History of Whitley County, Indiana, Part 8

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 940

USA > Indiana > Whitley County > History of Whitley County, Indiana > Part 8

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Under the treaty stipulation made in 1836, the Pottawattamies were in July. 1837, removed to a tract of country on the Osage river, south-west of the Mississippi, under directions of Abel C. Pepper, United States commissioner. They had become much nearer civilized than the Miamis and had some good farms and mills and showed many signs of becoming citizens of tolera- tion, if not of usefulness. Record is made of all the incidents of their removal, and a most pathetic one it is. They were gathered from over the territory to Twin Lakes, Marshall county, and the present village of Kewanna, in Fulton county, where the prin- cipal settlements were. The day before their departure they visited the cemetery where reposed their dead, and their lamen- tations were indescribable. Turning their faces away from the hallowed spot forever, they did not look back. They complained bitterly of deceit in the treaty, but went peaceably. On the way, dry and hot, many of them perished and were buried beside the

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

trail. About two days on their journey they were overtaken by a priest who had spiritually administered to them, and he came as a glorious benediction. Their joy at having him with them on their journey, seemed to mitigate their sorrows and hard- ships as nothing else could. Nothing more pathetic is recorded in history than the re- moval of the Pottawattamies from northern Indiana.

In the contest at Greenville there met two diplomats who would have been able to cope with the most sagacious ministers of an European court. They were General Wayne, appearing for the government of the United States, the white man ; and Little Turtle, the representative in chief of the allied federation of the red men. To the learned wisdom of General Wayne Little Turtle was always ready with an answer full of argument and diplomacy.

He was the leader who overthrew the Federal armies in 1790 and 1791, which struck with terror and dismay the white in- habitants on the exposed frontier. He planned and executed the work of destroy- ing the regulars and militia under Harmer and Armstrong, on the line between Whitley and Allen counties. At Greenville, he had the double task of competing with General Wayne and keeping the confidence of his sub- ordinate allied chiefs, who were ever dis- trustful of his ability and integrity in settling to the best advantage what were really the terms of capitulation of the year before, and its disaster to their cause. His final appear- ance in the field of diplomacy was at the convention held in Fort Wayne on June I, 1 803.

About 1793 to 1795, Rev. Stephen Theo-

dore Badin, said to be the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States, visited the Pottawattamies at Twin Lakes, Marshall county, established a church and built, for the age, a presumptuous log house of wor- ship. Here he, with two co-laborers, min- istered for some time to the spiritual want of the Indians and made inany excursions over northern Indiana. To the records of these people, now resting in the archives of a monastery in France, we are indebted for much that is interesting.

Describing one of his trips to the east- ward, giving description of various points and distance as he could measure it, with the topography of the country; leaves no doubt that in the summer of 1796 he visited a Pottawattamie village in Richland town- ship, Whitley county, near where now stands the village of Larwill. The lake commonly called Kerr's he locates accurately, and gives a good account of the surrounding hills and general topography of the region. The vil- lage he says was on the hills on the east bank of the lake. He found a village of some 300 Indians, and labored with them about a fortnight and some of them professed great interest in the doctrines of Christianity, but his visit must have been barren of results as he does not tell of a second visit. He describes a well traveled pathway along the outlet of this lake to another small lake soutlieastward about two miles, meaning no doubt Souder lake, which is near the center of section 11. Along this little connection and about the lakes, he says many beaver, otter and other fur animals were taken. From these points he traveled northward about six miles where he had learned there was another village, but found

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

it abandoned and most of the huts burned. The spot is not sufficiently defined to be located now, but was evidently in either Troy or Etna township.

Father Badin's visit to Richland town- ship is confirmed by another account from an entirely different source. The com- mander of the fort at Fort Wayne, in his diary of a year or two earlier (Goodman. historical papers) gives an account of a trip to the west and slightly north, a distance of about thirty miles, and the purchase of more than a hundred bear, otter and beaver skins, at a Pottawattamie village on the east bank of a small lake, and his topography and description of route traveled over confirms the place as before described.

