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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at|http: //books .google .com/I "^ F WILLIAM M. COCKRL'M ^ PIONEER His for J of Indiana Stories^ Incidents and Customs of the Early Settlers COL. fVILLIAM AffCOCKRUM Oakland City, Indiana PRESS OF OAKLAND CITV JOURNAL 1907 Bntered ftccordlog to ta Act of Coiip«M In the year 1907 By WlUIAH 11. COCKXDH in the office of the LibrKiiifi pf ConKTew et Walk- Ington, D. C. All TlgttlTf«^ed. ro MT ff^IFE, Wha for fifty years has been my faithful partner and true help- matet this book ij affectionately dedicated hy THE AUTHOR. 1 PREFACE. In this voltnne many of the early happening's that oc- curred during the settling of Indiana are given for the first time and if this opportunity wete not improved, a large amount of interesting history of our state would be lost. The wri4)cr claims no special credit for securing this his- tory as it has been a pleasing task, self assigned. If the reader shall gain as much satisfaction from reading this vol- ume as the autiior has from gathering the data from which to compile it, he will be amply repaid for the few hours he ^^ is so engaged. It is very ^rratifying to be able to go back to the settling" ^of Indiana and tell about the brave men and women who first '^ invaded its wildness and from whom sprang the hardy and * superior race of people in all stations of life that now live within its confines. For fifty years the data for this volume has been collect- ing: From personal acquaintance with the pioneers, from a history of incidents transmitted from parents to children and from tradition that is accepted as reliable. From the above three sources it is believed that the truest history of the people of that early date, their manners and customs, the dangers they encountered from the Indians, the hunting for game and the many terrible encounters with sav- age beasts, has been secured. In submitting this work to the public the author wishes here to acknowledge his indebtedness to those who aided him in his researches and made the existence of this volume pos- sible. These favors have come from all parts of the country^— from historical societies, public libraries and men in official positions. The names of those giving the most valued assist- ance is hereby ^fiveii. 8 PIONEER HISTORY OP INDIANA. The City Library of Quebec and the librarian of Public Library of Montreal, Canada. The State Library of Indianapolis and the assistant li- brarian, Miss Jennie M. Elrod. The Hon. Henry S. Lane, when U. S. Senator from In- diana, for favors shown me in the office of Public Documents in Washington. The Hon. Oliver P. Morton for his aid in securing* a per- mit to examine official papers in the War Department. The Hon. Daniel S. Lamont, Ex-Secretary of War, for favors shown me in the War Department. Gen. Lew Wallace for valuable suggestions. Gen. Russel A. Alger, Ex-Secretary of War, for a copy of official documents. Hon. Benjamin Harrison, Ex-President of the United States, for the use of his notes on the unpublished history of Gen. William Henry Harrison. Gen. John I. Nealy for manuscript and data. Joseph P. McClure for incidents of pioneer history. David Johnston for the data for many hunting and excit- ing experiences in the early days of Indiana. , , . Woolsey Pride, Jr., for the history of his father's settling at White Oak Springs, near Petersburg, Indiana. Captain Graham, of near Corydon, Indiana, for the data for many pioneer incidents. Hon. Conrad Baker, Ex-Crovemor of Indiana, for data. Gen. Joseph Lane, Ex-Crovernor of Oregon, for interest- ing letters. Captain A. Miler for many interesting incidents. Col. James G. Jones and Hon. A. L. Robinson, of Evans- ville, Indiana, for letters corroborating underground railroad incidents. John T. Hanover, of **Freedmans Bureau," for valuable papers in making underground railroad chapter. Dr. John W. Posey for data on the kidnapping of free necrroes. Rev. D. B. Montgomery for especial favors in data and manuscripts of the pioneer days of Indiana. PIONEER HISTORY OP ITTOIANA. 9 » Charles C. Waters for manuscript and data. Jacob W. Hargrove for manuscript. Delome^s unpublished manuscript of his twenty-seven years among various Indian tribes in what is now the State of Indiana. John B. Dillon's '*History of Indiana." John P. J)unii Jr.'s,.*'History of Indiana." President Theodore Roosevelt's "Winning of the West.'* Goodrich's * 'History of Indiana." Mrs. Ella C. Wheatley for valuable assistance in prepar- ing this work. William Mc Adams' * 'Record of Ancient Races. Dr. J. R. Adams, of Petersburg, Indiana, for valuable data. Hon. Oliver H. Smitk for valuable assistance. Beard's **Battle of Tippecanoe." Prof. W. D. Pence, Purdue University. Dr. Greorge C. Mason for data. E. C. Farmer for data. Rev. W. P. Dearing for assistance. Crawfordsville, Indiana, April 12, 1902. Col. W. M. Cockrum, Oakland City, Indiana. My dear Sir and Companion: Your letter of the 8th inst. is received. There is no rule in literary work that two want to follow in the same way. Writing on any subject, they might differ in their way of expression; but there is one rule, as you sug- gest, that is safe for all to follow — have your data well pre- pared and follow closely the subject. I am pleased to learn that you have been securing data for more than fifty years, and intend writing a Pioneer His- tory of Southern Indiana, in which you will give the old heroes that drove the Indians away and blazed the pathway for our greatness, a deserving tribute for their noble work. Why not extend your boundary and include the State for your field of labor? Your lament that the opportunity for a finished education in your day was so limited that you doubt your ability to give the smooth and pleasing touch to your writing that is needed in a book to be read by the cultured people of this date, is not well taken. Let me suggest that your amanuensis may have all that is required, but good horse sense is not in the market. Your friend. Lew Wallace. TABLE OF CONTENTS. General Lew Wallace's Letter . . . .* Page 10 CHAPTER I. French Colonization of Indiana. Explorations. Settlements. Trading Stations. Forts. Relations with Indians. Post Vincennes. Treatment of English Explorers. Pontiac Pages 16-23 CHAPTER II. Gborgb Rogbrs Clark and the English. Treatment of Inhabitants of the Northwest by the English and Their Indian Allies. Clark's Resolve to Reduce the Forts. His Alliance With the French Inhabitants. Reduction of Fort Kaskaskia. Reduction of Post Vin- cennes. Vincennes Recaptured by Lieutenant (Jovernor Hamilton. Attempt of Hamilton to Dislodge Clark and Drive Him From the Territory. Capture of Francis Vigo. Clark's March . from Kaskaskia to Vincennes. Capture of Vincennes. Regaining the Confidence of the Indians. Later Achievements and Failures of Clark. Pages 24-68 CHAPTER III. The Territory Captured by General Clark from 1779 TO THE Organization of the Northwest Territory. General Todd's Proclamation. The Court of Vincennes. Virginia Cedes Northwest Possessions to the United States. Town of Clarksville Laid Off. Deed of Cession. Ordinance of 1787 Pages 69-75 CHAPTER IV. Thia Northwest Territory Organijzed. Laws Governing It. 12 PIONEER HISTORY OF mDIANA. Governor St. Clair and the Indians. Militia Established and Civil and Military Officers Appointed. Laws Adopts ed at Vincennes. Defeat of St. Clair's Army by the Indians. General Wayne's Victory Near the Maumee. First Territorial Legislature Pages 76-104 CHAPTER V. Prisoners Recaptured from the Indians. Terrible Fighting Around the Place Where Owensville, Indiana, No'vr Stands Pages 105-129 CHAPTER VI. Organization of Indiana Territory. William Henry Har* rison, Governor. General Gibson, Secretary. Territor- ial Judges Appbinted. Slavery Question. Laws of In- denture. Specimens of Indenture Papers . . Pages 130-148^ CHAPTER VII. Settlement of Southern Indiana. The Cruelty of the French Pages 149-lSZ CHAPTER VIII. The Pioneer. Character. Hardships. Routes Followed- Settlements. Food. Education. Customs. Thrilling and Amusing Incidents. Weddings. Work. Dress. Crude Manufactures Pages 153-196- CHAPTER IX. Land Claims and Territorial Affairs. Indian Depredations.. Letters of Instruction and Orders to Captain William Hargrove. Burning of an Indian Town Near Owens* ville. Division of Indiana Territory. Elections. Land Offices Pages 197-236^ CHAPTER X. The Battle of Tippecanoe. Importance of the Victory.- Cause of Battle. The Principal Contestants. Negotia- tions for Peace. Collecting Army at Vincennes. Move- ment of Army From Vincennes. Fort Harrison Estab- lish efl. Advance on Prophet's Town. Encampment. The Battle. Grovernor Harrison's Report of the Battle.. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. U Incidents of the Battle. Resolutions Adopted by Terri- torial Le£:islature. Roll of the Army that Foug:ht at Tippecanoe Pages 237-308 CHAPTER XI. Indiana's Tribute to Kentucky Pages 309-310 CHAPTER XII, further History of Tecumseh and the Prophet . .Pages 311-317 CHAPTER XIII. Pioneer Industries. Orude Farming. Implements. Cooking. Milling. Flax. In- dustry. Loom. Whipsawk Shoe Making. Rope Walk. Bee Hunting. Witchcraft P«e8»318-341 CHAPTER XIV. .Amusements and Sports of the Early Pioneers. .Pages 343-344 CHAPTER XV. Indiana During the War of 1812. Pigeon Roost Massacre. Attack on Fort Harrison. General Disturbance Among the Indians. General Hopkins Re- port to the Grovernor. Expeditions Against the Indians. Delaware Indians Removed, to Ohio. General Gibson's Message to House of Representatives in 1813. Territor- ial Government Moved From Vincennes to Corydon. Miss McMurtne's Statement. Treaty of Friendship and Alliance With the Indians. General John Gibson. Grov- ernor Thomas Posey. Logan, the Indian Chief. Terri- tory Laid Off Into Five Districts. Judicial System Im- proved. Charters Granted to Banks. Rappites at Har- mony. New Harmony Sold to Robert Owens Pages 345-387 CHAPTER XVI. Indiana Becomes a State ^Constitution Adopted. Officers Selected. Governor Jennings' First Message. Boundary and Area of State. Survey. Taxes. Internal Improvements. Purchase of Indian 14 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. Claims. Counties Organized. Ag-ue and other Illness.^ Failure of State Banks. William Hendrick elected Gov- ernor. Site of Indianapolis chosen for Capital. Land Sharks. Indianians called **Hoosiers". Counties Organ- ized. White men executed for Murder of Indians. Let- ter from Oliver H. Smith. Improvements recommended by Governors Hendricks and Ray Pages 388-426. CHAPTER XVII. Animals of Early Indiana. Game Animals. Game Birds. Ferocious Animals. Fur- Beaiing Animals. Birds of Prey .Pages 427-457, CHAPTER XVIII. Schools of Early Indiana. Houses. Books. Danger from Wild Animals. Opposition to Free Schools Pages 458-468. CHAPTER XIX. The Noble Act of returning soldiers of the Battle of Tippe- canoe. Aaron Burr's Conspiracy and the misfortunes attending it. DiflSculty of procuring salt and desperate battle with two Bears. Incidents of Burr's Conspiracy. Governor Jennings' Temperance Lecture. Battle be- tween two bears and two panthers. Panthers killing In- dians. A Hermit. Panthers kill a man and boy. Early days near Petersburg, Indiana. Panthers killing one and desperately wounding another man of a surveying party. Wild Hogs. Shooting matches. Early Days in Dubois County, Indiana. Killing of eight Indians. Hunting. Early days near Sprinklesburg, now New- burg, Warrick County, Indiana. A young woman killed by panthers. Hunting Wolves. Hunting Deer. An amusing incident of an Irishman and the hornet's nest ; . . ; Pages 469-507. CHAPTER XX. Flat Boating \ Pages 508-510. CHAPTER XXI. General Joseph Lane. A Short Biography. Letters PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 15 ...:,.:. . . : ;. Pages 511-516. CHAPTER XXII. The State Bank and Other Interesting Matter. Counties. Organized. Michigan's Attempted Theft. Speech of Hon. Isaac Montgomery. Land Sharks. Land Specu- lators. Brave Women Pages 517-532 CHAPTER XXIIL Internal Improvements. Canals. Railroads. State Debt. Turnpike Roads. Wabash Rapids. Pottowattamie and Miami Indians Removed From the State : Pages 533-542 CHAPTER XXIV. Penal, Benevolent and Educational Institutions. State Prison. Asylum for Deaf and Dumb. Asylum for Blind. Hospital for the Insane. State Universities. State Library Pages 543-548. CHAPTER XXV. The Mexican War. Indiana in the Mexican War Pages 549-554 CHAPTER XXVI. Indian Barbarity and the Prodigal's Return. This chapter is given to show one of many spies that the Anti-Slavery people had on all strangers during the fifties Pages 555-55a CHAPTER XXVII. The Experience of Two Young Boys With Two Bear Cubs. The Amusing Story of How Hogs Were Induced to Re- turn to Their Own Range Pages 559-561 CHAPTER XXVIII. • Kidnapping Free Negroes. Kidnapping of Reube at Prince- ton. Liberating two negroes near Princeton, Indiana.. Kidnapping two free negroes three miles west of Prince- ton. Attempt to kidnap a Barber at Petersburg, In- 16 PIONEER fflSTORY OF INDIANA. diana. Several attempts to kidnap negroes. Dr. John W. Posey and Rev. Eldridge Hopkins liberating two kid- naped negroes. A slave hunt at Kirk's Mills Bridge in Gibson County. An attempt to catch runaway negroes ending in a desperate battle with wild hogs. Jerry Sul- livan Raid at Dongola Bridge. Kidnapping the Gothard Boys. Rev. Hiram Hunter relieving kidnaped negroes Pages 562-597. CHAPTER XXIX. Underground Railroad. Fugitive Slave Law. Anti-Slavery League. Routes of Fu- gitive Slaves. Interesting Letters. Rev. T. B. McCor- mick Pages 608-619 CHAPTER XXX. Indian Religion Pages 620-622. CHAPTER XXXI. The Mound Buildbrs. Age of Mounds. Workmanship of Builders. The Tradition of the Piassa. Remains. Difference between Mound Builders and Indians Pages 623-632. CHAPTER I. FRENCH COLONIZATION IN INDIANA. Explorations — Settlements — Trading Stations — Forts — Relations With Indians — Post Vincennes— Treat- ment OF English Explorers — Pontiac. The French, who first settled Canada and founded Que- bec in 1608, were a very restless, energetic people. They were rovers and soon making friends with the Indians, made long journeys with them to the south and west. How far they w^nt on these excursions is not known, but they contin- ually advanced their settlement in these directions. During the fifty years following the founding of Quebec, they had settled a large section of the country bordering on the Great Lakes. Whether any of these rovers, during their many expeditions, up to 1650, paddled their canoes along the rivers of Indiana is unknown. Who was the first man to ex- plore the wildness of our State or when that date was, are unsolved questions that will remain hidden in the archives of the Great Builder of Worlds. They are questions of no real merit and only interest those who are sticklers for exactness in regard to the minute things which happened more than two and a half centuries ago in the wilds of North America. The data that is known from accepted tradition and written history, carries us back far enough into the dark ages of this country to enable us to give such credit due to those who did explore the rivers, lakes and wooded hills of Indiana as will be of interest to those who are searching for the early history of our State. 18 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. The probabilities are that at this early date, all the tef ritory of Indiana was owned and controlled by the Miama Confederation of Indians, which comprised four tribes: The Twightwees, which was the Miami proper, the Weas or Oniatenons, the Shockeys and Pinkashaws. These Indians were of the Alg^onquin nation. At the junction of the St» Mary and St. Joseph rivers, where the Maumee river is formed and where the city of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, now stands, these Indians had their ancient capital, known in In* dian lang^uag^e as Kekiong^a, and as early as 1676, the white people (French) had a fort near that place. From that sta* tion the French fur hunters passed up and down the Wabash river and into the Louisiana possessions of France, securing- loads of furs. Returning up the Wabash they carried their bundles across the portage, thence down the Maumee to Lake Erie and to their trading stations in Canada where they were sold for such articles as the Indians and French hunters need- ed. In these excursions up and down the Wabash it is reas- onable to conclude that there were trading stations at differ- ent points along their route where the fur was collected by traders. Vincennes, no doubt, was a trading station several years before the commencement of the eighteenth century. The traders coming on the Wabash connected with those coming on what was afterward known as ihe Old Vincennes and Clarksville trace. This crossed White river about fifteen miles southeast of Vincennes and crossed the Wabash river at Vincennes, then to Kaskaskia on the Mississippi river* One branch of this old traveled way ran from a point a little west of the place where it crossed the Little Wabash river south to the saline section of southern Illinois. No doubt this old road had been a main traveled way from east to west by the Indians for ages before any white man ever saw America. Along the route where it passed over Orange and Floyd Counties, ledges of rock that it crossed showed evi- dence of much wear, when first traveled over by the Whites. This could not have been possible without having been long- used by the Indians, as they wore skin coverings on their feet. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 19 That Robert De LaSalle went up and down the Wabash and other Indiana rivers with a few white companion^ and Indian guides several years before the commencement of the eighteenth century, is an established fact. He was at Kekionga, the capital of the Miamas, about 1680 and no doubt was about the same time at the beautiful site where Vincennes now stands. That there was a rendezvous where these two cities stand for the collecting of furs, as well as at Ouitanon during La Salle's explorations, is generally conced- ed by all who have searched for this early information. Dur- ing the twenty years that La Salle was engaged in his ex- plorations, from 1667 to 1687, he was very active in exploring all the regions where there were fur bearing animals. In 1698 LaMotte Cadillac, of New France, who was a far-seeing man and worked for his country's interests, re- turned to France. He went to see Count Pontchartrain and placed before him a map that he had made from notes and drawings made by LaSalle before he was assasinated, ex- plaining to the Count the new route that this map described. This route connecting New France and Louisiana by a reli- able waterway, extended from the Lakes up the Maumee to the capital of the Miamis, now Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and thence by an easy portage to the headwaters of the Wabash, thence down that river, through the heart of a most valuable territory. Cadillac recommended to the Count that it was best to locate a chain of forts along that route for defense if needed against any Indians that were or might become hos- liie and against any expedition that the english might send out from their North American possessions east of the Alle- ghany Mountains. He was so convincing in his presentation of the subject, that Count Pontchartrain fell in with his views, granted his request and commissioned him to carry out the enterprise. The next year Detroit was selected as the place most suitable for a depot of military stores and a gen- eral trading post between the French and Indians on the southern borders of the Great Lakes. The next site selected was at the head of the Maumee river, called Fort Miami; then came one near the Wabash on the Wea prairie a few ! 20 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. miles below where the city of Lafayette now stands, called Ouiatenon. The next trading post was at the point where the city of Vincennes now stands, afterwards called Post Vincennes. These forts were all completed by the year 1705. It has always been contended that the French Jesuits had mission stations at each of these places years before they be- came military posts. The garrisons which were located at each of these stations consisted of a few men, only sufficient in their strong log forts to insure a safe retreat for the fur traders and their families. In a few years a number of young French hunters gath- ered around these stations and it became common for them to marry the 3'oung Indian women, and in a comparatively short time there was a large number of half breeds in all the settled sections where the French lived. • These hunters adopted the Indian customs and this intermarrying of the two races was the real reason for the very close alliance that existed be- tween the French and the Indians — '*Blood is thicker than water." The two races of people became so closelj- akin that their interest became the same. The men put in most of their time during the hunting season in the forests hunting for game, or along the streams trapping for fur. These two occupations comprised all there vvc's to be done. Each family would work together and have a small field of corn. The women would plant and tend it. They cured and dried the meat that was killed by the hunters and prepared it for fu- ture use. The indolent habits of these Indians and mongrel French, around their homes were indulged in by all. When they sold their furs they would invest the greater portion of it in villainous whiskej', that would make those drinking it crazy drunk. During the orgies engaged in by these savage woodsmen, there would be man}- maimed and others dead be- fore the protracted '*spree" was over. The traders who sold this injurious stuff, if they ever were honest, lost all thought of such an inconvenience when trading with the Indians and cheated them in every way that was possible. The Catholic missionaries who helped explore the North- west territory and labored to christianize the Indians, were PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 21 earnest, devoted men who did all they could to better the condition of the Indians; but the evil effects of the poisonous liquor sold them 6y the unscrupulous traders buying their furs, neutralized all the good done by the missionaries and kept these poor, unfortunate people in a degraded conditioji- The post where Vincennes now is was included in the district of Illinois, in the colony of Louisiana. Fort Chartres was the seat of government of the district, and New Orleans was the seat of government of the province. The post where Vincennes is located had different officials at an early date who acted as commanders of the garrison. Among that num- ber was Francis Morgan De Vincennes, for whom the city of Vincennes was named. He remained its commander until sometime in 1736, when he was killed in battle with the Chickasaw Indians. For a long period before his death he was in command of all the French posts located in the part of Louisiana province that is now Indiana. In 1736, after the death of Vincennes, St. Ange was placed in command of the district of Illinois with his head- quarters at post Vincennes. This command was held by him until two years after the French had ceded their New France and a part of their Louisiana possession to England in 1763. During the long period that France held control of the Ter- ritorj' that is now Indiana, the only improvement made by them was the building of a few block-houses and a few crude buildings around these stations. They did not attempt to clear up the country, open any highways or to make any per- manent improvements. Their business was hunting and trapping, and so they did not want the country cleared as it would injure their occupation. During the one hundred and forty-three j^ears between the time the English planted their colony at Jamestown, Vir- ginia, in 1607 until they attempted a plant a colony on the west side of the Alleghany mountains, in 1750, they developed into thirteen colonies and more than one million people living in the country along the Atlantic from the east side of Flor- ida to one hundred miles east of Boston, Massachusetts. During that long period of nearly one hundred and fifty 22 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. years, France and England were busy acquiring territory and planting colonies in their locations in North America. They each established missionary stations to christianize the Ind- ians. There was great rivalry between catholic France and protestant England in their home countries. This feeling was carried to the new world by the missionaries and used to embitter the feelings of the Indians in their respective col- onies against the other nations. Rev. Cotton Mather says, in one of his works published the last of the seventeenth cen- tury, that a noted Indian chief informed a protestant minis- ter of Boston, that the French, when instructing the Indians of his nation about the christian religion, told them that Jesus Christ was a Frenchman and that the English mur- dered him and that he arose from the dead, ascending up to heaven and all who would come into favor with Christ must help them in their war against the English. In 1752 M. Duquesne, governor of New France, ordered George Washington, who, with others, was attempting to survey some lands near where the city of Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania, now stands to desist and leave the country. Duquesne stated that the French government claimed all the territory bordering on the Ohio river and its many tributaries; basing that claim on the discoveries made by LaSalle, in the latter part of the seventeenth centurj% This was a beginning of the long and bloody war between England's American col- oniies and the French inhabitants of New France. In many battles between the French and English people from 1752 to 1763, for the supremacy in America, the French inhabitants ivho occupied the different stations in what is now Indiana, Icnew but little about the war and there were many isolated stations in that territory whose people did not know until several years afterwards that France had ceded her North American possessions to England. After England came into possession of New France, the posts at Quebec, Montreal, Detroil and other stations in that territory established strong garrisons and adopted concilia- tory measures to win the Indians from their allegiance to France. This was hard to do. Pontiac, who would not give PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 23 up the hope that his great father, the king of France, would again come into power, fought many determined battles against the English and would not be consoled. Finally he went to St. Louis to see his old friend, St. Ange, who coim- seled him to submit and give to England the same loyality that he had to France, telling him that France had not sold his land nor would the English take it away from him. This, in a measure, satisfied the great Pontiac and he went back home, coming down the Mississippi, up the Ohio and the Wabash. Telling his people that there would be no more war, he discarded his rank and went into private life as a hunter. A tradition that has come all the way down from genera- tion to generation was often told by the Indians, as follows: The great chief, Pontiac, in destroying bands of Indians op- posing his confederation, captured mostly women and child- ren who were sold by his agents to the resident French at the different posts, receiving in exchange guns, powder, lead, flints, tomahawks and blankets. He was killed by an assasin in the woods where East St. Louis now stands, because sev- eral years before, one of his bands of warriors had captured the women and children of a hunting party of Illinois Indians while they were drying meats and fish on the shores of lake Michigan and Pontiac ordered them all sold into slavery ex- cept a beautiful woman who was the wife of the chief of the hunting party, whom he took for his wife. While making a visit to St. Ange, at the village of St. Louis, this injured woman hunted up some of her kindred and assisted them in murdering Pontiac. The hold this great chief had on the people of his confederation was so firm that when they learned of his murder they brought on a war of extermina- tion and before it was over the Illinois Indians were nearly all killed. The beautiful woman who caused his death was re-captured and burned at the stake. CHAPTER IL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK AND THE ENGLISH, Treatment of Inhabitants of Northwest by English — Their Indian Allies — Clark's Resolve to Reduce THE FoRTS-^His Alliance with the French Inhab- itants— Reduction of Fort Kaskaskia — Reduction OF Post Vincennes — Captain Leonard Helm in Charge OF Vincennes — Vincennes Recaptured by Lieut. Gov- ernor Hamilton — Attempt of Hamilton to Dislodge Clark and Drive Him from the Territory — Capture OF Francis Vigo — Clark's March from Kaskaskia to Vincennes — Capture of Vincennes — Regaining the Confidence of the Indians — Later achievements and Failures of Clark. After reading: Theodore Roosevelt's extensive work on ^'Winning: the West," William E. Engflish's elaborate history of the conquest of the Northwest territor}^ and **The Life of Georg:e Rog:ers Clark" and John P. Dunn, Jr.'s ** American Commonwealth," in which his Hannibal of the west is one of the many subjects treated by him in an entertaining: and in- structive manner, it may seem presumptuous to attempt to write about that subject, but to attempt to write a a pioneer history of Indiana without detailing: the heroic work of the hero of the Northwest territory, would be like presenting the play of '*Hamlet" with Hamlet left out. Greorge Rogers Clark was born in Albermarle county, Virginia, November 19, 1752. In early life, he, like Wash- ington, was a surveyor, preparing himself for his work as a pioneer in a new country. In 1774 he served as an officer in PIONEEJ^ HISTORY OF INDIANA. 