History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections, Part 9

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

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HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

to our country and the pecuniary aid he has rendered it or simply receiving a public acknowledgment of it by the government," had no hesitation in expressing the belief that he would not hesitate a moment "in choosing the latter."

Judge Burnet said of liim: "I believe him to be as honorable and high-minded a man as any other in the western country."

Nathaniel Ewing says: "He is a man of the strictest integrity and honor."

But it is useless to add, as might be done, to these individual tributes to the worth of the man. The whole of the liberty-loving world knew Francis Vigo, "the Spanish Merchant," the friend of America, and his great sacrifices and his great labors in her behalf, and that, too, in the darkest hour in which "fate assumed the most menacing aspect."

Age and sickness and poverty had compelled this man to humble himself to beg of his adopted country to render unto him that meed of justice that our country's self-respect should have impelled it to have hunted this man out over the wide globe, to have forced upon him everything in its power, as inadequate as the utmost would have been, as a part of the just recompense so abundantly due. But is it not true that nothing can be more ungrateful than, at times, one's country ?

The dear old man lived on, his life dragged out, it would seem, that he might see the growth and glory of the great States of Illinois and Indiana filled with a happy and prosperous people and villages and towns start into existence where he had traveled in the wilder- ness and camped and traded with the savages and gone on danger- ous missions in behalf of the country. On every hand he saw the ripening fruits where he had mostly helped to plant, and the young and joyous generation reaping in the golden fields, while his dry crust was not sweetened by even the public acknowledgment of the government of how he had helped to do all this, much less any earnest attempt to repay the actual outlay he had advanced to its heroic little army of the west. In the long course of time the claim passed from attorney to attorney, from one agent to another. Seven times house committees reported favorably on it; twice sen- ate committees did the same, and against its payment no man in the world ever suggested a negative.

December 16, 1835, Mr. John H. Smith, commissioner of Revolutionary claims of Virginia, made a report embracing the following:

First. That Francis Vigo was "The Spanish Merchant" as he has been called by way of honorable distinction, who was renowned for his integrity, liberality and benevolence as well as his firm friendship for and disinterested and efficient sup- port of Virginia in the war of the Revolution.

Second. That being the subject of a foreign power, he warmly espoused the

HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

cause of the colonies against the mother country, and made large sacrifices in sup- porting the western troops of Virginia.

Third. That the bill referred to (for $8,616) remained in his possession until he suffered with a long and severe illness, commencing in 1802 and continuing several years, when he handed over the said bill to Judge Jacob Burnet, of Ohio, to obtain something, if possible, from Virginia upon it.

Fourth. That the said bill was drawn for supplies actually furnished to the Illinois regiment, under the command of Gen. G. R. Clarke, by said Francis Vigo.

Fifth. That the said amount remains at this day unsatisfied and due to the said Francis Vigo.

Continuing, he further says:

It gives me pleasure to be able to make a favorable adjustment, and to ascer- tain the sum of moncy due from Virginia to a man who has rendered the most im- portant services to his adopted country, and who, if his neighbors who are among the most distinguished men in the part of the United States where he resides, are to be believed, is one of the most upright and honorable of men.

This report had been delayed nearly half a century from the time of the original transactions. But it did not at once secure the payment of the long deferred claim. It must at all events have been encouraging news to the dying old patriot. For nearly a gen- eration he had already passed the alotted time of man on the earth.

Just one year before Commissioner Smith made his report, Col. Vigo made his last will and testament, December 9, 1834. In it appears the following clause:

WHEREAS, The county of Vigo has been named after me, and I feel toward it and its citizens a great degree of esteem and affection for many favors conferred and services rendered me, especially by the inhabitants of Terre Haute, it is my will, wish and desire and earnest request that if the claim aforesaid is recovered and the amount due me paid to my executors, that they, or some one of them, shall pay out of the sum $500 to the county of Vigo, to be laid out by the commissioners of said county, or in such other mode as shall be deemed most desirable by said county, in the purchase of a bell for the court-house of said county, on which shall be inscribed, "Presented by Francis Vigo."

