USA > Indiana > Pioneer history of Indiana : including stories, incidents, and customs of the early settlers > Part 10
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It was late when DeVan returned; the other two were there before him and had prepared a temporary camp. De Van said that when he was about two miles up the river and one
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mile south of it he heard voices and listening found that they were coming nearer. Secreting himself in a thick cluster of vines, in a short time he saw six persons passing within about sixty yards of where he was hidden. These persons consist- ed of three Indian men, one Indian woman and two white children, the girl being small and the boy a good-sized lad and both dressed in buckskin the same as the Indians. All were carrying vessels of different kinds that he thought were filled with honey.
De Van's report made it certain that the two white child- ren were near them and in the hands of the Indians and from Mrs. Talbert's statement it was almost certain that they were the Hope children. It was decided to make reconnoisance that night in the neigborhood where De Van saw the Indians and see if they could locate their camp, They went to the place where De Van thought he was hidden when the Indians and white children went near him. On going in this direc- tion for as much as a mile, a dog commenced to bark at them not far away. The hunters remained quiet for some time and then De Van proposed that he should go near and find out why the dog was there. He had been gone but a short time when two or three dogs commenced barking. Talking in the Indian tongue was heard but neither Murtree nor Greenway understood what they were saying.
Finally a light was made by pushing the chunks of wood up together and several persons were seen moving around. De Van slipped back to the place where the rest of the party were and said that he had gotten within one hundred and fifty feet of the camp where the fire was and that there were three or four wigwams. The Indians thought that it was wolves prowling around that caused the dogs to bark so and the fire was made up to scare them away. After talking over the situation they determined to slip around the camp at a safe distance and see what they could find out.
On going around they found a spring four or five hun- dred feet from the fire that evidently was used, as it was covered over with fresh brush to keep the sun out; the dogs all the time they were walking around keeping up a continual
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barking following the direction the hunters were going .. Several Indians were seen moving around the fire; finally one. of them got some splinters and made a torch in order to. shine the eyes of whatever animal it was and with their guns started in the direction the dogs indicated, encouraging them to attack. The hunters saw that they would have to kill the Indians or get away and they thought it would lessen their chance to recapture the children if they were to shoot the. Indians so they quietly slipped away in the direction of the river.
The dogs followed them a little way and then went back ... The Indians were seen throwing their torches away. The hunters went back to their camp satisfied with their night's. work in locating the Indians' camp where they believed the; children were, the question uppermost in their minds being how they could recapture them. They felt it was their duty to release them if it could be done but they did not want to. run unnecessary risk in doing it.
They were some little time in forming a plan of action. Greenway proposed that they start back to the Indian camp- about two hours before day and hide themselves where they could see what was going on and where they would have a. good view of the spring. At an early hour they started for the Indian camp without any settled plan of what they would do more than to keep a look-out for the white children, think- ing they might go to the spring for water for themselves. It was still dark when they found a suitable place for conceal- ment and in a little while smoke was seen coming out of the tops of several wigwams.
Just at daylight three Indian women went to the spring. for water and soon after four Indians with their guns started on a hunt followed by three dogs. After this there was still- ness for some time, then a shot was heard in the direction that the Indians had gone and in quick succession two or three more shots. The dogs were making a terrible noise as if furiously barking at some animal at bay. The Indian camp was soon in a stir and two other Indians with guns started to the sound of the combat. After going a short distance they
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stopped and were seen to examine something on the ground and started to follow the trail made the night before by the white hunters while going around the Indian camp.
These last two Indians went for some distance, finally hal- looed to some one in camp and were soon joined by two other Indians. They all followed the trail until it came to where the hunters started to their camp when the two Indians came out with the torch. They seemed to be holding a con- sultation and then the last two Indians that had come out hurried to the camp and got their guns, all four starting on the trail. Soon after the Indians had left.
A white boy and an Indian woman were seen coming to the spring with an iron kettle carried between them on a pole, followed by a little white girl. When at the spring the Indian woman commenced to fill the kettle. The hunters slipped up behind them; DeVan caught the woman and tied a thick piece of rawhide in her mouth so that she could not make a noise and tied her hands behind her. Greenway spoke to James Hope, the boy, and told him that Mr. Griscom had sent for them. The little girl was badly frightened but James quieted her. Hiding the kettle in a thicket they started, taking a direction that would bring them to the river several miles east of that place.
As the Indian hunters were all gone the captors felt as- sured that the Indian woman would not be missed for some time. They traveled very fast and before noon they were over the river and marching rapidly to the north. De Van told the Indian woman that they belonged to a large band of white people who were hunting for the two children and that they would get to their camp the next morning. He told her that she would not be hurt as she had been good to the chil- dren and that she might go and live with them all the time or when they got to camp she might go back-she could do as she pleased as they did not intend to keep her a prisoner.
