USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 3
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In 1840 the system of improvements embraced ten different works, the most important of which was the Wabash and Erie canal. The aggregate length of this system was one thousand two hundred and eighty-nine miles. Of this only one hundred and forty were completed. In 1840 the state debt amounted to eighteen and one-half million dollars. In 1850 the state having abandoned public improvement, private capital and enterprise pushed forward public work, and although the canal served its day and age. it was finally su- perseded by the railroads which now form a network over the state. When water transportation was in vogue. Indiana had one of the most extensive and complete systems in the entire Union.
THE DEFINITION OF INDIANA.
In an address at Battle Ground in 1899. the late Gen. Lew Wallace, author of "Ben-Hur," who distinguished himself in the Civil war, spoke as follows :
"The age is utilitarian and materialistic, and by that idea we are gov- erned whether we will or not. So, if you insist upon a definition of Indiana from me. I will meet you as a statistician who insists that nothing conveys comprehension like figures. Observe, if you please, how much I will be able by that resort to crowd into an interval scarce more than the space of a breath-how much of history, area, prosperity, production; then observe that I have further accomplished what is my special aim, an answer which will set before you the power of Indiana, one of a community of states marching, in bonds of happiest union, toward Christian control of the earth. Settled at Vincennes, 1702: admitted' as a state, 1816; population 1890, 2,192,404; real property, $567.000,000 ; personal property, $227.000.000 ; area in square miles, 36,350; miles of railroad. 6.046; manufactures (yearly), $148,000,- 000 ; farm land in ares, 21,000,000; farm land values, $635,000,000; public schools, 10,000; newspapers. 600."
INDIAN SOUP BOWL
Taken by Capt. Benjamin Parke from the Prophet's village the morning following the battle of Tippecanoe, and carried to Vincennes; given later by him to the mother of Charles Lasselle, and kept by the latter at Vincennes and Logans- port until 1905. when he presented it to the Tippe- canoe County Historical Society. This bowl was scraped ont of the heart of an oak tree by the Indian squaws. It is probably the finest Indian relie in the State, and must have attracted considerable attention at the time, or Cap- tain Parke would not have carried it back to Vincennes, nearly two hundred miles.
CHAPTER II.
INDIAN OCCUPANCY.
The Miamis were one, if not the greatest, of Indian tribes on this conti- nent. They held sway over a large territory, including the domain which embraces Indiana, and hence are more especially treated in this work on Tippecanoe county. All the tribes of Indians which have from time to time inhabited this fair section of the West were but small in comparison to the Miamis, who appear to have been the original and exclusive occupants of this portion of Indiana.
It was about one hundred and seventy-five years ago that the Potta- watomies took, either forcibly or by permission, possession of the Miamis' territory in this state and continued to occupy it until they were removed to the far West, until which date they exercised the rights of ownership and took part in the various treaties with the general government. That portion of Tippecanoe county which the Pottawatomies occupied was mostly north of the Wabash and to the east and south of the Tippecanoe river.
The Indian tribe known as the Weas, an immediate branch of the Miamis. owned and occupied a large tract of land to the south of the Wabash, and mainly west of Wea creek, principally covered by the extensive and fertile prairie known by that name, including the ancient town of Oniatenon, a trading post founded by French Jesuits somewhere about the close of the seventeenth century, or very early in the eighteenth century.
On the north side of the Wabash river. and opposite the lands of the Weas, the Kickapoos held dominion. The principal towns of the Kickapoos were destroyed by Generals Scott and Wilkinson in 1701. They and their near neighbors on the east. the Pottawatomies, about the year 1805-00, granted to Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet. and their adherents. a small tract on the north side of the Wabash, and westward from the mouth of Tippecanoe river, which was almost, if not wholly occupied by the Prophet's Town.
South of the Weas a band of the Shawnees occupied a tract of country. chiefly prairie, on which one of their villages was located.
The Winnebagoes occupied a town on the Wild Cat creek, just above its mouth, which town was destroyed by General Hopkins in November, 1812.
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PAST AND PRESENT
THE MIAMIS.
When the white race first knew the Miamis, this powerful tribe of North American Indians possessed and occupied a territory greater in extent than any other on the continent.
