USA > Indiana > Cass County > History of Cass County, Indiana, from its earliest settlement to the present time; with Biographical Sketches and Reference to Biographies, Volume I > Part 7
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
with hickory wythes or raw-hide strings. They were covered with bark or a kind of mat made of flags. In some villages the houses were more pretentious and rude huts were constructed of poles and logs after the manner of the pioneer settler, but nearly all their dwellings were wig- wams hastily constructed.
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They took no prisoners in battle except to put them to torture and death. Once in a while, however, a victim was saved from torture by being adopted into the tribe by some member who had recently lost a son or husband.
They were haughty and taciturn. Their symbol of peace was a pipe which was lighted and passed around, each one in the peace com- pact taking a puff at the same pipe. The Indians, whether mounted or on foot, always moved in single file; this habit gave rise to the phrase, "Indian file." Hundreds of Indians were thus often seen traveling stretched out along the trail for miles. They had a peculiar "whoop" by which they made communication along the line when desired. The whoop given by one would be caught up and repeated along the line until the forest would ring with hundreds of voices at one time. When the Indian met a white person he would instantly place the gun behind him as if to conceal it from view.
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When they visited a settlers cabin they invariably came up to the rear. There being but one door to the cabin, as a rule, an Indian would leave the path leading to the door, go around to the rear, then stealthily walk back around the house and suddenly spring to the door and gave his salute, thus taking the family by surprise. The Indians had a great dislike for a coward. They admired a brave-Indian or white. It was unfortunate for the whites if, when the Indians visited their cabins, they showed signs of fear. Seeing the fear of the white people, they would menace them with tomahawks and scalping-knives for the purpose of increasing their alarm. When the whites were well frightened the Indians would often take anything they desired and appropriate it to their own uses. It was necessary for the settlers when Indians came to their cabins to exhibit a bold and defiant spirit, other- wise they would be brow-beaten and robbed.
An amusing incident was told to the writer that illustrates this feature of the Indian character. One day a number of Indians came to a settler's cabin to buy some provisions. The man was not at home, but the good wife went to the smokehouse to get some bacon. Several squaws followed her in. One of them took a large piece of bacon and started out. She was told she could not have that piece. The. squaw persisted in carrying it off. The white woman seized the piece of meat, jerked it from the squaw and struck her a blow with the bacon that nearly knocked her down. This caused great merriment among the Indian bucks. They gathered around the settler's wife and patting her on the back, said: "White squaw heap much brave; heap much fight." In selling anything to the Indians for money it was difficult to obtain a fair price. In such a trade they were shrewd, but in bartering for their furs, peltries, baskets, moccasins, etc., they seemed to have no judgment. One so disposed could take great advantage of them. Mr. C., a white man who had established a trading-post in an early day, having just received a supply of needles, told the Indians that the needle-maker was dead, and when the supply he had on hand was gone they would get no more. The result was, he exchanged his needles each for a coon skin, when the skin was worth fifty to seventy-five cents. Another incident showing the reckless and careless use of their prop- erty is shown by the Miami chief, Pa-louz-wa, or Francis Godfrey, as he was better known among the whites. He had a large tract of land
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in Miami county. It is told of him, that being at Lafayette on one occasion, when a steamboat arrived there from the Ohio river, he offered the captain a half section of land, if he would convey him and his party to their homes, some three miles above where Peru now stands. The offer was accepted and the trip made up the Wabash but the steamer was stranded owing to low water and never returned to Lafayette, but Pa-louz-wa made the deed to the promised half section of land.
THE MIAMIS
This tribe of Indians was originally known as Twightwees, but they became friends of the French in a very early day, and the French called them M Amis (Miamis) as my friends, and they have been known by that name by the early settlers of Cass county and in all treaties with the state and nation.
