USA > Indiana > Vigo County > Terre Haute > The history of early Terre Haute from 1816 to 1840 > Part 2
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ling awhile in shallow water .... )we started off upon the bosom of the St. Peters for the Fall of St. Anthony."
Judge Gookins, in his account of his journey from the State of New York, by the northern route in 1823, informs us incidentally, of the price of pirogues. He says : " The next feat to be accomplished was the ascent of the Miami or Mau- mee as it was called. We found an old French trader with a canoe constructed in a style much superior to the common pirogue ; but his price, $20.00, we considered quite too high. We finally found a canoe well made and new, which we pur- chased .... but in loading found it much too small. It cost us $7.00. Then we swapped with the old Frenchman, paying him $5.00 to boot, and so we got his $20.00 watercraft for $12.00."
The above were the several kinds of watercraft the French- man found when he entered this country as a fur trader. He adopted the large birch bark canoe on account of its con- struction which combined lightness with strength. The pi- rogues, he sometimes iashed together side by side, something in the manner of a raft, and thus they became convenient for heavy loads of fur skins. There was a marked change how- ever, when the American pioneer came upon the scene. He brought with him the family boat with its broad flat bottom, into which he could load not only wife and children, but household effects. In this way, all the conveniences of an eastern home were introduced into the western cabin, until a more comfortable house could be erected. One of the earliest recorded arrivals on the Wabash, of these boats was in 1816. It was composed of a number of families from the State of New York, known as the Markle party. " Proceeding from Olean Point on the Allegheny river, they floated down the Ohio. Reaching the Wabash, they poled up that river to Vincennes. After a stay of about two weeks the fleet pro- ceeded up the river to Fort Harrison."
Before the introduction of the steamboat, the keel boat and the barge were the favorite water craft for carrying freight and passengers. These names were interchangeable, that is,
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a barge was called a keel boat, and a keel boat a barge. Some of these boats were propelled by oars, and others simply by poles. These " setting poles," as they were called, were used not only for "poling " the boat up stream, but for warding off logs and sawyers. Again some of these barges were only adapted for transporting loads of wood or common freight, while others were fitted up for the convenience of passengers as well as drygoods and groceries. The labor of rowing and poling these barges up stream was excessive. In stemming a swift current, by keeping close to the shore and by the use of cars, poles and a cordelle or tow line, a distance of six miles was all that could be made in a day.
The small barge used for local purposes, and all kinds of rough loading from its worn out and leaking condition, was called a scow. This name also fitted any old skiff or dug out.
The raft was another convenient craft, consisting of a large number of logs fastened together side by side, for the sake of floating them to a distant saw mill. I am told that on account of the demand for timber from the Wabash coun- try, large rafts were constructed, and loaded with cargoes of home products, all of which, cargo and logs, found ready sale in New Orleans.
The skiff, or yawl, as it was sometimes called, had a canoe shape at the front end, while the back was square. These boats unlike the canoe or dugout which were propelled by paddles, were provided with row locks on the gunwales, in which oars rested for rowing.
The ferry boat was one of the necessities of the early pioneer. It was a great flat bottomed boat constructed to carry cattle, sheep, hogs, as well as loaded wagons across the river ; and so was provided with high railings on either side and bars at the ends. At each end also there was attached a wide apron or bridge fastened by heavy iron hinges, thus facilitating the stepping from the shore into the boat. These boats were propelled by poles, also by oars in times of high water.