It is, however, understood that in case said claim is not recovered, that said money is not to be paid, and the receipt of the treasurer of Vigo county for the sum, when paid to my executors, shall be binding and good against any said residu- ary legatee, and a good and sufficient discharge to said executors, or either of them, for the sum aforesaid paid as aforesaid. And it is my will that said executors, their survivors or survivor, join with the said John Law, Albert T. Ellis and Luther H. Reed, Esq., in prosecuting the claim which I have on the State of Virginia, under the contract made with these gentlemen, should it become necessary to do so, and that he or they do everything which I might or could do for such purpose and so far as is deemed necessary or advisable.

The people of Vigo county extended to the venerable Colonel a most cordial invitation to visit them on July 4, 1832. He was then ninety-two years of age, but gladly accepted the invitation, and came on his last visit to a people he loved so well, and was their honored guest at the joyous reception given him. The entire com- munity greeted him cordially and accorded to him every honor posi- ble to bestow, and from the kindly old face they were richly repaid by the beaming pleasure that lighted it up and brightened again his eyes. He had now despaired of, in his lifetime, if ever, the Government doing ought in acknowledgment of his claim, and it

HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

was, no doubt, that on this, his last visit to those alone, of all the world, who had given him such generous evidences of their appre- ciation of his life and deeds in their behalf, that it entered his mind to insert in his will the clause in reference to the court-house bell. In his dying hour he must have felt that here was at least a people freely extending to him all in their power to make amends for that long neglect of the country to do exact and even justice.

He died in Vincennes, March 22, 1836, aged ninety-six years.

In his poorly-appointed sick-room a great and good man lay dy- ing. He had grown long since accustomed to that depreciation that is so severe to old age and poor and feeble health-patiently and serenely amid these evidences of poverty he felt his life slowly passing away, and yet no murmur of complaint escaped him. When he was rich and the country that owed him so much was very poor, he gave so munificently, without the asking; nay, more, he left his home and country and came to the young nation in its darkest hour, and upon its altars placed his fortune and life. Now all was changed. The young nation had grown great, powerful and rich, and he was old, feeble, poor, childless and dying, having out- lived his own blood and near friends, having outlived his generation and times by many years, having outlived all except the cold neglect, if not ingratitude, of his country.

In accordance with the direction in his will, his attorneys and executors pushed the collection of the claim. Without going into the miserable details of this protracted struggle, suffice it to say that after the lapse of nearly one hundred years judgment was at last obtained in the court of claims for the debt and interest, amounting to nearly $50,000. Time then had ceased to be of any importance in the case. Vigo was dead; lawyer after lawyer had worn out his life in the case and passed it to younger hands, and now there was nothing except the public sense and the coming historian to spur the authorities to ever arrive at a conclusion at all.

Was the judgment promptly paid when finally obtained? Oh, no! It was appealed to the supreme court, because in the judg- ment was included interest on the original amount. One of our barbarous legal fictions is that the government is always ready to pay its debts, and therefore, unless in the bond, it must pay no in- terest. The case of Col. Vigo is a fine satire upon this dogma- this silly fiction that is a fit companion-piece to that of "The king can do no wrong." The ruler can do no wrong-the people can do no right-has been the grievous burden of every civilization. It is the truth reversed. Such a sacred debt as that of Vigo's was resisted for a hundred years and then strong resistance to paying a small interest thereon, and in the meantime the plunderers of the public treasury had clutched in their large and grimy hands hundreds of millions.

HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

To the credit of the supreme court a point was strained and the judgment, with interest, paid. It afforded the representatives of the estate no little pleasure to carry out the direction of the will in reference to the court-house bell in Vigo County, where it is now, from its tall cupola, with its deep, musical tones, clanging so merrily each passing hour. For one I can say I never hear its deep notes floating out upon the air but it comes to me like the glad voice of the departed: "PRESENTED BY FRANCIS VIGO." ___ " ALL'S WELL!"

CHAPTER VI.

VIGO COUNTY. ITS ANCIENT OWNERS AND CHANGES.

