USA > Indiana > The history of Indiana > Part 18
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It is impossible to get an adequate description of the migration. The progress, however, was not differ- ent from that of the settlement of the other early west- ern States. An impartial history would compel us to tell the story of every individual settler, since there is little reason why one settler or one settlement was more significant than another. There was no waiting for Indians to become quiet, no waiting for roads to be built, no waiting until the government had built stock- ades, or sent troops to furnish adequate protection. As game became scarce in the woods of Kentucky and Ohio, the hunters crossed into Indiana. When they found suitable locations, they became squatters ; when the land office opened in the neighborhood, they be-
233
MIGRATION TO INDIANA
came settlers; and when a few more joined them, a government was organized and they became citizens. Thus in 1800, Woolsey Pride settled at White Oak Springs, Pike county. The following year he was joined by the Mileys, Conrads, Tislows, Smiths, and Alexanders. By 1811 a good sized community had been formed and a stockade fort was erected on the present site of Petersburg.
As early as 1800, white men crossed over into Har- rison county from Brandenburg for purposes of hunt- ing and farming. In 1802 Squire Boone, brother of Daniel and Mose Boone, settled in Grassy Valley, back six miles from the Ohio. Dennis Pennington came the same year. Before the close of 1807, Samuel Pfrim- mer, Davis Floyd, Thomas Posey, and Thomas Wilson had formed a numerous neighborhood. Frederick Mauck had established a ferry at what is now Mauck- port as early as 1808. No ferry on the lower Ohio was used by more emigrants than this. General Har- rison bought a farm at Wilson's Spring near Blue river and erected a mill in 1806. Corydon was laid out in 1808 by R. M. Heth.
It was from this stream of immigration crossing at Mauckport and Oatman's Ferry that the first set- tlers of Floyd county, Robert La Follette and Patrick Shields, came. They located at Georgetown in 1804, at least eight years before the Scribner Brothers laid out the town of New Albany.
Some time during the year 1805-6 Jesse Vawter led a small company across the Ohio at what is now Madi- son and opened up a settlement on the hill back of the present town. This was six years before John Paul entered the townsite of Madison and laid off the town.
Other settlers went deeper into the forests of Indi- ana, and, in a few years, the second tier of counties began to fill up. A party of hunters led by John Kim- berlin and his two sons, settled on Kimberlin creek
234
HISTORY OF INDIANA
in Scott county early in the year 1805, and erected a cabin of white oak logs. William Flemming, Peter Storms, Hiram Wingate, and William Estil are some of those who followed in the succeeding years. In 1810 was laid out the town of Lexington, one of the oldest towns in the State. Here a bank was estab- lished in 1815 and a paper published, called the Western Eagle.
In the same year in which these early settlers lo- cated in Scott county other immigrants were crossing the Ohio at points in Warrick county. Among the first was Bailey Anderson, for whom Anderson township was named. Hudson Hargrave, Joseph DeForest, Ratliff Boone, for whom Boone township was named, Thomas Campbell, for whom Campbell township was named, and John Hart, for whom Hart township was named, followed at about the same time. These men went to Henderson, Kentucky, to have their milling done. Boonville was established in 1818 and named for Ratliff Boone.
The first settlers of Daviess county were from the Carolinas and Kentucky. In 1806 came Eli Hawkins from South Carolina; he located near Maysville. A small part of western Daviess county was included in the Vincennes survey, the lines running at an angle of forty-five degrees from north to south. On these lands along the east bank of White river most of the early settlers located. Daviess was one of the counties most exposed to Indian depredations. To protect its fifty- five families five forts were built during the winter of 1811 and 1812. These were named from their loca- tion, Purcell's, Comer's, Ballow's, Coleman's, and Hawkins's. Three forts were added during the war- Flora's, Palmer's, and Jones's. This is mentioned, not because it was a condition peculiar to Daviess county, but because it was the common thing in all the counties settled before 1812. There were from six to fifteen
SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE OHIO
LAKE
Note. The figures along the i the distances from plai
Chicago SH ICHIGHZ
M
I
C
H
I
Dearborn
st Josephy R.
S
165
Kahkaker R.
