USA > Indiana > Knox County > Vincennes > History of Old Vincennes and Knox County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
The North Side Building and Loan Association, which was incorporated in 1905, with a capital of $100,000, has been instrumental in bringing about the rapid and substantial growth of the northern section of the city. Its present officers are Henry Schwartz, president ; Clement L. V. Tucker, secretary ; Win. C. Mason, treasurer. Directors-Henry Schwartz, John Wilhelm, Chas. Hamke, Albert E. Schory, Patrick J. Ryan, William C. Mason, William Bolk, John G. Frisz, August Evering and John Schumacher.
The Portland Building and Loan Association, organized in December, 1910, is also a "child" of the North Side. It is capitalized at $100,000, and is officered by the following named gentlemen: Ernest G. Meyer, presi- dent; E. C. Gilmore, vice president ; Aubrey Stillwell, secretary; H. A. Schmiedeskamp, treasurer; David H. Byers, attorney. Directors-E. C. Gilmore, Aubrey Stillwell, Guy L. Shepard, Jacob L. Riddle, Eugene Bow- ers, Thos. A. Dawson, H. A. Schmiedeskamp, D. II. Byers, Wm. H. Propes.
483
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY
In nearly all of the above named associations the dividends paid are at the rate of about seven per cent. per annum.
A RETROSPECTIVE GLANCE AT THE OLD POST.
O. F. Baker's description of Vincennes as the old town appeared in 1805-6, is given in an abbreviated form in the History of Knox County, published in 1886. Many of the buildings which were standing at the date last named have been supplanted by more modern structures. This fact, however, does not lessen the interest that attaches to the sketch of Mr. Baker, whose descriptive powers were always pleasing and impressive, as illustrated in the following extracts therefrom: *"St. Louis street began 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's (Seventh) and Chapel (Church) streets. 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 oft Capt. Mass. A short street led from the ferry, foot of Main, to the store of Col. Vigo, corner Second and Busseron, and a similar street from Main to St. Peter's, or Broadway, by the stores of Brazadon ; all else were 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 professions 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 ; Benjamin Parke, Henry Hurst, Gen. W. Johnson, John Rice Jones, John Johnson and Henry Vanderburg. Nearly all of these men were closely identified with the civil business of Vincennes for the first half of the nineteenth century. Coming down St. Louis street, upon the right hand stood the residence of Judge Benjamin Parke, a frame cottage standing near the center of the grounds of John Wise. In this Capt. Zachary Taylor lived for a time and here a daughter was born, who afterwards became the wife of Jefferson Davis. Upon each side of the street coming down St. Jerome, were the residence and wheel-wright shop of John Blackford, and three or four poteaux au terre, or French houses, described as composed of timhers stood on end and the space filled with mud mixed with straw. At the corner of St. Jerome stood a little adobe 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
*Goodspeed, History of Knox County, pp. 240, 241, 242, 243, 244.
tNow the residence of Andrew Tuite.
484
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY
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, hatchets, flints, tomahawks, guns, beads, rings, brooches, bands, pots, pans, calico, flannel, salt, sugar and whisky. The three latter were in great de- mand among the Indians. 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 stood Graeter's tavern, drinking Madeira wine, in which Peruvian bark had been steeped, 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 tavern, drinking Maderia 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 Brazadon. In his cellar, or well, eighteen feet under ground, in the water, were stored many bottles of fine old wines, which the Spanish fillibusters of 1785, under John Rice Jones, conveyed into Fort 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 (the Grand.) Back upon St. Louis, upon the two squares between 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 terre. In 1803 Capt. Walter Taylor's company 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 shutters. The builder of this house received twenty guineas for completing it in time for its hospitable owner to tender it to General Harrison upon his arrival in 1801. The immense parlor, which the general accepted, though he de- clined to occupy any other portion of the house, was paved with diamond- shaped blocks of black walnut alternated by ash. The remains of the ele- gant parlor were burned in 1856.
In the same block stood the two-story frame tavern of Peter Jones. Across the street, in a house poteaux au terre, were the stores of George Wallace and Toussiant Dubois, and a little gunshop of John Small, the pioneer gunsmith of Vincennes. Adjoining the Jefferson House was the tavern and residence of Antoine Marchall, and the fur house of Francis Busseron, and across the street lived Judge Vanderburg. 'At the corner
485
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY
of Main and St. Louis was Thorn's saddle shop and Bruner's seed and dye house. Across St. Louis street was Dunican's tavern, with a sign of a ferry boat, and back of it was a part of Sackville converted into a jail. Below Main was Barnet's tavern, at the sign of an Indian with bow and arrows. Then to the church was an open plain, upon which Fort Sackville stood, close to Block House Square. On the corner of Main and Second was the old residence of Antoine Gamelin, the French notaire, who held his com- mission from le grande monarch. The records of Gamelin and Pierre Quarez are still to be seen occasionally.
