USA > Indiana > Miami County > History of Miami County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 11
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The battle lasted about an hour and resulted in a loss to Campbell's force of eight killed and forty-eight wounded. Of the wounded, two died within a few days and seventeen were carried in litters to Fort Green- ville. Fifteen Indians were found dead on the field and it was believed by Campbell that a number of dead and wounded had been carried away. One of Campbell's officers afterward reported 107 horses killed in the en- gagement. In his report, Campbell commended his men for their bravery during the battle and for their fortitude during the arduous march back to Fort Greenville. So many horses had been killed that many of the men had to make that march on foot and of those who reached Fort Green- ville over 300 were so badly frost-bitten that they were totally unfit for military duty.
Although this battle was fought in what is now Grant county, it is a part of Miami county history, because many of the Indians who partici- pated in the action resided in the latter county. Graham says that Francis and Louis Godfroy and Shepoconah were the leaders of the Indians in the battle, but an Indian tradition credits Little Thunder with being the commander. Meshingomesia, then about thirty years of age, so distin- guished himself in the fight that he was ever afterward honored by his tribe and on the death of his father was made chief.
Early in the summer of 1909 a movement was started in Grant county to set apart the Mississinewa battle ground as a national park. Some of the citizens of that county, headed by Major George W. Steele, Colonel George Lockwood and State Senator John T. Strange, called into con- ference a gentleman from Wabash county and Arthur L. Bodurtha, of Peru. Subsequently, through these representatives, a battle ground com- mittee, consisting of members from the three counties, was appointed. Mr. Bodurtha appointed as the Miami county members of this committee Charles A. Cole, Albert C. Bearss, Rawley H. Bouslog, Henry Meinhardt and Walter C. Bailey. The committee made arrangements for a meeting to be held on the battle ground on Sunday, August 29, 1909. In the prepa- rations for the picnic Omer Holman, of the Peru Republican, took an active part and was secretary of the Miami county delegation. It was es- timated that from ten thousand to twenty thousand people were at the meeting, which was presided over by Major George W. Steele, governor
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of the Marion branch of the National Soldiers' Home, and Arthur L. Bodurtha was the principal speaker of the day. Short addresses were also made by Congressman George W. Rauch; Nelson G. Hunter, of Wabash ; Judge R. T. St. John, of Marion; Mayor Joseph Murphy, of Wabash; Henry S. Bailey and Albert H. Cole, of Peru, and one or two others, and Gabriel Godfroy spoke in the Miami language.
At the close of the exercises on motion of Walter C. Bailey, of Peru, a permanent Battleground Memorial Association was organized with Major George W. Steele as president; John T. Strange, of Grant county, Dr. P. G. Moore, of Wabash, and A. N. Dukes, of Miami, vice-presidents ; Arthur L. Bodurtha, secretary ; Thomas R. Brady, of Wabash, treasurer.
Senator Strange afterward succeeded in securing the passage of an act by the Indiana legislature, entitled "An act to perpetuate battle- grounds and other historic sites." This act, which was approved by the governor on March 6, 1911, provides, "That the common council of any city, the board of trustees of any incorporated town, or any incorpora- tion, organized as a voluntary association of this state and not for profit, shall have the power and are hereby authorized to acquire, and to have and hold, battle grounds or other historic sites for the purpose of main- taining and preserving or improving the same for historical purposes. That the acquisition of any such property is hereby declared to be for the public use, and title to the same may be taken under the power of eminent domain. That all such property so acquired and preserved shall not be liable to taxation, but the same shall be entirely exempt therefrom."