2S Dunmore's war. In this way he first became acquainted with the western country. In 1775 he first visited Kentucky. At that time he was a Major. That fall he returned to Virg^inia and commenced making preparations to move to the west the next spring. Having moved and become a fixture there, he set about to aid the people and that section of the country to which he had attached himself. The advantages were ob- vious but its distance from the settled colonies and its ex- posure to hostile Indian tribes, rendered his occupation very perilous. Clark was not an ordinary man — his mind was very comprehensive. He knew no danger and was in full vigor of young manhood, with energy and determination that would surmount all difficulties. As we before noted, during all the time the French had control of the territory that is now Indiana they made no per- manent improvements, having intermarried and adopted the habits of the Indians, living in bark and skin tepees. There were fewer than a hundred white families at post Vincennes;. at Ouiatenon, Wea prairie, near Lafayette, not more than fifteen or twenty families and at the Twightee village, now Ft. Wayne, Indiana, about ten families. From 1763 ilp to the time that Vincennes was captured by George Rogers Clark, the English people established but few posts. They only strengthened those that the French had at Ft. Miami (Fort Wayne) and the stations on the Wea prairies, Ouiatenon and post Vincennes. At these stations, after the commencement of the Revolutionarj^ war, there were British officers with a small command of British troops that gathered around them ^a band of Indians who were placed un- der partisan officers. These officers sent them out in detach- ments to prey upon the unsuspecting settlers who were then upon the borders of the Ohio east of what afterward became Louisville, Kentucky, and into Virginia. Those from Vin- cennes directed their depredations principally against the scattered settlements in northern Kentucky. This condition of things continued until George Rogers Clark captured Lieutenant Gk)vernor Hamilton and his band of partisans at Vincennes in 1779. \ 26 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. After the treaty between France and England, the British authorities, on coming into possession of that vast empire, did everything in their power to keep improvements from be- ing made. There were several propositions made to the king by his British subjects of England and by his Amer- ican colonies, who had means, for permission to make extensive improvements in the rich country bordering on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and to plant colonies in many places. All of these propositions were rejected. The few settlements which were made got along the best they could without any protection. This immense territory had Indian towns and villages scattered all over it. There were many desperadoes who left the colonies and made their homes among the Indians. In most these free-booters were fu- gitives from justice. When the war for independence came these desperate characters, through the influence of British agents, declared their allegiance to the British crown. They, through their intercourse with the Indians, did much to cause them to take up the hatchet against the Americans. These Indians and their partisan allies were organized into detachments to go to the western borders of the American colonies to murder, scalp and capture the inhabitants. As an inducement for them to do this bloody work, they were offered as a reward, one pound for children and women scalps or for them as prisoners; three pounds for a man's scalp, no reward for him as prisoner, and five pounds or twenty dollars for young and come- ly women prisoners. The white villians who were with their Indian allies, were, if possible, more Ipst to human sympathy than the Indians. They seem to have lost all human feeling and would kill and destroy the helpless people whom they found on the borders. Ignoring all restraint they deliberate- ly went into the settlements where they had formerly lived and where their kith and kin resided. The pleading of the helpless and aged mother or the wail of the infant, seemed to b^ music to the ears of these brutal butchers. After killing and capturing all they could, they burned and destroyed the homes and such property as they could not carry away. Go- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 27 ing: back with their fiendish Indian allies to the British posts, they were received with great military parade as if they were Teturning heroes from a great victory. They received the Teward for their scalps and then five pounds for the young ^women prisoners, who were turned over to the British officers and traders to a life of servitude. A thousand deaths would have been preferable to the violated and insulted womanhood that these poor helpless victims, mothers and fair daughters of Virginia and Kentucky had to indure. The continued raids made by, the Indians and their more brutal allies, be- <:ame so damaging to the exposed settlements that there was ^reat danger of their being broken up. - (ieneral Clark heard the appeal of these abused people and determined to avenge the many deaths caused by these barbarians. Having explored the rurrounding coimtry of his new home and seen much of the Indians, he learned that the <:ontinual hostility that they showed toward the white people was caused by the British commanders and their emissaries at Detroit, Kaskaskia and Vincennes and that these posts would retard the settlement of the new country. He was <:onvinced that the thing to do was to reduce these forts and made a statement of these facts to the Virginia legislature in December, 1777, outlining a plan for the successful accom- plishment of this purpose. It was approved by Gk)vernor Henry and his council, and twelve hundred pounds was ap- propriated for the expenses and four companies of men were raised for the expedition. In the spring of 1778 they rendez- voused at Corn Island in the Ohio river, opposite Louisville, Kentucky. The four companies were commanded by Cap- tains Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm, John Montgomery and William Harrod. The memoirs of Clark say that — **On the 24th of June, 1778, we left our camp and ran up the river for a mile in order to gain the main channel and shoot over the falls. I knew that spies were on the river below and that I might fool them, I resolved to march a part of the way by land. The force, after leaving such as were not able to stand the march with their companies, was very much reduced in num- 28 PIONEER HISTORY OP INDIANA. bers and much smaller than I had expected. * 'Owing to the many difficulties I had to encounter, I found it was best to chang:e my plans. As the post of Vin- cennes at that time had a considerable force of British and In- dians and an Indian town was adjoining, there were large num- bers of Indian warriers there all the time. I regarded Vin- cennes of much more importance than any of the others, and had intended to attack it first, but finding I could not risk such a hazardous undertaking, I resolved to go to Kaskaskia. There were several villages along the Mississippi river but they were some distance apart. I had acquainted myself with the fact that the French inhabitants in these western villages had g'reat influence over the Indians and were re- garded with much favor by them, as thej^ had been their old allies ill former war before the English captured the country from them; so I resolved. If possible, to attach the French to our interests. I had received a letter from Colonel Campbell, from Pittsburg, informing me that France had formed an alliance with the Colonies. As I intended to leave the Ohia at Ft. Massac, three leagues below the mouth of the Ten- nesee river, I landed on a small ivsland in the mouth of that . river in order to prepare for the march. A few days after starting a man named Duff and a party of hunters coming down the river were stopped by oiir boats. They were for- merl}" from the States and ' assured of their loyalt)\ They had been at Kaskaskia only a short time before and could give us all the intelligence we wanted. The)' said that Gov- ernor Abbot had left Vincenhes and gone to Detroit; that Mr. Rochblave commanded at Kaskaskia; that the militia was in good condition and would give us a warm reception if they knew of our coming; that spies were constantly kept on the Mississippi and all hunters, Indians and others, had orders to keep a close lookout for the rebels; that the fort was kept in good order and that the soldiers were much on parade. They had been taught that we were a lot of desperate men, especi- ally the Virginians. The hunters said if the place could be surprised, .which they hoped we might do, they thought there would be no resistance and they hoped we would take them PIQNEEK HISTORY OP INDIANA. 29 and let them aid in the capture. This I concluded to do and they proved true men and valuable to the expedition. No part ■of the information pleased me more than that the inhabitants viewed us as more savage than the Indians and I was deter- mined to improve upon this ii I should be so fortunate as to ^et them into my possession. Having everything ready, we moved down to a small guUey a short distance above Ft. Massac, in which we con- cealed our boats and started to.march. On the fourth of July, in the evening, we got within a few miles of the town, where ive lay until nearly dark. Keeping spies ahead we started on the march and took possession of a house where lived a large family, on the banks of the Kaskaskia river, less than a mile from the town. These people informed us that a short time before the militia had been under arms but had conciuded that the cause of the alarm was without foundation; that there were a large number of men in town and that the Ind- ians had all gone and everything was quiet. Boats were soon secured and the command crossed the river. With one of the divisions I marched, to the fort and ordered the other two divisions into different quarters of the town. If I met with no rej^istance, at a certain signal a general shout was to be given and certain parts were to be immediately possessed and the men of each detachment who could speak the French language, were to fun through every street of the town and proclaim what had happened and inform ihe inhabitants that •ever}' one who should come on the street would be shot down. This had the desired effect. In a very short time every ave- nue was guarded to prevent anyone from escaping to give the alarm to other villages. **I don't suppose that greater silence ever reigned among the inhabitants of a place than did over those of this post. Not a person was to be seen, not a word to be heard from them for some time; but the troops, by my order, kept up the the greatest noise all over the town during the whole night. In two hours time all the inhabitants were disarmed and in- formed that if they made an attempt to escape they would immediately be put to death. 30 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. *'The morning: after the capture a few of the principal men had been arrested and put in irons. Soon afterward M, Gibault, the village priest, accompanied by some aged citizens, waited on me and said the inhabitants expected to be separated, perhaps never to meet again, and they begged the privilege of again assembling in their church, there to take leave of each other. I told the priest that we had noth- ing against their religion; that that was a matter the Ameri- cans left every man to settle with his God and that the peo- ple could assemble at their church if they wished to but they must not attempt to escape. Nearly all the population as- sembled at the church. After the meeting a deputation con- sisting of Gibault and several other persons waited on me and said that their present situation was the fate of war and that they. could submit to the loss of property but they asked that they might not be separated from their wives and children and that some clothes and provisions might be allowed for their support. I feigned supprise at ihis request and abruptly exclaimed — 'Do you mistake us for savages? I am almost certain you do, from you language. Do 3^ou think that the Americans intend to strip women and children; or take the bread out of their mouths? My countrymen disdain to make war on helpless innocents. It was to prevent the horrors of Indian butchery upon our wives and children that we have taken arms and penetrated this remote stronghold of British and Indian barbarity, and not ihe despicable prospects of plunder.' I further told them as the King of France had uniied his powerful arms with those of the Americans, the war in all probability would not continue long, but that the inhabitants of Kaskaskia were at libertj' to take which side the pleased without the least clanger either to their families or their property, nor would their religion be an}^ source of disagreement, as all religions were regarded with equal res- pect by the American laws and that any insult offered to it would be immediately punished. Then 1 said — 'And now to- prove my sincerity, j^ou will inform j^our fellow citizens that they are quite at liberty to conduct themselves as usual with- out the least apprehension. I am now convinced from what PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 31 I have leamefl since my arrival among: you that you have been misinformed and prejudiced against us by the British officers and your friends who are in confinement shall be im- mediately released.' In a few minutes after the delivery of this speech, the gloom that had rested on the minds of the inhabitants of Kaskaskia had passed away. Their arms were restored to them and a volunteer company of French Militia joined a detachment under Captain Bowman, when that oflBcer was despatched to take possession of Cahokia. The inhabit- ants of this small village readily took the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia." The news of the treaty of alliance between France and America and the influence of the mag- nanimous conduct of Clark^ induced the French village to take the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia. The memoirs of Clark proceed — "The post of Vincennes was never out of my mind and from something that I had learned, I had reason to suspect that M. Gibault, the priest, was favorable to the American interest, previous to our arrival in the country. He had great influence over the people at this period and Post Vincennes was xmder his jurisdiction* I had no doubt of his loyalty to us and I had a long conference with him about Post Vincennes. In answer to my questions he said — that he did not think it worth while for any military preparations to be made at the falls of Ohio, for the attack on Post Vincennes, although the place was strong and there was a great number of Indians in its neighborhood, who, to- his knowledge, were generally at war; that Grovernor Abbot had a few weeks before, left the place for some business at Detroit. He expected when the inhabitants were fully ac- quainted with what had passed at Illinois and the present happiness of their friends and made fully acquainted with the nature of the war, that their sentiments would greatly change. He told me that his appearance would have great weight even among the savage and if it were agreeable to me he would take this business on himself, having no doubt of his being able to bring the place over to the American inter- ests without m)'^ being at the trouble of marching against it. As his business was altogether spiritual, he wished that an- -32 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. other person might be charged with the temporal part of the -embassy, but he said he would privately direct the whole and named Dr. Lafont as his associate. This was perfectly agreeable to what I had been secretl)^ aiming at for several days. The plan was immediately settled and the two doctors with their attendant retinue, among whom I had a sp)% set about preparing for the journey and on the fourteenth of July started with an address for the inhabitants of post Viri- cennes, authorizing them to garrison their town themselves, which was intended to convince them of the great confidence we put in them. All this had the desired effect. M. Gibault and his party arrived and after a day or two occupied in ex- plaining matters to the people, they all acceded to the pro- posal (except a few emissaries left b)^ Governor Abbot, and they immediately left the Country) and went in a body to the church, where the oath of allegiance was administered to them in a most solemn manner. An officer was selected, the fort garrisoned and the American flag displayed, to the astonishment of the Indians, and everything settled far beyond •our most sanguine hopes. The people here began to immed- iately put on a new face and talk in a different st)'le and act as perfect freemen, with a garrison of their own and the United States at their elbow. Their language to the Indians was immediatel)^ altered. They began as citizens of the United States and informed the Indians that their old father, the King of France, was come to life again and was mad at them for fighting for the English. They said they would advise the Indians to make peace with the Americans as soon as they could, otherwise they might expect the land to be ver)' bloody, '*The Indians began to think, very seriously throughout the country. This was now the kind of language they got from their ancient friends of the Wabash and Illinois. Through the means of their correspondence spreading among the nat- ions there was a decided change in all the neighbroring tribes of Indians. **M. Gibault and party accompanied by several gentlemen irom post Vincennes, returned to Kaskaskia about the fourth PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 33 of Aug"ust with the joyful news. During his absence on this business, which caused me great anxiety, (for without that post all my work would have been in vain), I was engaged in regulating things in the Illinois. TheJ'reduction of these posts was the period of the enlistment of our troops. I was at a great loss at this time to determine how to act and how far I might venture to strain my authority. My instructions were silent on many important points as it was impossible to foresee the events that would take place. To abandon the country and all the prospects that opened to our view in the Indian department at this time, for want of instructions in certain cases, I thought would amount to a reflection on our Government as having no confidence in me and I resolved to usurp all the authority necessary to carry my points. [I had the greater part of the troops reenlisted on a different estab- lishment; commissioned French officers to command a com- pai)^ of young Frenchmen; established a garrison at Cahokia commanded by Captain Bowman and another at Kaskaskia commanded by Captain Williams. Post Vincennes remained in the situation as mentioned. I sent Captain John Mont- gomery to the Gk)vernment with letters and dispatches and again turned my attention to Post Vincennes. I plainly saw that it would be highly necessary to have an American officer at that post and Captain Leonard Helm appeared to be suited in man)' waj^s for the position. He was past the meridian of life and well acquainted with . Indian life and their disposi- tions. I sent him to command that post, also appointed him agent for the Indian affair of the Wabash. * 'About the middle of August Captain Helm started out to take possession of his new command. An Indian chief called **Tobacco's Son," a Piankashaw, at this time, was residing in the village adjoining Post Vincennes. He was called by the Indians — *'The Grand Door of the Wabash;" and as there was nothing to be undertaken by the League on the Wabash with- out his consent, I discovered that to win him was of signal importance. I sent him a spirited compliment by M. Gibault- — he returned it. I now, by Captain Helm, touched him on the same spring that I had the inhabitants and sent a speech 34 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. with a belt of wampum, directing Captain Helm how to man* age if the chief was pacifically inclined or otherwise. The Captain arrived safely at Post Vincennes and was received with acclamation by the people. After the usual ceremony was over he sent for Grand Door and delivered my letter to him. After having it read he informed the Captain that he was happy to see him — one of Big Knife's chiefs — in this town. It was here that he had joined the English against him, but Grand Door confessed that he always thought they looked gloomy. He said that as the letter was of great importance, he would not give an answer for some time; that he must collect his counsellors on the subject and was in hopes that the Captain would be patient. In a short time he put on all the courtly dignity that he was master of and Captain Helm followed his example. It was several days before the busi* ness was finished as the proceedings were very ceremonious. "At length the Captain was summoned to the Indian Council and informed by Tobacco that he had maturely con- sidered the case in hand and had had the nature of the war between us and the English explained to their satisfaction. As we spoke the same language and appeared to be the same people, he always thought that Big Knife was in the dark of it, but now that the sky was cleared up he found that Big Knife was in the right. Perhaps, he said, if the English conquered they would serve them in the same manner that they intended to serve us. He told the Captain that his ideas were quite changed and that he would tell all the Red people on the Wabash to bloody the land no more for the Englihh. He jumped up, struck his breast, called himself a man and a warrior; said that now he was a Big Knife and took Captain Helm by the hand. His example was followed by all present and the- e\ening was spent in merriment. Thus ended this valuable negotiation and the saving of much blood. In a short time almost all of the various tribes of the different nations on the Wabash as high up as the Ouiatenon, came to Post Vincennes and followed the example of the Grand Door chief, and as expresses were continually passing between Cap- tain Helm and myself, during the entire time of these treaties^ PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 35 the business was settled perfectly to my satisfaction and greatly to the advantage of the public." Grovernor Henry soon received intelligence of the success- ful progress of the expedition under the command of Colonel Clark. The French inhabitants of the village of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Post Vincennes, having taken the oath of allegi- ance to the state of Virginia, the (General Assembly of that state in 1778 passed an act which contained the following provisions, viz: — *'A11 the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia who are already settled or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be included in the district county which shall be called Illinois county and the Gk)vernor of this Commonwealth, with the advice of the Council, may appoint a County Lieutenant or a Commander in Chief in that county during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission so many Deputy Commandants of military officers and commis- sioners as he shall think proper in the different districts dur- ing pleasure; all of whom, before they enter into office, shall take the oath of fidelity to this Commonwealth and the oath of office according to the forms of their religion; and all the civil officers which the inhabitants have been accustomed to, necessar>" for the preservation of peace and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a majority of the citizens in th"eir respective districts to be convened for that purpose by the County Lieutenant or Commandant or his deputy and shall be commissioned by the said County Lieutenant or Commander in Chief.