USA > Indiana > Knox County > History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present; with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. ; together with an extended history of the colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the state government > Part 21
USA > Indiana > Daviess County > History of Knox and Daviess Counties, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present; with biographical sketches, reminiscences, notes, etc. ; together with an extended history of the colonial days of Vincennes, and its progress down to the formation of the state government > Part 21
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From about 1664 to 1702 the Jesuit missionaries and French traders were pushing their way along lakes and rivers, and almost impenetrable forests. They soon opened routes from the great lakes to the Mississippi. The former were as zealous in the cause of souls for their Master and subjects for their king, as the latter were for barter with the savages. About the beginning of the last century the French monarch began the policy of pushing his set- tlements in North America along the great Mississippi basin, with a view of holding the same by means of a system of forts that were erected along the principal routes of travel. At the time above mentioned some French visited the Piankeshaw Indian village of Chip-pe-co-ke. Since the policy of the French was nearly always in a line of friendship and brotherhood with
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the Indian, they had little difficulty in gaining his confidence and friendship. The French colonial records of Quebec make mention of the river Ouabache (We-bó), a swiftly moving sum- mer cloud; also Kaskaskia, a post below St. Louis was known about the same date. For some cause it seems the Indians in passing to the lower countries, instead of going by way of the Wabash to its junction with the Ohio, usually took across the country of Illinois to St. Louis or Kaskaskia, thence down the Mississippi. From this cause the distinction between the Ohio and Wabash was for a long time unknown.
Many authorities agree in making Vincennes a fort in the middle or early part of the last century. It is claimed that C. R. Juchereau, with about sixty French soldiers, was sent from Que- bec by authority of the governor of Canada or by the French king, to the old Piankeshaw Indian village in the spring of 1702. Juchereau was a kind of military trader not uncommon at that time. Here he established a fort and here he remained till re- lieved by Pierre Leonardy in 1717, who remained as comman- dant till 1732. In the last named date Francis Morgan de Vin- senné arrived and assumed the direction of authority. Morgan de Vinsenné had seen military service in Europe, having served in the regiment de Carrignan, or the regiment of Carrignan. He was both a military man and a zealous Catholic. In 1736 he was ordered by the French governor, D'Artagette, to join in a war of extermination against the Chickasaws and some kindred tribes in Louisiana.
His force was to act in conjunction with another body of men from New Orleans. By mistake the two forces did not succeed in acting in concert, when Vinsenné boldly attacked the Indians without his support and he and his companions were cut to pieces. He died exhorting his men to die true to their cause and their re- ligion. For his faith and gallantry he was sainted by the church, and what was before the Poste became Post St. Vincent or Au Poste du Vincenné, or about the middle of the present century became by a little change in orthography simply Vincennes. An- other proof offered for a very early date of settlement, made at Au Poste du Ouabache, is an act of sale made by Vinsenné and Madame Vinsenné, daughter of Phillip Longprie, his father-in-
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law, dated January, 1735, and the will of Longprie of March 10, 1735, in which among other things he orders 408 pounds of pork kept till the return of Vinsenné from the Ouabache, also the receipt of Vinsenné for 100 pistoles as a marriage dower. By coming this near an easy sketch of the imagination reaches back to 1732.
