USA > Indiana > Fountain County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 4
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Past and present of Fountain and Warren Counties, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 4
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"The next morning the old men of the tribe came to us with their calu- met of peace, and entertained us with a free offering of wild goats, which their own hunters had taken. In return, we presented them with our thanks, accompanied with some axes, knives, and several little toys for their wives, with all which they were ry much pleased. We left this place the following morning and soon encountered a four-days storm.
"November Ist we again embarked on the lake and came to the mouth of the Miamis, which comes from the southeast and falls into the lake."
La Salle and his party entered Kaskaska village, near Peoria lake, April 8, 1677. The Indians gave him hearty welcome and flocked from all direc- tions to the town to hear the "Black Gown" relate the truths of Christianity. December 3, 1679, the explorers embarked, being in all thirty-three men and eight canoes. They left the lake of Illinois and went up the river of the Miamis, which they had before made soundings of. Hennepin says: "We made about five and twenty leagues southward, but failed to discover the place where we were to land, and carry our canoes and effects into the river of Illinois, which falls into that of the Mississippi. We had already gone be- yond the portage, and, not knowing where we were, we thought proper to remain there, as we were expecting M. La Salle, who had taken to the land to view the country. He was lost for a time, but finally came to the rest of his company."
La Salle then rebuilt Fort Miamis and finally abandoned his voyage down the Mississippi by sailing boats and concluded to go by ordinary
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FOUNTAIN AND MARKEN COUNTIES. INDIANA.
wooden pirogues of canoes. Ponti was not forward to Chicago cial. where the con tructed a number of sledges. After other preparation had been made, La Salle and his party left St. Joseph, carve around the lake, mil placed their effects in sledges. His party consisted of twemy three Fretta- men and eighteen Indians. The savage took with them ten squats and three children, making in all fifty- four persons. They had to make the post- age of the Chicago river. After dragging their canoes. cledges baggage and provisions, about eighty leagues over the ice, on the Desplaines and Ilinois rivers, they ca ne to an old Indian town. The expedition continued down. as fast as weather would permit, to the Mississippi. Bearing down that wonder- ful stream, they finally. on April 6th, came to the place into where the river begins to divide into several channels and empty into the gulf of Mexico. La Salle, in a canoe, coasted the borders of the sea. and then the parties assem- bled on a dry spot of ground, not far from the mouth of the river. On April 9th, with all the pomp and ceremony of the Holy Catholic church, La Salle. in the name of the King of France, took possession of the Mississippi and all its tributaries. The entire party, civilized and savages. present with the expedition fired their guns and shouted, "Vive le Rio," La Salle planted the column, at the same time proclaiming, in a loud voice, "In the name of the Most High, Mighty, Invincible, and Victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace of God. King of France and of Navarre, fourteenth of that name I, this ninth day of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty-two. in vir- tue of the commission of his Majesty and his successors to the crown, take possession of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, adja- cent straits, and all the people, nations, provinces, cities, towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers within the extent of the said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise called Ohio, as also along the river Colbert, or Mississippi, and the rivers that discharge them- selves therein from its source beyond the country of the Sioux, as far as its mouth at the sea, and also to the mouth at the sea and also to the mouth of the river of Palms, upon the assurance we have had from the natives of these countries that we were the first Europeans who have descended or as- cended the river Colbert ( Mississippi) ; hereby protesting against all who may hereafter undertake to invade any or all of these aforesaid countries, peo- ples or lands, to the prejudice of His Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations dwelling herein. Of which, and of all else that is needful. I hereby take to witness those who liear me, and demand an act of the notary here present."
At the foot of the tree to which the cross was attached La Salle caused
FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTIES, INDIANA.
to be buried a leaden plate, on the one side of which were cute con the hill's of France, and on the opposite, the following Latm inscription:
"Louis the Great reigns. Robert Cavalier, with Lord Tanti as lieferant, R. P. Zenobe Menibre, Recollect, and twenty-two Frenchmen, first navi. gated this stream from the country of the lifino's, and also passed through its month, on the 9th of April, 1082."
