USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 5
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describes the fort as a stockade about seventy yards from the river, and having within the enclosure about fourteen French families. lle met here a number of traders and noted Indians whom he had previously known, and who were not only glad to see him, but openly condemned his captors. Two days after his arrival the noted Indian French trader, Maisonville, arrived from Fort Chartres bearing a message from St. Ange to Colonel Croghan him- self, inviting him to visit him immediately. This message from St. Ange to Croghan, carried by so distinguished a person as Maisonville, led Croghan's captors to release him and in turn lionize him as a guest.
The next day Colonel Croghan and Maisonville, accompanied by a large number of noted Weas, left Quiatenon for Fort Chartres. On their way, just as they entered the timber, not far from the lower end of the Wea Plains, they met the great Ottawa chief. Pontiac, attended by many warriors and a large retinue, on his way to Ouiatenon. He recognized and shook hands with Colonel Croghan and Maisonville. A halt was ordered and after a brief consultation, they all set out for Fort Ouiatenon. Arriving there, runners were sent to all the Indian villages within reach, and in a great council of many warriors and distinguished chiefs in this old fort. Ouiatenon village on the Wabash. Croghan and Maisonville and Loraine being present, the great l'on- tiac announced that he had been deceived by the French king. "that the French would fight no longer." And with a stately mien, and intense feeling, he hurled his tomahawk into the ground and declared he would never again take it up against the English. The next day he and his retinue accompanied Colo- nel Croghan to Detroit, and there in a great council of all the Indian tribes within reach, the action of the Ouiatenon council was confirmed-the siege of Detroit was raised and the "Pontiac Conspiracy" ended. From that hour. Pontiac, the greatest chief of the Ottawas, the organizer of the bloodiest Indian war of American history, up to his death by assassination, was true to his plighted council word at Quiatenon. For more than ten years peace hovered over this lovely land of Indiana.
In 1777 Lieut. Gov. Edward Abbott left Detroit for Post Vincennes as Indian agent by way of this river. In a letter to Carleton at Detroit, he speaks of the beautiful Wabash and the large Indian towns on the river. He especially mentions Ouija (Ouiatenon. ) where he said there were a thousand men capable of bearing arms.
"I found them," he says, "so numerous and so needy that I could not pass without great expense : the presents, though very large. were in a measure despised, saying their 'ancient father' (the French king ) never spoke to them without a barn full of goods. Having no troops and only a handful of French,
(4)
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obliged me to acquiesce in part of their exorbitant demands, which created a greater expense than I could have imagined, but I believe it not thrown away, as I left them seemingly well disposed for his Majesty's service."
Capt. Thomas Ilutchins of his Majesty's Sixtieth Regiment of foot, after- wards geographer to the United States, who occasionally visited this part of the country from 1764 to 1769, describes, viz. : "Two French settlements are established on the Wabash, called Post Vincent and Ouiatenon. The first is one hundred and fifty and the other two hundred and sixty-two miles from its mouth. The former is on the east side and consists of sixty settlers and their families." Then follows a minute description of the people, soil, climate and production-exceedingly interesting but not germane to this lo- cality. Of the other he writes, "Quiatenon is a small stockade fort on the western side of the Wabash in which about a dozen families reside. The neighboring Indians are the Kickapoos, the Musquitons, the Piankeshaws and a principal part of the Ouiatenons.
The whole of these consist, it is supposed, of about one thousand warriors. * The annual amount of furs and skins obtained is about eight thousand pounds sterling ( forty thousand dollars). By the river Wabash the inhabitants of Detroit move to the south- ern part of the Ohio (river ) and the Illinois country. This route is by the Miami ( Maumee ) river to a carrying place, which place as before stated is nine miles to the Wabash, when the river is raised with freshets." At a later period the carrying place was from the St. Mary's to the Little Wabash, a distance of two miles, and in the treaty of Greenville, 1795, General Wayne secured the cession of two miles square covering this portage.
