USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 12
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By this battle the power of Tecumseh and the savage tribes he led was broken forever, the people of Ohio and Kentucky were made secure in the
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possession of their homes and an empire aggregating more than two hundred thousand square miles of territory was freed from the peril of Indian massacre. From this domain four states have been carved-Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. These, with Ohio, are today sufficient in territory, in natural resources, in accumulated wealth, in population, in culture and in power to constitute a nation within themselves. Then there were in all the republic but seven million two hundred and fifty thousand people: now these five states alone have a population of more than seventeen million, and their wealth is many times greater than the aggregate wealth of all the country then. They would constitute in population, in natural resources, in accumulated wealth, in the culture. intelligence, individuality and initiative of their people a far greater nation than that sought to be erected from the slave states in 1860. Their population is one-half greater, and the excess of their wealth almost beyond comparison. And yet those states were great enough in all the elements of nationality to carry on for four years such a war as the world has rarely seen.
Here the foundation of a great man's fame was laid and the name of Tippecanoe linked forever with that of Harrison. Tippecanoe, Fort Meigs and the Thames were but steps in the evolution of a life replete with signal service, ennobled by great endeavor and crowned in its closing days with the highest preferment a partial people could bestow.
Commissioned by Washington a lieutenant in the army at eighteen he rose to high rank and great command. Given the command of the Northwestern army in 1812, he was instructed to act in all cases according to his own dis- cretion and judgment, a latitude rarely given to the commander of an American army.
He held many civil offices, secretary of the Northwest Territory. delegate in congress, state senator, governor of Indiana Territory, presidential elector. representative in congress. United States. senator, minister to Colombia, and President of the United States.
He never faltered in the discharge of any duty nor shrank from the re- sponsibilities of any position. He commanded armies with ability, discretion and skill and served in civil office with conspicuous fidelity.
Hle often received honorable mention in the reports of his superiors. was complimented on the field of battle for gallantry in action, received the thanks of general assemblies and of congress, and died beloved by all the people.
He loved the government he served and in his inaugural address made high plea for the Union: "It is union that we want-not a party for the
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sake of that party, but a union of the whole country for the sake of the whole country."
Scion of a sturdy. intellectual and martial ancestry, he added to its achievements and its fame and became the ancestor of a descendant greater yet than himself or any that had preceded him.
The lives of grandsire and of grandson exemplify and accentuate the truth of the grandson's words. "A great lite does not go out, it goes on."
The life of William Henry Harrison did not go out, it went on; it still goes on and will go on. Other generations shall rise to be blessed by its influence and called to noble endeavor by its deeds. It flowered again and ripened anew in the life of the great grandson whose fame we but recently commemorated in the capital city of the state in a statue of bronze, with music. oratory and song.
Neither shaft of granite nor statue of bronze is needed to perpetuate the memories of these men, but we do well to build these memorials and to dedicate them to their memories. In the act of conception, building and dedication we bespeak our gratitude and voice our hearts' desire to be like them in purity of purpose, in loftiness of courage and in the exalted character of service rendered.
It is meet that this shaft should rise to mark the spot where those who struggled here contended, and that the granite form and martial visage of him who commanded here should rise above the dead who in life he here led to battle and to glory.
To private soldier. regular and volunteer, in uniform and in frontier garb. to officer and command, to those who fell. and to those who fought and lived, we dedicate this stately obelisk.
They were representatives of a conquering race. founders of states. builders of empire, prophets of a new earth, torch-bearers of a new civiliza- tion, evangels of a precious gospel.
General Carmen, in the name and in behalf of the sovereign common- wealth of Indiana. I present to you. as the representative of the government of the United States of America, this evidence of a grateful people's love and veneration for those who died in the founding of that commonwealth, in the building of that nation.
ADDRESS BY THE HON. ALVA O. RESER.
( Tippecanoe Battlefield Memorial. June 19, 1904.)
As this gives additional historic points it will here be inserted.
Ladies and Gentlemen-Ninety-three years ago on this spot the sentinel,
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Stephen Mars, fired what was really the first shot in the war of 1812. Here was fought the battle of Tippecanoe-a battle of national importance. As Senator Turpie said to me the other day, "If all the people interested in that battle would give a dime, you could have here one of the grandest monuments in the world."