The association was incorporated on March 1, 1912, and was en- larged to include the counties of Grant, Howard, Miami, Wabash, Hunt- ington, Cass and Blackford. In 1913 the officers of the association were as follows : J. Wood Wilson, president, Major Steele having declined to serve longer on account of his official duties as governor of the Soldiers' Home; Walter C. Bailey, vice-president; Beshore, secretary ; and a board of directors consisting of one from each county, to wit: Charles A. Cole, Miami; Conrad Wolf, Howard; John T. Strange, Grant; Israel Heaston, Huntington, who is also the treasurer; E. E. Cox, Blackford; Frederick King, Wabash; Dr. J. Z. Powell, Cass. So far nothing has been done in the way of establishing a park, but the aim of the associa- tion is to acquire, by purchase or the exercise of the power of eminent domain, a tract of fifty acres, including the place where the battle was fought and the grove lying between it and the Mississinewa, and set it apart as a reservation, that the valor of Colonel Campbell and his men may not be forgotten, and the historic importance of the battle they fought there in the winter of 1812 may be preserved to future generations. The eight men killed in the battle were buried on the field and the asso-
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ciation made an effort to find out the exact location of their graves, that a monument might be erected upon the spot. Many of the Indians knew the location of the graves, but they have steadfastly refused to give the information to the white people. At the picnic was a Mrs. Winter, an old half-breed woman, who admitted that she knew where the men are buried, but as she had been pledged to secrecy by Meshingomesia, no persuasion would induce her to break that pledge.
The memorial of December, 1811, praying for admission into the union as a state, having failed to accomplish its purpose, a second one was addressed to congress by the people of Indiana Territory on Decem- ber 14, 1815. This time their efforts were crowned with success. A bill providing for the admission of Indiana to statehood was signed by Presi- dent Madison on April 19, 1816. At that time there were but thirteen organized counties in Indiana and the greater part of the land, including Miami county, was still in the hands of the Indians. On May 13, 1816, delegates to a constitutional convention were elected from the thirteen counties ; the convention assembled at Cordydon, the territorial capital, on June 10, 1816, and completed its work on the 29th of the same month. The first election of state officers was on August 1, 1816; the legislature then chosen met on November 4th; Governor Jonathan Jennings was inaugurated three days later, and on December 11, 1816, congress, by joint resolution, approved the admission of the new state.
When the Territory of Indiana was established in 1800 the seat of government was located at Vincennes and remained there until on March 11, 1813, the legislature passed an act providing that "from and after the first day of May next, the seat of government of this territory shall be located at Corydon, Harrison county." By the act of January 11, 1820, ten commissioners were appointed by the legislature to "select and locate a tract of land, not exceeding four sections, for a permanent capital." The commissioners, after visiting several proposed localities, selected the site on the west fork of the White river, where the city of Indianapolis now stands. The selection of this site was confirmed by the legislature on January 6, 1821, but the seat of government was not removed from Corydon until January, 1825. The establishment of the seat of government so near the geographical center of the state wielded an influence upon the settlement of central and northern Indiana and hastened the negotiation of the Indian treaties described in Chapter III of this work.
CHAPTER VI
SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
EARLY EXPLORERS AND , MISSIONARIES -- INDIAN TRADERS-JOHN MCGRE. GOR-FIRST ACTUAL SETTLERS-THE EWINGS-PIONEER LIFE AND CUSTOMS-AMUSEMENTS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS-A BEAR STORY- LEGISLATION CONCERNING MIAMI COUNTY-ORGANIZED IN 1834-FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS-LOCATION OF THE COUNTY SEAT-FIRST JURORS- FIRST COUNTY ELECTION-COURTHOUSES AND JAIL BUILDINGS.
Long before any permanent settlements were made in what is now Miami county, the Wabash valley was visited by white men. French explorers and missionaries, in the closing years of the seventeenth cen- tury, when France held dominion over all the Mississippi valley, told in their letters and journals of the Maumee and Wabash rivers, along which they predicted would be found the principal route of communi- cation between the French settlements about the Great Lakes and the Father of Waters. Among those who referred to the Maumee and Wabash rivers in their communications to the French authorities at Quebec were Father Hennepin, La Salle, and the missionaries Allouez and Dablon. Some of the first persons to visit the Wabash valley were Drouet de Richardville, Jacques Godfroy, Hyacinth La Salle, who was the first white child born at Fort Wayne, Captain Wells, who was killed in the massacre at Fort Dearborn, and Joseph Barron. The last named acted as interpreter in the negotiations of several of the early treaties with the Indians and was General Harrison's messenger to the Shawnee prophet in 1810, before the battle of Tippecanoe, to warn him against making further efforts to incite the Indians to hostility.
Following the first explorers came the Indian traders, who estab- lished posts at several places along the Wabash. As a rule, the trader made no effort to establish a permanent settlement, or to attract a colony to his post. Their pirogues-large canoes dug out of logs-went up and down the river, carrying such goods as flour, bacon, whisky, trinkets and other goods to exchange with the Indians for their furs.