Col. George Croghan tells in his journal some remarkable things about this country as he saw it in 1765. "This fort is on the Wabash ; about fourteen families live in the fort, which is on the north side of the river. The Kickapoos and Mascoutins, who captured us, live nigh the fort on the same side of the river. The country about here is very pleasant, being open and clear for many miles, the soil is very rich and well watered, all plants have a quick vegeta- tion, and the climate is very temperate through the winter. This post has always been a very considerable trading place. The very great plenty of furs taken in this country induced the French to establish this post, which was the first on the Wabash, and by a very advantageous trade they have been richly compensated for their labour. On the south side of the Ouabache runs a big bank in which are several fine mines of coal, and behind this bank is a very large meadow clear for several miles." Apropos of this statement of coal mines, Butler's "History of Kentucky" says, speaking on this subject, "The nearest coal mines now known to this place are fifty or more miles be-
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low the site of Quiatenon, though it is said by old settlers that formerly there were coal beds even above Tippecanoe." Soon after the complete occupation of this country by the English and then by the Amer- icans, the greater part of the original Indians and French traders moved to near the mouth of the Tippecanoe and built the great Indian and French town of Keth-tip-pe-ca-nunk-which became the greatest town of Indian his- tory on the Wabash, which in its destruction has been confounded with Ouia- tenon. (Imlay's Top. and Geog. Observations, page 404. ) The visit of An- toine Gameline, who was sent from Vincennes in 1790 by Major Hamtramck for St. Claire, to visit the Wabash Indians, bearing friendly speeches to them. But his speeches fell on unsympathetic ears, and he returned with a dis- couraging report. Rumors of war were rife, and wherever a Miami, Delaware. Shawnee, Wyandotte or even the lesser tribes of Ohio and Indiana dwelt dark forebodings by the Indian traders were seen and felt.
But is it not anomalous that here in this little village of Ouiatenon events so pregnant with future weal to our nation, and so prophetic of disas- ter, and the doom of great wariors and great tribes were here enacted? Here the stately Miamis and the warlike Kickapoos rejected the overtures of peace made through St. Claire by Washington. Little did they dream that ere fifteen moons had waxed and waned, the Kickapoo village on the north side of the Wabash and the famous villages on the equally famous Wea Plains would be obliterated forever.
No longer does the lordly Miami and the warlike Kickapoo linger here. Only their trinkets, worn by a superior civilization, their arrow heads and rude implements of wigwam and chase remain to tell that they once dwelt here. Nor do these tell the story of any particular tribe, only of red men. Their light canoes that once danced upon the undulating bosom of the Wa- bash are gone, the twanging bowstrings that once winged the feathered ar- rows are broken, all gone forever, leaving no more trace than the echoes of their war whoops that once broke the silence of plain and dell. * *
Awake from dreams! The scene changes. The morning breath of the first day of summer has kissed the grass and flowers, but it brings no evil omen to the Kickapoo villages on this shore, nor to the five Wea towns on the adjacent plains. High noon has come, but still birds and grass and flowers bask in the meridian splendor of a June sunshine, unconscious of danger or the tramping of hostile feet. One o'clock! and over "lligh Gap" hostile horsemen are galloping. They separate, one division wheels to the left led by the relentless Colonel Hardin, still smarting from the defeat of last year by the great Miami, Little Turtle. But the main division, led by the noble
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Colonel Scott, afterward the distinguished soldier and governor of Kentucky, moves straight forward on to Ouiatenon. It is the black Friday of these famous villages which for a hundred years have gilded the pages of history with all the enchantment of romance. Here let the official report of Colonel Scott tell the sad story.
