USA > Indiana > The Indiana gazetteer, or topographical dictionary of the State of Indiana, 1849 > Part 8
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During the years 1785-6, there were frequent skir- mishes between the whites and Indians near Vincennes, in which a considerable number of lives were lost, and in the latter year an expedition, under Gen. Clark, with
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about a thousand men, was undertaken against Ouiate- non, one of the Indian towns near the mouth of the Wea; but after advancing as far as Vermillion River, 100 miles above Vincennes, the whole party returned without effecting any thing. The want of provisions, the insub- ordination of the troops, and intemperate habits which it is said Gen. Clark indulged in, from the neglect of the government to settle his claims, were alleged as the causes of the failure of the expedition.
About this time the difficulties with Spain, then in pos- session of Louisiana, in reference to the navigation of the Mississippi, became a matter of much interest in the west. So hopeless was the prospect of obtaining it ami- cably, that many good citizens were disposed to embroil the two countries in war. For this purpose, it was sup- posed by some, that Gen. Clark proceeded to appropriate to public use the goods of Spanish merchants at Vin- cennes.
In 1787, the celebrated Ordinance for the government of the Territory north-west of the Ohio, received the sanc- tion of Congress, an act of more importance to this State and the whole region embraced by the Ohio, the Lakes and the Mississippi, than any that was ever adopted by that body. The act provided for the immediate legisla- tion and government of the country; for its future divi- sion, at proper times, into independent States of the Union, and that there should never be either slavery or invol- untary servitude within its limits. To the author of this Ordinance, Nathan Dane, of Beverly, Massachusetts, will be for ever due a debt of gratitude, growing in amount as the future millions of the country shall, with their posterity, enjoy the blessings which have been thus secured to them.
Various attempts to treat with the Wabash Indians appear to have been made during the five years previous to 1790, but they were all ineffectual. Many skirmishes took place during this period, among which was one on Grant's creek, now Switzerland county, in which twenty- five Kentuckians attacked about sixty Indians, at first
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with every prospect of success; but one of the three di- visions of the assailants, stopping to plunder the Indian camps, they were in the end defeated, and two brothers, of the name of Grant, and about half the assailing party, were killed.
In April, 1790, Major Hamtramck, then commanding Fort Knox, at Vincennes, sent a French trader, of the name of Gamelin, up the Wabash to ascertain the feel- ings of the Indians in relation to peace. The prospect was not favorable, nor was it probably improved by an agent who did not go clothed with any authority from government.
The county of Knox was laid off at this time, and for some years embraced what now constitutes the whole State. There were then at Vincennes 143 heads of fami- lies who had been residents of the place prior to 1783. No part of the population in the Territory north-west of the Ohio appears to have been embraced in the Census of 1790. Kentucky, at that time, had a population of 73,077, and Tennessee of 35,791. The frequent mur- ders of whites by the Indians along the Ohio river, and the failure of all attempts at negotiation, occasioned the expedition of Gen. Harmer, in the autumn of this year, against the Indian towns near the head of the Wabash and Maumee. A call had been made upon Virginia for 1,000 militia, upon Pennsylvania for 500, and it was expected that 300 more would be assembled at Fort Steuben, (Jeffersonville) to aid the troops from Vincennes, and 1,200 more were to march from Wheeling and Cin- cinnati. With much difficulty, a force of 1,133 militia and 320 regulars were collected at Cincinnati, who marched thence on the 26th September. They succeed- ed in reaching the towns at the head of the Maumee, burned the principal town and five other villages, with the crops of the Indians, amounting, it was estimated, to 20,000 bushels of corn; but by carelessness, their pack horses were stolen, which prevented their going further ; the regulars and militia did not act in concert; the prin- cipal officers were on bad terms with each other, and in
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two battles, fought on the 19th and 22d October, the lat- ter near the present site of Fort Wayne, the loss was severe on both sides. The victory was claimed by the whites as well as the Indians; but as the former soon after retreated, and the latter did not pursue, there was not much justice in the claims of either. That so little was effected after so much preparation, was, on the whole, very unfavorable to the United States. Of their troops, 183 were killed and 31 wounded. Major Ham- tramck, at the same time, marched from Vincennes as far as the mouth of the Vermillion, and destroyed a number of the deserted villages, but met with no opposi- tion.
