USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana: containing a history of the townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies, etc., etc. > Part 2
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About the 1st of January, 1790, the Governor, with other officers, descended the Ohio from Marietta to Fort Washington, at Cincinnati, where he organ- ized Hamilton County, which embraced the western part of the State of Ohio. On the 8th of January the Governor and Secretary arrived at Clarksville, at the falls of the Ohio, on their way to Vincennes. From the falls they proceeded by land along an Indian trail to Vincennes, where they organized the county of Knox, the fourth county organized in the North- west Territory. It comprised all the territory along the Ohio between the Great Miami and the Wabash. Vincennes was made the seat of justice. Thence they proceeded to Kaskaskia, and there established the County of St. Clair, comprising all the territory from the Wabash to the Mississippi, and named by the Secretary, Winthrop Sargent, in honor of the Gov- ernor. Knox and St. Clair Counties were organized for the protection of the French inhabitants, and to carry into effect the agreement in the ordinance of 1787 with reference to the preservation of their rights under the laws and customs alreading existing among them. At Kaskaskia the Governor issued a proclama- tion, calling upon the French inhabitants to exhibit the titles to their lands, in order to have them exam- ined and confirmed and their lands surveyed.
INDIANA TERRITORY FORMED.
The great extent of the Territory made the ordi- nary operations of government extremely uncertain, and the efficient action of courts almost impossible in the western parts of the Territory. In the three western places of holding courts, Vincennes, Cahokia and Kaskaskia, there had been held but one court having criminal jurisdiction in the five years from 1795 to 1800. Offenders against justice having no fear of punishment, the French settlements became an asylum for the most vile and abandoned crimi - nals. A committee of Congress on March 3, 1800, recommended a division of the Territory into two distinct and separate governments. Accordingly, on May 7, 1800, an act was passed by Congress making such division, by an act which took effect from and
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after the succeeding 4th day of July. The western division was called Indiana Territory.
The first boundary of Indiana Territory on the east was not the same as the eastern boundary of the State. The ordinance of 1787 provided that the mid- dle State which should be formed out of the North- west Territory, should be bounded on the east by a line drawn dne north from the mouth of the Great Miami River, and the committee of Congress which proposed the division of the Territory recommended that the division should be made by this line. The act of Congress, however, made the Greenville treaty line as far as Fort Recovery, the boundary line. The line of division was described as "beginning at the Ohio, opposite to the month of the Kentucky River, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it shalt intersect the Territorial line be- tween the United States and Canada." The Green- ville treaty line is found marked on some of the maps of Indiana. Fort Recovery was in Darke Coun- ty, Ohio, about one mile east of the State line. When Ohio was made a State the line drawn dne north from the mouth of the Great Miami was made its western boundary, and the lands between this line and the Greenville treaty line were attached to Indi- ana Territory.
CONDITION OF THE TERRITORY AT ITS ORGANIZATION.
At the time of its organization Indiana Territory comprised a vast region almost uninhabited except by savages. The only settlements of white men were so widely separated that it was impossible for them to contribute to their mutual defense or encouragement. These settlements were four in number. The first was at Clark's grant, at the falls of the Ohio opposite Louisville; the second the old French establishment at Vincennes, on the Wabash; the third comprised a series of French villages, extending from Kaskaskia, seventy-five miles below the site of St. Louis, to Cahokia, five miles below St. Louis; the fourth was Detroit on the Detroit River. The capital was at Vincennes, at this time often written Post Vincents. Numerous tribes of war-like Indians were scattered throughout the northern portion of the Territory, whose hostility to the American settlers was inflamed by the intrigues of British agents and frequent out- rages by American hunters and traders.
