USA > Indiana > Porter County > History of Porter County, Indiana : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests > Part 4
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One of the greatest effigy mounds so far discovered is the "Great Serpent Mound" in Adams county, Ohio. It is located on a bluff, which
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
is itself serpentine in form, overlooking Brush creek, and is 1,348 feet in length. The mouth of the serpent is open and directly in front of it is a low artificial mound, while in the vicinity are several burial mounds. From the fact that the serpent appears to have been a favorite form of effigy, Peet thinks that the serpent worship prevailed to some extent among the Mound Builders, but this, like other theories, is largely a matter of conjecture and speculation. About all that is definitely settled regarding the mounds is that some were erected for sacrificial purposes; some for signal stations or lookout towers, but by far the greater number mark the burial places of priests, warriors or rulers. In the Tennessee district, graves were often formed by slabs of stone set on edge and contained one or more skeletons. One mound, not far from Nashville, abont forty-five in diameter, when opened was found to contain about 100 skeletons.
A large part of the Twelfth Annual Report of the United States Bureau of Ethnology is devoted to the Mound Builders and their works. On page 526 of this report Mr. Thomas, who had charge of the work, says: "Examining the maps of Indiana and Illinois, which are given together, we see that the works are confined principally to the eastern portion of the former and the western porton of the latter. In the eastern part of Indiana the rule of following the streams seems to have been to a large extent abandoned; especially is this the case with the Inster in the extreme northeastern corner and the belt commencing a little north of the middle of the state and extending down the eastern border to the Ohio river. This belt, which pertains to the group in southwestern Ohio, seems to be connected with the Wabash series by lines of works along the east and west forks of White river. The group along the Wabash is confined chiefly to the middle and lower portions of the valley."
From this quotation one would naturally infer that there are no mounds of consequence in the lake region of northern Indiana. This is true, in the main, but in the counties of Laporte, Porter and Lake there nre abundant evidences that the Mound Builders once inhabited this
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
region. A few years ago Dr. Higday explored a group of some twenty mounds on a small tributary of the Kankakee some twelve miles from the eity of Laporte. Among other things he found three skeletons-two adults and one ehild-one skull, two copper hatchets, a bear-shaped pipe, two copper needles, an earthen vessel filled with mould and pieces of tortoise shell, a few flint knives and pieces of galena and mica.
In Lake county there are several mounds along the shores of Cedar lake, from which several skeletons, pieces of lead ore, arrow points, ete., have been taken. About a mile south of Hobart are the remains of four mounds which have been almost leveled by cultivation. They have never been explored, but a stone hatchet and several small flints have been found in the immediate vicinity. From two mounds south of Orchard Grove have been taken portions of human skeletons, arrow heads and pottery, and on a "sand island" near by is the so-called "Indian Battle . Ground," showing a low breastwork or artificial ridge of earth enelosing two sides of an area of some three aeres of ground. Within the enclosure were about 200 holes resembling the rifle pits of modern warfare. Numer- ous skeletons have been found in this immediate loeality.
Although Porter county has not been found so rich in prehistorie remains as some of her sister counties, one of the finest groups of mounds in northern Indiana lies within her borders. The original field notes of the United States land survey in 1834, mention the fact that the north and south line between sections 33 and 34, township 34 north, range 6 west, "passes over a large artificial mound surrounded by a number of smaller ones." A copy of the original plat now on fils in the state auditor's office at Indianapolis shows this larger mound on the seetion line, with a group of nine smaller mounds surrounding it in a eirele. This is the group of mounds located about a mile and a half east of the village of Boone Grove, on the south side of Wolf ereck. At the present time there are eight mounds visible on an area of some thirty aeres. The plat of the original survey above mentioned shows ten mounds, but it is possible that two of them have been obliterated by the plow. Seven of the mounds are situated on the high wooded ground
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
elose to Wolf ereek. The eighth, and largest, is in an open field near the northeast corner of section 33, township 34 north, range 6 west. It is about 100 feet in diameter and twelve feet in heigth. In the fall of 1897 the owner of the farm, John Wark, gave the state geologist the privilege of investigating the mound, and the result is thus told by Mr. Blatchley in his official report for that year. "A ditch was dug three feet wide, 32 feet long, and, at the center of the mound, 14 feet in depth. The mound was found to be composed of a compaet, yellowish clay, in which were a few scattered pebbles of small size. In the exact center and ten feet from the crest, the carth became darker, harder and more compaet. Six inches lower was a layer of black organie matter, in which were the remains of a very badly decayed human skeleton. It lay in a reclining position with its head to the south. Only a few picees of bone and 14 teeth were removed, the remainder crumbling to dust. The erowns of the teeth were hard and solid, but the fangs for the most part crumbled like the bone. No implements of any kind were found, though the exeavations were extended four feet lower and over an area 5x7 feet in the center of the mound."
