USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 10
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In those days of 1818-19. Indians were numerous just beyond the Purchase line. which lay about five miles west of the village. Among them was an old ex-chief who was called Chief Ben Davis. The Indians were on friendly terms with the whites, and often came into the settlement to trade and drink whiskey. Among them, and a very frequent visitor. too. was Ben Davis. When a little intoxicated. old Ben was very talkative; and would often tell of his deeds of blood and murder when on the warpath with his braves, over in the Eastern states. His murderous tales had become so notorious that all the children and many of the women bad come to fear him, as they would a wild beast. About this time. the widow Burton lived in a cabin near to where John Weidner now lives, ont on the Harrisburg road ( Elephant Hill). One evening. Calvin Burton. when a lad of twelve or fourteen years, was "pounding hominy" in an old-fashioned "burut-out mortar," as they were called. with an iron wedge fastened in the end of a stick of wood for a pestle. The first thing he knew. in stepped old Chief Ben Davis and asked in broken English and in a gruff Indian way. for the men of the honse. C'al's eyes "bulged out" and the hominy pestle dropped from his hands, and he replied as calm as he could : "They are just out here a little way, and I will go and call them." So saying he stepped out at the door and as soon as he turned the corner of the cabin. he bounded away like a deer, for a stillhouse which then stood near where George Frost's house stands, where there were several men at work. He told them that Chief Ben Davis was at their home, and they were afraid he would kill them. The men started for the cabin and met old Ben on bis way for the still, while little Tom Burton, now onr tailor. Thomas Burton, was holding him by the hand. Old Ben had taken Tom along to show him the way.
The men took him to the stillhonse, gave him whiskey, and had a great deal of fun with him. That night after the old chief bad fallen asleep, a very rough fellow. by the name of Eli Henderson, sifted |gun] powder in his long hair and set fire to it. The Indian sprang to his feet and gave wild yells of fury, and swore vengeance against every white man about the stillhouse.
It is supposed that those rough fellows murdered the old chief that night and hid his body away, as he was never heard of afterwards.
The general history of Fayette county, quoting from an article by Dr. John Arnold, in the Rushville Republican, says that Ben Davis was killed on Blue creek, near Brookville, in 1820.
PROPER NAMES OF TIIE ABORIGINALS.
Simon Girty, notwithstanding his name, was truly an Indian in manners and in deed; and perhaps was a natural son of a white man who notoriously figures in the history of an earlier epoch in southern Indiana and in Kentucky. He had a band of followers, and was in a minor sense a thief, and he camped on the river bank, below Third street, about the year 1812. After a careful
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search among the family traditions of those of our pioneers who are left, for Indian. proper names, in their true lingual setting, the result has been dishearteningly meagre. The Indians naturally possessed names proper to each individual; but with the whites the tendency was to merge the aborigines in the one common identity of Indians. And it is likely that no vogue ever attached itself here to the little which might have been learned of the native tongue. One exception, however, relieves the degree of our ancestors' indif- ference on this point. Me-shin-go-me-tha is found to linger behind. Its preservation belongs to the Harrisburg neighborhood; yet who he was or what he did cannot be told Only the jingle of his name survives. But until disproved the tradition stands, and we may think of one native, at least-who lived here, and died somewhere in the happiness of being known by his Fayette county acquaintances as Me-shin-go-me-tha.
Mr. J. E. Williams, of Harrisburg, furnishes the testimony that "Me- shin-go-me-tha" has been handed down in his family as the name of an Indian who was about the Harrisburg neighborhood after the arrival of white settlers. Mr. Amos W. Butler, of Indianapolis, who is a descendant of the Amos Butler who founded Brookville, and consequently Indiana his- tory is a familiar field to him, in a letter suggested that this Indian might be the same whose career was mostly placed in Grant county, Indiana. In the history of that locality the name has been preserved as "Me-shin-go-me- sia," although this variation is not surprising, for it comes from the difficulty of correctly committing Indian vocal sounds to writing. The same experi- ence has been had also with the name of "Tecumseh," which very good auth- ority now says is more properly spelt "Tecumtha," if kept true to the Indian pronunciation.
