USA > Indiana > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Indiana, from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 2
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The French colonists extended their settlements along the shores of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes westward as far as to Lake Superior, and established trading posts at
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
various places, and missionary stations among several tribes of Indians. And for the protection of the fur trade, small stockade forts were erected. France also, on discoveries by exploring parties of her subjects, based a claim to all the country lying between New Mexico and Canada in the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries, on both sides of that river.
Protestant England and Catholic France were rivals in acquiring and colonizing territory, establishing trade with the Indians, and propagating among them their respective systems of religion. One of the reasons assigned by Cotton Mather in his Ecclesiastical History of New England, for planting British colonies in this country was, that it would " be a service unto the church of great consequence to carry the gospel into those parts of the world, and raise a bulwark against the kingdom of Anti-Christ which the Jesuits labor to rear up in all parts of the world."
France, in the prosecution of her designs, carly made set- tlements and established trading posts, between the Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico; one of which was Post Vincennes, in the western border of the present state of Indiana.
At an early period of the Revolutionary war, efforts were made by the British to incite the Indians to carry on a border warfare against the settlers on the frontiers of the United States. For the defense of the frontiers, Congress, in 1777, ordered a military force to be raised, to the command of which Colonel [afterward General] George R. Clark was ap- pointed. He led an expedition against the ancient French settlements about Kaskaskia and Post Vincennes. The French inhabitants at Kaskaskia were terror-stricken ; and being treated by Col. Clark with great generosity and kind- ness, and being informed that an alliance had been formed between France and the United States, they took the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia, and a company of French militia joined our forces. Through much difficulty the United States army reached Post Vincennes, where the British com- mandant, Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, was brought to terms of capitulation prescribed by Col. Clark, who took the British garrison as prisoners of war. After several successes
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PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
of Gen. Clark, which had in a measure allayed the fears of the whites, emigration from Virginia to Kentucky increased. This warfare between some of the Indian tribes and the white settlers on the borders of the Ohio river, continued during the war. Nor did it entirely cease until the forces of those ribes were defeated by Wayne's army in 1794.
The conflicting claims of states under the grants of the crown of Great Britain to lands in the North-west, east of the Mississippi, has been alluded to. These states were New York, Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. In com- oliance with a suggestion to that effect, and a request of Congress, these states successively passed acts to cede to the General Government their western lands as a fund to aid in paying the debt incurred during the Revolutionary war. The lates of these several acts the writer has not at hand. Their lends of cession were respectively dated as follows: That of New York, March 1, 1781; that of Virginia, March 1, 1784; that of Massachusetts, April 19, 1785; and Connecticut, September 13, 1786, transferred her elaim, reserving about 3,000,000 acres in the north-east part of the state. This tract vas called the " Western Reserve of Connecticut." On the 30th of May, 1800, the jurisdictional claims of that state to this Reserve were surrendered to the United States.
In 1787, by an ordinance of the Old Congress, was formed the North-western Territory, embracing the territory north- west of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi, from which have since been formed the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- gan, and Wisconsin. This ordinance was reported by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, and contained that celebrated pro- viso, forever prohibiting slavery in the territory or in the states which should be formed from it. The powers of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, were, by this ordinance, vested in a governor and three judges, who, with a secretary, were to be appointed by Congress; the governor for three years, the judges during good behavior. The laws of the territory were to be such laws of the original states as the governor and judges should think proper to adopt, and were to be in force until disapproved by Congress. When the territory should contain five thousand free male
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
inhabitants of full age, there was to be a legislature to con- sist of two branches : a house of representatives. the members to be chosen from the several counties or townships for two years, and a legislative council of five persons who were to hold their offices for five years, and to be appointed by Con- gress out of ten persons previously nominated by the house of representatives of the territory. All laws were required to be consistent with the ordinance, and to have the assent of the governor.
In October, 1787, Gen. Arthur St. Clair was chosen by Congress governor of the territory, though he does not appear to have entered on the duties of his office until the next year. He arrived at Marietta, Ohio, in July, 1788, and began to organize the government according to the provisions of the ordinance of 1787; and, with the judges of the general court, adopted sundry laws.
