History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, from the earliest times to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, etc., Part 3

Author:
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: [Madison, Wis.] : Brant & Fuller
Number of Pages: 714

USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, from the earliest times to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, etc. > Part 3

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CHAPTER II.

INDIAN HISTORY-THE MOUND BUILDERS- THEIR EARTHWORKS AND MOUNDS -THE INDIAN TRIBES- WABASHI LAND COMPANY -THE TREATY OF ISO5 - CAPTIVITY AND ADVENTURES OF ISAAC KNIGHT.

A NTIQUITIES or ancient earthworks exist in this county-isolated or clustered mounds and pits, which re- quired for their building the persistent labor of a people with a combined purpose under intelligent direction. Their locations are healthy and picturesque stations, convenient to water, generally close to river transporta- tion, in fertile lands, and with a wide out- look to the east; characteristics so constant as to indicate a design, and indistinctly to reveal something of the religion, govern- ment and habits of a mysterious and unknown race. Of these remains the Indians with whom the earliest explorers communicated had no apparent knowledge, and the noma- dic habits of the red men seem to prove the distinct nature of the Mound-builders. The opinions of scientific men vary greatly in re- gard to the origin and fate of these myste- rious people. Some even question their variance either in very remote time or in kindred from the Indian, while others go to fanciful lengths in describing their probable origin and progress in civilization. The main trend of theory is, however, that they came as did many of our plants, from the north, and the theory premises a connection in past ages between the continents of Asia and America at the point where they are now but little separated, and a climate which made the northern regions a much more at- tractive path than it is now for the transfer of population.

The free copper found within the tumuli

of the mound-builders, the open veins of the Superior and Iron Mountain copper- mines, with all the modus operandi of ancient mining, such as ladders, levers, chisels, and hammer-heads, discovered by the French ex- plorers of the Northwest and the Mississippi, are conclusive proofs that those prehistoric people were more civilized than the Indians.

One of the most brilliant and impartial his- torians of the Republic stated that the valley of the Mississippi contained no monuments. So far as the word is interpreted now, he was literally correct, but he neglected to qualify his sentence by a reference to the numerous massy piles of antiquity to be found throughout its length and breadth. The valley of the Father of Waters, and indeed, the country from the trap rocks of the Great Lakes southeast to the Gulf and southwest to Mexico, abound in tell-tale monuments of a race of people which must have rivaled in civilization the Montezumas of the sixteenth century. The remains of walls and fortifications found in Ohio, Ken- tucky and Indiana, the earthworks of Vin- cennes and throughout the valley of the Wabash, the mounds scattered over Ala- bama, Florida, Georgia and Virginia, and those found in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minne- sota, are all evidences of a race which the red man swept away as he has in turn been almost supplanted by us.

Several isolated mounds were found on the bluffs, 130 to 170 feet above the Ohio, at the southwest corner of the county, near

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INDIAN HISTORY.

West Franklin. The implements of stone and pottery discovered here were of artistic execution. A celt (hand-axe) of flint, was polished like the Danish celts (unusual in America, if not unique), also a granitic hand-axe with beveled edges. A cluster of mounds of great interest was observed near Mccutcheon school-house, two and a half miles northeast of Inglefield, twelve miles from Evansville, about twenty-five in num- ber. They were scattered over fifty or more acres, and covered with forest and bush. They are 2 to 6 feet in height, and . 20 to 60 feet in diameter. On the adjoining Hillyard farm were two pits or excavations now partially filled. One of them was 60 feet in diameter, and at first settlement, 20 feet deep. The second was 15 feet in diam- eter, and 4 feet deep, apparently for under- ground homes or for water. A constant spring -rare in this vicinity - seems to have invited the mound-builders to this elevated and commanding point, which is a promon- tory of the dividing ridge which separates the watershed of the Wabash from that of the Ohio. The outlook embraces the wide flat valley of Blue Grass creek, and the dis- tant mound-capped knobs in the horizon. The excavations probably existed first as sink holes through the underlying limestone, and were afterward shaped for human use, but this can only be determined by careful ex- amination. One of the mounds here was opened, and was found to contain ashes, shells, bones and pottery, indicating a mound of habitation. Many relics, well wrought in stone, were found in this vicinity. The extreme northeastern corner of the county was a favorite resort of the pre-historic races. Mr. John B. Locke collected some interesting stone relics on his farm, found on a knoll in a small mound, including a sand- stone pipe or calumet in shape of a bear's head, ears erect, mouth distinct, and claws