Clark's grant in Indiana was a reservation by Vir- ginia in her cession of the Northwest Territory to satisfy the claims of Gen. Clark and the officers and soldiers under his command in the conquest of the British posts of Kaskaskia and Vincennes. The quan- tity of land in the grant was stipulated not to exceed 150,000 acres to be laid off in one tract, the length of which was not to exceed double the breadth, and
in such place on the northwest side of the Ohio, as a majority of the officers should choose. The tract was selected and located about the falls of the Ohio, and distributed among the claimants according to the laws of Virginia. An act of the Legislature of that State was passed "to establish the town of Clarkes- ville, at the falls of the Ohio, in the county of Illi- nois," by which a Board of Trustees in whom the title of the town was vested in trust. They were directed to sell lots of half an acre each at public auction, subject to the condition that the purchaser should within three years from the day of sale erect a dwel- ling house " twenty feet by eighteen, with a brick or stone chimney." The Trustees located the town im- mediately at the foot of the falls. Its position at the head of keel-boat navigation on the lower Ohio was supposed to give it great advantages, and it was for a time a rival of Louisville. Jeffersonville, at the head of the falls, occupied the site of Fort Steuben. Mid- way between these places and on the opposite side of the river was the then unhealthy town of Louisville, which in 1800 contained a population of 359 souls, and abont 150 houses, a printing office and a postoffice.
From the falls of the Ohio, settlements spread over Clark's grant. Vincennes, the capital of the Terri- tory, is described by contemporary writers at the period of the establishment of the Territorial Gov- ernment, as a handsome town of about 100 houses, some of which were built of freestone. From Cin- cinnati, settlements extended up the Whitewater Val- ley. On the first Monday in April, 1801, the first sale of lands west of the Great Miami was held at Cincinnati. In the closing years of the last century, before the establishment of a land office for the sale of any lands in Indiana, squatters had begun to occupy Government lands in the southwestern ' part. Land offices, at which lands in Indiana were sold, were established by the United States as follows: At Cincinnati, May 10, 1800; at Vincennes, March 26, 1804; at Jeffersonville, March 3, 1807; at Indianap- olis and Crawfordsville, March 3, 1819; Fort Wayne, May 8, 1822.
From Cincinnati, the most important town in the eastern division of the Northwest Territory, to Vin- cennes, the capital of Indiana Territory, was a laborious journey through a wilderness. A common method of making this journey was to embark on the Ohio in a Kentucky boat, sometimes called an ark, with horses and provisions, proceed as far as the falls, and thence by horseback to the Post, more than 100 miles un- marked by a vestige of civilization.
THE FIRST GOVERNOR.
The first Governor of Indiana Territory was Capt. William Henry Harrison, afterward Major-General
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
aud Presideut. At the time of his appointment he was twenty-seven years old, yet he had already served under Wayne against the Indians as Lieutenant, and distinguished himself for bravery; had been the first delegate in Congress from the Northwest Territory, and had served as Secretary of the Territory. As the Sec- retary was ex officio Lieutenant-Governor, he had for a considerable time performed the duties of Governor of the Territory before its division, Gen. St. Clair, the Governor, being rarely in the Territory at that time, his residence being in Pennsylvania. When the office of Governor of the new Territory of Indiana was first proposed to young Harrison, he expressed himself as much adverse to accepting it, because he had reason to believe that Gov. St. Clair would soon be retired from the Government of the more populous Eastern Division (now Ohio), and that he would be strongly recommended as his successor. It happened, however, as Gen. Harrison himself has narrated, that two influential supporters of Jolın Adams' administra- tion were desirous of that position, and by their man- agement he became the Governor of Indiana Territory. The Governors were appointed for three years. Har- rison was appointed by President Adams in 1800; upon the expiration of his term he was re-appointed in 1803 by President Jefferson; in 1806 he was again appointed by Jefferson; in 1809 he was re-appointed by President Madison, and in 1812 again appointed by Madison.
The Territorial Governors were ex officio Super- intendents of Indian affairs within their Territories. A few months after President Jefferson came into office he nominated Gov. Harrison a Commissioner to make treaties with the Indians, and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate. The custom of the Government in treating with the Indians had been to appoint two or more persons to represent the Govern- ment as Commissioners. The reason given by the President for this departure from the usual course in the case of Indiana Territory was that Louisiana had been ceded to the French, and the French under- stood the management of the Indians better than any other nation; that to guard against their intrigues it was necessary to form settlements on the Mississippi, the lower Ohio, the Wabash and Illinois Rivers, which could only be done by extinguishing the Indian titles, and this could not be done at once, but by watching opportunities. The President, therefore, did not wish to embarrass the Governor with a colleague. Thus it was that Harrison was the sole representative of the United States in the negotiations with the Indians by which the Indian title to most of the lands of Indiana was extinguished. Gov. Harrrison held this important commission during the entire period of his government of the Territory. He negotiated thirteen
treaties, and obtained the cession of over 50,000,000 of acres in the Northwest, more than double the land now included in Indiana.
