USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 4
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At the time the Branson memorial was erected there should have been some special recognition of Martin Boots, who came one year earlier and who gave two acres on his side of the town for a burial plot. Ile deeded one acre to the county and by common consent an- other acre, for which no record was ever made, was added to it, and the story goes, that the Marion school board later came into possession of the property by advertising it at sheriff's sale and bidding it in at.
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
the nominal sum of one dollar, and yet the bones of the donor were re moved with those of many others to another burying ground, and all that now marks the final resting place of Martin Boots is the small marker that was at his grave at the old hill top cemetery. The ground was given for public purposes, burial rather than educational, and relatives would like to see proper recognition. The tire fiend seems to pursue the property there, and there are some who associate the mis- fortune with Jack of the proper attitude toward the donor of the realty in the beginning. The Martin Boots high school along with the Horace Mann grade school would be the appropriate thing, or a marble shaft might be erected on the campus and the coming generations would learn the story of the man who gave to the community the property. Inasmuch as the Branson family has been honored with a memorial, something ought to be done for the other side of the town. The Bransous lived near the burial plot of the family, and old citizens re- member about them living there, although very few definite stories are obtainable about them. The Boots family first fived near the site of the street that bears the name and close to the Mississinewa river, and many citizens still living in the county remember going there with "grinding" when it was the only mill in the county. Eli Thomas de- scribes this mill as a "corn cracker, covered over with a roof on four posts with forks at the top on which it was supported." and he says it was run with power from the ereck that still bears the name of this first settler. The roof was of clapboards and was supported by ridge poles This mill was across Boots creek From the home of the family. In a short time there were other mills- all of the settlers being mill- wrights. and it was no longer necessary to send to Richmond for four every time a Grant county woman wanted to bake a pie.
A few years later Martin Boots removed to the hilltop now known as White's hill, and he died in a one-story brick house in 1943 that stood near the barn so well remembered by citizens of Marion on account of the fact that it stood there so many years after The fields were used by the town as a cow pasture. The late George White bought the land of Martin Boots, and his daughter. Mrs. Sarah White Mather, remem- bers well when her father had paid off the last heir to the property. Nowadays people pay off the last note, but Mrs. Mather remembers well that her father paid the heirs in turn. He went in debt for the property, but this same debt later gave to him an estate. Mr White was an Irish immigrant, but he left his mark in the town of his adop- tion. The town boys of Marion who are now the men of the city all have experiences to relate of their adventures with Mr. White when they chased rabbits into this old landmark, the last connecting link between the locality and the life of Martin Boots, the builder, and it was standing there when Second street was graded through, and stood so near the bank that people were afraid of it falling on them, but one morning the town was startled with the news of a fire and the old barn was in ashes. It had been the one relief in the cow pasture on the hill for a great many years. Now there are splendid residence properties where it stood.
Martin Boots died of dropsy while sitting in a chair that had been made to his erder and is now the property of A. J. Downard. The Hon. A. J. Harlan was then a publie-spirited man in Marion and he was administrator of the Boots estate. He bought this chair at the sale and when he went away about twenty-live years ago he gave it to his sister, the fate Mrs. Catherine C. Downard, and in turn A. J. Downard inher- ited it from her. He has been asked to donate it to the Grant County Historical Society to be placed in the museum as a permanent Joan, but he values it highly and would not think of giving it away. His child
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
was cradled in this chair, and he expects the two to go through life together-the chair and the child. For a long time Mrs. Lydia Frazier Seegar had the pair of trousers in which her grandfather died, but later they were ent up and given piecemeal among the relatives nutil now she only has a serap. Many of the friends receiving the serap used it in quilt blocks and cared for it in different ways.
The work of the pioneer was well done and Grant county is now a splendid heritage. It is bounded by nine other counties-a condition not met with again in northern Indiana. It is a sturdy race that peoples its hills and valleys and it ranks high among the commercial and manu- facturing communities of the state. There are only here and there a scattered few nowadays who can tell the passerby of those early struggles, and the pioneers are wont to make much of the hospitality of the past. "I could lay my hand on a man's shoulder then and call him friend. In sickness, in death, in every hour of need, true friends Were present to assist and comfort. Now a man may die and his next door neighbor will hardly know it," and twentieth century conditions must seem dreadful to such an one. It may be all very well to talk, but when distress overtakes a Family, there is usually some ministering spirit in the neighborhood, and the good has not all been crushed ont of the human heart.
