Full text of "History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley; gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic ... sources"

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FIRST COURT-HOUSE OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
(From plans and specifications on file in the archives of the county.)

HISTORY

MONTGOMERY COUNTY,

TOGETHER WITH

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE WABASH YALLEY,

GLEANED FROM EARLY AUTHORS, OLD MAPS AND MANUSCRIPTS,

PRIVATE AND OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE, AND OTHER

AUTHENTIC, THOUGH, FOR THE MOST PART,

OUT-OF-THE-WAY SOURCES.

By H. W. BECKWITH,

Op the Danville Bar; Corresponding Member op the Historical Societies op

Wisconsin and Chicago.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHICAGO:

H. H. HILL AND N. IDDINGS, PUBLISHERS.

1881.

COPTKIGHT, 1881,

By H. W. BECKWITH AND SON.

XIIIGHT S. LEO HARD ."I

PREFACE.

In presenting this History to the public the editors and publishers
have had in view the preservation of certain valuable historical
facts and information which without concentrated effort would not
have been obtained, but with the passing away of the old pioneers,
the failure of memory, and the loss of public records and private
diaries, would soon have been lost. This locality being compara-
tively new, we flatter ourselves that, with the zeal and industry
displayed by our general and local historians, we have succeeded
in rescuing from the fading years almost every scrap of history
worthy of preservation. Doubtless the work is, in some respects,
imperfect; — we do not present it as a model literary effort, but, in
that which goes to make up a valuable book of reference for the
present reader and the future historian, we assure our patrons that
neither money nor time has been spared in the accomplishment of
the work. Perhaps some errors will be found. With treacherous
memories, personal, political and sectarian prejudices and prefer-
ences to contend against, it would be almost a miracle if no mistakes
were made. We hope that even these defects which may be found
^ to exist may be made available in so far as they may provoke dis-
cussion and call attention to corrections and additions necessary to
perfect history.

The "History of the Wabash Valley" — necessarily the founda-
tion for the history of this part of the country, by H. W. Beckwith,
of Danville — has already received the hearty endorsement of the
press, of the historical societies of the northwestern states, and of
the most accurate historians in the country. Mr. Beckwith has in
his possession perhaps the most extensive private library of rare
historical works bearing on the territory under consideration in the
world, and from them he has drawn as occasion demanded.

b PREFACE.

The general county history, written by P. S. Kennedy, will
be found by our readers to be in a bold, fearless style, dealing in
facts as so many causes, and pursuing effects to the end without
turning to the right or left to accommodate the opinions or prefer-
ences of friend, party or sect.

The war record, which is as complete as can possibly be obtained,
it is believed will give eminent satisfaction to the many brave boys
who still survive and who took their lives in their hands and went
forth to battle for the Union, and who have liberally patronized us
in this work.

The township histories, by Messrs. Cowan, Cochran, Raymond,
Hyde and Turner, will be found full of valuable recollections, which,
but for their patient research, must soon have been lost forever,
but which are now happily preserved for all ages to come. These
gentlemen have placed upon the county and the adjacent country
a mark which will not be obliterated, but which will grow brighter
and broader as the years go by.

The biographical department contains the names and private
sketches of nearly every person of importance in each township.
A few persons, whose sketches we should be pleased to have pre-
sented, for various reasons refused or delayed furnishing us with
the desired information, and in this matter only we feel that our
work is incomplete. However, in most of such cases we have
obtained, in regard to the most important persons, some items,
and have woven them into the county or township sketches, so
that, as we believe, we cannot be accused of either partiality or
prejudice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

Topography — The drainage of the Lakes and the Mississippi, and the Indian and
French names by which they were severally called 11

CHAPTER II.

Drainage of the Illinois and Wabash — Their tributary streams — The portages
connecting the drainage to the Atlantic with that of the Gulf 17

CHAPTER III.

The ancient Maumee Valley — Geological features — The portage of the Wabash
and the Kankakee 21

CHAPTER IV.

The rainfall — Cultivation of the soil tends to equalize rainfall, and prevent the

recurrence of drouths and floods 26

CHAPTER V.

Origin of the prairies — Their former extent — Gradual encroachment of the
forest — Prairie fires — Aboriginal names of the prairies, and the Indians
who lived exclusively upon them 29

CHAPTER VI.

Early French discoveries — Jaques Cartier ascends the St. Lawrence in 1535 —
Samuel Cham plain founds Quebec in 1608 — In 1642 Montreal is established —
Influence of Quebec and Montreal upon the Northwest continues until subse-
quent to the war of 1812 — Spanish discoveries of the lower Mississippi in 1525, 37

CHAPTER VII.

Joliet and Marquette's Voyage — Father Marquette's Journal, descriptive of the
journey and the country through which they traveled — Biographical sketches
of Marquette and Joliet 43

CHAPTER VIII.

La Salle's Voyage — Biographical sketch of La Salle — Sketch of Father Hennepin
and the merit of his writings 54

CHAPTER IX.
La Salle's Voyage continued — He erects Fort Miamis 63

CHAPTER X.

The several rivers called the Miamis — La Salle's route down the Illinois — The
Kankakee Marshes — The French and Indian names of the Kankakee and
Des Plaines — The Illinois — "Fort Crevecoeur " — The whole valley of the
great river taken possession of in the name of the King of France 72

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI.

Death of La Salle, in attempting to establish a colony near the mouth of the
Mississippi — Chicago Creek— The origin of the name — La Salle assassinated
and his colony destroyed — Second attempt of France, under Mons. Iberville,
in 1699, to establish settlements on the Gulf — The Western Company —
Law's scheme of inflation and its consequences 87

CHAPTER XII.

Surrender of Louisiana to the French Crown in 1731 — Early routes by way of the
Kankakee, Chicago Creek, the Ohio, the Maumee and Wabash described —
The Maumee and Wabash, and the number and origin of their several names
— Indian villages 9&

CHAPTER XIII.

Aboriginal inhabitants — The several Illinois tribes — Of the name Illinois, and its
origin — The Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Tamaroas, Peorias and Metchigamis, sub-
divisions of the Illinois Confederacy — The tradition concerning the Iroquois
River — Their decline and removal westward of the Missouri 105

CHAPTER XIV.

TheMiamis — The Miami, Piankeshaw and Wea bands — Their superiority and
their military disposition — Their trade and difficulties with the French and
the English — They are upon the Maumee and Wabash — Their Villages —
They defeat the Iroquois — They trade with the English, and incur the anger
of the French — Their bravery — Their decline — Destructive effects of intem-
perance — Cession of their lands in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio — Their re-
moval westward and present condition 119

CHAPTER XV.

The Pottawatomies — Originally from the north and east of Lake Huron — Their
migrations by way of Mackinaw to the country west of Lake Michigan, and
thence south and eastward — Their games — Origin of the name Pottawato-
mie— Occupy a portion of the country of the Miamis along the Wabash —
Their villages — At peace with the United States after the war of 1812 — Cede
their lands — Their exodus from the Wabash, the Kankakee and Wabash . . . 137

CHAPTER XVI.

The Kickapoos and Mascoutins reside about Saginaw Bay in 1612 ; on Fox River,
Wisconsin, in 1670 — Their reception of the Catholic fathers— On the Maumee
in 1712 — In southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois — Migrate to the
Wabash — Dwellers of the prairie — Their destruction at the siege of De-
troit — Nearly destroy the Illinois and Piankeshaws, and occupy their country

— Join Tecumseh in a body — They, with the Winnebagoes, attack Fort
Harrison — Their country between the Illinois and Wabash — Their resem-
blance to the Sac and Fox Indians 153

CHAPTER XVII.

The Shawnees and Delawares — Originally east of the Alleghany Mountains —
Are subdued and driven out by the Iroquois — They war on the American
settlements — Their villages on the Big and Little Miamis, the St. Mary's,
the Au Glaize, Maumee and Wabash — The Delawares — Made women of by
the Iroquois — Their country on White River, Indiana, and eastward defined

— They, with the Shawnees, sent west of the Mississippi 170

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Indians — Their implements, utensils, fortifications, mounds, manners and

customs 180

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 9

CHAPTER XIX.

Stone implements used by the Indians before they came in contact with the Euro-
peans — Illustrations of various kinds of stone implements, and suggestions
as to their probable uses 195

CHAPTER XX.

The war for the fur trade — Former abundance of wild animals and water-fowl in
the Northwest — The buffalo; their range, their numbers, and final disap-
pearance — Value of the fur trade ; its importance to Canada 208

CHAPTER XXI.

The war for the empire — English claims to the Northwest — Deeds from the Iro-
quois to a large part of the country 224

CHAPTER XXII.

Pontiac's war to recover the country from the English — Pontiac's confederacy

falls to pieces — The country turned over to the English — Pontiac's death. . . 234

CHAPTER XXIII.

Gen. Clark's conquest of the " Illinois " — The Revolutionary war — Sketch of
Gen. Clark — His manuscript memoir of his march to the Illinois — He cap-
tures Kaskaskia — The surrender of Vincennes — Capt. Helm surprises a
convoy of English boats at the mouth of the Vermilion River — Organization
of the northwest territory into Illinois county of Virginia 245

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Topography and geology 1

Early history 9

A noted criminal trial 28

Montgomery County in the war of the rebellion 31

Roll of officers in the civil war .... 33

Soldiers of the war for the Union 44

The honored dead 102

Railroads of Montgomery County Ill

County officers 114

Union Township .... 116

Crawfordsville 116

Organization of city 132

Additions 137

Benevolent Orders 142

Fire Department 147

Trades and professions 149

Wabash College 153

Biographical 159

Brown Township . .'. 319

Lake Harney 322

Public improvements 324

Early history 325

Organization 327

Towns and villages 329

Secret Orders 333

Churches 336

Brown's Valley 345

New market ... 346

Biographical 349

Walnut Township 362

Towns 368

Schools and churches 370

Lodges 371

Biographical 374

10 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Scott. Township 406

Biographical 414

Madison Township 431

Lodges 433

Churches 434

Biographical 435

Clark Township 443

Biographical 452

Coal ( !reek Township 476

Schools 484

Churches 485

Meharry Grove 488

Biographical 488

Franklin Township 521

< Irganization 525

Early history 526

First land sales 527

Early improvements 528

Biographical 540

Sugar Creek Township 562

Biographical 570

Riplev Township 583

Biographical 587

Wayne Township 590

Biographical 592

THE WABASH VALLEY.

CHAPTER I.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The reader will have a better understanding of the manner in
which the territory, herein treated of, was discovered and subse-
quently occupied, if reference is made, in the outset, to some of its
more important topographical features.

Indeed, it would be an unsatisfactory task to try to follow the routes
of early travel, or to undertake to pursue the devious wanderings of
the aboriginal tribes, or trace the advance of civilized society into a
country, without some preliminary knowledge of its topography.

Looking upon a map of North America, it is observed that west-
ward of the Alleghany Mountains the waters are divided into two
great masses ; the one, composed of waters flowing into the great
northern lakes, is, by the river St. Lawrence, carried into the Atlantic
Ocean ; the other, collected by a multitude of streams spread out like
a vast net over the surface of more than twenty states and several ter-
ritories, is gathered at last into the Mississippi River, and thence dis-
charged into the Gulf of Mexico.

As it was by the St. Lawrence River, and the great lakes connected
with it, that the Northwest Territory was discovered, and for many
years its trade mainly carried on, a more minute notice of this remark-
able water communication will not be out of place. Jacques Cartier,
a French navigator, having sailed from St. Malo, entered, on the 10th
of August, 1535, the Gulf, which he had explored the year before, and
named it the St. Lawrence, in memory of the holy martyr whose feast
is celebrated on that day. This name was subsequently extended to
the river. Previous to this it was called the River of Canada, the
name given by the Indians to the whole country.* The drainage of
the St. Lawrence and the lakes extends through 14 degrees of longi-
tude, and covers a distance of over two thousand miles. Ascending

* Father Charlevoix' "History and General Description of New France;" Dr.
John G. Shea's translation ; vol. 1, pp. 37, 115.

12 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.

this river, we behold it flanked with bold crags and sloping hillsides ;
its current beset with rapids and studded with a thousand islands;
combining scenery of marvelous beauty and grandeur. Seven hundred
and fifty miles above its mouth, the channel deepens and the shores
recede into an expanse of water known as Lake Ontario.*

Passing westward on Lake Ontario one hundred and eighty miles
a second river is reached. A few miles above its entry into the lake,
the river is thrown over a ledge of rock into a yawning chasm, one
hundred and fifty feet below; and, amid the deafening noise and clouds
of vapor escaping from the agitated waters is seen the great Falls of
Niagara. At Buffalo, twenty-two miles above the falls, the shores of
Niagara River recede and a second great inland sea is formed, having
an average breadth of 40 miles and a length of 240 miles. This is
Lake Erie. The name has been variously spelt, — Earie, Ilerie, Erige
and Erike. It has also born the name of Conti.f Father Hennepin
says : " The Tlurons call it Lake Erige, or Erike, that is to say, the Lake
of the Cat, and the inhabitants of Canada have softened the word to
Erie ;" vide "A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America," p. 77;
London edition, 1698.

Hennepin's derivation is substantially followed by the more accurate
and accomplished historian, Father Charlevoix, who at a later period,
in 1721, in writing of this lake uses the following words: "The name
it bears is that of an Indian nation of the Huron language, which was
formerly settled on its banks and who have been entirely destroyed by
the Iroquois. Erie in that language signifies cat, and in some accounts
this nation is called the cat nation." He adds : " Some modern maps
have given Lake Erie the name of Conti, but with no better success
than the names of Conde, Tracy and Orleans which have been given
to Lakes Huron, Superior and Michigan.";}:

At the upper end of Lake Erie, to the southward, is Maumee Bay,
of which more hereafter ; to the northward the shores of the lake again

* Ontario has been favored with several names by early authors and map makers.
Champhtin's map, 1632, lays it down as Lac St. Louis. The map prefixed to Colden's
"History of the Five Nations" designates it as Cata-ra-qui, or Ontario Lake. The
word is Huron- Iroquois, and is derived, in their language, from Ontra, a lake, and io,
beautiful, the compound word meaning a beautiful lake ; vide Letter of DuBois
D'Avaugour, August 16, 1663, to the Minister: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 16. Baron
LaHontan, in his work and on the accompanying map, calls it Lake Frontenac; vide
"New Voyages to North America," vol. 1, p. 219. And Frontenac, the name by which
this lake was most generally designated by the early French writers, was given to it in
honor of the great i'ount Frontenac. < lovernor-General of Canada.

t Narrative of Father Zenohia Membre, who accompanied Sjeur La Salle in the
voyage westward on this lake in 1679 ; vide " Discovery and Exploration of the
Mississippi," by Dr. John G. Shea, p. 90. Barou La Hontan's "Voyages to North
America," vol. 1, p. 217, also map prefixed ; London edition, 1703. Cadwalder Col-
den's map, referred to in a previous note, designates it as "Lake Erie, or Okswego."

X Journal of a Voyage to North America, vol. 2, p. 2 ; London Edition, 1761.

THE LAKES. 13

approach each other and form a channel known as the River Detroit, a
French word signifying a strait or narrow passage. Northward some
twenty miles, and above the city of Detroit, the river widens into a
small body of water called Lake St. Clair. The name as now written
is incorrect : " we should either retain the French form, Claire, or take
the English Clare. It received its name in honor of the founder of the
Franciscan nuns, from the fact that La Salle reached it on the day con-
secrated to her."* Northward some twelve miles across this lake the
land again encroaches upon and contracts the waters within another
narrow bound known as the Strait of St. Clair. Passing up this strait,
northward about forty miles, Lake Huron is reached. It is 250 miles
long and 190 miles wide, including Georgian Bay on the east, and its
whole area is computed to be about 21,000 square miles. Its magnitude
fully justified its early name, La Mer-douce, the Fresh Sea, on account
of its extreme vastness.f The more popular name of Huron, which
has survived all others, was given to it from the great Huron nation of
Indians who formerly inhabited the country lying to the eastward of
it. Indeed, many of the early French writers call it Lac des Hurons,
that is, Lake of the Hurons. It is so laid down on the maps of Hen-
nepin, La Hontan, Charlevoix and Colden in the volumes before quoted.

Going northward, leaving the Straits of Mackinaw, through which
Lake Michigan discharges itself from the west, and the chain of
Manitoulin Islands to the eastward, yet another river, the connecting
link between Lake Huron and Superior, is reached. Its current is
ewift, and a mile below Lake Superior are the Falls, where the water
leaps and tumbles down a channel obstructed by boulders and shoals,
where, from time immemorial, the Indians of various tribes have
resorted on account of the abundance of fish and the ease with which
they are taken. Previous to the year 1670 the river was called the
Sault, that is, the rapids, or falls. In this year Fathers Marquette and
Dablon founded here the mission of " St. Marie du Sault" (St. Mary
of the Falls), from which the modern name of the river, St. Mary's, is
derived.;}: Recentl}'' the United States have perfected the ship canal
cut in solid rock, around the falls, through which the largest vessels
can now pass, from the one lake to the other.

Lake Superior, in its greatest length, is 360 miles, with a maximum
breadth of 140, the largest of the five great American lakes, and the
most extensive body of fresh water on the globe. Its form has been

*Note by Dr. Shea, " Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi," p. 143.
tChamplain's map, 1632. Also "Memoir on the Colony of Quebec, " August 4,
1663 : Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 16.

1 Charlevoix' "History of New France," vol. 2, p. 113; also note.

14: HISTORIC NOTES ON THK NORTHWEST.

poetically and not inaccurately described by a Jesuit Father, whose
account of it is preserved in the Relations for the years 1669 and 1670 :
" This lake has almost the form of a bended bow, and in length is more
than 180 leagues. The southern shore is as it were the cord, the arrow
being a long strip of land [Keweenaw Point] issuing from the south-
ern coast and running more than 80 leagues to the middle of the
lake." A glance on the map will show the aptness of the comparison.
The name Superior was given to it by the Jesuit Fathers, "in conse-
quence of its being above that of Lake Huron.* It was also called
Lake Tracy, after Marquis De Tracy, who was governor-general of
Canada from 1663 to 1665. Father Claude Allouez, in his " Journal
of Travels to the Country of the Ottawas," preserved in the Relations
for the years 1666, 1667, says : " After passing through the St.
Mary's River we entered the upper lake, which will hereafter bear
the name of Monsieur Tracy, an acknowledgment of the obligation
under which the people of this country are to him." The good father,
however, was mistaken ; the name Tracy only appears on a few ancient
maps, or is perpetuated in rare volumes that record the almost for-
gotten labors of the zealous Catholic missionaries; while the earlier
name of Lake "Superior" is familiar to every school-boy who has
thumbed an atlas.

At the western extremity of Lake Superior enter the Rivers Bois-
Brule and St. Louis, the upper tributaries of which have their sources
on the northeasterly slope of a water-shed, and approximate very near
the head-waters of the St. Croix, Prairie and Savannah Rivers, which,
issuing from the opposite side of this same ridge, flow into the upper
Mississippi.

The upper portions of Lakes Huron, Michigan, Green Bay, with
their indentations, and the entire coast line, with the islands eastward
and westward of the Straits of Mackinaw, are all laid down with quite
a degree of accuracy on a map attached to the Relations of the Jesuits
for the years 1670 and 1671, a copy of which is contained in Bancroft's
History of the United States, f showing that the reverend fathers were
industrious in mastering and preserving the geographical features of
the wilderness they traversed in their holy calling.

Lake Michigan is the only one of the five great lakes that lays
wholly within the United States, — the other four, with their connect-
ing rivers and straits, mark the boundary between the Dominion of
Canada and the United States. Its length is 320 miles ; its average
breadth 70, with a mean depth of over 1,000 feet. Its area is some

* Relations of 1660 and 1669. f Vol. 3, p. 152; fourth edition.

LAKE MICHIGAN. 15

22,000 square miles, being considerably more than that of Lake Huron
and less than that of Lake Superior.

Michigan was the last of the lakes in order of discovery. The
Huron s, christianized and dwelling eastward of Lake Huron, had been
driven from their towns and cultivated fields by the Iroquois, and scat-
tered about Mackinaw and the desolate coast of Lake Superi^** Kc vyond,
whither they were followed by their faithful pastors, the Jesuits, who
erected new altars and gathered the remnants of their stricken follow-
ers about them ; all this occurred before the fathers had acquired any
definite knowledge of Lake Michigan. In their mission work for the
year 1666, it is referred to " as the Lake Illinouek, a great lake adjoin-
ing, or between, the lake of the Hurons and that of Green Bay, that
had not [as then] come to their knowledge." In the Relation for the
same year, it is referred to as "Lake Illeaouers," and " Lake Illinioues,
as yet unexplored, though much smaller than Lake Huron, and that the
Outagamies [the Fox Indians] call it Machi-hi-gan-ing." Father Hen-
nepin says: " The lake is called by the Indians, 'Illinouek,' and by the
French, ' Illinois,' " and that the " Lake Illinois, in the native lan-
guage, signifies the ' Lake of Men.' ' He also adds in the same para-
graph, that it is called by the Miamis, " Mischigonong, that is, the <
great lake." * Father Marest, in a letter dated at Ivaskaskia, Illinois,
November 9, 1712, so often referred to on account of the valuable his-
torical matter it contains, contracts the aboriginal name to Michigan,
and is, perhaps, the first author who ever spelt it in the way that has
become universal. He naively saj^s, " that on the maps this lake has
the name, without any authority, of the ' Lake of the Illinois] since
the Illinois do not dwell in its neighborhood." f

* Hennepin's " New Discovery of a Vast Country in America," vol. 1, p. 35. The
name is derived from the two Algonquin words, Michi (mishi or missi), which signifies
great, as it does, also, several or many, and Sagayigan, a lake; vide Henry's Travels,
p. 37, and Alexander Mackenzie's Vocabulary of Algonquin Words.

t Kip's Early Jesuit Missions, p. 222.

CHAPTER II.

DRAINAGE OF THE ILLINOIS AND WABASH.

The reader's attention will now be directed to the drainage of the
Illinois and Wabash Rivers to the Mississippi, and that of the Maumee
River into Lake Erie. The Illinois River proper is formed in Grundy
county, Illinois, below the city of Joliet, by the union of the Kanka-
kee and Desplaines Rivers. The latter rises in southeastern Wisconsin ;
and its course is almost south, through the counties of Cook and Will.
The Kankakee has its source in the vicinity of South Bend, Indiana.
It pursues a devious way, through marshes and low grounds, a south-
westerly course, forming the boundary-line between the counties of
Laporte, Porter and Lake on the north, and Stark, Jasper and Newton
on the south ; thence across the dividing line of the two states of Indi-
ana and Illinois, and some fifteen miles into the county of Kankakee,
at the confluence of the Iroquois River, where its direction is changed
northwest to its junction with the Desplaines. The Illinois passes
westerly into the county of Putnam, where it again turns and pursues
a generally southwest course to its confluence with the Mississippi,
twenty miles above the mouth of the Missouri. It is about five hun-
dred miles long ; is deep and broad, and in several places expands into
basins, which may be denominated lakes. Steamers ascend the river, in
high water, to La Salle ; from whence to Chicago navigation is contin-
ued by means of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The principal trib-
utaries of the Illinois, from the north and right bank, are the Au Sable,
Fox River, Little Vermillion, Bureau Creek, Kickapoo Creek (which
empties in just below Peoria), Spoon River, Sugar Creek, and finally
Crooked Creek. From the south or left bank are successively the Iro-
quois (into the Kankakee), Mazon Creek, Vermillion, Crow Meadow,
Mackinaw, Sangamon, and Macoupin.

The Wabash issues out of a small lake, in Mercer county, Ohio, and
runs a westerly course through the counties of Adams, Wells and
Huntington in the state of Indiana. It receives Little River, just
below the city of Huntington, and continues a westwardly course
through the counties of Wabash, Miami and Cass. Here it turns
more to the south, flowing through the counties of Carroll and Tippe-
canoe, and marking the boundary -line between the counties of Warren

THE MAUMEE AND PORTAGES. 17

and Vermillion on the west, and Fountain and Park on the east. At
Covington, the county seat of Fountain county, the river runs more
directly south, between the counties of Vermillion on the one side,
and Fountain and Parke on the other, and through the county of Vigo,
some miles below Terre Haute, from which place it forms the boundary-
line between the states of Indiana and Illinois to its confluence with
the Ohio.

Its principal tributaries from the north and west, or right bank of
the stream, are Little Kiver, Eel River, Tippecanoe, Pine Creek, Red
Wood, Big Vermillion, Little Vermillion, Bruletis, Sugar Creek, Em-
barras, and Little "Wabash. The streams flowing in from the south and
east, or left bank of the river, are the Salamonie, Mississinewa, Pipe
Creek, Deer Creek, Wildcat, Wea and Shawnee Creeks, Coal Creek,
Sugar Creek, Raccoon Creek, Otter Creek, Busseron Creek, and White
River.

There are several other, and smaller, streams not necessary here to
notice, although they are laid down on earlier maps, and mentioned in
old " Gazetteers" and "Emigrant's Guides."

The Maumee is formed by the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers,
which unite their waters at Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The St. Joseph has
its source in Hillsdale county, Michigan, and runs southwesterly
through the northwest corner of Ohio, through the county of De Kalb,
and into the county of Allen, Indiana. The St. Mary's rises in
Au Glaize county, Ohio, very near the little lake at the head of the
Wabash, before referred to, and runs northwestwardly parallel with the
Wabash, through the counties of Mercer, Ohio, and Adams, Indiana,
and into Allen county to the place of its union with the St. Joseph,
at Ft. Wayne. The principal tributaries of the Maumee are the Au
Glaize from the south, Bear Creek, Turkey Foot Creek, Swan Creek
from the north. The length of the Maumee River, from Ft. Wayne
northeast to Maumee Bay at the west end of Lake Erie, is very little
over 100 miles.

A noticeable feature relative to the territory under consideration,
and having an important bearing on its discovery and settlement, is
the fact that many of the tributaries of the Mississippi have their
branches interwoven with numerous rivers draining into the lakes.
They not infrequently issue from the same lake, pond or marsh situated
on the summit level of the divide from which the waters from one end
of the common reservoir drain to the Atlantic Ocean and from the other
to the Gulf of Mexico. By this means nature herself provided navig-
able communication between the northern lakes and the Mississippi
Valley. It was, however, only at times of the vernal floods that the

18 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.

communication was complete. At other seasons of the year it was
interrupted, when transfers by laud were required for a short distance.
The places where these transfers were made are known by the French
term portage, which, like many other foreign derivatives, has become
anglicized, and means a carrying place ; because in low stages of water
the canoes and effects of the traveler had to be carried around the dry
marsh or pond from the head of one stream to the source of that beyond.

The first of these portages known to the Europeans, of which
accounts have come down to us, is the portage of the Wisconsin, in the
state of that name, connecting the Mississippi and Green Bay by means
of its situation between the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers. The next is
the portage of Chicago, uniting Chicago Creek, which empties into
Lake Michigan at Chicago, and the Desplaines of the Illinois River.
The third is the portage of the Kankakee, near the present city of
South Bend, Indiana, which connects the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan
with the upper waters of the Kankakee. And the fourth is the portage
of the Wabash at Ft. Wayne, Indiana, between the Maumee and the
Wabash, by way of Little River.

Though abandoned and their former uses forgotten in the advance
of permanent settlement and the progress of more efficient means of
commercial intercourse, these portages were the gateways of the
French between their possessions in Canada and along the Mississippi.

Formerly the Northwest was a wilderness of forest and prairie, with
only the paths of wild animals or the trails of roving Indians leading,
through tangled undergrowth and tall grasses. In its undeveloped
form it was without roads, incapable of land carriage and could not
be traveled by civilized man, even on foot, without the aid of a savage
guide and a permit from its native occupants which afforded little or no
security to life or property. For these reasons the lakes and rivers, with
their connecting portages, were the only highways, and they invited
exploration. They afforded ready means of opening up the interior.
The French, who were the first explorers, at an early day, as we shall
hereafter see, established posts at Detroit, at the mouth of the Niagara
River, at Mackinaw, Green Bay, on the Illinois River, the St. Joseph's
of Lake Michigan, on the Maumee, the Wabash, and at other places
on the route of inter-lake and river communication. By means of
having seized these strategical points, and their influence over the
Indian tribes, the French monopolized the fur trade, and although
feebly assisted by the home government, held the whole Mississippi
Valley and regions of the lakes, for near three quarters of a century,
against all efforts of the English colonies, eastward of the Alleghany
ridge, who, assisted by England, sought to wrest it from their grasp.

CHICAGO PORTAGE. 19

Recurring to the old portage at Chicago, it is evident that at a com-
paratively recent period, since the glacial epoch, a large part of Cook
county was under water. The waters of Lake Michigan, at that time,
found an outlet through the Desplaines and Illinois Eivers into the
Mississippi.* This assertion is confirmed from the appearance of the
whole channel of the Illinois River, which formerly contained a stream
of much greater magnitude than now. The old beaches of Lake
Michigan are plainly indicated in the ridges, trending westward several
miles away from the present water line. The old state road, from
Vincennes to Chicago, followed one of these ancient lake beaches from
Blue Island into the city.

The subsidence of the lake must have been gradual, requiring
many ages to accomplish the change of direction in the flow of its
waters from the Mississippi to the St. Lawrence.

The character of the portage has also undergone changes within
the memory of men still living. The excavation of the Illinois and
Michigan Canal, and the drainage of the adjacent land by artificial
ditches, has left little remaining from which its former appearance can
now be recognized. Major Stephen H. Long, of the U. S. Topo-
graphical Engineers, made an examination of this locality in the year
1823, before it had been changed by the hand of man, and says, con-
cerning it, as follows : " The south fork of Chicago River takes its rise
about six miles from the fort, in a swamp, which communicates also
with the Desplaines, one of the head branches of the Illinois. Hav-
ing been informed that this route was frequently used by traders, and
that it had been traversed by one of the officers of the garrison, — who
returned with provisions from St. Louis a few days before our arrival
at the fort, — we determined to ascend the Chicago River in order to
observe this interesting division of waters. We accordingly left the
fort on the 7th day of June, in a boat which, after having ascended
the river four miles, we exchanged for a narrow pirogue that drew
less water, — the stream we were ascending was very narrow, rapid and
crooked, presenting a great fall. It so continued for about three miles,
when we reached a sort of a swamp, designated by the Canadian voy-
agers under the name of l Le Petit Lac.'' f Our course through this
swamp, which extended three miles, was very much impeded by the
high grass, weeds, etc., through which our pirogue passed with diffi-
culty. Observing that our progress through the fen was slow, and the
day being considerably advanced, we landed on the north bank, and
continued our course along the edge of the swamp for about three

* Geological Survey of Illinois, vol. 3, p. 240.

t What remains of this lake is now known by the name of Mud Lake.

20 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.

miles, until we reached the place where the old portage road meets the
current, which was here very distinct toward the south. "We were
delighted at beholding, for the first time, a feature so interesting in
itself, but which we had afterward an opportunity of observing fre-
quently on the route, viz, the division of waters starting from the same
source, and running in two different directions, so as to become feed-
ers of streams that discharge themselves into the ocean at immense dis-
tances apart. Lieut. Hobson, who accompanied us to the Desplaines,
told us that he had traveled it with ease, in a boat loaded with lead
and flour. The distance from the fort to the intersection of the port-
age road is about twelve or thirteen miles, and the portage road is
about eleven miles long ; the usual distance traveled by land seldom
exceeds from four to nine miles ; however, in very dry seasons it is
said to amount to thirty miles, as the portage then extends to Mount
Juliet, near the confluence of the Kankakee. Although at the time
we visited it there was scarcely water enough to permit our pirogue
to pass, we could not doubt that in the spring of the year the route
must be a very eligible one. It is equally apparent that an expendi-
ture, trifling when compared to the importance of the object, would
again render Lake Michigan a tributary of the Gulf of Mexico." *

* Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, vol. 1, pp. 165, 166,
167. The State of Illinois begun work on the construction of a canal on this old
portage on the 4th day of July, 1836, with great ceremony. Col. Guerdon S. Hubbard,
still living, cast the first shovelful of earth out of it on this occasion. The work was
completed in 1848. The canal was fed with water elevated by a pumping apparatus
at Bridgeport. Recently the city of Chicago, at enormous expense sunk the bed
of the canal to a depth that secures a flow of water directly from the lake, by means
of which, the navigation is improved, and sewerage is obtained into the Illinois River.

CHAPTER III.

ANCIENT MAUMEE VALLEY.

What has been said of the changes in the surface geology of Lake
Michigan and the Illinois River may also be affirmed with respect to
Lake Erie and the Maumee and Wabash Rivers. There are peculiari-
ties which will arrest the attention, from a mere examination of the
course of the Maumee and of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers, as
they appear on the map of that part of Ohio and Indiana. The St.
Joseph, after running southwest to its union with the St. Mary's at
Ft. Wayne, as it were almost doubles back upon its former course,
taking a northeast direction, forming the shape of a letter V, and after
having flowed over two hundred miles is discharged at a point within
less than fifty miles east of its source. It is evident, from an exami-
nation of that part of the country, that, at one time, the St. Joseph
ran wholly to the southwest, and that the Maumee River itself,
instead of flowing northeast into Lake Erie, as now, drained this lake
southwest through the present valley of the Wabash. Then Lake
Erie extended very nearly to Ft. Wayne, and its ancient shores are
still plainly marked. The line of the old beach is preserved in the
ridges running nearly parallel with, and not a great distance from, the
St. Joseph and the St. Mary's Rivers. Professor G. K. Gilbert, in his
report of the " Surface Geology of the Maumee Yalley," gives the
result of his examination of these interesting features, from which we
take the following valuable extract.*

"The upper (lake) beach consists, in this region, of a single bold
ridge of sand, pursuing a remarkably straight course in a northeast and
southwest direction, and crossing portions of Defiance, Williams and
Fulton counties. It passes just west of Hicksville and Bryan ; while
Williams Center, West Unity and Fayette are built on it. When
Lake Erie stood at this level, it was merged- at the north with Lake
Huron. Its southwest shore crossed Hancock, Putnam, Allen and
Van Wert counties, and stretched northwest in Indiana, nearly to Ft.
Wayne. The northwestern shore line, leaving Ohio near the south
line of Defiance county, is likewise continued in Indiana, and the two
converge at New Haven, six miles east of Ft. Wayne. They do not,

* Geological Survey of Ohio, vol. 1, p. 550.

22 HISTORIC NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.

however, unite, but, instead, become parallel, and are continued as the
sides of a broad watercourse, through which the great lake basin then
discharged its surplus waters, southwestwardly, into the valley of the
Wabash River, and thence to the Mississippi. At New Haven, this
channel is not less than a mile and a half broad, and has an average
depth of twenty feet, with sides and bottom of drift. For twenty-five
miles this character continues, and there is no notable fall. Three
miles above Huntington, Indiana, however, the drift bottom is replaced
by a floor of Niagara limestone, and the descent becomes comparatively
quite rapid. At Huntington, the valley is walled, on one side at least,
by rock in situ. In the eastern portion of this ancient river-bed, the
Maumee and its branches have cut channels fifteen to twenty-five feet
deep, without meeting the underlying limestone. Most of the inter-
val from Ft. Wayne to Huntington is occupied by a marsh, over which
meanders Little River, an insignificant stream whose only claim to the
title of river seems to lie in the magnitude of the deserted channel of
which it is sole occupant. At Huntington, the Wabash emerges from
a narrow cleft, of its own carving, and takes possession of the broad
trough to which it was once an humble tributary."

Within the personal knowledge of men, the Wabash River has been,
and is, only a rivulet, a shriveled, dried up representative in comparison
with its greatness in pre-historic times, when it bore in a broader
channel the waters of Lakes Erie and Huron, a mighty flood, south-
ward to the Ohio. Whether the change in the direction of the flow of
Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan toward the River St. Lawrence, instead
of through the Wabash and Illinois Rivers respectively, is because
hemispheric depression has taken place more rapidly in the vicinity of
the lakes than farther southward, or that the earth's crust south of the
lakes has been arched upward by subterraneous influences, and thus
caused the lakes to recede, or if the change has been produced by
depression in one direction and elevation in the other, combined, is not
our province to discuss. The fact, however, is well established by the
most abundant and conclusive evidence to the scientific observer.

The portage, or carrying place, of the Wabash,* as known to the
early explorers and traders, between the Maumee and Wabash, or rather
the head of Little River, called by the French " La Petit Riviere,"
commenced directly at Ft. Wayne ; although, in certain seasons of the
year, the waters approach much nearer and w r ere united by a low piece

* Schoolcraft's Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley, " in the year
1821, pp. 90, 91. In this year, Mr. Schoolcraft made an examination of the locality,
with a view to furnish the public information on the practicability of a canal to unite
the waters of the Maumee and the Wabash. It was at a time when great interest
existed through all parts of the country on all subjects of internal navigation.

PORTAGE OF THE WABASH. 23

of ground or marsh (an arm or bay of what is now called Bear Lake),
where the two streams flow within one hundred and fifty yards of each
other and admitted of the passage of light canoes from the one to the
other. ,

The Miami Indians knew the value of this portage, and it was a
source of revenue to them, aside from its advantages in enabling them
to exercise an influence over adjacent tribes. The French, in passing
from Canada to New Orleans, and Indian traders going from Montreal
and Detroit, to the Indians south and westward, went and returned by
way of Ft. Wayne, where the Miamis, kept carts and pack-horses, with
a corps of Indians to assist in carrying canoes, furs and merchandise
around the portage, for which they charged a commission. At the
great treaty of Greenville, 1795, where General Anthony Wayne met
the several Wabash tribes, he insisted, as one of the fruits of his victory
over them, at the Fallen Timbers, on the Maumee, the year before, that
they should cede to the United States a piece of ground six miles
square, where the fort, named in honor of General Wayne, had been
erected after the battle named, and on the site of the present city of
Ft. Wayne ; and, also, a piece of territory two miles square at the
carrying place. The distinguished warrior and statesman, " Mishe-
kun-nogh-quah" (as he signs his name at this treaty), or the Little Turtle
on behalf of his tribe, objected to a relinquishment of their right to
their ancient village and its portage, and in his speech to General
Wayne said: "Elder Brother, — When our forefathers saw the French
and English at the Miami village — that ' glorious gate ' which your
younger brothers [meaning the Miamis] had the happiness to own,
and through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass [that
is, messages between the several tribes] from north to south and from
east to west, the French and English never told us they wished to
purchase our lands from us. The next place you pointed out was the
Little River, and said you wanted two miles square of that place. This
is a request that our fathers the French or British never made of us ;
it was always ours. This carrying place has heretofore proved, in a
great degree, the subsistence of your brothers. That place has brought
to us, in the course of one day, the amount of one hundred dollars.
Let us both own this place and enjoy in common the advantages it
affords." The Little Turtle's speech availed nothing.*

The St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, a fine stream of uniform, rapid
current, reaches its most southerly position near the city of South
Bend, Indiana, — the city deriving its name from the bend of the river ;

* Minutes of the Treaty of Greenville: American State Papers on Indian Affairs,
vol. 1, pp. 576, 578.

24 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

here the river turns northward, reenters the State of Michigan and dis-
charges into the lake. West of the city is Lake Kankakee, from
which the Kankakee River takes its rise. The distance intervening: be-
tween the head of this little lake and»the St. Joseph is about two miles,
over a piece of marshy ground, where the elevation is so slight " that
in the year 1832 a Mr. Alexander Croquillard dug a race, and secured
a flow of water from the lake to the St. Joseph, of sufficient power to
run a grist and saw mill." *

This is the portage of the Kankakee, a place conspicuous for its
historical reminiscences. It was much used, and offered a choice of
routes to the Illinois River, and also to the Wabash, by a longer land-
carriage to the upper waters of the Tippecanoe. A memoir on the
Indians of Canada, etc., prepared in the year 1718 (Paris Documents,
vol. 1, p. 889), says : " The river St. Joseph is south of Lake Michi-
gan, formerly the Lake of the Illinois ; many take this river to pass to
the Rocks [as Fort St. Louis, situated on ' Starved Rock ' in La Salle
county, Illinois, was sometimes called], because it is convenient, and
they thereby avoid the portages ' des Chaines ' and 'des Perches] " —
two long, difficult carrying places on the Desplaines, which had to
be encountered in dry seasons, on the route by the way of Chicago
Creek.

The following description of the Kankakee portage, and its adjacent
surroundings, is as that locality appeared to Father Hennepin, when he
was there with La Salle's party of voyagers two hundred years ago the
coming December : " The next morning (December 5, 1679) we joined
our men at the portage, where Father Gabriel had made the day before
several crosses upon the trees, that we might not miss it another time."
The voyagers had passed above the portage without being aware of it,
as the country was all strange to them. We found here a great quan-
tity of horns and bones of wild oxen, buffalo, and also some canoes
the savages had made with the skins of beasts, to cross the river with
their provisions. This portage lies at the farther end of a champaign ;
and at the other end to the west lies a village of savages, — Miamis,
Mascoutines and Oiatinons (Weas), who live together. " The river of
the Illinois has its source near that village, and springs out of some
marshy lands that are so quaking that one can scarcely walk over them.
The head of the river is only a league and a half from that of the Mi-
amis (the St. Joseph), and so our portage was not long. We marked
the way from place to place, with some trees, for the convenience of
those we expected after us ; and left at the portage as well as at Fort

* Prof. G. M. Levette's Report on the Geology of St. Joseph County: Geological
Survey of Indiana for the year 1873, p. 459.

THE KANKAKEE. 25

Miamis (which they had previously erected at the mouth of the St.
Joseph), letters hanging down from the trees, containing M. La Salle's
instructions to our pilot, and the other five-and-twenty men who were
to come with him." The pilot had been sent back from Mackinaw
with La Salle's ship, the Griffin, loaded with furs ; was to discharge
the cargo at the fort below the mouth of Niagara River, and then
bring the ship with all dispatch to the St. Joseph.

" The Illinois River (continues Hennepin's account) is navigable
within a hundred paces from its source, — I mean for canoes of barks of
trees, and not for others, — but increases so much a little way from
thence, that it is as deep and broad as the Meuse and the Sambre joined
together. It runs through vast marshes, and although it be rapid
enough, it makes so many turnings and windings, that after a whole
day's journey we found that we were hardly two leagues from the place
we left in the morning. That country is nothing but marshes, full of
alder trees and bushes ; and we could have hardly found, for forty
leagues together, any place to plant our cabins, had it not been for the
frost, which made the earth more firm and consistent."

CHAPTER TV.

RAINFALL.

An interesting topic connected with our rivers is the question of
rainfall. The streams of the west, unlike those of mountainous dis-
tricts, which are fed largely by springs and brooks issuing from the
rocks, are supplied mostly from the clouds. It is within the observa-
tion of persons who lived long in the valleys of the Wabash and Illinois,
or along their tributaries, that these streams apparently carry a less
volume of water than formerly. Indeed, the water-courses seem to be
gradually drying up, and the whole surface of the country drained by
them has undergone the same change. In early days almost every
land-owner on the prairies had upon his farm a pond that furnished
an unfailing supply of water for his live stock the year around. These
never went dry, even in the driest seasons.

Formerly the Wabash afforded reliable steamboat navigation as
high up as La Fayette. In 1831, between the 5th of March and the
16th of April, fifty-four steamboats arrived and departed from Vin-
cennes. In the months of February, March and April of the same year,
there were sixty arrivals and departures from La Fayette, then a village
of only three or four hundred houses ; many of these boats were large
side-wheel steamers, built for navigating the Ohio and Mississippi, and
known as New Orleans or lower river boats."- The writer has the
concurrent evidence of scores of early settlers with whom he has con-
versed that formerly the Vermilion, at Danville, had to be ferried on
an average six months during the year, and the river was considered
low when it could be forded at this place without water running into
the wagon bed. Now it is fordable at all times, except when swollen
with freshets, which now subside in a very few days, and often within
as many hours. Doubtless, the same facts can be affirmed of the many
other tributaries of the Illinois and Wabash whose names have been
already given. ,

The early statutes of Illinois and Indiana are replete with special
laws, passed between the years 1825 and 1840, when the people of
these two states were crazed over the question of internal navigation,
providing enactments and charters for the slack-water improvement of

* Tanner's View of the Mississippi, published in 1832. p. 154.

RAINFALL. 27

hundreds of streams whose insignificance have* now only a dry bed,
most of the year, to indicate that they were ever dignified with such
legislation and invested with the promise of bearing upon their bosoms
a portion of the future internal commerce of the country.

It will not do to assume that the seeming decrease of water in the
streams is caused by a diminution of rain. The probabilities are that
the annual rainfall is greater in Indiana and Illinois than before their
settlement with a permanent population. The "settling up" of a
country, tilling its soil, planting trees, constructing railroads, and erect-
ing telegraph lines, all tend to induce moisture and produce changes
in the electric and atmospheric currents that invite the clouds to pre-
cipitate their showers. Such has been the effect produced by the hand
of man upon the hitherto arid plains of Kansas and Nebraska. Indeed,
at an early day some portions of Illinois were considered as uninhab-
itable as western Kansas and Nebraska were supposed, a few years ago,
to be on account of the prevailing drouths. That part of the state
lying between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, south of a line run-
ning from the Mississippi, between Rock Island and Mercer counties,
east to the Illinois, set off for the benefit of the soldiers of the War
of 1812, and for that reason called the " Military Tract," except that
part of it lying more immediately near the rivers named, was laid under
the bane of a drouth-stricken region. Mr. Lewis A. Beck, a shrewd
and impartial observer, and a gentleman of great scientific attainments,*
was through the " military tract " shortly after it had been run out into
sections and townships by the government, and says concerning it,
" The northern part of the tract is not so favorable for settlement.
The prairies become very extensive and are badly watered. In fact,
this last is an objection to the whole tract. In dry seasons it is not
unusual to walk through beds of the largest streams without finding a
drop of water. It is not surprising that a country so far distant from
the sea and drained by such large rivers, which have a course of several
thousand miles before they reach the great reservoir, should not be well
watered. This, we observe, is the case with all fine-flowing streams of
the highlands, whereas those of the Champaign and prairies settle in
the form of ponds, which stagnate and putrify. Besides, on the same
account there are very few heavy rains in the summer ; and hence
during that season water is exceedingly scarce. The Indians, in their
journeys, pass by places where they know there are ponds, but gener-
ally they are under the necessity of carrying water in bladders. This
drouth is not confined to the ' military tract,' but in some seasons is
very general. During the summer of 1820 it was truly alarming ;

* Beck's Illinois and Missouri Gazetteer, published in 1823, pp. 79, 80.

28 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.

travelers, in many instances, were obliged to pass whole days, in the
warmest weather, without being able to procure a cupful of water for
themselves or their horses, and that which they occasionally did find
was almost putrid. It may be remarked, however, that such seasons
rarely occur; but on account of its being washed by rivers of such
immense length this section of the country is peculiarly liable to suffer
from excessive drouth." The millions of bushels of grain annually
raised in, and the vast herds of cattle and other live stock that are fat-
tened on, the rich pastures of Bureau, Henry, Stark, Peoria, Knox,
Warren, and other counties lying wholly or partially within the "mili-
tary tract," illustrate an increase and uniformity of rainfall since the
time Professor Beck recorded his observations. In no part of Illinois
are the crops more abundant and certain, and less liable to suffer from
excessive drouth, than in the " military tract." The apparent decrease in
the volume of water carried by the "Wabash and its tributaries is easily
reconciled with the theory of an increased rainfall since the settlement
of the country. These streams for the most part have their sources in
ponds, marshes and low grounds. These basins, covering a great extent
of the surface of the country, served as reservoirs ; the earth was cov-
ered with a thick turf that prevented the water penetrating the ground ;
tall grasses in the valleys and about the margin of the ponds impeded
the flow of water, and fed it out gradually to the rivers. In the tim-
ber the marshes were likewise protected from a rapid discharge of their
contents by the trunks of fallen trees, limbs and leaves.

Since the lands have been reduced to cultivation, millions of acres
of sod have been broken by the plow, a spongy surface has been turned
to the heavens and much of the rainfall is at once soaked into the
ground. The ponds and low grounds have been drained. The tall
grasses with their mat of penetrating roots have disappeared from the
swales. The brooks and drains, from causes partially natural, or artifi-
cially aided by man, have cut through the ancient turf and made w r ell
defined ditches. The rivers themselves have worn a deeper passage in
their beds. By these means the water is now soon collected from the
earth's surface and carried off with increased velocity. Formerly the
streams would sustain their volume continuously for weeks. Hence
much of the rainfall is directly taken into the ground, and only a por-
tion of it now finds its way to the rivers, and that which does has a
speedier exit. Besides this, settlement of and particularly the growing
of trees on the prairies and the clearing out of the excess of forests in the
timbered districts, tends to distribute the rainfall more evenly through-
out the year, and in a large degree prevents the recurrence of those ex-
tremes of drouth and flood with which this country was formerly visited.

CHAPTER V.

ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES.

The prairies have ever been a wonder, and their origin the theme of
much curious speculation. The vast extent of these natural meadows
would naturally excite curiosity, and invite the many theories which,
from time to time, have been advanced by writers holding conflicting
opinions as to the manner in which they were formed. Major Stod-
dard, H. M. Brackenridge and Governor Reynolds, whose personal
acquaintance with the prairies, eastward of the Mississippi, extended
back prior to the year 1800, and whose observations were supported
by the experience of other contemporaneous residents of the west, held
that the prairies were caused by fire. The prairies are covered with
grass, and were probably occasioned by the ravages of fire ; because
wherever copses of trees were found on them, the grounds about them
are low and too moist to admit the fire to pass over it ; and because it is
a common practice among the Indians and other hunters to set the
woods and prairies on fire, by means of which they are able to kill an
abundance of game. They take secure stations to the leeward, and
the fire drives the game to them.*

The plains of Indiana and Illinois have been mostly produced by
the same cause. They are very different from the Savannahs on the
seaboard and the immense plains of the upper Missouri. In the
prairies of Indiana I have been assured that the woods in places have
been known to recede, and in others to increase, within the recollection
of the old inhabitants. In moist places, the woods are still standing,
the fire meeting here with obstruction. Trees, if planted in these
prairies, would doubtless grow. In the islands, preserved by accidental
causes, the progress of the fire can be traced ; the first burning would
only scorch the outer bark of the tree; this would render it more
susceptible to the next, the third would completely kill. I have seen
in places, at present completely prairie, pieces of burnt trees, proving
that the prairie had been caused by fire. The grass is generally very
luxuriant, which is not the case in the plains of the Missouri. There
may, doubtless, be spots where the proportion of salts or other bodies
may be such as to favor the growth of grass only.f

* Sketches of Louisiana, by Major Amos Stoddard, p. 213.
t Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 108.

30 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Governor Reynolds, who came to Illinois at the age of thirteen, in
the year 1800, and lived here for over sixty years, the greater portion
of his time employed in a public capacity, roving over the prairies
in the Indian border wars or overseeing the affairs of a public and busy
life, in his interesting autobiography, published in 1855, says: "Many
learned essays are written on the origin of the prairies, but any atten-
tive observer will come to the conclusion that it is fire burning the
strong, high grass that caused the prairies. I have witnessed the
growth of the forest in these southern counties of Illinois, and know
there is more timber in them now than there was forty or fifty years
before. The obvious reason is, the fire is kept out. This is likewise
the reason the prairies are generally the most fertile soil. The vegeta-
tion in them was the strongest and the fires there burnt with the most
power. The timber was destroyed more rapidly in the fertile soil than
in the barren lands. It will be seen that the timber in the north of
the state, is found only on the margins of streams and other places
where the prairie fires could not reach it."

The later and more satisfactory theory is, that the prairies were
formed by the action of water instead of fire. This position was taken
and very ably discussed by that able and learned writer, Judge James
Hall, as early as 1836. More recently, Prof. Lesquereux prepared an
article on the origin and formation of the prairies, published at length
in vol. 1, Geological Survey of Illinois, pp. 238 to 254, inclusive ; and Dr.
Worthen, the head of the Illinois Geological Department, referring to
this article and its author, gives to both a most flattering indorsement.
Declining to discuss the comparative merits of the various theories as
to the formation of the prairies, the doctor " refers the reader to the
very able chapter on the subject by Prof. Lesquereux, whose thorough
acquaintance, both with fossil and recent botany, and the general laws
which govern the distribution of the ancient as well as the recent flora,
entitles his opinion to our most profound consideration." *

Prof. Lesquereux' article is exhaustive, and his conclusions are
summed up in the declaration " that all the prairies of the Mississippi
Valley have been formed by the slow recessions of waters of various
extent ; first transformed into swamps, and in the process of time
drained and dried; and that the high rolling prairies, and those of
these bottoms along the rivers as well, are all the result of the same
cause, and form one whole, indivisible system."

Still later, another eminent writer, Hon. John D. Caton, late Judge
of the Supreme Court of Illinois, has given the result of his observa-

* Chap. 1, p. 10, Geology of Illinois, by Dr. Worthen; vol. 1, Illinois Geological
Survey.

THE PRAIRIES. 31

tions. While assenting to the received conclusion that the prairies —
the land itself — have been formed under water, except the decomposed
animal and vegetable matter that has been added to the surface of the
lands since their emergence, the judge dissents from Prof. Lesquereux,
in so for as the latter holds that the presence of ulmic acid and other
unfavorable chemicals in the soil of the prairies, rendered them unfit
for the growth of trees ; and in extending his theory to the prairies on
the uplands, as well as in their more level and marshy portions. The
learned judge holds to the popular theory that the most potent cause
in keeping the prairies as such, and retarding and often destroying
forest growth on them, is the agency of fire. "Whatever may have
been the condition of the ground when the prairie lands first emerged
from the waters, or the chemical changes they may have since under-
gone, how many years the process of vegetable growth and decay may
have gone on, adding their deposits of rich loam to the original sur-
face, making the soil the most fertile in the world, is a matter of mere
speculation ; certain it is, however, that ever within the knowledge of
man the prairies have possessed every element of soil necessary to in-
sure a rapid and vigorous growth of forest trees, wherever the germ
could find a lodgment and their tender years be protected against the
one formidable enemy, fire. Judge Caton gives the experience of old
settlers in the northern part of the state, similar to that of Bracken-
ridge and Reynolds, already quoted, where, on the Vermillion River
of the Illinois, and also in the neighborhood of Ottawa many years
ago, fires occurred under the observation of the narrators, which
utterly destroyed, root and branch, an entire hardwood forest, the
prairie taking immediate possession of the burnt district, clothing it
with grasses of its own ; and in a few years this forest land, reclaimed
to prairie, could not be distinguished from the prairie itself, except
from its greater luxuriance.

Judge Caton's illustration of how the forests obtain a foot-hold in
the prairies is so aptly expressed, and in such harmony with the ex-
perience of every old settler on the prairies of eastern Illinois and
western Indiana, that we quote it.

" The cause of the absence of trees on the upland prairies is the
problem most important to the agricultural -interests of our state, and
it is the inquiry which alone I propose to consider, but cannot resist
the remark that wherever we do find timber throughout this broad
field of prairie, it is always in or near the humid portions of it, — as
along the margins of streams, or upon or near the springy uplands.
Many most luxuriant groves are found on the highest portions of the
uplands, but always in the neighborhood of water. For a remarkable

32 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

example I may refer to that great chain of groves extending from and
including the An Sable Grove on the east and Ilolderman's Grove on
the west, in Kendall county, occupying the high divide between the
waters of the Illinois and the Fox Rivers. In and around all the
groves flowing springs abound, and some of them are separated by
marshes, to the very borders of which the great trees approach, as if
the forest were ready to seize upon each yard of ground as soon as it is
elevated above the swamps. Indeed, all our groves seem to be located
where water is so disposed as to protect them, to a great or less extent,
from the prairie fire, although not so situated as to irrigate them. If
the head-waters of the streams on the prairies are most frequently with-
out timber, so soon as they have attained sufficient volume to impede
the progress of the fires, with very few exceptions we find forests on
their borders, becoming broader and more vigorous as the magnitude
of the streams increase. It is manifest that land located on the borders
of streams which the fire cannot pass are only exposed to one-half the
fires to which they would be exposed but for such protection. This
tends to show, at least, that if but one-half the fires that have occurred
had been kindled, the arboraceous growth could have withstood their
destructive influences, and the whole surface of what is now prairie
would be forest. Another confirmatory fact, patent to all observers, is,
that the prevailing winds upon the prairies, especially in the autumn,
are from the west, and these give direction to the prairie fires. Conse-
quently, the lands on the westerly sides of the streams are the most
exposed to the fires, and, as might be expected, we find much the most
timber on the easterly sides of the streams."

"Another fact, always a subject of remark among the dwellers on
the prairies, I regard as conclusive proof that the prairie soils are pecu-
liarly adapted to the growth of trees is, that wherever the fires have
been kept from the groves by the settlers, they have rapidly encroached
upon the prairies, unless closely depastured by the farmers' stock, or
prevented by cultivation. This fact I regard as established by careful
observation of more than thirty-five years, during which I have been
an interested witness of the settlement of this country, — from the time
when a few log cabins, many miles apart, built in the borders of the
groves, alone were met with, till now nearly the whole of the great
prairies in our state, at least, are brought under cultivation by the in-
dustry of the husbandman. Indeed, this is a fact as well recognized
by the settlers as that corn will grow upon the prairies when properly
cultivated. Ten years ago I heard the observation made by intelligent
men, that within the preceding twenty-five years the area of the timber
in the prairie portions of the state had actually doubled by the sponta-

FOREST ENCROACHMENT. 33

neons extension of the natural groves. However this may be, certain
it is that the encroachments of the timber upon the prairies have been
universal and rapid, wherever not impeded by fire or other physical
causes."

"When Europeans first landed in America, as they left the dense
forests east of the Alleghanies and went west over the mountains into
the valleys beyond, anywhere between Lake Erie and the fortieth
degree of latitude, approaching the Scioto River, they would have seen
small patches of country destitute of timber. These were called open-
ings. As they proceeded farther toward the Wabash the number and
area of these openings or barrens would increase. These last were called
by the English savannahs or meadows, and by the French, prairies.
Westward of the Wabash, except occasional tracts of timbered lands
in northern Indiana, and fringes of forest growth along the inter-
vening water-courses, the prairies stretch westward continuously across
a part of Indiana and the whole of Illinois to the Mississippi. Taking
the line of the Wabash railway, which crosses Illinois in its Greatest
breadth, and beginning in Indiana, where the railway leaves the tim-
ber, west of the Wabash nearMarshfield, the prairie extends to Quincy,
a distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles, and its contin-
uity the entire way is only broken by four strips of timber along four
streams running at right angles with the route of the railway, namely
the timber on the Vermillion River, between Danville and the Indiana
state-line, the Sangamon, seventy miles west of Danville near Decatur,
the Sangamon again a few miles east of Springfield, and the Illinois
River at Meredosia ; and all of the timber at the crossing of these
several streams, if put together, would not aggregate fifteen miles
against the two hundred and fifty miles of prairie. Taking a north
and south direction and parallel with the drainage of the rivers, one
could start near Ashley, on the Illinois Central railway, in Washing-
ton count}*, and going northward, nearly on an air-line, keeping on the
divide between the Ivaskaskia and Little Wabash, the Sangamon and
the Vermillion, the Iroquois and the Vermillion of the Illinois, cross-
ing the latter stream between the mouths of the Fox and Dn Page and
travel through to the state of Wisconsin, a distance of nearly three
hundred miles, without encountering five miles of timber during the
whole journey. Mere figures of distances across the '- Grand Prairie,"
as this vast meadow was called by the old settlers, fail to give an ade-
quate idea of its magnitude.

Let the reader, in fancy, go back fifty or sixty years, when there
were no farms between the settlement on the jSTorth Arm Prairie, in
Edgar county, and Ft. Clark, now Peoria, on the Illinois River, or
3

34 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

between the Salt Works, west of Danville, and Ft. Dearborn, where
Chicago now is, or when there was not a house between the "Wabash
and Illinois Rivers in the direction of La Fayette and Ottawa; when
there was not a solitary road to mark the way ; when Indian trails alone
led to unknown places, where no animals except the wild deer and
slinking wolf would stare, the one with timid wonder, the other with
treacherous leer, upon the ventursome traveler; when the gentle winds
moved the supple grasses like waves of a green sea under the sum-
mer's sky ; — the beauty, the grandeur and solitude of the prairies may
be Imagined as they were a reality to the pioneer when he first beheld
them.

There is an essential difference between the prairies eastward of the
Mississippi and the great, plains westward necessary to be borne in
mind. The western plains, while they present a seeming level appear-
ance to the eye, rise rapidly to the westward. From Kansas City to
Pueblo the ascent is continuous; beyond Ft. Dodge, the plains, owing
to their elevation and consequent dryness of the atmosphere and
absence of rainfall, produce a thin and stunted vegetation. The prai-
ries of Illinois and Indiana, on the contrary, are much nearer the sea-
level, where the moisture is greater. There were many ponds and
sloughs which aided in producing a humid atmosphere, all which
induced a rank growth of grasses. All early writers, referring to tlie>
vegetation of our prairies, including Fathers Hennepin, St. Cosme,
Charlevoix and others, who recorded their personal observations nearly
two hundred years aijo, as well as later English and American travel-
ers, bear uniform testimony to the fact of an unusually luxuriant
growth of grasses.

Early settlers, in the neighborhood of the author, all bear witness
to the rank growth of vegetation on the prairies before it was grazed
by live stock, and supplanted with shorter grasses, that set in as the
country improved. Since the organization of Edgar county in 1823, —
of which, all the territory north to the Wisconsin line was then a
part, — on the level prairie between the present sites of Danville and
Georgetown, the grass grew so high that it was a source of amusement
to tie the tops over the withers of a horse, and in places the height of
the grass would nearly obscure both horse and rider from view. This
was not a slough, but on arable land, where some of the first farms in
Vermillion county were broken out. On the high rolling prairies the
vegetation was very much shorter, though thick and compact ; its aver-
age height being about two feet.

The prairie fires have been represented in exaggerated pictures of
men and wild animals retreating at full speed, with every mark of ter-

PRAIRIE FIRES. 35

ror, before the devouring element. Such pictures are overdrawn. In-
stances of loss of human life, or animals, may have sometimes occurred.
The advance of the fire is rapid or slow, as the wind may be strong or
light ; the flames leaping high in the air in their progress over level
ground, or burning lower over the uplands. When a fire starts under
favorable causes, the horizon gleams brighter and brighter until a fiery
redness rises above its dark outline, while heavy, slow-moving masses
of dark clouds curve upward above it. In another moment the blaze
itself shoots up, first at one spot then at another, advancing until the
whole horizon extending across a wide prairie is clothed with flames,
that roll and curve and dash onward and upward like waves of a burn-
ing ocean, lighting up the landscape with the brilliancy of noon-day.
A roaring, crackling sound is heard like the rushing of a hurricane.
The flame, which in general rises to the height of twenty feet, is seen
rolling its waves against each other as the liquid, fiery mass moves for-
ward, leaving behind it a blackened surface on the ground, and long
trails of murky smoke floating above. A more terrific sight than the
burning prairies in early days can scarcely be conceived. Woe to the
farmer whose fields extended into the prairie, and who had suffered
the tall grass to grow near his fences ; the labor of the year would be
swept away in a few hours. Such accidents occasionally occurred,
although the preventive was simple. The usual remedy was to set
fire against fire, or to burn off a strip of grass in the vicinity of the
improved ground, a beaten road, the treading of domestic animals
about the inclosure of the farmer, would generally afford protection.
In other cases a few furrows would be plowed around the field, or the
grass closely mowed between the outside of the fence and the open
prairie.*

No wonder that the Indians, noted for their naming a place or
thing from some of its distinctive peculiarities, should have called
the prairies Mas-ko-tia, or the place of fire. In the ancient Algon-
quin tongue, as well as in its more modern form of the Ojibbeway (or
Chippeway, as this people are improperly designated), the word scoutay
means fire ; and in the Illinois and Pottowatamie, kindred dialects, it
is scotte and scutay, respectively-^ It is also eminently characteristic
that the Indians, who lived and hunted exclusively upon the prairies,
were known among their red brethren as " Maskoutes," rendered by
the French writers, Maskoutines, or People of the Fire or Prairie
Country.

North of a line drawn west from Vincennes, Illinois is wholly

* Judge James Hall: Tales of the Border, p. 244; Statistics of the West, p. 82.
t Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, etc.

36 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

prairie, — always excepting the thin curtain of timber draping the
water-courses ; and all that part of Indiana lying north and west of
the Wabash, embracing fully one-third of the area of the state, is
essentially so.

Of the twenty-seven counties in Indiana, lying wholly or partially
west and north of the Wabash, twelve of them are prairie ; seven are
mixed prairies, barrens and timber, the barrens and prairie predomi-
nating. In five, the barrens, with the prairies, are nearly equal to the
timber, while only three of the counties can be characterized as heavily
timbered. And wherever timber does occur in these twenty-seven
counties, it is found in localities favorable to its protection against the
ravages of fire, by the proximity of intervening lakes, marshes or
water-courses. We cannot know how long it took the forest to ad-
vance from the Scioto ; how often capes and points of trees, like skir-
mishers of an army, secured a foothold to the eastward of the lakes and
rivers of Ohio and Indiana, only to be driven back again by the prairie
tires advancing from the opposite direction ; or conceive how many
generations of forest growth were consumed by the prairie fires before
the timber-line was pushed westward across the state of Ohio, and
through Indiana to the banks of the Wabash.

The prairies of Illinois and Indiana were born of water and pre-
served by fire for the children of civilized men, who have come and
taken possession of tliem. The manner of their coming, and the diffi-
culties that befell them on the way, will hereafter be considered. The
white man, like the forests, advanced from the east. The red man,
like the prairie fires, as we shall hereafter see, came from the west.

CHAPTER VI.

EARLY DISCOVERIES.

Having given a description of the lakes and rivers, and noticed
some of the more prominent features that characterize the physical
geography of the territory within the scope of onr inquiry, and the
parts necessarily connected with it, forming, as it were, the outlines or
ground plan of its history, we will now proceed to fill in the frame-
work, with a narration of its discovery. Jacques Cartier, as already
intimated in a note on a preceding page, ascended the St. Lawrence
River in 1535. He sailed up the stream as far as the great Indian vil-
lage of Hoc Lelaga, situated on an island at the foot of the mountain,
styled by him Mont Royal, now called Montreal, a name since extend-
ed to the whole island. The country thus discovered was called New
France. Later, and in the year 1598, France, after fifty years of
domestic troubles, recovered her tranquillity, and, finding herself once
more equal to great enterprises, acquired a taste for colonization. Her
attention was directed to her possessions, by right of discovery, in the
new world, where she now wished to establish colonies and extend the
faith of the Catholic religion. Commissions or grants were accordingly
issued to companies of merchants, and others organized for this pur-
pose, who undertook to make settlements in Acadia, as Nova Scotia
was then called, and elsewhere along the lower waters of the St. Law-
rence; and, at a later day, like efforts were made higher up the river.
In 1607 Mr. De Monts, having failed in a former enterprise, was
deprived of his commission, which was restored to him on the condition
that he would make a settlement on the St. Lawrence. The company
he represented seems to have had the fur trade only in view, and this
object caused it to change its plans and avoid Acadia altogether. De
Monts' company increased in numbers and capital in proportion as the
fur trade developed expectations of profit, and many persons at St.
Malo, particularly, gave it their support. Feeling that his name
injured his associates, M. De Monts retired ; and when he ceased to be
its governing head, the company of merchants recovered the monopoly
with which the charter was endowed, for no other object than making
money out of the fur trade. They cared nothing whatever for the col-
ony in Acadia, which was dying out, and made no settlements else-

38 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

where. However, Mr. Samuel Champ] ain, who cared little for the fur
trade, and whose thoughts were those of a patriot, after maturely ex-
amining where the settlements directed by the court might be best
established, at last fixed on Quebec. He arrived there on the 3d of
July, 1608, put up some temporary buildings for himself and company,
and began to clear off the ground, which proved fertile.*

The colony at Quebec grew apace with emigrants from France;
and later, the establishment of a settlement at the island of Montreal
was undertaken. Two religious enthusiasts, the one named Jerome le
Royer de la Dauversiere, of Anjou, and the other John James Olier,
assumed the undertaking in 1636. The next who joined in the move-
ment was Peter Chevirer, Baron Fancamp, who in 1640 sent tools and
provisions for the use of the coming settlers. The projectors were
now aided by the celebrated Baron de Rent)', and two others. Father
Charles Lalemant induced John de Lauson, the proprietor of the island
of Montreal, to cede it to these gentlemen, which he did in August,
1610 ; and to remove all doubts as to the title, the associates obtained
a grant from the New France Company, in December of the same year,
which was subsequently ratified by the king himself. The associates
agreed to send out fort}' settlers, to clear and cultivate the ground ; to
increase the number annually ; to supply them with two sloops, cattle
and farm hands, and, after five years, to erect a seminary, maintain
ecclesiastics as missionaries and teachers, and also nuns as teachers and
hospitalers. On its part the New France Company agreed to trans-
port thirty settlers. The associates then contributed twenty-five thou-
sand crowns to begin the settlement, and Mr. deMaisonneuve embarked
with his colony on three vessels, which sailed from Rochelle and
Dieppe, in the summer of 1641. The colony wintered in Quebec,
spending their time in building boats and preparing timber for their
houses ; and on the 8th of May, 1642, embarked, and arrived nine
days after at the island of Montreal, and after saying mass began an
intrenchment around their tents.f

Notwithstanding the severity of the climate, the loss of life by dis-
eases incident to settling of new countries, and more especially the

* History of New France.

fFrom Dr. Shea's valuable note on Montreal, on pages 129 and 130, vol. 2, of
his translation of Father Charlevoix' History of New France. Mr. Albach, publisher
of "Annals of the West," Pittsburgh edition, 1857, p. 49, is in error in saying that
Montreal was founded in 1613, by Samuel Champlain. Champlain, in company with
a young Huron Indian, whom he had taken to and brought back from France on a
previous voyage, visited the island of Montreal in 1611, and chose it as a place for a
settlement he designed to establish, but which he did not begin, as he was obliged to
return to France; vide Charlevoix' " History of New France," vol. 2, p. 23. The Ameri-
can Clyclopedia, as well as other authorities, concur with Dr. Shea, that Montreal was
founded in 1642, seven years after Champlain's death.