Eel R. \
40 1
May
Indians
32
C
Mişsisinewa
Prophets Town
Z
Z
Lafavette
Munsee T Winchester
58
Greenti
10}
30
130
New Castle
oRockville
Centrevitte
INDIANAPOLIS
2
17
IE
Greencastle
Rushville
Dunlapsvull
Aurora
Martins burg
Shelbyville
12
Terre Haute 33
Brookville H
L
31
18 Columbus Greensburg,
70
Bloomington
·Versailles
39-
d'artiste
Pernon Hartfordg2
I
32 Palestine
Brownstown 30,
22
Madison
Vevay
New Lexington 18
23
Salent
26
Pet
bur
Fredericksburg 16
Jenersonville
tong
3/17
Portersville
Princeton
7
Fredonia Af-
VeLouisville
Harmony
FRANKFORT
21
Evans
Rock .
ville
port
K
E
N
Henderson
10
0
8
EARLY INDIANA TOWNS
Past Jurk
28
Pales Miriam tineo
·PBurlington
Lawrenceburg.
Wabash R.
Sinceungs Washington
byuuml;W
21 Hindoostanna
Charles
OHIO RIV.
OfColumbia
Greenvilleg
27
Boonsville
28
₹
Romeo
orydon
Port nud
L
30.
While A
30
I
Wabash R.
F. Recovery
-
Crawfordsville 18
23:12
Spencerb
colara
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Jack
From William Darby's View of the United States, 1828
235
Wayne
236
HISTORY OF INDIANA
families gathered around each fort. Each fort, there- fore, nad a garrison of about twenty rifles. Remains of similar forts were recently to be seen on the west side of White river in Knox county. All these forts were in Knox county at that time, since Daviess was not organized till 1817, at which time Washington was located and platted. The settlers mentioned came by the Wabash and White rivers.
The early settlers of Posey county, the Duckworths, McFaddens, Hutchinsons, Lynns, and the Wagners, came from Virginia, Carolina, Kentucky, and Pennsyl- vania. The dense forests of Posey county were fine hunting grounds, but they looked rather formidable to the prospective farmers. The settlers located about 1807. Audubon, the naturalist, was a frequent visitor in this county. Evansville was settled by Col. Hugh McGary in 1812.
About the same year in which the hunters were penetrating the wilderness of Posey county, others were making their way into what came to be Gibson county. Here came William Herrington, Jesse Mont- gomery, Daniel Postman, an early judge of the county, Robert M. Evans, for whom Evansville is named, James Hazleton, Thomas Chapman, who was the founder of Princeton, and others. The first settlement was a short distance west of where Princeton now stands. Princeton was laid out in 1814.
In 1806 the settlers braved the hills of Crawford county, settling in the northern part. It seems that the first settlers were a part of a large colony that scat- tered over the northern part of Harrison county and the southern part of Orange and Washington counties. Among those who came to Crawford county were Thomas Stroud, E. E. Morgan, William McKee, and William Frakes. In 1807 came Peter Frakes, William Van Winkle, John Peckinpaugh, followed shortly by Captain Posey, the Conrads, the Clarks, and the Leav-
237
DEEPER INTO THE FOREST
enworths, who built a water mill at Milltown. The latter also laid out the town of Leavenworth in 1818. This county was a great hunting ground at that time.
About the same time the settlers crossed to the east bank of the White river in Daviess, others crossed the Ohio at various points in what is now Perry county, and so closed up the last gap in the front of the invading army. The Perry county pioneers located along the Ohio river or nearby on the tributary creeks. William Taylor and Joseph Wright settled at Rome, Thomas and Rev. Charles Polk in Polk's Bottom just below. In 1811 Mr. Richardson built a gristmill on Deer creek. Uriah Cummings built a sawmill on Poison creek in 1812. This does not intend to mean that these were the first white persons in the county, for the head- waters of Deer, Poison, Anderson, and Oil creeks were fine game ranges, to say nothing of the natural shel- ters of their overhanging cliffs, some of which will shelter a regiment of men in any kind of weather. There were springs of pure water and hills free from malaria and "milk sickness." Here hunters and squat- ters had lived for at least ten years before the first land entries were made.
It is not possible much further to note the progress of this invading army of settlers, crossing the Ohio into Indiana or entering by the Ohio river from the east. Its picket lines kept pushing on into the north- ern wilderness along the valleys or going boldly through the forest where there was no stream.