Tecumseh was at that time seeking to form a confederation among the Indians, with the ostensible purpose of retaining to the Indians their hunting grounds. Spain, indignant and malignant, because of the Burr conspiracy and loss of territory, was encouraging the Indians. Napoleon Bonaparte at that time was endeavoring to ride rough shod over Europe, and hoping to domi- nate the world. and by the cession of the Louisiana Territory, and in other ways, was trying to bring on war between America and England. England, yet smarting under her defeat in the Revolution, was impressing American seamen on American ships on the high seas, and had her agents at work among the Indians, stirring up discord and furnishing them arms, Every Indian in that battle was armed with a rifle, with a scalping knife, with a tomahawk, and most of them with a spear. The white men were armed only with rifles. Most of the arms the Indians had were obtained from the Eng- lish. General Harrison and his men were fighting to preserve their homes.
The greatest battle ever fought on the soil of the present state of Indiana was the battle of Tippecanoe. This battle was fought largely by Indiana people. In General Harrison's army there were two hundred and fifty regu- lars, sixty Kentuckians, and six hundred Indiana men. In this battle, thirty- seven were killed, one hundred and fifty-one wounded, of which fifteen after- wards died. The history of the march and the battle have been told on this platform many times, and I shall not weary you with a repetition. I shall not take up the time to tell you about Harrison's march from Vincennes, about the battle in the early morning of November 7. 1811, about the Prophet and his magie bowl and beads, of the gallant conduct of that little army, of the victory, of the burning of the Prophet's Town: or the return to Fort Har- rison. That is history familiar to you all. We are here today to honor the memories of these heroes. Their gallant deeds were recognized by President Madison in a message to congress on the 18th of December, 1811. It was recognized by resolutions passed by the legislature of Indiana Territory, of Kentucky and of the Territory of Illinois. It became the unwritten law of the state of Indiana, in after years when new counties were organized, that they should be named after some hero who fought at this battle.
Tippecanoe county is rich in its history. In 1719. nearly one hundred years before the battle of Tippecanoe, there was formed three and one-half
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miles south of Lafayette, by the French, a post called Fort Quiatenon, and this was the first white settlement in the state of Indiana, antedating the set- tlement at Vincennes almost a decade. Afterwards the English captured this post from the French and finally, in the Pontiac conspiracy, about 1764, that old fort was captured from the English by the Indians. Quiatenon means "Wea Town." At the time the Indians captured this post at Quiatenon from the English, there were three French Canadian traders outside of the post. These French traders persuaded the Indians to release the sergeant, and two or three of the English soldiers who had been captured. The French traders then went up along the Wabash to a point just east of the village of Battle Ground, on property now owned by Mrs. Fisher, and established a trading post there. I took a walk the other evening out to where the trading post was. It is marked by a stone, a haw tree. and the stump of an old apple tree. Many of the old citizens of this community remember the old chimney that stood for many years where that trading post was. In the early days the Weas had a village here. Here it was the Prophet came and established the "Prophet's Town." so familiar in history. The Prophet's Town probably extended for several miles along the Wabash and the Tippecanoe. Senator Turpie tells me that in his early boyhood, he found burned sticks on the high grounds along the Tippecanoe. John Graves tells me he found burned corn there, which was probably burned by Harrison on the morning after the battle.
It was well that this battle was fought here when it was. The defeat of the Indians here broke up the designs of Tecumseh, and if the battle had not been fought, and the designs of Tecumseh had been fully carried out. it might have jeopardized the success of the Americans in the war of 1812. Tecumseh is considered by many to have been the greatest Indian that ever lived, with the possible exception of Little Turtle, the Miami chief. When engaged in war he allowed no murder of prisoners, no violence against women or children. He conducted his campaigns according to the rules of civilized warfare, in so far as an Indian chief, commanding Indian warriors, coukl. He was something of an orator. In the Vincennes conference with Harrison, when he was offered a chair, Tecumseh said haughtily, "The sun is my father, the earth is my mother, and I will recline on her bosom," and he sat down on the ground. He said further to Harrison. "Your women and chil- dren are safe. My warriors are against your men." Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the Thames, a few miles from Detroit. on October 15. 1813. At that battle General Harrison was commander-in-chief of the Western army. Tecumseh said the Thames reminded him of the Wabash. Richard
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Johnson, of Kentucky, was elected Vice-President of the United States, along with Van Buren, largely because of the fact that he claimed to have killed Tecumseh.
