USA > Indiana > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 6
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MIAMI BLACK CLAY 10AM.
Miami black clay loam also occupies but about one square mile in the county. Since stream erosion has been the prevalent factor in shaping the topography of Fayette county, most of the old marshes, lakes and ponds, remnants of the glacial epoch, have long since been drained, and the organic matter which accumulated in them has been thoroughly decomposed or dis- solved out of the soil. \ very few of these basins have left traces in the scattered, isolated and small spots of black land occupying the sags in Orange, Fairview and Posey townships. These spots are known as the best corn land in the county.
OAK FOREST SILT LOAM.
The Oak Forest silt loam, covering about twelve square miles in the county, is a type having its main development in Franklin county. The limited area in Fayette county is found on the ridge summits in the southern part of the county. Owing to the ridges being narrow and high the soil is badly washed and is as likely to have been replaced by the silt loam subsoil as it is to be present. The soil is considered the poorest in the county, being an ashen gray silt loam, cold, sour and very deficient in organic matter and lime. The improvements of this soil are very poor, tiling, green manuring and crop rotation being almost entirely neglected. Very little stock is raised, most of the grain being marketed. Corn ranges from seventeen to twenty- five bushels to the acre, and wheat from ten to eighteen. This type of soil, with tiling. green manure, lime, stable manure, commercial fertilizer and crop rotation, may be made to double its yield, and each succeeding year finds more of this soil bringing satisfactory returns.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
HUNTINGTON LOAM.
Huntington loam, covering sixteen square miles in the county, is found in sporadic areas in the smaller valleys, but by far the more important occur- rences are in the first and second terraces of the White Water valley. The farms located on these terraces are considered superior to those on the upland. With their natural underdrainage through the gravel beds, which are generally from three to five feet below the surface, and the loose, open, brown loam or sandy loam, this soil is the earliest of all the types found in the county. Corn is planted two weeks earlier than on the upland and can be tended several days sooner after a heavy rain. The result is that the average farmer is getting forty bushels of corn to the acre, while the best farmers get sixty, as against thirty-three for the average farmer and fifty- five to sixty for the best on the upland. Wheat does not do as well on the first bottom, but sometimes yields twenty bushels to the acre on the second terrace.
The first bottom is not as desirable land as the second. This is due in part to the damage done by the flood, and partly to a more sandy and gravelly texture, with beds of sand or gravel near the surface which causes it to suffer more from droughts. Often old bars of sand and gravel are encountered on the first bottom which are classed as worthless, but which might make very good alfalfa soil. The most desirable land of both bottoms is found north of Connersville.
LIMESTONE SLOPE CLAY LOAM.
There is only half a square mile of Limestone Slope clay loam in the county, and this is found scattered through the southern part of the county on the hillsides. It is not cultivated to any extent, and because of its tend- ency to wash it should not be tilled at all, but be kept in blue grass, alfalfa, or some crop that will hold the soil. Some farmers have even attempted to grow tobacco on these slopes, but for reasons just given the crop cannot be profitable after a few years. Most of the tobacco is grown in Jackson and Columbia townships.
The following table compiled by the state geologist for the 1910 report, shows the types of soil found in each township in Fayette county, together with the total acreage in farms, acres of tillable land and acres of woodland.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Township.
Soil types.
Total acres.
Tilled acres.
Wood- land.
Columbia
Miami clay loam
Oak Forest clay loam Huntington loam
14,092
6,003
2,027
Connersville
Miami clay loam
All other types
15.713
11.156
2,006
Fairview
Miami clay loam
All other types
11,607
9,614
1.933
Huntington loam
Jackson
Miami silt loam
Huntington loam
17,159
7.770
3,017
Jennings
Miami clay loam All other types
11.838
10,118
1,720
Orange
Miami clay loam
Oak Forest silt loam
Huntington loam
All other types
13.433
8,828
3,411
Posey
Miami clay loam
All other types
17.415
9.834
2,466
Waterloo
Miami clay loam
Huntington loam
All other types
10,794
8,653
2,000
Total
128,718
82.733
19,644
·
1. '
Harrison
Miami clay loam
All other types
16,667
8.750
974
CHAPTER III.