While acting as Commissioner, Harrison was allowed, in addition to his pay as Governor, $6 per day and his expenses, and he could assume the char- acter of Indian Commissioner whenever he thought proper. He was indeed necessarily almost constantly acting under it. The charges he made for pay as Commissioner, however, were only for the time actu- ally employed in specific negotiation. All the com- pensation he received for these services during the twelve years he held the commission did not exceed $3,000. His charge for one important treaty was $44. It is said that no man ever disbursed so many and such large sums of public treasure with so little difficulty in adjusting his accounts with the Govern- ment as Harrison while Governor, United States Com- missioner and Superintendent of Indian affairs in Indiana Territory. He wisely avoided keeping the public money on hand, and always made his payments by drafts on Washington.
Some of the more important of the early treaties by which the ownership of Indiana lands was trans- ferred to the United States Government are here mentioned. In the treaty at Greenville, August 3, 1795, only a small portion of the lands in the south- eastern part of the State was included. On Sep- tember 17, 1802, Gov. Harrison entered into an agreement at Vincennes with the chiefs of various tribes by which the bounds of a tract at that place said to have been given to its founder were settled, and on June 7, 1803, at Fort Wayne, the same chiefs ceded the lands about Vincennes to the United States. Other treaties were concluded at Vincennes in August, 1804: at Fort Wayne in September, 1809; at St. Mary's in October, 1818, and Tippecanoe in 1832.
TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET.
The troubles with the Indians commenced early in the history of the Territory. In July, 1801, the Governor referring to the lawless acts of vagabond whites, wrote to the United States Government: "All these injuries the Indians have hitherto borne with astonishing patience, but though they discover no disposition to make war upon the United States, I am confident that most of the tribes would eagerly seize any favorable opportunity for that purpose, and should the United States be at war with any Euro- pean nations who are known to the Indians, there would probably be a combination of nine-tenths of the northern tribes against us, unless some means are made use of to conciliate them." President Jefferson did everything in his power to protect the Indians and to induce them to cultivate the soil and adopt
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the arts of civilized life. Congress was powerless to prevent the atrocities committed by the worthless white men who are ever found prowling along the verge of civilization. The outrages were deplored by thousands of good men.
Early in the history of the Territory Tecumseh planned his scheme of a confederation of all the Indian nations, by which the whites were to be restrained in their acquisitions of lands. This remarkable man, the most bold and accomplished warrior and diplomatist the tribes of red men ever produced, was for much of his active life a resident of Indiana. He was born not far from the site of Springfield, Ohio, and belonged to the Shawnee nation, his father and his mother being members of different tribes of that extensive people. In 1795 he became a chief. He resided in different parts of the Miami country, in what is now Ohio, until 1798, when he accepted the invitation of the Delawares, then residing in part on White River, Ind., to remove to that region with his followers. Here he resided a number of years, and gradually extended his influence among the Indians.
Tecumseh's brother, known in history as the Prophet, was scarcely less remarkable a man; he was an orator of great power and a religious teacher. About 1804, according to the accounts usually given, the brothers began to work in unison on their grand project of uniting all the Western Indians in one confederacy. Their avowed objects were two-fold: first, the reformation of the savages, whose habits unfitted them for continuous and heroic efforts; sec- ond, a union which would make the purchase of land by the United States impossible without the consent of all the tribes, and would give the Indians a strength that would be dreaded. In case of war with the whites a simultaneous attack could be made upon all the frontier settlements, so that white troops could not be sent from one to the aid of another. In 1805, through the influence of the Prophet, a large number of Indians collected at Greenville. In 1806 both Tecumseh and the Prophet were at Greenville, and were visited by representatives of many tribes.