Of the mound in the woods, the largest is the one near the creek. It is about seventy feet in diameter and ten feet high. On this mound are several blaek oak trees, one of which is about eighteen inches in diam- eter. The other six mounds vary from thirty to sixty feet in diameter and from six to,eight feet in height. Four of the mounds were ex- plored in the fall of 1897, but no skeletons or implements of any kind were found, charcoal and ashes being the only evidence that the mounds had been constructed by human hands.
Some years ago IIon. George C. Gregg excavated a mound near Cor- nell creek, about four miles east of Ilebron, and found several skeletons. This mound was composed entirely of black earth which had been car- ried from the banks of the ereek some 170 feet distant. From a mound south of IIebron was taken some pottery in a fair state of preservation. A little north of Woodvale, ncar the western boundary of the county and not far from Deep river, is a mound resembling a flat-iron in shape,
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
190 feet long, 75 fect in its greatest width, and rising to a height of 22 feet about the surrounding lowlands. Battey's History of Porter and Lake Counties (1882), says that near the apex of this mound "there is a well, which was formerly of enormous depth. The excavation is circular, and has a diameter of eight or nine feet. Into this well, the early settlers threw the debris of their elcarings, with the intention of filling it up; but the capacity has been so great. that it remains yet ni- filled. Numerous small excavations in the adjacent soil and rocks have led to the conclusion that this was onee a 'water-cure' establishment, and resorted to in ancient times for its baths."
Later geologists have expressed the belief that this mound is a natural formation, ent off at some period from the adjacent highlands by an overflow of Deep river. This opinion is based on observations that all the mounds in this region are composed of clay, while matter thrown . out of this elevation by woodchucks for a depth of from eight to fifteen . feet below the crest shows that it is composed of sand, which is the same as the highlands in the immediate neighborhood.
Several interesting collections of Mound Builders' relies have been · made at times from those found in Porter county. The Valparaiso high school has a number of arrow points, spear heads, stones, axes, etc., but in many instances the specimens are unaccompained by data as to when, where or by whom they were found. Dr. J. K. Blackstone of Hebron at one time had a large collection gathered in the southern part of the county, but this collection has become scattered. A number of fine specimens have been found in the vicinity of Boone Grove; near the southeast corner of the county was found some years ago a celt formed of diorite about ten inches long and finely polished; and near by was discovered 'a cache containing over a peck of flint arrow heads.
At the beginning of the Nineteenth century the region now includ- ed within the limits of Porter county was inhabited by the Pottawato- mie tribe of Indians. The Pottawatomies belonged to the Algonquian group, and were first met by the white men about the head and on the is- lands of Green bay, Wisconsin. It is known, however, that as early as 1616
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
they were one of the four tribes whose habitat was along the western shore of Lake Huron. The Jesuit Relation for 1671, in referring to the . west coast of Lake Huron, says: "Four nations made their abode here, namely : those who bear the name Puans (i. e. Winnebago), who have always lived here as their own country, and who have been reduced to nothing from being a very flourishing and populous people, having been exterminated by the Illinois, their enemies; the Pottawatomi, the Sauk and the Nation of the Fork (la Fonrehe) also live here, but as strangers, or foreigners, driven by fear of the Iroquois (the Neuters and the Ottawa) from their own lands which are between the lake of . the IIurons and that of the Illinois."