"At one o"clock ( June 1, 1791), having made by computation one hun- dred and fifty-five miles from the Ohio, as I penetrated a grove which bor- dered on an extensive prairie, I discovered two small villages on my left at the distance of two and four miles. My guides now recognized the ground and informed me that the main town was four or five miles in my front, behind a point of timber which jutted into the prairie. I immediately dispatched Col. John Hardin with sixty mounted infantry and a troop of light horse under Captain McCoy to attack the villages to the left, and moved on briskly with my main body in order of battle toward the town, the smoke of which was discernible. My guides were deceived with respect to the situation of the town, for instead of standing on the edge of the plain through which I marched I found it on the low ground bordering on the Wabash. On turn- ing the point of woods one house presented in my front. Captain Price was ordered to assault that with forty men. He executed the command with great gallantry and killed two warriors. When I gained the summit which over- looks the village on the banks of the Wabash I discovered the enemy in great confusion, endeavoring to make their escape over the river in canoes. I im- mediately ordered Colonel Wilkinson to rush forward with the first battalion. The command was executed with promptitude, and this detachment gained the brink of the river just as the rear of the enemy had embarked; and re- gardless of a brisk fire kept up by a Kickapoo town on the opposite bank, they in a few minutes, by a well directed fire from their rifles, destroyed all the say- ages with which five canoes were crowded. To my great mortification the Wabash was many feet beyond fording at this place. I therefore detached Colonel Wilkinson to a ford two miles above, which my guides informed me was more practicable. * The enemy still kept possession of the Kickapoo town. I determined to dislodge them; and for this purpose I ordered Captain King's and Captain Logsdon's companies to march down the river below the town under the conduct of Major Barber. Several of the men swam the river, and others passed in a small canoe. This movement was tinobserved and my men had taken position before they were discov- ered by the enemy, who immediately abandoned the village. * * About this time word was brought me that Colonel Hardin was encumbered with prisoners, and had discovered a stronger village farther to my left than
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those I had observed, and was proceeding to attack. I immediately detached Captain Brown with his company to support the Colonel; but the distance being six miles the business was done before the Captain arrived, and Colonel Hardin joined me a little before sunset, having killed six warriors and taken fifty-two (52) prisoners.
"Captain Bull, the warrior who discovered me in the morning, had gained the main town, and given the alarm a short time before me; but the villages to my left were uninformed of my approach and had no retreat.
"The next morning I determined to detach my lieutenant colonel com- mandant with five hundred men to destroy the important town of Keth-tip- pe-ca-nunk, eighteen miles from my camp, on the west side of the Wabash, but on examination I found my men and horses so crippled and worn down by a long and laborious march, and the active exertions of the preceding day, that three hundred and sixty men only could be found in a capacity to under- take the enterprise, and they prepared to march on foot.
"Colonel Wilkinson marched with the third detachment at five and a half in the evening and returned to my camp the next day at one o'clock, having marched thirty-six miles in twelve hours, and destroyed the most important settlement in that quarter of the federal territory. Many of the inhabitants of this village-Keth-tip-pe-ca-nunk-are French and live in a state of civilization. By the books, letters, and other documents found there it is evident that the place was in close connection with and dependent upon Detroit. A large quantity of corn, a variety of household goods, peltry and other articles were burned with this village, which consisted of about seventy houses. many of them well finished.
"On the same day. June 4th, having burned the town (Ouiatenon ) and the adjacent villages" (both Wea and Kickapoo). "destroyed the growing corn and pulse. I began my march for the rapids of the Ohio, where I arrived June 14th without the loss of a single man, and only five wounded, having killed thirty-two, mostly warriors of size and figure, and taken fifty-eight pris- oners."
You will discover in this official report the description of Keth-tip-pe- ca-nunk, destroyed by Colonel Wilkinson, which many have supposed referred to Ouiatenon.
This "greatest town of the Federal Territory" was near the mouth of the Tippecanoe. A full account of the march of Colonel Wilkinson to it. and its destruction the morning of the 3d of June, 1791. is found in Imlay's Topo- graphical and Geographical Observations in the West, published at London,
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1793. Also extract from a letter, written to the author, by one of the soldiers of this expedition. "Immediately after the engagement" (at Ouiatenon) "a council of war was called, when it was determined that Wilkinson should cross the Wabash under the cover of night and endeavor to surprise the town of Keth-tip-pe-ca-nunk, which was situated at the north side of the river, at the mouth of the Rippecanoe creek, and about twenty miles above the lower Wea towns. The expedition marched afoot, and reached the margin of the prairie, one mile west, about one hour before daylight. The disposition for attack was made, one division was to circle the town and gain position be- tween the town and the ford of the Rippecanoe, and a signal from this divi- sion was to be the signal of the attack of both divisions. But before the encircling division could reach their position the presence of the army was discovered and most of the Indians escaped across the river, with the loss of several warriors killed and two soldiers wounded.
"This town, which contained about one hundred and twenty houses, eighty of which were roofed with shingles, was immediately burned to the ground.