While the grandmothers went on horseback to their neighbors, the mothers have telephones in their homes, and the news of the con- munity goes over the wire every morning. The housewife of today will respond to her neighbor's call just as readily as the women of the past, but her opportunities are different-telephone, daily mail, and her social instinet manifests itself differently- that is all. When one con- sulis the county directory today, it is evident that many descendants of the early settlers remain, and their names will be perpetuated many years, and yet the traditions belonging to their times were not fully preserved and the historian of the future will have need of them. To have valute as a history of the county the Centennial History should contain the names and life stories of those who reclaimed the wilderness and opened up the cultivated fields to posterity. Those old stories are saered, and every year those who tell them eease telling them, and 1913 opens up a different panorama-a glimpse into the second century of local history. Ordinarily the New Year means little more than a change of calendars a bright, new picture hung on the wall in place of the old, but this record of a century closed when 1912 went into history.
II. THE BATTLE OF THE MISSISSINEWA
Now that a full century has eyeled by since the signitieant engage- ment with the Indians on the banks of the Mississinewa, December 17 and 18, 1812, which recent orators have declared really opened up the great Northwest Territory for future occupancy by the whites, not one jot nor tittle can be added to the faets already chronicled by others, and the regret is that not more material is at hand. A summary of all matter already in print is the only solution, and people have been inclined to attach to this Indian engagement its relative importance in local history one hundred years after its ocenrrence. There have been distinct efforts at different times by public-spirited citizens to properly mark the spot where the engagement occurred, and a few years ago S. Frank Jones, as chairman of the "Monument" com- mittee appointed by the Grant County Historical Society, published considerable data that is used in this article about the battle.
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
At the centennial anniversary meeting of the historical society this committee was discharged, all interested parties having affiliated with that larger commission the Mississinewa Battle Ground Asso- ciation-with the avowed purpose of doing the right thing by those wilderness patriots of a century ago. It was all territory then, and barring the fact that the battlefield is in Grant county, the surround- ing counties are equally interested in such memorial as may be erected there. A splendid and perhaps authentic account of the battle of the Mississinewa is found in Dillon's early history of Wabash county. A large amount of the information concerning the events of the county is chronieled by Elijah Hackleman, one of the pioneer residents of the county. Mr. Hackleman came to Wabash from Brookville in the year 1835 to seeare a homestead and he made many interesting memo- randums of his trip. When Mr. Dillon was preparing a revised edition of his early history, desiring to give a more complete account of the battle ground, he requested Mr. Hackleman, who was then perhaps
ME-SHIN-GO-ME-SIA
the best qualified to give him the requisite information, to carefully examine the ground. make such measurements as necessary, and send him the details. Accordingly, ou June 16, 1861, Mr. Hackleman, accompanied by Nathan Fletcher. Alanson P. Ferry, and Captain Wil- liam Morse, revisited the site of the okt battle ground, and of the Indian village in the vicinity destroyed by Captain Campbell.
During the visit careful measurements were made of the situation, and of the grounds occupied by the encampment, the plan of engage- ment, etc. Some, indeed many, of the facts pertaining to the relative positions of several divisions of the Colonel Campbell's command were obtained from Me-Shin-Go-Me-Sia, the Indian chief, and Mr. William B. Richards, participants in the battle. In giving a more detailed account of the visit of June 21. 1861, Mr. Hackleman says:
"We started from Wabash on a day's excursion to the Indian Lands, and on approaching its borders, we procured a guide, John Ray, long a resident of the neighborhood.
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
"Our first objective point was the site of the old Indian village at the mouth of Josina ereck, that had been destroyed by Colonel Camp- bell on the 17th and 18th days of December, 1812 The village has never been rebuilt but remains as a 'commmons' or rather a paradise for the Indian ponies, on which can be seen large munbers of them grazing on the fine blue grass that covers tifty or a hundred acres of land surrounded and interspersed with clumps of phan thickets. A short distance further up, we visited the old Indian cemetery, in which quietly sleep many of the old Indian warriors. In some places the burials have been so shallow that numbers of the Indian bones were protruding through the ground.