L ET us suppose, dear reader, that you had been here when Co- lumbus came and found this continent, and further suppose that you had lived on to the present, and have changed in your ap- pearance and nature, as have the generations that came and passed away from that time to the present hour, and had now sat down to tell a bevy of children the story of your eventful and changing life. It would tax your memory certainly, but as you proceeded, even you would become more and more interested in the narrative.

Commencing with your earliest recollections as a little papoose strapped to a heavy piece of bark and leaned up against a great tree that stood near the bank of the river, about the center of now Main street, Terra Haute; then your school days, when you were carried down to the river and thrown in and taught to swim before you could walk, and then you passed on to the high school and learned to use the bow and arrow, rob birds' nests, capture the birds and torture them to death slowly, and then learn to hunt and kill large game, and that you graduated into a big man when you hunted, tortured, killed and scalped men, and how you became a great chief, because you had more scalps to your belt than any other candidate in that election campaign; then when you were a very old Indian, and had eaten a great many of the poor fellows you had slipped up on and killed, and your teeth had fairly worn out over your great feasts of men and. dogs, and your arms had grown too weak to longer draw the strong bow or throw the deadly stone hatchet, that there came to Terre Haute one day some white men, and showed you their beautiful glass beads, and fireguns and pow-

HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

der, and gave you a drink of their fire-water. After drinking the fire-water you went to sleep, and napped somewhat longer than did " Rip Van Winkle," and when you woke up it was the year 1540, and you were then a Spaniard, again a boy, and your chief and fa- vorite diet was macaroni, with a deep and abiding faith in the effi- cacy of the inquisition to regulate the morals and religious senti- ment of all mankind. You were a loyal subject of Spain then, because Columbus had discovered the continent, and twenty- eight years after his arrival other Spaniards had landed and pushed west to the Mississippi, and as there were then no other white claimants to Vigo county this was all included in the "find." The whole world then must have been boys, because you know a boy claims everything he finds, and if a bad boy, is ready to fight for it. As the first Spaniard settler in what is now Vigo County, you were quietly dieted on noodle soup from 1540 to 1702 or 162 years. This long rest given you arose from the fact that at that time tlie principal industry in Europe was fighting out their big holy wars. You see the people did not know what all the fighting and killing each other was about, but it was taken for granted that their dear and be- loved kings did, and this faith in the wisdom and goodness of the king was often strengthened in the darkest hour, by his being an infant, an imbecile, crazy or killing himself in some of his nightly orgies by eating and drinking too much. As a Vigoan you would read about these great wars in Europe, and you, from your memories in the scalp trade, would conclude that in the course of time the Old World would become nearly as civilized as your people were when you were a happy and innocent papoose and a cannibal with a good appetite. In 1702, just when you were getting to be a very old Span- iard, and was really getting very tired of a constant diet of maca- roni, you woke up one morning and lo, and behold, you were a Frenchman, with a nice mess of frogs for breakfast. A change of cooks and diet is good for the appetite and health, and now you went back in your life and was a rollicking devil-may-care courier des bois, nearly as wild and naked as when you were a well-grown papoose on the banks of the Wabash. As a loyal Vigoan you changed your allegiance from Spain to France, and of all the kings and potentates in the world you preferred that sensuous and most beastly of men, Louis XV., and thought he was a paragon of per- fection. You accepted the appointment as a local agent of the fur traders, and soon had a wife in every tribe that patronized your store. You made some good land trades when you " dickered " a bottle of awful whisky for two or three adjoining States. In time your county town was moved from Paris, France, to Quebec, but as much handier as this made it, you did not bother to go there to get your license in any of your marriages with the natives. You owed

HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

as you knew, allegiance to France or Canada, but you obeyed the more convenient law of the natives about marrying or getting divorces.

Then there came many years in which it was doubtful whether what is now Vigo county belonged to the province of Canada or to Louisiana. Both sides belonged to France, but in defining the territory between the two provinces it was doubtful just where the line ran. It bothered you to be a Blue-nose and a Creole at the same time.