Thus was completed the discovery and taking possession of the Missis- sippi valley, and! France becane the rightiul own of all that section of the country known as such now, meloding the states of Winois and Indiana -- in fact all that country bounded on the east by the Alleghanies and extending west to the Rocky mountains. Had France, with the same energy she pur- sued in discovering Louisiana, retained her grasp upon this territory, the dominant race in the valley of the Mississippi would have been Gallie instead of Anglo-Saxon.
From this period until 1698 the French made no further atter pts to colonize the lower Mississippi. They had no settlements below the Ohio, and above the Illinois river and in the lake regions they had only a chain of forts or posts. The next move on the part of France was to graut to Crozat in September, 1712, a monopoly on all the domain above described. This grant was by Louis XIV, and Crozat failed after three years and, about 1717, sur- rendered his grant back to the King of France and the same year the King turned the possession all over to "The Mississippi Company," later styled the "Company of the Indies." The head of this company was John Law. a fa- mous Scotch banker, a regular "get-rich-quick" style of a man. By this com- pany, however signally it finally failed, it did . donize and till the soil and ereet forts and trading posts. It had its day and in 1731 the Indies Company surrendered to France, Louisiana, with its forts, plantations, colonies, etc., and from this time forward to the conquest of Great Britain the domain was governed by French appointed officers. France held possession to the country in question until the Revolutionary struggle, which involved the colonies and France, as well as the supposed rights of Indian tribes. After hostilities had ceased between Great Britain and America, though the treaty of Paris was not concluded until February. 1783, the most essential parts of which are contained in the following extracts :
"In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and 10 remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the lines of the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America, it is agreed that for the future the confines between the dominions of his Britanic Ma- jesty and those of His Most Christian Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mis-
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COLAIRES. INDIANA.
sissippi from its source to the river therville, and i am thenes by a hoe dratt along the middle of the river and the lakes Mauxpas and Poutcharter, 1 ... the sea; and for this purpose the most Christian King cole in all right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty the river and port of Mobile, and " er. thing which he possesses, or ought to possess, on the left side of the Missing sippi, with the exception of the town of New Orleans and of the 1.1 and wi which it is situated; it being well understood that the na igation of the Mis sissippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole length and breadth, from its soffice to the sea."
With the termination of the Revolution, and the success of the American colonies, England had to yield 'ts claim on this territory, and emigration com- mienced pouring into the Northwest Territory, until it had become large enough in population to be divided into smaller territories. The act of Con- gress of the United States making such first division was dated May 7, 1800. and this subdivision included what is now the state of Indiana.
FORMATION OF COUNTIES.
In 1828 the general government purchased the "ten mile strip" along the northern end of the state, and in 1832 extinguished the remaining claims of the Tudians, save the numerous reservations in the northern part. In 1835 the greater part of the natives were removed west of the Mississippi, and in 1840 all save a few had emigrated from special reservations. . As the state was thus left free for settlement, the surveyor pioneered the advancing civi- lization, and counties were rapidly organized in response to the growing de- miand of the increasing population. The tide of immigration came princi- pally from the South at first, and later from the East, the organization of counties giving a pretty clear indication of the nature of this development. At the organization of the state government, fifteen counties had been formed. and others were organized as follows: 1817, Daviess, Pike, Jennings, Sul- livan; 1818, Crawford, Dubois, Lawrence, Monroe, Randolph, Ripley, Spen- cer, Vanderburg, Vigo; 1819, Fayette, Parke, Union; 1822, Decatur. Marion, Morgan, Putnam, Rush, Shelby; 1823, Hamilton, Johnson. Madison, Mont- gomery; 1824, Allen, Hendricks, Vermillion; 1825, Clay: 1826, Delaware, Fountain, Tippecanoe; 1828, Carroll, Hancock, Warren; 1829, Cass: 1830, Boone, Clinton, Elkhart, St. Joseph; 1831, Grant; 1832, LaGrange, LaPorte; 1834, Huntington, White; 1835, Miami, Wabash; 1836, Adams, Brown, DeKalb, Fulton, Kosciusko, Marshall, Noble, Porter; 1837, Blackford. Lake, Steuben, Wells, Jay; 1838, Jasper : 1840, Benton ; 1842. Whitley ; 1844, How rd, Ohio, Tipton : 1850, Starke : 1859. Newton.
CHAPTER IL.