The most unpleasant duties of Governor St. Clair were imposed upon him by the hostilities of the Indians, especially the hostilities between the Indians on the Wabash and the people of Kentucky. Which was the aggressive party, it was not easy to determine. Gen. Knox, Secretary of War, in a report to the President of the United States, says: " The injuries and murders have been so recip- rocal, that it would be a point of critical investigation to know on which side they have been the greatest." Gen. St. Clair was requested by President Washington to ascertain whether peace on reasonable terms could be established with the Wabash and Illinois Indians; and he was authorized, if necessary for the protection of the people on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, to raise a militia force in the nearest counties in those states, to aet with the United States troops for that purpose. Gov. St. Clair was also instructed "to execute the orders of the late Congress respecting the inhabitants at Post Vincennes, and at the Kaskaskias, and the other villages on the Mississippi, as it was important that the said inhabitants should, as soon as possible, possess the lands to which they were entitled, by some known and fixed principles."
Pursuant to these instructions, about the first of January,
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PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
1790, the Governor, with the Judges of the Supreme Court of the territory, descended the Ohio from Marietta to Fort Wash- ington, at Losantiville, where the Governor laid out the county of Hamilton, and appointed officers for the administration of justice therein. He also induced the proprietors of the little village to change its name to Cincinnati. [Dillon.] The Gov- ernor, with Winthrop Sargent, Secretary of the Territory, proceeded to the place of his destination. On his arrival at Kaskaskia, he laid out the county of St. Clair, and appointed officers for the same. He also examined many claims and title deeds to lands, and confirmed those which were found authentic.
The people of the Wabash and Illinois countries had, from various causes, among which was the destruction of crops by floods, been reduced to a state of suffering, almost of starva- tion. By an act of the Old Congress, lands previously in their possession were to be surveyed at their own expense. Many, unable to pay for the surveys, memorialized the Governor, asking his protection, soliciting him "to lay their deplorable situation before Congress;" urging that, "in their humble opinion, the expense of the survey ought to be borne by Con- gress, for whom alone it is useful."
The Indians having manifested no disposition to make a treaty of peace with the United States, or cease hostilities, the Governor returned with a view to fitting out an expedition against the hostile Indians. Secretary Sargent, now acting as governor, went from Kaskaskia to Post Vincennes, and laid ont the county of Knox, then and for several years the only county within the present bounds of this state, and settled the claims of the inhabitants to their lands.
Depredations and murders having been committed along the Ohio, from its mouth to the neighborhood of Pittsburg, the government found it necessary to raise forees to protect the navigation of that river, and the inhabitants along its borders, as well as those in the Wabash country. The particulars of the wars which ensued, can not be given in this work. Suffice it to say, that, in September, 1792, a treaty of peace was made at Vincennes with the Illinois and Wabash tribes, by which the United States guarantied to them all the lands to which
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
they had a just claim, and protection in the enjoyment of their just rights.
In the summer of 1793, a long council was held on Detroit river to negotiate peace with the north-western Indians, but without success. They claimed the right to all the lands lying north-west of the Ohio river, denying the validity of the treaty by virtue of which the lands were claimed by the United States. They said the commissioners of the United States negotiating the treaty had been informed that, to be binding, it must be signed by a general council ; yet they persisted in collecting a few chiefs of two or three nations only out of some fifteen, and held a treaty for the cession of an immense country.
Overtures of peace having been rejected by the north-western Indians, preparations were made for an expedition against the Indians. Gen. St. Clair having resigned the office of Major- General in 1791, he was succeeded by General Anthony Wayne, who now had command of the forces. The campaign was successful. The decisive battle was fought on the banks of the Maumee, on the 20th of August, 1794. During the fol- lowing winter, the Indians agreed to meet Gen. Wayne at Greenville in June, 1795, to negotiate a peace. Negotiations commenced the 16th of June; and articles of peace were duly signed by Gen. Wayne and the representatives of the several Indian tribes, on the 3d day of August, 1795.