Considering the open route which The Trail offered to the Wabash country, it is very probable that Mr. Butler's opinion is well founded; con- sequently, that Me-shin-go-me-sia might well have been an occasional inhabi- tant of our locality in the early days. A history of Grant county, published in 1886. gives a sketch of him which will be interesting reading. The subject thereof lived to be a very old man, which left his traditions still fresh when it was written, although his young manhood easily corresponds to the prim- itive times of our locality. Under the heading: Me-shin-go-me-sia. his ancestors and descendants, the article reads :
No reliable accounts of the ancestors of Me-shin-go-me-sia can be traced further back than the fourth generation, or to the time of Osnandiah, who, at the head of one division of the tribe, left Ft. Wayne (at what date is not known) and settled on
(8)
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the Big Miami River, in Ohio. Soon after his settlement at this point he visited General Washington, at that time President of the United States, who presented him with tokens of regard. This aroused the jealousy of the other tribes, by whom it is believed he was poisoned.
Upon the death of Osnandiah his son, Ataw-ataw, became chief, and he in turn was succeeded by his son, Me-to-cin-yah, who removed with his tribe to Indiana and settled in what is now Wabash and Grant counties, and after a successful reign of many years, died, and his remains were buried in Wabash county. He was the father of ten children : Me-shin-go-me-sia, Ta-con-saw, Mack-quack-yno-nun-gah, Shop-on-do-sheah, Wa-pe-si-taw, Me-tack-quack-quah, So-lin-jis-yah. Wa-cau-con-aw, Po-kung-e-yah and We- cop-eme-nah.
Upon the death of Me-to-cin-yah, his eldest son, Me-shin-go-me-sia, succeeded to the chieftancy. He was born in Wabash county, about the beginning of the last quarter of the eighteenth century (the precise date not known). At the age of about thirty years, he married Tac-ka-quah, a daughter of So-a-nah-ke-kah, and to them were born two sons, Po-kung-gah and Ataw-ataw. He was a man of great firmness, though not obstinate. He was ordinarily intelligent and always displayed judgment and good business sense in the management of the affairs of his band. With his death, which occurred in the month of December, 1879, the last chief of this historic tribe passed away.
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE WHITE WATER COUNTRY.
A study of the topography of the White river country, stretching down through central Indiana, will reveal the connection it had with our own neighborhood-the valley of the west fork of the White Water-for the Delaware Indians. In highlands and hilly country, a small distance some- times measures all the interval between the basins of two rivers whose courses are in opposite directions. The small streams of our valley, when traveled to their beginnings, are found in territory that is identical with that where other brooks, coursing leisurely in search of their geographical des- tiny, are directed oppositely, and form the White river, which flows west- wardly through the state and empties into the Wabash near Vincennes. The region referred to as the common source of both rivers contains the highest altitude in Indiana, viz., about 1,200 feet above sea level. (Near the north- west corner of Fayette county, at the town of Bentonville, it is 1,060 feet: and in Connersville, at courthouse square, it is 840 feet.) A map reveals the close connection which exists between the two sections of country when creeks and rivers are used for travel. The Delaware Indians had been in touch with borderland white folks now for more than a hundred years, and had accustomed themselves to fixed habitations, using the surrounding coun- try for hunting expeditions. In this way a familiarity arose with the region the White river drains. Their site northwest of here, on the White river, was well established and contained buildings for use the year around, but
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temporary camps and hunting centers are found in all the adjacent territory. In this way, the site Connersville occupies, as also the west bank of the river for several miles north, became a favorite point for them, for it is an easy step from the Lick creek channel, near Harrisburg, and the country beyond, being merely a coming down into the lowlands from the higher ground of that locality.
PATHS CONVERGE AT CONNERSVILLE.