The Indian woman said that she had three sons that she did not want to leave and she would go back if they would let her. They had made a long march when they finally came to a nice camping place. After eating their supper
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they gathered brush and leaves for beds. They told the In- dian woman that she had better go on with them but she said she would go back. After taking her leave of the child- ren she started on their back track very slowly at first but was soon seen running like the winds.
In a little while the rescuing party was rapidly march- ing away, shaping their course so they would strike the Wa- bash river near their island camp. They marched for several miles after the Indian woman left them and on coming to a suitable place, rested until two o'clock in the morning when they again started and a little before day found that they were in the neighborhood of the river but could not decide how far south of their camp as it was yet quite dark. Con- tinuing up the river fully two miles they came to familiar ob- jects that they knew were about two miles south of the island. They had gone one mile further when they heard the sound of guns firing up the river. They could not account for this, as there was too much of it for any hunting party, unless it was an attack on their fort.
Hurrying on until within about one-half mile of the fort, Murtree went forward to find out what it meant. He was gone but a little time and when he got back said that he could not see anything of the people at the fort or anyone else and that the firing was from the fort and the west side of the is- land. Murtree said he thought they could get to the fort by keeping themselves well screened by the brush.
They hurried on until opposite the stockade. They could not see anything of the white people but every little while a rifle would crack; sometimes two or three of them. The fir- ing of those outside the stockade was very rapid at times. Leaving the two children in hiding, the three hunters waded in as far as they could and swam to the island. Greenway and Murtree went to the gate, made themselves known and were admitted. DeVan took a canoe back and brought the children. The Indians were behind large logs at the water's edge firing at the stockade but were doing no damage to those inside the works.
De Van was near the southwest angle of the stockade
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when he heard a sound as if some one was struggling or strangling on the outside near the wall. He got an augur and bored a hole near the ground so he could see what it was that caused the noise and found that an Indian was lying there in the last agonies of death. He could see another In- dian not more than ten feet away who was being dragged, feet formost, with a strap held by some other Indian behind a log and soon the dead Indian was out of sight. In a few moments he saw an Indian crawl from back of the same log and tie a cord to the wounded Indian and drag him away. The opening was so small he could not bring his gun to bear on the Indian.
The Indians during all this time kept up constant firing. Soon they ceased firing and Murtree and De Van went out on the east side and crawled around the fort. The Indians were in their canoes, some of them having crossed the river, were carrying some of their dead and wounded companions up the bank. The two hunters got in a good position and fired upon them. Those in the fort were firing from the port holes and the Indians in two of the canoes that were in the stream were returning the fire. The canoes drifted with the current down the river beyond gunshot. The occupants rowed them to the shore and climbed up the bank, carrying their bark canoes with them.
After the battle was over and the Indians had gone, the hunters made an examination of the island but did not find any dead Indians, but pools of blood in many places made it evident that many of them had been hit.
Mr. Griscom said that two days before two canoes with four Indians were seen coming down the river. One of them put to shore and two Indians landed and after looking around for about a half an hour went back to their canoe. They then went down the river and were gone for two or three hours and then they were seen coming back, passing on the west side of the river apparently paying no attention to the fort It was thought they had gone for good but the next day several canoes were seen up the river. They landed on the west side and went into camp having large fires. "This," said Griscom,
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"caused us to keep a careful lookout. There were yet four guns that had been captured in the former battles with the Indians that had not been put in serviceable shape. These were cleaned up, new flints put in the locks and loaded. This. gave us seven guns for defense and every precaution was taken to have everything in readiness, all of us determining to remain up all night. It was near the middle of the night when some objects were seen moving between the fort and the west side of the island. We called to them thinking it might be you hunters returning but there was no response and nothing was seen until just at daylight. At that time I was trying to see over the top of the stockade by leaning a piece of board out against the timbers and tiptoeing so that I could raise my eyes above the top of the wall, when a shot was fired at me that cut the side of my cap. At once a rush was made by a number of Indians to scale the wallsand get into the fort. Fortunately the women were at their posts and shot several times at the Indians not more than forty feet away and before they ceased their attempt to take the fort there must have been eight or ten of them killed or wounded."
The Indians fell back to the west side of the island and had been shooting at the stockade until after the hunters had gotten into the fort. None of the white people had been seriously hurt in the battle. Mrs. Talbert had her cheek burned by a ball that grazed her face. The Indians in at- tempting to storm the fort made a fatal mistake. The white people went into a strong log cabin built in the center of the stockade with port holes on every side, which was made on purpose to repel such an attack. There was but one Indian who got over the walls and Mrs: Griscom shot him through the head. Another one got on top of the wall and was shot, falling inside the fort; several others were shot as they at- tempted to get over the wall. Griscom said he was certain that as many as six Indians had been killed and as many more wounded. From what they could see and hear when the Indians undertook to storm the fort there were as many as twenty-five of them. The heroic action of the two women
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saved the lives of those in the fort at the time of the, attack by being in the inner fort with two loaded guns apiece.