The Indians were very superstitious. At one time the Prophet learned from some white men there was to be an eclipse. With great ceremony he proclaimed to the Indians this fact. When the eclipse came he said to them in a loud voice, "Behold my prophecy has come true. The sun is shrouded in darkness." Tecumseh was down in Mississippi when the battle of Tippecanoe was fought. Ile told the Indians of Mississippi that when he got back to Indiana they would hear something and they must march to Indiana. Along in 1811 there was an earthquake in the Mississippi valley. These Indians, when they were visited by the earthquake, thought this was the warning Te- cumseh was to give them, and started north and got as far as Tennessee when they learned of the battle of Tippecanoe.
The Indians claimed the land because they were here first. At the time of the battle of Tippecanoe it is said there were one hundred and eighty thousand Indians between the Atlantic ocean and the Mississippi river. That would be thirty-eight hundred and forty acres of land for each man, or over nineteen thousand acres for each Indian family. The Indian claimed that this land, which today, between the Atlantic ocean and the Mississippi river, sup- ports fifty millions of people, with its schools, and churches, and railroads, and manufactures, should be forever maintained as his hunting ground. I do not believe this claim can be justified. General Harrison burned logs over the graves of those who fell at this battle, but the Indians unearthed the remains. General Harrison visited this spot in 1836.
I once heard Henry Ward Beecher say that families travel in circles, oftentimes the father traveling up one side, and the son down the other. I remember that of the students who attended Purdue University with me a quarter of a century ago, those who seemed to have the best opportunities in life in many cases have been outstripped in the world's broad field of battle by those who did not seem to have any opportunities at all. The Harrison family has been an anomalous one in that respect. The father of William Henry Harrison was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and there were two Presidents from that family in the short space of fifty years. It was claimed by some that General Harrison was surprised by the Indians at the battle of Tippecanoe. The internal evidence satisfies me that he took all precautions. In the first place he had fought with Mad Anthony Wayne, the man whom Little Turtle described "as the man who never sleeps:" he was in sight of a hostile Indian village, whose chief had refused to talk to his
GABRIEL GODFROY
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interpreter, and his little army was in camp on ground selected by the Indians for them. Surely any commander under such circumstances would have been on the alert, and especially one who so thoroughly understood Indian warfare. I have a letter from J. S. Pfrimmer, of Corydon. Indiana, whose father was in this battle. He says, "My father often told me he had a messmate by the name of Bayard. On the evening before the battle Bayard said to my father. 'Sam, sleep with your moccasins on, for them red devils are going to fight before day.' When the fighting began, Bayard says, 'Sam, there they are! "
Outside of General Harrison, who was only temporarily in Indiana, and George Rogers Clark of an earlier day, Gen. John Tipton impressed him- self more upon the early history of Indiana than any other man. Captain Spencer's company occupied the point at the south end of the battlefield. When Spencer fell and his first lieutenant fell. Tipton, who was an ensign, took charge of the company. After the battle General Tipton served in the legislature, and it was largely through his influence that so many counties in the state of Indiana were named after men who fought here. Tipton became an Indian agent. In 1829 he rode all night on horseback from Logansport to Crawfordsville, where he bought the land on which the battle was fought. In 1831 Tipton became United States senator. The home of Tipton was in Logansport. I visited his grave three weeks ago, and on the tombstone is the following simple inscription :
GENERAL JOHN TIPTON. Died April 5. 1839: Age 53 years.
ADDRESS BY GABRIEL GODFROY.
( At Tippecanoe battleground, Sunday, June 16. 1907.)
