USA > Indiana > Vermillion County > History of Parke and Vermillion Counties, Indiana : with historical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 4
USA > Indiana > Parke County > History of Parke and Vermillion Counties, Indiana : with historical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 4
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Father Hennepin continues : "Our three men, carrying the calumet and being well armed, went to the little village about three leagues from the place we had landed; they found no one at home, for the inhabitants, having heard that we refused to land at the other village, supposed we were enemies and had abandoned their habitations. In their absence our men took some of their corn, and left instead some goods, to let them know we were neither enemies nor robbers. Twenty of the inhabitants of this village came to our encampment on the beach, armed with axes, small guns, bows, and a sort of a club, which in their language, means a head-breaker. La Salle, with four well-armed men, advanced toward them for the purpose of opening a con- versation. He requested them to come near us, saying he had a party of hunters out who might come across them and take their lives. They came forward and took seats at the foot of an eminence, where we were en- camped, and La Salle amused them with the relation of his voyage, which he informed them he had undertaken for their advantage and thus occupied their time until the arrival of the three men who had been sent out with the calumet, on seeing which the savages gave a great shout, arose to their feet and danced about. We excused our men from having taken some of their corn, and informed them that we had left its true value in goods ; they were so well pleased with this that they immediately sent for more corn, and on the next day they made us a gift of as much as we could conveniently carry in our canoes.
"The next morning the old men of the tribe came to us with their calu- met of peace, and entertained us with a free offering of wild goats, which their own hunters had taken. In return, we presented them with our thanks, accompanied with some axes, knives, and several little toys for their wives, with all which they were very much pleased. We left this place the following morning and soon encountered a four-days storm.
"November Ist we again embarked on the lake and came to the mouth of the Miamis, which comes from the southeast and falls into the lake."
La Salle and his party entered Kaskaska village, near Peoria lake, April 8, 1677. The Indians gave him hearty welcome and flocked from all direc- tions to the town to hear the "Black Gown" relate the truths of Christianity. December 3. 1679, the explorers embarked, being in all thirty-three men and eight canoes. They left the lake of Illinois and went up the river of the Miamis, which they had before made soundings of. Hennepin says: "We made about five and twenty leagues southward, but failed to discover the place where we were to land, and carry our canoes and effects into the river
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of Illinois, which falls into that of the Mississippi. We had already gone be- yond the portage, and, not knowing where we were, we thought proper to remain there, as we were expecting M. La Salle, who had taken to the land to view the country. He was lost for a time, but finally came to the rest of his company."
La Salle then rebuilt Fort Miamis and finally abandoned his voyage down the Mississippi by sailing boats and concluded to go by ordinary wooden pirogues or canoes. Tonti was sent forward to Chicago creek, where he constructed a number of sledges. After other preparations had been made, La Salle and his party left St. Joseph, came around the lake, and placed their effects in sledges. His party consisted of twenty-three French- men and eighteen Indians. The savages took with them ten squaws and three children, making in all fifty-four persons. They had to make the port- age of the Chicago river. After dragging their canoes, sledges, baggage and provisions, about eighty leagues over the ice, on the Desplaines and Illinois rivers, they came to an old Indian town. The expedition continued down, as fast as weather would permit, to the Mississippi. Bearing down that wonder- ful stream, they finally, on April 6th, came to the place into where the river begins to divide into several channels and empty into the gulf of Mexico. La Salle, in a canoe, coasted the borders of the sea, and then the parties assem- bled on a dry spot of ground, not far from the mouth of the river. On April 9th, with all the pomp and ceremony of the Holy Catholic church, La Salle, in the name of the King of France, took possession of the Mississippi and all its tributaries. The entire party, civilized and savage, present with the expedition fired their guns and shouted, "Vive le Rio." La Salle planted the column, at the same time proclaiming, in a loud voice, "In the name of the Most High, Mighty, Invincible and Victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace of God, King of France and of Navarre, fourteenth of that name, I, this ninth day of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty-two, in vir- tue of the commission of his Majesty and his successors to the crown, take possession of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, adja- cent straits, and all the people, nations, provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers within the extent of the said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise called Ohio, as also along the river Colbert, or Mississippi, and the rivers that discharge them- selves therein from its source beyond the country of the Sioux, as far as its mouth at the sea, and also to the mouth of the river Palms, upon the assur- ance we have had from the natives of these countries that we were the first
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Europeans who have descended or ascended the river Colbert ( Mississippi) ; hereby protesting against all who may hereafter undertake to invade any or all of these aforesaid countries, peoples or lands, to the prejudice of His Ma- jesty, acquired by the consent of the nations dwelling herein. Of which, and of all else that is needful, I hereby take to witness those who hear me, and demand an act of the notary here present."