On October 18, 1822, Lambert Cauchois, agent for "Francis God- froy, merchant of the Mississinewa," entered into a contract with Jean
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Baptiste Chevalier to build "for the said Godfroy a two-story house, 20 by 25 feet, with four twelve-light windows in each story." For this house, which was to be of logs, the contractor was to receive $200 and the use of a yoke of oxen to haul the logs. It was stipulated in the agreement that the building was to be completed by June 18, 1823, in which year one-half of the contract price was to be paid at the time of Indian payment, and the remainder at the time of the payment of the annuities in 1824. The house was located on the Mississinewa river, some distance from the Wabash, and was used by Godfroy as a trading post. He did not remove from his reservation on the Salamonie river until after the treaty of 1826, when he took up his residence at his trading house, where a small settlement had grown up in the meantime. A few years later he formed a partnership with L. B. Bertheld, under the firm name of Godfroy & Bertheld, and this firm conducted a trading house on Canal street in Peru until after the treaty of 1838. The trad- ing house of Francis Godfroy and its successor-Godfroy & Bertheld- was one of the pioneer concerns of this character in Miami county.
By the treaty of October 23, 1826, Chief Richardville was granted several sections of land, one of which was situated on the north side of the Wabash river, where the original plat of the city of Peru was subse- quently laid out. In February, 1827, John McGregor built a log cabin on the western part of Richardville's section and is credited by some historians with having been the first actual white settler in Miami county. On August 18, 1827, Richardville sold the entire section to Joseph Holman for $500.
A little later in the same year Samuel McClure established a trading post on the Wabash river in what is now the southwestern part of Erie township, but he made no attempt to establish any permanent improvements of any kind, devoting his time and energies exclusively to carrying on a profitable and successful traffic with the natives.
In the spring of 1828 James Oldham removed from the Salamonie river to the reservation of Louis Godfroy, five miles below Peru on the north side of the Wabash, where he was joined later in the year by a Captain Drouillard and his son, Louis Drouillard. A few years later the last named removed to Peru, where he engaged in the grocery busi- ness and also operated a ferry across the Wabash river.
On January 7, 1829, Joseph Holman sold 210 acres of the section bought from Richardville to William N. Hood. (For a full account of this transaction and the founding of Peru see Chapter IX.) In this same year John W. Miller came from Preble county, Ohio, and settled on Louis Godfroy's reservation, near James Oldham, and his son, George Miller, who was born there in March, 1832, was one of the first white
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children born in the county. By the close of the year Benjamin H. Scott, Andrew Marquiss, Abner Overman, Zephaniah Wade, Walter D. Nesbit, Isaac Marquiss and a few others settled near John McGregor's cabin on the Holman tract. Benjamin H. Scott afterward became the first county clerk of Miami county.
In 1831 Solomon Wilkinson settled in what is now Jefferson town- ship, where he was joined during the next twelve months by William Connor, John and William Smith, Alexander Jameson, and perhaps one or two others. During the years 1832 and 1833 Eli Cook, William Bane, John Hoover and a few others settled in Jefferson township, James Malcolm in Perry, and there were a few additions to the settle- ment where Peru now stands.
There were but few attempts to establish permanent settlements in the county until after the location of the Wabash & Erie canal. These few were mostly the little hamlets that grew up around the trading posts and the inhabitants were more interested in trading with the Indians than in developing the resources of the country. One of the most promi- nent trading firms was that of William G. & George W. Ewing, whose headquarters were at Fort Wayne. About 1829 they established a trad- ing post at Logansport, where George W. lived with his mother for sev- eral years. He was living there in 1835, when he discovered the identity of Frances Slocum, as narrated in another chapter, but a few years later the establishment at Logansport was closed and he removed to Peru. Here the firm opened a trading house at the corner of Second and Broadway streets, where they fenced in a large lot, in which the Indians could keep their ponies when they came to do their "shopping." The Ewings were interested in trading posts all over the country. They were men of more than ordinary foresight and business sagacity and seemed to have a sort of intuition in selecting sites for their trading posts at places where large cities afterward grew up. Their post at Westport (now Kansas City), Missouri, was for several years a great outfitting point for emigrants bound to the far West. William G. Ewing married Esther Bearss, a sister of Daniel R. Bearss, one of the early business men of Peru. One of their trading houses was at St. Paul, Minnesota, before there was any city there, but in a letter to Mr. Bearss, William G. Ewing expressed the opinion that some day there would be a great commercial center at that point, giving his reasons for such belief. The subsequent growth of the twin cities-St. Paul and Minneapolis- has fully justified his prediction. He died of cholera while making a tour of the firm's trading stations along the shores of Lake Superior.