Amongst the lands ceded by this treaty, are the following, which are stated in Chamberlain's Indiana Gazetteer, pub- lished in 1850, to be at present a part of this state : " First, a tract lying south-east of a line from the mouth of Kentucky river, running north-east to Fort Recovery, near the head of the Wabash, and embracing the present counties of Dearborn, Ohio, and parts of Switzerland, Franklin, Union, and Wayne; and then various tracts at the head of the Maumee, the portage of the Wabash, and Quiatenon. All claims to other lands within this state were, at that time, relinquished to the Indians, except the 150,000 acres granted to Clark's regiment, the French grants near Vincennes, and other lands occupied by the French, or other whites, to which the Indian title had been extinguished."
The tract first above mentioned as " embracing the present
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PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
connties of Dearborn and Ohio, and parts of Switzerland, Franklin, Union, and Wayne." is the gore which constituted Dearborn prior to the formation of Wayne in 1810, and laid between the present west line of Ohio, and the west line of the tract ceded to the United States by the treaty of Greenville in 1795 ; which latter line was also the eastern boundary of the Twelve Mile Purchase. It was provided, however, in the act of May, 1800, dividing the North-western Territory, that when the eastern division should be admitted into the Union as a state, its western boundary should be altered, probably with the view of establishing a boundary line running due north and south. Instead of beginning on the Ohio opposite the month of the Kentucky river, it was to begin at the mouth of the Great Miami, and run due north to Fort Recovery. When, in 1802, Ohio was admitted as a state into the Union, its west- ern boundary was made to conform to this provision.
Pursuant to the act of Congress of May 7, 1800, " to divide the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio into two separate governments," the eastern part retained its former name, and was composed of the present state of Ohio, a small part of Michigan, and a small part of Indiana ; [the " gore " de- scribed in the preceding paragraph.] The other district, called Indiana Territory, embraced all the region west of the former, east of the Mississippi, and between the Lakes and the Ohio river.
The seat of government of Indiana Territory was fixed at Vincennes; and Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison was appointed governor. In January, 1801, he convened the judges of the territory at Vincennes for making and publishing laws and performing other acts for the government of the territory. The territorial judges held their first general court at Vincennes in March, 1801.
From the year 1802 to 1805, inclusive, Gov. Harrison nego- tiated seven treaties with ten different tribes of north-western Indians, acquiring from these tribes about forty-six thousand square miles of territory.
The state of Virginia having originally claimed these west- ern lands, immigrants from that state brought slaves with them, and held thein as such. Although slavery was prohibited by
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
the ordinance of 1787, it existed to some extent in Indiana territory when it was formed, the law not being strictly en- forced. Its effect was in some instances evaded by holding colored persons in servitude, for a term of years, by indentures and written contracts. Many were removed to slaveholding states, and to the west side of the Mississippi river.
Acceding to the wishes of some of the inhabitants, Gov. Harrison, in 1802, called a convention of delegates from the several counties, the object of which was to take measures to petition Congress to suspend the operation of the prohibitory clause of the ordinance. Congress was petitioned, and reports in favor of such suspension for ten years were made at two or three successive sessions; but the measure failed. In 1804, Gov. Harrison, having been informed that certain indentured persons of color were about to be removed from the territory to be sold as slaves, issued a proclamation forbidding their removal, and calling upon the civil authorities to prevent it.
In 1804, the territory of Louisiana purchased of France in 1803, was divided into two territories; the south part consti- tuting the territory of Orleans, and the residue, lying north of the 33d degree of north latitude, the district of Louisiana. There being within this district but few inhabitants, and these chiefly residing along the river, in villages, of which the prin- cipal was St. Louis, the district was, for the purpose of government, placed under the jurisdiction of Indiana, then comprising all the original North-western Territory except the state of Ohio, which had been recently formed, [1802.] In March, 1805, this district was detached from Indiana, and organized as a separate territory.