The date as early as 1710 to 1711 is fixed for the permanent. settlement from the letter of Father Marest to Father Germon, dated Kaskaskia, November 9, 1712, in which he says the French have established a post on the Wabash and want a priest, and that. Father Mermet was sent to them. On April 8, 1772, " General Thomas Gage, commandant of his Majesty's (King George) forces in North America," sent an order stating that a great num- ber of persons had established themselves on the Ouabache where they led a wandering life, without government, without laws, in- terrupting free trade, destroying game, and causing infinite dis- turbance and considerable injury to the king; and ordering those who had established themselves on the Ouabache, whether at St. Vincent or elsewhere, to quit the country instantly. In reply a letter was sent to Gen. Gage, signed by St. Marie and fifteen others, stating that they had a settlement of seventy years' stand- ing, and that they held their possession by sacred titles, and by the order and under the protection of " his most Christian Maj- esty." The next commander after Francis Morgan de Vinsenné was St. Ange who was relieved in 1766 by Lieut. Ramsey of the Forty- second Regiment, who took possession of the place in the name of the king of Great Britain, according to the terms of the treaty of Paris in 1763. The tri-colored flag was hauled down and the cross of St. George erected in its place. Father Gibbault met Col. Clark at Kaskaskia, who explained to the Father the de- sire and aim of the Americans, and by Clark was sent on a mis- sion to test the feelings of the French inhabitants of Vincennes. They were assembled in the church and the object of Clark was explained, when the whole assembly arose en masse and took the oath of allegiance to the commonwealth of Virginia. This was in December, 1778, and for the first time the flag of the infant Republic floated over Vincennes. Capt. Helm was elected com- mandant of the post, but in a short time Gov. Hamilton arrived
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and retook the post again in the name of Great Britain. At the time of the recapture by Hamilton the garrison is said to have consisted only of Capt. Helm and one other man not named. In February, 1779, Col. Clarke, as fully told elsewhere, retook the place, since which time " the flag of the free " has ever been the emblem of mastery of the place. The early appearance of the village is variously described. Maj. Croghan, who arrived at Vincennes June 15, 1765, says: "We came to the 'Ouabache,' where there was a village of eighty or ninety families of French settled upon the east bank of the river; a fine situation. The soil is fertile and grows wheat and finer to- bacco than Virginia or Maryland, The inhabitants are idle, lazy and indolent and are a parcel of renegades from Canada, and are much worse than Indians and seem to rejoice at our misfortunes, and were delighted at the sight of a little gold. At the same place is a village of the Piankeshaw Indians."
Count Volney, who visited the place in 1796, says: "I arrived at Louisville, 350 miles from Gallipolis. Through the whole extent of country I saw only five infant villages and eight farms. Lewisville has about one hundred houses. I waited here eight hours for a caravan of five horsemen to carry us one hundred miles through a country so 'desart' as not to contain a single hut. After a journey of three days we arrived, August 2, 1796, at Vin- cennes on the Wabash. The eye is at first presented with an irregu- lar savannah eight miles in length and three in breadth, skirted by eternal forests and sprinkled with a few trees and an abundance of umbelliferous plants three or four feet high. Maize, tobacco, barley, wheat, squashes and some fruits grow in the fields around the village which contains about fifty houses, whose cheerful white relieves the eye after gazing upon the constant dark and green of the woods. The houses are placed along the left bank of the Wabash, which is about 200 feet wide, and falling so low as to be but a few feet wide below the 'scite' of the town. The bank is sloping toward the savannah which is a few feet low- er. Each house, as is customary in Canada, stands alone and is surrounded by a court and garden fenced with poles. I was delighted with the sight of peach trees loaded with fruit, but was sorry to see thorn apples, which are to be seen in all cultivated
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places from Gallipolis. Adjoining the village is a space inclosed by a ditch eight feet wide and sharpened stakes six feet high. This is called the fort and is a sufficient protection against the Indians. I had a letter of introduction to a principal man of the place, a Dutchman by birth, but who spoke good French. I was accommodated at his home in the kindest and most hospitable manner for ten days.
"The day after my arrival a court was held, to which I repaired to make my remarks on the scene. On entering I was surprised to observe the difference in the races of men. The first has a ruddy complexion, round face, and plump body, which indicates health and ease. This set we forcibly contrasted in strength with the emaciated form and meager and tawny visage of the other. I soon discovered that the former were settlers from the neighbor- ing States, whose lands had been reclaimed for five or six years' standing in the district. The latter, with a few exceptions, knew nothing of English, while the former were almost as ignorant of the French. I had acquired in this country a sufficient knowledge of the English to converse with them, and was thus enabled to hear the tale of both. The French, in a querulous tone, recount- ed the losses and hardships they had suffered, especially since the Indian war in 1788. Before the peace of 1763, by which England obtained control of this territory and Spain Louisiana, they enjoyed tranquillity and happiness under the protection of Spain, in the heart of the wilderness, unmolested, sequestered, fifty leagues from the nearest post on the Mississippi, without taxes, and in friendship with the Indians, they passed their lives in hunting and fishing, bartering in furs, and raising a little corn and a few esculents for their families. They probably number 300 persons, and were free from all taxes, till they were visited in 1788 by a detachment, which killed or drove away the greater part of their cattle, their chief source of wealth. They trade their land grants, 400 acres, to each family for 30 cents an acre, when it is worth $2, and this in goods at an exorbitant rate. They have nothing to live on except fruit, maize, and now and then a little game. They complain that they are cheated and robbed in the courts, in which there are five judges, who know little of the law, and three of them know nothing of the language.