"The best of the houses belonged to the French traders, whose gardens and improvements around the town were truly delightful, and everything considered not a little wonderful. There was a tavern, with cellar and bar, public and private rooms ; and the whole marked a considerable share of order, and no small degree of civilization. Wilkinson returned with his detach- ment, after destroying the town, and reached the main army at one o'clock p. m."
It was this same year, 1791. and the following August ; also the year of St. Clair's defeat on the headwaters of the Wabash, where two years later General Wayne built Fort Recovery, that this same Colonel Wilkinson, who had, the previous June, destroyed Keth-tip-pe-ca-nunk with about five hun- dred mounted men, crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Licking and there penetrated the wilderness, striking the Wabash two miles above the mouth of the L'AAnguilla ( Eel river ) and destroyed the famous Indian town of Ke- na-pa-com-a-qua, located on the Eel river, six miles above its mouth. This town was then the residence of the "King of the Weas." Colonel Wilkinson, from here, tried to push his way westward to the Kickapoo towns of the prairie, but falling into the impassable marshes of the tributaries of the Wabash and Tippecanoe, after suffering incredible hardships, was compelled to give up his westward march. He followed the best indication of a route to es- cape the marshes, and at length struck a well-worn Indian trail, which led him southwestward till he reached the site of Keth-tip-pe-ca-nunk, which he had
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destroyed the previous June. He found that the inhabitants had returned, replanted their corn and pulse. The corn was in roasting ear. * * Stopping to rest their jaded horses, they cut down the standing corn and completed the destruction of crops as far as possible. He then pushed his little army westward and destroyed a Kickapoo village of thirty houses three leagues west of Ouiatenon. Returning he crossed the Wabash, and went into camp on the old camping ground of Colonel Scott's army the June previ- ous. He found that the villagers had returned and replanted their corn and pulse, and that it was growing in luxurious abundance. Several of the fields were well ploughed. All of the corn was cut down and the improvements were destroyed.
Colonel Wilkinson in his official report sets forth the results of the ex- pedition, viz .: "I have destroyed the chief town of the Ouiatenon nation (Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua), and made prisoners of the sons and sisters of the king. I have burned a respectable Kickapoo village, cut down at least four hundred and thirty acres of corn, most in the milk. The Quiatenons, left without houses, homes or provisions, must cease to war, and will find active employ, to subsist their squaws and children during the impending winter."
At this period the fort and the village of Ouiatenon pass from history. a tragical history for this great branch of the Miamis and indeed for the Miami nation, for in battles of 1790 and 1791 at the Vermillion. at Ouiatenon, at Keth-tip-pe-ca-nunk, at Kenapacomaqua, at the St. Mary's and the head of the Wabash-defeat of St. Clair-the beautiful Wabash almost literally ran with blood : and more than half of the Miami warriors fought their last battle. But still the beautiful Wea Plains and the Pretty Prairie yield a luxuriant abundance. compensating the toil of the husbandman, though this demand has been annually made with one brief interval for two hundred years. They are still gardens of beauty and delight. And passing over them in the season of blossom and fruitage, one little dreams of their tragic history, their story of carnage and blood. B. WILSON SMITHI.
October 2. 1909.
EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.
August 20, 1794-Battle of the Maumee Rapids, where Gen. Anthony Wayne disastrously defeated the united Indian tribes. In this battle Harrison, having served as aide to General Wayne, first met in combat the young chief Tecumseh, who led the Shawnee Indians.
August 3. 1795-Treaty at Greenville. Ohio, between Wayne and eleven Indian chiefs, ceding to the United States the disputed lands in the Maumee
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valley. Tecumseh refused to attend the council and never recognized the terms of the treaty.
1795-1801-William H. Harrison made captain in 1795 : secretary of the Northwest Territory in 1798: delegate from that territory to congress in 1799: and governor of the newly formed territory of Indiana in 1801.
1803- 05-Treaty between Harrison and the Indians.
1804- 05-British agents inciting northwestern Indians to enmity against the Americans.
1805-The Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, and his brother, the Prophet. be- gan the formation of the confederacy of western Indians for the recovery of their lost domain. The Prophet claimed to represent the Great Spirit and wielded a powerful influence on the Indians of various tribes, while Tecumseh moved from tribe to tribe, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, advocating the principle that the Indians were one people and that the lands being common property could not be sold by one tribe without the consent of all.
