USA > Indiana > Vermillion County > Biographical and historical record of Vermillion County, Indiana : containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States from Washington to Cleveland, with accompanying biographies of each; a condensed history of the state of Indiana; portraits and biographies of some of the prominent men of the state; engravings of prominent citizens in Vermillion county, with personal histories of many of the leading families, and a concise history of the county and its villages > Part 17
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HISTORY OF VERMILLION COUNTY.
ordered to hold this post; I shall do so; and as for you, deserter and coward, my men will put you upon the ridge-pole of the stockade, and tie your feet together. If the In- dians come you will eatch the first bullet and shall be the first to die. We will die at our post of duty."
The army marched through the prairie regions west of Perrysville to where State Line City now stands, and near which place they pass the north boundary of the county.
Major James Blair and Judge J. M. Cole- man settled on section 16, township 17 north, 9 west, between Engene and Newport, before the land in that region was offered for sale by the Government. The prairie was known as Little Vermillion, or Coleman's Prairie. These two men had always been pioneers. Blair had been one of the heroes of Perry's victories on Lake Erie, and afterward held conspicuous positions of honor and trust in the community and State; but at this time he and Coleman were peacemakers between the Indians, whose confidence they had; and they knew that Indians, if properly treated, could be trusted.
Se-Seep, or She-Sheep, a small, bow-legged, stoop-shouldered, white-haired man, 110 years old, was chief of the Pottawatomies and their allied Kickapoos. Their territory ranged from the Little Vermillion to Pine Creek, including the north-half of Vermillion Coun- ty, all of Warren, and the west-half of Fonn- tain. Se-Seep had been a gallant fighter in the defense of his people and country at the battle of Fallen Timbers (Wayne's Victory), and afterward in the terrible defeat of his people at Tippecanoe. Brave and heroic in battle, after signing the treaties of peace with the American anthorities, he was faithful and trustworthy, and finally became a reliable friend of the white people. He became the hero of a serio-comic incident wherein Noah
Hubbard, who settled on Indian land where Cayuga now stands, became the butt of ridi- cule. Hubbard was cultivating a portion of a ten acre tract. One day the Indians crossed at the army ford and "stole " roasting ears and squashes as rental. Hubbard found Se-Seep with some ears of corn and two squashes within the folds of his blanket, and he undertook to castigate the chief with a cane. Se-Seep did " not scare worth a cent," but, dropping the squashes and corn, chased Hubbard out of the field with a stick. Then Hubbard went to Blair and Coleman and de- manded that they should call out the rangers and the mounted riflemen, declaring that the Indians were destroying his property and that they should be dealt with and punished. They refused to call out the rangers, but said he might notify them to assemble at their house the next morning. He did so, and the next morning some of the riflemen also as- sembled and commenced practice, shooting at a mark. The Indians had camped for the night a mile north, at the famous Buffalo spring near the residence of the late John W. Porter. Blair introduced to the Indians the matters of difference, and concluded to have an imitation Indian pow-wow. Accordingly, he and Coleman, who had been chosen as arbitra- tors, repaired to a plnm thicket with a well worn testament, a wooden-covered spelling-book, a dilapidated almanac, and a remnant of an old law book, as authorities. IIere they held a sham court, chattering gibberish, and gesti- culating like Indians, and finally rendered the following verdict: That the two litigants settle the whole matter by a fist fight. The decision was no sooner announced than the little old Indian chief, who was dressed only with a blanket belt, threw it off and made rapidly for Hubbard. Of course the latter ran, and ran as fast as he could, mount- ed his pony and was soon out of sight. The
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Indians, who were scarcely ever known to laugh, indulged heartily on this occasion.
Se-Seep was finally murdered, in a foul manner, at Nebuker's Springs, Fountain County, at the age of 110 years, by a lazy, vicious renegade Indian named Namqua. He had a splendid son, who at the of seven- teen years was killed by falling fifty feet from a tree while fighting a bear, near the residence of John Collett.
Although no battles nor skirmishes in con- nection with the war of 1812 took place in this county, the " Vermillion country" was two or three times crossed by belligerents. From a copy of General John Tipton's jour- nal, kindly lent us by Stephen S. Collett, Esq., of Newport, we extract the following paragraphs.