15
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Their education was entirely neglected till the arrival of Abb R., a patriotic, well educated and liberal-minded man, who was exiled by the French Revolution. Out of nine of the French six only could read or write, while the English could do both. To my surprise they speak pretty good French, intermixed with some foreign phrases, mostly learned from the soldiers.
"Notwithstanding I was at considerable trouble, I could not fix the settlement earlier than 1757, but by talk with old settlers it may have been as early as 1735. We must allow that they are a kind and hospitable set, but for idleness and ignorance they beat the Indians themselves. They know nothing at all of the arts or domestic affairs; the women neither sew nor spin, nor make but- ter, but pass their time in gossip and tattle, while at home all is dirt and disorder. The men do nothing but hunt, fish, wander about the woods or lie in the sun. They do not lay up stores for a rainy day as we do. They cannot cure pork or venison, or make sauer kraut, or spruce beer, or distil spirits from apples or rye, all necessary arts to the farmer. When they trade they try by extortion to make much out of little, and what they get they fool away in beads and baubles upon Indian girls, and spend their time in relating stories of insignificant personal adventures." Gen. Harrison, in his report to Congress, says it is nothing for the settlers to offer 1,000 acres of land for an insignificant horse or gun.
CHARACTER OF THE INHABITANTS.
Father Flaget, who arrived in Vincennes with Col. Clark, December 21, 1792, in speaking of the bad condition of the church, says the congregation was, if possible, in a more misera- ble condition than the church. "Out of nearly 700 souls, of whom it was composed, the minister could find but twelve to attend his spiritual duties, the inhabitants of Vincennes had lived so long among the Indians, with whom many had intermarried, that they had contracted many of their savage habits. Like them, they were erratic and improvident, living chiefly by the chase, and purchasing their clothing and other necessaries with peltries at the different trading posts." In a very humble petition to Con- gress in a letter dated Cahokia, May 16, 1790, Father Gibbault very humbly prays Congress to pay him the sum of 7,800 livres,
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$1,445, the amount of money he advanced Col. Clark to assist his men, and for which he was paid in Virginia paper dollars, which had never been redeemed, In consequence of his loss he was compelled to sell " two good slaves " who would have been the support of his old age. In reward for all his services Congress, on March 3, 1791, ordered, "That two lots of land, heretofore in the occupation of the priests of Cahokia, and situated near that village, be and the same is hereby granted in fee to P. Gibbault." It may be said in this connection that Col. Vigo received no bet- ter treatment, although he had become individually responsible for about $9,000. The first matter of recorded history taking place in the town was the record of the baptism of Marie Josette, daughter of Nicholas and Mary Clare Chaffard. She was bap- tized according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church July 2, 1747. On June 25, 1749, was recorded the baptism of John Baptiste, son of Peter Liapichagane and Catherine McKieve -- Francis Filatraux being godfather and Mary Mikitchenseire god- mother, and also there was recorded the marriage of Julien Trattier of Montreal, Canada, and Josette Marie, daughter of a Frenchman and an Indian woman, in April preceding, and in 1750 is recorded the death of Madame Trattier and her burial in the church "under her pew on the Gospel side." There is a con- tinuous record of marriages, baptisms or burials kept by the priests or by Philibert di/ Orleans, a notary public, who adminis- tered lay-baptism and recorded marriages during intervals when there were no priests. Previous to 1760 half of the records made were of "red or Indian slaves." The number of "red or Indian slaves " gradually grew less from that time, but did not cease till the beginning of what might properly be called the second period of its history, beginning with 1790. In 1781 there had been forty baptisms by Philibert, and in 1788 there had been fifty- three by Father Gibbault. From 1778 to the present the history of Vincennes is an open book. The following is claimed as the first official land entry that has been preserved:
" We Louis St. Ange, captain and commandant of the King at Port Vincennes, have granted to Marie Joseph Richard a cer- tain tract of land seven arpents front and forty arpents deep, sit- uate below the Little Rock, between two tracts not granted. The
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possession is granted in remembrance of the good services which he has rendered his Majesty in serving as Indian Interpreter of Monsieur Aubry.
" Signed at the Post, the 17th of June, 1759.
"ST. ANGE."
HISTORICAL PLACES.
