USA > Indiana > Marshall County > Tippecanoe in Marshall County > The Tippecanoe battle-field monument; a history of the association formed to promote the enterprise, the action of Congress and the Indiana legislature, the work of the commission and the ceremonies at the dedication of the monument > Part 9
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Daviess County was named after Joseph Hamilton Daviess, a brilliant orator and distinguished citizen of Kentucky, who was killed at this battle. He had been United States District Attorney, and prosecuted Aaron Burr. He once challenged Henry Clay to fight a duel. He was at one time Grand Master of the Masonic Fraternity of Kentucky. A county in Illinois, a county in Ken- tucky, as well as Daviess County, Indiana, were named after this man.
Dubois County was named after Captain Toussant Dubois, who was the "Guide to Tippecanoe." He guided the army from Vin- cennes to the Prophet's village. He knew the route, as he had been a trader, and often traveled from Vincennes to Detroit. He had great influence with the early pioneers and with the Indians. When General Harrison decided to move against the Indians in 1811, Du- bois offered his services. He was captain of the spies and scouts in the Tippecanoe campaign. Dubois was the last man to visit the headstrong Prophet on the evening before the battle. Jesse Kil- gore Dubois, a son of Captain Dubois, became a warm friend of Abraham Lincoln. United States Senator Fred T. Dubois, of Idaho, is a grandson of Captain Dubois. On March 11, 1816, Captain Dubois attempted to swim the Wabash River, not far from Vincennes, on horseback, and was drowned.
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MAJOR JOSEPH H. DAVIESS.
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Floyd County is by some supposed to have been named after John Floyd, a surveyor. By others, it is claimed the county was named after Davis Floyd, who fought in the battle of Tippecanoe. Davis Floyd was an ardent friend of Aaron Burr, and was indicted with him for treason, but when Burr was acquitted, the prosecution against Floyd was abandoned. He was an adjutant in the Battle of Tippecanoe, and was a member of the general assembly of the Territory. His estate was settled in Harrison County. He was admitted to the bar in Clarke County in 1817. In the early days he had been a pilot on the Ohio River.
Warrick County was named after Jacob Warrick, who fell at the Battle of Tippecanoe. General Harrison speaks of him in his report, and said that Warrick was his friend, in whom he had placed great confidence, and never found it misplaced. General Harrison in his report says: "Warrick was shot immediately through the body. On being taken to a surgeon, to have his wound dressed, as soon as it was over, being a man of great vigor and able to walk, he insisted on going back to the head of his company, although it was evident he had but a few hours to live."
Harrison County was named, of course, after William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe. .
In 1840 great political meetings were held at the Tippecanoe battle-ground. This was called the singing campaign. In other years great political meetings had been held on this spot. Here the little giant, Stephen A. Douglas, has spoken, and in later years, Roscoe Conkling, James G. Blaine and others. I give herewith a couple of stanzas from two of the old political songs of the singing campaign of 1840.
OLD TIPPECANOE.
Hurrah for the log cabin chief of our joys; For the old Indian fighter, hurrah! Hurrah; and from mountain to valley the voice Of the people re-echo hurrah!
Then come to the ballot box, boys, come along, He who never lost battle for you Let us down with oppression and tyranny's throng, And up with old Tippecanoe.
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TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO.
Let them talk about hard cider, cider, cider, And log cabins, too, 'Twill only help to speed the ball For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too,
For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too- Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, And with them we'll beat little Van; Van, Van, is a used up man, And with them we'll beat little Van.
I believe this feature is a natural part of the history of this spot. I believe while we are paying tribute to the heroes buried here, it is not improper to resurrect from the mists of the past, these old songs that our fathers sang sixty years ago.
However, on this day, let us solemnly garland the graves of these heroic dead. Let us sing patriotic songs on this day and have the bands play patriotic music. Let us bring out the children and tell them about Yorktown, and Bunker Hill, about Gettysburg and Vicksburg and Appomattox, about San Juan Hill and Manilla Bay and Santiago, and let us not forget to tell them, also, about the brave deeds of the heroes who fought in the Battle of Tippecanoe, and to tell them that whether or not a monument is ever erected at this spot, the memory of the brave deeds of those who fought here will never perish.