They were a powerful and warlike tribe and produced one of the most remarkable chiefs and warriors known in American aboriginal history, Me-che-can-noch-qua or "Little Turtle," who could well take rank with the greatest warriors of civilized nations. He was a man of extraor- dinary courage, sagacity and talents and a physical frame that equaled his courage. He reached the head of his nation at an early age, and from that time until his death, exerted an influence over his tribe never equaled by any other of its chiefs. He displayed great generalship at the head of the allied Indian forces that defeated General Harmar, October 19, 1790, and General St. Clair, November 1, 1791, the most disastrous reverses received by the nation at the hands of the Indians. He was, however, disastrously defeated by General Wayne, at Fort Wayne, August 20, 1794. "Little Turtle" was ruling spirit in the Miami confederacy that was formed in the latter half of the eighteenth century, between the Twightwees with two hundred and fifty available warriors; the Piankeshaws, with three hundred; the Ouiatanons, with three hundred, and the Shockey, with two hundred, making an army of one thousand and fifty braves that roamed up and down the Wabash valley, a menace and a terror to the early settlers and often carrying death and destruction in their pathway. After the treaty of Greenville in 1795, "Little Turtle" visited Philadelphia, where he was met and entertained by Volney and Kosciusko. While east his portrait was painted by a distinguished artist. He had warred against the Ameri- cans, but when peace was made he accepted it as final and ever after- ward remained a steadfast friend of the whites. He opposed the attempt of Tecumseh to form a confederacy against the Americans. He died in 1812 and was buried with great honors at Ft. Wayne.
In the summer of 1912, while making some excavations near Ft. Wayne, the grave of "Little Turtle" was opened and his bones with his tomahawk and other accoutrements were unearthed and taken charge of by the antiquarians of Ft. Wayne.
The last two chiefs of the Miamis were buried near Peru, in Miami county. The last great war chief was Pa-louz-wa, or Francis Godfrey, as he was known to the whites and next to "Little Turtle" was the most noted chief the Miamis ever had. When his tribe made the final treaty with the government and ceded possession of their lands in Indiana, four sections on the Mississinnewa were reserved for Pa-louz-wa. On this reservation he erected a trading post and became for those days a noted merchant. He died in 1840 and was buried on a high knoll overlooking the Wabash, east of Peru. On his grave a marble shaft has been erected bearing on one side his white name and on the other, "Late principal chief of the Miami nation of Indians." His funeral
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was largely attended by Indians and whites and the principal address was delivered by Wa-pa-pin-sha, a noted Indian orator of his tribe. Pa-louz-wa was followed in the chieftainship of his tribe by John Baptiste Big Leg, who was the last chief of the Miamis. He lies buried by the side of Pa-louz-wa and a plain marble slab marks the spot where his bones lie. It bears the following inscription : "Head chief of the Miami and Kansas tribe." A brave warrior, a generous man and a good Christian. When the Indians were removed to the West some of the Miamis remained on the Mississinnewa in Miami county, and became good citizens. Several hundred of the Miami Indians are at this writing still living on the Mississinnewa river in Grant and Miami
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GABRIEL GODFREY, LAST CHIEF OF THE MIAMIS, DIED 1911
counties. Many of them have intermarried with the whites, attend the public schools and are becoming assimilated with the whites. Gabriel Godfrey, descendant of Francis Godfrey, the great chief, had always lived in Miami county and died there in 1911, at an advanced age.
MIAMI INDIANS
The Miamis dwelt in permanent villages and thus showed a higher stage of civilization than many of the nomadic tribes farther west. Their villages occupied sites beautifully located on the banks of rivers and creeks, surrounded by rich agricultural lands which they culti- vated to a very limited extent, depending mostly on fishing and hunt- ing for sustenance.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
The Miamis occupied that part of Cass county lying on both sides of Eel river and all south of the Wabash.
FRANCES SLOCUM
History records many cases of white children being stolen by the Indians and carried into captivity. Frances Slocum is a noted case of this kind and having often been in Cass county with her tribe of Miamis and Geo. W. Ewing, who was instrumental in identifying her, being a resident of Logansport, a brief sketch of this noted captive is worthy a place in the history of this county.
