USA > Indiana > Marshall County > History of Indiana : containing a history of Indiana and biographical sketches of governors and other leading men. Also a statement of the growth and prosperity of Marshall County, together with a personal and family histry of many of its citizens, Vol. I > Part 3
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
devise some method under which the remnant of a great and an- cient race may taste the sweets of public kindness, and feel that, after centuries of turmoil and tyranny, they have at last found a shelter amid a sympathizing people. Many have looked at the In- dian as the pessimist does at all things; they say that he was never formidable until the white man supplied him with the weapons of modern warfare; but there is no mention made of his eviction from his retired home, and the little plot of cultivated garden which formed the nucleus of a village that, if fostered instead of being destroyed, might possibly hold an Indian population of some im- portance in the economy of the nation. There is no intention what- ever to maintain that the occupation of this country by the favored races is wrong even in principle; for where any obstacle to advanc- ing civilization exists, it has to fall to the ground; but it may be said, with some truth, that the white man, instead of a policy of conciliation formed upon the power of kindness, indulged in bel- ligereney as impolitic as it was unjust. A modern writer says, when speaking of the Indian's character: "He did not exhibit that steady valor and efficient discipline of the American soldier; and to-day on the plains Sheridan's troopers would not hesitate to attack the bravest band, though outnumbered three to one." This piece of information applies to the European and African, as well as to the Indian. The American soldier, and particularly the troopers referred to, would not fear or shrink from a very legion of demons, even with odds against them. This mode of warfare seems strangely peculiar when compared with the military systems of civilized countries; yet, since the main object of armed men is to defend a country or a principle, and to destroy anything which may oppose itself to them, the mode of warfare pursued by the savage will be found admirably adapted to their requirements in this con- nection, and will doubtless compare favorably with the systems of the Afghans and Persians of the present, and the Caucasian people of the first historic period.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
The art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food, but, like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love of distinction. The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and strength, were furnished with a bow and arrow and taught to shoot birds and other small game. Success in killing a large quadruped required years of careful study and practice, and the art was as
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic in the common schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the dense, tall grass of the prairies were the best fields for the exercise of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the yielding soil but that the tracks were the objects of the most searching scrutiny, and revealed at a glance the animal that made them, the direction it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it had passed. In a forest country he selected the valleys, because they were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase was the deer. It is endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its flight and look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of this opportunity to let fly the fatal arrow. 1261213
Their general councils were composed of the chiefs and old men. When in council, they usually sat in concentric circles around the speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions that rankled within, preserved an exterior as immovable as if cast in bronze. Before commencing business a person appeared with the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being lighted it was first presented to heaven, secondly to the earth, thirdly to the presiding spirit, and lastly the several councilors, each of whom took a whiff. These formalities were observed with as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts.
The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near an ever-running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, con- structed of the bark of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose. Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the uncertain supply from those sources led them to cultivate small patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within itself, commerce, or an interchange of articles, being almost unknown to them. In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied upon himself for retaliation. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination where such were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the Indian's
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
glory and delight,-war, not conducted as civilization, but war where individual skill, endurance, gailantry and cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make great sacrifices, and display a patience and perseverance truly heroic; but when the excitement was over, he sank back into a listless, un- occupied, well-nigh useless savage. During the intervals of his more exciting pursuits, the Indian employed his time in decorating his person with all the refinement of paint and feathers, and in the manufacture of his arms and of canoes. These were constructed of bark, and so light that they could easily be carried on the shoulder from stream to stream. His amusements were the war-dance, ath- letic games, the narration of his exploits, and listening to the ora- tory of the chiefs; but during long periods of such existence he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forests and the clouds that sailed above them; and this vacancy imprinted an habitual gravity, and even melancholy, upon his gen- eral deportment.
The main labor and drudgery of Indian communities fell upon the women. The planting, tending and gathering of the crops, making mats and baskets, carrying burdens,-in fact, all things of the kind were performed by them, thus making their condition but little better than that of slaves. Marriage was merely a matter of bargain and sale, the husband giving presents to the father of the bride. In general they had but few children. They were sub- jected to many and severe attacks of sickness, and at times famine and pestilence swept away whole tribes.
EXPLORATIONS BY THE WHITES.
EARLIEST EXPLORERS.
The State of Indiana is bounded on the east by the meridian line which forms also the western boundary of Ohio, extending due north from the mouth of the Great Miami river: on the south by the Ohio river from the mouth of the Great Miami to the mouth of the Wabash; on the west by a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash river from its mouth to a point where a due north line from the town of Vincennes would last touch the shore of said river, and thence directly north to Lake Michigan; and on the north by said lake and an east and west line ten miles north of the ex- treme south end of the lake, and extending to its intersection with the aforesaid meridian, the west boundary of Ohio. These bound- aries include an area of 33,809 square miles, lying between 37º 47' and 41º 50' north latitude, and between 7º 45' and 11º 1' west longitude from Washington.