At the foot of the tree to which the cross was attached La Salle caused to be buried a leaden plate, on the one side of which were engraven the arms of France, and on the opposite, the following Latin inscription :
"Louis the Great reigns. Robert Cavalier, with Lord Tonti as lieutenant, R. P. Zenobe Membre, Recollect, and twenty-two Frenchmen, first navi- gated this stream from the country of the Illinois, and also passed through its mouth, on the 9th of April, 1682."
Thus was completed the discovery and taking possession of the Missis- sippi valley, and France became the rightful owner of all that section of the country known as such now, including the states of Illinois and Indiana-in fact all that country bounded on the east by the Alleghanies and extending west to the Rocky mountains. Had France, with the same energy she pur- sued in discovering Louisiana, retained her grasp upon this territory, the dominant race in the valley of the Mississippi would have been Gallic instead of Anglo-Saxon.
From this period until 1698 the French made no further attempts to colonize the lower Mississippi. They had no settlements below the Ohio. and above the Illinois river and in the lake regions they had only a chain of forts or posts. The next move on the part of France was to grant to Crozat in September, 1712, a monopoly on all the domain above described. This grant was by Louis XIV, and Crozat failed after three years and, about 1717, surrendered his grant back to the King of France and the same year the King turned the possessions all over to "The Mississippi Company," later styled the "Company of the Indies." The head of this company was Jolin Law, a famous Scotch banker, a regular "get-rich-quick" style of a man. By this company, however signally it finally failed, it did colonize and till the soil and erect forts and trading posts. It had its day and in 1731 the Indies Com- pany surrendered to France, Louisiana, with its forts, plantations, colonies, etc., and from this time forward to the conquest of Great Britain the domain was governed by French appointed officers. France held possession to the country in question until the Revolutionary struggle, which involved the colonies and France, as well as the supposed right of Indian tribes. After
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hostilities had ceased between Great Britain and America, though the treaty of Paris was not concluded until February, 1783, the most essential parts of which are contained in the following extracts :
"In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the lines of the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America, it is agreed that for the future the confines between the dominions of his Brittanic Ma- jesty and those of His Most Christian Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mis- sissippi from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of the river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea; and for this purpose the most Christian King cedes in full right, and guarantees to his Brittanic Majesty the river and port of Mobile, and every- thing which he possesses, or ought to possess, on the left side of the Missis- sippi, with the exception of the town of New Orleans and of the island on which it is situated it being well understood that the navigation of the Mis- sissippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole length and breadth, from its source to the sea."
With the termination of the Revolution, and the success of the American colonies, England had to yield its claim on this territory, and emigration com- menced pouring into the Northwest Territory, until it had become large enough in population to be divided into smaller territories. The act of Con- gress of the United States making such first division was dated May 7, 1800, and this subdivision included what is now the state of Indiana.
FORMATION OF COUNTIES.