"From here we proceeded up the right bank of the river a mile or more, where we came to the site of the battle ground. It is situated
GRAVE OF ME-SHIN-GO-ME-SIA
on a level plain on the second bottom of the Mississinewa river, about one hundred rods south of Me-Shin-Go-Me-Sia's village, the lines of encampment forming a hollow square of about three hundred feet to the side, fronting to the south, and being within a few rods of a steep hill or declivity, some forty feet above the first bottom. About one-half of the battle ground had been cleared and inclosed for agricultural pur- poses by the chief Me-Shin-Go-Me-Sia, and only the day before had been plowed for the first time by a white man by the name of Samuel Gilpen, who was very much astonished by his day's labor, having plowed up some eight or ten dozen of horseshoes. Each of our party took a few of these horseshoes as mementoes of our visit to the battlefield.
"This battle, as has been noted, was fought on the 18th of Deeen-
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
ber, 1812, by Colonel John B. Campbell with a force of 600 men, against probably an inferior force of Indians. The American loss was eight men killed and forty-two wounded, several of whom afterward died, and also 107 horses killed. The Indian loss was never fully ascertained, but fifteen were found dead on the field. A diagram of the ground was made at this visit to accompany a second edition of Dillon's his- tory of Indiana, then in contemplation of publication. Mr. Dillon subsequently died and his second edition was never published At a later date, September 14, 1883, I again, in company with Judge Thomas B. Hehin of Logansport and Captain Ellis S. Stone of Lafontaine, visited this place in order to make some corrections in the diagram. We found the whole battlefield covered with a luxuriant growth of corn, com- pletely obliterating all traces of the deadly conflict that was once enacted there.
"Having now given somewhat imperfectly some of my recollections of the three visits to this battlefield-the first one forly-seven years ago, when the country was a wilderness, the second twenty-eight years ago, when the country was partially cleared, and the third visit only a few days ago, when we found the landmarks almost obliterated. And now I admit that I feel a strong desire to snatch this sacred place from the ruin that seems inevitable, before the mantle of oblivion shall hide all traces of its existence.
"When I visited this place in 1861, I had in my possession all the public documents relating to this battlefield and was so fortunate as to arrive at a time when the ground was first being plowed, revealing the exact location where the cavalry horses suffered most, by the mumuber of horseshoes found by Mr. Gilpin. This location is about twenty-live rods north of the bluff, and about five rods east of the old Indian road leading to the Me-Shin-Go-Me-Sia village, and will therefore locate the northwest angle of the camp.
"It is said by the citizens of that viemity, that William B Richards, one of the soldiers of Colonel Campbell's regiment, who moved to Lib erty township about the year 1840, but who is now deceased, often pointed out the exact location of the battle ground, also staling that a large majority of the horses were killed at the northwest angle of the eamp, in fact that the dead horses literally covered that part of the camp, so much so that the commanding officer ordered the dead sol- diers to be buried near the southwest angle of the camp, which is probably the best authority we have for suggesting that location as the 'burial place' on our diagram. I am satisfied that the diagram here prodneed is probably as near complete as can be made at this late date.
"I am of the opinion that the importance of this battle has never been fully recognized and appreciated by the people of this country, nor ils soothing effect upon the allies of the British during the period of the rampaign of 1813 fully appreciated. Having no enemy in the rear, Gen- oral Harrison was able to push that campaign lo a favorable conclusion without unnecessary delay. I would suggest, therefore, that it would be an act of patriotism on the part of the people of Wabash and Grant vonnties to take immediately some measure to perpetuate becomingly the identity of Colonel Campbell's battlefield on the Mississinewa.
"The old Indian village destroyed by Colonel Campbell's men was situated at the mouth of Josina's creek, about one mile from the south line of Wabash county. The battle illustrated by the foregoing diagram was fought about one ile and a half above this old village in what is now Grant county. While the battle to which reference has been made was actually fought at the place designated in Grant county, the village attacked and destroyed in the evening preceding was situ ated in Wabash county, it may be safely stated that the scenes of those
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
military transactions of seventy-one years ago should be made memorial as a part of our antecedent history. When on this last visit (September 14, 1883) the persons present after some consultation, were of the opin- ion that in order to preserve this battle ground from total annihilation, measures should be immediately commeneed in that direction. Accord- ingly about II a. m. of that day, a meeting was held about five rods in front of the location of Captain Markle's company, and probably on the very ground where Lieutenant Waltz was killed.
