USA > Indiana > The Indiana gazetteer : or, topographical dictionary of the state of Indiana, 1850 > Part 9
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ing of the Vermillion, thirty-five miles still further up the Wabash. Though repeatedly visited by the Indians on his route, their object was not peace, and so apparent was their hostility, that the French traders, who for years had been intimate with them, were not willing to visit them and propose negotiation. This state of things continued until the evening of the 6th November, when Gov. Harrison with troops between 700 and S00 in num- ber, encamped Fon a little stream called Burnet's creek, eight miles from the present site of Lafayette, and 155 miles from Vincennes.
The encampment was on about three acres of dry barrens, on a triangular spot of ground rather larger, lying between a wet prairie on the east and Burnet's creek on the west, which formed a junction on the south at an angle of about fifty degrees. The banks of the creek rise abruptly about twenty feet to a level with the encampment, and were then and still are covered thickly with brush; but the bank towards the prairie, and at the point, are not so steep. The place where the troops were encamped was thinly covered with oak trees, many of them still bearing the marks of the severe con- test which took place the morning of the 7th November. From the character of the ground, it was natural that both the whites and Indians should overshoot each other, and that the latter did so, was evident from the marks of the bullets, long afterwards apparent, high in the trees.
The attack commenced at a quarter past four in the morning, immediately after the Governor had risen to prepare for the business of the day. But a single gun was fired by the sentinels, or by the guard, in the direc- tion of the attack, but they at once retreated into the camp. As the troops were sleeping on their arms, they were soon at their stations, though the war-whoop and the attack so soon followed the first alarm, that the lines were broken in several places, and one of the companies, Capt. Robb's, was either driven, or ordered by mistake, from its position in the line towards the centre of the camp. The want of concert among the Indians, and S
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their irregular mode of warfare, did not allow them to take full advantage of their own success, or of the blun- ders of their opponents, so that as the resistance was very obstinate along the most of the line, they were, in the end, obliged to retreat in great haste. Indian war- fare has usually been found terrible to a retreating enemy : but steady and continued resistance has rarely been over- come. The activity of Gov. Harrison, the bravery of the regular troops, and the unyielding firmness of most of the volunteers kept the enemy at bay until they were successfully resisted at all points. A few of them, in- deed, broke through the lines and attacked the troops as they came out of their tents; but, contending singly, they were soon cut down. About forty of them were killed on the spot, and their wounded were carried off. Of the whites sixty-two were killed or mortally wounded, and one hundred and twenty-six others were wounded.
Among the slain, who were much lamented, were Maj. Daviess and Col. Owen, of Kentucky, Capt. Spen- cer and his two Lieutenants, McMahan and Berry; Capt. Warrick and Col. White, then superintendent of the United States' Saline lands, near Shawneetown, and Thomas Randolph, Esq., former Attorney General of the Territory. The two latter served merely as privates on this occasion.
Of the regular troops, twenty were killed and fifty- seven wounded. Among the former was Capt. W. C. Baen, acting as Major. After burning the town in the vicinity, which had been abandoned by the Indians, the army returned to Vincennes, which they reached on the 17th November. The result of the expedition was favorable to the peace of the frontiers, which, for seve- ral months after, were not disturbed by incursions of the enemy.
In the month of October, ISIl, the first steamboat ever built on the western waters, left Pittsburgh for New Orleans, under the charge of N. J. Roosevelt, one of the company that had been incorporated the previous year. There were then no wood-yards, yet as coal was found
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on the first part of the route, and also about one hun- dred miles below the Falls, the first adventure was suc- cessful. The boat, though incapable of much speed, seems to have gone down the stream at the rate of about eight miles an hour, and met with no special difficulty, except a month's detention at Louisville, for high water to pass over the Falls. As Steamboats were then rare, even in the east, and still less known in the west, many strange reports were circulated in relation to the noises, then heard for the first time, by the people thinly scat- tered through the dense forests near the river. It is said that they were accounted for, in some instances, by the supposition that a burning Comet had suddenly fallen into the river.