After the battle a close watch was kept all day and night but no Indians were seen. The hunters built two more strong cabins and prepared them far defense as well as for comfort. By this time it was very hot weather and they decided to stay close around their camp until the weather became cooler.
The Hope children gave a very interesting history of their experience while they were prisoner .. The three young hunters who had them for their part of the boat-fight. spoils were looked up to by the other Indians as their very best warriors. Their mother, to whom they gave the. Hope child- ren, was the widow of a prominent chief who was killed in Kentucky some years before. In adopting the children in place of two of hers who had died she first gave them articles that had belonged to the dead children and then had them take off their clothing and put on a buckskin suit. She next brought some tea in a bowl, sprinkling some of it over them, then giving them a small portion to drink after which she drank a small portion herself. After this ceremony she took them into her wigwam and gave each of them a number of skins for their beds. James Hope said that no one could have been kinder to them than was this Indian mother. She would have them sit down by her and would pat and caress them calling them by their Indian names. At other times she would look at them and cry most piteously and then caress them with all the affection of a fond mother.
James said that the morning he told Mrs. Talbert that they were going on a hunting excursion was the last time he had heard of the town where she was prisoner. Eight men and four women besides their Indian mother came to the place where he was recaptured with all their effects and none of them had heard of their former home since.
The Griscoms, Mrs. Talbert and the hunters held many consultations about what was best for them to do. They had lost what little they owned when the boat was captured and Mrs. Talbert had lost her husband. If they wanted to do so, they could not go back to Virginia and they did not have
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friends or relatives at any other place. The country on every side was a wilderness roamed over by hostile Indians. At Vincennes and Kaskaskia there were small settlements of white people and a few American soldiers were in forts at these places but there was nothing they could do if they went there. The people there, outside the soldiers, were of an- other nation and were only friendly to the Americans because they hated the English more.
These unfortunate people were high minded and did not want to be a burden to the hunters who were there for the profit of hunting and trapping for fur. The hunters pro- posed to Mr. Griscom that he, his wife, Mrs. Talbert and the two Hope children, should remain on the island until they could do better or the high water forced them to go away and Griscom should assist them in hunting and trapping and share in the profits; the two women, with the help of the children, taking care of the camp. This was agreed to and everything was put in readiness for the fall and winter's hunt, all the time being very careful to keep watch for the Indians. Greenway made a trip to Vincennes during the warm weather and learned that there was great activity among the Indians; that they were continually on the war path and that there had been many skirmishes between them and the Ken- tuckians who were always as ready to fight as the Indians were.
The warm weather. had finally gone and the fall had come. The hunters were on the chase killing bear and deer. Buffalo were plenty in small herds and many of them were killed. The meat was cured by drying it and the hides pre- pared for market. There were no incidents other than come to hunters during the fall and winter. They secured the hide of many beaver and other fur bearing animals. Near the last of February the high water came and they had to abandon their comfortable quarters, all going to Vincennes to sell their peltry and live until the water went down.
Griscom and his wife remained for several years in the neighberhood of Vincennes, hunting and trapping but finally moved to the Illinois country.
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Mrs. Talbert married a discharged soldier at Vincennes and later moved to the neighborhood of the Yellow Banks now Rockport.
The two Hope children, James and Jane, found a soldier in the fort at Vincennes who was a cousin of their mother's. He took them in charge until his enlistment was out and then went with them to the country north of the Cumberland river not far south of where Bowling Green, Kentucky, is now located.
Greenway, Murtree and De Van enlisted in the army and were with Wayne at the battle of Maumee. After the war was over De Van came back to his old hunting grounds and was on the chase until just before the battle of Tippecanoe when General Harrison engaged him as scout to do some work in finding out what the Indians west of the Wabash were doing and if it were likely the Prophet could control them. His report was so satisfactory to General Harrison that he enlisted him in the army and gave him an easy position in the quartermaster's department.
Murtree after the war of 1812 was over was mustered out at Niagara Falls, finally came west and laid warrants on land € in Posey county.