The proceedings of this meeting I here produce, as they were pub- lished in the papers of the two counties at the time. | quote from the Wabash Courier of September 28, 1883: "On motion, Judge Thomas B. Hehn of Logansport was elected president and Elijah Hackleman of Wabash, secretary. The object of the meeting being stated to be for the purpose of suggesting to the citizens of Wabash and Grant counties the propriety of taking some measures whereby the identity of this battlefield may not be lost. On motion of Capt. Elias S. Stone of La fontaine, the following preamble and resolutions were road :
" Whereas, So far as the meeting is advised, there has heretofore never been any effort made by the citizens of this community, or by the state, to perpetuate the name of l'ol. John B. Campbell's battle ground, which battle was fought on this ground on the 18th day of December, 1812. and
"Whereas, We consider it second in importance only to the Battle of Tippecanoe, whose location and identity has long since been pre- served by the action of the legislature of the state of Indiana, and
"Whereas, The patriotism of the citizens of Wabash and Grant conu ties on whose borders the battle was fought, should prompt them to such measures as will reseue its location from that oblivion that in- evitably awaits it, therefore,
" Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by this meeting with full power to take into consideration steh measures as may be necessary to preserve the identity of this battlefield, by making the same a public park, either by the contribution of the citizens of the two counties, or by the action of the legislature, or by any other legitimate measures; and that said committee keep a record of its proceedings, and have full power to call a meeting of the citizens of the two counties at any time and place it may think proper, to take action in the matter herein s : out."
Which preamble and resolutions were adopted and the committee appointed under the same, consisting of the following gentlemen: Cap- tain Elias S. Stone of Lafontaine, chairman ; Colonel Asbury Steele and George Gunder of Marion, Captain William II. Morse and Major M. II. Kidd of Wabash.
It was ordered that the secretary of this meeting be directed to fur- nish the papers of Marion and Wabash with these proceedings, with a request for publication, and that all other papers published in the two counties be requested to copy.
THOMAS B. HELM, President, ELIJAHI HACKLEMAN, Secretary.
Mississinewa Battle data was featured in many newspapers leading up to the centennial anniversary and the foregoing is a clipping from the Marion Leader. The following data was used by Mr. Jones in the Marion Chronicle on an anniversary date. December 17, 1908, and is as comprehensive as anything now available on the subject. It was in- trodneed by the following bill to be presented by Honorable John T. Strange for the purchase of Mississinewa Battle Ground :
"An Act, entitled an Aet providing for the purchase of the Mississ-
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
inewa Battle Ground on the Mississinewa river, in Grant county, Indiana, the erection of a Monument thereon, making an appropriation for such purchase and monument, and providing for the appointment of three trustees.
PREAMBLE.
" Whereas, it has been almost one century ago since the Battle of the Mississinewa was fought, and
" Whereas, up to this time no action has ever been taken to purchase the ground upon which the battle occurred, or to erect a monument to commemorate the heroism of those engaged on behalf of the United States in said battle, or to commemorate the importance of the successful termination of said battle in the settlement of the great northwest, and
"Whereas, at this time, it is deemed titting and proper for the great State of Indiana to recognize in some suitable manner, the vast impor- tance of this event to the people of Indiana, and to the great northwest, therefore,
"Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That there be hereby appropriated out of any funds in the state treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars for the purchase of the Mississinewa Battle Ground and the erection thereon of a suitable monument in Grant county, ludiana, to commemorate the suffering. services, and heroism of those engaged there in battle, on the 17th and ISth days of December, IS12, and to perpet- uate the importance of the event.
"Sec. 2. Three trustees shall be appointed by the governor, whose duty it shall be to carry out the provisions of this act, and said trustees shall serve without compensation.
"See. 3. That said trustees shall keep an accurate account of all dis- bursements and make a full report thereof and of the execution of their said irust to the governor not later than January the first, 1910."