QUEBEC FOUNDED. 39

destruction of its people from raids of the dreaded Iroquois Indians,
the French colonies grew until, according to a report of Governor
Mons. Denonville to the Minister at Paris, the population of Canada,
in 1GSG, had increased to 12,373 sonls. Quebec and Montreal became
the base of operations of the French in America; the places from
which missionaries, traders and explorers went out among the savages
into countries hitherto unknown, going northward and westward,
even beyond the extremity of Lake Superior to the upper waters of
the Mississippi, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico ; and it was
from these cities that the religious, military and commercial affairs of
this widely extended region were administered, and from which the
French settlements subsequently established in the northwest and at
New Orleans were principally recruited. The influence of Quebec and
Montreal did not end with the fall of French power in America. It
was from these cities that the English retained control of the fur trade
in, and exerted a power over the Indian tribes of, the northwest that
harassed and retarded the spread of the American settlements through
all the revolutionary war, and during the later contest between Great
Britain and the United States in the war of 1812. Indeed, it was
only until after the fur trade was exhausted and the Indians placed
beyond the Mississippi, subsequent to 1820, that Quebec and Montreal
ceased to exert an influence in that part of New France now known as
Illinois and Indiana.

Father Claude Allouez, coasting westward from Sault Ste. Marie,
reached Chegoimegon, as the Indians called the bay south of the Apos-
tle Islands and near La Pointe on the southwestern shore of Lake Supe-
rior, in October, 1G65. Here he found ten or twelve fragments of
Algonquin tribes assembled and about to hang the war kettle over the
Are preparatory for an incursion westward into the territory of the
Sioux. The good father persuaded them to give up their intended
hostile expedition. He set up in their midst a chapel, to which he gave
the name of the "Mission of the Holy Ghost," at the spot afterward
known as "Lapointe du Saint Esprit," and at once began his mission
work. His chapel was an object of wonder, and its establishment soon
spread among the wild children of the forest, and thither from great
distances came numbers all alive with curiosltv, — the roving Potta-
watomies, Sacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos, the Illinois and Miamis, —
to whom the truths of Christianity were announced.*

Three years later Father James Marquette took the place of Allouez,
and while here he seems to have been the first that learned of the Missis-
sippi. In a letter written from this mission by Father Marquette to

* Shea's History of Catholic Missions, 358.

40 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

his Reverend Father Superior, preserved in the Relations for 1669 and
1670, he says: "When the Illinois come to the point they pass a
great river, which is almost a league in width. It flows from north
to south, and to so great a distance that the Illinois, who know nothing
of the use of the canoe, have never as yet heard tell of the mouth ; they
only know that there are great nations below them, some of whom,
dwelling to the east-southeast of their country, gather their Indian-corn
twice a year. A nation that they call Chaouanon (Shawnees) came to
visit them during the past summer; the young man that has been
given to me to teach me the language has seen them ; they were loaded
with glass beads, which shows that they have communication with the
Europeans. They had to journey across the land for more than thirty
days before arriving at their country. It is hardly probable that this
great river discharges itself in Virginia. We are more inclined to
believe that it has its mouth in California. If the savages, who have
promised to make me a canoe, do not fail in their word, we will navi-
gate this river as far as is possible in company with a Frenchman and
this young man that they have given me, who understands several of
these languages and possesses great facility for acquiring others. We
shall visit the nations who dwell along its shores, in order to open the
way to many of our fathers who for a long time have awaited this
happiness. This discovery will give us a perfect knowledge of the sea
either to the south or to the west."

These reports concerning the great river came to the knowledge
of the authorities at Quebec and Paris, and naturally enough stimu-
lated further inquiry. There were three theories as to where the river
emptied ; one, that it discharged into the Atlantic south of the British
colony of Virginia ; second, that it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico;
and third, which was the more popular belief, that it emptied into the
Red Sea, as the Gulf of California was called ; and if the latter, that it
would afford a passage to China. To solve this important commercial
problem in geography, it was determined, as appears from a letter from
the Governor, Count Frontenac, at Quebec, to M. Colbert, Minister of
the navy at Paris, expedient "for the service to send Sieur Joliet to
the country of the Mascoutines, to discover the South Sea and the great
river — they call the Mississippi — which is supposed to discharge itself
into the Sea of California. Sieur Joliet is a man of great experience
in these sorts of discoveries, and has already been almost to that great
river, the mouth of which he promises to see. We shall have intelli-
gence of him, certainly, this summer.* Father Marquette was chosen
to accompany Joliet on account of the information he had already ob-

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 92.

SPANISH EXPLORATIONS. 41

tained from the Indians relating to the countries to be explored, and
also because, as he wrote Father Dablon, his superior, when informed
by the latter that he was to be Joliet's companion, " I am ready to go
on your order to seek new nations toward the South Sea, and teach
them Of our great God whom they hitherto have not known."

The voyage of Joliet and Marquette is so interesting that we intro-
duce extracts from Father Marquette's journal. The version we adopt
is Father Marquette's original journal, prepared for publication by his
superior, Father Dablon, and which lay in manuscript at Quebec, among
the archives of the Jesuits, until 1852, when it, together with Father
Marquette's original map, were brought to light, translated into Eng-
lish, and published by Dr. John G. Shea, in his " Discovery and Explo-
ration of the Mississippi." The version commonly sanctioned was
Marquette's narrative sent to the French government, where it lay
unpublished until it came into the hands of M. Thevenot, who printed
it at Paris, in a book issued by him in 1681, called " Receuil de Voy-
ages." This account diners somewhat, though not essentially, from
the narrative as published by Dr. Shea.

Before proceeding farther, however, we will turn aside a moment
to note the fact that Spain had a prior right over France to the Missis-
sippi Valley by virtue of previous discovery. As early as the year
1525, Cortez had conquered Mexico, portioned out its rich mines
among his favorites and reduced the inoffensive inhabitants to the worst
of slavery, making them till the ground and toil in the mines for their
unfeeling masters. A few years following the conquest of Mexico, the
Spaniards, under Pamphilus de Narvaez, in 1528, undertook to conquer
and colonize Florida and the entire northern coast-line of the Gulf.
After long and fruitless wanderings in the interior, his party returned
to the sea-coast and endeavored to reach Tampico, in wretched boats.
Nearly all perished by storm, disease or famine. The survivors, with
one Cabeza de Vaca at their head, drifted to an island near the present
state of Mississippi; from which, after four years of slavery, De Vaca,
with four companions, escaped to the mainland and started westward,
going clear across the continent to the Gulf of California. The
natives took them for supernatural beings. They assumed the guise
of jugglers, and the Indian tribes, through which they passed, invested
them with the title of medicine-men, and their lives were thus guarded
with superstitious awe. They are, perhaps, the first Europeans who
ever went overland from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They must have
crossed the Great River somewhere on their route, and, says Dr.
Shea, " remain in history, in a distant twilight, as the first Europeans
known to have stood on the banks of the Mississippi." In 1539,

42 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Hernando de Soto, with a party of cavaliers, most of them sons of
titled nobility, landed with their horses upon the coast of Florida.
During that and the following four years, these daring adventurers
wandered through the wilderness, traveling in portions of Florida,
Carolina, the northern parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi,
crossing the Mississippi, as is supposed, as high up as White River,
and going still westward to the base of the Rocky Mountains, vainly
searching for the rich gold mines of which De Vaca had given marvel-
ous accounts. De Soto's party endured hardships that would depress
the stoutest heart, while, with fire and sword, they perpetrated atrocities
upon the Indian tribes through which they passed, burning their
villages and infiictins: cruelties which make us blush for the wicked-
ness of men claiming to be christians. De Soto died, in May or June,
1542, on the banks of the Mississippi, below the mouth of the
Washita, and his immediate attendants concealed his death from the
others and secretly, in the night, buried his body in the middle of the
stream. The remnant of his survivors went westward and then
returned back again to the river, passing the winter upon its banks.
The following spring they went down the river, in seven boats which
they had rudely constructed out of such scanty material and with the
few tools they could command. In these, after a three months' voyage,
they arrived at the Spanish town of Panuco, on the river of that name
in Mexico.

Later, in 1565, Spain, failing in previous attempts, effected a lodg-
ment in Florida, and for the protection of her colony built the fort at
St. Augustine, whose ancient ruin, still standing, is an object of curi-
osity to the health-seeker and a monument to the hundreds of native
Indians who, reduced to bondage by their Spanish conquerors, perished,
after years of unrequited labor, in erecting its frowning walls and
gloomy dungeons.

While Spain retained her hold upon Mexico and enlarged her posses-
sions, and continued, with feebler efforts, to keep possession of the
Floridas, she took no measures to establish settlements along the Mis-
sissippi or to avail herself of the advantage that might have resulted
from its discovery. The Great River excited no further notice after
De Soto's time. For the next hundred years it remained as it were
a sealed mystery until the French, approaching from the north by
way of the lakes, explored it in its entire length, and brought to
public light the vast extent and wonderful fertility of its valleys.
Resuming the thread of our history at the place wbere we turned aside
to notice the movements of the Spanish toward the Gulf, we now pro-
ceed with the extracts from Father Marquette's journal of the voyage
of discovery down the Mississippi.

CHAPTER VII.

JOLIET AND MARQUETTE'S VOYAGE.

The day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin,
whom I had always invoked, since I have been in this Ottawa country,
to obtain of God the grace to be able to visit the nations on the River
Mississippi, was identically that on which M. Jollyet arrived with
orders of the Comte de Frontenac, our governor, and M. Talon, our
intendant, to make this discovery with me. I was the more enraptured
at this good news, as I saw my designs on the point of being accom-
plished, and myself in the happy necessity of exposing my life for the
salvation of all these nations, and particularly for the Illinois, who had,
when I was at Lapointe du Esprit, very earnestly entreated me to carry
the word of God to their country."

" We were not long in preparing our outfit, although we were
embarking on a voyage the duration of which we could not foresee.
Indian corn, with some dried meats, was our whole stock of provisions.
With this we set out in two bark canoes, M. Jollyet, myself and five
men, firmly resolved to do all and suffer all for so glorious an enterprise."

"It was on the 17th of May, 1673, that we started from the mission
of St. Ignatius, at Michilimakinac, where I then was."*

" Our joy at being chosen for this expedition roused our courage
and sweetened the labor of rowing from morning to night. As we
were going to seek unknown countries, we took all possible precau-
tions that, if our enterprise was hazardous, it should not be foolhardy ;
for this reason we gathered all possible information from the Indians
who had frequented those parts, and even from their accounts, traced
a map of all the new country, marking down the rivers on which we
were to sail, the names of the nations and places through which we
were to pass, the course of the Great River, and what direction we
should take when we got to it."

"Above all, I put our voyage under the protection of the Blessed
Virgin Immaculate, promising her that, if she did us the grace to dis-
cover the Great River, I would give it the name of the conception ;

* St. Ignatius was not on the Island of Mackinaw, but westward of it, on a point
of land extending into the strait, from the north shore, laid down on modern maps as
"Point St. Ignace." On this bleak, exposed and barren spot this mission was estab-
lished by Marquette himself in 1671. Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 364.

44 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and that I would also give that name to the first mission I should
establish among these new nations, as I have actually done among the
Illinois."

After some days they reached an Indian village, and the journal
proceeds: "Here we are, then, at the Maskoutens. This won], in
Algonquin, may mean Fire Nation, and that is the name given to them.
This is the limit of discoveries made by the French, for they have not
yet passed beyond it. This town is made up of three nations gathered
here, Miamis, Maskoutens and Kikabous.* As bark for cabins, in this
country, is rare, they use rushes, which serve them for walls and roofs,
but which afford them no protection against the wind, and still less
against the rain when it falls in torrents. The advantage of this kind
of cabins is that they can roll them up and carry them easily where
they like in hunting time."

" I felt no little pleasure in beholding the position of this town. The
view is beautiful and very picturesque, for, from the eminence on which
it is perched, the eye discovers on every side prairies spreading away
beyond its reach interspersed with thickets or groves of trees. The
soil is very good, producing much corn. The Indians gather also
quantities of plums and grapes, from which good wine could be made
if they choose."

"No sooner had we arrived than M. Jollyet and I assembled the
Sachems. He told them that he was sent by our governor to discover
new countries, and I by the Almighty to illumine them with the light
of the gospel; that the Sovereign Master of our lives wished to be
known to all nations, and that to obey his will I did not fear death, to
which I exposed myself in such dangerous voyages; that we needed
two guides to put us on our way ; these, making them a present, we
begged them to grant us. This they did very civilly, and even pro-
ceeded to speak to us by a present, which was a mat to serve us on our
voyage."

"The next day, which was the 10th of June, two Miamis whom
they had given us as guides embarked with us in the sight of a great
crowd, who could not wonder enough to see seven Frenchmen, alone
in two canoes, dare to undertake so strange and so hazardous an expe-
dition."

" We knew that there was, three leagues from Maskoutens, a river
emptying into the Mississippi. We knew, too, that the point of the
compass we were to hold to reach it was the west-southwest, but the

*The village was near the mouth of Wolf River, which empties into Winnebago
Lake, Wisconsin. The stream was formerly called the Maskouten, and a tribe of this
name dwelt along its banks.

Marquette's voyage. 45

way is so cut up with marshes and little lakes that it is easy to go
astray, especially as the river leading to it is so covered with wild oats
that you can hardly discover the channel ; hence we had need of our
two guides, who led us safely to a portage of twenty-seven hundred
paces and helped us transport our canoes to enter this river, after
which they returned, leaving us alone in an unknown country in the
hands of Providence."*

"We now leave the waters which flow to Quebec, a distance of four
or five hundred leagues, to follow those which will henceforth lead us
into strange lands.

" Our route was southwest, and after sailing about thirty leagues we
perceived a place which had all the appearances of an iron mine, and
in fact one of our party who had seen some before averred that the one
we had found was very rich and very good. After forty leagues on
this same route we reached the mouth of our river, and finding our-
selves at 42^° N. we safely entered the Mississippi on the 17th of June
with a joy that I cannot express."f

* This portage has given the name to Portage City, Wisconsin, where the upper
waters of Fox River, emptying into Green Bay, approach the Wisconsin River, which,
coming from the northwest, here changes its course to the southwest. The distance
from the Wisconsin to the Fox River at this point is, according to Henry R. School-
craft, a mile and a half across a level prairie, and the level of the two streams is so nearly
the same that in high water loaded canoes formerly passed from the one to the other
across this low prairie. For many miles below the portage the channel of Fox River
was choked with a growth of tangled wild rice. The stream frequently expanding
into little lakes, and its winding, crooked course through the prairie, well justifies the
tradition of the Winnebago Indians concerning its origin. A vast serpent that lived
in the waters of the Mississippi took a freak to visit the great lakes ; he left his trail
where he crossed over the prairie, which, collecting the waters as they fell from the rains
of heaven, at length became Fox River. The little lakes along its course were, prob-
ably, the places where he flourished about in his uneasy slumbers at night. Mrs. John
H. Kinzie's Waubun, p. 80.

t Father Marquette, agreeably to his vow, named the river the Immaculate Concep-
tion. Nine years later, when Robert La Salle, having discovered the river in its entire
length, took possession at its mouth of the whole Mississippi Valley, he named the
river Colbert, in honor of the Minister of the' Navy, a man renowned alike for his
ability, at the head of the Department of the Marine, and for the encouragement he
gave to literature, science and art. Still later, in 1712, when the vast country drained by
its waters was farmed out to private enterprise, as appears from letters patent from the
King of France, conveying the whole to M. Crozat, the name of the river was changed
to St. Lewis. Fortunately the Mississippi retains its aboriginal name, which is a com-
pound from the two Algonquin words missi, signifying great, and sepe, a river. The
former is variously pronounced missil or michil, as in Michilimakinac ; michr, as in Mich-
igan ; missu, as in Missouri, and missi, as in the Mississeneway of the Wabash. The
variation in pronunciation is not greater than we might" expect in an unwritten lan-
guage. "The Western Indians," says Mr. Schoolcraft, " have no other word than missi
to express the highest degree of magnitude, either in a moral or in a physical sense, and
it may be considered as not only synonymous to our word great, but also magnificent,
supreme, stupendous, etc." Father Hennepin, who next to Marquette wrote concern-
ing the derivation of the name, says : "Mississippi, in the language of the Illinois,
means the great river." Some authors, perhaps with more regard for a pleasing fic-
tion than plain matter-of-fact, have rendered Mississippi "The Father of Waters;"
whereas, nos, noussei/ and nosha mean father, and neebi, nipi or ncpee mean water, as
universally in the dialect of Algonquin tribes, as does the word missi mean great and
sepi a river.

46 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

"Having descended as far as 41° 28', following the same direction,
we find that turkeys have taken the place, of game, and pisikious (buf-
falo) or wild cattle that of other beasts.

" At last, on the 25th of June, we perceived foot -prints of men by
the water-side and a beaten path entering a beautiful prairie. We
stopped to examine it, and concluding that it was a path leading to
some Indian village we resolved to go and reconnoitre ; we accordingly
left our two canoes in charge of our people, cautioning them to beware
of a surprise ; then M. Jollyet and I undertook this rather hazardous
discovery for two single men, who thus put themselves at the mercy of
an unknown and barbarous people. We followed the little path in
silence, and having advanced about two leagues we discovered a village
on the banks of the river, and two others on a hill half a league from
the former. Then, indeed, we recommended ourselves to God with all
our hearts, and having implored his help we passed on undiscovered,
and came so near that we even heard the Indians talking. We then
deemed it time to announce ourselves, as we did, by a cry which we
raised with all our strength, and then halted, without advancing any
farther. At this cry the Indians rushed out of their cabins, and hav-
ing probably recognized us as French, especially seeing a black gown,
or at least having no reason to distrust us, seeing we were but two and
had made known our coming, they deputed four old men to come and
speak to us. Two carried tobacco-pipes well adorned and trimmed
with many kinds of feathers. They marched slowly, lifting their pipes
toward the sun as if offering them to it to smoke, but yet without
uttering a single word. They were a long time coming the little way
from the village to us. Having reached us at last, they stopped to con-
sider us attentively.

" I now took courage, seeing these ceremonies, which are used by
them only with friends, and still more on seeing them covered with stuffs
which made me judge them to be allies. I, therefore, spoke to them
first, and asked them who they were. They answered that they were
Illinois, and in token of peace they presented their pipes to smoke.
They then invited us to their village, where all the tribe awaited us
with impatience. These pipes for smoking are all called in this country
calumets, a word that is so much in use that I shall be obliged to employ
it in order to be understood, as I shall have to speak of it frequently.

" At the door of the cabin in which we were to be received was an
old man awaiting us in a very remarkable posture, which is their usual
ceremony in receiving strangers. This man was standing perfectly
naked, with his hands stretched out and raised toward the sun, as if he
wished to screen himself from its rays, which, nevertheless, passed

PRESENTATION OF THE CALUMET. 47

through his fingers to his face. When we came near him he paid us
this compliment :„ ' How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman, when
thou comest to visit us ! All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt
enter all our cabins in peace.' He then took us into his, where there
was a crowd of people, who devoured us with their eyes but kept a
profound silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally ad-
dressed to us : ' Well done, brothers, to visit us ! ' As soon as we had
taken our places they showed us the usual civility of the country,
which is to present the calumet. You must not refuse it unless you
would pass for an enemy, or at least for being very impolite. It is,
however, enough to pretend to smoke. While all the old men smoked
after us to honor us, some came to invite us, on behalf of the great
sachem of all the Illinois, to proceed to his town, where he wished to
hold a council with us. We went with a good retinue, for all the
people who had never seen a Frenchman among them could not tire
looking at us; they threw themselves on the grass by the wayside,
they ran ahead, then turned and walked back to see us again. All this
was done without noise, and with marks of a great respect entertained
for us.

" Having arrived at the great sachem's town, we espied him at his
cabin door between two old men ; all three standing naked, with their
calumet turned to the sun. He harangued us in a few words, to con-
gratulate us on our arrival, and then presented us his calumet and made
us smoke ; at the same time we entered his cabin, where we received
all their usual greetings. Seeing all assembled and in silence, I spoke
to them by four presents which I made. By the first, I said that we
marched in peace to visit the nations on the river to the sea ; by the
second, I declared to them that God, their creator, had pity on them,
since, after their having been so long ignorant of him, he wished to
become known to all nations ; that I was sent on his behalf with this
design ; that it was for them to acknowledge and obey him ; by the
third, that the great chief of the French informed them that he spread
peace everywhere, and had overcome the Iroquois ; lastly, by the fourth,
we begged them to give us all the information they had of the sea, and
of nations through which we should have to pass to reach it.

" When I had finished my speech, the sachem rose, and laying his
hand on the head of a little slave whom he was about to give us, spoke
thus : ' I thank thee, Black-gown, and thee, Frenchman,' addressing
M. Jollyet, ' for taking so much pains to come and visit us. Never has
the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright, as to-day ; never has
our river been so calm, nor so free from rocks, which your canoes have
removed as they passed ; never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor,

48 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

nor our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it to-day. Here is my
son that I give thee that thou mayest know my heart. I pray thee
take pity on me and all my nation. Thou knowest the Great Spirit
who has made us all ; thou speakest to him and hearest his word ; ask
him to give me life and health, and come and dwell with us that we
may know him.' Saying this, he placed the little slave near us and
made us a second present, an all mysterious calumet, which they value
more than a slave. By this present he showed us his esteem for our
governor, after the account we had given of him. By the third he
begged us, on behalf of his whole nation, not to proceed farther on
account of the great dangers to which we exposed ourselves.

"I replied that I did not fear death, and that I esteemed no happi-
ness greater than that of losing my life for the glory of him who made
us all. But this these poor people could not understand. The coun-
cil was followed by a great feast which consisted of four courses, which
we had to take with all their ways. The first course was a ereat wooden
dish full of sagamity, — that is to say, of Indian meal boiled in water
and seasoned with grease. The master of ceremonies, with a spoonful
of sagamity, presented it three or four times to my mouth, as we would
do with a little child ; he did the same to M. Jollyet. For the second
course, he brought in a second dish containing three fish ; he took
some pains to remove the bones, and having blown upon it to cool it,
put it in my mouth as w r e would food to a bird. For the third course
they produced a large dog which they had just killed, but, learning
that we did not eat it, withdrew it. Finally, the fourth course was a
piece of wild ox, the fattest portions of which were put into our
mouths.

" We took leave of our Illinois about the end of June, and em-
barked in sight of all the tribe, who admire our little canoes, having
never seen the like.

"As we were discoursing, while sailing gently down a beautiful,
stjll, clear water, we heard the noise of a rapid into which we were
about to fall. I have seen nothing more frightful ; a mass of large
trees, entire, with branches, — real floating islands, — came rushing from
the mouth of the river Pekitanoiii, so impetuously that we could not,
without great danger, expose ourselves to pass across. The agitation
was so great that the water was all muddy and could not get clear.*

* Pekitanoiii, with the aboriginals, signified " muddy water," on the authority of
Father Marest, in his letter referred to in a previous note. The present name, Mis-
souri, according to Le Page du Pratz, vol. 2, p. 157, was derived from the tribe, Mis-
souris, whose village was some forty leagues above its mouth, and who massacred a
French garrison situated in that part of the country. The late statesman and orator,
Thomas A. Benton, referring to the muddiness prevailing at all seasons of the year in
the Missouri River, said that its waters were "too thick to swim in and too thin to
walk on."

PLOT AGAINST MARQUETTE'S LIFE. 49

"After having made about twenty leagues due south, and a little
less to the southeast, we came to a river called Ouabouskigou, the mouth
of which is at 36° north.* This river comes from the country on the
east inhabited by the Chaouanons, in such numbers that they reckon
as many as twenty-three villages in one district, and fifteen in another,
lying quite near each other. They are by no means warlike, and are
the people the Iroquois go far to seek in order to wage an unprovoked
war upon them ; and as these poor people cannot defend themselves
they allow themselves to be taken and carried off like sheep, and, inno-
cent as they are, do not fail to experience the barbarit}' of the Iroquois,
who burn them cruelly.'

Having arrived about half a league from Akansea (Arkansas
River), we saw two canoes coining toward us. The commander was
standing up holding in his hand a calumet, with which he made signs
according to the custom of the country. He approached us, singing quite
agreeably, and invited us to smoke, after which he presented us some
sagamity and bread made of Indian corn, of which we ate a little.
We fortunately found among them a man who understood Illinois much
better than the man we brought from Mitchigameh. By means of
him, I first spoke to the assembly by ordinary presents. They admired
what I told them of God and the mysteries of our holy faith, and
showed a great desire to keep me with them to instruct them.

" We then asked them what they knew of the sea ; they replied
that we were only ten days' journey from it (we could have made the
distance in five days); that they did not know the nations who inhab-
ited it, because their enemies prevented their commerce with those
Europeans ; that the Indians with fire-arms whom we had met were
their enemies, who cut off the passage to the sea, and prevented their
making the acquaintance of the Europeans, or having any commerce
with them ; that besides we should expose ourselves greatly by passing
on, in consequence of the continual war parties that their enemies sent
out on the river; since, being armed and used to war, we could not,
without evident danger, advance on that river which they constantly
occupy.

" In the evening the sachems held a secret council on the design of
some to kill us for plunder, but the chief broke up all these schemes,
and sending for us, danced the calumet in our presence, and then, to
remove all fears, presented it to me.

"M. Jollyet and I held another council to deliberate on what we
should do, whether we should push on, or rest satisfied with the dis-

*The Wabash here appears, for the first time, by name. A more extended notice
of the various names by which this stream has been known will be given farther on.
4

50 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

covery that we had made. After having attentively considered that
we were not far from the Gulf of Mexico, the basin of which is 31°
40' north, and we at 33° 40'; so that we could not be more than two
or three days' journey off; that the Mississippi undoubtedly had its
mouth in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico, and not on the east in Vir-
ginia, whose sea-coast is at 34° north, which we had passed, without
having as yet reached the sea, nor on the western side in California,
because that would require a west, or west-southwest course, and we
had always been going south. We considered, moreover, that we
risked losing the fruit of this voyage, of which we could give no
information, if we should throw ourselves into the hands of the Span-
iards, who would undoubtedly at least hold us as prisoners. Besides
it was clear that we were not in a condition to resist Indians allied to
Europeans, numerous and expert in the use of fire-arms, who contin-
ually infested the lower part of the river. Lastly, we had gathered all
the information that could be desired from the expedition. All these
reasons induced us to return. This we announced to the Indians, and
after a day's rest prepared for it.

"After a month's navigation down the Mississippi, from the 42d to
below the 34th degree, and after having published the gospel as well
as I could to the nations I had met, we left the village of Akansea on
the 17th of July, to retrace our steps. "We accordingly ascended the
Mississippi, which gave us great trouble to stem its currents. We left
it, indeed, about the 38th degree, to enter another river (the Illinois),
which greatly shortened our way, and brought us, with little trouble,
to the lake of the Illinois.

" We had seen nothing like this river for the fertility of the land, its
prairies, woods, wild cattle, stag, deer, wild-cats, bustards, swans, ducks,
parrots, and even beaver; its many little lakes and rivers. That on
which we sailed is broad deep and gentle for sixty-five leagues.
During the spring and part of the summer, the only portage is half a
league.

" We found there an Illinois town called Kaskaskia, composed of
seventy-four cabins ; they received us well, and compelled me to promise
them to return and instruct them. One of the chiefs of this tribe, with
his young men, escorted us to the Illinois Lake, whence at last we
returned in the close of September to the Bay of the Fetid (Green Bay),
whence we had set out in the beginning of June. Had all this voyage
caused but the salvation of a single soul, I should deem all my fatigue
well repaid, and this I have reason to think, for, when I was returning,
I passed by the Indians of Peoria. I was three days announcing the
faith in their cabins, after which, as we were embarking, they brought

BIOGRAPHY OF JOLIET. * • 51

me, on the water's edge, a dying child, which I baptized a little before
it expired, by an admirable providence for the salvation of that inno-
cent sonl."

Count Frontenac, writing from Quebec to M. Colbert, Minister of
the Marine, at Paris, under date of November 14, 1674, announces that
"Sieur Joliet, whom Monsieur Talon advised me, on my arrival from
France, to dispatch for the discovery of the South Sea, has returned three
months ago. He has discovered some very fine countries, and a navi-
gation so easy through beautiful rivers he has found, that a person can
go from Lake Ontario in a bark to the Gulf of Mexico, there being
only one carrying place (around Niagara Falls), where Lake Ontario
communicates with Lake Erie. I send you, by my secretary, the map
which Sieur Joliet has made of the great river he has discovered, and
the observations he has been able to recollect, as he lost all his minutes
and journals in the shipwreck he suffered within sight of Montreal,
where, after having completed a voyage of twelve hundred leagues,
he was near being drowned, and lost all his papers and a little Indian
whom he brought from those countries. These accidents have caused
me great regret."*

Louis Joliet, or Jolliet, or Jolly et, as the name is variously spelled,
was the son of Jean Joliet, a wheelwright, and Mary d'Abancour; he
was born at Quebec in the year 1645. Having finished his studies at
the Jesuit college he determined to become a member of that order, and
with that purpose in view took some of the minor orders of the society
in August, 1662. He completed his studies in 1666, but during this
time his attention had become interested in Indian affairs, and he laid
aside all thoughts of assuming the " black gown." That he acquired
great ability and tact in managing the savages, is apparent from the
fact of his having been selected to discover the south sea by the way of
the Mississippi. The map which he drew from memory, and which
was forwarded by Count Frontenac to France, was afterward attached
to Marquette's Journal, and was published by Therenot, at Paris, in
1681. Sparks, in his " Life of Marquette," copies this map,- and ascribes
it to his hero. This must be a mistake, since it differs quite essentially
from Marquette's map, which has recently been brought to public notice
by Dr. Shea.

Joliet's account of the voyage, mentioned by Frontenac, is published
in Hennepin's " Discovery of a Vast Country in America." It is very
meagre, and does not present any facts not covered by Marquette's nar-
rative.

In 1680 Joliet was appointed hydrographer to the king, and many

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 121.

52 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

well-drawn maps at Quebec show that his office was no sinecure. After-
ward, he made a voyage to Hudson's Bay in the interest of the king;
and as a reward for the faithful performance of his duty, he was granted
the island of Anticosti, which, on account of the fisheries and Indian
trade, was at that time very valuable. After this, he signed himself
Joliet d'Anticosty. In the year 1G97, he obtained the seignory of
Joliet on the river Etchemins, south of Quebec. M. Joliet died in
1701, leaving a wife and four children, the descendants of whom are
living in Canada still possessed of the seignory of Joliet, among whom
are Archbishop Taschereau of Quebec and Archbishop Tache of Red
River.

Mount Joliet, on the Desplaines River, above its confluence with the
Kankakee, and the city of Joliet, in the county of "Will, perpetuate
the name of Joliet in the state of Illinois.

Jacques Marquette was born in Laon, France, in 1637. His was
the oldest and one of the most respectable citizen families of the place.
At the age of seventeen he entered the Society of Jesus; received or-
ders in 1666 to embark for Canada, arriving at Quebec in September
of the same year. For two years he remained at Three Rivers, study-
ing the different Indian dialects under Father Gabriel Druillentes.
At the end of that period he received orders to repair to the upper
lakes, which he did, and established the Mission of Sault Ste. Marie.
The following year Dablon arrived, having been appointed Superior of
the Ottawa missions; Marquette then went to the " Mission of the Holy
Ghost" at the western extremity of Lake Superior; here he remained
for two years, and it was his accounts, forwarded from this place, that
caused Frontenac and Talon to send Joliet on his voyage to the Mis-
sissippi. The Sioux having dispersed the Algonquin tribes at Lapointe,
the latter retreated eastward to Mackinaw ; Marquette followed and
tbunded there the Mission of St. Ignatius. Here he remained until
Joliet came, in 1673, with orders to accompany him on his voyage of
discovery down the Mississippi. Upon his return, Marquette remained
at Mackinaw until October, 1674, when he received orders to carry out
his pet project of founding the " Mission of the Immaculate Concep-
tion of the Blessed Virgin " among the Illinois. He immediately set
out, but owing to a severe dysentery, contracted the year previous, he
made but slow progress. However, he reached Chicago Creek, De-
cember -4, where, growing rapidly worse, he was compelled to winter.
On the 29th of the following March he set out for the Illinois town,
on the river of that name. He succeeded in getting there on the 8th
of April. Being cordially received by the Indians, he was enabled to
realize his long deferred and much cherished project of establishing

DEATH OF MARQUETTE. 53

the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception.' 1 Believing that his life
was drawing to a close, he endeavored to reach Mackinaw before his
death should take place. But in this hope he was doomed to disap-
pointment ; by the time he reached Lake Michigan " he was so weak
that he had to be carried like a child." One Saturday, Marquette and
his two companions entered a small stream — which still bears his
name — on the eastern side of Lake Michigan, and in this desolate
spot, virtually alone, destitute of all the comforts of life, died James
Marquette. His life-long wish to die a martyr in the holy cause of
Jesus and the Blessed Virgin, was granted. Thus passed away one of
the purest and most sacrificing servants of God, — one of the bravest
and most heroic of men.

The biographical sketch of Joliet has been collated from a number
of reliable authorities, and is believed truthful. Our notice of Father
Marquette is condensed from his life as written by Dr. Shea, than
whom there is no one better qualified to perform the task.

CHAPTER VIII.

EXPLORATIONS BY LA SALLE.

The success of the French, in their plan of colonization, was so
great, and the trade with the savages, exchanging fineries, guns, knives,
and, more than all, spirituous liquors for valuable furs, yielded such
enormous profits, that impetus was given to still greater enterprises.
They involved no less than the hemming in of the British colonies
along the Atlantic coast and a conquest of the rich mines in Mexico,
from the Spanish. These purposes are boldly avowed in a letter of
M. Talon, the king's enterprising intendant at Quebec, in 1071 ; and
also in the declarations of the great Colbert, at Paris, "I am," says M.
Talon, in his letter to the king referred to, " no courtier, and assert,
not through a mere desire to please the king, nor without just reason,
that this portion of the French monarchy will become something
grand. What I discover around me makes me foresee this ; and those
colonies of foreign nations so long settled on the seaboard already
tremble with fright, in view of what his majesty has accomplished
here in the interior. The measures adopted to confine them within
narrow limits, by taking possession, which I have caused to be effected,
do not allow them to spread, without subjecting themselves, at the
same time, to be treated as usurpers, and have war waged against them.
This in truth is what by all their acts they seem to greatly fear. They
already know that your name is spread abroad among the savages
throughout all those countries, and that they regard your majesty alone
as the arbitrator of peace and war; they detach themselves insensibly
from other Europeans, and excepting the Iroquois, of whom I am not
as } 7 et assured, we can safely promise that the others will take up a.rms
whenever we please." " The principal result," says La Salle, in his
memoir at a later day, ( ' expected from the great perils and labors which
I underwent in the discovery of the Mississippi Mas to satisfy the wish
expressed to me by the late Monsieur Colbert, of finding a port where
the French might establish themselves and harass the Spaniards in
those regions from whence they derive all their wealth. The place I
propose to fortify lies sixty leagues above the mouth of the river Col-
bert (i. e. Mississippi) in the Gulf of Mexico, and possesses all the
advantages for such a purpose which can be wished for, both on account

EAKLY LIFE OF LA SALLE. 55

of its excellent position and the favorable disposition of the savages who
live in that part of the country."* It is not our province to indulge
in conjectures as to how far these daring purposes of Talon and Col-
bert would have succeeded had not the latter died, and their active
assistant, Robert La Salle, have lost his life, at the hands of an assassin,
when in the act of executing the preliminary part of the enterprise.
We turn, rather, to matters of historical record, and proceed with a
condensed sketch of the life and voyages of La Salle, as it was his dis-
coveries that led to the colonization of the Mississippi Valley by the
French.

La Salle was born, of a distinguished family, at Rouen, France.
He was consecrated to the service of God in early life, and entered the
Society of Jesus, in which he remained ten years, laying the foundation
of moral principles, regular habits and elements of science that served
him so well in his future arduous undertakings. Like many other
young men having plans of useful life, he thought Canada would offer
better facilities to develop them than the cramped and fixed society
of France. He accordingly left his home, and reached Montreal in
1GG6. Being of a resolute and venturesome disposition, he found
employment in making explorations of the country about the lakes.
He soon became a favorite of Talon, the intendant, and of Frontenac,
the governor, at Quebec. He was selected by the latter to take com-
mand of Fort Frontenac, near the present city of Kingston, on the St.
Lawrence River, and at that time a dilapidated, wooden structure on
the frontier of Canada.- He remained in Canada about nine years,
acquiring a knowledge of the country and particularly of the Indian
tribes, their manners, habits and customs, and winning the confidence
of the French authorities. He returned to France and presented a
memoir to the king, in which he urged the necessity of maintaining
Fort Frontenac, which he offered to restore with a structure of
stone ; to keep there a garrison equal to the one at Montreal ; to em-
ploy as many as fifteen laborers during the first year; to clear and till
the land, and to supply the surrounding Indian villages with Recollect
missionaries in furtherance of the cause of religion, all at his own ex-
pense, on condition that the king would grant him the right of seigniory
and a monopoly of the trade incident to it. He further petitioned for
title of nobility in consideration of voyages he had alread} T made in
Canada at his own expense, and which had resulted in the great bene-
fit to the king's colony. The king heard the petition graciously, and

* Talon's letter to the king: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 73. La Salle's Memoir to
the king, on the necessity of fitting out an expedition to take possession of Louisiana:
Historical Collections of Louisiana, part 1, p. 5.

56 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

on the 13th May, 1675, granted La Salle and his heirs Fort Frontenac,
with four leagues of the adjacent country along the lakes and rivers
above and below the fort and a half a league inward, and the adjacent
islands, with the right of hunting and fishing on Lake Ontario and
the circumjacent rivers. On the same day, the king issued to La Salle
letters patent of nobility, having, as the king declares, been informed
of the worthy deeds performed by the people, either in reducing or
civilizing the savages or in defending themselves against their frequent
insults, especially those of the Iroquois ; in despising the greatest dan-
gers in order to extend the king's name and empire to the extremity
of that new world ; and desiring to reward those who have thus ren-
dered themselves most eminent; and wishing to treat most favorably
Hobert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle on account of the good and laudable
report that has been rendered concerning his actions in Canada, the
king does ennoble and decorate with the title of nobility the said cav-
alier, together with his wife and children. He left France with these
precious documents, and repaired t© Fort Frontenac, where he per-
formed the conditions imposed by the terms of his titles.

He sailed for France again in 1677, and in the following year after
he and Colbert had fully matured their plans, he again petitioned the
king for a license to prosecute further discoveries. The king granted
his request, giving him a permit, under date of May 12, 1678, to en-
deavor to discover the western part of New France; the king avowing
in the letters patent that " he had nothing more at heart than the dis-
covery of that country where there is a prospect of finding a way to
penetrate as far as Mexico," and authorizing La Salle to prosecute dis-
coveries, and construct forts in such places as he might think necessary,
and enjoy there the same monopoly as at Fort Frontenac, — all on con-
dition that the enterprise should be prosecuted at La Salle's expense,
and completed within five years ; that he should not trade with the
savages, who carried their peltries and beavers to Montreal ; and that
the governor, intendant, justices, and other officers of the king i;i New
France, should aid La Salle in his enterprise.* Before leaving France,
La Salle, through the Prince de Conti, was introduced to one Henri
de Tonti, an Italian by birth, who for eight years had been in the
French service. Having had one of his hands shot off while in Sicily,
he repaired to France to seek other employment. It was a most for-
tunate meeting. Tonti — a name that should be prominently associ-
ated with discoveries in this part of America — became La Salle's
companion. Ever faithful and courageous, he ably and zealously fur-

* Vide the petitions of La Salle to, and the plants from, the king, which are found
at length in the Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 122 to 127.

LOUIS HENNEPIN. 57

thered all of La Salle's plans, followed and defended him under the
most discouraging trials, with an unselfish fidelity that has few paral-
lels in any age.

Supplied with this new grant of enlarged powers, La Salle, in com-
pany with Tonti, — or Tonty, as Dr. Sparks says he has seen the name
written in an autograph letter, — and thirty men, comprising pilots,
sailors, carpenters and other mechanics, with a supply of material
necessary for the intended exploration, left France for Quebec. Here
the party were joined by some Canadians, and the whole force was
sent forward to Fort Frontenac, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, since
this fort had been granted to La Salle. He had, in conformity to the
terms of his letters patent, greatly enlarged and strengthened its de-
fenses. Here he met Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan Friar, whom it
seems had been sent thither along with Father Gabriel de la Ribourde
and Zenobius Membre, all of the same religious order, to accompany
La Salle's expedition. In the meantime, Hennepin was occupied in
pastoral labors among the soldiers of the garrison, and the inhabitants
of a little hamlet of peasants near by, and proselyting the Indians of
the neighboring country. Hennepin, from his own account, had not
only traveled over several parts of Europe before coming to Canada,
but since his arrival in America, had spent much time in roaming
about among the savages, to gratify his love of adventure and acquire
knowledge.

Hennepin's name and writings are so prominently connected with
the early history of the Mississippi Valley, and, withal, his contradic-
tory statements, made at a later day of his life, as to the extent of his
own travels, have so clouded his reputation with grave doubt as to his
regard for truth, that we will turn aside and give the reader a sketch
of this most singular man and his claims as a discoverer. He was
bold, courageous, patient and hopeful under the most trying fatigues ;
and had a taste for the privations and dangers of a life among the
savages, whose ways and caprices he well understood, and knew how
to turn them to insure his own safety. He was a shrewd observer and
possessed a faculty for that detail and little minutiae, which make a
narrative racy and valuable. He was vain and much given to self-
glorification. He accompanied La Salle, in the first voyage, as far as
Peoria Lake, and he and Father Zenobe Membre are the historians of
that expedition. From Peoria Lake he went down the Illinois, under
orders from La Salle, and up the Mississippi beyond St. Anthony's
Falls, giving this name to the falls. This interesting voyage was not
prosecuted voluntarily ; for Hennepin and his two Companions were
captured by the Sioux and taken up the river as prisoners, often in

58 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

great peril of their lives. He saw La Salic no more, after parting with
him at Peoria Lake. He was released from captivity through the
intervention of Mons. Duluth, a French Coureur de Bois, who had
previously established a trade with the Sioux, on the upper Mississippi,
by way of Lake Superior. After his escape, Hennepin descended the
Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin, which he ascended, made
the portage at the head of Fox River, thence to Green Bay and Mack-
inaw, by the route pursued by Joliet and Marquette on their way to
the Mississippi, seven years before. From Mackinaw he proceeded to
France, where, in 1683, he published, under royal authority, an account
of his travels. For refusing to obey an order of his superiors, to return
to America, he was banished from France. He went to Holland and
obtained the favor and patronage of William III, king of England, to
whose service, as he himself says, "he entirely devoted himself."' In
Holland, he received money and sustenance from Mr. Blathwait, King
William's secretary of war, while engaged in preparing a new volume
of his voyages, which was published at Utrecht, in 1697, and dedicated
"To His Most Excellent Majesty William the Third." The revised
edition contains substantially all of the first, and a great deal besides;
for in this last work Hennepin lays claim, for the first time, to having
gone down the Mississippi to its mouth, thus seeking to deprive La
Salle of the glory attaching to his name, on account of this very dis-
covery. La Salle had now been dead about fourteen years, and from
the time he went down the Mississippi, in 1682, to the hour of his
death, although his discovery was well known, especially to Hennepin,
the latter never laid any claim to having anticipated him in the discov-
ery. Besides, Hennepin's own account, after so long a silence, of his
pretended voyage down the river is so utterly inconsistent with itself,
especially with respect to dates and the impossibility of his traveling
the distances within the time he alleges, that the storv carries its own
refutation. For this mendacious act. Father Hennepin has merited the
severest censures of Charlevoix, Jared Sparks, Francis Parkman, Dr.
Shea and other historical critics.

His first work is generally regarded as authority. That he did go
up the Mississippi river there seems to be no controversy, while grave
doubts prevail as to many statements in his last publication, which
would otherwise pass without suspicion were they not found in com-
pany with statements known to be untrue.

In the preface to his last work, issued in 1697, Father Hennepin
assigns as a reason why he did not publish his descent of the Missis-
sippi in his volume issued in 1683, "that I was obliged to say nothing
of the course of the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Illinois down

HENNEPIN AND LA SALLE. 59'

to the sea, for fear of disobliging M. La Salle, with whom I began my
discovery. This gentleman, alone, would have the glory of having dis-
covered the course of that river. But when he heard that I had done
it two years before him he could never forgive me, though, as I have
said, I was so modest as to publish nothing of it. This was the true
cause of his malice against me, and of the barbarous usage I met with
in France."

Still, his description of places he did visit ; the aboriginal names
and geographical features of localities ; his observations, especially upon
the manners and customs of the Indians, and other facts which he had
no motive to misrepresent, are generally regarded as true in his last as
well as in his first publication. His works, indeed, are the only repos-
itories of many interesting particulars relating to the northwest, and
authors quote from him, some indiscriminately and others with more
caution, while all criticise him without measure.

Hennepin was born in Belgium in 1640, as is supposed, and died
at Utrecht, Holland, within a few years after issuing his last book. This
was republished in London in 1698, the translation into English being
wretchedly executed. The book, aside from its historical value and the
notoriety attaching to it because of the new claims Hennepin makes,
is quite a curiosity. It is made up of Hennepin's own travels, blended
with his fictitious discoveries, scraps and odd ends taken from the
writings of other travelers without giving credit ; the whole embellished
with plates and a map inserted by the bookseller, and the text empha-
sized with italics and displayed type; all designed to render it a speci-
men, as it probably was in its day, of the highest skill attained in the
art of book-making.

La Salle brought up the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac the
anchors, cordage and other material to be used in the vessel which he
designed to construct above the Falls of Niagara for navigating the
western lakes. He alreadv had three small vessels on Lake Ontario,
which he had made use of in a coasting trade with the Indians. One
of these, a brigantine of ten tons, was loaded with his effects; his men,
including Fathers Gabriel, Zenobius Membre and Hennepin, who were,
as Father Zenobia declares, commissioned with care of the spiritual
direction of the expedition, were placed aboafd, and on the 18th of
November the vessel sailed westward for the Niagara River. They
kept the northern shore, and run into land and bartered for corn with
the Iroquois at one of their villages, situated where Toronto, Canada,
is located, and for fear of being frozen up in the river, which here
empties into the lake, had to cut the ice from about their ship. Detained
by adverse winds, they remained here until the wind was favorable,

60 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

when they sailed across the end of the lake and found an anchorage in
the mouth of Niagara River on the 6th of December. The season was
far advanced, and the ground covered with snow a foot deep. Large
masses of ice were floating down the river endangering the vessel, and
it was necessary to take measures to give it security. Accordingly the
vessel was hauled with cables up against the strong current. One of
the cables broke, and the vessel itself came very near being broken to
pieces or carried away by the ice, which was grinding its way to the
open lake. Finally, by sheer force of human strength, the vessel was
dragged to the shore, and moored with a strong hawser under a protect-
ing cliff out of danger from the floating ice. A cabin, protected with
palisades, for shelter and to serve as a magazine to store the supplies,
was also constructed. The ground was frozen so hard that it had to be
thawed out with boiling water before the men could drive stakes into it.

The movements of La Salle excited, first the curiosity of the Iro-
quois Indians, in whose country he was an intruder, and then their jeal-
ousy became aroused as they began to fear he intended the erection of a
fort. The Sieur de La Salle, says the frank and modest-minded Father
Zenobe Membre, "with his usual address met the principal Iroquois
chiefs in conference, and gained them so completely that they not only
agreed, but offered, to contribute with all their means to the execu-
tion of his designs. The conference lasted for some time. La Salle
also sent many canoes to trade north and south of the lake among
these tribes." Meanwhile La Salle's enemies were busy in thwarting
his plans. They insinuated themselves among the Indians in the
vicinity of Niagara, and filled their ears with all sorts of stories to La
Salle's discredit, and aroused feelings of such distrust that work on the
fort, or depot for supplies, had to be suspended, and La Salle content
himself with a house surrounded by palisades.

A place was selected above the falls,* on the eastern side of the
river, for the construction of the new vessel.

The ground was cleared away, trees were felled, and the carpen-
ters set to work. The keel of the vessel was laid on the 20th of Jan-
uary, and some of the plank being ready to fasten on, La Salle drove
the first spike. As the work progressed, La Salle made several trips, over
ice and snow, and later in the spring with vessels, to Fort Frontenac, to
hurry forward provisions and material. One of his vessels was lost on
Lake Ontario, heavily laden with a cargo of valuable supplies, through
the fault or willful perversit}' of her pilots. The disappointment over this
calamity, says Hennepin, would have dissuaded any other person than

♦Francis Parkman, in his valuable work, "The Discovery of the Great West,"
p. 133, locates the spot at the mouth of Cayuga Creek on the American shore.

THE FIRST SAIL ON LAKE ERIE. 61

La Salle from the further prosecution of the enterprise. The men
worked industriously on the ship. The most of the Iroquois having
gone to war with a nation on the northern side of Lake Erie, the few
remaining behind were become less insolent than before. Still they
lingered about where the work was going on, and continued expres-
sions of discontent at what the French were doing. One of them let
on to be drunk and attempted to kill the blacksmith, but the latter
repulsed the Indian with a piece of iron red-hot from the forge. The
Indians threatened to burn the vessel on the stocks, and might have
done so were it not constantly guarded. Much of the time the only
food of the men was Indian corn and fish ; the distance to Fort Fron-
tenac and the inclemency of the winter rendering it out of power to
procure a supply of other or better provisions.

The frequent alarms from the Indians, a want of wholesome food,
the loss of the vessel with its promised supplies, and a refusal of the
neighboring tribes to sell any more of their corn, reduced the party to
such extremities that the ship-carpenters tried to run away. They
were, however, persuaded to remain and prosecute their work. Two
Mohegan Indians, successful hunters in La Salle's service, were fortu-
nate enough to bring in some wild goats and other game they had
killed, which greatly encouraged the workmen to go on with their task
more briskly than before. The vessel was completed within six months
from the time its keel was laid. The ship was gotten afloat before en-
tirely finished, to prevent the designs of the natives to burn it. She
was sixty tons burthen, and called the " Griffin," a name given it by
La Salle by way of a compliment to Count Frontenac, whose armorial
bearings were supported by two griffins. Three guns were fired, and
"Te Deums" chanted at the christening, and prayers offered up for a
prosperous voyage. The air in the wild forest rung with shouts of
joy; even the Iroquois, looking suspiciously on, were seduced with
alluring draughts of brandy to lend their deep-mouthed voices to the
happy occasion. The men left their cabins of bark and swung their
hammocks under the deck of the ship, where they could rest with
greater security from the savages than on the shore.

The Griffin, under press of a favorable breeze, and with the help
of twelve men on the shore pulling at tow-ropes, was forced up against
the strong current of the Niagara River to calmer waters at the en-
trance of the lake. On the 7th of August, 1679, her canvas was spread,
and the pilot steering by the compass, the vessel, with La Salle and his
thirty odd companions and their effects aboard, sailed out westward
upon the unknown, silent waters of Lake Erie. In three days they
reached the mouth of Detroit River. Father Hennepin was fairly

62 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

delighted with the country along this river — it was "so well situated
and the soil so fertile. Vast meadows extending back from the strait,
and terminating at the uplands, which were clad with vineyards, and
plum and pear and other fruit-bearing trees of nature's own planting, all
so well arranged that one would think they could not have been so dis-
posed without the help of art. The country was also well stocked
with deer, bear, wild goats, turkeys, and other animals and birds, that
supplied a most relishing food. The forest comprised walnut and
other timber in abundance suitable for building purposes. So charmed
was he with the prospect that he " endeavored to persuade La Salle to
settle at the ' De Troit,' " it being in the midst of so many savage na-
tions among whom a good trade could be established. La Salle would
not listen to this proposal. He said he would make no settlement
within one hundred leagues of Frontenac, lest other Europeans would
be before them in the new country they were going to discover. This,
says Hennepin, was the pretense of La Salle and the adventurers who
were with him ; for I soon discovered that their intention was to buy all
the furs and skins of the remotest savages who, as thev thought, did
not know their value, and thus enrich themselves in one single voyage.
On Lake Huron the Griffin encountered a storm. The main-yards
and topmast were blown away, giving the ship over to the mercy of
the winds. Tbere was no harbor to run into for shelter. La Salle,
although a courageous man, gave way to his fears, and said they all
were undone. Everyone thereupon fell upon their knees to say pray-
ers and prepare for death, except the pilot, who cursed and swore all
the while at La Salle for bringing him there to perish in a nasty lake,
after he had acquired so much renown in a long and successful naviga-
tion on the ocean. The storm abated, and on the 27th of August, the
Griffin resumed her course northwest, and was carried on the evening
of the same day beyond the island of Mackinaw to point St. Ignace,
and safely anchored in a bay that is sheltered, except from the south,
by the projecting mainland.

CHAPTER IX.

LA SALLE'S VOYAGE CONTINUED.

St. Ignace, or Mackinaw, as previously stated, had become a princi-
pal center of the Jesuit missions, and it had also grown into a head-
quarters for an extensive Indian trade. Duly licensed traders, as well
as the Coureurs de Bois, — men who had run wild, as it were, and by
their intercourse with the nations had thrown off all restraints of
civilized life, — resorted to this vicinity in considerable numbers. These,
lost to all sense of national pride, instead of sustaining took every
measure to thwart La Salle's plans. They, with some of the dissatis-
fied crew, represented to the Indians that La Salle and his associates
were a set of dangerous and ambitious adventurers, who meant to
engross all the trade in furs and skins and invade their liberties. These
jealous and meddlesome busybodies had already, before the arrival of
the Griffin, succeeded in seducing fifteen men from La Salle's service,
whom with others, he had sent forward the previous spring, under
command of Tonty, with a stock of merchandise; and, instead of
going to the tribes beyond and preparing the way for a friendly recep-
tion of La Salle, as they were ordered to do, they loitered about
Mackinaw the whole summer and squandered the goods, in spite of
Tonty's persistent efforts to urge them forward in the performance of
their duty. La Salle sent out other parties to trade with the natives,
and these went so far, and were so busy in bartering for and collect-
ing furs, that they did not return to Mackinaw until November. It
was now getting late and La Salle was warned of the dangerous storms
that sweep the lakes at the beginning of winter ; he resolved, therefore,
to continue his voyage without waiting the return of his men. He
weio-hed anchor and sailed westward into Lake Michigan as far as the
islands at the entrance of Green Bav, then called the Pottawatomie
Islands, for the reason that they were then occupied by bands of that
tribe. On one of these islands La Salle found some of the men
belonging to his advance party of traders, and who, having secured a
large quantity of valuable furs, had long and impatiently waited his
coming.

La Salle, as is already apparent, determined to engage in a fur trade
that already and legitimately belonged to merchants operating at

64 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Montreal, and with which the terms of his own license prohibited his
interfering. Without asking any one's advice he resolved to load his
ship with furs and send it back to Niagara, and the furs to Quebec, and
out of the proceeds of the sale to discharge some very pressing debts.
The pilot with five men to man the vessel were ordered to proceed with
the Griffin to Niagara, and return with all imaginable speed and join La
Salle at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, near the southern shore of
Lake Michigan. The Griffin did not go to Green Bay City, as many
writers have assumed in hasty perusals of the original authorities, or
even penetrate the body of water known as Green Bay beyond the
chain of islands at its mouth.

The resolution of La Salle, taken, it seems, on the spur of the
moment, to send his ship back down the lakes, and prosecute his
voyage the rest of the way to the head of Lake Michigan in frail
birchen canoes, was a most unfortunate measure. It delayed his
discoveries two years, brought severe hardships upon himself and
greatly embarrassed all his future plans. The Griffin itself was lost,
with all her cargo, valued at sixty thousand livres. She, nor her crew,
was ever heard of after leaving the Pottawatomie Islands. What
became of the ship and men in charge remains to this day a mystery,
or veiled in a cloud of conjecture. La Salle himself, says Francis
Parkman, "grew into a settled conviction that the Griffin had been
treacherously sunk by the pilot and sailors to whom he had intrusted
her; and he thought he had, in after-years, found evidence that the
authors of the crime, laden with the merchandise they had taken from
her, had reached the Mississippi and ascended it, hoping to join Du
Shut, the famous chief of the Coureurs de Bois, and enrich them-
selves by traffic with the northern tribes.*

The following is, substantially, Hennepin's account of La Salle's
canoe voyage from the mouth of Green Bay south, along the shore of
Lake Michigan, past Milwaukee and Chicago, and around the southern
end of the lake ; thence north along the eastern shore to the mouth of
the St. Joseph River; thence up the St. Joseph to South Bend, mak-
ing the portage here to the head-waters of the Kankakee; thence down
the Kankakee and Illinois through Peoria Lake, with an account of
the building of Fort Crevecceur. Hennepin's narrative is full of in-
teresting detail, and contains many interesting observations upon the
condition of the country, the native inhabitants as they appeared nearly
two hundred years ago. The privation and suffering to which La Salle
and his party were exposed in navigating Lake Michigan at that early
day, and late in the fall of the year, when the waters were vexed with

* Discovery of the Great West, p. 169.

FIKST VOYAGE ON LAKE MICHIGAN. 65

tempestuous storms, illustrate the courage and daring of the under-
taking.

Their suffering did not terminate with their voyage upon the lake.
Difficulties of another kind were experienced on the St. Joseph, Kan-
kakee and Illinois Rivers. Hennepin's is, perhaps, the first detailed
account we have of this part of the "Great West," and is therefore of
great interest and value on this account.

" We left the Pottawatomies to continue our voyage, being fourteen
men in all, in four canoes. I had charge of the smallest, which carried
five hundredweight and two men. My companions being recently
from Europe, and for that reason being unskilled in the management
of these kind of boats, its whole charge fell upon me in stormy
weather.

" The canoes were laden with a smith's forge, utensils, tools for car-
penters, joiners and sawyers, besides our goods and arms. We steered
to the south toward the mainland, from which the Pottawatomie
Islands are distant some forty leagues ; but about midway, and in the
night time, we were greatly endangered by a sudden storm. The
waves dashed into our canoes, and the night was so dark we had great
difficulty in keeping our canoes together. The daylight coming on,
we reached the shore, where we remained for four days, waiting for the
lake to grow calm. In the meantime our- Indian hunter went in quest
of game, but killed nothing other than a porcupine ; this, however,
made our Indian corn more relishing. The weather becoming fair, we
resumed our voyage, rowing all day and well into the night, along the
western coast of the Lake of the Illinois. The wind again grew to fresh,
and we landed upon a rocky beach where we had nothing to protect
ourselves against a storm of snow and rain except the clothing on our
persons. We remained here two days for the sea to go down, hav-
ing made a little fire from wood cast ashore by the waves. We pro-
ceeded on our voyage, and toward evening the winds again forced us
to a beach covered with rushes, where we remained three days ; and in
the meantime our provisions, consisting only of pumpkins and Indian
corn purchased from the Pottawatomies, entirely gave out. Our
canoes were so heavily laden that we could not carry provisions with
us, and we were compelled to rely on bartering for such supplies on
our way. We left this dismal place, and after twelve leagues rowing
came to another Pottawatomie village, whose inhabitants stood upon
the beach to receive us. But M. La Salle refused to let anyone land,
notwithstanding the severity of the weather, fearing some of his men
might run away. We were in such great peril that La Salle flung
himself into the water, after we had gone some three leagues farther,
5

66 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and with the aid of his three men carried the canoe of which he had
charge to the shore, upon their shoulders, otherwise it would have been
broken to pieces by the waves. We were obliged to do the same with
the other canoes. I, myself, carried good Father Gabriel upon my
back, his age being so well advanced as not to admit of his ventur-
ing in the water. "We took ourselves to a piece of rising ground to
avoid surprise, as we had no manner of acquaintance with the great
number of savages whose village was near at hand. We sent three
men into the village to buy provisions, under protection of the calu-
met or pipe of peace, which the Indians at Pottawatomie Islands had
presented us as a means of introduction to, and a measure of safety
against, other tribes that we might meet on our way."

The calumet has always been a symbol of amity among all the In-
dian tribes of North America, and so uniformly used by them in all
their negotiations with their own race, and Europeans as well ; and
Father Hennepin's description of it, and the respect that is accorded to
its presence, are so truthful that we here insert his account of it at
length :

"This calumet," says Father Hennepin, "is the most mysterious
thing among the savages, for it is used in all important transactions.
It is nothing else, however, than a large tobacco pipe, made of red,
black, or white stone. The head is highly polished, and the quill or
stem is usually about two feet in length, made of a pretty strong reed
or cane, decorated with highly colored feathers interlaced with locks of
women's hair. Wings of gaudily plumaged birds are tied to it, mak-
ing the calumet look like the wand of Mercury, or staff which ambas-
sadors of state formerly carried when they went to conduct treaties of
peace. The stem is sheathed in the skin of the neck of birds called
'Huars'' (probably the loon), which are as large as our geese, and
spotted with white and black; or else with those of a duck (the little
wood duck whose neck presents a beautiful contrast of colors) that
make their nests upon trees, although the water is their ordinary ele-
ment, and whose feathers are of many different colors. However,
every tribe ornament their calumets according to their own fancy, with
the feathers of such birds as they may have in their own country.

"A pipe, such as I have described, is a pass of safe conduct among all
the allies of the tribe which has given it ; and in all embassies it is car-
ried as a symbol of peace, and is always respected as such, for the sav-
ages believe some great misfortune would speedily befall them if they
violated the public faith of the calumet. All their enterprises, declara-
tions of war, treaties of peace, as well as all of the rest of their cere-
monies, are sealed with the calumet. The pipe is filled with the best

CANOE VOYAGE ON LAKE MICHIGAN. 67

tobacco they have, and then it is presented to those with whom they
are about to conduct an important affair ; and after they have smoked
out of it, the one offering it does the same. I would have perished,"
concludes Hennepin, " had it not been for the calumet. Our three
men, carrying the calumet and being well armed, went to the little
village about three leagues from the place where we landed ; they
found no one at home, for the inhabitants, having heard that we refused
to land at the other village, supposed we were enemies, and had aban-
doned their habitations. In their absence our men took some of their
eorn, and left instead, some goods, to let them know we were neither
their enemies nor robbers. Twenty of the inhabitants of this village
came to our encampment on the beach, armed with axes, small guns,
bows, and a sort of club, which, in their language, means a head-
breaker. La Salle, with four well-armed men, advanced toward them
for the purpose of opening a conversation. He requested them to come
near to us, saying he had a party of hunters out who might come
across them and take their lives. They came forward and took seats
at the foot of an eminence, where we were encamped ; and La Salle
amused them with the relation of his voyage, which he informed them
he had undertaken for their advantage ; and thus occupied their time
until the arrival of the three men who had been sent out with the
calumet ; on seeing which the savages gave a great shout, arose to their
feet and danced about. We excused our men from having taken some
of their corn, and informed them that we had left its true value in
goods ; they were so well pleased with this that they immediately sent
for more corn, and on the next day they made us a gift of as much as
we could conveniently find room for in our canoes.

" The next day morning the old men of the tribe came to us with
their calumet of peace, and entertained us with a free offering of wild
goats, which their own hunters had taken. In return, we presented
them our thanks, accompanied with some axes, knives, and several little
toys for their wives, with all which they were very much pleased.

" We left this place and continued our voyage along the coast of
the lake, which, in places, is so steep that we often found it difficult to
obtain a landing ; and the wind was so violent as to oblige us to carry
our canoes sometimes upon top of the bluff, to prevent their being
dashed in pieces. The stormy weather lasted four days, causing us
much suffering; for every time we made the shore we had to wade
in the water, carrying our effects and canoes upon our shoulders. The
water being very cold, most of us were taken sick. Our provisions
again failed us, which, with the fatigues of rowing, made old Father
Gabriel faint away in such a manner that we despaired of his life.

68 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

With a use of a decoction of hyacinth I had with me, and which I
found of great service on our voyage, he was restored to his senses.
We had no other subsistence but a handful of corn per man every
twenty-four hours, which we parched or boiled ; and, although reduced
to such scanty diet, we rowed our canoes almost daily, from morning
to night. Our men found some hawthorns and other wild berries,
of which they ate so freely that most of them were taken sick, and we
imagined that they were poisoned.

" Yet the more we suffered, the more, by God's grace, did I become
stronger, so that I could outrow the other canoes. Being in great dis-
tress, He, who takes care of his meanest creatures, provided us with
an unexpected relief. We saw over the land a great many ravens
and eagles circling in mid-air ; from whence we conjectured there was
prey near by. We landed, and, upon search, found the half of a wild
goat which the wolves had strangled. This provision was very ac-
ceptable, and the rudest of our men could not but praise a kind Provi-
dence, who took such particular care of us.

" Having thus refreshed ourselves, we continued our voyage directly
to the southern part of the lake, every day the country becoming liner
and the climate more temperate. On the 16th of October we fell in
with abundance of game. Our Indian hunter killed several deer and
wild goats, and our men a great many big fat turkey-cocks, with
which we regaled ourselves for several days. On the 18th we came to
the farther end of the lake.* Here we landed, and our men were sent
out to prospect the locality, and found great quantities of ripe grapes,
the fruit of which were as large as damask plums. We cut down the
trees to gather the grapes, out of which we made pretty good wine,
which we put into gourds, used as flasks, and buried them in the sand
to keep the contents from turning sour. Many of the trees here are
loaded with vines, which, if cultivated, would make as good wine as
any in Europe. The fruit was all the more relishing to us, because we
wanted bread."

Other travelers besides Hennepin, passing this locality at an early
day, also mention the same fact. It would seem, therefore, that Lake
Michigan had the same modifying influence upon, and equalized the
temperature of, its eastern shore, rendering it as famous for its wild
fruits and grapes, two hundred years ago, as it has since become noted
for the abundance and perfection of its cultivated varieties.

" Our men discovered prints of men's feet. The men were ordered

* From the description given of the country, the time occupied, and forest growth,
the voyagers must now be eastward of Michigan City, and where the lake shore trends
more rapidly to the north.

SAVAGES PLUNDER LA SALLE. 69

to be upon guard and make no noise. In spite of this precaution, one
of our men, finding a bear upon a tree, shot him dead and dragged
him into camp. La Salle was very angry at this indiscretion, and, to
avoid surprise, placed sentinels at the canoes, under which our effects
.had been put for protection against the rain. There was a hunting
party of Fox Indians from the vicinity of Green Bay, about one hun-
dred and twenty in number, encamped near to us, who, having heard
the noise of the gun of the man who shot the bear, became alarmed,
and sent out some of their men to discover who we were. These
spies, creeping upon their bellies, and observing great silence, came
in the night-time and stole the coat of La Salle's footman and some
goods secreted under the canoes. The sentinel, hearing a noise, gave the
alarm, and we all ran to our arms. On being discovered, and thinking
our numbers were greater than we really were, they cried out, in
the dark, that they were friends. We answered, friends did not visit
at such unseasonable hours, and that their actions were more like
those of robbers, who designed to plunder and kill us. Their headsman
replied that they heard the noise of our gun, and, as they knew that
none of the neighboring tribes possessed firearms, they supposed we
were a war party of Iroquois, come with the design of murdering
them; but now that they learned we were Frenchmen from Canada,
whom they loved as their own brethren, they would anxiously wait
until daylight, so that they could smoke out of our calumet. This is a
compliment among the savages, and the highest mark they can give of
their affection.

