USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
MIAMIS AND POTTAWATOMIES RELIEVED
When the British burned and evacuated Detroit, at the approach of Harrison in 1813, the starving and miserable Miamis found themselves deserted and obliged to sue the victorious Americans for peace. In October of that year, an armistice was entered into at Detroit, and in the following January both the Miamis and the Pottawatomies who had been in arms against the United States assembled at Fort Wayne. There were about a thousand of the Miamis, seven hundred of whom were women and children, and perhaps half as many Pottawatomies. All were in extreme destitution. As a preliminary to more cordial feelings, the Government supplied the warriors with sufficient ammunition for their hunting parties, with half rations of meat and flour, while the women
53
.
54
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
and children were furnished with a small allowance of provisions regularly.
CAPTAIN CHARLEY, THE FAITHFUL MIAMI
The Second Treaty of Greenville was held in the following July. One of the most conspicuous figures in its deliberations was the principal chief of the Eel River tribes of Miamis, Captain Charley. From the first he had been a firm friend and supporter of the American cause and at the Greenville assemblage refused to bind himself to remain neutral in the war against Great Britain. So, although peace was made with other members of the old Miami confederation upon that basis, he refused to renounce his allegiance to the United States. With a large number of his warriors, Captain Charley set out with General Cass for Detroit in the following August, leaving the women and children at Greenville to be supported at Government expense.
It is from this staunch Miami that Charley Creek is named, as well as an addition to the town of Wabash.
THE MIAMIS COMPLETELY SUBDUED
As a tribe, the Miamis never violated the Second Treaty of Green- ville. The decisive affair of the Mississinewa, their desertion by the British at Detroit and their subsequent relief by the Americans, coupled perhaps with their weakness as a fighting force, seem to have com- pletely subdued them.
The Eel River formed the natural boundary between the Miamis and Pottawatomies. North of that stream the Pottawatomies held sway as late as 1826 and were, in later years, superior to the Miamis in num- bers, and respected accordingly. The Pottawatomies frequently evinced a longing to exterminate the Miamis, even after the last Greenville treaty, but the interference of the Government prevented open hostilities.
BIG MIAMI RESERVE (1818)
Undoubtedly it was their fear of the Pottawatomies which induced the few remaining chiefs of the Miamis to request the United States Government to fix the bounds of their lands. A treaty was coneluded with the Pottawatomies on the 2nd of October, 1818, and four days later Gov. Jonathan Jennings of Ohio, Gen. Lewis Cass and Judge Ben- jamin Parke, U. S. Commissioners, met the chiefs and head men of the Miamis at the headwaters of the St. Mary's River in Ohio. There was
1
(
55
IIISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
concluded the Treaty of St. Mary's which created the Thirty Mile Re- serve for the protection of the Miamis. The lands were located south of the Wabash River, the northern boundary or base being a line drawn between the mouths of the Salamonie River, in Wabash County, and the Eel River, in Cass County-a distance of about thirty miles. This was to determine the three other sides of the reservation, which was therefore nearly nine hundred miles square. It will thus be seen that a considerable portion of what is now Wabash County was the northeastern corner of the Miami Reserve. Opposite its northeastern point, at the mouth of the Salamonie, was the old Indian town of La Gro, called after an Indian chief by the name of La Gros, who resided there for many years.
THE INDIAN MILL ON MILL CREEK
The second clause of the fifth article of the 1818 treaty reads thus : "The United States will cause to be built for the Miamis one grist mill and one saw mill, at such sites as the chiefs of the nation may select and will provide and support one blacksmith and one gunsmith for them, and provide them with such implements of agriculture as the proper agent may think necessary."
"Notwithstanding," says Haekleman, "that there were as fine mill streams within the limits of this reservation as any in the state of In- diana, yet, strange to say, these Indian chiefs chose a site for the pro- posed mill on a little wet-weather creek, which now bears the name of Mill Creek, some four miles southwest of the present city of Wabash. And the mill was built on this site in the year 1819 or 1820, under the ageney of Benjamin Level. The main building was primitive, being made of hewed logs. Lewis Davis was appointed the first miller and continued in that capacity for five or six years."