*' Before the provisions of this law were carried into effect, Henry Hamilton, the British Lieutenant Governor of Detroit, collected an army consisting of about thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers and four hundred Indians. With this force he passed down the Wabash and took possession of Post Vincennes on the fifteenth of December, 1778. No attempt was made by the population to defend the town. Captain Helm was taken and detained as a prisoner and a number of the French inhab- itants were disarmed. When Governor Hamilton entered Vincennes, there were but two Americans there, Captain Helm, the commander, and a soldier by the name of Henry. 36 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. The latter had a cannon well charged and placed in the open fort gate, while Helm stood by with a lighted match in hand. When Hamilton and his troops got within hailing distance, the Captain in a loud voice called out — *'Halt." This stopped the movements of Hamilton who in reply demanded a surren- der of the gaYrison. Helm exclaimed, *'No man shall enter here until I know the terms." Hamilton answered, *'You shall have the honors of war." The fort was surrendered with a garrison of one oflScer and one private. Lieutenant Grovernor Hamilton, before leaving Detroit, made all the arrangements for a grand onward rush against the settlements west of the Alleghenj^ Mountains in the early spring of 1779. Colonel George Rogers Clark in the latter part of 1778 had marched into the wilderness of the Northwest with less than two hundred Virginians, captured Kaskaskia and Caho- kia and made a peaceable conquest of Vincenties in the heart of the Indian country. He was now in position to check the savages if thej^ persisted in their attacks on the j oung settle- ments in Kentucky and Virginia and to break up their confed- erations with tlje British. Lieutenant Gk)vernor Hamilton de- termined, if possible, to recapture the lost forts, and to this end, he left Detroit with a company of Regulars and Volun- teers and gathered an army of Indians three times as large as Clark had. Having recaptured Vincennes without any op- position, he went about repairing the fort to make suitable quarters for the garrison. Being late in the season and the weather very bad, he sent his Indian army awa}- in the com- mand of some of his Canadian Indian partisans to the Ohio river to watch for and intercept reinforcements to Clark's army and to annoy the settlements on the borders of Ken- tucky and V^irginia. He sent delegates to the Southern Indians to prepare them for the coming raid when spring should open and selected points to rendezvous in the s^;)ring, in order to be in a position to dislodge Clark and drive him out of the country. His intention then was to overrun the country west of the Allegheny Mountains with his northern and southern Indian confederates and sweep away all opposition to the British in PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 37 all the vast region between the Mississippi river and the Alleghany Mountains. Fortunately for the American cause, Hamilton had underrated his rival who was a much better soldier and much more resourceful than he was. After Post Vincennes had been recaptured by Hamilton from Captain Helm, Clark was at Kaskaskia and had no in- formation of the situation there until the latter part of Janu- uary, 1779. He met with Francis Vigo, who was a trader at that time in St. Louis and favorable to the Americans. He tendered Clark his services and was requested to go to Post Vincennes to report the condition of things at that place. Vigo readily accepted the hazardous service and started, but before he got to his destination he was captured by hostile Indians and carried a' prisoner before Grovernor Hamilton who had then been at the Post only a few days. For some three weeks Vigo was held a prisoner on parole, requiring him to report daily to the fort then called Fort Sackville. He refused to be set at liberty which was offered him if he would swear that he would not do anything during the war that would be inimical to the British interesi:. Father Gi- bault, who was a great friend to the Americans, as we have shown, interested himself in Vigo's behalf and after services one Sunday morning, the latter part of January, went to the fort, attended by a large number of parishioners and notified Hamilton that they would not sell any more supplies to his troops until Vigo was released. Hamilton had no evidence against^him so he agreed to release him on condition that he would not do anything to injure the British interests on his way to St. Louis. Vigo started with two companions down the Wabash and Ohio and went up the Mississippi until St. Louis was reached. He was only a short time in securing some needed clothing and supplies, and was soon in his pirogue going down the Mississippi as fast as his boat would take him. Arriving in a short time at Kaskaskia, he gave Clark a minute account concerning all matters at Vincennes. Seven days after receiving Vigo's report, Clark, with a force of one hundred and seventy men, started on a dreary march from Kaskaskia on the Mississippi to Vincennes 38 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. on the Wabash river. At the same time he despatched an armed galley with forty men under Captain John Rogers to go down the Mississippi river, up the Ohio and Wabash to a point near the mouth of White river. The route Clark fol- lowed was aji old Indian trace through forests and prairies. The weather being uncommonl)' rainy, all the large streams were out of their banks. These hardy woodsmen, weighed down with their arms and provisions, pressed along on foot through forest, marshes, ponds, broad rivers and overflowed lowlands, until they reached the crossing of the Little Wabash where the bottoms were overflowed several miles in width to the depth of three to five feet. The troops waded into the water, which in some places was up to their arm pits, even to the necks of some of the shorter men, and commenced to make their way across. Diiring the journey a favorite song would be sung, the whole detachment joining in the chorus. When they had arrived at the deepest part from whence it was in tended to transport the troops in two canoes which they had ob- tained, one of the men said that he felt a path quite perceptible to his naked fe^t, supposing that it must pass over the highest ground. This march was continued to a place called *'The Sugar Camp." Clark's Memoirs gives the following: — '* Where we found about half an acre of dry ground, at least not under water, there we went into camp. Most of the weather we had on this march was warm for the season. The night we went into camp was the coldest we had and the ice in the morning, which was the finest we had on the march, was from one- half to three-quarters of an inch thick near the shore and still water. A little after sunrise I lectured the men. What I said to them I have forgotten but I concluded by informing them that passing the place that was then in full view and reaching the opposite woods, would put an end to their fatigue. I told them that in a few minutes they would have a sight of their long-looked-for object and immediately stepped into the water without waiting for a reply, whereup- on there was a great huzza. As we generally marched through the water in line, before the third man entered I PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 39 halted and called to Captain Bowman, ordering him to fall in the rear with twenty-five men and put to death any who re^ fused to march, as we wished to have no such persons among us. All gave a cry of approbation and on we went. This was the most trying of all the difficulties we had experienced. I generally kept fifteen or twent)- of the strongest men near myself, and judged from my own feelings what must have been that of others. *'When I reached the middle of the plain, the water being about mid-deep, I found mjself sensibly failing and as there were no trees or bushes for the men to support them- selves by, I feared that many of the weak would be drowned. I ordered the canoes to make the land, discharge their load- ing and play back and forward with all diligence, and to pick up the men and encourage the party. I sent some of the strongest men forward with orders that, when they got to a certain distance to pass the word back that the water was getting shallow and when they got near the woods to cry out — %and'. This strategem had its desired effect. The men encouraged bj^ it exerted themselves almost beyond their abil- ities, the weak holding by the stronger, the water nev^er get- ting shallower but continuing deeper. Gretting to the woods where the men expected land, the water was up to my shoulders, but gaining the woods was of great consequence. All the short and weakly men hung to the trees and floated on the old logs until they were taken off by the canoes. Those who were strong and tall got ashore and built fires. Many would reach the shore and fall with their bodies half in the water, not being able to support themselves without it. This shore was a delightful dry spot of ground of about ten acres. We soon found that the fires did not avail to warm the men and bring back the circulation, but two strong men had to take the weaker ones by the arms and run them up and down along the path in order to restore the circulation and, it being a delightful day, this had the desired effect. Fortu- nately, as if designed by Providence, a canoe of Indian squaws and children was coming up to town and took through this plain as a near way. It was discovered bj' our canoes as 40 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. they were out after the men and they gave chase, taking the Indian canoe captive. On board there was a half a quarter of bUffalo, some com, tallow and kettles. This was a grand prize and was invaluable. Broth was immediately made and served to the weakest ones with great care. Most all men got a little but a great many gave their share to their weaker comrades, jocosely saying something cheering to them as they did so. By the afternoon this little refresh- ment and fine weather gave new life to my men. '* After crossing a narrow, deep lake in the canoes and marching some distance we came to a copse of timber called "Warrior Island." We were now about two miles distant from the town and in full view of the fort, with not a shrub between us. Every man feasted his eyes and forgot that he had suffered anything; saying that all that had passed was owing to good policy and nothing but what a man could bear, and that a soldier had no right to think; passing from one extreme to another, which is common in such cases. It was now that we had to display our abilities. The plain between us and the town was not a perfect level. The sunken ground was covered with water, full of ducks and we observed sev- eral men on horseback shooting them, within half a mile of us. We sent out a number of our joung Frenchmen to deco)- and take one of these men prisoner, in such a manner as not to alarm the others, which they did. The information we got from this prisoner was that the British had that evening com- pleted the walls of the fort and that there were a good many Indians in town. Our situation was now truly critical as there was no possibility of retreating in case of defeat and in full view of the town that had at this time upwards of six hundred men in it. The crew of the galley, though not fifty men, would now have been a reinforcement of immense mag- nitude to our little army. But we would not think of them. We were now in the situation that I had labored to get our- selves in. The idea of being made prisoner was foreign to al- most everj^ man as they expected nothing but torture from the savage if they fell into their hands. Our fate was now to be determined, probably in a few hours, and we knew that noth- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 41 ing but the most daring conduct would insure success. I knew that a number of the inhabitants wished us well, that many were lukewarm to the interests of either and I also learned that The Grand Door, Tobacco's Son, had but a few days before, openly declared in council with the British that he was a brother and friend to the Big Knife. These were favorable circumstances and as there was but little probabil- ity of our remaining until dark undiscovered, I determined to begin the career immediately and wrote the following placard to the inhabitants — *'To the inhabitants of Post Vincennes, Gentle- men:— Being now within two miles of your village with m)" army, determined to take )our fort this night and not being willing to surprise you, I take this method to request those of you who are true citizens and willing to enjoy the liberty I, bring to you, to remain still in your houses; and those, if any there be, who are friends to the King, will instantly repair to the fort and join the * 'Hair-buying Gen- eral'' and fight like men, and if any such as do not go to the fort shall be discovered afterward, they may depend on severe punishment. On the contrary, those who are true friends of liberty may depend on being well treated and I once more request them to keep out of the streets for every one I find in arms on my arrival I shall treat as an enemy." Signed, G. R. Clark. **I had various ideas on the supposed results of this let- ter. I knew it could do us no damage, but it would cause the lukewarm to decide, encourage our friends and astonish our enemies. We anxiously viewed this messenger until he en- tered the town and in a few moments could discover, by our glasses, some stir in every street that we could penetrate, and great numbers running or riding out on the commons, we supposed to view us, which was the case. The thing that surprised us was that nothing as yet had happened that had the appearance of the garrison being alarmed — no drum, no guns. We began to suppose the information we got from our prisoners was false and that the enemy already knew of us and were prepared. A little before sunset we 42 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. moved and displa)'ed ourselves in full view of the town, crowds gazing at us. We were plunging^ ourselves into cer- tain destruction or success, nothing less than these being thought of. We had but little to say to our men except to inculcate the idea of the necessit)' of obedience. We knew that they did not need encouraging and that anything might be attempted with them that was possible for such a number of men to perform. They were perfectly cool under subordina- tion, pleased with the prospect before them and much at- tached to their officers. They all declared that they were convinced that implicit obedience to order was the only thing that would insure success and hoped that no mercy would be shown to persons violating such orders. Language like this from soldiers to persons in our situation was exceedingly agreeable. "We moved on slowly in full view of the town, but as it was a point of some consequence to us to make ourselves appear as formidable as possible, in leaving the covert which we were in we marched and countermarched in such a manner that we appeared numerous. In raising volunteers in Illi- nois, every person that set about the business had a set of colors given him which they brought with them to the amount of ten or twelve pair. These were displayed to the best advantage and as the low plain we marched through was not a perfect level but had frequent raises in it, seven or eight feet higher than the common level, which was covered with water, and as these raises generally ran in an oblique direc- tion to the town, we took advantage of one of them, march- ing through the water under it, which completely prevented our being numbered. Our colors showed considerably above the heights as they were fixed on long poles for the purpose and at a distance made no despicable appearance. As our )'Oung Frenchmen, while on Warrior Island, decoyed and took several fowlers with their horses, officers were now mounted on these horses and rode about, more completely to deceive the enemy. In this manner we moved and directed our march in such a way as to suffer it to be dark before we had advanced more than half way to the town. We then suddenly altered PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 43 our direction, crossed ponds where they could not have ex- pected us and about eight o'clock gained the town. As there was yet no hostile move we were impatient to have the cause of this unriddled, and Lieutenant Bayley, with fourteen men, was ordered to march and fire on the fort. The main body moved in a different direction and took possession of the strongest part of the town. The firing now commenced on the fort but they did not believe it was an enemy, as drunken Indians often saluted the fort after night, until one of their men was shot down through a port hole. The drums now sounded and the business fairly commenced on both sides. Reinforcements were sent to aid the attack on the garrison while other arrangements were making in town. We now found that the garrison had known nothing of us. Having finished the fort that evening, they had amused themselves and had just retired before my letter arrived. As it was near roll call, the placard being made public, many of the inhabitants were afraid to show themselves out of their houses for fear of giving offence and no one dared to give in- formation. Our friends flew to the commons and other con- venient places to view the pleasing sight. This was observed from the garrison and the reason asked, but a satisfactory excuse was given, and as a part of the town la)- between our lines of march and the garrison, we could not be seen b)- the sentinels on the wall. **Captain W. Shannon and another, being some time be- fore taken prisoners by one of their scouting parties and that evening brought in, the party had discovered at the Sugar Camp some sign of us. The}- supposed that it was a party of observation that intended to land on the height some dis- tance below the town and Captain Lamotte was sent to inter- cept them. It was at him, the people said, they were looking when they were asked the reason of their unusual stir. Sev- eral suspected persons had been taken to the garrison, and among them was Mr. Moses Henry. Mrs. Henry, under pre- tense of conveying him provision, went and whispered to him the news and what she had seen. Mr. Henry conveyed it to the rest of his fellow prisoners which gave them much pleas- 44 * PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. ure, particularly Captain Helm, who amused himself very much durinfif the siege and, I believe, did much damage. Ammunition was scarce with us as most of our stores had been put on board the galley and though her crew was small, such a reinforcement at this time would have been of incalcu- lable value in many ways. Fortunately for us, at the time of its being reported that all the goods in the town were to be taken for the King's use (for which owners were to receive bills), Colonel Legras and Major Bosseron and others, had buried the greater part of their powder and balls. This was immediately produced and we found ourselves well supplied, by those gentlemen. The Tobacco's Son (with a number of his warriors) immediately mustered his men and let us know that he wished to join us, saying that by morning he would have a hundred men. We thanked him for his friendly dispo- sition, said that we were sufficiently strong ourselves and that we would council on the subject in the morning, as we knew there were a number of Indians in and near the town that were our enemies and some confusion might occur if our men should mix in the dark, but hoped we might be favored with his council and company during the night, which was agreeable to him. '*The garrison was soon completely surrounded and the fire continued without intermission (excepting about fifteen min- utes a little before day) until nine o'clock the following morn- ing. It was kept up by all the troop, excepting fifty men kept in reserve, joined by a few of the young men of the town who got permission. I had made myself fully acquainted with the situation at the fort, the town and the parts relative to each other. The cannon of the garrison was on the upper floor of the strong block houses, at each angle of the fort eleven feet above the surface. The ports were so badly cut that many of our troops lay under the fire of them within twent)'-five yards of the walls. They did no damage except to the buildings of the town, some of which were badly wrecked. Their musketry in the dark employed against woodsmen, covered by houses, palings, ditches and. the banks of the river, was of little avail and did no injury to us ex- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 45 • ■cept wounding a man or two. As we could not afford to lose men great care was taken to preserve them, sufficiently cov- ering them and to keep up a. hot fire to intimidate the enemy as well as destroy them. The embrasures for their cannon were mostly closed, for our riflemen,' finding the true direc- tion, would pour in such a volley when the)^ were open that the men could not stand to the guns and seven or eight of them were killed in a very short time. Our troops would frequently abuse the enemy in order to aggravate them to open their ports and ih"e their cannon that they might have the pleasure of shooting them down with their rifles, fifty of which would be leveled at them the minute the port flew open. I believe if they had stood at their artillery the greater part of them would have been destroyed in the course of the night, as most of our men lay within thirty yards of the walls, and in a few hours were covered ^qual to those in the fort and much more experienced in that mode of fighting. Sometimes an ir- regular fire as hot as possible was kept up from different di- rections for a few minutes and then would follow only a con- tinual scattering fire at the ports as usual. A great noise and laughter would immediately commence in different parts of the town b)^ the reserve parties as if they had fired on the fort a few minutes for amusement and as if those contin- uall)^ firing at the fort were only regularl)' relieved. **Conduct similar to the above kepi the garrison constantly alarmed. They did not know what moment they might be stormed or blown up, as they could plainly discover that we had flung up some entrenchments across the streets and appeared to be frequently very busy under the bank of the river, which was within thirty feet of the walls. The situation of the magazine we knew well. Captain Bowman began some works in order to blow this up in case our artillery would arrive but as we knew that we were dailj' liable to be overpowered by the numerous bands of Indians on the river, in case they had again joined the enemy (the certainty of which we were unacquainted with), we resolved to lose no time, but to get the fort in our possession as soon as possible. If the vessel did not arrive before the ensuing night we resolved to under- 46 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. mine the fort and fixed on the spot and plan of executing the work which we intended to commence the next day. The Indians of different tribes that were unfriendly had left the town and neighborhood. Captain Lamotte continued to hover about in order, if possibje, to make his way into the fort and parties attempted in vain to surprise him. A few of his party were taken, one of whom was Maisonville, a famous Indian partisan. Two lads had captured him, tied him to a post in the street and fought from behind him, supposing that the enemy would not fire on them for fear of killing him as he would alarm them with his voice. The lads were ordered to untie their prisoner by an ofl&cer who discovered them at their amusements and to take him off to the guard which they did, but took a part of his scalp on the way, there happening to him no other damage. ''As most of the persons who were the most active parti- sans in the* department of Detroit were either in the fort or with Captain Lamott, I got extremely uneasy for fear that he would not fall into our power, knowing that he would go away if he did not get into the fort in the course of the night. We found that without some unforseen accident the fort must eventually be ours and that a reinforcement of twenty men, although quite a few of ihem would not be of great moment to us in the present state of affairs, and knowing that we had weakened the enemy's forces by killing arid wounding many of iheir gunners, after some deliberation we concluded to risk the reinforcement in preference to his (Lamott's) again going among the Indians. The garrison had at least a month's provisions and if they could hold out, in the course of that time, he might do us damage. **A little before day the troops were withdrawn from iheir positions about the fort, except a few parties of observ^aiion. The firing entirely ceased and orders were given that in case of Lamott's approach, not to alarm or lire on him, without a certainty of killing or taking all. In less than a quarter of an hour, he passed within ten feet of an officer and party that lay concealed. Ladders were liung over to Lamott and the others and, as they mounted, our party shouted. Many PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 47 • of them fell from the top of the walls, some within and others back but as they were not fired on they all got over, much to the joy of their friends. In considering the matter they must have been convinced that it was a scheme of ours to let them in and that we were so strong as to care but little about them. The firing immediately commenced on both sides with double vigor and I believe that more noise could not have been made by any equal number of men. Their shouts could not be heard for the firearms, but a continual blaze was kept up around the garrison without much done until about day- break, when our troops were drawn off to posts prepared for them about sixty or seventy yards from the fort. A loop- hole then could scarcely be darkened without a rifle ball pass- ing through it and to have stood by their cannon would have destroyed their men without a probability of doing much ser- vice. Our situation was nearly similar. It would have been imprudent in either party to have wasted their men unless some decisive stroke required it. **Thus the attack continued until about nine o'clock on the morning of the twenty-fourth. Learning that the two priso- ners they had brought in the day before had a considerable number of letters with them, I supposed it an express that we expected about this time, which I knew to be of great mo- ment to us, as we had not received one since our arrival in the country and not being fully acquainted with the charac- ter of our enemy, we thought perhaps these papers might be destroyed. To prevent this I sent a flag with a letter de- manding the garrison, the letter being as follows: — ''Lieutenant (jovernor Hamilton: Sir: — In order to save yourself from the impending storm that now threatens you, I order )'ou immediately to surrender yourself with all your garrison and stores, for if I am obliged to storm, you may depend on such treat- ment as is justly due to a murderer. Beware also of destro)nng stores of any kind or any papers or letters that are in your possession, or hurting one house in town for by heaven, if you do, there shall be no mercy shown you." Signed, G. R. Clark. 