USA > Indiana > Indiana miscellany : consisting of sketches of Indian life, the early settlement, customs, and hardships of the people, and the introduction of the gospel and of schools ; together with biographical notices of the pioneer Methodist preachers of the state > Part 2
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"Within the present limits of the county of Scott, there was, in 1812, a place that was called ' The Pigeon-Roost Settlement.' This settlement, which was founded by a few families in 1809, was confined to about a square mile of land, and it was separated from all other settlements by a distance of five or six miles.
"In the afternoon of the 3d of September, 1812, Jeremiah Payne and a man whose name was Coff- man, who were hunting for 'bee-trees' in the woods about two miles north of the 'Pigeon-Roost Settlement,' were surprised and killed by a party of Indians. This party of Indians, which consisted of ten or twelve warriors, nearly all of whom were Shawanees, then attacked the 'Pigeon-Roost Settle-
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ment' about sunset on the evening of the 3d of September, and in the space of about one hour killed one man, five women, and sixteen children. The bodies of some of these vietims of savage war- fare were burned in the fires which consumed the cabins in which the murders were perpetrated.
"The persons who were massacred at this settle- ment were: Henry Collings and his wife; Mrs. Payne, wife of Jeremiah Payne, and eight of her children; Mrs. Richard Collings and seven of her children; Mrs. John Morril and her only child, and Mrs. Morril, the mother of John Morril. Mrs. Jane Biggs, with her three small children, escaped from the settlement, eluded the vigilance of the Indians, and about an hour before daylight on the next morning arrived at the house of her brother, Zebulon Collings, who lived about six miles from the scene of carnage. William Collings, who had passed the age of sixty years, defended his house for the space of three-quarters of an hour against the attacks of the Indians. In this defense he was assisted by Captain John Norris. There were two children in the house. As soon as it began to grow dark, Mr. Collings and Captain Norris escaped with the two children, John Collings and Lydia Collings, from the house, eluded the pursuit of the Indians, and on the morning of the next day reached the house of Zebulon Collings.
"A number of the militia of Clark county imme- diately proceeded to the scene of the ‘Pigeon- 3
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Roost' massacre, where they found several of the mangled bodies of the dead, surrounded by the smoking ruins of the houses. The remains of the murdered persons were brought together and buried in one grave."
A man by the name of Shortrige was killed and scalped by the Indians, not far from where Cam- bridge City, Wayne county, now stands. Charles Morgan and two boys by the name of Beesly were killed by them at a sugar-camp, in what is now the north-western part of Wayne county. The Indians stealthily approached the camp where Morgan and the two boys were boiling sugar-water after night, and suddenly rushed upon them. Morgan made a powerful resistance, but was overpowered, and fell beneath the blows of their tomahawks. One of the boys was also killed with the tomahawk; the other started to run, but was shot a short distance from the camp. They also shot Morgan's dog.
Jonathan Shaw, who was boiling sugar-water at a. camp not far away, hearing the Indian whoop, the fierce barking of Morgan's dog, and the report of two guns, knew that Morgan's camp was attacked by Indians. He immediately fled to the settlement and gave the alarm. The next day men went out and gathered up the dead bodies. They found Morgan terribly mutilated; the ax with which he had tried to defend himself lay near by, with marks of blood on it, indicating he had given his assailants some severe wounds. The boy that had been toma-
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hawked was lying in the fire, partly consumed. The other boy they found a short distance from the camp, where he had fallen, having been shot as he ran. The three had been scalped. Morgan left a wife and four children. The boys left a widowed mother and one brother. This occurrence created great alarm among the settlers, and caused them to gather their families into the fort which they had erected for their protection.