After the treaty of October 6, 1818, the Mamis remained in the un- interrupted possession of this large reservation for a period of twenty years, excepting a small strip of land on the west end which was sold to the United States Government at the treaty held at the forks of the Wabash October 23, 1834.
But the first steps had already been taken toward the settlement by whites of the undisputed Indian country, occupied chiefly by the Miamis and Pottawatomies, which embraced the territory within the present limits of Wabash County. Although the mill was primarily established for the benefit of the Indians, it was the first fixed evidence of civiliza- tion marking the advance of the white race in the county.
0
56
IHISTORY OF WABASHI COUNTY
WANTED: INDIAN LANDS
Within a few years it became evident to the Government that the Miami Reservation was too large and select a traet of land to be denied industrious, ambitious, intelligent white men who were pressing west- ward through all the country northwest of the Ohio toward the Missis- sippi. Title also must be acquired to the more northern lands of the Pottawatomies.
Preparatory to a conference with these tribes, early in the month of October, 1826, Gen. John Tipton, Indian agent, resident of Fort Wayne, with Joseph Barron, interpreter on behalf of the United States, James HI. Kintner and others, made a tour of inspection through the reserve with a view of deciding upon some suitable place at which to confer with the Indians for the purchase of their lands. The result of this inspection was the selection of the spot near Paradise Springs, on the banks of the Wabash in the eastern part of what is now the city. The prosaic, but very useful shops of the Big Four Railroad, now cover the site of what were so long known as the Treaty Grounds.
General Tipton appears to have been specially delegated to select the site and ereet the necessary building for holding the conference. His final decision was determined by the presence of Paradise Springs, which spouted out of a hillside for several feet, furnishing an abundance of pure water for all the possible negotiators.
The commissioners selected to treat with the Indians were Gov. James B. Ray, Gen. Lewis Cass and General Tipton. A company of soldiers, commanded by Capt. Frederick R. Kintner, was ordered to report to General Tipton on the Upper Wabash. the same to act as a guard for the parties at the coming treaty.
For some time, therefore, the general was busy preparing for the accommodation of those who were to participate in the treaties. A plot of ground was surveyed at the foot of the hill, probably 150 feet square, with a little rivulet from the spring running through the eastern part. Three log cabins were built on the north side of the square for the commissioners-the most easterly one for Governor Ray, the middle one for General Cass, and that on the west for General Tipton himself. These buildings were probably thirty feet apart. One cabin was built on the west line of the square for the accommodation of the soldiers, and three or four on the south line for the storage and trading of goods. The cook house stood near the ravine in the northeast corner and the vouneil house near the middle of the east side of the square. Thus the scenery was set for the treaties of October, 1826.
By the time the buildings and grounds were ready, the Pottawatomies
57
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
and Miamis, to the number of several hundred, were eneamped on both sides of the Wabash. The soldiers kept gnard around the square at the Treaty Grounds. A number of conferences were held between the com- missioners and representatives of the two tribes before the final sign- ing of the treaties-by the Pottawatomies October 16th, and the Miamis, October 23rd. To shorten a long story of trading, and diekering, and general scheming for advantages, which have always accompanied all such gatherings, the treaty of 1826 opened to white settlers the eastern part of Wabash County south of the Wabash River and all land lying between the Wabash and Eel rivers. The Miamis were still to oeenpy the territory south of the Wabash and east of a line drawn south from the mouth of the Salamonie River, and the Pottawatomies, that north of Eel River.
The best and, so far as we know, the only complete account of the 1826 treaties, was written by James M. Ray, of Indianapolis, more than fifty years after its occurrence. He tells the story thus graphically : "At the treaty held near the town of Wabash, at the site afterward called the Treaty Ground, with the Pottawatomie and Miami Indians, in the fall of 1826, Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan, Governor James B. Ray of Indiana, and General John Tipton of Fort Wayne, United States Indian agent, were the United States Commissioners. Colonel Marshall of Lawrence County, Indiana, had been selected as secretary of the commission, but as his health disabled him from attending I was appointed assistant secretary, and discharged the duties of his position in his stead. William Conner of Indiana, and his brother, Henry Con- ner of Detroit, and others, were sworn as United States interpreters.