The Indian depredations being still continued, two ex- peditions were undertaken, in 1791, against the tribes re- siding on the waters of the Wabash. The first, consisting of S00 mounted men, commanded by Gen. Scott, of Kentucky, crossed the Ohio at the mouth of the Ken- tucky river, on the 23d of May. With this force he attacked and destroyed the towns at the mouth of the Wea, on both sides of the Wabash; sent a detachment eighteen miles to the town of Kith Tipecanonck, or as it has since been called, Tippecanoe, and destroyed the town. The horses having been disabled by their long march, this trip of 36 miles was made on foot by 360 men, in twelve hours, and the object effected.
The distance travelled by the army, from the mouth of the Kentucky river to the mouth of the Wea, was esti- mated by Gen. Scott at 155 miles, which is about the exact distance in a straight line, and the nearest route it can now be travelled must rather exceed that which is stated to have been travelled by the army. Thirty-two Indians were killed and fifty-eight prisoners taken, with- out the loss of a man, five only having been wounded, and the party returned by the way of the Falls of the Ohio, after an absence of twenty-three days.
The Indian depredations still being continued, a second expedition was undertaken by Col. Wilkinson against the Indian towns on Eel river, which was also successful.
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He left Cincinnati the first of August, crossed the Wa- bash five miles above the present site of Logansport, or the mouth of Eel river, then surprised and destroyed the Indian towns, losing two of his own party, killing six of the Indians, and taking thirty-four prisoners. He then proceeded over to the Tippecanoe, and down to Ouiate- non, destroying another Indian village, and the large fields of corn that had been cultivated after the depar- ture of Gen. Scott, and then went by the same route by the Falls of the Ohio, making the whole distance, by estimate, 451 miles in 21 days. Many a traveller, in later times, through the same region, can testify to the accuracy of Col. Wilkinson's description of the difficul- ties he met with in marching his troops through "bogs almost impassable," impervious thickets, wet prairies, &c., in the vicinity of the Wabash, Eel river and Tippe- canoe. In a wet season, and a trip made in such haste, it is no wonder that more than half the horses were dis- abled.
The expedition of St. Clair, in the fall of 1791, was even more unfortunate than that of Gen. Harmar; but the particulars will not be narrated here, as none of them occurred within the bounds of this State. Until the final victory obtained by Gen. Wayne, on the Maumee, in 1794, Kentucky, alone, of all the western states, was in any measure safe from Indian depredations. The spirit manifested there by Scott, Wilkinson, and others, pro- tected that State from danger. Their expeditions, too, no doubt, influenced the Wabash Indians to treat with Gen. Rufus Putnam, at Vincennes, in 1792, while the other western tribes kept aloof from the Commissioners of the United States.
The operations of Gen. Wayne in 1793-4, were also almost entirely without the limits of this State, nothing being done here but the construction of Fort Wayne, at the head of the Maumee, in September and October of the latter year. This fort was well situated for exercis- ing an important control, which it long continued, over the tribes in the vicinity. At the treaty of Greenville,
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which followed Wayne's victory, the Indians ceded to the United States, amongst other lands, the following, which now constitute a part of the State. Ist. A tract lying south-east of a line from the mouth of Kentucky river, running north-east to Fort Recovery, near the head of the Wabash, and embracing the present counties of Dearborn, Ohio, and parts of Switzerland, Franklin, Union and Wayne, and then various tracts at the head of the Maumee, the portage of the Wabash, and Ouiatenon. All claims to other lands within this State were, at that time, relinquished to the Indians, except the 150,000 acres granted to Clark's regiment, the French grants, near Vincennes, and other lands occupied by the French, or other whites, to which the Indian title had been extin- guished.
The first Governor of the North-west Territory, then embracing the country west of Pennsylvania, and bounded by the Ohio, the Lakes, and the Mississippi, was Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who continued to act as such until Ohio was formed into a State Government, which took place in 1802.