About the year 1811, a family by the name of Hudson, who lived on the north side of Busaron creek, some distance above Fort Knox, on the Wabash River, were all murdered or taken pris- oners and carried off by the Indians, except Mr. Hudson. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Hudson, some five or six children, and a young man who lived with them. On the morning of this dreadful tragedy Mr. Hudson left home to attend to some business at Fort Knox, the young man went hunting, and Mrs. Hudson put her wash-kettle over the fire preparatory to washing. Some time after nightfall the following evening, Mr. Hudson was returning, and when within about one mile of his home his faithful dog met him and set up a most piteous howl. This strange conduct on the part of the dog caused him to have the most fearful appre- hensions that some calamity had befallen his family. He hastened on as fast as possible. When he came in sight of his cabin he saw that it had been con- sumed by fire. He rode up to the smoldering
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ruins, but saw nothing of his family. He called them, but no answer came. As he rode round his ruined habitation his horse suddenly stopped and snorted. Looking a little way in advance, he saw the young man who belonged to his family lying dead, scalped, his heart torn out and lying upon his breast. Mr. Hudson believed this to be the work of Indians, and the dreadful thought flashed upon him that his family had been murdered by them or carried into captivity. He rode back to Fort Knox and reported what had been done. The next day a detachment of men were sent out from the Fort to the scene of the massacre. On arriving at the desolate home of Mr. Hudson they found the body of the young man as Mr. H. had seen it the night before. They found the body of the youngest child, an infant a few months old, in the kettle which Mrs. Hudson had hung over the fire the morning before, together with a few garments partly consumed, the back wall of the chimney having fallen upon them, but nothing could be found of Mrs. Hudson and the other children. It was sup- posed, that, when the Indians came to the cabin, finding Mrs. H. washing, they took her infant child and put it into the kettle of boiling clothes. They then made the mother and the other children pris- oners, set fire to the house, and waited the return of the husband and father. When the young man came in from hunting, supposing him to be Mr. H., they attempted to take him prisoner, but he fought
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so desperately-for there were signs of a terrible con- flict between him and the savages-they killed him and left his body, mutilated as it was found, and made off with Mrs. H. and her children. They were never heard of afterward.
Mr. Hudson, that he might have a better oppor- tunity to avenge the destruction of his family by these savage fiends, joined a company of Rangers, but soon after was killed by the Indians in the prairie not far from where the city of Terre Haute now stands.
These wild savages seemed to have some idea of the old Mosaic law, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," for in their intercourse with the different tribes and with the whites they acted on it as a cardinal principle. If one of their number was slain by one of another nation or tribe, that nation or tribe must deliver up one of their number to be slain by them. They demanded the observ- ance of this rule by the whites. If their demand was not granted they took vengeance till sated in their own way. In such an event, they would take two or three lives for one.
In the first settling of what is now Wayne county, the following incident occurred near the present site of the city of Richmond: A man by the name of Jones had been out hunting. On re- turning home he found an Indian at his cabin who had terribly frightened Mrs. Jones by his savage menaces, and was helping himself to whatever he desired. When Jones entered his cabin the Indian
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rushed out and made off as fast as he could run. Jones shot him as he ran, inflicting a severe, though not mortal, wound. The Indian made his escape and reached his people. This created great excite- . ment among both Indians and whites. In a few days a delegation of Indians came into the white settlement and demanded redress for this shooting by Jones. The whites were so well acquainted with the Indian character that they knew some settlement of the difficulty must be made, or the Indians would take merciless vengeance-perhaps some of their women and children would be the sacrifice. Accordingly a council was called of all the men of the settlement. After some time spent in consultation, they appointed Esquire Rue, Wil- liam L. Williford, and George Smith as commis- sioners to treat with the Indians and settle the
These commissioners met the Indian difficulty. The Indians demanded blood from a delegation. The commissioners pleaded that the white man.
wounded Indian had been the aggressor. In view of this fact the Indians proposed to take a horse. The commissioners agreed to give one. Accord- ingly they purchased a horse and handed him over to the Indians, and here the matter rested.
The inhabitants of Indiana at the present day, surrounded with all the blessings of civilization, can not realize the privations and sufferings endured by those who, with stout hearts and strong arms, entered the wilderness, broke the forest, plowed the
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soil, planted the first grain, made "the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose," and laid the foundations, deep and broad, for her present pros- perity and greatness. "One man soweth and an- other reapeth." It is equally true that one gener- ation soweth and another reapeth.