The first General Assembly, consisting of a House of Repre- sentatives and a Council of five, the latter appointed by the President, met at Vincennes, July 29, 1805. There were at that time five counties, sending, in all, seven representatives, as follows: Jesse B. Thomas, of Dearborn county ; Davis Floyd, of Clark; Benjamin Parke and John Johnson, of Knox; Shadrach Bond and Wm. Biggs, of St. Clair; and George Fisher, of Randolph. There had been six counties. Wayne county, embracing the principal part of Michigan, including Detroit, was, until the formation of the territory of Michigan
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PRELIMINARY HISTORY.
in June, but one month previous to the meeting of the legis- lature, a part of Indiana; and, it is presumed, elected mem- bers of this legislature in January preceding, but who were, by the division of the territory, prevented from taking seats.
Among the subjects of legislation recommended by the gov- ernor, was the providing of a remedy for the evils resulting from the " vice of drunkenness among the Indians," which, he said, "spreads misery and desolation through the country, and threatens the annihilation of the whole race." The legis- lature, by joint ballot, elected as delegate to Congress, Benja- min Parke, a native of New Jersey, who had emigrated from that state in 1801.
The criminal code of 1807 contained some unusual provis- ions. Horse-stealing, with treason, murder, and arson, was made punishable by death. Whipping might be inflicted for burglary, robbery, larceny, hog-stealing, and bigamy. Nor did the early law-makers seem to underrate the importance of the observance of the fifth commandment. Children or serv- ants, for resistance or disobedience to the lawful commands of their parents or masters, might be sent by a justice of the peace to jail or the house of correction, there to remain until they should " humble themselves to the said parents' or masters satisfaction." And for assaulting or striking a parent or mas- ter, they were liable to be "whipped not exceeding ten stripes."
In 1805, the territory of Indiana, which had until then in- cluded the peninsula of Michigan, was divided by an act of Congress ; the territory of Michigan was formed, and pro- vision made for its government. In 1808, Indiana territory contained about 28,000 white inhabitants, of whom about 11,000 lived westward of the river Wabash. By act of Con- gress, Feb. 3, 1809, Illinois territory was formed, including all the territory north-west of the present line of Indiana, and north to the Canada line.
In 1809, [Feb. 27.] Congress granted to the people of Indi- ana territory the privilege of electing the members of the legislative council, and a territorial delegate to Congress. In 1811, the elective franchise in the election of these officers was extended to all free white males 21 years of age, resident
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
one year in the territory, and having paid a tax, county or territorial ; and in 1814, to all white male freeholders.
Indiana was admitted as a state into the Union in 1816; Illinois in 1818; Michigan in 1836; and in 1848, Wisconsin, the last of the five states to be formed from the North-western Territory.
The state of Indiana is bounded on the cast by the state of Ohio; on the south, by the Ohio river from the mouth of the Great Miami to the mouth of the river Wabash; on the west, by a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash from its mouth to a point where a due north line from the town of Vincennes would last touch the shore of the Wabash river ; and thence by a due north line until the same shall intersect an east and west line drawn through a point ten miles north of the southern extreme of lake Michigan; and on the north by the said east and west line until the same shall intersect the first meridian line which forms the western boundary of the state of Ohio. These boundaries include an area of 33,890 square miles, lying between 37 deg. 47 min. and 41 deg. 50 min. north latitude, and between 7 deg. 45 min. and 11 deg. longitude west from Washington.
SETTLEMENT OF WAYNE COUNTY.