"We appeared satisfied with their reasons, and gave leave to four of
their old men, only, to come into our camp, telling them we would not
permit a greater number, as their young men were much given to
stealing, and that we would not suffer such indignities. Accordingly,
four of their old men came among us ; we entertained them until
morning, when they departed. After they were gone, we found out
about the robbery of the canoes, and La Salle, well knowing the genius
of the savages, saw, if he allowed this affront to pass without resenting
it, that we would be constantly exposed to a renewal of like indigni-
ties. Therefore, it was resolved to exact prompt satisfaction. La
Salle, with four of his men, went out and captured two of the Indian
hunters. One of the prisoners confessed the robbery, with the cir-
cumstances connected with it. The thief was detained, and his comrade
was released and sent to his band to tell their headsman that the cap-
tive in custody would be put to death unless the stolen property were
returned.

" The savages were greatly perplexed at La Salle's peremptory mes-

70 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

sage. They could not comply, for they had cut up the goods and coat
and divided among themselves the pieces and the buttons; they there-
fore resolved to rescue their man by force. The next day, October
30, they advanced to attack us. The peninsula we were encamped
on was separated from the forest where the savages lay by a little sandy
plain, on which and near the wood were two or three eminences. La
Salle determined to take possession of the most prominent of these
elevations, and detached five of his men to occupy it, following him-
self, at a short distance, with all of his force, every one having rolled
their coats about the left arm, which was held up as a protection
against the arrows of the savages. Only eight of the enemy had fire-
arms. The savages were frightened at our advance, and their young
men took behind the trees, but their captains stood their ground, while
we moved forward and seized the knoll. I left the two other Francis-
cans reading the usual prayers, and went about among the men ex-
horting them to their duty ; I had been in some battles and sieges in
Europe, and was not afraid of these savages, and La Salle was highly
pleased with my exhortations, and their influence upon his men. When
I considered what might be the result of the quarrel, and how much
more Christian-like it would be to prevent the effusion of blood, and
end the difficulty in a friendly manner, I went toward the oldest
savage, who, seeing me unarmed, supposed I came with designs of a
mediator, and received me with civility. In the meantime one of our
men observed that one of the savages had a piece of the stolen cloth
wrapped about his head, and he went up to the savage and snatched
the cloth away. This vigorous action so much terrified the savages that,
although they were near six score against eleven, they presented me
with the pipe of peace, which I received. M. La Salle gave his word
that they might come to him in security. Two of their old men came
forward, and in a speech disapproved the conduct of their young men ;
that they could not restore the goods taken, but that, having been cut
to pieces, they could only return the articles which were not spoiled,
and pay for the rest. The orators presented, with their speeches, some
garments made of beaver skins, to appease the wrath of M. La Salle,
who, frowning a little, informed them that while he designed to wrong
no one, he did not intend others should affront or injure him ; but, inas-
much as they did not approve what their young men had done, and were
willing to make restitution for the same, he would accept their gifts and
become their friend. The conditions were fully complied with, and
peace happily concluded without farther hostility.

" The day was spent in dancing, feasting and speech-making. The
chief of the band had taken particular notice of the behavior of the

INDIAN SPEECH TO THE GRAY-COATS. 71

Franciscans. ' These gray-coats,'* said the chief of the Foxes, ' we
value very much. They go barefooted as well as we. They scorn our
beaver gowns, and decline all other presents. They do not carry arms
to kill us. They natter and make much of our children, and give them
knives and other toys without expecting any reward. Those of our
tribe who have been to Canada tell us that Onnotio (so they call the
Governor) loves them very much, and that the Fathers of the Gown
have given up all to come and see us. Therefore, you who are captain
over all these men, be pleased to leave with us one of these gray-coats,
whom we will conduct to our village when we shall have killed what
we design of the buffaloes. Thou art also master of these warriors ;
remain with us, instead of going among the Illinois, who, already
advised of your coining, are resolved to kill you and all of your
soldiers. And how can you resist so powerful nation ? '

" The day November 1st we again embarked on the lake, and came
to the mouth of the river of the Miamis, which comes from the south-
east and falls into the lake."

* While the Jesuit Fathers wore black gowns as a distinctive mark of their sect, the
Recollects, or Franciscan missionaries, wore coats of gray.

CHAPTER X.

THE SEVERAL MIAMIS — LA SALLE'S V.OYAGE DOWN THE ILLINOIS.

Much confusion has arisen because, at different periods, the name
of " Miami " has been applied to no less than five different rivers, viz. :
The St. Joseph, of Lake Michigan ; the Maumee, often designated as
the Miami of the Lakes, to distinguish it from the Miami which falls
into the Ohio River below Cincinnati ; then there is the Little Miami
of the Ohio emptying in above its greater namesake ; and finally
the Wabash, which with more propriety bore the name of the
" River of the Miamis." The French, it is assumed, gave the name
" Miami " to the river emptying into Lake Michigan, for the reason that
there was a village of that tribe on its banks before and at the time of La
Salle's first visit, as already noted on page 24. The name was not of
long duration, for it was soon exchanged for that of St. Joseph, by which
it has ever since been known. La Hontan is the last authority who
refers to it by the name of Miami. Shortly after the year named, the
date being now unknown, a Catholic mission was established up the
river, and, Charlevoix says, about six leagues below the portage, at
South Bend, and called the Mission of St. Joseph ; and from this cir-
cumstance, we may safely infer, the river acquired the same name. It
is not known, either, by whom the Mission of St. Joseph was organ-
ized ; very probably, however, by Father Claude Allouez. This good
man, and to whose writings the people of the west are so largely
indebted for many valuable historical reminiscences, seems to have been
forgotten in the respect that is showered upon other more conspicuous
though less meritorious characters. The Mission of the Immaculate
Conception, after Marquette's death, remained unoccupied for the space
of two years, then Claude Jean Allouez received orders to proceed
thither from the Mission of St. James, at the town of Maskoutens, on
Fox River, Wisconsin. Leaving in October, 1GT6, on account of an
exceptionally early winter, he was compelled to delay his journey until
the following February, when he again started ; reaching Lake Mich-
igan on the eve of St. Joseph, he called the lake after this saint.
Embarking on the lake on the 23d of March, and coasting along the
western shore, after numerous delays occasioned by ice and storm, he
arrived at Chicago River. He then made the portage and entered the

LA SALLE BEACHES THE ST. JOSEPH. 73

Kaskaskia village, which was probably near Peoria Lake, on the 8th of
April, 1677. The Indians gave him a very cordial reception, and
nocked from all directions to the town to hear the "Black Gown"
relate the truths of Christianity. For the glorification of God and the
Blessed Virgin Immaculate, Allouez " erected, in the midst of the
village, a cross twenty-five feet high, chanting the Vexilla Regis in the
presence of an admiring and respectful throng of Indians ; he covered
it with garlands of beautiful flowers."* Father Allouez did not remain
but a short time at the mission ; leaving it that spring he returned in
1678, and continued there until La Salle's arrival in the winter of
1679-80. The next succeeding decade Allouez passed either at this
mission or at the one on St. Joseph's River, on the eastern side of Lake
Michigan, where he died in 1690. Bancroft says : " Allouez has
imperishably connected his name with the progress of discovery in the
West ; unhonored among us now, he was not inferior in zeal and ability
to any of the great missionaries of his time."

We resume Hennepin's narrative:

"We had appointed this place (the mouth of the St. Joseph) for our
rendezvous before leaving the outlet of Green Bay, and expected to
meet the twenty men we had left at Mackinaw, who, being ordered to
come by the eastern coast of the lake, had a much shorter cut than we,
who came by the western side ; besides this, their canoes were not so
heavily laden as ours. Still, we found no one here, nor any signs that
they had been here before us.f

" It was resolved to advise M. La Salle that it was imprudent to
remain here any longer for the absent men, and expose ourselves to
the hardships of winter, when it would be doubtful if we could find
the Illinois in their villages, as then they would be divided into fami-
lies, and scattered over the country to subsist more conveniently. We
further represented that the game might fail us, in which event we
must certainly perish with hunger ; whereas, if we went forward, we
would find enough corn among the Illinois, who would rather supply

* "Allouez' Journal," published in Shea's " Discovery on Exploration of the Missis-
sippi Valley."

t In some works, the Geological Surveys of Indiana for 1873, p. 458, among others,
it is erroneously assumed that La Salle was the discoverer of the St. Joseph River.
While Fathers Hennepin and Zenobe Membre, who were with La Salle, may be the only
accessible authors who have described it, the stream and its location was well known
to La Salle and to them, as appears from their own account of it before they had ever
seen it. Before leaving Mackinaw, Tonti was ordered to hunt up the deserters from,
and to bring in the tardy traders belonging to, La Salle's party, and conduct them to
the mouth of the St. Joseph. The pilot of the Griffin was under instruction to bring
her there. Indeed, the conduct of the whole expedition leaves no room to doubt that
the whole route to the Illinois River, by way of the St. Joseph and the Kankakee port-
age, was well known at Mackinaw, and definitely fixed upon by La Salle, at least be-
fore leaving the latter place.

74 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

fourteen men than thirty-two with provisions. We said further that
it would be quite impossible,, if we delayed longer, to continue the
voyage until the winter was over, because the rivers would be frozen
over and we could not make use of our canoes. Notwithstanding
these reasons, M. La Salle thought it necessary to remain for the rest
of the men, as we would be in no condition to appear before the Illi-
nois and treat with them with our present small force, whom they
would meet with scorn. That it would be better to delay our entry
into their country, and in the meantime try to meet with some of their
nation, learn their language, and gain their good will by presents.
La Salle concluded his discourse with the declaration that, although all
of his men might run away, as for himself, he would remain alone with
his Indian hunter, and find means to maintain the three missionaries —
meaning me and my two clerical brethren. Having come to this con-
clusion, La Salle called his men together, and advised them that he
expected each one to do his duty ; that he proposed to build a fort
here for the security of the ship and the safety of our goods, and our-
selves, too, in case of any disaster. None of us, at this time, knew
that our ship had been lost. The men were quite dissatisfied at La-
Salle's course, but his reasons therefor were so many that they yielded,
and agreed to entirely follow his directions.

" Just at the mouth of the river was an eminence with a kind of
plateau, naturally fortified. It was quite steep, of a triangular shape,
defended on two sides by the river, and on the other by a deep ravine
which the water had washed out. We felled the trees that grew on
this hill, and cleared from it the bushes for the distance of two musket
shot. We began to build a redoubt about forty feet long by eighty
broad, with great square pieces of timber laid one upon the other, and
then cut a great number of stakes, some twenty feet long, to drive into
the ground on the river side, to make the fort inaccessible in that direc-
tion. We were employed the whole of the month of November in
this work, which was very fatiguing. — having no other food than the
bears our savage killed. These animals are here very abundant, be-
cause of the great quantity of grapes they find in this vicinity. Their
flesh was so fat and luscious that our men grew weary of it, and desired
to £0 themselves and hunt for wild o-oats. La Salle denied them that
liberty, which made some murmurs among the men, and they went
unwillingly to their work. These annoyances, with the near approach
of winter, together with the apprehension that his ship was lost, gave
La Salle a melancholy which he resolutely tried to but could not con-
ceal.

'"We made a hut wherein we performed divine service every Sun-

FORT MIAMIS. 75

day ; and Father Gabriel and myself, who preached alternately, care-
fully selected such texts as were suitable to our situation, and fit to
inspire us with courage, concord, and brotherly love. Our exhorta-
tions produced good results, and deterred our men from their meditated
desertion. We sounded the mouth of the river and found a sand-bar,
on which we feared our expected ship might strike ; we marked out a
channel through which the vessel might safely enter by attaching
buoys, made of inflated bear-skins, fastened to long poles driven into
the bed of the lake. Two men were also sent back to Mackinac to
await there the return of the ship, and serve as pilots.*

" M. Tonti arrived on the 20th of November with two canoes, laden
with stags and deer, which were a welcome refreshment to our men.
He did not bring more than about one-half of his men, having left
the rest on the opposite side of the lake, within three days' journey of
the fort. La Salle was angry with him on this account, because he
was afraid the men would run away. Tonti's party informed us that
the Griffin had not put into Mackinaw, according to orders, and that
they had heard nothing of her since our departure, although they had
made inquiries of the savages living on the coast of the lake. This
confirmed the suspicion, or rather the belief, that the vessel had been
cast away. However, M. La Salle continued work on the building of
the fort, which was at last completed and called Fort Miamis.

" The winter was drawing nigh, and La Salle, fearful that the ice
would interrupt his voyage, sent M. Tonti back to hurry forward the
men he had left, and to command them to come to him immediately ;
but, meeting with a violent storm, their canoes were driven against
the beach and broken to pieces, and Tonti's men lost their guns and
equipage, and were obliged to return to us overland. A few days,
after this all our men arrived except two, who had deserted. We pre-
pared at once to resume our voyage ; rains having fallen that melted
the ice and made the rivers navigable.

" On the 3d of December, 1679, we embarked, being in all thirty-
three men, in eight canoes. We left the lake of the Illinois and
went up the river of the Miamis, in which we had previously made
soundings. We made about five-and-twenty leagues southward, but
failed to discover the place where we were to land, and carry our canoes
and effects into the river of the Illinois, which falls into that of the
Meschasipi, that is, in the language of the Illinois, the great river.
We had already gone beyond the place of the portage, and, not know-
ing where we M r ere, we thought proper to remain there, as we were
expecting M. La Salle, who had taken to the land to view the country.

*This is the beginning, at what is now known as Benton Harbor, Michigan.

76 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

We staid here quite a while, and, La Salle failing to appear, I went a
distance into the woods with two men, who tired off their guns to
notify him of the place where we were. In the meantime two other
men went higher up the river, in canoes, in search of him. "We all
returned toward evening, having vainly endeavored to find him. The
next day I went up the river myself, but, hearing nothing of him, 1
came back, and found our men very much perplexed, fearing he was
lost. However, about four o'clock in the afternoon M. La Salle returned
to us, having his face and hands as black as pitch. He carried two
beasts, as big as muskrats, whose skin was very fine, and like ermine.
He had killed them with a stick, as they hung by their tails to the
branches of the trees.

" He told us that the marshes he had met on his way had compelled
him to bring a large compass ; and that, being much delayed by the
snow, which fell very fast, it was past midnight before he arrived upon
the banks of the river, where he fired his gun twice, and, hearing no
answer, he concluded that we had gone higher up the river, and had,
therefore, marched that way. He added that, after three hours' march,
he saw a fire upon a little hill, whither he went directly and hailed us
several times; but, hearing no reply, he approached and found no per-
son near the fire, but only some dry grass, upon which a man had laid
a little while before, as he conjectured, because the bed was still warm.
He supposed that a savage had been occupying it, who fled upon his
approach, and was now hid in ambuscade near by. La Salle called out
loudly to him in two or three languages, saying that he need not be afraid
of him, and that he was agoing to lie in his bed. La Salle received
no answer. To guard against surprise, La Salle cut bushes and placed
them to obstruct the way, and sat down by the fire, the smoke of
which blackened his hands and face, as I have already observed. Hav-
ing warmed and rested himself, he laid down under the tree upon the
dry grass the savage had gathered and slept well, notwithstanding the
frost and snow. Father Gabriel and I desired him to keep with his
men, and not to expose himself in the future, as the success of our
enterprise depended solely on him, and he promised to follow our
advice. Our savage, who remained behind to hunt, finding none of
us at the portage, came higher up the river, to where we were, and
told us we had missed the place. We sent all the canoes back under
his charge except one, which I retained for M. La Salle, who was so
weary that he was obliged to remain there that night. I made a little
hut with mats, constructed with marsh rushes, in which we laid down
together for the night. By an unhappy accident our cabin took fire,
and we were very near being burned alive after we had gone to
sleep."

ABORIGINAL NAME OF "KANKAKEE." 77

Here follows Hennepin's description of the Kankakee portage, and
of the marshy grounds about the headwaters of this stream, as already
quoted on page 24.

" Having passed through the marshes, we came to a vast prairie, in
which nothing grows but grasses, which were at this time dry and
burnt, because the Miamis set the grasses on fire every year, in hunt-
ing for wild oxen (buffalo), as I shall mention farther on. We found
no game, which was a disappointment to us, as our provisions had
begun to fail. Our men traveled about sixty miles without killing
anything other than a lean stag, a small wild goat, a few swan and
two bustards, which were but a scanty subsistence for two and thirty
men. Most of the men were become so weary of this laborious life
that, were it practicable, they would have run aw r ay and joined the
savages, who, as we inferred by the great fires which we saw on the
prairies, were not very far from us. There must be an innumerable
quantity of wild cattle in this country, since the ground here is every-
where covered with their horns. The Miamis hunt them toward the
latter end of autumn."*

That part of the Illinois River above the Desplaines is called the
Kankakee, which is a corruption of its original Indian name. St.
Cosme, the narrative of whose voyage down the Illinois River, by
way of Chicago, in 1699, and found in Dr. Shea's work of " Early
Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi," refers to it as the The-a-li-ke,
" which is the real river of the Illinois, and (says) that which we de-
scended (the Desplaines) w T as only a branch." Father Marest, in his
letter of November 9, 1712, narrating a journey he had previously
made from Kaskaskia up to the Mission of St. Joseph, says of the Illi-
nois River : " We transported all there was in the canoe toward the
source of the Illinois (Indian), which they call Hau-ki-ki." Father
Charlevoix, who descended the Kankakee from the portage, in his let-
ter, dated at the source of the river Theakiki, September 17, 1721,
says : " This morning I walked a league farther in the meadow, having
my feet almost always in the water ; afterward I met with a kind of a
pool or marsh, which had a communication with several others of dif-
ferent sizes, but the largest was about a hundred paces in circuit ; these
are the sources of the river The-a-ki-ki, which, by a corrupted pronun-
ciation, our Indians call Ki-a-ki-ki. Theak signifies a wolf, in what
language I do not remember, but the river bears that name because the
Mahingans (Mohicans), who were likewise called wolves, had formerly

* Hennepin and his party were not aware of the migratory habits of the buffalo ;
and that their scarcity on the Kankakee in the winter months was because the herds
had gone southward to warmer latitude and better pasturage.

78 HISTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

taken refuge on its banks." * The Mohicans were of the Algonquin
stock, anciently living east of the Hudson River, where they had been
so persecuted and nearly destroyed by the implacable Iroquois that
their tribal integrity was lost, and they were dispersed in small fami-
lies over the west, seeking protection in isolated places, or living at
sufferance among their Algonquin kindred. They were brave, faithful
to the extreme, famous scouts, and successful hunters. La Salle, ap-
preciating these valuable traits, usually kept a few of them in his em-
ploy. The "savage," or "hunter," so often referred to by Hennepin,
in the extracts we have taken from his journal, was a Mohican.

In a report made to the late Governor Ninian Edwards, in 1812,
by John Hays, interpreter and Coureur de Bois of the routes, rivers
and Indian villages in the then Illinois Territory, Mr. Hays calls the
Kankakee the Quin-que-que, which was probably its French-Indian
name.f Col. Guerdon S. Hubbard, who for many years, dating back
as early as 1819, was a trader, and commanded great influence with
the bands of Pottawatomies, claiming the Kankakee as their country,
informs the writer that the Pottawatomie name of the Kankakee is
Ky-an-ke-a-kee, meaning " the river of the wonderful or beautiful
land, — as it really is, westward of the marshes. "A-kee," "Ah-ke" and
"Aki," in the Algonquin dialect, signifies earth or land.

The name Desplaines, like that of the Kankakee, has undergone
changes in the progress of time. On a French map of Louisiana, in
1717, the Desplaines is laid down as the Chicago River. Just after
Great Britain had secured the possessions of the French east of the
Mississippi, by conquest and treaty, and when the British authorities
were keenly alive to everything pertaining to their newly acquired
possessions, an elaborate map, collated from the most authentic sources
by Eman Bowen, geographer to His Majesty King George the Third,
was issued, and on this map the Desplaines is laid down as the Illinois,
or Chicago River. Many early French writers speak of it, as they
do of the Kankakee above the confluence, as the " River of the Illi-
nois." Its French Canadian name is Au Plein, now changed to Des-
plaines, or Riviere Au Plein, or Despleines, from a variety of hard
maple, — that is to say, sugar tree. The Pottawatomies called it She-
shik-mao-shi-ke Se-pe, signifying the river of the tree from which a
great quantity of sap flows in the spring.;}: It has also been sanctified
by Father Zenobe Membre with the name Divine River, and by authors

* Charlevoix' "Journal of a Voyage to America," vol. 2, p. 184. London edition,
1761.

t " History of Illinois and Life of Governor Edwards," by his son Ninian W.
Edwards, p. 98.

X Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 173.

NAMES OF THE ILLINOIS. 79

of early western gazetteers, vulgarized by the appellation of Kicka/poo
Creek.

Below the confluence of the Desplaines, the Illinois River was, by
La Salle, named the Seignelay, as a mark of his esteem for the brilliant
young Colbert, who succeeded his father as Minister of the Marine.
On the great map, prepared by the engineer Franquelin in 1684, it
is called River Des Illinois, or Macoupins. The name Illinois, which,
fortunately, it will always bear, was derived from the name of the con-
federated tribes who anciently dwelt upon its banks.

"We continued our course," says Hennepin, " upon this river (the
Kankakee and Illinois) very near the whole month of December, at
the latter end of which we arrived at a village of the Illinois, which
lies near a hundred and thirty leagues from Fort Miamis, on the Lake
of the Illinois. We suffered greatly on the passage, for the savages
having set fire to the grass on the prairie, the wild cattle had fled, and
we did not kill one. Some wild turkeys were the only game we
secured. God's providence supported us all the while, and as we
meditated upon the extremities to which we were reduced, regarding
ourselves without hope of relief, we found a very large wild ox stick-
ing fast in the mud of the river. We killed him, and with much diffi-
culty dragged him out of the mud. This was a great refreshment to
our men ; it revived their courage, — being so timely and unexpectedly
relieved, they concluded that God approved our undertaking.

The great village of the Illinois, where La Salle's party had now
arrived, has been located with such certainty by Francis Parkman, the
learned historical writer, as to leave no doubt of its identity. It
was on the north side of the Illinois Eiver, above the mouth of the
Vermillion and below Starved Rock, near the little village of Utica,
in La Salle county, Illinois.*

" We found," continues Father Hennepin, " no one in the village,
as we had foreseen, for the Illinois, according to their custom, had di-
vided themselves into small hunting parties. Their absence caused
great perplexity amongst us, for we wanted provisions, and yet did
not dare to meddle with the Indian corn the savages had laid under
ground for their subsistence and for seed. However, our necessity be-
ing very great, and it being impossible to continue our voyage without
any provisions, M. La Salle resolved to take about forty bushels of
corn, and hoped to appease the savages with presents. We embarked
again, with these fresh provisions, and continued to fall down the river,

* Mr. Parkman gives an interesting account of his recent visit to, and the identifi-
cation of, the locality, in an elaborate note in his " Discovery of the Great West," pp.
221, 222.

80 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

which runs directly toward the south. On the 1st of January we went
through a lake (Peoria Lake) formed hy the river, about seven leagues
long and one broad. The savages call that place Pimeteoui, that is, in
their tongue, ' a place where there is an abundance of fat animals. ' *

Resuming Hennepin's narrative : "The current brought us, in the
meantime, to the Indian camp, and M. La Salle was the first one
to land, followed closely by his men, which increased the consterna-
tion of the savages, whom we easily might have defeated. As it was
not our design, we made a halt to give them time to recover them-
selves and to see that we were not enemies. Most of the savages who
had run away upon our landing, understanding that we were friends,
returned ; but some others did not come back for three or four days,
and after they had learned that we had smoked the calumet.

" I must observe here, that the hardest winter does not last longer
than two months in this charming country, so that on the 15th of Jan-
uary there came a sudden thaw, which made the rivers navigable, and
the weather as mild as it is in France in the middle of the spring.
M. La Salle, improving this fair season, desired me to go down the
river with him to choose a place proper to build a fort. We selected
an eminence on the bank of the river, defended on that side by the
river, and on two others by deep ravines, so that it was accessible only
on one side. We cast a trench to join the two ravines, and made the
eminence steep on that side, supporting the earth with great pieces of
timber. We made a rough palisade to defend ourselves in case the
Indians should attack us while we were engaged in building the fort ;
but no one offering to disturb us, we went on diligently with our work.

* Louis Beck, in his " Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," p. 119, says: "The Indi-
ans call the lake Pin-a-tah-wee, on account of its being frequently covered with a
scum which has a greasy appearance." Owing to the rank growth of aquatic plants
in the Illinois River before they were disturbed by the frequent passage of boats, and to
the grasses on the borders of the stream and the adjacent marshes, and the decay
taking place in both under the scorching rays of the summer's sun, the surface of the
river and lake were frequently coated with this vegetable decomposition. Prof. School-
craft ascended the Illinois River, and was at Fort Clark on the 19th of August, 1821.
Under this date is the following extract from his "Narrative Journal": "About 9
o'clock in the morning we came to a part of the river which was covered for several
hundred yards with a scum or froth of the most intense green color, and emitting a
nauseous exhalation that was almost insupportable. We were compelled to pass
through it. The fine green color of this somewhat compact scum, resembling that of
verdegris, led us at the moment to conjecture that it might derive this character from
some mineral spring or vein in the bed of the river, but we had reasons afterward
to regret this opinion. I directed one of the canoe men to collect a bottle of this
mother of miasmata for preservation, but its fermenting nature baffled repeated at-
tempts to keep it corked. We had daily seen instances of the powerful tendency of
these waters to facilitate the decomposition of floating vegetation, but had not before
observed any in so mature and complete a state of putrefaction. It might certainly
justify an observer less given to fiction than the ancient poets, to people this stream
with the Hydra, as were the pestilential-breeding marshes of Italy." — Schoolcraft's
"Central Mississippi Valley," p. 305.

FORT CREVECOEUR AND ITS LOCATION. 81

When the fort was half finished, M. La Salle lodged himself, with M.
Tonti, in the middle of the fortification, and every one took his post.
We placed the forge on the curtain on the side of the wood, and laid
in a great quantity of coal for that purpose. But our greatest diffi-
culty was to build a boat, — our carpenters having deserted us, we did
not know what to do. However, as timber was abundant and near at
hand, we told our men that if any of them would undertake to saw
boards for building the bark, we might surmount all other difficulties.
Two of the men undertook the task, and succeeded so well that we
began to build a bark, the keel whereof was forty-two feet long. Our
men went on so briskly with the work, that on the 1st of March our
boat was half built, and all the timber ready prepared for furnishing it.
Our fort was also very near finished, and we named it ' Fort Creve-
cceur, ' because the desertion of our men, and other difficulties we
had labored under, had almost ' broken our hearts. ' *

" M. La Salle," says Hennepin, " no longer doubted that the Griffin
was lost ; but neither this nor other difficulties dejected him. His
great courage buoyed him up, and he resolved to return to Fort Fron-
tenac by land, notwithstanding the snow, and the great dangers attend-
ing so long a journey. We had many private conferences, wherein it
was decided that he should return to Fort Frontenac with three men,
to bring with him the necessary articles to proceed with the discov-
ery, while I, with two men, should go in a canoe to the River Me-
schasipi, and endeavor to obtain the friendship of the nations who
inhabited its banks.

"M. La Salle left M. Tonti to command in Fort Crevecceur, and
ordered our carpenter to prepare some thick boards to plank the deck
of our ship, in the nature of a parapet, to cover it against the arrows
of the savages in case they should shoot at us from the shore. Then,
calling his men together, La Salle requested them to obey M. Tonti's
orders in his absence, to live in Christian union and charity ; to be
courageous and firm in their designs ; and above all not to give credit
to false reports the savages might make, either of him or of their com-
rades who accompanied Father Hennepin."

Hennepin and his two companions, with a supply of trinkets suitable

* "Fort Crevecceur," or the Broken Heart, was built on the east side of the Illi-
nois River, a short distance below the outlet of Peoria Lake. It is so located on the
great map of Franquelin, made at Quebec in 1684. There are many indications on
this map, going 1 to show that it was constructed largely under the supervision of La-
Salle. The fact mentioned by Hennepin, that they went down the river, and that coal
was gathered for the supply of the fort, would confirm this theory as to its location;
for the outcrop of coal is abundant in the bluffs on the east side of the river below
Peoria. There is also a spot in this immediate vicinity that answers well to the site
of the fort as described by Fathers Hennepin and Membre.

82 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

for the Indian trade, left Fort Crevecoeur for the Mississippi, on the
29th of February, 1680, and were captured by the Sioux, as already
stated. From this time to the ultimate discovery and taking possession
of the Mississippi and the valleys by La Salle, Father Zenobe Membre
was the historian of the expedition.

La Salle started across the country, going up the Illinois and Kan-
kakee, and through the southern part of the present State of Michigan,
lie reached the Detroit River, ferrying the stream with a raft ; he at
length stood on Canadian soil. Striking a direct line across the wilder-
ness, he arrived at Lake Erie, near Point Pelee. B} r this time only
one man remained in health, and with his assistance La Salle made a
canoe. Embarking in it the party came to Niagara on Easter Monday.
Leaving his comrades, m t 1io were completely exhausted, La Salle on the
6th of May reached Fort Frontenac, making a journey of over a thou-
sand miles in sixty -five days, " the greatest feat ever performed by a
Frenchman in America."*

La Salle found his affairs in great confusion. His creditors had
seized upon his estate, including Fort Frontenac. Undaunted by this
new misfortune, he confronted his creditors and enemies, pacifying the
former and awing the latter into silence. He gathered the fragments
of his scattered property and in a short time started west with a com-
pany of twenty -five men, whom he had recruited to assist in the prose-
cution of his discoveries. He reached Lake Huron by the way of Lake
Simcoe, and shortly afterward arrived at Mackinaw. Here he found
that his enemies had been very busy, and had poisoned the minds of
the Indians against his designs.

We leave La Salle at Mackinaw to notice some of the occurrences
that took place on the Illinois and St. Joseph after he had departed for
Fort Frontenac. On this journey, as La Salle passed up the Illinois,
lie was favorably impressed with Starved Rock as a place presenting
strong defenses naturally. He sent word back to Tonti, below Peoria
Lake, to take possession of " The Rock " and erect a fortification on its
summit. Tonti accordingly came up the river with a part of his avail-
able force and began to work upon the new fort. While engaged in
this enterprise the principal part of the men remaining at Fort Creve-
coeur mutinied. They destroyed the vessel on the stocks, plundered
the storehouse, escaped up the Illinois River and appeared before Fort
Miami. These deserters demolished Fort Miami and robbed it of goods
and furs of La Salle, on deposit there, and then fled out of the country.
These misfortunes were soon followed by an incursion of the Iroquois,

* Parkman's "Discovery of the Great West."

DEATH OF FATHER GABRIEL. 83

who attacked the Illinois in their village near the Starved Rock. Tonti,
acting as mediator, came near losing his life at the hand of an infuriated
Iroquois warrior, who drove a knife into his ribs. Constantly an object
of distrust to the Illinois, who feared he was a spy and friend of the
Iroquois, in turn exposed to the jealousy of the Iroquois, who imag-
ined he and his French friends were allies of the Illinois, Tonti
remained faithful to his trust until he saw that he could not avert the
blow meditated by the Iroquois. Then, with Fathers Zenobe Membre
and Gabriel Rebourde, and a few Frenchmen who had remained faith-
ful, he escaped from the enraged Indians and made his way, in a leaky
canoe, up the Illinois River. Father Gabriel one fine day left his com-
panions on the river to enjoy a walk in the beautiful groves near by,
and while thus engaged, and as he was meditating upon his holy call-
ing, fell into an ambuscade of Kickapoo Indians. The good old man,
unconscious of his danger, was instantly knocked down, the scalp torn
from his venerable head, and his gray hairs afterward exhibited in tri-
umph by his young murderers as a trophy taken from the crown of an
Iroquois warrior. Tonti, with those in his company, pursued his course,
passing by Chicago, and thence up the west shore of Lake Michigan.
Subsisting on berries, and often on acorns and roots which they dug
from the ground, they finally arrived at the Pottawatomie towns. Pre-
vious to this they abandoned their canoe and started on foot for the
Mission of Green Bay, where they wintered.

La Salle, when he arrived at St. Joseph, found Fort Miamis plun-
dered and demolished. He also learned that the Iroquois had attacked
the Illinois. Fearing for the safety of Tonti, he pushed on rapidly,
only to find, at Starved Rock, the unmistakable signs of an Indian
slaughter. The report was true. The Iroquois had defeated the Illi-
nois and driven them west of the Mississippi. La Salle viewed the
wreck of his cherished project, the demolition of the fort, the loss of
his peltries, and especially the destruction of his vessel, in that usual
calm way peculiar to him ; and, although he must have suffered the
most intense anguish, no trace of sorrow or indecision appeared on his
inflexible countenance. Shortly afterward he returned to Fort Miamis.
La Salle occupied his time, until spring, in rebuilding Fort Miamis,
holding conferences with the surrounding Indian tribes, and confeder-
ating them against future attacks of the Iroquois. He now abandoned
the purpose of descending the Mississippi in a sailing vessel, and de-
termined to prosecute his voyage in the ordinary wooden pirogues or
canoes.

Tonti was sent forward to Chicago Creek, where he constructed a
number of sledges. After other preparations had been made, La Salle

84 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and his party left St. Joseph and came around the southern extremity
of the lake. The goods and effects were placed on the sledges pre-
pared by Tonti. La Salle's party consisted of twenty-three French-
men and eighteen Indians. The savages took with them ten squaws
and three children, so that the party numbered in all fifty-four persons.
They had to make the portage of the Chicago River. After dragging
their canoes, sledges, baggage and provisions about eighty leagues
over the ice, on the Desplaines and Illinois Rivers, they came to the
great Indian town. It was deserted, the savages having gone down
the river to Lake Peoria. From Peoria Lake the navigation was open,
and embarking, on the 6th of February, they soon arrived at the Mis-
sissippi. Here, owing to floating ice, they were delayed tilt the 13th
of the same month. Membre describes the Missouri as follows: "It is
full as large as the Mississippi, into which it empties, troubling it so
that, from the mouth of the Ozage (Missouri), the water is hardly
drinkable. The Indians assured us that this river is formed by many
others, and that they ascend it for ten or twelve days to a mountain
where it rises ; that beyond this mountain is the sea, where they see
great ships ; that on the river are a great number of large villages.
Although this river is very large, the Mississippi does not seem aug-
mented by it, but it pours in so much mud that, from its mouth, the
water of the great river, whose bed is also slimy, is more like clear
mud than river water, without changing at all till it reaches the sea, a
distance of more than three hundred leagues, although it receives seven
large rivers, the water of which is very beautiful, and which are almost
as large as the Mississippi." From this time, until they neared the
mouths of the Mississippi, nothing especially worthy of note occurred.
On the 6th of April they came to the place where the river divides
itself into three channels. M. La Salle took the western, the Sieur
Dautray the southern, and Tonti, accompanied by Membre, followed
the middle channel. The three channels were beautiful and deep.
The water became brackish, and two leagues farther it became perfectly
salt, and advancing on they at last beheld the Gulf of Mexico. La
Salle, in a canoe, coasted the borders of the sea, and then the parties
assembled on a dry spot of ground not far from the mouth of the river.
On the 9th of April, with all the pomp and ceremony of the Holy
Catholic Church, La Salle, in the name of the French King, took pos-
session of the Mississippi and all its tributaries. First they chanted
the " Vexilla Regis " and " Te Deum," and then, while the assembled
voyageurs and their savage attendants fired their muskets and shouted
" Vive le Roi," La Salle planted the column, at the same time pro-
claiming, in a loud voice, " In the name of the Most High, Mighty,

TAKING POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA. 85

Invincible, and Victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace of
God King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth of that name, I, this
9th day of April, one thousand six hundred and eighty-two, in virtue
of the commission of His Majesty, which I hold in my hand, and
which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken, and do now
take, in the name of His Majesty and his successors to the crown, posses-
sion of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, bays, adjacent
straits, and all the people, nations, provinces, cities, towns, villages,
mines, minerals, fisheries, streams and rivers within the extent of the
said Louisiana, from the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise
called Ohio, as also along the river Colbert, or Mississippi, and the
rivers which discharge themselves therein, from its source beyond the
country of the Nadonessious (Sioux), as far as its mouth at the sea,
and also to the mouth of the river of Palms, upon the assurance we
have had from the natives of these countries that we were the first
Europeans who have descended or ascended the river Colbert (Missis-
sippi).; hereby protesting against all who may hereafter undertake to
invade any or all of these aforesaid countries, peoples or lands, to the
prejudice of His Majesty, acquired by the consent of the nations
dwelling herein. Of which, and of all else that is needful, I hereby
take to witness those who hear me, and demand an act of the notary
here present."

At the foot of the tree to which the cross was attached La Salle
caused to be buried a leaden plate, on one side of which were engraven
the arms of France, and on the opposite, the following Latin inscription:

LVDOVICUS MAGNUS REGNAT.

NONO APRILIS CIO IOC LXXXII.
ROBERTVS CAVALIER, CVM DOMINO DETONTI LEGATO, R. P. ZENOBIO
MEMBRE, RECCOLLECTO, ET VIGINTI GALLIS PRIMVS HOC FLVMEN,
INDE AB ILINEORVM PAGO ENAVAGAVIT, EZVQUE OSTIVM FECIT
PERVIVM, NONO APRILIS ANNI.

CIO IOC LXXXI.

Note. — The following is a translation of the inscription on the leaden plate:

" Louis the Great reigns.
"Robert Cavalier, with Lord Tonti as Lieutenant, R. P. Zenobe Membre, Recollect,
and twenty Frenchmen, first navigated this stream from the country of the Illinois,
and also passed through its mouth, on the 9th of April, 1682."

After which, La Salle remarked that His Majesty, who was the
eldest son of the Holy Catholic Church, would not annex any country
to his dominion without giving especial attention to establish the

86 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Christian religion therein. He then proceeded at once to erect a cross,
before which the "Vexilla" and " Doraine Salvum fac Regem" were
sung. The ceremony was concluded by shouting "Vive le Roi ! "

Tlius was completed the discovery and taking possession of the
Mississippi valley. By that indisputable title, the right of discovery,
attested by all those formalities recognized as essential by the laws of
nations, the manuscript evidence of which was duly certified by a no-
tary public brought along for that purpose, and witnessed by the sig-
natures of La Salle and a number of other persons present on the occa-
sion, France became the owner of all that vast country drained by the
Mississippi and its tributaries. Bounded by the Alleghanies on the
east, and the Rocky Mountains on the west, and extending from an
undefined limit on the north to the burning sands of the Gulf on the
south. Embracing within its area every variety of climate, watered
with a thousand beautiful streams, containing vast prairies and exten-
sive forests, with a rich and fertile soil that only awaited the husband-
man's skill to yield bountiful harvests, rich in vast beds of bituminous
coal and deposits of iron, copper and other ores, this magnificent
domain was not to become the seat of a religious dogma, enforced by
the power of state, but was designed under the hand of God to become
the center of civilization, — the heart of the American republic, — where
the right of conscience was to be free, without interference of law, and
where universal liberty should only be restrained in so far as its unre-
strained exercise might conflict with its equal enjoyment by all.

Had France, with the same energy she displayed in discovering
Louisiana, retained her grasp upon this territory, the dominant race in
the valley of the Mississippi would have been Gallic instead of Anglo-
Saxon.

The manner in which France lost this possession in America will
be referred to in a subsequent chapter.

CHAPTER XL

LA SALLE'S RETURN, AND HIS DEATH IN ATTEMPTING A
SETTLEMENT ON THE GULF.

La Salle and his party returned up the Mississippi. Before they
reached Chickasaw Bluffs, La Salle was taken dangerously ill.

Dispatching Tonti ahead to Mackinaw, he remained there under
the care of Father Membre. About the end of July he was enabled to
proceed, and joined Tonti at Mackinaw, in September. Owing to the
threatened invasion of the Iroquois, La Salle postponed his projected
trip to France, and passed the winter at Fort St. Louis. From Fort
St. Louis, it would seem, La Salle directed a letter to Count Frontenac,
giving an account of his voyage to the Mississippi. It is short and his-
torically interesting, and was first published in that rare little volume,
Thevenot's " Collection of Voyages," published at Paris in 1687. This
letter contains, perhaps, the first description of Chicago Creek and the
harbor, and as everything pertaining to Chicago of a historical charac-
ter is a matter of public interest, we insert La Salle's account. It
seems that, even at that early day, almost two centuries ago, the idea
of a canal connecting Lake Michigan and the Illinois was a subject of
consideration :

' ; The creek (Chicago Creek) through which we went, from the lake
of the Illinois into the Divine River (the Au Plein, or Des Plaines) is
so shallow and so greatly exposed to storms that no ship can venture
in except in a great calm. Neither is the country between the creek
and the Divine River suitable for a canal ; for the prairies between
them are submerged after heavy rains, and a canal would be immedi-
ately filled up with sand. Besides this, it is not possible to dig into
the ground on account of the water, that country being nothing but a
marsh. Supposing it were possible, however, to cut a canal, it would
be useless, as the Divine River is not navigable for forty leagues
together ; that is to say, from that place (the portage) to the village of
the Illinois, except for canoes, and these have scarcely water enough in
summer time."

The identity of the " River Chicago," of early explorers, with the
modern stream of the same name, is clearly established by the map of
Franquelin of 1684, as well, also, as by the Memoir of Sieur de Tonti.

88 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

The latter had occasion to pass through the Chicago River more fre-
quently than any other person of his time, and his intimate acquaint-
ance with the Indians in the vicinity would necessarily place his decla-
rations beyond the suspicion of a mistake. Referring to his being sent
in the fall of 1687, by La Salle, from Fort Miamis, at the mouth of the
St. Joseph, to Chicago, already alluded to, he says : " We went in
canoes to the ' River Chicago,' where there is a portage which joins that
of the Illinois." *

The name of this river is variously spelled by early writers, " Chi-
cago!), "f " Che-ka-kou," + " Chikgoua."§ In the prevailing Algonquin
language the word signifies a polecat or skunk. The Aborigines, also,
called garlic by nearly the same word, from which many authors have
inferred that Chicago means "wild onion." ||

While La Salle was in the west, Count Frontenac was removed,
and M. La Barre appointed Governor of Canada. The latter was the
avowed enemy of La Salle. He injured La Salle in every possible

* Tonti's Memoir, published in the Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. 1, p. 59.

f Joutel's Journal.

X La Hontan.

§ Father Gravier's Narrative Journal, published in Dr. Shea's ''Voyages Up and
Down the Mississippi."

I A writer of a historical sketch, published in a late number of "Potter's Monthly,"
on the isolated statement of an old resident of western Michigan, says that the Indi-
ans living thereabouts subsequent to the advent of the early settlers called Chicago
"Tuck-Chicago," the meaning of which was, "a place without wood," and thus in-
vesting a mere fancy with the dignity of truth. The great city of the west has taken
its nanne from the stream along whose margin it was first laid out, and it becomes im-
portant to preserve the origin of its name with whatever certainty a research of all
accessible authorities may furnish. In the first place, Chicago was not a place "with-
out wood," or trees; on the contrary, it is the only locality where timber was anything
like abundant for the distance of miles around. The north and south branches west-
ward, and the lake on the east, afforded ample protection against prairie fires; and Dr.
John M. Peck, in his early Gazetteer of the state, besides other authorities, especially
mention the fact that there was a good quality of timber in the vicinity of Chicago,
particularly on the north branch. There is nowhere to be found in the several Indian
vocabularies of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Dr. Edwin James, and the late Albert Gal-
latin, in their extensive collections of Algonquin words, any expressions like those used
by the writer in Potter's Monthly, bearing the signification which he attaches to them.
Pn Mackenzie's Vocabulary, the Algonquin word for polecat is "Shi-Ink." In Dr.
James' Vocabulary, the word for skunk is "She-gahg (shegag); and Shig-gau-ga-toin-
zheeg is the plural for onion or garlic, literally, in the Indian dialect, "skunk-weeds."
Dr. James, in a foot-note, says that from this word in the singular number, some have
derived the name Chi-ka-go, which is commonly pronounced among the Indians, Shig-
gau-go, and Shi-gau-go-ong (meaning) at Chicago.

An association of English traders, styling themselves the " Illinois Land Compa-
ny," on the 5th of July, 1773, obtained from ten chiefs of the Kaskaskia, Cahokia and
Peoria tribes, a deed for two large tracts of land. The second tract, in the description
of its boundaries, contains the following expression: "and thence up the Illinois River,
by the several courses thereof, to Chicago, or Garlic Creek;" and it may safely be as-
sumed that the parties to the deed knew the names given to identify the grant. Were
an additional reference necessary. "Wau Bun," the valuable work of Mrs. John H.
Kinzie, might also be cited, p. 190. The Iroquois, who made frequent predatory
excursions from their homes in New York to the Illinois country, called Chicago Kan-
era-ghik; ride Cadwalder Colden's " History of the Five Nations."

MISFORTUNES OF LA SALLE'S COLONY. 89

way, and finally seized upon Fort Frontenac. To obtain redress, La-
Salle went to France, reaching Rochelle on the 13th of December,
1683. Seignelay (young Colbert), Secretary of State and Minister of
the Marine, was appealed to by La Salle, and became interested and
furnished him timely aid in his enterprise.

Before leaving America La Salle ordered Tonti to proceed and finish
"Fort St. Louis," as the fortification at Starved Rock, on the Illinois
River, was named. " He charged me," says Tonti, " with the duty to
go and finish Fort St. Louis, of which he gave me the government,
with full power to dispose of the lands in the neighborhood, and left
all his people under my command, with the exception of six French-
men, whom he took to accompany him to Quebec. We departed from
Mackinaw on the same day, he for Canada and I for the Illinois.* On
his mission to France La Salle was received with honor by the king
and his officers, and the accounts which he gave relative to Louisiana
caused them to further his plans for its colonization. A squadron of
four vessels was fitted out, the largest carrying thirty-six guns. About
two hundred persons were embarked aboard of them for the purpose
long projected, as we have foreseen, of establishing a settlement at the
mouth of the Mississippi. The fleet was under the command of M.
de Beaujeu, a naval officer of some distinction. He was punctilious in
the exercise of authority, and had a wiry, nervous organization, as the
portrait preserved of him clearly shows, f La Salle was austere, and
lacked that faculty of getting along with men, for the want of which
many of his best-laid plans failed. A constant bickering and collision
of cross purposes was the natural result of such repellant natures as
he and Beaujeu possessed.

After a stormy passage of the Atlantic, the fleet entered the Gulf
of Mexico. Coasting along the northern shore of the gulf, they failed
to discover the mouths of the Mississippi. Passing them, they finally
landed in what is now known as Matagorda Bay, or the Bay of St.
Barnard, near the River Colorado, in Texas, more than a hundred
leagues westward of the Mississippi. The whole number of persons
left on the beach is not definitely known. M. Joutel, one of the sur-
vivors, and the chronicler of this unfortunate undertaking, mentions
one hundred and eighty, besides the crew of the " Belle," which was
lost on the beach, consisting of soldiers, volunteers, workmen, women
and children.;}: The colony being in a destitute condition, La Salle,

*Tonti's Memoir.

\ A fine steel engraving copy of Mons. Beaujeu is contained in Dr. Shea's transla-
tion of Charlevoix's " History of New France."
X Spark's "Life of La Salle."

90 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

accompanied by Father Anastius Douay and twenty others, set out to
reach the Mississippi, intending to ascend to Fort St. Louis, and there
obtain aid from Tonti. They set out on the 7th of January, and after
several days' journey, reached the village of the Cenis Indians. Here
some of La Salle's men became dissatisfied with their hardships, and
determined to slay him and then join the Indians. The tragic tale is
thus related by Father Douay : " The wisdom of Monsieur de La Salle
was unable to foresee the plot which some of his people would make
to slay his nephew, as they suddenly resolved to do, and actually
did, on the 17th of March, bv a blow of an ax, dealt bv one Liotot.
They also killed the valet of the Sieur La Salle and his Indian ser-
vant, Nika, who, at the risk of his life, had supported them for three
years. The wretches resolved not to stop here, and not satisfied
with this murder, formed a design of attempting their commander's
life, as they had reason to fear his resentment and chastisement. As
M. La Salle and myself were walking toward the fatal spot where his
nephew had been slain, two of those murderers, who were hidden in
the grass, arose, one on each side, with guns cocked. One missed Mon-
sieur La Salle ; the other, firing at the same time, shot him in the head.
He died an hour after, on the 19th of March, 1687.

" Thus," says Father Douay, " died our commander, constant in ad-
versity, intrepid, generous, engaging, dexterous, skillful, capable of
everything. He who for twenty years had softened the fierce temper
of countless savage tribes was massacred by the hands of his own domes-
tics, whom he had loaded with caresses. He died in the prime of life,
in the midst of his course and labors, without having seen their success."*

The colony which La Salle had left in Texas was surprised and
destroyed by the Indians. Not a soul was left to give an account of
the massacre. Of the twenty who accompanied him in his attempt to
reach the Mississippi, Joutel, M. Cavalier, La Salle's brother, and four
others determined to make a last attempt to find the Mississippi ; the
others, including La Salle's murderers, became the associates of the less
brutal Indians, and of them we have no farther account. After a long
and toilsome journey Joutel and his party reached the Mississippi near
the mouth of the Arkansas. Here they found two men who had been
sent by Tonti to relieve La Salle. Embarking in canoes, they went up
the Mississippi, arrived at Fort St. Louis in safety, and finally returned
to France by way of Quebec.

From this period until 1698 the French made no further attempts
to colonize the Lower Mississippi. They had no settlements below the

* Father Douay's Journal, contained in Dr. Shea's " Discovery and Exploration of the
Mississippi."

BIL0X1 AND MOBILE FOUNDED. '.»1

Ohio, and above that river, on the Illinois and the upper lakes, were
scattered only a few missions and trading posts.

Realizing the great importance of retaining possession of the Mis-
sissippi valley, the French court lit ted out, an expedition which con-
sisted of four vessels, for the purpose of thoroughly exploring the mouth
of the Mississippi and adjacent territory. Le Moyne Iberville was put
in command of the expedition. He was the third of the eleven sons
of Baron Longueil. They all held commissions from the king, and con-
stituted one of the most illustrious of the French Canadian families.
The ileet sailed from Brest, France, on the 24th of October, HW8.
They came in sight of Florida on the 27th of .January, L699. They
ran near the coast, and discovered that they were in the vicinity of
Pensacola Bay. Here they found a colony of three hundred Spaniards.
Sailing westward, they entered the mouth of the Mississippi on Quin-
quagesima Monday, which was the 2d of March. Iberville ascended
the river far enough to assure himself of its being the Mississippi, then,
descending the river, he founded a colony at Biloxi Bay. Leaving his
brother, M. dc Sauvole, in command of the newly creeled fort, he sailed
for France. Iberville returned te Biloxi on the 8th of .January, and,
hearing that the English were exploring the Mississippi. Ik; took formal
possession of the Mississippi valley in the name of the French king.
He, also, erected a small four-gun fort on Poverty Point, 38 miles below
New Orleans. The fort was constructed very rudely, and was occupied
for only one year. In the year 1701 Iberville made a settlement at
Mobile, and this soon became the principal French town on the gulf.
The unavailing efforts of the king in the scheme of colonization induced
a belief that a greater prosperity would follow under the stimulus of
individual enterprise, and he determined to grant Louisiana to Monsieur
Crozat, with a monopoly of its mines, supposed to be valuable in gold
and silver, together with the exclusive right of all ils commerce for the
period of fifteen years. The patent or grant of Louis to M. Grozat is
an interesting document, not only because it passed the title of the
Mississippi valley into the hands of one man, but for the reason that it
embraces a part of the history of the country ceded. We, therefore,
quote the most valuable part of it. The instrument bears date Sep-
tember 1 2th, 1712:

"Louis (the fourteenth), King of France and Navarre; To all who
shall see these presents, greeting : The care we have always had to
procure the welfare and advantage; of our subjects, having induced us,
notwithstanding the almost continual wars which we have been en-
gaged to support from the beginning of our reign, to seek all possible
opportunities of enlarging and extending the trade of our American

92 HISTOKIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

colonies, we did, in the year 1683, give our orders to undertake a dis-
covery of the countries and lands which are situated in the northern
parts of America, between New France (Canada) and New Mexico.
And the Sieur de La Salle, to whom we committed that enterprise,
having had success enough to confirm the belief that a communication
might be settled from New France to the Gnlf of Mexico by means of
large rivers ; this obliged us, immediately after the peace of Ryewick
(in 1697), to give orders for the establishment of a colony there (under
Iberville in 1699), and maintaining a garrison, which has kept and
preserved the possession we had taken in the year 1683, of the lands,
coasts and islands which are situated in the Gulf of Mexico, between
Carolina on the east, and old and New Mexico on the west. But a
new war breaking out in Europe shortly after, there was no possi-
bility till now of reaping from that new colony the advantages that
might have been expected from thence ; because the private men who
are concerned in the sea trade were all under engagements with the
other colonies, which they have been obliged to follow. And where-
as, upon the information we have received concerning the disposition
and situation of the said countries, known at present by the name of
the province of Louisiana, we are of opinion that there may be estab-
lished therein a considerable commerce, so much the more advan-
tageous to our kingdom in that there has been hitherto a necessity of
fetching from foreigners the greatest part of the commodities that may
be brought from thence ; and because in exchange thereof we need
carry thither nothing but the commodities of the growth and manu-
facture of our own kingdom ; we have resolved to grant the com-
merce of the country of Louisiana to the Sieur Anthony Crozat,
our counsellor, secretary of the household, crown and revenue, to
whom we intrust the execution of this project. We are the more
readily inclined thereto because of his zeal and the singular knowledge
he has acquired of maritime commerce, encourages us to hope for as
good success as he has hitherto had in the divers and sundry enter-
prises he has gone upon, and which have procured to our kingdom great
quantities of gold and silver in such conjectures as have rendered them
very welcome to us. For these reasons, being desirous to show our
favor to him, and to regulate the conditions upon which we mean to
grant him the said commerce, after having deliberated the affair in our
council, of our own certain knowledge, full power and royal authority,
we by these presents, signed by our hand, have appointed and do ap-
point the said Sieur Crozat to carry on a trade in all the lands pos-
sessed by us, and bounded by New Mexico and by the English of Caroli-
na, all the establishments, ports, havens, rivers, and particularly the port

LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CROZAT. 93

and haven of Isle Dauphin, heretofore called Massacre ; the river St.
Louis, heretofore called Mississippi, from the edge of the sea as far as
the Illinois* together with the river St. Philip, heretofore called Mis-
souris, and St. Jerome, heretofore called the Ouabache (the Wabash),
with all the countries, territories, lakes within land, and the rivers which
fall directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. Our
pleasure is, that all the aforesaid lands, countries, streams, rivers and
islands, be and remain comprised under the name of the Government
of Louisiana, which shall be dependent upon the general government
of New France, to which it is subordinate."

Crozat was permitted to search and open mines, and to pay the
king one-fifth part of all the gold and silver developed. Work in de-
veloping the mines was to be begun in three years, under penalty of
forfeiture. Crozat was required to send at least two vessels annually
from France to sustain the colonies already established, and for the
maintenance of trade.

The next year, 1713, there were, within the limits of Crozat's vast
grant, not more than four hundred persons of European descent.

Crozat himself did little to increase the colony, the time of his
subordinates being spent in roaming over the country in search of the
precious metals. He became wearied at the end of three years spent
in profitless adventures, and, in 1717, surrendered his grant back to the
crown. In August of the same year the French king turned Louis-
iana over to the " Western Company," or the " Mississippi Company,"
subsequently called " The Company of the Indies," at whose head
stood the famous Scotch banker, John Law. The rights ceded to Law's
company were as broad as the grant to Crozat. Law was an infla-
tionist, believing that wealth could be created without limit by the
mere issuing of paper money, and his wild schemes of finance were
the most ruinous that ever deluded and bankrupted a confiding people.
Louisiana, with its real and undeveloped wealth a hundred times mag-

* The expression, " as far as the Illinois," did not refer to the river of that name,
but to the country generally, on both sides of the Mississippi, above the month of the
Ohio, which, under both the French and Spanish governments was denominated "the
country of the Illinois," and this designation appeared in all their records and official
letters. For example, letters, deeds, and other official documents bore date, respect-
ively, at Kaskaskia, of the Illinois; St. Louis, of the Illinois; St. Charles, of the Illi-
nois; not to identify the village where such instruments were executed merely, but to
denote the country in which these villages were situated. Therefore, the monopoly of
Crozat, by the terms of his patent, extended to the utmost limit of Louisiana, north-
ward, which, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, was fixed at the 49th° of latitude; vide
Stoddard's " Sketches of Louisiana," Brackenridge's "Views of Louisiana." From
the year 1700 until some time subsequent to the conquest of the country by the British,
in 1763, a letter or document executed anywhere within the present limits of the states
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or Missouri, would have borne the superscription of "Les
Illinoix" or "the Illinois."

94 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

nified, became the basis of a fictitious value, on which an enormous
volume of stock, convertible into paper money, was issued. The stock
rose in the market like a balloon, and chamber-maids, alike with
wealthy ladies, barbers and bankers, — indeed, the whole French peo-
ple, — gazing at the ascending phenomenon, grew mad with the desire
for speedy wealth. The French debt was paid off; the depleted treasury
filled ; poor men and women were made rich in a few days by the con-
stantly advancing value of the stocks of the " Company of the West."
Confidence in the ultimate wealth of Louisiana was all that was re-
quired, and this was given to a degree that would not now be credited
as true, were not the facts beyond dispute.

After awhile the balloon exploded ; people began to doubt ; they
realized that mere confidence was not solid value; stocks declined;
they awoke to a sorrowful contemplation of their delusion and ruin.
Law, from the summit of his glory as a financier, fell into ignominy,
and to escape bodily harm fled the country ; and Louisiana, from be-
ing the source of untold wealth, sunk into utter ruin and contempt.

It should be said to the credit of " the company " that they made
some efforts toward the cultivation of the soil. The growth of tobacco,
sugar, rice and indigo was encouraged. Negroes were imported to till
the soil. New Orleans was laid out in 1718, and the seat of govern-
ment of lower Louisiana subsequently established there. A settlement
was made about Natchez. A large number of German emigrants were
located on the Mississippi, from whom a portion of the Mississippi has
ever since been known as the " German coast." The French settle-
ments at Kaskaskia and Cahokia, begun, as appears from most authen-
tic accounts, about the year 1700, — certainly not later, — were largely
increased by emigration from Canada and France. In the year 1718
the " Company of the West " erected a fortification near Kaskaskia, and
named it Fort Chartes, having a charter from the crown so to do. It
is situated in the northwest corner of Randolph county, Illinois, on the
American bottom. It was garrisoned with a small number of soldiers,
and was made the seat of government of " the Illinois." Under the
mild government of the " Company," the Illinois marked a steady
prosperity, and Fort Chartes became the center of business, fashion and
gaiety of all "the Illinois country." In 1756 the fort was reconstruct-
ed, this time with solid stone. Its shape was an irregular quadrangle,
the exterior sides of the polygon being four hundred and ninety feet,
and the walls were two feet two inches thick, pierced with port-holes
for cannon. The walls of the fort were eighteen feet high, and con-
tained within, guard houses, government house, barracks, powder
house, bake house, prison and store room. A very minute description

FORT CHARTES. 95

is given of the whole structure within and without in the minutes of
its surrender, October 10, 1765, by Louis St. Ange de Belrive, captain
of infantry and commandant, and Joseph Le Febvre, the king's store-
keeper and acting commissary of the fort, to Mr. Sterling, deputed by
Mr. De Gage (Gage), governor of New York and commander of His
Majesty's troops in America, to receive possession of the fort and coun-
try from the French, according to the seventeenth article of the treaty
of peace, concluded on the 10th of February, 1763, between the kings
of France and Great Britain.* Fort Chartes was the strongest and
most elaborately constructed of any of the French works of defense in
America. Here the intendants and several commandants in charge,
whose will was law, governed " the Illinois," administered justice to
its inhabitants, and settled up estates of deceased persons, for nearly
half a century. From this place the English commandants governed
" the Illinois," some of them with great injustice and severity, from
the time of its surrender, in 1765, to 1772, when a great flood inun-
dated the American Bottom, and the Mississippi cut a new channel so
near the fort that the wall and two bastions on the west side were un-
dermined and fell into the river. The British garrison then abandoned
it, and their headquarters were afterward at Kaskaskia.

Dr. Beck, while collecting material for his " Gazetteer of Illinois
and Missouri," in 1820, visited the ruins of old Fort Chartes. At that
time enough remained to show the size and strength of this remarkable
fortification. Trees over two feet in diameter were growing within its
walls. The ruin is in a dense forest, hidden in a tangle of under-
growth, furnishing a sad memento of the efforts and blasted hopes of
La Belle France to colonize u Les Illinoix"

* The articles of surrender are given at length in the Paris Documents, vol. 10,
pp. 1161 to 1166.

CHAPTER XII.

SURRENDER OF LOUISIANA BY THE INDIES COMPANY— EARLY ROUTES.

In 1731 the company of the Indies surrendered to France, Louisiana,
with its forts, colonies and plantations, and from this period forward to
the time of the conquest by Great Britain and the Anglo-American
colonies, Louisiana was governed through officers appointed by the
crown.

We have shown how, when and where colonies were permanently
established by the French in Canada, about Kaskaskia, and in Lower
Louisiana. It is not within the scope of our inquiries to follow these
settlements of the French in their subsequent development, but rather
now to show how the establishments of the French along the lakes
and near the gulf communicated with each other, and the routes of
travel by which they were connected.

The convenient way between Quebec and the several villages in the
vicinity of Kaskaskia was around the lakes and down the Illinois
River, either by way of the St. Joseph River and the Kankakee port-
age or through Chicago Creek and the Des Plaines. The long winters
and severe climate on the St. Lawrence made it desirable for many
people to abandon Canada for the more genial latitudes of southern
Illinois, and the still warmer regions of Louisiana, where snows were
unknown and flowers grew the year round. It only required the pro-
tection of a fort or other military safeguards to induce the Canadians
to change their homes from Canada to more favorable localities
southward.

The most feasible route between Canada and the Lower Mississippi
settlements was by the Ohio River. This communication, however,
was effectually barred against the French. The Iroquois Indians, from
the time of Champlain, were allies, first of the Dutch and then of the
English, and the implacable enemies of the French. The upper waters
of the Ohio were within the acknowledged territory of the Iroquois,
whose possessions extended westward of New York and Pennsylvania
well toward the Scioto. The Ohio below Pittsburgh was, also, in the
debatable ground of the Miamis northward, and Chickasaws south-
ward. These nations were warring upon each other continually, and

THE MAUMEE AND WABASH ROUTE. 97

the country for many miles beyond either bank of the Ohio was
infested with war parties of the contending tribes.*

There were no Indian villages near the Ohio River at the period
concerning which we now write. Subsequent to this the Shawnees and
Delawares, previously subdued by the Iroquois, were permitted by the
latter to establish their towns near the confluence of the Scioto, Mus-
kingum and other streams. The valley of the Ohio was within the
confines of the " dark and bloody ground." Were a voyager to see
smoke ascending above the forest line he would know it was from the
camp fire of an enemy, and to be a place of danger. It would indi-
cate the presence of a hunting or war party. If they had been suc-
cessful they would celebrate the event by the destruction of whoever
would commit himself to their hands, and if unfortunate in the chase
or on the war-path, disappointment would give a sharper edge to their
cruelty, f

The next and more reliable route was that afforded by the Maumee
and Wabash, laying within the territory of tribes friendly to the
French. The importance of this route was noticed by La Salle; in his
letter to Count Frontenac, in 1683, before quoted. La Salle says: "There
is a river at the extremity of Lake Erie,:}: within ten leagues of the
strait (Detroit Eiver), which will very much shorten the way to the
Illinois, it being navigable for canoes to within two leagues of their
river." § As early as 1699, Mons. De Iberville conducted a colony of
Canadians from Quebec to Louisiana, by way of the Maumee and Wa-
bash. " These were followed by other families, under the leadership
of M. Du Tessenet. Emigrants came by land, first ascending the St.
Lawrence to Lake Erie, then ascending a river emptying into that lake
to the portage of Des Miamis ; their effects being thence transported
to the river Miamis, where pirogues, constructed out of a single tree,
and large enough to contain thirty persons, were built, with which the
voyage down the Mississippi was prosecuted." This memoir corre-
sponds remarkably well with the claim of Little Turtle, in his speech
to Gen. Wayne, concerning the antiquity of the title, in his tribe, to
the portage of the Wabash at Fort Wayne. It also illustrates the
fact that among the first French settlers in lower Louisiana were

* A Miami chief said that his nation had no tradition of " a time when they were
not at war with the Chickasaws."

t General William H. Harrison's Address before the Historical Society of Cin-
cinnati.

t The Maumee.

§ Meaning the Wabash.

|| Extract taken from a memoir, showing that the first establishments in Louisiana
were at Mobile, etc., the original manuscript being among the archives in the depart-
ment " De la Marine et Des Colonies," in Paris, France.
7

98 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

those who found their way thither through the " glorious gate," be-
longing to the Miamis, connecting the Maumee and Wabash.

Originally, the Maumee was known to the French as the "Miami,"
" Oumiami," or the " River of the Miamis," from the fact that bands
of this tribe of Indians had villages upon its banks. It was also called
" Ottawa," or " Tawwa," which is a contraction of the word Ottawa,
as families of this tribe " resided on this river from time immemorial."
The Shawnee Indian name is " Ottawa-sepe," that is " Ottawa River."
By the Hurons, or Wyandots, it was called " Cagh-a-ren-du-te," the
" River of the Standing Rock." * Lewis Evans, whose map was pub-
lished in 1755, and which is, perhaps, the first English map issued of
the territory lying north and west of the Ohio River, lays down the
Miami as " Mine-a-mi," a way the Pennsylvania Indian traders had of
pronouncing the word Miami. In 1703, Mens Cadillac, the French
commandant at Detroit, in his application for a grant of land six
leagues in breadth on either side of the Maumee, upon which he pro-
posed to propagate silk-worms, refers to the river as " Grand River " f
As early as 1718 it is mentioned as the " Miamis River," ^ and it bore
this name more generally than that of any other from 1718 to a pe-
riod subsequent to the War of 1812. Capt, Robert M'Afee, who was
in the various campaigns up and down the Maumee during the War
of 1812, and whose history of this war, published at Lexington, Ky.,
in 1816, gives the most authentic account of the military movements
in this quarter, makes frequent mention of the river by the name of
" Miami," occasionally designating it as the " Miami of the Lake."

Gen. Joseph Harmar, in his report of the military expedition con-
ducted by him to Fort Wayne, in October, 1790, calls the Miami the
"Omee." He says: "As there are three Miamis in the north-western
territory, all bearing the name of Miami, I shall in the future, for dis-
tinction's sake, when speaking of the Miami of the Lake, call it the
' Omee,' and its towns the Omee Towns. By this name they are best
known on the frontier. It is only, however, one of the many corrup-
tions or contractions universally used among the French-Americans in
pronouncing Indian names. 'Au-Mi,' for instance, is the contraction
for 'Au Miami.' " §

The habit of the " Coureur de Bois" and others using the mongrel
language of the border Canadians, as well, also, the custom prevailing

* "Account of the Present State of Indian Tribes, etc., Inhabiting Ohio." By John
Johnson, Indian Agent, June 17, 1819. Published in vol. 1 of Archseologia Americana.

t Sheldon's History of Michigan, p. 108.

i Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 886 and 891.

§ Gen. Harmar's official letter to the Secretary of War, under date of November 23,
1790, published in the American State Papers.

OEIGIN OF THE NAME MAUMEE. 99

among this class of persons in giving nicknames to rivers and locali-
ties, has involved other observers besides Gen. Harmar in the same
perplexity. Thomas Hutchins, the American geographer, and Capt.
Harry Gordon visited Kaskaskia and the adjacent territory subsequent
to the conquest of the northwest territory from the French, and be-
came hopelessly entangled in the contractions and epithets applied to
the surrounding villages on both sides of the Mississippi. Kaskaskia
was abbreviated to "Au-kas," and St. Louis nicknamed " Pain Court "
— Short Bread; Carondelet was called " Vide Pouche" — Empty
Pocket; Ste. Genevieve was called "Missier" — Misery. The Kas-
kaskia, after being shortened to Au-kaus, pronounced " Okau," has
been further corrupted to Okaw, and at this day we have the singu-
lar contradiction of the ancient Kaskaskia being called Kaskaskia near
its mouth and " Okaw " at its source.