But events transpire rapidly in the years treated of, and soon an import- ant incentive for coming directly to Connersville's site arises for them. Their various paths are now made to converge to the immediate point where Connersville stands, because here exists the best opportunity for exchange and barter. For some time past it was a point on the main trail, from the country to the northwest, down to John Conner's trading post, near the mouth of Big Cedar creek, but now the post is brought up here. Conner had been in the lower valley, near Cedar Grove, for several years, and his place was a center of great activity. The site at Big Cedar creek is somewhat east- ward, besides lower down the valley than Brookville, and consequently nearer to Cincinnati. The year of 1805 sees John Conner aiding Governor Harrison of Indiana Territory as interpreter at the treaty of Grouseland (the section of country below Brookville), and after its completion he resumes his operations at Cedar Grove, because that point is the key to the route up the valley to Brookville, Connersville, and on to the northwest to the upper channel of Lick creek, and then southeast across the highlands to the small streams that led to the Indian settlements of the White river. There is a tradition in one of the old families of Brookville, which is told by Edgar R. Quick of that locality, relating to the change of base under- taken by Conner. At a log schoolhouse, on the road from Cedar Grove to Brookville, the grandfather of Mr. Quick, as a youth, was playing at ball with companions, when up the road came John Conner with a band of faith- ful Indians, all carrying packs. Moving vans were an unknown convenience for obvious reasons. The properties were bundled and each individual car- ried according to strength. The fact that John Conner was moving his post up the valley is what the incident helps to confirm, for a halt was made and the Indians indulged in the pleasure of playing with the ball, much to the amusement of the boys, who looked upon the intrusion as a unique distinc- tion for themselves. The stop was of sufficient duration to make it clearly known that it was John Conner. the Indian trader, and that he was moving his post to a new location up the valley. The probable age of Mr. Quick's
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ancestor, at the time of the experience, harmonizes with the general details of the testimony furnished by the Simpsons, an old-time family living several miles east of Connersville. The following recital of their tradition is taken from the general history of Fayette county :
Thomas Simpson, now a resident of the county, aged eighty-four (in 1885), with a clear memory and vivid recollection of the past. is authority for saying that John Conner had his trading post here at Connersville in the year of 1808. Mr. Simpson's father was through the county at that time and found Conner here.
Also :
In 1808-1809 Thomas Simpson, Sr., a native of Maryland, was employed as hunter to, and accompanied, the surveying party, while they were engaged in surveying the lands of the Twelve Mile Purchase, at which time he traversed the territory of the county throughout. and in the month of December, 1809, removed his family to a cabin house, which had previously been erected for the surveying party, and stood in what is now the northeastern part of Jennings township.
The exact location here given is far enough eastward to make it very close to the old boundary of 1795, and this adds to the plausibility of a sur- veying party being inside of the limits of the new purchase, so close to the date of the treaty (September 30, 1809). As the surveying was thoroughly done in preparation for the sale of lands by sections and quarter sections, it is very probable that the elder Simpson was fully cognizant of the facts preserved in his family.
CONNER CLINGS TO FRONTIER.
The disposition of John Conner to maintain himself at the outpost of civilization in the direction of the Indians' homes-of preserving for him- self a premiership in the frontier as trader-is well known, and his coming up here, in 1808, was clearly dictated by this ambition, and the denser popu- lation now filling the country below Brookville. His life, at least for a few days to come, was still to be of the wilder sort. He preferred the open for his operations, and his choice was forestalling white emigration in the regions toward which it tended. Governor Harrison attempted to include the scope of the west valley of the White Water in the treaty of 1805, "but in conse- quence of some of the chiefs refusing to sign it upon other terms, the article relating to it was expunged." (Dawson, p. 135.) John Conner was a par- ticipator in this effort, as Delaware interpreter, and its failure cannot be dissociated with his subsequent move. Up the valley he transports the post into the heart of the territory involved, where several years of unchal-
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lenged importance is in store for it. This neighborhood did not become government lands until the year later (1809) ; and even beyond that date, for several years, lands are not in readiness for entry, during all of which time Conner's Post is the one point toward which all interests gravitate. Hunting and prospecting were indulged in by whites to the south and east, but strictly speaking it was the redman's domain until land was duly entered at the land office at Cincinnati. The name of John Conner appears in the purchase of portions of two separate sections, in 1812. But that he was without legal status previous to the land distribution of 1811, is taking an imperfect view of the case, for his services as trader and interpreter indi- cates that Connersville's founder was ably an instrument in the hands of the territorial authorities in the furtherance of their work. In the first years of Governor Harrison's. office, he found the influence of British trading posts, auxiliary to Detroit, quite vexatious. He wrote of it to his superior officer at Washington, in 1802, as follows:
In order the better to find out what is going forward among the Indians; I have endeavored to attach some of the best informed traders to our interest ; but, generally speaking. they are unprincipled men, and entirely devoted to the British, by whom they are supplied with all their goods. Could this he otherwise-could the valuable skin and fur trade which our territory supplies be diverted to the ports of the United States, instead of Canada, it would not only give a handsome emolument to our mer- chants, and increase our revenue by the additional consumption of imported goods, but it would also confirm the dependeuce of the Indians upon us. The principal objections made by the traders to whom I have recommended the carrying of their furs and peltry, to the ports of the United States, is, that there are none of our merchants who make the importation of Indian goods or purchase of furs and peltry their business, and of course they are not always certain of making sale of their commodities, or of obtain- ing in return goods suitable for their purpose; both of which they are sure of when they go to the British merchants, who are exclusively employed in this kind of traffic.