Bottineau says the Pottawatomies were known as the "People of the place of fire." Other authorities say that the Pottawatomies and Sank together were called the "Nation of fire;" that after the former tribe became separated, that portion known as the Mascoutins or Maskotens -- the prairie band-took the name "Nation of fire," and that it was never afterward applied to the remainder of the tribe. They were "The most docile and affectionate toward the French of all the savages," were naturally polite, resisted the eneroachments of "fire water," were kindly disposed toward Christianity and manifested a willingness to adopt the customs of civilization. Polygamy was common among them and in their religion they believed in two spirits which governed the world-Kitchemonedo, the' Great Spirit, and Matehemonedo, the Evil Spirit. The great ceremonial observance among them was the "Feast of Dreams," at which dog meat was the principal article of food, and during which a special or individual Maniton was selected.
Chauvignerie, wrote in 1736, says the chief totems of the Pottawat- omies were the golden earp, the frog, the tortoise, the crab and the crane. Morgan divides the tribe into fifteen gentes, as follows: 1st, Moah (wolf) ; 2nd, Mko (bear) ; 3d, Muk (beaver) ; 4th, Mishawa (elk) ; 5th, Maak (loon) ; 6th, Knou (eagle) ; 7th, Nma (sturgeon) ; 8th, Nma- pena (carp) ; 9th, Mgezewa (bald eagle) ; 10th, Chekwa (thunder) ; 11th, Wabozo (rabbit) ; 12th, Kakaghe (crow) ; 13th, Wakeshi (fox) ;
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
14th, Penna (turkey) ; 15th, Mketashshekakah (black hawk). In the Wabozo gens cremation was practieed to some extent, but as a rule the dead were buried in the earth. In the early '50s a sawmill was set up near the mouth of Sandy Hook ereek in Boone township, and soon after it was started a number of old Indians visited the neighborhood to pay their respects to the graves of some of their ancestors. This led to the discovery of an old Indian burying ground some seven or eight acres in extent, located in seetion 21, township 33 north, range 6 west, a short dstanee north of the Kankakee river. After the departure of the Indian visitors, exeavations were made and a number of implements, weapons, ornaments, images, ete., were found.
Prior to 1763 the Pottawatomies were loyal to the French, but after the peace of that year they became allies of the British. They took part in Pontiae's conspiraey and fought on the side of Great Britain in the Revolutionary war. They participated in the defeat of General St. Clair near the headwaters of the Wabash river on November 4, 1791, and when Major Hamtramek tried to make a treaty of peace with the tribe the next year the head chief deelined, elaiming that he was threat- ened by other Indians. Twenty-five Pottawatomie chiefs took part in the negotiation of the treaty of Greeneville, August 3, 1895. Soon after that treaty was made they moved westward and took possession of lands along the Wabash river, notwithstanding the oppositon and objections of the Miamis, and by the beginning of the Nineteenth century they were in possession of the country about the head of Lake Michigan, extend- ing from Milwaukee to the Grand river in Michigan, southward to the Wabash river, southwestward over a large part of Indiana and Illinois, and eastward across Michigan to Lake Erie. It was estimated that at that time the tribe had fifty populous villages in the above mentioned territory.
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In the War of 1812 some of the Pottawatomies again took sides with the British. At a great Indian council held on the Mississinewa river in May, 1812, most of the tribal chiefs favored peace with the United States and the neighboring Indian tribes. Dillon, in his History of
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
Indiana (p. 484), reports a speech of one of the Pottawatomie chiefs in which the orator said: "We are glad that it should please the Great Spirit for us to meet today, and incline all our hearts for peace. Some of the foolish young men of our tribe, that have, for some winters past, ceased to listen to the voice of their chiefs, and followed the council of the Shawnee that pretended to be a prophet, have killed some of our white brothers this spring at different places. We have believed that they were encouraged in this mischief by this pretended prophet, who, we know, has taken great pains to detach them from their own chiefs and attach them to himself. We have no control over those few vagabonds and consider them not belonging to our nation; and we will be thankful to any people who will put them to death wherever found."
In reply to this, Tecumseh insisted that he had been misrepresented "to our white brothers by pretended chiefs of the Pottawatomie and others who have been in the habit of selling land that did not belong to them."