Tipton was an illiterate man but a daring fighter, and in the autumn of 1811, he, as a private in Captain Spencer's Harrison County Riflemen, journeyed from Corydon, that county, down the Wabash to Fort Harrison, four miles north of Terre Haute, and up the same stream again, in the Indian campaign which ended in the bloody battle of Tippe- canoe. The company comprised forty-seven men, besides officers, and these were joined by Captain Heath and twenty-two men. In going down the river they guarded a keel-boat of provisions for Camp Harrison, and con- cerning this trip we quote:
"October 6 .- We moved early; one mile, came to the river at the coal bank; found it was below the Vermillion half a mile; we took coffee; moved after the boat started down. The coal bank is on the east side of the Wabash. We went through a small prairie; crossed the river to the west side; went in on the head of a bar and came out on the lower end of another on the west side; went through a small prairie, then came to a big prairie, where the old Vermillion town
was. We crossed the Wabash half a mile above the mouth of the Vermillion River before we came to the above town. Crossed the Vermillion River, took a south course through timbered land, and then through a prairie with a good spring and an old Indian hut; then through a beautiful tim bered ground to a small creek, and stopped to let our horses graze; then went through a good land with a ridge on our right, out of which came four springs, and for two miles nothing but large sugar and walnut. The hill and the river came close together. We found a good coal bank fourteen miles below Vermillion. We then crossed to the east side, went three miles and camped with the boat; after coming twenty miles and finding two bee trees, left them."
On the 31st, coming northward, the following entry is made:
" We moved carly. Two of the oxen miss- ing. Three of our men sent to hunt them. We crossed Raccoon Creek. Saw our men who went to guard the boats on the 29th; they left us. We came to the river where we camped on our return from Vermillion on the night of the sixth; thence up to the ford. Saw our boat guard just crossing the river. We halted until the army came up, then rode the river, which was very deep, then canped. Our boat guard and the men who went to hunt the oxen came up, when we left the guards. We took a north course up the east side of the Wabash and crossed to the west, with orders to kill all the Indians we saw. Fine news. The Governor's wagon was left this morning in consequence of the oxen being lost. All the army crossed in three hours. We drew corn.
" Friday, November 1 .-- I was sent with eighteen men to look for a way for the army to cross the Little Vermillion. Marched at day- break; came to the creek; found and marked
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the road; waited till the army-eame up; went on and eamped on the river two miles below the Big Vermillion. Captain Spencer, my- self and three others went up to the Big Ver- million; returned to camp. General Wells, with forty men, and Captain Berry with nine men, had come up. Onr eamp marched in front to-day, as usual, which now consisted of thirty-seven men, in consequence of Captain Berry and Lindley being attached to it.
" Saturday, November 2 .- A fine day. Captain Spencer, with ten men went out on a seont. Our company not parading as usual, the Governor threatened to brake the officers. I staid in eamp. The army staid here to build a block house on the bank of the Wabash three miles below Vermillion, in a small prairie. The house, twenty-five feet square, and a breast-work from each corner next the river down to the water. Took horses and drew brush over the prairie to break down the weeds. This evening a man came from the garrison: said last night his was boat fired upon. One man who was asleep, was killed. Three boats came up, unloaded; went baek taking a siek man with them. One of Captain Bobb's men died to-night."
" Sunday, the 3d .- A elondy day. We moved early. Our company marched on the right wing to-day. Crossed the Big Ver- million, through a prairie six miles, through timber, then through a wet prairie with groves of timber in it," etc.
Thus we have quoted all of General Tip- ton's journal that pertains to Vermillion County. Under date of November 7, 1811, he gives an account of the battle of Tippe- canoe, in a paragraph scarcely longer than the average in his journal, as if nnaware that the action was of any greater importance than an insignificant skirmish. Tipton was pro- moted from rank to rank until he was finally made General, His orthography, punctuation,
ete., were so bad that we concluded not to follow it in the above extraets. Nearly every entry in his journal not quoted above opens with the statement that the weather was very cold. IIe also makes occasional mentions of the soldiers' drawing their rations of whisky, -- from one to three or four quarts at a time.
