USA > Indiana > Huntington County > History of Huntington County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 6
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La Fontaine is described as a "tall, portly man, weighing about three hundred and fifty pounds." His elevation to the chieftainship came after the treaties of 1826 and 1838, which had taken from the Miamis their lands and humbled their pride, hence he had no oppor- tunity to display his qualifications as a leader. He did all in his power, however, to alleviate the trials and sufferings of his people. When the Indians were removed to Kansas in the fall of 1846, he accompanied
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
them to their new reservation, spent the winter with them, and the following spring set out to return to his home in Huntington County. The journey was made by water, over the Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio and Wabash rivers, to Lafayette, Indiana. La Fontaine was taken ill at St. Louis and gradually grew worse until he reached Lafayette. There, true to the habits of the Indian, he separated himself from his com- panions and sought a place where he could rest in solitude. He found an unfinished building, in which he lay down to rest, and died there on April 13, 1847. His body was embalmed and taken to Huntington, where it was interred in the Catholic Cemetery. A large number of white people attended the funeral and some time later a marble shaft was erected over the grave with the inscription :
"Francis La Fontaine, Principal Chief of the Miami Indians of Indiana, Died April 13, 1847."
About the time of his death a rumor gained currency that his illness . had been caused by the administration of a slow poison, through the machinations of some of the Indians, who were compelled to remove to Kansas and were envious of the chief, because he had been permitted to remain in Indiana.
Chief La Fontaine's daughter, Mrs. Christian Engleman, whose name appeared upon the annuity rolls as Archangel La Fontaine, is still living at the forks of the Wabash and has in her possession a number of interesting relics, such as stone hatchets, arrow points, etc. She also has oil paintings of her father and Chief Richardville and a gilded clock, made in France, on the top of which is a small statue of Joan of Arc. This clock, which has been in her family for three generations, is carefully kept in a glass case and is exhibited with some pride to visitors. Owing to the great size of La Fontaine, an ordinary chair was too small for him to sit in with comfort, so he had a large arm- chair made for him. This chair is still in the possession of his daughter. Mrs. Engleman was born on September 9, 1845, and was one of six children-two sons and four daughters-all of whom are deceased except herself. As she sits in the great arm-chair once occupied by her father and looks about her at the mementoes of her tribe, all of whom have passed away, her thoughts can be better imagined than described.
Concerning the social and political structure of the Indian tribes, J. N. B. Hewitt, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, says : "Among the North American Indians a chief may be generally defined
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. as a political officer whose distinctive functions are to execute the ascer- tained will of a definite group of persons united by the possession of a common territory or range. * * * The clan or gens, the tribe and the confederation present more complex forms of social and political organization. The clan or gens embraces several such chieftaincies, and has a more highly developed internal political structure with definite land boundaries. The tribe is constituted of several clans or gentes, and
the confederation of several tribes. * There were in several communities, as the. Iroquois and Creeks, civil and sub chiefs, chosen for personal merit, and permanent and temporary war chiefs."
The social and political organization of the Miamis was very similar to that of the Iroquois and Creeks. The principal chief was the civil ruler and executive official of the tribe, and under him were the war chief and the chiefs of the clans or gentes. A Miami tradition tells that at an early date a chief named Osandiah led one division of the tribe from the Wabash country to the Big Miami River in Ohio. Upon his death his son Ataw-ataw became chief. He was in turn succeeded by his son, Met-o-cin-yah (or Met-o-sin-ia), who led the clan back to Indiana and located near the line between the present counties of Grant and Wabash. Of his sons, Me-shin-go-me-sia, the eldest, became chief upon the death of his father. He was born in what is now Wabash County, about the time of the Revolutionary war, and lived until De- cember, 1879. At the battle of the Mississinewa, December 18, 1812, he distinguished himself by his bravery, but at his death there was no one to succeed him and the chieftainship perished. From this tradition it appears that at least some of the minor chiefs inherited their honors, but the known history of the Miami tribe shows that chiefs were fre- quently elected for their intellectual ability, or as a reward for the performance of some noteworthy action, as in the cases of Richardville and La Fontaine.