The great Earthquake followed shortly after. On the 16th of December, and at intervals for two months, the whole region of the Mississippi valley was convulsed ; lands sunk and became lakes; the beds of lakes were raised and became dry land; rivers changed their chan- nels; boats on the river were sunk; much property was destroyed and many lives lost. So much of this State was then unsettled, that little can be known of the effects of the different shocks upon it. Five years after, they were visible in several of the good buildings in Louis- ville, and a gentleman now at my side well recollects seeing the trees of the forest, in Clark county, in a per- fect calm, move and interlock with each other, as if they were agitated by a violent tempest. This took place about four hundred miles from New Madrid, where the effects were the most violent.
In the meantime, the superstitious, and such as were fond of the marvellous, circulated the most incredible stories, which, for a time, had their influence. It is said that while these feelings prevailed, a Kentucky trader, floating down the Ohio, near the mouth of the Wabash, in his flat-boat, was hailed from the shore and informed that it was not safe to go any further down, for a little below the whole river pitched into a terrible hole that had lately been made by an earthquake. "Hard at
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the oars, boys," said the Kentuckian; " let us land and inquire more about it." As he approached the shore, he concluded to ask the name of his informant, which was told him. On hearing the name, he called out to his men, " back water, we'll not land; he's the biggest liar that ever left Kentuck."
The war with Great Britain commenced in June, 1812, and tended still further to increase the hostility of the Indians, by supplying them with the means of more effi- cient warfare. At the time of the surrender of Detroit, which took place 16th August, 1812, Capt. Heald, the commander of Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, was directed by Gen. Hull to abandon that post and proceed to Fort Wayne, by land. Capt. Wells, of Fort Wayne, was sent as an escort, with a small force of Miami Indians, supposed to be friendly. To conciliate the Indians in the vicinity, a large number of whom had assembled on the occasion, Capt. Heald, previous to his departure, distri- buted among them the public stores, except the ammuni- tion and whiskey, which were destroyed. This gave offence, and he had scarcely set out on his march, with fifty-four regulars, twelve militia and fourteen women and children, when they were attacked from behind a sand bank as they marched, and forty-one of their num- ber were killed. The remainder surrendered on promise of their lives, having resisted the whole force of five hun- dred Indians, of whom fifteen were killed, until they re- ceived this assurance. Capt. Wells was among the slain, and his body much mutilated, his Indian allies, the Miamies, having deserted him at the outset. The Indian force, consisting mostly of Pottawatamies, proceeded to attack Fort Wayne, and they blockaded it from the 28th August to the 16th September, when it was relieved by a detachment from the army of Gen. Harrison. This station, and that at Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, were then the only remaining fortresses in the Indian country. The latter, commanded by Capt. Taylor, now the Presi- dent of the United States, was attacked during the night of the 4th of September, by a large body of Indians,
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who succeeded in setting fire to the block-house! con- taining the stores, and for some time it would seem that all efforts at defence must be unavailing. The Captain himself had just risen from a severe attack of fever, and more than half his men were disabled, or nearly so, from sickness. So great was the alarm occasioned by the night attack, the screams of several hundred Indians, and the fire that threatened to destroy the whole fort, that two of the garrison jumped the pickets and attempted to escape, and many of the others were so nearly paralyzed as to be almost incapable of making any resistance. The Captain, however, was every where present, and took part in all the labor and danger. Water was brought, and the roof thrown off to prevent the extension of the fire, and a breast work was erected in the rear of the block-house, as soon as it was consumed. The attack continued for seven hours, until day-light, when the In- dians retreated out of the reach of the guns of the fort, and commenced killing the horses and stock of the inha- bitants on the prairie. Only two persons were killed in the fort; one of those who attempted to escape was cut to pieces a short distance from it, and the other was received back in the morning, badly wounded. The In- dians continued about the fort for a week after, to take any advantage, if an opportunity should occur. All communication with Vincennes, by the river, was cut off, and it was only after some days that two individuals, one of them the late Judge Floyd, were able to pass through the Indians by night, escape to the settlements, and give notice of the danger.
