USA > Indiana > Knox County > Vincennes > Historical sketches of Old Vincennes, founded in 1732 : its institutions and churches, embracing collateral incidents and biographical sketches of many persons and events connected therewith > Part 5
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* Deed Rec. Book B, 155, Vincennes.
RIVER.
BOFFERON.
TRACE TO FORT WAYNE
MARIA CT
MILL C
VINCE
NNES
ILLINOIS TRACE
EMBAR/AS RIVER
LITTLE
RAPIDS
RED BANKS TRACK
RIVER DEFHEF
LITTLE ROCKSJE
11 H RIVER
RIVER
WABASH
TE
WHI
MAP MADE IN 1803, SHOW- ING FORT KNOX AT UP- PER BORDER OF TOWN.
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The tradition that a fort was built here in 1788 by Major Hamtranek, and afterwards removed to a site three miles above the city, on the east bank of the Wabash river, about the year 1812, is not substantiated by facts. What could have been the object of removing the fort from town to an isolated place up the river about three miles ? The fort was for the protection of the citizens of the town. Upon the map above alluded to, and here given, such a fort is not designated, although the mouth of Mill creek (now called Kelso's creek) is plainly dis- cernable, and the mouth of Maria creek, ten miles above the city, is also to be seen. If a fort had been there it would have been plainly marked on this map. That a United States garrison was at the point now called "Fort Knox" is not questioned, but that it contained a United States fort and removed there from the town is not pre- snmable, for the further reasons that no record of it exists in the War Department, and from the following additional fact that I now give:
Through Mr. C. G. McCord the writer has seen an instrument of writing wherein eighty-five acres of land was secured from Jeremiah Buckley for the use of a gar- rison in 1803 by the United States Government, and for which his heirs were paid the sum of "two hundred and eighty dollars in full compensation for the use made of the timber and land while the troops of the United States occupied the said land."* It makes no mention of a fort being there, but distinctly states the land was for garrison purposes. This land embraces what is called "Fort Knox."
"See Act of Congress, July, 1832-Record R. p. 42.
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OLD VINCENNES.
Why a garrison was established up the river three miles is only conjectural. As some United States troops had to be retained in this region so as to be near at hand in case of raids by Indians in the county, and to give them something to do in the way of tilling the soil and exercise, and thereby lightening the expense of the commissariat, may have been, and doubtless were, the reasons for a transfer of a portion, if not all, of Fort Knox's garrison to that place; and when the fort was dismantled and its inmates removed up the river it is presumed the place was dubbed, by courtesy, Fort Knox. The spot the garrison occupied is a picturesque one, of which a pretty pic- ture is given in this connection, and it has been a popular place for pienies and members of the boating club and their fair young companions, and doubtless will be in all time to come, in memory of the soldiers once stationed there and for its beauty .*
Until the writer investigated the history of our city he had supposed that the site was once occupied by a neigh- borhood fort, like a dozen other so-called forts in different parts of the country; for instance, those in Widner were called Fort Widner, Fort Chambers, Fort Lemon, Fort Polk and Fort Taylor; the largest of these, Widner, con- taining three-quarters of an aere of ground, was what is called a stockade fort. One was at Emison's Mill, eight miles above the city, and one at Bruceville; another in Busseron township, called "Ochiltree Fort," near the cele- brated pear tree, "which was twelve feet in circumference at the base, one hundred and twenty feet in height and had a lateral spread of one hundred and twenty-six feet, vield-
"See Act of Congress, July. 1832; Record R. p. 48, at Court House.
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ing annually fifty bushels of fruit."* Another existed in Pahnyra township, called "Roe's Fort," and one at Pur- cell's. The one erected at Emison's Mill, owing to the fact that most of the men were absent on duty, and the gar- rison consisted of ladies, was dubbed "Fort Petticoat."+
The landable suggestions that have been made from time to time that memorials be placed to mark noted places in the early history of our city are to be com- mended, and if practicable should be acted upon. But the first step should be the erection of a monument to the memory of George Rogers Clark. Yet, if our patriotism becomes so broadened as to embrace every so-called fort that onee existed in this region, I fear that our benevo- lence will be overtaxed, and failure will follow.
CAMP KNOX.
Camp Knox is so closely connected with the history of Old Vincennes that it deserves a niche in this volume. It was the site of a garrison of United States soldiers early in the last century, whither they were removed from Fort Knox in the village. It is situated three miles above the city on a bluff of the eastern bank of the Wabash river. It overlooks the river far into Illinois, and beautiful views present themselves to the eye, as the borders of the land- scape on either shore are set with silver linings by the environment of water, which calmly reflects grove and sky, or dances in coruscating, sunlit wavelets in answer to the calling winds.
