History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections, Part 13

Author: Bradsby, Henry C
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : S.B. Nelson & co.
Number of Pages: 1032

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There is something more than an idle whim that, in the centen- nial year of our nation, impelled the President and the congress of the United States to call upon all the counties in the Union to as- semble their early settlers and the descendants of early settlers, and gather the history of the respective counties' settlement and place

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it in permanent form for future generations. It was an attempt to preserve the memories and record of the nation's builders; an effort to render a meed of praise to as worthy a race of men as has ever lived; men of grand and heroic stamp, the pioneers of civilization, who blazed the way and prepared for the coming of civilization.

Who was the first pioneer that came to Vigo county ? Not who was the first white man who visited this spot in the vast wilderness, to trap and hunt or to trade with the red men, but the first white man who was the advance of the people who are here now, who se- lected this spot as the one favored place upon earth where he pro- posed to stick down his Jacob's staff and dwell forever. Who was he or they and when did he or they come? Although only eighty years have come and gone, possibly only seventy-nine years-1811- 1890-yet it is a question already somewhat difficult to determine with absolute certainty, perhaps impossible to ascertain. True, the point is more curious than important, because all who came, say dur- ing the first decade of the settlement of the county, were practically identical in the matter of winning the desert to the homes of their children and we who were to follow them. The first five years, suppose we commence after the Indian attack upon Fort Harrison in 1812, there were not, it is supposed, 300 people all told in what is now Vigo county. And it is only a chance one of these that can now be named. There is a tradition that Michel Brouillett opened a trad- ing-post in this county at the mouth of Brouillett creek, in 1797. By the name of course he was a Frenchman, and a trader with the In- dians. It was not the country probably that attracted him, but the trade that it offered.

The Brouilletts-Michel and Lawrence-it seems became good Americans, and this settlement was of a more permanent character than that of the ordinary French traders. Michel was at one time taken captive by hostile Indians, and they made a holiday for the purpose of torturing and burning him. He was tied to a tree and the fagots prepared, when, at the risk of her own life, an Indian girl interfered and had his sentence changed to that of "running the gauntlet." This was for the squaws and children and squaw-men to stand in two rows and compel the prisoner to run between them, while each one would try to kill him, and ordinarily it was certain death. But Brouillett was strong, active, and so quick that he came out badly wounded, but got away with his life, and afterward mar- ried an American woman, accumulated property and died in Vin- cennes, where he had long made his home.

It was his brother, Lawrence, that made the noted ride on horse- back as a courier from Vincennes to Kaskaskia.

They were good citizens, and some of their descendants are now in Vigo county.

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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

Among those who purchased and improved property in Terre Haute was Michel Brouillett, but on the record, it appears as " Mitchell," a natural mistake. As a rule, however, during the long occupancy of the French of this part of the country, they were at peace with the Indians, and frequently had temporary trad- ing places that they would visit at intervals. Reference to these French couriers and traders at some length is made in preceding chapters. Owing to this fact of the traders being temporarily here long before the permanent settlers came, it caused the question to come up in the shape of-Who turned the first furrow in Vigo coun- ty ? This seemed to be agreed upon as the real point that settled the question among the old settlers themselves, when they came to discuss the matter in late years. It was assumed, no doubt correct- ly, that the man who came and plowed the land did not come as a soldier, trader or explorer, but to make a permanent home.

One authority informs me that Samuel Middleton, Peter Mal- lory and one other, the name unknown, came together in 1810, and on what is now Col. R. W. Thompson's farm, four miles south of the city, " turned the first furrow " ever plowed in Vigo county ; that they broke and planted in corn several acres, and were then driven off by the Indians, and went to Vincennes. The next year Samuel Middleton belonged to Harrison's army that came up and built the fort. Middleton died in 1857. He had located west of Terre Haute just across the line in Illinois. Peter Mallory settled in Fayette township, Vigo county, where he died in 1861, a very old man who retained his mental faculties to the time of his death. My informant says that when he was a lad he had often heard Middleton tell how he had plowed the first furrow in Vigo county. Dr. Swof- ford remembers distinctly of hearing Middleton often tell of this circumstance, and the year it occurred.

