the United States. In 1787 an ordinance was passed by congress creating the territory northwest of the river Ohio, which embraced the territory above referred to.
At that time the territory now embraced in Marshall county was held by right of discovery and occupation by the Miami Indians, who permitted the Pottawattomie Indians, which were gradually gaining a foothold in this region, to occupy their lands and hunting grounds, until finally they were recognized as the owners of the territory occupied by them, being the country north of the Wabash river and south of Lake Michigan. After the United States came into possession of the territory through the ordi- nance of 1787, treaty making began and was kept up until all the lands were secured from the Indians, opened to entry, and the Indians removed to a reservation provided for them by the United States, an account of which will be given in another part of this work.
The Pottawattomie Indians.
Prior to the organization of Marshall county, which occurred in 1836, the territory was owned and occupied by the Pottawattomie tribe of Indians, and as they were the first inhabitants here, they are entitled to prominent mention in this connection. Up to 1834 the population was com- posed entirely of Pottawattomie Indians, of whom there were, as near as could be estimated, about 1,500, located in villages along the lakes and rivers in the county.
The Pottawattomie tribe of Indians belonged to the great Algonquin family, and were related by ties of consanguinity to the Ojibways, Chip- pewas and Ottawas. The first trace we have of them locates their territory in the Lake Superior region on the islands near the entrance to Green Bay, holding the country from the latter point to the head waters of the great lakes. They migrated southward and finally camped in this region, where they became later permanently located and were recognized as the rightful owners of the territory.
The name of this tribe is said by a writer on Indian lore to be a com- pound of Put-a-wa, signifying a blowing out or expansion of the cheeks as in blowing a fire; and "Me," a nation, which, being interpreted, means a nation of fire-blowers. The application seems to have originated in the facility with which they produced flame and set burning the ancient council fires of their forefathers beside the waters of the Green Bay country.
The Indians who resided in the territory of Marshall county prior to and at the time the white people began to come, lived in villages of which there were several scattered over the southern half of the county.
Menominee Village.
Four or five miles to the southwest of Plymouth, just north of the Twin lakes, was the Me-no-mi-nee village, containing near one hundred
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
wigwams, cabins, and tepees, scattered promiscuously over several acres of ground. Around and among the wigwams were partly cleared cornfields, from which the Indians raised considerable inferior corn. The village was the largest and most important of those within the county. Here was erected a church, or chapel, as it was called, by the missionaries sent out by the French Catholics to christianize the Indians. Through the influence of these missionaries the larger proportion of the Pottawattomies had em- braced this form of religion, and knowing no other, were attentive and sincere worshipers at the altar of that church. This chapel was said to have been erected in 1827, and stood on the north bank of the middle Twin lake, west of the Vandalia railroad about twenty rods. It was quite large for those days, and was considered a very comfortable building for the pur- poses for which it was intended. It was built of hewed logs and covered with clapboards, its dimensions being about thirty by forty feet, with doors and windows and a room above the west end for the missionary priest to live in. Up to the time of the erection of this chapel the Indians had not known that there was such a day as Sunday, and in none of the villages had an attempt been made by any of the white people to cause it to be observed, for the reason, probably, that they, themselves, hardly knew when Sunday came, and were not, as a rule, very particular about its observance. As soon as it became generally known that on certain days there were gatherings of the people there, the different bands of Indians began to come from far and near, so that it was not long until large congregations assembled when the weather was pleasant, sufficiently numerous to fill the building to overflowing.
At first the services were a great mystery to them, and be it said to their credit, none of them were ever known to create any disturbance during the entire period services were held in that, the first place of worship in the county. The Indians knew nothing about creeds or doctrine. They had a vague idea that there was a Great Spirit that ruled and controlled all things, and that at death the spirit of the Indian was simply translated by some mysterious process from this mundane sphere to a similar, but happier, hunting ground in a far distant country, he knew not where, and that was about the extent of their knowledge on that subject.
Services were held in this chapel until the Indians were driven away in 1838, when it was closed, and never afterwards used for that purpose. It was an object of curiosity for those who passed that way for many years later, but it finally went to rack, was torn down, and no traces of it now remain.
Nees-wau-gee Village.
Next to the Me-no-mi-nee village in importance was the Nees-wau-gee and Quash-qua village on the eastern shore of Lake Maxinkuckee, imme- diately across the road from the present residence of Peter Spangler. All along that bank about 1835-36, when the white settlers began to arrive, there was quite a settlement of Indians, mainly under the supervision of Nees-wau-gee. Quash-qua also had some authority over the band, but delegated it mostly to his brother chief, Nees-wau-gee, who ruled his people with mildness, moderation and decorum.
This was a charming spot, and the Indians who occupied it had the
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
most delightful place to live this side of the land of Paradise. Fishing and hunting could not have been better; there was an abundance of pure spring water; and all sorts of berries, and wild fruits in abundance in their season grew in the forests near by. Trails led in every direction to other villages in the region for many miles round about, so that the vil- lagers could visit back and forth whenever they felt inclined to do so. Off to the northwest, west and southwest over the lake was presented a picture unexcelled for beauty and grandeur anywhere in this part of the country. It was indeed
"A scene for a painter, A gleaming and glorified lake, With its framing of forest and prairie, And its etchings of thicket and brake, With its grandeur and boldness of headland, Where the oaks and the tamaracs grow, A league with the sunlight of heaven, And the spirit-like shadows below."