My Kind Friends-I have got no learning. I have no education. I cannot talk to you like the white man. I can only tell you of things I have seen and that have been told me. My father lived near Peru. I was born there. I cannot read or write. When a little boy I passed through Lafayette on my way to a Catholic school at Vincennes. I could only use the Miami language. We went from Lafayette to Vincennes on a packet loat. I was only six months there when my mother got homesick for me and I went home on a sleigh. I went home and went to hunting squirrels, and never went to school any more. My people. the Miamis, made peace with the whites in Washington's time and we never violated it. My people did not take part in the battle of Tippecanoe. If they had. the result would have been differ- ent, for it was very close anyhow. The red men made their treaties and
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kept them, but the white men did not. Whenever they were dissatisfied they would give us a little money and then make a new treaty. I am a Miami. My father was half Indian and half French, and his name was Francis God- froy. I was born in 1834. The Miamis were the stoutest and swiftest of all the Indians. Indian always keeps his word: white man don't. White man mighty uncertain. ( Laughter. ) I used to own a good deal of land. I have only forty-eight acres now. I was cheated out of my property by the white man. I have had nineteen children and three wives. Indian believe in big families like President Roosevelt. ( Laughter. ) My second wife was a granddaughter of Frances Slocum. I often saw Frances Slocum. She looked like a squaw, not like a white woman. She was a pretty large woman, but not very tall. Her picture looks like her. I married the granddaughter of Frances Slocum in 1858. The Miamis, all except three families. were sent across the Mississippi in 1846, to Kansas, and afterwards to the Ter- ritory. Frances grieved when her people were sent away, and soon died, in 1847. Her daughter died the same month. Frances was stolen by a Dela- ware Indian and lived near Niagara Falls. This Delaware Indian would never stay where there were many Indians, but would move way off to him- self for fear some one would steal the child. Frances was a very stout young girl. She could break ponies, and could jump on ponies when they were running. One day when she was living with her Delaware father. she found a wounded Indian leaning against a tree. She and her Delaware Indian father took this Indian, who was a Miami, and nursed him back to health. When he got well he hunted for the Delaware, who was getting old. to pay him for taking care of him. When the Delaware came to die, he said to the man, "You have been good to me. You shall have this white woman for a wife." So, after the death of the Delaware, this Miami, who was deaf, took Frances as his wife, and went back among the Miamis, where he had been chief soldier, and became chief, and lived at Deaf Man's Village, on the Mississinewa. He died in 1833, when Frances was quite a young woman. I have sold the relics of Frances Slocum for three hundred dollars, and they have gone to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, and to Detroit. 1 had to have the money. I used to run races when I was young. One time I ran a race with a white man. In the first race the white man beat me: but I saw he was short-winded; so in the next race, I doubled the distance and beat him easily. The word Wabash means White Stone River; Tippecanoe means Buffalo Fish: Mississinewa means Falling Water. 1 am glad you put tip montiment to white man, for white man was brave. So was Indian.
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"SPURR'S DEFEAT."
The year after the battle of Tippecanoe. an expedition was sent out to complete the destruction of the Indian towns on the Wabash, Tippecanoe and Eel rivers, and thus utilize the success of the preceding campaign by follow- ing them up and establishing their permanency. This expedition was under command of General Hopkins, an officer of much experience in Indian warfare. Reaching the Prophet's Town November 19, 1812, by the route which General Harrison had marked out, a detachment of three hundred men. under the command of General Butler, was sent out to surprise the Winnebago town on the Wild Cat creek, a mile from the Wabash. The place, which consisted of some forty houses and a number of temporary huts, they found completely evacuated. The Prophet's Town, rebuilt and about the same size, and the corn crops in the vicinity were then destroyed by the troops.
November 22d, Lieutenant-Colonels Miller and Wilcox, with about sixty horsemen, were led into an ambuscade on Wild Cat creek, about seven miles east of the Winnebago town, and were compelled to retreat in the most hasty manner. This has been known as "Spurr's Defeat," probably alluding to the spurs which the men used so vigorously upon their horses.