While the garrison was stationed there, the home of Dr. Samuel MeKee, United States Army Surgeon, was the ob-
* History Knox County, p. 72.
+History Knox County, p. 77.
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jective point of frequent ontings of Governor William Henry Harrison and his friends, the Governor often re- marking that the viands served out there seemed more taste- ful than those in town .*
CAMP KNOX. SITE OF A GARRISON OF UNITED STATES ARMY. ESTABLISHED IN 180 ;. 7
When the soldiers were encamped there it was, without doubt, a central place of interest to the country folk, as well as the denizens of the town, as little toil, plenty of leisure and amusements combined to enliven the barracks
This information came from the late A. B. McKee, who was a son of the Surgeon, received through his aunt, Mrs. Capt. Robert Buntin, then a resident of Vincennes.
+ Camp Knox, the Second, had its origin during the early days of the Civil War, and was located northeast of the city one mile.
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days and months ; but with the passing away of the "pomp and circumstance of war." the crumbling, corroding hand of time and decay robbed it of its artificial glory, strewn there by the hand of art, and left it for Nature to restore to it again its pristine beauty and loveliness. And yet, bereft of its camp adornments, it presents many points of attraction, and needs only a willing hand, reinforced by taste and enterprise, to restore to it the glory of the past.
Its inaccessibility to visitors, except by water, prevents it from becoming a place of more frequent resort for the worshipers of beautiful scenery. By row or sail boat noth- ing is more inviting than a jaunt on the "rolling deep," in spring's balmy mornings, when the shores of the river are garlanded with myriads of flowers, or in autumn's calm, invigorating evenings, when the parti-colored foliage of October, in the adjacent forest-lined shores, rivals in beauty the shimmering meteoric showers that stud the firmament during the twilight-ides of a November evening.
Yet unadorned by the hand of art, it is an ideal spot for lads and lassies to while away the rosy hours of day, as "love's young dream" clothes it with a halo of glory, while woodland songsters warble their sweetest notes, embowered in the shady groves, and the piping notes of quail and lark echo back responses from copse and bush.
But in contemplating these scenes, a tinge of sadness casts a shadow on the wings of thought, as one realizes that within these precincts forgotten heroes lie, "unwept, un- honored and unsung," who will never more waken until Eternity's reveille is sounded on the receding shores of time.
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PEACE TO THEIR ASHES.
They served their country in its time of need, And though remembered not, in name or deed, Their resting place, although their souls have fled, Should sacred be, in memory of the dead; And honored be the hands, in spring's bright hours, That strew their lonely graves with beauteous flowers.
SUPPOSED LAST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATIVE MEETING HALL.
Chapter IV.
FIRST TOWN AND COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS.
S UBSEQUENT to the capture of Post Vincennes by Colonel Clark, Colonel John Todd was appointed Governor and commandant of it, by the executive and legislative council of Virginia, whose conduct seems to have been erratic and brief. Ile arrived in May, 1779. While here he exercised autocratic powers and disposed of much of the public domain, although the Virginia Legislature had forbidden such action. IL℮ organized a court with the following appointees: Colonel Le Gras, Louis Ediline, Pierre Gamelin, and Pierre Quarez; Le Gras becoming secretary. But it seems that Governor Todd soon tired of this field of labor and sought greener pastures and a more inviting and extensive plane upon which his genius might disport and expand, and left this place for Kaskaskia. But, before leaving, he delegated his powers to Mr. Le Gras, his substi- tute at the Post, who seems to have had fewer scruples on the subject of the right to dispose of lands than his supe- rior, Governor Todd. Not only did he exercise the power of disposing of public domain, but he delegated it to the county court, composed of four judges, organized under the act of Virginia, and which held their sessions at Vin- cennes. They did a wholesale business in the way of dispos- ing of the public domain, not only to others, but to them-
-74-
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selves, not only by the arpent, but by "leagues." The way it is reported to have been done is this: Three of the four judges were left on the bench, while one retired. The court then made a grant of so many leagues of land to their absent colleague, which act of theirs was entered of record ; he returned as soon as the grant was recorded, and another of these "ermined" gentlemen left the bench, while the chief justice and the other judges made similar grants to their absent friend, said friend returning after such grant was duly entered of record ; and so with the fourth .*
But little is recorded of the doings of this court, except the granting to each other good sized farms belonging to the domain of Uncle Sam. Of these grants to themselves and their friends in 1783, 26,000 acres was the sum total, and by the year 1787 it had reached the figures of 48,000. The transactions of this court having been reported to the Washington Government in 1790, Winthrop Sargent, See- retary of the United States for the Northwest Territory, was ordered to investigate the matter. Calling upon this court, organized by Governor Todd and given extraordi- mary powers, for their reasons for their actions in these matters, the members of this august tribunal, through their spokesman, replied as follows: "That since the establish- ment of this country, the commandants have always ap- peared to be vested with the power to grant lands; their founder, M. de Vincennes, began to give concessions, and all his successors have given and granted lands and lots. Mr. Le Gras was appointed Commandant of Post Vin- cennes by the lieutenant of the country, and Commander- in-Chief John Todd, who, in the year 1799 was sent by
" Law's History, pp. 110, 111.