As early as 1771, the English com- mandant at Fort Wayne tells of a visit to the Miamis, distant westward about twenty or twenty-two miles to a point at the con- fluence of two rivers, one starting some fif- teen miles north-east in a large bayou, marsh or lake, evidently meaning Blue river, and the spot described is undoubtedly the point about two miles south of present Columbia City, where Blue river empties into Eel river, right on the line between Seek's Vil- lage and Beaver reservations. While at the place he witnessed a green corn dance (Papers of the Western Reserve Historical Society). Old residents say there were still evidences of such village as late as 1840.

In the famous journal of Captain Trent. covering the year 1773, he speaks of an Indian mill, north-west of the fort at the headwaters of the Maumee, distance the journey of a day and a half. The mill was on a short neck of water connecting two lakes and another lake a short distance

north-west and almost parallel with the- higher of the two, which was the west one. In this mill the Indians ground corn; quite a quantity was raised by them in the vicinity. He also describes a race track entirely around one of these lakes, with a log bridge covered with earth, over the marshy part at the west end.

Mrs. David Plummer, of Richland town- ship, says that when her father settled near Shriner lake in Thorncreek township, a race track around that lake was still in a pretty fair state of existence. There can be no doubt in the mind of any person who has ever visited the three lakes in northern Thorncreek township, that this is the place. and that the mill was near the present sum- mer residences of Judge J. W. Adair and Col. I. B. Rush. Trent says farther, that the Indians gathered at this spot for many miles in the spring, and again in the fall, for a week's sport of pony racing and other games and amusements. There were foot races by both bucks and squaws, swimming matches, wrestling bouts, tests of endurance in many ways and contests which the captain would not attempt to describe. It was fa- mnous all over north-eastern Indiana, and several hundred natives visited the place at each week's entertainment. There were both Miamis and Pottawattamies, but his record is silent as to which tribe owned or controlled the place, or what it was called, if it had a name.

George Crogan on his trip up Eel river in 1765, of which an extended account is given elsewhere in this work, visited a vil- lage of Miami Eel river Indians on a stream flowing from the north-west into Eel river and about a mile from Eel river, and about

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

'twelve miles from the portage. This must have been on Spring creek just east of where it is joined by Clear creek in Cleve- land township, perhaps half a mile north- east of present South Whitley. There were, as he estimated, about 300 Indians, and they were very hospitable and entertained his men with a good supply of parched corn. venison and wild turkey. He spent a half day with them.

The student of our country's history is familiar with the campaign of General Harmar in 1790, against Fort Wayne. October 14th Colonel Hardin was detached with one company of regulars and six hun- dred militia in advance of the main army, and being charged with the destruction of the Indian towns on the forks of the Mau- mee (Fort Wayne). On the arrival of this advance party, they found the towns aban- doned and the principal one burned. There were seven villages at the forks of the Mau- mee : the larger or Miami, being directly in the forks of the river, contained eighty houses. The army burned all the villages and destroyed about 20,000 bushels of corn. Appearances indicated the Indians had gone westward. General Harmar sent eighty militia and thirty regulars in pursuit. John Armstrong commanding the regulars and Colonel Trotter the militia. The following day Colonel Hardin assumed entire com- mand. This small army moved westward along Turtle's trail until they found them- selves near the enemy. The encampment was flanked on each side and in front by deep swamps. The front morass was promptly crossed by the soldiers under a galling fire from a body of savages. The militia broke and fled and could not be

rallied. Fifty-two men were killed in a few minutes. The regulars bore the brunt of the battle, one sergeant and twenty-two privates being killed. While endeavoring to hold their position the same became more pre- carious by the fleeing militia breaking through their ranks and throwing away their guns without firing a shot. Armstrong es- timated the Indians at only about a hundred. This gallant officer broke through the band of pursuing Indians and plunged into the swamp, where he remained all night up to his chin in mud and water and concealed by a tussock of high grass. He was com- pelled to hear the nocturnal orgies of the savages, as they danced around the dead bodies of the soldiers. As day approached the Indians fell asleep, and he extricated him- self, retired to a ravine and built a fire by which he recovered the use of his limbs. He had with him his watch and tinder box. This battle was fought near where the Gosh- en road crosses Eel river and was partly in Whitley and partly in Allen counties.