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HON. GEORGE. D. PARKS.
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ADDRESS BY THE HON. GEORGE D. PARKS. (Tippecanoe Battle-Field Memorial, Sunday, June 25, 1896.)
Ladies and Gentlemen-On these historic grounds we are as- sembled today to do honor to the brave men who on the morning of November 7th, 1811, engaged in sanguinary conflict with hordes of savages upon the identical spot where we now stand.
This earth has been drenched in the blood of the loyal sons who gave their all, their lives, for the redemption of an empire in ex- tent from savage cruelty, torture and rapine. Perhaps no battle that was ever fought with the savages in this country has been so replete in results and effect for the spread of civilization and achievement in the gentle victories of peace.
The Battle of Tippecanoe is not noted for the large numbers engaged, for probably General Harrison's whole force, officers and men, did not number a thousand souls, while the number of savages is unknown. Yet for the savage attack, the unfaltering resistance and active aggression on the part of all the troops, officers and men, it may well be pointed to with pride as a military achievement. En- camped upon this little peninsula of dry land a few hundred feet in width, elevated but ten or fifteen feet above the swamps into which it extended, just before the first light of the morning, the favorite hour for savage attack, this small force was suddenly attacked upon all sides by the savages concealed in the swamps and forest. Soldiers, at the first alarm, in reaching for their arms fell before their hands reached the rifle. Savages broke into the very camp, on the heels of the sentinels, and were killed in hand to hand strife. Out of the confusion order was quickly accomplished and the foe repulsed, to again and again return to the attack, while over and above the din and strife the voice of the Prophet from the height across Burnett's Creek, chanted his savage war song. Following the third attack a determined charge was made upon the enemy, who broke and fled to return no more. Nearly 25 per cent. of the entire force were killed or injured, which conclusively shows the sanguinary nature and stubborn character of the conflict. The savage loss was large but unknown. So much for the battle. Allow me for a moment to call to your attention something of preceding conditions and the momentus results of this historic event.
For a period of forty years the citizens of this country, both before and after the War of the Revolution, had been endeavoring
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to enter upon and redeem from savage waste the land between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi River. An empire in extent. The soil of amazing fertility, covered almost entirely with dense forest, interspersed by occasional prairies, dotted with deer and buffalo, while through the forest depths roamed the wild animals and sav- age man. A noble land, only waiting for enlightened man in obe- dience to the divine command to "have dominion and subdue the earth."
During these forty years a mighty army of hardy pioneers, principally of Anglo-Saxon descent, rude, fearless, of mighty bone and sinew, of matchless endurance, the vanguard of civilization, had fought and battled individually with the forces of nature's wilderness and the cunning warfare of a brave, crafty, ruthless savage race, who roamed the forests and the plains, only marking their trail with the charred remains of the cabin homes and the mutilated corpses of their victims. The savages who populated this land I have described had held back, retarded and almost frustrated for forty years the settlement of this magnificent domain, where now dwell more than all the people who lived in the thirteen colo- nies at the nation's birth. The chief Tecumseh for years had been traveling and laboring among the different tribes of savages from the gulf to the great lakes seeking to weld them together into united resistance to the advance of the Americans, covertly aided by the jealous British, and he was undoubtedly making rapid prog- ress, as was evidenced by signs of increased activity and concentra- tion of the savages along the border.
His principal home was a few miles distant from this spot, at Prophet's Town, on the Wabash River. At this place was a notorious and cowardly medicine man, known as the Prophet, who deluded a large number of the savages at that point with the claim that his "medicine" and incantations would render the bullets of the whites harmless. When Harrison started on his march from Vincennes up the Valley of the Wabash toward Prophet's Town, where the savages were congregating, in response to the efforts of Tecumseh, in his absence in the South, the Prophet induced the savages to attack Harrison at this place.
The Battle of Tippecanoe, thus prematurely brought on by the Prophet and the victory of the troops under Harrison, made futile the work of Tecumseh, and destroyed all hope of future re- sistance to white occupation. Never after was there anything like combination among the savages in resistance to the white advance.