In this connection we give the following letter, dated 1875:

Editors Terre Haute Express: I want to correct some mistakes that I see in the columns of the Terre Haute Journal; not that it was the intention of the writer to misrepresent the facts in the case as stated in regard to this account of the death of Thomas Puckett, and of his being classed among the oldest settlers of Vigo county. As this is mentioned as the history of the county, I wish it to be given cor- rect; not that I would in any way detract from Thomas Puckett anything that may be due him as a pioneer, but the true facts in the case are these: That in the year 1811 I turned the first furrow that was turned in what is now called Vigo county, on the road leading from Terre Haute to Lockport, on what is represented as the Dean farm, I, with my father, Edmond Liston, and William Grcar Adams, William Drake, Reuben Moore and Martin Adams, broke, fenced and planted seventy- five acres of corn, and sold the corn raised to Harrison's army, while building the fort near Wabash river. Since that time I have not been absent from Vigo county to exceed four months at any one time. During the said time I was engaged through fear pursuing Indians that werc committing depredations on the settlements below, and in burying the dead that were killed by them. Isaac Lambert, John Dickson, Hudson, Chatrey and Mallory all cultivated the lands under the protec- tion of the fort.

Notwithstanding I was here the time above mentioned, I have no recollection

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of Mr. Puckett being in Vigo county until the year 1816. I believe it is true that he built the house mentioned on the Modisitt lot, in the fall of that year, after the sale of lots in Terre Haute. So far as he being in conjunction with me in break- ing the soil of Vigo county it is a mistake, as we never were in connection with each other in any capacity whatever.

Some time ago I heard that it was proposed to have a meeting of the old citizens; that is, the pioneers of Indiana come together and rchearse incidents of the early settling of the county. The move would please me very much, as I be- lieve that I can give as near or ncarer a true history of the settling of Vigo county as any other man that now lives, for I claim to be the oldest man now living that first settled in Vigo county. I am now (1875) eighty-seven years old on the 23d day of last January, and can read without spectacles, and enjoy as fair health as any one of my age. Of course, according to the course of nature, I can not be here long, and would like to have a visit with the old pioncers of Vigo county.

With good wishes to all, etc.,

(Signed) JOSEPH LISTON.

This, it will be noticed, does not contradict that account given above of Samuel Middleton, Mallory and the unknown, except as to "the first furrow." And even in this the two accounts are not irrec- oncilable. Middleton and companions were driven off in 1810 after their crop was in, and it is not stated when they returned, and they were quite a distance from where the Liston crowd made their settlement. The former may not have returned when the latter came, and therefore Liston had no reason to doubt but that his settlement was the first. In his list that he gives of those who " cultivated lands under the protection of the fort," it would seem that he called up his memory and gave the names of all whom he remembers were here in 1811-outside of the fort, the total population in the coun- ty, and he recalls, in addition to himself, Edmond Liston (his fa- ther ), William Grear Adams, William Drake, Reuben Moore, Martin Adams, Isaac Lambert, John Dickson, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Chatrey and Mr. Mallory. To this list may be added the names of Moses Evans, of whom it is said he came in 1812 to what is now Linton township, in the prairie bearing his name. And about the same time and place came James French, a bell-maker, who made many bells for the Indians, and also a man named Campbell, on the prai- rie east of Prairieton, whose child was stolen by the Indians, and never recovered, although diligent search was made for years.

It has been asserted that George Clem settled in Honey creek township in 1812. This is probably two or three years too soon. He built north of where the State road crosses the creek. He died on his farm in 1835.

This is evidently the same Mallory that was with Samuel Middle- ton. It is possible in the sixty-five years that had elapsed since Jacob Liston came here, his memory may have been at fault in re- gard to Samuel Middleton and the unknown who was with Mallory, whom he mentions. His whole letter shows a remarkable memory, that seized and held its facts like a steele-trap, but we must re- member there was no one he could consult while he was penning

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his letter to see that he had not forgotton to mention some one of the 1811 settlers.