The bravery and good conduct of Capt. Taylor, who was ably assisted by Dr. Clark, saved the fort, and thus protected the country behind it from general devasta- tion.
Almost at the same time that Forts Harrison and Wayne were besieged, an attack was made by Indians, previously friendly, on the Pigeon Roost settlement, within the present bounds of Scott county, and twenty- four persons, mostly women and children, were massa-
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cred. The only persons who escaped were a part of the family of a Mr. Collins, who defended their house suc- cessfully with their rifles, and a Mrs. Beadle and her two young children, who at first concealed themselves in a sink hole, and when the Indians were engaged in plun- dering and burning the houses, escaped on foot six miles, to the nearest settlement, and carried the first news of the calamity. A large force was soon collected from Charlestown and its vicinity, and the Indians were pur- sued; but they had escaped over the Muscatitac, and though they were then in sight, the waters of the river were so high that they could not be pursued further with any prospect of advantage. The half-burned and other- wise mutilated bodies at the place of the massacre, and the still burning houses and furniture, presented such features of the horrible as had never before been wit- nessed by those who were present.
The Indian depredations still continuing, Gen. Hop- kins, of Kentucky, in October, IS12, led an expedition of 2,000 mounted volunteers, from Vincennes, against the Kickapoo villages in Illinois, but returned without effecting any thing; and in November he led a second expedition of 1,250 men, up the east side of the Wabash, as far as Tippecanoe, and destroyed the Indian towns there, which they had previously evacuated. A company of sixty horsemen, under the command of Lieutenant Colonels Miller and Wilcox, were, on the 22d Novem- ber, drawn into an ambuscade, and eighteen of their number killed. The weather having become intensely cold, the Indians dispersed, and the expedition returned to Vincennes.
On the 18th of same month, Col. Campbell, with a force of 600 men, set out from Franklinton, Ohio, against the Indian towns on the Mississinnewa. He succeeded in capturing thirty-seven prisoners, killing between thirty and forty, and burning three of the villages, in which, however, there was very little valuable property. Two officers and six privates were killed, and twenty-six others wounded. As Tecumseh was said to be near,
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with a large force, Col. Campbell's party returned in haste to Ohio.
These various expeditions were not without good re- sults, as several of the tribes submitted to the protection of the government, and Tecumseh and the most warlike and intractable of the savage's, withdrew soon after from the Territory, and submitted themselves entirely to the Bri- tish control. Richardville, the civil Chief of the Miamies, had always been an earnest advocate of peace, and so much had his views in this respect offended Tecumseh, that his life was repeatedly assailed.
In 1813, an act passed the Territorial Legislature to remove the Seat of Government from Vincennes to Co- rydon, and the next year the counties of Gibson and Warrick were organized.
Gov. Harrison having been appointed, in the fall of 1812, to command the North-western army, Thomas Posey, an officer of the Revolution, and afterwards a Brigadier General in Wayne's army, was appointed Go- vernor of the Territory. No further interesting military occurrences appear to have taken place within the bounds of this State during the continuance of the war with England, which terminated early in the year 1815. There were occasional skirmishes with the In- dians on the frontiers; several individuals were murdered by them, and horses were frequently stolen. The militia or rangers, as they were called, were often out to scour the woods and guard against surprise; every exposed neighborhood had its block-house, defended with pickets, to retreat to in case of alarm, and never did persons exist more resolute to defend themselves in times of dan- ger, or more generous to assist the sick or the suffering, than could be found along the whole borders of the ex- posed settlements of the Territory. In making out their accounts against the government, they were, however, sometimes accused of keeping in view the wants to be supplied, rather than the services they had rendered.
The administration of justice, in those times, was fre- quently of the most primitive character. If an individual
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or family disturbed the peace of the neighborhood, they received a notice to remove by a set time, and if they failed to do so, which was not often the case, as they well knew the consequences, they were then regulated, as it was called. The beech or hickory limb was administered, or the cabin roof was quietly removed, and if these did not answer, the levelling the whole with the ground did not fail to convince them that it was useless to contend with public opinion. The proceedings in such cases were very unlike those of the mobs collected in cities, for the first feeling of a citizen of the west, in those times, was at once to join with the weaker party, and to give it up only on being convinced that neither justice nor gene- rosity required its defence.