In Harrison's march to Tippecanoe his boats (pirogues) could not pass Coal Creek bar, spoken of under date of October 31 above and for their protection he built a stoekade fort at the head of Porter's eddy, the precise locality being the northeast quar- ter of seetion 9, 17 north, 9 west. Here he left the sergeant and ten men to guard themn. The remains of the heavy timbers were still to be seen in 1838. Corduroy or pole bridges buried in mind may yet be seen on the spring branches on the farms of Hon. John Collett, S. S. Collett and the Head family,- see- tions 9, and 15, 17 north, 9 west.
General Ilarrison also had caches in this county along the Wabash.
According to one of the treaties, General Harrison made a prehase for the Govern- ment, the northern line of which, west of the Wabash, extended from a point direetly op- posite the mouth of the Big Raccoon Creek northwesterly. This traet was opened for white settlement long before the northern portion of the county was, which remained in the possession of the Kiekapoos and Potta- watomies for a few years longer.
FIRST WHITE SETTLER.
In the year 1816, John Vannest, a man who was not afraid of the Indians, in company with a man named Hunter, who was also a hunter by occupation, ventured west of the Wabash to seleet land for a permanent home. Arriving at a point about a mile north of where Clinton now stands,-the exaet spot being the southeast corner of sec-
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tion 9, township 14 north, range 9 west, they halted for the night. Ilunter soon scared up a deer, which was killed, and thus they had a choice supper of fresh venison. After the night's rest Mr. Vannest looked about a little, and without tramping around further con- cluded that that spot was about as good as any he would likely find. Returning to his temporary home at Fort Harrison, about four miles this side of Terre Haute, he waited a short time for the day of the Government land sales to arrive at Vincennes. Repairing thither, he entered three quarters of seetion 9. Subsequently he bought the remaining quar- ter of William Bales. This land is on the second batton, very high and beautifully un- dulating, but originally covered with timber. Hlad he proceeded a little further north he would have found a beautiful little prairie, which would be land already cleared for him ; but that point was either unknown to him, or it was too near or over the line between Government land and the Indians. Besides, at the stage of the country's development existing at that time it was not believed that the prairies could be cultivated, or dwelt upon with comfort, on account of the greater and more constant cold winds.
On the beautiful timbered land above de- scribed, Mr. Vannest, settled bringing with him his wife and several children. Erecting first a log cabin on the west side of his land, he cocupied it for a long period, when he built a large briek residence, from bricks he had made near by. It was the first brick building in the county. The mason employed upon it was a Mr. Jones, residing toward Newport. This house finally became unsafe and was torn away.
The land which Mr. Vannest obtained re- mains mostly in the possession of his descend- ants to this day; and it is a remarkable fact that from this tract no less than forty-five 14
men entered the service of their country dur- ing the late war.
John Vannest, Jr., son of the preceding, was the first white child born in Vermillion County, though this honor has also been elaimed for the late IIon. William Skidmore, of lIelt Township.
John Vannest, Sr., died September 28, 1842, at age of sixty-two years, and his wife Mary, August 29, 1824, aged forty years, and they lie buried in the Clinton cemetery, north of the village. A daughter, Mrs. Sarah, widow of Seott Malone, still occupies the old homestead, being the oldest female resident of Clinton County. She well re- members the time when the girls, as well as the boys, had to " go to meeting " and to school barefoot, sometimes walking and some- times on horseback. The school and the meetings were held in the characteristic pio- neer log school-house, with puncheon floor, mud-and-stick chimney, flat rails for benches, a slab pinned up for a writing desk, and greased-paper windows. These and other pioneer eustoms are described in detail else- where in this volume.
Mrs. Malone and her twin sister, Jane, were born August 6, 1812, and were conse- quently about four years old when their parents moved with them to this county. It was a remarkable fact that these sisters, as long as the latter was living,-who died in old age, -- always resembled each other so closely in their personal appearance that even their child- ren often mistook one for the other. Jane married Thomas Kibby, and died in March, 1880. [It is from Mr. Kibby and Mrs. `Malone that we have learned many facts of this early history.]