Joseph Liston died in 1875. He came from Ohio to Vigo county on horseback, the same style that many others of the early pioneers came in. His family and all their worldly goods were packed on two horses, the household goods on one horse, and two boys on top of the goods, and this horse was not freighted much heavier than the other one, on which was the wife, with one child strapped on behind, and the other in her lap, while the man on foot, with his rifle on his shoulder, piloted the caravan, and thus "the star of em- pire wends its western way." [In Gookin's history of Vigo county is given a very erroneous account of Liston, which says he came in 1816, and settled in Prairieton township. He had simply removed that year to Prairieton from Fort Harrison prairie .- Ed. ]

Who of these new men had families at that time Liston does not mention. It is much to be regretted that there was no Boswell at the side of this venerable pioneer to have written down the names of the members of each family. There is no doubt that some of them had wives and children, because the next year these women and children were in the fort when the fight occurred in that dread- ful night attack. In the account of that battle especial mention is made of "the screams of women and children" when the fort was on fire and all seemed to be lost. No doubt Mr. Liston could have recalled every chick and child and given the name even of every dog then in Vigo county. It may be that up to 1814 he could have given from memory a complete census of Vigo county. And what a treasure trove this would be now in the story of the Vigo county pioneers!

Then it is in the memory of those living that there was then the Briggs family in the fort, and one of the daughters, at that time a little girl, named Mary Briggs, who married later in life Mr. Wright, was one who helped mold bullets for the soldiers during the fight.

Also that there was another girl there near the same age of Mary Briggs, who helped mold bullets and who afterward married Brotherton, whose sons are still living here. These two girls would clearly indicate there were two families not mentioned by Joseph Liston, who must have settled here in 1811 or 1812. It is sup- posed that George Clem, the first settler in Honey Creek township, came in 1812. He located just north of where the State line crosses the creek, near where George Kruzan lived. Mr. Clem died on his place in 1835. His descendants are among our worthy citizens.

In 1880 Rev. Aaron Wood preached a historical discourse on early Methodism in Vigo county. He said that on Honey creek, as early as 1813, there was a church society, the first in the county.

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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

He says that John Dickson, Isaac Lambert, William Medford, Will- iam Winters and Capt. Hains formed that first society, and held meetings generally in Dickson's cabin. And he mentions Jona- than Graham and wife as being in the fort, where was also John Dickson and wife at the time of the attack in 1812. He mentions Barns, Brown, Ostrander and Wilkins, but does not say that they were here in 1812, yet the inference is they were.

Isaac Lambert settled on Honey creek and made his improve- ment, and had a mill on the creek.

Peter Mallory settled west of the river, in the southeast of Sec- tion 5, 13, 9. He had three sons, Martin, Calvin and Thomas, who removed years ago to the west.

Harold Hays must have been one of the very earliest settlers, as he was a soldier and about here when Harrison built the fort. He died here in 1820, and was buried in the old Indian orchard graveyard, and a modest sandstone marks his grave.

This, perhaps, is very near a complete census of the male inhab- itants who had settled in what is now Vigo county before or during the year 1812. The reasonable inference is that the most of these were young and unmarried men, and all of that kind who were afraid of nothing mortal, but who, in a mere dare-devil spirit, pushed their way here and rather enjoyed the dangers that con- stantly hung over them like a dark shadow. The very few who had their families took the sensible precaution to settle almost within the shadow of the fort. And where they were all men and were three or four miles from the fort, they considered that only a small or short foot-race if the savages came in too great numbers for them to stand their ground.

These were that class of pioneers of which you would find at least two and sometimes three or four men in their log-pen house " keeping bach," that is, during the first few years, doing their own cooking and washing.

As permanent settlers their footing was very uncertain; they were for years always ready to move at once when they saw danger. They could take all they had except the truck growing in their little patch farms, and still they would be literally flying light. They had nimble legs and nimbler wits, as well as keen eyes and a true and steady aim along their old long, black, flint-lock rifles. They welcomed the Indian when he came in friendship, and when he was hungry divided their scant stores with him and let him depart in peace. But when he came in his war-paint it was very different, and the bravest of them well knew that he could not get within range to kill the white man without being discovered and the fore- most surely killed, and then the white man, although as one to a hun- dred, would outwit them and escape with his life, to rally his com-

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panions, perhaps, to swoop down on the marauders and strike them without mercy.