George W. Ewing, usually called "Wash" Ewing, was for a number of years intimately connected with the business interests of Peru and the
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political affairs of Miami county. Old settlers remember him as "a prince of good fellows," commanding in appearance and of superior intellectual attainments. In 1836, while still living at Logansport, he was elected state senator to represent the district composed of the counties of Cass, Miami and Fulton. When his mother died at Peru he procured for her remains a coffin covered with black broadcloth, the first of the kind ever seen there, and some people looked upon it as "an unwarranted piece of extravagance." Some time after the death of his mother Mr. Ewing took up his residence in Fort Wayne, where he passed the closing years of his long and active career. He belonged to that class of which it has been said: "In every age some men have carried the torch of progress; had it not been for them we would be naked and uncivilized today."
People of the present generation can hardly understand or appreci- ate the toil and hardships of the men who boldly marched into the wilderness, robbed it of its terrors and paved the way for the comforts and luxuries of our modern civilization. One of the first necessities of the immigrant was to provide shelter for himself and family. This shelter was almost invariably a log cabin, rarely exceeding sixteen by twenty feet in size, generally of but one room, which was living room, dining room, bed room and kitchen, though in warm weather the cooking was sometimes done out of doors. When several families came at the same time to a new country, one cabin was built, in which all would live together until others could be erected. Money was practically unknown on the frontier and hired labor was seldom depended on for assistance in establishing a home and clearing a farm. To overcome this condition the settlers would "swap work" by helping each other to do those things that one man could not well do by himself. Hence, when a settler wanted to build a cabin he would cut his logs, drag them to the site selected, and then invite his neighbors to the "raising."
The house-raising was a social as well as an industrial event. While the men were engaged in the erection of the new dwelling, the "women folks" would gather to prepare dinner, each one bringing from her own store such articles of food as she thought others might not be able to supply. If the weather was fair the dinner would be served out of doors, upon an improvised table under the shade of the trees; but if too cold for that, it would be served at the cabin of the nearest settler. And that dinner! While it boasted no terrapin nor canvas-back duck, no foreign wines or delicacies with high-sounding names, it consisted of wholesome, nutritious food, with appetite as the principal sauce, and was always accompanied by mirth and good-natured badinage.
When the men were assembled at the place four of their number were
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selected to "carry up the corners." These men, skilled in the use of the ax, would take their positions at the four corners of the cabin and as the logs were pushed up to them on poles or "skids," would shape a "saddle" upon the top of one log and then cut a notch in the under side of the next to fit upon the saddle. The man who could "carry up a corner," keeping the walls fairly plumb by his eyes alone, was consid- ered an artist. At the time the cabin was raised no openings were left for the doors and windows, these being sawed or chopped out after the walls were up. An opening would also be made at one end for a fire- place, which was usually wide enough to take in sticks of wood four or five feet long. If stone was convenient, a stone chimney would be built outside the cabin, but in many instances the chimney would be con- structed of sticks and clay.
The roof of the cabin was made of oak clapboards, split or rived out with an instrument called a frow, and were usually three or four feet long. Nails, and in fact hardware of all kinds, were scarce and not infrequently the cabin would be finished without a single piece of iron being used in its construction. The clapboards on the roof would be held in place by poles running lengthwise of the cabin and fastened to the logs at each end by wooden pins ; the door would be made of boards fastened to the cross battens with wooden pins, provided with wooden hinges and a wooden latch, which could be lifted from the outside by pulling a thong of deerskin that passed through the door. At night the string was drawn inside and the door was locked. This custom gave rise to the expression "the latch-string is always out," signifying that the visitor would be welcome at any time.