The first Legislature which the people of the North- west Territory had any part in electing, met at Cincin- nati in 1799. From the nominations made by the Rep- resentatives, Henry Vanderburgh, of Vincennes, was selected by the Governor as one of the five who were to constitute the Legislative Council.
In 1800, there was a division of the district by Con- gress, the one retaining the former name was composed of the present State of Ohio, a small part of Michigan, and a small part of Indiana, being that part in the south- east corner which had been ceded to the United States by the Indians, in the treaty of Greenville. The other district was denominated the Indiana Territory, and em- braced all the region west of the former, east of the Mississippi, and between the Lakes and the Ohio. The population of all this tract of country, by the census of 1800, was 4,875, of which a small portion, in Clark's grant, was of English descent; the remainder mostly of
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French extraction, and residing at or near Kaskaskia, Vincennes and Detroit.
Previous to the division of the Territory, there had been but one Court having cognizance of crimes, for five years, in the three western counties, then called St. Clair, Knox and Wayne, the first embracing the present State of Illinois, the second the most of Indiana, and the other the principal part of Michigan.
In 1801, William H. Harrison was appointed Governor of the Indiana Territory, John Gibson, Secretary, and Henry Vanderburgh, Thomas T. Davis and John Griffin, Judges. The county of Clark was organized the same year, to accommodate the citizens then residing on Clark's grant.
In September, 1802, Governor Harrison entered into a treaty, at Vincennes, with various Indian tribes, to settle the bounds of former cessions of lands near that place. This was the first of a series of negotiations which con- tinued for many years, and added so much to the domain of the United States.
The following extract of a letter from Gov. Harrison to Mr. Madison, dated, Vincennes, 1802, gives some de- tails of one of the land speculations of that period. "The Court established at this place, under the authority of the State of Virginia, in the year 1780, assumed to them- selves the right of granting lands to every applicant. Having exercised this power for some time, without op- position, they began to conclude that their right over the land was supreme, and that they could, with as much propriety, grant to themselves as to others; accordingly, an arrangement was made by which the whole country to which the Indian title was supposed to be extinguished, was divided between the members of the Court, and or- ders to that effect were entered on their journal, each member absenting himself from the Court on the day the order was to be made in his favor, so that it might ap- pear to be the act of his fellows only. The authors of this ridiculous transaction soon found that no advantage could be derived from it, as they could find no purcha-
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sers, and the idea of holding any part of the land was, by the greater part of them abandoned; a few years ago, however, the claim was dicovered and a part of it purchased by some of those speculators who infest our country, and through these people a number of others, in different parts of the United States, have become con- cerned, some of whom are actually preparing to make settlements. The price at which the land is sold enables any body to become a purchaser, 1,000 acres being fre- quently given for an indifferent horse or a rifle gun."
As soon as the Governor discovered the character of the speculation, and that purchases of large tracts were being made, recorded and certified as correct, he at once arrested them by forbidding the Recorder and Clerk to record or authenticate any such papers.
The Territory of Louisiana having been purchased of France in 1803, was, in the following year, divided, and all north of the 33d deg. of latitude was placed under the care of the Governor of the Indiana Territory. There was, however, no considerable settlements of whites in this whole region of country, except in the vicinity of St. Louis and New Madrid.
The treaty of St. Louis, made by Gov. Harrison in 1804, with the Delawares, Piankeshaws, Kaskaskias, and with the Sacs and Foxes, provided for the cession of an immense tract of country, from the Ohio to the Wabash, and between the Illinois, Mississippi and Fox rivers, in all about 50,000,000 acres. Portions of this land, how- ever, as much of the other Indian lands, have been from time to time claimed by other tribes, and, in general, their right also has been subsequently purchased, for it has been the policy of the General Government to quiet all claims peaceably, as far as possible.
In 1805, Michigan was made a separate Territory, and the same year the first Legislature for the Indiana Territory was assembled at Vincennes. Until this time, the laws for the government of the Territory were, from time to time, as occasion required, adopted and published by the Governor and Judges, to be in force until disap-
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proved by Congress, and all the county officers and mili- tia officers, below the grade of General, were appointed and commissioned by the Governor.