Because of this widely extended dominion of the Miamis, together with its numerous branch-families, they came to be known as the Miami Confed- eracy. We find among them no traditions that they had ever occupied any other territory, hence it is but reasonable to suppose that they were never a migratory people.
As early as the latter half of the seventeenth century the existence of villages and settlements by members of the tribe along the banks of the Wabash, the Ohio rivers and lakes is well settled, and that they were visited by explorers and missionaries, and still later by traders.
By the treaty of St. Mary's. October 6, 1818, the United States acquired title to the following territory : "Beginning at the Wabash river, where the present Indian boundary line crosses the same, near the mouth of the Raccoon creek : thence up the Wabash river to the reserve at its head, near Fort Wayne; thence to the reserve of Fort Wayne; thence with the lines thereof to the St. Mary's river : thence up the St. Mary's river to the reservation at the portage : thence with the line of the cession made by the Wyandotte nation of Indians to the United States, at the foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie, September 29, 1817, to the reservation at Loramie's store: thence with the present Indian boundary line to Fort Recovery; and with the said line, following the course thereof. to the place of beginning."
SHAWNEE MOUND AND VILLAGE-ANCIENT.
Shawnee Mound is a natural elevation, seventy-five feet from base to summit, and is situated on the farm long owned by Jesse Meharry. During the days of Indian supremacy in Indiana it was the noted rendezvous around which clustered the warriors of the then powerful tribes from which its name is derived.
The Shawnee village was situated west of this point on what later became known as Longlois Reserve. It has been stated by Peter Longlois, many years since, that he had known of as many as fifteen hundred Indian warriors, with their families, to be congregated at this point, making a total of nearly. if not fully, six thousand souls in the "village."
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TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
On the summit of Shawnee Mound their sentinels were constantly posted, casting their vigilant eyes over the level prairie landscape surround- ing their position and defying the approach of hostile tribes or adventurous white men.
Many are the interesting traditions connected with this part of Tippe- canoe county. Especially is this true concerning their cruelty and the torture of their captives. If traditions be true ( and there are evidences that they are ). some of these captives were roasted alive by slow fires, and the Shawnee Mound was once the scene of all the hideous barbarities known to the fiendish minds of the savages. The truth of such traditions is somewhat backed up in recent years by the mound having been opened up and exposed to view. In places where it has been caved away human bones and the remains of objects having passed through fires have been found, all of which throw some light on the mystery once surrounding these things handed to us by traditions.
ANCIENT QUIATENON VILLAGE.
Not later than 1664. it is found from history that the French mission- aries and traders had established a line of travel from the northern lakes to the Mississippi river, along the borders of the Wabash, and that it was explored a few years later and the practicability of the route well established. In Hennepin's Journal of Discoveries reference is made to an account sent by La Salle to Count Frontenac, in 1682, which mentions the fact that the route by the Maumee and Wabash was the most direct to the great western river-the Mississippi. This statement renders it "evident that this region was not only visited. but that the route through this immediate vicinity was often and very early traversed by explorers, missionaries and fur traders." From the foregoing. it is apparent that there were settlements and trading posts at suitable points along the route described. In 1679, a fort was built by the French at the mouth of the river St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan. . \ short time subsequently, it is known that the Miami village of Ke-ki-ong-a (Fort Wayne ) was established. and became a point of considerable importance. About the same time a similar post was established on the lower Wabash in the territory of the Piankeshaws, originally known as the Che-pe-ka-kah (Brush Wood). This was later called Post Vincennes. Intermediate be- tween these two points, and on the south bank of the Wabash, at a point two or three miles east of the town of Granville, the Quiatenon village was established, without much doubt, near the same period, as a part of the same enterprise that gave existence to the other two.
(3)
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As a proof of this view, it may be cited that reference was made to this question by the biographer of M. de Denonville, an early voyager in the inter- ests of the French government. In describing the boundaries of the French dominion in North America, in March, 1688, the writer says: "Diverse establishments on the Mississippi river, as well as those on the Oyo, Ouabache, etc., which flow into the said river Mississippi."