But above all the water craft of the Wabash, was our home
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made flat boat. It was a veritable ark made to float with the current, and wonderfully adapted to carrying large cargoes of corn, pork, lard and all kinds of country produce down the river to New Orleans. Our city must never forget the grand old flat boat. It deserves to be inscribed upon our escutcheon ; for to this flat boat we are largely indebted for our first start in the world. Our oldest citizens are familiar with the appearances of these arklike vessels ; but comparatively few could intelligently describe their construction. I am indebted to a friend, who in liis younger days was an old boatman, Mr. Jerry C. Hidden, who kindly furnished me with the following particu- lars. The length of an ordinary flat boat was from sixty to a hundred feet ; the width from sixteen to twenty-two feet ; the height about five feet. For a single gunwale or gunnel as it was commonly called, a tall poplar tree was selected, and after the trunk had been rived apart and hewed down to the proper size, the two were spliced together for the sake of the required length. Two gunwales thus prepared were firmly fastened together some twenty feet apart, planked on the bottom side, and calked with oakum, and thus made water tight. The sides were boarded up with heavy planks fas- tened to stanchions, with wooden pegs or pins. Here again the joints were calked with oakum. The roof covered the whole boat with the exception of an opening at one end. which was set off for bunks and for cooking. For guiding and sometimes for propelling purposes, there were great oars Of sweeps on the sides, also at the end of the boat. There was also the ever present setting poles clad at the end with iron spikes. The flat boat crew usually consisted of five boat hands headed by a captain. The trip to New Orleans, from Terre Haute, was made in about twenty-one days. The hourly dan- gers by day as well as by night, consisted of hidden snags, also swaying snags, or old sawyers as they were called; and the thundering, rushing crevasse. These breaks in the embank- ments of the lower Mississippi caused by the fierce rushing of its troubled waters, were heralded by a sound resembling roll-
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ing thunder, which created consternation in the minds of the most experienced boatinen ; since with one sweep the mad current carried everything within its reach out into the over- flowed bottoms.
The beginning of the end of the flat boat trade, was when the first steamboat appeared at our wharf, which is said to have been in 1822. The captain and his boat were welcomed by a concourse of villagers gathered on the banks of the river, and by the booming of the town cannon. Another boat fol- lowed in 1826. In due time regular packet boats had their appointed days of arrivals and departures. It was a glad sight to see " a fleet of steamboats " wending its way up the river, ladened with sugar, salt and other merchandise. These were the days of village prosperity, when our river front was graced with steamboats, loading and unloading freight ; when wagons and drays crowded upon each other in carting barrels. boxes, and casks through the heavy sand and up the long hill into the town. The flat boat trade, however, was too firmly established to be entirely supplanted. In the thirties our boat yard situated north of the city on the sandy shore of the river, just below where the City Water Works now stand, was one of the centers of industry. The sawing and the hewing to the chalk line ; the pounding together the frame work; the driving of the great wooden pins, and the punch- ing home the oakum, or calking into every crack and cranny, altogether created a busy and lifelike scene.
In addition to the above Mr. D. H. Ritter, in the Bloom- field News, April 20, 1900, kindly sent me specific answers to a number of questions, from which the following facts are condensed. When sawed with a whip-saw, one tree made four pieces or half gunnels, eight inches thick, thirty-two inches wide, sloped sixteen feet at both ends. The bottom was made of two-inch planks, crosswise, pinned to streamers and in rabbets. The oar at the stern was called " the steering oar ; " the one at the bow " the gouger." A White river boat 80 x 18 carried 3,500 bushels of corn. Wabash boats were larger and carried 5.000 bushels of corn. All these are average fig-
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ures. "The big Terre Haute boat of 1841, 130 x 29, carried 10.000 bushels of corn."
As suggested, however, with the coming of the steamboat there came a change heartily welcomed by the white man, but not by the Indian. The barge or keel boat, the canoes or wooden skiffs, though they surprised the Indian, yet they neither alarmed or offended him, but upon the first appear- ance of the steamboat, breathing out its white steam, black smoke, and belching forth its red fiery sparks, the poor af- frighted Indian fled as from a huge unearthly monster. Even after explanations and assurances were given, and he had become somewhat acquainted with the workings of the steam- boat, he was still superstitious and fearful, and persisted in believing that this ugly, threatening creature was an offense to the gentle river, and to the Great Spirit as well, and the only reason he could give was that the white man " biled " the water of the river to drive the angry boat over its peace- ful bosom.