The ordinance prohibiting slavery in the Territory was not, at first, acceptable to all the people residing in it; for in 1796, four of the citizens of Kaskaskia petitioned Congress that slavery might be allowed there, but the petition was rejected. The subject was brought before Congress again in 1803, and reported against by Mr. Randolph. It came up again in 1806-7, on the petition of the Council and House of Representatives of the In- diana Territory, and the lower House of Congress ap- pear to have adopted a resolution, suspending in a quali- fied manner, the article of the ordinance in relation to slavery, for ten years; but the Senate refusing to concur, the resolution did not take effect.
It is apparent, from the early legislation of the Terri- tory, that slavery, to some extent, had been covertly in- troduced, and that the privilege of holding slaves was then regarded favorably by the majority of those in power. At the first session of the Territorial Legisla- ture, and again at that of 1807, a law was passed to authorize bringing Negroes into the Territory, the males to be apprenticed until they were thirty-five years old, and females until they were thirty-two years old. Chil- dren of colored persons, born in the Territory, might also be apprenticed until the males were thirty and the females twenty-eight years old. At the session of 1806, a law was passed authorizing slaves found ten miles from home, without permission of their masters, to be taken up and whipped twenty-five lashes.
The practice of apprenticing Negroes, so that they could be held in a species of involuntary service, even after they ceased to be minors, was not finally relin- quished until after the adoption of the State Constitution, when the Supreme Court of the State decided these ap- prenticeships unconstitutional. See Blackf. Rep. 122.
The Borough of Vincennes was incorporated in 1805, and the same year an act was passed incorporating Ben-
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jamin Hovey, Josiah Stevens, and others, to make a canal round the Falls of the Ohio, on the Indiana side. It was stated to the writer of this article, some thirty years since, by a gentleman in every respect credible, and who ought to have known the facts, that the name of Aaron Burr was used in obtaining this charter, and that he was expected to assist in completing the work. It is known that Col. Burr was at Jeffersonville, Vin- cennes and St. Louis about this time, and that believing his objects to be laudable, Davis Floyd, then a member of the Legislature, and afterwards a Judge in this State and in Florida, as well as many other estimable citizens of the western country, were ardent admirers of Col. Burr at the outset. In addition to Judge Floyd, Col. R. A. New, the first Secretary of State for Indiana, and the late A. Ralston, Esq., of Indianapolis, a much re- spected citizen, were in the expedition. The former once stated that he was present when Burr was first in- formed of Wilkinson's disclosures, and his only remark was, " what a precious rascal !" On his return from the expedition, Judge Floyd, who, it was said, was to have been one of Burr's principal officers, was indicted for a misdemeanor, and, on being convicted, was sentenced to be imprisoned for half an hour.
At the session of 1805, John Johnson and John Rice Jones were appointed to revise the laws of the Territory, and their labors resulted in the Code adopted in IS07, and printed by Stout and Smoot, of Vincennes, in a volume of 540 pages. The matter of that volume, as the type was large, would about equal 225 pages of the Revised Code of 1843.
There were then five counties in the Territory, Knox, Dearborn and Clark, within the present bounds of this State, and St. Clair and Randolph within those of Illi- nois.
In 1807, a Census of the free white males of the Ter- ritory, over twenty-one years of age, was taken, by which it appears that the number then in Knox county
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was 1,080, in Clark county S28, and in Dearborn county 616, in all 2,524, making a population of about 12,000 within the limits of this State. Of the names returned from Knox county, about 200 seem to be of French de- rivation.
At the session of ISOS, the county of Harrison was formed, and an apportionment of the Representatives to the Legislature was made, by which three members were to be elected from the county of Knox, one from the county of Harrison, two from the county of Clark, and three from Dearborn county, nine in all. The Territory was divided in 1809, and the western part denominated ILLINOIS, after the tribe of Indians who had formerly in- habited it. The boundary then, as now, was the lower Wabash, and a line running north from Vincennes, where it last leaves the Wabash.