"At the corner of Third and Busseron stood the frame cottage residence of Antoine Drouet de Richardville, who was of royal descent, and some of whose descendants still live in the county. Near were the residences of John Johnson and Homer Johnson. Grouped about the church were the mud and straw-thatched cottages of the old French settlers. In the house on the south corner of Broadway was the place of the meeting of the first territorial legislature in 1801. A little later 1809, on the corner of Fourth and Buntin, stood the first court house, and on the separation of Illinois Territory from Indiana, Vincennes was made the dividing line, and that being so indefinite, the old court house, by common consent, was made the position of that line. At what was then the head of St. Louis street was the mansion and plantation of Gov. W. H. Harrison. This house is of brick, and is in a good state of preservation, although it was begun in 1805 and completed in 1806. It is said to have been the first house of burnt brick west of Chillicothe, or some say Pittsburgh. The doors, sash, mantels and stairs were made at the former place, but the brick were not shipped from Pittsburgh, as they were made a few miles east of town. The style, architecture and finish are creditable to this day. A considerable crack was made in the walls of this building in 1811, during a terrible earthquake that occurred. Here Governor Harrison entertained his numerous guests in royal style. It was here that Capt. Miller, who became famous at Lundy's Lane, by 'I'll try, sir,' was a guest at the time of the earthquake. Around the mansion, among the elms, catalpas, scarlet and stately oaks were the servants' halls and quarters.
"Where nature had not furnished trees sufficient, the same had been supplied by artificial means. Beneath the family room was a powder maga- zine .* It is said the General was determined, rather than fall in the hands of the savages, that he and his family would be blown into eternity by this means. Vincennes, in the year 1806, gave entertainment and grace to that wonderful genius but unscrupulous character, Aaron Burr, Here he col- lected a body of men, here he received financial aid and encouragement from many leading citizens. It is doubtless due their credit to say that they were deceived as to the true import of his designs, as was the unfortunate
. * This claim has been strongly contradicted by Dr. Smith and other historians.
486
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY
Blennerhassett. The expedition from this place, unlike Blennerhassett, never sailed, and Theodosia never became queen."
In speaking of Burr's presence in the Old Post at that time William Henry Smith, the eminent historian, says: "Among his (Burr's) friends at that time was General Wilkinson, commander-in-chief of the American Army in the West. He was then at St. Louis, and a correspondence opened with him. He suggested that Burr become a resident of Indiana Territory, and the congressional delegate. This did not suit Burr, as a delegate in congress from a territory could wield but little influence, and could not be elected speaker, but he took the matter into consideration, while Wilkin- son wrote to Governor Harrison on the subject. Benjamin Parke was then the delegate, but Wilkinson urged that Parke return to the position of At- torney-General and let Burr have the congressional place. The congres- sional delegate was elected by the legislature and not by the people. Under the law as it stood the delegate must be the owner of at least five hundred acres of land in the territory, and this estate Wilkinson offered to pur- chase for Burr, and so notified Harrison. Harrison and the leading men of the territory were Virginians, but were not ardent admirers of Jeffer- son. Wilkinson did not disclose to them that Burr was only seeking a place in congress that he might wield an influence to overthrow Jefferson, but based the whole matter on his anxiety to see Burr restored to a scene where his great talents could be made useful to the country. The proposi- tion met the approbation of Harrison and Burr was invited to visit Vin- cennes. This he willingly agreed to do, but his willingness arose from an entirely different cause than becoming a prospective citizen of Indiana. Most of the inhabitants of Vincennes were still French, and it was believed they were not warm in their attachment to the cause of the Union.