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CHAPTER IV
INDIAN VILLAGES ON THE WABASH
BEFORE the coming of the white man our information re- specting the American Indian is largely traditional. Their writings were confined to pictures, or hieroglyphics made for the most part on the inside of the skins of animals. If these ever contained records of importance they have perished. Their hatchets, arrowheads, pipes and mortars being of stone, are almost the only lasting relics they have left behind. In this immediate region there are traditions of bloody battles fought on the Wabash between the Illini or Illinois and the Iroquois. It is not a little difficult to understand the history of the In- dian tribes on account of their various divisions into different bands, under separate names. The historical element in lan- guage, points unmistakably to the fact that very many of the seemingly separate tribes once belonged to the original Al- gonquin race. That the Wabash valley should have been the early home of the ancient red man is not surprising. Its wild forests, luxuriant prairies, and numerous water courses, each in turn abounding with beasts, fowl, and fish, made it an ideal hunting ground. Here were herds of buffalo, and deer : flocks of wild turkeys, and waterfowl of every descrip- tion ; which were not hunted for sport, but for food, clothing and the coverings of their wigwams. When the white man first explored the vast territory lying east of the Mississippi river, the Miamis were in possession of the land now occupied by the State of Indiana. They were a confederate nation, made up of the Twightwees, or Miamis proper, the Weas, or Ouiatenons, the Piankeshaws, and the Shockneys.
Prominent among the Indian villages of the Wabash was Chip-Kaw-Kay, which was situated where the city of Vin-
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cennes now stands. Judge Law calls the name Chippe Coke, or Brush Wood, and says : " As to its early history clouds and darkness rest upon it." He fails also in the exact date of its settlement by the French; and of its becoming a military post. After much research and no little conjecture he says by way of conclusion : "If I am right the settlement of this place by the French may be dated back as far as the year 1710 or II." As a basis of his conclusion he quotes a letter written by Father Gabriel Marest, dated Kaskaskia, Nov. 9. 1712, in which he graphically describes the country bordering on the Ouabache; that " buffalo " and " bear " abound ; also that " the French have lately established a Fort on the river Wabash and demanded a missionary ; and that Father Mermet was sent to them." The date of this letter and the demand for a missionary seem good grounds for Judge Law's conclusion. But other authorities are quite as confident that there was no post there till after 1715 : and in the absence of any direct record, it is probable that it was established in 1720; while some fix the date about 1727. It is conceded, however, that French traders visited the village of Chip-Kaw-Kay many years previous to the date of its becoming a military post.
Ouiatenon, pronounced We-a-te-non, was another Indian village located on the Wabash between Attica and Lafayette. It was the largest of the Wea villages, and was in the center of the Beaver country. A trading post was established here by the French about the year 1720, but like other Indian vil- lages, doubtless it was visited by French fur traders years before. There were several straggling Wea villages in this vicinity, but this was the largest. Quoting from a Paris document, Dillon says: "This river, Ouabache, is the one on which the Oui-a-te-nons are settled. They consist of five villages, contiguous to each other, . . they are all Ou-ja-ta-nons, having the same language as the Miami, whose brothers they are, having all the same customs and dress." Little or nothing is known of these Wea villages excepting traditional accounts of bloody wars with their
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neighbors. The Ouiatenons were a warlike people, yet in- clined to peace. Coming down into the range of history, it is known that they permitted other tribes to settle within their domains in preference to waging a war of extermina- tion. The Ouiatenons like the other tribes welcomed the French fur trader for the sake of his trinkets, blankets, and especially his whiskey. They were ready to undergo any and all hardships in hunting, for the sake of securing skins to barter with the traders. This is no place to dwell upon the degrading influences of the French trader. The writings of the Jesuit fathers, and of early travelers, besides public doc- uments, are filled with the accounts of the degraded condition of the Indian from contact with the French fur trader. There were notable exceptions, but from this time the doom of the red man was sealed.