HEINEMANN'S RESEARCHES.
The history of the region now comprised in Fayette county and of its county seat prior to the organization of the county in January, 1819, is very difficult to trace. It is well known that when the county was organized there were nearly three thousand people within its limits, but where they came from, how they reached the various parts of the county or what steps they took to get the Legislature to organize the county are matters about which there has been very little ascertained until within the past few years. With the organization of the county in 1819 and the keeping of official records the historian is able to find some definite data on which to base the early history of the county, but the history of the decade following the first settlement of John Conner on the present site of Connersville in 1808 or 1809 has been practically a closed record until 1909-just one hundred years after John Conner, a young man who had not yet reached his ma- jority, first pitched his camp within the limits of the city now bearing his name, and thereby became the first white man to settle in the city of Con- nersville.
This history of Conner's career in Fayette county is fairly well known, but an account of his participation in state affairs seems to 'have been neglected by local historians until recently. Every citizen of Fayette county has more or less of a hazy idea of the fact that all of the land within the limits of the county was bought by the United States government from the Indians, but just when the purchase was made, who consummated it or how much was paid for it are matters which are not generally known. Like- wise most of the people now living in the county have heard of the old Indian trail up the White Water, but where it ran, how much it was used or anything definite about its connection with the history of Fayette county. in general or of Connersville in particular are questions which have been unanswered until within the past few years. And of the city of Conners- ville itself-the location of the trading post of Conner, or the exact site of the block house where soldiers of the regular army were once stationed or the location of the proposed public square-these questions and many more have been answered only within the past few years.
It has remained for a local historian to delve into the dim and misty
·
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T
FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
history of the decade immediately preceding the organization of the county and bring to light a large number of facts which had apparently been lost forever. This historian who deserves the gratitude of every citizen of the county for his patient and exhaustive researches into this neglected field of the county's history is J. L. Heinemann, of Connersville. For twenty years Mr. Heinemann has been collecting every available bit of information con- cerning the early history of the county, but it was not until 1909 that he gave to the public the results of any of his labors. In that year he issued his first brochure dealing with Fayette county, under the title of "The Twelve-Mile Purchase," in which he sets forth the provisions of the treaty which included practically all of the present territory of Fayette county. The treaty which resulted in the purchase of the strip from the Indians has peculiar interest to Fayette county, not only because it resulted in the acquisi- tion of most of the land now in the county, but more particularly because John Conner was one of the interpreters present at the making of the treaty and the only citizen of the future county of Fayette to have his name signed to the document which was to make possible the formation of the county just ten years later.
Mr. Heinemann has made extensive researches into all of the events surrounding the making of this treaty, and for the benefit of future gene- rations of Fayette county it seems appropriate to give the result of his studies as it was originally published in 1909. under the title of "The Twelve Mile Purchase."
THE TWELVE MILE PURCHASE.
The Twelve Mile Purchase is a descriptive phrase which became popu- larly the name for the acquisition of the Indian lands by the United States. of the territory in which Fayette county almost wholly lies. A map will show an uneven strip on the west lying outside of the purchase. The ex- pression is accurate, however, only, so far as it pertains to our neighborhood. The treaty with the Indians which took place at Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was concluded September 30. 1809. and provided for the cession of two sepa- rated portions of territory. The larger portion lies in the Wabash region, extending southwardly and eastwardly, but still not far enough east to make it contiguous to our own. As we expect to employ the local terminology. and call it The Twelve Mile Purchase, it may be well at the start to give the official rendering of the act, thus maintaining accuracy as well as showing the origin of the title our forbears gave it.
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FAYETTE. COUNTY, INDIANA.
In Volume II (Treaties) page 101 of "Indian Affairs" (Senate Docu- ments) it will be found complete, with the following title :
Treaty with the Delawares, etc., (Sept. 30th) 1809. A treaty between the United States of America, and .the tribes of Indians. called. the Delawares., Putawatimies, Miamies and Eel River Miamies.