The Miamis, or bands of their tribe, had villages in order of time ;
first on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, then upon the Maumee ; after
this, 1750, they, with factions of other tribes who had become disaffected
toward the French, established a mixed village upon the stream now
known as the Great Miami, which empties into the Ohio, and in this way
the name of Miami has been transferred, successively, from the St. Jo-
seph to the Miami, and from the latter to the present Miami, with
which it has become permanently identified.* The Miamis were, also,
called the " Mau-mees," — this manner of spelling growing out of one
of the several methods of pronouncing the word Miami — and it is
doubtless from this source that the name of Maumee is derived f

In this connection we may note the fact that the St. Marys and the
Au-glaize were named by the Shawnee Indians, as follows : The first
was called by this tribe, who had several villages upon its banks, the
" Co-kothe-ke-sepe," Kettle River; and the Auglaize "Cow-then-e-
ke-sepe," or Fallen Timber River. These aboriginal names are given
by Mr. John Johnson, in his published account of the Indian tribes
before referred to4

We will now give a derivation of the name of the Wabash, which
has been the result of an examination of a number of authorities.
Early French writers have spelled the word in various ways, each en-
deavoring, with more or less success, to represent the name as the sev-

*The aboriginal name of the Great Miami was "Assin-erient," or Rocky River,
from the word Assin, or Ussin, the Algonquin appellation for stone or stony. Lewis
Evan's map of 1755.

f In an official letter of Gen. Harrison to the Secretary of War, dated March 22,
1814, the name " Miamis " and "Maumees " are given as synonymous terms, referring
to the same tribe.

| Mr. Johnson had charge of the Indian affairs in Ohio for many years, and was
especially acquainted with the Shawnees and their language.

790994A

100 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

eral Algonquin tribes pronounced it. First, we have Father Marquette's
orthography, " Oua-bous-kigou ; " and by later French authorities it is
spelled "Abache," "Ouabache," " Oubashe," " Oubache," " Oubash,"
" Oubask," " Oubache," " Wabascou," " Wabache," and " Waubache."
It should be borne in mind that the French alphabet does not contain
the letter W, and that the diphthong " ou " with the French has nearly
the same sound as the letter "W of the English alphabet. The Jesuits
sometimes used a character much like the figure S, which is a Greek
contraction formulated by them, to represent a peculiar guttural sound
among the Indians, and which we often, though imperfectly, represent
by the letter W, or Wau.*

That "Wabash is an Indian name, and was early applied to the stream
that now bears this name, is clearly established by Father Gravier.
This missionary descended the Mississippi in the year 1700, and speak-
ing of the Ohio and its tributaries, says : " Three branches are assigned
to it, one that comes from the northwest (the "Wabash), passing
behind the country of the Oumiamis, called the St. Joseph,f which
the Indians properly call the Ouabachei; the second comes from the
Iroquois (whose country included the head-waters of the Ohio),
and is called the Ohio ; and the third, which comes from the Chaou-
anona^; (Shawnees). And all of them uniting to empty into the Mis-
sissippi, it is commonly" called Ouabachi." §

In the variety of manner in which "Wabash is spelled in the exam-
ples given above, we clearly trace the Waw-bish-kaw, of the Ojibe-
ways ; the Wabisca (pronounced "Wa-bis-sa) of the modern Algon-
quin ; Wau-bish of the Menominees, and Wa-bi of the ancient Algon-
quins, words which with all these kindred tongues mean White. \

Therefore the aboriginal of "Wabash (Sepe) should be rendered
White River. This theory is supported by Lewis Evans, who for many
years was a trader among the Indians, inhabiting the country drained
by the Wabash and its tributary waters. The extensive knowledge
which he acquired in his travels westward of the Alleghanies resulted

* Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, p. 41, foot-note. For
example, we find in the Journal of Marquette, 8ab8kig8, for Wabash. The same man-
ner of spelling is also observed in names, as written by other missionaries, where they
design to represent the sound of the French " ou," or the English W.

t Probably a mistake of the copyist, and which should be the St. Jerome, a name
given by the French to the Wabash, as we have seen in the extracts taken from Crozat's
grant. Dr. Shea has pointed out numerous mistakes made by the copyist of the man-
uscripts from which the " Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi " are composed.
t The Tennessee.

S Father Gravier 's Journal in Dr. Shea's Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi,
pp. 120, 121.

|| The several aboriginal names for white, which we have given above, are taken
from the vocabularies of Mackenzie, Dr. Ewin James and Albert Gallatin, which are
regarded as standard authorities.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME WABASH. 101

in his publishing, in 1755, a map, accompanied with an extended de-
scription of the territory it embraced. In describing the Wabash, Mr.
Evans calls it by the name the Iroquois Indians had given it, viz : the
" Quia-agh-tena," and says " it is called by the French Ouabach, though
that is truly the name of its southeastern branch." Why the White
Hiver, of Indiana, which is the principal southeastern branch of the
Wabash, should have been invested with the English meaning of the
word, and the aboriginal name should have been retained by the river
to which it has always properly belonged, is easily explained, when we
consider the ignorance and carelessness of many of the early travelers,
whose writings, coming down to us, have tended to confuse rather than
aid the investigations of the modern historian. The Ohio River below
the confluence of the Wabash is designated as the Wabash by a majority
of the early French writers, and so laid down on many of the contem-
poraneous maps. This was, probably, due to the fact that the Wabash
was known and used before the Ohio had been explored to its mouth.
So fixed has become the habit of calling the united waters of these two
streams Wabash, from their union continuously to their discharge into
the Mississippi, that the custom prevailed long after a better knowledge
of the geography of the country suggested the propriety of its aban-
donment. Even after the French of Canada accepted the change, and
treated the Ohio as the main river and the Wabash as the tributary, the
French of Louisiana adhered to the old name.

We quote from M. Le Page Du Pratz' History of Louisiana:*
" Let us now repass the Mississippi in order to resume a description of
the lands to the east, which we quit at the river Wabash. This river
is distant from the sea four hundred and sixty leagues ; it is reckoned
to have four hundred leagues in length from its source to its conflu-
ence with the Mississippi. It is called Wabash, though, according to
the usual method, it ought to be called the Ohio, or Beautiful E,iver,f
seeing the Ohio was known under that name before its confluence
was known ; and as the Ohio takes its rise at a greater distance off
than the three others which mix together before they empty them-
selves into the Mississippi, this should make the others lose their

*The author was for sixteen years a planter of Louisiana, having- gone thither from
France soon after the Company of the West or Indes restored the country to the crown.
He was a gentleman of superior attainments, and soon acquired a thorough knowledge
of the French possessions in America. He returned to France, and in 1758 published
his " History of Louisiana," with maps, which, in 1763, was translated into English.
These volumes are largely devoted to the experience of the author in the cultivation of
rice, indigo, sugar and other pi-oducts congenial to the climate and soil of Louisiana,
and to quite an extended topographical description of the whole Mississippi Valley.

fThe Iroquois' name for the Ohio was " O-io," meaning beautiful, and the French
retained the signification in the name of "La Belle Riviere,'" by which the Ohio was
known to them.

102 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

names; but custom has prevailed in this respect. The first known
to us which falls into the Ohio is that of the Miamis (Wabash), which
takes its rise toward Lake Erie. It is by this river of the Miamis that
the Canadians come to Louisiana. For this purpose they embark on
the River St. Lawrence, go up this river, pass the cataracts quite to
the bottom of Lake Erie, where they find a small river, on which they
also go up to a place called the carriage of the Miamis, because that
people come and take their effects and carry them on their backs for
two leagues from thence to the banks of the river of their name which
I just said empties itself into the Ohio. From thence the Canadians
go down that river, enter the Wabash, and at last the Mississippi,
which brings them to New Orleans, the capital of Louisiana. They
reckon eighteen hundred leagues from the capital of Canada to that
of Louisiana, on account of the great turns and windings they are
obliged to take. The river of the Miamis is thus the first to the north
which falls into the Ohio, then that of the Chaouanons to the south,
and lastly, that of the Cherokee, all which together empty themselves
into the Mississippi. This is what we (in Louisiana) call the Wabash,
and what in Canada and New England is called the Ohio.'" *

A failure to recognize the fact that the Ohio below the mouth of the
Wabash was, for a period of over half a century, known to the French
as the Wabash, has led not a few later writers to erroneously locate
ancient French forts and missionary stations upon the banks of the
Wabash, which were in reality situated many miles below, on the Ohio.f

*On the map prefixed to Du Pratz' history, the Ohio from the Mississippi up to
the confluence of the Wabash is called the " Wabash "; above this the Ohio is called
Ohio, and the Wabash is called "The River of the Miamis," with villages of that
tribe noted near its source. The Maumee is called the "River of the Carrying Place."
The Upper Mississippi, the Illinois River and the lakes are also laid down, and, alto-
gether, the map is quite accurate.

t A noticeable instance of such a mistake will be found relative to the city of Vin-
cennes. On the authority of LaHarpe, and the later historian Charlevoix, the French
in the year 1700, established a trading post near the mouth of the Ohio, on the site of
the more modern Fort Massac, in Massac county, 111., for the purpose of securing
buffalo hides. The neighboring Mascotins, as was customary with the Indians, soon
gathered about for the purpose of barter. Their numbers, as well as the expressed
wish of the French traders, induced Father Merment to visit the place and engage in
mission work. At the end of four or five years, in 1705, the establishment was broken
up on account of a quarrel of the Indians among themselves, and which so threatened
the lives of the Frenchmen that the latter fled, leaving behind their effects and 13,000
buffalo hides which they had collected. Some years later Father Marest, writing from
Kaskaskia, in his letter before referred to, relates the failure of Father Merment to
convert the Indians at this " post on the Wabash "; and on the authority of this letter
alone, and although Father Marest only followed the prevailing style in calling the
lower Ohio the Wabash, some writers, the late Judge John Law being the first, have
contended that this post was on the Wabash and at Vincennes. Charlevoix says " it
was at the mouth of the Wabash which discharges itself into the Mississippi." La
Harpe, and also Le Suere, whose personal knowledge of the post was contemporaneous
with its existence, definitely fix its position near the mouth of the Ohio. The latter
gives the date of its beginning, and the former narrates an account of its trade and
final abandonment. In this way an antiquity has been claimed for Vincennes to which
it is not historically entitled.

EARLY ACCOUNT OF THE MAUMEE. 103

We now give a description of the Maumee and Wabash, the location
of the several Indian villages, and the manners of their inhabitants,
taken from a memoir prepared in 1718 by a French officer in Canada,
and sent to the minister at Paris.*

" I return to the Miamis River. Its entrance from Lake Erie is
very wide, and its banks on both sides, for a distance of ten leagues
up, are nothing but continued swamps, abounding at all times, espe-
cially in the spring, with game without end, swans, geese, ducks, cranes,
etc., which drive sleep away by the noise of their cries. This river is
sixty leagues in length, very embarrassing in summer in consequence
of the lowness of the water. Thirty leagues up the river is a place
called La Glaise,\ where buffalo are always to be found ; they eat the
clay and wallow in it. The Miamis are sixty leagues from Lake Erie,
and number four hundred, all well formed men, and well tattooed $
the women are numerous. They are hard working, and raise a species
of maize unlike that of our Indians at Detroit. It is white, of the
same size as the other, the skin much finer, and the meal much whiter.
This nation is clad in deer skin, and when a woman goes with another
man her husband cuts off her nose and does not see her any more.
They have plays and dances, wherefore they have more occupation.
The women are well clothed ; but the men use scarcely any covering,
and are tattooed all over the body.

" From this Miami village there is a portage of three leagues to a
little and very narrow stream,§ that falls, after a course of twenty
leagues, into the Ohio or Beautiful River, which discharges into the
Ouabache, a fine river that falls into the Mississippi forty leagues from
the Cascachias. Into the Ouabache falls also the Casquinampo, || which
communicates with Carolina ; but this is far off, and is always up
stream.

" The River Ouabache is the one on which the Ouyatanons ^[ are
settled.

" They consist of five villages, which are contiguous the one to the
other. One is called Oujatanon, the other Peanguichias,** and another

*The document is quite lengthy, covering 1 all the principal places and Indian trihes
east of the Mississippi, and showing the compiler possessed a very thorough acquaint-
ance with the whole subject. It is given entire in the Paris Documents, vol. 9; that
relating to the Maumee and Wabash on pages 886 to 89L

t Defiance, Ohio.

X These villages were near the confluence of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph, and
this is the first account we have of the present site of Fort Wayne.

§ Little River, that empties into the Wabash just below Huntington.

I The Tennessee River.

11" The " Weas," whose principal villages were near the mouth of Eel River, near
Logansport, and on the Wea prairie, between Attica and La Fayette.

**The ancient Piankashaw town was on the Vermilion of the Wabash, and the
Miami name of the Vermilion was Piankashaw.

104 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.

Petitscotias, and a fourth Le Gros. The name of the last I do not
recollect, but they are all Oujatanons, having the same language as the
Miamis, whose brothers they are, and properly all Miamis, having the
same customs and dress.* The men are very numerous ; fully a
thousand or twelve hundred.

" They have a custom different from all other nations, which is to
keep their fort extremely clean, not allowing a blade of grass to remain
within it. The whole of the fort is sanded like the Tuilleries. The
village is situated on a high hill, and they have over two leagues of
improvement where they raise their Indian corn, pumpkins and
melons. From the summit of this elevation nothing is visible to the
eye but prairies full of buffaloes. Their play and dancing are inces-
sant.f

"All of these tribes use a vast quantity of vermilion. The women
wear clothing, the men very little. The River Ohio, or Beautiful river,
is the route which the Iroquois take. It would be of importance that
they should not have such intercourse, as it is very dangerous. Atten-
tion has been called to this matter long since, but no notice has been
taken of it."

*The "Le Gros," that is, The Great (village), was probably "Chip-pe-co-ke," or
the town of "Brush- wood," the name of the old village at Vincennes, which was the
principal city of the Piankashaws.

fThe village here described is Ouatanon, which was situated a few miles below
La Fayette, near which, though on the opposite or north bank of the Wabash, the
Stockade Fort of "Ouatanon" was established by the French.

CHAPTER XIII.

ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS — THE SEVERAL ILLINOIS TRIBES.

The Indians who lived in and claimed the territory to which our
attention is directed were the several tribes of the Illinois and Miami
confederacies, — the Pottawatomies, the Kickapoos and scattered bands
of Shawnees and Delawares. Their title to the soil had to be extin-
guished by conquest or treatise of purchase before the country could
be settled by a higher civilization ; for the habits of the two races, red
and white, were so radically different that there could be no fusion, and
they could not, or rather did not, live either happily or at peace
together.

We proceed to treat of these several tribes, observing the order in
which their names have been mentioned ; and we do so in this con-
nection for the reason that it will aid toward a more ready under-
standing of the subjects which are to follow.

The Illinois were a subdivision of the great Algonquin family.
Their language and manners differed somewhat from other surround-
ing tribes, and resembled most the Miamis, with whom they originally
bore a very close affinity. Before Joliet and Marquette's voyage to the
Mississippi, all of the Indians who came from the south to the mission
at La Pointe, on Lake Superior, for the purposes of barter, were by the
French called Illinois, for the reason that the first Indians who came
to La Pointe from the south " called themselves IllinoisP *

In the Jesuit Relations the name Illinois appears as " Illi-mouek,"
"Illinoues," " Ill-i-ne-wek," " Allin-i-wek " and " Lin-i-wek." By
Father Marquette it is "Ilinois," and Hennepin has it the same as it
is at the present day. The ois was pronounced like our way, so that
ouai, ois, wek and oueh were almost identical in pronunciation^
"Willinis" is Lewis Evans' orthography. Major Thomas Forsyth,
who for many years was a trader and Indian agent in the territory, and
subsequently the state, of Illinois, says the Confederation of Illinois

* As we have given the name of Ottawas to all the savages of these countries, al-
though of different nations, because the first who have appeared among the French
have been Ottawas; so also it is with the name of the Illinois, very numerous, and
dwelling toward the south, because the first who have come to the " point of the Holy
Ghost for commerce called themselves Illinois." — Father Claude Dablon, in the Jesuit
Relations for 1670, 1671.

t Note by Dr. Shea in the article entitled " The Indian Tribes of Wisconsin," fur-
nished by him for the Historical Society of Wisconsin, and published in Vol. Ill ol
their collections, p. 128.

106 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

"called themselves Linneway" — which is almost identical with the
Lin-i-wek of the Jesuits, having a regard for its proper pronuncia-
tion, — " and that by others they were called Minneway, signifying men,"
and that their confederacy embraced the combined Illinois and Miami
tribes ; " that all these different bands of the Minneway nation spoke
the language of the present Miamis, and the whole considered them-
selves as one and the same people, yet from their local situation, and
having no standard to go by, their language became broken up into
different dialects."* They were by the Iroquois called " Chick-tagh-

icks."

Many theories have been advanced and much fine speculation in-
dulged in concerning the origin and meaning of the word Illinois.
We have seen that the Illinois first made themselves known to the
French by that name, and we have never had a better signification of
the name than that which the Illinois themselves gave to Fathers Mar-
quette and Hennepin. The former, in his narrative journal, observes:
" To say Illinois is, in their language, to say ' the men,' as if other
Indians, compared to them, were mere beasts." + " The word Illinois
signifies a man of full age in the vigor of his strength. This word Illi-
nois comes, as it has already been observed, from Illini, which in the
language of that nation signifies a perfect and accomplished man." %

Subsequently the name Illini, Linneway, Willinis or Illinois, with
more propriety became limited to a confederacy, at first composed of
four subdivisions, known as the Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Tamaroas and
Peorias. Not many years before the discovery of the Mississippi by
the French, a foreign tribe, the Metchigamis, nearly destroyed by wars
with the Sacs to the north and the Chickasaws to the south, to save
themselves from annihilation appealed to the Kaskaskias for admission
into their confederacy. § The request was granted, and the Metchiga-
mis left their homes on the Osage river and established their villages
on the St. Francis, within the limits of the present State of Missouri
and below the mouth of the Kaskaskia.

The subdivision of the Illinois proper into cantons, as the French
writers denominate the families or villages of a nation, like that of
other tribes was never very distinct. There were no villages exclu-
sively for a separate branch of the tribe. Owing to intermarriage,
adoption and other processes familiar to modern civilization, the sub-

* Life of Black-Hawk, by Benjamin Drake, seventh edition, pp. 16 and 17.
t Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, p. 25.
X Hennepin's Discovery of America, pp. 35 and 119, London edition, 1698.
$ Charlevoix's " Narrative Journal," Vol. II, p. 228. Also note of B. F. French, p.
61 of Vol. Ill, First Series of Historical Collections of Louisiana.

LOCATION OF VILLAGES. 107

tribal distinctions were not well preserved ; and when Charlevoix, that
acute observer, in 1721 visited these several Illinois villages near Kas-
kaskia, their inhabitants were so mixed together and confounded that
it was almost impossible to distinguish the different branches of the
tribe from each other.*

The first accounts we have of the Illinois are given by the Jesuit
missionaries. In the "Relations" for the year 1655 we find that the
Lin-i-ouek are neighbors of the Winnebagoes ; again in the " Rela-
tions " for the next year, " that the Illinois nation dwell more than
sixty leagues from here, f and beyond a great river, ^ which as near
as can be conjectured flows into the sea toward Virginia. These
people are warlike. They use the bow, rarely the gun, and never the
canoe.

When Joliet and Marquette were descending the Mississippi, they
found villages of the Illinois on the Des Moines river, and on their
return they passed through larger villages of the same nation situated
on the Illinois river, near Peoria and higher up the stream.

While the Illinois were nomads, though not to the extent of many
other tribes, they had villages of a somewhat permanent character, and
when they moved after game they went in a body. It would seem
from the most authentic accounts that their favorite abiding places
were on the Illinois river, from the Des Plaines down to its confluence
with the Mississippi, and on the Mississippi from the Kaskaskia to the
mouth of the Ohio. This beautiful region abounded in game ; its riv-
ers were well stocked with fish, and were frequented by myriads of
wild fowls. The climate was mild. The soil was fertile. By the
mere turning of the sod, the lands in the rich river bottoms yielded
bountiful crops of Indian corn, melons and squashes.

In disposition and morals the Illinois were not to be very highly
commended. Father Charlevoix, speaking of them as they were in
1700, says: "Missionaries have for some years, directed quite a flour-
ishing church among the Illinois, and they have ever since continued
to instruct that nation, in whom Christianity had already produced a
change such as she alone can produce in morals and disposition. Before
the arrival of the missionaries, there were perhaps no Indians in any
part of Canada with fewer good qualities and more vices. They have

* " These tribes are at present very much confounded, and are become very inconsid-
erable. There remains only a very small number of" Kaskaskias, and the two villages
of that name are almost entirely composed of Tamaroas and Metchigamis, a foreign
nation adopted by the Kaskaskias, and originally settled on a small river you meet
with going down the Mississippi." — Charlevoix' " Narrative Journal," Letter XXVIII,
dated Kaskaskia, October 20, 1721; p. 228, Vol. II.

t The letter is sent from the Mission of the Holy Ghost, at La Pointe.

\ The Mississippi.

108 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.

always been mild and docile enough, but they were cowardly, treach-
erous, tickle, deceitful, thievish, brutal, destitute of faith or honor,
selfish, addicted to gluttony and the most monstrous lusts, almost un-
known to the Canada tribes, who accordingly despised them heartily,
but the Illinois were not a whit less haughty or self-complacent on
that account.

" Such allies could bring no great honor or assistance to the French ;
yet we never had any more faithful, and, if we except the Abenaqui
tribes, they are the only tribe who never sought peace with their ene-
mies to our prejudice. They did, indeed, see the necessity of our aid
to defend themselves against several nations who seemed to have sworn
their ruin, and especially against the Iroquois and Foxes, who, by con-
stant harrassing, have somewhat trained them to war, the former taking
home from their expeditions the vices of that corrupt nation." *

Father Charlevoix' comments upon the Illinois confirm the state-
ments of Hennepin, who says : " They are lazy vagabonds, timorous,
pettish thieves, and so fond of their liberty that they have no great
respect for their chiefs."f

Their cabins were constructed of mats, made out of flags, spread
over a frame of poles driven into the ground in a circular form and
drawn together at the top.

"Their villages," says Father Hennepin,;}: "are open, not enclosed
with palisades because they had no courage to defend them ; they would
flee as they heard their enemies approaching." Before their acquaint-
ance with the French they had no knowledge of iron and fire-arms.
Their two principal weapons were the bow and arrow and the club.
Their arrows were pointed with stone, and their tomahawks were made
out of stag's horns, cut in the shape of a cutlass and terminating in a
large ball. In the use of the bow and arrow, all writers agree, that
the Illinois excelled all neighboring tribes. For protection against the
missies of an enemy they used bucklers composed of buffalo hides
stretched over a wooden frame.

In form they were tall and lithe. They were noted for their swift-
ness of foot. They wore moccasins prepared from buffalo hides; and,
in summer, this generally completed their dress. Sometimes they wore
a small covering, extending from the waist to the knees. The rest of
the body was entirely nude.

The women, beside cultivating the soil, did all of the household
drudgery, carried the game and made the clothes. The garments

* Charlevoix's " History of New France," vol. 5, page 130.
t Hennepin, page 132, London edition, 1698.
% Page 132.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 109

were prepared from buffalo hides, and from the soft wool that grew
upon these animals. Both the wool and hides were dyed with bril-
liant colors, black, yellow or vermilion. In this kind of work the
Illinois women were greatly in advance of other tribes. Articles of
dress were sewed together with thread made from the nerves and ten-
dons of deer, prepared by exposure to the sun twice in every twenty-
four hours. After which the nerves and tendons were beaten so that
their fibers would separate into a fine white thread. The clothing of
the women was something like the loose wrappers worn by ladies of
the present day. Beneath the wrapper were petticoats, for warmth in
winter. With a fondness for finery that characterizes the feminine sex
the world over, the Illinois women wore head-dresses, contrived more
for ornament than for use. The feet were covered with moccasins, and
leggings decorated with quills of the porcupine stained in colors of
brilliant contrasts. Ornaments, fashioned out of clam shells and other
hard substances, were worn about the neck, wrists and ankles ; these, with
the face, hands and neck daubed with pigments, completed the toilet of
the highly fashionable Illinois belle.

Their food consisted of the scanty products of their fields, and prin-
cipally of game and fish, of which, as previously stated, there was in
their country a great abundance. Father Allouez, who visited them in
1673, stated that they had fourteen varieties of herbs and forty-two
varieties of fruits which they use for food. Their plates and other
dishes were made of wood, and their spoons were constructed out of
buffalo bones. The dishes for boiling food were earthen, sometiines
glazed*

From all accounts, it seems that the Illinois claimed an extensive
tract of country, bounded on the east by the ridge that divides the
waters' flowing into the Illinois from the streams that drain into the
Wabash above the head waters of Saline creek, and as high up the Illi-
nois as the Des Plaines, extending westward of the Mississippi, and
reaching northward to the debatable ground between the Illinois,
Chippeways, Winnebagoes, Sacs and Foxes. Their favorite and most
populous cities were on the Illinois river, near Starved Rock, and

* The account we have given of the manners, habits and customs of the Illinois is
compiled from the following authorities : La Hontan, Charlevoix, Hennepin, Tonti,
Marquette, Joutel, the missionaries Marest, Rasles and Allouez. Besides, the historic
letter of Marest, found in Kip's Jesuit Missions, is another from this distinguished
priest, written from Kaskaskia to M. Bienville, and incorporated in Penicaut's Annals
of Louisiana, a translation of which is contained in the Historical Collections of Louisi-
ana and Florida, by B. F. French. In this letter of Father Marest, dated in 1711, is a
very fine description of the customs of the Illinois Indians, and their prosperous condi-
tion at Kaskaskia and adjacent villages.

110 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

below as far as Peoria. The missionary station founded by Father
Marquette was, in all probability, near the latter place.

Prior to the year 1700, Father Marest had charge of a mission at
the neck, strait or narrows of Peoria lake. In Peoria lake, above
Peoria, is a contracted channel, and this is evidently referred to by
Father Gravier in his " Narrative Journal " where he states : " I ar-
rived too late at the Illinois du Detroit, of whom Father Marest has
charge, to prevent the transmigration of the village of the Kaskaskias,
which was too precipitately made on vague news of the establishment
on the Mississippi. I do not believe that the Kaskaskias would have
thus separated from the Peouaroua and other Illinois du Detroit. At
all events, I came soon enough to unite minds a little, and to prevent
the insult which the Peouaroua and the Mouin-gouena were bent on
offering to the Kaskaskias and French as they embarked. I spoke to
all the chiefs in full council, and as they continued to preserve some
respect and good will for me, we separated very peaceably. But I
argue no good from this separation, which I have always hindered,
seeing too clearly the evil results. God grant that the road from
Chikagoua to this strait " (au Detroit) " be not closed, and the whole
Illinois mission suffer greatly. I avow to you, Reverend Father, that
it rends my heart to see my old flock thus divided and dispersed, and
I shall never see it, after leaving it, without having some new cause of
affliction. The Peouaroua, whom I left without a missionary (since
Father Marest has followed the Kaskaskias), have promised me that
they would preserve the church, and that they would await my return
from the Mississippi, where I told them I went only to assure myself
of the truth of all that was said about it." *

The area of the original country of the Illinois was reduced by
continuous wars with their neighbors. The Sioux forced them east-
ward ; the Sac and Fox, and other enemies, encroached upon them
from the north, while war parties of the foreign Iroquois, from the east,
rapidly decimated their numbers. These unhappy influences were doing

* Father Gravier's Journal in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi,
pp. 116 and 117. Dr. Shea, in a foot note, p. 116, says: "This designation (Illinois
Du Detroit) does not appear elsewhere, and I cannot discover what strait is referred to.
It evidently includes the Peorias."

Dr. Shea's conjecture is very nearly correct. The narrows in Peoria lake retained
the appellation of Little Detroit, a name handed down from the French-Canadians.
Dr. Lewis Beck, in his "Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri," p. 124, speaks of ''Little
Detroit, an Indian village situated on the east bank of lake Peoria, six miles above
' Ft. Clark." On the map prefixed to the Gazetteer prepared in 1820 the contraction of
the lake is shown and designated as " Little Detroit."

We have seen from extracts from Father Marquette's Journal, quoted on a preced-
ing page, that it was the Kaskaskias at whose village this distinguished missionary
Eromised to return and to establish a mission, and that with the ebbing out of his life
e fulfilled his engagement. From Father Gravier's Journal, just quoted, it is appar-

ATTACK OF THE IKOQUOIS. Ill

their fatal work, and the Illinois confederacy was in a stage of decline
when they first came in contact with the French. Their afflictions made
them accessible to the voice of the missionary, and in their weakness
they hailed with delight the coming of the Frenchman with his prom-
ises of protection, which were assured by guns and powder. The mis-
fortunes of the Illinois drew them so kindly to the priests, the courcurs
des Bois and soldiers, that the friendship between the two races never
abated ; and when in the order of events the sons of France had de-
parted from the Illinois, their love for the departed Gaul was inculcated
into the minds of their children.

The erection of Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, St. Joseph on the
stream of that name, and the establishment at Detroit, for a while
stayed the calamity that was to befall the Illinois. Frequent allusion
has been made to the part the Iroquois took in the destruction of this
powerful confederacy. For the gratification of the reader we give a
condensed account of some of these Iroquois campaigns in the Illinois
country. The extracts we take are from a memoir on the western
Indians, by M. Du Chesneau,* dated at Quebec, September 13, 1681 :
" To convey a correct idea of the present state of all those Indian na-
tions it is necessary to explain the cause of the cruel war waged by the
Iroquois for these three years past against the Illinois. The former
were great warriors, cannot remain idle, and pretend to subject all other
nations to themselves, and never want a pretext for commencing hos-
tilities. The following was their assumed excuse for the present war:
Going, about twenty years ago, to attack the Outagamis (Foxes),
they met the Illinois and killed a considerable number of them. This
continued during the succeeding years, and finally, having destroyed a
great many, they forced them to abandon their country and seek refuge
in very distant parts. The Iroquois having got quit of the Illinois,
took no more trouble with them, and went to war against another
nation called the Andostagues.f Pending this war the Illinois re-
turned to their country, and the Iroquois complained that they had

ent that the mission had for some years been in successful operation at the combined
village of the Kaskaskias, Peorias and Mouin-gouena, situated at the Du Detroit of the
Illinois; and also that the Kaskaskias, hearing that the French were about to form es-
tablishments on the lower Mississippi, in company with the French inhabitants of their
ancient village, were in the act of going down the Mississippi at the time of Gravier's
arrival, in September, 1700. All these facts taken together would seem to definitely
locate the Mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the
narrows, six miles above the present city of Peoria, which is upon the site of old Fort
Clark, and probably, from the topography of the locality, upon the east bank of the
strait. In conclusion, we may add that the Kaskaskias were induced to halt in their
journey southward upon the river, which has ever since borne their name ; and the
mission, transferred from the old Kaskaskias, above Peoria, retained the name of " The
Immaculate Conception," etc.

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 161 to 166.

t The Eries, or Cats, were entirely destroyed by the Iroquois.

112 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.

killed forty of their people who were on their way to hunt beaver in
the Illinois country. To obtain satisfaction, the Iroquois resolved to
make war upon them. Their true motive, however, was to gratify the
English at Manatte * and Orange, f of whom they are too near neigh-
bors, and who, by means of presents, engaged the Iroquois in this ex-
pedition, the object of which was to force the Illinois to bring their
beaver to them, so that they may go and trade it afterward to the
English ; also, to intimidate the other Indians, and constrain them to
to do the same thing.

"The improper conduct of Sieur de la Salle, £ governor of Fort
Frontenac, has contributed considerably to cause the latter to adopt
this proceeding ; for after he had obtained permission to discover the
Great River Mississippi, and had, as he alleged, the grant of the
Illinois, he no longer observed any terms with the Iroquois. He ill-
treated them, and avowed that he would convey arms and ammunition
to the Illinois, and would die assisting them.

"The Iroquois dispatched in the month of April of last year, 1680,
an army, consisting of between five and six hundred men, who ap-
proached an Illinois village where Sieur Tonty, one of Sieur de la
Salle's men happened to be with some Frenchmen and two Recollect
fathers, whom the Iroquois left unharmed. One of these, a most holy
man, § has since been killed by the Indians. But they would listen
to no terms of peace proposed to them by Sieur de Tont} r , who was
slightly wounded at the beginning of the attack ; the Illinois having
fled a hundred leagues thence, were pursued by the Iroquois, who
killed and captured as many as twelve hundred of them, including
women and children, having lost only thirty men.

" The victory achieved by the Iroquois rendered them so insolent that
they have continued ever since that time to send out divers war parties.
The success of these is not yet known, but it is not doubted that they
have been successful, because those tribes are very warlike and the Illi-
nois are but indifferently so. Indeed, there is no doubt, and it is the
universal opinion, that if the Iroquois are allowed to proceed they will
subdue the Illinois, and in a short time render themselves masters of
all the Outawa tribes and divert the trade to the English, so that it is
absolutely essential to make them our friends or to destroy them."

* New York.

t Albany, New York.

X It must be remembered that La Salle was not exempt from the jealousy and envy
which is inspired in souls of little men toward those engaged in great undertakings ;
and we see this spirit manifested here. La Salle could not have done otherwise than
supply fire-arms to the Illinois, who were his friends and the owners of the country, the
trade of which he had opened up at great hardship and expense to himself.

§ Gabriel Ribourde.

DEFEAT OF THE IKOQUOIS. 113

The Iroquois were not always successful in their western forays.
Tradition records two instances in which they were sadly discomfited.
The first was an encounter with the Sioux, on an island in the Missis-
sippi, at the mouth of the Des Moines. The tradition of this engage-
ment is preserved in the curious volumes of La Hontan, and is as fol-
lows : " March 2nd, 1689, 1 arrived in the Mississippi. To save the labor
of rowing we left our boats to the current, and arrived on the tenth in
the island of Rencontres, which took its name from the defeat of four
hundred Iroquois accomplished there- by three hundred Nadouessis
(Sioux). The story of the encounter is briefly this : A party of
four hundred Iroquois having a mind to surprise a certain people in
the neighborhood of the Otentas (of whom more anon), marched to
the country of the Illinois, where they built canoes and were furnished
with provisions. After that they embarked upon the river Mississippi,
and were discovered by another little fleet that was sailing down the
other side of the same river. The Iroquois crossed over immediately
to that island which is since called Aux Rencontres. The Nadouessis,
i. <?., the other little fleet, being suspicious of some ill design, without
knowing what people they were (for they had no knowledge of the
Iroquois but by hear-say) — upon this suspicion, I say, they tugged hard
to come up with them. The two armies posted themselves upon the
point of the island, where the two crosses are put down in the map,*
and as soon as the Nadouessis came in sight, the Iroquois cried out in
the Illinese language : ' Who are ye V To which the Nadouessis
answered, ' Somebody'; and putting the same question to the Iroquois,
received the same answer. Then the Iroquois put this question to
'em : ' Where are you going?' l To hunt buffalo,' answered the JVa-
douessis ; ' but, pray,' says the Nadouessis, ' what is your business ? ' ' To
hunt men,' reply'd the Iroquois. ' 'Tis well,' says the Nadouessis ;
' we are men, and so you need go no farther.' Upon this challenge,
the two parties disembarked, and the leader of the Nadouessis cut his
canoes to pieces, and, after representing to his warriors that they be-
hoved either to conquer or die, marched up to the Iroquois, who
received them at first onset with a cloud of arrows. But the Nadou-
essis having stood their first discharge, which killed eighty of them,
fell in upon them with their clubs in their hands before the others
could charge again, and so routed them entirely. This engagement
lasted for two hours, and was so hot that two hundred and sixty Iro-
quois fell upon the spot, and the rest were all taken prisoners. Some
of the Iroquois, indeed, attempted to make their escape after the action

* On La Hontan's map the place marked is designated by an island in the Missis-
sippi, immediately at the mouth of the Des Moines.
8

114 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

was over ; but the victorious general sent ten or twelve of his men to
pursue them in one of the canoes that he had taken, and accordingly
they were all overtaken and drowned. The Nadouessis having ob-
tained this victory, cut off the noses and ears of two of the cleverest
prisoners, and supplying them with fusees, powder and ball, gave them
the liberty of returning to their own country, in order to tell their
countrymen that they ought not to employ women to hunt after men
any longer."*

The second tradition is that" of a defeat of a war party of Iroquois
upon the banks of the stream that now bears the name of " Iroquois
River." Father Charlevoix, in his Narrative Journal, referring to his
passage down the Kankakee, in September, 1721, alludes to this defeat
of the Iroquois in the following language : " I was not a little sur-
prised at seeing so little water in the The-a-ki-ki, notwithstanding it
receives a good many pretty large rivers, one of which is more than a
hundred and twenty feet in breadth at its mouth, and has been called
the River of the Iroquois, because some of that nation were surprised
on its banks by the Illinois who killed a great many of them. This
check mortified them so much the more, as they held the Illinois in
great contempt, who, indeed, for the most part are not able to stand
before them.'" f

The tradition has been given with fuller particulars to the author^
by Colonel Guerdon S. Hubbard, as it was related by the Indians to
him. It has not as yet appeared in print, and is valuable as well as
interesting, inasmuch as it explains why the Iroquois River has beeiv.
so called for a period of nearly two centuries, and also because it gives
the origin of the name Watseka.

The tradition is substantially as follows: Many years ago the Iro
quois attacked an Indian village situated on the banks of the river a
few miles below the old county seat, — Middleport, — and drove out
the occupants with great slaughter. The fugitives were collected in
the night time some distance away, lamenting their disaster. A wo-
man, possessing great courage, urged the men to return and attack the
Iroquois, saying the latter were then rioting in the spoils of the village
and exulting over their victory ; that they would not expect danger
from their defeated enemy, and that the darkness of the night would
prevent their knowing the advance upon them. The warriors refused
to go. The woman then said that she would raise a party of squaws
' and return to the village and fight the Iroquois; adding that death or
captivity would be the fate of the women and children on the morrow,

*La Hontan's New Voyages to America, vol. 1, pp. 128, 129.
f Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 199.

IKDIAN LEGEND. 115

and that they might as well die in an effort to regain their village and
property as to submit to a more dreadful fate. She called for volun-
teers and the women came forward in large numbers. Seeing the
bravery of their wives and daughters the men were ashamed of their
cowardice and became inspired with a desperate courage. A plan of
attack was speedily formed and successfully executed. The Iroquois,
taken entirely unawares, were surprised and utterly defeated.

The name of the heroine who suggested and took an active part in
this act of bold retaliation, bore the name of Watch-e-kee. In honor
of her bravery and to perpetuate the story of the engagement, a coun-
cil of the tribe was convened which ordained that when Watch-e-kee
died her name should be bestowed upon the most accomplished maiden
of the tribe, and in this way be handed down from one generation to
another. By such means have the name and the tradition been pre-
served.

The last person who bore this name was the daughter of a Potta-
watomie chief, with whose band Col. Hubbard was intimately associ-
ated as a trader for many years. She was well known to many of the
old settlers in Danville and upon the Kankakee. She was a person of
great beauty, becoming modesty, and possessed of superior intelligence.
She had great influence among her own people and was highly re-
spected by the whites. She accompanied her tribe to the westward of
the Mississippi, on their removal from the state. The present cwntit,
seat of Iroquois county is named after her, and ColJ^iubbard advises
the author that Watseka, as the name is generally spelled, is incorrect,
and that the orthography for its true pror .mnciation should be "Watch-e-
kee.*

We resume the narration of tb^ie decline of the Illinois : La Salle's
fortification at Starved Rock gathered about it populous villages of
Illinois, Shawnees, Weas, Pian iV keshaws and other kindred tribes, shown
on Franquelin's map as the C^Jolonie Du Sr. de la Salle, f The Iroquois
were barred out of the country of the Illinois tribes, and the latter
enjoyed security from thg jir old enemies. La Salle himself, speaking
of his success in establis) lP aing a colony at the Rock, says : " There would
be nothing to fear fro^m the Iroquois when the nations of the south,

* The Iroquois also 1 ^ore the name of Can-o-wa-ga, doubtless an Indian name. It
had another aboriginal -+hame, Mocabella (which was, probably, a French-Canadian cor-
ruption of the Kickap oo word Mo-qua), signifying a bear. Beck's Illinois and Mis-
souri Gazetteer, p. 90.-e The joint commission appointed by the legislatures of Indiana
and Illinois to run tl le boundary line between the two states, in their report in 1821,
and upon their map deposited in the archives at Indianapolis, designate the Iroquois
by the name of Picl«\--a-mink River. They also named Sugar Creek after Mr. McDon-
ald, of Vincennes, Ir ndiana, who conducted the surveys for the commission.

fThis part of IiVranquelin's map appears in the well executed frontispiece of Park-
insons Discovery ofW the Great West.

116 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

strengthened through their intercourse with the French, shall stop
their conquest, and prevent their being powerful by carrying off a great
number of their women and children, which they can easily do from
the inferiority of the weapons of their enemies. As respects com-
merce, that post will probably increase our traffic still more than has
been done by the establishment of Fort Frontenac, which was built
with success for that purpose; for if the Illinois and their allies were
to catch the beavers which the Iroquois now kill in the neighborhood
in order to carry them to the English, the latter not being any longer
able to get them from their own colonies would be obliged to buy from
us, to the great benefit of those who have the privilege of this traffic.
These were the views which the Sieur de la Salle had in placing the
settlement where it is. The colony has already felt its effects, as all
our allies, who had fled after the departure of M. de Frontenac, have
returned to their ancient dwellings, in consequence of the confidence
caused by the fort, near which they have defeated a party of Iroquois,
and have built four forts to protect themselves from hostile incursions.
The Governor, M. de la Barre, and the intendant, M. de Muelles, have
told Sieur de la Salle that they would write to Monseigneur to inform
him of the importance of that fort in order to keep the Iroquois in
check, and that M. de Sagny had proposed its establishment in 1678.
Monsiegneur Colbert permitted Sieur de la Salle to build it, and
orontprl it to him as a property." *
The fort z^rL": Rocher (the rock) was constructed on its summit in
1682, and enclosed wit/A a palisade. It was subsequently granted to
Tonti and Forest, f It was ..abandoned as a military post in the year
1702; and when Charlevoix wem/ down the Illinois in 1721 he passed
the Rock, and said of it: "This fo the point of a very high terrace
stretching the space of two hundred ; paces, and bending or winding
with the course of the river. This rock; is steep on all sides, and at a
distance one would take it for a fortress. »» Some remains of a palisado
are still to be seen on it, the Illinois having formerly cast up an en-
trenchment here, which might be easily repaired in case of any inter-
ruption of the enemy." % \

The abandonment of Fort St, Louis in 1702 vvras followed soon after
by a dispersion of the tribes and remnants of trib.es that La Salle and
Tonti had gathered about it, except the straggling village of the
Illinois.

* Memoir of the Sieur de la Salle, reporting to Monseigneur die Seingelay the dis-
coveries made by him under the order of His Majesty. Historical Elections of
Louisiana, Part I, p. 42.

t Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 494.

t Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. &, p. ■iW-

DECLINE OF THE ILLINOIS. 117

The Iroquois came no more subsequent to 1721, having war enough
on their hands nearer home ; but the Illinois were constantly harassed
by other enemies ; the Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos and Pottawatomies.
In 1722 their villages at the Rock and on Peoria Lake were besieged
by the Foxes, and a detachment of a hundred men under Chevalier de
Artaguette and Sieur de Tisne were sent to their assistance. Forty of
these French soldiers, with four hundred Indians, marched by land to
Peoria Lake. However, before the reinforcements reached their des-
tination they learned that the Foxes had retreated with a loss of more
than a hundred and twenty of their men. " This success did not,
however, prevent the Illinois, although they had only lost twenty men,
with some women and children, from leaving the Rock and Pimiteony,
where they were kept in constant alarm, and proceeding to unite with
those of their brethren who had settled on the Mississippi ; this was a
stroke of grace for most of them, the small number of missionaries
preventing their supplying so many towns scattered far apart ; but on
the other side, as there was nothing to check the raids of the Foxes
along the Illinois River, communication between Louisiana and New
France became much less practicable."*

The fatal dissolution of the Illinois still proceeded, and their
ancient homes and hunting grounds were appropriated by the more
vigorous Sacs, Foxes, Pottawatomies and Kickapoos. The killing of
Pontiac at Cahokia, whither he had retired after the failure of his
effort to rescue the country from the English, was laid upon the
Illinois, a charge which, whether true or false, hastened the climax of
their destruction.

General Harrison stated that " the Illinois confederacy was com-
posed of five tribes : the Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Peorians, Michiganians
and the Temarois, speaking the Miami language, and no doubt
branches of that nation. When I was first appointed Governor of the
Indiana Territory (May, 1800), these once powerful tribes were re-
duced to about thirty warriors, of whom twenty-five were Kaskaskias,
four Peorians, and a single Michiganian. There was an individual
lately alive at St. Louis who saw the enumeration made of them by
the Jesuits in 1745, making the number of their warriors four thou-
sand. A furious war between them and the Sacs and Kickapoos
reduced them to that miserable remnant which had taken refuse
amongst the white people in the towns of Kaskaskia and St. Genieve."f

* History of New France, vol. 6, p. 71.

t Official letter of Gen. Harrison to Hon. John Armstrong, Secretary of War,
dated at Cincinnati, March 22, 1814: contained in Captain M'Afee's " History of the
Late War in the Western Country."

118 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

By successive treaties their lands in Illinois were ceded to the
United States, and they were removed west of the Missouri. In 1872
they had dwindled to forty souls — men, women and children all told.

Thus have wasted away the original occupants of the larger part of
Illinois and portions of Iowa and Missouri. In 1684 their single vil-
lage at La Salle's colony, could muster twelve hundred warriors. In the
days of their strength they nearly exterminated the Winnebagoes, and
their war parties penetrated the towns of the Iroquois in the valleys of
the Mohawk and Genesee. They took the Metchigamis under their
protection, giving them security against enemies with whom the latter
could not contend. This people who had dominated over the surround-
ing tribes, claiming for themselves the name Illini or Linneway, to rep-
resent their superior manhood, have disappeared from the earth ; another
race, representing a higher civilization, occupy their ancient domains,
and already, even the origin of their name and the location of their
cities have become the subjects of speculation.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE MIAMIS— THE MIAMI, PIANKESHAW, AND WEA BANDS.

The people known to us as the Miamis formerly dwelt beyond the
Mississippi, and, according to their own traditions, came originally
from the Pacific. " If what I have heard asserted in several places be
true, the Illinois and Miamis came from the banks of a very distant sea
to the westward. It would seem that their first stand, after they made
their first descent into this country, was at Moingona** At least it is
certain that one of their tribes bears that name. The rest are known
under the name of Peorias, Tamaroas, Caoquias and Kaskaskias."

The migration of the Miamis from the west of the Mississippi,
eastward through Wisconsin and northern Illinois, around the south-
ern end of Lake Michigan to Detroit, and thence up the Maumee and
down the Wabash, and eastward through Indiana into Ohio as far as
the Great Miami, can be followed through the mass of records handed
down to us from the missionaries, travelers and officers connected with
the French. Speaking of the mixed village of Maskoutens, situated on
Fox River, Wisconsin, at the time of his visit there in 1670, Father
Claude Dabiou says the village of the Fire-nation " is joined in the
circle of the same barriers to another people, named Oumiami, which
is one of the Illinois nations, which is, as it were, dismembered from
the others, in order to dwell in these quarters, f It is beyond this
great river \ that are placed the Illinois of whom we speak, and from
whom are detached those who dwell here with the Fire-nation to form
here a transplanted colony."

From the quotations made there remains little doubt that the Mi-
amis were originally a branch of the great Illinois nation. This theory
is confirmed by writers of our own time, among whom we may men-
tion General William H. Harrison, whose long acquaintance and official
connection with the several bands of the Miamis and Illinois gave him

* Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 227. Moingona, from undoubted
authorities, was a name given to the Des Moines River; and we find on the original
map, drawn by Marquette, the village of the Moingona placed on the Des Moines
above a village of the Peorias on the same stream.

t Father Dablon is here describing the same village referred to by Father Mar-
quette in that part of his Journal which we have copied on page 44.

J The Mississippi, of which the missionary had been speaking in the paragraph
preceding that which we quote.

119

120 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

the opportunities, of which he availed himself, to acquire an intimate
knowledge concerning them. "Although the language, manners
and customs of the Kaskaskias make it sufficiently certain that they
derived their origin from the same source with the Miamis, the
connection had been dissolved before the French had penetrated
from Canada to the Mississippi.""- The assertion of General Har-
rison that the tribal relation between the Illinois and Miamis had
been broken at the time of the discovery of the Upper Mississippi
valley by the French is sustained with great unanimity by all other
authorities. In the long and disastrous wars waged upon the Illinois
by the Iroquois, Sacs and Foxes, Kickapoos and other enemies, we
have no instance given where the Miamis ever offered assistance to
their ancient kinsmen. After the separation, on the contrary, they
often lifted the bloody hatchet against them.

Father Dablon, in the narrative from which we have quoted, f
gives a detailed account of the civility of. the Miamis at Mascouten,
and the formality and court routine with which their great chief was
surrounded. "The chief of the Miamis, whose name was Tetin-
choua, was surrounded by the most notable people of the village,
who, assuming the role of courtiers, with civil posture full of defer-
ence, and keeping always a respectful silence, magnified the great-
ness of their king. The chief and his routine gave Father Dablon
every mark of their most distinguished esteem. The physiognomy
of the chief was as mild and as attractive as any one could wish to
see ; and while his reputation as a warrior was great, his features
bore a softness which charmed all those who beheld him."

Nicholas Perrot, with Sieur de St. Lussin, dispatched by Talon,
the intendant, to visit the westward nations, with whom the French
had intercourse, and invite them to a council to be held the follow-
ing spring at the Sault Ste. Marie, was at this Miami village shortly
after the visit of Dablon. Perrot was treated with great consider-
ation by the Miamis. Tatinchoua "sent out a detachment to meet
the French agent and receive him in military style. The detach-
ment advanced in battle array, all the braves adorned with feathers,
armed at all points, were uttering war cries from time to time. The
Pottawatomies who escorted Perrot, seeing them come in this guise,
prepared to receive them in the same manner, and Perrot put him-
self at their head. When the two troops were in face of each other,
they stopped as if to take breath, then all at once Perrot took the
right, the Miamis the left, all running in Indian file, as though they
wished to gain an advantage to charge.

* Memoirs of General Harrison, by Moses Dawson, p. 62.
t Relations, 1670. 1671.

OF THE NAME MIAMI. 121

" But the Miamis wheeling in the form of an arc, the Pottawat-
omies were invested on all sides. Then both uttered loud yells,
which were the signals for a kind of combat. The Miamis fired a
volley from their guns, which were only loaded with powder, and
the Pottawatomies returned it in the same way ; after this they
closed, tomahawk in hand, all the blows being received on the tom-
ahawks. Peace was then made ; the Miamis presented the calumet
to Perrot, and led him with all his chief escort into the town, where
the great chief assigned him a guard of fifty men, regaled him mag-
nificently after the custom of the country, and gave him the diver-
sion of a game of ball."* The Miami chief never spoke to his
subjects, but imparted his orders through some of his officers. On
account of his advanced age he was dissuaded from attending the
council to be held at Ste. Marie, between the French and the Indians;
however, he deputized the Pottawatomies to act in his name.

This confederacy called themselves "Miamis," and by this name
were known to the surrounding tribes. The name was not bestowed
upon them by the French, as some have assumed from its resem-
blance to Mon-ami, because they were the friends of the latter.
When ITennepin was captured on the Mississippi by a war party of
the Sioux, these savages, with their painted faces rendered more
hideous by the devilish contortions of their features, cried out in
angry voices, " (, Mia-hama ! Mia-hama ! ' and we made signs with
our oars upon the sand, that the Miamis, their enemies, of whom
they were in search, had passed the river upon their flight to join
the Illinois, "f

"The confederacy which obtained the general appellation of
Miamis, from the superior numbers of the individual tribe to whom
that name more properly belonged," were subdivided into three
principal tribes or bands, namely, the Miamis proper, Weas and
Piankeshaws. French writers have 'given names to two or three
other subdivisions or families of the three principal bands, whose
identity has never been clearly traced, and who figure so little in
the accounts which we have of the Miamis, that it is not necessary
here to specify their obsolete names. The different ways of writing

* History of New France, vol. 3, pp. 166, 167. Father Charlevoix improperly
locates this village, where Perrot was received, at "Chicago, at the lower end of Lake
Michigan, where the Miamis then were," page 166, above quoted. The Miamis were
not then at Chicago. The reception of Perrot was at the mixed village on Fox River,
Wisconsin, as stated in the text. The error of Charlevoix, as to the location of this
village, has been pointed out by Dr. Shea, in a note on page 166, in the "History of
New France," and also by Francis Parkman, in a note on page 40 of his "Discovery
of the Great West."

t Hennepin, p. 187.

122 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Miamis are: Oumiamwek,* Oumamis,f Maumees,:}: Au-Miami §
(contracted to An-Mi and Omee) and Mine-ami. |

The French called the Weas Ouiatenons, Syatanons, Ouyatanons
and Ouias ; the English and Colonial traders spelled the word,
Ouicatanon,*[ Way-ough-ta nies,** Wawiachtens,ft and "Wehahs.^

For the Piankeshaws, or Pou-an-ke-M-as, as they were called in
the earliest accounts, we have Peanguichias, Pian-gui-shaws, Pyan-
ke-shas and Pianquishas.

The Miami tribes were known to the Iroquois, or Five Nations
of New York, as the Twir/ht-wees, a name generally adopted by the
British, as well as by the American colonists. Of this name there
are various corruptions in pronunciation and spelling, examples of
which we have in " Twich-twichs," " Twick-twicks," " Twis-twicks,"
4 k Twigh-twees, " and "Twick-tovies." The insertion of these many
names, applied to one people, would seem a tedious superfluity, were
it otherwise possible to retain the identity of the tribes to which
these different appellations have been given by the French, British
and American officers, traders and writers. It will save the reader
much perplexity in pursuing a history of the Miamis if it is borne in
mind that all these several names refer to the Miami nation or to
one or the other of its respective bands.

Besides the colony mentioned by Dablon and Charlevoix, on the
Fox River of Wisconsin, Hennepin informs us of a village of
Miamis south and west of Peoria Lake at the time he was at the
latter place in 1679, and it was probably this village whose inhabit-
ants the Sioux were seeking. St. Cosmie, in 1699, mentions the
"village of the ' Peanzichias-Miamis, who formerly dwelt on the
— of the Mississippi, and who had come some years previous
and settled ' on the Illinois River, a few miles below the confluence
of the DesPlaines." §§

The Miamis were within the territory of La Salle's colony, of
which Starved Rock was the center, and counted thirteen hundred
warriors. The Weas and Piankeshaws were also there, the former
having five hundred warriors and the Piankeshaw band one hundred
and fifty. This was prior to 1 GST. jj j At a later day the Weas "were
at Chicago, but being afraid of the canoe people, left it."T"f Sieur
de Courtmanche, sent westward in 1701 to negotiate with the tribes
in that part of New France, was at " Chicago, where he found some

Marquette. fLaHontan. \ Gen. Harrison. § Gen. Harmar. || Lewis Evans.
IT George Croghan's Narrative Journal. ** Croghan's List of Indian Tribes,
ft John Heckwelder, a Moravian Missionary. \% CatlhTs Indian Tribes.

§§ St. Cosmie's Journal in " Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi," p. 58.
M Parkman's Discovery of the Great West, note on p. 290.
^f*I Memoir on the Indian tribes, prepared in 1718: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 890.

AT WAR WITH THE SIOUX. 123

Weas (Ouiatanons), a Miami tribe, who had sung the war-song
against the Sioux and the Iroquois. He obliged them to lay down
their arms and extorted from them a promise to send deputies to
Montreal." *

In a letter dated in 1721, published in his "Narrative Journal,"
Father Charlevoix, speaking of the Miamis about the head of Lake
Michigan, says: " Fifty years ago the Miamis were settled on the
southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called Chicagou,
from the name of a small river which runs into the lake, the source
of which is not far distant from that of the river of the Illinois ;
they are at present divided into three villages, one of which stands
on the river St. Joseph, the second on another river which bears
their name and runs into Lake Erie, and the third upon the river
Ouabache, which empties its waters into the Mississippi. These last
are better known by the appellation of Ouyatanons." f

In 1694, Count Frontenac, in a conference with the Western In-
dians, requested the Miamis of the Pepikokia band who resided on
the Maramek,^; to remove, and join the tribe which was located on
the Saint Joseph, of Lake Michigan. The reason for this request,
as stated by Frontenac himself, was, that he wished the different
bands of the Miami confederacy to unite, "so as to be able to exe-
cute with greater facility the commands which he might issue." At
that time the Iroquois were at war with Canada, and the French
were endeavoring to persuade the western tribes to take up the tom-
ahawk in their behalf. The Miamis promised to observe the Gov-
ernor's wishes and began to make preparations for the removal. §

"Late in August, 1696, they started to join their brethren settled
on the St. Joseph. On their way they were attacked by the Sioux,
who killed several. The Miamis of the St. Joseph, learning this
hostility, resolved to avenge their slaughter. They pursued the
Sioux to their own country, and found them entrenched in their fort
with some Frenchmen of the class known as coureurs des bois (bush-
lopers). They nevertheless attacked them repeatedly with great res-
olution, but were repulsed, and at last compelled to retire, after
losing several of their braves. On their way home, meeting other
Frenchmen carrying arms and ammunition to ftie Sioux, they seized
all they had, but did them no harm." |

The Miamis were very much enraged at the French for supplying

* History of New France, vol. 5, p. 142.

t Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287.

JThe Kalamazoo, of Michigan.

§ Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 624, 625.

J Charlevoix' History of New France, vol. 5, p. 65.

124 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

their enemies, the Sioux, with guns and ammunition. It took all
the address of Count Frontenac to prevent them from joining the
Iroquois ; indeed, they seized upon the French agent and trader,
Nicholas Perrot, who had been commissioned to lead the Maramek
band to the St. Josephs, and would have burnt him alive had it not
been for the Foxes, who interposed in his behalf.*" This was the
commencement of the bitter feeling of hostility with which, from
that time, a part of the Miamis always regarded the French. From
this period the movements of the tribe were observed by the French
with jealous suspicion.

"We have already shown that in 1699 the Miamis were at Fort
Wayne, engaged in transferring across their portage emigrants from
Canada to Louisiana, and that, within a few years after, the Weas
are described as having their fort and several miles of cultivated
fields on the Wea plains below La Fayette. f From the extent and
character of these improvements, it may be safely assumed that the
Weas had been established here some years prior to 1718, the date
of the Memoir.

When the French first discovered the Wabash, the Piankeshaws
were found in possession of the land on either side of that stream,
from its mouth to the Vermilion Jiiver, and no claim had ever
been made to it by any other tribe until 1804, the period of a ces-
sion of a part of it to the United States by the Delawares, who had
obtained their title from the Piankeshaws themselves. ^

We have already seen that at the time of the first account we
have relating to the Maumee and the Wabash, the Miamis had vil-
lages and extensive improvements near Fort Wayne, on the Wea
prairie below La Fayette, on the Vermilion of the Wabash, and at
Yincennes. At a later day they established villages at other places,
viz, near the forks of the Wabash at Huntington, on the Mississin-
ewa,$ on Eel River near Logansport, while near the source of this
river, and westward of Fort Wayne, was the village of the "Little
Turtle." Near the mouth of the Tippecanoe was a sixth village.

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. C72.

fVide, p. 104. *

i Memoirs of General Harrison, pp. 61, 63.

§This stream empties into the Wabash near Peru, and on the opposite side of the
river from that city. The word is a compound of missi, great, and assin, stone, signify-
ing the river of the great or much stone. "The Mississinewa, with its pillared rocks,
is full of geological as well as romantic interest. Some three miles from Peru the
channel is cut through a solid wall of cherty silico-magnesian limestone. The action
of the river and unequal disintegration of the rocks has carved the precipitous wall,
which converts the river's course into a system of pillars, rounded buttresses, alcoves,
chambers and overhanging sides." Prof. Collett's Report on the Geology of Miami
county, Indiana.

A WARLIKE PEOPLE. 125

Passing below the Vermilion, the Miarais had other villages, one
on Sugar creek* and another near Terre Haute, f

The country of the Miamis extended west to the watershed be-
tween the Illinois and Wabash rivers, which separated their posses-
sions from those of their brethren, the Illinois. On the north were
the Pottawatomies, who were slowly but steadily pushing their lines
southward into the territory of the Miamis. The superior numbers
of the Miamis and their great valor enabled them to extend the
limit of their hunting grounds eastward into Ohio, and far within
the territory claimed by the Iroquois. "They were the undoubted
proprietors of all that beautiful country watered by the Wabash and
its tributaries, and there remains as little doubt that their claim ex-
tended as far east as the Scioto.":};

Unlike the Illinois, the Miamis held their own until they were
placed upon an equal footing with the tribes eastward by obtaining
possession of fire-arms. With these implements of civilized warfare
they were able to maintain their tribal integrity and the independ-
ence they cherished. They were not to be controlled by the French,
nor did they suffer enemies from any quarter to impose upon them
without prompt retaliation. They traded and fought with the
French, English and Americans as their interests or passions in-
clined. They made peace or declared war against other nations of
their own race as policy or caprice dictated. More than once they
compelled even the arrogant Iroquois to beg from the governors of
the American colonies that protection which they themselves had
failed to secure by their own prowess. Bold, independent and
flushed with success, the Miamis afforded a poor field for missionary
work, and the Jesuit Relations and pastoral letters of the French
priesthood have less to say of the Miami confederacy than any of the
other western tribes, the Kickapoos alone excepted.

The country of the Miamis was accessible, by way of the lakes,
to the fur trader of Canada, and from the eastward, to the adven-
turers engaged in the Indian trade from Pennsylvania, New York
and Virginia, either by way of the Ohio River or a commerce car-
ried on overland by means of pack-horses. The English and the
French alike coveted their peltries and sought their powerful alli-

*This stream was at one time called Rocky River, vide Brown's Western Gazet-
teer. By the Wea Miamis it was called Pun-go-se-con-e, "Sugar tree" (creek), vide
statement of Mary Ann Baptiste to the author.

fThe villages below the Vermilion and above Vincennes figure on some of the early
English maps and in accounts given by traders as the lower or little Wea towns. Be-
sides these, which were the principal ones, the Miamis had a village at Thorn town,
and many others of lesser note on the Wabash and its tributaries.

X Official Letter of General Harrison to the Secretary of War, before quoted.

126 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

ance, therefore the Miamis were harassed with the jealousies and
diplomacy of both, and if they or a part of their several tribes be-
came inveigled into an alliance with the one, it involved the hostility
of the other. The French government sought to use them to check
the westward advance of the British colonial influence, while the
latter desired their assistance to curb the French, whose ambitious
schemes involved nothing less than the exclusive subjugation of
the entire continent westward of the Alleghanies. In these wars
between the English and the French the Miamis were constantly
reduced in numbers, and whatever might have been the result to
either of the former, it only ended in disaster to themselves. Some-
times they divided ; again they were entirely devoted to the interest
of the English and Iroquois. Then they joined the French against
the British and Iroquois, and when the British ultimately obtained
the mastery and secured the valley of the Mississippi, — the long
sought for prize, — the Miamis entered the confederacy of Pontiac
to drive them out of the country. They fought with the British,
— except the Piankeshaw band, — against the colonies during the
revolutionary war. After its close their young men were largely
occupied in the predatory warfare waged by the several Maumee
and Wabash tribes upon the frontier settlements of Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania, Virginia and Kentucky. They likewise entered the con-
federacy of Tecumseh, and, either openly or in secret sympathy,
they were the allies of the British in the war of 1812. Their history
occupies a conspicuous place in the military annals of the west,
extending over a period of a century, during which time they main-
tained a manly struggle to retain possession of their homes in the
valleys of the Wabash and Maumee.

The disadvantage under which the Miamis labored, in encounters
with their enemies, before they obtained fire-arms, was often over-
come by the exercise of their cunning and bravery. "In the year
1680 the Miamis and Illinois were hunting on the St. Joseph Eiver.
A party of four hundred Iroquois surprised them and killed thirty
or forty of their hunters and captured three hundred of their women
and children. After the victors had rested awhile they prepared to
return to their homes by easy journeys, as they had reason to believe
that they could reach their own villages before the defeated enemy
would have time to rally and give notice of their disaster to those of
their nation who were hunting in remoter places. But they were
deceived ; for the Illinois and Miamis rallied to the number of two
hundred, and resolved to die fighting rather than suffer their women
and children to be carried away. In the meantime, because they

DEFEAT OF THE IROQUOIS. 127

were not equal to their enemies in equipment of arms or numbers,
they contrived a notable stratagem.

After the Miamis had duly considered in what way they would at-
tack the Iroquois, they decided to follow them, keeping a small dis-
tance in the rear, until it should rain. The heavens seemed to favor
their plan, for, after awhile it began to rain, and rained continually
the whole day from morning until night. When the rain began to
fall the Miamis quickened their march and passed by the Iroquois,
and took a position two leagues in advance, where they lay in an am-
buscade, hidden by the tall grass, in the middle of a prairie, which
the Iroquois had to cross in order to reach the woods beyond, where
they designed to kindle fires and encamp for the night. The Illi-
nois and Miamis, lying at full length in the grass on either side of
the trail, waited until the Iroquois were in their midst, when they
shot off their arrows, and then attacked vigorously with their clubs.
The Iroquois endeavored to use their fire-arms, but finding them of
no service because the rain had dampened and spoiled the priming,
threw them upon the ground, and undertook to defend themselves
with their clubs. In the use of the latter weapon the Iroquois were
no match for their more dexterous and nimble enemies. They were
forced to yield the contest, and retreated, fighting until night came
on. They lost one hundred and eighty of their warriors.

The fight lasted about an hour, and would have continued through
the night, were it not that the Miamis and Illinois feared that their
women and children (left in the rear and bound) would be exposed
to some surprise in the dark. The victors rejoined their women and
children, and possessed themselves of the fire-arms of their enemies.
The Miamis and Illinois then returned to their own country, without
taking one Iroquois for fear of weakening themselves.*

Failing in their first efforts to withdraw the Miamis from the
French, and secure their fur trade to the merchants at Albany and
New York, the English sent their allies, the Iroquois, against them.
A series of encounters between the two tribes was the result, in

*This account is taken from La Hontan, vol. 2, pp. 63, 64 and 65. The facts con-
cerning the engagement, as given by La Hontan, may be relied upon as substantially
correct, for they were written only a few years after the event. La Hontan, as appears
from the date of his letters which comprise the principal -part of his volumes, was in
this country from November, 1683, to 1689, and it was during this time that he was
collecting the information contained in his works. The place where this engagement
between the Miamis and Illinois against the Iroquois occurred, is a matter of doubt.
Some late commentators claim that it was upon the Maumee. La Hontan says that
the engagement was "near the river Oumamis." When he wrote, the St. Joseph of
Lake Michigan was called the river Oumamis, and on the map accompanying La Hon-
tan's volume it is so-called, while the Maumee, though laid down on the map, is
designated by no name whatever. It would, therefore, appear that when La Hontan
mentioned the Miami River he referred to the St. Joseph.

128 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

which the blood of both was profusely shed, to further the purposes
of a purely commercial transaction.

In these engagements the Senecas — a tribe of the Iroquois, or
Five Nations, residing to the west of the other tribes of the confed-
eracy, and, in consequence, being nearest to the Miamis, and more
directly exposed to their fury — were nearly destroyed at the out-
set. The Miamis followed up their success and drove the Senecas
behind the palisades that inclosed their villages. For three years
the war was carried on with a bitterness only known to exasperated
savages.

When at last the Iroquois saw they could no longer defend them-
selves against the Miamis, they appeared in council before the Gov-
ernor of New York, and, pittyingly, claimed protection from him,
who, to say the least, had remained silent and permitted his own
people to precipitate this calamity upon them.

''You say you will support us against all your kings and our
enemies ; we will then forbear keeping any more correspondence
with the French of Canada if the great King of England will de-
fend our people from the Twichtwicks and other nations over whom
the French have an influence and have encouraged to destroy an
abundance of our people, even since the peace heiween the tioo crowns"
etc. *

The governor declined sending troops to protect the Iroquois
against their enemies, but informed them: "You must be sensible
that the Dowaganhaes, Twichtwicks, etc., and other remote Indians,
are vastly more numerous than you Five Nations, and that, by their
continued warring upon you, they will, in a few years, totally de-
stroy you. I should, therefore, think it prudence and good policy in
you to try all possible means to fix a trade and correspondence with
all those nations, by which means you would reconcile them to your-
selves, and with my assistance, I am in hopes that, in a short time,
they might be united with us in the covenant chain, and then you
might, at all times, without hazard, go hunting into their country,
which, I understand, is much the best for beaver. I wish you would
try to bring some of them to speak to me, and perhaps I might pre-
vail upon them to come and live amongst you. I should think my-
self obliged to reward you for such a piece of service as I tender
your good advantage, and will always use my best endeavor to pre-
serve you from all your enemies."