Though the first settlers were brave, stout- hearted men and women, the dangers surrounding them were such, as already intimated, as to keep them in perpetual dread. Hundreds and thousands of Indians were constantly passing through the country. They were the most deadly foes of the white people. Many of them had grown old in blood-shedding. Many of the depredations com- mitted upon the first settlers of Kentucky were by Indians from what is now the State of Indiana. At their village called Old Town, situated in what is now Delaware county, some five miles from Muncie, and near White River, many white men were tortured to death at the stake by a slow fire, while their fiendish captors danced around them. The writer visited that spot after the Indians had left the village, and saw the stake still standing, around which, at a short distance, the terrible fires had been kindled for the burning of the wretched victims captured by them. The stake was of oak, and was some ten feet high. At about the hight of a tall man, the rough outline of a human face had been cut on each side. The fires had been kindled in a circle around the stake at the distance of some
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five or six feet. These had been built so often that the ashes had formed a perceptible ridge. When we visited the place some of the firebrands were yet to be seen. Where the Indians had danced the ground was packed so hard that nothing would grow. Outside this circle, vegetation was luxuriant. We will not attempt to describe the feelings we had, nor the thoughts that crowded our mind as we stood there, musing, nor attempt to recall how many white persons had suffered a death too hor- rible to contemplate.
The writer recollects well of hearing an Indian, whose English name was Green, say he had killed enough white people for himself and pony to swim in their blood. We also heard him relate the first instance of his taking the life of a white person. It was when he was a boy, some fourteen years of age. A company of "braves" were going into a white settlement for the purpose of taking scalps and plunder. He obtained permission to accompany them on condition, or promise, that he would be brave. On arriving at the settlement, the first night, he and another young Indian were sent to reconnoiter a cabin. They returned and reported that there were no persons there except one man and one woman. They were ordered to go back and kill them. They returned to the cabin, and while this man and woman were sitting before the fire, perhaps not thinking of danger, they shot them through an opening in one of the jambs,
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FIRST SETTLING.
entered the cabin, scalped them, and returned to their comrades with their bloody trophies. From this time forth, Green was a "brave" among the warriors.
The hardships endured by the settlers, and the dangers to which they were exposed tended to unite them together in ties of the strongest friend- ship. They were, indeed, a band of brothers and sisters ever ready to lend a helping hand to eachı other. If a stranger found his way to a settler's cabin, he was received with a cordial welcome and treated to the best the cabin possessed, and allowed to remain till it was his pleasure to depart.
The etiquette of these frontiersmen was not of the city style, but it was agreeable and easily observed. When you came to a cabin door, there being no door-bell to ring, your salutation would be: "Who keeps the house?" to which the rejoinder from within was: " Housekeepers ! Come in." The cupboard-ware of the first settlers consisted prin- cipally of pewter and tin-pewter dishes, pewter bowls, pewter plates, pewter spoons, and tin buckets, tin coffee-pots, and tin cups. The good housewives of those days vied with each other in keeping the brightest pewter and tin, the brightest knives and forks, and the whitest puncheon floor.
With all the hardships and privations of those who went in the van of civilization, there were some sources of enjoyment not realized by those who came after them. They beheld the beauties of
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the forests in all their native grandeur, before they were marred by the hand of man. They inhaled the sweet odors from a thousand wild flowers which grew in nature's garden, as they were wafted upon the morning and evening air. They saw the numerous flocks and herds of buffalo and deer, God's "cattle upon a thousand hills," as they gazed upon virgin pasture fields of unsurpassed luxuriance, and they were charmed with the melody of the feathered songsters, as their heavenly strains were poured forth from the boughs of a thousand for- est-trees. Then did the pious, far away in the wilderness, realize that
" The birds of the air Sang anthems of praise While they went to prayer."