"A' few years before there had been a well defined plot among the people of Indiana and Kentucky to break off from the Union and unite with the Spanish provinces west of the Mississippi river. In this scheme Fran- cis Vigo had been very prominent. He still lived at Vincennes, and Burr's real object in visiting Vincennes was to meet him. An agent was authorized to look around for the necessary estate of 500 acres, and several had been selected to choose from. One was in the immediate neighborhood of Vincennes, and another was on the Ohio river, just above where Jeffersonville now stands. Burr with a single companion, a young gentleman who acted as his private secretary, left Louisville on horseback, and started over the old Buffalo Trace for Vincennes. He traveled in cog., calling himself Colonel Burnham. There were but few settlers between the Falls of the Ohio and Vincennes at that time, but Burr made it his business to meet with every one of them. He reached Vincennes and made his home with Vigo, to whom he no doubt . confided something of the scheme that had already taken possession of his mind. Whether he ever divulged any part of it to Governor Harrison is not known, but it is very doubtful. He did try to make him and others he
487
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY
met dissatisfied with the government, and frequently talked eloquently of what could be done in Texas and Mexico. At that time there was much dissatisfaction with Spain among the citizens of this part of the country, and it was confidently believed that war with that country would soon break out. In fact, it was openly said that General Wilkinson had been privately instructed to bring about such a war at the earliest opportunity. This con- dition of affairs made it easy for Burr to find willing listeners, and soon Vigo and others became his active agents. Nothing was said about a . severance of the West from the Union, but only of conquering Texas and taking it from Spain, and possibly of eventually wresting Mexico from the same hands. So much encouragement did Burr receive in the direc- tion of his Spanish project that he abandoned the idea of becoming a citi- zen of Indiana and of representing the territory in congress, but the negotiations looking toward the purchase of an estate were permitted to proceed. It is certain that most of the leading men of the territory, such as the Governor himself, Jones, Floyd, McIntosh, Johnson and Randolph, favored the design. Parke was willing to retire, and leave him an open field.
"Burr returned to Louisville, leaving the matter unsettled, but with a promise to let Vigo and others know of his determination within a few ? weeks. At Louisville he received urgent letters from Wilkinson on the subject, insisting that that was the best thing to do. What occurred after his leaving Vincennes is not known, but soon after the project was given up and negotiations for the purchase of an estate were abandoned, both Floyd and Vigo remained his earnest and active aids in trying to further the scheme against Mexico. Burr's ostensible object was to plant a large colony of Americans on the Washita, and that colony was to furnish the nucleus of the army that was to help overthrow the Spanish power in Texas.
"After leaving Vincennes Burr went on his way to the South, visiting Nashville and several other points, but the war cloud seemed to be blowing over. By this time the undefined rumors of Burr's real object were floating around, and he was arrested in Kentucky, but promptly acquitted. He once more turned his eyes to Indiana, and the negotiations for the purchase of an estate. Davis and Vigo met him at Louisville, and a number of young - men were recruited for the Washita expedition. Wilkinson was still urgent to close up the Indiana matter and have Burr sent to congress from the territory. Randolph, Jones and Harrison, however, had become lukewarm, from some cause, and Burr was notified that it would be impossible to elect him in the place of Parke. Burr did not abandon an outward effort, at least, to secure a residence in Indiana, and for some time talked about making his home in Clarksville. About this time Ralston became one of his active agents, and a number of young men were secured to take part in the expedition. Burr did not visit Vincennes again, but frequently visited some of his adherents in and around Jeffersonville, where he causcd sev-
488
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY
eral boats to be built. It was never established that any of his Indiana followers knew of his designs against the Spanish authority, either in Texas or Mexico, but the probabilities are that at least Floyd and Jones were privy to the whole scheme. Before the scheme was fully ripe, the authorities received information of it, and the militia at Jeffersonville seized the boats that had been built for Burr, and Floyd was arrested. Little or no evidence could be found against him, but a small fine was assessed, and he was sent to the county jail for a few hours. Davis was appointed some years later auditor of public accounts of the territory."
Despite the ordinance of 1787, and laws which were subsequently en- grafted into the first constitution of Indiana, slavery was in existence at Old Vincennes as late as 1840. Reference to the census of 1808 will disclose that one hundred and twenty-three slaves were among the chattels of resi- dents of the Old Post, while the village census of 1830 will show a slave population of twelve males and twenty-three females. During William Henry Harrison's reign as Governor, notwithstanding he was accredited with being an anti-slavery man, a retinue of slaves always attended him. The columns of the Western Sun, from 1808 to 1820, contains advertisements of owners through which rewards are offered for their runaway slaves. Con- tracts between indentured slaves and their masters constitute frequent en- tries on the public records made early in the nineteenth century. These agreements were permitted under the constitution by an act which practically legalized slavery, a crime which existing laws sought to abolish. While the contract was made for the liquidation of some real or fancied debt, and the consideration always being insignificant or trifling, the indentured slave gen- erally found himself bound to his master for a term encompassing the period of his natural life.
VINCENNES AS BOROUGII AND CITY.