LARI Y SETTLEMENT OF FOUNTAIN COUTY.
While the various township histories will mention auch concerning the detail of settlement in different sections of the county, it is well, in this con- nection, to record something gleaned from the writings and interviews of such men, capable of investigating. as have been Hons. J. W. Whickcar, Jo- seph Ristine and John M. McBroom, Esq., who seem to have agreed on the following statements of facts concerning the pioneer band who first penc- trated the wilds of what has come to be well iniproved and pro perous Foun- tain county, whose shores are washed by the Wabash river, so famous in early days, and formed an interesting romance and tradition, even from re- mote Indian days, long before the famous battle of Tippecanoe, in Novem- ber, 1811. It was that battle that opened up the great Northwest territory, giving us our present marked civilization, where then roamed the blood- thirsty savages.
It frequently happens that disputes, or rather misunderstandings, arise over the question as to who the first settler in a county has been. Ofttimes the distinction between first white man and first permanent white settler is not considered properly-hence trouble arises. From the best evidence, after a thorough investigation, it is the decided opinion of Hon. J. W. Whickcar, of Attica, as well as many others in Warren, Tippecanoe and Fountain conn- ties, that Peter Weaver, whose sketch appears in the biographical depart- ment of this work, was the first white man to locate in what is now Fountain county, the date of his coming being in the autumn of 1822. He came from Wayne county, Indiana, near Richmond, where he has relatives still living. He came to Wea plains and settled in the Burnette Indian reservation, a part of which is within Fountain county, and he lived many years in the same section of land. the greater portion of which is situated in Tippecanoe county. One part of this section extends into Fountain county, and on this part he spent the winter of 1822-3 on the Wabash river. That first winter was spent on the Flint bars, near the Fulton islands, and this is within Fountain county. He later purchased two sections of land not far from the river, and not far
FOUNTAIN AND A AVER COUNTIES, INDIANA.
from where he spent his fost vinter in Formain county, but he built in Ip pecande county, so that it was not all the best to settle in Houtentestes, but also in Tippecanoe como His stay in Davis ty at hip. Fontaine .. .. was earlier than the Wabash or Van Buren settlement , and masipinchas that settlement in Tippecanoe county continued, and his son in-law. Share .. operated a distillery and sipped grain from Mint Bar, and that one of the Latourette, From Wabash township, married one of the Shetric girls in ' ... Weaver settlement, it gives the Weaver settlement first in the county. it least it should certainly stand side by side with the Wabash and Van Buren township settlements. Peter Weaver remained on the reservation, and spent the winter of 1822-23 just across from the smaller of Fulton islands, near a spring of ilne "soft water," wh h still (igre) Hows out from beneath the rock above mediwi- water mark, and just above it is the private sumner resort of Mr. Meiermond. As the writer quenched his thirst from this spring he thought of the words of Tennyson in his poem on the "Brook ." "Meu may come and men may go, but i go on forever." Weaver has abdm seventy descendants in and near the city of Attica today. He had two slaves, Ben and Ran; one died here and one in Missouri to which state Weaver re- moved. Later, he walked back and also made a trip on foot to Old Virginia, but finally returned to Tippecanoe county, where he died and was buried be- side his good wife, who died aged forty-two years They repose in the Weaver burying ground, on Ins old farm, not far from the large, two-story brick house still standing and which he built before the Civil war.
Peter Weaver's youngest son was named Patrick Henry Weaver. The inother, Peter Weaver's wife, was a Miss Walker, who was related to the famous Revolutionary character, -- soldier and statesman,-Patrick Henry, 1 the one side, while on the other she was of Indian blood, and it was from this fact, that of relationship to the Indians, that the Weavers came into the reservation almost .as soon as it had been allotted to the Burnettes. Ilence, Peter Weaver was the first white man to locate in Fountain county, no other white men having preceded him, the date being in the autumn of 1822. Mr. Whickcar has been diligent in searching this out and has the papers and figures to substantiate the statement he makes. His life-long acquaintance, friendship and relation to these carlier settlers, both in the northern and other early settled portions of the county, makes him a capable man to settle what other historians have failed to establish-the first man to locate in this county.
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EXENTALY AND WAREEN TOUTE. INTERESS.