* Speech of an Iroquois chief at a conference held at Albany, August 26, 1700, be-
tween Richard, Earl of Belmont, Captain- General and Governor-in-Chief of His Maj-
esty's provinces of New York, etc., and the sachems of the Five Nations. New York
Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 729.

TRADE WITH THE ENGLISH. 129

The conference continued several days, during which the Iroquois
stated their grievances in numerous speeches, to which the governor
graciously replied, using vague terms and making no promises,
after the manner of the extract from his speech above quoted, but
placed great stress on the value of the fur trade to the English, and
enjoining his brothers, the Iroquois, to bring all their peltries to
Albany ; to maintain their old alliance with the English, offensive
and defensive, and have no intercourse whatever, of a friendly na-
ture, with the rascally French of Canada.

The Iroquois declined to follow the advice of the governor,
deeming it of little credit to their courage to sue for peace. In the
meantime the governor sent emissaries out among the Miamis, with
an invitation to open a trade with the English. The messengers were
captured by the commandant at Detroit, and sent, as prisoners, to
Canada. However, the Miamis, in July, 1702, sent, through the
sachems of the Five Nations, a message to the governor at Albany,
advising him that many of the Miamis, with another nation, had
removed to, and were then living at, Tjughsaghrondie,* near by the
fort which the French had built the previous summer ; that they had
been informed that one of their chiefs, who had visited Albany two
years before, had been kindly treated, and that they had now come
forward to inquire into the trade of Albany, and see if goods could
not be purchased there cheaper than elsewhere, and that they had
intended to go to Canada with their beaver and peltries, but that
they ventured to Albany to inquire if goods could not be secured on
better terms. The governor replied that he was extremely pleased
to speak with the Miamis about the establishment of a lasting friend-
ship and trade, and in token of his sincere intentions presented his
guests with guns, powder, hats, strouds, tobacco and pipes, and sent
to their brethren at Detroit, waumpum, pipes, shells, nose and ear
jewels, looking-glasses, fans, children's toys, and such other light
articles as his guests could conveniently carry ; and, finally, assured
them that the Miamis might come freely to Albany, where they
would be treated kindly, and receive, in exchange for their peltries,
everything as cheap as any other Indians in covenant of friendship
with the English. f

During the same year (1702) the Miamis and Senecas settled their
quarrels, exchanged prisoners, and established a peace between
themselves. X

* The Iroquois name for the Straits of Detroit.

t Proceedings of a conference between the parties mentioned above. New York
Colonial Documents, vol. 4, pp. 979 to 981.

X New York Colonial Documents, vol. 4, p. 989.
9

130 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

The French were not disposed to allow a portion of the fur trade
to be diverted to Albany. Peaceable means were first used to dis-
suade the Miamis from trading with the English ; failing in this,
forcible means were resorted to. Captain Antoine De La Mothe
Cadillac marched against the Miamis and reduced them to terms."

The Miamis were not unanimous in the choice of their friends.
Some adhered to the French, while others were strongly inclined to
trade with the English, of whom they could obtain a better quality
of goods at cheaper rates, while at the same time they were allowed
a greater price for their furs. Cadillac had hardly effected a coercive
peace with the Miamis before the latter were again at Albany. " I
have," writes Lord Cournbury to the Board of Trade, in a letter
dated August 20, 1708,f "been there five years endeavoring to get
these nations [referring to the Miamis and another nation] to trade
with our peojDle, but the French have always dissuaded them from
coming until this year, when, goods being very scarce, they came to
Albany, where our people have supplied them with goods much
cheaper than ever the French did, and they promise to return in the
spring with a much greater number of their nations, which would be
a very great advantage to this province. I did, in a letter of the
25th day of June last, inform your Lordships that three French
soldiers, having deserted from the French at a place they call Le
Destroit, came to Albany. Another deserter came from the same
place, whom I examined myself, and I inclose a copy of his exam-
ination, by which your Lordships will perceive how easily the French
may be beaten out of Canada. The better I am acquainted with this
country, and the more I inquire into matters, so much the more I
am confirmed in my opinion of the facility of effecting that conquest,
and by the method I then proposed."

Turning to French documents we find that Sieur de Callier de-
sired the Miamis to withdraw from their several widely separated
villages and settle in a body upon the St. Joseph. At a great council
of the westward tribes, held in Montreal in 1694, the French In-
tendant, in a speech to the Miamis, declares that "he will not believe
that the Miamis wish to obey him until they make altogether one
and the same fire, either at the River St. Joseph or at some other
place adjoining it. He tells them that he has got near the Iroquois,
and has soldiers at Katarakoui, | in the fort that had been abandoned ;
that the Miamis must get near the enemy, in order to imitate him

*"Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 671 : note of the editor.
t New York Colonial Documents, vol. 5, p. 65.
% At Fort Frontenac.

URGED TO UNITE AT ONE PLACE. 131

(the Intendant), and be able to strike the Iroquois the more readily.
My children," continued the Intendant, "tell me that the Miamis
are numerous, and able of themselves to destroy the Iroquois. Like
them, all are afraid. What ! do you wish to abandon your country
to your enemy ? . . . Have you forgotten that I waged war against
him, principally on your account, alone ? Your dead are no longer
visible in his country ; their bodies are covered by those of the
French who have perished to avenge them. I furnished you the
means to avenge them, likewise. It depends only on me to receive
the Iroquois as a friend, which I will not do on account of you, who
would be destroyed were I to make peace without including you in
its terms." *

"I have heard," writes Governor Yaudreuil, in a letter dated
the 28th of October, 1719, to the Council of Marine at Paris, "that
the Miamis had resolved to remain where they were, and not go
to the St. Joseph Kiver, and that this resolution of theirs was dan-
gerous, on account of the facility they would have of communicating
with the English, who were incessantly distributing belts secretly
among the nations, to attract them to themselves, and that Sieur
Dubinson had been designed to command the post of Ouaytanons,
where he should use his influence among the Miamis to induce them
to go to the Eiver St. Joseph, and in case they were not willing,
that he should remain with them, to counteract the effect of those
belts, which had already caused eight or ten Miami canoes to go that
year to trade at Albany, and which might finally induce all of the
Miami nation to follow the example, "f Finally, some twenty-five
years later, as we learn from the letter of M. de Beauharnois, that
this French officer, having learned that the English had established
trading magazines on the Ohio, issued his orders to the command-
ants among the Weas and Miamis, to drive the British off by force
of arms and plunder their stores.:}:

Other extracts might be drawn from the voluminous reports of
the military and civil officers of the French and British colonial
governments respectively, to the same purport as those already
quoted ; but enough has been given to illustrate the unfortunate
position of the Miamis. For a period of half a- century they were
placed between the cutting edges of English and French pur-
poses, during which there was no time when they were not threat-
ened with danger of, or engaged in, actual war either with the
French or the English, or with some of their several Indian allies.

* Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 625. t Ibid, p. 894. % Ibid, p. 1105.

J32 HI8T0RIC XOTKS ON THE NTOKTH W EST.

By this continual abrasion, the peace and happiness which should
have been theirs was wholly lost, and their numbers constantly
reduced. They bad no relief from the strife, in which only injury
could result to themselves, let the issue have been what it might
between the English and the French, until the power of the Latter
was finally destroyed in 1763; and even then, after the French had
given up the country, the Miamis were compelled to defend their
own title to it against the arrogant claims of tin; English. In the
effort of the combined westward tribes to wrest their country from
the English, subsequent to the close of the colonial war, the Miamis
took a conspicuous part. This will be noticed in a subsequent chap-
ter. After the conclusion of the revolutionary war, tin; several
Miami villages from the Vermilion River to Fort Wayne suffered
severely from the attacks of the federal government under General
Ilarmer, and the military expeditions recruited in Kentucky, and
commanded by Colonels Scott and Wilkinson. Besides these dis-
asters, whole villages were nearly depopulated by the ravages of
small-pox. The uncontrollable thirst for whisky, acquired, through
a long course of years, by contact with unscrupulous traders, reduced
their numbers still more, while it degraded them to the last degree.
This was their condition in 1814, when General Harrison said of
them: "The Miamis will not be in our way. They are a poor,
miserable, drunken set, diminishing every year. Becoming too lazy
to hunt, they feel the advantage of their annuities. The fear of the
other Indians has alone prevented them from selling their whole
claim to the United States; and as soon as there is peace, or when
the British can no longer intrigue, they will sell."* The same
authority, in his historical address at Cincinnati in 1S38, on the
aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio, says: "At any time before
the treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Miamis alone could have fur-
nished more than three thousand warriors. Constant war with our
frontier had deprived them of many of their braves, but the ravages
of small-pox was the principal cause of the great decrease in their
numbers. They composed, however, a body of the finest light
troop* in the world. And had they been under an efficient system of
discipline, or possessed enterprise equal to their valor, the settle-
ment of the country would have been attended with much greater
difficulty than was encountered in accomplishing it, and their final
subjugation would have been delayed for some years." f

Vet their decline, from causes assigned, was so rapid, that when

* Official letter of General Harrison to the Secretary of War, of date March 24, 1814.
fP. 39 of General Harrison's address, original pamphlet edition.

CESSION OF Til HI K LANDS. 1 .','■',

the Baptist missionary, Isaae MeCoy, was among them from 1S17
until 1822, and drawing conclusions from personal contact, declared
that the Miamis were not a warlike people. There is, perhaps, in
the history of the North American Indians, no instance parallel to
the utter demoralization of the Miami's, nor an example of a tribe
which stood so high and had fallen so low through the practice of
all the vices which degrade human beings. Mr. McCoy, within the
period named, traveled up and down tin- Wabash, from Terre Haute
to Fort "Wayne : and at the village- near Montezuma, on Eel River,
at the Mississinewa and Fori Wayne there were continuous rounds
of drunken debauchery whenever whisky could be obtained, of which
men, women and children all partook, and life was often sacrificed
in personal broil- or by exposure of the debauchees to the inclemency
of the weather.'--

By treaties, entered into at various times, from 1795 to 1S45. in-
elusive, the Miami- ceded their land- in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio,
and removed west of the Mississippi, going In villages or by detach
ments. from time to time. At a single cession in 1838 they sold
the government 177,000 acre- of land in Indiana, which was only a
fragment of their former possessions, -till retaining a large tract.
Thus they alienated their heritage, and gradually disappeared from
the valleys of the Maumee and Wabash. A few remained on their
reservations and adapted themselves to the way- of the white- peo
pie, and their descendants may be occasionally met with about Peru.
Wabash and Fort Wayne. The money received from sales of their
lands proved to them a calamity, rather than a blessing, as it intro-
duced the most demoralizing habits. It i- estimated that within a
period of eighteen years subsequent to the close of the war of 1812
more than five hundred of them perished in drunken broil- and fights. \

The last of the Miamis to go westward were the Mississinewa
band. This remnant, comprising in all three- hundred and fifty per-
sons, under charge of Christmas Dagney,$ left their old home in the

*Mr. McCoy has contributed a valuable fund of original information in his History
of Baptist Indian Missions, published in 1840. The volume contain- :-ix bo and

eleven pages. He mentions many instances of drunken orgies which he witnessed in
the several Miami towns. We quote one of thern: "An intoxicated Indian at J
Wayne dismounted from his horse and ran up to a young Indian woman w\ his

sister-in-law, with a knife in his hand. She first ran around one of the compan
ent, and then another, to avoid the murderer, but in vain. He -tabbed her with I
knife, she then fled from the company. He stood looking after her, and seeing
did not fall, pursued her, threw her to the earth and drove his knife into her heart, in
presence of the whole company, none of whom ventured to save th - life."
P. 85.

t Vide American Cyclopaedia, vol. 11. p. 400.

X His name was, also, spelled Dazney and bagnett. He was bom on the 85tt
December, 1700, at the Wea village of Old Orchard Town, or We-au-ta-no, "":
Risen Sun," situated two miles below Fort Harrison. His father, Ambroise Dagney,

132 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

By this continual abrasion, the peace and happiness which should
have been theirs was wholly lost, and their numbers constantly
reduced. They had no relief from the strife, in which only injury
could result to themselves, let the issue have been what it might
between the English and the French, until the power of the latter
was finally destroyed in 1763 ; and even then, after the French had
given up the country, the Miamis were compelled to defend their
own title to it against the arrogant claims of the English. In the
effort of the combined westward tribes to wrest their country from
the English, subsequent to the close of the colonial war, the Miamis
took a conspicuous part. This will be noticed in a subsequent chap-
ter. After the conclusion of the revolutionary war, the several
Miami villages from the Vermilion River to Fort Wayne suffered
severely from the attacks of the federal government under General
Ilanner, and the military expeditions recruited in Kentucky, and
commanded by Colonels Scott and Wilkinson. Besides these dis-
asters, whole villages were nearly depopulated by the ravages of
small-pox. The uncontrollable thirst for whisky, acquired, through
a long course of years, by contact with unscrupulous traders, reduced
their numbers still more, while it degraded them to the last degree.
This was their condition in 1814, when General Harrison said of
them: "The Miamis will not be in our way. They are a poor,
miserable, drunken set, diminishing every year. Becoming too lazy
to hunt, they feel the advantage of their annuities. The fear of the
other Indians has alone prevented them from selling their whole
claim to the United States ; and as soon as there is peace, or when
the British can no longer intrigue, they will sell."* The same
authority, in his historical address at Cincinnati in 1S38, on the
aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio, says: "At any time before
the treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Miamis alone could have fur-
nished more than three thousand warriors. Constant war with our
frontier had deprived them of many of their braves, but the ravages
of small-pox was the principal cause of the great decrease in their
numbers. They composed, however, a body of the finest light
troops in the world. And had they been under an efficient system of
discipline, or possessed enterprise equal to their valor, the settle-
ment of the country would have been attended with much greater
difficulty than was encountered in accomplishing it, and their final
subjugation would have been delayed for some years." f

Yet their decline, from causes assigned, was so rapid, that when

* Official letter of General Harrison to the Secretary of War, of date March 24, 1814.
t P. 39 of General Harrison's address, original pamphlet edition.

CESSION OF THEIR LANDS. 133

the Baptist missionary, Isaac McCoy, was among them from 1817
until 1822, and drawing conclusions from personal contact, declared
that the Miamis were not a warlike people. There is, perhaps, in
the history of the North American Indians, no instance parallel to
the utter demoralization of the Miamis, nor an example of a tribe
which stood so high and had tallen so low through the practice of
all the vices which degrade human beings. Mr. McCoy, within the
period named, traveled up and down the Wabash, from Terre Haute
to Fort "Wayne ; and at the villages near Montezuma, on Eel River,
at the Mississinewa and Fort Wayne, there were continuous rounds
of drunken debauchery whenever whisky could be obtained, of which
men, women and children all partook, and life was often sacrificed
in personal broils or by exposure of the debauchees to the inclemency
of the weather.*

By treaties, entered into at various times, from 1795 to 1845, in-
clusive, the Miamis ceded their lands in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio,
and removed west of the Mississippi, going in villages or by detach-
ments, from time to time. At a single cession in 1838 they sold
the government 177,000 acres of land in Indiana, which was only a
fragment of their former possessions, still retaining a large tract.
Thus they alienated their heritage, and gradually disappeared from
the valleys of the Maumee and Wabash. A few remained on their
reservations and adapted themselves to the ways of the white peo-
ple, and their descendants may be occasionally met with about Peru,
Wabash and Fort Wayne. The money received from sales of their
lands proved to them a calamity, rather than a blessing, as it intro-
duced the most demoralizing habits. It is estimated that within a
period of eighteen years subsequent to the close of the war of 1812
more, than five hundred of them perished in drunken broils and fights, f

The last of the Miamis to go westward were the Mississinewa
band. This remnant, comprising in all three hundred and fifty per-
sons, under charge of Christinas Dagney,^: left their old home in the

*Mr. McCoy has contributed a valuable fund of original information in his History
of Baptist Indian Missions, published in 1840. The volume contains six hundred and
eleven pages. He mentions many instances of drunken orgies which he witnessed in
the several Miami towns. We quote one of them: "An intoxicated Indian at Fort
Wayne dismounted from his horse and ran up to a young Indian woman who was his
sister-in-law, with a knife in his hand. She first ran around one of the company pres-
ent, and then another, to avoid the murderer, but in vain. He stabbed her with his
knife. She then fled from the company. He stood looking after her, and seeing she
did not fall, pursued her, threw her to the earth and drove his knife into her heart, in
the presence of the whole company, none of whom ventured to save the girl's life."
P. 85.

t Vide American Cyclopaedia, vol. 11, p. 490.

i His name was, also, spelled Dazney and Dagnett. He was born on the 25th of
December, 1799, at the Wea village of Old Orchard Town, or We-au-ta-no, "The
Risen Sun," situated two miles below Fort Harrison. His father, Ambroise Dagney,

136

HISTORIC NOTES OX THE NORTHWEST.

little confederation disposed of their reservation in Miami county,
Kansas, and adjacent vicinity, and retired to a tract of reduced
dimensions within the Indian Territory. Since their last change of
location in 1867 they have made but little progress in their efforts
toward a higher civilization. The numbers of what remains of the
once numerous Illinois and Miami confederacies are reduced to less
than two hundred persons. The Miamis, like the unfortunate man
who has carried his dissipations beyond the limit from which there
can be no healthy reaction, seem not to have recovered from the
vices contracted before leaving the states, and with some notable
exceptions, they are a listless, idle people, little worthy of the spirit
that inspired the breasts of their ancestors.

ana and Illinois to their reservations beyond the Mississippi. His duties as Indian
agent brought him in contact with many of the early settlers on the Illinois and the
Wabash, from Vincennes to Fort Wayne. In 1818, when about twenty-five years of
age, Batticy represented his tribe at the treaty at Edwardsville. By this treaty, which is
signed by representatives from all the five tribes comprising the Illinois or Illini nation
of Indians, viz, the Peorias. Kaskaskias, Mitchigamias, Cahokias and Tamaoris, it
appears that for a period of years anterior to that time the Peorias had lived, and were
then living, separate and apart from the other tribes named. Treaties with the Indian
Tribes, etc., p. 247, government edition. 1837. By this ti-eaty the several tribes named
ceded to the United States the residue of their lands in Illinois. For nearly thirty years
was Baptiste Peoria in the service of the United States. In 18(57 Peoria became the
chief of the consolidated tribes of the Miamis and Illinois, and went with them to
their new reservation in the northeast corner of the Indian Territory, where he died
on the 13th of September, 1873, aged eighty years. Some years before his death he
married Mary Baptiste. the widow of Christmas Dagney, who, as before stated, still
survives. 1 am indebted to this lady for copies of the " Western Spirit," a newspaper
published at Paola, and the "Fort Scott Monitor," containing obituary notices and
biographical sketches of her late husband, from which this notice of Baptiste Peoria
has been summarized. Baptiste may be said to be "the last of the Peorias." He
made a manly and persistent effort to save the fragment of the Illinois and Miamis,
and by precepts and example tried to encourage them to adopt the ways of civilized
life.

CHAPTER XV.

THE POTTAWATOMIES.

"When the Jesuits were extending their missions westward of
Quebec they found a tribe of Indians, called Ottawas, living upon
a river of Canada, to which the name of Ottawa was given. After
the dispersion of the Hurons by the Iroquois, in 1649, the Ottawas,
to the number of one thousand, joined five hundred of the discom-
fited Hurons, and with them retired to the southwestern shore of
Lake Superior.* The fugitives were followed by the missionaries,
who established among them the Mission of the Holy Ghost, at La
Pointe, already mentioned. Shortly after the establishment of the
mission the Jesuits made an enumeration of the western Algonquin
tribes, in which all are mentioned except the Ojibbeways and Pian-
keshaws. The nation which dwelt south of the mission, classified as
speaking the pure Algonquin, is uniformly called Ottawas, and the
Ojibbeways, by whom they were surrounded, were never once noticed
by that name. Hence it is certain that at that early day the Jesuits
considered the Ottawas and Ojibbeways as one people, f

In close consanguinity with the Ottawas and Ojibbeways were
the Pottawatomies, between whom there was only a slight dialectical
difference in language, while the manners and customs prevailing in
the three tribes were almost identical.:}: This view was again re-
asserted by Mr. Gallatin: "Although it must be admitted that the
Algonquins, the Ojibbeways, the Ottawas and the Pottawatomies
speak different dialects, these are so nearly allied that they may be
considered rather as dialects of the same, than as distinct languages. "§

This conclusion of Mr. Gallatin was arrived at after a scientific
and analytical comparison of the languages of the tribes mentioned.

In confirmation of the above statement we have the speeches of
three Indian chiefs at Chicago in the month of August, 1821. Dur-
ing the progress of the treaty, Keewaygooshkum, a chief of the first
authority among the Ottawas, stated that "the Chippewas, the Pot-

* Jesuit Relations for 1666.

t Albert Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 27.

X Jesuit Relations.

§ Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 29.

137

138 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

tawatomies and the Ottawas were originally one nation. We sepa-
rated from each other near Michilimackinac. We were related by
the ties of blood, language and interest, but in the course of a long*
time these things have been forgotten," etc.

At the conclusion of this speech, Mich-el, an aged chief of the
( Ihippewas, said : "My Brethren, — I am about to speak a few words.
I know you expect it. Be silent, therefore, that the words of an old
man may be heard.

"My Brethren, — You have heard the man who has just spoken.
We are all descended from the same stock, — the Pottawatomies, the
Chippeways and the Ottawas. We consider ourselves as one. Why
should we not always act in concert? "

Metea, the most powerful of the Pottawatomie chieftains, in his
speech made this statement:

"Brothers, Chippeways and Ottawas, — we consider ourselves as
one people, which you know, as also our father- here, who has trav-
eled over our country."

Mr. Schoolcraft, in commenting on the above statements, re-
marks : "This testimony of a common origin derives additional
weight from the general resemblance of these tribes in person, man-
ners, customs and dress, but above all by their having one council-
fire and speaking one language. Still there are obvious characteris-
tics which will induce an observer, after a general acquaintance, to
pronounce the Pottawatomies tall, fierce, haughty ; the Ottawas
short, thick-set, good-natured, industrious ; the Chippeways warlike,
daring, etc. But the general lineaments, or, to borrow a phrase
from natural history, the suite features, are identical, f

The first mention that we have of the Pottawatomies is in the
Jesuit .Relations for the years 1639-4:0. They are then mentioned as
dwelling beyond the River St. Lawrence, and to the north of the
great lake of the Hurons. At this period it is very likely that the
Pottawatomies had their homes both north of Lake Huron and
south of it, in the northern part of the present State of Michigan.
Twenty-six or seven years after this date the country of the Potta-
watomies is described as being "about the Lake of the Ilimouek."^:
They were mentioned as being "a warlike people, hunters and fish-
ers. Their country is very good for Indian corn, of which they
plant fields, and to which they willingly retire to avoid the famine
that is too common in these quarters. They are in the highest de-
gree idolaters, attached to ridiculous fables and devoted to polygamy.

* Lewis Cass. f Schoolcraft's Central Mississippi Valley, pp. 357, 360, 368.

\ Lake Michigan.

THE POTTAWATOMIES. 139

We have seen them here* to the number of three hundred men, all
capable of bearing arms. Of all the people that I have associated with
in these countries, they are the most docile and the most affectionate
toward the French. Their wives and daughters are more reserved
than those of other nations. They have a species of civility among
them, and make it apparent to strangers, which is very rare among
our barbarians, "f

In 1670 the Pottawatomies had collected at the islands at the
mouth of Green Bay which have taken their name from this tribe.
Father Claude Dablon, in a letter concerning the mission of St.
Francis Xavier, which was located on Green Bay, in speaking of
this tribe, remarks that "the Pouteouatami, the Ousaki, and those
of the Forks, also dwell here, but as strange?>s, the fear of the Iro-
quois having driven them from their lands, which are between the
Lake of the Hurons and that of the Illinois.";};

In 1721, says Charlevoix, "the Poutewatamies possessed only
one of the small islands at the mouth of Green Bay, but had two
other villages, one on the St. Joseph and the other at the Nar-
rows."!

Driven out of the peninsula between lakes Huron and Michigan,
the Pottawatomies took up their abode on the Bay de Noquet, and
other islands near the entrance of Green Bay. From these islands
they advanced southward along the west shore of Lake Michigan.
Extracts taken from Hennepin's Narrative of La Salle's Voyage
mention the fact that the year previous to La Salle's coming west-
ward (1678), he had sent out a party of traders in advance, who had
bartered successfully with the Pottawatomies upon the islands
named, and who were anxiously waiting for La Salle at the time of
his arrival in the Griffin. Hennepin further states that La Salle's
party bartered with the Pottawatomies at the villages they passed
on the voyage southward.

From this time forward the Pottawatomies steadily moved south-
ward. When La Salle reached the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan
there were no Pottawatomies in that vicinity. Shortly after this
date, however, they had a village on the south bank of this stream,
near the present city of Niles, Michigan. "On the northern bank
was a village of Miamis. The Mission of St. Joseph was here
established and in successful operation prior to 1711, from which
fact, with other incidental circumstances, it has been inferred that

* La Pointe. \ Jesuit Relations, 1670-71.

t Jesuit Relations, 1666-7. § Detroit.

140 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

tlie Pottawatomies, as well as the mission, were on the St. Joseph as
early as the year 1700.'*

Father Charlevoix fixes the location of both the mission and the
military post as being at the same place beyond a doubt. " It was
eight days yesterday since I arrived at this post, where we have a
mission, and where there is a commandant with a small garrison.
The commandant's house, which is a very sorry one, is called the
fort, from its being surrounded by an indifferent palisado, which is
pretty near the case in all the rest, except Forts Chambly and Cata-
rocony, which are real fortresses. We have here two villages of
Indians, one of Miamis and the other of Pottawatomies, both of
them mostly Christians ; but as they have been for a long time with-
out any pastors, the missionary who has lately been sent them will
have no small difficulty in bringing them back to the exercise of
their religion." f

The authorities for locating the old mission and fort of St. Joseph
near Niles are Charlevoix, Prof. Keating and the Kev. Isaac Mc-
Coy. Commenting on the remains of the old villages upon the St.
Joseph Pi ver at the time Long's expedition passed that way, in 1823,
the compiler states that "the prairies, woodland and river were
rendered more picturesque by the ruins of Strawberry, Rum and
St. Joseph's villages, formerly the residence of the Indians or of
the first French settlers. It was curious to trace the difference in
the remains of the habitations of the red and white man in the
midst of this distant solitude. While the untenanted cabin of the

* Some confusion has arisen from a confounding of the Mission of St. Joseph and
Fort St. Joseph with the Fort Miamis. The two were distinct, some miles apart, and
erected at different dates. It is plain, from the accounts given by Hennepin, Membre
and LaHontan, that Fort Miamis was located on Lake Michigan, at the month of the
St. Joseph. It is equally clear that the Mission of St. Joseph and Fort St. Joseph
were some miles up the St. Joseph River, and a few miles below the "portage of the
Kankakee " at South Bend. Father Charlevoix, in his letter of the 16th of August,
1721,— after having in a previous letter referred to his reaching the St. Joseph and
going up it toward the fort, — says: "We afterward sailed up twenty leagues before
we reached the fort." Vol. 2, p. 94. Again, in a subsequent letter (p. 184): "I de-
parted yesterday from the Fort of the River St. Joseph and sailed up that river about
six leagues. I went ashore on the right and walked a league and a quarter, first along
the water side and afterward across a field in an immense meadow, entirely covered
with copses of wood." And in the next paragraph, on the same page, follows his
description of the sources of the Kankakee, quoted in this work on page 77. Here,
then, we have the position of Fort St. Joseph and the mission of that name and the
two villages of the Pottawatomies and the Miamis, on the St. Joseph River, six leagues
below South Bend. In Dr. Shea's Catholic Missions, page 423, it is stated that "La Salle,
on his way to the Mississippi, had built a temporary fort on the St. Joseph, not far
from the portage leading to the The-a-ki-ke' ; and Mr. Charles R. Brown, in his
Missions, Forts and Trading Posts of the Northwest, p. 14, says that "Fort Miamis,
built at the mouth of the St. Joseph's River by La Salle, was afterward called St.
Joseph, to distinguish it from (Fort) Miamis, on the Maumee." In this instance
neither of these writers follow the text of established authorities,
t Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, pp. 93, 94.

ST. JOSEPH. 141

Indian presented in its neighborhood but the remains of an old
cornfield overgrown with weeds, the rude hut of the Frenchman was
surrounded with vines, and with the remains of his former garden-
ing exertions. The asparagus, the pea vine and the woodbine still
grow about it, as though in defiance of the revolutions which have
dispersed those who planted them here. The very names of the
villages mark the difference between their former tenants. Those
of the Indians were designated by the name of the fruit which grew
abundantly on the spot or of the object which they coveted most,
while the French missionary has placed his village under the patron-
age of the tutelar saint in whom he reposed his utmost confidence."*

The asparagus, the pea-vine and the woodbine preserved the
identity of the spot against the encroachments of the returning for-
ests until 1822, when Isaac McCoy established among the Pottawat-
omies the Baptist mission called Carey, out of respect for the Rev.
Mr. Carey, a missionary of the same church in Hindostan. "It is
said that the Pottawatomies themselves selected this spot for Carey's
mission, it being the site of their old village. This must have been
very populous, as the remains of corn-hills are very visible at this
time, and are said to extend over a thousand acres. The village
was finally abandoned about fifty years ago (1773), but there are a
few of the oldest of the nation who still recollect the sites of their
respective huts. They are said to frequently visit the establishment
and to trace with deep feeling a spot which is endeared to them." f

On a cold winter night in 1833 a traveler was ferried over the
St. Joseph at the then straggling village of Niles. "Ascending the
bank, a beautiful plain with a clump of trees here and there upon its
surface opened to his view. The establishment of Carey's mission,
a long, low, white building, could be distinguished afar off faintly
in the moonlight, while several winter lodges of the Pottawatomies
were plainly visible over the plain." \

Concerning the Pottawatomie village near Detroit, and also some
of the customs peculiar to the tribe, we have the following account.
It was written in 1718 : §

"The fort of Detroit is south of the river. The v^lage of the
Pottawatomies adjoins the fort ; they lodge partly under ApaquoisJ

* Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, pp. 147, 148.

t Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 153, McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Mis-
sions.

X Hoffman's Winter in the West, vol. 1, p. 225.

§ Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi. Paris Documents,
vol. 9, p. 887.

J Apaquois, matting made of flags or rushes; from apee, a leaf, and wiggwot'am, a
hut. They cover their huts with mats made of rushes platted. Carver's Travels.

142 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

which are made of mat-grass. The women do all the work. The
men belonging to that nation are well clothed, like our domiciliated
Indians at Montreal. Their entire occupation is hunting and dress ;
they make use of a»great deal of vermilion, and in winter wear
buffalo robes richly painted, and in summer either blue or red cloth.
They play a good deal at La Crosse in summer, twenty or more on
each side. Their bat is a sort of a little racket, and the ball with
which they play is made of very heavy wood, somewhat larger than
the balls used at tennis. When playing they are entirely naked,
except a breech cloth and moccasins on their feet. Their body is
completely painted with all sorts of colors. Some, with white clay,
trace white lace on their bodies, as if on all the seams of a coat, and
at a distance it would be apt to be taken for silver lace. They play
very deep and often. The bets sometimes amount to more than
eight hundred livres. They set up two poles, and commence the
game from the center; one party propels the ball from one side and
the others from the opposite, and whichever reaches the goal wins.
This is fine recreation and worth seeing. They often play village
against village, the Poux* against the Ottawas or Hurons, and
lay heavy stakes. Sometimes Frenchmen join in the game with
them. The women cultivate Indian corn, beans, peas, squashes and
melons, which come up very fine. The women and girls dance at
night ; adorn themselves considerably, grease their hair, put on a
white shift, paint their cheeks with vermilion, and wear whatever
wampum they possess, and are very tidy in their way. They dance
to the sound of the drum and sisiquoi, which is a sort of gourd con-
taining some grains of shot. Four or five young men sing and beat
time with the drum and sisiquoi, and the women keep time and do
not lose a step. It is very entertaining, and lasts almost the entire
night. The old men often dance the Medicine, f They resemble a
set of demons ; and all this takes place during the night. The
young men often dance in a circle and strike posts. It is then they
recount their achievements and dance, at the same time, the war
dance ; and whenever they act thus they are highly ornamented. It
is altogether very curious. They often perform these things for
tobacco. When they go hunting, which is every fall, they carry
their apaquois with them, to hut under at night. Everybody follows,

* The Pottawatomies were sometimes known by the contraction Poux. La Hontan
uses this name, and erroneously confounds them with the Puans or Winnebagoes. In
giving the coat-of-arms of the Pottawatomies, representing a dog crouched in the
grass, he says: "They were called Puants." Vol. 2, p. 84.

t Medicine dance.

ORIGIN OF POTTAWATOMIE. 143

men, women and children. Thev winter in the forest and return in

the spring."

The Pottawatomies swarmed from their prolific hives about the
islands of Mackinaw, and spread themselves over portions of Wis-
consin, and eastward to their ancient homes in Michigan. At a
later day they extended themselves upon the territory of the ancient
Illinois, covering a large portion of the state. From the St. Joseph
River and Detroit their bands moved southward over that part of
Indiana north and west of the Wabash, and thence down that
stream. They were a populous horde of hardy children of the
forests, of great stamina, and their constitutions were hardened by
the rigorous climate of the northern lakes.

Among the old French writers the orthography of the word
Pottawatomies varied to suit the taste of the writer. We give some
of the forms : Poutouatimi,* Pouteotatamis, f Poutouatamies,^: Pou-
tewatamis,§ Pautawattamies, Puttewatamies, Pottowottamies and
Pottawattamies. | The tribe was divided into four clans, the Golden
Carp, the Frog, the Crab, and the Tortoise. *[ The nation was not
like the Illinois and Miamis, divided into separate tribes, but the
different bands would separate or unite according to the scarcity or
abundance of game.

The word Pottawatomie signifies, in their own language, we are
making afire, for the origin of which they have the following tradi-
tion : " It is said that a Miami, having wandered out from his cabin,
met three Indians whose language was unintelligible to him; by signs
and motions he invited them to follow him to his cabin, where they
were hospitably entertained, and where they remained until after
dark. During the night two of the strange Indians stole from the
hut, while their comrade and host were asleep ; they took a few
embers from the cabin, and, placing these near the door of the hut,
they made a fire, which, being afterward seen by the Miami and
remaining guest, was understood to imply a council fire in token of
peace between the two nations. From this circumstance the Miami
called them in his language Wa-ho-na-ha, or the fire-makers, which,
being translated into the language of the three guests, produced the
term by which their nation has ever since been distinguished."

After this the Miamis termed the Pottawatomies their younger
brothers ; but afterward, in a council, this was changed, from the

* Jesuit Relations. § Charlevoix,

t Father Membre. || Paris Documents.

tJoutel's Journal.

IT Enumeration of the Indian tribes, the Warriors and Armorial Bearings of each
Nation, made in 1736. Published in Documentary History of New York.

144 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

circumstance that they resided farther to the west ; "as those nations
which reside to the west of others are deemed more ancient."*

The Pottawatomies were unswerving in their adherence to the
French, when the latter had possession of the boundless Northwest.
In 1712, when a large force of Mascoutins and Foxes besieged De-
troit, they were conspicuous for their fidelity. They rallied the
other tribes to the assistance of the French, and notified the besieged
garrison to hold out against their enemies until their arrival. Mak-
is-abie, the w r ar chief of the Pottawatomies, sent word through Mr.
de Yincennes, "just arrived from the Miami country, that he would
soon be at Detroit w T ith six hundred of his warriors to aid the French
and eat those miserable nations who had troubled all the country."
The commandant, M. du Buisson, was gratified wdien he ascended
a bastion, and looking toward the forest saw the army of the nations
issuing from it ; the Pottawatomies, the Illinois, the Missouris, the
Ottawas, the Sacs and the Menominees were there, armed and painted
in all the glory of w T ar. Detroit never saw such a collection. " My
Father," says the chief to the commandant, "I speak to you on
the part of all the nations, your children who are before you. What
you did last year in drawing their flesh from the fire, which the Ou-
tagamies (Foxes) were about to roast and eat, demands we should
bring you our bodies to make you the master of them. We do not
fear death, whenever it is necessary to die for you. We have only
to request that you pray the father of all nations to have pity on our
women and our children, in case we lose our lives for you. We beg
you throw a blade of grass upon our bones to protect them from the
flies. You see, my father, that we have left our villages, our women
and children to hasten to join you. Have pity on us ; give us some-
thing to eat and a little tobacco to smoke. We have come a long
ways and are destitute of everything. Give us powder and balls to
fight with you."

Makisabie, the Pottawatomie, said to the Foxes and Mascoutines:
"Wicked nations that you are, you hope to frighten us by all the
red color which you exhibit in your village. Learn that if the earth
is covered with blood, it will be with yours. You talk to us of the
English, they are the cause of your destruction, because you have
listened to their bad council. . . . The English, who are cowards,
only defend themselves by killing men by that wicked strong drink,
which has caused so many men to die after drinking it. Thus we
shall see what will happen to you for listening to them." f

* Long's Expedition to the Sources of the St. Peter's River, vol. 1, pp. 91, 92, 93.
t The extracts we have quoted are taken from the official report of Du Buisson,

WARS AGAINST THE WHITES. 145

The Pottawatomies sustained their alliance with the French con-
tinuously to the time of the overthrow of their power in the north-
west. They then aided their kinsman, Pontiac, in his attempt to
recover the same territory from the British. They fought on the
side of the British against the Americans throughout the war of the
revolution, and their war parties made destructive and frequent raids
upon the line of pioneer settlements in Pennsylvania, Kentucky,
Ohio and Indiana. In the war of 1812 they were again ranged on
the side of the British, with their bloody hands lifted alike against
the men, women and children of "the States."

In the j>rogramme of Pontiac' s war the capture of Post St.
Joseph, on the St. Joseph's river of Lake Michigan, was assigned to
the Pottawatomies, which was effected as will be hereafter narrated.

It was also the Pottawatomies who perpetrated the massacre at
Chicago on the 15th day of August, 1812. Bands of this tribe, from
their villages on the St. Joseph, the Kankakee and the Illinois rivers,
whose numbers were augmented by the appearance- of Metea with
his warriors, from their village westward of Fort Wayne, fell upon
the forces of Captain Heald, and the defenseless women and chil-
dren retreating with him after the surrender of Fort Dearborn, and
murdered or made prisoners of them all. Metea was a conspicuous
leader in this horrible affair.*

Robert Dixon, the British trader sent out among the Indians
during the war of 1812 to raise recruits for Proctor and Tecumseh,
gathered in the neighborhood of Chicago, which after the massacre
was his place of general rendezvous, nearly one thousand warriors
of as wild and cruel savages as ever disgraced the human race. They
were the most worthless and abandoned desperadoes whom Dixon
had been enabled to collect from among all the tribes he had visited.
These accomplices of the British were to be let loose upon the re-
mote settlements under the leadership of the Pottawatomie chief,
Mai-pock, or Mai-po, a monster in human form, who distinguished
himself with a girdle sewed full of human scalps, which he wore
around his waist, and strings of bear's claws and bills of owls and
hawks around his ankles, worn as trophies of his power in arms and
as a terror to his enemies, f

relating to the siege of Detroit. The manuscript copy of it was obtained from the
archives at Paris, by Gen. Cass, when minister to France, and is published at length
in volume III of the History of Wisconsin, compiled by the direction of the legislature
of that state by William R. Smith, President of the State Historical Society ; a work
of very great value, not only to the State of Wisconsin but to the entire Northwest, for
the amount of reliable historical information it contains.

* Hall and McKenney's History of the Indian Tribes of North America, vol. 2,
pp. 59, 60.

t McAfee's History of the Late War, pp. 297, 298.
10

146 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Their manners, like their dialect, were rough and barbarous as
compared with other Algonquin tribes. They were not the civil,
modest people, an exceptional and christianized band of whom tin-
Jesuits before quoted drew a nattering description.

"It is a fact that for many years the current of emigration as to
the tribes east of the Mississippi has been from the north to the south.
This was owing to two causes: the diminution of those animals from
which the Indians derive their support, and the pressure of the two
great tribes, — the Ojibbeways and the Sioux, — to the north and
west. So long ago as 1795, at the treaty of Greenville, the Potta-
watomies notified the Miamis that they intended to settle upon the
Wabash. They made no pretensions to the country, and the only
excuse for the intended aggression was that they were tired of eating
fish and wanted meat"* And come they did. They bore down
upon their less populous neighbors, the Miamis, and occupied a large
portion of their territory, impudently and by sheer force of numbers,
rather than by force of arms. They established numerous villages
upon the north and west bank of the Wabash and its tributaries
flowing in from that side of the stream above the Vermilion. They,
with the Sacs, Foxes and Ivickapoos, drove the Illinois into the vil-
lages about Kaskaskia, and portioned the conquested territory among
themselves. By other tribes they were called squatters, who justly
claimed that the Pottawatomies never had any land of their own,
and were mere intruders upon the prior rights of others. They were
foremost at all treaties where lands were to be ceded, and were clam-
orous for a lion's share of presents and annuities, particularly where
these last were the price t given for the sale of others' lands rather
than their own.f Between the years 1789 and 1837 the Pottawato-
mies, by themselves, or in connection with other tribes, made no
less than thirty-eight treaties with the United States, all of which, —
excepting two or three which were treaties of peace only, — were for
cessions of lands claimed wholly by the Pottawatomies, or in com-
mon with other tribes. These cessions embraced territory extending
from the Mississippi eastward to Cleveland, Ohio, and reaching over
the entire valleys of the Illinois, the Wabash, the Maumee and their
tributaries.^:

They also had villages upon the Kankakee and Illinois rivers.
Among them we name Minemaung, or Yellow Head, situated a

* Official letter to the Secretary of War, dated March 22, 1814.
t Schoolcraft's Central Mississippi Valley, p. 358.

X Treaties between the United States and the several Indian tribes, from 1778 to
1837: Washington, D.C., 1837.

THEIR VILLAGES. 147

few miles north of Momence, at a point of timber still known as
Yellow Head Point; She-mar-gar, or the Soldier's Village, at the
mouth of Soldier Creek, that runs through Kankakee City, and the
village of "Little Rock " or Shaw-waw-nas-see, at the mouth of Hock
Creek, a few miles below Kankakee City.* Besides these, the Pot-
tawatomies had villages farther down the Illinois, particularly the
great town of Como, Gumo, or Gumbo as the pioneers called it, at the
upper end of Peoria Lake. They had other towns on the Milwaukee
River, Wisconsin. On the St. Joseph, near Niles, was the village of
To-pen-ne-bee, the great hereditary chief of the Pottawatomie nation ;
higher up, near the present village of White Pigeon, was situated
Wajp-pe-me-me 's, or White Pigeon's town. Westward of Fort Wayne,
Indiana, nine miles, was JJ£us-kwa-wa-sepe-ota?i, ' ' the town of old
Red Wood creek," where resided the band of the distinguished war-
rior and orator of the Pottawatomies, Metea, whose name in their
language signifies kiss me.

Finally, the renowned Kesis, or the sun, the old friend of Gen-
eral Hamtrauck and the Americans, in a speech to General Wayne
at the treaty of Greenville in 1795, said that Ms village "was a day's
walk below the Wea towns on the Wabash," referring, doubtless, to
the mixed Pottawatomie and Kickapoo town which stood on the site
of the old Shelby farm, on the north bank of the Vermilion, a short
distance above its mouth, f

The positions of several of the principal Pottawatomie villages
have been given for the purpose of showing the area of country
over which this people extended themselves. As late as 1823 their
hunting grounds appeared to have been "bounded on the north by
the St. Joseph (which on the east side of Lake Michigan separated
them from the Ottawas) and the Milwacke,^; which, on the west side
of the lake, divided them from the Menomonees. They spread to the
south along the Illinois River about two hundred miles ; to the west

* The location of these three villages of Pottawatomies is fixed by the surveys of
reservations to Mine-maung, Shemargar and Shaw-waw-nas-see respectively, secured
to them by the second article of a treaty concluded at Camp Tippecanoe, near Logans-
port, Indiana, on the 20th of October, 1832, between the United States and the chiefs
and head men of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians of the prairie and of the Kanka-
kee. The reservations were surveyed in the presence of the Indians concerned and
General Tipton, agent on the part of the United States, in the month of May, 1834,
by Major Dan W. Beckwith, surveyor. The reservations were so surveyed as to include
the several villages we have named, as appears from the manuscript volumes of the
surveys in possession of the author.

t Journal of the Proceedings at the Treaty of Greenville: American State Papers
on Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 580. The author has authorities and manuscripts from
which the location of Kesis' band at the mouth of the Vermilion may be quite confi-
dently affirmed.

% Milwaukee.

148 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

their grounds extended as far as Rock River, and the Mequin or
Spoon River of the Illinois ; to the east they probably seldom passed
beyond the Wabash."- After the EQckapoos and Pottawatomies
had established themselves in the valley of the AY abash, it was
mutually agreed between them and the Miamis that the river should
be the dividing line, — the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos to occupy
the west, and the Miamis to remain undisturbed on the east or south
side of the stream. It was a hard bargain for the Miamis, who were
unable to maintain their rights, f

The Pottawatomies were among the last to leave their possessions
in Illinois and Indiana, and it was the people of this tribe with
whom the first settlers came principally in contact. Their hostility
ceased at the close of the war of 1812. After this their intercourse
with the whites was uniformly friendly, and they bore the many im-
positions and petty grievances which were put upon them by not a
few of their unprincipled and unfeeling white neighbors with a for-
bearance that should have excited public sympathy.

The Pottawatomies owned extensive tracts of land on the AV abash,
between the mouth of Pine Creek, in "Warren county, and the Fort
Wayne portage, which had been reserved to them by the terms of
their several treaties with the United States. They held like claims
upon the Tippecanoe and other westward tributaries of the Wabash,
and elsewhere in northwestern Indiana, eastern Illinois and southern
Michigan. These reservations are now covered by some of the
finest farms in the states named. The treaties by which such reser-
vations were granted generally contained a clause that debarred the
owner from alienating them without having first secured the sanction
of the President of the United States. This restriction was de-
signed to prevent unprincipled persons from overreaching the Indian,
who, at best, had only a vague idea of the fee simple title to, and
value of, real estate. It afforded little security, however, against the
wiles of the unscrupulous, and whenever the Indian could be in-
duced by the arts of his "White Brother ' : to put his name to an
instrument, the purport of which, in many instances, he did not at
all understand as forever conveying away his possessions, the ratify-
ing signature of the President followed as a matter of department
routine. The greater part of the Pottawatomie reservations was
retroceded to the United States in exchange either for annuities or
for lands west of the Mississippi, and the title disposed of in this
way.

* Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 171.

f The writer was informed of this agreement by Mary Baptiste.

THE EXODUS. 149

The final emigration of the Pottawatomies from the Wabash,
under charge of Col. Pepper and Gen. Tipton, of Indiana, took place
in the summer of 1838. Many are yet living who witnessed the
sad exodus. The late Sanford Cox has recorded his impressions of
this event in the valuable little book which he published.* ' ; Hearing
that this large emigration, numbering nearly a thousand of all ages
and sexes, would pass within eight or nine miles west of La Fayette,
a few of us procured horses and rode over to see the retiring band,
as they reluctantly wended their way toward the setting sun. It
was, indeed, a mournful spectacle to see these children of the forest
slowly retiring from the homes of their childhood, where were not
only the graves of their loved ancestors but many endearing scenes
to which their memories would ever recur as sunny spots along their
pathway through the wilderness. They felt that they were bidding
a last farewell to the hills, the valleys and the streams of their
infancy : the more exciting hunting grounds of their advanced
youth ; the stern and bloody battle-fields on which, in riper man-
hood, they had received wounds, and where many of their friends
and loved relatives had fallen, covered with gore and with glory. All
these they were leaving behind, to be desecrated by the plowshare
of the white man. As they cast mournful glances back toward these
loving scenes that were rapidly fading in the distance, tears fell from
the cheek of the downcast warrior, — old men trembled, matrons wept,
the swarthy maiden 1 s cheek turned pale, and sighs and half-suppressed
sobs escaped from the motley groups, as they passed along, some on
foot, some on horseback, and others in wagons, sad as a funeral pro-
cession. I saw several of the aged warriors glancing upward to the sky
as if invoking aid from the spirits of their departed sires, who were
looking down upon them with pity from the clouds, or as if they were
calling upon the great spirit to redress the wrongs of the red man,
whose broken bow had fallen from his hand. Ever and anon one
of the throng would strike off from the procession into the woods
and retrace his steps back to the old encampments on the Wabash,
Ell Piver, or the Tippecanoe, declaring that he would die there
rather than be banished from his country. Thus would scores leave
the main party at different points on the journey and return to their
former homes ; and it was several years before they could be induced
to join their countrymen west of the Mississippi."

This body, on their westward journey, passed through Danville,
Illinois, where they halted several days, being in want of food. The

* Recollections of the Early Settlement of the Wabash Valley, La Fayette, Ind.,
1860, pp. 154, 155.

150 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

commissary department was wretchedly supplied. The Indians
begged for food at the houses of the citizens. Others, in their
extremity, killed rats at the old mill on the North Fork and ate
them to appease their hunger. Without tents or other shelter,
many of them, with young babes in their arms, walked on foot, as
there was no adequate means of conveyance for the weak, the aged
or infirm. Thus the mournful j)rocession passed across the state of
Illinois.

The St. Joseph band were removed westward the same year. So
strong was their attachment to southern Michigan and northern
Indiana, that the Federal government invoked the aid of troops to
coerce their removal. The soldiers surrounded them, and, as prison-
ers of war, compelled them to leave. At South Bend, Indiana, was
the village of Chichipe Oxdipe. The town was on a rising ground
near four small lakes, and contained ten or twelve hundred christian-
ized Pottawatomies. Benjamin M. Petit, the Catholic missionary in
charge at Po-ke-ganns village on the St. Joseph, asked Bishop Brute
for leave to accompany the Indians, but the prelate withheld his
consent, not deeming it proper to give even an implied indorsement
of the cruel act of the government. But being himself on their
route, he afterward consented. The power of religion then appeared.
Amid their sad march he confirmed several, while hymns and prayers,
chanted in Ottawa, echoed for the last time around their lakes. Sick
and well were carried off" alike. After giving all his Episcopal bless-
ing, Bishop Brute proceeded with Petit to the tents of the sick,
where they baptized one and confirmed another, both of whom ex-
pired soon after. The march was resumed. The men, women and
elder children, urged on by the soldiers in their rear, were followed
with the wagons bearing the sick and dying, the mothers, little chil-
dren and property. Thus they proceeded through the country, tur-
bulent at that time on account of the Mormon war. to the Osage
Eiver, Missouri, where Mr. Petit confided the wretched exiles to the
care of the Jesuit Father J. Hoecken.*

In the year 1840 the different bands of Pottawatomies united on
the west side of the Mississippi. A general treaty was made, in
which the following clause occurs: "Whereas, the various bands of
the Pottawatomie Indians, known as the Chippeways, Ottawas and
Pottawatomies, the Pottawatomies of the Prairie, the Pottawatomies
of the Wabash, and the Pottawatomies of Indiana, have, subsequent
to the year 1820, entered into separate and distinct treaties with the

* Extract from Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 397.

THE POTTAWATOMIE NATION. 151

United States, by which they have been separated and located
in different countries, and difficulties have arisen as to the proper
distributions of the stipulations under, various treaties, and being
the same people by kindred, by feeling and by language, and
having in former periods lived on and owned their lands in com-
mon, and being desirous to unite in one common country and
.again become one people and receive their annuities and other
benefits in common, and to abolish all minor distinctions of bands
by which they have heretofore been divided, and are anxious to
be known as the Pottawatomie Nation, thereby reinstating the
national character ; and whereas, the United States are also anxious
to restore and concentrate said tribes to a state so desirable and
necessary for the happiness of their people, as well as to enable
the government to arrange and manage its intercourse with them ;
now, therefore, the United States and said Indians do hereby agree
that said people shall hereafter be known as a nation, to be called
the Pottawatomie ^Nation. "

Pursuant to the terms of this treaty, the Pottawatomies received
$850,000, in consideration of which they released all lands owned
by them within the limits of the territory of Iowa and on the Osage
River in Missouri, or in any state or place whatsoever. Eighty-
seven thousand dollars of the purchase money coming to them was
paid, by cession from the United States, of 576,000 acres of land
lying on both sides of the Kansas River. The tract embraces the
finest body of land within the present state of Kansas, and Topeka,
the state capital, has since been located nearly in the center of the
reservation. While the territory was going through the process of
organization, adventurers trespassed upon the lands of the Potta-
watomies, sold them whisky, and spread demoralization among
them. The squatters who intruded upon the farmer-Indians killed
their stock and burned some of their habitations, all of which was
borne without retaliation. Notwithstanding the old habendum clause
inserted in Indian treaties (as a mere matter of form, as may be in-
ferred from the little regard paid to it) that these lands should inure
to Pottawatomies, "their heirs and assigns forever," the squatter
sovereigns wanted them, and resorted to all the well-known methods
in vogue on the border to make it unpleasant for the Indians, who
were progressing with assured success from barbarism to the ways
of civilized society. The usual result of dismemberment of the re-
serve followed. The farmer-Indians, who so desired, had their por-
tions of the reserve set off in severaltv ; the uncivilized members of
the tribe had their proportion set off in common. These last, which

152 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

were exchanged for money, or lands farther southward, fell into the
possession of a needy railroad corporation.

We gather from the several reports of the commissioners on In-
dian affairs that, in 1863, the tribe numbered 2,274, inclusive of men,
women and children, which was an alarming decrease since the cen-
sus of 1854. The diminution was caused, probably, aside from the
casualties of death, by some having returned to their former homes
east of the Missouri, while many of the young and wild men of the
tribe went to the buffalo grounds to enjoy the exciting and unre-
strained freedom of the chase. The farmers raised 3,720 bushels of
wheat, 45,000 of corn, 1,200 of oats and 1,000 tons of hay, and had
1,200 horses, 1,000 cattle and 2,000 hogs, as appears from the offi-
cial report for 1863.

The Catholic school at St. Mary's enumerated an average of
ninety-five boys and seventy-five girls in 1863, and in 1866 the total
number was two hundred and forty scholars. Of his pupils the
superintendent says: "They not only spell, read, write and cipher,
but successfully master the various branches of geography, history,
book-keeping, grammar, philosophy, logic, geometry and astronomy.
Besides this, they are so docile, so willing to improve, that between
school-hours they employ their time, with pleasure, in learning
whatever handiwork may be assigned to them ; and they particu-
larly desire to become good farmers." The girls, in addition to
their studies, are "trained to whatever is deemed useful to good
housekeepers and accomplished mothers."

The Pottawatomies attested their fidelity to the government by
the volunteering of seventy-five of their young men in the "army
of the Union."

In 1867, out of a population of 2,400, 1,400 elected to become
citizens of the United States, under an enabling act passed by con-
gress. Of those who became citizens, some did well, others soon
squandered their lands and joined the wild band. There are still
a few left in Michigan, while about one hundred and eighty remain
in Wisconsin.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE KICKAPOOS AND MASCOUTINS.

The Kickapoos and Mascoutins, if there was more than a nominal
difference between the two tribes, are here treated of together, for
reasons explained farther on in the chapter. The name of the Kick-
apoos has been written by the French, "Kicapoux," " Kickapous,"
"Kikapoux," " Quickapous," " Eickapoos," "Kikabu." This
tribe has long been connected with the northwest, and have acquired
a notoriety for the wars in which they were engaged with other tribes,
as well for their persistent hostility to the white race, which con-
tinued uninterrupted for more than one hundred and fifty years.
They were first noticed by Samuel Champlain, who, in 1612, dis-
covered the "Mascoutins residing near the place called Sakinam,"
meaning the country of the Sacs, comprising that part of the state
of Michigan bordering on Lake Huron, in the vicinity of Saginaw
Bay.*

Father Claude Allouez visited the mixed village of Miamis, Kick-
apoos and Mascoutins on Fox River, Wisconsin, in the winter of
1669-70. Leaving his canoe at the water's edge he walked a league
over beantiful prairies and perceived the fort. The savages, having
discovered him, raised the cry of alarm in their villages, and then
ran out to receive the missionary with honor, and conducted him to
the lodge of the chief, where they regaled him with refreshments,
and further honored him by greasing his feet and legs. Every one
took their places, a dish was filled with powdered tobacco ; an old
man arose to his feet, and, filling his two hands with tobacco from
the dish, addressed the missionary thus :

" This is well, Black-robe, that thou hast come to visit us ; have
pity on us. Thou art a Manitou.-f- We give thee wherewith to

* Memoir of Louis XIV, and Cobert, Minister of France, on the French Limits in
North America: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 378, and note by E. B. O'Callaghan, the
editor, on p. 293.

t Manitou, with very few changes in form of spelling or manner of pronunciation,
is the word used almost universally by the Algonquin tribes to express a spirit or God
having control of their destinies. Their Manitous were numerous. It was also an
expression sometimes applied to the white people,— particularly the missionaries. At
first they regarded the Europeans as spirits, or persons possessing superior intelligence
to themselves.

153

154 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

smoke. The Nadoiiessious and the Iroquois eat us up ; have pity
on us. We often are sick, our children die, we are hungry. Listen,
my Manitou, I give thee wherewith to £moke, that the earth may
yield us corn, that the rivers may furnish us with fish, that sickness
no more shall kill us, that famine no longer shall so harshly treat
us." At each wish, the old men who were present answered by a
great "O-oh!"*

The good father was shocked at this ceremony, and replied that
they should not address such requests to him. Protesting that he
could afford them no relief other than offering prayers to Him who
was the only and true God, of whom he was only the servant and
messenger, f

Father Allouez says in the same letter that four leagues from this
village "are the Kikabou and Kitchigamick, who speak the same
language with the Machkouteng. "

The Kickapoos were not inclined to receive religious impressions
from the early missionaries. In fact, they appear to have acquired
their first notoriety in history by seizing Father Gabriel Ribourde,
whom they "carried away and broke his head," as Tonti quaintly
expresses it in referring to this ruthless murder. Again, in 1728,
as Father Ignatius Guignas, compelled to abandon his mission among
the Sioux, on account of the victory of the Foxes over the French,
was attempting to reach the Illinois, he, too, fell into the hands of
the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, and for five months was held a cap-
tive and constantly exposed to death. During this time he was con-
demned to be burnt, and was only saved through the friendly inter-
vention of an old man in the tribe, who adopted him as a son.
While held a prisoner, the missionaries from the Illinois relieved
his necessities by sending timely supplies, which Father Guignas
used to gain over the Indians. Having induced them to make
peace, he was taken to the Illinois missions, and suffered to remain
there on parole until November, 1729, when his old captors returned
and took him back to their own country ;^ after which nothing
seems to have been known concerning the fate of this worthy mis-
sionary.

The Kickapoos early incurred the displeasure of the French by

*The o-oh of the Algonquin and the yo-hah of the Iroquois (Colden's History of
. the Five Nations) is an expression of assent given by the hearers to the remarks of the
speaker who is addressing them, and is equivalent to good or braro! The Indians
indulged in this kind of encouragement to their orators with great liberality, drawing
out their o-ohs in unison and with a prolonged cry, especially when the speaker's
utterances harmonized with their own sentiments.

t Jesuit Relations, 1669-70.

t Shea's Catholic Missions, p. 379.

MIGRATIONS OF THE KICKAPOOS. 155

committing depredations south of Detroit. A band living at the
mouth of the Maumee River in 1712, with thirty Mascoutins, were
about to make war upon the French. They took prisoner one
Langlois, a messenger, on his return from the Miami country,
whither he was bringing many letters from the Jesuit Fathers of the
Illinois villages, and also dispatches from Louisiana. The letters and
dispatches were destroyed, which gave much uneasiness to M. Du
Boisson, the commandant at Detroit. A canoe laden with Kicka-
poos, on their way to the villages near Detroit, was captured by the
Hurons and Ottawas residing at these villages, and who were the
allies of the French. Among the slain was the principal Kickapoo
chief, whose head, with those of three others of the same tribe,
were brought to De Boisson, who alleges that the Hurons and
Ottawas committed this act out of resentment, because the previous
winter the Kickapoos had taken some of the Hurons and Iroquois
prisoners, and also because they considered the Kickapoo chief to
be a "true Outtagamie" ; that is, they regarded him as one of the
Fox nation.*

From the village of Machkoutench, where first Father Claude
Allouez, and afterward Father Marquette, found the Kickapoos inhab-
iting the same village with the Muscotins and Miamis, the Kickapoos
and the Muscotins appear to have passed to the south, extending
their flanks to the right in the direction of Rockf River, and their
left to the southern trend of Lake Michigan. Referring to the
country on Fox River about Winnebago Lake, Father Charlevoix
says::}: "All this country is extremely beautiful, and that which
stretches to the southward as far as the river of the Illinois is still
more so. It is, however, inhabited by two small nations only, who
are the Kickapoos and the Mascoutins." Father Charlevoix, §
speaking of Fox River, says: "The largest of these," referring to
the streams that empty into the Illinois, "is called Pisticoui, and
proceeds from the fine country of the Mascoutins. "|

* Extract from M. Du Boisson's official report to the Marquis De Vaudreuil, gov-
ernor-general of New France, of the siege of Detroit, dated June 15, 1712. This val-
uable paper is published entire in vol. 3 of Wm. R. Smith's History of Wisconsin,
a work that contains many important documents not otherwise accessible to the gen-
eral public. Indeed, the publications of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, of which
Judge Smith's two volumes are the beginning, are the repository of a fund of infor-
mation of great utility, not only to the people of that state, but to the entire North-
west.

fRock River — Assin-Sepe — was also called Kickapoo River, and so laid down on a
map of La Salle's discoveries.

\ Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287.

§Vol. 2, p. 199.

fl "The Fox River of the Illinois is called by the Indians Pish-ta-ko. It is the
same mentioned by Charlevoix under the name of Pisticoui, and which flows as he,

156 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Prior to 1718 the Mascoutins and Kickapoos had villages upon
the banks of Rock River, Illinois. M Both these tribes together do
not amount to two hundred men. They are a clever people and
brave warriors. Their language and manners strongly resemble
those of the Foxes. They are the same stock. They catch deer by
chasing them, and even at this day make considerable use of bows
and arrows."* On a French map, issued in 1712, a village of Mas-
coutins is located near the forks of the north and south branches of
Chicago River.

From references given, it is apparent that this people, like the
Miamis and Pottawatomies, were progressing south and eastward.
This movement was probably on account of the fierce Sioux, whose
encroaching wars from the northwest were pressing them in this
direction. Even before this date the Foxes, with Mascoutins and
Kickapoos, were meditating a migration to the Wabash as a place of
security from the Sioux. This threatened exodus alarmed the French,
who feared that the migrating tribes would be in a position on the
Wabash to effect a junction with the Iroquois and English, which
would be exceedingly detrimental to the French interests in the
northwest. From an official document relative to the "occurrences
in Canada, sent from Quebec to France in 1(505, the Department at
Paris is informed that the Sioux, who have mustered some two or
three thousand warriors for the purpose, would come in large num-
bers to seize their village. This has caused the outagamies to quit
their country and disperse themselves for a season, and afterward
return and save their harvest. They are then to retire toward the
river Wabash to form a settlement, so much the more permanent, as
they will be removed from the incursions of the Sioux, and in a
position to effect a junction easily with the Iroquois and the English
without the French being able to prevent it. Should this project be
realized, it is very apparent that the Mascoutins and Kickapoos will
be of the party, and that the three tribes, forming a new village of
fourteen or fifteen hundred men, would experience no difficulty in
considerably increasing it by attracting other nations thither, which
would be of most pernicious consequence, "f That the Mascoutins,
at least, did go soon after this date toward the lower Wabash is con-
says, through the country of the Mascoutins. 1 ' Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p.
176. The Algonquin word Pish-tah-te-koosh, according to Edwin James' vocabulary,
means an antelope. The Pottawatomies, from whom Major Long's party obtained the
word Pish-ta-ko, may have used it to designate the same animal, judging from the
similarity of the two words.

* Memoir prepared in 1718 on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Missis-
sippi: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 889.

t Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 019.

OF THE NAME MASCOUTINS. 157

clusively shown by the fact of their presence about Juchereau's
trading post, which was erected near the mouth of the Ohio in the
year 1700.

It is doubtful if either the Foxes or the Kickapoos followed the
Mascoutins to the Wabash country, and it is evident that the Mas-
coutins who survived the epidemic that broke out among them at
Juchereau's post on the Ohio soon returned to the north. The
French effected a conciliation with the Sioux, and for a number of
years subsequent to 1705 we find the Mascoutins back again among
the Foxes and Kickapoos upon their old hunting grounds in northern
Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

The Kickapoos entered the plot of the Mascoutins to capture the
post of Detroit in 1712, and the latter had repaired to the neighbor-
hood of Detroit, and were awaiting the arrival of the Kickapoos to
execute their purposes, when they were attacked by the confedera-
tion of Indians who were friendly toward the French and had hast-
ened to the relief of the garrison.*

The Mascoutins were called "Machkoutench,"f "Machkouteng,"
" Maskouteins " and "Masquitens," by French writers. The Eng-
lish called them " Masquattimes,";}; " Musquitons," § "Mascou-
tins,"! and "Musquitos," a corruption used by the American colo-
nial traders, and ' ' Meadows, ' ' the English synonym for the French
word " prairie. "T

The derivation of the name has been a subject of discussion.
Father Marquette, with some others, following the example of the
Hurons, rendered it " fire-nation," while Fathers Allouez and Char-
levoix, with recent American authors, claim that the word signifies
a prairie, or " a land bare of trees," such as that which this people
inhabit.** The name is doubtless derived from mus-kor-tence,-ff or
mus-ko-tia, a prairie, a derivative from skoutay or scote, the word for
fire.^ " The Mascos or Mascoutins were, by the French traders of a
more recent day, called gens des prairies, and lived and hunted on
the great prairies between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers.' '§§ That

* History of New France, vol. 5, p. 257.

t Fathers Claude Allouez and Marquette.

\ George Croghan's Narrative Journal.

§ Minutes of the treaty at Greenville in 1795.

|| Samuel R. Brown's Western Gazetteer.

"IT It was some years after the conquest of the northwest from the French before
the name " prairie " became naturalized, as it were, into the English language.

** Charlevoix 1 Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287. Father Allouez, in the Jesuit Re-
lations between the years 1670 and 1671.

tfNote of Callaghan: Paris Documents, vol. 10.

XX Tanner, Gallatin, Mackenzie and Johnson's vocabularies of Algonquin words.

§§ Manuscript account of this and other tribes, by Major Forsyth, quoted by Drake,
in his Life of Black Hawk.

158 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

the word Muskotia is synonymous with, and has the same meaning
as, the word prairie, is further confirmed by the fact that the Indians
prefixed it to the names of those animals and plants found exclu-
sively on the prairies.*

Were the Kickapoos and Mascoutins separate tribes, or were they
one and the same? These queries have elicited the attention of
scholars well versed in the history of the North American Indians,
among whom might be named Schoolcraft, Gallatin and Shea.
Sufficient references have been given in this chapter to show that,
by the French, the Kickapoos and Mascoutins were regarded as dis-
tinct tribes. If necessary, additional extracts to the same purport
could be produced from numerous French documents down to the
close of the French colonial war, in 1763, all bearing uniform testi-
mony upon this point.

The theory has been advanced that the Mascoutins and Kickapoos
were bands of one tribe, first known to the French by the former
name, and subsequently to the English by the latter, under which
name alone they figure in our later annals, f This supposition is at
variance with English and American authorities. It was a war party
of Kickapoos and Mascoutins, from their contiguous villages near
Fort Ouitanon, on the Wabash, who captured George Cr.oghan, the
English plenipotentiary, below the mouth of that river in 1765. % Sir
William Johnson, the English colonial agent on Indian affairs, in
the classified list of Indians within his department, prepared in 1763,
enumerates both the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, locating them ' ' in
the neighborhood of the fort at Wawiaghta, and about the Wabash
River."§ Captain Imlay, "commissioner for laying out lands in the
back settlements," — as the territory west of the Alleghanies was
termed at that period, — in his list of westward Indians, classifies the
Kickapoos (under the name of Vermilions) and the Muscatines, lo-
cating these two tribes between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers. This
was in 1792. J The distinction between these two tribes was main-
tained still later, and down to a period subsequent to the year 1816.
At that time the Mascoutins were residing on the west bank of the
Wabash, between Yincennes and the Tippecanoe River, while their
old neighbors, the Kickapoos, were living a short distance above

*For example, mus-ko-tia-chit-ta-mo, prairie squirrel; mus-ko-ti-pe-neeg, prairie
potatoes. Edwin James' Catalogue of Plants and Animals found in the country of
the Ojibbeways. See further references on page 35.

fThe Indian Tribes of Wisconsin: Historical Collections of that State, vol. 3, p.
130.

X Vide his Narrative Journal.

§ Colonial History of New York, vol. 7: London Documents, p. 583.

|| Imlay's America, third edtion, London, 1797, p. 290.