In addition to this account, here should be made the following record : With this expedition was a company of regulars under command of Captain Zachary Taylor; a company of rangers under Captain Beckes, and Captain Washburn's company of scouts, or spies. Owing to various circumstances, the army did not reach Prophet's Town until the nineteenth of the month. and upon arriving at that point the detachment already named was sent out to surprise the Winnebago town, on the Wild Cat creek. The mam town consisted of some forty houses, many of them being from thirty to fifty feet in length. The final destruction of the Prophet's Town, which had been rebuilt. consisted of forty cabins and huts, and the large village of Kickapoos below and adjoining it on the west side of the river, consisting of about one hundred and sixty cabins and huts, occupied some time by this force during the three days succeeding, in which, also, they destroyed the corn crop and constructed fortifications for defense.
In the meantime, a party of Indians had been discovered on Wild Cat creek, about seven miles to the eastward, by Pierre La Plante, an old scout from Vincennes. Doctor Gist, of Louisville, Kentucky, and a Mr. Dunn. of the same state, who had been out reconnoitering. Upon the discovery of this
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party, La Plante, who well knew the Indian traits of character. suggested to his comrades the propriety of making their way to camp as soon as possible. that other and more numerous bands of Indians were not far distant, and likely intended mischief. To this suggestion Dunn objected, saying he would not go without a shot at the Indians, and was indisposed to go, delaying his start until they were attacked. Meantime. La Plante and the Doctor had taken advantage of the position, and put spurs to their horses. Dunn soon after left in great haste, but was fired upon by the Indians and killed as he fle:1. La Plante escaped with little difficulty: hut Gist, being closely pur- sued, dismounted his horse and hid in some driftwood near the bank of the creek. The Indians followed closely and examined the drift carefully, but . failed to discover his place of hiding. When all was quiet again he left his hiding place and made his way to the camp, where he safely arrived the next morning.
Meantime, Dunn's horse came into eamp riderless, establishing the fact that the Indian's rifle had done its fatal work. This was on November 21. 1812. The next day, some sixty horsemen, under Colonels Miller and Wil- cox. being anxious to bury their dend comrade, started out for that purpose. and the further purpose of obtaining more accurate knowledge of the Indian eamp. in situation, strength, etc., and intending to destroy it.
The Indians who had killed Dunn, well knowing that his comrades would attempt to secure and bury his body, adopted a little Indian strategy to throw the company off its guard, and lead them into an ambascide. Se- creting themselves nearly. they left one of their number to watch his body. The Indian was supplied with a horse, the letter to execute the plan. Upon the arrival of the company. the Indian was discovered, and without consid- ering the probabilities connected with his presence, they determined to cap- ture and not kill him. The Indian made a feint, as if trying to escape, just eluding his pursuers, sometimes allowing himself to be caught and then managing to escape again, all the time, however, bending his course in a given direction, and enticing them toward his camp, where the Indians were secretel in waiting for their victims. Thus the point was finally reached. The camp, almost a natural fortress, was situated in the bend of the Wild Cat creek, forming a semi-circle. The creek here was deep and rapid, in the reir of their position, fronted by a bluff one hundred feet high and almost perpendicular, and only accessible through three deep ravines.
The horsemen, having been led by the wily Indian to the brink of the Bluff behind which the savages lay in concealment, soon found themselves in a position from which they could only escape by flight; to contend was
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useless. In this dilemma the Indians, from their fortress, opened a deadly fire upon them, with awful effect. Of the whites there were eighteen killed. wounded and missing. The remainder at once put spurs to their animals and fled. leaving their comrades dying on the ground. The defeat was complete and has ever since been known as "Spurr's Defeat."
On the return of the party into camp, with the information purchased at so great a cost, it was determined to send a force sufficient and dislodge the Indians at any risk. Then a most violent snowstorm set in, attended with extreme low temperature, hence the movement was postponed until the 24th of the month. Upon arriving at the grounds, it was ascertained that the Indians had deserted their camp before the snow had fallen, and had passed over the creek. In consequence of the fall of snow and the severity of the weather, it was impossible to find and bury the dead, and they returned. Thus the mortal remains of those dead heroes were left to dissolve into their original elements, and without a sepulture, on the banks of the Wild Cat. in Tippecanoe county, were left without monument, or exact location known to anyone. It is believed that the spot was not far from the line which sepa- rates this county from Carroll county.
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