True, however, in some instances, the name Ouabache, in that day, was applied to the Ohio, but in this instance both are referred to in the same para- graph, and were applied to those two rivers as we now know them ; and then there were "establishments" upon them, Ouiatenon doubtless among them. At least there was a series of Wea ( Ouia) villages occupying the site of its establishment. Other establishments had been erected below the mouth of the Wabash and above by French enterprises as early probably as 1702. .A settlement was commenced about that date by M. de Jurchereau, a French officer, of Montreal, and a few Canadians, on the lower Wabash, as appears by reference to an article published in La Harpe's Journal of the date of February 8, 1703.
Mr. Dillon, the historian, says: "The Miami village which stood at the headwaters of the river Miami, the Wea villages which were situated about Ouiatenon on the Wabash river. and the Piankeshaw villages, which stood on or about the site of Vinceennes, were, it seems, regarded by early French fur traders as suitable places for establishing of trading posts. It is probable that before the close of 1719, temporary trading posts were erected at the sites of Fort Wayne, Ouiatenon and Vincennes. These points, it is believed, had often been visited by traders before 1700."
The first notice in detail of the settlement of the Wea village near Post Quiatenon is given by a certain memoranda found in the French archives at Paris, written in 1718, already referred to. It is reasonable, therefore, to presume that this branch of the Miami confederation were enjoying quiet possession of the territory in question, in the early years of the seventeenth century, since it is usually conceded that the Miamis held dominion here at the date of the first settlements along the shores of the Atlantic.
The Weas continued to occupy the territory possessed by them, without molestation, save the permitted occupancy allowed by fragments of other Indian tribes, temporarily or permanently, acording to inclination, until the commencing with the treaty at Greenville, Ohio, concluded August 3. 1705, they ceded to the United States a tract at the Ouiatenon, or old Wea towns, six miles square. This cession, though small, appears to have been the first made by them as a separate tribe, or jointly with other interested tribes, and embraced a portion of their most valuable possessions.
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TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
By a subsequent treaty, in which the Weas joined with the Miamis, Eel Rivers, Delawares and Pottawatomies, at Grouseland, near Vincennes, on August 21, 1805, it was declared that these tribes were "joint owners of all the country on the Wabash and its waters, above the Vincennes tract." and which had not been ceded to the United States by that or any other treaty, and as such they agreed thereafter to recognize a community of interest in the same. By the provisions of the same treaty the joint interests of these tribes in certain lands south of the White river were relinquished to the United States, in consideration of which the Weas were to receive an annuity of two hundred and fifty dollars.
Again, by the treaty of Fort Harrison, July 4, 1816, the Weas with the Kickapoos, entered into a treaty of peace with the United States, and confirmed the treaties before made by them, involving the title to lands on the west side of the Wabash river. Under a later treaty. October 2, ISIS, the Weas for themselves ceded to the United States all lands owned in Indiana by them; also in Illinois and Ohio, except certain special reserva- tions made in their interest, for which the United States stipulated to pay them, in addition to their former annuity of one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars, the sum of one thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars, thus making an aggregate of three thousand dollars to be paid them annually in silver.
20:508
August 11, 1820, at Vincennes, this tribe made further cessions of all their lands reserved by the last preceding treaty. to the United States. in consideration of the sum of five thousand dollars in money and goods; the receipt of which was then and there acknowledged. The Weas then soon afterward moving from the Wabash, their annuities were thereafter directed to be paid at Kaskaskia. in Illinois.
It may here be appended that Cox, in his work called "Old Settlers." says with reference to the relies of these Indians: "In the fall, after the grass was burned on the prairie. the pioneers' children amused themselves with the hunting up of blades of butcher knives, tomahawks, brass kettles, gun barrels, beads, etc., that could be found upon the ground. The knives still retained their temper. notwithstanding the many fires to which they had been exposed to."
In addition to this certain individual grants were reserved, among which may be cited the following :
"To Long Hair. Twilight, Woman Striking, Difficulty and Noon. In- dians, as joint tenants, five sections of land upon the Wabash river, the center of which shall be the Wyandotte village, below the mouth of the Tippecanoe
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PAST AND PRESENT
river. The two oldest children of Peter Longlois, two sections of land at a place formerly called Village du Puant, at the mouth of the river called Ponceau Pichoux (Wild Cat)."