Many pioneer cabins had no floor except "mother earth." Others were provided with a puncheon floor. The puncheons were slabs of tim- ber, split as nearly the same thickness as possible, and after the floor was laid the surface would be smoothed with an adz. Lumber was not only a luxury, but it was also hard to obtain. In many of the frontier settlements the first lumber was made with a whip-saw. By this method the log, which was first hewn on two sides with a broad-ax, would be placed upon a scaffold high enough to permit a man to stand upright beneath it. The scaffold was nearly always constructed on a hillside, so that the log could be rolled or slid upon it from above. On the upper surface of the log lines would be stricken showing the thickness of the boards. One man would then take his place on the top of the log to guide the saw by the lines and to pull it upward, while the other would stand below to pull the saw downward, giving it the cutting stroke. It was a slow and tedious process, but it was the one in use in many localities until some enterprising citizen would build a sawmill.
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As matches were rarely to be seen in the pioneer settlements, the fire in the great fireplace would not be allowed to become extinguished. If such an unfortunate event should occur, some member of the family would be sent to the nearest neighbor's to secure a burning brand or a shovelful of coals to replenish the supply. During the fall and win- ter evenings the light of the open fire was often the only light in the cabin. In warm weather, when a fire in the cabin would be uncom- fortable, light would be supplied by partially filling a shallow dish with bear's grease, in which was immersed a piece of rag wick, one end of which would project over the edge of the dish. The projecting end was then lighted, and, while this primitive lamp emitted both smoke and the odor of burning grease, it afforded the housewife sufficient light to attend to her duties. Later came the "tallow dip," which was made by dipping a loosely-twisted cotton wick in melted tallow, repeat- ing the operation until a sufficient amount of tallow adhered to the wick to make it stand upright, when it would be placed in a candle- stick. It was an improvement over the bear's grease lainp, but in time it was succeeded by the molded candle. The candle molds of tin usually consisted of six or eight tubes, each the size and shape of a candle, soldered together. Through the center of each tube would be drawn a cotton wick, then molten tallow would be poured in until the molds were filled, when the whole would be set in a cool place for the tallow to harden. Sometimes there would be but one set of candle molds in a settlement and they passed from house to house.
Very little factory made furniture ever found its way to the frontier, so the pioneer furnished his cabin with furniture of his own manu- facture. A few clapboards, smoothed with the draw-knife, were sup- ported on pins driven into holes bored in the cabin walls to form shelves for the dishes. If the family could afford it, this home-made "china closet" would be provided with a curtain of cotton cloth, but in many instances the curtain was lacking. Tables were formed by nailing or pinning a few whip-sawed boards or clapboards to battens and the top thus formed would be supported on trestles. When not in use the top could be stood on edge against the wall and the trestles stacked in one corner, in order to make more room in the cabin. Benches or stools made of puncheons took the place of chairs. These were supported on pins driven into holes bored with a larger auger, at an angle that would permit the legs to flare outward, thus giving the bench or stool greater stability. Two hooks fastened to the wall supported the long barreled rifle, from the muzzle of which hung the bullet pouch and powder horn, while from the corners of the cabin dangled bunches of boneset, penny-
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royal and other herbs, with which the mother treated the ordinary ail- ments of childhood without the expense of summoning a physician.
The meals for the family were cooked at the fireplace, a long-handled skillet, with an iron lid, and an iron kettle being the principal cooking utensils. The former was used for frying meats and baking bread and the latter was used in the preparation of the "boiled dinner." Game was plentiful when the first white men located in the Wabash valley, and, as almost every pioneer was an expert in the use of the rifle, the forest was depended on to furnish the meat supply. With breadstuffs it was different. Settlers were often compelled to go for miles to some mill run by water power, or improvise some method of converting the corn into meal at home. In the fall, before the grains of corn became too hard, the grater was used. This was an instrument made by punch- ing a number of small holes through a sheet of tin and then fastening the edges of the sheet to a board so the rough side of the tin would be outward and somewhat curved. Over the rough surface the ears of corn would be rubbed back and forth, the meal passing through the holes in the tin and sliding down the board into a pan. Often a mortar would be made by burning a depression in the top of a stump near the cabin, then cleaning out the charred wood, and in this mortar the corn or other grain would be crushed with a pestle of hard wood. Some- times the grain would be rubbed between two flat stones until it was reduced to proper consistency for making bread. Some people of the present day would probably "turn up their noses" were such bread placed before them, but the pioneers ate it, enjoyed it and thrived on it.
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