NEW SITES HIGHER UP.
It will be noted that the year this policy was inaugurated is followed with the appearance of John Conner in the lower portion of the White Water valley. And that to protect his operations, he selects new sites higher up when white settlements come nigh. His name is associated with Brookville a year or two earlier than Connersville, but still earlier with Cedar Grove. Both stores are known in the traditions of those two places (Cedar Grove and Brookville) as "the French store," owing, no doubt, to the nationality of the custodian left in charge by Conner. The name of "Pilkey" is con- nected also with the store of Brookville. Sometimes it is met with as
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"Conner and Pilkey." As, this name is also found in Connersville records in "Pilkey's Donation Strip"-one of several land donations to secure the county seat-it is worth noting how much at fault the early settlers could be with French proper names, for their benefactor's name, in fact, was Michael Peltier, and under. this form of spelling it is clearly French. Noah Beaucamp is another French proper name belonging to the first stages of Connersville history, but, except in the matter of land transfers, it can not be associated with the activities of the time.
One other link in the chain of evidence holding our valley a primitive path, and explaining how it grew into a recognized route to the marts of civilization, is found in certain traditions of the county to which Noblesville belongs. The importance of The Trail to them, and, inferentially, the high character of our position in the development of early activities in central Indiana, will be seen by the statements of Augustus Finch Shirts, in "Prim- itive History of Hamilton County."
His descriptions deal with the earlier stages of their local history, and he writes :
He [ William Conner] was at the time living in a double log cabin with his Indian wife. This cabin was situate four miles south of the present site of Noblesville, on the east bank of White river. His place was called a trading post. In one room of his cabin he kept beads. lead, flints, steel knives, hatchets and such other goods and trinkets as were usually necessary in such a place. These articles he exchanged for pelts taken from the Indians and brought to him for trade.
Mr. Conner had a brother named John Conner, then living on or near the present site of Connersville. This brother was the proprietor of a trading post at that point. * * John Conner received his supplies from points along the Ohio river and William Conner received his supplies from his brother John.
The furs purchased by William Conner from the Indians were dressed. stretched, and packed in proper form and sent by him by means of pack horses to his brother, and in like manner the goods furnished William by his brother John were trans- ported from John Conner's post to William Conner's post. At that time there was no road leading from this point in any direction. There was an Indian trail leading from the John Conner trading post to William Conner's place by way of the present site of New Castle and Anderson to the mouth of Stony creek, thence down the river to William Conner's place. This was the route over which the supplies mentioned were transported.
That the writer of those lines speaks with a full knowledge of the facts is shown by these several bits of history from his own family :
My father. George Shirts, moved his family from the present site of Connersville on pack horses, to William Conner's place in the month of March, 1819. My father made a trip from the William Conner place on horseback to the John Conner trading post at Connersville. On his return trip to this county he was joined by Charles Lacy.