In 1828 the general government purchased the "ten. mile strip" along the northern end of the state, and in 1832 extinguished the remaining claims of the Indians, save the numerous reservations in the northern part. In 1835 the greater part of the natives were removed west of the Mississippi, and in 1840 all save a few had emigrated from special reservations. As the state was thus left free for settlement, the surveyor pioneered the advancing civi- lization, and counties were rapidly organized in response to the growing de- mand of the increasing population. The tide of immigration came princi- pally from the South at first, and later from the East, the organization of counties giving a pretty clear indication of the nature of this development. At the organization of the state government, fifteen counties had been formed, and others were organized as follows: 1817, Daviess, Pike. Jennings, Sul-
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livan; 1818, Crawford, Dubois, Lawrence, Monroe, Randolph, Ripley, Spen- cer, Vanderburg, Vigo; 1819, Fayette, Parke, Union; 1822, Decatur, Marion, Morgan, Putnam, Rush, Shelby; 1823, Hamilton, Johnson, Madison, Mont- gomery ; 1824, Allen, Hendricks, Vermillion; 1825, Clay; 1826, Delaware, Fountain, Tippecanoe; 1828, Carroll, Hancock, Warren; 1829, Cass; 1830, Boone, Clinton, Elkhart, St. Joseph; 1831, Grant ; 1832, LaGrange, LaPorte; 1834, Huntington, White; 1835, Miami, Wabash; 1836, Adams, Brown, DeKalb, Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall, Noble, Porter; 1837, Blackford, Lake, Steuben, Wells, Jay; 1838, Jasper ; 1840, Benton ; 1842, Whitley ; 1844, Howard, Ohio, Tipton ; 1850, Starke; 1859, Newton.
CHAPTER II.
INDIAN OCCUPANCY AND HARRISON'S TRAIL.
At least two races of men had inhabited Parke and adjoining counties prior to the advent of white men-the red-brown savages we style Indians, and the other, that mysterious type of men and women generally called Mound Builders, and of whom we know but little, save the fact that they preceded the red man and left great memorials in the shape of mounds, in which in many instances are found tools and implements of quite a high type of civilization, much higher than those found among the Indian people when white men first visited this section. Parke county, however, was not so favorite a spot for the abiding place of this first race as was the country along the Wabash and other streams, and in Vermillion county these numerous mounds stand out as bold and impressive works of a people long since passed into death and oblivion. They were certainly a part of the great creation of man, but as to their manner of life, their aspirations and achievements and how they became extinct, not the slightest positive record has been left by them. However, those who have spent a lifetime in research claim that all evidence points to the fact that they originally came here from the far south, possibly Central America ; that they were at least half civilized. and, following up the streams, built well fortified towns along them and tilled the terraced lands and "second bottoms:" that they finally became involved in a great war with the natives of this north land, and that the last of them left the Ohio and Mississippi valleys more than a thousand years ago. Certain it is that time enough has elapsed since their exodus for trees to grow up through the mounds they made and which are now more than four feet in diameter. Copper implements unknown to Indian life and industry are now and then unearthed by those in search of such relics. The next race to possess the territory included in Parke county was the North American Indian, six tribes at least of which at one time or another dwelt here. Their uniform course has been from north to south, rolling wave on wave, each invasion driving its predecessors before it, and all originating in the common center of the great Northwest. The Athabasca basin appears to be the great "northern hive" from which many Indian tribes have swarmed. So far as
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our knowledge goes the Illini tribe were driven away by the Huron-Iroquois, and tradition tells us that desperate battles ensued between these tribes along Sugar creek and the river Wabash. Next in turn, came the great nation known as the Wabash, or the Miamis. The French first met this tribe in northern Towa: thence they came, generation after generation farther south, driving other nations before them; and as they came they divided themselves into three bands, the Weas, Miamis and Piankeshaws. The latter crossed the Wabash early in the eighteenth century and had possession on both sides from Tippecanoe to the Ohio. These may rightfully be styled our aborigines, for they and the original Miamis were the dominant tribe when the white race came here to remain. To these Indians came the French traders and missionaries even prior to 1700; posts were established, and it was not long before a mixed race arose known as the Franco-Miamis, and this was long before a word of English had ever been heard west of the Scioto. These Piankeshaws in 1705-12 had a village on Sugar creek, the stream by them called Pun-go-se-co-ne ("Water of many sugar trees"), and to that village came a young Frenchman quite early in that century, an account of which was published in 1718 by the Catholic church.