Geo. W. Ewing was one of the early merchants of Logansport and an Indian trader and was familiar with their language. He became ac- quainted with Frances Slocum, the widow of She-pa-can-nah or Deaf- Man, the war chief of the Osage village, then an aged woman living with her family on the Mississinewa river, nine miles southeast of Peru. Mr. Ewing recognized her to be a white woman and learned from her that she was stolen from her parents when a child five or six years of age, that her parents' name was Slocum and when she was stolen she lived with her parents on the Susquehanna river in eastern Pennsylvania. This is all she could remember about her parents. She had been adopted and brought up by a band of the Delaware Indians and learned their language and had forgotten her childish English and could only speak the Indian language. With this brief sketch of her nativity, Mr. Ewing wrote a letter dated at Logansport, January 20, 1832, and directed it to any newspaper on the Susquehanna river, giving the above details of Frances Slocum's capture by the Indians. It was several years be- fore he heard from this letter, but in 1837 he received a letter from one Ion J. Slocum written at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, August 9, 1837, stating that his father had a sister stolen by the Indians when five years old and they had never heard from her. Steps were at once taken to identify this Indian widow and Isaac Slocum, a supposed younger brother, came to Peru in September, 1837, and proceeded with an inter- preter to Deaf-Man's village, about nine miles above Peru on the Mis- sissinewa river, the home of She-pa-can-nah or Frances Slocum. Isaac Slocum said he could identify his sister by a scar on the forefinger of her left hand. The brother entered the Indian wigwam, gazed upon the aged and changed form of Frances and involuntarily exclaimed : "Good God! is this my sister ?" Then grasping her left hand, drew her to the light and found the scar, the identical scar he had described.
James T. Miller, the interpreter who accompanied Isaac Slocum, in- terrogated the Indian woman concerning the scar on her finger and she related the circumstances of its cause, which tallied with that of her brother, and her identity was fully established. Another brother, Joseph Slocum, and a sister, Mary Town, soon were sent for and the two sis- ters and two brothers, who had so long been separated, were once more united, but a feeling of sadness pervaded the whole party. Frances had been brought up among the Indians, acquired their language. customs and habits and could not converse with her brothers or sister except by an interpreter. Her Indian husband was dead and with two of her chil- dren was buried near her own wigwam. She had two daughters with grandchildren living near her and her whole life had been spent with the Indians and she was one of them, as much so as if she had been born an Indian, and she could not be induced to desert her children and Indian life, as they were dearer to her than all earthly possessions, yea, her acquired habits of life and associations were more to be desired than inborn instincts, showing what training can do with any child. Frances Vol. 1-8
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Slocum remained with her tribe and her brothers and sister returned to their home in the East in September, 1837.
One evening, about dusk in the year 1777, while Frances was play- ing with other children near her father's house in Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl- vania, the hostile Delaware Indians approached them, killed one of her playmates, a boy, and carried her off and she, adopted by an Indian chief, was taken to Niagara, then to Sandusky, and later to Detroit, Ft. Wayne and finally came among the Miami Indians near Peru. She was married about 1797 to "Deaf-Man" (She-pa-can-nah), war chief of the Osage village, by whom she had four children, two sons and two daugh-
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FRANCES SLOCUM, WHITE CHILD BORN NEAR WILKESBARRE, PENNSYL- VANIA, 1771, CAPTURED BY INDIANS IN 1777; ADOPTED BY THEM AND MARRIED TO INDIAN CHIEF SHE-PA-CAN-NAH (DEAD MAN). CAME WEST TO CASS AND MIAMI COUNTIES AND DIED NEAR PERU, MARCH 9, 1847
ters. Her husband died about 1833 and Frances died March 9, 1847, and both are buried on the Mississinewa river in Miami county. . Her last child died in 1877, but she has many descendants living. Thus ends the story of Frances Slocum's captivity and death, one of the most remarkable and pathetic of Indian life.