THE CHANGERESTAR ...
This was finely fully am hod with the pas age of those b to dogon vant hà bộen the change wni it out within this state and nation. . well ! in what is now Fountain colony. Three great war have been muell del Bon by the liberty loving and liberty-protecting pesole. Including the ol the TTooster state. The dense forests have long sing been removed, and in their place have sprang up thriving towns and Ries, and ten of thousands of acres of fertile Jand have been reclaimed from a wild state an Inow bear upon their bosoms their annual wealth of harvest products. Her mineral. have been brought from the bowels of the earth, where they had been hidden away from man since the dawn of creation. Railroads, canals, telegraph .. telephones have become common public utilities and rural free mail delivery carries to the farmer's home the daily paper with its news fresh from the uttermost parts of the civilized world The ox-wagon was superseded by the faster horse team; the stage coach gave way to the swift-flying mail train: the family carriage gave way to the modern automobile, and today the de- velopment of the air-ship bespeaks still another more speedy means of trans- portation than has hitherto been known to man.
THE FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER.
The answer to the question, who was the first settler in this county, can be given with fully as much assttrance as in almost any other county in Indiana, though not with absolute certainty, because the men and women who first set stakes here were too busily engaged in making history to stop to record their doing» and thus forever settle the day and month, or even the year in which pioneer acts were performed. But, "in the beginning" there must have been some one person who selected this county as his abiding place and remained a permanent settler, and, from the best authority, it is now believed that such person was a Mr. Forbes, who came in the early springtime of 1823 and, it is thought, was some weeks ahead of several others who here sought out homes for themselves that spring. It is known that the first ent y of land was made in 1820, by Edmond Wade, the land so entered being the west half of the northeast quarter of section 28, township 21, range 6. In 1821 land was entered at government prices by Eber Jeune, in township 18, range 9. In 1822 entries were made by David Strain, Leonard Lloyd, James Beggs, Daniel Tarney. Benjamin Hodges, John Shewy, William White, Robert Ilet- field, John Bartlett, Jonathan Birch, Abner Crane, William Cochran, James
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THE MAMAS AND WARKI - COUNTIES
Button, WCham W. Thomas. James Things Flight Funk. Moses 1. Almer cash, John Simpson, Jeremiah Hartman, Jantes Graham, Martin Ha Fold. Themme Patten, William Cloud. Mevan der Logan, John Rusing, Solo Nugent. George Johnson, Enoch D. Woodbridge, Jeve Odbor, Aun Lopp. Daniel Richardson, Isaac Colman, Isaac Si. of. Kezin Shelby. an Jonathan Crane and Isaac Romine as "trustees of the Church of God."
Ir is further known that Jonathan Birch and John Colvert were 1 . 2001 on the north fork of Coal creek, in what is now known as Van Buren town- ship, , the pring of 1823, and that farther down that stream, William Coch- ran and Thomas Patten had made "clearings" and raised a crop during that season.
On Graham creek. Wabash township, were the Forbes and Graham fais- ilies, who had both settled in the spring of 1823, and both raised a "fair crop." during the summer of 1823. Mr. Forbes was probably the earliest permanent settler in this entity. Colonel Osborn and Mr. Lopp, with William Cade, came in the san e year. The gentlemen named were the first to erect cabins and raisc crops in this county as now bounded. In the autumn of 1823 came John McBroom, Edward McBroom, John Cain and John Walker, bring- ing with thiem, on horseback, the implements with which to erect homes for their families-an axe with which to fell the trees and hew the logs for their prospective cabins, and to clear the land for the next year's crop, and the gnu, upon the use of which much of their sustenance must come. The experience of these men was so great, over every other one of the settlers, that it will not be without interest, just here, to quote from a maunscript account of the mall- ner in which they met and overcame what to most men of this age would ap- par insurmountable obstacles :
"They came by the way of Shawneetown, on White river; thence by Thorntown, on Sugar creek; these being Indian towns, with an Indian trace down Sugar creek to Crawfordsville, which was laid off in the spring of 1823. From Crawfordsville they followed the Indian trail to the head waters of Coal creek, from whence, following the stream, they found the land of promise-a land which if it flowed not in milk and honey, flowed with beautiful streams of pure water. Neither was it destitute of honey, and game of all kinds abounded, while the creeks were filled with the finest of fish. Before choosing their locations, they took a pretty wide survey of the territory which now is embraced within the limits of Fountain county. In their wanderings they came across the Birch and Colvert families, who re then settled on the north fork of Coal creek, while further down at the forks of the creek they found the Cochran and Patten families. After spend-
FOUNTAIN AND WARREN COUNTER. INDIANA
ing some time in looking the country over, and being wanted In the falling leaf and meaning winds that winter was approaching. they made their ale tions of land and began the creation of their m . Inde cam. And the reader can judge of their dimensions when he is told the four men, sept rated by an anbroken wilderness, extending for many mile, in all directions from their fellows, cut and carried logs for these cabins and raised theni b. their places. They were rude and small, vet they provided sufficient shelter for their little families until better could be provided."