About this time, Tecumseh and his brother, the Pro- phet, were engaged in extending their influence over va- rious tribes of the western Indians, at first professing merely to reform their bad habits. They had recently removed to the banks of the Tippecanoe, where land had been granted to them by the Pottawatamies and Kicka- poos. The Prophet, who had been suspected by Gov. Harrison, paid him a visit of two weeks at Vincennes, and succeeded in quieting his suspicions; but when they met again, the following year, the Governor became con- vinced of his treachery, and that through his means and the influence of British agents, many of the Indian tribes were becoming hostile to the United States.
In the fall of 1809, Gov. Harrison succeeded in ob- taining a further cession of lands on the Wabash, from the Delawares, Pottawatamies, and other tribes, who claimed them. The Shawanees, however, protested against one of the treaties, and Tecumseh availed him- self of this occurrence to increase the irritation of the Indians against the whites.
In 1810, the counties of Franklin, Wayne and Jeffer- son were formed, each to have one member in the House
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of Representatives, the two former out of the three pre- viously allotted to Dearborn, and the latter out of the two allotted to Clark county.
Many of the laws, records, and other papers relating to the early business of the Territory, are not to be found in the office of the Secretary of State, where they should have been filed. Only four of the manuscript copies of the Legislative Journals, (for they were not then printed) between 1S05 and 1816, can now be found, and some of the original enrolled laws have been lost or mislaid. Whether this has happened in some of the various re- movals of these papers, or whether a part of the bundles were given over to Illinois when the Territory was di- vided, there is nothing to show. If the latter took place, there could not have been much discrimination in mak- ing the division.
In searching for old documents, the writer has been forcibly reminded of a circumstance that occurred about twenty-seven years ago, at Corydon. Some clerk had complained of being troubled with useless papers, and a committee was appointed, by the House of Representa- tives, to select and burn papers of this description. Soon after the task assigned to the committee was performed, the late Gen. E. Harrison wished to hunt up a paper relating to a divorce bill that had been passed, and on being told of its fate, he was much irritated, and de- nounced the committee as being no more fit for their business than hogs for a parlor.
The plans of Tecumseh were still advancing and be- coming more apparent. In a council held at Vincennes, he refused to take a chair, stating that as the " earth was his mother, he preferred to repose on her bosom," as he threw himself on the ground. Some parts of his speech were, at the time, thought to be very eloquent; but when Gov. Harrison replied, he became angry, and had not Gen. Gibson understood his language, and sent for the guard, it was supposed a contest would have commenced, and the whites present, not being armed, would have been massacred. The council was thus broken up; but
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as Tecumseh's object might have been doubted, he was only commanded to leave Vincennes immediately.
In December, 1810, an act passed the Territorial Le- gislature to incorporate the "Ohio Steamboat Navigation Company," by which Daniel D. Tompkins, Robert R. Livingston, Dewit Clinton, Robert Fulton, and Nicholas J. Roosevelt, were made a body corporate for the pur- pose of navigating the western waters under Fulton and Livingston's patent. At the same time, Wm. Prince, John Hadden, James Smith, Harvy Heth, Davis Floyd, Wm. McFarland, Benj. McCarty, Richard Maxwell and Elijah Sparks, were appointed commissioners to select a site for the permanent Seat of Government for the Ter- ritory ; but it does not appear that their action led to any specific result. By the law under which they were appointed, it appears that the East Fork of White river was then called the Embarras Fork.
The difficulties with the Indians continued to increase in 1811. As there was also a prospect of war with Great Britain, at the same time, many of the British agents in Canada and the north-west, were active in increasing the excitement, so that all the efforts of Gov. Harrison to restore good feeling, were fruitless. Tecum- seh, indeed, paid him a visit at Vincennes in July; but as he came with three hundred followers, and Harrison was surrounded also with an armed force, there was no disposition to conciliate, and no opportunity to take ad- vantage, and though they parted apparently in peace, they were still more exasperated against each other.
When they separated, Tecumseh went south to enlist the Creeks, as was supposed, in his cause, and Harrison finding that delay only was aimed at, marched slowly up the Wabash, determined either to enforce the treaty of Greenville, or make some new arrangement that would secure the frontiers of the Territory from constant alarm.
On his way he erected and garrisoned Fort Harrison, sixty-five miles from Vincennes and three miles from the present site of Terre Haute, and he built a block-house for the protection of his boats and baggage, at the cross-
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