The Pottawatomies were among the first Indians to enter into trea- ties of peace with the representatives of the United States at the close of the war in 1815. Not long after these treaties were made a few adventurous white men began to encroach upon the Pottawatomie lands and a elamor arose that these lands be opened to white settlement. A few small traets were reluctantly ceded to the United States by the tribe, but is was not until 1832 that all their lands in the State of Indiana were relinquished to the government. The first treaty of cession that ineluded a part of what is now Porter county was concluded on the Wabash river, near the mouth of the Mississinewa, October 16, 1826. Lewis Cass, James B. Ray and John Tipton acted as commissioners on the part of the United States, and the treaty was signed by sixty-two of the chiefs and head mnen of the Pottawatomie tribe. That portion of the eession within the present limits of Porter county is thus de- seribed; "Begining at a point upon Lake Michigan, ten miles due north of the southern extreme thereof; running thence, due east, to the land ceded by the Indians to the United States by the treaty of Chicago
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
(Angust 29, 1820) ; thenee south, with the boundary thereof, ten miles; thenee west, to the southern extreme of Lake Michigan; thenee with the shore thereof to the place of beginning."
At the same time and place the tribe ceded to the United States "a strip of land, commeneing at Lake Michigan and running thenee to the Wabash river, one hundred feet wide, for a road, and also, one section of good land contiguous to the said road, for each mile of the same, and also for each mile of a road from the termination thereof, through Indianapolis to the Ohio river, for the purpose of making a road aforesaid from Lake Michigan, by the way of Indianapolis, to some convenient point on the Ohio river."
The remaining portion of Porter county was ceded to the United States by the treaty of October 26, 1832, which was concluded on the Tippecanoe river "between Jonathan Jennings, John W. Davis and Mark Crume, Commissioners on the part of the United States, and the Chiefs, Headman and Warriors of the Pottawatomie Indians." The lands eeded by the tribe at this time are thus described in Artiele I of the treaty : "Beginning at a point on Lake Michigan, where the line divid- ing the States of Indiana and Illinois intersects the same; thenee with the margin of said lake, to the intersection of the southern boundary of a eession made by the Pottawatomies, at the treaty of the Wabash, of : eighteen hundred and twenty-six; thence east, to the northwest corner of the eession made by the treaty of St. Joseph's in eighteen hundred and twenty-eight; thenee south ten miles; thenee with the Indian bound- ary line to the Michigan road; thenee south with said road to the north- ern boundary line, as designated in the treaty of eighteen hundred and twenty-six with the Pottawatomies; thence west with the Indian bound- ary line to the river Tippecanoe; thence with the Indian boundary line, as established by the treaty of eighteen hundred and eighteen at St. Mary's, to the line dividing the States of Indiana and Illinois; and thenee north; with the line dividing said states to the place of begin- ning."
For this traet of land, now worth millions of dollars, the United MEDIANA STALE LIBRAME
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
States paid the Indians an annuity of $20,000 for twenty years, gave · them goods to the value of $130,000, and assumed an indebtedness of certain members of the tribe amounting to $62,412. The next day (October 27, 1832,) the Pottawatomies concluded a treaty with the same commissioners, relinquishing title to all their lands in Indiana. Illinois and Michigan, south of the Grand river, and a few years later a res- ervation was set apart for them in what is now the State of Kansas. When the time came for their removal to the new reservation, some of them refused to leave the old hunting grounds and had to he expelled by soldiers. A portion of the tribe escaped into Canada and later set- tled upon Walpole island in Lake St. Clair.
A number of Indian trails passed through Porter county. The most noted of these aboriginal thoroughfares was probably the old Sank trail, which' ran from St. Joseph river via Laporte, Valparaiso and Crown Point to the Kankakee river in Illinois. Another important trail crossed the eastern boundary of the county near the line between townships 36 and 37, north, and pursued a course a little north of west until it crossed the Calumet river about a mile west of the present town of Chesterton. After crossing the Calumet it followed approximately the ridge to which Leverett has given the name of "Calumet Beach" and crossed the west line of the county about a mile south of the shore of Lake Michigan. The original survey, made in 1834 and 1835, shows in some portions of the county local trails, but as they were not care- fully traced by the surveyors it is impossible at this late day to determine their sources or the exact direction they pursued. They were generally "short cuts" between Indian villages or from one water course to an- other. The Wabash railroad follows closely one of these trails from Clear Lake to Morris in Jackson township; another local trail ran al- most parallel to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad a little north of Wheeler, and a third left the old Lafayette & Michigan City road a little north of Tassinong and ran in a southwesterly direction to Sandy Hook creek, where the surveyors ceased to trace its course. There was also an Indian trail from John lake in Jackson township to Long
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
lake in Liberty township. But, in the three-quarters of a century that have elapsed since the Indians gave up their lands, the trails have been obliterated, and within another generation or two both the trails and the men who made them will have been forgotten.