After the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, more than 150 years passed away before any portion of the territory now com- prised within the above limits was explored by Europeans. Colo- nies were established in Florida, Virginia and Nova Scotia by the principal rival governments of Europe, but not until about 1670-'2 did the first white travelers venture as far into the Northwest as Indiana or Lake Michigan. These explorers were Frenchmen by the names of Claude Allouez and Claude Dablon, who then visited what is now the eastern part of Wisconsin, the northeastern portion of Illinois and probably that portion of this State north of the Kan- kakee river. In the following year M. Joliet, an agent of the French Colonial government, and James Marquette, a good and simple-hearted missionary who had his station at Mackinaw, ex- plored the country about Green Bay, and along Fox and Wiscon- sin rivers as far westward as the Mississippi, the banks of which they reached June 17, 1673. They descended this river to about 33° 40', but returned by way of the Illinois river and the route they came in the Lake Region. At a village among the Illinois In- dians, Marquette and his small band of adventurers were received
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
in a friendly manner and treated liospitably. They were made the honored guest at a great feast, where hominy, fish, dog meat and roast buffalo meat were spread before them in great abundance. In 1682 LaSalle explored the West, but it is not known that he entered the region now embraced within the State of Indiana. He took formal possession, however, of all the Mississippi region in the name of the King of France, in whose honor he gave all this Mis- sissippi region, including what is now Indiana, the name "Louisi- ana." Spain at the same time laid claim to all the region about the Gulf of Mexico, and thus these two great nations were brought into collision. But the country was actually held and occupied by the great Miami confederacy of Indians, the Miamis proper (an- ciently the Twightwees) being the eastern and most powerful tribe. Their territory extended strictly from the Scioto river west to the Illinois river. Their villages were few and scattering, and their occupation was scarcely dense enough to maintain itself against in- vasion. Their settlements were occasionally visited by Christian missionaries, fur traders and adventurers, but no body of white men made any settlement sufficiently permanent for a title to national possession. Christian zeal animated France and England in mis- sionary enterprise, the former in the interests of Catholicism and the latter in the interests of Protestantism. Hence their haste to preoccupy the land and proselyte the aborigines. No doubt this ugly rivalry was often seen by Indians, and they refused to be proselyted to either branch of Christianity.
The "Five Nations," farther east, comprised the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondaguas and Senecas. In 1677 the number of warriors in this confederacy was 2,150. About 1711 the Tusca- roras retired from Carolina and joined the Iroquois, or Five Na- tions, which, after that event, became known as the " Six Nations." In 1689 hostilities broke out between the Five Nations and the colonists of Canada, and the almost constant wars in which France was engaged until the treaty of Ryswick in 1697 combined to cheek the grasping policy of Louis XIV., and to retard the plant- ing of French colonies in the Mississippi valley. Missionary efforts, however, continued with more failure than success, the Jesuits allying themselves with the Indians in habits and customs, even encouraging inter-marriage between them and their white fol- lowers.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
OUABACHE.
The Wabash was first named by the French, and spelled by them Ouabache. This river was known even before the Ohio, and was navigated as the Ouabache all the way to the Mississippi a long time before it was discovered that it was a tributary of the Ohio (Belle Riviere). In navigating the Mississippi they thought they passed the mouth of the Ouabache instead of the Ohio. In traveling from the Great Lakes to the south, the French always went by the way of the Ouabache or Illinois.
VINCENNES.
Francois Morgan de Vinsenne served in Canada as early as 1720 in the regiment of "De Carrignan " of the French service, and again on the lakes in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie in the same service under M. de Vaudriel, in 1725. It is possible that his ad- vent to Vincennes may have taken place in 1732; and in proof of this the only record is an act of sale under the joint names of him- self and Madame Vinsenne, the daughter of M. Philip Longprie, and dated Jan. 5, 1735. This document gives his military position as commandant of the post of Ouabache in the service of the French King. The will of Longprie, dated March 10, same year, bequeaths him, among other things, 408 pounds of pork, which he ordered to be kept safe until Vinsenne, who was then at Ouabache, returned to Kaskaskia.
There are many other documents connected with its early settle- ment by Vinsenne, among which is a receipt for the 100 pistoles granted him as his wife's marriage dowry. In 1736 this officer was ordered to Charlevoix by D'Artagette, viceroy of the King at New Orleans, and commandant of Illinois. Here M. St. Vinsenne re- ceived his mortal wounds. The event is chronicled as follows, in the words of D'Artagette: " We have just received very bad news from Louisiana, and our war with the Chickasaws. The French have been defeated. Among the slain is M. de Vinsenne, who ceased not until his last breath to exhort his men to behave worthy of their faith and fatherland."