Mrs. Vannest had two narrow escapes from death at the hands of the Indians. The origin of this vengeance on the part of the red savages was as follows; Two white
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HISTORY OF VERMILLION COUNTY.
soldiers at Camp Harrison became engaged in a quarrel one day, and one of them in attempt- ing to shoot the other, carelessly missed liis aim and killed an Indian Squaw beyond. Thereupon the reds vowed they would kill the first white " squaw " who should eross to this side of the Wabash River. Accord- ingly they watched their opportunity, and made two attempts to take the life of Mrs. Vannest. On the first occasion her life was saved by the timely interference of a friendly Indian, and the other time by the violent interference of her relatives and friends. Directly after this her husband took her baek to Fort Harrison, where she remained until the " holy ardor " of the fiery savages had died down.
Most of the early settlers throughout the county are mentioned in the histories of the respective townships. See Index.
In the first portion of this volume is given a description of the features of pioneer life in this part of the country, of the privations and sicknesses suffered, as well as of dangers from Indian and beast, and of the abundance of wild game.
WILD GAME.
Several eirenlar " hunts " or " drives " have been held in this county; but as they have been conducted without the employment of dogs, their success has not been great. The largest competitive chase ever held in this county was in early day, and lasted three months. Two leaders were chosen; they pieked their men and divided the neighbor- hood in two parties for a compass of ten miles; they were to bring in the sealps of the slain animals at the end of three months, and the leader who showed the most scalps could de- mand five gallons of whisky as a treat from the beaten side. A wolf, fox, erow, coon or mink sealp was to be considered equal in
value to five other sealps. A squirrel or chipmunk sealp counted one. On the ap- pointed day the opposing forces assembled. The committees began counting early in the morning, and completed the exciting task about three o'clock in the afternoon, when it was ascertained that over 70,000 scalps had been taken! Thus, by a general rivalry the settlers enjoyed the execution of a plan which proved the means of safety and protection to their crops.
EARLY NAVIGATION.
In the settlement of Indiana, before the age of eanals, railroads, or even wagon roads, the Wabash Valley was the center of attraction, for it was the only means of transportation of products and supplies. Ilenee the towns and villages along the river were the eenters of trade and civilization. All the adjoining region to the east in Indiana and to the west in Illinois were compelled to bring their produce to the Wabash for transpor- tation to New Orleans and other southern markets. At first, flat-boats by hundreds and thousands, forty, fifty, eighty, one-hun- dred and one-hundred and twenty-five feet long were built, loaded with pork, hogs, beef, cattle, eorn, wheat, oats and hay, and sent south. Five hundred of these boats have been sent out of the Big Vermillion from Eugene, Danville and other points on that stream in one year. Scarcely a day in the long April, May and June floods but that from twenty to forty of these boats would pass. They were generally manned by a steersman,-who was also captain,-four oarsmen, with long side sweeps, and one general utility boy, who did the cooking. Supplies of food were taken along; and no boat was considered safely equipped which had less than twenty gallons of whisky.
To the boatmen these trips were occasions
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of joyous festivity; and the wonderful stories which they brought back of the dangers and terrors of the navigation of the Mississippi, and the strange, mysterious eddies in which yet might flow for weeks,-especially the Widow Woman's eddy, the Grand Gulf, the Briek-house Point, the Red Church-were as remarkable as Scylla and Charibdis in Roman song and story. Dozens of captains and ex- pert boatmen resided at Clinton, Eugene and Perrysville. The boatmen would sometimes return from the southern markets on foot through the Cherokee nation. The greatest danger to which they were exposed, however, was an attaek from some of the noted Murrell's gang of robbers in Southern Illi- nois and Western Kentucky. While many from Southern Indiana, Ohio, and Eastern Kentucky were robbed and murdered by these desperadoes, all the Vermillion County men fortunately came through safely.
Captain N. II. Adams, who died at Eugene from an over-supply of whisky, started in 1811 with a loaded boat from the Wabaslı, and had landed at New Madrid, Missouri, when the terrible earthquake occurred, dur- ing the night, which was dark and stormy. The trees were shaken and the crash and noise of nature, and the horror of the alarmed people of the doomed town, rendered the
seene more terrifie than imagination ean con- eeive. And what could have been the feel- ing of those who witnessed the eurrent of the Mississippi turned furiously up stream for hours! It seemed that the bottom of the river had fallen out. When the cavity made by the earthquake was filled, the current resumed its natural flow, but the sunken lands and broken or inelined forest trees showed that over a large adjoining region a terrible earthquake had taken place.