Christmas Dazney was born at the Old Orchard in 1797, on Christmas day, of course, but he was a half-breed-half French and half Indian. His father was a Frenchman, a trader, in Kaskaskia, who married a squaw.

Christmas Dazney became a good white man, and was faithful to the Americans in the war of 1812-15, and in all the troubles of that time with the Indians. He became a citizen of what is now Parke county, where the government, for his loyal services, gave him a section of land. He married and raised a family, and sold his land and went with the Indians when they were removed to Kansas. After his death his widow married an Indian named Peoria, and as the Indians pronounced this "Paolia," from this comes the name of Paola, Kas.

This was the start of immigration into Vigo county. That was stopped in the year 1812, and for three years there were few, if any, additions to the population. The controlling causes of this break in the stream were two, namely: The fall of the year 1812 was noted as "the sickly season." In Gen. Taylor's account of the fight in the fort he speaks of this as the most discouraging part of the situa- tion of the garrison. This was more dreaded and more effective in its attack upon the soldier than the painted warriors. An epidemic fever appeared to prevail all over the country.

This, no doubt, had its influence, but the far stronger reason was the breaking out of the war of 1812-15, between England and America. This immediate locality was the seat of war; that is, the English had gone among the tribes of Indians and had used every induce- ment to bribe them to raise their tomahawks and strike the Ameri- cans. The unsettled conditions of war were such that from 1812 to 1815 there is now no evidence that there was any increase in the immigration to what is now Vigo county during those three years. There is no evidence there was any new arrival as a settler, and the probabilities are there was none. Joseph Liston says that he was out of the county " through war" during four months after he " plowed the first furrow in Vigo." The Indians, acting in concert with the English, had made some incursions south of this, and it was in aiding to repel these that Liston and probably the most of those he mentions as being with him were temporarily out of the county.

While the war of 1812-15 caused a cessation of the little stream of immigrants, it also interrupted those pursuits of peace, making farms and raising crops, of the few that were here. It is probably, therefore, safe to estimate that the first five years in the history of the settlement of Vigo county, 1810-15, there were not twenty-five

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actual settlers. This is a very small, but a very select list of the pioneers. Surely it is important enough to deserve, in the history of Vigo county, a separate chapter to itself.

Joseph Liston lived to a great age, beneficently spared to watch over the growth of Vigo county. He died on his farm at the ad- vanced age of ninety-four years. And standing at the head of his newly-made grave, his panegyrist pronounced Joseph Liston the father of Vigo county. His death occurred at his home in Pierson township September 12, 1875, leaving, in the language of his obituary notice, " a legion of relatives and friends to mourn his loss." He was a native of Kentucky, born nine months prior to the surrender of Yorktown. He had lived to see his great-grand- children married, and some of his own children looking as venera- ble as himself. But few lives in all times covered such an era in the world's history, and fewer still were a part and partaker of events of such transcendent importance. He was a soldier of the war of 1812-15 with England. He had been a soldier under Gen. Harrison when Fort Harrison was made a garrison. He was a private under Capt. Toussant Dubois, Col. Thomas Scott, against the Indians of Prophet's Town. He was also under Capt. Corne- lius Washburn, with Gen. Hopkins' expedition against the Peoria Indians in 1812. In all his military career he acquitted himself bravely and well. For these services he was given 160 acres of land and was in receipt of a pension of $8 a month at the time of his death. He married Louisiana Lloyd, his second wife, in Sulli- van county, July 10, 1845, who survives him.

It will be remembered that in his account of the first furrow plowed in Vigo county, he mentioned Martin Adams as being with him. At an old settlers' meeting in Terre Haute, in 1875, this man, among others, was present, and Martin Adams said: "I was born in Mercer county, Ky., near McAfee's station. I came with my father in 1809 to the place I now live in, in Clark county. On the way we stopped at Curry's prairie; there we met Joseph Liston, Drake and others deliberating whether they would come to Fort Harrison prairie. They were in fear of hostile Indians. We were receiving dispatches [by hand ] daily from Gen. Harrison as to his treaty that was unfavorable to peace. Joseph Liston said if any one would join he would go. The two Adamses, Drake, my father and myself joined him, and we came with three wagons. This was in April. That spring I saw Joseph Liston plow the first furrow in the beautiful prairie. * * My father plowed that spring where now the eastern portion of the city of Terre Haute is built I can only determine its location as being west of a creek [Lost creek ] that disappeared on the prairie [in the swamp] and was west of the timber that lined the Wabash river. His plowing was