APPREHENSION OF INDIAN HOSTILITIES.
In the spring of 1808 the brothers removed to a tract of land on the Tippecanoe, a tributary of the Wabash. Here on a spot probably never visited by white men, about 100 miles northwest from Fort Wayne, was the Prophet's town, containing only about 130 souls. Representative Indians from remote parts here visited the Prophet, who continued his efforts to reform his brethren by preaching temper- ance, depicting the fearful evils the fire-water of the white men had brought npon them, and announcing
his commission from the Great Spirit to extricate his red children from the utter ruin with which they were menaced.
Tecumseh traveled from tribe to tribe, strength- ening his influence and organizing his league. With the enthusiasm of Peter the Hermit, he journeyed over thousands of miles, visiting remote nations of red men. He visited all the northern tribes on the west bank of the Mississippi, and upon the Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan. In 1807 Gov. Har- rison, alarmed at the movements of the two brothers, sent a message of inquiry and remonstrance, couched in severe terms. The Prophet sent a reply, denying that he had any purpose to rouse the tribes to another war. His plan of saving the Indians, he constantly asserted, was by reforming them from intemperance, uniting them and encouraging industry. In July, 1808, the Prophet went from Tippecanoe to Vincennes, a distance of hundreds of miles, on a pacific message to the Governor. He came with a large number of followers, whom he frequently harangued in the presence of the Governor on the evils of war and intemperance. No persuasion of the whites could induce any of them to touch intoxicating liquors. The Prophet again declared that it was his desire to live in peace with the whites, and called the Great Spirit to witness the truth of his declaration. Whether the Prophet was a religious fanatic or a vile impostor, can never be settled.
Throughout the year 1809 Tecumseh and the Prophet continued to strengthen themselves both openly and secretly. Notwithstanding these solemn and repeated declarations of peaceful intentions, the Governor suspected their ultimate designs, and was preparing to meet any emergency. In June, 1809, . Tecumseh with about forty followers again visited the Governor. The Governor wrote to the Government that suspicions of his guilty intentions were strength- ened rather than diminished by every interview dur- ing this visit of the chief. In September, 1809, the Governor met the chiefs of several tribes at Fort Wayne, and purchased of them more than 3,000,000 acres of land on the Wabash. Tecumseh refused to sign the treaty, and threatened death to those who did. In the year following he visited the tribes as far south as Tennessee, exhorting them to lay aside sectiona jealousies in the hope of preserving their hunting grounds.
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.
The Governor stood firm and sent for a few sol- diers and organized the militia. In July, 1811, the citizens of Vincennes and its vicinity met while the Legislative Council was in session and memorialized the President on the subject, not so much for a mili-
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tary force from the Government as for permission to fight the Indians in their own way. The Indians began to prowl through the Wabash Valley. Harri- son was promised strong re-enforcements with orders, however, to be backward in employing them. On the 1st of August he advised the Secretary of War of his plans, which were to again warn the Indians to obey the treaty of Greenville, but at the same time to prepare to break up the Prophet's establishment, if necessary. Having received his re-enforcements, the Governor, as Commander, advanced from Vin- cennes up the Wabash. On the 5th of October he was at Terre Haute, where he built Fort Harrison. Here one of his sentinels was fired upon. On Octo- ber 31 he was at the mouth of the Vermilion River, where he built a block-house. He then advanced toward the Prophet's town, still, however, offering peace to the Indians. When within a few miles of the Prophet's town Harrison was met by the Indian embassadors, who expressed surprise at his advancing upon them and said that an answer to the Governor's demands upon the Indians had been despatched to him by a Pottawattomie who had left two days before to meet him, but had missed him by taking the road on the south side of the Wabash. Harrison informed them that he had no intention of attacking them until he found that they would not comply with his demands. It was agreed that the army should en- camp for the night and in the morning an interview with the Prophet and his chiefs should take place, and in the meantime no hostilities should be com- mitted.