Thus closed the career of this gallant officer, leaving a name which hoids as a remembrancer the present beantiful town of Vin- cennes, changed from Vinsenne to its present orthography in 1749.
Post Vincennes was settled as early as 1710 or 1711. In a letter from Father Marest to Father Germon, dated at Kaskaskia, Nov. 9, 1712, occurs this passage: "Les Francois itoient itabli un fort sur
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
le fleuve Ouabache ; ils demanderent un missionarre ; et le Pere Mermet leur fut envoye. Ce Pere crut devoir travailler a la conversion des Mascoutens qui avoient fait un village sur les bords dumeme fleuve. C'est une nation Indians qui entend la langue Illinoise." Translated: "The French have established a fort upon the river Wabash, and want a missionary; and Father Mermet has been sent to them. That Father believes he should labor for the conversion of the Mascoutens, who have built a vil- lage on the banks of the same river. They are a nation of Indians who understand the language of the Illinois."
Mermet was therefore the first preacher of Christianity in this part of the world, and his mission was to convert the Mascoutens, a branch of the Miamis. "The way I took," says he, " was to con- found, in the presence of the whole tribe, one of these charlatans [medicine men], whose Manitou, or great spirit which he wor- shiped, was the buffalo. After leading him on insensibly to the avowal that it was not the buffalo that he worshiped, but the Man- itou, or spirit, of the buffalo, which was under the earth and ani- mated all buffaloes, which heals the sick and has all power, I asked him whether other beasts, the bear for instance, and which one of his nation worshiped, was not equally inhabited by a Manitou, which was under the earth. 'Without doubt,' said the grand medi- cine man. 'If this is so,' said I, ' men onght to have a Manitou who inhabits them.' 'Nothing more certain,' said he. 'Ought not that to convince you,' continued I, ' that you are not very reasonable? For if man upon the earth is the master of all animals, if he kills them, if he eats them, does it not follow that the Mani- tou which inhabits him must have a mastery over all other Mani- tous? Why then do you not invoke him instead of the Manitou of the bear and the buffalo, when you are sick?' This reasoning disconcerted the charlatan. But this was all the effect it produced."
The result of convincing these heathen by logic, as is generally the case the world over, was only a temporary logical victory, and no change whatever was produced in the professions and practices of the Indians.
But the first Christian (Catholic) missionary at this place whose name we find recorded in the Church annals, was Meurin, in 1849.
The church building used by these early missionaries at Vin- cennes is thus described by the " oldest inhabitants:" Fronting on Water street and running back on Church street, it was a plain
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
building with a rough exterior, of upright posts, chinked and daubed, with a rough coat of cement on the outside; about 20 feet wide and 60 long; one story high, with a small belfry and an equally small bell. It was dedicated to St. Francis Xavier. This spot is now occupied by a splendid cathedral.
Vincennes has ever been a stronghold of Catholicism. The Church there has educated and sent out many clergymen of her faith, some of whom have become bishops, or attained other high positions in ecclesiastical authority.
Almost contemporaneous with the progress of the Church at Vincennes was a missionary work near the mouth of the Wea river, among the Oniatenons, but the settlement there was broken up in early day.
NATIONAL POLICIES.
THE GREAT FRENCH SCHEME.
Soon after the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi by La- Salle in 1682, the government of France began to encourage the policy of establishing a line of trading posts and missionary stations extending through the West from Canada to Louisiana, and this policy was maintained, with partial success, for about 75 years. The traders persisted in importing whisky, which cancelled nearly every civilizing influence that could be brought to bear upon the Indian, and the vast distances between posts prevented that strength which can be enjoyed only by close and convenient inter- communication. Another characteristic of Indian nature was to listen attentively to all the missionary said, pretending to believe all he preached, and then offer in turn his theory of the world, of religion, etc., and because he was not listened to with the same degree of attention and pretense of belief, would go off disgusted. This was his idea of the golden rule.