The first paragraph is as follows:
.James Madison, President of the United States of America, by William Henry Harrison, governor and commander-in-chief of the Indian Territory, superintendent of Indian affairs, and commissioner plenipotentiary of the United States for treating with the said Indian tribes, and the sachems. head-men and warriors of the Delaware, Putawatimie, Miami and Eel River tribes of Indians, have agreed and concluded upon the following treaty; which, when, ratified by the said President, with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, shall be binding on the said parties.
Consequently, it is properly called, Treaty of Ft. Wayne, September 30, 1809: and, in text books, it will be found under that title. Our localism, "Twelve Mile Purchase" springs from the use of a detail to describe the whole act, which fact will be readily seen, when it is noted that the west boundary of this purchase follows practically the watershed dividing the basins of the White river on the west and south and the White Water river on the east. It is seemingly made twelve miles wide because the basin of the White Water river approximates that distance and would be entirely covered by such a description. In other words, the described strip of territory, the beautiful and fertile valley of the White Water, is enclosed exactly by the metes and bounds set down in the terms of the Twelve Mile Purchase.
AN INVITING FIELD TO THE WHITES.
In article I of the treaty, the territory is minutely described. The first set of details covers the tract which lies in the Wabash region, extending to the southeast till it intersects the boundary of an earlier treaty, that of 1805. Then follows this description of land :
-And, also, all that tract which shall be included between the following bound- aries, viz : beginning at Fort Recovery, thence southwardly along the general boundary line. established by treaty of Greenville. (A. D., 1795) to its intersection with the boundary line established by treaty of Grouseland. (A. D., 1805) : thence along said line to a point from which a line drawn parallel to the first mentioned line, will be twelve miles distant from the same, and along the said parallel line to its intersection with a line to be drawn from Fort Recovery parallel to the line established by the said treaty of Grouseland.
In this description, the old boundary line established in 1795, by Gen- eral Wayne, is made the base, and a parallel line westward twelve miles
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
distant is made the new limit of the red man's home. Consequently, in view of the fact, that no communications existed between us and the settlements in the Wabash country, it was an easy matter for our pioneers to ignore the part of the purchase which lay in that region, and simply call the new acqui- sition, "The Twelve Mile Purchase": which term, accurately enough describes our own portion since it is twelve miles wide, and counting its greatest elonga- tion-about ninety miles north and south.
How inviting a field to the whites who first trod its surface! It was a fair country, destined to become the home of civilization, of the arts and com- merce, almost instantly. The strip became the heart of what is now the counties of Franklin, Fayette. Wayne and Randolph, and is the watershed or valley of the west fork of the White Water river. But the briefest period is needed to convert it into a well settled neighborhood. The first settlers have left an abundance of monuments to mark the stages of their rapid prog- ress, in domestic and civil institutions, in industries that still obtain, and in moral impulses that cannot be effaced, so that these are well remembered. They are still with us in their works and are honored in their posterity. And in consequence, it is fitting at this time, when the centenary of his extinguish- ment dawns upon us, to consider generously, for a few moments, the known facts of the lone Indian who has departed.
There are not many things to say of him. His traditions are effacing themselves year by year ; and. as for written history, his takes the form mostly of land relinquishments and transfers of habitation. That he had ignoble traits is allowably the case : but he had noble ones also." He may have been uncouth and shiftless and suspicious, and in the possession of plenty of other undesirable traits, as judged by the white men who had to do with him ; but then, the contact was not of his seeking, and, under the circumstance, it is probable that the future will more and more recognize in him a courage, a tenacity, and a daring, beyond the ordinary, in contending as he did for his hunting grounds, against the flood of whites that our colonial growth poured out over him.
FINANCIAL SIDE OF THE TRANSACTION.
The third and the seventh article of the treaty set forth the financial skle of the transaction, and they read as follows :
Article 3: The compensation to be given for the cession made in the first article shall be as follows: viz., to the Delawares, a permanent annnity of five hundred dol- lars: to the Miamies, a like annuity of five hundred dollars; to the Eel River tribe, a like annuity of two hundred and fifty dollars; and to the Pottawatimies a like annuity of five hundred dollars.