In 1791 the village of Ouiatenon " had about eighty houses with shingle roofs." As a trading post it had ranked first in importance. A Franco-Indian civilization sprang up. which grew from bad to worse. But about this time a radical change took place, the French fur trader had gone, and in his place came the American pioneer, not to trade with the Indians, nor freely to mingle with them, but he came with his own family to find a home in the wilderness, and to lay the foundations of a civilization based upon an open Bible, upon school books, and upon the axe, the plow and the hoe. His government would possess the lands only by treaty, and would insist that the rights of the people as settlers should be respected. As Americans and pioneers they were the gov- ernors as well as the governed. They rose as one man and demanded peace, which meant protection by law and order, even at the expense of war. Treaties were made, and it must be added, were broken by both parties. The country was in a disturbed condition, and it was unsafe for the white man in the region north of Vincennes. Ouiatenon village became the center of discontent. Nothing short of its de- struction would insure peace. On the 23d of March, 1791. Brigadier-General Scott with a force of eight hundred
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mounted men was sent against the place. Although he burned the village, and destroyed the corn, he was not entirely successful. In August of the same year, however, Brigadier- General James Wilkinson completed the destruction. In his official report he states: "I have destroyed the chief town of the Ouiatenon nation, and made prisoners of the sons and sisters of the king. I have burned a respectable Kick- apoo village, and cut down at least four hundred and thirty acres of corn, chiefly in the milk. The Ouiatenons (Weas), left without houses, homes or provisions, must cease to war, and will find active employ to subsist their squaws and children during the impending Winter."
There is one other Wea village which claims our special attention, from the fact that so far as its location is con- cerned, it was a part and parcel of our own city. It stood on the high bank of the river, on the spot now occupied by the Terre Haute Water Works. The locality is the same as that of the old Indian Orchard of our village days. Ac- cordingly the village was known also by the name of Orchard town. This old orchard plainly indicated that this village afterwards became a small French trading post, for the habit of the French was to plant orchards and cultivate small gardens, where they settled down into village life.
The old Indian name of this Wea village was Ouiateno. pronounced We-au-te-no, and is said to have meant Rising Sun. The name was not only beautiful but most appropriate, in that from this elevated site, an unobscured view of the sun could be had as it rose over the eastern bluff, and looked down upon the wide stretch of intervening prairie. It was an ideal location for an Indian village, since the view was not only unobscured toward the rising, but also across the river far towards the setting sun. Neither could an enemy approach unseen on the river from the north or the south, since the high bank commanded an excellent outlook. What the ancient history of this village may have been, is buried in obscurity; but it requires no great stretch of the imagination, to picture these Indians hunting in our woods, chasing the buffalo on
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our prairie, and fishing in our river. Doubtless their trails, and well worn pony paths, extended over the same ground our present streets occupy. Although history is silent we know that here the Indian gathered around his camp fires, smoked his long pipe, played his ball games, danced his war dance, and worshipped the Great Spirit.
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CHAPTER V
THE PRAIRIE
LIKE the river our prairie made possible a site worthy of an ideal village. The problem of the ages was to displace a lake some twelve or fourteen miles in length, four miles in width, sixty or more feet in depth, and make a garden spot instead. In the filling of the lake the forces employed were tremendous. Boulders, cobble stones, gravel and sand had to be transported from the far distant North. When the filling was completed, a rich loam of peculiar fineness had to be prepared, and spread over the surface. In this soil must be planted seeds of every variety, that there might spring up grasses, fruits and flowers in profusion. And so the cen- turies wrought. And it came to pass that the garden was made, and the seeds planted, each producing and reproducing after its kind. And so after ages and ages had intervened, when the earliest settler first looked upon this prairie, it pre- sented a paradise of beauty. There were the gentians, fringed, the lobelias, clad in their delicate blue, and the car- dinals, blazing in their brilliant red. There were wild pinks, roses, phloxes, or sweet williams. Of these last, it has been said, "in beauty and every desirable feature they rivaled the products of the hot house." In enumerating the wild flowers of the prairie, the golden rod with its bright yellow plumes must not be forgotten ; neither the blue bells, snow drops nor larkspurs. Before the hand of civilization wrought havoc on our prairie, these and a hundred other varieties flourished in all their gorgeousness, or nestled in their mod- esty under the cover of the high grasses. And even now after three-quarters of a century of plowing, hoeing and trampling, many of these wild children of nature still survive
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in the edges of the woods, and in neglected and uncultivated fields.