At later periods, and in other parts of the western country, there have been, no doubt, great abuses of at- tempted regulation; but it is not understood that there have been amongst us. In fact, attempts of the kind have ceased for many years, except occasionally, when an unkind husband is feelingly reminded of his duty to his wife.
The counties of Washington, Perry, Switzerland and Posey, were organized in 1814, and the law creating Jackson and Orange passed in 1815. The increase of population and wealth, during the war, was continued, though it was not rapid.
In 1814, it was thought advisable to charter the Bank of Vincennes, and the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, of Madison. Both these institutions were managed, at first, with much prudence.
The restoration of peace with Great Britain and the Indians, in 1815, and the purchase of additional lands from the latter, brought a great increase of population to the Territory, and an application was made to Congress for the privilege of admission into the Union as an inde- pendent State. This privilege was granted by an act of Congress, passed April 19, 1816, by which the delegates to a Convention were to be elected the second Monday of May, for the formation of a Constitution. The popu-
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lation of the Territory was then about 65,000, eighteen counties had been organized, and two more, Jackson and Orange, provided for.
Of the state of things in the Territory, previous to the formation of the State Constitution, there is very little remaining, even to this time, to give us correct ideas. Of the first Judges appointed by the President of the United States, Henry Vanderburgh, Thomas T. Davis and John Griffin, who, with the Governor, made all the laws for the Territory until 1806, the two former were dead, and the latter, a native of Scotland, had returned to that country to take possession of a fortune left to him there. Elijah Sparks, also subsequently a Judge, and a candi- date for Congress in 1814, was dead. But Judges Park, Noble, Holman and Taylor, lived for many years to hold distinguished offices in the State; and Judge Scott, a Speaker of the House of Representatives, then a Judge of the Territory, and afterwards, for fourteen years, a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, is still alive; so also is Jesse B. Thomas, the second member of Con- gress from the Territory, who was afterwards a Judge and Senator in Congress from Illinois. The first mem- ber of Congress from the Indiana Territory, was Benja- min Parke; then Mr. Thomas; then, from 1810 to 1816, Jonathan Jennings, who was opposed, at the first election, by Thomas Randolph, at the second by Waller Taylor, and at the third by Judge Sparks, All these men were active and public spirited, and the most of them would compare favorably with the leading lawyers and politicians of their time.
In the Convention that formed the Constitution, there were four delegates from the county of Wayne, which then embraced a part of Union, a part of Randolph, and of its present limits only to the Indian boundary, which ran east of Centreville. Franklin, which, in addition to its present limits, was then composed of a part of Fay- ette and Union, had four delegates; Dearborn, embrac- ing Ohio county, had three; Switzerland, one: Jefferson, three; Clark, five; Harrison, five; Washington, five ;
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Knox, five; Gibson, four; Perry, Warrick and Posey, each one ; forty-one in all. Jonathan Jennings, of Clark county, was elected President of the Convention, and William Hendricks, of Madison, Secretary. The Con- vention continued in session from the 10th to the 29th of June, 1816, when the present Constitution was adopted, which has continued to this time without alteration.
Until the close of the Territorial government, more than three-fourths of the State was in possession of the Indians, or had been so recently purchased as not to have been surveyed and exposed to sale. The maps of the State, even as late as 1818, represented the Indian boundary as starting from a point in the northern part of Jackson county, and running north-east to the Ohio line, near Fort Recovery, and north-west to the Wabash, a few miles above Terre Haute. Vincennes was then by far the most considerable town in the new State, and probably its population was not much below its present amount, though the improvements were far less valuable than they are at this time. The Indian trade was then usually considerable; there was generally one or more companies of United States troops in Fort Knox at that place ; the business of the Land office and the Bank, and the inclination of the French to settle in a village rather than on farms, brought together a population of near 2,000. The buildings, however, were mostly arranged with but little reference to streets, and the beauty of the situation, and the amount of business done there, were the only features in its favor.