KICKAPOOS AND MASCOUTINS ONE PEOPLE. 159

them in several large villages. At this date the Kickapoos could
raise four hundred warriors.* From the authors cited, — and other
references to the same effect would be produced but for want of space,
— it is evident that the English and the Americans, equally with the
French, regarded the KickapOos and Mascoutins as separate bands
or subdivisions of a tribe.

While this was so, the language, manners and customs of the two
tribes were not only similar, but the two tribes were almost invaria-
bly found occupying continguous villages, and hunting in company
with each other over the same country. "The Kickapoos are neigh-
bors of the Mascoutins, and it seems that these two tribes have
always been united in interests, "f There is no instance recorded
where they were ever arrayed against each other, nor of a time when
they took opposite sides in any alliance with other tribes. Another
noticeable fact is that, with but one exception, the Mascoutins were
never known as such in any treaty with the United States, while the
Kickapoos were parties to many. We have seen that the former
were occupying the Wabash country in common with the latter as
far back, at least, as 1765, when they captured Croghan, until 1816 ;
and in all of the treaties for the extinguishment of the title of the
several Indian tribes bordering on the Wabash and its tributaries,
the Mascoutins are nowhere alluded to, while the Kickapoos are
prominent parties to many treaties at which extensive tracts of coun-
try were ceded. No man living, in his time, was better informed
than Gen. Harrison, — who conducted these several treaties on behalf
of the United States, — of the relations and distinctions, however
trifling, that may have existed among the numerous Indian tribes
with whom, in a long course of official capacity, he came in contact,
either with the pen, around the friendly council-fire, or with the up-
lifted sword upon the field of hostile encounter. In all his volumi-
nous correspondence during the years when the northwest was com-
mitted to his charge the General makes no mention of the Mascoutins

* Western Gazetteer, by Samuel R. Brown, p. 71. This work of Mr. Brown's is
exceedingly valuable for the amount of reliable information it affords not obtainable
from any other source. He was with Gen. Harrison in the campaigns of the war of
1812. In the preface to his Gazetteer he says : ' ' Business and curiosity have made the
writer acquainted with a large portion of the western country never before described.
Where personal knowledge was wanting I have availed myself of the correspondence of
many of the most intelligent gentlemen in the west. ' ' At the time Mr.Brown was compil-
ing material for his Gazetteer, "the Harrison Purchase was being run out into townships
and sections," and Mr. Brown came in contact with the surveyors doing the work, and
derived much information from them. The book is carefully prepared, covering a
topographical description of the country embraced, its towns, rivers, counties, popula-
tion, Indian tribes, etc., and altogether is one of the most authentic and useful books
relative to " the west," which was attracting the attention of emigrants at the time of
its publication.

t Charlevoix' History of New France.

160 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

by that name, but often refers to "the Kickapoos of the prairies,"
to distinguish them from other bands of the same tribe who occupied
villages in the timbered portions of the Wabash and its tributaries.*

At a subsequent treaty of peace and friendship, concluded on the
27th of September, 1815, between Governor Ninian Edwards, of
Illinois Territory, and the chiefs, warriors, etc., of the Kickapoo
nation, Wash-e-own, who at the treaty of Vincennes signed as a Mas-
coutin, was a party to it, and in this instance signed as a Kickapoo.
No Mascoutins by that name appear in the record of the treaty. f

The preceding facts, negative and direct, admit of the following
inferences : that there were two subdivisions of the same nation,
known first to the French, then to the English, and more recently
to the Americans, the one under the name of Kickapoos and the
other as Mascoutines ; that they spoke the same language and ob-
served the same customs ; that they were living near each other,
and always had a community of interest in their wars, alliances and
migrations ; and that since the United States have held dominion
over the territory of the northwest the Kickapoos and Mascoutines
have considered themselves as one and the same people, whose tri-
bal relations were so nearly identical that, in all official transactions
with the federal government, they were recognized only as Kicka-
poos. And is it not apparent, after all, that there was only a nom-
inal distinction between these two tribes, or, rather, families of the
same tribe ? Were not the Mascoutins bands of the Kickapoos who
dwelt exclusively on the prairies ? It seems, from authorities cited,
that this question admits of but one answer.

The destruction that followed the attempt of the Mascoutins to
capture Detroit was, perhaps, one of the most remorseless in which
white men took a part of which we have an account in the annals of
Indian warfare. As before stated, the Muscotins in 1712 laid siege
to the Fort, hearing of which the Pottawatomies, with other tribes
friendly to the French, collected in a large force for their assistance.

*The only treaty which the Mascoutins, as such, were parties to was the one
concluded at Vincennes on the 27th of September, 1792, between the several Wabash
tribes and Gen. Rufus Putnam, on behalf of the United States v Two Mascoutins
signed this treaty, viz, Waush-eown and At-schat-schaw. Three Kickapoo chiefs also
signed the parchment, viz, Me-an-ach-kah, Ma-en-a-pah and Mash-a-ras-a, the Black
Elk, and, what is singular, this last person, although a Kickapoo, signs himself to the
treaty as "The Chief of The Meadows.' 1 '' This treaty was only one of peace and friend-
ship. The text of the treaty is found in the American State Papers, Indian Affairs,
. vol. 1, p. 388; in Judge Dillon's History of Indiana, edition of 1859, pp. 293, 294, and
in the Western Annals, Pittsburg edition, pp. 605, GOG. The names of the tribes and
of the individual chiefs who participated in it are not given in any of the works cited.
They only appear in the copy on file at the War Department and in the original manu-
script journal of Gen. Putnam. The author is indebted to Dr. Israel W. Andrews,
president of Marietta College, for transcripts from Gen. Putnam's journal,
t Treaties with the Indian Tribes, Washington edition, p. 172.

IDENTITY OF KICKAPOOS WITH THE MASCOUTINS. 161

The Muscotines, after protracted efforts, abandoned the position in
which they were attacked, and fled, closely pursued, to an intrenched
position on Presque Isle, opposite Hog Island, near Lake St. Clair,
some distance above the fort. Here they held out for four days
against the combined French and Indian forces. Their women and
children were actually starving, numbers dying from hunger every
day. They sent messengers to the French officer, begging for quar-
ter, offering to surrender at discretion, only craving that their re-
maining women and children and themselves might be spared the
horror of a general massacre. The Indian allies of the French
would submit to no such terms. "At the end of the fourth day,
after fighting with much courage," says the French commander,
"and not being able to resist further, the Muscotins surrendered at
discretion to our people, who gave them no quarter. Our Indians
lost sixty men, killed and wounded. The enemy lost a thousand
souls — men, women and children. All our allies returned to our
fort with their slaves (meaning the captives), and their amusement
was to shoot four or five of them every day. The Hurons did not
spare a single one of theirs."*

We find no instance in which the Kickapoos or Muscotins assisted
either the French or the English in any of the intrigues or wars for
the control of the fur trade, or the acquisition of disputed territory
in the northwest. At the close of Pontiac's conspiracy, the Kicka-
poos, whose temporary lodges were pitched on the prairie near Fort
Wayne, notified Captain Morris, the English ambassador, on his
way from Detroit to Fort Chartes, to take possession of "the coun-
try of the Illinois ' ' ; that if the Miamis did not put him to death,
they themselves would do so, should he attempt to pass their camp.f

Still later, on the 8th of June, 1765, as George Croghan, likewise
an English ambassador, on his route by the Ohio Kiver to Fort
Chartes, was attacked at daybreak, at the mouth of the Wabash, by
a party of eighty Kickapoo and Mascoutin warriors, who had set out
from Fort Ouiatanon to intercept his passage, and killed two of his
men and three Indians, and wounded Croghan himself, and all the
rest of his party except two white men and one Indian. They then
made all of them prisoners, and plundered them of everything they
had.}

* Official Report of M. Du Boisson on the Siege of Detroit.

f Parkman's History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac, 3d single volume edition, p. 474.

X The narrative, Journal of Col. George Croghan, "who was sent, at the peace
of 1768, etc., to explore the country adjacent to the Ohio River, and to conciliate the
Indian nations who had hitherto acted with the French." [Reprinted! from Feather-
stonhaugh Am. Monthly Journal of Geology, Dec. 1831. Pamphlet, p. 17.
11

162 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Having thrown such obstacles as were within their power against
the French and English, the Kickapoos were ready to offer the
same treatment to the Americans ; and, when Col. Rogers Clark
was at Kaskaskia, in 1778, negotiating peace treaties with the west-
ward Indians, his enemies found a party of young Kickapoos the
willing instruments to undertake, for a reward promised, to kill him.

As a military people, the Kickapoos were inferior to the Miamis,
Delawares and Shawnees in movements requiring large bodies of
men, but they were preeminent in predatory warfare. Parties con-
sisting of from five to twenty persons were the usual number com-
prising their war parties. These small forces would push out hun-
dreds of miles from their villages, and swoop down upon a feeble
settlement, or an isolated pioneer cabin, and burn the property, kill
the cattle, steal the horses, capture the women and children, and be
off again before an alarm could be given of their approach. From
such incursions of the Kickapoos the people of Kentucky suffered
severely. *

A small war party of these Indians hovered upon the skirts of
Gen. Planner's army when he was conducting the campaign against
the upper Wabash tribes, in 1790. They cut out a squad of ten
regular soldiers of Gen. PParmer by decoying them into an ambuscade.
Jackson Johonnot, the orderly sergeant in command of the regulars,
gave an interesting account of their capture and the killing of his
companions, after they were subjected to the severest hunger and
fatigue on the march, and the running of the gauntlet on reaching
the Indian villages.!

The Kickapoos were noted for their fondness of horses and their
skill and daring in stealing them. They were so addicted to this
practice that Joseph Brant, having been sent westward to the Maumee
River in 1788, in the interest of the United States, to bring about a
reconciliation with the several tribes inhabiting the Maumee and
"Wabash, wrote back that, in his opinion, "the Kickapoos, with the
Shawnees and Miamis, were so much addicted to horse stealing that
it would bo difficult to break them of it, and as that kind of business
was their best harvest, they would, of course, declare for war and
decline giving up any of their country.":};

*0ne of the reasons urged to induce the building of a town at the falls of the
Ohio was that it would afford a means of strength against, and be an object of terror
to, "our savage enemies, the Kickapoo Indians." Letter of Col. Williams, January
3, 1776, from Boonsborough, to the proprietors of the grant, found in Sketches of the
West, by James Hall.

t Sketches of Western Adventure, by M'Lung, contains a summarized account,
taken from Johonnot's original narrative, published at Keene, New Hampshire, 1816.

t Stone's Life of Joseph Brant, vol. 2, p. 278.

KICKAPOOS DESTROY THE ILLINOIS. It):}

Between the years 1786 and 1796, the Kickapoo war parties, from
their villages on the "Wabash and Vermilion Rivers, kept the settle-
ments in the vicinity of Kaskaskia in a state of continual alarm.
Within the period named they killed and captured a number of
men, women and children in that part of Illinois. Among their
notable captures was that of William Biggs, whom they took across
the prairies to their village on the west bank of the Wabash, above
Attica, Indiana.*

Subsequent to the close of the Pontiac war, the Kickapoos, as-
sisted by the Pottawatomies, almost annihilated the Kaskaskias at a
place since called Battle Ground Creek, on the road leading from
Kaskaskia to Shawneetown, and about twenty-five miles from the
former place. f The Kaskaskias were shut up in the villages of
Kaskaskia and Cahokia, and the Kickapoos became the recognized
proprietors of a large portion of the territory of the Kaskaskias on
the west, and the hunting grounds of the Piankeshaw-Miamis on
the east, of the dividing ridge between the Illinois and Wabash
Rivers. The principal Kickapoo towns were on the left bank of the
Illinois, near Peoria, and on the Yermilion, of the Wabash, and at
several places on the west bank of the latter stream. ^

The Kickapoos of the prairie had villages west of Charleston,
Illinois, about the head-waters of the Kaskaskia and in many of the
groves scattered over the prairies between the Illinois and the Wa-
bash and south of the Kankakee, notable among which were their
•towns at Elkhart Grove, on the Mackinaw, twelve miles north of
Bloomington, and at Oliver's Grove, in Livingston county, Illinois.

These people were much attached to the country along the Yer-
milion River, and Gen. Harrison had great trouble in gaining their
consent to cede it away. The Kickapoos valued it highly as a
desirable home, and because of the minerals it was supposed to
contain. In a letter, dated December 10, 1809, addressed to the

* Biggs was a tall and handsome man. He had been one of Col. Clark's soldiers,
and had settled near Belief ountaine. He was well versed in the Indians' ways and
their language. The Kickapoos took a great fancy to him. They adopted him into their
tribe, put him through a ridiculous ceremony which transformed him into a genuine
Kickapoo, after which he was offered a handsome daughter of a Kickapoo brave for a
wife. He declined all these nattering temptations, however, purchased his freedom
through the agency of a Spanish trader at the Kickapoo village, and returned home to
his family, going down the Wabash and Ohio and up the Mississippi in a canoe. His-
torical Sketch of the Early Settlements in Illinois, etc., by John M. Peck, read before
the Illinois State Lyceum, August 16, 1832. In 1826, shortly before his death, Mr.
Biggs published a narrative of his experience " while he was a prisoner with the Kick-
apoo Indians." It was published in pamphlet form, with poor type, and on very com-
mon paper, and contains twenty-three pages.

t J. M. Peck's Historical Address.

X Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, J. M. Peck's Address, and Gen. Harrison's
Memoirs.

1G4 HISTORIC NOTES OK THE NORTHWEST.

Secretary of War, by Gen. Harrison, the latter, — referring to the
treaty at Fort Wayne in connection with his efforts at that treaty to
induce the Kickapoos to release their title to the tract of country
bounded on the east by the Wabash, on the south by the northern
line of the so-called Harrison Purchase, extending from opposite the
mouth of Raccoon Creek, northwest fifteen miles; thence to a point
on the Vermilion River, twenty-five miles in a direct line from its
mouth; thence down the latter stream to its confluence, — says "he
was extremely anxious that the extinguishment of title should extend
as high up as the Vermilion River. This small tract [of about
twenty miles square] is one of the most beautiful that can be con-
ceived, and is, moreover, believed to contain a very rich copper
mine. The Indians were so extremely jealous of any search being
made for this mine that the traders were always cautioned not to
approach the hills which were supposed to contain it."*

In the desperate plans of Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet,
to unite all of the Indian tribes in a war of extermination against
the whites, the Kickapoos took an active part. Gen. Harrison made
extraordinary efforts to avert the troubles that culminated in the bat-
tle of Tippecanoe. The Kickapoos were particularly uneasy ; and
in 1806 Gen. Harrison dispatched Capt. Wm. Prince to the Vermil-
ion towns with a speech addressed to all the chiefs and warriors of
the Kickapoo tribe, giving Capt. Prince further instructions to pro-
ceed to the villages in the prairies, if, after having delivered the
speech at the Vermilion towns, he discovered that there would be no
danger in proceeding beyond. The speech, which was full of good
words, had little effect, and "shortly after the mission of Capt.

'•"General Harrison's Official Letter: American State Papers of Indian Affairs, vol.
1, p. 726. It was not copper, but a mineral having something like the appearance of
silver, that the Indians so jealously guarded. Recent explorations among the bluffs on
the Little Vermilion have resulted in the discovery of a number of ancient smelting
furnaces, with the charred coals and slag remaining in and about them. The furnaces
are crude, consisting of shallow excavations of irregular shape in the hillsides. These
basins, averaging a few feet across the top, were lined with fire-clay. The bottoms of
the pits were connected by ducts or troughs, also made of fire-clay, leading into reser-
voirs a little distance lower down the hillside, into which the metal could flow, when
reduced to a liquid state, in the furnaces above. The pits were carefully filled with
earth, and every precaution was taken to prevent their discovery, a slight depression in
the surface of the ground being the only indication of their presence. The mines are
from every appearance entitled to a claim of considerable antiquity, and are probably
"the silver mines on the Wabash " that figure in the works of Hutchins, Inday, and
other early writers, as the geological formation of the country precludes there being
.any of the metals as high up or above "Ouiatanon," in the vicinity of which those
authors, as well as other writers, have located these mines. The most plausible ex-
planation of the use to which the metal was put is given by a half-breed Indian,
whose ancestors lived in the vicinity and were in the secret that, after being smelted,
the metal was sent to Montreal, where it was used as an alloy with silver, and con-
verted into brooches, wristbands, and other like jewelry, and brought back by the
traders and disposed of to the Indians.

PA-KOI-SHEE-CAN. 165

Prince, the Prophet found means to bring the whole of the Kicka-
poos entirely under his influence. He prevailed on the warriors to
reduce their old chief, Joseph Menard's son, to a private man. He
would have been put to death but for the insignificance of his char-
acter.""-"

The Ivickapoos fought in great numbers, and with frenzied cour-
age, at the battle of Tippecanoe. They early sided with the British
in the war that was declared between the United States and Great
Britain the following June, and sent out numerous war parties that
kept the settlements in Illinois and Indiana territories in constant
peril, while other warriors represented their tribe in almost every
battle fought on the western frontier during this war.

As the Pottawatomies and other tribes friendly to the English
laid siege to Fort Wayne, the Ivickapoos, assisted by the "Winneba-
goes, undertook the capture of Fort Harrison. They nearly suc-
ceeded, and would have taken the fort but for one of the most he-
roic and determined defenses under Capt. (afterward Gen.) Zachary
Taylor.

Capt. Taylor's official letter to Gen. Harrison, dated September
10, 1812, contains a graphic account of the affair at Fort Harrison.
The writer will here give the version of Pa-koi-shee-can, whom the
French called La Farine and the Americans The Flour, the Kicka-
poo chief who planned the attack and personally executed the most
difficult part of the programme, f

First, the Indians loitered about the fort, having a few of their
women and children about them, to induce a belief that their pres-
ence was of a friendly character, while the main body of warriors
were secreted at some distance off, waiting for favorable develop-
ments. Under the pretense of a want of provisions, the men and

* Memoirs of Gen. Harrison, p. 85. A foot-note on the same page is as follows:
" Old Joseph Renard was a very different character, a great warrior and perfectly sav-
age — delighting in blood. He once told some of the inhabitants of Vincennes that
he used to be much diverted at the different exclamations of the Americans and the
French while the Indians were scalping them, the one exclaiming Oh Lord! oh Lord!
oh Lord! — the otlier Mon Dieu! mon Dieu! mon Dieu! "

fThe account here given was narrated to the author by Mrs. Mary A. Baptiste,
substantially as it was told to her by " Pa-koi-shee-can." This lady, with her hus-
band, Christmas Dagney, was at Fort Harrison in 1821, where the latter was assisting
in disbursing annuities to the assembled Indians. The business, and general spree
which followed it, occupied two or three days. La Farine was present with his people
to receive their share of annuities, and the old chief, having leisure, edified Mr. Dag-
ney and his wife with a minute description of his attempt to capture the fort, pointing
out the position of the attacking party and all the movements on the part of the
Indians. La Farine was a large, fleshy man, well advanced in years and a thorough
savage. As he related the story he warmed up and indulged in a great deal of pan-
tomime, which gave force to, while it heightened the effect of, his narration. The
particulars are given substantially as they were repeated to the author. The lady of
whom he received it had never read an account of the engagement.

166 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

women were permitted to approach the fort, and had a chance to
inspect the fort and its defenses, an opportunity of which the men
fully availed themselves. A dark night, giving the appearance of
rain, favored a plan which was at once put into execution. The
warriors were called to the front, and the women and children
retired to a place of safety. La Farine, with a large butcher knife
in each hand, extended himself at full length upon the ground. He
drove one knife into the ground and drew his body up against it,
then he reached forward, with the knife in the other hand, and driv-
ing that into the ground drew himself along. In this way he ap-
proached the lower block-house, stealthily through the grass. He
could hear the sentinels on their rounds within the fortified enclo-
sure. As they advanced toward that part of the works where the
lower block-house was situated, La Farine would lie still upon the
ground, and when the sentinels made the turn and were moving in
the opposite direction, he would again crawl nearer.* In this manner
La Farine reached the very walls of the block-house. There was a
crack between the logs of the block-house, and through this opening
the Kickapoo placed a quantity of dry grass, bits of wood, and
other combustible material, brought in a blanket tied about his back,
so as to form a sack. As the preparation for this incendiarism was
in progress, the sentinels passed within a very few feet of the place,
as they paced by on the opposite side of the block-house. Everything
being in readiness, and the sentinels at the farther end of the works,
La Farine struck a fire with his flint and thrust it between the logs,
and threw his blanket quickly over the opening, to prevent the light
from flashing outside, and giving the alarm before the building
should be well ablaze. When assured that the fire was well under
way, he fell back and gave the signal, when the attack was immedi-
ately begun by the Indians at the other extremity of the fort. The
lower block-house burned up in spite of all the efforts of the gar-
rison to put out the fire, and for awhile the Indians were exultant in
the belief of an assured and complete victory. Gen. Taylor con-
structed a barricade out of material taken from another building,
and by the time the block-house burned the Indians discovered a
new line of defenses, closing up the breach by which they expected
to effect an entrance, f

* Capt. Taylor, being suspicions of mischief, took the precaution to order sentinels
to make the rounds within the inclosure, as appeai-s from his official report.

fThe Indians, exasperated by the failure of their attempt upon Fort Harrison,
made an incursion to the Pigeon Roost Fork of White River, where they massacred
twenty-one of the inhabitants, many of them women and children. The details of
some of the barbarities committed on this incursion are too shocking to narrate. They

TERRITORY OF THE KICKAPOOS. 167

in 1819, at a treaty concluded at Edwardsville, Illinois, they
ceded to the United States all of their lands. Their claim included
the following territory: "Beginning on the Wabash River, at the
upper point of their cession, made by the second article of their
treaty at Vincennes on the 9th of December, 1809 ;* thence running
northwestwardlyf to the dividing line between the states of Illinois
and Indiana ;J thence along said line to the Kankakee River ; thence
with said river to the Illinois River ; thence down the latter to its
mouth ; thence in a direct line to the northwest corner of the Vin-
cennes tract, § and thence (north by a little east) with the western
and northern boundaries of the cessions heretofore made by the
Kickappo tribe of Indians, to the beginning. Of which tract of land
the said Kickapoo tribe claim a large portion by descent from their
ancestors, and the balance by conquest from the Illinois Nation and
uninterrupted possession for more than half a century" An exam-
ination, extended through many volumes, leaves no doubt of the just
claims of the Kickapoos to the territory described, or the length of
time it had been in their possession.

With the close of the war of 1812, the Kickapoos ceased their
active hostilities upon the whites, and within a few years afterward
disposed of their lands in Illinois and Indiana, and, with the excep-
tion of a few bands, went westward of the Mississippi. "The
Kickapoos," says ex-Go v. Reynolds, "disliked the United States so
much that they decided, when they left Illinois that they would not
reside within the limits of our government," but would settle in
Texas. || A large body of them did go to Texas, and when the

are given by Capt. M'Affe in his History of the Late War in the Western Country,
p. 155. The garrison at Fort Harrison was cut off from communication with Vincennes
for several days, and reduced to great extremity for want of provisions. They were
relieved by Col. Russell. After this officer had left the fort, on his return to Vincennes,
he passed several wagons with provisions on their way up to the fort under an escort of
thirteen men, commanded by Lieut. Fairbanks, of the regular army. This body of
men were surprised and cut to pieces by the Indians, two or three only escaping, while
the provisions and wagons fell into the hands of the savages. Vide M'Affe, p. 155.

* At the mouth of Raccoon Creek, opposite Montezuma.

t Following the northwestern line of the so-called Harrison Purchase.

X The state line had not been run at this time, and when it was surveyed in 1821
it was discovered to be several miles west of where it was generally supposed it would
be. The territory of the Kickapoos extended nearly as far east as La Fayette, as is
evident from the location of some of their villages.

§ By the terms of the fourth article of the treaty of Greenville the United States
reserved a tract of land on both sides of the Wabash, above and below Vincennes, to
cover the rights of the inhabitants of that village who had received grants from the
French and British governments. In 1803, for the purpose of settling the limits of
this tract, General Harrison, on the 7th of June, 1803, at Fort Wayne, concluded a
treaty with the Miamis, Kickapoos. Shawnees, Pottawatomies and Delawares. This
cession of land became known as the Vinceriwes tract, and its northwest corner extends
some twelve miles into Illinois, crossing the Wabash at Palestine.

I Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 8.

168 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Lone Star Republic became one of the United States the Kickapoos
retired to New Mexico, and subsequently some of them went to Old
Mexico. Here on these isolated borders the wild bands of Kicka-
poos have for years maintained the reputation of their sires as a busy
and turbulent people.*

A mixed band of Kickapoos and Pottawatomies, who resided on
the Vermilion River and its tributaries, became christianized under
the instructions of Ka-en-ne-kuck. This remarkable man, once a
drunkard himself, reformed and became an exemplary christian,
and commanded such influence over his band that they, too, became
christians, abstained entirely from whisky, which had brought them
to the verge of destruction, and gave up many of the other vices to
which they were previously addicted. Ka-en-ne-kuck had religious
services every Sunday, and so conscientious were his people that
they abstained from labor and all frivolous pastimes on that day.f

Ka-en-ne-kuck' s discourses were replete with religious thought,
and advice given in accordance with the precepts of the Bible, and
are more interesting because they were the utterances of an unedu-
cated Indian, who is believed to have done more, in his sphere of
action, in the cause of temperance and other moral reforms, than
any other person has been able to accomplish among the Indians,
although armed with all the power that education and talent could
confer.

Ka-en-ne-kuck' s band, numbering about two hundred persons,
migrated to Kansas, and settled upon a reservation within the pres-
ent limits of Jackson and Brown counties, where the survivors, and
the immediate descendants of those who have since died, are now
residing upon their farms. Their well-cultivated fields and their
uniform good conduct attest the lasting effect of Ka-en-ne-kuck' s
teachings.

The wild bands have always been troublesome upon the south-
western borders, plundering upon all sides, making inroads into the
settlements, killing stock and stealing horses. Every now and then

* In 1854 a band of them were found by Col. Marcy, living near Fort Arbuckle.
He says of them: "They are intelligent, active and brave; they frequently visit and
traffic with the prairie Indians, and have no fear of meeting these people in battle,
provided the odds are not more than six to one against them." Marcy 's Thirty Years
of Army Life on the Border, p. 95.

fOne of Ka-en-ne-kuck's sermons was delivered at Danville, Illinois, on the 17th
of July, 1831, to his own tribe, and a large concourse of citizens who asked permission
to be present. The sermon was delivered in the Kickapoo dialect, interpreted into
English, sentence at a time as spoken by the orator, by Gurdeon S. Hubbard, who spoke
the Kickapoo as well as the Pottawatomie dialect with great fluency. The sermon was
taken down in writing by Solomon Banta, a lawyer then living in Danville, and for-
warded by him and Col. Hubbard to Judge James Hall, at Vandalia, Illinois, and pub-
lished in the October number (1831) of his " Illinois Monthly Magazine."

CHARACTERISTICS. 169

their depreciations form the subject of items for the current news-
papers of the day. For years the government has failed in efforts
to induce the wild band to remove to some point within the Indian
Territory, where they might be restrained from annoying the border
settlements of Texas and New Mexico. Some years ago a part of
the semi-civilized Kickapoos in Kansas, preferring their old wild
life to the ways of civilized society, left Kansas and joined the bands
to the southwest. These last, after twelve years' roving in quest of
plunder, were induced to return, and in 1875 they were settled in
the Indian Territory and supplied with the necessary implements
and provisions to enable them to go to work and earn an honest liv-
ing. In this commendable effort at reform they are now making
very satisfactory progress.* In 1875 the number of civilized Kick-
apoos within the Kansas agency was three hundred and eight-five,
while the wild or Mexican band numbered four hundred and twenty,
as appears from the official report on Indian affairs for that year.

As compared with other Indians, the Kickapoos were industrious,
intelligent, and cleanly in their habits, and were better armed and
clothed than the other tribes. f The men, as a rule, were tall, sin-
ewy and active ; the women were lithe, and many of them by no
means lacking in beauty. Their dialect was soft and liquid, as com-
pared with the rough and guttural language of the Pottawatomies.:}:
They kept aloof from the white j^eople, as a rule, and in this way
preserved their characteristics, and contracted fewer of the vices of
the white man than other tribes. Their numbers were never great,
as compared with the Miamis or Pottawatomies ; however, they
made up\ for the deficiency in this respect by the energy of their
movements.

In language, manners and customs the Kickapoos bore a very
close resemblance to the Sac and Fox Indians, whose allies they
generally were, and with whom they have by some writers been
confounded.

* Report of Commissioner on Indian Affairs for the year 1875.
t Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois.
% Statement of Col. Hubbard to the writer.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SHAWNEES AND DELA WARES.

The Shawnees were a brancli of the Algonquin family, and in
manners and customs bore a strong resemblance to the Delawares.
They were the Bedouins of the wilderness, and their wanderings
form a notable instance in the history of the nomadic races of North
America. Before the arrival of the Europeans the Shawnees lived
on the shores of the great lakes eastward of Cleveland. At that
time the principal Iroquois villages were on the northern side of the
lakes, above Montreal, and this tribe was under a species of subjec-
tion to the Adirondacks, the original tribe from whence the several
Algonquin tribes are alleged to have sprung,* and made "the plant-
ing of corn their business."

"The Adirondacks, however, valued themselves as delighting in
a more manly employment, and despised the Iroquois in following
a business which they thought only fit for women. But it once hap-
pened that game failed the Adirondacks, which made them desire
some of the young men of the Iroquois to assist them in hunting.
These young men soon became much more expert in hunting, and
able to endure fatigues, than the Adirondacks expected or desired;
in short, they became jealous of them, and one night murdered all
the young men they had with them." The chiefs of the Iroquois
complained, but the Adirondacks treated their remonstrances with
contempt, without being apprehensive of the resentment of the Iro-
quois, "for they looked upon them as women."

The Iroquois determined on revenge, and the Adirondacks, hear-
ing of it, declared war. The Iroquois made but feeble resistance,
and were forced to leave their country and fly to the south shores of
the lakes, where they ever afterward lived. "Their chiefs, in order
to raise their people's spirits, turned them against the Satanas, a less
warlike nation, who then lived on the shores of the lakes." The
. Iroquois soon subdued the Satanas, and drove them from their
country, f

* Adirondack is the Iroquois name for Algonquin.

t Colden's History of the Five Nations, pp. 22, 23, The Shawnees were known to
the Iroquois by the name of Satanas. Same authority.

170

WANDERINGS OF THE SHAWNEES. 171

In 1632 the Shawnees were on the south side of the Delaware.*
From this time the Iroquois pursued them, each year driving them
farther southward. Forty years later they were on the Tennessee,
and Father Marquette, in speaking of them, calls them Chaouanons,
which was the Illinois word for southerners, or people from the
south, so termed because they lived to the south of the Illinois cantons.
The Iroquois still waged war upon the Shawnees, driving them to the
extremities mentioned in the extracts quoted from Father Marquette's
journal. f To escape further molestation from the Iroquois, the Shaw-
nees continued a more southern course, and some of their bands
penetrated the extreme southern states. The Suwanee River, in
Florida, derived its name from the fact that the Shawnees once lived
upon its banks. Black Hoof, the renowned chief of this tribe, was
born in Florida, and informed Gen. Harrison, with whom for many
years he was upon terms of intimacy, that he had often bathed in
the sea.

"It is well known that they were at a place which still bears
their namej: on the Ohio, a few miles below the mouth of the Wabash,
some time before the commencement of the revolutionary war, where
they remained before their removal to the Sciota, where they were
found in the year 1774 by Gov. Dunmore. Their removal from
Florida was a necessity, and their progress from thence a flight
rather than a deliberate march. This is evident from their appear-
ance when they presented themselves upon the Ohio and claimed
protection of the Miamis. They are represented by the chiefs of the
Miamis and Delawares as supplicants for protection, not against the
Iroquois, but against the Creeks and Seminoles, or some other south-
ern tribe, who had driven them from Florida, and they are said to
have been literally sans provant et sans culottes [hungry and naked]. §

After their dispersion by the Iroquois, remnants of the tribe were
found in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but after the
return of the main body from the south, they became once more
united, the Pennsylvania band leaving that colony about the same
time that the Delawares did. During the forty years following that
period, the whole tribe was in a state of perpetual war with America,
either as British colonies or as independent states. By the treaty of

* De Laet.

t Vide p. 49 of this work.

i Shawneetown, Illinois.

§Gen. Harrison's Historical Address, pp. 30, 31. This history of the Shawnees,
says Gen. Harrison, was brought forward at a council at Vincennes in 1810, to resist
the pretensions of Tecumseh to an interference with the Miamis in the disposal of their
lands, and however galling the reference to these facts must have been to Tecumseh,
he was unable to deny them.

172 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Greenville, they lost nearly all the territory they had been permitted
to occupy north of the Ohio."""

In 1819 they were divided into four tribes, — the Pequa,f the Me-
quachake, the Chillicothe, and the Kiskapocoke. The latter tribe
was the one to which Tecumseh belonged. They were always hos-
tile to the United States, and joined every coalition against the gov-
ernment. In 1806 they separated from the rest of the tribe, and
took up their residence at Greenville. Soon afterward they removed
to their former place of residence on Tippecanoe Creek, Indiana.^

At the close of Gen. Wayne's campaign, a large body of the
Shawnees settled near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, upon a tract of
land granted to them and the Delawares in 1793, by Baron de Ca-
rondelet, governor of the Spanish provinces west of the Mississippi.^

From their towns in eastern Ohio, the Shawnees spread north and
westward to the headwaters of the Big and Little Miamis, the St.
Mary's, and the Au Glaize, and for quite a distance down the Mau-
mee. They had extensive cultivated fields upon these streams,
which, with their villages, were destroyed by Gen. Wayne on his
return from the victorious engagement with the confederated tribes
on the field of "fallen timbers. "| Gen. Ilarmer, in his letter to
the Secretary of War, communicating the details of his campaign
on the Maumee, in October, 1790, gives a fine description of the
country, and the location of the Shawnee, Delaware and Miami vil-
lages, in the neighborhood of Fort Wayne, as they appeared at that
early day. We quote: "The savages and traders (who were, perhaps,
the worst savages of the two) had evacuated their towns, and burnt
the principal village called the Omee*i together with all the traders'
houses. This village lay on a pleasant point, formed by the junc-
tion of the rivers Omee and St. Joseph. It was situate on the east

* Gallatin.

t " In ancient times they had a large fire, which, being burned down, a great puffin °-
and blowing was heard among the ashes; they looked, and behold a man stood up
from the ashes! hence the name Piqua — a man coming out of the ashes, or made of
ashes.'

X Account of the Present State of the Indian Tribes Inhabiting Ohio : Archa?ologia
Americana, vol. 1, pp. 274, 275. Mr. Johnson is in error in locating this band upon
the lippecanoe. The prophets town was upon the west bank of the Wabash, near the
mouth of the Tippecanoe.

§ Treaties with the Several Indian Tribes, etc.: Government edition, 1837. The
Shawnees and Delawares relinquished their title to their Spanish grant by a treaty
concluded between them and the United States on the 26th of October, 1832.

'The army returned to this place [Fort Defiance J on the 27th, by easy marches,
laying waste to the villages and corn-fields for about fifty miles on each side of the
Miami [Maumeej. There remains yet a great number of villages and a great quantity
of corn to be consumed or destroyed upon the Au Glaize and Miami above this place,
which will be effected in a few days." Gen. Wayne to the Secretary of War- Ameri-
can State Papers on Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 491.

H The Miami village.

COUNTRY OF THE SHAWNEES. 173

bank of the latter, opposite the mouth of St. Mary, and had for a
long time past been the rendezvous of a set of Indian desperadoes,
who infested the settlements, and stained the Ohio and parts adjacent
with the blood of defenseless inhabitants. This day we advanced
nearly the same distance, and kept nearly the same course as yester-
day ; we encamped within six miles of the object, and on Sunday,
the 17th, entered the ruins of the Omee town, or French village, as
part of it is called. Appearances confirmed accounts I had received
of the consternation into which the savages and their trading allies
had been thrown by the approach of the army. Many valuables of
the traders were destroyed in the confusion, and vast quantities of
corn and other grain and vegetables were secreted in holes dug in
the earth, and other hiding places. Colonel Hardin rejoined the
army."

'■'-Besides the town of Omee, there were several other villages situ-
ate upon the banks of three rivers. One of them, belonging to
the Omee Indians, called Kegaiogue, * was standing and contained
thirty houses on the bank opposite the principal village. Two others,
consisting together of about forty-five houses, lay a few miles up
the St. Mary's, and were inhabited by Delawares. Thirty-six houses
occupied by other savages of this tribe formed another but scattered
town, on the east bank of the St. Joseph, two or three miles north
from the French village. About the same distance down the Omee
River, lay the Shawnee town of Chillicothe, consisting of fifty-eight
houses, opposite which, on the other bank of the river, were sixteen
more habitations, belonging to savages of the same nation. All
these I ordered to be burnt during my stay there, together with
great quantities of corn and vegetables hidden as at the principal
village, in the earth and other places by the savages, who had aban-
doned them. It is computed that there were no less than twenty
thousand bushels of corn, in the ear, which the army either con-
sumed or destroyed.'" f

The Shawnees also had a populous village within the present
limits of Fountain county, Indiana, a few miles east of Attica.
They gave their name to Shawnee Prairie and to a stream that dis-
charges into the "Wabash from the east, a short distance below "Will-
iamsport.

* Ke-ki-ong-a. — "The name in English is said to signify a blackberry patch [more
probably a blackberry bush] which, in its turn, passed among the Miamis as a symbol
of antiquity." Brice's History of Fort Wayne, p. 23.

fGen. Harmer's Official Letter. It will be observed that Gen. Harmer treats the
French Omee or Miami village as a separate town from that of Ke-ki-ong-a. His de-
scription is so minute, and his opportunities so favorable to know the facts, that there
is scarcely a probability of his having been mistaken.

174 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

In 1854 the Sliawnees in Kansas numbered nine hundred persons,
occupying a reservation of one million six hundred thousand acres.
Their lands were divided into severalty. They have banished
whisky, and many of them have fine farms under cultivation. Be-
ing on the border of Missouri, they suffered from the rebel raids,
and particularly that of Gen. Price in 1864. In 1865 they numbered
eight hundred and forty-five persons. They furnished for the Union
army one hundred and twenty-five men. The Sliawnees have illus-
trated by their own conduct the capability of an Indian tribe to
become civilized.*

The Delawares called themselves Lenno Lenape, which signifies
"original" or "unmixed'' men. They were divided into three
clans : the Turtle, the Wolf and the Turkey. When first met with
by the Europeans, they occupied a district of country bounded
eastwardly by the Hudson River and the Atlantic ; on the west
their territories extended to the ridge separating the flow of the
Delaware from the other streams emptying into the Susquehanna
River and Chesapeake Bay.f

They, according to their own traditions, "many hundred years
ago resided in the western part of the continent ; thence by slow
emigration, they at length reached the Alleghany River, so called
from a nation of giants, the Allegewi, against whom the Delawares
and Iroquois (the latter also emigrants from the west) carried on
successful war ; and still proceeding eastward, settled on the Dela^
ware, Hudson, Susquehanna and Potomac rivers, making the Dela-
ware the center of their possessions.^:

By the other Algonquin tribes the Delawares were regarded with
the utmost respect and veneration. They were called "fathers,"
"grandfathers," etc.

" When William Penn landed in Pennsylvania the Delawares had
been subjugated and made women by the Iroquois." They were
prohibited from making war, placed under the sovereignty of the
Iroquois, and even lost the right of dominion to the lands which
they had occupied for so many generations. Gov. Penn, in his treaty
with the Delawares, purchased from them the right of possession
merely, and afterward obtained the relinquishment of the sovereignty
from the Iroquois. § The Delawares accounted for their humiliating
relation to the Iroquois by claiming that their assumption of the
role of women, or mediators, was entirely voluntary on their part.

* Gale's Upper Mississippi. \ Taylor's History of Ohio, p. 33.

t Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 44. § Gallatin's Synopsis, etc.

DELAWARES BECOME WOMEN. 175

They said they became "peacemakers," not through compulsion,
but in compliance with the intercession of different belligerent tribes,
and that this position enabled their tribe to command the respect of
all the Indians east of the Mississippi. While it is true that the
Delawares were very generally recognized as mediators, they never
in any war or treaty exerted an influence through the possession of
this title. It was an empty honor, and no additional power or ben-
efit ever accrued from it. That the degrading position of the Dela-
wares was not voluntary is proven in a variety of ways. " We possess
none of the details of the war waged against the Lenapes, but we
know that it resulted in the entire submission of the latter, and that
the Iroquois, to prevent any further interruption from the Delawares,
adopted a plan to humble and degrade them, as novel as it was ef-
fectual. Singular as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that the
Lenapes, upon the dictation of the Iroquois, agreed to lay aside the
character of warriors and assume that of women."* The Iroquois,
while they were not present at the treaty of Greenville, took care to
inform Gen. Wayne that the Delawares were their subjects — " that
they had conquered them and put petticoats upon them." At a
council held July 12, 1742, at the house of the lieutenant-governor
of Pennsylvania, where the subject of previous grants of land was
under discussion, an Iroquois orator turned to the Delawares who
were present at the council, and holding a belt of waumpum, ad-
dressed them thus: "Cousins, let this belt of waumpum serve to
chastise you. You ought to be taken by the hair of your head and
shaked severely, till you recover your senses and become sober. . . .
But how came you to take upon yourself to sell land at all ? " refer-
ring to lands on the Delaware River, which the Delawares had sold
some fifty years before. "We conquered you ; we made women of
you. You know you are women, and can no more sell land than
women ; nor is it fit you should have the power of selling lands,
since you would abuse it." The Iroquois orator continues his chas-
tisement of the Delawares, indulging in the most opprobrious lan-
guage, and closed his speech by telling the Delawares to remove
immediately. "We don't give you the liberty to think about it.
You may return to the other side of the Delaware, where you came
from ; but we don't know, considering how you had demeaned your-
selves, whether you will be permitted to live there. "f

The Quakers who settled Pennsylvania treated the Delawares in

* Discourse of Gen. Harrison.

t Minutes of the Conference at Philadelphia, in Colden's History of the Five
Nations.

176 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

accordance witli the rules of justice and equity. The result was that
during a period of sixty years peace and the utmost harmony pre-
vailed. This is the only instance in the settling of America by the
English where uninterrupted friendship and good will existed be-
tween the colonists and the aboriginal inhabitants. Gradually and
by peaceable means the Quakers obtained possession of the greater
portion of their territory, and the Delawares were in the same situa-
tion as other tribes, — without lands, without means of subsistence.
They were threatened with starvation. Induced by these motives,
some of them, between the years 1740 and 1750, obtained from their
uncles, the Wyandots, and with the assent of the Iroquois, a grant of
land on the Muskingum, in Ohio. The greater part of the tribe re-
mained in Pennsylvania, and becoming more and more dissatisfied
with their lot, shook off the yoke of the Iroquois, joined the French
and ravaged the frontiers of Pennsylvania. Peace was concluded at
Easton in 1758, and ten years after the last remaining bands of the
Delawares crossed the Alleghanies. Here, being removed from the
influence of their dreaded masters, the Iroquois, the Delawares soon
assumed their ancient independence. During the next four or five
decades they were the most formidable of the western tribes. "While
the revolutionary war was in progress, as allies of the British, after
its close, at the head of the northwestern confederacy of Indians,
they fully regained their lost reputation. By their geographical
position placed in the front of battle, they were, during those two
wars, the most active and dangerous enemies of America. *

The territory claimed by the Delawares subsequent to their being
driven westward from their former possessions, is established in a
paper addressed to congress May 10, 1779, from delegates assem-
bled at Princeton, New Jersey. The boundaries of their country,
as declared in the address, is as follows: "From the mouth of the
Alleghany Kiver, at Fort Pitt, to the Venango, and from thence up
French Creek, and by Le Bceuf,f along the old road to Presque Isle,
on the east. The Ohio River, including all the islands in it, from
Fort Pitt to the Ouabache, on the south; thence up the River Oua-
bache to that branch, 0_pe-co-mee-cah,% and up the same to the head
thereof; from thence to the headwaters and springs of the Great
Miami, or Rocky River ; thence across to the headwaters and springs
of the most northwestern branches of the Scioto River ; thence to

* In the battle of Fallen Timbers there were three hundred Delawares out of seven
hundred Indians who were in this engagement: Colonial History of Massachusetts,
vol. 10.

t A fort on the present site of Waterford, Pa.

% This was the name given by the Delawares to White River, Indiana.

MAKE PEACE. 177

the westernmost springs of Sandusky River ; thence down said river,
including the islands in it and in the little lake, * to Lake Erie, on the
west and northwest, and Lake Erie on the north. These boundaries
contain the cessions of lands made to the Delaware nation by the
"Wayandots and other nations, f and the country we have seated our
grandchildren, the Shawnees, upon, in our laps ; and we promise to
give to the United States of America such a part of the above
described country as would be convenient to them and us, that they
may have room for their children's children to set down upon.":}:

After "Wayne's victory the Delawares saw that further contests
with the American colonies would be worse than useless. They
submitted to the inevitable, acknowledged the supremacy of the
Caucasian race, and desired to make peace with the victors. At the
treaty of Greenville, in 1795, there were present three hundred and
eighty-one Delawares, — a larger representation than that of any
other Indian tribe. By this treaty they ceded to the United States
the greater part of the lands allotted to them by the "Wyandots and
Iroquois. For this cession they received an annuity of $1,000.§

At the close of the treaty, Bu-kon-ge-he-las, a Delaware chief,
spoke as follows :

Father : || Your children all well understand the sense of the
treaty which is now concluded. We experience daily proofs of your
' increasing kindness. I hope we may all have sense enough to enjoy
our dawning happiness. Many of your people are yet among us.
I trust they will be immediately restored. Last winter our king
came forward to you with two; and when he returned with your
speech to us, we immediately prepared to come forward with the
remainder, which we delivered at Fort Defiance. All who know
me know me to be a man and a warrior, and I now declare that I will
for the future be as steady and true a friend to the United States as
I have heretofore been an active enemy. "^[

This promise of the orator was faithfully kept by his people.
They evaded all the efforts of the Shawnee prophet, Tecumseh, and
the British who endeavored to induce them, by threats or bribes, to
violate it.**

* Sandusky Bay.

fThe Hurons and Iroquois.

% Pioneer History, by S. P. Hildreth, p. 137, where the paper setting forth the
claims of the Delawares is copied.

§ American State Papers: Indian Affairs, vol. 1.
Gen. Wayne.

IT American State Papers: Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 582.

** Bu-kon-ge-he-las was a warrior of great ability. He took a leading part in
manceuvering the Indians at the dreadful battle known as St. Clair's defeat. He rose
from a private warrior to the head of his tribe. Until after Gen. Wayne's great victory

178 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

The Delawares remained faithful to the United States during the
war of 1S12, and, with the Shawnees, furnished some very able war-
riors and scouts, who rendered valuable service to the United States
during this war.

After the treaty of Greenville, the great body of Delawares re-
moved to their lands on White River, Indiana, whither some of
their people had already preceded them.

Their manner of obtaining possession of their lands on "White
River is thus related in Dawson's Life of Harrison: "The land in
question had been granted to the Delawares about the year 1770, by
the Piankeshaws, on condition of their settling upon it and assist-
ing them in a war with the Kickapoos." These terms were complied
with, and the Delawares remained in possession of the land.

The title to the tract of land lying between the Ohio and AVhite
Rivers soon became a subject of dispute between the Piankeshaws
and Delawares. A chief of the latter tribe, in 1803, at Yincennes,
stated to Gen. Harrison that the land belonged to his tribe, "and
that he had with him a chief who had been present at the transfer
made by the Piankeshaws to the Delawares, of all the country be-
tween the Ohio and White Rivers more than thirty years previous."
This claim was disputed by the Piankeshaws. They admitted that
while they had granted the Delawares the right of occupancy, yet
they had never conveyed the right of sovereignty to the tract in '
question.

Gov. Harrison, on the 10th and 27th of August, 1801, concluded
treaties with the Delawares and Piankeshaws by which the United
States acquired all that fine country between the Ohio and Wabash
Rivers. Both of "these tribes laying claim to the land, it became

in 1794, he had been a devoted partisan of the British and a mortal foe to the United
States. He was the most distinguished warrior in the Indian Confederacy; and as it
was the British interests which had induced the Indians to commence, as well as to con-
tinue, the war, Buck-on-ge-he-las relied upon British support and protection. This
support had been given so far as relates to provisions, arms and ammunition; but
at the end of the battle referred to, the gates of Fort Miamis, near which the action
was fought, were shut, by the British within, against the wounded Indians after
the battle. This opened the eyes of the Delaware warrior. He collected his braves
in canoes, with the design of proceeding up the river, under a flag of truce, to Fort
Wayne. On approaching the British fort he was requested to land. He did so, and
addressing the British officer, said, "What have you to say to me?" The officer re-
plied that the commandant wished to speak with him. "Then he may come here,"
was the chief's reply. " He will not do that," said the sub-officer; "and you will not
be suffered to pass the fort if you do not comply." "What shall prevent me?"
"These," said the officer, pointing to the cannon of the fort. "I fear not your
cannon," replied the intrepid chief. "After suffering the Americans to insult and
treat you with such contempt, without daring to fire upon them, you cannot expect to
frighten me." Buck-on-ge-he-las then ordered his canoes to push off from the shore,
and the fleet passed the fort without molestation. A note [No. 2J: Memoirs of Gen.
Harrison.

BECOME CITIZEN'S. 179

necessary that both should be satisfied, in order to prevent disputes
in the future. In this, however, the governor succeeded, on terms,
perhaps, more favorable than if the title had been vested in only
one of these tribes ; for, as both claimed the land, the value of each
claim was considerably lowered in the estimation of both; and,
therefore, by judicious management, the governor effected the pur-
chase upon probably as low, if not lower, terms that if he had been
obliged to treat with only one of them. For this tract the Pianke-
shaws received $700 in goods and $200 per annum for ten years;
the compensation of the Delawares was an annuity of $300 for ten
years.

The Delawares continued to reside upon White Eiver and its
branches until 1S19, when most of them joined the band who had
emigrated to Missouri upon the tract of land granted jointly to them
and the Shawnees, in 1793, by the Spanish authorities. Others of
their number who remained scattered themselves among the Miamis,
Pottawatomies and Kickapoos ; while still others, including the Mo-
ravian converts, went to Canada. At that time, 1819, the total num-
ber of those residing in Indiana was computed to be eight hundred
souls.*

In 1829 the majority of the nation were settled on the Kansas
and Missouri rivers. They numbered about 1,000, were brave, en-
terprising hunters, cultivated lands and were friendly to the whites.
In 1853 they sold to the government all the lands granted them, ex-
cepting a reservation in Kansas. During the late Eebellion they
sent to the United States army one hundred and seventy out of their
two hundred able-bodied men. Like their ancestors they proved
valiant and trustworthy soldiers. Of late years they have almost
entirely lost their aboriginal customs and manners. They live in
houses, have schools and churches, cultivate farms, and, in fact, bid
fair to become useful and prominent citizens of the great Kepublic.

* Their principal towns were on the branches of White River, within the present
limits of Madison and Delaware counties, and the capital of the latter is named after
the "Muncy" or " Mon-o-sia" band. Pipe Creek and Kill Buck Creek, branches of
White River, are also named after two distinguished Delaware chiefs.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE INDIANS: THEIR IMPLEMENTS, UTENSILS, FORTIFICATIONS,
MOUNDS, AND THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

Befoke the arrival of the Europeans the use of iron was but little
known to the North American Indians. Marquette, in speaking of
the Illinois, states that they were entirely ignorant of the use of iron
tools, their weapons being made of stone.* This was true of all the
Indians who made their homes north of the Ohio, but south of that
stream metal tools were occasionally met with. When Hernando
De Soto, in 1539-43, was traversing the southern part of that terri-
tory, now known as the United States, in his vain search for gold,
some of his followers found the natives on the Savanna River using
hatchets made of copper, f It is evident that these hatchets were of
native manufacture, for they were "said to have a mixture of gold."

The southern Indians "had long bows, and their arrows were
made of certain canes like reeds, very heavy, and so strong that a
sharp cane passeth through a target. Some they arm in the point
with a sharp bone of a fish, like a chisel, and in others they fasten
certain stones like points of diamonds.":}: These bones or "scale
of the armed fish" were neatly fastened to the head of the arrows
with splits of cane and fish glue.§ The northern Indians used
arrows with stone points. 'Father Rasles thus describes them :
Li Arrows are the principal arms which they use in war and in the
chase. They are pointed at the end with a stone, cut and sharpened
in the shape of a serpent's tongue; and, if no knife is at hand, they
use them also to skin the animals they have killed." "The bow-
strings were prepared from the entrails of a stag, or of a stag's skin,
which they know how to dress as well as any man in France, and
with as many different colors. They head their arrows with the teeth
of fishes and stone, which they work very finely and handsomely. "1"

* Sparks' Life of Marquette, p. 281.

t A Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto, by a Gentleman of Elvas;
published at Evora in 1557, and afterward translated and published in the second
volume of the Historical Collections of Louisiana, p. 149. \ Idem, p. 124.

§ Du Pratz' History of Louisiana: English translation, vol. 2, pp. 223, 224.

[ Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 39.

II History of the First Attempt of the French to Colonize Florida, in 1562, by Rene"
Laudonniere : published in Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, vol. 1, p. 170.

180

THEY USE STONE IMPLEMENTS. 181

Most of the hatchets and knives of the northern Indians were
likewise made of sharpened stones, "which they fastened in a cleft
piece of wood with leathern thongs."*" Their tomahawks were con-
structed from stone, the horn of a stag, or "from wood in the shape
of a cutlass, and terminated by a large ball." The tomahawk was
held in one hand and a knife in the other. As soon as they dealt a
blow on the head of an enemy, they immediately cut it round with
the knife, and took off the scalp with extraordinary rapidity, f

Du Pratz thus describes their method of felling trees with stone
implements and with fire: "Cutting instruments are almost con-
tinually wanted ; but as they had no iron, which of all metals is the
most useful in human society, they were obliged, with infinite pains,
to form hatchets out of large flints, by sharpening their thin edge,
and making a hole through them for receiving the handle. To cut
down trees with these axes would have been almost an impracticable
work ; they were, therefore, obliged to light fires round the roots of
them, and to cut away the charcoal as the fire eat into the tree.";}:

Charlevoix makes a similar statement: "These people, before
we provided them with hatchets and other instruments, were very
much at a loss in felling their trees, and making them fit for such
uses as they intended them for. They burned them near the root,
and in order to split and cut them into proper lengths they made
use of hatchets made of flint, which never broke, but which required
a prodigious time to sharpen. In order to fix them in a shaft, they
cut off the top of a young tree, making a slit in it, as if they were
going to draft it, into which slit they inserted the head of the axe.
The tree, growing together again in length of time, held the head
of the hatchet so firm that it was impossible for it to get loose ;
they then cut the tree at the length they deemed sufficient for the
handle. "§

When they were about to make wooden dishes, porringers or
spoons, they cut the blocks of wood to the required shape with
stone hatchets, hollowed them out with coals of fire, and polished
them with beaver teeth. |

Early settlers in the neighborhood of Thorntown, Indiana, no-
ticed that the Indians made their hominy-blocks in a similar manner.
Round stones were heated and placed upon the blocks which were
to be excavated. The charred wood was dug out with knives, and

* Hennepin, vol. 2, p. 103.

f Letter of Father Rasles in Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 40.

% Volume 2, p. 223.

§ Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 126.

|| Hennepin, vol. 2, p. 103.

182 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

then the surface was polished with stone implements. These round
stones were the common property of the tribe, and were used by
individual families as occasion required.*

"They dug their ground with an instrument of wood, which was
fashioned like a broad mattock, wherewith they dig their vines as in
France ; they put two grains of maize together, "f

For boiling their victuals they made use of earthen kettles.:}: The
kettle was held up by two crotches and a stick of wood laid across.
The pot ladle, called by them mikoine, laid at the side. £ "In the
north they often made use of wooden kettles, and made the water
boil by throwing into it red hot pebbles. Our iron pots are esteemed
by them as much more commodious than their own."|

That the North American Indians not only used, but actually
manufactured, pottery for various culinary and religious purposes
admits of no argument. Hennepin remarks: "Before the arrival
of the Europeans in North America both the northern and southern
savages made use of, and do to this day use, earthen pots, especially
such as have no commerce with the Europeans, from whom they may
procure kettles and other movables. "*[ M. Pouchot, who was ac-
quainted with the manners and customs of the Canadian Indians,
states "that they formerly had usages and utensils to which they
are now scarcely accustomed. They made pottery and drew fire from
wood." **

In 1700, Father Gravier, in speaking of the Yazoos, says: "You
see there in their cabins neither clothes, nor sacks, nor kettles, nor
guns ; they carry all with them, and have no riches but earthen pots,
quite well made, especially little glazed pitchers, as neat as you would
see in France." ff The Illinois also occasionally used glazed pitch-
ers.^ The manufacturing of these earthen vessels was done by the
women. §§ By the southern Indians the earthenware goods were
used for religious as well as domestic purposes. Gravier noticed
several in their temples, containing bones of departed warriors,
ashes, etc.

* Statements of early settlers.

t Laudonniere, p. 174.

X Hennepin, vol. 2, p. 105.

§ Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 186.

Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, pp. 123, 124.

IT Volume 2, pp. 102, 103. This work was written in 1697.

** Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 2, p. 219..

ffGravier's Journal, published in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Missis-
sippi, p 135.

XX Vide p. 109 of this work.

§§ Gravier's Journal, published in Shea's Early Voyages Up and Down the Missis-
sippi, p. 135; also, Du Pratz' History of Louisiana, vol. 2, p. 166.

INDIAN FORTIFICATIONS. 183

The American Indians, both northern and southern, had most of
their villages fortified either by wooden palisades, or earthen
breastworks and palisades combined. De Soto, on the 19th of June,
1541, entered the town of Pacaha,* which was very great, walled,
and beset with towers, and many loopholes were in the towers and
wall.f Charlevoix said: " The Indians are more skillful in erect-
ing their fortifications than in building; their houses. Here you see
villages surrounded with good palisades and with redoubts ; and
they are very careful to lay in a proper provision of water and
stones. These palisades are double, and even sometimes treble,
and generally have battlements on the outer circumvallation. The
piles, of which they are composed, are interwoven with branches of
trees, without any void space between them. This sort of fortifica-
tion was sufficient to sustain a long siege whilst the Indians were
ignorant of the use of fire-arms.";}:

La Hontan thus describes these palisaded towns : "Their villages
are fortified with double palisadoes of very hardwood, which, are
as thick as one's thigh, and fifteen feet high, with little squares about
the middle of courtines."§

These wooden fortifications were used to a comparatively late
day. At the siege of Detroit, in 1712, the Foxes and Mascoutins
resisted, in a wooden fort, for nineteen days, the attack of a much
larger force of Frenchmen and Indians. In order to avoid the
fire of the French, they dug holes four or five feet deep in the bot-
tom of their fort. j|

The western Indians, in their fortifications, made use of both
earth and wood. An early American author remarks: "The re-
mains of Indian fortifications seen throughout the western country,
have given rise to strange conjectures, and have been supposed to
appertain to a period extremely remote ; but it is a fact well known
that in some of them the remains of palisadoes were found by the
first settlers. ,,- T When JMaj. Long's party, in 1823, passed through
Fort Wayne, they inquired of Aletea, a celebrated Pottawatomie chief
well versed in the lore of his tribe, whether he had ever heard of any
tradition accounting for the erection of those artificial mounds which
are found scattered over the whole country. "He immediately
replied that they had been constructed by the Indians as fortijica-

* Probably in the limits of the present state of Arkansas.
t Account by the Gentleman of Elvas, p. 172.
X Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 128.
§ Vol. 2, p. 6.

Dubuisson's Official Report.
If Views of Louisiana: Brackenridge, p. 14.

184 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

tions before the white man had come among them. He had always
heard this origin ascribed to them, and knew three of those con-
structions which were supposed to have been made by his nation.
One is at the fork of the Kankakee and the Des Plaines Rivers, a
second on the Ohio, which, from his description, was supposed to be
at the mouth of the Muskingum. He visited it, but could not de-
scribe the spot accurately, and a third, which he had also seen, he
stated to be on the head-waters of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan.
This latter place is about forty miles northwest of Fort Wayne."

One of the Miami chiefs, whom the traders named Le Gros, told
Barron- that " he had heard that his father had fought with his tribe
in one of the forts at Piqua, Ohio ; that the fort had been erected
by the Indians against the French, and that his father had been
killed during one of the assaults made upon it."f

While at Chicago, and "with a view to collect as much informa-
tion as possible on the subject of Indian antiquities, we inquired of
Robinson % whether any traditions on this subject were current
among the Indians. He observed that these ancient fortifications
were a frequent subject of conversation, and especially those in the
nature of excavations made in the ground. He had heard of one
made by the Kickapoos and Fox Indians on the Sangamo River, a
stream running into the Illinois. This fortification is distinguished
by the name of Etnataek. It is known to have served as an in-
trench ment to the Kickapoos and Foxes, who were met there and
defeated by the Pottawatomies, the Ottawas and Chippeways. No
date was assigned to this transaction. We understood that the Et-
nataek was near the Kickapoo village on the Sangamo. "§

Near the dividing line between sections 4 and 5, township 31
north, of range 11 east, in Kankakee county, Illinois, on the prairie
about a mile above the mouth of Rock Creek, are some ancient
mounds. "One is very large, being about one hundred feet base in
diameter and about twenty feet high, in a conic form, and is said to
contain the remains of two hundred Indians who were killed in the
celebrated battle between the Illinois and Chippeways, Delawares
and Shawnees; and about two chains to the northeast, and the same

* An Indian interpreter.

f Long's Expedition to the Sources of the St. Peters, vol. 1, pp. 121, 122.

X Robinson was a Pottawatomie half-breed, of superior intelligence, and his state-
ments can be relied \ipon. He died, only a few years ago, on the Au Sable River.

§ Long's Expedition, vol. 1, p. 121. This stream is laid clown on Joliet's map, pub-
lished in 1681, as the Pierres Sanguines. In the early gazetteers it is called Sangamo:
vide Beck's Illinois and Missouri Gazetteer, p. 154. Its signification in the Pottawat-
omie dialect is " a plenty to eat ": Early History of the West and Northwest, by S. R.
Beggs, p. 157. This definition, however, is somewhat doubtful.

INDIAN MOUNDS. 185

distance to the northwest, are two other small mounds, winch are
said to contain the remains of the chiefs of the two parties."*

Uncorroborated Indian traditions are not entitled to any high
degree of credibility, and these quoted are introduced to refute the
often repeated assertion that the Indians had no tradition concerning
the origin of the mounds scattered through the western states, or
that they supposed them to have been erected by a race who occu-
pied the continent anterior to themselves.

These mounds were seldom or never used for religious purposes
by the Algonquins or Iroquois, but Penicault states that when he
visited the Natchez Indians, in 1704, "the houses of the Sunsf are
built on mounds, and are distinguished from each other by their size.
The mound upon which the house of the Great Chief, or Sun, is
built is larger than the rest, and its sides are steeper. The temple in
the village of the Great Sun is about thirty feet high and forty-eight
in circumference, with the walls eight feet thick and covered with a
matting of canes, in which they keep up a perpetual fire.":}:

De Soto found the houses of the chiefs built on mounds of differ-
ent heights, according to their rank, and their villages fortified with
palisades, or walls of earth, with gateways to go in and out.§

When Gravier, in 1700, visited the Yazoos, he noticed that their
temple was raised on a mouiid of earth. || He also, in speaking of
the Ohio, states that "it is called by the Illinois and Oumiamis the
river of the Akansea, because the Akansea formerly dwelt on it."^[
The Akansea or Arkansas Indians possessed many traits and cus-
toms in common with the Natchez, having temples, pottery, etc.
A still more important fact is noticed by Du Pratz, who was inti-
mately acquainted with the Great Sun. He says: "The temple is
about thirty feet square, and stands on an artificial mound about
eight feet high, by the side of a small river. The mound slopes
insensibly from the main front, which is northward, but on the other
sides it is somewhat steeper."

According to their own traditions, the Natchez "were at one

* Manuscript Kankakee Surveys, conducted by Dan W. Beckwith, deputy govern-
ment surveyor, in 1834. Major Beckwith was intimately acquainted with the Potta-
watomies of the Kankakee, whose villages were in the neighborhood, and without
doubt the account of these mounds incorporated in his Field Notes was communicated
to him by them.

t The chiefs of the Natches were so called because they were supposed to be the
direct descendants of a man and woman, who, descending from the sun, were the first
rulers of this people.

X Annals of Louisiana: Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, new series,
pp. 94, 95.

§ Account by the Gentleman of Elvas.

j Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, p. 136.

IT Idem, p. 120.

186 HISTORIC N*OTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

time the most powerful nation in all North America, and were
looked upon by the other nations as their superiors, and were, on
that account, respected by them. Their territory extended from
the River Iberville, in Louisiana, to the Wabash."* They had over
five hundred suns, and, consequently, nearly that many villages.
Their decline and retreat to the south was ow r ing not to the superi-
ority in arms of the less civilized surrounding tribes, but was due to
the pride of their own chiefs, who, to lend an imposing magnificence
to their funeral rites, adopted the impolitic custom of having hun-
dreds of their followers strangled at their pyre. Many of the
mounds, scattered up and down valleys of the Wabash, Ohio and
Mississippi, while being the only, may be the time-defying monu-
ments of the departed power and grandeur of these two tribes.

The Indian manner of making a fire is thus related by Hennepin:
"Their way of making a fire, which is new and unknown to us, is
thus : they take a triangular piece of cedar wood of a foot and a half
in length, wherein they bore some holes half through ; then they
take a switch, or another small piece of hard w T ood, and with both
their hands rub the strongest upon the weakest in the hole, which is
made in the cedar, and while they are thus rubbing they let fall a
sort of dust or powder, which turns into fire. This white dust they
roll up in a pellet of herbs, dried in autumn, and rubbing them all
together, and then blowing upon the dust that is in the pellets, the
fire kindles in a moment. "f

The food of the Indians consisted of all the varieties of game,
fishes and wild fruits in the vicinity ; and they cultivated Indian
corn, melons and squashes. From corn they made a preparation
called saganiite. They pulverized the corn, mixed it with water,
and added a small proportion of ground gourds or beans.

The clothing of the northern Indians consisted only of the skins
of wild animals, roughly prepared for that purpose. Their southern
brethren were far in advance of them in this respect. "Many of the
women wore cloaks of the bark of the mulberry tree, or of the
feathers of swans, turkies or Indian ducks. The bark they take from
young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of trees that have
been cut down. After it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all
the woody parts fall off, and they give the threads that remain a
second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to
the dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the
coarseness of pack-thread, and weave them in the following manner:

* Du Pratz' History of Louisiana, vol. 2, p. 146. f Ibid, vol. 2, p. 103.

THEIR CANOES. 187

They plant two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder,
and having stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten
their threads of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them
in a curious manner into a cloak of about a yard square, with a
wrought border round the edges.""

The Indians had three varieties of canoes, elm-bark, birch-bark
and pirogues. "Canoes of elm-bark were not used for long voyages,
as they were very frail. When the Indians wish to make a canoe
of elm-bark they select the trunk of a tree which is very smooth, at
the time when the sap remains. They cut it around, above and
below, about ten, twelve or fifteen feet apart, according to the num-
ber of people which it is to carry. After having taken off the whole
in one piece, they shave off the roughest of the bark, which they
make the inside of the canoe. They make end ties of the thickness
of a finger, and of sufficient length for the canoe, using young oak
or any other flexible and strong wood, and fasten the two larger
folds of the bark between these strips, spreading them apart with
wooden bows, which are fastened in about two feet apart. They sew
up the two ends of the bark with strips drawn from the inner bark
of the elm, giving attention to raise up a little the two extremities,
which they call pinces, making a swell in the middle and a curve on
the sides, to resist the wind. If there are any chinks, they sew them
together with thongs and cover them with chewing-gum, which they
crowd by heating it with a coal of fire. The bark is fastened to the
wooden bows by wooden thongs. They add a mast, made of a piece
of wood and cross-piece to serve as a yard, and their blankets serve
them as sails. These canoes will carry from three to nine persons
and all their equipage. They sit upon their heels, without moving,
as do also their children, when they are in, from fear of losing their
balance, when the whole machine would upset. But this very seldom
happened, unless struck by a flaw of wind. They use these vessels
particularly in their war parties.