Not least among the charms of our prairie were the trees of the wood, which fringed its edges on every side. They were the noblest specimens of the forest, indicating excel- lency of soil and climate. Prominent among these were the walnuts, the black and the white, the hickories, in their sev- eral varieties, the sturdy oaks, the black and the white, the great poplars, white and yellow, and the magnificent maples, hard and soft. Besides, without attempting a complete list, there were the elms, the long white armed sycamores, the beeches, the wild cherries, and the locusts, with their sweet- scented white racemes or clusters, and delicate leaves. These latter transplanted along the streets, were for years the pride and glory of our village sidewalks.
The woods on either side of the prairie seemingly craving a place in the sunshine jutted out into the open, and some- times separated from their fellows nestled together in small groves which added much to the beauty of the landscape. These islands of shade and shadow were not only a relief to the eye, but a resting place for beast and bird.
Still fresh in the memory of our early settlers is the wild cherry tree grove on East Chestnut street, where the Terre Haute and Indianapolis R. R. depot was first located. It was the home of flocks of blackbirds, whose chirping and noisy din in time of ripe cherries presented a lively scene. In the center of the prairie to the north and east of the town, stood what was familiarly known as Early's grove. The place is still marked by a few old stumps of trees, but its beauty and glory are gone. Besides these there were little clumps of plum trees, red and black haws, and crab-apple trees which nestled together in separate families as if avoiding too close contact with other trees.
Among the groves, also in the adjacent woods, nut bearing trees abounded. The nuts of the black walnut were rich, and those of the butternut, or white walnut were very delicate. The shell barks were preferable among the hickory nuts.
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Then there was the pecan, rich in flavor and much superior to those brought here. There was also the delightful hazel- nut, which grew in thickets of tall bushes, which were cruelly grubbed up and torn from their places, to make room for the demands of civilization. Those of us who were boys pre- vious to 1840 remember distinctly the thickets of hazel bushes that grew " up on sixteen," which had to give place to town lots and village houses.
Next to the nuts came the small fruits, from the luiscious wild strawberry on the hillside and the patches of blackber- ries in the openings of the woods, to the plums and the cher- ries, not forgetting the wild grapes whose dependant vines chose the sturdy trees as arbors. Then there was the May apple, and also the paw-paw. These paw-paws, yellow and luscious, were the delight of the small boy, but the horror of his mother. Sometimes the firm orange is found difficult for some people to manage in eating, but the paw-paw by its softness was hopelessly unmanageable.
As accessories to the prairie with its grasses, flowers and groves, were the beasts and the birds that gave variety and life to the scene. Here before the coming of the earliest pioneers, the buffalo roamed and fed, and the bear stole out of the adjacent wood for water to quench his thirst, and the wolf, hated and feared, though comparatively harmless, scampered over the prairie. Here also was the gentle deer, the timid mother with her more timid fawn, fleeing for fear where no fear was. And then the birds, resting in the groves, or feeding on the seeds of tall grasses, sailing in the sky above, or on the waters below, were here in the greatest variety. The wild turkeys went in gangs ; the geese and ducks in flocks ; and bevies of quails were everywhere, making joyful and home-like the neighboring fields or the vacant lots in the village with their familiar call of Bob-Bob-Bob-White. The friendly and gentle robin redbreast, the harbinger of Spring, visited the dooryards, or from some tall tree sent forth its plaintive cry at early morning and at the approach of eve- ning. Very pleasant are the memories of our earliest resi-
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dents, as they recall the number and beauty of our native birds. There were the parrakeets in flocks, proudly decked in red and green, the blackbird, seemingly always on the wing, the voluble bobolink, the catbird, warbling its bor- rowed notes, the meadow lark, whose distant calls lent a charm to the adjacent fields ; the delightful little wren with its inspiring notes, bespeaking a kindly heart, so kind that it could not scold, though sputter away as it might; and still other varieties, but too much civilization drove them hence, and only a remnant remains to remind of their former glory.
Although the first glory is passed, a second is to come. Our heritage is great. The wild waste must become the cul- tivated field. The possibilities of our garden spot can only be realized by the subduing and cultivating hand of man.
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