With these and the many who came in the spring of 1824, the contest for an existence was indeed a hard one.
"There were houses to build roads to blaze, forest to clear, rails to split, fences to build, and the wolf to be kep from the door during the long, cold winter months. With the utmost exertion, their crops must be light, as the forests were thick and green, and it was next to Impossible to get rid of the shade-overhanging trees during the first year." All they had was a little clearing in the midst of a dense forest, with a cabin on one side and a patch of blue sky on the other, or upper, side of their possessions! The soil was rich and productive, however, and, blessed with rain and sunshine, they raised some corn and beans and potatoes, on which, with the game that was plentiful and witha easy reach, they lived through the winter without suffer- ing destitution.
MILLING FACILITIES.
Of course, at that time, there was not a niill within the county, and the corn was taken across a trackless forest to a mill situated somewhere in the southwestern part of what is now known as Parke county. It was doubtless at the mouth of Raccoon creek. In the fall of 1824 a mill for grinding corn (a "corn-cracker") was built on Coal creek, where the town of Hillsboro is now situated. Kester and Mclaughlin erected this pioneer mill. It is claimed by most local historians that this was Fountain county's first mill. Of the usefulness of this "mill," if such it might properly be called, one who well recalled it wrote many years ago: "A day of rejoicing was among the settlers, when they had not only corn, but also a mill to grind it in. They felt that civilization had made a long stride in the direction of their homes." This mill ground out five to seven bushels per day of a coarse grade corn meal. But no modern roller-process milling plant was ever so highly prized as was this rude corn-cracker !
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FOUNTAIN AND WARREN GRATINATA.
Settlements were made in other part of this comfy i 18,. But .. complete is the record of their coming that no attempt w" here by the'e m mention them. The years 1824. 1825 and 3820 brought may .. . county. The township histones hereit will mention wany of the form - later settlers. But before passing from this am line of the early settle the of the county, let it is - did that 1823 found that stering character of pool times. Abesoin Mendenhall, here for the purpose of home-building. The 1. came this country's first justice of the que; he wrote all the early del settled all the neighborhood disputes; married all the people who were the inclined; he cried all sales and was a man of public busines, generally sucal- ing. His last public service was in representing hi- county in the state Ser - ate. It may be added that in his garden grow the first tomatoes grown m Fountain county soil, and they were styled "Jerusalem apples," and were by Many supposed to be deadly poison. Some. if perchance they came from York state, called thein "love apples "
Joseph Glasscock must not be forgotten in commenting on the pioneer band. He was early in the vanguard and in his time did more, perhaps, than any other one citizen to build up the county, develop its resources and culti- vate a law-abiding sentiment in the county.
The purity of noble womanhood also figured in those early days. Of women who were brave and self-sacrificing, yet gentle and affectionate. firm in her adherence to duty, yet compassionate in dealing with the faults of others; who braved the perils of the howling wilderness and endured the dis- comforts of a frontier life that we might have home- surrounded by the advantages which their toil and self-denial made possible, perhaps no more ex- cellent example can here be mentioned than that of Catherine Bever, wh- settled here in 1825 and made her home with her husband, near Hillsboro, until his death, then lived on the old homestead he had improved, for forty years as a widow, dying when in her eighty-eighth year. She was a Christian of undoubted faith and goodness. She professed and, better still, lived ac- cording to Christ's teaching every day of her long and useful life.
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