Mercantile and other supplies were wagoned across the Alleghany mountains, were taken down the Ohio in flat-boats, transferred to keelboats and brought up the Wabash by push-poles and cordelling by ropes which were sent out in advance, tied to trees, and wound up on improvised eapstans.
The first steamer on the Wabash made its appearanee about 1820, an event of signal importance and popular exeitement. All the people both wondered and rejoiced. The screaming fife, the throbbing drum and the roaring cannon weleomed the new power. Afterward steamers became more common, one or more passing every day. At one time, when Vermillion was at its flood, and the river at Perrysville obstructed by ice, as many as eleven steamers sought harbor at Eugene.
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HISTORY OF VERMILLION COUNTY.
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GOVERNMENTAL,
HE territory comprising Vermillion County was originally a part of Vigo Connty. In 1821 Vigo County was di- vided by the organiza- tion of Parke County, which comprised Vermillion as a part of it, and Roseville, on the Big Raccoon Creek, was the county seat.
In 1823, by an act of the Legislature of the State, Parke County was divided by the Wabash River, the part west of the river being organized as Vermillion County, and named from the rivers. The Big Vermillion had been for many years the boundary between the pos- sessions of the Peankeshaws on the south and the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies on the north, and during the period of ownership by France it was a part of the boundary between Canada and Louisiana.
Vermillion County was created by an act of the General Assembly, approved Jannary 2, 1824. The full text is as follows:
"SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That from
and after the first day of February next, all that part of the connties of Parke and Wabash included within the following bonnds shall form and constitute a new county, that is to say: Beginning on the west bank of the Wabash River, where the township line dividing townships numbered thirteen and fourteen north of the base line, of range number nine west of the second principal meridian crosses the same; thence west to the State line; thence north to the line dividing townships numbered nineteen and twenty north; thence east to the Wabash River; and thence south with the meanders of said river to the place of beginning.
"SECTION 2. The said new county shall, from and after the first day of February next, be known and designated by the name of the connty of Vermillion, and it shall enjoy all the rights, privileges and jurisdictions which to a separate and independent county do or may properly belong or appertain: Provided always, That all snits, pleas, plaints, actions and proceedings which may before the first day of Marelli next have been commenced, instituted and pending within the eonnty of Parke, shall be prosecuted to final judgment and effeet in the same manner as if this act had not been passed: Provided also, That
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the State and county taxes which are now due within the bounds of the said new county shall be collected and paid in the same man- ner and by the same officers as they would have been if the creation of the said new county had not taken place.
"SECTION 3. Robert Sturgus and Samuel Caldwell, of the county of Vigo, Moses Rob- bins, of Parke County, William Pugh, of Sullivan County, and William McIntosh, of the county of Putnam, are hereby appointed commissioners, agreeably to the act entitled ' An act for the fixing of the seats of justice in all new counties hereafter to be laid off.' The commissioners above named, or a major- ity of them, shall convene at the house of James Blair, in the said new county of Ver- million, on the first Monday of March next, and immediately proceed to discharge the duties assigned them by law. It is hereby made the duty of the sheriff of Parke County to notify the said commissioners either in person or by written notice of their appoint- ment, on or before the first day of February next: and the said sheriff of Parke County shall receive from the said county of Ver- million such compensation therefor as the county commissioners of said new county of Vermillion shall deem just and reasonable; who are hereby authorized to allow the same out of any monies in the treasury of said county, not otherwise appropriated, in the same manner as other allowances are made.
"SECTION 4. The Circuit Court of the county of Vermillion shall meet at the house of James Blair, in the said new county of Vermillion, until suitable accommodations can be had at the seat of justice; and so soon as the courts of said county are satisfied that suitable accommodations can be had at the county seat, they shall adjourn their courts thereto, after which time the courts of the said county shall be holden at the seat of
justice of said county established by law: Provided always, That the Circuit Court shall have authority to adjourn the court from the house of James Blair as aforesaid, to any other place, previous to the comple- tion of the public buildings, should the said court or a majority of them deem it ex- pedient.
"SECTION 5. The Board of County Com- missioners of the said county of Vermillion shall, within six months after the permanent seat of justice of said county shall have been selected, proceed to erect the necessary pub- lie buildings thereon.
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