POTTAWATOMIES NAME GOVERNOR RAY
"The Pottawatomies were present in inumbers of several hundred from the north part of the state toward Lake Michigan, while the Miamis living along and beyond the Wabash under their chief, Richardville, were more limited in numbers, although much more familiar with the progress of the whites than the former tribe, who manifested much more of the wild and savage Indian temper. Early in the gathering, the officers of the commission were invited to meet the chiefs of the northern tribe at their camp for mutual introduction. When seated around the conneil fire the chiefs inquired as to the names of the members of the commission. The recognized Indian titles previously given to Governor Cass and General Tipton were known, and when to their inquiry as to the name of Governor Ray of Indiana, they were told it was Ray, they shook their heads, intimating that they could attach no meaning to it.
58
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
William Conner, one of the interpreters, explained that it signified the first dawn of the morning, when the chiefs, conferring, gave him the title of Wau-sa-augh, after which a pipe of peace was filled, lighted and passed around successively for a puff from each one present.
"The session of the treaty (preceding the actual signing of articles) lasted for weeks, during which, on several occasions a large public coun- eil of all the Indians of each tribe were present, and various discussions occurred between some of the chiefs and the commissioners, through the interpreters, at the council house which had been erected for that pur- pose. I observed, however, that Chief Richardville, of the Miamis, was seldom present at the councils, or, if there, made few speeches, the real progress of the treaty depending upon private conferences between him and the other leading chiefs and the commissioners. Much jealousy existed between the tribes as to the relative proportion and value of the lands proposed to be purchased, and their title thereto by each of them. Great fears were apprehended of the danger of collision between the tribes.
"WAU-SI-AUGH, WHISK, WHISK!"
"Liberal rations were supplied for the Indians during the period of the treaty, of which whiskey formed a limited portion, until an inci- dent occurred giving warning of the consequences of such indulgence. On one night, not satisfied with their daily portion of liquor, several Indians tore off the stick chimney of the commissary cabin and, reach- ing the whiskey barrels, soon became in their phrase 'heap drunk,' after which liquor passed freely through the tribes, the Indians armed with clubs and tomahawks ranging freely through the camp, yelling and shouting for liquor, especially pounding on Governor Ray's cabin door crying . Wau-sa-augh, whisk, whisk!' The interpreters and others, well armed, passed quietly through the camp, and no difficulty occurred. "On the next morning after the riot, which was not calmed until near daylight, the commissioners ordered the remaining barrels of whiskey to be rolled on the edge of the hillside, and the heads were broken in with an ax, while the Indians, in their thirst, running ahead and making dams with their hands to hold the liquor, seooped up the stream for a morning dram. They ever afterward kept an eye on the stalwart Hoosier who wielded the ax so effectively.
NATIVE DANCES FOR THE COMMISSIONERS
"We were treated to several native dances, one being on a park care- fully cleared east of the Wabash, around which a circular path for
1
E
1
59
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
dancing was prepared with soft leaves for the moccasins. It being night, the limbs of the trees around were lighted with candles furnished by our commissioners. In a leading dance a prominent brave, brightly painted (as most of the dancers were), whirled into the path, keeping time to the music of a rough drum and beating time as he passed around the circle, instantly followed singing behind him by the bright girls, making him thus their favorite. And soon after, as other braves joined the dance, space was left for their sweethearts that chose them as part- ners, to follow them in the dance. Loud shouting and yelling followed in the choice made by the girls after their favorite warriors, some of whom would have groups of followers, while others would be left to dance almost, if not quite alone, thus receiving the mitten with the jeers of the crowd. With other varieties, the dance was continuing in the best of humor and life when we left them near midnight.
"On another occasion leading chiefs, terrifically painted, and braves united in a war-dance in an open ground near the camp around a central tree, varied by a cessation of the dance and music for a time, while a brave, yelling and shouting and brandishing his tomahawk, would boast of the sealps he had taken, closing by throwing his tomahawk, with a yell, into the tree. In this he was succeeded singly by different war- riors, and it was observed that while roaring applause was given by clapping and yells of assent to some of the speakers, others were heard quietly and some even jeered with groans. This occasion was closed with a beggar dance by an Indian, who burst into the circle with a yell, naked as he was born and covered from head to foot with the thickest mud, in which he had just buried himself in the near Wabash, so that his very eyelids were clotted.