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the State of Virginia to regulate the government of the country, and who substituted Mr. Le Gras with such pow- ers. In his absence, Mr. Le Gras, who was then command- ant, assumed that he had equal power from the command- ant in anthority to give lands according to ancient usages of other commandants ; and he verbally informed the court of the Post of Vincennes that when they would judge it proper to give lots or lands they might do it."
A commission was appointed to examine these claims, and as a specimen, the claim of a Mr. Thomas Flower may be given. He claimed an undivided third of a grant made by Pierre Quarez & Son of a tract of land beginning at the River Maria, to White river, about ten leagues deep, ex- cluding from said grant any land that may have been granted. This claim of Mr. Flower, as assigned to Pierre Gamelin, amounted to 40,000 acres. The Todd court and these fraudulent claims having been set aside, Secretary Sargent proceeded to organize Knox county, which em- braced the Territories of Indiana and Michigan, and estab- lish courts having civil and criminal jurisdiction, and they were proclaimed organized in June, 1790, the first session being held July 14, 1790, by the judges appointed, to wit : Antoine Gamelin, Paul Gamelin, Francis Busseron, James Johnson and Luke Decker. This court was abolished when the Territory was established, May 7, 1800, and William Clark, Henry Vanderburgh and John Griffin were ap- pointed by an Act of Congress. The first term of this last court was held in February, 1801, the session being held in rented property until 1809, in a house owned by L. Baza- don, corner Second and Broadway streets ; when the brick court house was erected on the corner of Fourth and Buntin
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streets, the sessions were then held there. This property was sold and another building erected (on the square on which the present temple of justice stands), which was con- tracted for in 1831 and finished in 1832; but it, in turn, was demolished in 1878, when the present magnificent building was erected at a cost of a half million dollars. The courts prevailing here for half a century or more were the Circuit, Probate and Conrt of Common Pleas. The circuit judges presiding had jurisdiction in half a dozen counties, holding court alternately in each, hence the names circuit judges and circuit courts.
As population and business increased, it was found necessary to change the district, and in 1872 the law was changed so that a judge should confine his jurisdiction to this city, and the Court of Common Pleas was then abol- ished, the business of that court being transferred to the Circuit Court and the circuit judge presided over the con- solidated courts.
The Circuit Court as established at this time is as fol- lows: Circuit Judge, Orlando F. Cobb; Prosecuting At- torney, W. S. Hoover; Circuit Clerk, James F. Lewis; Sheriff, Andrew Summitt ; and the balance of the county officers are as follows: Treasurer, C. A. Weisert ; Recorder, Frank T. Emison ; AAuditor, James D. Williams ; Assessor, John M. Stork; Commissioners, Henry Frederick, John W. McGowen, Isaac Henderson ; Coroner, H. W. Held, M. D .; Superintendent Public Schools, Peter Philipi ; County Physician, Doctor Norman Beckes, and County Secretary of the State Board of Health, Lyman M. Beckes, M. D.
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TOWN GOVERNMENT-OLD TOWN HALL.
No kind of civil government can be said to have been established in Vincennes or the Territory of the Northwest prior to the arrival of John Todd, Esq., in June, 1779, who, it is said, acting under a law passed by the Vir- ginia Legislature, established civil and criminal courts ; but they proved to be inefficient and ephemeral in character to such a degree that Winthrop Sargent, who was sent here to organize Knox county, said they "eked out of existence in the summer of 1787."