POTTAWATTOMIE INDIANS
Pottawattomie, or Poux as they were formerly known, belong to the Algonquin family and related to the Chippewas or Ojibways. The sep-
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
aration of these tribes from the parent family took place at or near Michilimackinack in northern Michigan, probably about 1650 and the Poux located on the southern shores of Lake Michigan; the Ottawas dwelt with them. The Ottawas became dissatisfied and withdrew from their allies and sought a home elsewhere. The Poux told the Ottawas if they did not like their association that they could go, for they, the Poux, could make their own council fires. From this circumstance, it is said, the name Pottawattomies was derived from the compound word puh-to-wa, signifying a blowing out or expansion of the cheeks, as in the act of blowing a fire, and "me," a nation, which means a nation of fire-blowers, literally a people, as intimated to the Ottawas, able to build their own council fires and take care of and defend themselves inde- pendently. In 1660, the French missionary Allouez speaks of the Pot- tawattomies occupying territory around Green bay and southward to the country of the Sacs, Foxes and Miamis. Being crowded south by the Poux and other northwestern tribes, they occupied northwestern Indiana and at the beginning of the War of 1812 we find the Pottawat- tomies settled along the banks of the Tippecanoe and the north bank of the Wabash river from the mouth of the Tippecanoe to the mouth of Eel river, thus occupying the north and west part of Cass county. To- beno-beh was probably the first chief of the Pottawattomies known to the whites. He was a mild-mannered sachem, yet intelligent, and governed his tribe from 1790 to 1820. He died a venerable patriarch and was succeeded by Wen-e-megh, usually spelled Winamac. He had great force of character and commanding appearance. He was their leading war chief during the War of 1812 and was a part of the band of enemies with which Logan had his fatal encounter near the banks of the Miami in the fall of that year. Me-te-ah was the last great chief of the Pot- tawattomies. He was an orator as well as a military chieftain. The principal chief and leading men of the tribe who came to Logansport for the purpose of trading and who were best known to the early set- tlers of our town were: Aw-be-naw-be; Ask-kum; Paw-sis; Muck-kose ; Che-quah; Co-ash-be; Kawk; Kokem; Shpo-tah; Che-chaw-koase; We- saw ; Weis-she-o-nas; Ke-wan-nay ; Pash-po-ho; I-o-wak; Nos-waw-kay ; O-kak-mans; Ben-ac; Ne-bansh, and Nio-quiss; and the chiefesses, Mish- no-quah and Mis-no-go-quah; the last two of whom with several others, and many scenes of pioneer life have been portrayed on canvas by Mr. George Winter, Logansport's pioneer artist. Some years prior to the removal of the Indians west, and when Logansport was quite a town, the Indians would come to town to trade or receive their annuity from the government and the Pottawattomies usually camped on the north side of Eel river on the site of West Logan; sometimes on the hill, then in the woods, now occupied by the First Presbyterian church.
The Miamis camped on the south side and showed a higher degree of business sagacity and moral worth and when through trading would at once depart for their villages up the rivers, but the Pottawattomies would linger in camp near town for some days or weeks, drinking and carousing in drunken orgies.
LAND CESSIONS AND TREATIES
The territory now within the boundary of Cass county was originally occupied by the Miami and Pottawattomie tribes of Indians when white men first began to settle here. The Miamis having the prior right, being the first and longest occupants, but the Pottawattomies having been permitted to occupy the northwest part of the county for many years seemed also to have an equitable claim. The settled policy of the
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
United States government has always been never to take, pre-empt, or to receive any lands from the aboriginal possessors except by purchase, and for a valuable consideration and by the consent of the original owners, the Indian tribes occupying the land at the time of purchase.
The first treaty with the Indians affecting the title to Cass county territory was made and concluded at St. Mary's, Ohio, October 2, 1818, between Jonathan Jennings, Lewis Cass and Benjamin Parke, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the principal chief and warriors of the Pottawattomie nation of Indians. In consideration of the cession so made the United States agreed to pay a perpetual annuity of $2,500 in silver. This cession includes lands lying in the west and north portions of the county.
The second treaty was perfected near the mouth of the Mississinnewa, on the Wabash river, between the United States commissioners, Lewis Cass, James B. Ray and John Tipton, and the chief and warriors of the Pottawattomie tribe of Indians, concluded and signed on the 16th day of October, 1826, and ratified by congress and proclaimed by John Quincy Adams, president of the United States, February 7, 1827. By this treaty the Pottawattomies ceded lands lying north of the boundary designated in the former treaty.
Third treaty. The Miami Indians having a prior claim to the Pottawattomies to all of Cass county's lands, the United States by the above last-named commissioners, entered into a treaty with the Miami Indians on the ground near the mouth of the Mississinnewa on October 23, 1826, whereby they ceded their claim to all the land in Indiana north and west of the Wabash river excepting certain reservations therein designated. This treaty was ratified by congress and proclaimed by the president of the United States January 24, 1827.