The Battle of Tippecanoe was, therefore, momentous in its re-
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sults, in that it removed the savage bar and opened up to peaceful settlement the great domain extending from the Appalachian moun- tains to the Father of Waters. More than fifteen millions of people now live upon the immediate territory thus relieved from savage rapine. As we meet here today in the full flush of civilization, peace, content, prosperity, where the smoke of mighty cities of in- dustry and commerce hangs in the air, where the rush and roar of a thousand railroad trains, carrying the products of a million farms and a thousand factories, drowns the noise of the self-binder in the field and the hum of the automobile on the turnpike, but the span of a lifetime separates us from the trackless waste of nature's riches and the horror of the savage war whoop, which drowned the feeble cries of the settler's infant, as he dashed it to death on the humble hearth stone.
Was not the battle we commemorate momentous in result? The brave blood spilled on this earth was not shed in vain. Let us, then, ever do honor and reverence to Harrison and all his noble army, now, and in all the years to come.
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REVEREND GEORGE W. SWITZER.
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ADDRESS BY THE REV. GEORGE W. SWITZER. (Tippecanoe Battle-Field Memorial, June 17, 1906.)
Ladies and Gentlemen-I feel that I have a special privilege this afternoon in speaking on this occasion for the society that has been organized and has continued its organization for a number of years for the very worthy purpose not only of memoralizing the soldiers who fell in the advancement of civilzation, but also for the purpose of keeping alive an interest in securing the monument which ought to be here to mark this battle-field, and in honor of the noble men who fell here.
I think it necessary that I should say that the speaker engaged first for this afternoon was Congressman Watson, and we had hoped he could be present and deliver the address, and we know that an address delivered by him would be one worthy of the occasion and worthy of the man. But, on account of official duties, Mr. Wat- son found he would not be able to come, and I have taken the place -not his place-but the place of the speaker for the afternoon ; and word has been sent to Mr. Watson that if he would see that the bill appropriating money for this purpose is pulled out of the pig- eon hole and passed by our Congress, we would excuse him for not coming. We hope he will do his part, or try as hard as I shall try to do my part in speaking to you this afternoon. I feel especially interested in meeting today with you in the fact that we have with us one Chief Gabriel Godfroy, the last of the Miamis, who has been known to us by reputation, and the historic records, representing a race in conflict with the soldiers, though neither himself nor his tribe were engaged in the conflict here. And I am glad he is also to speak to you this afternoon. So far as I know this is the first time on this anniversary occasion we have ever had the privilege of welcoming with us one of his race of our brother man. If there were a great number of them here from the tribes who were in the conflict, and they were to ask us what part we had in this conflict, or how could we right the wrongs they might feel that had been heaped upon them, we might have to answer like the boy in the Sunday school class, whose superintendent was reviewing the les- son, and, being of a severe turn of mind, he asked, "Who led the people of Israel out of Egypt?" No one answered, and the super- intendent repeated the question with more severity, and a little tow- headed fellow arose and said, "Please, sir, it wasn't me; I just came
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here from Missouri six weeks ago." (Laughter.) So we would plead an alibi, and be relieved from any embarrassment of the re- sponsibilities, however much we may share today in the benefits and blessings. Having with us this son of the great chief of the Miamis, I am also reminded that not long ago, during the exposi- tion at St. Louis, I had the pleasure, in the Indian Department, of meeting a young, cultured, refined, educated, fine-looking girl who belonged to the Shawnee tribe, and who told me that her grand- mother still lived, and was very conversant with the history of the Shawnee tribe when they lived on the banks of the Wabash in this State.
My two grandfathers, about the year 1828, settled in Shelby township, in this county, and their farms were within three-quarters of a mile of where General Harrison and his troops slept on the night of November 5, 1811, and I drove past the place this morning and looked over the ground-now the fields of civilization-with so little of the traces of the army that was there; and I crossed the trail of their march from there to this place.
I am glad also today that there are so many descendants of the men who were personally engaged and well known to history here, to participate in these services. I am glad to know that the rela- tives of General Tipton are here, some of whom are citizens of La- fayette, and others from other points in the State; that there are relatives here of a soldier by the name of Moore who participated in this conflict, and others who trace their relationship clearly back to those of the militia who were engaged in this conflict.