Vincennes from its foundation to the close of the French occu- pation belonged to the province of Louisiana. Fort Chartres was the seat of government of the district of New Orleans and the prov- ince. Fort Quiatanon on the upper Wabash belonged to Canada, and was under the control of the commandant at Detroit, and the dividing line was somewhere between Vincennes and Ouiatanon. Du Pratz says: "The dividing line between Louisiana and Canada was not very well ascertained. It is of little importance to dispute here about the limits of these two neighboring colonies as they both appertain to France." But this was of great importance to you as a good Vigoan. You could not be forever worried and distressed with doubts on the subject of where you should record your " marks and brands " or get your saloon license, or persuade the sheriff to summon you on the grand jury. When you had about determined to bring it as a leading question into the next election, in the year 1732, the dividing line was definitely fixed, running east and west on the center of Main street, Terre Haute, through the county. Thus what is now Vigo county was divided on that line. The line passed east and west through the county, through Terre Haute and through the center of your cabin then standing in the center of now Main street. This was the first case in the county of a " house divided against itself" and it did not stand. In describing this line Terre Haute is called " the Highlands of the Wabash."

You well remember what a dilemna you were in in the year 1736, when there came a call to arms from the Louisiana side to fight the Natchez and Chickasaw Indians and the English fur traders. Vin- cennes, the first ruler in Indiana, was then in command of Port Vincennes, and he obeyed the call and went with forty Iroquois to the war, and was killed, and the king appointed Louis St. Ange to the command at Port Vincennes. But you got along fairly well as part Canuck and part Creole, and as you were not certain to which you really owed obedience you compromised by no decided fealty to either.

But November 29, 1760, Montreal capitulated and Canada be- came English. Do you remember that day reading the dispatches that you were now half French and half English, a sure enough

HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

" alf an' alf." This division was getting to be serious, and you felt that you were liable to have some trouble with yourself. What is now the county of Vigo, even Terre Haute, your cabin and even yourself were divided in halves by the line between England and France. Fortunately only three years were allowed to elapse with you in this divided uncertainty, when in the treaty between the two countries all the territory east of the Mississippi was surrendered to England.

You could readily adjust yourself to being an Englishman, and you were greatly pleased to have restored the unity of the whole of the territory of Vigo county. In less than a year, however, there arose new complications. The English had bought "a pig in a poke." A great conspiracy was formed among the Indians, and in 1761 they determined to drive off the English and repossess the country. This uprising was discovered in time and frustrated. But in the spring of 1763, the greatest of all the Indian chiefs, Pontiac, formed an Indian confederacy and took armed possession of the northwest. Then all this Ohio valley for two years was un- der the control of Pontiac, and while you were supposing yourself, on the quiet when any of Pontiac's men were visiting you, a loyal British subject, yet England at best had no more real authority here then than she had around the north pole. Consequently the French officers had to remain at their posts to await the arrival of the English to whom they were ordered to surrender them. And Pontiac had closed "the glorious gate " to Wabash, the route by which they would come. In 1765 Lieut. Fraser was permitted to pass down the Ohio on a mission of conciliation to Pontiac's forces, but after a brief stay he was glad to escape down the Mississippi. He was followed soon after by Croghan, down the Ohio, who was captured near the mouth of the Wabash by a party of Kickapoos, who carried him a prisoner up the Wabash to Fort Quitanon. Fort- unately he found the Weas quite friendly, and he was treated kindly and had much freedom, and he was soon entertained as an honored guest, on fresh dog garnished with lizards. He was turned loose and permitted to leave; passing down the Wabash he met Pontiac, and after they had talked matters over Pontiac finally agreed to accept the English Great Father in lieu of the French Great Father and cease hostilities. He and Croghan then together passed up the river, stopped at Terre Haute and told the news that the war was over, and this part of the country was English.

October 10, 1765, St. Ange, commandant at Vincennes and Fort Chartres, delivered his command formally to Capt. Sterling, of the Forty-second Highlanders-the famous "Black Watch," and in this manner Vigo county passed under English rule.