In addition to this, it should be stated that in consideration of the above cessions, it was stipulated that the Miamis should receive a perpetual annuity of fifteen thousand dollars, payable in silver; also one hundred and sixty bushels of salt. The United States was also bound to build for them one grist mill, one saw mill, one blacksmith's shop and one gun shop, with all necessary agricultural implements.
The Miamis were usually of medium height and well built, active and excessively fond of racing: their heads were more round than most other tribes, with countenances rather agreeable than otherwise, and in their habits cleanly. They also had a disposition to cultivate the soil.
THE SHAWNEES.
The Shawnee, or sometimes called the Shawanoe, tribe of Indians is classed among the branch of the Algonquin family known as Lenni Lenapes, and they themselves claim that their ancestors were not inhabitants of America, but originated beyond the waters of the Pacific ocean. They aver that, becoming dissatisfied with the country. they marched in a body to the sea shore, when, under the guidance of a leader of the tribe, they walked into the sea, the waters of which separated before them, and they walked dry shod along the bottom of the ocean until they reached the opposite shore.
The earliest record of this people is at the beginning of the seventeenth century, on the Susquehanna river. in Pennsylvania. Mr. Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia." in speaking of the arrival of Capt. John Smith on this continent in 1607. says that during the following year a fierce war was waged against the allied Mohicans, residing on Long Island, and the Shaw- anoes on the Susquehanna and to the westward of that river by the Iroquois. In 1682 it appears they were connected with a treaty with William Penn, under the great elm tree at Kensington. Later they were in a treaty at Philadelphia in February, 1701, and were then represented by their chiefs- Wap-a-tha, Le-moy-tungh and Pe-moy-aj-agh. The tribe in part moved on to the great West and were found in great numbers in Ohio. They were warlike and faithless toward other tribes, as well as toward the white race. One of the interesting accounts of the grounds upon which this people claimed superiority over others was recited by one of their chiefs at a convention held at Fort Wayne, in 1803. It reads as follows :
.
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TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
"The Master of Life, who himself was an Indian, made the Shawnees before any other Indian tribes; and they sprang from his brain. He gave them all the knowledge He himself possessed and placed them upon the great island, and all the other red people are descendants from the Shawnees. After He had made the Shawnees, He made the French and English out of his breast, the Dutch out of his feet and the Long Knives out of his hands. All these inferior races of men He made white and placed them beyond the stinking lake (Atlantic ocean)."
The superiority of this tribe is generally conceded. They are known to have produced some chiefs of very superior intellect. at the same time were possessed of great elements of treachery.
It has been well stated that this tribe was the cause of the awful out- rages committed during the Dunmore war. and one of their chiefs was leader at the battle of Point Pleasant, and was there slain. This war continued dur- ing a greater part of the Revolutionary war, with greater or less disaster to the Shawnees who took part with the English forces. But after long years of bloodshed and under the treatment given them at the hands of Gen. Anthony Wayne, in 1794, when the treaty at Greenville was being made, they were found ready to treat for lasting and perpetual peace with the white race.
Blue Jacket and Black Hoof, chiefs of this tribe, were among those who wanted peace and spoke very eloquently on that occasion. Blue Jacket spoke in these words: "Elder Brother, and you, my brothers present ; you see me now present myself, as a war chief, to lay down that commission and place myself in the rear of my village chiefs, who, for the future, will command me. Ever remember, brothers, you have all buried your hatchets. Your brothers, the Shawnees, do the same good act. We must think of war no more."
But there were other chiefs of this tribe who did not agree to terms of peace, and among them were Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet; the former who manifested his hostility by endeavoring to induce an alliance with other kindred tribes for their enforcement of their opposition, and the latter, the Prophet himself, by a system of jugglery, to insure support by the power of superstition.