In Little Turtle the functions of civil ruler and war chief were com- bined. After his death the duties were divided, Richardville becoming the principal chief, while the mantle of the war chief fell upon She- po-con-ah, later known as the "Deaf Man." Shepoconah has been de- scribed as a large, heavy-set man and a great warrior until his hearing became affected. During his chieftainship he maintained his head- quarters at the Miami Village near the mouth of the Mississinewa River, but after he resigned he went farther up that river and built a log house, where a settlement grew up that was known as the "Deaf Man's village." Shepoconah married Frances Slocum, the white woman who was carried away from her home in Pennsylvania in the fall of 1778 and her where- abouts were unknown to her white relatives until 1837. She was known
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
as "The lost sister of Wyoming," and when visited by some of her brothers and sisters, refused to return to their home with them, prefer- ing to pass the remainder of her life among the Indians.
When Shepoconah resigned his position as war chief, he was suc- ceeded by Francis Godfroy, who was really the last war chief of the' Miamis. Like Richardville and La Fontaine, Godfroy was a half-breed, his father having been a Frenchman. These three chiefs were impor- tant factors in bringing about the treaties by which the lands in the Wabash Valley were ceded by the Indians to the United States.
Among the minor chiefs who lived in or near Huntington County were Al-lo-lah (Black Raccoon), whose village was just south of the present City of Wabash; Tuck-a-min-gwa, who lived near the present Village of Monument City; and Nah-wah-lin-quah, or Big Legs, whose village was not far from the present Town of Roanoke.
Allolah is said to have been a large, fine-looking Indian and one that could always be trusted. On one occasion, before Wabash County was organized, a man was arrested there for stealing and Allolah was deputized to take the thief to Huntington. Proud of his authority, and armed with rifle, tomahawk and scalping knife, the chief marched his prisoner through the woods to Huntington. Not finding any one there to take charge of the culprit, he took the prisoner to Marion and turned him over to the sheriff of Grant County. In the treaty of 1838 his name appears as Wa-pa-pin-shaw. By that treaty he received a reser- vation of one section of land and lived in Indiana after the majority of the Miamis were removed to Kansas.
Big Legs was quite a different character. He was rather dissipated in his habits and possessed of a violent temper. A half-breed woman had formed the habit of going to the chief's cabin and helping herself to food during his absence. Big Legs warned her that if she did not desist he would kill her. She failed to observe the injunction and, after another visit to his cabin, fled to Fort Wayne. Big Legs followed her, sought her out and stabbed her to death. He was arrested, tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to be hanged. The members of his clan offered some one else as a substitute to die in his stead, and he was finally pardoned. He went West with the tribe, where he was again recognized as a chief.
An account of the treaties made between the United States and the Indians of the Wabash Valley prior to the admission of Indiana into the Union as a state will be found in the chapter on "The Period of Preparation." After the state was admitted, a large number of emi- grants from the older states sought homes in Indiana, and the Indians asked for a treaty to establish the boundaries of the Indian possessions.
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Accordingly, Jonathan Jennings, Benjamin Parke and Lewis Cass were appointed commissioners to negotiate the treaty, which was concluded with the Pottawatomi chiefs at St. Mary's, Ohio, October 2, 1818. The next day it was ratified by the Delawares, who gave up all claim to lands in Indiana, and on the 6th the treaty with the Miamis was con- cluded. By this treaty the tribe ceded all its lands south of the Wabash River, except what was known as the "Big Reserve," which extended along the Wabash River from the mouth of the Salamonie River to the mouth of the Eel River, and "from those points due south a distance equal to a direct line from the mouth of the Salamonie to the mouth of the Eel River." It included the southeastern part of Cass County; all that part of Miami County south of the Wabash; that portion of Wabash County south of the Wabash and west of the line running south from the mouth of the Salamonie; all of Grant County west of that line; all of Howard; the northeastern corner of Clinton; the north- ern half of Tipton, and the northwestern corner of Madison County. It contained nearly one million acres of land.
In 1821, when it became known that the capital of Indiana was to be permanently located at Indianapolis, immigration was attracted to the central and northern portions of the state, settlers "squatted" on the "Big Reserve," and again the Indian found the aggressive white man encroaching upon his domain. These conditions led to the treaty of October 16, 1826, which was concluded at the mouth of the Mississinewa River, when the Pottawatomi ceded all that part of their lands lying between the Wabash and Eel rivers.