By a further treaty dated October 23, 1834, between Wm. Marshall, commissioner, and the warriors of the Miami Indians, made and concluded at the forks of the Wabash, the tribe ceded a portion of the big reserve made at the treaty of St. Mary's in 1818, situated southeast of the Wabash river.
The consideration for all these lands was $208,000. This treaty was not ratified by congress until December 22, 1837.
The Miamis by a subsequent treaty made November 6, 1838, at the forks of the Wabash by Abel C. Pepper, commissioner on the part of the United States, ceded further lands lying south of the Wabash in Cass county with lands now lying in other counties to the south and east. This treaty was ratified February 8, 1839. The consideration was $335,680. Again on November 28, 1840, the Miamis entered into a treaty with the United States by Samuel Milroy and Allen Hamilton, commissioners, at the forks of the Wabash whereby they ceded to the United States all that tract of land lying south of the Wabash not heretofore ceded, and known as the big reserve, being all their remain- ing lands in Indiana. This treaty was ratified June 7, 1841.
The consideration was $550,000.
SURVEYS
These lands lying within Cass county were surveyed as follows: That part of the cession of October 2, 1818, in Congressional township 26 north, and the portion in township 27, south of the Wabash river, were subdivided by Henry Bryan in 1821; the portion in township 27, north of the Wabash river, by David Hillis, in 1828; that in township 28, south of the Indian boundary line, by Austin W. Morris, in 1834. The lands ceded October 16 and 23, 1826, were surveyed by Thomas
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Brown in 1828; those lying south of the Wabash river in ranges 1 and 2 east, in the western part of the Miami reserve, by H. St. Clair Vance in 1838; those south of the Wabash, ceded October 23, 1834, by Chauncey Carter in 1839; and the land embraced in the treaty of November 28, 1840, and lying in Cass county, was surveyed in 1846 and 1847, by Abner E. Van Ness. The Indian reservations both north and south of the Wabash were surveyed mostly by Chauncey Carter.
TITLE TO LANDS
It has been the policy of our government never to seize or take possession of territory without the written consent and cession of the aboriginal tribes occupying said lands. As many of the Indian tribes, however, were nomadic and constantly changing from place to place so that it was difficult and next to impossible to exactly locate the meets and bounds of the territory of the different tribes of Indians and fre- quently the tribes could not agree as to the boundary lines of the respec- tive tribes and nations, hence arose many disputes not only between the United States and the Indians but also among the various tribes.
TECUMSEH
Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, disputed the right of the Miamis and Pottawattomies to cede the lands in Indiana to the United States, claim- ing that the Shawnees and their allies had an interest therein and attempted to form a confederacy, comprising all the tribes in the north- west, into a national compact, stipulating in said compact that no individual tribe could cede any of their lands to the United States, without the consent of the entire league. Tecumseh held that the Great Spirit had given the Indian race all these hunting grounds to keep in common and that no Indian or tribe could cede any portion of the land to the whites without the consent of all the tribes. While on a mission to bring about such a confederacy his brother, Law-le-was-i- kaw, the Prophet, precipitated hostilities and attacked General Harrison at Tippecanoe, on November 7, 1811, but the Indians were defeated and routed, thus forever blasting the hopes of Tecumseh to form his long- sought-for and much-beloved project, in which the whole heart and soul of the great Indian chief was absorbed. Tecumseh on learning of what had happened at Tippecanoe was overcome with chagrin, disappoint- ment and anger and accused his brother, the Prophet, with duplicity and cowardice; indeed it is said he never forgave him. On the break- ing out of the War of 1812, Tecumseh cast his fortunes with the British and was killed at the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. His brother, the Prophet, later went with his people west of the. Mississippi, where he died in 1834.
Writers of Indian history declare that Tecumseh was the greatest and most noted Indian in North America. For all those qualities which elevate a man far above his race; for talent, tact, skill and bravery as a warrior; in a word, for all those qualities and elements of greatness which place him far above his fellows in savage life, the name of Tecumseh will go down to posterity in the west as one of the most celebrated and talented of the aborigines of this continent.
Tecumseh held several conferences with Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, then governor of Indiana territory, at Vincennes, and proved himself an able diplomat and great orator. It is said of him, at one of these conferences, General Harrison invited him to take a seat with him on the platform, saying it was the wish of the Great Father that he should
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
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