Next came the bloodthirsty Pottawatomies, which tribe originated in the wooded wilderness of the Lake Huron district, and who by successive struggles against other tribes finally succeeded, in 1790, in reaching the lower Wabash. The Miamis yielded them a share of their country, rather than engage in a war of extermination. Pushed on by the Sioux nation, the Kickapoos swept down from the north and in 1796 had a village north of the Vermillion, and in the early days were numerous on this side of the Wabash, though generally believed by pioneers to have been merely squatters among the Miamis. Next came the Shawnees, who were driven from Lake Erie by the Iroquois and fought their way by slow process to the bend of the Tennessee ; thence, in turn, they were driven by the Cherokees, when they moved southeast and settled in Florida. After one generation, they again started northward, in various bands; the main one appealed to the Miamis for succor, was received by them, and soon after was permanently incor- porated among the Indians of the Wabash. Shawnee creek and Prairie creek, in Fountain county, indicate one of their strongholds, but they are really known best to the whites from having produced the noted warrior Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet. In all the negotiations with Governor Harrison, preceding the famous battle of Tippecanoe, all the other Indians insisted that the Shawnees were only squatters here and had no equal rights or title to
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lands here; and to this fact, perhaps, is due the strangely conglomerate char- acter of Tecumseh's confederacy.
The Delawares were first found by the whites on Delaware bay, where they called themselves Lenni-Lennape, or "original men," but were called by the other Indians the Wau-pan-nek-ee, and recognized as the common ances- tors of the most powerful tribes of the south, including the Powhatan Indians and the Cherokees. As late as 1880, in the Indian Territory, this claim was recognized, and in the peculiar ranking of the tribes in council the Delaware sits as the grandfather. The Quakers made a treaty with them at the start, and kept it ; but all the same, the Indians lost their lands, and grew poor and hostile. Thence they were pushed back, foot by foot, across the continent, till, in 1799, a treaty bearing the signature of John Adams recognized them as owners of all Indiana between the White and Ohio rivers. They still fell back slowly, and from 1800 to 1820 were numerous in Parke county; but about the time our pioneers came they were concentrating near the middle of the state, which was their last stronghold in Indiana. Among their chiefs who figured in this region was Captain Anderson. Such were the various tribes who contributed to form the Indian population of this valley, and thus it was that our pioneers saw individuals of all these tribes, the Pianke- shaw-Miamis being most numerous on Sugar creek and upper Raccoon, while the Weas and their conquerors were dominant along the Wabash below Montezuma.
"Such were our predecessors. Their names we know, their fate we know and something of their habits; but fancy strives in vain to portray the country as it looked to their eyes. The change has been too great for us. To see it as it was then is impossible. The traveler who now enters this county on either of our railroads is whirled along in soothing motion through sylvan scenes, which disclose every moment a new beauty. Now from the car window he looks upon a neat village where, in happy homes, the fair little Saxons play in secured peace; now he looks upon a well-kept farm, its granaries full and its owner busy among his flocks and herds or in his well- tilled fields. Again he sees the open groves where blooded stock grazes in peaceful content ; and yet again the dark green woods and open vista beyond which shows the home-like farm house, set in elegant shrubbery and sur- rounded by the charming blue grass. Here he sees the indications of a coal mine ; there of a rock quarry and yonder other marks of an industrious race. And again he passes for miles through gently rolling fields whence comes the scent of clover or new-mown hay, and is cheered by the rattle of the reaper
PARKE COUNTY JAIL.
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and the hum of laboring grangers. Not less does he see on every command- ing point the pretty white church with heavenward-pointing spire or the district school house, or more pretentious academy.