Just a week later (October 23, 1826), at the same place, a treaty was concluded with the Miami chiefs, by which that tribe ceded all claim "to lands in the State of Indiana, north and west of the Wabash and Miami rivers, and of the cession made by the tribe to the United States by the treaty concluded at St. Mary's, October 6, 1818." For the lands thus ceded the United States agreed to pay the tribe the sum of $92,300, in goods, by the close of the year 1828, after which the Miamis were to receive $25,000 annually, as long as they maintained their tribal organ- ization.
Huntington County, therefore, became the property of the United States Government by the treaties of 1818 and 1826, that portion south of the Wabash River having been ceded by the former treaty and the country north of that stream by the latter. Several small reservations were granted to certain individual Indians and a few tracts were reserved for the use of the tribe, within the territory ceded by the treaty of 1826. The most important of these was that known as the "Ten-mile Re- serve," described in the treaty as "ten sections of land at the forks of
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
the Wabash." The east line of this reserve began on the north bank of the Little River, near where the La Fontaine Street bridge in the City of Huntington now spans that stream; thence due north two and one- half miles; thence west four miles; thence south to the Wabash River; thence up that stream and the Little River to the place of beginning.
William Marshall, acting as commissioner of the United States, nego- tiated a treaty on October 23, 1834, at the forks of the Wabash, by which the Miamis ceded some of the smaller reservations and a part of the Big
SCENE AT THE FORKS OF THE' WABASH, THE OLD TREATY GROUND
Reserve established by the treaty of 1818. None of the land ceded by this treaty is in Huntington County. Many of the Indians grew dis- satisfied at the constant changes in their domain, and some of the chiefs advised the sale of all the lands in Indiana and the acceptance of a new reservation west of the Mississippi River.
In 1838 Abel C. Pepper was appointed commissioner on the part of the United States to hold a council with the Indians and learn their views with regard to the disposal of their lands. The council assembled at the forks of the Wabash, at the "Old Treaty Ground," where on November 6, 1838, a treaty was concluded, by which the Miamis agreed to cede all their lands in Indiana, except some individual reservations, and remove beyond the Mississippi.
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It may be of interest to the reader to know where the individual reservations in Huntington County were located, and to what Indians they were granted. Reservation No. 30, situated in Sections 14 and 23, in Polk Township, was granted to Black Loon. The southwest corner of this reservation touches the Salamonie River, not far from the present Village of Monument City. Just west of it is No. 31, which was granted to Mechanequa., No. 32, on the line between Huntington and Dallas townships and immediately south of the Wabash River, was granted to Peter Gouin. A short distance west of the Gouin reservation was No. 33, in Sections 14 and 23, in Dallas Township, which was granted to Black Loon. The southwest corner of this reservation lies within the present Town of Andrews. No. 34, directly west of Andrews, belonged to the Indian known as Duck, and immediately west of that was No. 35, which belonged to Mechanequa. No. 36, one of the reservations granted to Chief Richardville, consisted of 11/2 sections and was stiuated on the south side of the Wabash River, in the northeast corner of Rock Creek Township. East of this and directly south of the Town of Markle was No. 37, which belonged to Wild Cat. No. 42, on the line dividing the present townships of Jackson and Union, about a mile east of the Little River, was granted to Neahlinquah. (This is probably only an- other way of spelling Nahwahlinquah, the chief known as Big Legs.) No. 43, which included the southeast quarter of Section 24 and the north- east quarter of Section 25 in Jackson Township, was granted to White Loon.
The other reservations in Huntington County, numbered from 47 to 53, inclusive, are located along the east side of the Little River, begin- ning near the northeast corner of Jackson Township. No. 47, granted to Nealinquah, occupies that part of Section 12 east of the Little River, opposite the mouth of Calf Creek. Just below and adjoining this reser- vation was No. 48, which was granted to Chief Susen. Next in order was No. 49, granted to Poqua Godfroy. Then came No. 50, tlie reserva- tion of Francis Godfroy. No. 51, the southwest corner of which was opposite the old town of Mahon, belonged to Chapine. No. 52, just below Chapine's, was the property of Wa-pa-mon-quah, and No. 53 belonged to Ca-ta-ke-mon-quah. The southeast corner of the last named reservation extended a shore distance into Union Township.