Within the past week I have looked over a number of the ad- dresses that have been delivered here from time to time, and which I hope will, in the course of time be published in permanent form. A number of them are of very high character. Judge DeHart, who is versed in the history of the early times as well as any of our citi- zens, has been a speaker on this platform. Mr. Reser, who has done much research, has presented from this platform an address of great worth. Judge Crumpacker, our congressman from this district, has presented from this platform an address that had in it research of a different character, but altogether a valuable paper to be preserved. Others have contributed their part. I have heard only one address from this platform, and that was the address of Gen. Lew Wallace, which address was characteristic of the man in form, and finish and force of delivery. The Hon. Henry Watter- son has been here, and Gen. John C. Black has been on this plat- form. The occasion has brought together here men from afar, as
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well as men at home; and their addresses we hope will be preserved and thus hand down to coming generations a history of the events pertaining to this, one of the largest battles, and altogether the most important battle that was ever fought on Indiana soil, and the last great engagement that was fought east of the Mississippi between the white soldiers and the Indians. I think I speak cor- rectly when I say this-the last great battle fought. We are in- debted to Professor Pence of Purdue University for a survey and a location of the line or march, the publication of the same, and the gathering together in this little folder which we used here last Oc- tober at the time of the celebration of the opening of our street car line, of these interesting data. He has served us better than he knew in this, and he has also become interested, and is now bringing to us some rich results of his research-things that have to be brought from far different points, but being put together, are ma- king history, and leaving a record that will be valuable for future reference.
I only need to say a word, but I think that word should be said for the benefit of the younger people, about the coming of General Harrison from Vincennes with about nine hundred men-not all of them reaching here-some of them being left at different places along the line of march, to guard the stock that was left for use on the return march. He started for the Prophet's Town-he started for this place, here, to visit the town of the Prophet, and to meet with them for peace and to obtain, if possible, a settlement of the difference that had arisen between the Indians and the set- tlers. I would like this afternoon to pay a tribute to Tecumseh. General Wallace said Tecumseh was to be likened to Caesar-that he was a man who was both a warrior and a statesman. Taking everything into consideration-the state of morals, and civilization of ninety-five years ago, Tecumseh was a man of high ideals; a man who in war could observe courtesy and moral principles ; and he assured General Harrison that the women and children were not in danger from his men ; that he would conduct his campaign only against men. Tecumseh rebuked his own men for immorality and dissipation ; and he plead with them far beyond what we might ex- pect at that time, away from brutality and savagery. General Har- rison had met Tecumseh before he started from Vincennes. He met him when General Harrison was serving under General Wayne in Ohio. He had met him a number of times personally. Because Tecumseh denied the right of the several tribes to cede away the land that belonged to them as tribes, wishing to form the entire
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domain as a confederacy, and because of General Harrison's dif- ference of opinion and belief that there was no injustice done to make a treaty for its possessions, they never came together; and so Harrison, Tecumseh having gone on to the South, perhaps as far as Mississippi, gathered together some United States troops, some Kentucky and Indiana militia, and made his march with nine hundred men the long distance of more than one hundred and fifty miles from Vincennes, crossing the Wabash River on this side of Terre Haute, and coming the rest of the way along the west bank of the Wabash. This was a rich territory for the Indians of the past. Their towns and their villages and the population was as numerous here in this territory as perhaps was to be found any- where in all the Mississippi Valley. A congressman who spoke to us two or three years ago, and who has given a great deal of study to the Indian question, thought that Ouiatenon, the old French fort of Ouiatenon, down the Wabash, built by the French and aft- erwards possessed by the English, and then by the Indians, had per- haps, the largest population of any Indian town in America, for their population must be limited to the resources of the surround- ing country for a food supply. No very large population could come together. Fish and game must be found in sufficient quanti- ties with the fertile valleys for the raising of the corn they pro- duced. And so there was not a large population anywhere. The conflict here with fewer than one thousand men on each side was not a battle to be compared with many of the battles that have been fought where hundreds of thousands of men have been gathered. But it was a battle justified on the part of those we represent today. We can hardly conceive the pillage and destruction that threatened the whole civilization of that day, which had climbed over the Alle- ghany mountain range, and was making its way slowly but certainly toward the West. The decision of this battle was the overthrow of Tecumseh's conspiracy-a conspiracy of the tribes. It caused a scattering of the Indians, and the onward march of civilization, unimpeded, was hastened, and today, ninety-five years afterward, we have a transformation that is more marvelous than it is possible for any mind to dream of. So that is the occasion that brings us here. We come with all animosities died out. We come without hatred and without malice. We come as friendly as the blue and the gray who meet on southern battle-fields to talk over the strug- gle, to talk over the conflict, to rejoice in the victories, and the na- tion that lives undivided under one flag with one united people. So we come rejoicing that these one hundred years, almost, that have
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passed have given us more and more a consciousness that we owe a great debt-a debt we may never pay-a debt we ought to try, as far as possible, to pay ; we owe a debt to those who occupied this great country, and lived here, in pursuit of such form of life as they chose. We come in this day without animosity, to gather up our duties and, as far as possible, to aid the Indian. I rejoice in every Indian school. I rejoice in all that is being done today to preserve the great number-for they are not yet a few-the great number of aboriginal inhabitants of this country. I rejoice in their civilization, in their christianization, in their opportunities for use- fulness, and the preservation of their blood as a strain that shall flow into our American life.