James Greenway was promoted to a Quartermaster's Ser- geant and was in the regular army for many years. After the last war with England was over General John I. Neely, who was an aide-de-camp and Adjutant General to General Wm. H. Harrison, was detailed by the government to settle up the quartermaster and commissary business at several military stations in the northwest. ' James Greenway. a quar- termaster-sergeant was detailed and ordered to report to Gen- eral Neely for duty in closing out the surplus quartermaster supplies and he proved to be a very competent man in his line of business. They were at this work more than a year and in this way became very well acquainted. During that time Greenway showed General Neely the notes of the prin- cipal events of his life for many years before the date they were working together. The locality mentioned in the notes was familiar to the General and he secured a copy of them;
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in this way the data for this chapter was secured. General Neely was very much interested in the stirring events that took place twenty-five years before that time in the neigh- borhood of his home, as they were narated to him by Green- way.
When they had finished the work the General invited him to visit him and they would then go over the places men- tioned in the notes. This invitation was accepted and in the fall of 1818 Greenway secured a furlough and visited him at his Gibson county home.
They were hunting several weeks together and during that time they went to Coffee Island and up Coffee bayou to what is known as Brushy pond, thence over the old trace to the bluff. The located the grave where Thomas Doyle and Mary Griscom were buried in 1793. They at that time had filled the last two feet of the grave with various sized rocks to keep the animals from digging the bodies out and it was by these rocks that the General and Greenway now identified the graves. By the invitation of General Neely, Major David Robb, who was an old Tippecanoe comrade, was with the party the day the graves were located and he, being a sur- veyor, took the following notes:
"On the level land at the base of a high bluff. Thomas Doyle and Mary Griscom are buried in the same grave, 23 feet northwest of the northwest point of the bluff, located in the southwest quarter of section thirty-three, township two, south, range 12, west, the survey of 1804."
In 1867, Captain David F. Embree, a grandson of David Robb, showed the author the notes that had been made in his grand-father's field note book of that early day, also on the same leaf the notes of young Ziba Foote* who was drowned in Foot's pond in 1804 was recorded as being located
AUTHOR'S NOTE-Young Foot referred to was an engineer from the east and was with one of the surveying corps in southwestern Indiana late in the fall of 1804, surveying the land that was ceded by the Indians to the United States in August of the same year. He attempted to cross Foot's pond (named for him) on a frail raft, that came apart and let him into deep water and he was drowned. Years afterward his brother, Dr. Foot, pur-
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in section 21, township 3, south, range 13, west.
After the visit was over Greenway returned to his post and nothing more was heard of him until 1827 he wrote Gen- eral Neeley this letter:
"St. Louis, Mo., June 14, 1827.
GENERAL JOHN I. NEELY,
Princeton, Indiana.
DEAR SIR :-
I will have finished my seventh enlist- ment in the army on the 24th day of August, this year. I intend to come to Indiana and will call on you. I want to go to the bluff and have a large stone cut out of it, if it is sound rock and place it over my cousin, Thomas Doyle's, grave. I hope, sir, that everything has been favorable to you. I am your obedient
JAMES GREENWAY."
He never came and this is the last General Neely ever heard of him.
chased a stone quarry at Bedford, Indiana, had the bones of his brother taken up from where they had been buried on the banks of Foot's pond and carried to Bedford where he had a grave cut out of a solid limestone rock, put the bones in it and sealed them up.
CHAPTER VI.
ORGANIZATION OF INDIANA TERRITORY -- WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON-GENERAL GIBSON, SECRETARY-TERRITORIAL JUDGES APPOINTED-SLAVERY QUESTION-LAWS OF IN- DENTURE-SPECIMENS OF INDENTURE PAPERS.
On the division of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio, by an act of Congress, May the 7th, 1800, Indiana Territory comprised all of the northwest territory except that which soon became the state of Ohio. The people retained all the laws and rights that were given to them by the Ordinance of 1787, that had been in force in the Northwest Territory. On the 13th of May, 1800, Wil- liam Henry Harrison (who was a native of Virginia and at that time a member of Congress from the Northwest Terri- tory) was appointed governor of Indiana Territory. General John Gibson, who had fought through the Revolution from the commencement to the close and had come out of the war with the rank of a General, was appointed secretary. The secretary arrived at Vincennes, which had been selected for the seat of government for the Indiana Territory, in July and in the absence of the Governor he appointed military and civil officers. It was not until January, 1801, that Harrison came to Vincennes where, by proclamation he called the Judges William Clark, Henry Vanderburg and John Griffith, who had been appointed Territorial Judges, to meet at the new territorial capital, Vincennes, for the purpose of adopting such laws as were required for the government of the terri- tory and and for the performance of other acts conformable to the laws and ordinance of Congress.
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The governor and the judges, accordingly, met at Vin- cennes on the 12th of January, 1801, and continued to hold session from day to day until the 26th of the same month, when they adjourned after having adopted and published seven laws and three resolutions as follows:
1. A law supplemental to a law to regulate county levies.
2. A resolution concerning attorneys and coun- selors-at-law.
3. A law to regulate practice of the general court upon appeals and writs of errors.
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