48 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. ■The British Commandant returned the following ans- ((/ wer: Lieutenant Grovernor Hamilton begs leave to acquaint Colonel Clark that he and his garrison are not disposed to be awed into any action unworthy of British subjects." '*The firing then commenced warmly for a considerable time and we were obliged to be careful to prevent our men from exposing themselves too much as they were now much animated, having been refreshed during the flag. They frequentl)^ mentioned their wishes to storm the place and put an end to the business at once. The firing was heavy through every crack that could be discovered in any part of the fort. Several of the garrison were wounded and there was no possibility of standing near the embrasures. Toward evening a flag appeared with the following proposal: "Lieutenant Governor Hamilton proposes to Colonel Clark a truce for three days, during which time he promises there shall be no defensive work carried on in the garrison, on condition that Colonel Clark shall observe on his part a like cessation of an)' defensive work. That is — he wishes to confer with Colonel Clark as soon as can be and promises that whatever ma)- pass between them and another person mutuall)* agreed upon, to be present, shall re- main secret till matters be finished, as he wishes that, whatever the result of the conference may be, it may tend to the honor of each party. If Colonel Clark makes a difficulty of coming into the fort,' Lieutenant (jovernor Hamilton will speak to him by the gate." Signed, Henry Hamilton. February 24, 1779. *'I was at a great loss to conceive what reason Lieuten- ant Governor Hamilton could have for wishing a truce for three da)'s on such terms as he proposed. Some said that it was a scheme to get me into their possession but I had a different opinion and no idea of his possessing such senti- ments, as an act of that kind would in all probability, ruin him. Although we had the greatest reason to expect rein- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 49 forcements in less than three days that would at once put an end to the siege, I yet did not think it prudent to agree to the proposals and sent the following answer: — ''Colonel Clark's compliments to Lieutenant Governor Hamilton and begs to inform him that he will not agree to any terms other than Mr. Hamil- ton's surrendering himself and garrison prisoners at discretion. If Mr. Hamilton is desirous of a confer- ence with Colonel Clark, h€ will meet him at the church with Captain Helm, Feb. 24, 1779." Signed, G. R. Clark. "We met at the church about eighty yards from the fort, Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, Major Hay, Supt. of Indian Affairs, Captain Helm, their prisoner, Major Bowman and myself. The conference began. Hamilton produced terms of capitulation that contained various articles, one of which was that the garrison should be surrendered on their being permitted to go to Pensacola on parole. After deliberating on every article I rejected the whole. He then wished that I would make some propositions. I told him that I had no other to make other than I had already made — that of his surrendering as prisoners at discretion. I said that his troops had behaved with spirit and that they could not sup- pose the}' would be worse treated in consequence of it; that if he chose to comply with the demand, though hard, perhaps the sooner the better. I added that it was useless to make any further propositions to me and that by this time he must realize that the garrison would fall. We must, I said, view all the blood spilled in the future by the garrison as murder and that the troops were already impatient and calling aloud for permission to tear down and storm the fort. If such a step were taken many, of course, would be cut down and the result of an enraged bodj' of woodsmen breaking 'in must be obvious to him; it would be out of the power of the American officers to save a single man. ''Various altercations took place for a considerable time. Captain Helm attempted to moderate our fixed determination and I told him he was a British prisoner and it was doubtful 50 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. whether or not he could speak on the subject. Hamilton then said that Captain Helm was free from that moment and might use his pleasure. I informed the Captain that I would not receive him on such terms but that he must return to the gar- rison and await his fate. I then told Lieutenant Governor Hamilton that hostilities should not commence until five min- utes after the drums gave the alarm. We then took our leave and had gone but a few steps when Hamilton stopped and politel)' asked, me if I would be so kind as to give him my reason for refusing the garrison on an)- other terms than those I offered. I told him I had no objection to giving him m}' real reasons which were these — I knew the greater part of the principal Indian partisans of Detroit were with him and I wanted an excuse for putting them to death or other- wise treat them as I thought proper; the cries of the widows and the fatherless children on the frontiers which the)' had occasioned now required their blood from my hands and I did not choose to be so timorous as to disobej' the absolute com- mand of their authoritj' which I looked upon as almost di- vine. I would rather lose fifty men I told him than fail to impower mj-self to execute this piece of business with propri- ety, and if he wished to r;sk the massacre of his garrison, for their sakes, it was his own pleasure; also I might take it in" to m}' head to send for some of those widows to see them exe- cuted. Major Hay gave great attention. I had observed a kind of distrust in his countenance which in a great measure influenced mj- conversation during the time and on my con- cluding, 'Pray sir,' said he, *who is it that you call Indian partisans?' *Sir,' I replied, 'I take Major Hay to be one of ihe principal ones.' I never saw a man in a moment of execution so struck as he appeared to be — pale, trembling, scarcely able to stand. Hamilton blushed and I observed, was much af- fecied at his behavior. Major Bowman's countenance suffi- cientl}' explained his disdain for one and his sorrow for the other. Some moments elapsed without a word passing on either side. From that moment my resolution changed res- pecting Hamilton's situation. I told him that we would re- turn to our respective posts, that I would reconsider the mat- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 51 ter and would let him know the results and no offensive meas- ures should be taken in the meantime. This was agreed to and we parted. **When all that had passed was made known to our offi- ficers, it was agreed that we should moderate our resolutions." During the conference at the church, some Indian war- riors who had been sent to the Falls of Ohio for scalps and prisoners and had just returned, were discovered, as the}' en- tered the plains near Post V^incennes and a part)' of American troops commanded b}' Captain William.s, went out to meet them. The Indians who mistook the detachment for a party of their friends, continued to advance with all the parade of successful warriors. When our troops had arrived at the proper distance from the proud and strutting" warriors, they opened fire on them, killing two and wounding three and took six prisoners and brought them into town. Two of them proved to be white men and related to some of dark's French volunteers and were released. They then brought the three wotinded and four Indian prisoners to the main street, near the gate of the fort, there tomahawked them and threw them into the river. In the course of the afternoon of the twenty-fourth the following articles were signed and the garrison capitulated: I. Lieutenant Governor Hamilton engages to deliver up to Colonel Clark Fort Sackville as it is at present, with all the stores. II. The garrison are to deliver themselves as prisoners of war and march out with all their arms and accoutrements. III. The garrison is to be delivered up at ten o'clock tomorrow. IV. Three days time to be allowed the garrison to settle their accounts with the inhabitants and traders of this place. V. The officers of the garrison to be allowed their necessar}- baggage. Signed at Post Vincennes, February 24, 1779. Agreed for the following reasons — the remoter ness from succor, the state and quality of provisions, 52 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. unanimity of officers and men to its expediency, the honorable terms allowed and lastly — the confidence in a generous enemy. Signed, Henry Hamilton. Lieutenant Governor and Superintendent. To again quote from the memoirs — *'The business now being nearly at an end, troops were posted in several strong houses around the garrison and patrolled during the night to prevent any deception that might be attempted. Those remaining on duty lay on their arms and for the first time in many days past got some rest. ''During the siege I had only one man wounded. Not being able to afford to lose man)% I made them secure themselves well. Almost every man had conceived a favorable opinion of Lieutenant (jovernor Hamilton. I believ^e that whatever affected myself made some impression on all of them and I am happy to find that he never deviated while he stajed with us from the dignity of conduct that became an officer in his situ- ation. '*The morning of the twenty-fifth approaching, arrange- ments were made for receiving the garrison, which consisted of seventy-nine men and about ten o'clock it was delivered in form and everything was immediately arranged to the best advantage. On the twenty-seventh our galley arrived all safe. The crew were much mortified that they did not have a hand in the fray, although the)^ deserve great credit for their diligence. They had on the passage taken up William Myres, express from the government. The despatches gave us great encouragement. Our battalion was to be completed and an additional one to be expected in the spring. On the day after the surrender of the British garrison, I sent a de- tachment of sixt}' men up the Wabash to intercept some boats which were laden with provisions and goods from Detroit. The detachment under the command of Captain Helm, Major BovSserone and Major Legras, proceeded up the river in three armed boats about one hundred and twenty miles, where the British boats, seven in number were surprised and captured without firing a gun. These boats had on board about ten • PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. S3 thousand pounds worth of goods and provisions and were manned by about forty men, among whom was Phillip De- jean, a magistrate of Detroit. The provision was taken for the public and the goods divided among the soldiers, except about eight hundred pounds worth to clothe the troops we expected to receive in a short time. This was very agree- able to the soldiers as I told them the state should pay them in money proportionate to the time of service and they had a great plenty of goods. The quantity of public goods added to all of those belonging to the traders of Post Vincennes that had been taken by the British and surrendered to us, was very considerable. The whole was divided among the soldiers, except some Indian medals that were kept in order to be al- tered for public use. The officers received nothing except a few articles of clothing that they stood in need of. **We yet found ourselves uneasy. The number of priso- ners we had taken added to those of the garrison was so great when compared to our own numbers, that we were at a loss how to dispose of them so as not to interfere with our future operations. On the seventh of March, Captains Williams and Rogers, set out by water with a party of twenty-five men to conduct the British officers to Kentucky and to further weaken the prisoners, eighteen privates were sent with them. After their arrival at the Falls of the Ohio, Captain Rogers had instructions to superintend their route to Williamsburg, to furnish them with all the necessary supplies on the way and to wait the orders of the Gk)vernor. A company of volunteers from Detroit, composed mostly of young men, was drawn up, and while contemplating the trip to a strange coimtry, they were told that we were happy to learn that many of them had been torn from their fathers and mothers and forced to go on this expedition and that others, ignorant of the true cause of the contest, had enlisted from a principle that actuated a great number of men, namely, that of being fond of enterprise. We told them that they now had a good opportunity to make themselves fully acquainted with the nature of the war, which they might explain to their friends and as we knew that by sending them to the states where they would be con- 54 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. ' fined in jails, probably /or the course of the war, would make a great number of^-their friends in Detroit unhappy, we had thought proper for their sake to suffer them to return home. They were discharged on taking an oath not to bear arms against the Americans until exchanged. They were furnish- ed with arms, boats and provision. Many others that we could trust we suffered to enlist in the army, so that our charge of prisoners was much reduced." The hardships and great exposure endured b}^ Clark and his men in the terrible march from Kaskaskia through the floods of the Wabash and the suffering for the want of food endured by them was almost beyond endurance; but the ex- citing times attending the battle and the great victor)^ won by them, cured all their ills and they were as happ}^ and cheerful as if they had spent their time in comfortable barracks. Of that march and victory John Randolph who so aptly called Clark **The Hannibal of the West," says — *'The march of the great man, Clark, and his brave companions in arms across the drowned lands of the Wabash, does not shrink from a comparison with the passage of the Thrasymeneus marsh. The mere battle of St. Vincent dwindles in the propor- tions of a mote compared with that of Thrasymeneus but it was the turning point which probably settled the pos- session at the peace of Paris of a territory vastly larger than that of all Italy, which was the stake between the Carthagin- ians and the Romans. The Carthaginians won the battle but lost the stake. Clark won both. If Hannibal was four days and four nights in the Clusian marsh in summer, the Virginians were five days in the winter torrents of the Wabash. Clark underwent all the hardships of his men, wading the floods, encouraging them to follow — Hannibal waded the marsh on the back of his war elephant." In speaking of what followed the capture of Post Vin- cennes, Clark continues — "I had )et sent no message to the Indian tribes, wishing to see what effect all this would have on them. The Piankashaws being of the tribe of Tobacco's Son were always familiar with us. Part of the behavior of this Grandee, as he viewed himself, was diverting enough. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 55 He had conceived such an inviolable attachment for Captain Helm, that on finding the Captain was a prisoner and not being as )'et able to release him he declared himself a prisoner also. He joined his brother as he called him and kept contin- ually condoling their situation as prisoners in great distress, at the same time wanting nothing that was in the power of the garrison to furnish. Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, knowing the influence of Tobacco's Son, was extremely jealous of his behavior and took every pains to gain him by presents. When anything was presented to him his reply would be that it would serve him and his brother to live on. He would not enter into council saying that he was a prisoner and had nothing to say but was in hopes that when the grass grew his brother, the Big Knife, would release him and when he was free he could talk. In short, they could do nothing with him and the moment he heard of our arrival he paraded all the warriors he had in his village joining Post Vincennes and was ready to fall in and attack the fort, but for reasons for- merly mentioned he was desired to desist. *'On the fifteenth of March, 1779, a party of upper Pian- kashaws and some Pottawattamie and Miami chiefs made their appearance, making great protestations of their attach- ment to the Americans, begging that they might be taken in under the cover of our wings, that the roads through the land might be made straight, all the stumbling blocks might be re- moved and that our friends and neighboring nations might also be considered in the same point of view. I well knew from what principle all this sprang. As I had Detroit now in my eye, it was. m)' business to take a straight and clear road for my- self to walk in without thinking much of their interest, or an)'thing else but that of opening the road in earnest, by flat- tery, deception or any other means that occurred. I told them that I was glad to see them and was happy to learn that most of the nations on the Wabash and Maumee rivers had proved themselves to be men by adhering to the treaties they had made with the Big Knife last fall, except a few weak minded that had been deluded by the English to come to war. I did not Jcnow, I said, exactly who these few were nor much cared but under- 56 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. stood they were a band chiefly composed of almost all the tribes. Such people were to be found among all nations but as the sort of people who had the meanness to sell their coun- try for a shirt, were not worthy of the attention of warriors, we would not say more about them and think on subjects more becoming to us. I told them that I should let the Great Council of America know of their good behavior and that they would be counted as friends of the Big Knife and would always be under their protection and their country secured to them as the Big Knife had land enough and did not want any more, but if ever they broke their faith, the Big Knife would never again trust them, as they never held friendship with people that they found with two hearts. They were wit- nesses of the calamities the British had brought on their countries by their false assertions and their presents which was proof of their weakness. They could see, we told them, that their boasted valor was like to fall to the ground and they would not come out of the fort the other day to try to save the Indians that they flattered to war and suffered them to be killed in their sight. As the nature of the war had been fully explained them last fall, they might clearly see that the Great Spirit would not suffer it to be otherwise and that it was not only the case on the Wabash but everywhere else. We assured them that the nations who would continue obstinately to believe the English would be driven out of the land and their countries given to those who were more steady friends to the Americans. We further told them that we ex- pected for the future that if any of our people should be going to war through their country they would be protected which should always be the case of their people when among us and that mutual confidence should continue to exist. **They replied that from what they had seen and heard, they were convinced that the Master of Life had a hand in all things, that their people would rejoice on their return and that they would take pains to diffuse what they had heard through all the nations and made no doubt of the good effect of it. After a long speech in the Indian style calling all the spirits to witness, they concluded by renewing the chain of PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 5T friendship, smoking the sacred pipe and exchanging belts and, I believe, went off really well pleased but not able to^ fathom the bottom of all they had heard. The greatest part of it was mere political lies. Captain Shelby, afterward, with his own copipany only, lay for a considerable time in a Wea town in the heart of their country and was treated in the most friendly manner by * all the nations that he saw. He was frequently invited by them to join and plunder what was called the King's pasture at Detroit, meaning to steal horses from that settlement. Things now being pretty well ar- ranged. Lieutenant Richard Brashear was appointed to the command of the garrison which consisted of Lieutenants Baley and Chaplain, with forty picked men; Captain Leonard Helm, commandant of the town, superintendent of the Indian affairs; Moses Henry, Indian agent, and Patrick Kennedy, quartermaster. **Givingnecessary instructions to all persons that I left in oflSce, I set sail, on the twentieth of March, on board our galley which was now made perfectly complete, attended by five armed boats and seventy men. The water being very high we soon reached the Mississippi, the winds favoring us. In a few days we arrived at Kaskaskia to the great joy of our new friends. Captain Greorge and company waiting to re- ceive us. On our journey up the Mississippi we had observed several Indian camps which appeard to be fresh but had been left in great confusion. This we could not account for but were soon informed that a few days past a party of Delaware warriors came to town and appeared to be very impudent. In the evening, having been drinking they said they had come there for scalps and would have them and flashed a gun at the breast of an American woman present. A sergeant and party at that moment passing the house saw the confusion and rushed in. The Indians immediately fled and the ser- geant pursued and killed them. A party was instantly sent to rout the camps on the river, this being executed the day before we came and being the sign we had seen. **Part of the Delaware nation had settled at the fork of White river and hunted in the countries on the Ohio and 58 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. Mississippi. The}' had, on our first arrival, hatched up a sort of peace with us but I alwa)'s knew the)' were for open war but never before could get a proper excuse for extermin- ating: them from the countr)- which I knew thej' were loath to leave. All the other Indians wished them awa)- as they were g:reat hunters and killed their game. A few da3S after this Captain Helm informed me bj' express that a part)' of traders who were going by land to the falls of the Ohio, were killed and plundered by the Delaware Indians on White river. It appeared that their designs were altogether hostile as they had received a belt from the Great Council of their nation. I was sorry for the loss of our men but otherwise pleased at what had happened as it gave me an opportunity of showing the other Indians the horrid fate of those who would dare to make war on the Big Knife and to excel them in barbarity I knew was the only way to make war and gain a name among the Indians. I immediately sent orders to Post Vincennes to make war on the Delawares, to use every means in their power to destroy them, to show no kind of mercy to the men but to spare the women and children. This order was ex- ecuted without delay. Their camps were attacked in every quarter where they could be found. Many fell and others were brought to Post V'incennes and put to death. The wo- men and children were secured. They immediately applied for a reconciliation but were informed that I had ordered the war and my people dare not lay down their tomahawks with- out permission from me, but if the Indians were agreed, no more blood should be spilled until an express should go to ^Kaskaskia, which was immediately sent. I refused to make peace with the Delawares and let them know we never trust- ed those who had once violated their faith, but if they had a mind to be quiet they might, if they could get any of their neighboring Indians to be security for their good behavior. I informed them I would let them alone but that I cared very little about it. * 'Privately directing Captain Helm how to manage, a council was called of all the Indians of the neighborhood and my answer was made public. The Piankashaws took it on PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 59 themselves to answer for the future good conduct of the Delawares and the Tobacco's Son in a length)' speech in- formed them of the baseness of their conduct and how richly they had deserved the blow they had met with. He had given them permission to settle that country but not to kill his friends. They now knew, he said, that the Big Knife had refused to make peace with them but that he (Tobacco's Son) had become security for their good conduct and they might go and mind their hunting but if they ever did any more mischief — he did not finish but pointed to the sacred bow that he held in his hand as much as to say that he him- self would in the future, chastise them. Thus ended the war between us and the Delawares in this quarter, much to our advantage, as the nations present said we were as brave as Indians and not afraid to put an enemy to death." After the great achievments accomplished by Clark in reducing the forts on the Mississippi, capturing Vincennes and permanently establishing the Americans in control of all tha^t portion of the Northwest territory from whence the raids were made up and started that were so disastrous to the scattered settlements on the borders of Kentucky south of the Ohio river; and after making treaties with the Indians at which he had no equal, the culminating feat that this hero wished to accomplish was to capture Detroit. That would have put a finishing stroke to the intrigues of the British agents around the great lakes, with the Indians. The ac- complishing of this would not hav^e been attended with half the hardships that he and his army had undergone. The French and half-breeds would all have been his allies and he would have had the influence of the lower Wabash Indians whom he had won over and who could have been controlled to aid him in pacifying the other Indians farther up the Wabash. Considering the favorable situation he was in, it is reasonable to suppose that he ivould have captured Detroit and brought all that section under the control of the Ameri- cans. The accomplishment of this great achievement, how- ever, was not to