Chief Susen also owned a reservation on the south side of the Little River, in Sections 20 and 21, Township 28, Range 9. This reservation is practically all within the limits of the City of Huntington. Old maps of the county show a reservation on the south side of the Little River in Sections 7, 8, 17 and 18, in Union Township, marked "Little Turtle Reservation," but as the celebrated chief bearing that name died in
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
1812, the reservation probably belonged to some of his descendants, or to an Indian bearing his name.
The last treaty made in Indiana with the Miami Indians was con- cluded at the forks of the Wabash on November 28, 1840, between the chiefs and head men of the tribe on one side and Samuel Milroy and Allen Hamilton, commissioner on the part of the United States. By this treaty the Indians relinquished all their remaining lands in the state, including the Ten-mile Reserve in Huntington County and what was left of the big reserve south of the Wabash. For these lands the Government agreed to pay $550,000, but reserved the right to appropriate $300,000 of that amount to the payment of the tribal debts, the remainder to be paid in ten equal annual installments. A few specific reservations were exempted from the provisions of the treaty, and here some of the Miamis con- tinued to live after the majority of the tribe removed to Kansas. At the request of old Metosinia, who had lived in one place for eighty years, a reservation of fourteen sections of land, located on the Mississinewa River, was set apart for him and his band. Soon after the treaty was concluded Metosinia died, and the tract was held in trust for his son, Meshingomesia, until it was partitioned among the members of the band by an act of Congress, approved June 1, 1872.
The removal of the Indians to their new reservation in Kansas was. made in the fall of 1846. Alexis Coquillard was appointed by the Gov- ernment to take charge of the Miamis and conduct them to their new home in the West. Coquillard had located at South Bend, Indiana, in 1824, as an agent of the North American Fur Company. During the twenty-two years preceding the removal he had traded with the Indians, was well known by them, and universally liked. Notwithstanding the fact that the Miamis regarded him as their friend, they did not willingly leave the hunting grounds where they had passed their lives. Many of them ran away, others claimed to belong to the families or bands of Godfroy and Meshingomesia, which were permitted to remain in Indiana. After much trouble and delay, most of the tribe were embarked on canal boats and taken to Toledo, thence to Cincinnati, and then via the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers to their destination. Those who remained in Miami, Grant, Wabash and Huntington counties abandoned their tribal customs and became farmers. The younger members of the tribe began intermarrying with the whites, and it is only a question of time when this once powerful tribe will be known only to history.
At the present time (1914) there are but two full-blooded Miami Indians residing within the limits of Huntington County. One of these is Mrs. Christian Engleman, mention of whom has already been made,
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
and the other is Kil-so-quah Revard, whose home is near Roanoke. Kil- so-quah was born under an oak tree at the forks of the Wabash, about two miles west of the City of Huntington, in May, 1810, and is there- fore about 104 years of age. She is a granddaughter of Chief Little Turtle and a cousin of the Pottawatomi chief, Coesse, that tribe having been formerly closely allied with the Miamis. In her early life she married a man named John Owl, a half-breed Indian, his paternal an-
KILSOQUAH, THE "INDIAN PRINCESS" (PHOTO BY MISS LILLIAN HEINE)
cestry having been French. Later she became the wife of Anthony Revard, and to this union were born three children, two of whom are still living-Mary, aged sixty-eight, and Anthony Revard, Jr., aged sixty-five. Although Kil-so-quah has lived near English-speaking people for seventy years, she cannot speak a word of that language. Conse- quently all conversation with her must be conducted through an in- terpreter, usually her son Anthony. She is known as the "Indian Princess," and is the oldest person living in Huntington County.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
In 1854 another treaty was made with the Miamis, by which the eastern members of the tribe were to be paid $221,257.86 at the expiration of twenty-five years, in lieu of the permanent annuity promised by the treaty of 1826. The Government also agreed to pay annually 5 per cent upon the above amount. What was probably the last official gather- ing of the Miami Indians in Indiana was held at Wabash in September, 1881, for the purpose of examining and approving the rolls of those entitled to share in the payment of this sum. About twenty heads of families were present, among them two nephews of Meshingomesia and a nephew of Francis Godfroy. Calvin W. Cowgill, of Wabash, was appointed special agent to make the payment, and in 1882 each member of the tribe in Indiana received $695.88.