The first settlements in the valleys of Whitewater within the limits of the present county of Wayne, were made in the vicinity of the site of the city of Richmond, then in the county of Dearborn, the county-seat of which was at Lawrenceburg, on the Ohio river. Of the present territory of Wayne county, only that part which lies east of the Twelve Mile Purchase, was then the property of the General Government, and offered for sale to settlers. This strip of land was, at the south line of the county, about 8} miles wide; at the north line, about 4} miles ; and on the National Road about 62 miles. The Twelve Mile Purchase was twelve miles wide, and extended from the Ohio river north to the bounds of the state. Its eastern and western lines were parallel, running from the river about 13 degrees east of a due north course; the cast line about 2} m. west of Richmond, running near or through the
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SETTLEMENT OF WAYNE COUNTY.
old town of Salisbury ; the west line dividing Cambridge City near the west end of the town. This land was pur- chased of the Indians in the latter part of 1809. It was not surveyed, however, and ready for sale, before 1811; though a few persons had previously settled on it.
In the year 1805, the first settlement of white men on the banks of Whitewater was commenced, and the first rude cabin built. In the spring of that year, George Holman, Richard Rue, and Thomas McCoy, with their families from Kentucky, settled about two miles south of where Richmond now stands. Rue and Holman had served under Gen. Clark in his Indian campaigns several years before the formation of the North-western Territory under the ordinance of 1787. Both had been captured by the Indians and held as prisoners about three years and a half. [An account of their captivity is elsewhere given.] Both also lived on the lands on which they settled, until their death, far advanced in age. Rue was the first justice of the peace in this part of the country.
Holman and Rue selected and entered their lands late in 1804, at Cincinnati, on their way home. Early in the winter they returned to build cabins for their families, bringing with them, on their horses, such tools as were necessary in that kind of architecture, and a few cooking utensils. Holman's two eldest sons, Joseph and William, then about 18 and 16 years of age, accompanied their father to assist in this initi- atory pioneer labor. In a very few days, two cabins were ready for occupancy. Rue and Holman, leaving the boys to take care of themselves, started again for Kentucky to bring their families.
On reaching their homes, they found two Pennsylvanians, who were in search of new land, and had brought their fam- ilies with them. They soon decided to accompany Rue and Holman; and the four families, with their effects, consisting of clothing, provisions, tools, cooking utensils, &c .- all on pack-horses; traveling with wagons so great a distance through an unbroken wilderness being impracticable. McCoy and Blunt selected their lands near those of their two friends. Thus was commenced the settlement of Wayne county.
A few miles lower down, and near Elkhorn creek, the Ends-
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
leys, the Coxes, and perhaps Hugh Cull, settled the same year, [1805,] and were followed in 1806 and 1807 by Lazarus Whitehead, a Baptist minister, Aaron Martin, Charles Hunt, and their families; all of whom are elsewhere noticed. Cull was a Methodist minister, who lived where he first settled, until his death in 1862, at the age of 103-some say, 105 years. Shadrach Henderson also, in one of these years, set- tled 2 miles below Richmond, on the west side of the White- water, where one of the early saw-mills was built, near where Larsh's flouring-mill now stands. A family of the name of Lamb also settled a few miles below, near or on the Elkhorn.
The next year after Holman and others settled as above stated, lands were taken up where Richmond now stands, and on the west side of Whitewater. About the first of March, 1806, David Hoover, then a young man, residing with his father in the Miami country in Ohio, with four others, in search of a place for making a settlement, took a section line some eight or ten miles north of Dayton, and traced it a dis- tance of more than thirty miles, through an unbroken forest, to the place where he afterward settled. He fancied he had found the Canaan his father had been seeking. His parents were of German descent, and members of the Society of Friends. They had emigrated from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and thence to Miami, where they had temporarily located, until a permanent home could be selected. Young Hoover and his companions were supposed to be the first white men who explored the territory north of Richmond. They discovered many natural advantages, among which were the pure spring water issuing from the banks of the stream, with its prospective mil'-sites, inexhaustible quarries of lime- stone, and a rich soil. Following the stream south a short distance, they found traps set; and near the west bank of the Whitewater nearly opposite Richmond, they saw some In- dians. From these Indians, who could speak broken English, they learned that white men had settled below on the east side of the stream. They made their way thither, and found the Holman, Rue, and McCoy families. After a brief rest, they started back for the Miami by a different route, and reported the finding of the " promised land."
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