folded as if hibernating; also a medicine tube of Alabama talc, three and one-half inches long, three-fourths of an inch in di- ameter at the "mouth-piece," nearly two inches at the opposite end, with a constric- tion above the middle, with the bottom edge serrate; also flattened discs of sandstone. A bed of whitish clay is found here at the western extremity of a ridge 600 feet long by 200 from north to south. In front of this is an area, the surface level and apparently paved with plastic clay 500 by 200 feet, probably a "Chungke play-ground," with council chamber, where the relics were ob- tained. On this play-ground a set of six "Chungke" stones were found, from three to four inches in diameter, two inches thick, with a concavity in each side like the quoit or discus of the Olympian games. Sur- rounding or at the edges, spear and arrow points and "flint chips" have been noticed. This "Chungke" ground is now a field in cultivation. At an early day it was covered with a growth of trees, none over 400 years of age-youngsters compared with the sur- rounding forest-indicating that this area had been used within 1,000 years. At an arrow factory on T. B. Mccutcheon's land adjoining, flint "chips" in quantity were found, also flint splinters two or three inches long and perfect as if cut with a knife. Some interesting mounds were found in and ad- joining the village of Millersburg. They were composed in part of sand.

At the extreme southeastern corner of the county, extending across the line into War- rick, is one of the most interesting earth- works. Angell's mound, southeast quarter Section 31, Town 6, Range 9, is a wonder. It is a symmetrical cone rising up from the level plain to a height of 50 feet, and only 300 feet in diameter. It seems almost too imposing to be attributed to the puny arm of man. Many smaller mounds, but larger than

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

the general average, are located on the Gen. Lane farm, adjoining the Angell on the east. In this neighborhood were found vases, jars, jugs, implement handles, images of duck and owl heads, human faces and hands, spindle whirls, pipes and buttons, made in pottery; also buttons of cannel coal, and axes, hoes, spades, pestles, grinders, celts, arrow and spear points of stone. Graves of savage Indians are discovered through the county, sometimes intruders upon the mounds, but shallow and carelessly made.

Ossuaries or bone vaults have been dis- covered a few miles west of Evansville. They are isolated or often intrusive on the mounds. They contain the bones of all a nation's dead for a certain length of time, generally seven years, collected from tempo- rary places of deposit at the midsummer season of cheerless fasting and mourning, cleaned, bleached and deposited in walled vaults covered with flat stones and earth. Older than the Indian period, and later than the mound-builders, they belong to an inter- mediate littoral or riparian race, who retained some of the religion and art of their dis- possessed predecessors, but their coarse, crude implements and pottery show that they were far below them in the scale of progress, being closely allied to the Natchez and Choctaws of De Soto's expedition.

Indians .- Upon the first introduction of Europeans among the primitive inhabitants of this country, it was the prevailing opinion among the white people that the vast do- main since designated as the American con- tinent, was peopled by one common family, of like habits and speaking the same lan- guage. The error, however, was soon dis- pelled by observation, which at the same time established the fact of a great diversity in characteristics, language and physical de- velopment, upon which basis the race was found to be divided into many distinct tribes.

Among tribes that owned or occupied that portion of Indiana, known as the " pocket," of which Vanderburgh county is a part, were the Miamis, Piankeshaws, Dela- wares, Wyandotts and Shawanees.

At the time of the first white exploration of the northwest territory, all that portion now included within the boundaries of In- diana, was claimed by the Miami confedera- tion of Indians. The boundaries of the territory claimed by the Miamis, was de- scribed by Little Turtle, a distinguished Miami chief, at the treaty of Greenville in 1795. . Addressing Gen. Wayne, he said: " You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United States; but I now take the liberty to inform you that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of the country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers from time immemorial, without molestation or dispute. The print of my ancestors' houses are every- where to be seen in this portion. It is well known by all my brothers present, that my forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his line to the head- waters of the Scioto; from thence to its mouth; from thence down the Ohio, to the mouth of the Wabash; from thence to Chi- cago, on Lake Michigan."