"The canoes made of birch bark were much more solid and more
artistically constructed. The frames of these canoes are made of
strips of cedar wood, which is very flexible, and which they render
as thin as a side of a sword-scabbard, and three or four inches wide.
They all touch one another, and come up to a point between the
two end strips. This frame is covered with the bark of the birch tree,
sewed together like skins, secured between the end strips and tied

* Du Pratz, vol. 2, p. 231 ; also, Gravier's Voyage, p. 134. The aboriginal method of
procuring thread to sew together their garments made of skins has already been no-
ticed in the description of the manners and customs of the Illinois.

188 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

along the ribs with the inner bark of the roots of the cedar, as we
twist willows around the hoops of a cask. All these seams are cov-
ered with gum,* as is done with canoes of elm bark. They then
put in cross-bars to hold it and to serve as seats, and a long pole,
which they lay on from fore to aft in rough weather to prevent it
from being broken by the shocks occasioned by pitching. They
have with them three, six, twelve and even twenty-four places, which
are designated as so many seats. The French are almost the only
people who use these canoes for their long voyages. They will carry
as much as three thousand pounds, "f These were vessels in which
the fur trade of the entire northwest has been carried on for so many
years. They were very light, four men being able to carry the
largest of ,them over portages. At night they were unloaded, drawn
upon the shore, turned over and served the savages or traders as
huts. They could endure gales of wind that would play havoc with
vessels of European manufacture. In calm water, the canoe men,
in a sitting posture, used paddles ; in stemming currents, rising from
their seats, they substituted poles for paddles, and in shooting
rapids, they rested on their knees.

Pirogues were the trunks of trees hollowed out and pointed at
the extremities. A fire was started on the trunk, out of which the
pirogue was to be constructed. The fire was kept within the desired
limits by the dripping of water upon the edges of the trunk. As a
part became charred, it was dug out with stone hatchets and the fire
rekindled. This kind of canoes was especially adapted for the navi-
gation of the Mississippi and Missouri ; the current of these streams
carrying down trees, which formed snags, rendered their navigation
by bark canoes exceedingly hazardous. It was probably owing to
this reason, as well as because there were no birch trees in their
country, that the Illinois and Miamis were not, as the Jesuits re-
marked, "canoe nations;" they used the awkward, heavy pirogue
instead.

Each nation was divided into villages. The Indian village, when
unfortified, had its cabins scattered along the banks of a river or the

*"The small roots of the spruce tree afford the waitap with which the bark is
sewed, and the gum of the pine tree supplies the place of tar and oakum. Bark, some
spare wattap and gum are always carried in each canoe, for the repairs which fre-
quently become necessary." Vide Henry's Travels, p. 14.

t The above extracts are taken from the Memoir Upon the Late War in North Amer-
ica Between the French and English, 1755-1760, by M. Pouchot; translated and edited
by Franklin Hough, vol. 2, pp. 216, 217, 218. Pouchot was the commandant at Fort
Niagara at the time of its surrender to the English. He was exceedingly well versed
in all that pertained to Indian manners and customs, and his work received the indorse-
ment of Marquis Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada. Of the translation, there were only
two hundred copies printed.

WIGWAMS. 180

shores of a lake, and often extended for three or four miles. Each
cabin held the head of the family, the children, grandchildren, and
often the brothers and sisters, so that a single cabin not unfrequently
contained as many as sixty persons. Some of their cabins were in
the form of elongated squares, of which the sides were not more
than five or six feet high. They were made of bark, and the roof
was prepared from the same material, having an opening in the top
for the passage of smoke. At both ends of the cabin there were
entrances. The fire was built under the hole in the roof, and there
were as many fires as there were families.

The beds were upon planks on the floor of the cabin, or upon
simple hides, which they called appicMmon, placed along the parti-
tions. They slept upon these skins, wrapped in their blankets,
which, during the day, served them for clothing. Each one had
his particular place. The man and wife crouched together, her
back being against his body, their blankets passed around their
heads and feet, so that they looked like a plate of ducks. * These
bark cabins were used by the Iroquois, and, indeed, by many Indian
tribes who lived exclusively in the forests.

The prairie Indians, who were unable to procure bark, generally
made mats out of platted reeds or flags, and placed these^mats around
three or four poles tied together at the ends. They were, in form,
round, and terminated in a cone. These mats were sewed together
with so much skill that, when new, the rain could not penetrate
them. This variety of cabins possessed the great advantage that,
when they moved their place of residence, the mats of reeds were
rolled up and carried along by the squaws. f

"The nastiness of these cabins alone, and that infection which
was a necessary consequence of it, would have been to any one but
an Indian a severe punishment. Having no windows, they were full
of smoke, and in cold weather they were crowded with dogs. The
Indians never changed their garments until they fell off by their
very rottenness. Being never washed, they were fairly alive with
vermin. In summer the savages bathed every day, but immediately
afterward rubbed themselves with oil and grease of a very rank
smell. "In winter they remained unwashed, and it was impossible
to enter their cabins without being poisoned with the stench."

All their food was very ill-seasoned and insipid, "and there pre-
vailed in all their repasts an uncleanliness which passed all concep-

* Extract from Pouchot's Memoirs, pp. 185, 186.

t Letter of Father Marest, Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 199.

190 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

tion. There were very few animals wliicli did not feed cleaner."*
They never washed their wooden or bark dishes, nor their porringers
and spoons, f In this connection William Biggs states: "They:}:
plucked off a few of the largest feathers, then threw the duck, —
feathers, entrails and all, — into the soup-kettle, and cooked it in that
manner. "§

The Indians were cannibals, though human flesh was only eaten
at war feasts. It was often the case that after a prisoner had been
tortured his body was thrown into "the war-kettle," and his remains
greedily devoured. This fact is uniformly asserted by the early
French writers. Members of Major Long's party made especial
inquiries at Fort "Wayne concerning this subject, and were entirely
convinced. They met persons who had attended the feasts, and saw
Indians who acknowledged that they had participated in them.
Joseph Barron saw the Pottawatomies with hands and limbs, both
of white men and Cherokees, which they were about to devour.
Among some tribes cannibalism was universal, but it appears that
among the Pottawatomies and Miamis it was restricted to a frater-
nity whose privilege and duty it was on all occasions to eat of the
enemy's flesh ; — at least one individual must be eaten. The flesh
was sometimes dried and taken to the villages. II

The Indians had some peculiar funeral customs. Joutel thus
records some of his observations: "They pay a respect to their
dead, as appears by their special care of burying them, and even of
putting into lofty coffins the bodies of such as are considerable
among them, as their chiefs and others, which is also practiced
among the Accanceas, but they differ in this respect, that the Accan-
ceas weep and make their complaints for some days, whereas the
Shawnees and other people of the Illinois nation do just the con-
trary, for when any of them die they wrap them up in skins and
then put them into coffins made of the bark of trees, then sing and
dance about them for twenty-four hours. Those dancers take care
to tie calabashes, or gourds, about their bodies, with some Indian
corn in them, to rattle and make a noise, and some of them have a
drum, made of a great earthen pot, on which they extend a wild
goat's skin, and beat thereon with one stick, like our tabors. During
that rejoicing they threw their presents on the coffin, as bracelets,

* Charlevoix 1 Narrative Journal, vol. 2, pp. 132, 133.

f For a full account of their lack of neatness in the culinary department, vide Hen-
nepin, vol. 2, p. 120.
% The Kickapoos.

§ Narrative of William Biggs, p. 9.
I Long's Expedition to the sources of the St. Peters, vol. 1, pp. 103-106.

BURIAL CEREMONIES. 191

pendants or pieces of earthenware. When the ceremony was over
they buried the body, with a part of the presents, making choice of
such as may be most proper for it. They also bury with it some
store of Indian wheat, with a jx>t to boil it in, for fear the dead per-
son should be hungry on his long journey, and they repeat the cere-
mony at the year's end. A good number of presents still remaining,
they divide them into several lots and play at a game called the stick
to give them to the winner."*

The Indian graves were made of a large size, and the whole of
the inside lined with bark. On the bark was laid the corpse, accom-
panied with axes, snow-shoes, kettle, common shoes, and, if a wo-
man, carrying-belts and paddles.

This was covered with bark, and at about two feet nearer the
surface, logs were laid across, and these again covered with bark, so
that the earth might by no means fall upon the corpse, f If the
deceased, before his death, had so expressed his wish, a tree was
hollowed out and the corpse deposited within. After the body had
become entirely decomposed, the bones were often collected and
buried in the earth. Many of these wooden sepulchres were dis-
covered by the early settlers in Iroquois county, Illinois. Doubt-
less they were the remains of Pottawatomies, who at that time re-
sided there.

After a death they took care to visit every place near their cabins,
striking incessantly with rods and raising the most hideous cries, in
order to drive the souls to a distance, and to keep them from lurk-
ing about their cabins.;}:

The Indians believed that every animal contained a Manitou or
God, and that these spirits could exert over them a beneficial or
prejudicial influence. The rattlesnake was especially venerated by
them. Henry relates an instance of this veneration. He saw a
snake, and procured his gun, with the intention of dispatching it.
The Indians begged him to desist, and, "with their pipes and to-
bacco-pouches in their hands, approached the snake. They sur-
rounded it, all addressing it by turns and calling it their grand-
father, but yet kept at some distance. During this part of the cer-
emony, they filled their pipes, and each blew the smoke toward the
snake, which, as it appeared to me, really received it with pleasure.
In a word, after remaining coiled and receiving incense for the space
of half an hour, it stretched itself along the ground in visible good

* Joutel's Journal: Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. 1, pp. 187, 188.

t Extract from Henry's Travels, p. 150.

% Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 154.

192 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

humor. The Indians followed it, and, still addressing it by the
title of grandfather, beseeched it to take care of their families dur-
ing their absence, and also to open the hearts of the English, that
that they might fill their (the Indians') canoes with ruin.* This
reverence of the Indians for the rattlesnake will account for the vast
number of these reptiles met with by early settlers in localities fa-
vorable for their increase and security. The clefts in the rocky
cliffs below Niagara Falls were so infested with rattlesnakes that
the Indians removed their village to a place of greater security.

The Indians had several games, some of which have been already
noticed. McCoy mentions a singular occurrence of this nature : "A
Miami Indian had been stabbed with a knife, who lingered, and of
whose recovery there was doubt. On the 12th of May a party re-
solved to decide by a game of moccasin whether the man should live
or die. In this game the party seat themselves upon the earth
opposite to each other, while one holds a moccasin on the ground
with one hand, and holds in the other a small ball ; the ball he
affects to conceal in the moccasin, and does either insert it or not, as
he shall choose, and then leaves the opposite party to guess where
the ball is. In order to deceive his antagonist, he incessantly utters
a kind of a sing-song, which is repeated about thrice in a minute,
and moving his hands in unison with the notes, brings one of them,
at every repetition, to the mouth of the moccasin, as though he had
that moment inserted the ball. One party played for the wounded
man's recovery and the other for his death Two games were
played, in both of which the side for recovery was triumphant, and
so they concluded the man would not die of his wounds. "f

The Indians had a most excellent knowledge of the topography
of their country, and they drew the most exact maps of the coun-
tries they were acquainted with. They set down the true north
according to the polar star ; the ports, harbors, rivers, creeks, and
coasts of the lakes ; roads, mountains, woods, marshes and meadows.
They counted the distances by journeys and half-journeys, allowing
to every journey five leagues. These maps were drawn upon birch
bark.:}: "Previous to General Brock's crossing over to Detroit, he
asked Tecumseh what sort of a country he should have to pass
tli rough in case of his preceding farther. Tecumseh took a roll of
elm bark, and extending it on the ground, by means of four stones,
drew forth his scalping knife, and, with the point, etched upon the

* Alexander Henry's Travels, p. 176.
t Baptist Missions, p. 98.
X LaHontan, vol. 2, p. 13.

MARRIAGE AND RELIGION. 193

bark a plan of the country, its hills, woods, rivers, morasses, a plan
which, if not as neat, was fully as accurate as if it had been made
by a professional map-maker.*

In marriage, they had no ceremony worth mentioning, the man
and the woman agreeing that for so many bucks, beaver hides, or,
in short, any valuables, she should be his wife. Of all the passions,
the Indians were least influenced by love. Some authors claim that
it had no existence, excepting, of course, mere lust, which is pos-
sessed by all animals. "By women, beauty was commonly no mo-
tive to marriage, the only inducement being the reward which she
received. It was said that the women were purchased by the night,
week, month or winter, so that they depended on fornication for a
living ; nor was it thought either a crime or shame, none being
esteemed as prostitutes but such as were licentious without a re-
ward, "f Polygamy was common, but was seldom practiced except
by the chiefs. On the smallest offense husband and wife parted,
she taking the domestic utensils and the children of her sex. Chil-
dren formed the only bond of affection between the two sexes ; and
of them, to the credit of the Indian be it said, they were very fond.
They never chastised them, the only punishment being to dash, by
the hand, water into the face of the refractory child. Joutel noticed
this method of correction among the Illinois, and nearly a hundred
years later Jones mentions the same custom as existing among the
Shawnees4

The Algonquin tribes, differing in this respect from the southern
Indians, had no especial religion. They believed in good and bad
spirits, and thought it was only necessary to appease the wicked
spirits, for the good ones "were all right anyway." These bad
spirits were thought to occupy the bodies of animals, fishes and rep- '
tiles, to dwell in high mountains, gloomy caverns, dangerous whirl-
pools, and all large bodies of water. This will account for the
offerings of tobacco and other valuables which they made when
passing such places. No ideas of morals or metaphysics ever en-
tered the head of the Indians ; they believed what was told them
upon those subjects, without having more than a vague impression
of their meaning. Some of the Canadian Indians, in all sincerity,
compared the Holy Trinity to a piece of pork. There they found
the lean meat, the fat and the rind, three distinct parts that form

* James' Military Occurrences in the Late War Between Great Britain and the
United States, vol. 1, pp. 291, 292.

* Journal of Two Visits made to Some Nations West of the Ohio, by the Rev.
David Jones: Sabin's reprint, p. 75.

t Idem.
13

194 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.

the same piece."* Their ideas of heaven was a place full of sen-
sual enjoyments, and free from physical pains. Indeed, it is doubt-
ful if, before their mythology was changed by the partial adoption
of some of the doctrines of Christianity, they had any idea of spir-
itual reward or punishment.

"Wampum, prior to and many years subsequent to the advent of
the Em-opeans, was the circulating medium among the North Ameri-
can Indians. It is made out of a marine shell, or periwinkle, some
of which are white, others violet, verging toward black. They are
perforated in the direction of the greater diameter, and are worked
into two forms, strings and belts. The strings consist of cylinders
strung without any order, one after another, on to a thread. The
belts are wide sashes in which the white and purple beads are
arranged in rows and tied by little leathern strings, making a very
pretty tissue. Wampum belts are used in state affairs, and their
length, width and color are in proportion to the importance of the
affair being negotiated. They are wrought, sometimes, into figures
of considerable beauty.

These belts and strings of wampum are the universal agent with
the Indians, not only as money, jewelry or ornaments, but as annals
and for registers to perpetuate treaties and compacts between indi-
viduals and nations. They are the inviolable and sacred pledges
which guarantee messages, promises and treaties. As writing is
not in use among them, they make a local memoir by means of
these belts, each of which signify a particular affair or a circum-
stance relating to it. The village chiefs are the custodians, and com-
municate the affairs they perpetuate to the young people, who thus
learn the history, treaties and engagements of their nation. + Belts
are classified as message, road, peace or war belts. White signifies
peace, as black does war. The color therefore at once indicates the
intention of the person or tribe who sends or accepts a belt. So
general was the importance of the belt, that the French and English,
and the Americans, even down as late as the treaty of Greenville,
in 1795, used it in treating with the Indians.;};

* Pouehot's Memoir, vol. 2, p. 223.

t The account given above is taken from a note of the editor of the documents
relative to the Colonial History of New York, etc., vol. 9. Paris Documents, p. 556.

| The explanation here given will assist the reader to an understanding of the
grave significance attached to the giving or receiving of belts so frequently referred to
in the course of this work.

CHAPTER XIX.

STONE IMPLEMENTS.

The stone implements illustrated in this chapter are introduced
as specimens of workmanship of the comparatively modern Indians,
who lived and hunted in the localities where the specimens were
found. The author is aware that similar implements have been
illustrated and described in works which relate to an exclusively
prehistoric race. Without entering into a discussion concerning the
so-called "Mound Builders," that being a subject foreign to the
scope of this work, it may be stated that some theorists have placed
the epoch of the "prehistoric race" quite too far within the bounda-
ries of well-established historical mention, and have assigned to the
."Mound Builders" remains and relics which were undoubtedly the
handiwork of the modern American Indians.*

Indeed many of the stone implements, also much of the pottery,
and many of the so-called ancient mounds and excavations as well,
found throughout the west, may be accounted for without going
beyond the era of the North American Indian in quest of an explana-
tion. It is not at all intended here to question the fact of the exist-
ence of the prehistoric race, or to deny that they have left more or
less of their remains, but the line of demarkation between that race

* Mr. H. N. Rust, of Chicago, in his extensive collection, has many implements
similar to those attributed to prehistoric man, which he obtained from the Sioux Indi-
ans of northwestern Dakota, with whom they were in daily use. Among his samples
are large stone hammers with a groove around the head, and the handles nicely at-
tached. The round stone, with flattened sides, generally regarded as a relic of a lost
race, he found at the door of the lodges of the Sioux, with the little stone hammer,
hooded with rawhide, to which the handle was fastened, with which bones, nuts and
other hard substances were broken by the squaws or children as occasion required.
The appearance of the larger disc, and the well-worn face of the hammer, indicate
their long and constant use by this people. The round,- egg-shaped stone, illustrated
by Fig. 9. supposed to belong to the prehistoric age, Mr. Rust found in common use
among this tribe. The manner of fastening the handle is illustrated in the cuts, Figs.
9 and 36. The writer is indebted to Mr. Rust for favors conferred in the loan of imple-
ments credited to his collection, as well, also, for his valuable aid in preparing the
illustrated portion of this chapter. The other implements illustrated were selected
from W. C. Beckwith's collection. The Indians informed Mr. Rust that these clubs
(Figs. 8 and 9) were used to kill buffalo, or other animals that had been wounded; as
implements of offense and defense in personal encounters ; as a walking-stick (the
stone being used as a handle) by the dandies of the tribe; and they were carried as a
mace or badge of authority in the rites and ceremonies of the societies established
among these Indians, which were similar in some respects to our fraternities.

105

196

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and the modern Indian cannot be traced with satisfaction until after
large collections of the remains of both races shall have been secured
and critically compared under all the light which a careful examina-
tion of historical records will shed upon this new and interesting
field of inquiry.

Stone implements are by no means peculiar to North America;
they have been found all over the inhabitable world. Europe is
especially prolific in such remains. While the material of which they
are made varies according to the geological resources of the several
countries in which they are found, there is a striking similarity in
the shape, size and form of them all. At the present time like
implements are in use among some of the South Sea Islanders, and
by a few tribes of North American Indians living in remote sections,
and enjoying but a limited intercourse with the enlightened world.

The stone age marks an important epoch in the progress of races
of men from the early stages of their existence toward a higher civ-
ilization. After they had passed the stone age, and learned how to
manipulate iron and other metals, their advance, as a general rule,
has been more rapid.

The implements here illustrated are specimens of some of the-
more prominent types of the vast number which have been found
throughout the valleys of the Maumee, Wabash and Illinois Rivers,
and the sections of country drained by their tributaries. They are
picked up about the sites of old Indian villages, in localities where
game was pursued, on the hillsides and in the ravines where they
have become exposed by the rains, and in the furrows turned up by
the plowshare. They are the remains of the early occupants of the
territory we have described, — testimonials alike of their necessities
and their ingenuity, and were used by them until an acquaintance
with the Europeans supplied them with weapons and utensils formed
out of metals.*

It will be observed from extracts found in the preceding chapter
that our Indians made and used implements of copper and stone,
manufactured pottery, some of which was glazed, wove cloth of fiber
and also of wool, erected fortifications of wooden palisades, or of
palisades and earth combined, to protect their villages from their
enemies, excavated holes in the ground, which were used for defen-

* It may be well to state in this connection that the implements illustrated in this
work, except the handled club, Figs. 9 and 36, were not found in mounds or in their
vicinity, but werelgathered upon or in the immediate neighborhood of places known to
the early settlers "as the sites of Piankeshaw, Miami, Pottawatomie and Kickapoo vil-
lages, and in the same localities where have been found red-stone pipes of Indian make,
knives, hatchets, gun-barrels, buckles, flints for old-fashioned fusees, brooches, wrist-
bands, kettles, and other articles of European manufacture.

STONE IMPLEMENTS.

197

sive purposes, and erected mounds of earth, some of which were
used for religious rites, and others as depositories for their dead.
All these facts are well attested by early Spanish, French and Amer-
ican authors, who have recorded their observations while passing
through the country. We have also seen in previous chapters that
our "red men" cultivated corn and other products of the soil, and
were as much an agricultural people as is claimed for the "Mound
Builders."

The specimens marked Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are samples of a lot of
one hundred and sixteen pieces, found in 1878 in a "pocket"' on
Wm. Pogue's farm, a few miles southeast of Rossville, Yermilion

Fig. 1=K-

Fig. 2=i^.

Fig. 3=%.

Vermilion county, 111.

county, Illinois. Mr. Pogue had cleared off a piece of ground for-
merly prairie, on which a growth of jack oak trees and underbrush
had encroached since the early settlement of the county. This land
had never been cultivated, and as it was being broken up, the plow-
share ran into the "nest," and turned the implements to view.
They were closely packed together, and buried about eight inches
b>elow the natural surface of the ground, which was level with the
other parts of the field, and had no appearance of a mound, excava-
tion, or any other artificial disturbance. Two of the implements,
judging from their eroded fractures, were broken at the time they

198

HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.

were deposited, and one other was broken in two by the plow. The
material of which they are composed is white chert. The samples
illustrated are taken as an average, in size and shape, of the whole
lot, the largest of which is 3f inches wide by 7 inches long, and the
smallest 2 inches wide by nearly 4 inches in length. Some of them
are nearly oval, others long and pointed at both ends, in others the
"shoulders'' 1 are well defined, while, for the most part, they are
broadly rounded at one end and pointed at the other. They are all
in the rough, and no finished implement was found with or near them.
Indeed the whole lot are apparently in an unfinished condition.
With very little dressing they could be fashioned into perfect im-
plements, such as the " fleshers, " " scrapers, " " knives, " " spear ' '
and "arrow" heads described farther on. There are no quarries or
deposits of flint of the kind known to exist within many miles of
the locality where these implements were found. We can only con-
jecture the uses for which they were designed. We can imagine the
owner to have been a merchant or trader, who had dressed them
down or procured them at the quarries in this condition, so they
would be lighter to carry to the tribes on the prairies, where they
could be perfected to suit the taste of the purchaser. We might
further imagine that the implement merchant, threatened with some
approaching danger, hid them where they were afterward found, and
never returned. The eroded appearance of many of the "find"
bear witness that the lot were buried a great many years ago.*

Fig. 4 is an axe and hammer combined.
The material is a fine-grained granite. The
handle is attached with thongs of rawhide
passed around the groove, or with a split stick
or forked branch wythed around, and either
kind of fastening could be tightened by driv-
ing a wedge between the attachment and the
surface of the implement, which on the back
is slightly concaved to hold the wedge in
place.

Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are also axes; material,
dark granite. Heretofore it has been the
popular opinion that these instruments are Vermilion comt ^ m -
"fleshers," and were used in skinning animals, cutting up the flesh,

*The writer has divided the "lot," sending samples to the Historical Societies of
Wisconsin and Chicago, and placed others in the collections of H. N. Rust, of Chicago;
Prof. John Collett, of Indianapolis; Prof. A. H. Worthen, Springfield, Illinois; Jose-
phus Collett, of Terre Haute, while the others remain in the collection of W. C. Beck-
with, at Danville, Illinois.

Fig. A=H

STONE IMPLEMENTS.

199

and for scraping hides when preparing them for tanning. The re-
cent discoveries of remains of the ancient "Lake Dwellers," of
Switzerland, have resulted in finding similar implements attached to
handles, making them a very formidable battle-axe.

Fig. 5=34.

Vermilion county, 111.

Vermilion co., 111. (H. N. Rust's Collection.)

From the implements obtained by Mr. Rust of the Sioux it can
readily be seen how implements like Fig. 6, although tapering
from the bit to the top, could be attached to handles by means of a
rawhide band. Before fastening on the handle the rawhide would
be soaked in water, and on drying would tighten to the roughened
surface of the stone with a secure grip. A blow given with the cut-
ting edge of this implement would tend to wedge it the more firmly
into the handle.*

* In the Fifth Annual Report of the Regents of the University of New York
(Albany, 1852. page 105), Mr. L. H. Morgan illustrates the ga-ne-a-ga-o-dus-ha, or war
club, used by " the Iroquois at the period of their discovery.' 1 The helve is a crooked
piece of wood, with a chisel-shaped bit formed out of deer's horn — shaped like Fig.
No. 7, on the next page — inserted at the elbow, near the larger end; and in many
respects it resembles the clubs illustrated in Plate X, vol. 2, of Dr. Keller's work on
the " Lake Dwellings of Switzerland and other parts of Europe." Mr. Morgan remarks
that "in later times apiece of steel was substituted for the deer horn, thus making
it a more deadly weapon than formerly." There is little doubt that the Indians
used such implements as Figs. 5, 6 and 7 for splitting wood and various other pur-
poses. The fact of their being used for splitting wood was mentioned by Father
Charlevoix over a hundred and fifty years ago, as appears from extracts on page 181 of
this book, quoted from his Narrative Journal.

200

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Fig. 7=M.

Fig. 7 is another style of axe. The mate-
rial out of which it is composed is greenstone,
admitting of a fine polish. There would be no
difficulty at all in shrinking a rawhide band to
its surface, and the somewhat polished condi-
tion of its sides above the "bit" would indi-
cate a long application of this kind of a fasten-
ing. It could also be used as a chisel in exca-
vating the charred surface of wood that was
being fashioned into canoes, mortars for crack-
ing corn, or in the construction of other domes-
tic utensils.

Fig. 8 is a club or hammer, or both. Its
material is dark quartz. Some varieties of this
implement have a groove cut around the cen-
ter, like Fig. 9. The manner of handling it in-
volves the use of rawhide, and, with some, is
performed substantially in the same manner as
in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, except that the band of rawhide is broader,
and extends some distance on either side of the lesser diameter

Vermilion county, 1 1 1 .

Fig. 8=%.

Fig. 36.

0Wms

Vermilion county. Til.
(H. N. Rust's Collection.)

Dakota.
(H. N. Rust's Collection.)

of the stone. In other instances they are secured in a hood of
rawhide that envelops nearly the whole implement, leaving the
point or one end of the stone slightly exposed, as in Fig. 36.*

* Mr. Rust has in his collection a number of such implements, some of them
weighing several pounds, which, along with the ones illustrated, were obtained by him
from the Sioux of northwest Dakota, and which are "hooded 1 ' in the manner here
described. Mr. Wm. Gurley, of Danville, Illinois, while in southwestern Colorado in
1876, saw many such clubs in use by the Ute Indians. They were entirely encased
in rawhide, having short handles. The handles were encased in the rawhide that
extended continuously, enveloping both the handle and the stone. The Utes used these
implements as hammers in crushing corn, etc.. the rawhide covering of some being
worn through from long use, and exposing the stone.

IMPLEMENTS FOR DESTRUCTIVE PURPOSES.

201

Fig. 9 was obtained from the Sioux by Mr. Rust. The stone is
composed of semi-transparent quartz. Its uses have already been
described.

Fig. 9.

Northwest Dakota (H. N. Rust's Collection).

Fig. 10

Figs. 10 and 11 were probably used as spear-heads, they are
certainly too large for arrow-heads, and too thick and roundish
to answer the purpose of knives. The
material is white chert. The edges of Fig. 1l=%.
both these implements are spiral, the
"wind" of the opposite edges being
quite uniform. Whether this was owing
to the design of the maker or the twist
in the grain of the chert, from which llW'1
they are made, is a conjecture at best.

Fig. 12=fc

,,',41

(,l!|/"«

''"Wl

Vermilion
county, 111.

Vermilion county,
111.

Vermilion county, 111.

Fig. 12 was probably a spear or knife.
The material is dark flint. A piece of
quartz is impacted in the upper half of
the blade, the chipping through of which
displays the skill of the person who made
it. The shoulders of the implement are unequal, and the angle of
its edges are not uniform. It is flatter upon .one side than upon
the other. These irregularities would throw it out of balance, and
seemingly preclude its use as an arrow, while its strong shank and
deep yokes above the shoulder would admit of its being firmly
secured to a handle.

Fig. 13 was probably intended for an arrow-head, and thrown
aside because of a flaw on the surface opposite that shown in the cut.

202

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

It is introduced to illustrate the manner in which the work Fig. 13=%.
progresses in making such implements. From an exam-
ination it would appear that the outline of the implement
is first made. After this, one side is reduced to the re-
quired form. Then work on the opposite side begins, the
point and edges being first reduced. The flakes are
chipped off from the edges upward toward the center of
and against the part of the stone to be cut away. In this Vermilion
manner the delicate point and completed edges are pre-
served while the implement is being perfected, leaving the shoulders,
neck and shank the last to be finished.

Fig. 14 is formed out of dark-colored, hard, fine-grained flint. Its
edges are a uniform spiral, making nearly a half-turn from shoulder

Yu-,.U=%.

Fig.15=%.

Fro.l6 = K.

Vermilion county,

Vermilion county, 111.
(H. N. Rust's Collection.)

Vermilion county, 111.

to point. It is neatly balanced, and if used as an arrow-head its wind
or twist would, without doubt, give a rotary motion to the shaft in
its flight. It is very ingeniously made, and its delicately chipped
surface shows that the man who made the implement intentionally
gave it the peculiar shape it possesses.

Fig. 15 is made out of fine-grained blue flint. It is unusually long
in proportion to its breadth. Its edges are neatly beveled from a
line along its center, and are quite sharp. Its well defined shoulders
and head, with the yoke deeply cut between to hold the thong, would
indicate its use as an arrow-point.

ARROW HEADS.

203

Fig. 16 is a perfect implement, and its surfaces are smoother than
the observer might infer from the illustration. Its edges are very-
sharp and smooth and parallel to the axis of the implement. Its
head, unlike that of the other implements illustrated, is round and
pointed, with cutting edges as carefully formed as any part of the
blade. It has no yoked neck in which to bury a thong or thread,
and there seems to be no way of fastening it into a shaft or handle.
It may be a perfect instrument without the addition of either. It is
made out of blue flint.

ARROW HEADS.

Several different forms of implements (commonly recognized as
arrow heads) are illustrated, to show some of the more common of
the many varieties found everywhere over the country. Fig. 17
has uniformly slanting edges, sharp barbs and a strong shank. The
material from which it is made is white chert. For shooting fish or
in pursuing game or an enemy, where it was intended that the im-
plement could not be easily withdrawn from the flesh in which it
might be driven, the prominent barbs would secure a firm hold.

Fig. 18 is composed of blue flint ; its outline is more rounded
than the preceding specimen, while a spiral form is given to its deli-
cate and sharp point.

Fig. 17=3^

Fig. 18=^

Fig. 20=14.

Fig. 19=^

Vermilion county,
111.

Vermilion
county, 111.

Vermilion county,
111.

Vermilion
county, 111.

Fig. 19 is composed of white chert. Its surface is much smoother
than the shadings in the cut would imply. Its" shape is very much
like a shield. Its barbs are prominent, and the instrument would
make a wide incision in the body of an animal into which it might
be forced.

Fig. 20, like Fig. 17, has sharp and elongated barbs. It is fash-
ioned out of white chert, and is a neat, smooth and well-balanced
implement.

204

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Fig. 21 = H.

Fig. 21 is made from yellowish-brown quartz, semi-transparent
and inclined to be impure. The surfaces are oval from edge to
edge, while the edges themselves are beautifully serrated or notched,
as is shown in the cut. It is, perhaps, a sample of the finest work-
manship illustrated in this chapter. Indeed, among
the many collections which the writer has had oppor-
tunities to examine, he has never seen a specimen that
was more skillfully made.

Fig. 22 may be an arrow-point or a reamer. The
material is white chert. Between the stem and the
notches the implement is quite thick, tapering gradu-
ally back to the head, giving great support to this part
of the implement.

Fig. 23 is an arrow-point, or would be so regarded.
Its stem is roundish, and has a greater diameter than
the cut would indicate to the eye. The material from
which it is formed is white chert.

Vermilion
county, 111.

Fig. 22 = M-

Fig. 23=3^.

Fig. 24=^.

Fig. 25=y 2 .

Vermilion co., 111. Vermilion co., 111. Vermilion co., 111. Vermilion co., 111.

Figs. 24 and 25 are specimens of the smaller variety of " points v
with which arrows are tipped that are used in killing small game.
Fig. 24 is made out of black "trap-rock," and Fig. 25 out of flesh-
colored flint.

Fig. 26 is displayed on account of its peculiar form ; the under
surface is nearly flat, and the other side has quite a ridge or spine
running the entire length from head to point, Besides this the head

and point turn upward, giving a uniform
curve to the implement. If used as an
arrow-point, the shaft, in consequence of
the shape of the stone, would describe a
curved line when shot from the bow. It
is made of white flint. No suggestions

Fig. 26=^

Vermilion county, 111.
are offered as to its probable uses

'£>&'

VARIETIES OF IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES.

205

IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES.

Fig. 27 is a pestle or pounder. It is made out of common gran-
ite. There are many different styles of this p ir 07 _ -u
implement, some varieties are more conical,
while others are more bell-shaped than the
one illustrated. They are used for crushing
corn and other like purposes. The one illus-
trated has a concave place near the center of
the base ; this would the better adapt it to
cracking nuts, as the hollow space would
protect the kernel from being too severely
crushed. In connection with this stone, the
Indians sometimes used mortars, made either
of wood or stone, into which the articles
to be pulverized could be placed ; or the
corn or beans could be done up in the folds Vermilion county, Illinois.
of a skin, or inclosed in a leathern bag, and ( H - N - Rust s collectlon -)
then crushed by blows struck with either the head or rim of the
pestle. The stone mortars were usually flat discs, slightly hollowed
out from the edges toward the center.

Fig. 28 may be designated as a flesher or scraper. The specimen

illustrated is made of white flint. It is very
thin, considering the breadth and length of the
implement, and has sharp cutting edges all the
way around. It might be used as a knife, as
well as for a variety of other purposes. It is
an unusually smooth and highly finished tool.
It and its mate, which is considerably broader,
and proportioned more like p IG 29—%.
Fig. 29, were found sticking
perpendicular in the ground,
with their points barely ex-
posed above the surface, on
the farm of Wm. Foster, a
few miles east of Danville,
Illinois. Both of them will
make as clean a cut through
several folds of paper as the
blade of a good pocket-knife.

Fig. 29 is composed of an impure purplish flint. It is very much
like Fig. 28, and was probably used for similar purposes.

Fig. 28

Vermilion county, 111.

Vermilion co., 111.

206

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Fio. 30=^. Fig. 30, as the illustration shows, is rougher-

edged than the two preceding ones. The side
opposite the one shown has a more uneven sur-
face than the other. A smooth, well-defined
groove runs across the implement (as shown by
the dark shading) as though it were intended to
be fastened to a helve, although the groove
would afford good support for the thumb, if

the implement were used only with the hand.
Vermilion county, 111. mi . n . . -in.

•" I lie material is a coarse, impure, grayish flint.

Fig. 31 might be said to combine the qualities of a „ qo_.iv
knife, gimlet and bodkin. Its cutting edges extend all
Fig. 31=3/. around, and along the stem the edges are
quite abrupt. The implement was origi-
nally much longer, but it appears to have
lost about an inch in length, its point hav-
ing been broken off. The blade will cut
cloth or paper very readily. The mate-
rial is white flint.

Fig. 32 may be classed with Fig. 31.
The material is dark fine-grained flint, and
the implement perfect. There is a per-
ceptible wind to the edges of the stem,
while the edges of the head are parallel
with the plane of the implement, and so
sharp that they will cut cloth, leather or
paper. It was probably used to bore holes

Vermilion
county, 111.

Fi6.33=%

and cut out skins that were being nianu-

Vermilion
county, 111.

factured into clothing and other articles.

Fig. 33 may have been made for the same uses as
Figs. 31 and 32. The blade is shaped like a spade,
the stem representing the handle. It tapers from
the bit of the blade where the stem joins the
shoulder, which is the thickest part of the imple-
ment, and from the shoulder it tapers to both ends.
The bit is shaped like a gouge, and makes a circular
incision. It is a smooth piece of workmanship, made
out of white flint.

STONE IMPLEMENTS.

207

Fig.

" rimmer."

The Fig. 34=^.
The

Vermilion
county, 111.

35=i^.

34 has been designated as a
material of which it is made is flesh-colored flint
stem is nearly round, and the implement could be used
for piercing holes in leather or wood. Another use at-
tributed to it is for drilling holes in pipes, gorgets, discs
and other implements formed out of stone where the
material was soft enough to admit of being perforated in
this way.

Fig. 35. By common consent this implement has
received the name of "discoidal stone." The one illus-
trated is composed of fine dark-gray
granite. Several theories have been
offered as to the uses of this imple-
ment, — one that they are quoits used
by the Indians in playing a game
similar to that of " pitching horse-
shoes"; that they were employed in
another game resembling "ten-pins,"
in which the stone would be grasped
on its concave side by the thumb and
Rust's second finger, while the fore-finger
rested on the outer edge, or rim, and
that by a peculiar motion of the arm in hurling the stone it would
describe a convolute figure as it rolled along upon the ground. "We
may suggest that implements like this might be used as paint cups, as
their convex surface would enable the warrior to grind his pigments
and reduce them to powder, preparatory to decorating his person.

The implements illustrated were, no doubt, put to many other
uses besides those suggested. As the pioneer would make his house,
furniture, plow, ox yokes, and clear his land with his axe, so the
Indians, in the poverty of their supply, we may assume, were com-
pelled to make a single tool serve as many purposes as their ingenu-
ity could devise.

Vermilion county, 111. (H. N
Collection.)

CHAPTER XX.

THE WAR FOR THE FUR TRADE.

Formerly the great Northwest abounded in game and water-fowl.
The small lakes and lesser water-courses were full of beaver, otter
and muskrats. In the forests were found the marten, the raccoon,
and other fur-bearing animals. The plains, partially submerged,
and the rivers, whose current had a sluggish flow, the shallow lakes,
producing annual crops of wild rice, of nature's own sowing, teemed
with wild geese, duck and other aquatic fowl bursting in their very
fatness.*

The turkey, in his glossy feathers, strutted the forests, some of
them being of prodigious size, weighing thirty-six pounds, f

The shy deer and the lordly elk, crowned with outspreading horns,
grazed upon the plain and in the open woods, while the solitary moose
browsed upon the buds in the thick copsewood that gave him food
and a hiding place as well. The fleet-footed antelope nibbled at the
tender grasses on the prairies, or bounded away over the ridges to
hide in the valleys beyond, from the approach of the stealthy wolf
or wily Indian. The belts of timber along the water-courses

*"The plains and prairies (referring to the country on either side of the Illinois
River) are all covered with buffaloes, roebucks, hinds, stags, and different kind of fallow
deer. The feathered game is also here in the greatest abundance. We find, particu-
larly, quantities of swan, geese and ducks. The wild oats, which grow naturally on
the plains, fatten them to such a degree that they often die from being smothered in
their own grease." — Father Marest's letter, written in 1712. We have already seen,
from a description given on page 103, that water-fowl were equally abundant upon the
Maumee.

t In a letter of Father Rasles, dated October 12, 1723, there is a fine description of
the game found in the Illinois country. It reads: "Of all the nations of Canada, there
are none who live in so great abundance of everything as the Illinois. Their rivers
are covered with swans, bustards, ducks and teals. One can scarcely travel a league
without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, who keep together in flocks, often
to the number of two hundred. They are much larger than those we see in France.
I had the curiosity to weigh one, which I found to be thirty-six pounds. They have
hanging from the neck a kind of tuft of hair half a foot in length.

"Bears and stags are found there in very great numbers, and buffaloes and roebucks
are also seen in vast herds. Not a year passes but they (the Indians) kill more than a
thousand roebucks and more than two thousand buffaloes. From four to five thousand of
the latter can often be seen at one view grazing on the prairies. They have a hump on
the back and an exceedingly large head. The hair, except that on the head, is curled
and soft as wool. The flesh has naturally a salt taste, and is so light that, although
eaten entirely raw, it does not cause the least indigestion. When they have killed a
buffalo, which appears to them too lean, they content themselves with taking the
tongue, and going in search of one which is fatter." Vide Kip's Jesuit Missions, pp.
38, 39.

THE hunter's paradise. 209

afforded lodgment for the bear, and were the trellises that supported
the tangled wild grapevines, the fruit of which, to this animal, was
an article of food. The bear had for his neighbor the panther, the
wild cat and the lynx, whose carnivorous appetites were appeased in
the destruction of other animals.

Immense herds of buffalo roamed over
the extensive area bounded on the east by
the Alleghanies and on the north by the
lakes, embracing the states of Ohio, Indi-
ana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the southern
half of Michigan. Their trails checkered
the prairies of Indiana and Illinois in
every direction, the marks of which, deep
worn in the turf, remained for many years
after the disappearance of the animals that made them.* Their
numbers when the country was first known to Europeans were
immense, and beyond computation. In their migrations southward
in the fall, and on their return from the blue-grass regions of Ken-
tucky in the spring, the Ohio River was obstructed for miles during
the time occupied by the vast herds in crossing it. Indeed, the
French called the buffalo the ''Illinois ox," on account of their
numbers found in "the country of the Illinois," using that expres-
sion in its wider sense, as explained on a preceding page. So great
importance was attached to the supposed commercial value of the
buffalo for its wool that when Mons. Iberville, in 1698, was engaged
to undertake the colonization of Louisiana, the king instructed him
to look after the buffalo wool as one of the most important of his
duties; and Father Charlevoix, while traveling through "The
Illinois," observed that he was surprised that the buffalo had been
so long neglected, f Among the favorite haunts of the buffalo
were the marshes of the Upper Kankakee, the low lands about the
lakes of northern Indiana, where the oozy soil furnished early as
well as late pasturage, the briny earth upon the Au Glaize, and the
Salt Licks upon the Wabash and Illinois rivers were tempting places
of resort. From the summit of the high hill at Ouiatanon, over-
looking the Wea plains to the east and the Grand Prairie to the west,

* " Nothing," says Father Charlevoix, writing of the country about the confluence of
the Fox with the Illinois River, " is to be seen in this course but immense prairies, inter-
spersed with small groves which seem to have been planted by the hands of men. The
grass is so very high that a man would be almost lost in it, and through which paths
are to be found everywhere, as well trodden as they could have been in the most popu-
lated countries, although nothing passes over them but buffaloes, and from time to
time a herd of deer or a few roebuck ": Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 200.

t Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana.
14

210 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

as far as the eye could reach in cither direction, the plains were seen
covered with groups, grazing together, or, in long files, stretching
away in the distance, their dark forms, contrasting with the green-
sward upon which they fed or strolled, and inspiring the enthusiasm
of the Frenchman, who gave the description quoted on page 1<>4.
Still later, when passing through the prairies of Illinois, on his way
from Vincennes to Ouiatanon, — more a prisoner than an ambassa-
dor, — George Croghan makes the following entry in his daily jour-
nal : "18th and 19th of June, 1765. — We traveled through a pro-
digious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaws' hunting ground.
Here is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean.
The ground is exceedingly rich and partially overgrown with wild
hemp.* The land is well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears,
and all kinds of wild game. 20th and 21st. — We passed through
some very large meadows, part of which belonged to the Pyanke-
shaws on the Vermilion River. The country and soil were much the
same as that we traveled over for these three days past. Wild hemp
grows here in abundance. The game is very plenty. At any time
in a half hour we could kill as much as we wanted, "f

Gen. Clark, in the postscript of his letter dated November, 1779,
narrating his campaign in the Illinois country, says, concerning the
prairies between Kaskaskia and Yincennes, that "there are large
meadows extending beyond the reach of the eye, variegated w T ith
groves of trees appearing like islands in the seas, covered with
buffaloes and other game. In many places, with a good glass, you
may see all that are upon their feet in a half million acres.":}: It is
not known at what time the buffalo was last seen east of the Mis-
sissippi. The Indians had a tradition that the cold winter of 17 — ,
— called by them "the great cold," on account of its severity, —
destroyed them. " The snow was so deep, and lay upon the ground
for such a length of time, that the buffalo became poor and too
weak to resist the inclemency of the weather;" great numbers of
them perished, singly and in groups, and their bones, either as iso-
lated skeletons or in bleaching piles, remained and were found over
the country for many years afterwards. §

* Further on in his Journal Col. Croghan again refers to " wild hemp, growing in
the prairies, ten or twelve feet high, which if properly cultivated would prove as good
and answer all the purposes of the hemp we cultivate." Other writers also mention
the wild hemp upon the prairies, and it seems to have been supplanted by other grasses
that have followed in the changes of vegetable growth.

t Croghan's Journal.

i Clark's Campaign in the Illinois, p. 92.

§ On the 4th of October, 1786, one day's march on the road from Vincennes to the
Ohio Falls, Captains Zigler's and Strong's companies of regulars came across five buffalo.
The animals tried to force a passage through the column, when the commanding officer

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GAME. 211

Before the coming of the Europeans the Indians hunted the game
for the purpose of supplying themselves with the necessary food and
clothing. The scattered tribes (whose numbers early writers greatly
exaggerated) were few, when compared with the area of the coun-
try they occupied, and the wild animals were so abundant that enough
to supply their wants could be captured near at hand with such rude
weapons as their ingenuity fashioned out of wood and stone. With
the Europeans came a change. The fur of many of the animals
possessed a commercial value in the marts of Europe, where they
were bought and used as ornaments and dress by the aristocracy,
whose wealth and taste fashioned them into garments of extraordi-
nary richness. Canada was originally settled with a view to the fur
trade, and this trade was, to her people, of the first importance - — the
chief motor of her growth and prosperity. The Indians were sup-
plied with guns, knives and hatchets by the Europeans, in place of
their former inferior weapons. Thus encouraged and equipped, and
accompanied by the coureur des hois, the remotest regions were pen-
etrated, and the fur trade extended to the most distant tribes. Stim-
ulated with a desire for blankets, cotton goods and trinkets, the In-
dians now began a war upon the wild animals in earnest ; and their
wanton destruction for their skins and furs alone from that period
forward was so enormous that within the next two or three genera-
tions the improvident Indians in many localities could scarcely find
enough game for their own subsistence.

The coureur des hois were a class that had much to do with the
development of trade and with giving a knowledge of the geogra-
phy of the country. They became extremely useful to the mer-
chants engaged in the fur trade, and were often a source of great
annoyance to the colonial authorities. Three or four of these peo-
ple, having obtained goods upon credit y would join their stock, put
their property into a birch bark canoe, which they worked them-
selves, and accompany the Indians in their excursions' or go directly

ordered the men to fire upon them. The discharge killed three and wounded the
others: Joseph Buell's Narrative Journal, published in S. P. Hildreth's Pioneer History.
Thirteen years later, in December, 1799, Gov. St. Clair and Judge Jacob Burnett, on their
way overland from Cincinnati to Vincennes, camped out over night, at the close of one
of their days' journeys, not a great ways east of where the old road from Louisville to
Vincennes crosses White River. The next day they encountered a severe snow-storm,
during which they surprised eight or ten buffalo, sheltering themselves from the storm
behind a beech-tree full of dead leaves which had fallen beside of the trace and hid
the travelers from their view. The tree and the noise of the wind among its leaves
prevented the buffalo from discovering the parties until the latter had approached
within two rods of the place where they stood. They then took to their heels and
were soon out of sight. One of the company drew a pistol and fired, but without
effect: Burnett's Notes on the Northwest Territory, p. 72.

212 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

into the country where they knew they were to hunt.* These
voyages were extended twelve or fifteen months (sometimes longer)
before the traders would return laden with rich cargoes of fur, and
often followed by great numbers of the natives. During the short
time required to settle their accounts with the merchants and pro-
cure credit for a new stock, the traders would contrive to squander
their gains before they returned to their favorite mode of life among
the savages, their labor being rewarded by indulging themselves in
one month's dissipation for fifteen of exposure and hardship. u "\Ve
may not be able to explain the cause, but experience proves that it
requires much less time for a civilized people to degenerate into the
ways of savage life than is required for the savage to rise into a state
of civilization. The indifference about amassing property, and the
pleasure of living free from all restraint, soon introduced a licen-
tiousness among the coureur des hois that did not escape the eye of
the missionaries, who complained, with good reason, that they were
a disgrace to the Christian religion."!

" The food of the coureur des bois when on their long expeditions
was Indian corn, prepared for use by boiling it in strong lye to re-
move the hull, after which it was mashed and dried. In this state
it is soft and friable like rice. The allowance for each man on the
voyage, was one quart per day ; and a bushel, with two pounds of
prepared fat, is reckoned a month's subsistence. No other allow-
ance is made of any kind, not even of salt, and bread is never
thought of; nevertheless the men are healthy on this diet, and ca-
pable of performing great labor. This mode of victualing was es-
sential to the trade, which was extended to great distances, and in
canoes so small as not to admit of the use of any other food. If
the men were supplied with bread and pork, the canoes would not
carry six months' rations, while the ordinary duration of the voyage
was not less than fourteen. No other men would be reconciled to
such fare except the Canadians, and this fact enabled their employ-
ers to secure a monopoly of the fur trade.":};

"The old voyageurs derisively called new hands at the business
mangeurs de lard (pork eaters), as, on leaving Montreal, and while
en route to Mackinaw, their rations were pork, hard bread and pea

*The merchandise was neatly tied into bundles weighing sixty or seventy pounds;
the furs received in exchange were compressed into packets of about the same weight,
so that they could be conveniently carried, strapped upon the back of the royageur,
around the portages and other places where the loaded canoes could effect no passage.

f Sir Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages, etc., and An Account of the Fur Trade, etc.

X Henry's Travels, p. 52.

THE COUREUR DES BOIS. 213

soup, while the old voyageurs in the Indian country ate corn soup
and such other food as could be conveniently procured."*

"The coureur des bois were men of easy virtue. They would
eat, riot, drink and play as long as their furs held out," says La
Hontan, "and when these were gone they would sell their embroi-
dery, their laces and their clothes. The proceeds of these exhausted,
they were forced to go upon new voyages for subsistence, "f

They did not scruple to intermarry with the Indians, among
whom they spent the greater part of their lives. They made excel-
lent soldiers, and in bush fighting and border warfare they were
more than a match for the British regulars. "Their merits were
hardihood and skill in woodcraft ; their chief faults were insubor-
dination and lawlessness.":}:

Such were the characteristics of the French traders or coureur des
bois. They penetrated the remotest parts, voyaged upon all of our
western rivers, and traveled many of the insignificant streams that
afforded hardly water enough to float a canoe. Their influence over
the Indians (to whose mode of life they readily adapted themselves)
was almost supreme. They were efficient in the service of their
king, and materially assisted in staying the downfall of French rule
in America.

There is no data from which to ascertain the value of the fur
trade, as there were no regular accounts kept. The value of the
trade to the French, in 1703, was estimated at two millions of livres,
and this could have been from only a partial return, as a large per
cent of the trade was carried on clandestinely through Albany and
New York, of which the French authorities in Canada could have
no knowledge. With the loss of Canada, and the west to France,
and owing to the dislike of the Indians toward the English, and the
want of experience by the latter, the fur trade, controlled at Montreal,
fell into decay, and the Hudson Bay Company secured the advan-
tages of its downfall. During the winter of 1783-4 some merchants

*Vol. 2 Wisconsin Historical Collection, p. 110. Judge Lockwood gives a very
fine sketch of the coureur des bois and the manner of their employment, in the paper
from which we have quoted.

fLa Hontan, vol. 1, pp. 20 and 21.

% Parkman's Count Frontenac and New France, p. 209. Judge Lockwood, in the
paper referred to, speaking of the coureur des bois as their relations existed to the fur
trade in 1817, thus describes them: " These men engaged in Canada, generally for five
years, for Mackinaw and its dependencies, transferable like cattle, to any one who
wanted them, at generally about 500 livres a year, or, in our currency, about $83.33,
furnished with a yearly equipment or outfit of two cotton shirts, one three-point or
triangular blanket, a portage collar and one pair of shoes. They were obliged to pur-
chase their moccasins, tobacco and pipes at any price the trader saw fit to charge for
them. At the end of five years the voyageurs were in debt from $50 to $150, and
could not leave the country until they paid their indebtedness."

214 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

of Canada united their trade under the name of the "Northwest
Company"; they did not get successfully to work until 1787. Dur-
ing that year the venture did not exceed forty thousand pounds, but
by exertion and the enterprise of the proprietors it was brought, in
eleven years, to more than-triple that amount (equal to six hundred
thousand dollars), yielding proportionate profits, and surpassing any-
thing then known in America.*

*The fur trade was conducted by the English, and subsequently
by the Americans, substantially upon the system originally estab-
lished by the French, with this distinction, that the monopoly was
controlled by French officers and favorites, to whom the trade for
particular districts was assigned, while the English and Americans
controlled it through companies operating either under charters or
permits from the government.

Goods for Indian trade were guns, ammunition, steel for striking
fire, gun-flints, and other supplies to repair fire-arms; knives, hatchets,
kettles, beads, men's shirts, blue and red cloths for blankets and
petticoats ; vermilion, red, yellow, green and blue ribbons, gener-
ally of English manufacture ; needles, thread and awls ; looking-
glasses, children's toys, woolen blankets, razors for shaving the
head, paints of all colors, tobacco, and, more than all, spirituous
liquors. For these articles the Indians gave in exchange the skins
of deer, bear, otter, squirrel, marten, lynx, fox, wolf, buffalo,
moose, and particularly the beaver, the highest prized of them all.
Such was the value attached to the skins and fur of the last that
it became the standard of value. All other values were measured
by the beaver, the same as we now use gold, in adjusting com-
mercial transactions. All differences in exchanges of property or
in payment for labor were first reduced in value to the beaver skin.
Money was rarely received or paid at any of the trading-posts, the
only circulating medium were furs and peltries. In this exchange a
pound of beaver skin was reckoned at thirty sous, an otter skin at
six livres, and marten skins at thirty sous each. This was only about
half of the real value of the furs, and it was therefore always agreed
to pay either in furs at their equivalent cash value at the fort or
double the amount reckoned at current fur value. t

"When the French controlled the fur trade, the posts in the interior
of the country were assigned to officers who were in favor at head-
quarters. As they had no money, the merchants of Quebec and
Montreal supplied them on credit with the necessary goods, which

* Mackenzie's Voyages, Fur Trade, etc.
t Henry's Travels and Pouchot's Memoirs.

THE FUR TRADE. 215

were to be paid for in peltries at a price agreed upon, thus being
required to earn profits for themselves and the merchant. These
officers were often employed to negotiate for the king with the tribes
near their trading-posts and give them goods as presents, the price
for the latter being paid by the intendant upon the approval of the
governor. This occasioned many hypothecated accounts, which were
turned to the profit of the commandants, particularly in time of
war. The commandants as well as private traders were obliged to
take out a license from the governor at a cost of four or five hundred
livres, in order to carry their goods to the posts, and to charge some
effects to the king's account. The most distant posts in the north-
west were prized the greatest, because of the abundance and low
price of peltries and the high price of goods at these remote estab-
lishments.

Another kind of trade was carried on by the coureurs des hois,
who, sharing the license with the officer at the post, with their canoes
laden with goods, went to the villages of the Indians, and followed
them on their hunting expeditions, to return after a season's trading
with their canoes well loaded. If the coureurs des bois were in a
condition to purchase their goods of first hands a quick fortune was
assured them, although to obtain it they had to lead a most danger-
ous and fatiguing life. Some of these traders would return to France
after a few years' venture with wealth amounting to two million five
hundred thousand livres.*

The French were not permitted to exclusively enjoy the enormous
profits of the fur trade. We have seen, in treating of the Miami
Indians, that at an early day the English and the American colonists
were determined to share it, and had become sharp competitors. We
have seen (page 112) that to extend their trade the English had set
their allies, the Iroquois, upon the Illinois. So formidable were the
inroads made by the English upon the fur trade of the French, by
means of the conquests to which they had incited the Iroquois to
gain over other tribes that were friendly to the French, that the
latter became "of the opinion that if the Iroquois were allowed to
proceed they would not only subdue the Illinois, but become masters
of all the Ottawa tribes, f and divert the trade to the English, so that
it was absolutely necessary that the French should either make the
Iroquois their friends or destroy them.% You perceive, my Lord,

* Pouchofc's Memoirs.

f Whose territories embraced all the country west of Lake Huron and north of
Illinois, — one of the most prolific beaver grounds in the country.

% Memoir of M. Du Chesneau, the Intendant, to the King, September 9, 1681, before
quoted.

21 G HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

that the subject which we have discussed [referring to the efforts of
the English of New York and Albany to gain the beaver trade] is to
determine who will be master of the heaver trade of the south and
southwest."*

In the struggle to determine who should be masters of the fur
trade, the French cared as little, — perhaps less, — for their Indian
allies than the British and Americans did for theirs. The blood that
was shed in the English and French colonies north of the Ohio
River, for a period of over three-quarters of a century prior to 1763,
might well be said to have been spilled in a war for the fur trade, f

In the strife between the rivals, — the French endeavoring to hold
their former possessions, and the English to extend theirs, — the
strait of Detroit was an object of concern to both. Its strategical
position was such that it would give the party possessing it a decided
advantage. M. Du Lute, or L'Hut, under orders from Gov. De
Nonville, left Mackinaw with some fifty odd coureurs des hois in
1688, sailed down Lake Huron and threw up a small stockade fort
on the west bank of the lake, where it discharges into the River St.
Clair. The following year Capt. McGregory, — Major Patrick Ma-
gregore, as his name is spelled in the commission he had in his
pocket over the signature of Gov. Dongan, — with sixty Englishmen
and some Indians, with their merchandise loaded in thirty-two
canoes, went up Lake Erie on a trading expedition among the In-
dians at Detroit and Mackinaw. They were encountered and cap-
tured by a body of troops under Tonty, La Forest and other officers,
who, with coureur de hois and Indians from the upper country,
were on their way to join the French forces of Canada in a campaign
against the Iroquois villages in New York.:}: The prisoners were
sent to Quebec, and the plunder distributed among the captors. Du
Lute's stockade was called Fort St. Joseph. In 1688 the fort was
placed in command of Baron LaHontan.§

Fort St. Joseph served the purposes for which it was constructed,
and a few years later, in 1701, Mons. Cadillac established Fort Pont-
chartrain on the present site of the city of Detroit, for no other pur-

* M.De La Barre to the Minister of the Marine, November 4, 1683: Paris Docu-
ments, vol. 9, p. 210,

t War was not formally declared between France and England, on account of
colonial difficulties, until May, 1756, but the discursory broils between their colonies in
America had been going on from the time of their establishment.

\ Tonty's Memoir, and Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 363 and 866.

§ Fort Du Luth, or St. Joseph, as it was afterward called, was ordered to be erected
in 1686, " in order to fortify the pass leading to Mackinaw against the English." Du
Luth, who erected it, was in command of fifty men. Several parties of English were
either captured or sent back from this post within a vear or two from its establishment.
Vide Paris Documents, vol. 9, pp. 300, 302. 306, 383.

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN TRADERS. 217

pose than to check the English in the prosecution of the fur trade in
that country.*

The French interests were soon threatened from another direc-
tion. Traders from Pennsylvania found their way westward over the
mountains, where they engaged in traffic with the Indians in the
valleys of eastern Ohio, and they soon established commercial rela-
tions with the Wabash tribes, t It appears from a previous chapter
that the Miamis were trading at Albany in 1708. To avert this
danger the French were compelled at last to erect military posts at
Fort "Wayne, on the Maumee (called Fort Miamis), at Ouiatanon and
Yincennes, upon the Wabash.;}; Prior to 1750 Sieur de Ligneris
was commanding at Fort Ouiatanon, and St. Ange was in charge at
Yincennes.

As soon as the English settlements reached the eastern slope of
the Alleghanies, their traders passed over the ridge, and they found
it exceedingly profitable to trade with the western Indians. They
could sell the same quality of goods for a third or a half of what the
French usually charged, and still make a handsome profit. This
new and rich field was soon overrun by eager adventurers. In the
meantime a number of gentlemen, mostly from Virginia, procured
an act of parliament constituting tl The Ohio Company,'- and grant-
ing them six hundred thousand acres of land on or near the Ohio
Piver. The objects of this company were to till the soil and to open
up a trade with the Indians west of the Alleghanies and south of the
Ohio.

The French, being well aware that the English could offer their
goods to the Indians at greatly reduced rates, feared that they would
lose the entire Indian trade. At first they protested " against this
invasion of the rights of His Most Christian Majesty" to the gov-
ernor of the English colonies. This did not produce the desired
effect. Their demands were met with equivocations and delays.
At last the French determined on summary measures. An order

* Statement of Mons. Cadillac of his reasons for establishing a fort on the Detroit
River, copied in Sheldon's Early History of Michigan, pp. 85-90.

t An Englishman by the name of Crawford had been trading on the Wabash prior
to 1749. Vide Irving's Life of Washington, vol. 1, p. 48.

JThe date of the establishment of these forts is a matter of conjecture, owing to
the absence of reliable data. A " Miamis " is referred to in 1719, and in the same year
Sieur Duboisson was selected as a suitable person to take command at Ouiatanon, and
in 1735 M. de Vincenne is alluded to, in a letter written from Kaskaskia, as com-
mandant of the Post on the Wabash. However, owing to the successive migrations of
the Miami Indians, the "Miamis " mentioned in such documents, in 1719, may have
referred to the Miami and Wea villages upon the Kalamazoo and St. Joseph rivers, in
the state of Michigan. The post at Vincennes, it may be safely assumed, was garri-
soned as early as 1735, and Ouiatanon, below La Fayette, and Miamis, at Fort Wayne,
some years before, in the order of time.

218 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

was issued to the commandants of their various posts on Lake Erie,
the Ohio and the Wabash, to seize all English traders found west of
the Alleghanies. In pursuance of this order, in 1751, four English
traders were captured on the Vermilion of the Wabash and sent to
Canada.* Other traders, dealing with the Indians in other locali-
ties, were captured and taken to Presque Isle,f and from thence to
Canada.

The contest between the rival colonies still went on, increasing
in the extent of its line of operations and intensifying in the ani-
mosity of the feeling with which it was conducted. We quote from
a memoir prepared early in 1752, by M. de Longueuil, commandant
at Detroit, showing the state of affairs at a previous date in the
Wabash country. It appears, from the letters of the commandants
at the several posts named, from which the memoir is compiled,
that the Indian tribes upon the Maumee and Wabash, through the
successful efforts of the English, had become very much disaffected
toward their old friends and masters. M. de Ligneris, commandant
at the Ouyatanons, says the memoir, believes that great reliance is
not to be placed on the Maskoutins, and that their remaining neutral
is all that is to be expected from them and the Kickapous. lie even
adds that "we are not to reckon on the nations which appear in our
interests ; no Wea chief has appeared at this post for a long time.
M. de Villiers, commandant at the Miamis, — Ft. Wayne, — has been
disappointed in his expectation of bringing the Miamis back from the
White River, — part of whom had been to see him, — the small-pox
having put the whole of them to rout. Coldfoot and his son have
died of it, as well as a large portion of our most trusty Indians.
Le Gris, chief of the Tepieons,\ and his mother are likewise dead;
they are a loss, because they were well disposed toward the French."
The memoir continues: "The nations of the River St. Joseph,
who were to join those of Detroit, have said they would be ready to
perform their promise as soon as Ononontio% would have sent the
necessary number of Frenchmen. The commandant of this post
writes, on the 15th of January, that all the nations appear to take

* Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 248.

t Near Erie, Pennsylvania.

% This is the first reference we have to Tippecanoe. Antoine Gamelin, the French
merchant at Vincennes, — whom Major Hamtramck sent, in 1790, to the Wabash towns
with peace messages, — calls the village, then upon this river, Qui-te-pi-con-nae. The
name of the Tippecanoe is derived from the Algonquin word Ke-non-ge, or Ke-no-zha
— from Keuose, long, the name of the long-billed pike, a fish very abundant in this
stream, vide Mackenzie's and James' Vocabularies. Timothy Flint, in his Geography
and History of the Western States, first edition, published at Cincinnati, 1828, vol. 2,

E. 125, says: " The Tippecanoe received its name from a kind of pike called Pic-ca-nau
y the savages." The termination is evidently Frenchified.

§ The name by which the Indians called the governor of Canada.

FRENCH TRADERS KILLED. 219

sides against us ; that he would not be responsible for the good
dispositions these Indians seem to entertain, inasmuch as the
Miamis are their near relatives. On the one hand, Mr. de Jon-
caire* repeats that the Indians of the beautiful riverf are all English,
for whom alone they work ; that all are resolved to sustain each
other ; and that not a party of Indians go to the beautiful river but
leave some [of their numbers] there to increase the rebel forces.
On the other hand, "Mr. de St. Ange, commandant of the post of
Vincennes, writes to M. des Ligneris [at Ouiatanon] to use all
means to protect himself from the storm which is ready to burst on
the French ; that he is busy securing himself against the fury of our
enemies."

"The Pianguichias, who are at war with the Chaouanons, ac-
cording to the report rendered by Mr. St. Clin, have declared entirely
against us. They killed on Christmas Jive Frenchmen at the Ver-
milion. Mr. des Ligneris, who was aware of this attack, sent off a
detachment to secure the effects of the Frenchmen from being plun-
dered ; but when this detachment arrived at the Vermilion, the
Piankashaws had decamped. The bodies of the Frenchmen were
found on the ice.:]:

"M. des Ligneris was assured that the Piankashaws had commit-
ted this act because four men of their nation had been killed by the
French at the Illinois, and four others had been taken and put in
irons. It is said that these eight men were going to fight the Chick-
asaws, and had, without distrusting anything, entered the quarters
of the French, who killed them. It is also reported that the French-
men had recourse to this extreme measure because a Frenchman and

* A French half-breed having 1 great influence over the Indians, and whom the
French authorities had sent into Ohio to conciliate the Indians.

t The Ohio.

jCol. Croghan's Journal, before quoted, gives the key to the aboriginal name of
this stream. On the 22d of June, 1765, he makes the following entry: " We passed
through a part of the same meadow mentioned yesterday; then came to a high wood-
land and arrived at Vermilion River, so called from a fine red earth found there by the
Indians, with which they paint themselves. About a half a mile from where we crossed
this river there is a village of Piankashaws, distinguished by the addition of the name
of the river" (that is, the Piankashaws of the Vermilion, or the Vermilions, as they
were sometimes called). The red earth or red chalk, known under the provincial name
of red keel, is abundant everywhere along the bluff's of the Vermilion, in the shales
that overlay the outcropping coal. The annual fires frequently ignited the coal thus
exposed, and would burn the shale above, turn it red and render it friable. Carpen-
ters used it to chalk their lines, and the successive generation of boys have gathered it
by the pocketful. Those acquainted with the passion of the Indian for paint, particu-
larly red, will understand the importance which the Indians would attach to it. Hence,
as noted by Croghan, they called the river after the name of this red earth. Vermilion
is the French word conveying the same idea, and it is a coincidence merely that Ver-
milion in French has the same meaning as this word in English On the map m
" Volney's View of the Soil and Climate of the United States," Phila. ed. 1804, it is
called Red River. The Miami Indian name of the Vermilion was Piankashaw, as ap-
pears from Gen. Putnam's manuscript Journal of the treaty at Vincennes in 1792.

220 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

two slaves had been killed a few days before by another party of
Piankashaws, and that the Indians in question had no knowledge of
that circumstance. The capture of four English traders by M. de
Celoron's order last year has not prevented other Englishmen going
to trade at the Vermilion River, where the Rev. Father la Riehardie
wintered."*

The memoir continues: "On the 19th of October the Pianka-
shaws had killed two more Frenchmen, who were constructing
pirogues lower down than the Post of Yincenne. Two days after-
ward the Piankashaws killed two slaves in sight of Fort Yincenne.
The murder of these nine Frenchmen and these two slaves is but
too Certain. A squaw, the widow of one of the Frenchmen who had
been killed at the Vermilion, has reported that the Pianguichias,

Illinois and Osages were to assemble at the prairies of , the

place where Messrs. de Yilliers and de Noyelle attacked the Foxes
about twenty years ago, and when they had built a fort to secure
their families, they were to make a general attack on all the French.

"The Miamis of Rock Riverf have scalped two soldiers belong-
ing to Mr. Villiers' fort.;}: This blow was struck last fall. Finally,
the English have paid the Miamis for the scalps of the two soldiers
belonging to Mr. de Yilliers 1 garrison. To add to the misfortunes,
M. des Ligneris has learned that the commandant of the Illinois at
Fort Charters would not permit Sieurs Delisle and Fonblanche,
who had contracted with the king to supply the Miamis, Ouyaton-
on.8, and even Detroit with provisions from the Illinois, to purchase
any provisions for the subsistence of the garrisons of those posts, on
the ground that an increased arrival of troops and families would
consume the stock at the Illinois. Famine is not the sole scourge
we experience ; the smallpox commits ravages ; it begins to reach
Detroit. It were desirable that it should break out and spread gen-
erally throughout the localities inhabited by our rebels. It would
be fully as good as an army."