be. Virginia, at that time, was having many hurried calls for troops to aid the army in other quart- 60 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. ers and the continental money had become so depreciated that it was worth next to nothing. Probably other military as- pirants were jealous of the great renown that Clark had won and were lukewarm in their support of any measure that would give the needed help to carry forward the enterprise that would still further have added to his heroic record. Clark returned to the Falls of the Ohio in the last of the sum- mer of 1779. As he had ordered, the garrison that he had left on Corn Island had already moved to Louisville and had built a stockade. He busied himself with the affairs for the defense of the country, having a general supervision over the country around the Falls and the territory he had captured^ Clark had the honor of being the founder of the city of Louis- ville. A well informed historian of that city says — **To Clark belongs the honor of founding that city as clearly as- does the glory of capturing Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vin- cennes." Soon after his return from his great victory he drew a plan of the proposed town of Louisville and made a map of the public and private divisions of the land as he thought they ought to be established. This map is still preserved and shows the wonderful sagacity of General Clark. During the time from 1779 to 1781 he was busy with various military operations. One of these was building Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi river, four miles below the mouth of the Ohio. This probabl}'^ (though sanctioned by Jefferson and the Vir- ginia legislature) was a mistake as it brought on a war with the southern Indians. A Scotchman named Colbert organ- ized the Choctaw and Cherokee Indians and with one thous- and warriors attacked the fort. They lay for several days beseiging it but in a night attack were repulsed with consid- erable loss. General Clark, coming to its relief, the siege was raised and the Indians went back to their towns. There were a great many raids by the Indians, some of them com- manded by British ofl&cers on our frontier. Many small bat- tles were fought between the marauders and the Americans, with about equal damage to the two parties. There was a loud call for volunteers to fight the invaders* PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 61 and carry the war into their own country. Clark was put at the head of this expedition against Detroit. He was at the Falls of the Ohio, repaired to Fort Pitt and made every ef- fort to secure volunteers but met with many disappoint- ments. Finally he started down the river with four hundred men and in a few days was followed by Colonel Archibald Lochry with something over one hundred men. One place of general rendezvous was at Wheeling, Virginia. Clark waited five days and as he had met with so many disappointments, concluded this was another and that Colonel Lochry had de- cided not to go on the expedition. In this he was unfortu- nately mistaken. Colonel Lochry coming to Wheeling found that Clark was gone and decided to follow on. On the 24th of August, 1781, Colonel Lochry ordered the boats to land on the Indiana shore about ten miles below the Miami river and at the mouth of Lochry creek, the line between Dearborn- and Ohio counties, to cook provisions and cut grass for their horses. Tradition has it that a hunting party which had been sent out to secure meat had killed a buffalo a little distance in the woods and the troops had landed to cook and prepare the meat and graze their horses, when they were fired on by a party of Indians that were in ambush not far from the bank. They took to their boats expecting to cross the river and were fired on by another party of Indians from the other shore. The Indians in large numbers swarmed on both banks of the river, waded into the shallow water and attacked the boats, killing forty of the men and capturing the rest. The Colonel and a number of his men were murdered after they had surrendered' This was a severe blow to all who were on that ill-fated expedition and all hope of a successful campaign againstDetroit was lost. Clark marched from Louisville overland, along the old Indian trace to Vincennes. On arriving there he found every- thing in a bad way. The greatest cause of all the trouble was the depreciation of the Colonial currency. Clark is ac- cused of drinking very hard at this time and many of his men deserted. 62 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. During: the winter of 1782 Great Brittain and the United Stales made their provincial treaty of peace and ag*reed to a cessation of hostilities. In consequence of this there was a period of rest along our frontiers during the years 1783, *84 and -85. During this period there was a determined effort made to secure treaties with the tribes of Indians north and northwest of the Ohio. Some of them accepted the offers of peace proffered by the treaties. The majority of the Indians were determined not to give up their lands north of the Ohio river. The Americans >vere as determined to settle that sec- tion. The Indians formed themselves into a great Northern confederacy; nearly all the Indians joining in this movement and being led by many of their greatest chiefs. There was a continual warfare and there was but liiile emigration of Americans into ihat section for a dozen years. In 1783 Gen- •eral Clark was dismissed from the service, or more properly speaking, he was let out of the service of Virfj^inia. There was no mone}' to pay for anything and the authorities of that state in a spasm of retrenchment did this ungrateful act without considering the great service this fearless hero had done for them. On that occasion Benjamin Harrison, the Governor of V'irginia. wrote lo General ^lark a letter which contained the following passage:— "The conclusion of the war and the distressed situation of our stale with respect lo its finances calls on us to adopt the most prudent economy. It is for this reason alone that I have come to the determina- tion to give over all thought for the present of carr.ving on an offensive war against the I.idiatis. which you will easily perceive will render the service of ger eral ofiicers in that quarter unnecessary. You will, therefore, consider yourself out of command, but before I take leave of you. I feel called upon, in the most forcible manner to return 3'ou my thanks and the thanks of the Jouncil for the v^ery great and singular service you have rendered your country in wresting so great and valuable a territory out of the hands of the British enemy, repelling the attacks of their savage allies and carrying on a successful war in the heart of their country-. This tribute of praise and thanks so justly due I am happy to commu- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 63 nicate to you as the united Voice of the Executive — '* General Clark was out of the service but when trouble came with the Indians in 1786 there was no one to lake his place. In this 3^ear they were upon the war-path and mur- dered a good many white persons, some of these taking place around Vincennes and others in the new settlement being- made near Clarksville. A strong military force was raised in Kentucky for the purpose of attacking the Indians on the Wabash. About one thousand men under the command of General George Rogers Clark marched from the Falls of the Ohio for Post Vincennes and arrived in the neighborhood of that place early in the month of October where the)^ la)^ in camp for several days wailing ihe arrival of some militarj^ stores and provisions which had been shipped on keel boats from Louisville and ClarkvSville. When ihe boats arrived at Post Vincennes, it was found that most of the provision was spoiled and that part which had been brought with the com- mand overland was almost exhausted. These misfortunes soon made a spirit of discontent which daily increased. The Kentuck}' troops having been reinforced by a number at Post Vincennes, were ordered to move up the Wabash river toward the Indian towns which lay in the vicinity of the ancient post of Ouiatenon. The people of these towns had learned of the approach of the Kentuckians and had selected the place among the defiles of Pine creek for an ambuscade. On reach- ing the neighborhood of the Vermillion riv^er it was found that the Indians had deserted their village on that stream near its junction with the Wabash. At this crisis, when the spirits of the officers and men were depressed by disappoint- ment, hunger and fatigue, some person circulated through the camp a rumor that General Clark had sent a flag of truce to the Indians with the offer of peace or war. This rumor combined with the lamentable change which had taken place in the once temperate, energetic and commanding character of Clark, excited among the troopers a spirit of insubordina- tion which neither the command nor entreaties, nor the tears of the General, could subdue. At that encampment, about three hundred men in a body, left the army and proceeded on i64 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. their way homeward. The remainder of the troops under the command of (Jeneral Clark, then abandoned the expedition and returned to Post Vincennes. In this same month of October a board composed of field officers in the Wabash expedition, met in council at Post Vincennes and unanimousl)' agreed that a garrison at that place would be of essential service to tlie district of Kentucky and that supplies might be had in the district more than sui^ ficient for. their support, b)^ impressment or otherwise, under the direction of a commissary to be appointed for that pur- pose, pursuant to the authority invested in the field officers •of the district by the executive of Virginia. The same board appointed John Craig, Jr., a commissary of purchase and re- solved that one field officer and two hundred and fifty men, -exclusive of a company of artillery, commanded by Captain Dalton, be recruited to garrison the Post and that Colonel John Holder be appointed to command the troops in this ser- vice in order to carry these resolutions into effect. General Clark, who as8umed the supreme direction of the corps, be- gan to levy recruits, appoint officers and impress provision for the support of a garrison at Post Vincennes. He sent messengers to the Indian tribes that lived on the borders of the Wabash and invited these tribes to meet him in Council at Clarksville on the 20Lh of November, 1786, and make a treaty of peace and friendship. The chiefs of the different bands sent word to General Clark that they were willing to meet him in council, not at Clarksville but at Pjst Vincennes. The following is an extract from their answer — 4.' My elder Brother: — Thou ought to know the place we have been accustomed to speak at. It is at Post Vincennes. There our chiefs are laid; there our ancestors bed is and that of our father, the French and not at Clarksville where 3'ou require us to meet you. We don't know such a place, but at Post Vincennes where we always went when necess- ary to hold council. My elder Brother, thou inform- est me I must meet you at the place I have mentioned yet thou seest, my Brother, that the season is far ad- vanced and that I would not have time to invite my PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 65 ■A allies to come to your council, which we pray you to hold at Post Vincennes." In replying to this message and to other communications of similar nature Greneral Clark said — '*I propose the last of April, 1787, for the grand council to be held at this place, Post Vincennes, where I expect all those who are inclined to open the road will appear and we can soon discover what the Deity means." For a long period after Greneral Clark was let out of the service of Virginia, he was called upon by the United States to act as a Commissioner in almost all the treaties made be- tween the United States and the Indians. There is an amusing story related about the treaty of Fort Mackintosh on the Ohio river in 1785. The great Chief of the Delawares, Buckongehelas, was present and took part ia the treaty. After the other chiefs had addressed the United States Commisssioners who were Grenerals Greorge Rogers Clark, Arthur Lee and Richard Butler, Buckongehelas arose and not noticing Lee or Butler, went to Greneral Clark and took him by the hand saying — ''I thank the Great Spirit for having this day brought together two such great warriors as Buckongehelas and General Clark." This may have shown too much self-appreciation on the part of this great Indian, but it was recorded that he possessed all the qualities of a great man and never violated a treaty nor an engagement. On the last day of January, 1785, General Clark, Richard Butler and Samuel Parsons were appointed United States Commissioners to negotiate a treaty with the Shawnees and other Indians. At this treaty an incident occurred that showed Clark's fearless character and was a striking instance of his ascendancy over the minds oi the Indians and also showed the characteristics which gave him that ascendancy. The Indians came to the treaty at Fort Washington in a most friendly manner, except the Shawnees, the most con- ceited and warlike of the aborigines — '*the first at the battle and the last at the treaty." Three hundred of their finest warriors set off in all their paint and feathers filed into the 66 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. council house. Their number and demeanor so unusual at an occasion of this sort was altogether unexpected and sus- picious. The United States stockade mustered seventy men. In the center of the hall at a little table, sat the Com- missioners, one of them General Clark, the indefatigable scourge of these very marauders, also General Butler, Mr. Parsons and a Captain Denny being present. On the part of the Indians an old councilsachem and a war chief took the lead. The latter, a tall, raw-boned fellow with an impudent and a villainous look, made a boisterous and threatening speech which operated effectively on the passions of the Indians who set up a prodigious whoop at every pause. He concluded by presenting a black and white wampum to sig- nify that they were prepared for either event, peace or war. Clark exhibited the same unaliering and careless countenance he had shown during the whole scene, his head leaning on his left hand, his elbow resting on the table. He raised his little cane and pushed the sacred wampum off the table witli very little ceremony. Every Indian at the same time started from his seat with one of those sudden simultaneous and pe- culiarly savage sounds which startles and disconcerts the stoutest hearts and can neither be described nor forgotten. At this juncture Clark arose, the scrutinizing eye cowered at his glance. He stamped his foot on the prostrating and insult- ing symbol and ordered the Shawnees to leave the hall. They did so apparently involuntaril)' and were heard all night debating in the bushes near the fort. The raw-boned Chief was for war and the old Sachem for peace. The laiier prevailed and the next morning ihe}' came back and ^ued for peace. General Clark no doubt had faults — all men do but his heart was in his work and everything he accomplished was for the adv^ancemeni of the interest of the Country he loved so well. He was ever ready to risk his life for it and its peo- ple. No man who was acquainted with the facts of General Clark's business affairs with the United States ever offered a doubt as to his integrity. His only fault was intemperance which ruined him. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 67 In the earl)" nineties when the Indians had become very troublesome throughout the Northwest, there was great need of a competent commander who understood the Indians and Indian warfare. Many turned to Clark's record and longed for such another man. Thomas Jefferson wrote Mr. Innis, of Kentucky — "Will it not be possible for you to bring General Clark forward? I know the greatness of his mind and am the more mortified at the cause that obscures it. Had not this unhappily taken place there was nothing he might not have hoped. Could it be surmounted his lost ground might yet be recovered. No man alive rated him higher than I did and would again were he to become once more what I knew him." It is not too much to say that, had it not been for Gen- eral Clark, all the Northwest Territory, at least would have been in the hands of the British at the close of the Revolu- tionary war and would have become British property. At the treaty of Paris it was hard work to hold it. P^rance and Spain were opposed to the boundary of the United Slj tes coming west of the Alleghanj" mountains or at most they be- lieved that the land between the Ohio and the Cumberland rivers should be all the possession they should hold west of the mountains. Congress, in a spirit of submission, adv'ised our three commissioners, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay, to take no step without the knowledge and consent of France. Franklin was inclined to obey these instructions but Adams and Jay boldly insisted in disregarding them; conse- quently the treaty was made with England without the dic- tates of France. A few years ago in the State House at Indianapolis, a body of men were assembled who have the great blessings of a free government with the rich boon of American laws and American independence and the liberty of being gov- erned by the votes of the people, guaranteed to them by the blood of heroism and generalship of the leaders and soldiers of the Revolution; and to none, so far as Indiana is concerned, do they owe as much as to General George Rogers Clark. The question this assembly was considering was — should George Rogers Clark have a five thousand dollar monument. 68 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. The motion was acted upon adversely. This, considering* the events that secured the great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota to the United States by the heroism and unparalelled bravery of the same General George Rogers Clark, places these law-makers in an unenvia- ble light. Clark continued to live at his little home in Clarksville until 1814 when he moved to his sister's, Mrs. William Crog- han, at Locust Grove near Louisville, Kentucky and lived there until the day of his death which occurred on the twen- ty-third day of February, 1818. His achievements were those of a hero and will have but few paralells in our country's history. CHAPTER III. THE TERRITORY CAPTURED BY GENERAL CLARK FROM 1779 TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. General Todd's Proclamation — The Court of Vincennes — ^Virginia Cedes Northwest Possessions to the United States — Town of Clarksville Laid off — Deed of Cession — Ordinance of 1787, In the year 1779 General John Todd, who had a commis- sion as County Lieutenant from the colony of Virginia, came to the settlements captured by Clark and, in accordance with an act of the Virginia legislature, issued a proclamation con- cerning the settlements and titles of the land in the southern and western part of what afterward became the Northwest Territory. The proclamatio;i read as follows: '^ILLINOIS county} To Wit: * 'Whereas, From the fertility and beautiful situation of the lands bordering on the Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois and Wabash rivers, the taking up of the usual quantity of land heretofore allowed for a settlement by the government of Virginia would both injure both the strength and commerce of the country — *'I Do Therefore issue this proclamation, strictly en- joining all persons whatsoever from making any new settle- ments upon the flat lands of the said rivers or within one league of said lands unless in manner and form of settlements. 70 r lONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. as heretofore made b}' the French inhabitant, until further orders herein given. '*And in order that all claims to lands in said county may be full}' known and some method provided for perpetuating b}' record, the just claims, ever}- inhabitant is required, as soon as convenientl}' may be to lay before the person, in each district, appointed for ihe purpose, a memorandum of his or her land with copies of all their vouchers and where vouch- ers have never been given or are Ipst, such depositions or cer- tificates as will tend to support their claims; the memorandum to mention the quantity of land, to whom originally granted and when; deducing the title through the various occupants, to the present possessor. The number of adventurers who will shortly over-run this country renders the above method necessar}', as well to ascertain the vacant lands as to guard against trespasses which will probably be committed on lands not on record. "Given under m}- hand and seal at Kaskaskia, the 15th of June in the third year of the Commonwealth. 1779. (Signed; John Todd, Jr." For the preservation of peace and the administration of of justice, a court of civil and criminal jurisdiction was or- ganized at Vincennes in June, 1779. The court was com- posed of several magistrates. Colonel J. M. P. Legrass, who had received the appointment of Commander of the Post Vin- cennes, acted as the president of , this new court and exercised a controlling influence over the proceedings. Following after the usages of the earl}- commanders of the French posts in the west, the magistrates of the court at Vincennes com- menced to grant tracts of land to the French and American inhabitants of the town and to the officers, both civil and mil- itary, of the county. The court assumed the power of grant- ing lands to all applicants and at the end of the year 1783 there had been twenty-six thousand acres granted. From 1783 to '87, when General J^armor stopped the granting of land by the Vincennes court, there had been twenty-two thousand acres more granted b}^ that court to individual ap- plicants. The commander of the post and the magistrates PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 71 over whom he presided, formed the opinion that they were invested with the authority of all the land in that region which had in 1742 been granted by the Piankashaw Indians to the inhabitants of Post Vincennes for their use. Accord- ingly, an arrangement was made by this greed)' court where- by the whole country in which the Indian title was supposed to be extinguished was divided between the members of the court and orders to that effect were put on record. In order to have the appearance of modesty each member of the court absented himself on the day the order was to be made in his favor. At the close of the Revolutionarv War the United States was deeply in debt and without any resources to pay with except what could be derived from the sale of lands west of the Alleghany Mountains. The title of this domain was claimed by a number of the colonies and states as their char- ters extended their limits to any land acquired on their west. Virginia set up a special claim on account of her conquest and the retaining of posessions through Greneral George Rogers Clark to all the land of the Northwest Territory. To this the other states demurred and said that as they all joined together for a common defense, that whatever was gained by conquest should be shared equally by all. There was so much justice in this that Virginia deeded her northwest possessions to the United States. By an act of the seventh of January, 1781,"the General As-' sembly of Virginia resolved that on certain conditions they would cede to Congress, for the benefit of the United States, all the right, title and claim which Virginia had to the terri- tory northwest of the River Ohio. Congress, by an act of the 13th of September, 1783, agreed to accept the cession of the ter- ritory and the General Assembly of Virginia on the 20th of December, the same year, passed an act authorizing their del- egates in Congress to convey to the United States, the right, title and claim of Virginia to the lands northwest of the River Ohio. In October, 1783, the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act laying off the town of Clarksville at the Falls 72 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. of the Ohio in the county of Illinois. The act provided that the lots of half an acre each should be sold at public auction for the best price that could be obtained. The purchasers were to hold their lots subject to the condition of building on them within three years of. the date of sale, a dwelling* house, twenty feet by eighteen with a brick or stone chimney. William Fleming, John Edwards, John Campbell, Walker Daniel, George R. Clark, Abraham Chaplin, John Mont- gomery, John Bailey, Robert Todd and William Clark were, by the act of the assembly, constituted trustees for the town of Clarksville. On the first day of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Sam- uel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, delegates in con- gress on the part of Virginia, executed a deed of cession by which they deeded to the United States, on certain conditions, all the right, title and claim of Virginia to the country north- west the River Ohio. The deed contained the following con- ditions— '*The territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into states containing a suitable amount of territory, not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square or as near that amount as circumstances will admit and the states so formed shall be distinct Republican states and admitted members of the Federal Union having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other states. The necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by Virginia in subduing any British post or in maintaining forts and garrisons for the defense or in acquiring any part of the territory that is here ceded and relinquished, shall be fully reimbursed by the United States. The French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers of Kaskaskia, Post Vincennes and the neighboring villages who have professed themselves citizens of Virginia shall have their possessions and titles confirmed to them and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties. A quantity not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, promised by Virginia, shall be allowed and granted to the then Colonel and now General, George Rogers Clark and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment who marched with him when the posts of Kaskas- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 7^ kia and Vincennes were reduced and to the oflScers and soK diers who have since been incorporated into the said regi-^ ment; to be laid ofiF in one tract the length of which shall not exceed double the breadth, in such a place on the north- west side of the Ohio as a majority of the officers shall choose and to be afterward divided among the officers and soldiers, in due proportion according to the laws of Virginia. In case the quantity of good lands on the southeast side of the Ohio on the waters of the Cumberland river, between Green river and Tennessee river which have been reserved by law for the Vir- ginia troops upon continental establishment, should, from the North Carolina line, bearing in farther on the Cumberland, lands than was expected, prove insufficient for their legal bounties, the deficiency shall be made up to the said troops in good lands to be laid off between the River Scioto and Little Miami river on the northwest side of the River Ohio in such proportions as has been engaged to them by the laws of Vir- ginia. '*A11 the lands within the territory so ceded to the United States and not reserved for or appropriated to any of the before mentioned purposes or disposed of in bounties to the officers and soldiers of the American army, shall be con- sidered as common funds for the use and benefits of such of the United States as have become or shall become, members of the confederation of Federal alliances of the said state of Virginia inclusive, according to their usual respective propor- tions in the general charge and expenditure; and shall be faithfully and bonafide disposed of for that purpose and for no other use or purpose whatsoever." In the spring of 1784, after the deed of cession had been accepted by Congress, the subject of future government of the. territory was referred to a committee consisting of Messrs. Jefferson, of Virginia, Chase, of Maryland and Howie, of Rhode Island. The committee reported an ordinance for the government for the territory northwest of the River Ohio.. The ordinance declared that after the year 1800 there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude otherwise than in the punishment of crimes in any of the states to be formed. 