Many years prior to the date of this an- nouncement by Chief Little Turtle, how- ever, it will be seen by the following transaction, that the land now included within the bounds of Vanderburgh county was rec- ognized by the whites as belonging to the Piankeshaw Indians. "In the year 1775," says Dillon, " after the expedition of Lord Dun- more against the Shawanees, Louis Viviat, a merchant of the Illinois country, com- menced a negotiation with the Piankeshaw Indians, for the purchase of two large dis- tricts of country lying upon the borders of the river Wabash." Viviat acted as the

INDIAN HISTORY.

agent of an association known as the " Wa- bash Land Company," and at Post Vin- cennes, on the ISth day of October, 1775, he obtained from eleven Piankeshaw chiefs a deed from which the provisions relative to the territory of Vanderburgh county are taken: " Know ye, that we, the chiefs and sachems of the Piankeshaw nation, in full and public council assembled, at the town or village of Post Saint Vincent (Vincennes), for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings, to us in hand, paid by the said Louis Viviat, and for and in consideration of the following goods and merchandise, to us, Tobacco, Montour, La Grand Couette Oua- ouaijao, Tabac, Jr., La Mouche Noire or the Black Fly, Le Maringonin, or Musquito, Le Petit Castor, or the Little Beaver, Kies- quitiehies, Grelot, Sen. and Jr., for the use of the several tribes of our nation well and truly delivered in full council aforesaid, that is to say: Four hundred blankets, twenty- two pieces of shroud, two hundred and fifty shirts, twelve gross of star gartering, one hundred and twenty pieces of ribbon, twen- ty-four pounds of vermillion, eighteen pairs velvet laced housings, one piece of matton, fifty-two fusils, thirty-five dozen large buck- horn-handle knives, forty dozen couteau knives, five hundred pounds of brass kettles, ten thousand gunflints, six hundred pounds of gunpowder, two pounds of lead, four hundred pounds of tobacco, forty bushels of salt, three thousand pounds of flour, three horses; also the following quantities of sil- verware, viz .: eleven very large arm bands, forty wrist bands, six whole moons, six half moons, nine earwheels, forty-six large crosses, twenty-nine hairpipes, sixty pairs of earbobs, twenty dozen small crosses, twenty dozen nose crosses, and one hundred and ten dozen brooches, the receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge."

In consideration of the above named mer-

chandise and money two several tracts or parcels of land were granted and transferred to said Wabash Land Company. The tract in which the land now comprising Vander- burgh county, was included, was described as follows: That tract or parcel of land situ- ated, lying, and being on both sides of the Ouabache river (Wabash) beginning at the mouth of White river, where it empties into the Ouabache river (about twelve leagues below Post St. Vincent), thence down Ouabache river, by several courses thereof, until it empties into the Ohio river, being from the said White river to the Ohio fifty-three leagues in length, with forty leagues in length or breadth on east side, and thirty leagues in width or breadth on the west side of the Ouabache river afore- said.

The two tracts of which the foregoing is the larger comprised in all 37,497,600 acres, and these lands were so far as the Indians had any right to sell to a company or individuals, in possession of this company for many years; but congress after numerous petitions from the company, the last of which was made in ISIo, refused to confirm the claim.

The Piankeshaws held possession of the southwest part of the state until 1768, when they gave to the Delawares that portion now included in the counties of Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, Pike, Warrick, Spen- cer and a part of Perry, and the right of the Delawares to sell this land was ac- knowledged by the Pottawatomie, Miami, Eel river and Wea tribes by the 5th article of the treaty concluded at Vincennes, Au- gust 18, 1804. If, however, the Piankeshaw tribe had any just claim to the territory it was relinquished in treaty between said tribe and the United States, proclaimed Feb- ruary 5, 1805: Article I. The Piankeshaw tribe relinquishes and cedes to the United States forever all the tract of country which

WABASH LAND COMPANY.

lies between the Ohio and Wabash rivers, and below Clark's grant, and the tract called the Vincennes tract, which was ceded by the treaty of Ft. Wayne, and a line con- necting said tract and grant, to be drawn parallel to the general course of the road leading from Vincennes to the Falls of the Ohio, so as not to pass more than a half a mile to the northward of the most northerly bend of said road.

Article 3 provides for an additional annu- ity of $2,000 to be paid by the United States for ten years.