Spring of 1808-By invitation of the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies Tecumseh and the Prophet removed with their tribe of Shawnees to the junc- tion of the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers where Prophet's Town was built and the headquarters of the Indian confederacy established.
August, 1808 -- The Prophet visited Governor Harrison at Vincennes and disclaimed evil intentions in his influence over the Indian tribes of the west.
September 30. 1809-Treaty at Fort Wayne in which Harrison pur- chased from the assembled chiefs title to two large bodies of land. Tecumseh was absent when this treaty was made and on his return protested against the validity of the sale, even threatening with death some of the chiefs who took part in the council.
July, 1810-Tecumseh visited Governor Harrison at Vincennes, accom- panied by seventy-five Indians. Frequent interviews were held in which Te- cumseh protested against the sale of the lands at the last council at Fort Wayne. Ile openly told the Governor of the powerful confederation he was forming, and of an intended visit to the British while on a trip to the Huron tribe. The conference on August 20th nearly ended in open hostility.
1810-'11-Numerous minor attacks were made on settlers, who retaliated. Early in 1811 the British Agent of Indian Affairs took active steps to incite the northwestern Indians to discontent. In June, 1811, Harrison sent a warn- ing message to Tecumseh at Prophet's Town, and on July 27th Tecumseh ap- peared at Vincennes, accompanied by a considerable band of Indians, en route to southern tribes to complete his federation. Anticipating their visit, the Governor had a review of the militia, numbering about seven hundred and
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fifty men. Tecumseh soon left for the South, and Harrison, understanding that he would return in three months' time, determined to move at once on the Indians at Prophet's Town and strike a blow at the confederation.
November 7. 1811-The blow was struck, the battle of Tippecanoe was fought. won and the four great northwest territories saved from the British. It was in this battle that the fame of Ensign John Tipton became noted as a warrior and an Indian fighter.
As one of the greatest events in the history of Indiana and the whole of the then unsettled western country was the battle of Tippecanoe, it will be of interest to the reader of history, especially to those living in Tippecanoe county, to know something of the famous characters who took part in that decisive conflict that was the turning point in the successful settlement of the county. Three celebrated men, at least. must be touched upon to lead the reader up to the battle itself-these men are Tecumseh, his brother, the Indian Prophet, and Gen. William Henry Harrison. But it should be remembered that Tecumseh was not present at the battle. as will later be observed by read- ing the whole of the interesting narrative.
TECUMSEH.
This strong-minded and intelligent Indian chieftain was the son of Puc- ke-shin-wa and Me-tho-a-tas-ke, the former of the Kiscopoke, and the latter of the Turtle tribe of the Shawanoe ( Shawnee ) nation, and hence was of the pure blood, notwithstanding the supposition that his paternal grandparent was of the Anglo-Saxon race and his grandmother a Creek, both of them possessing superior qualities, mental and physical.
Tecumseh, meaning "Shooting Star," was the fourth of seven children -- six sons and a daughter. The first two were born in Florida. during the sojourn of the tribe in that locality. Tecumseh was born on Mad river. in what is now Clark county, Ohio, about the year 1768. His father was a brave of great merit, which won for him the confidence of his people and promoted him to a chieftaincy, a rank only acquired by the possession of rare qualities entitling him to that consideration, and was among the leading spirits at the battle of the Kanawha, in 1774, in which he lost his life.
At an early age Tecumseh was placed under charge of his elder brother. Chee-see-kau, who is represented to have taken great pains in preparing him for what he seemed destined to become, a distinguished warrior, instilling into his mind a love for the truth and a contempt for the wrong. His earliest instincts seem to have been for war. and his first impulses impelled him
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forward in the development of mind and muscle, after the most approved methods of the age in which he entered his great career. He excelled in all departments of Indian military life, and assumed the leadership among his companions in their trainings and pastimes. In the use of the bow and arrow, his dexterity surpassed all the youth of his tribe, over whom he exercised an influence only begotten of unbounded respect and confidence. This confi- dence, it is said. he never in the slightest degree betrayed.
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