Perhaps two of the most historical places are the old church and Fort Sackville. The former stood not far from the present site of the cathedral. It is described as being built of logs placed on end in the ground of sufficient depth to stand, and the spaces between the logs chinked and daubed with mud and prairie grass. The building was about 40x60 feet, with a thatched roof. It is proven by the records to have been there in 1747; the Hon. O. F. Baker thinks it must have been there as early as 1732. From the fact that the French had held possession of the place from thirty years earlier than that date, and that there had been a priest called before 1712, and from the well-known policy of the Catholics it would be no violent assumption to presume that it was built even earlier than the date fixed by Mr. Baker. In this knelt the pious priest, the early French settler, and his dusky com- panion, the Indian. Here too, Pierre Gibbault, in 1778, pictured the benefits of an alliance with the American cause, and adminis- tered the oath of that allegiance to the inhabitants. It was at "the church" that Col. Clark agreed to meet Mr. Hamilton to arrange terms of capitulation of Fort Sackville, on February 24, 1779. This old church was soon after supplanted by a new one, as Father Gibbault in a letter to his bishop, in May, 1785, says that a new log church had been built, 42x90 feet, and that the old church had been adapted for his use as a parsonage. This stood till 1828. The date of the erection of Fort Sackville is not known, and even its location is in doubt. Mr. A. B. McKee contends that old Fort Sackville stood between First Street and the bank of the Wabash, not far from Buntin Street, and supports his theory on personal recollections, conversations with Col. Vigo, Capt. Robert Buntin, and the testimony of T. C. Buntin, Mary A. Lyons, E. G. Binford, H. Lasselle, Adeline Wolverton and Mary Bailey.
Mr. O. F. Baker contends that the fort described by Mr. McKee was not Fort Sackville, but the first Fort Knox, which was built in
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1793. Mr. Baker supports his theory by quoting documentary evidence-Bowman's journal, as given in Dillon's History of In- diana, and also Volney, as given in his description of Vincennes. It is claimed by the first party named that the fort as located by the last named party was the second Fort Sackville, and that the first Fort Sackville was as described at first. Whether the one or the other was Fort Sackville, the one stood not far from the river, near the foot of Buntin Street, and the other partly on the block on which the Laplante House now stands, and was about twenty or thirty yards from the river, with the south angle near the center of the square above mentioned, and the gate at the southeast corner of the fort. The fort is described as an irregular inclosure, being about sixty feet at the narrowest place and 200 feet at the widest part, and containing from two to three acres. This was surrounded by a stockade from ten to twelve feet high, with block-houses at the corners or angles, as was usual in forts of that day. In the center was a block-house also, which served as quarters for the officers, and underneath this was the magazine. On the river side were the barracks for the men. Small pieces of ordnance were at times in use for the defense of the fort and garrison. Fort Sackville was named in honor of Jean Sacque- ville, a French trader and soldier, who was employed by the Detroit French Fur Company. It is claimed to have been built as early as 1713. As the Piankeshaw Indians lived here and owned the land, it must have been built on ground obtained from them, possibly from Tolac, their chief. A second fort was built in 1793, and owing to disturbances between the soldiers and citi- zens in 1807, this was abandoned, and Fort Knox, or the second Fort Knox, was built by order of Gen. Harrison. It was built from the walls of the old fort.
It was from these walls that the flag blessed by Priest Gib- bault and made by Madame Goddare was unfurled to the beeeze. In 1778 it was over the gate that Capt. Helm stood at his gun when Gov. Hamilton with 400 men a few months after demanded the surrender of the fort. The captain boldly demanded what terms would be granted; he was asked what he wanted and de- fiantly replied, "The honors of war."' Such was granted, and he and his companion surrendered. It was in front of the gate in the
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Main Street, says Maj. Bowman, that four Indians were toma- hawked and thrown into the river, these being the remnant of a scalping party of Indians who had been surprised and captured by Clark's men on their return to Vincennes, they not being aware of the change in masters of the place. It was from this fort that La Balm, in the fall of 1780, started with thirty men on his unfortunate filibustering expedition against Detroit. In 1783 there was a total of 150 French families, and in addition eighty American families, all of whom are mentioned elsewhere.
THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.