74 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. out of said territor3\ This provision of the ordinance was rejected but on the 23rd of April, 1784, Congress, by a series of resolutions provided for the maintenance of temporary government in the country which the United States had acquired northwest of the Ohio. Soon after Virginia had deeded her lands northwest of the River Ohio to the United States, General Rufus Putnam and others organized a Massachusetts Company which had for its purpose the purchase of a large bod}' of land in what is now the state of Ohio. Continental monej' had become very cheap, worth from fifteen to seventeen cents on the dol- lar. The Company had secured enough of it to pay for one and one-half million acres of land. Reverend Manassa Cut- ler, their agent had also intrusted' to his care for other par- ties a large amount of this money, in all, enough to purchase five and one-half million acres of land. As this would ma- terially reduce the national debt, the administration of the United States was in favor of it. At that time Massachusetts owned the Territor}' of Maine which she was trying to sell and was opposed to the opening of the Northwest Territory. This put Virginia on her mettle and the South all sided with her. Dr. Cutler had come on to New York to lobby for the Northwest Territory. The South caught the inspiration and rallied around him. Massachusetts was in a peculiar situa- tion: she was opposed to the proposition but could not vote against it as many of her citizens were largely interested in the western purchase. Thus Dr. Cutler was able to command the situation. True to the convictions of his heart he dic- tated one of the most complete documents of good statesman- ship that has ever adorned our law-book. The important sec- tion were as follows — **1. The exclusion of slavery forever from the Northwest Territory. **2. Provision for Public Schools. Section No. 16 in each township of thirty-six square miles will be retained and sold for the benefit of the Public Schools. '*3. A provision prohibiting the adoption of any consti- tution or the enactment of any law that shall nullify pre-ex- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 75 isting contracts. Be it forever remembered that this compact declares religion, morality and knowledge are necessa^)^ to good government and the happiness of mankind and there- fore schools and the means of education shall alwaj's be en- couraged." Dr. Cutler planted himself squarely upon this platform and would not )4eld, giving his unquallified declaration that it was that or nothing. That unless the holders of the terri- tory could make the land desirable they — the purchasers — did not want it. On the 13th day of July, 1787, the bill was put on its passage and was unanimouslj" adopted. Thus the great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, a might)' empire, were dedicated to freedom, in- telligence and moralit)'. CHAPTER IV The Northwest Territory Organized — Laws Govern- ing IT. — Governor St. Clair and the Indians — Mil- itia Established and Civil and Military Officers Appointed — Laws Adopted at Vincennes — Defeat of St. Clair's Army by Indians — General Wayne's Vic- tory Near the Maumee — First Territorial Legis- lature. On the fifth of October, 1787, Major General Arthur St. Clair was elected by Cong^ress governor of the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio. By the first in- structions which Governor St. Clair received from Congress in 1788 he was authorized and directed — first, to examine carefully into the real temper of the Indians. Second — To re- move, if possible, all cause of controversy so that peace and harmony might be established between the United States and the Indian tribes. Third — To regulate trade among the In- dians. Fourth — To neglect no opportunity that might oflfer of extinguishing the Indian right to land westward as far as the River Mississippi and northward as far as the completion of the forty-first degree of north latitude. Fifth — To use every possible endeavor to ascertain the names of the real head men and warriors of the several tribes and to attach these men to the United States by every possible means. Sixth — To make every exertion to defeat all confederations and combinations among the tribes and to conciliate the white people inhabitating the frontiers toward the Indians. In the month of July, 1788 Governor St. Clair arrived at the new town of Marietta at the mouth of the Muskingum PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 77 river, where he began to organize the government of the Northwest Territory in accordance with the provisions of the ordinance of 1787. At Marietta, in the county of Washing- ton before the close of {be year 1788, the Governor and judges of the (Jeneral Court of the Territory — Samuel Hoi* ■den Parsons, James Mitchel Varnum and John Cleave Simms, adopted and published various laws under the following titles: 1. A law for regulating and establishing the militia in the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio. 2. A law for establishing general courts of the peace of •quarter sessions (and therein the powers of single justices); and for establishing county courts of common pleas (and therein of the power of single judges to hear and determine upon small debts and contracts); and also a law for estab- lishing the oflSce of sheriff and for the appointment of sher- iffs— Published on the 23d of August. 3. A law establishing a court of probate — Published on the 30th of August. 4. A law for fixing the terms of the general court of the territory of the United States, northwest of the River Ohio — Published on the 30th of August. This law was made in the following words — '*The general court for the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio, shall hold pleas civil and criminal at four certain periods or terms in each and every year in such counties as the judges shall from time to time deem most con- ducive to the general good, they giving timely notice of the place of their sitting on the first Mon- days of February, May, October and December, pro- vided, however that but one term be held in any one county in a year, and all processes, civil and crim- inal, shall be returnable to said court wherever they may be in said territorj\ And as circumstances may so intervene as to prevent the session of the Court at the time and place fixed upon, it shall and may be lawful for the Court to adjourn from time to time by writ directed to the sheriff of the county and to con- 7« PIONEEIfc HISTORY OF INDIANA. tinue all processes accordinglj'; and in case neither of the judges shall aiiend at the time and place afore- said and no writ be received by the sheriff, it shall be his duly to adjourn the coijrt from day to day dur- ing the first six days of the term and then to the next term to which all processes shall be continued as aforesaid; provided, however, that all issues in fact shall be tried in the county where the case of action shall have risen." 5. A law respecting oath of office. Published on the 2d of September. 6. A law respecting crimes and punishments. Pub- lished on the 6ih of September. By this statute the crimes of treason, murder and houseburning in case where death en- sues from such burning, were respectively punished by death. The crimes of burgalry and robber}' were punishable by whipping, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes; fine and im- prisonment for any term not exceeding fort}- years. For ihe crime of perjury the offender was punishable b}' a fine not ex- ceeding sixty dollars or whipping not exceeding thirty-nine lashes, disfranchisement and standing in- the pillory for a space of time not exceeding two hours. Larceny was pun- ished by fine or whipping at the discretion of the court. If the convict could not pa}- ihe fine of the court it was lawful for the sheriff, b}' the direction of the court to bind such con- victs to labor for a term not exceeding seven years to any suitable person who could pay such fines. Fo gery was pun- ishable by fine and disfranchisement and standing in the pil- lory for a space of lime not exceeding three hours. For drunkenne s ihe law was as follows: "11 arty person shall be convicted of drunken- ness befo;e one or more jusiices of ihe peace, the per- son so convicted shall be fined for the first offense the sum of five dimes and for ever}- succeeding olfense upon Conviction the sum of one dollar. In either case if the o.fender neglects or refuses to pa}' the fine, he shall be set in the stocks for the space of one hour, provided, however, ihat complaints .be made to the justice or justices within two days after the offense shall have been committed. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 79 ''Whereas, idle, vain and and obscene conversa- tion; profane cursing: and swearing and more especi- all}' the irreverently mentioning, calling upon, or in- voking the sacred and Supreme Being b}' an}' of the divine characters in which He has graciousl}' conda- scended to reveal His infinitely beneficent purpose to mankind, are repugnant to every moral sentiment, subversive to every civil obligation, inconsistent with the ornaments of polished life and abhorrent to the principles of the most benevolent religion; ''It is Expected, Therefore, If crime of this kind should exist it will not find encouragement, countenance or approbation in this territory. It is strictly enjoined on all officers and ministers of jus- tice, upon parents and other heads of families and upon others of every description, that they abstain from practices so vile and irrational and that' by ex- ample and precept, to the utmost of their power, they prevent the necessity of adopting and publish- ing laws with penalties upon this head. **And it is Hereby Declared that the govern- ment will consider as unworthy its confidence all those who may obstinately violate these injunctions. "Whereas, mankind in every stage of informed society has consecrated certain portions of time to the particular cultivation of social vinues and the public adoration and worship of the Common Parent - of the Universe, and whereas a practice so rational in itself and conformable to the divine precepts is greatly conducive to civilization as well as lo moral- ity and piety; and whereas for the advancement of such important and interesting purpose, most of the Christian world has set apart the first day of the week as a day of rest from conimon labor a id pursuits; '*It is Hekeby Therefore Enjoined that all servile labor, works of necessity and charit}' only ex- cepted, be wholly abstained from on said day." 7. A law regulating ma rlages. The third e:iion of this law was as follows: '^Previously to persons being joined in marriage as aforesaid, the intention of the parties shall be made known by the publishing of the same for the space of fifteen days at the leasi, e'ther by the same being publiclv and openly declared three several Sun- m PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. days, holy day days or other days of public worship in the meeting in the towns where the parties res- pectively belong" or by publication in writing* under the hands and seal of one of the judges before men- tioned or of a justice of the peace within the county, to be afiSxed in some public place in the town where- in the parties respectively dwell or a license shall be obtained of the Governor under his hand and seal, authorizing the marriage of the parties without pub- lication as is in this law before required." 8. A law in addition to a law entitled — *'A law for regulating and establishing the militia in the territory of the River Ohio." Published on the 23rd of November. 9. A law appointing coroners. Published on the 21st of December. 10. A law limiting the time of commencing civil action and instituting criminal prosecutions. After the session of the court of Marietta was concluded and the laws for the government of the Territory passed. Governor St. Clair, accompanied -by the judges, made a visit to the western part of his Territory for the purpose of organ- izing a civil government. Before this he had sent instruc- tions to Major Hamtramck, the Commander at Vincennes, directing him, through the agency of friendly Indians that were well known among the Piankashaws, to find out all he could about the Indian tribes along the Wabash. He accom- panied this instruction with a speech for each of the tribes which the Major sent to them by Antoine Gamelin, a French- man, as a special envoy who understood the language of nearly all the tribes of Indians on the Wabash. Gamelin's wife was the daughter of the head chief of the Ouiatenons and through that influence it was hoped that his mission would be successful. Gamelin visited many tribes of Indians and after friendly council with them, delivered the speeches. In his route he went as far eastward as the Miami village of Kekionga which stood where Ft. Wayne now stands. Gamelin's report will best show the disposition of the Indians toward the Ameri- cans. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 81 *'The first village I arrived at," says Gamelin, **is called Kikapouguoi. The name of the chief of this village is called Les Jambes Croches. He and his tribe have a good heart and accepted the speech. The second village is at the River Vermillion, called Piankashaw. The first chief and all the warriors were well pleased with the speech concerning peace but they said they could not give presently a proper answer, before they consulted the Miami nation, their eldest brethren. They desired me to proceed to the Miami town, Kekionga,"and when coming back let them know what recep- tion I got from them. The said head chief told me that he thought the nations of the lake had a bad heart and were ill- disposed for the Americans and that the speeches would not be received particularly by the Shawnees at Miamitown. On the ■eleventh of April I reached a tribe of the Kickapoos. The head chief and all the warriors being assembled, I gave them two branches of white wampum, with the speeches of His Excellency, Arthur St. Clair, and those of Major Hamtramck. It must be observed that the speeches had been in another hand before mine. The messengers could not proceed further than the Vermillion on account of some private wrangle between the interpreter and some chief men of the tribes. Moreover something in the speech displeased them very much; it was that portion included in the third article which says— *I do now make you the offer of peace — accept it or reject it as you please.' These words seemed to displease all tribes to whom the first messenger was sent. The}' told me that the}' were menacing and finding that it might have a bad effect, I took it upon myself to exclude them and after making some apol- ogy tlffe}' answered that they and their tribe were pleased with my speech and that I could go on without danger but they could not presently give me an answer, having some warriors absent and without consulting the Ouiatenons, they being the owners of the land. They desired me to stop at Quiiepiconnae (Tippecanoe) saying that they would have the chief and warriors of the Ouiatenons and those of their na- tion assembled there and I would receive a proper answer. They said that they expected bj' me a draught of milk from S2 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. the Great Chief and the commanding oflScer of the Post, to put the old people in a good humor; also some powder and balls for the young men for hunting and to get some good broth for their women and children — that I should know a bearer of speeches should never be with empty hands. They promised to keep their young men from stealing and to send speeches to their nations in the prairies to do the same. **The 14th of April, the Ouiatenons and the Kickapoos were assembled. After my speech one of the head chiefs got up and told me — *Oh Gamelin, my friend and son-in-law, we are pleased to see you in our village and to hear by your mouth the good words of the Great Chief. We thought to receive a few words from the French people but I see the con- trary. None but the Big Knife is sending speeches to us. You know that we can terminate nothing without the consent of our brethren, the Miamis. I invite you to proceed to their village and speak to them. There is one thing in your speech I do not like. I will, not tell of it; even were I drunk I would perceive it but our elder brothers will certainly take notice of it in )'our speech. You invite us to stop our young men. It is impossible to do it, they being constantly encouraged by the British.' Another chief arose and said — *The Americans are very flattering in their speeches. Many times our nation went to their rendezvous. I was once myself. Some of our chiefs died on the route and we always came back all naked and 30U, Gamelin, you come wi^h speeches wiih empty hands.' Another one said lo his young men — *If we are poor and dressed in deer skins, ii is our own fault. Our -^ le.ich traders are leaving our villages because you plunder them every day, and it is lime for us 10 have another conduct.^ Still another one expressed himself as follows — 'Know ye thai the village of Ouiatenon is ihe sepulcher tf our ances* tors? The chief of the Americans inviies us to go to him if we are for peace. He has not his leg broken, having been able to go as far as the Illinois. He might come here himself and we should be glad to see him at our villa^^e. We confess that we accepted the ax but it is by the reproach we continually receive from the English and other nations, which receive the PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 83 ax first, calling^ us women. At the present time they invite our young men to war. As to our old people, they are wishing: for peace.' They could not give me an answer before they received advice from the Miamis, their elder brothers. *'On the 18th of April I arrived at the River L'Anguille (Eel river), at a point five or six miles above the place where it flows into the Wabash. The Indian village located there was near or where Logansport, Indiana, now is. The chief of the village and those of war were not present. I explained the speech to some of the tribes. The}' said they were well pleased, but could not give me an answer, their chief men be- ing absent. They desired me to stop at their village coming back. The)^ sent with me one of their young men to hear the ans-wer of their eldest brethren. On the 23d of April I arrived at the Miami town. The next day I got the Miamis, the Shawnees and the Delawares all assembled. I gave to eaqh naiion two branches of wampum and began the speeches, before the r rench and English traders who were invited by the chiefs to be present, I having told them m}^- self that I should be glad to have them present since I had nothing to say against anybody. After the speeches I showed them the treaty concluded at Muskingum (Ft. Har- mor) between his Excellency, Governor St. Clair, and sundry natibns. This displeased them. I told them that the pur- pose at this present time was not to submit them to any con- ditions but to offer them the peace, which made their dis- pleasure disappear. The great chief told me that he was pleased with the speech and that he soon would give me an answer. In a private discourse with him he told me not to mind what the Shawnees would tell me, they having a bad heart and being the pertubators of all the^ nations. He said the Miamis had a bad name on account of mischief done on the- River Ohio but he told me it was not occasioned by his young men, but by the Shawnees, his young men having onl)^ gone for a hunt. **On the 25th of April, Blue Jacket, chief warrior of the Shawnees, invited me to go to his house and there said to me — 'My friend, by the name and consent of the Shawnees and 84 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. and Delawares, I will speak to you. We are all sensible of your speech and pleased with it but, after consultation, we cannot give you an answer without hearing from our Father at Detroit and we are determined to give you back the two branches of wampum and to send you to Detroit to see and hear the chief or to stay here twenty nights to receive his answer. From all quarters we receive speeches from the Americans and no two are alike. We suppose that they in- tend to deceive us. Then take back your branches of wampum.' "The 26th of April five Pottawattomies arrived here with two negro men whom they sold to Engliah traders. The next day I went to the great chief of the Miamis, called Le- Gris, his chief warriers also being present with him. I told him how I had been served by the Shawnees. He answered me that he had heard of it and said that nation behaved contrary to his intention. He desired me not to mind those strangers and that he would soon give me a positive answer. ''The 28th of April the great chief desired me to call at the French traders and receive his answer. 'Don't take bad,' said he, 'of what I am to tell you. You ma}' go back when )'ou please. We cannot give 3'ou a positive answer. We must send your speech to all our neighbors and to the lake nations. We cannot give a definite answer without consult- ing the commandant at Detroit.' He desired me to render him the two branches of wampum refused b}' the Shawnees; also a copy of speeches in writing. He promised me that in thirt}' nights he would send an answer to Post Vincennes by a young man of each nation. He was well pleased with the speeches and said they were worthy of attention and should be communicated to all their confederates, being resolved among them not to do anything without an unanimous con- sent. I agreed to his request and rendered him the two brancihes of wampum and a cop}' of the speech. Afterward he told me that the five nations so called or the Iroquois were training for something; that five of them and three Wyan- dottes were in this village with branches of wampum. He could not tell me presently their purpose but he said I would know of it verv soon. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 85 '*The same day Blue Jacket invited me to his house for supper and before the other chiefs told me that, after another •deliberation, they thought necessary that I should go my- self to Detroit to see the commandant who would get all his children assembled to hear my speech. I told them I would not answer them in the night — that I was not ashajned to speak to them before the sun. "On the 29th of April I got them all assembled. I told them I was not to go to Detroit; that the speeches were di- rected to the nations of the River Wabash and the Miami and to prove the sincerity of the speeches and the heart of Gover- nor St. Clair I had willingly given a copy of the speeches to be shown to the commandant of Detroit and according to a letter written by the commandant of Detroit to the Miamis, Shawnees and Delawares mentioning tO them to be peaceable with the Americans. I would go to the commandant very willingly if it were in my direction being: sensible of his sen- timents. I told them I had nothing to say to the command- ant, neither he to me, and that they miist immediately resolve if they intended to take me to Detroit or else I would go back as soon as possible. Blue Jacket got up and told me, *My friend, we are well pleased with what you say. Our intention is not to force 3'ou to go to Detroit; it was onlj^ a proposal, think- ing it for the best. Our answer is the same as the Miamis. We will send in thirty nights a full and positive answer b}^ a young man of each nation by writing, to Post Vincennes.' **In the evening Blue Jacket, having taken me to supper with him, told me in a private manner that the Shawnee na- tion was in doubt of the sincerity of the Big Knives, having been already deceived by them. That they had first des- troyed their lands, put out their fires and sent away their young men, being a-hunting, without a mouthful of meat; also had taken away their women, wherefore man}' of them would, with a great deal of pain, forget these affronts. More- over that some other nations were apprehending that offers of peace would ma} be tend to take away, by degrees, their lands and would serve them as they did before. A certain proof that they intended to encroach on their lands was their new 8h PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. settlement on the Ohio. If ihey didn't keep this side of the Ohio clear, it would never be proper reconcilement with the nations, Shawnees, Iroquois, Wyandottes and perhaps many others. Legris, chief of thie Miamis, asked me in private dis- course what chief had made treaty with the Americans at Muskinfifum (Ft. Harmon). I answered him that iheir names were mentioned in the treaty. He told me he had heard of it some time ago but that they were not chiefs nor delegates who made that treaty; the}' were only young men who, with- out authority and instructions from their chiefs, had con- cluded that treaty which would not be approved. They had gone to the treat}' clandestinely and they intended to make mention of it in the next council to be held. "The 2nd of May, I came back to the L'Anguille. One of the chief men of the tribe being witness of the council at Miamitown, repeated the whole to them and whereas the first chief was absent, they said ihej' could not for the present time, give answer but that they were willing to join their speech to those of their eldest brethren. 