The following poem by Hubert M. Skinner was published a few years ago in the Northwestern Sportsman :
THE SONG OF THE OLD SAC TRAIL
"The Old Sae Trail, trod first by Indians, later by the explorers, and in early days the pathway of important military expeditions, fol- lowed the narrow strip of land between Lake Michigan and the swamp of the Kankakee, now covered by a network of railway lines, the great- est highway of commerce in the world .- Editor."
· My course I take by marge of lake or river gentle flowing, Where footsteps light in rapid flight may find their surest going. I hold my way through forests gray, beneath their rustling arches, And on I pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches.
In single file, through mile on mile, the braves their chieftains follow, .By night or day they keep their way, they wind round hill and hollow. From sun to sun I guide them on, the men of bow and quiver, And on I pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river.
Where waters gleam, I ford the stream; and where the land is broken, My way I grope down rocky slope, by many a friendly token. The shrubs and vines, the oaks and pines, the lonely firs and larehes I leave, and pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches.
To eharts unknown, in books unshown, I am no lane or byway. Complete with me from seat to sea the continental highway ! I guide the quest from East to West-From West to East deliver, For on I pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river.
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HISTORY OF PORTER COUNTY
The bivouac leaves embers black amid the fern and clover, And prints of feet the searchers greet, to tell of journeys over. The sun beats hot. I reckon not how sear its splendor parches, I onward pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches.
The Red Man's God prepared the sod, and to his children gave it. IIis wrath is shown in every zone against the men who brave it. The righteous be, who follow me, and praise the Heavenly Giver, While on I pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river.
There is an old tribal tradition to the effect that at some period in the remote past the Pottawatomies, the Chippewas and the Ottawas were one people. In the early '40s, after the three tribes were removed to reservations west of the Mississippi, they made a request to be re- united, but the government declined to grant the request, probably be- cause the combined strength of the three tribes would be so great as to render them a formidable foe in case of an Indian outbreak. In 1910 there were about 2,600 Pottawatomies still living. About two-thirds of them occupied a reservation in Oklahoma; the prairie band, numbering over 600, lived in Kansas; about 75 were in Calhoun county, Michigan, and some 220 lived in Canada.
Such, in brief, is the history of the onee powerful Indian tribe that inhabited Porter county. With the relinquishment of their lands in 1832, the power of the Pottawatomies began to wane. After their re- moval to their reservation west of the Mississippi they seemed to lose energy and ambition, becoming satisfied to live upon the slender an- nuities doled out to them by the United States government, and
"The pale face rears his wigwam where the Indian hunters roved; His hatchet fells the forest fair the Indian maidens loved."
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CHAPTER III
SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
EARLY EXPLORERS AND FUR TRADERS-CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES-FATHER MARQUETTE-LA SALLE-LOUISIANA-FRENCHI, BRITISHI AND SPANISHI CLAIMS-TREATY OF 1783-INDIANA TERRITORY-FORT DEARBORN- . JOSEPH BAILLY-IIIS POST ON THE CALUMET-FIRST STAGE LINE-THE MORGANS-OTIIER EARLY SETTLERS-FIRST SALE OF PUBLIC LANDS --- WAVERLY AND MORGAN TOWNSHIPS-PIONEER CUSTOMS-SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS-ORGANIZATION OF PORTER COUNTY-EARLY ELECTIONS -FIRST CIVIL TOWNSHIPS-LOCATION OF TIIE COUNTY SEAT.
Just who were the first white men to visit what is now Porter county, or when that visit was made, is largely a matter of conjecture. It is known that about the middle of the seventeenth century the French fur traders were engaged in active operations in the region of the Great Lakes, and it is quite probable that some of them passed through the county, but they made no permanent residence there nor left any record of their acts. In 1672 the two Catholie missionaries-Father Allouez and Father Dablon-traversed the country from lake shore to the Kan- kakee river, stopping at the Indian villages and studying the character- istics of the country. Their visit is the first of which there is any authentie record. The following year Father Marquette, on his return eastward from the Mississippi river, passed up the Kankakee river with six of his companions. Upon reaching the source of that stream they
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