REV. MCCOY'S MISSION
"In the cabin next to onrs, the Rev. Mr. McCoy had a large num- ber of Indian scholars from the Baptist mission on the St. Joseph's, manifesting the results of his faithful labor for several years. The contrast between these in their fixed attention to their books, while the wild natives of the tribe were yelling, grinning and laughing at them between the cracks of the cabin, but wholly failing to divert them, had the effect of securing the grant of a good reservation of land in the treaty for the support of the mission.
SIGNING OF THE TREATY
"The terms of the treaty were finally agreed upon and announced in general terms in the grand council, through the interpreters, during
0
60
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
which most of the responses were favorable, or quietly assented to, the treaty being thus completed. Under the direction of Governor Cass. who had long experience in making Indian treaties, I prepared three copies of the whole treaty on parchment for the signatures of the com- missioners and of the selected chiefs of the two tribes, which was sub- mitted to and approved by the commissioners in Governor Ray's quar- ters on a succeeding night. The other commissioners, in deference to his being the governor of the state in which the treaty was made, in- vited him to make the first signature, which he did with his favorite flourish. Governor Cass, in signing, remarked to General Tipton: 'We can sign our names in the flourishes.'
DOUBTFUL STORY OF RICHARDVILLE
"The patience of the commissioners was thoroughly exhausted when. long after one o'clock of that night, after all other signing chiefs had departed, a light tap was heard at the back door and Chief Richard- ville, of the Miamis, sneaked in to add his signature. Governor Cass sternly rebuked him as a pitiable coward unfit to be chief, failing to advocate the treaty in the council and now creeping in to sign it for fear the reservation secured to him would be left out of the treaty, which the commissioners felt his duplicity deserved. To this he replied only that the governor did not know these people as well as he did."
Mr. Ray's account of the preliminary stages of the treaty leading up to its actual signature has been accepted as a valuable contribution to the history of those times, but it is probable that his memory failed him in the statement of the unworthy part borne by Chief Richardville in the closing act which gave force to the Miami agreement. It was certainly not in keeping with the character which he had always borne for bravery and straightforward dealings. Neither is the statement borne out by the face of the document which records the treaty, as Richardville's name stands well up in the list of signatures to it.
The treaty of 1826 was the first magnet which drew settlers to Wabash County, and the Treaty Grounds became the headquarters for all new comers. But it was not until 1838 that the last of the Indian lands in Wabash County were thrown open to public sale.
On the 6th of November of that year, the Miamis held a treaty at the Forks of the Wabash, when the United States purchased a large por- tion of their reserve, including all the lands in Wabash County, except certain individual reservations.
Old Metosina, the principal chief of the Miamis, then being an old man and having resided more than four score years at and near the
61
HISTORY OF WABASHI COUNTY
old Indian village at the month of Josina Creek, requested that a reserva- tion be made to him at that place, so that he could spend the remainder of his days in peace and quiet. His request was acceded to and fourteen sections of land were reserved to him.
In the meantime the Pottawatomies had commenced their migra- tion to the lands allotted to them southwest of the Missouri River. Their final treaty with the Government was concluded at Washington, Feb- ruary 11, 1837. By its provisions they agreed to move to their reserve in the far West within two years thereafter.
GREAT MARCH OF THE POTTAWATOMIES
Among the first to leave were those of the Upper Wabash Valley. Several small parties started for the West under the guidance of Govern- ment agents in the summer of 1837, but the bulk of them left in the following year, and by the fall of 1838 there were few Pottawatomies left in Wabash County, or in their old encampments along the Eel and Tippecanoe rivers. An eye-witness to their greatest march toward the setting sun of their race thus describes it: "The regular migration of the Pottawatomies took place under Colonel Abel C. Pepper and Gen- eral Tipton in the summer of 1838. Hearing that this large emigra- tion, which consisted of about one thousand of all ages and both sexes, would pass within eight or ten miles west of Lafayette, a few of us pro- cured horses and rode over to see the retiring band as they reluctantly wended their way toward the setting sun. It was a sad and mournful spectacle to witness these children of the forest slowly retiring from the home of their childhood. As they east mournful glances back toward these loved scenes that were fading in the distance tears fell from the check of the downeast warrior, old men trembled, matrons wept, the swarthy maiden's cheek turned pale, and sighs and half-suppressed sobs escaped from the motley groups as they passed along, some on foot, some on horseback, and others in wagons-sad as a funeral procession. I saw several of the aged warriors casting glances toward the sky, as if they were imploring aid from the spirits of their departed heroes who were looking down upon them from the clouds, or from the Great Spirit who would ultimately redress the wrongs of the red man, whose broken bow had fallen from his hand and whose sad heart was bleeding within him.