The union of hearts, the warm, true friendship existing among the first settlers in Indiana, was a source of the purest enjoyment to them. With all their rough backwoods habits, their lack of the means of mental culture, they exhibited in their lives the keeping of the great commandment, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
But these hardy, venturous, true, honest pioneers are nearly all gone. A few years more and the last one of their number will sleep silently in the grave. The few who still survive look with admi- ration upon the wonderful changes which have been wrought within the last sixty years. Sixty years more will doubtless produce greater changes.
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INTRODUCTION OF SCHOOLS.
473468
CHAPTER III.
INTRODUCTION OF SCHOOLS.
ONE of the privations to which the first emi- grants were subjected was the lack of schools. For a time none of any grade existed. When first introduced they were by no means of a high order, but the people were very glad to get them, such as they were. The school-houses were small log structures, capable of accommodating from fifteen to twenty-five scholars. A school of twenty-five was considered very large. Nearly the whole of one end of the school-house was cut out for the fire- place and chimney. A log in one end or side was removed for the purpose of affording light, along which a writing-desk was arranged by placing a broad board upon pins or supporters driven into the wall. The seats were made of hewn timbers with legs inserted in auger-holes. One of these benches was placed on either side of the fireplace, and a third in front, thus forming three sides of a square. One also was placed along side the writing-desk. These benches were made so high that the smaller children when seated could not reach the floor with their feet. This afforded the little fellows an oppor- tunity of taking physical exercise while studying
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their lessons, they swinging their feet almost per- petually, and with as much precision as a regiment of soldiers keep the step when on parade or in the field drilling.
The rules for the government and general man- agement of these schools differed to some extent. In some the rule was for the scholars to be at the school-house as early in the morning as possible, if that was by the time the sun was up. They were then kept till near the going down of the sun, even in the long Summer days. The employers went upon the principle that a school-teacher should work all day, like a man hired to work in the field. The scholars were considered to be under the control of the teacher from the time they left home in the morning till they returned in the evening, and were responsible to him for any misdemeanor going to or returning from school.
Fighting, quarreling, or the use of profane lan- guage were strictly forbidden. No recess or inter- .- mission was given, but one "play-spell" of from one hour to one and a half, at noon. But one scholar at a time was allowed to go out during school hours.
The punishment most generally inflicted for a breach of the rules was by the use of the rod or ferule, laid on in proportion to the offense. As an additional punishment the offender was sometimes sent into the grove to cut the rod with which he was to be punished. The boys were sometimes
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INTRODUCTION OF SCHOOLS.
quite mischievous, and did not much regard a light flogging so they could have a little fun.
The play-time at noon was looked forward to by the scholars as a season of great enjoyment. The sports most delighted in were "bull-pen," "town-ball," "cat," "prison-base," and "fox-and hounds." The scholars were not arranged in classes for recitation, but each one recited by himself. In some schools, they recited, each day, in the order in which they arrived at the school-house in the morn- ing. The one who arrived first, recited first, and so on. In this way the teacher kept himself con- stantly employed.
The New Testament was a common school-book. The school was opened in the morning by reading a chapter in the New Testament, all capable of read- ing standing up and reading his verse in regular consecutive order. In some schools, the scholars were taught to pronounce the letter Z, Iz-zard ; in some, Zed. Those studying arithmetic were usually allowed to pursue their studies out of doors. In the Winter season, they would build a large fire to keep themselves warm.
It was difficult to procure school-teachers, and, when obtained, their qualifications were quite lim- ited. One who could teach orthography, reading, writing, and arithmetic as far as the Single Rule of Three, was considered well qualified. In these schools, humble and unpretending as they were, some men who have arisen to eminence as physi-
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cians, lawyers, statesmen, and ministers of the Gospel, received their first instruction in letters.
Though the schools in Indiana were humble, and of a low grade at first, no State in the Union has made more rapid or greater advancement in educa- tional facilities in the same length of time. She was organized as a Territory in 1800. Indiana University was incorporated in 1807, but did not go into operation for several years afterward. Now, she has seven universities and colleges for young men, three colleges for young women, a number of collegiate institutes and academies, with a system of free schools, in successful operation. The Hoosier State has been the subject of many slurs, in certain quarters, and much has been said about the number of persons that can neither read nor write; but if the facts were presented, they would show that nineteen-twentieths of that number are not natives of the State, nor were they brought into the State while they were children of proper age to go to school.