Before daybreak of the morning the treacherous savages crept upon the camp, burst upon the sleep- ing army like demons, and before the light of day was far advanced the battle of Tippecanoe was fought. Harrison had risen at a quarter after four o'clock, and the signal for calling the men would have been given in two minutes, when the attack commenced. Nineteen-twentieths of the men had never been in an action. They behaved well, took their places without confusion, under an exceedingly severe fire, and fought with bravery. The camp fires affording the enemy the means of taking surer aim, were extinguished. With coolness and deliberate valor the white men stood their ground in darkness against the ferocity of the savages, until daylight, and then routed the red men in vigorous charges. The next day they burned the Prophet's town and returned victorious to Vincennes.
The battle of Tippecanoe was fought on the 7th of November, 1811. The whites had in this action not more than 700 efficient men-non-commissioned officers and privates; the Indians were supposed to have had from 700 to 1,000 men. The loss of the
whites was thirty-seven killed on the field, twenty - five mortally wounded and one hundred and twenty -six wounded; that of the Indians about forty killed on the field, the number of wounded not being known. Among the killed were two Kentucky officers, Col. Joseph H. Daviess and Col. Owen. The battle-ground was a piece of dry oak land, skirted on the west by Burnet Creek, with marshy prairies covered with tall grass on the east and west. At the time of the battle Harrison held no rank in the army, but as Governor he was Commander of the Indiana Militia, and under the authority of the War Department he took com- mand of the whole force. The victory made the Commander famous, and twice, in 1836 and in 1840, Indiana cast her electoral vote for "the hero of Tip- pecanoe."
At the time of the battle Tecumseh was among the southern Indians. When on his return he learned that his brother had brought on the attack and had been defeated, he was exceedingly angry, and it is said reproached the Prophet in the bitterest terms. The defeat had destroyed the power of the brothers, and crushed the grand confederacy before it was completed. Six mouths after the battle the United States declared war with England. Tecumseh left Indiana for Fort Maldon, in Upper Canada, joined the British standard, participated in several engage- ments against the Americans, and for his bravery and good conduct was made a Brigadier-General. He was killed at the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813, in the forty fourth year of his age. Harrison, with whom he had so often conferred, was the commander of the enemy against whom he fought in his last battle.
THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN THE TERRITORY.
Before the formation of the State constitution several efforts were made to introduce African slavery in a modified form into the Territory of Indiana. Slavery had been introduced into the Illinois country by the French as early as 1720. The ordinance of 1787 prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory was a subject of complaint by some, who, by memo- rials to Congress from time to time, made efforts to obtain a suspension of the restriction for a limited period. The first petition to Congress was from four persons in Kaskaskia in 1796, asking that slavery might be tolerated there. Before the division of the Northwest Territory and while the first Territorial Legislature was in session at Cincinnati in 1799, pe- titions were presented by Virginians, who owed lands northwest of the Ohio, asking that they might settle with their slaves on their own lands. These peti- tions were promptly rejected, as the Legislature had no power to suspend an ordinance of Congress.
Many of the early settlers of Indiana were from
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JIISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
Virginia, Kentucky and other slave States. A large proportion of the population of the Territory, while not desiring to make Indiana a slave State, believed that a temporary employment of slave labor would greatly encourage immigration and promote the
growth and improvement of the country. Early in 1803 a Territorial Convention was held at Vincennes to deliberate on the interests of the Territory. Gov. Harrison was President of the convention. A memo- rial was sent to Congress, together with a letter of the President of the convention, declaring the as- sent of the people of Indiana Territory to a suspen- sion of the clause of the ordinance of 1787, forbid- ding slavery. John Randolph, from the committee of Congress to which this letter and memorial were referred, reported as follows, March 2, 1803:
"That the rapid population of the State of Ohio sufficiently evinces, in the opinion of your committee, that the labor of slaves is not necessary to promote the growth and settlement of colonies iu that region. That this labor, demonstrably the dearest of any, can only be employed to advantage in the cultivation of products more valuable than any known to that quar- ter of the United States; that the committee deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provi- sion wisely calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the northwestern country and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier. In the salutary operation of this sagacious and benevo. lent restraint, it is believed that the people of Indi- ana will, at no very distant day, find ample remuner- ation for a temporary privation of labor and of immi- gration."
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