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Article 7: The tribes who are parties to this treaty being desirous of putting an end to the depredations which are committed by abandoned individuals of their own color, upon the cattle, horses, etc., of the more industrious and careful, agree to adopt. the following regulations: viz., when any theft or other depredation shall be committed by any individual or individuals of one of the tribes above mentioned, upon the prop- erty of any individual or individuals of another tribe, the chiefs of the party injured shall make application to the agent of the United States, who shall be charged with the delivery of the annuities of the tribe to which the offending party belongs, whose duty it shall be to hear the proofs and allegations on either side and determine he- tween them. And the amount of his award shall be immediately deducted from the annuity of the tribe to which the offending party belongs, and given to the person injured. or to the-chiefs of his village for his use.
It is more than interesting to know who were the signatories to this treaty. The names present a curious admixture of vocal sounds now lost to us, but which once were familiar enough to those who had acquired a knowl- edge of the peculiar structure of the Indian's lingo. They are reproduced verbatim, below. as found in the original document.
First, appears that of William Henry Harrison, who as plenipotentiary, sufficed to bind his government.
Following his signature, and under the caption "Delawares" come the following :
Anderson, for Hackingpomskon who is absent his x mark
Anderson his x mark
Petchekekapon his x mark .
The Beaver his x mark
Capt. Killbuck
his x mark
Under the caption, "Pottawatimas," come the following names :
Winemac
his x mark
Five Medals, by his son
his x mark
Mogawgo his x mark
Shissahecon, for himself and his brother Tuthimpee his x mark
Ossmeet, brother of Five Medals
his x mark
Nanousekah, Penamo's son
his x mark
Mosser
his x mark
Chequinimo
his x mark
Sockanackshut
his x mark
Conengee his x mark
Under the caption, "Miamies." come the following :
Pucan his x mark
The Owl. . his x mark
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- FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
Meshekenoghqua, or The Little Turtle
his x mark
Wapemanqua, or The Loon
his x mark
his x mark
Silver Heels Shawapenomo
his x mark
U'nder the name, "Eel Rivers," the following : Charlie
his x mark
Sheshangomequah, or Swallow his x mark
The Young Wyandot, a Miami of Elk Hart his x mark
Next come the signatures of certain witnesses, under the caption, "In the presence of":
Peter Jones, secretary of the commissioner.
John Johnson, Indian agent.
A. Heald, captain, U. S. A.
.A. Edwards, surgeon's mate.
Ph. Ostrander, lieutenant, U. S. A.
John Shaw. Stephen Johnston.
Finally under the title, "Sworn Interpreters," come these names :
J. Hamilton, sheriff Dearborn county.
Henry Aupaumut. William Wells. John Conner.
Joseph Barron.
Abraham Ash.
Here are grouped the high plenipotentiaries, whose conduct in solemn conclave, passed the sovereignty over our lands, from one hand, nature's own children, the aborigines, the true sons of the soil, to that of another, the United States of America, the white man's government, lately installed on this continent with momentous promise; and even greater realization judged by the standard of things done. How rapid the progress, and how dazing to the children of our forests, the white men's achievements were, is now difficult for us to appreciate." All we know of the Indian's view-point is frag- mentary: We are acquainted with his history not at all, in completeness or with any -great degree of accuracy. Footprints here and there are left to us, but, beyond this, they have vanished-the race is gone.
(6)
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FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.
In noting the signatures to the treaty, it may be permissible to dismiss the first one, William Henry Harrison, who became the first governor of Indiana Territory when organized in 1800, as too well known to bring it into contrast with the other names. He served continuously in public life for many years, and in the year 1840 was honored with the Presidency of the United States. His intimate connection with our Indian affairs follows after the campaigning of General Wayne which culminated in the treaty of Greenville, Ohio, under date of 1795. Subsequent to it, and up to the time of the Twelve Mile Purchase, he had negotiated five treaties for Indian lands.