In 1810 its outposts were in Lawrence and Monroe counties. In the same year settlers located down at Mt. Pleasant in Martin county. A year later others located in and about Vallonia in Jackson county. They crept steadily up the Whitewater, appearing in Fayette county in 1813, in Ripley in 1814, in Jennings in 1815, Randolph in 1816, in Hancock, Rush and Shelby in 1818. The western wing pushed up the Wabash and
238
HISTORY OF INDIANA
White rivers, settling at Spencer in 1815; at Gosport about the same time; at Terre Haute in 1816; in Greene county in 1817, though there were hunters and traders at Point Commerce as early as 1812; in Mor- gan county in 1819; in Vermillion in 1816, and in Clinton in 1818.1
The first results of the War of 1812 on the develop- ment of Indiana Territory were disastrous. The in- roads of the Indians during 1812 broke up many set- tlements. The Maria Creek settlement in Knox county, the frontier then on the Wabash, was abandoned. The women and children were taken back to Vincennes or further south, some being taken back to their old homes across the Ohio.2 The settlers around the forks of White river were huddled together in the little forts. Their friends back at home, who were making prepa- rations to come out to the new country, were warned of the danger and instructed to stay at home till the storm subsided. Around Vallonia a large number of settlers were held, protected by the rangers, and a spacious fort, though even from here many withdrew to Clark county, and it was thought for a time that the little colony would break up. The Pigeon Roost Mas- sacre drove the pioneers of Clark and Jefferson counties back on the protection of the Ohio river settlements.
1 The best single reference on the early settlements of Indiana is an Illustrated Historical Atlas of Indiana, published in 1876 by Baskin, Forster & Co. The various county histories give valuable data, such as Young's History of Wayne County; a History of Dearborn County; a History of Knox and Daviess Counties, and others have valuable reminiscences and facts drawn from the county records. No comprehensive first-hand study of the subject has been made. Much valuable material is contained in papers read at "Old Settlers' Meetings," but no collection of these is available. Waldo Mitchell, "Growth of Indiana, 1812-1820," In- diana Magazine of History, December, 1914; Carlos T. McCarty, "Hindostan, a Pioneer Town," Indiana Magazine of History, June, 1914; Julia L. Knox, "Vevay," Indiana Magazine of History, XI, 216.
2 Indiana Magazine of History, "Polke Memoirs," Vol. X, No. 1.
239
UP THE WHITEWATER
On the Whitewater the Quakers maintained an ad- vanced position in Wayne county, protected by such small stockades as Boyd's and Holman's Forts. Few if any of these settlers had advanced beyond the pres- ent line of the National Road. Salisbury was the center of this settlement. The Whitewater valley was the most thickly settled part of the State. Brookville, Centerville and Lawrenceburg were its three towns. For twenty years Brookville was the best-known town in the State.
It will be noticed that the frontier line of 1812 extended from Vincennes east almost to Jefferson county, thence following roughly the line of the Twelve Mile Purchase. Except for the finger of settle- ment running up the Whitewater valley the line of the frontier is pretty accurately marked now by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. To the north of this line no white person lived, except, perhaps, a few traders around such posts as Fort Wayne, Andersontown, and Terre Haute.
The editor of Niles' Register, August 6, 1814, in summing up the situation of the West, called Indiana a great tract of rich land, well watered by such fine streams as the Ohio, Wabash, White, and Whitewater rivers, which but for Indian interference would long before have had a numerous population. The census of 1810 showed 24,526 persons, of whom only 237 were slaves.
§ 39 REMOVAL OF THE TERRITORIAL CAPITAL TO CORYDON
FROM the time John Gibson arrived at Vincennes, July 4, 1800, to May 1, 1813, that town was the capital of Indiana territory. There was no hope even among its own citizens that it would remain the permanent State capital. It seems to have been the general under- standing that the Northwest territory would be di-
240
HISTORY OF INDIANA
vided by the Great Miami and the Wabash rivers. This would inevitably leave Vincennes on the boundary. As long, however, as Indiana territory included the Illinois Country, Vincennes would remain the capital. With the organization of Illinois territory, February 3, 1809, the balance of power in the Indiana Assembly shifted to the east and the struggle for the removal of the capital began.
The territorial Assembly, however, soon found an obstacle in its road. The governor, who owned val- uable property in Vincennes, had an absolute veto on all its bills. This was no merely imaginary danger, for Deputy Jennings presented a memorial to Congress, January 20, 1812, complaining of the arbitrary con- duct of the governor in vetoing a bill to change the location of the capital.
The matter of relocation came up at the 1810 ses- sion of the Assembly. Lawrenceburg, Vevay, Madi- son, Jeffersonville, and Corydon were aspirants. The question was referred to a committee instructed to se- lect a new site.