You had no serious trouble further, and now was quite English,

HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

you know, and flattered yourself that matters were permanently settled. But in 1778 a new face came suddenly over affairs, by the appearance of Gen. George Rogers Clarke and Francis Vigo, as rebels against England. You must remember how you proposed to keep up an "armed neutrality" in this affair until after Vin- cennes fell, and then you became an original rebel. Your long previous life had finely adapted you to, not only sudden, but radical changes in your politics and allegiance. In 1779 you headed a call for a ratification meeting over the glory of what is now Vigo county, becoming a part of Illinois county, Va. June 20, 1790, under Gov. St. Clair, Knox county was formed, which included all the country between Hamilton and St. Clair counties from the Ohio to the British line on the lakes.

Resume .- Our school children should be familiar with "the chain of title" to the lands in Vigo county. It is a part of the history of the locality. It is the important eras in our history, simplified into the story of how the possession and ownership of the land we occupy has come down to us. The following is a short and yet a lucid statement of the facts:

When America was discovered by the Europeans, the lands of Vigo county and vicinity were occupied by the Miami Indians and their kindred tribes. Whether they gained possession by inherit- ance, by purchase, or by conquest none can tell.

By right of discovery England claimed the central portions of America "from sea to sea " and made grants to Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut with such indefinite western boundaries that each claimed an interest in the territory northwest of the Ohio river. France claimed the valley of the river St. Lawrence and the " wilderness world westward and southward to its uttermost bounds." Spain claimed the regions along the Gulf of Mexico with indefinite northern boundaries.

France first occupied the region northwest of the river Ohio, establishing trading posts and missionary stations. Later English colonists crossed the mountains for the purpose of occupying this territory. The struggle between the French and English to enforce their rival claims culminated in what is known as the " French and Indian " war. After the close of this war, by the treaty of Paris in 1763, the king of France ceded to his Britannic majesty, in full right, Canada with all its dependencies, including the region north- west of the Ohio.

During the war of the Revolution, Virginia troops under George Rogers Clarke conquered this territory from England and occupied the military posts. At the close of this war, by the treaty of peace concluded at Paris in 1783, his Britannic majesty relinquished to the United States all claims to the government and territorial

HISTORY OF VIGO COUNTY.

rights of the same and every part thereof, including the territory northwest of the river Ohio, the Mississippi river having been made the western boundary despite the claims of Spain and protests of France.

The United States or the several States have a clear title to all the lands described in the boundary lines of the treaty, subject only to the Indian right of occupancy. [Vol. VIII, Wheaton's United States Reports. See the United States Statutes at Large, Vol. I, page 465, for similar decisions. ]

The title of the general Government was further subject to the claims of certain individual States.

By an act of congress passed September 6, 1780, the States preferring claims to lands in the western territory were recom- mended to cede the same to the general Government for the good of the Union. In accordance with this recommendation New York in 1781, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts in 1785, and Connecticut in 1786, ceded their claims to the northwest territory to the general Government, Virginia and Connecticut making certain reserva- tions, not including what is now Vigo county.

Immediately after the conclusion of the treaty with Great Britain, congress undertook measures for acquiring the Indian title to the northwest territory. George Rogers Clarke and others were appointed to proclaim peace, and to treat with the tribes of this region. At Fort McIntosh, January 21, 1785, they concluded a treaty with the Delaware, Chippewa and other Indian tribes, by which certain lands in Ohio were ceded to the United States.

The territory northwest of the river Ohio was organized in 1787, and Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor and min- ister of Indian affairs. At Fort Hamar, January 9, 1789, Gov. St. Clair concluded a treaty with the Delawares, Pottawattamies, and other tribes, by which the treaty of Fort McIntosh was confirmed, and all lands east, south and west thereof claimed by said tribes were relinquished to the United States. At Greenville August 3, 1795, Gen. Anthony Wayne concluded a treaty of peace with the Miamis, Delawares, Pottawattamies, Eel Rivers and other tribes, by which old boundary lines were confirmed and several tracts of land within the boundaries of Indiana were ceded to the United States.

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History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections, Part 9

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