During the administration of President Franklin Pierce, about one hundred names of Indians living in Michigan were added to the annuity rolls of the Miamis. These Indians were not justly entitled to share in the benefits of the treaty with the Miamis, but the money was paid to them for a number of years before the error was corrected. In 1888 Hon. George W. Steele, then member of Congress from the Eleventh Indiana district, secured the passage of a bill to reimburse the Miamis for the money thus fraudulently paid to the Michigan Indians. Through the operations of this measure the members of the tribe received about $40,000, which was the last money paid by the Government to Indians living in Indiana.
After the treaty of 1826 the Indians assembled annually at the forks of the Wabash to receive their annuities. There the Indian agent, ac- companied by his body-guard, would pay to each member of the tribe his share of the fund as a ward of the Government. On such occasions the "forks" was a busy place. It is said that at one time there were half a dozen trading houses there, established by traders with a view to catching the nimble coin of the red man. Scarlet seemed to be a favorite color with the Indian, and red cloth was sold to them at $3 per yard. Fancy colored calico sold for 50 cents per yard and other goods at proportionate prices. When the Wabash & Erie canal was completed to the forks a number of whisky boats, or floating saloons, were always present at the time of the payment. Conditions in this respect finally became so bad that the payment ground was removed to a place on Clear Creek, three or four miles north of the river.
With the removal of the Indians to a reservation beyond the Mis- sissippi, the white man came into full possession of the fertile Wabash valley. During the century that has elapsed since Colonel Campbell fought the Battle of Mississinewa, which was the first in the chain of events that broke the power of the Miamis, great changes have come to
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY
this beautiful region. The civilized residence has taken the place of the tepee; the council fire has been supplanted by the schoolhouse; the scream of the factory whistle is heard instead of the howl of the wolf of the war-whoop of the savage; the trail through the forest has been broadened into an improved highway, over which the white man skims along in his automobile at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour; cities have grown up where once stood Indian villages; the country is spanned by telegraph and telephone lines that bear testimony to a century's progress, and coaches, almost palatial in their magnificence, propelled by steam or electricity, traverse the land where once the red man roamed in all his freedom and pride.
CHAPTER IV
THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION
EARLY EXPLORATIONS IN AMERICA-FRENCH POSTS IN THE INTERIOR- CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND-THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR-HUNTINGTON COUNTY A BRITISH POSSESSION-PON- TIAC'S WAR-CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST BY GEORGE ROGERS CLARK -LA BALME'S EXPEDITION-INDIANA A PART OF VIRGINIA-THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY-CAMPAIGNS OF HARMAR, ST. CLAIR AND WAYNE TREATY OF GREENVILLE-TERRITORY OF INDIANA ORGAN- IZED-EARLY TREATIES OF CESSION-TECUMSEH AND THE PROPHET- BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE-WAR OF 1812-CAMPBELL'S EXPEDITION INTO INDIANA-MISSISSINEWA BATTLE GROUND ASSOCIATION-INDIANA ADMITTED AS A STATE-LOCATION OF THE CAPITAL-ITS INFLUENCE ON SETTLEMENT-EVOLUTION OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY.
Although Huntington County was not called into existence as a sep- arate political jurisdiction until 1834, the events leading up to its settle- ment and organization had their beginning more than two centuries before that date. In order, therefore, that the reader may better understand the evolution and erection of the county, it is deemed proper to notice in this chapter the development of these two centuries, begin- ning with the first explorers who visited this country.
Not long after the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, three European nations began to vie with each other in estab- lishing claims to territory in the New World. Spain first laid claim to the Peninsula of Florida, whence expeditions were sent into the interior ; the English based their claims upon the discoveries made by the Cabots, farther northward along the Atlantic coast; and the French claimed Canada by reason of the expeditions of Jacques Cartier in 1534-35.
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