"Ever and anon one of the party would start out into the brush, and break back to the old encampments on Eel River and the Tippecanoe -declaring that he would rather die than be banished from his country. Thus scores of discontented emigrants returned from different points
62
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
on their journey, and it was several years before they could be induced to join their countrymen west of the Mississippi."
LAST OF MIAMIS, AS A TRIBE
It was not until several years after the Pottawatomies had vacated their lands in the Upper Wabash country that the Miamis as a tribe left for their homes beyond the Mississippi.
Soon after the treaty of 1838 it became evident that they were dis- posed to relinquish all their lands and migrate to the great Indian coun- try to the west. Accordingly, the Government of the United States, through its commissioners, held a treaty at the Forks of the Wabash on the 28th of November, 1840, by which all that remained of the Miami Reserve was thrown open to settlement.
The first article of this treaty reads: "The Miami tribe of Indians do hereby vede to the United States all that tract of land on the south side of the Wabash River, not heretofore ceded, and commonly known as the residue of the Big Reserve, being all their remaining lands in Indiana." At this treaty the time of moving the Miamis to the west was extended five years.
Since the treaty of 1838 the old Indian chief, Metosina, had died and had been succeeded by his son, Meshingomesia. The treaty of 1840 therefore changed the title to the lands granted to the father in favor of the son.
In the fall of 1845 the Miamis of Wabash County, who had so long lived along the Wabash and Mississinewa rivers, to the muimber of about five hundred, left their ancient hunting grounds and, under the direc- tion of one Alexis Coquillard, the Goverment agent, moved across the prairies toward their homes in Kansas. Thirty-five years afterward a former trader at Fort Wayne who had witnessed that exodus (Samuel MeClure) said: "Of the five hundred Miamis who were sent West in 1845 not ten are alive, and the western Miami tribe residing in Quapaw Indian agency (afterward Northeast Oklahoma) under the care of Col. D. B. Dyer does not mumber fifty. Taken by force from their forests and transplanted to the wild prairies of the West, heart-siek and weary they never became reconciled to their lot, and many met death gladly. A few returned to Indiana, despite the Government, and these were, in 1858, permitted by act of Congress to remain here."
Even on the country to which they were transplanted, the Miamis. have made little impression. In the extreme northeast of the present State of Oklahoma is the little Town of Miami, and there is a place of the same name in the northern part of New Mexico; but one of the most
0
63
HISTORY OF WABASH COUNTY
flourishing counties in Oklahoma is Pottawatomie, with Tecumseh as its capital, and the Ottawas, Delawares, and other tribes are also perpet- nated in the geography of the old Indian country of the Southwest, to which the eastern tribes were at first transported, while the Miami Nation, at one time one of the most powerful of the Indian confedera- tions, has almost faded from the records of the white man.
THE VERY LAST OF THE MIAMIS
The last of the Miamis and the last of the Indians to occupy lands in Wabash County were the members of the Meshingomesia band. Mesh- ingomesia, their last chief, had inherited lands from his father, Metosina, under the treaty of 1840. At his own death on the 23rd of December, 1879, at the age of ninety-eight years, the fourteen sections of land originally reserved for his father were partitioned between the differ- ent members of his band (sixty-four).
MESHINGOMESIA'S BAND
But this last chapter in the Indian history of Wabash County has been well told by Claude Stitt, of a well known pioneer family, and is reproduced with the comment that it is taken from an address delivered by him in February. 1914:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.