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* * Mr. Laey did not bring his family with him. He came for the purpose of building a cabin and putting out a small field of corn. The implements brought with him were carried on horses, pack-saddle fashion.
On the first day of April, 1819, Solomou Finch, his wife, Sarah, his daughters, Rebeccah, Mary and Alma, and his sons, James and Angustus theu living near the present site of Connersville. left their home for the Horseshoe Prairie, two miles south- west of Noblesville. Their route was over the Indian trail spoken of above. Wagons and teams were used ; to these wagons two yoke of oxen were attached. Solomon Finch and one or two of the men with him were constantly, when moving, in front of the team, axes in hand, cutting out a road and removing logs and brush.
FIRST ATTEMPT TO MAKE WAGON ROAD.
The year 1819, consequently, saw the first attempt to make a wagon road of what had been the recognized path through the woods for some years. That it had been a route to civilization-to the Ohio river points of com- merce-for the Delaware Indians, in their newer sites at the headwaters of the White river, from the beginning, seems evident, for the Conner brothers were of a family that was an old-time friend of this division of the abor- igines. The father, Richard Conner, shared the fortunes of these children of forests in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and settled in the Detroit neighbor- hood with them as early as 1781 (Zeisberger Diary, p. 76), which place be- came his home, and because of his occupancy of the land was allotted title to it, at the close of the War of Independence. The close connection of the Conner family with the Delaware Indians is well known, and that either or both of the brothers, John and William Conner, operated in the White Water valley, is itself an evidence of the use those Indians made of it.
Of the conditions under which the Delawares lived, Governor Harri- son's first official communication contains another reference, which in its inferences, has no doubt a connection with the topic here treated.
On July 15th, 1801, he wrote :
The Delawares are making one other attempt at becoming agriculturalists-they are forming settlements upon the White river, a branch of the Wabash, under the conduet of two missionaries of the Society of the United Brethren for the propagation of the gospel among the heathens- otherwise called Moravians. To assist them in this plan, the chiefs desire that one-half of the next annuity may be laid out in implements of agriculture, and in the purchase of some domestic animals, as cows and hogs.
One other topic reported on in Governor Harrison's communication of July 15, 1801, will be of interest, especially as it has been quite generally overlooked in our pioneer literature. That Governor Harrison knew human nature and could judge character is without question; consequently, the
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opinion which follows and the facts upon which he bases it are worth pre- serving :
Some weeks ago. I received a letter from the paymaster-general of the army, written, as he said, by your direction, requesting to know whether the services of Mr. Rivet, Roman Catholic priest, of this place, and Indian missionary, could not be dispensed with. If it continues to be the intention of the government to attempt the conversion of the Indians, the employment of missionaries like Mr. Rivet will be found one of the best means which can be employed for the accomplishment of this object. People of this description can be procured at much less expense than any other: and they certainly will be attended to by the Indians, much more than any other that could be employed. At any rate the services of Mr. Rivet have been, and still continue to be, equal to the small sum allowed him. The Indians in this quarter venerate the old French government formerly established here, and it would excite the most dis- agreeable feelings amongst them to have the only one of that nation removed who is allowed to speak to them. Mr. Rivet is, indeed, constant in his exertions to diffuse principles of sobriety and justice amongst the Indians, and to cause them to respect the authority of the United States.
CINCINNATI AS A SUPPLY STATION.
Although their location was on a tributary of the Wabash river, and the seat of territorial government was at Vincennes, still Cincinnati, because of its location on the Ohio river, served as a supply station for both sections, including Vincennes. The Moravian missionaries used the White Water valley for reaching the new missions; and this seemingly confirms the fact of the prior use the Indians themselves made of the valley. William Conner is known to have been at Noblesville in 1802, and John Conner was at Big Cedar creek-only thirty-five miles from Cincinnati-earlier than 1804. Consequently, the known facts establish the intimate character of the White Water valley's use, for all who had to do with Indians on the White river; and it is not unlikely that the government assistance furnished the Delawares in 1802, trailed its way over this route. A treaty with the Indians, in 1804. brings additional opportunities for usefulness to it, if the Delawares are to be provided with the following beneficences of that treaty :
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