There was really no civil government in Old Vincennes, except that which the commandants provided, prior to the advent of John Todd, who came here in June, 1779, acting under a law passed by the Legislature of Virginia, which gave him power as Commandant-in-Chief of the North- west Territory to establish civil and criminal courts and appoint civil magis- trates and military officials within said territory. These tribunals, how- ever, were not very stable institutions, and, according to Winthorp Sar- gent, who was sent out here by Governor St. Clair to organize Knox county, "cked out of existence in the summer of 1787."
With the completion of the county's organization, as has been shown in preceding chapters, the Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Common Pleas were instituted, and a probate judge appointed. The gov- ernment, however, established by St. Clair had its bearing on the whole of the territory as well as the town. The first town government, therefore, was not organized until 1805, when the first ordinances were passed.
489
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY
These ordinances, however, were not approved until 1807, and did not become effective until 1809, after publication in the Western Sun. The act providing for the incorporation of the town did not pass the Territorial Legislature until September 6, 1814, and was not approved until Feb- ruary 2, 1815. It embraced all that portion of ground within the bounds of Hart street on the northeast, Eleventh street on the southeast, Willow street on the southwest and the River St. Jerome ( Wabash) on the north- west, to be under the name and style of "the Borough of Vincennes." The lands outside of the boundaries mentioned above (exclusive of donations) were given to the borough of Vincennes by Congress, with the stipula- tion that the moneys arising from the sale thereof should be applied to drain the swamp east of town, and that any surplus funds left, after the cost of drainage was paid, should be placed in the University Fund. These com- mon lands aggregated 4,500 acres, and were sold in part for something like $24,224.69. Of this sum $15,500 was expended to defray the expense of drainage, the remainder of $8,724.69 was appropriated for town purposes, contrary to the act of Congress, the University getting nothing. The bat- ance of the lands if sold, were not accounted for up to 1870 .*
Originally land grants were executed by the commandants of the post to the earlier settlers, nearly all of whom subsequently failed "to read their titles clear." The prairie lands south of the city remained as they were before the town was laid out, and the ownership thereto was desig- nated by small slips of paper, which constituted the only form of deed held by the original purchasers, who did not make, as far as known, any other record of right or title thereto. Possession and occupancy were really all the claimants could show, for their proprietorship, as transfers of realty as well as personal property in town and on the lower prairies were made without any evidence of a documentary character. This method of ex- changing property, without the execution of written instruments, gave the commissioners appointed by the Federal government no small amount of trouble, as their sole reliance on the claims of the French people in nearly every case had to be based on verbal testimony. The village lots were un- numbered, and the only means of identification was through an indefinite description of lots of persons adjoining one another. The same condition of affairs existed in the Cathlinette prairies, adjoining each other, where the land owners had nothing to show for their right of title except a vague description set forth on small slips of paper, the contents of which had never been entered of record. All grants below the city, in what are known as the lower prairies (except the first granted to St. Francis Xavier's church, embracing four arpents) contain two arpents in front by forty ar- pents in depth-a French arpent being a fraction less than an English acre. The object in the division of lands on the lower prairies in narrow
*Extract from the Report of Col. C. M. Allen to the trustees of the Vincennes University, as chairman of committee .- H. M. Smith.
490
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY
strips was for the purpose of giving each proprietor a frontage on the Wabash river. Like the village lots, the grants in the prairies were not numbered, and, as stated, slips of paper were the only instruments denot- ing either original ownership or a transfer of property, until many subse- quent years, when deeds of transfer came into vogue. After the French had held for a score of years possession of these lands, the Federal gov- ernment, having previously acquired possession of the territory, surveyed and numbered the different parcels, which showed that the Cathlinette prai- rie contained eighteen tracts and the lower prairie fifty-two tracts. It was hard for the old French to get away from an established custom; and for years after the governmental survey and numbering had been made, the defective method of conveyance, with its attendant confusion and vexa- tions, was continued. The lands on the lower prairies while in the posses- sion of their original owners, were never enclosed. The respective pro- prietors cultivated the tract in its entirety as a common field. The ma- jority of them lived in town, as was the prevailing custom with the French Canadians, and went out each day to till the soil in a primitive fashion. Between each grant was provided space for a "turning row," which en- abled the adjoining neighbors to cultivate their respective portions without encroaching on the field of one another when making a turn with the teams. The lands of the lower prairies, and many of the lots on the South Side of the city, formerly known as "Frenchtown," were held as late as a half century ago by the descendants of the original purchasers. Nearly all of the Cathlinette farming lands, except immense tracts owned by William H. Brevoort, have since passed into the hands of strangers, many of whom came from Ohio. Much of the city property of the old French in the south section of town has been acquired by Belgians, who came here eight years ago with the Blackford Window Glass Company; and the old French houses have been supplanted by modern residences.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.