In the treaty which concerns us now, that of 1809, the first family of Indians represented in the signing of the document, are the Delawares. This is the proper place for them, owing to the important bearing its terms are to have on their future life. Their hunting grounds are now to be dimin- ished exactly to the extent of the Twelve Mile Purchase, and it is they, prin- cipally, who are to move out of their homes into new quarters.
The Delawares belong to the general group, Algonquin, and originally were at home on the banks of the Delaware river, whence their name as used by the whites. Among themselves they were Lenni Lenape (manly men). They occupied territory successively in what is Pennsylvania, Ohio, and after that, following the establishment of the Indian boundary of 1795, found their abode in the White Water valley. In establishing themselves here, they had evidently displaced the Miamis: for the second article of the treaty of 1809. clearly foresees a further encroachment by them. It reads as follows:
The Miamies explicitly acknowledge the equal right of the Delawares with them- selves to the country watered by the White river. But it is also to be clearly under- stood, that neither party shall have the right of disposing of the same without the consent of the other; and, any improvements which shall be made on said land by the Delawares, or their friends, the Mohicans, shall be theirs forever.
The country watered by the White river begins exactly west of the boundary agreed on in 1809. This west line of the Twelve Mile Purchase is about where the traction line crosses Williams creek, and as is well known. all the small streams, beyond the limits described. flow in the opposite direc- tion, forming the headwaters of the east fork of the White river, which river courses southwestwardly to its junction with the east fork (of the White river ) not far from Vincennes. So that, acknowledging the equal right of the Delawares to the country watered by the White river, simply allowed
83
- FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
the latter Indians, the Delawares from this neighborhood, to push their abode beyond Williams creek.
HACK-ING-POMS-KON AND THE PROPHET.
In the study of individuality-the personal element in man-there is oftentimes as much interest in the doings of a savage as any other human .. being. His nature moves in simple grooves, and in consequence, it is easier to weigh his silent motives. At the treaty of 1809, Hack-ing-poms-kon was not present at the close of the proceedings. His name is at the head of the list of Delawares, as befits his station in his tribe, but he was not there to sign for himself. Why? The answer will likely never be known positively. He was their senior sachem, and a genuine Indian with. long seasoning in the arts of his people. As much as fourteen years before ( 1795) he was a head warrior, for his name appears under the caption of Sandusky Delawares, in the treaty of Greenville. Perhaps his name was considered essential to the present treaty, and under pressure he consented to its use by another. Whether this view be truth or fancy. it is known that land relinquishment had become a bitter morsel to the aborigines ere this: and the important place in Indian affairs of the career of the Prophet and his brother Tecumseh, grows ont of this fact. Their active lahors originated only a few years before the events now considered, and they reached their upmost power immediately following, and because of the terms of the treaty of 1809. The Prophet had set himself up for the guidance of his brother redskins in the towns of the Delaware Indians, especially along the head waters of the west fork of the White river. His doctrines were a mixture of self-reform and hostility to the whites ; and, in view of recent events, carried considerable argumentative force with the natives. . \s events proved, he completely alienated the Shawnees from the white man's compacts, and induced many Delawares, who, but lately, had been neighbors with the Shawnees in Ohio, individually to join in the aloofness. That Hack-ing-poms-kon was fully cognizant of these things is attested by one personal episode known to history. It occurred near Muncie about 1806, where a momentary craze was worked up by the Prophet against the whites, under the title of "witchcraft," indirectly attack- ing them and the Indians favorable to the white man's methods. Several executions had been enacted, when the case of Hack-ing-poms-kon was taken up.
Additional light on this subject is shed by J. P. Dunn in his "True Indian Stories," as follows :
84
FAYETTE COUNTY, INDIANA.
This chief was of different stuff from the others. He did not wait for any addi- tional accusation.' Advancing to the Prophet, he denounced him as a liar and an im- poster, and threatened him with personal vengeance if he made any charge of witch- craft against him. This was a very practical test of divine protection, from the Indian point of view, to which the Prophet was not prepared to submit, and after some dis- cussion Hack-ing-poms-kon was remanded to custody to await further proceedings, but without being deprived of his standing and authority as a chief. No further action was taken against him.
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