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THE MORALS OF THE PEOPLE.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MORALS OF THE PEOPLE.
MANY of those who have never lived on the frontier, but who have been born and brought up in cities or the older portions of the country, are possibly disposed to think that frontiersmen must be a wicked, vulgar class of persons; but such is not the case. While some of those who first settled in Indiana were wicked persons, the great majority were moral, honest, virtuous, industrious men and women. Drunkenness, gambling, profanity, Sab- bath desecration, and fighting, were the exceptions, not the common practice. The inhabitants of some neighborhoods were more loose in their morals than those of others. The first emigrants settled in squads or small colonies, forming neighborhoods. Miles of unbroken forest intervened between these settlements. In some of them wickedness was more prevalent than in others. In some it was a rare thing to hear an oath uttered, or the report of a hunter's gun on the holy Sabbath day, or to see a man drunk. To do any of these things was deemed disgraceful. The general sentiment was against all these vices. For several years after the eastern portion of Indiana began to be settled such a
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thing as the murder of one white man by another was not known.
The first murder in all the eastern portion of the State, from the Ohio River to Fort Wayne, occurred in Wayne county. A man by the name of Criss killed his son-in-law, Chambers. It was induced by Chambers's wife. She made complaint, from time to time, to Criss, her father, of bad treatment by her husband. Criss went to the house of Chambers and attacked him with a butcher-knife. Chambers started to run. Criss seized a gun which hung over the door and shot him as he ran. He fell and expired, without speaking, in a few moments. Mrs. Flint, who lived in the neighborhood, was present and witnessed the whole transaction. This murder created great excitement throughout the whole coun- try. Criss was arrested and thrown into prison in Salisbury. The jail was a log building having two rooms. When the Circuit Court came on he was brought to trial. The principal witnesses against him were his wife and daughter (Mrs. Chambers), a son, and Mrs. Flint. He was found guilty, and condemned to be hung. The day of his execution was a memorable day to the people. The fact that a man was to be hung seemed to strike every one with awe. Even the children were so impressed with the thought that a man was to be hung that day they spoke almost in whispers. When the day of execution arrived the people gathered by scores and hundreds at the
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THE MORALS OF THE PEOPLE.
county seat from many miles around to witness the solemn scene.
At the appointed hour the criminal was taken from the jail, where he had been chained down to the floor from the time he was condemned, and conveyed to the gallows in a wagon, seated upon his coffin, guarded by a company of armed men. At the gallows Rev. Daniel Fraly, a Methodist minister, stood in the wagon and preached a very impressive sermon to the people. Criss sat upon his coffin during the delivery of the sermon, and looked upon the audience without showing any signs of excitement. At the close of the sermon the rope was adjusted around his neck, the cap drawn over his face, and the wagon was driven from under him. After a few minutes of hard struggling all was over. The blood-stained soul passed into the presence of a just God. Criss ex- hibited no signs of penitence during his confine- ment nor under the gallows. This was the first execution in all that region of the country, and occurred in the Spring of 1816.
Far removed from the vices of the crowded city or the more populous portions of the old States, shut up in the wilderness, dependent upon their industry for a support, the first settlers had no time to spend in idleness or pleasure-seeking. Every man and woman labored with their hands. Their time and attention being honestly employed, the prolific sources of crime were cut off. And yet the 4
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people were not all pious. With all the improve- ments in the State in the arts and sciences, agri- culture and internal improvements, it is doubtful whether the morals of the people, in proportion to population, are so good as they were fifty years ago. All the vices practiced by the people then are practiced now, together with many others. If it be true that morality and religion have not kept pace with the increase of population and the general improvement in the State, it is much to be la- mented. The examination of the subject is worthy the attention of the Churches.
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