This site was to be north of Driftwood, east of White river and at least twenty miles from the Indian boundary which then ran from near the present site of Covington to a point about twenty miles east of where Mitchell now stands. It was to be as nearly cen- tral as possible to Greenville (Ohio), Madison, Netv Harmony, and Covington, the four corners of the in- habited part of the territory. If the committee failed to agree it was to lay its evidence before the governor, who was then to make the final selection. A petition was at once prepared and sent to Congress asking a donation of four sections of land on the main branch of White river.3
3 Annals, Eleventh Cong., 508; Ibid, 748, for favorable report cf congressional committee.
MOVING TO CORYDON
241
-
WAYNE
FRANKLIN
DEARBORN
KNOX
JEFFERSON
SWITZER- LAND
WASHINGTON
CLARK
GIBSON
HARRISON
PERRY
POSEY
WARRICK
INDIANA COUNTIES, 1814. By E. V. Shockley
242
HISTORY OF INDIANA
Nothing came of this effort, probably because the War of 1812 prevented a meeting of the Assembly during 1812. As soon as the Assembly of 1813 convened the fight for relocation was again taken up. Madison, through its representative, William McFarland, of Lexington, offered $10,000 as a bonus for the location of the capital at Madison. The vote on this in the Council stood four to four. James Dill, of Dearborn, then submitted a proposition from Law- renceburg, and a bill to make that place the capital passed to third reading before it failed. Vevay was tried, and the vote stood five to three against it. Charlestown failed by the same vote. Clarksville re- ceived two votes. Jeffersonville received a tie vote. Corydon got a tie vote also. The eastern members controlled the House of Representatives and chose Madison. The Council would not vote for it, how- ever, and in a conference Corydon was selected. The act bears date March 11, 1813, and further provided that officers and offices should be at Corydon by May 1, 1813.4
§ 40 THE ENABLING ACT
SINCE the outbreak of the War of 1812 there had been agitation among the inhabitants of the terri- tory for a State government. Part of this was due to a feeling that the federal government was not active enough in protecting the border. Part was due to political dissatisfaction. It was felt that the rights of
4 The Journals of the General Assembly for 1810 and 1811 are in the Vincennes Western Sun. Those of 1813 are in the Secretary of State's office, in manuscript form; that of the House in the hand of William Hendricks; that of the Council in the hand of Benjamin Parke. Danger of Vincennes being captured by the Indians may have hastened the removal of the capital. Cf. Waldo Mitchell, "Growth of Indiana, 1812-1820," in Indiana Magazine of History, December, 1914. The removal took place soon after the disaster on the river Raisin.
243
THE ENABLING ACT
suffrage were too much restricted, and that through the appointment of sheriffs the governor had too much influence in elections. Numerous petitions to Congress indicate this sentiment.5
January 1, 1812, Jennings presented a petition drawn by the General Assembly asking that Indiana be made a State. January 13, the Speaker laid before Congress a protest against the above petition signed by James Dill and Peter Jones, members of the House of Representatives of Indiana territory. March 31, Jennings reported favorably on the petition, and offered a resolution that Indiana be admitted as soon as a census should show it to have a population of 35,000.6 Again, on February 1, 1815, Jennings pre- sented a petition from inhabitants of Indiana terri- tory asking admission. The request was laid on the table without discussion.
The question, however, was discussed throughout Indiana during the ensuing summer. Money was piling up in the land offices at Vincennes and especially at Jeffersonville. A continuous fleet of boats floated down the Ohio from Pittsburg, a goodly number of which tied up on the Indiana bank of the river, or else were poled up its tributary streams. Every one felt that there must be near the necessary 60,000 popu- lation, the minimum requirement for a State govern- ment under the Ordinance of 1787. The newspapers at Vincennes, Corydon, Lexington and Madison were full of advertisements of new towns being laid out. Settlements were forming right up to the Indian boun- dary all the way across the State and the ubiquitous squatters were crossing over by hundreds. The White- water valley, it was thought, had 20,000 settlers; Clark
5 See especially report by Jennings, Annals, Twelfth Cong., 1284.
6 Annals, Twelfth Cong., 607 and 749.
.
244
HISTORY OF INDIANA
and Washington counties had at least 15,000; Harri- son had upwards of 6,000; while not less than 20,000 lived on the Wabash or the lower course of White river. The Western Eagle, of Lexington, from statis- tics in eight counties and estimates in six others, gave the total population, November, 1815, as 68,084.7
The General Assembly that met December 4-28, 1815, included many of the best men in the territory. It lost no time in framing a petition for statehood. This memorial appeared in Niles' Register, December 14, but was not presented in the House of Representa- tives till December 28, 1815, and in the Senate till January 2, 1816. The memorial was signed by Dennis Pennington, of Corydon, Speaker, and by David Robb, of Princeton, president of the Council. After reciting that the territory had reached that stage of growth at which, by the terms of the Ordinance of 1787, it was entitled to a State government, the memorialists asked for an election on the first Monday of May to elect delegates to a constitutional convention which might determine whether it was expedient to form a State constitution.