"A hundred years ago how different the scene. An unbroken forest spread from north to south and from the eastern border to the small prairie which lines the Wabash below Montezuma. Along the highest land between the two Racoons ran an Indian trace from Weautanon, or Orchardtown (Terre Haute), to Ouiatenon. Down the Wabash came the light pirogue of the French-Canadian or the lighter canoe of the red man; and along the creeks the savages hunted or fished or idled away the long summer days. Sugar creek, from its source to its mouth, had witnessed many a hard-fought battle between Indian tribes who contended for its possession, but now the Miamis band held it in peace. They found in its waters, alive with fish, an unfailing resource when game was scarce. From the mouth of the Leather- wood to the Wabash extended a straggling village of Wea-miamis, at the head of which in later years was a chief with an unpronounceable name whom the whites familiarly called Johnny Green. On Sugar creek, we know not exactly where, was another village, and along Big Raccoon were a few small settlements, inhabited only in winter. Sugar creek through its upper course ran then, as now, between bold and rock bluffs, but no other creek in the county was anything like it is now. They consisted rather of long, deep ponds connected with shallow ripples, and Big Raccoon through much of its lower course had no defined channel. Beaver dams and immense drifts obstructed its course, and for miles in a place the stream extended almost from bluff to bluff, a long swamp with a slow current. Indeed, as late as 1850, many of the creeks in this county had a more uniform volume of water in summer than now, and contained many long, deep pools joined by ripples ; and the Wabash remained navigable till late in the summer for Ohio steamers. None of the streams rose so suddenly, or so high as now, and none fell so low in the summer. The Wabash had at least twice the summer volume it now has, and even such small streams as Mill creek. This was also true of Williams creek and Rock run, each and all being good fishing runs and remained good mill streams till 1830-40. The rain fall of the year has not decreased, but it was then more evenly distributed in time. The further change is accounted for by the clearing of the land and the draining of the swamps, allowing the falling rains to discharge more rapidly. Such were a few of the features of the county a hundred years ago."-From the pen of J. H. Beadle.
.
(4)
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Thirty-five years afterward considerable change was already noticeable. Jacob, Swan and Bull, Wea chiefs, ranged from Orchardtown (Terre Haute) to Shawnee Prairie; Stone-eater had his headquarters on or just above Sugar creek, and the Dazney Indians roamed over the Raccoon prairie and thence on to Fort Harrison. The soldier, the explorer and the hunter had become acquainted with the land, and the whites of more eastern localities looked toward this section for a home-building spot. Rev. Isaac McCoy, who preached the first gospel sermon in this green, glad solitude, had invaded this region. He was a Baptist missionary and came to the Wabash valley to preach to the Indians and white men, in 1817, preaching at points as far north as the Big Raccoon. In fact, it might be stated that he could have been considered the first white settler, for he was certainly here long enough to become a settler, legally. Early in 1818 he made a location on land in the farm later owned and occupied by Mrs. Lawrence Cox, and he collected a few half-breed children and taught them English and religion. He learned the Indian dialect in order to better cope with the Catholic missionaries who spoke that language, especially among the Miamis. A few Christianized Indians came from Brothertown, New York, and assisted him. In 1819 Mr. McCoy married the first couple ever united in Parke county. His diary says :
"On the 16th of February I joined in marriage Mary Ann Isaacs, of the Brothertown Indians, who had been spending a few weeks at our house, to Christmas Dashney, a half-breed Wea."
Historian Beadle, so well known in Indiana, said of this faithful mis- sionary of the Cross: "Mr. McCoy continued his labors in this county till 1822-3; and his journal tells of struggle against struggle and continued dis- appointment ; of loving care for converts demoralized by the whisky of white men; of toilsome journeys to Indian camps; of cold nights in the lonely woods; of shivering days in wet brush; of insults and rebuffs ; of hunger and foul weather. He was a gentleman of culture and of pleasing address, and soon learned to speak the Indian dialect fluently. He was assisted, now and then, by other teachers and preachers, including Mr. Martin and Johnston Lykens. With a large family he followed the Indians, even to Michigan, seeing them die off like sheep from the effect of white man's whisky. Thence he followed them to Indian Territory, about 1830, and saw the remnant of the tribe attached to the Cherokee nation. He had fought a long, hard fight and lost, as the world would say; he had attached himself to a dying race, and neither prayers nor tears nor much labor could arrest their inevitable decay. Nay, the destiny of the race seemed even to his friends to be death ;
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