The river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan was called "the river Miamis" in 1679, in which year LaSalle built a small fort on its bank, near the lake shore. The principal station of the mission for the instruction of the Miamis was established on the borders of this river. The first French post within the territory of the Miamis was at the mouth of the river Miamis, on an eminence naturally fortified on two sides by the river, and on one side by a
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
deep ditch made by a fall of water. It was of triangular form. The missionary Hennepin gives a good description of it, as he was one of the company who built it, in 1679. Says he: "We fell the trees that were on the top of the hill; and having cleared the same from bushes for about two musket shot, we began to build a redoubt of SO feet long and 40 feet broad, with great square pieces of timber laid one upon another, and prepared a great number of stakes of about 25 feet long to drive into the ground, to make our fort more inaccessible on the riverside. We employed the whole month of November about that work, which was very hard, thongh we had no other food but the bear's flesh our savage killed. These beasts are very common in that place because of the great quantity of grapes they find there; but their flesh being too fat and Inscious, our men began to be weary of it and desired leave to go a hunting to kill some wild goats. M. LaSalle denied them that liberty, which caused some murmurs among them; and it was but unwill- ingly that they continued their work. This, together with the approach of winter and the apprehension that M. LaSalle had that hi vessel (the Griffin) was lost, made him very melancholy, though he concealed it as much as he could. We made a cabin wherein we performed divine service every Sunday, and Father Gabriel and I, who preached alternately, took care to take such texts as were suitable to our present circumstances and fit to inspire us with courage, concord and brotherly love. * The fort was at last perfected, and called Fort Miamis."
In the year 1711 the missionary Chardon, who was said to be very zealous and apt in the acquisition of languages, had a station on the St. Joseph about 60 miles above the month. Charlevoix, another distinguished missionary from France, visited a post on this river in 1721. In a letter dated at the place, Ang. 16, he says: " There is a commandant here, with a small garrison. His house, which is but a very sorry one, is called the fort, from its being sur- rounded with an indifferent palisado, which is pretty near the case in all the rest. We have here two villages of . Indians, one of the Miamis and the other of the Pottawatomies, both of them mostly Christians; but as they have been for a long time withont any pas- tors, the missionary who has been lately sent to them will have no small diffienlty in bringing them back to the exercise of their re- ligion." He speaks also of the main commodity for which the In. dians would part with their goods, namely, spiritnous liquors, which they drink and keep drunk upon as long as a supply lasted.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
More than a century and a half has now passed since Charlevoix penned the above, without any change whatever in this trait of In- dian character.
In 1765 the Miami nation, or confederacy, was composed of four tribes, whose total number of warriors was estimated at only 1,050 men. Of these about 250 were Twightwees, or Miamis proper, 300 Weas, or Oniatenons, 300 Piankeshaws and 200 Shockeys; and at this time the principal villages of the Twightwees were situated about the head of the Maumee river at and near the place where Fort Wayne now is. The larger Wea villages were near the banks of the Wabash river, in the vicinity of the Post Oniatenon; and the Shockeys and Piankeshaws dwelt on the banks of the Vermil- lion and on the borders of the Wabash between Vincennes and Ouiatenon. Branches of the Pottawatomie, Shawnee, Delaware and Kickapoo tribes were permitted at different times to enter within the boundaries of the Miamis and reside for a while.
The wars in which France and England were engaged, from 1688 to 1697, retarded the growth of the colonies of those nations in North America, and the efforts made by France to connect Canada and the Gulf of Mexico by a chain of trading posts and colonies naturally excited the jealousy of England and gradually laid the foundation for a struggle at arms. After several stations were estab- lished elsewhere in the West, trading posts were started at the Miami villages, which stood at the head of the Manmee, at the Wea villages about Oniatenon on the Wabash, and at the Piankeshaw vil- lages about the present sight of Vincennes. It is probable that before the close of the year 1719, temporary trading posts were erected at the sites of Fort Wayne, Ouiatenon and Vincennes. These points were probably often visited by French fur traders prior to 1700. In the meanwhile the English people in this country commenced also to establish military posts west of the Alleghanies, and thus matters went on until they naturally culminated in a general war, which, being waged by the French and Indians combined on one side, was called " the French and Indian war." This war was terminated in 1763 by a treaty at Paris, by which France ceded to Great Britain all of North America east of the Mississippi except New Orleans and the island on which it is situated; and indeed, France had the preceding autumn, by a secret convention, ceded to Spain all the country west of that river.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA.
PONTIAC'S WAR.
In 1762, after Canada and its dependencies had been surrendered to the English, Pontiac and his partisans secretly organized a pow- erful confederacy in order to crush at one blow all English power in the West. This great scheme was skillfully projected and cau- tiously matured.
The principal act in the programme was to gain admittance into the fort at Detroit, on pretense of a friendly visit, with short. ened muskets concealed under their blankets, and on a given signal suddenly break forth upon the garrison; but an inadvertent remark of an Indian woman led to a discovery of the plot, which was con- sequently averted. Pontiac and his warriors afterward made many attacks upon the English, some of which were successful, but the Indians were finally defeated in the general war.
BRITISHI POLICY.
In 1765 the total number of French families within the limits of the Northwestern Territory did not probably exceed 600. These were in settlements about Detroit, along the river Wabash and the neighborhood of Fort Chartres on the Mississippi. Of these fami- lies, about 80 or 90 resided at Post Vincennes, 14 at Fort Ouiate- non, on the Wabash, and nine or ten at the confluence of the St. Mary and St. Joseph rivers.
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