In an introductory way Mr. Jones writes :
"A hundred years is a short space in the book kept by Father Time Int in the life of a nation marks many events that become history and which are taught to the younger generation as things that should be remembered. The last hundred years has seen many wonderful events in the history of the state of Indiana but it is only when one stops and considers the conditions that existed at that time can one appreciate the wonderful progress that has been made. In those days the territory of Indiana consisted of a few straggling towns along the Ohio, np the Wabash and the smaller rivers of the southern part of the state. Few white men had penetrated the regions north of what is now Indianapolis and the Indians roamed at will hunting and fishing in the waters of the upper Wabash, the Mississinewa and other of its tributaries. The for- ests that have since been cut down stood as they had stee the beginning of trees with the exception of the Indian trails that wound their way from water conrse to water course.
"The woodman's axe bad not been heard, the plow had not turned up the virgin soil and things were as they had been since the beginning except the slight impression that the Indians had made upon them, It is now nearly one hundred years since there was fought within the boundaries of what is now Grant county a battle that was at the time considered of as much importance as any battle fought between the Indians and whites since the year Mad Anthony Wayne taught the Red Men a lesson.
"To appreciate the importance of the battle a review of the existing conditions is necessary to get a true conception of the view point of those hardy pioneers. For several years after the visit paid by General
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HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
Wayne to the Maumee the Indians kept the peace and were friends to the Americans, but the influence of the British agents was at work and gradually it became unsafe for white men to wander far into the forests. The territory of Indiana was organized m 1800, six years after General Wayne had concluded his efforts in and about what is now Ft. Wayne and William Henry Harrison became its first governor. For ten years or more the whites gradually worked their way northward along the streams that flowed into the Ohio and up the Wabash, but it was always with the knowledge that they took their lives and the lives of the mem- bers of their families into jeopardy when they went far from a settle ment. During this time Governor Harrison was busy settling affairs with the Indians and by treaty trying to open up lands to settlement by the whites. About 1806 Harrison found that he was being opposed in his efforts by Tecumseh, a Shawnee, and his brother, a prophet' of the tribe, and who is known in the history of the state as . The Prophet.' They complained bitterly of the treatment accorded the Indian, and many of their complaints were well grounded. Technisch and his brother began the organization of a league of the Indians who would oppose any Inrther treaties with the whites looking to the opening of land to set tlement. For years the wrangling continued, the Indian chief's visiting Governor Harrison at Vincennes and finally resulted in Governor Har- rison ordering the Indians, who had assembled at the Prophet's' town, near where Lafayette is now located, to disband. Upon their failure to do so he in person led an expedition against the Indians that resulted in the battle of Tippecanoe, fought Nov. 7, 1811, destroying that town and seattering the Indians to the north and west, in the regions of Lake Michigan. For a few months the Indians were peaceful, but the der- laration of war in the following June that resulted in the War of I>12 gave them an opportunity to break forth against the hated Americans. Counseled and advised by the English they began attacks on American outposts and made it impossible for the white to live anywhere in what is now Indiana unless they lived in large communities. The way of 1812 went against the Americans at first. The fort at Mackinac was captured by the British, Fort Dearborn (Chicago) was attacked by British and Indians and the men and women massacred. General Hill surrendered Detroit in a manner that caused the men under hint to regret their American citizenship. Things were going badly in the west, for the Americans, and the government at Washington called upon Governor Harrison to give up his duties in this territory and take charge of the army of the northwest in an effort to retrieve the losses of the first few months. Harrison made his headquarters near Piqua and St. Mary's, Ohio. He was placed in command September 19 and began the organization of the volunteers that had responded to the call to arms. Ilis responsibilities were great. He had entire command of the north- western frontier and the lives of many Americans depended upon his efforts. The war department had given him instructions as follows: 'Having provided for the protection of the western frontier, you will retake Detroit; and, with a view to the conquest of upper Canada, yon will penetrate that country as far as the force under your command will in your judgment justify.' A party of hostile Indians appeared before Fort Wayne with the intention of capturing the place, but an express was sent off to General Harrison and the garrison made up its mind to hold the fort or die in the attempt. At the same time Indians appeared before Fort Harrison, on the Wabash near where Terre Haute now is, and laid siege to that place. Indians committed depredations on the upper Wabash and the Mississinewa, and the settlers began to come into the small towns for protection, and while the women remained in security the husbands and fathers joined the volunteers that were
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