'To give you proof of an open heart,' they said, *we let you know that one of our chiefs has gone to war on the Americans but it was before we heard of 3'ou for certain they would not have gone hiiher.' They also told me that a few daj^s after I passed their village, seventy warriors, Chippewas and Ottawas from Michilimaci- nac arrived there. Some of them were Pottawatiomies who, meeting on their route the Chippewas and Ottawas, joined them. *We told them,' they said, Ve heard by you — that your speech is fair and true. We could not stop them from going to war. The Pottawattomies told us that as the Chippewas and Ottawas were more numerous than the}" the}' were forced to follow them.' '*0n the 3d of May I got to the Weas. They told me that they were waiting for an answer from iheir eldest brethren. 'We approve very much our brethren for not to give a definite answer without informing of it all the lake nations. Detroit was the place where the fire was lighted, then ii ought first to be put out there. The English commandant is our father since he threw down our French PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 87 father. We could do nothing without his approbation.' *'The 4th of May I arrived ot the villag'e of the Kicka- poos. The chief presenting me two branches of wampum, black and white said — 'My son, we cannot stop our young men from going to war. Everyday some set off clandestinely for that purpose. After such behavior from our young men we are ashamed to say to the great chief of the Illinois and of the Post Vincennes that we are busy about some good af- fairs for the reconcilement, but be persuaded that we will speak to them continuall}^ concerning the peace and when our eldest brethren will have sent their answer, we will join ours to it. "The 5th of May I arrived at Vermillion. I found no- body but two chiefs. All the rest were gone a-hunting. They told me they had nothing else to say." In a despatch from Post Vincennes May 22d, 1790, Major Hamtramck says — ''I enclose the proceedings of Mr. Gamelin by which Your Ex- cellency can have no great hopes of bringing the Indians to peace with the United States. Gamelin arrived on the 8th of May and on the 11th some merchants arrived and informed me that as soon as Gamelin had passed their village on his return, all the Indians had gone to war; that a large party of Indians from Michilimacinac and some Pottawattomies had gone to Kentucky and that three days after Gamelin had left the Miami village, Kekionga, an American was brought there, scalped and burned at the stake." The great reason that the French and afterwards the English, were so successful in dealing with the Indians and attaching them so firmly as their allies, was that the}' dealt with them as a parent would with a child, giving them many presents and humoring their whims. This was pleasing to the Indians but after a time it became very expensive. As a French writer puts it — "These importunities of gifts for everything that they saw or could think of, grew on the Ind- ians and it became so expensive that it was a question whether their friendship was worth the great trouble and expense." The free sons of fair America, who were the best blood of many foreign nations, knew no way to transact business 88 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. with the aborigines but by the rules of business that would govern the transaction of one people with another, con- sequently they were not successful in their attempts to treat with the Indians who had been pampered and spoiled by the French and English nations to hold their friendship. In every attempt that the American made to treat with the In- dians for friendship or concessions of territory they were met with the taunt that they were not like the French and Eng- lish, who always commenced such proceedings with a large gift of many articles useful to the Indians; that this made their hearts glad and that the American always came with empty hands. Major Gladwin, the British commandant at Detroit, had an experience with Pontiac and his confederated bands which is described by him in a private letter to a friend — '*The Indians under Pontiac have been so domi- jieering over the French and have become so exacting that when my commissioner made overtures for an alliance of peace and friendship, he was rejected. They gave as a reason for not making the treaty that when their great Father, the French King, wanted any special favor he gave his red brethren a ship load of goods of all kinds for the Indians' com- fort; that the tnglish now wanted them to forsake their allegiance to their great Father, the King of France, and give it to them; for this they should at , least offer them three ship-loads of guns, powder, lead, blankets, clothing of all kinds and many ar- ticles for decorating their body to expect them to grant such a great favor." Governor St. Clair was at Kaskaskia when he received Gamelin's report which satisfied him that there was no prospect of peace with the Wabash Indians. He sent the secretary of the Northwest Territory, Winthrop Sargent, to Vincennes and directed him to lay out Knox county and establish the mil- itia and appoint necessary civil and military officers. Mr. Sargent proceeded to Vincennes where he organized the camp of Knox, appointed the necessary civil and military officers and gave notice to the inhabitants to present their claims to PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 89 titles of land which was found to be a very difficult proposi- tion. In his report to the president he said — '*The lands and lots which were awarded appear from the evidence, to belong to those persons to whom they were awarded, either by grants, purchase or inheritance, but there are very few titles which are complete owing to the very loose way that pub- lic business has been carried on. The concessions by the French and British commandants ate made on small scraps of paper which are loosely kept in the Notary's office; but the fewest number of these concessions are in a book of record." The most important land transactions were often found scrawled down on a loose sheet of paper in very bad French and worse English. Three-fourths of the names were made with marks without being attested by a notary or any one else. Many of these claimants at the post of Vincennes had been occupying the land on which their houses were built for generations and the only evidence of their having any claim to it would all be recorded on a piece of paper not an^^ too large for a target in a shooting match. Mr. Sargent said that there were about one hundred and fifty families in Vin- cennes in 1790. The heads of these families bad at some time had a title to a portion of the soil which title he had spent weeks in trying to straighten out. While he was busy with these claims he received a petiiion signed by eighty Americans asking for confirmation of the grants of land ceded by the court which had been organized by Col. John Todd under the authority of Virginia. Congress of the 3rd of March, 1791, authorized the gov- ernor of the territory in all cases where the improvements had been made, under a supposed title for the same, to confirm the persons who made such improvements on the land sup- posed to have been granted, not to exceed in quantity four hundred acres to one person. In 1790 a session of court was held in Vincennes at which Wihthrop Sargent, Acting Gov- ernor, presided and the following laws were adopted. 1. An act prohibiting the giving or selling of intoxicat- ihg liquors to Indians residing in or coming into the territory 90 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. of the United States northwest of the River Ohio and for pre- venting foreigners from trading with the Indians. 2. An act prohibiting the sale of spirituous or other in- toxicating liquors to soldiers in the service of the United States, being within ten miles of an}' military post within the territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio and to prevent the selling or pawning of arms, ammuni- tion, clothing and accoutrements. 3. An act for suppressing and prohibiting every species of gaming for money or other property and for making void contracts and paj^ments made in consequence thereof; and for restraining the disorderly practice of discharging arms at certain hours and places. Post Vincennes, July 3, 1790. To the Honorable Winthrop Sargent, Esq., Secre- tary in and for the territory of the United States northwest the River Ohio and vested with all the powers of governor and commander-in-chief: "Sin- As you have given verbal orders to the magis- trates who formerl}^ composed the court of the dis- trict of Post Vincennes under the jurisdiction of the state of Virginia, to give 3'ou their reasons for hav- ing taken upon them to grant concessions for the lands within the district, in obedience thereto, we beg leave to inform 3'ou that their principal reason is that, since the establishment of this country, the commandants have always appeared to be vested with the power to give lands. Their founder, Mr. Vin- cennes, began to give concessions and all his succes- sors have given lands and lots. Mr. Legras was ap- pointed commandant of Post Vincennes by the lieu- tenant of the connty — ^John Todd who was, in the year 1779, sent by the state of Virginia to regulate the government of the country and who substituted Mr. Legras with his power. In his absence Mr. Le- gras. who was then commandant, assumed that he had in quality of commandant authority to give lands according to the ancient usages of other com- mandants; and he verbally informed the court of Post Vincennes that when they would judge it proper to give lands or lots to those who should come into the Territory to settle, or otherwise, they might do it; and that he gave them permission to do so. ^ PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 91 ''These are the reasons that we acted upon and if we have done more than we ou^ht, it was on account of the little knowledge we had of public aflfairs." F. BossBRON Pierre Gamelin his L. Edeline Pierre (X) Querez mark While in Vincennes in 1790 Mr. Sargent received an ad- dress from the leading citizens as follows: "The citizens of the town of Vincennes approach you, Sir, to express as well their personal respects for your honor as a full approbation of the measures you have been pleased to pursue in regard to their government and the adjustment of their claims as in- habitants of the territory over which you at present preside. While we deem it a singular l>lessing to behold the principles of free government unfolding before us, we cherish the pleasing reflection that our posterity will also have cause to rejoice at the polit- ical change now originating. A free and efficient government wisely administered and fostered under the protecting wings of an august union of states, cannot fail to render the citizens of this wide, ex- tended territory securely happy in the possession of every public blessing. "We cannot take leave, Sir, without offering to your notice a tribute of gratitude and esteem which every citizen of Vincennes conceives he owes to the merits of an officer (Major Hamtramck) who has long commanded at this post. The unsettled situation of things for a series of 3'ears previous to this gentle- man's arrival tended in many instances to derange and in others to suspend, the operations of these mu- nicipal customs by which the citizens of this town were used to be governed. They were in the habit of submitting the superintendence of their civil regu- lations to the officer who happened to command the troops posted among them; hence, in the course of the late war and from the frequent change of mas- ters, they labored under heavy and various griev- ances but the judicious and humane attention paid by Major Hamtramck during his whole command, to the rights and feelings of every individual, craving his 92 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. interpositions, demands and will always receive our warmest acknowledgment. '*We beg you, Sir, to assure the supreme authority of the United States of our fidelitj' and attachment and our greatest ambition is to deserve its fostering care by acting the part of good citizens. **By order and on behalf of the citizens of Vin- cennes. Antoine Gamelin, Magistrate. Pierre Cjamelin. Paul Gamelin. James Johnson, Louis Adeline, Luke Decker, Francis Bosseron, Francis Vigo, Major Commandant Militia. Henry Vanderburgh, Major of Militia." To this complimentary testimonial, Winthrop Sargent made a brief but appropriate reply as follows: **ViNCENNES, July 25, 1790. Gentlemen: — Next to that happiness which I derive from a consciousness of endeavoring to merit the approba- tion of the sovereign authority 6f the United States by the faithful discharge of the important trust com- mitted to me, is the grateful plaudits of the respec- able citizens of this lerriiory and be assured, gentle- men, that I receive ii from the town of Vincennes upon this occasion with singular satisfaction. **In an event so interesting and important to every individual as the organization of civil government, I regret exceedingly that you have been deprived of the wisdom of our worth}' governor. His extensive abilities and long experience in the honorable walks of public life might have more perfectly established that S3^stem which promises to 3^ou and posterity such political blessings. It is certain, gen- tlemen, that the government of the United States is most congenial to the dignity of human nature, and the best possible palladium for the lives and property of mankind. The services of Major Hamtramck to the public and his humane attention to the citizens. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 93 while in command here, have been highly meritor- ious and it is with g^reat pleasure that I have offici- cially expressed to him my full approbation thereof. 'Your dutiful sentiments of fidelit}^ and attach- ment to the general government of the United States, shall be faithfully transmitted to their august pres- ident. "With the warmest wishes for the prosperity and welfare of Vincennes^ I have the honor to be, gen- tlemen, Your obedient, humble servant, WiNTHROP Sargent." During most of the years 1790 and 1791, Groverner St. Clair was very busy with the military affairs of the territory. The civil affairs were turned over to Winthrop Sargent and he was given authority of acting governor. St. Clair then deterniined to return to Ft. Washington where General Har- mor was stationed and consult with him as to the expediency of sending expeditions against the hostile Indians. When he arrived at Ft. Washington from Kaskaskia, after a consul ta- tian with his military leaders, they determined to send a strong detachment against the Indians located on the head waters of the Wabash. At that time the United States troops in the northwest were but little over four hundred ef- fective men. A part of the milita designed to act with the troops on these expeditions there was about three hundred from Virginia, that rendezvoused at Fort Steuben and with the garrison of that station marched to Vircennes and were joined to the forces of Major Hamtramck who was authorized to enlist what milita he could at Post Vincennes. With this force he marched up the Wabash river, having: orders to at- tack any Indians that he might find with which his force was strong enough to engage. The governor had the authorit}^ of the president to call on the state of Virginia for one thous- and troops and Pennsylvania for five hundred. These troops, less the three hundred Virginians that went with Hamtramck, assembled at Ft. Washington add were joined to the regular troops at that station. On the last of September Governor Si. Clair, in obedi- ence to instructions from the president of the United States, 94 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDL\NA. sent the following letter to the British* Commandant at Detroit: ''Marietta, September 19, 1790. Sir:— As it is not improbable on account of the military preparations going forward in this quarter of the country maj^ reach you and give you some uneasiness, while the object to which they are directed in not perfectly known, I am commanded by the president of the United States to give you the full assurance thai pacific dispositions are entertained toward Great Britain and all her possessions; and lo inform you explicitly that the expedition about to be undertaken is not intended against the Post you have the honor to command nor any other place at present in ihe possession of the British troops of his Majesty; but is on foot with the sole design of humbling and chastising some of the savage tribes whose depreda- tions are becoming intolerable and whose cruelties have, of late, become an outrage, not on the people of America onl}', but on humanity; which I now do in the most unequivocal manner. ** After this candid explanation. Sir, there is every reason to expect both from your own personal char- acter and from the regard you have for that of your nation that those tribes will meet with neither count- enance nor assistance from any under your command; and that you will do what in your power lies to res- train the trading people from those instigations, from which there is good reason to believe much of the injuries committed by the savage has proceeded. '*I have forwarded this letter by a private gentle- man in preference to an officer by whom you might have expected a communication of this kind, that every suspicion of the purity of the views of the United States, might be obv'iated." General Harmer left Ft. Washington on September 30th, with an army of fourteen hundred men arrived at Maumee Octobor 17th then commenced the work of chastising the Indians but met with misfortunes that were more injurious to the American than were harmful to the Indians. The savasres received a severe chastisement but the militia be- ^ PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 95 haved so badly that it was of but little service. The detach- ment of three hundred and forty militia and sixty regulars, under the command of Colonel Hardin, were badly defeated on the Maumee October 22d. On the next day the army took up its line of march for Ft. Woshington which place they reached November 4th, having lost in the expedition one hundred and eighty-three killed and thirty-one wounded. During the progress of this expedition, Major Hamtramck marched up the Wabash as far as the Vermilion river, des- troying several deserted villages without finding any enemy to oppose him. He then returned to Vincennes. The savages were badly punished by these expeditions yet they refused to sue for peace and continued hostile. On March 9th, 1791, General Henry Knox, Secretary of War, sent a letter of instructions to General Scott in Ken- tucky, recommending an expedition of mounted men, not to exceed seven hundred and fifty against the Wea towns along the Wabash. With this force. General Scott crossed the Ohio river May 23d, 1791, reached the Wabash in about ten days. Many of the Indians, having discovered his approach deserted their villages but he succeeded in destroying all the villages around Ouiatenon together with several Kickapoo towns, killed thirty-five warriors and took sixt3'-one prisoners. Releasing a few of his aged prisoners, he iJfave them a talk and asked them to carry it to the towns farther up ihe Wabash and to the country of the Maumee. ^ Owing to the disabled condition of his horses he was unable to go farther. In March, 1791, Congress provided for raising and equip- ping a regiment for the proieciion of the froniieis and gov- ernor St. Clair was placed in command of something more than three thousand troops, some of ihem yet to be raised and all of them to be employed in quelling the Indians in the Northwest Territory. He was instructed by the Secretar}- of War to march to the Miami village, Kekionga and to estab- lish a permanent military post there and such posts elsewhere throughout his territory as would be in communication with Ft. Washington. The post at the Miami village was to be of such strength as to hold the savage in that neighborhood ^6 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. in check; also to afford shelter for five or six hundred men in case of an emergency. The Secretary of War urged St. Clair to establish that post as the most important part of his cam- paign. As in previous treaties, the Indians were to be con- ciliated, every inducement being offered to them to cease their hostilities. Said the Secretary of War — "Having com- menced your march upon the expedition, and the Indians continuing hostile,' you will use every possible exertion to make them feel the effects of your superiority and after hav- ing arrived at the Miami village and put your works in a de- fensible state, you will seek the enemj'. with your remaining force and endeavor to strike them with great severit3% In order to avoid future wars, it might be proper to make the Wabash and thence over the Maumee and down the same to its mouth on Lake Erie, the boundary between the people of the United States and the Indians (except so far as the same would relate to the Wyandotts and the Delawares) on suppo- sition that they will remain faithful to their treaties, but if they should join in war against the United States and your arm}' should be victorious, the said tribes should be removed without the boundary mentioned." Before starting on the march with the main force to the Miami town. Governor St. Clair, June 25th, 1791, authorized General Wilkinson to conduct an expedition with not more than five hundred mounted men, to the Indian' villages on the Wabash. Accordingly, General Wilkinson, on July 20th, wiih his mounted men well armed and with provision for thirty days, marched and reached the Kenapacomaqua village on the north bank of Kel ri/er, (now Cass county, Indiana,) six miles above its mouih where, on August 7ih, he killed six warriors and took ihirt3'-four prisoners. This town, which was scattered along the river for three miles, was to- tally destroyed and Wilkinson and his command encamped on its ruins. The next day he commenced his march upon the Kickapoo town on the prairie which he was unable to reach, owing to the impossible condition of the route he had taken and the condition his horses were in. In making his report he estimated the results of the ex- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 97 pedition as follows: He had destroyed the chief town of the Ouiatenon nation and made prisoners of the son and sisters of the King. He had burned a respectable Kickapoo village and cut down four hundred acres of com, mostly in the milk. There is no doubt that these expeditions of Hamtramck, Harmor, Scott and Wilkinson seriously damaged the Indians but they were not subdued. Thej' regarded the policy of the United States as calculated to exterminate them and the Eng- lish at Detroit urged thenr on. They were excited by the loss in former expedition and the tales of woe told them by the British traders, to such a degree that they were desperate. As has been before stated at that time the British govern- ment still had garrisons at Niagara, Detroit and Michilimack- inac, although it was declared in the second article of the def- inite treaty of peace in 1783 that the king of Great Britain would, with all convenient speed and without causing any destruction or carrying away any negroes or property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his forces from the gar- risons and his fleet from the United States and from every post, place and harbor within the same. That treaty also provided that the creditors on either side should meet with no lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value in sterling money of all bonafide debts previously contracted. The British government contended that the United States had broken faith in this particular understanding of the treaty and in consequence refused to withdraw its forces from the territory'. The British garrison in the lake region was a source of much annoyance as the}^ offered succor to the hos- tile Indians and encouraged them in making raids among the Americans. This state of affairs in the territory northwest of the Ohio continued from the commencement of the Revo- lutionary War to 1796 when, under a second treaty, all British soldiers were withdrawn from the countr3\ In September, 1791, St. Clair moved from Ft. Washing- ton with about two thousand men. On the 3rd of November the main army consisting of about fourteen hundred effective troops moved forward to the head waters of the Wabash where Fort Recovery was afterward erected. Here the army \ 98 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. encamped. At this time the Little Turtle, Blue Jacket and Buckongehelas and other' Indian chiefs were secreted a few miles distant with a large force of Indians waiting for a fav- orable opportunity to bring on an attack. This they com- menced on the morning of the 4th of November a little while before sunrise. The attack was first made upon the militia which gave way. St. Clair was defeated and returned to Ft. Washington with a broken and dispirited army, having lost thirty-nine officers and five hundred and forty men, killed and missing and having twenty-two officers and two hundred and thirty-five men wounded. St. Clair lost several pieces of artil- lery and all his ammunition, provision and baggage were left on the ground. One of the sad features of this terrible disaster was the loss of more than two hundred women who had followed their husbands, brothers and fathers on this campaign, expecting to settle with them in some of the fine country that would be reclaimed from the Indians. Over the most terrible fate that awaited and was meted out to these unfortunate women it is best to draw the veil. The Indians,, in this battle, manifested the most fiendish and cruel brutal- ity to the dead and dying Americans. Believing that the whites had made war for many years for the sole purpose of acquiring land, they thrust great chunks of dirt into the mouths and the great gashes cut in the cheeks of the dying and dead soldiers. The defeat of St. Clair's army was a severe blow to the Northwest Territory and retarded the settlement of the mid- dle and western part of that territory for many years. The Indians, owing to the very easy victory which they had gained over the Americans, whose army was almost twice as large as theirs, determinedly organized many raids which they sent into the thinly settled region of the Northwest Territory, Kentucky and on the borders of Virginia. There was so much destruction