The county having been organized, the Courts of Quar- ter Sessions of the Peace and Common Pleas were insti- tuted, and a probate judge appointed. But the government instituted by him bore equally on the whole territory as well as the town. The first town government was not or- ganized until 1805, approved in 1807, and ordinances not published until 1809, in the Western Sun newspaper. The act of incorporating the town occurred on September 6. 1814, and was approved by the Territorial Legislature February 2, 1815. It embraced all that portion of land within the bounds of Hart street on the northeast, Eleventh street on the southeast, Willow street on the southwest, and the Wabash river on the northwest. The lands outside these boundaries, called Commons lands (not those em- braced by donations), were given to the town of Vincennes by Congress, with the stipulation that the moneys arising from the sale thereof should be applied to the drainage of the swamp east of town, and that any surplus funds left, after such drainage was paid for, should accrue to the Vincennes University Fund (and not be used for town
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purposes, as stated by Goodspeed in his History of Knox County).
These common lands amounted to 4,500 acres. The town officials sold them in part to the amount of $24,224.69, but expended only $15,500, retaining and spending the balance of $8, 724.69 for town purposes, con-
RT: SCHEEPERS Cas BEzak
OLD TOWN HALL, ERECTED IN 1837.
trary to the act of Congress, the University getting nothing. The balance of the lands, if sold, were not accounted for up to 1870 .*
The town organization for a time consisted of a board of trustees, who elected their chairman, secretary and
* Extract from the Report of Colonel C. M. Allen to Trustees of Vincennes University, as Chairman of Committee.
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treasurer. The officers were elected by the people, and were a president, secretary and treasurer; all freeholders and housekeepers being deemed legal voters.
Ground for a market house was purchased, and a mar- ket-master appointed and ordered to inclose the same with a fence, with turnsiles at both ends for ingress and egress ; and market day was to open at daylight and close at 9 a. m., the opening being announced by the blowing of a horn. In 1819 the trustees initiated the first fire company by providing "six fire hooks and ladders" and requiring "every family to provide themselves with two two-gallon leathern buckets ; but where but one chimney existed only one was required." Every citizen was constituted a volum- teer member of the fire brigade. In 1830 a Board of Health was constituted by the appointment of Doctors J. D. Wolverton, Joseph Somes and William Dinwiddie. In 1831 the General Assembly passed an act granting a city charter, to be passed on by the voters ; R. P. Price, Judge Jolm B. Martin and Joseph Roseman, Secretaries. The vote was small, resulting in twenty-three for and twenty against it. The charter was not considered legal and was not granted.
The charter was afterwards amended so that the town government should be known as the President and Trustees of the Borough of Vincennes. A town hall was erected in 1837, and subsequently had a market attachment, or wings added to it, under the same roof, abont thirty feet wide and forty feet long, divided in stalls, where market was held tri-weekly. Greengrocers having subsequently supplied the place of the market, the old hall was de- molished and the present beautiful structure was erected on the old site in 1886.
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This form of government obtained until 1852, when a city charter was granted, which was amended on January 25. 1855. so as to create the present form for the govern- ment of the city, embracing the following officers : Mayor, Clerk, Civil Engineer, City Board of Health, Police, Weighmaster and City Attorney. The present incumbents of office are: Mayor, George W. Rousch: Treasurer. Thos. Eastham: Clerk. Thomas Robinson; Attorney, Judge W. W. Moffatt : City Engineer, Jeremiah Hershy : President Board of Health, Dr. P. HI. Caney: President Metropolitan Police Board. D. S. Bonner. The popula- tion of the city at present writing is about 12.000.
GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS-LAAND OFFICE.
Not many of the present generation are aware that the first land office established in the West was located at Vin- cennes by an act of Congress, passed and approved March 26. 1804. As the lands had to be surveyed and other pre- liminaries attended to before the office could be placed in operation, it did not open until 1807. The first Register appointed was Lonis Jean Badollet (April 17. 1504), the grandfather of our worthy fellow-citizen, Henry Badollet, who held the position, by successive appointments, for thirty-two years, and until 1836, when his son. Albert Gallatin Badollet, was appointed to succeed him, and held the position until 1841.