Not long ago-a year ago, I think it was a few weeks past a year-I came down on a train from Cleveland, and on the train I sat across the aisle from an Indian, and I learned that he was a splendid layman of the Oklahoma country, and he had been to a church meeting-a conference of one of the branches of the Pres- byterian church that had met over in Pennsylvania. He had been there as a Christian man, as a Christian layman-there to plead for his race. There was an exhibition of what Christianity may become to a man ; and they said to me that he had made a speech that had stirred the great congregation because of its eloquence, its pathos, and its plea for his race, and because of what he exhibited in his own heart, and in his own life. He had the mark of the wild West upon him-had the scars of conflict on him, and yet he had within him the heart of a Christian man, and had within his mind a great desire for the betterment of his race. We rejoice in these things today, and we trust that our government may not only be generous, but may be honest as well with this race. The present Governor of South Dakota, Governor Elrod, an Indiana boy, told me not long ago, that he had served for a number of years in disbursing the funds that the government gave the Indians for their territory, and that he had been in every tribe and place gathering them up and seeing that the last cent that was due them was put into their hands. That we have not been honest with them is well established. It has been said by one who has spoken keenly and humorously, that when our forefathers came to this country the first thing they did was to fall on their knees, and then they fell on the aborigines. We have done more of that than we care to own up to, unless we are anxious that the belief that is ours, that we shall be faithful in the future to give to these people the rights that they deserve, and that the bene- fits and culture of civilization may be vouchsafed to them; that as
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they may live with us they may find, as we may find of them, a better acquaintance and a better confidence, and a restored friend- ship, and the great nation under whose flag we may together live, and in whose service we may together work.
The occasion that brings us here this afternoon is that we may with flowers and flags decorate the last resting place of these men who fell here in battle. True, there were not many of them. So far as I know the first shot was fired almost from this spot, and the first Indian killed was just a little way beyond. Over here is a mound that marks the last resting place of the soldiers who fell- thirty-seven of them-some of them as noble and brave as ever fell in battle anywhere. There repose the remains of Spencer and Owen, and Daviess, officers of noble character and soldierly bearing. And there are the remains of those of the Indiana militia who fell, and the regulars who went down, and who gave their lives as truly as men ever gave their lives on any battle-field. I need not go into a description of the battle. Their bones were buried here. Their bodies were left here. Harrison left here on the 9th day, and in a few days he was marching back toward the seat of the government of this territory. Afterwards these bodies-by whom we know not -were dug from the ground, and scattered, and their bones bleached in the sun. About twenty years afterward there was a gathering here, and all of them that could be found-the bones that were scattered here and there-were gathered together and buried again ; and while these mounds here do not mark the resting place of any special man, yet beneath the sod there rest these men that fell in this battle that broke the federation of the tribes, that was combining for the driving out of this Mississippi Valley the civili- zation that had climbed over the Alleghanies. The confederacy was broken. Civilization came, and our grandfathers settled here.
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