The different treaties were principally made with the Miamis and Pottawattamies. Indeed, the other smaller tribes were ad- mitted rather by the insistence of the general government than the request of the two powerful tribes. In 1826, the only Indian villages in Whitley county were a small one in section 4. Smith township, on what is now the Goshen road, then only a trail; one on the Chapiene reservation in Union township; one on the Beaver reservation in Columbia township; two in central and west Columbia township; one at the raccoon res- ervation in the south-east corner of Jeffer- son township, and Seek's Village near the line between Chapiene and Seek's Village

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

Reserve and one on Coesse's section, in all only about 300 Indians, men, women and children.

By 1833, when the settlers began to arrive there were fewer than 200 Indians in the county, about seventy-five or eighty at Seek's Village, a small band at Blue River lake in Smith township, perhaps fifty at Raccoon Village, about sixty in west Colum- bia township, a small number in Beav- er's Reservation and a still smaller number in Coesse's section immediately south of Colum- bia City. Coesse died in 1854 and his only son died the year before. The son was buried at his home, now the Stouff farm. Coesse died at Roanoke and lies in an un- marked grave in a field farmed over for many years.

Coesse's wife and two daughters re- mained on the farm till the spring of 1868, when they sold it and removed to Roanoke, and from thence joined some of their kindred farther down the Wabash valley, and the Indian population was forever ex- tinct in Whitley county.

Whitley county has a rich Indian his- tory, but it has been so long neglected that to gather the fragments of tradition, reports of discoverers, journals of traders, remem- brances of early settlers, surface evidence and information of a collateral character, and sift out the truth and arrange all in chronological order, leaves a small narrative for the perusal of future generations.

Much more could be added to this chap- ter, if we were to set down as historical fact fanciful theories and romantic stories. Here, practically along the Eel river, came the great tribes of Miamis from the east and north, meeting the almost equally powerful

Pottawattamies from the west and north- west ; and intermingled among these, indi- vidual squads and larger bodies of other tribes, sometimes under the leadership of chiefs. Before there were white men with which to contend, there was war among the tribes, often to the point of extermination, or destruction of tribal relation, and the in- corporation of the remnants into other tribes and a commingling of individuals. It is needless to say that much, if not the greater, part of the mass of literature upon this sub- ject is very meagre in fact.

As to-day, some portions of our country are much more densely populated than others, for reasons easily discernible, so in those days before the foot of white man pressed the soil, some portions of the coun- try were more thickly settled with Indians than others. If Whitley county to-day can- not boast of its fine and populous cities, dense population and metropolitan improve- ments, it can say its rich hunting grounds, small stretches of prairie, its streams and lakes, once made it a very important part of the red man's domain.

Many pages have been written to prove when a fort was first erected at what is now Fort Wayne; but it is quite sure there was a French fort at that place long before 1730. The establishment of the fort proves a previous discovery by white men, as well as a necessity for its erection. Money was not expended and lives risked without an object, and in this case the purpose is easily found. Its strategic and commercial im- portance, lying at the headwaters of the Maumee to the lake, and in the other direc- tion by a small portage to either Little river or Eel river, and a highway into the vast

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

interior. The country was rich in what the natives had to barter or traffic. It was the largest and most central of all the villages or points in the Miami possessions. Capt. Vincennes visited it as early as 1740, and pronounced it "The Key of the West." Lit- tle Turtle named it the "glorious gate" through which all the good words of their chiefs had to pass from the north to the south and from the east to the west.

Before the erection of that fort, the local history of this region is unknown; and for many years thereafter, we only know that the Indians of this region traded and bar- tered there, that they had portages or trails from Eel river to the fort, and that the portages and river through this county be- came what we would liken to-day to a trans- continental railroad; this county was trav- ersed by a great national highway.