A Dead Indian Chief.
Among the very first things the writer of this remembers was going to this village, or near it, to see the temporary burial place of an Indian chief. That region of country was at that time an unbroken wilderness. The Indian had been killed in a fracas with one of his tribe, and before burying him permanently his relatives and associates had fixed him up in his finest clothing, with a headdress gaily ornamented with colored feathers, and his face painted yellow, red and black. He was placed against a large tree in a sitting posture, and around him was built a large pen made of poles, the space between the poles being sufficiently wide to permit a perfect view of the "good Indian" therein! A great many trinkets of various kinds were placed around him, and he sat there, grim and ghastly, toma- hawk in hand, as if waiting the approach of an expected enemy !
The Good Nees-wau-gee.
This good old Indian chief, Nees-wau-gee, was the friend of all the early white settlers, and, while he remained, frequently visited and became much attached to many of them. He took a fancy to, and formed a warm attachment for a sprightly young man of the neighborhood, just then in his teens, but long since passed over into. the "happy hunting grounds." The old chief had a charming daughter about the age of the young man, and from his actions it was clear that he would not have objected to a match between them. He took the young man with him on one occasion, introduced him to his daughter, and had his French cook prepare an extra meal in his honor. The table was furnished with dishes made of silver worth many hundred dollars, and the bill of fare was elaborate and delicious. The young man was seated by the side of the charming young squaw, and after saying grace in his peculiar way, the chief, turning to his visitor, said, laughingly : "Maybe so you want a wife?" About that time there was a good deal of blushing, and "hemming and hawing," and it is quite probable, if there had been a hole down through the floor of the cabin sufficiently large, the young man would have suddenly crawled out and run home for dear life! At that time he was inexperienced in the mysteries of courtship
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
(something which, however, he learned later on), and knowing little about Indian customs, he did not know but the old chief had inveigled him into his tent under the guise of friendship for the purpose of compelling him to marry his daughter, nolens volens. But other topics of conversation were introduced, and the subject dropped, much to the relief of the blushing young couple. When the young man was ready to return home the chief presented him with two sacks containing saddles of venison, squirrels, pheasants, ducks and fish, as an evidence of good will; and as he mounted his horse, the entire family assembled to bid him goodbye. About a year from that time the good old chief disposed of his reservation to the government, and with his little band started west to the reservation provided for them.
Nees-wau-gee was a quiet, peaceable chief, and made friends with all the white settlers in all the region round about. When the time came to leave he determined to go peaceably, as he had agreed he would. The day before he started he sent word to all the white settlers to come to his village as he wished to bid them farewell. A large number assembled and through an interpreter he said substantially :
"My White Brethren: I have called you here to bid you farewell. Myself and my band start at sunrise tomorrow morning to remove to an unknown country the government of the United States has provided for us west of the Missouri river. I have sold my lands to the government and we agreed to leave within two years. That time is about to expire and according to the agreement we have made we must leave you and the scenes near and dear to all of us. The government has treated us fairly, and it is our duty to live up to that contract by doing as we agreed, and so we must go. The white settlers here have been good and kind to us, and in leaving them it seems like severing the ties of our own kindred and friends. We go away and may never return, but wherever we may be- wherever our lot in life may be cast we shall always remember you with sincere respect and esteem."
The old chief was visibly affected, and tears were seen to flow from his eyes. All the people present took him by the hand and bade him a final adieu as well as most of the members of his band. Early the next morning, with their personal effects packed on their ponies, they marched away in single file, following the Indian trail along the east shore to the south end of Maxinkuckee lake, thence southwest to Kewanna, where they joined the other bands and immediately proceeded on their long and wearisome journey.
On the bluff on the east side of the lake, and south of the Nees-wau-gee village, was an old Indian village or camping ground, and one of the most delightful of the numerous places of that kind around that beautiful sheet of water. Walking over the plowed ground near there a number of years ago, in a short time a dozen or more stone or flint arrow points, some of them very fine, were picked up by the writer. At another time he picked up a fish line sinker smoothly wrought out of stone, with a crease or groove around one end for fastening the sinker to the fish line. It was one of a kind described and illustrated in the Smithsonian collection at Washington, and, of course, is quite rare, as but few were made, and even of these, many were lost, and still fewer found. It is somewhat remark- able that, notwithstanding our advanced civilization, the modern fish sinker is patterned exactly after those stone sinkers of long ago.
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
Village at Wolf Creek.
There was a village which had been abandoned when the whites began to settle here just north of Wolf creek, where also once stood a primitive saw and grist mill. This territory was originally in possession of the Fox Indians and another friendly tribe. The Pottawattomies, when they found their way here, claimed the right of possession, and as a natural conse- quence a feud sprang up between them, resulting in many hard fought battles before the Pottawattomies got possession. The last of these battles, accord- ing to tradition, was fought on the site of this village. This open space in the wilderness was, prior to the settlement of that part of the county by the whites, occupied by a few families of the Pottawattomies. In 1836-40 this place was dotted over with small rises of ground, indicating the former cultivation of maize or Indian corn. It had been unoccupied, however, for some time prior to 1836. Still, small stalks of corn continued to grow each spring and summer for several years after; Indian ponies running wild through the woods were occasionally seen; war implements, bows and arrows, tomahawks, beads and rings, and various trinkets common to the Indian were found in abundance and even to this day an occasional arrow point or other Indian implement is picked up.
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