On the 14th of the same month a treaty was proclaimed with the Delaware tribe by Gen. W. H. Harrison, governor of Indiana territory, on the part of the United States. By this treaty the tract described in Article I, of the treaty above mentioned, the tract above described was ceded by the Dela- wares to the United States, with the provi- sion that an additional annuity of $3,000 be paid by the United States to said Delaware tribe, and additional sum of $500 was ap- propriated for the purpose of teaching them to cultivate the soil, etc., besides delivering to them a large supply of agricultural imple- ments and domestic animals. By these treaties with the Piankeshaw and Delaware tribes, conducted at Vincennes, August 18th and 27th, 1804, and proclaimed February of the following year, the last claim to the ter- ritory of which Vanderburgh county is a part, was forever relinquished by the red man. The land was soon placed on the market at the land office at Post Vincennes and entries and settlement soon followed. Wandering bands of Indians, however, mostly of the Shawanee tribe, continued to wander about the country, and until the close of the war of 1812, would, at intervals re- turn and camp along the streams, for the purpose of hunting and fishing. These In- . dians caused the settlers considerable

anxiety, and were constantly pilfering and stealing. The only incident of more than passing interest which occurred within what is now the territory of Vanderburgh county, was the killing by a band of Pottawatomie and Kickapoo Indians of Peter Sprinkle and Jacob Upp, and the capture of Isaac Knight, George Sprinkle and John Upp. This oc- curred on the banks of the Ohio, in what is now Union township, about the year 1793. The victims, who at the time were all boys, were residents of Kentucky, but as one of the captives, Isaac Knight, became a resi- dent of Vanderburgh county, and as he is re- membered as one of her most prominent early settlers and most respected citizens, the incident will be read with additional in- terest. The following is taken from an ac- count of the capture, suffering and escape, published in 1839, as narrated by Isaac Knight himself, and written by Hiram A. Hunter :

Isaac Knight, the subject of the follow- ing narrative, was born in what was then called Washington county, in Pennsylvania; the record of his age being lost, the exact time of his birth cannot be ascertained.

His father's name was John Knight, who married Ann Rolison, by whom he had seven sons, of whom Isaac was the eldest.

When the subject of this narrative was a child, his father removed, by water, in com- pany with his father-in-law, Mr. Lawrence Rolison, and Norod Franceway, who had married in the same family. These all set- tled at or near the place, now known by the name of Vienna, on Green river, about eighty miles above its mouth, where, with much difficulty, they lived some years, grind- ing their corn on hand mills or pounding it in a mortar; and at one time such was the difficulty with which bread stuff was had, that Isaac's father bought corn at the mouth of Green River, at one dollar and twenty-

INDIAN HISTORY.

five cents per bushel, and conveyed it to his family in a perogue or canoe. Indeed, the difficulties under which the first settlers of that part of Kentucky labored, were almost insupportable.

For the security of the whites and their families, they were impelled to build and re- sort to forts in as large bodies as their thinly settled population would permit. Uniting their energies, they labored by turn in each man's field, one or more, as necessity re- quired, standing as sentinel.

During the season in which corn was making, they remained in their forts ; but re- turned to their lonesome and dangerous re- treats for the remainder of the year.

Seldom would anything short of abundant sign of Indian hostilities, drive them in the spring of the year, from their homely huts. It is, however, perfectly within the recollec- tion of the author of this narrative, that, when a boy, he heard the report of a gun, which killed dead, one of the finest men in the settlement, and one, too, who lived with- in a few steps of his father's door. Mr. Downs, who was thus shot by the Indians, left a wife and seven children to lament his untimely death. He was most cruelly used by the savage butchers, and left scalped on the ground.

About this time the country about the Red Banks, on the Ohio river, now known as Henderson, in Henderson county, Ken- tucky, began to be spoken of as a most de- sirable section, and Isaac's father, with the rest of the connection, moved to that place, where they found a few families residing. But one house was yet erected -the rest of the families lived in camps. In removing to this place, their property being conveyed by water, except the stock, Isaac, then a boy about nine or ten years of age, assisted in driving them.

Red Banks, where even greater difficulties were undergone by settlers, than had been endured by them at Vienna. Here, too, as at the former place, they cultivated the soil in safety, only by means of sentinels.