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for the Miami Indians and I did the driving for him. There were two villages of Indians here at that time pretty close together ; one was on a high rise that overlooked the river. The squaws were very much delighted at the style we plowed the ground; the reason they were amused was because if we had not done the work they would have to do it. Out on the edge of the prairie we built our huts and enjoyed ourselves when not at work cutting bee trees."

This is conclusive testimony of the manner how the Liston set- tlement came, and it will be seen that these were all influenced by Joseph Liston. He was the ruling spirit. He knew the beautiful grounds, and for them he was anxious to brave the dangers from the savages " if any one wold join him."

There is pregnant history in every word uttered by Martin Adams in his talk to the old settlers, and, to our infinite regret, he closed his remarks with the sentence: "I could give my personal experience, but that would not interest you." Never did mortal man make a greater mistake. This was exactly what posterity will always regret that he did not give. His "personal experiences " were the very beginning of the history of Vigo county.

Liston not only plowed the first furrow, but built the first cabin in Vigo county. It was floored and roofed with white walnut bark. An ax, knife, tomahawk or hatchet were his chief tools. His entire household goods were a kettle, two cups and two stools. The bedding was chiefly the clothes the family wore during the day. His constant dangers and hair-breadth escapes were many. After Fort Harrison was built he would often, when danger ap- proached, take all to it. He was trusted by Harrison, and often sent to reconnoiter the Indian camps and report upon their doings and contemplated raids. He could slip around and watch the movements of these red men unseen and then fly to the fort and to warn the people of coming attacks.

Mr. Crist, who knew him well, after his death wrote of him: " Often have I heard this gray-haired man say-and I have thought with much truth- that ' people of this day and country could not be made to appreciate what labor and hardships the present luxuries cost the early pioneer.' "

At this meeting was Mrs. Sallie Brokaw, aged seventy-two years, who was born in Vincennes in 1804. Her mother came to the Wabash valley with Gen. Harrison.

On this occasion Capt. T. C. Buntin was drawn almost by force to the stand and there addressed the old settlers substantialy as follows in reference to the Buntin family: "He regretted the ab- sence of his sister, a sprightly young widow, residing in Indianapo- lis, who was born at Vincennes in 1776, and is to-day in the posses- sion of all her faculties. I intended to exhibit her as a well-

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preserved relic of the last century." He then gave an account of the troubles borne by his family. His mother was a Shannon, the daughter of an adventurous Irishman. The captain's grandfather left the settlement, went west and was never heard of afterward. The Indians were then friendly with the French, but massacred and robbed all others. A party of hostile Indians attacked the Shan- non cabin, where was his grandmother and her three children, the two elder daughters having gone away on a visit (one of these became the wife of Col. Francis Vigo), Capt. Buntin's mother was one of these three children at home, and was at that time about seven years old. The Indians killed the mother, then the babe in the cradle, and the two little girls were running, trying to escape, when they were overtaken, and the younger was tomahawked and fell dead by her sister's side. Mrs. Buntin had, in the French fashion, a blue cloth tied around her head, and the tomahawk was raised to strike her, when in French the child happened to exclaim " Oh Mon Dieu!" The blue cloth and this exclamation saved her life, the Indians believed she was French. They hurried away, leaving this little girl alone with her dead mother and sisters. During all that day she trudged along trying to find some house where she could gain entrance. The people were all French, and though friendly enough disposed were deaf to her appeals to be taken in. They were afraid it would offend the savages. At last she was received into a house by a man who could not withstand the appeal, and she remained in the protection of this good family until she was fifteen years of age when she married Mr. Buntin.

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History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections, Part 13

Author: Bradsby, Henry C Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago : S.B. Nelson & co. Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Bradsby, Henry C
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : S.B. Nelson & co.
Number of Pages: 1032