The memorialist also asked for seven per cent. of the land sales for State use, for a congressional town- ship as an endowment for a State university, for an academy, for the coal mines and salt licks, and finally for a donation six miles square on which to locate a State capital.
The memorial was referred to a committee, of which Jonathan Jennings was chairman. This com- mittee, through its chairman, reported by bill, Janu- ary 5, 1816. In the Annals there is included in Jen- nings' report a letter from William Hendricks, dated February 24, 1816, giving the voters of the State as
7 Quoted in Niles' Register, November 4 and 11, 1815.
245
POPULATION IN 1815
12,112 and the total population 63,897.8 This census had been taken by the listers of the various counties and certified by the county clerk to the General Assem- bly, December 4, 1815.
The vote on the Enabling Act of Indiana in the House of Representatives stood 108 yeas, 3 nays. The bill was reported to the Senate, March 30. April 2 it was referred to the same committee that had in charge the enabling bill for the territory of Mississippi. At this time Senator David Daggett, of Connecticut, asked that the committee ascertain the number of free inhabitants in each of the territories. April 3 the bill for the Enabling Act of Indiana was taken from the special committee and given to a committee headed by Senator Jeremiah Morrow, of Ohio. The next day this committee reported favorably, Senator Morrow submitting at the time a census report on the popu- lation of the territory of Indiana. It was finally passed, April 13. The next legislative day, Monday, April 15, the House concurred in the Senate amend- ments and the bill went to the President, by whom it was approved, April 19. It is interesting to note how closely the fate of this bill was linked with that of
8
Voters
Population
Clark County
1,387
7,150
Dearborn County
902
4,424
Franklin County
1,430
7,370 .
Gibson County
1,100
5,330
Harrison County
1,056
6,975
Jefferson County
S7
4,270
Knox County
1,391
S,068
Perry County
350
1
1 1
1,720
Posey County
320
1,619
Switzerland County
377
1,832
Warrick County
280
1,415
Washington County
1,420
7,317
Wayne County
1,225
6,407
Total
12,112
63,897
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 I
1
1
1
1
1
246
HISTORY OF INDIANA
the Enabling Act of Mississippi. The two were passed by the House at the same sitting and without interven- ing business. There were only three opposing votes in the House, Goldsborough, of Maryland, Lewis and Ran- dolph of Virginia, on the bill to admit Indiana and 53 on that to enable Mississippi. There was no division in the Senate.
Congress left the duty of naming the new State to its inhabitants. Its boundaries were laid down as they now are, the only change from the territorial boundary being the addition of a strip ten miles wide across the northern border, and some small areas east of the Wabash between Vincennes and Terre Haute.
The act set Monday, May 13, as the day for an elec- tion of delegates to a constitutional convention. The apportionment of delegates was the same as that asked for in the petition.9 The qualifications for voting were legal age, payment of taxes, and the usual residence restrictions. No property qualification was required. Otherwise the election was held as ordinary elections for members of the House of Representatives.
The members thus elected were to convene at Cory- don Monday, June 10, and, if deemed expedient, form a constitution, or order a new election of delegates. The only restriction on the work of the convention was that the new constitution should be republican and exclude slavery, one restriction laid down in the federal con- stitution and one in the Ordinance of 1787.
-
9 The apportionment was as follows:
Clark
5
Perry
1
Dearborn
3
Posey
1
Franklin
5
Switzerland 1
1
1
Gibson 1
4
Warrick
1
Harrison
5
Washington
5
Jefferson
1
1
1
3
Wayne
4
Knox
5
1
1
I
1
1
1
Total
43
247
ELECTION OF DELEGATES
Besides the above, Congress made five donations to the prospective State, conditioned on their acceptance by the convention. The first was the donation of sec- tion sixteen of the public land out of every congres- sional township for the use of public schools. The sec- ond was the donation of all the salt springs in the terri- tory to and for the use of the people. The third was the donation of five per cent of the net proceeds of the land sales in the territory, three per cent to be used by the General Assembly for opening roads in the State, and two per cent by the federal government to build roads to the State. The fourth was a donation of one entire township for the use of a seminary of learning- the State University grant. The fifth was a donation of four sections of land as a site for a State capital.10
§ 41 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1816
AN announcement of the passage of the Enabling Act reached Vincennes in time to be published in the Western Sun, May 3. The election of delegates was set for May 13, leaving only ten days intervening, time for one issue of the paper. The Western Sun rightly criticised Jennings for the haste.11 An explanation, favorable to Jennings, was that when the bill was drawn in December it was thought it would pass early in January, thus giving the voters of Indiana at least three months for the canvass. The delay was caused largely by the opposition to the Mississippi bill.
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