From the Great Lakes, over which for two centuries must come the advance guard of civilization, during the terrors of treach- ery and trails of blood, of French and Brit- ish claims, and until after the second war with Great Britain and the final breaking down of Indian prowess, through the Whit- ley county portages and Eel river must a great part of these hardy pioneers pass as though hemmed in by a barbed wire.

On the 26th day of July, 1906, a small number of citizens of Whitley county set out with the avowed purpose of ascertain- ing all that could be obtained by personal ex- amination and evidence of witnesses of the Indian history of the county. They visited the Island, the spot of executions thereon, the battle ground of the two dominant tribes, Miamis and Pottawattamies, the spot of the "burned cabins," Indian cemeteries, the spot

of the massacre at Page's Crossing, the bridge across Beaver run, Little Turtle's Village, Seek's Village, and the location of the homes of both these chiefs. The day was a summer ideal, and when they sat down to picnic on historic ground on Silas Briggs' farm, there were nearly 200 people. Some came to hear, others to tell, others because they felt interested, and many out of idle and listless curiosity, and these unconscious- ly assisted by inspiring those who came to add their testimony to their most vivid rec- ollection.

Such an array of witnesses will never gather again. Even before these pages have reached the publishers, some of them have gone to take their places in their last narrow homes. As we inspected a place. each would come forward and relate what he himself had seen of or on this spot ; what father or mother or other friends had told him, and out of all this, corroborated from all possible sources, comes the following nar- rative, which may well take its place in the literature of Whitley county as authentic history :

In that notable gathering were Charles Seymour. who lived on the island much more than half a century ago, and saw the things of which he spoke; John F. Moss- man, to whom Indians were familiar, and who fed them in his father's house; George Aker, who as a boy played with Indian boys; Sanford Mosher, whose recollection of Indians and their day is as vivid as though 'twere yesterday : Silas and Andrew Briggs, who came as the Indian sun was set- ting, and who carved beautiful, fertile farms out of the Indian wreckage, built magnifi- cent homes and reared large, intelligent fam-

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

ilies on the spots of former Indian habita- tions, both in possession of all their facul- ties and able to speak intelligently of what was to be seen in former days, and of rapidly dissolving evidence ; William and Alexander More, raised right here on Eel river on a spot hallowed hy historic scenes, both have raised worthy families, who have gone forth to fill places of prominence in the world. All these men were yet fully able to tell of the stirring scenes of early days. These and many others gave evidence of incalculable historic value. Without overshadowing the valne of the testimony of any of these, it is but truth to say that Alexander More was in position to give more information than any other: an intelligent citizen, possessing a beautiful home and some leisure, and being raised on the most interesting Indian ground in the county, and having made a study of local and historic conditions all his life, he is better able to speak than any other in the county. Mr. More has known from child- hood the exact habitations of Little Turtle and the route of the trails or portages, and is desirous of having them marked for per- petuation during his life. He had not for many years visited the spot of Little Tur- tle's house at the bend of the river, and yet his description of it. from his own recollec- tion and that left by his father, enabled every man in the party to walk directly to the spot.

To the events of this 26th day of July, 1906, and a few subsequent trips over the county by nearly the same people, are we mainly indebted for what follows:

What is known as Little Turtle's trail or portage through the county will be here- after described. At this time, we shall only refer to it as going through the farm of

Alexander More in the northeast corner of section II and the north-west corner of section 12, in Union township. Eel river at this point formerly cut almost a curve out of the corners of these two sections. Since dredging, the short curves are taken out, but are so small as not to be discernible on the map, or change the location of the places of interest with reference to the river. The trail coming from the west runs almost paral- lel with the river and about 200 feet from it. The road running north through More's land, coming from the Yellow river road, runs about sixty rods west of the east line of section Il. and parallel with it until about seventy rods from the north line of the section, then, on account of the river, an- gles to the east. Perhaps ten rods south of the angle is More's house. Directly north and about the angle, stands his large barn. Directly north of the barn is the trail, in many places still plainly visible. About fifty feet north of the trail, almost where the bluff descends to the river, is the spot where stood Little Turtle's house. He had two houses, and of course it is not known whether he occupied both of them at one time or not. He had three wives, but, we are told, not "simultaneously;" so that it can hardly be that two families were domi- ciled at this place. The houses were about eighty feet apart. The first, supposed to be the larger, stood to the north and slightly west of the other. This was the last habita- tion of this famous chief in the county, from whence he went to Fort Wayne in the spring or early summer of 1812 and died in mid- stimmer.