wrought by the Indians that many families who had come to the settled stations around the Ohio Falls and at Ft. Washington, moved farther back to Kentucky and Virginia. Some military critics were very severe and out- spoken in censuring General St. Clair, though this was prob- PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 99 ably very unjust. The main reason of his defeat was that a large portion of his army had been hastily gathered together and many of them were from the thickly settled sections of Virginia and Pennsylvania where they had had no experi- ence in Indian warfare and owing to the hurried disposition of the troops before the commencement of the main eampaign, they had had but little opportunity to receive military train- ing or discipline; also a portion of the new levies were com- manded by officers who had no military experience. Greneral St. Clair was an old man and had been very successful and efficient during the seven long years of the Revolution. When he was chosen to the important position of Grovernor of the Northwest Territory, he was a member of Congress and was president of that body. After the return of the defeated army to Ft. Washington, St. Clair resigned his position of Major General in the United States army but retained the governorship of the Northwest Territory to which he gave all of his time. To the vacancy made in the army roll by the resignation of St. Clair, General Anthony Wayne (more familiarly known as ''Mad Anthony") was promoted. Greneral Wayne was an old officer and had won a very enviable reputation during the long struggle for lib- erty. On taking command he at once moved to Ft. Pitt (Pittsburg, Penn.) In 1792 the government of United States determined to reorganize and place a large army in the field for the purpose of subduing the hostile Indians in the Northwest Territory and General Wayne set about preparing, drilling and equipp- ing the army that he had gathered about him for the purpose of thoroughly chastising, defeating and destroying the In- dians who had defeated St. Clair's army and destroyed so many American soldiers and American women. During the rest of 1792 and up to October, 1793, Wayne remained at Ft. Pitt but on the latter date moved with his army to Ft. Washington where he remained the rest of that year and until July, 1794, preparing his army to be in the best con- dition for effective service, drilling them in a manner that they would be able to resist any of the known modes of In- 100 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. dian warfare. On July 26th Major Greneral Scott with sixteen hundred mounted riflemen from Kentucky, joined the reg-ular troops under Wayne at Ft. Washington and on the 28th of July the) combined army began its march for the Indian towns on the Maumee. Arriving- at the mouth of the Auglaize, they erected Ft. Defiance and on August 15th they advanced toward the Brit- ish fort at the rapids near the Maumee. On the 20th, al- most within reach of the British guns the Americans gained a complete victory over the combined forces of the hostile Indians and a compan}^ of Detroit militia, amounting to sev- enty-eight men. The number of the enemy was estimated at two thousand against about nine hundred American troops ac- tuallyengaged. As soon as the action co nmenced, the Ameri- cans charged the Indians who abandoned themselves to flight and dispersed with terror and dismay. The Americans lost on this occasion thirty-three killed and one hundred wounded. The loss of the enemy was probably three times as great. Wa3'ne remained on the field and in the vicinity for several days after the battle, burninjg the Indian towns and destro)'- ing their corn-field for many miles on both sides of the Mau- mee. The Indians retired from that section disheartened to the country far to the north. Wayne continued sending mes- sages to the Indians trying to persuade them to meet him and form a treat)\ After this, for a time, there was a suspension of hos- tilities and raids by the Indians, for from nearly every town in the Northwest Territory numbers of young hunters were engaged in that battle. Probably the Indians never on the American continent had gathered together a more efficient army of two thousand men, commanded by some of their greatest leaders. Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, Buckongehelas and many other distinguished chiefs. Tecumseh, then in the first flush of his greatness commanded a troop of one hundred Indians on that field. They had chosen their battle field in a large territory of fallen timbers with an advance line of what we would now call skirmishers under two of their most successful war chiefs. The Indians were so well PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 101 located that they had no doubt that they would gain a com* plete victory over Wayne's force. They had invited a num- ber of British officers and soldiers to occupy positions in sight of the field to see them annhilate the American army, but they had reckoned without their host. Greneral Wayne had an army of four thousand men equipped and drilled that for efficiency and moral in that mode of warfare perhaps was never excelled on the American continent. It was com- manded by some of the most resolute and efficient officers who have honored the roll of fame among American heroes. As soon as the battle commenced a detachment was or- dered to charge both flanks of the Indian army and the centre and in a very short time it put them to precipitate flight. Not more than nine hundred of Wayne's men had an oppor- tunity to distinguish themselves in that battle. After the battle during the time that Wayne was in camp near the Maumee he and his staff with a large escort of cavalry, made several trips of observation over the battle-field. During some of these trips the cavalcade was halted in front of the fort. This brought on such a spirited controversy between the commander of the British fort — Wm. Campbell — and Gen- eral Waj'ne that it seemed, at one time, as if a collision would be brought on between the British and American armies. About the middle of September, 1794, Wayne's army commenced its march toward the deserted Miami village and on the following day arrived there and selected a site for a new fort named Ft. Wayne. The fort was completed near the last of November and garrisoned l)y. five hundred and fifty-eight men and officers, infantry and artillery, under the command of Colonel John F. Hamtramck. After this Wayne resumed his march. Arriving at Greenville he took up his headquarters there for the winter and remained there most of the summer of 1795. During all the time between the battle ane up to August of the next year Wayne had Ms scouts in- terpreters and trusted men among the Indians, trying to get them to meet him at Greenville for the purpose of making a general treaty of peace with all the hostile Indians of the 102 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. Northwest Territory and about the middle of Angfitst he suc- ceeded in the attempt. At that treaty a concession of a large amount of land on the Ohio, Sioto and Miami rivers was made the United States by the Indians. By this concession, commencing at a point on the eastern Ohio line near where Ft. Recovery was erect- ed, a line was run to the south coming to the Ohio river at a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river. This small strip of land was the first real concession made b)^ general treaty with the Indiansjthat is locate^ in the state of Indiana. After the conclusion of these treaties there was a period of rest for the pioneers as the Indians, for some years after- ward, were a little shy of making war on the frontiers. Dur- ing that period there was a great influx of settlers into Onio around Marietta, Ft. Washington and at points in the terri- tory of the Ohio Land Company; also there was a great im- petus given to emigration into the state of Ketucky, around the Ohio Falls, Louisville on the north side of the river at Clarksville and in the territory set oflf for the ofl&cers and soldiers of General Clark's army. Outside of these settle- ments in Indiana Territory, there was no emigration to any part of it except an occasional fool-hardy, restless pioneer who would locate at some point in the wilderness. The territory that is now Indiana, for some time after 1800 all belonged to the Indians, except the small strip granted by the Greenville treaty, the territory of Clark's grant and a section of land around Vincennes granted by the Piankashaw Indians. The government of the United States had repeatedly warned its officers at the different stations in the territory not to permitt any settlements to be made until the land was acquired from the Indians. In 1795 a treaty with Spain was made by the United States which secured the free navigatin of the Mississippi river. After the treaty was signed and the people on the borders of the Alleghany mountains knew of it, a large num- ber of emigrants came to the Northwest Territory. Most of them Settled at various points in what soon afterward became the state of Ohio. PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 103 In 1796 the British evacuated Detroit and the United States forces occupied the territory. The post at Detrott was g^arrisoned by troops commanded by Captain Potter, sec- retary of the Northwest Territory. Winthrop Sargent went to Detroit and organized the county of Wayne, which in- cluded all that is now the state of Michigan, northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. During that year settlements were made in many parts of Ohio. In the year 1798 nominations for representatives for the Territory took place and on the 4th of February, 1799, they convened at Losantville, now Cincinnati, which was then the capital of the territory, for the purpose of nominating per- sons from whom the members of the legislature were to be chosen, in accordance with a previous ordinance. This nom- ination being made the assembly adjourned until the 16th of September, 1799. From those names the President selected as members of the council Henry Vanderburg of Vincennes, Robert Oliver of Marietta, James Finley and Jacob Burnett of Cincinnati and Davi^ Vance of Vanceville. On the 16th of September the Territorial Legislature met and on the 24th the two houses were duly organized, Henry Vanderburg being elected president of the Council. The message of (Joveruor St. Clair was addressjed to the as- sembly and on the 13th of October that body elected William Henry Harrison as delegate to Congress. He received eleven votes whieh was a majority of one over his opponent, Arthur St. Clair, Jr. The number of acts passed at this this session and approved by the Governor was thirty-seven. The most important of those passed related to the militia and to taxa- tion. On the 19th of December the session of the first legis- lature in the west was closed and on the 30th of December the President nominated Captain William Byrd to the office of Secretary of the Territory, Vice William Henry Harrison^ elected to Congress. In 1800 the Northwest Territory was divided. Ohio at that time was preparing to form a state constitution. The division was made by commencing at the mouth of the Great Miami river, running thence north until that line intersects 104 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. the boundary line between the United States and Canada. The report of the committee for the division of the Terri- tory was accepted by Congress and in accordance with its suggestion was approved May 7th. Among its provisions were these — **From and after July the 4th, 1800, all that part of the Northwest Territory which lies • westward of the line from the mouth of the Miami river to the north, before mentioned, shall for the purpose of temporary government be known as Indiana Territory with headquartors of the same at Post Vincennes on the Wabash river." \ CHAPTER V. Prisoners Recaptured from the Indians — Terrible; FIGHTING Around the Place Where Owensville, Indiana, now Stands. In 1792 James Greenway, Thomas Doyle and Stephen Murtree were soldiers in the United States service and were on duty at Vincennes under command of Major Hamtramck. During the summer of that year their term of enlistment was out and they were given their discharges. They did not in- tend to go back into the service for a while so they determined to fit out a hunting and trapping outfit as in that early day " there were but two kinds of employment in the Northwest Territory: one was soldiering and hunting Indians and the other was hunting game and trapping for furs. Securing two large Indian canoes with such things as. were necessary for their use, they started down the Wabash intending to hunt and trap on that river and its tributaries. In the fall, as they were floating down the Wabash ihey came to a small island seven or eight miles south of the mouth of White river. Examining the island they found that it would be a good place to make a camp, so selecting a site giving them a good view up and down the river and both banks, they built a barracade suitable for defense and inside of that built a small cabin. There was a Frenchman with the party by the name of Pierre DeVan who looked after the camp and hunted in the neighborhood. , He was a character in many ways and proved to be a hero of the first water. He had been much with the Indians and understood the language of several tribes. He had a great hatred for all Indians as they 106 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. had murdered his uncle who was the only relative he had in this country. The fall was spent in hunting: bear and deer for theif 0 skins, the winter in trapping. During the early winter the hunters had gone down the river and while the Frenchman was roaming over the little island he saw an Indian canoe tied to the shore opposite the mouth of a creek on the west bank of the river. He slipped back and hid himself in a convenient place to see what went on. He didn't have long to wait for an Indian was seen to rise up from back of a log looking in every direction for some time. Having concluded that no one was there, the red man went into the camp and . commenced loading himself with the camping outfit to take to his canoe and while in the midst of his act the Frenchmaft shot him. When the hunters returned and found the dead Indian they asked DeVau what made him kill the Indian and he answered: "Piankeshaw Indian a great liar and if I no kill him he maybe kill me. If I let him go two months we all be killed." They very materially strengthened their fortifica- tions and told the Frenchman to stay inside when the}' were gone and to keep a good look-out. They intended to stay on the island as long as the water would let them as fur was much better late in the winter than in the early part. They caught man)' beaver and it was the last of February before the water commenced to rise so as to causfe them any alarm about their camp. They got everything in shape and loaded all their things into their canoes and started for Vincennes where they sold their skins and purchased a good supply of ammunition, salt and corn meal to take back with them when the water went down which was about the middle of April. When they reached the island again they found that the high water had wrecked their fortifications and little cabin and they had to do their work all over again. After this was. completed they found that all the game had been driven out of the bottoms by the high waters and they resolved to go to the hills on the east side of the river for a hunt. There was j'et water in the little creek for their canoes PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 107 and they followed it upstream for several miles when it seemed to become a brushy pond. They left their canoes here and went in a southeasterly direction. They had to wade through shallow water for a long distance before they got to higher land. Here they made a fire, dried their cloth- ing and prepared a temporary camp, aiming to stay until thej had all the meat they wanted and had acquainted themselves with the surrounding country, and it turned out they had no trouble in killing all the deer they could take care of. The next morning they all went to a place seen by one of them the day before, which he felt sure it was a regular bear den in a cave or hole in a bluflf. While they were hunt- ing for the place they heard a loud, piercing scream not far away, coming, apparently, from a child. It was very loud at first but gradually grew weaker until it ceased. The hunt- ers were greatly startled and could not account for such a noise in this great wilderness. They hid in the bushes for a while waiting for further developments but did not see or hear anything more. They resolved to find out the cause of the screaming and it was determined that Doyle should go first, the other two to keep him in sight and be governed by his motions. He crawled through the thick brush and when they were near a high bluff he signalled to the others to come to him. He had seen smoke and heard voices that he believed to be those of Indians. The smoke seemed to come from the eastern side of the bluffs and they determined to go farther around. Ad- vancing very carefully for two or three hundred feet they could see the fire and going still farther could see that there were several Indians around it and a little to one side a white man and woman were sitting on a log with their hands tied behind them. There were four Indians in view and the hunters each selected one to shoot at. After firing they de- termined they would reload their guns where they were and trust to luck for the outcome. They all fired at once, killing two and fatally wounding another one that fell in the fire; the fourth one ran around the side of the bluff. After waiting awhile the hunters slipped to where the 108 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. prisoners were, cut the leather thongs they were bound with and finished the Indian who was kicking and squirming in the fire. Doyle determined to follow the other Indian and in a short time a shot was heard in the direction he had gone. Soon an Indian was seen running eighty or ninety yards away. The two hunters fired at him and he dropped his gun but kept on running. On going around the bluflf in the di* rection Doyle had gone, they came upon his lifeless body, killed no doubt by the Indian at whom they had just been shooting. The prisoners released were James Griscom and his wife, Rachel. The screaming heard by the hunters was little Mary Griscom, who the day before had a fall that had hurt her ankle so that she could not walk and had to be carried for several miles to where the camp was made. She was no better the morning the hunters found them and would hinder their time in marching, so the Indians resolved to kill her. One of them gathered her up and going to the top of the bluflf threw her over to the bottom, many feet below, killing her. Griscom informed the hunters that there were three more Indians that had gone away with their gtutis, he sup- posed to hunt and that they might return at any time. They took the Indians' guns and hid them in the brush; then took Doyle's body around to the end of the bluflf where the body of the little girl was and hastily put them in a crevice or shelf in the rock made by the action of running water and covered and wedged them in so that they would be safe from animals. After consulting together they resolved to avenge the death of the brave Doyle and little Mary by killing th'e other Indians if they should return. Murtree went back up the slope of the bluflf to a point where he could see for some dis« tance around and also s^e where the fire was. The others dragged the dead Indians into the brush, then made up the fire and hid behind a screen of brush so they could have a view of the fire and of Murtree who was to signal to them when he saw anything of the Indians. They were in that PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. 109 position about one hour when Murtree signalled them to be on the look out, pointing to a position beyond the fire. In a short time two Indians came into a view with a deer on a pole with them. As they came near the fire they stopped and looked around for their comrades. At that moment Greenway and Griscom fired, killing- one and breaking the thigh of the other, who fell but tried to drag himself, gun in hand to a log and was killed by Murtree. The hunters re- mained in their position for some time but the other Indian did not return. Fearing that the Indian wounded in the first battle would be able to find some other band of warriors and come back to his camp, and being told b)^ Griscom that an Indian town they had come near the day before was not more than six miles south of them, they concluded to get away as soon as they could. Griscom also told them that another band of Indians with four prisoners had been with their party and had gone to the town. The band he was with would not go to the vil- lage but went around it. Gathering up such of the plunder stolen by the Indians as would be of use to them, and taking all the Indian guns, they went to their camp where they had eight deer killed the day before. It took a long time to load thf ir canoes as the)' had to wade through -the slush and water a long distance to get to them. It was late in the afternoon when they started for their island camp and after night when they arrived there. The next day they fixed up quarters for their new comers who were very grateful for being released from captivity but were very sad over the loss of their little Mary. Griscom gave this account of their capture: He. with his wife and little daughter seven years old; George Talbert and wife, a sister of Mrs. Griscom's and little boy five years old; Thomas West and wife; Davtd Hope and wife; a brother James, 15 years old and a sister, Jane, 11 years old, had em- barked on a boat, which they fitted out near Wheeling, Va., for the mouth of the Ohio river. Mr. Hope had been there when a soldier. The river was in a good stage of water and the run most 110 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. of the way had been very pleasant, not requiring: much use of the oars. They saw nothing of Indians until a day after passing the mouth of Green river. Late in the evening, three days before they were liberated by the hunters, they came to the head of a large island and the current drew the boat into the channel on the north side. As soon as they were well into the schute they were fired on by a concealed foe on the north bank, killing Talbert and Mrs. West, se- verely injuring Hope and breaking Mrs. Hope's arm. They lay down in the bottom of the boat hoping that the current would carry them beyond the reach of ihe Indians' guns, but soon they were seen coming after them in two canoes. The boatmen fired at them, killing two and wounding another one. West was shot and fell overboard. Griscom, in his hurry, broke the lock of his gun and before he could get anoiher one the Indians were in the boat. They finished killing Hope and his wife and Mrs. West, as ihey were badly wounded and captured and lied the oiher seven. The boac was soon landed and unloaded and the stores divided among the twenty Indians capturing them. The prisoners were huddled together and lay on the bank until the next morning when they started on the trip northward. On the second evening, coming to the edge of the Indian town before men- tioned, Mrs. Talbert, her little boy and the two Hope child- ren were taken by the Indians that stopped there. The Griscom family was taken around the town to the poii.t where they were liberated. The two hunters and Griscom had many consultations trying to form some plan to recap- ture Mrs. Talbert and the three children taken to the Indian town if they were still there. They finally took Pierre DeVan, the Frenchman, into the council and talked over many ways to best accomplish the dangerous undertaking and, as the}- were brave men, decided that, come what would, they would make the attempt. The water had gone down until it was nearly all out of the bottoms and the hunters made arrangements to go to the Indian town which, as they understood from Griscom, was twelve or fifteen miles away, at the same time intending to go PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. Ill by the bluff and bury Doyle and the little girl. They were in a quandary what to do with Mrs. Griscom, it being dangerous to leave her at the camp as at any time Indians from their town on the Patoka or White river not f af to the northeast, might came to the Island. She decided the question by informing them that she intended to go as she had been raised on the frontier of Virginia where Indian raids and counter raids by whites were of frequent occurence and that she would not in any way be a hindrance to them — if need be using a rifle as well as the best. This being settled they decided to start early the next morning. They marched along the bayou to the place where they had left their canoes on the other trip and thence to their camp of two weeks before. It was agreed that Murtree should make a reconnoissance of the surrounding neighborhood, going as far as the bluff. He i«ras gone about an hour and reported everything as they had left it except that he didn't see the least trace of the five Indians they had killed and left there. He supposed their bodies had been carried away and eaten by bears, wolves or panthers as the conntry was full of them. The shelf where the two white people were placed was just as they had left it. They all went to that point, taking an axe and a wooden shovel that they had made for the occasion. After selecting a place for the grave and digging it, they un- covered the bodies, carried them to it and buried them side by side. Though the mother of little Mary was a brave woman, it was very trying to her to thus give up her only child. It was necessary, however, not to waste time and so they were soon on the march again, Griscom leading the way. He intended to go within about a mile of the town and then let Pierre DeVan, the Frenchman, go to the village in his full Indian dress, representing that he had been with four Indian hunters going to the Ohio river; that he had shot a deer and while following its trail had gotten lost from the party and failed to find them, his purpose being to find the number of men in the village and if he could, to see Mrs. Talbert and give her a word of their plan. Griscom, after finding a good hiding place for the party^ 112 PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA. went with him near to the town. As they went he found a good place for defense, not more than half a mile away to which he could bring the rest of the party. He told DeVan that when he had accomplished his' mission to come to this place. The party was moved up to the new position Griscom had found. It was after dark when DeVan came slipping into