On Gen. Harrison's becoming governor of the Northwest Territory in ' 1800, Vincennes became the seat of govern- ment for said Territory, and to that place Gen. Harrison moved, that he might exercise his gubernatorial duties. An abbreviated description of Vincennes as it appeared in 1805, is condensed from Hon. O. F. Baker's description of it: "St. Louis Street be- gan at the governor's plantation (Hart Street) and extended along the river down to Stony Ford, there to meet Market Street, which came down in an irregular, narrow way from Benjamin Reed's at the corner of St. Peter (Seventh) and Chapel (Church) Street. St. Jerome (Perry changed about the time of Perry's victory on Lake Erie) began at St. Louis and extended by the frame Indian trading house of the Lasselle Brothers, and ended where stood the tavern of Fred Graeter, marked by the residence of Capt. Mass. A short street led from the ferry, foot of Main, to the store of Col. Vigo, corner of Second and Busseron, and a similar street from Main to St. Peter's, or Broadway, by the stores of Bazadon; all else was open commons. The little village in 1805 contained sixty-two dwellings, one church, five stores, one saddle shop, two blacksmith shops, four taverns, one ox-mill, one wind-mill, one wheel-wright. The pro- fessions were represented by three physicians and seven lawyers. The physicians were Drs. Kuykendall, McNamee and Samuel McKee. They were all men of note. The latter was a surgeon in the United States Army and died in 1809. The lawyers were Thomas Randolph, a near relative of President Jefferson ; Benja- min Parke, Henry Hurst, Gen. W. Johnson, John Rice Jones,
.
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John Johnson and Henry Vanderburg. Nearly all of these men were closely identified with the civil business and military history of Vincennes for the first half of the present century. Coming down St. Louis Street, upon the right hand stood the residence of Judge Benjamin Parke, a frame cottage standing near the cen- ter of the grounds of John Wise. In this Capt. Zachary Taylor lived for a time, and here a daughter was born, who afterward be- came the wife of Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Con- federacy. Few towns can boast of having been the home of two presidents, and the birth-place of the wife of a third. Upon each side of the street coming down St. Jerome, was the residence and wheelwright shop of John Blackford, and three or four poteaux au terre, or French houses, described as composed of timber stood on end and the space filled with mud mixed with straw. At the corner of St. Jerome stood a little abode house in which ' Nec-cau-bau,' or Hooded Nose, a Puan chief, used to live, if sleeping off a drunken stupor could be called life. Looking up St. Jerome Street, Lasselle's Indian trading house was indicated by a red flannel flag floating out in the street. Here were offered for sale blankets, knives, hatchets, flints, tomahawks, guns, beads, rings, broaches, bands, pots, pans, calico, flannel, salt, sugar and whisky. The three latter were in great demand among the In- dians. Sugar and whisky were sold to the negroes and Indians by measure, and by a custom well remembered by old settlers, the merchant was allowed to insert two fingers into the measure while filling for an Indian and three for a negro. At the head of St. Jerome Street stood Graeter's tavern, a two-story frame, with a long veranda in front; on the outside hung a large triangle, from the sound of which the guests were summoned to their meals."
A Philadelphian who spent the summer of 1807 at this tav- ern, drinking Madeira wine, in which Peruvian bark had been steeped, and eating bear meat, describes the bill of fare: "The bark was taken to ward off the ague, and the bear meat was the chief article of food." He says the thoughts of these sent a chill along his back and a bitter taste to his mouth. At the corner of St. Peter's and Second Streets were the stores of Laurient Baza- don. In his cellar or well, eighteen feet under ground, in the
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water, were stored many bottles of fine old wines, which the Span- ish filibusters of 1785, under John Rice Jones, conveyed into Sackville. Into this cellar a militia chief, in later years, was conveyed from general muster by his soldiers and left to snore off his potation, and was there kept a forgotten prisoner for two days. These houses were of hewed logs, two-stories high, the upper having port-holes for musketry, and projecting over the lower story after the manner of other block-houses, and were surrounded by pickets. There were also the houses of Col. Francis Vigo, which stood upon the lot now occupied by Green's Opera House. Back upon St. Louis, upon the two squares be- tween St. Jerome and St. Peter's, were three houses, one a two- story hewed-log house, painted red, another a long frame and the third a poteaux au ferre. In.1803 Capt. Walter Taylor's com- pany of rangers were quartered in these houses. The next upon St. Peter's was the residence of John Rice Jones, built in 1794. Across the street was the mansion of Col. Vigo, a two-story frame, surrounded by a veranda, painted white, with green solid shut- ters. The builder of this house received twenty guineas for completing it in time for its hospitable owner to tender it to Gen. Harrison upon his arrival in 1801. The immense parlor which the General accepted, though he declined to occupy any other portion of the house, was paved with diamond-shaped blocks of black walnut alternated by ash.
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