About this time the small pox prevailed at the Red Banks, and little Isaac was vac- cinated with it. He was, however, still under the necessity of giving more or less attention to his father's cattle, in cutting cane, providing food for them. Accord- ingly, in company with others, he went fre- quently across the Ohio river in a canoe to cut cane. In one of those routes, accom- panied by Peter Sprinkle, and George, his brother, John Upp, and Jacob, his brother, having arrived on the bank opposite to Henderson (as boys are naturally inclined to do), they commenced their sport, running and jumping along the bank, all alike ignor- ant of their danger, until from behind a blind, which was made of cane, cut and stuck in the ground, for the purpose of con- cealment, eight Indians, six of whom were found to be Pottawatomies, and two Kicka- poos, came rushing upon them. In confu- sion and astonishment the boys all attempted to escape. The eldest, Peter Sprinkle, a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years of age, ran nearly to the river and was shot down, three guns being fired at him at once. Little Jacob Upp, a small boy of about seven years of age, finding escape impossible, stood still and begged for his life, crying "Don't kill me, don't kill me;" but it was to no purpose - the cruel savages buried the tomahawk in his skull, and put an end to his cries and his existence.

George Sprinkle and John Upp, the for- mer a little larger and the latter a little smaller than Isaac, were taken almost on the spot where the Indians were discovered. When the author of this narrative first saw

They at length arrived all in safety, at the the Indians, he ran, without saying a word;

ADVENTURES OF ISAAC KNIGHT.

and on hearing the report of the guns that killed Peter Sprinkle, he looked back, and seeing one Indian in pursuit of him, he con- tinued his race, until, in a short time, he felt a blow upon each shoulder, which he after- ward found came from two Indians, instead of one, that had pursued him. These blows stunned him so that he fell, and in falling he lost his hat. He had no sooner touched the ground than his savage pursuers had each hold of an arm, lifting him up. Even in this predicament he attempted twice to reach for his hat, but failed to get it. He afterward learned from one of the Indians who took him, that if he had made a third attempt to get his hat, he would have killed him. These led the affrighted Isaac to the rest of the company, and, as he thought, to the place of execution; but to his surprise, when he came there, he found his associates, George Sprinkle and John Upp, in the cus- tody of the savage red men, yet alive.

IIere, in full view of the Red Banks, the savages, holding up the yet warm scalps of Peter Sprinkle and Jacob Upp, raised the war whoop and started with their young prisoners, holding fast to Isaac's hand, as they compelled him to run after them. Such was their fearfulness that he would yet escape, that in swimming the bayou, a short distance from the river, one still held him by the hand. On reaching the camp where these savages had lain the preceding night, they put moccasins on the boys, and compel- ling them to follow them or keep up with them, running all day and traveling all night.

In the evening of the first day, one of the boys, John Upp, became so much ex- hausted that he could run no longer. The Indians, with a view to compel him forward, threatened him with their tomahawks; but finding that he could not go, two of them assisted him.

The morning of the second day they came 2*

upon three bears, which the Indians had killed, and in great haste took each a small portion along with him, until they crossed the Pattoka river, and on the bank they stopped for the first time to cook and eat. The boys by this time were much fatigued, and well nigh worn out by means of constant and hard trav. eling. Nothing worthy of note trans- pired until the evening of the third day, when, after making a small fire of sticks, they produced the scalps of the murdered boys, and after cutting the meat out of one of them, carefully put it on sticks before the fire, and cooked it: then, in the presence of the boys, ate it, shaking the remaining scalp at them. This they did, not because they were hungry, but each, that he might thereby say, "I have killed a white man, and eat him." And thus they acquired no little reputation as warriors. The remaining scalps they then stretched on hoops, made for that purpose.

That night they danced the war-dance, and made their young prisoners walk round with them, and would have had them dance, had they not been too much exhausted. This was afterward their regular employment, every other night.

In their route they attempted to cross a stream in a small canoe, which was not more than large enough to carry two men in it; however, one of the Indians conveyed the boys across the creek, and, on striking the opposite bank, George Sprinkle being a lit- tle fearful, and knowing that he could not swim, leaped from the canoe to the bank - on doing which the Indian gave him a blow with his paddle across the back, which in- jured him so seriously that it was with dif- ficulty he ascended the bank.

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History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, from the earliest times to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, etc., Part 3

Author: Publication date: 1889 Publisher: [Madison, Wis.] : Brant & Fuller Number of Pages: 714

Author:
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: [Madison, Wis.] : Brant & Fuller
Number of Pages: 714