In the spring of 1808, having by his artful policy drawn around him a considerable number of followers, with Tecumseh, his brother, he removed from Greenville, Ohio, and by the permission of the Pottawatomies and the Kickapoos settled on the west bank of the Wabash river. below the mouth
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PAST AND PRESENT
of the Tippecanoe river, and to the northward from where Lafayette city now stands; and the place where they settled was ever afterward known as Prophet's Town. From that date the number of adherents continued to in- crease, until they became very numerous, so much so that their presence began to excite the few settlers in this section of Indiana. The vigilant eye of General Harrison in this exigency was ever on the alert. guarding and protecting the rights of his people: at the same time extending the olive branch, that robbery and bloodshed might be prevented and the general peace of the locality preserved. His measures were successful, so far as protecting the helpless, but positive and unyielding in his purpose to punish the wrong. Hence upon assuring himself of the treachery of the Prophet, the expedition was set on foot, which resulted in the battle of Tippecanoe.
The subsequent history of the tribe within the borders of Indiana is soon related. Afterward the experiences on the morning of November 7, ISII, were such that the Prophet's followers deserted him, and his own people becoming demoralized, the remnants of the tribe, after contending against the fates for the succeeding four or five years, finally succumbed to the author- ity of the United States government, and accepted a home beyond the waters of the Mississippi.
THE POTTAWATOMIES.
Next to the Miamis, the Pottawatomies were the most powerful tribe of Indians who in times past inhabited the domain now known as Tippe- canoe county, Indiana. They had crowded the Miamis, in the early decades of the eighteenth century, from their dwellings at Chicago, and forced a settlement on territory before, from time immemorial. They belonged. like most of the other tribes on the Wabash, to the great Algonquin family. and were related by ties of consanguinity to the Ojibways-better known, possibly. as the Chippewas. The first account we have of this tribe was when they lived in the Great Lake region, about the islands near Green Bay. The name has a peculiar significance and is a compound of Put-ta-wa. signifying an expansion or blowing out of the cheeks, as in blowing fire : and me, a nation -- literally a nation of fire-blowers. This seems to have originated by the fact that they were adepts at producing flames and set burning the ancient council fires of their forefathers beside the waters of Green Bay.
From the Green Bay district they migrated southward, powerful bands of them having acquired a show of right of title to locate on certain territory of the Miamis below Lake Michigan. Thenceforward they were recognized
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TIPPECANOE COUNTY, IND.
as the legitimate owners of the domain occupied by them from the south shores of Lake Michigan to the Tippecanoe river, thence to the borders of the Wabash to the northward.
As a tribe they have long been noted for settling on territory not by right their own, without consulting the rights of others.
At the close of the war of 1812-15, in which most of the Indian tribes in the Northwest had been engaged in opposition to the whites, on the 18th of July. 1815. a treaty was held at Portage des Sioux, between the United States and the Pottawatomies.
By the treaty at St. Mary's, October 2, 1818. they ceded to the United States all the territory embraced within the following limits: "Beginning at the mouth of the Tippecanoe river and running up the same to a point twenty- five miles in a direct line from the Wabash river : thence on a line as nearly parallel to the course of the river as practicable, to a point on the Vermillion river. twenty-five miles from the Wabash river; thence down the Vermillion river to its mouth ; thence up the Wabash river to place of beginning." The Pottawatomies also ceded to the United States all their country south of the Wabash river.
But the most important treaty with this tribe was the one made on "The Old Treaty Ground." at Paradise Springs, on the Wabash, near the mouth of the Mississinewa river, October 16, 1826. This gave the United States all the lands within these limits: "Beginning at the Tippecanoe river where the boundary of the northern tract ceded by the Pottawatomies at St. Mary's in 1818 intersects the same: thence in a direct line to a point on Eel river. half way between the mouth of said river and Pierish's Village: thence up Eel river to Seeks Village, near the head thereof; thence in a direct line to the mouth of a creek emptying into St. Joseph's of the Miami, near Meteas Village : thence up the St. Joseph's to the boundary line between Indiana and Ohio: thence south to the Miami: thence up the same to the reservation of Fort Wayne; thence with the line of the said reservation boundary to the line established by the treaties of the Miamis in 1818: thence with said line to the Wabash river, thence with the same river to the mouth of the Tippe- canoe river, and thence with the last named stream to the place of beginning."
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