Corydon, the Seat of Government, had a good stone Court House, built by the Speaker of the Territorial Le- gislature, (and a better man the State has never since had,) who, it was said, was often called from the ham- mer and trowel to the Chair. The other buildings there, not exceeding one hundred in number, were either cabins or of hewn logs. As the town was but little visited, ex- cept during the sessions of the Legislature, there was then often a large crowd, while the means of accommo- dation were not in proportion. The most important
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supplies came from Louisville, twenty-five miles distant ; but the state of the roads and streams was such that no regularity could be relied on. Whenever any thing was wanting, the arrival of the wagon from Louisville was to supply the deficiency. As this explanation was often given, much merriment was excited one morning, by a modest boarder's being asked, when he had no plate, knife or fork, whether he too " was waiting for the wagon?"
The sites of New Albany and Madison presented, here and there, a few comfortable houses, and perhaps a hun- dred cabins, and an equal number of fallen poplar trees, from five to six feet in diameter, lying on the ground. Jeffersonville and Lawrenceburgh had been longer set- tled; but except the then fine residence of Gov. Posey, at the former place, still standing, there was no other good building in either. Charlestown, Salem, Vevay, Ris- ing Sun and Brookville, were then talked of as having magnificent prospects for the future, and the drafts on the imagination, in relation to them, were very large. What ancient citizen of Indiana does not recollect the glorification of Salisbury, Palestine, Hindostan, New London, and many other places, the sites for which must now be sought for in pastures and corn-fields ?
There were very few large farms in the State in 1816. The range, or wild grass, mast and roots, were so abun- dant in the woods, that hogs, cattle and horses required but little other food, and that was, in general, corn alone. It is probable that a single corn-field, of from five to twenty acres, constituted at least seven-eighths of the farms then cultivated in the State.
The whole State tax assessed in IS16, was $6,043 36 ; in 1817 it was $12,967 58, both together being only about the amount of the State tax assessed on Wayne county alone, the present year. The number of acres of land taxed in 1817, was about 1,750,000.
At the election for the first Governor, August, 1816, the candidates were Thomas Posey, the Territorial Go- vernor, and Jonathan Jennings, the President of the Convention and late delegate to Congress. The former
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received 3,936 votes, the latter 5,211, and was elected. The contest was very warm in many of the counties. Gov. Posey was an amiable man in private life. He was a native of Virginia; he had been a Colonel in the Revolution in Gen. Wayne's Brigade, and was distin- guished in that resolute band at the taking of Stony Point, and on many other occasions. He had also been a Brigadier General in the north-western army, com- manded by Gen. Wayne, but he resigned in the early part of the expedition, from the annoyance which the quarrels of Generals Wayne and Wilkinson occasioned him.
Jonathan Jennings was of a family in western Penn- sylvania, in which there were three other distinguished brothers. He came to the State a youth, and as soon as his age would allow, was elected a delegate to Congress. The emigrants from the eastern and middle States, and the Friends, from Carolina, gave him their warm sup- port, in the belief that he was more hostile to slavery than either his first or his second opponents, Messrs. Randolph or Taylor, who were natives of Virginia. Gov. Jennings was not fluent as a public speaker; but in private conversation with voters, he seldom or never failed to increase the zeal of his friends, and gain those who had been previously indifferent. Though he had many personal and very bitter enemies, he was easily reconciled, and freely extended official patronage to them whenever the interests of the State appeared to require it. Political ambition was, no doubt, too much his idol; but, in pecuniary matters, he was perfectly disinterested. Having been appointed in 1818, in connection with Gov. Cass and Judge Parke, a Commissioner to treat with the Indians, they succeeded in purchasing all the central part of. the State, and, with the exception of the Miami, Thorntown, and a few other reserves, all the Indian lands south of the Wabash. This purchase was very important for the State, and sufficiently excused in the opinions of a majority of the people, the violation of the clause of the Constitution which forbids the Governor
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