The most remarkable feature of this place is the fortification. About fifty feet

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

east of Turtle's cabin is the intrenchment be- ginning at the river on the east side, and al- most circular in form, except the west side is flattened before it again strikes the river. It is plainly visible. covered with the vegeta- tion of summer, and much more so in win- ter, though we are quite sure it was dug a century and a quarter ago. The distance around this intrenchment is 360 feet. At its farthest point from the river it is 120 feet, and has about 150 feet on river front. The river front all along here is quite a little bluff, but near the east line of this artificial ridge, is cut down a road to the river, by which horses coming across the river might come directly into the enclosure. Fifty years ago the embankment stood up fully four feet. and forty years ago the stations could be easily seen where each man stood to throw it up, and there were more than a hundred such stations. The large timber had been taken from within, and some distance outside the intrenchment, save one tree inside and an- other about fifty feet south and east of where the east line of the embankment strikes the river. The one outside is gone. There were marks on the outside showing that it had been struck in several places, presumably with axes. Mr. More himself cut to the inside scar and counted the growths, and had others do so, and they counted back to 1780. The inside tree is dead, but still stands, a stub perhaps twenty feet high. It died fif- teen years ago, and by count of the growths by different persons, to the interior scar, makes the time of the cutting into it either 1780 or 1781.

Across the river and extending some dis- tance to the east, were yet standing forty years ago, from fifty to a hundred trees, all

burned on the side next to the river. Had these been burned by a fire running over the ground, or by any other means than by per- sons encamped along the river, they would not all have been burned on the one side next the river.

At a point on the north line of section 12 where the road strikes the section line, run- ning thence east a few rods on the line, there was noticed, but a few years ago, unmistak- able evidence of a great charnel house. Either it had been the scene of a battle or the pestilential ravage of disease. Bones of human beings could have been picked up by the barrel. Pigs turned on the ground plowed it all over with their noses, and crunched the bones for months. A buckle, bridle bit and spur were also plowed up. On this ground, Mr. More found a round ex- cavation about the size of a very large, old- fashioned dug well, walled with stones. In this was crowded endwise all the timber it would hold, and it was almost burned to charcoal. Mr. More dug it out, and it ex- tended down six to seven feet.

At a point on the trail about sixty rods east of the fortification, about the same in- dications of a battle ground were found, and two large mounds, the outlines still to be seen, were quite plain but a few years ago. Mr. More opened them and took out quite a few human bones, and one entire skeleton.

THE ISLAND.

What was known to the Indians and the early settlers as "The Island," is that part of Columbia township between Eel river and Mud run, the latter emptying into the for- mer almost on the west line of Seek's Vil-

WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.

lage reserve. The streams thus form the island, except the east side, which was a prairie or marsh, so wet that at most sea- sons of the year a canoe would readily float over it. The island was in area 300 or per- haps 400 acres. The road south from the city through the center of sections 14 and 23. Seek's Village reserve, strikes the island as it crosses Eel river. The margin of this island along Eel river is high and bluffy di- rect to the river for a short distance east of the road. West of the road the bluff recedes some distance, but follows nearly the same lines as the river, leaving what was formerly a low, marshy, dense thicket ten or fifteen rods wide between bluff and river. Except along Eel river the island sloped gradually into marsh and stream scarcely distinguish- able. As the road from Columbia City south crosses the river and ascends to the bluff, it strikes the higher part of the island of perhaps eighty acres, that at no time ever witnessed an overflow.

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History of Whitley County, Indiana, Part 8

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth Publication date: 1907 Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co. Number of Pages: 940

Author: Kaler, Samuel P. 1n; Maring, R. H. (Richard H.), 1859-, jt. auth
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: [Indianapolis, Ind.] : B. F. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 940