There is a little romance connected with the appoint- ment of the elder Badollet, as it was received through the influence of Albert Gallatin, who was then Secretary of the Treasury, under President Jefferson. Gallatin and
[6]
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Badollet were natives of Switzerland, and when they had arrived at manhood in their native land, they both deter- mined to emigrate to America together, but when they counted up their savings, it was found that their funds were too small for the ex- penses of both : so thev cast lots to decide which of the two should go first, and the lot fell to Gallatin. Ile was to go and send the first moneys received by hin after arriving in America, for his friend Badollet. Gallatin, being exceptionally bright and enterprising, soon was so successful as toaccumulate enough money to transmit DAY-HADOLET to his delaved friend. In due time the two em- braced each other on JOHN BADOLLET. American soil, and for a time settled in business in Pennsylvania, but ere long they drifted apart. Badollet married and settled down, while Gallatin entered into politics, and soon became a factor in national affairs. But they kept in close touch with each other, and when Mr. Gallatin was called to the cabinet of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Badollet having removed to Vincennes, the latter, through the efforts of his friend Gallatin, secured the appointment of Register of the Land Office at Vin- cennes. Ilis faithful service kept him in the same office
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for thirty-two years, and got the appointment of his son to succeed him. Dr. HI. Decker succeeded Albert G. Badol- let in April. 1844, who in turn was succeeded by John Meyers in 1841 ; he by James S. Mayes, January, 1847; he by John C. Clark, June, 1849 ; he by John R. Jones. in May, 1853, and he by James S. Mayes, in September, 1856. The office was closed June 12, 1850, but reopened by executive order April 23, 1853, when Jones received his appointment, and the office was finally closed December 20. 1861.
Nathaniel Ewing, one of the most distinguished early settlers, a man of commanding influence and wealth, and grandfather of our worthy fellow-townsman, the Honor- able W. L. Ewing. was the first Receiver of the Land Office, and was appointed in May, 1807. He retained office under four or five administrations, and until 1824, when he was succeeded by J. C. S. Harrison, son of Governor Harrison, February, 1824; he by John D. Wolverton, June. 1830 : he by James P. Drake, August, 1834: he by John Love, July, 1838; he by Thomas Scott, March, 1841; he by Samuel Wise, the unele of our worthy fellow-citizens, Louis and John B. Wise, the only living male descendants of this numerous and prominent family of the early citi- zens of the town. Mr. Wise was succeeded by R. N. Car- nan, the father of our fellow-citizen, William Carnan : he by John C. Heberd, uncle of the late William Heberd and closely related to many of our best citizens: he by J. II. E. Sprinkle, in March, 1858; he by George E. Green, former editor of the Vincennes Sun, and father of the ex-Mayor, George E. Green, and he by Abner T. Ellis. January. 1861. who was, in early days, one of the most
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distinguished citizens of Vincennes, and first President of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. He held the position only until December 20, 1861, when the office was finally closed.
In 1853 most of the public domain in Indiana had been disposed of, and that was the reason assigned for the clos- ing of the land office here at that time; but some swamp and hilly lands were yet owned by Uncle Sam, and the office was reopened by executive order to make a final dis- position of them. To facilitate the sale of these waste lands, Congress passed a special act, reducing the price of them to twelve and a half cents per acre. There were many supe- rior small tracts scattered over the State termed "lost lands," where no owners were visible, and many swamp lands that could easily be reclaimed, hence there was soon a rush to the Vincennes Land Office. And soon there was done, in this city, truly "a land office business" ; for home- seekers and speculators crowded the office in real Okla- homa style, and but a few months elapsed until all the lands in the State were entered, and Vincennes ceased to be the Mecca of land brokers. In less than fifty-five years nine- tenths of the wild Indian lands of this vast Indiana Terri- tory have been retrieved by the Caucasian race, through the hands of industry and thrift, and advanced to the pres- ent pinnacle of civilization, refinement and power, and until "Hoosierdom" is at a premium in science, literature and art.
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POSTOFFICE.
Wonderful changes have occurred in the postal system since a postoffice was first established in Vincennes. The first communication between this place and the land of civilization was through armed convoys, and at long inter- vals ; then came the "post rider" with his big saddle-bags and his tin horn, which he blew stentoriously on nearing a wayside inn, postal station or town. In the early part of the nineteenth century the post rider gave way, on main or State roads, to the old stage coach, which continued to be the vehicle of conveyance of the mail and travelers for a full half century, and until the steamboat and railroad supplanted and relegated it to the rear, much to the sorrow of many of the old inhabitants, who had been accustomed for so many years to listen to the patter of the hoofs of the horses pulling the swaying old coach, and listening to the stageman's horn music as it floated out on the summer evening's air, sounding over hill and valley. Its music was the courier bearing good news from the outer world, and tidings from the busy throngs within the hives of civilization. But progress marks the westward tide of empire, and old things and practices must sooner or later give way to the new in the process of evo- lution, though they, in so doing, bury forever the sweet- est memories of earlier years. In the new order of things, are the people happier now than then ? The elderly say that those were the happiest days of their lives, when there was an absence of conventionalism, when everybody knew everybody else, and society was untrameled, save by the laws of justice, virtue and love. In the beginning of the
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