The Piankashaws, now completely estranged from the French,
withdrew, almost in a body, from the Wabash, and retired to the
Big Miami, whither a number of Miamis and other Indians had,

* Father Justinian de la Riehardie came to Canada (according to the Liste Crono-
loffiqite. No. 429) in 1716. He served many years in the Huron country, and also in
the Illinois, and died in February, 1758. Biographical note of the editor of Paris
•Documents : Col. Hist, of New York, vol. 9, p. 88. The time when and the place at
which this missionary was stationed on the Vermilion River is not given. The date
was before 1750, as is evident from the text. The place was probably at the large
Piankashaw town where the traders were killed.

fThe Big Miami River of Ohio, on which stream, near the mouth of Loramies
Creek, the Miamis had an extensive village, hereafter referred to.

% Ft. Wayne, where Mr. Villiers was then stationed in charge of Fort Miamis.

PICKAWILLANY. 221

some years previous, established a village, to be nearer the English
traders. The village was called Pickawillant/, or Picktown. To
the English and Iroquois it was known as the Tawixtwi Town, or
Miamitown. It was located at the mouth of what has since been
called Loramie's creek. The stream derived this name from the fact
that a Frenchman of that name, subsequent to the events here nar-
rated, had a trading-house at this place. The town was visited in
1751 by Christopher Gist, who gives the following description of it:*
"The Twightee town is situated on the northwest side of the Big
Min e ami River, about one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth.
It consists of four hundred families, and is daily increasing. It is
accounted one of the strongest Indian towns in this part of the con-
tinent. The Twightees are a very numerous people, consisting of
many different tribes under the same form of government. Each
tribe has a particular chief, or king, one of which is chosen indiffer-
ently out of any tribe to rule the whole nation, and is vested with
greater authority than any of the others. They have but lately
traded with the English. They formerly lived on the farther side of
the Wabash, and were in the French interests, who supplied them
with some few trifles at a most exorbitant price. They have now
revolted from them and left their former habitations for the sake of
trading with the English, and notwithstanding all the artifices the
French have used, they have not been able to recall them." George
Croghan and Mr. Montour, agents in the English interests, were in
the town at the time of Gist's visit, doing what they could to inten-
sify the animosity of the inhabitants against the French. Speeches
were made and presents exchanged to cement the friendship with
the English. While these conferences were going on, a deputation
of Indians in the French interests arrived, with soft words and valu-
able presents, marching into the village under French colors. The
deputation was admitted to the council-house, that they might make
the object of their visit known. The Piankashaw chief, or king,
"Old Britton," as he was called, on account of his attachment
for the English, had both the British and French flags hoisted from
the council-house. The old chief refused the brandy, tobacco and
other presents sent to him from the French king. In reply to the
speeches of the French ambassadors he said that the road to the
French had been made foul and bloody by them ; that he had
cleared a road to our brothers, the English, and that the French had
made that bad. The French flag was taken down, and the emissaries

* Christopher Gist's Journal.

222 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

of that people, with their presents, returned to the French post from
whence they came.

When negotiations failed to win the Miamis back to French
authority, force was resorted to. On the 21st of June, 1752, a party
of two hundred and forty French and Indians appeared before Pick-
awillany, surprised the Indians in their corn-fields, approaching so
suddenly that the white men who were in their houses had great
difficulty in reaching the fort. They killed one Englishman and
fourteen Miamis, captured the stockade fort, killed the old Pianka-
shaw king, and put his body in a kettle, boiled it and ate it up in
retaliation for his people having killed the French traders on the
Vermilion River and at Yincennes.* "Thus," says the eloquent
historian, George Bancroft, "on the alluvial lands of western Ohio
began the contest that was to scatter death broadcast through the
world, "f

* The account of the affair at Pickawillany is summarized from the Journal of Capt.
Wm. Trent and other papers contained in a valuable book edited by A. T. Goodman,
secretary of the Western Reserve Historical Society, and published by Robert Clarke
& Co., 1871, entitled "Journal of Captain Trent."

f Old Britton's successor was his son, a young man, whose name was Mu-she-
gu-a-nock-que, or "The Turtle." The English, and Indians in their interests, had a
very high esteem for the young Piankashaw king. It is said by some writers, and
there is much probability of the correctness of their opinion, that the great Miami
chief, Little Turtle, was none other than the person here referred to. His age would
correspond very well with that of the Piankashaw, and members of one band of the
Miami nation frequently took up their abode with other bands or families of their kin-
dred.

CHAPTER XXL

THE WAR FOR THE EMPIRE. ITS LOSS TO THE FRENCH.

The English not only disputed the right of the French to the
fur trade, but denied their title to the valley of the Mississippi,
which lay west of their American colonies on the Atlantic coast.
The grants from the British crown conveyed to the chartered pro-
prietors all of the country lying between certain parallels of latitude,
according to the location of the several grants, and extending west-
ward to the South Sea, as the Pacific was then called. Seeing the
weakness of such a claim to vast tracts of country, upon which no
Englishman had ever set his foot, they obtained deeds of cession
from the Iroquois Indians, — the dominant tribe east of the Mississip-
pi, — who claimed all of the country between the Alleghanies and the
Mississippi by conquest from the several Algonquin tribes, who occu-
pied it. On the 13th of July, 1701, the sachems of the Five Xations
conveyed to "William III, King of Great Britain, "their beaver-
hunting grounds northwest and west from Albany," including a
broad strip on the south side of Lake Erie, all of the present states
of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, and Illinois as far west as the Illi-
nois Biver, claiming "that their ancestors did, more than fourscore
years before, totally conquer, subdue and drive the former occupants
out of that country, and had peaceable and quiet possession of the
same, to hunt beavers in, it being the only chief place for hunting
in that part of the world," etc.* The Iroquois, for themselves and
heirs, granted the English crown "the whole soil, the lakes, the

* The deed is found in London Documents, vol. 4, p. 908. The boundaries of the
grant are indefinite in many respects. Its westward limit, says the deed, " abutts
upon the Twichtwichs [Miamis], and is bounded on the right hand by a place called
Quadoge." On Eman Bowen's map, which is certainly the most authentic from the
British standpoint, is a " pecked line " extending from the mouth of the Illinois river,
up that stream, to the Desplaines, thence across the prairies to Lake Michigan at
Quadoge or Quadaghe, which is located on the map some distance southeast of Chicago,
which is also shown in its correct place, and at or near the mouth of the stream that
forms the harbor at Michigan City, formerly known by the French as Riviere du Che-
mi n, or " Trail River," because the great trail from Chicago to Detroit and Ft. Wayne
left the lake shore at this place. The " pecked line," — as Mr. Bowen calls the dotted
line which he traces as the boundary of the Iroquois deed of cession, — extends from
Michigan City northward through the entire length of Lake Michigan, the Straits of
Mackinaw and between the Manitou-lin islands and the main shore in Lake Huron;
thence into Canada around the north shore of Lake Nipissing; and thence down the
Ottawa River to its confluence with the St. Lawrence.

223

224 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

rivers, and all tilings pertaining to said tract of land, with power
to erect forts and castles there," only reserving to the grantors and
"their descendants forever the right of hunting upon the same," in
which privilege the grantee "was expected to protect them." The
grant of the Iroquois was confirmed to the British crown by deeds
of renewal in 1726 and 1744. The reader will have observed, from
what lias been said in the preceding chapters upon the Illinois and
Miamis and Pottawatomies relative to the pretended conquests of
the Iroquois, how little merit there was in the claim they set up to
the territory in question. Their war parties only raided upon the
country, — they never occupied it; their war parties, after doing as
much mischief as they could, returned to their own country as
rapidly as they came. Still their several deeds to the English crown
were a "color of title" on which the latter laid great stress, and
paraded at every treaty with other powers, where questions involv-
ing the right to this territory were a subject of discussion.*

The war for the fur trade expanded into a struggle for empire
that convulsed both continents of America and Europe. The limit
assigned this work forbids a notice of the principal occurrences in
the progress of the French-Colonial War, as most of the military
movements in that contest were outside of the territory we are con-
sidering. There were, however, two campaigns conducted by troops
recruited in the northwest, and these engagements will be noticed.
We believe they have not heretofore been compiled as fully as their
importance would seem to demand.

In 1758 Gen. Forbes, with about six thousand troops, advanced
against Fort Ira Quesne. f In mid-September the British troops had
only reached Loyal-haimon,* where they raised a fort. "Intelli-
gence had been received that Fort Du Quesne was defended by but
eight hundred men, of whom three hundred were Indians, "§ and
Major Grant, commanding eight hundred Highlanders and a com-
pany of Virginians, was sent toward the French fort. On the third

* The Iroquois themselves, — as appears from an English memoir on the Indian
trade, and contained among the London Documents, vol. 7, p. 18, — never supposed
they had actually conveyed their right of dominion to these lands. Indeed, it appears
that the Indians generally could not comprehend the purport of a deed or grant in the
sense that the Europeans attach to these formidable instruments. The idea of an
absolute, fee-simple right of an individual, or of a body of persons, to exclusively own
real estate against the right of others even to enter upon it, to hunt or cut a shrub,
was beyond the power of an Indian to comprehend. From long habit and the owner-
ship (not only of land but many articles of domestic use) by the tribe or village of
property in common, they could not understand how it could be held otherwise.

t At the present site of Pittsburgh, Pa. *

% Loyal-hannon, afterward Fort Ligonier, was situated on the east side of Loyal-
hannon Creek, Westmoreland county, Pa., and was about forty-five miles from Fort
Du Quesne; vide Pennsylvania Archives, XII, 389.

§ Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 311.

DEFEAT OF THE ENGLISH. 225

day's march Grant had arrived within two miles of Fort Du Quesne.
Leaving his baggage there, he took position on a hill, a quarter of a
mile from the fort, and encamped.*

Grant, who was not aware that the garrison had been reinforced
by the arrival of Mons. Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, with
four hundred men from the Illinois country, determined on an am-
buscade. At break of day Major Lewis was sent, with four hundred
men, to lie in ambush a mile and a half from the main body, on the
path on which they left their baggage, imagining the French would
send a force to attack the baggage guard and seize it. Four hundred
men were posted along the hill facing the fort to cover the retreat of
Mac-Donald's company, which marched with drums beating toward
the fort, in order to draw a party out of it, as Major Grant had rea-
son to believe there were, including Indians, only two hundred men
within it.f

M. de Ligneris, commandant at Fort Du Quesne, at once assem-
bled seven or eight hundred men, and gave the command to M.
Aubry. \ The French sallied out of the fort, and the Indians, who
had crossed the river to keep out of the way of the British, returned
and made a flank movement. Aubry, by a rapid movement, attacked
the different divisions of the English, and completely routed and
disjDersed them. The force under Major Lewis was compelled to
give way. Being flanked, a number were driven into the river,
most of whom were drowned. The English lost two hundred and
seventy killed, forty-two wounded, and several prisoners ; among the
latter was Grant.

On the 22d of September M. Aubry left Fort Du Quesne, with a
force of six hundred French and Indians, intending to reconnoitre
the position of the English at Loyal-hannon.

"Lie found a little camp in front of some intrenchments which
would cover a body of two thousand men. The advance guard of
the French detachment having been discovered, the English sent a
captain and fifty men to reconnoitre, who fell in with the detach-
ment and were entirely defeated. In following the fugitives the
French fell upon this camp, and surprised and dispersed it.

"The fugitives scarcely gained the principal intrenchment, which
M. Aubry held in blockade two days. He killed two hundred horses
and cattle." The French returned to Fort Du Quesne mounted.^
"The English lost in the engagement one hundred and fifty men,

* The hill has ever since borne Grant's name.

t Craig's History of Pittsburgh, p. 74.

JGarneau's History of Canada, Bell's translation, vol. 2, p. 214.

§Pouchot's Memoir, p. 130.

226 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

killed, wounded and missing. The French loss was two killed and
seven wounded."

The Louisiana detachment, which took the principal part in both
of these battles, was recruited from the French posts in "The Illi-
nois," and consisted of soldiers taken from the garrison in that terri-
tory, and the coureurs des bois, traders and settlers in their respective
neighborhoods. It was the first battalion ever raised within the
limits of the present states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. After
the action of Loyal-hannon, " the Louisiana detachment, as well as
those from Detroit, returned home."*

Soon after their departure, and on the 24th of November, the
French abandoned Fort Du Quesne. Pouchot says: "It came to
pass that by blundering at Fort Du Quesne the French were obliged
to abandon it for want of provisions." This may have been the
true reason for the abandonment, but doubtless the near approach of
a large English army, commanded by Gen. Forbes, had no small
influence in accelerating their movements. The fort was a mere
stockade, of small dimensions, and not suited to resist the attacks of
artillery, f

Having burnt the stockade and storehouses, the garrison sepa-
rated. One hundred retired to Presque Isle, by land. Two hundred,
by way of the Alleghany, went to Venango. The remaining hun-
dred descended the Ohio. About forty miles above its confluence
with the Mississippi, and on a beautiful eminence on the north bank
of the river, they erected a fort and named it Fort Massac, in honor
of the commander, M. Massac, who superintended its construction.
This was the last fort erected by the French on the Ohio, and it was
occupied by a garrison of French troops until the evacuation of the
country under the stipulations of the treaty of Paris. Such was the
origin of Fort Massac, divested of the romance which fable has
thrown around its name.";}:

* Letter of Marquis Montcalm: Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 901.

t Hildreth's Pioneer History, p. 42.

t Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 317. Gov. Reynolds, who visited
the remains of Fort Massac in 1855, thus describes its remains: " The outside walls
were one hundred and thirty-five feet square, and at each angle strong bastions were
erected. The walls were palisades, with earth between the wood. A large well was
sunk in the fortress, and the whole appeared to have been strong and substantial in its
day. Three or four acres of gravel walks were made on the north of the fort, on which
the soldiers paraded. The walks were made in exact angles, and beautifully graveled
with pebbles from the river. The site is one of the most beautiful on La Belle Rivere,
and commands a view of the Ohio that is charming and lovely. French genius for the
selection of sites for forts is eminently sustained in their choice of Fort Massacre." The
Governor states that the fort was first established in 1711, and "was enlarged and
made a respectable fortress in 1756." Vide Reynolds' Life and Times, pp. 28, 29. This
is, probably, a mistake. There are no records in the French official documents of any
military post in that vicinity until the so-called French and Indian war.

CHANGE OF WAR-PLAN". 227

On the day following the evacuation, the English took peaceable
possession of the smoking ruins of Fort Du Quesne. They erected
a temporary fortification, named it Fort Pitt, in honor of the great
English statesman of that name, and leaving two hundred men as a
garrison, retired over the mountains.

On the 5th of December, 1758, Thomas Pownall, governor of
Massachusetts Bay Province, addressed a memorial to the British
Ministry, suggesting that there should be an entire change in the
method of carrying on the war. Pownall stated that the French
were superior in battles fought in the wilderness ; that Canada never
could be conquered by land campaigns ; that the proper way to
succeed in the reduction of Canada would be to make an attack on
Quebec by sea, and thus, by cutting off supplies from the home gov-
ernment, Canada would be starved out.*

Pitt, if he did not act on the recommendations of Gov. Pownall,
at least had similar views, and the next year (1759), in accordance
with this plan, Gen. Wolfe made a successful assault on Quebec, and
from that time, the supplies and reinforcements from the home gov-
ernment being cut. off, the cause of the French in Canada became
almost hopeless.

During this year the French made every effort to stir up the
Indians north of the Ohio to take the tomahawk and scalping-knife
in hand, and make one more attempt to preserve the northwest
for the joint occupancy of the Gallic and American races. Emissa-
ries were sent to Lake Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw, Ouiatanon,Vincennes,
Kaskaskia and Fort Chartes, loaded with presents and ammunition,
for the purpose of collecting all those stragglers who had not enter-
prise enough to go voluntarily to the seat of war. Canada was hard
pressed for soldiers ; the English navy cut off most of the rein-

* Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, Appendix, p. 57. Thomas Pownall,
born in England in 1720, came to America in 1753; was governor of Massachusetts
Bay, and subsequently was appointed governor of South Carolina. He was highly edu-
cated, and possessed a thorough knowledge of the geography, history and policy of
both the French and English colonies in America. His work on the "Administration
of the American Colonies " passed through many editions. In 1756 he addressed a
memorial to His Highness the Duke of Cumberland, on the conduct of the colonial war,
in which he recommended a plan for its further prosecution. The paper is a very
able one. Much of it compiled from the official letters of Marquis Vaudreuil, Governor-
General of Canada, written between the years 1743 and 1752, showing the policy of the
French, and giving a minute description of their settlements, military establishments
in the west, their manner of dealing with the Indians, and a description of the river
communications of the French between their possessions in Canada and Louisiana. In
1776 he revised Evans' celebrated map of the " Middle British Provinces in America."
After his return to England he devoted himself to scientific pursuits. He was a warm
friend of the American colonists in the contest with the mother country, and de-
nounced the measures of parliament concerning the colonies as harsh and wholly
unwarranted, and predicted the result that followed. He died in 1805.

228 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

forcements from France, while the English, on the contrary, were
constantly receiving troops from the mother country.

Mons. de Aubry, commandant at Fort Chartes, persuaded four
hundred men from the "Illinois country" to follow him eastward.
Taking with him two hundred thousand pounds of flour, he em-
barked his heterogeneous force in bateaux and canoes. The route
by way of the Ohio was closed ; the English were in possession of
its headwaters. He went down the Mississippi, thence up the Ohio
to the mouth of the "Wabash. Having ascended the latter stream
to the Miami villages, near the present site of Fort Wayne, his fol-
lowers made the portage, passed down the Maumee, and entered
Lake Erie.

During the whole course of their journey they were being con-
stantly reinforced by bands of different tribes of Indians, and by
Canadian militia as they passed the several posts, until the army
was augmented to sixteen hundred men, of whom there were six
hundred French and one thousand Indians. An eye-witness, in
speaking of the appearance of the force, said : " When they passed
the little rapid at the outlet of Lake Erie (at Buffalo) the flotilla ap-
peared like a floating island, as the river was covered with their
bateaux and canoes."*

Aubry was compelled to leave his flour and provisions at the
Miami portage. He afterward requested M. de Port-neuf, com-
mandant at Presque Isle, to take charge of the portage, and to send
it constantly in his bateaux. f

Before Aubry reached Presque Isle he was joined by other bodies
of Indians and Canadians from the region of the upper lakes. They
were under the command of French traders and commandants of
interior posts. At Fort Machault+ he was joined by M. de Lignery ;
the latter had assembled the Ohio Indians at Presque Isle.§ It was
the original intention of Aubry to recapture Fort Du Quesne from
the English. On the 12th of July a grand council was held at Fort
Machault, in which the commandant thanked the Indians for their
attendance, threw down the war belt, and told them he would set
out the next day for Fort Du Quesne. Soon after messengers arrived
with a packet of letters for the officers. After reading them Aubry
told the Indians: "Children, I have received bad news; the Eng-
' lish are gone against Niagara. W x e must give over thoughts of going
down the river to Fort Du Quesne till we have cleared that place of

*Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187

fldem, p. 152.

j Located at the mouth of French Creek, Pennsylvania.

§ Idem, 187.

aubky's campaign. 229

the enemy. If it should be taken, our road to you is stopped, and
you must become poor." Orders were immediately given to pro-
ceed with the artillery, provisions, etc., up French Creek, and the
Indians prepared to follow.*

These letters were from M. Pouchot, commandant at Niagara, f
and stated that he was besieged by a much superior force of English
and Indians, who were under the command of Gen. Predeaux and
Sir William Johnson. Aubry answered these letters on the next day,
and said he thought they might fight the enemy successfully, and
compel them to raise the siege. The Indians who brought these mes-
sages to Pouchot informed him that they, on the part of the Indians
with Aubry and Lignery, had offered the Iroquois and other Indian
allies of the English five war belts if they would retire. These prom-
ised that they would not mingle in the quarrel. "We will here recall
the fact that Pouchot, by his letter of the 10th, had notified Lignery
and Aubry that the enemy might be four or five thousand strong
without the Indians, and if they could put themselves in condition
to attack so large a force, he should pass Chenondac to come to
Niagara by the other side of the river, where he would be in con-
dition to drive the English, who were only two hundred strong on
that side, and could not easily be reinforced. This done, they could
easily come to him, because after the defeat of this body they could
send bateaux to bring them to the fort."

M. Pouchot now recalled his previous request, and informed
Aubry that the enemy were in three positions, in one of which
there were three thousand nine hundred Indians. He added, could
Aubry succeed in driving the enemy from any of these positions,
he had no doubt they would be forced to raise the siege. ^

Aubry' s route was up French Creek to its head-waters, thence
making the portage to Presque Isle and sailing along the shores of
Lake Erie until he reached Niagara. Arriving at the foot of Lake
Erie he left one hundred and fifty men in charge of his canoes, and
with the remainder advanced toward Niagara. Sir William John-
son was informed, on the evening of the 23d, of this advance of the
French, and ordered his light infantry and pickets to take post on
the left, on the road between Niagara Falls -and the fort; and these,
after reinforcing them with grenadiers and parts of the 46th and 44th
regiments, were so arranged as to effectually support the guard left

* Extract from a letter dated July 17, 1759, of Col. Mercer, commandant at Fort
Pitt, published in Craig's Olden Time, vol. 1, p. 194.

f Fort Niagara was one of the earliest French military posts, and situated on the
right, or American shore of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of Niagara River. It has
figured conspicuously in all of the wars on the lake frontier.

i Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. 1, pp. 186, 187, 188.

230 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

in the trenches. Most of his men were concealed either in the
trenches or by trees.

On the morning of the 24th the French made their appearance.
They were marching along a path about eight feet wide, and "were
in readiness to fight in close order and without ranks or files." On
their right were thirty Indians, who formed a front on the enemy's
left. The Indians of the English army advanced to speak to those
of the French. Seeing the Iroquois in the hitter's company, the
French Indians refused to advance, under pretext that they were at
peace with the first named. Though thus abandoned by their chief
force, Aubry and Lignery still proceeded on their way, thinking
that the few savages they saw were isolated men, till they reached
a narrow pathway, when they discovered great numbers beyond.
The English Indians then gave the war-whoop and the action com-
menced. The English regulars attacked the French in front, while
the Indians poured in on their flank. Thus surprised by an am-
buscade, and deserted by their savage allies, the French proved easy
victims to the prowess of far superior numbers. They were assailed
in front and rear by two thousand men. The rear of the column,
unable to resist, gave way, and left the head exposed to the enemy's
fire, which crushed it entirely. An Indian massacre followed, and
the pursuit of the victors continued until they were compelled to
desist by sheer fatigue. Almost all the French officers were killed,
wounded or taken prisoners. Among the latter was Aubry. Those
who escaped joined M. Iiocheblave, and with his detachment re-
treated to Detroit and other western lake posts.*

This defeat on the shores of Lake Erie was very severe on the
struggling western settlements. Most all of the able-bodied men
had gone with Aubry, many never to return. In 1760 M. de Mac-
Carty, commandant at Fort Chartes, in a letter to Marquis Vaudreuil,
stated that "the garrison was weaker than ever before, the check at
Niagara having cost him the elite of his men."f

It is apparent, from the desertion of Aubry by his savage allies,
that they perceived that the English were certain to conquer in the
end. They felt no particular desire to prop a falling cause, and
thus deserted Mons. Aubry at the crisis when their assistance was
most needed. Thus was defeated the greatest French-Indian force
ever collected in the northwest.:}:

* The account of this action has been compiled from Mante, p. 226; Pouchot, vol. 1,
p. 192; and Garneau's History of Canada, vol. 2, pp. 250, 251, Bell's translation.

t Paris Documents, vol. 10, p. 1093.

X Aubry returned to Louisiana and remained there until after the peace of 1763.
In 1765 he was appointed governor of Louisiana, and surrendered the colony, in March,

THE DOWNFALL OF FRENCH RULE. 231

The next day after Aubry's defeat, near Fort Niagara, the fortress
surrendered.

After the surrender of Niagara and Fort Du Quesne, the Indian
allies of France retired to the deep recesses of the western forests,
and the English frontiers suffered no more from their depredations.
Settlements were gradually formed on the western side of the Alle-
ghanies, and they remained secure from Indian invasions.

In the meantime many Canadians, becoming satisfied that the
conquest of Canada was only a mere question of time, determined,
before that event took place, to remove to the French settlements
on the lower Mississippi. "Many of them accordingly departed
from Canada by way of the lakes, and thence through the Illinois
and Wabash Kivers to the Mississippi."*

After the surrender of Quebec, in 1759, Montreal became the
headquarters of the French in Canada, and in the spring of 1760
Mons. Levi, the French commander-in-chief, besieged Quebec. The
arrival of an English fleet compelled him to relinquish his designs.
Amherst and Johnson formed a junction, and advanced against
Montreal. The French governor of Canada, Marquis Vaudreil,
believing that further resistance was impossible, surrendered all
Canada to the English. This included the western posts of Detroit,
Mackinaw, Fort Miami, Ouiatanon, Vincennes, Fort St. Joseph,
etc.

After this war ceased to be waged in America, though the treaty
of Paris was not concluded until February, 1763, the most essential
parts of which are contained in the following extracts :

"In order to establish peace on solid and durable foundations,
and to remove forever all subjects of dispute with regard to the
limits of the British and French territories on the continent of
America, it is agreed that for the future the confines between the
dominions of his Britannic Majesty and those of His Most Christian
Majesty in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a
line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi from its source
to the River Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the
middle of this river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to
the sea ; and for this purpose the most Christian King cedes, in full
right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of
Mobile, and everything which he possesses, or ought to possess, on
the left side of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of

176G, to the Spanish governor, Ulloa. After the expulsion of Ulloa, he held the
government until relieved by O'Reilly, in July, 1769. He soon afterward sailed for
France. The vessel was lost, and Aubry perished in the depths of the sea.
* Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 305.

232 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Now Orleans and of the island on which it is situated ; it being well
understood that the navigation of the Mississippi shall be equally
free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France,
in its whole length and breadth, from its source to the sea."*

Thus Gallic rule came to an end in North America. Its downfall
was the result of natural causes, and was owing largely to the differ-
ence between the Frenchmen and the Englishmen. The former, as
a rule, gave no attention to agriculture, but found occupation in
hunting and trading with the Indians, acquiring nomadic habits that
unfitted them for the cultivation of the soil ; their families dwelt in
villages separated by wide stretches of wilderness. While the able
men were hunting and trading, the old men, women and children
produced scanty crops sown in "common fields," or inclosures of a
piece of ground which were portioned off among the families of the
village. The Englishman, on the other hand, loved to own land,
and pushed his improvements from the coast line up through all the
valleys extending westward. Reaching the summit of the Allegha-
nies, the tide of emigration flowed into the valleys beyond. Every
cabin was a fort, every advancing farm a new line of intrenchment.
The distinguishing characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon is consistency
and firmness in his designs, and, more than all, his love for a home.
In the trials and hardships necessarily connected with the opening
up of the wilderness these traits come prominently into play. The
result was, that the English colonies prospered in a degree hitherto
unknown in the annals of the world's progress. And by way of con-
trast, how little did the French have to show in the way of lasting
improvements in the northwest after it had been in their possession
for nearly a century !

However, the very traits that disqualified the Gaul as a successful
colonist gave him a preeminent advantage over the Anglo-Saxon in
the influence he exerted upon the Indian. He did not want their

*"0n the 3d day of the previous November, France, by a secret treaty ceded
to Spain all her possessions west of the Mississippi. His Most Christian Majesty
made known to the inhabitants of Louisiana the fact of the cession by a letter, dated
April 21, 1764. Don Ulloa, the New Spanish governor, arrived at New Orleans
in 1766. The French inhabitants objected to the transfer of Louisiana to Spain, and,
resorting to arms, compelled Ulloa to return to Havana. In 1769, O'Reilly, with a
Spanish force, arrived and took possession. He killed six of the ringleaders and sent
others to Cuba. Spain remained in possession of Louisiana until March, 1801, when
Louisiana was retroceded to the French republic. The French made preparations to
occupy Lousiana, and an army of twenty-five thousand men was designed for that
territory, but the fleet and army were suddenly blockaded in one of the ports of Hol-
land by an English squadron. This occurrence, together with the gloomy aspect of
affairs in Europe, induced Napoleon, who was then at the head of the French republic,
to cede Louisiana to the United States. The tneaty was dated April 30, 1803. The
actual transfer occurred in December of the same year." Vide Stoddard's Sketches of
Louisiana, pp. 71, 102.

FRENCH WAYS WITH THE INDIANS. 233

lands ; he fraternized with them, adopted their ways, and nattered
and pleased them. The Anglo-Saxon wanted their lands. From
the start he was clamorous for deeds and cessions of territory, and
at once began crowding the Indian out of the country. "The Iro-
quois told Sir fin. Johnson that they believed soon they should not
be able to hunt a bear into a hole in a tree but some Englishman
would claim a right to the property of it, as being found in his
tree."*

The happiness which the Indians enjoyed from their intercourse
with the French was their perpetual theme ; it was their golden age.
"Those who are old enough to remember it speak of it with rap-
ture, and teach their children to venerate it, as the ancients did the
reign of Saturn. 'You call us your children,' said an aged chief to
Gen. Harrison, ' why do you not make us happy, as our fathers the
French did ? They never took from us our lands, which, indeed,
were in common between us. They planted where they pleased,
and cut wood where they pleased, and so did we ; but now, if a poor
Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him from
the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, claim-
ing the tree as his own.' "f

*Pownall's Administration of the Colonies,
t Memoirs of Gen. Harrison, p. 134.

CHAPTER XXII.

PONTIAC'S WAR TO RECOVER THE NORTHWEST FROM THE ENGLISH.

After the surrender of Canada to the English by the Marquis
Vaudreuil, Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander-in-chief of His Majesty's
forces in North America, ordered Major Robert Rogers to ascend
the lakes and take possession of the western forts. On the 13th of
September Rogers, with two hundred of his rangers, left Montreal.
After weeks of weary traveling, they reached the mouth of Cuyahoga
River, the present site of Cleveland, on the 7th of November. Here
they were met by Pontiac, a celebrated Ottawa chieftain, who asked
Rogers what his intentions were, and how he dared enter that coun-
try without his permission. Rogers replied that the French had
been defeated ; that Canada was surrendered into the hands of the
British ; and that he was on his way to take possession of Detroit,
Mackinaw, Miamis and Ouitanon. lie also proposed to restore a
general peace to white men and Indians alike. "Pontiac listened
with attention, but only replied that he should stand in the path of
the English until morning." In the morning he returned, and
allowed the English to advance. He said there would be no trouble
so long as they treated him with deference and respect.

Embarking on the 12th of November, they arrived in a few days
at Maumee Bay, at the western end of Lake Erie. The western
Indians, to the number of four hundred, had collected at the mouth
of Detroit River. They were determined to massacre the entire party
under Rogers. It afterward appeared that they were acting under
the influence of the French commandant at Detroit. Rogers pre-
vailed upon Pontiac to use his influence to induce the warlike
Indians to disband. After some parleying, Pontiac succeeded, and
the road was open to Detroit.

Before his arrival at Detroit Rogers had sent in advance Lieuten-
ant Brehmwith a letter to Captain Beletre, the commandant, inform-
ing the latter that his garrison was included in the surrender of
Canada. Beletre wholly disregarded the letter. He declared he
thought it was a trick of the English, and that they intended to
obtain possession of his fortress by treachery. He made use of
every endeavor to excite the Indians against the English. "He

2.34

DETKOIT SURRENDERED. 235-

displayed upon a pole, before the yelling multitude, the effigy of a
crow pecking a man's head, the crow representing himself, and the
head, observes Rogers, 'being meant for my own.' "*

Rogers then sent forward Captain Campbell "with a copy of the
capitulation and a letter from the Marquis Yaudreuil, directing that
the place should be given up in accordance with the articles agreed
upon between him and General Amherst." The French command-
ant could hold out no longer, and, much against his will, was com-
pelled to deliver the fortress to the English. The lilies of France
were lowered from the flagstaff, and their place was taken by the
cross of St. George. Seven hundred Indian warriors and their
families, all of whom had aided the French by murdering innocent
women and children on the frontiers of Pennsylvania and New York,
greeted the change with demoniacal yells of apparent pleasure ; but
concealed in their breasts was a natural dislike for the English.
Dissembling for the present, they kept their hatred to themselves,
for the late successes of British arms had awed them into silence.

It was on the 29th of November, 1760, that Detroit was given
over to the English. The garrison, as prisoners of war, were taken
to Philadelphia.

Rogers sent an officer up the Maumee, and from thence down the
Wabash, to take possession of the posts at the portage and at Oui-
atanon. Both of these objects were attained without any difficulty.

On account of the lateness of the season the detachment which
had started for Mackinaw returned to Detroit, and all efforts against
the posts on the upper lakes were laid aside until the following sea-
son. In that year the English took possession of Mackinaw, Green
Bay and St. Joseph. The French still retained possession of Yin-
cennes and Fort Chartes.f

It always was the characteristic policy of the French to render
the savages dependent upon them, and with that design in view they
had earnestly endeavored to cultivate among the Indians a desire for
European goods. By prevailing upon the Indians to throw aside
hides and skins of wild beasts for clothing of European manufacture,
to discontinue the use of their pottery for cooking utensils of iron,
to exchange the bow and arrow and stone weapons for the gun, the
knife and hatchet of French manufacture, it was thought that in the
course of one or two generations they would become dependent upon
their French neighbors for the common necessaries of life. When

* Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac, p. 150.

t This account of the delivery of the western forts to Rogers has been collated from
his Journal and from Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac.

236 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

this change in their customs had taken place, by simply withholding
the supply of am munition they could coerce the savages to adopt any
measures that the French government saw fit to propose. The pol-
icy of the French was not to force, but to lead, the savages into sub-
jection. They told the barbarians that they were the children of the
great king, who had sent his people among them to preserve them
from their implacable enemies, the English. Flattering them, asking
their advice, bestowing upon them presents, and, above all, showing
them respect and deference, the French gained the good will of the
savages in a degree that no other European nation ever equaled.
After the surrender of the western posts all this was changed. The
accustomed presents formerly bestowed upon them were withheld.
English traders robbed, bullied and cheated them. English officers
treated them with rudeness and contempt. But, most of all, the
steady advance of the English colonists over the mountains, occupy-
ing their lands, driving away their game, and forcing them to retire
farther west, alarmed and exasperated the aborigines to the limit of
endurance. "The wrongs and neglect the Indians felt were inflamed
by the French coureurs de hois and traders. They had every motive
to excite the tribes against the English, such as their national rancor,
their religious antipathies, and most especially the fear of losing the
profitable Indian trade." Every effort was made to excite and in-
flame the slumbering passions of the tribes of the Northwest. Secret
councils were held, and different plans for obtaining possession of
the western fortresses were discussed. The year after Rogers ob-
tained Detroit there was, in the summer, an outbreak, but it was
easily quelled, being only local. The next year, also, there was
another disturbance, but it, like the former, did not spread.

During these two years one Indian alone, — Pontiac, — compre-
hended the situation. He read correctly the signs and portents of
the times. He well knew that English supremacy on the North
American continent meant the destruction of his race. He saw the
great difference between the English and the French. The former
were settlers, the latter traders. The French came to the far west
for their beaver skins and peltries, while the English would only be
satisfied with their lands. Pontiac soon arrived at the conclusion
that unless the ceaseless flow of English immigration was stopped,
it would not be many decades before the Indian race would be
driven from the face of the earth. Well has time justified this opin-
ion of the able Indian chieftain !

To accomplish his designs, Pontiac was well aware that he must
induce all the tribes of the northwest to join him. Even then he

PONTIAC'S WAR. 237

had doubts of final success. To encourage him, the French traders
informed him "that the English had stolen Canada while their com-
mon father was asleep at Versailles ; that he would soon awaken and
again wrest his domains from the intruders ; that even now large
French armies were on their way up the St. Lawrence and Missis-
sippi rivers." Pontiac believed these tales, for let it be borne in
mind that this was previous to the treaty of Paris, and late in the
autumn of 1762 he sent emissaries with black wampum and the red
tomahawk to the villages of the Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Sacs,
Foxes, Menominees, Illinois, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares, Wyan-
dots, Kickapoos and Senecas. These emissaries were instructed to
inform the various tribes that the English had determined to exter-
minate the northwestern Indians ; to accomplish this they intended
to erect numerous fortifications in the territory named ; and also
that the English had induced the southern Indians to aid them.* To
avert these inimical designs of the English, the messengers of Pon-
tiac proposed that on a certain day all the tribes, by concerted action,
should seize all the English posts and then attack the whole English
border.

Pontiac' s plan was contrived and developed with wonderful
secrecy, and all of a sudden the conspiracy burst its fury simultane-
ously over all the forts held by the British west of the Alleghanies.
By stratagem or forcible assault every garrison west of Pittsburgh,
excepting Detroit, was captured.

Fort St. Joseph, on the river of that name, in the present state of
Michigan, was captured by the Pottawatomies. These emissaries of
Pontiac collected about the fort on the 23d of May, 1763, and under
the guise of friendship effected an entrance within the palisades,
when they suddenly turned upon and massacred the whole garrison,
except the commandant, Ensign Slussee and three soldiers, whom
they made prisoners and sent to Detroit.

The Ojibbeways effected an entry within the defenses of Fort
Mackinaw, the gate being left open while the Indians were amusing
the officer and soldiers with a game of ball. In the play the ball
was knocked over within the palisade. The players, hurrying
through the gates, seemingly intent on regaining the ball, seized
their knives and guns from beneath the blankets of their squaws,
where they had been purposely concealed, and commenced an indis-
criminate massacre, f

* The Chickasaws and Cherokees were at that time, though on their own responsi-
bility, waging war aginst some of the tribes of the northwest.

fA detailed account of this most horrible massacre is given by the fur-trader Alex-

238 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Ensign Holmes, who was in command at Fort Miami,* learned
that to the Miamis in the vicinity of his post was allotted the de-
struction of his garrison. Holmes collected the Indians in an
assembly, and charged them with forming a conspiracy against his
post. They confessed ; said that they were influenced by hostile
Indians, and promised to relinquish their designs. The village of
Pontiac was within a short distance of the post, and some of his im-
mediate followers doubtless attended the assembly. Holmes sup-
posed he had partially allayed their irritation, as appears from a
letter written ftom him to Major Gladwyn.f

On the 27th of May a young Indian squaw, who was the mistress
of Holmes, requested him to visit a sick Indian woman who lived in
a wigwam near at hand. "Having confidence in the girl, Holmes
followed her out of the fort." Two Indians, who were concealed
behind the hut, as he approached it, fired and "stretched him life-
less on the ground." The sergeant rushed outside of the palisade
to learn the cause of the firing. He was immediately seized by the
Indians. The garrison, who by this time had become thoroughly
alarmed, and had climbed upon the palisades, was ordered to surren-
der by one Godefroy, a Canadian. They were informed, if they
submitted their lives would be spared, otherwise they all would be
massacred. Having lost their officers and being in great terror, they
threw open the gate and gave themselves up as prisoners. Accord-
ing to tradition, the garrison was afterward massacred.;}:

Fort Ouiatanon was under the command of Lieut. Jenkins, who
had no suspicion of any Indian troubles, and on the 1st of June,
when he was requested by some of the Indians to visit them in their
cabins near by, he unhesitatingly complied with the request. Upon
his entering the hut he was immediately seized by the Indian war-
riors. Through various other stratagems of a similar nature several
of the soldiers were also taken. Jenkins was then told to have the
soldiers in the fort surrender. "For," said the Indians, "should
your men kill one of our braves, we shall put you all to death."

ander Henry, an eye-witness and one of the few survivors, in his interesting Book of
Travels and Adventures, p. 85.

* Now Fort Wayne.

Fort Miamis, March 30th, 1763.

t Since my Last Letter to You, wherein I Acquainted You of the Bloody Belt being
in this Village, I have made all the search I could about it, and have found it not to be
.True; Whereon I Assembled all the chiefs of this Nation, & after a long and trouble-
some Spell with them, I Obtained the Belt, with a Speech, as You will Receive En-
closed; This affair is very timely Stopt, and I hope the News of a Peace will put a
Stop to any further Troubles with these Indians, who are the Principal Ones of Setting
Mischief on Foot. I send you the Belt, with this Packet, which I hope You will For-
ward to the General.

X Brice's History of Fort Wayne.

PONTIAC'S FAILURE. 239

Jenkins thinking that resistance would be useless, ordered the re-
maining soldiers to deliver the fort to the Indians. During the
night the Indians resolved to break their plighted word, and mas-
sacre all their prisoners. Two of the French residents, M. M. Mai-
gonville and Lorain, gave the Indians valuable presents, including
wampum, brandy, etc., and thus preserved the lives of the English
captives. Jenkins, in his letter to Major Gladwyn, commandant at
Detroit, states that the Weas were not favorably inclined toward
Pontiac's designs ; but being coerced by the surrounding tribes, they
undertook to carry out their part of the programme. Well did they
succeed. Lieut. Jenkins, with the other prisoners, were, within a
few days afterward, sent across the prairies of Illinois to Fort Char-
tres.

Detroit held out, though regularly besieged by Pontiac in person,
for more than fifteen months, when, at last, the suffering garrison
was relieved by the approach of troops under Gen. Bradstreet. In
the meantime Pontiac confederates, wearied and disheartened by the
protracted struggle, longed for peace. Several tribes abandoned the
declining fortune of Pontiac ; and finally the latter gave up the con-
test, and retired to the neighborhood of Fort Miamis. Here he
remained for several months, when he went westward, down the
Wabash and across the prairies to Fort Chartres. The latter fort
remained in possession of a French officer, not having been as yet
surrendered to the English, the hostility of the Indians preventing
its delivery ; and by agreements of the two governments, France
and England, it was left in charge of the veteran St. Ange.

The English having acquired the territory herein considered, by
conquest and treaty, from France, renewed their efforts to reclaim
authority over it from its aboriginal inhabitants. To effect this
object, they now resort to conciliation and diplomacy. They sent
westward George Croghan.*

After closing a treaty with the Indians at Fort Pitt, Croghan
started' on his mission on the 15th of May 1765, going down the
Ohio in two bateaux. His movements were known to the hostile

* Croghan was an old trader who had spent his life among the Indians, and was
versed in their language, ways and habits of thought, and who well knew how to flat-
ter and cajole them. Besides this, Croghan enjoyed the advantage of a personal ac-
quaintance with many of the chiefs and principal men of the Wabash tribes, who had
met him while trading at Pickawillany and other places where he had trading estab-
lishments. Among the Miami, Wea and Piankashaw bands Croghan had many Indian
friends whose attachments toward him were very warm. He was a veteran, up to all
the arts of the Indian council house, and had in years gone by conducted many impor-
tant treaties between the authorities of New York and Pennsylvania with the Iroquois,
Delawares and Shawnees. In the war for the fur trade Croghan suffered severely; the
French captured his traders, confiscated his goods, and bankrupted his fortune.

240 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

tribes. A war party of eighty Kickapoos and Mascoutins, "spirited
up " to the act by the French traders at Ouiatanon, as Croghan says
in his Journal, left the latter place, and captured Croghan and his
party at daybreak on the 8th of June, in the manner narrated in a
previous chapter."* Tie w r as carried to Vincennes, his captors con-
ducting him a devious course through marshes, tangled forests and
small prairie, to the latter place, t

After Croghan had procured wearing apparel this captors had
stripped him well-nigh naked) and purchased some horses he
crossed the Wabash, and soon entered the great prairie which he
describes in extracts we have already taken from his journal. His
route was up through Crawford, Edgar and Vermilion counties, fol-
lowing the old traveled trail running along the divide between the
Embarrass and the Wabash, and which was a part of the great high-
way leading from Detroit to Kaskaskia ; £ crossed the Vermilion
River near Danville, thence along the trail through Warren county,
Indiana. Croghan, still a prisoner in charge of his captors, reached
Ouiatonon on the afternoon of the 23d of June.^ Here the Weas,

*P. 161.

t Croghan, in his Journal, says: " I found Vincennes a village of eighty or ninety
French families, settled on the east side of the river, being one of the finest situations
that can be found. The French inhabitants hereabouts are an idle, lazy people, a
parcel of renegadoes from Canada, and are much worse than the Indians. They took
secret pleasure at our misfortune, and the moment we arrived they came to the Indians,
exchanging trifles for their valuable plunder. Here is likewise an Indian village of
Piankashaws, who were much displeased with the party that took me, telling them
that ' our and your chiefs are gone to make peace, and you have begun war, for which
our women and children will have reason to cry.' Port Vincent is a place of great
consequence for trade, being a fine hunting country all along the Wabash."

X That part of the route from Kaskaskia east, from the earliest settlement of Illi-
nois and Indiana, was called "the old Vincennes trace." "This trace," says Gov.
Reynolds, in his Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 79, "was celebrated in Illinois. The
Indians laid it out more than one hundred and fifty years ago. It commenced at
Detroit, thence to Ouiatonon, on the Wabash, thence to Vincennes and thence to Kas-
kaskia. It was the Appian way of Illinois in ancient times. It is yet (in 1852) visible
in many places between Kaskaskia and Vincennes." It was also visible for years after
the white settlements began, between the last place, the Vermilion and Ouiatonon, on
the route described. — [Author.

§ Croghan says of Ouiatonon that there were " about fourteen French families liv-
ing in the foil, which stands on the north side of the river; that the Kickapoos and
Mascoutins, whose warriors had taken us, live nigh the fort, on the same side of the
river, where they have two villages, and the Ouicatonons or Wawcottonans [as Croghan
variously spells the name of the WeasJ have a village on the south side of the river."
"On the south side of the Wabash runs a high bank, in which are several very fine
coal mines, and behind this bank is a very large meadow, clear for several miles." The
printer made a mistake in setting up Croghan's manuscript, or else Croghan himself
committed an unintentional error in his diary in substituting the word south for north
indescribing the side of the river on which the appearances of coal banks are found. The
only locality on the banks of the Wabash, above the Vermilion, where the carbonifer-
ous shales resembling coal are exposed is on the west, or north bank, of the river, about
four miles above Independence, at a place known as "Black Rock," which, says Prof.
Collett, in his report on the geology of Warren county, Indiana, published in the Geolog-
ical Survey of Indiana for 1873, pp. 224-5, " is a notable and romantic feature in the river
scenery." "A precipitous or overhanging cliff exhibits an almost sheer descent of a

SUCCESS OF CROGHAN'S MISSION. 241

from the opposite side of the river, took great interest in Mr.
Croghan, and were deeply "concerned at what had happened.
They charged the Kickapoos and Mascoutins to take the greatest
care of him, and the Indians and white men captured with him, until
their chiefs should arrive from Fort Chartres, whither they had gone,
some time before, to meet him, and who were necessarily ignorant of
his being captured on his way to the same place." From the 4th to
the 8th of July Croghan held conferences with the Weas, Pianke-
shaws, Kickapoos and Mascoutins, in which, he says, "I was lucky
enough to reconcile those nations to His Majesty's interests, and ob-
tained their consent to take possession of the posts in their country
which the French formerly possessed, and they offered their services
should any nation oppose our taking such possession, all of which they
confirmed by four large pipes."* On the 11th a messenger arrived
from Fort Chartres requesting the Indians to take Croghan and his
party thither ; and as Fort Chartres was the place to which he had
originally designed going, he desired the chiefs to get ready to set
out with him for that place as soon as possible. On the 13th the
chiefs from ''the Miamis" came in and renewed their "ancient
friendship with His Majesty." On the 18th Croghan, with his party
and the chiefs of the Miami and other tribes we have mentioned,
forming an imposing procession, started oft* across the country
toward Fort Chartres. On the way (neither Croghan' s official report
or his private journal show the place) they met the great ,w Pontiac
himself, together with the deputies of the Iroquois, Delawares and
Shawnees,f who had gone on around to Fort Chartres with Capt.

hundred and forty feet to the Wabash, at its foot. The top is composed of yellow, red,
brown or black conglomerate sandrock, highly ferruginous, and in part pebbly. At the
base of the sandrock, where it joins upon the underlying carbonaceous and pyritous
shales are 'pot' or 'rock-houses,' which so constantly accompany this formation in
southern Indiana. Some of these, of no great height, have been tunneled back under
the cliff to a distance of thirty or forty feet by force of the ancient river once flowing
at this level." The position, in many respects, is like Starved Rock, on the Illinois,
where La Salle built Fort St. Louis, and commands a fine view of the Wea plains,
across the river eastward, and, before the recent growth of timber, of an arm of the
Grand Prairie to the westward. The stockade fort and trading-post of Ouiatonon has
often been confounded with the Wea villages, which were strung for several miles along
the margin of the prairie, near the river, between Attica and La Fayette, on the south
or east side of the river; and some writers have mistaken it for the village of Keth-
tip-e-ca-nuk, situated on the north bank of the Wabash^ River, near the mouth of the
Tippecanoe. The fort was abandoned as a military post after its capture from the
British by the Indians. It was always a place of considerable trade to the English, as
well as the French. Thomas Hutchins, in his Historical and Topographical Atlas, pub-
lished in 1778, estimates "the annual amount of skins and furs obtained at Ouiatonon
at forty thousand dollars."

* Croghan's official report to Sir Wm. Johnson: London Documents, vol. 7, p. 780.

f These last-named Indian deputies, with Mr. Frazer , had gone down the Ohio with
Croghan, and thence on to Fort Chartres. Not hearing anything from Croghan, or
knowing what had become of him, Pontiac and these Indian deputies, on learning that
Croghan was at Ouiatanon, set out for that place to meet him.
16

242 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Frazer. The whole party, with deputies from the Illinois Indians,
now returned to Ouiatanon, and there held another conference, in
which were settled all matters with the Illinois Indians. " Pontiac
and the Illinois deputies agreed to everything which the other tribes
had conceded in the previous conferences at Ouiatanon, all of which
was ratified with a solemn formality of pipes and belts."*

Here, then, upon the banks of the Wabash at Ouiatonon, did the
Indian tribes, with the sanction of Pontiac, solemnly surrender pos-
session of the northwest territory to the accredited agent of Great
Britain. f Croghan and his party, now swollen to a large body by
the accession of the principal chiefs of the several nations, set out
"•for the Miamis, and traveled the whole way through a fine rich
bottom, alongside the Ouabache, arriving at Eel River on the 27th.
About six miles up this river they found a small village of the
Twightwee, situated on a very delightful spot of ground on the bank
of the river.";}: Croghan's private journal continues: "July 28th,
29th, 30th and 31st we traveled still alongside the Eel River, passing
through fine clear woods and some good meadows, though not so
large as those we passed some days before. The country is more
overgrown with woods, the soil is sufficiently rich, and well watered
with springs."

On the 1st of August they "arrived at the carrying place be-
tween the River Miamis and the Ouabache, which is about nine miles
long in dry seasons, but not above half that length in freshets."
"Within a mile of the Twightwee village," says Croghan, "I was
met by the chiefs of that nation, who received us very kindly. Most
part of these Indians knew me, and conducted me to their village,
where they immediately hoisted an English flag that / had formerly
given them at Fort Pitt. The next day they held a council, after
which they gave me up all the English prisoners they had, and ex-
pressed the pleasure it gave them to see | that] the unhappy differ-
ences which had embroiled the several nations in a war with their
brethren, the English, were now so near a happy conclusion, and
that peace was established in their country."!

* Croghan's official report, already quoted.

f It is true that Pontiac, with deputies of all the westward tribes, followed Croghan
to Detroit, where another conference took place; but this was only a more formal rati-
fication of the surrender which the Indians declared they had already made of the
country at Ouiatonon.

fThe Miami Indian name of this village was Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua. Its French
name was A l'Anguille, or Eel River town. The Miami name of Eel River was Kin-
na-peei-kuoh Sepe, or Water Snake (the Indians call the eel a water-snake fish) River.
The village was situated on the north bank of Eel River, about six miles from Logans-
port. It was scattered along the river for some three miles.

§The following is Mr. Croghan's description of the "Miamis," as it appeared in

PONTIAC'S TRAGIC DEATH. 24.3

From the Miamis the party proceeded down the Maumee in
canoes. "About ninety miles, continues the journal, from the Miamis
or Twightwee we came to where a large river, that heads in a large
' licit ,' falls into the Miami River; this they call 'The Forks.'
The Ottawas claim this country and hunt here.* This nation for-
merly lived at Detroit, but are now settled here on account of the
richness of the country, where game is always to be found in plenty."

From Defiance Croghan's party were obliged to drag their canoes
several miles, ' ' on account of the riffs which interrupt the naviga-
tion, ' ' at the end of which they came to a village of Wy andottes, who
received them kindly. From thence they proceeded in their canoes
to the mouth of the Maumee. Passing several large bays and a
number of rivers, they reached the Detroit River on the 16th of
August, and Detroit on the following morning, f

As for Pontiac, his fate was tragical. He was fond of the French,
and often visited the Spanish post at St. Louis, whither many of his
old friends had gone from the Illinois side of the river. One day in
1767, as is supposed, he came to Mr. St. Ange (this veteran soldier
of France still remained in the country), and said he was going over
to Cahokia to visit the Kaskaskia Indians. St. Ange endeavored to
dissuade him from it, reminding him of the little friendship existing
between him and the British. Pontiac' s answer was : "Captain, I
am a man. I know how to fight. I have always fought openly.
They will not murder me, and if any one attacks me as a brave man,

1765: "The Twightwee village is situated on both sides of a river called St. Joseph's.
This river, where it falls into the Miami River, about a quarter of a mile from this
place, is one hundred yards wide, oh the east side of which stands a stockade fort some-
what ruinous." The Indian village consists of about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine
or ten French houses, a runaway colony from Detroit during the late Indian war; they
were concerned in it, and being afraid of punishment came to this post, where they
have ever since spirited up the Indians against the English. All the French residing
here are a lazy, indolent people, fond of breeding mischief, and they should not be
suffered to remain. The country is pleasant, the soil rich and well watered."

*The place referred to is the mouth of the Auglaize, often designated as "The
Forks " in many of the early accounts of the country. It may be noted that Croghan,
like nearly all other early travelers, overestimates distances.

t Croghan describes Detroit as a large stockade " inclosing about eighty houses. It
stands on the north side of the river on a high bank, and commands a very pleasant
prospect for nine miles above and below the fort. The country is thick settled with
French. Their plantations are generally laid out about -three or four acres in breadth
on the river, and eighty acres in depth; the soil is good, producing plenty of grain.
All the people here are generally poor wretches, and consist of three or four hundred
French families, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly on the savages for their subsist-
ence. Though the land, with little labor, produces plenty of grain, they scarcely raise as
much as will supply their wants, in imitation of Indians, whose manners and customs
they have entirely adopted, and cannot subsist without them. The men, women and
children speak the Indian tongue perfectly well.'" At the conclusion of the lengthy
conferences with the Indians, in which all matters were " settled to their satisfaction,"
Croghan set out from Detroit for Niagara, coasting along the north shore of Lake Erie
in a birch canoe, arriving at the latter place on the 8th of October.

244 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTH WKST.

I am bis match." Pontine went over the river, was feasted, got
drunk, and retired to the woods to sing medicine songs. In the
meanwhile, an English merchant named Williamson bribed a Kas-
kaskia Indian with a barrel of rum and promises of a greater reward
if he would take Pontiac's life. Pontiac was struck with a ixi-ka-
rna-gon — tomahawk, and his skull fractured, causing death. This
murder aroused the vengeance of all the Indian tribes friendly to
Pontiac, and brought about the war resulting in the almost total ex-
termination of the Illinois nation. He was a remarkably fine-looking
man, neat in his person, and tasty in dress and in the arrangement
of his ornaments. His complexion is said to have approached that
of the whites.* St. Ange, hearing of Pontiac's death, kindly took
charge of the body, and gave it a decent burial near the fort, the
site of which is now covered by the city of St. Louis. "Neither
mound nor tablet," says Francis Parkman, "marked the burial-
place of Pontiac. For a mausoleum a city has arisen above the for-
est hue, and the race whom he hated with such burning rancor tram-
ple with unceasing footsteps over his forgotten grave."

*1. N. Nicollet's Report, etc., p. 81. Mr. Nicollet received his information con-
cerning Pontiac from Col. Pierre Chouteau, of St. Louis, and Col. Pierre Menard, of
Kaskaskia, who were personally acquainted with the facts.

CHAPTER XXIII.

GEN. CLARK'S CONQUEST OF "THE ILLINOIS."

After the Indians had submitted to English rule the west en-
joyed a period of quiet. When the American colonists, long com-
plaining against the oppressive acts of the mother country, broke
out into open revolt, and the war of the revolution fairly began,
the English, from the westward posts of Detroit, Vincennes and
Kaskaskia, incited the Indians
against the frontier settlements,
and from these depots supplied
their war parties with guns and
ammunition. The depredations
of the Indians in Kentucky were
so severe that in the fall of 1777
George Rogers Clark conceived,
and next year executed, an expe-
dition against the French settle-
ments of Kaskaskia and Vin-
cennes, which not only relieved
Kentucky from the incursions
of the savages, but at the same
time resulted in consequences
which are without parallel in the
annals of the Northwest. *

GEN. CLARK.

*Gen. Clark was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 19th of November,
1752, and died and was buried at Locust Grove, near Louisville, Kentucky, in February,
1818. He came to Kentucky in the spring of 1775, and became early identified as a
conspicuous leader in the border wars of that country. The border settlers of Kentucky
could not successfully contend against the numerous and active war parties from the
Wabash who were continually lurking in their neighborhoods, coming, as Indians do,
stealthily, striking a blow where least expected, and escaping before assistance could
relieve the localities which they devastated, killing women and children, destroying
live stock and burning the pioneers' cabins. Clark conceived the idea of capturing
Vincennes and Kaskaskia. Keeping his plans to himself, he proceeded to Williams-
burg and laid them before Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, who promptly
aided in their execution. From Gov. Henry Clark received two sets of instructions,
one, to enlist seven companies of men, ostensibly for the protection of the people of
Kentucky, which at that time was a county of Virginia, the other, a secret order, to
attack the British post of Kaskaskia! The result of his achievements was overshad-
owed by the stirring events of the revolution eastward of the Alleghanies, where other
heroes were winning a glory that dazzled while it drew public attention exclusively to

•245

246 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

The account here given of Clark's campaign in "The Illinois' 1 is
taken from a manuscript memoir composed by ('lark himself, at the
joint request of Presidents Jefferson and Madison.* We prefer
giving the account in Gen. Clark's own words, as far as practicable.

The memoir of Gen. Clark proceeds: "On the (24th) of June,
1778, we left our little island, + and run about a mile up the river in
order to gain the main channel, and shot the falls at the very mo-
ment of the sun being in a great eclipse, which caused various con-
jectures among the superstitious. As I knew that spies were kept
on the river below the towns of the Illinois. I had resolved to march
part of the way by land, and of course left the whole of our bag-
gage, except as much as would equip us in the Indian mode. The
whole of our force, after leaving such as was judged not competent
to [endure] the expected fatigue, consisted only of four companies,
commanded by Captains John Montgomery. Joseph Bowman,
Leonard Hemis and William Ilarrod. My force being so small to
what I expected, owing to the various circumstances already men-
tioned, I found it necessary to alter my plans of operation.

"I had fully acquainted myself that the French inhabitants in
those western settlements had great influence among the Indians in
general, and were more beloved by them than any other Europeans ;
that their commercial intercourse was Universal throughout the west-
ern and northwestern countries, and that the governing interest on
the lakes was mostly in the hands of the English, who were not
much beloved by them. These, and many other ideas similar
thereto, caused me to resolve, if possible, to strengthen myself by
such train of conduct as might probably attach the French inhabit-
ants to our interest, and give us influence in the country we were
aiming for. These were the principles that influenced my future
conduct, and, fortunately, I had just received a letter from Col.

them. The west was a wilderness, — excepting: the isolated French settlements about
Kaskaskia, and at Vincennes and Detroit, — and occupied only by savages and wild
animals. It was not until after the great Northwest began to be settled, and its capa-
bilities to sustain the empire, — since seated in its lap, — was realized, that the magni-
tude of the conquest forced itself into notice. The several states of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, carved out of the territory which he so gloriously
won, — nay, the whole nation, — owe to the memory of George Rogers Clark a debt of
gratitude that cannot be repaid in a mere expression of words. An account of his life
and eminent services, worthy of the man, yet remains to be written.

*. Fudge John B. Dillon, when preparing his first history of Indiana, in 1843, had
access to Clark's original manuscript memoir, and copied copious extracts in the vol-
ume named, and it is from this source that the extracts appearing in this work were
taken. This book of Judge Dillon is not to be confounded with a History of Indiana,
prepared and published by him in 1859. His first book, although somewhat crude, is
exceedingly valuable for the historical matter it contains relating to the whole North-
west, while the latter is a better digested history of the state of which he was an emi-
nent citizen.

f At Louisville.

clark's campaign. 247

Campbell, dated Pittsburgh, informing me of the contents of the
treaties* between France and America. As I intended to leave the
Ohio at Fort Massac, three leagues below the Tennessee, I landed
on a small island in the mouth of that river, in order to prepare for
the march. In a few Injurs after, one John Duff and a party of
hunters coming down the river were brought to by our boats. They
were men formerly from the states, and assured us of their happiness
in the adventure. . . . They had been but lately from Kaskaskia,
and were able to give us all the intelligence we wished. They said
that Gov. Abbot had lately left Port Vincennes, and gone to Detroit
on business of importance ; that Mr. Pochblave commanded at Kas-
kaskia, etc.; that the militia was kept in good order, and spies on
the Mississippi, and that all hunters, both Indians and others, were
ordered to keep a good look-out for the rebels ; that the fort was kept
in good order as an asylum, etc., but they believed the whole to
proceed more from the fondness for parade than the expectation of
a visit ; that if they received timely notice of us, they would collect
and give us a warm reception, as they were taught to harbor a most
horrid idea of the rebels, especially the Virginians ; but that if we
could surprise the place, which they were in hopes we might, they
made no doubt of our being able to do as we pleased ; that they
hoped to be received as partakers in the enterprise, and wished us
to put full confidence in them, and they would assist the guides in
conducting the party. This was agreed to, and they proved valua-
ble men.

"The acquisition to us was great, as I had no intelligence from
those posts since the spies I sent twelve months past. P>ut no part
of their information pleased me more than that of the inhabitants
viewing us as more savage than their neighbors, the Indians. I was
determined to improve upon this if I was fortunate enough to get
them into my possession, as I conceived the greater the shock I
could give them at first the more sensibly would they feel my lenity,
and become more valuable friends. This I conceived to be agree-
able to human nature, as I had observed it in many instances.
Having everything prepared, we moved down to a little gully a
small distance above Massac, in which we concealed our boats, and
set out a northwest course. The weather was favorable. In some
parts water was scarce, as well as game. Of course we suffered
drought and hunger, but not to excess. On the third day John

*The timely information received of the alliance between the United States and
France was made use of by Gen. Clark with his usual tact and with great success, as
will be seen farther on.

24. s historic: notes on the northwest.

Saunders, our principal guide, appeared confused, and we soon dis-
covered that he was totally lost, without there was some other cause
of his present conduct.

" I asked him various questions, and from his answers I could
scarcely determine what to think of him, — whether or not that he
was lost, or that he wished to deceive us. . . . The cry of the whole
detachment was that he was a traitor. He begged that lie might be
suffered to go some distance into a plain that was in full view, to try
to make some discovery whether or not he was right. I told him he
might go, but that I was suspicious of him, from his conduct ; that
from the first day of his being employed he always said he knew the
way well; that there was now a different appeaimice ; that I saw the
nature of the country was such that a person once acquainted with
it could not in a short time forget it; that a few men should go witli
him to prevent his escape, and that if he did not discover and take
us into the hunter's road that led from the east into Kaskaskia,
which he had frequently described, I would have him immediately
put to death, which I was determined to have done. But after a
search of an hour or two he came to a place that he knew perfectly,
and we discovered that the poor fellow had been, as they call it,
bewildered.

" On the fourth of July, in the evening, we got within a few miles
of the town, where we lay until near dark, keeping spies ahead, after
which we commenced our march, and took possession of a house
wherein a large family lived, on the bank of the Kaskaskia River,
about three-quarters of a mile above the town. Here we were in-
formed that the people a few days before were under arms, but had
concluded that the cause of the alarm was without foundation, and
that at that time there was a great number of men in town, but that
the Indians had generally left it, and at present all was quiet. We
soon procured a sufficiency of vessels, the more in ease to convey us
across the river.

"With one of the divisions I marched to the fort, and ordered the
other two into different quarters of the town. If I met with no resist-
ance, at a certain signal a general shout was to be given and certain
parts were to be immediately possessed, and men of each detach-
ment, who could speak the French language, were to run through
every street and proclaim what had happened, and inform the inhab-
itants that every person that appeared in the streets would be shot
down. This disposition had its desired effect. In a very little time
we had complete possession, and every avenue was guarded to prevent
any escape to give the alarm to the other villages in case of opposi-

clark's conquest. -'4;*

tion. Various orders had been issued not worth mentioning. I don't
suppose greater silence ever reigned among the inhabitants of a
place than did at this at present ; not a person to be seen, not a word
to be heard by them, for some time, but, designedly, the greatest
noise kept up by our troops through every quarter of the town, and
patrols continually the whole night around it, as intercepting any
information was a capital object, and in about two hours the whole
of the inhabitants were disarmed, and informed that if one was taken
attempting to make his escape he should be immediately put to
death/'

When Col. Clark, by the use of various bloodless means, had
raised the terror of the French inhabitants to a painful height, lie
surprised them, and won their confidence and friendship, by perform-
ing, unexpectedly, several acts of justice and generosity. On the
morning of the 5th of July a few of the principal men were arrested
and put in irons. Soon afterward M. Gibault, the priest of the vil-
lage, accompanied by five or six aged citizens, waited on Col. Clark,
and said that the inhabitants expected to be separated, perhaps never
to meet again, and they begged to be permitted to assemble in their
church, and there to take leave of each other. Col. Clark mildly
told the priest that he had nothing to say against his religion ; that
it was a matter which Americans left for every man to settle with his
God; that the people might assemble in their church, if they would,
but that they must not venture out of town.

Nearly the whole French population assembled at the church.
The houses were deserted by all who could leave them, and Col.
Clark gave orders to prevent any soldiers from entering the vacant
buildings. After the close of the meeting at the church a deputation,
consisting of M. Guibault and several other persons, waited on Col.
Clark, and said "'that their present situation was the fate of war, and
that they could submit to the loss of their property, but they solic-
ited that they might not be separated from their wives and children,
and that some clothes and provisions might be allowed for their
support." Clark feigned surprise at this request, and abruptly
exclaimed, " Do you mistake us for savages? I am almost cer-
tain you do from your language! Do ycm think that Americans
intend to strip women and children, or take the bread out of their
mouths? My countrymen," said Clark, "'disdain to make war
upon helpless innocence. It was to prevent the horrors of Indian
butchery upon our own wives and children that we have taken arms
and penetrated into this remote stronghold of British and Indian
barbarity, and not the despicable prospect of plunder ; that now the

250 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

king of France had united his powerful arms with those of America,
the war would not, in all probability, continue long, but the inhabit-
ants of Kaskaskia were at liberty to take which side they pleased,
without the least danger to either their property or families. Nor
would their religion be any source of disagreement, as all religions
were regarded with equal respect in the eye of the American law,
and that any insult offered to it would be immediately punished."

"And now," Clark continues, "to prove my sincerity, you will
please inform your fellow-citizens that they are quite at liberty to
conduct themselves as usual, without the least apprehension. I am
now convinced, from what I have learned since my arrival among
you, that you have been misinformed and prejudiced against us by
British officers, and your friends who are in confinement shall imme-
diately be released."* In a few minutes after the delivery of this
speech the gloom that rested on the minds of the inhabitants of
Kaskaskia had passed away. The news of the treaty of alliance
between France and the United States, and the influence of the mag-
nanimous conduct of Clark, induced the French villagers to take the
oath of allegiance to the state of Virginia. Their arms were restored
to them, and a volunteer company of French militia joined a detach-
ment under Capt. Bowman, when that officer was dispatched to take
possession of Cahokia. The inhabitants of this small village, on
hearing what had taken place at Kaskaskia, readily took the oath of
allegiance to Virginia.

The memoir of Clark proceeds: " Post Vincennes never being
out of my mind, and from some things that I had learned I suspected
that Mr. Gibault, the priest, was inclined 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 under his juris-
diction. I made no doubt of his integrity to us. I sent for him,
and had a Ions conference with him on the subject of Post Vincennes.
In answer to all my queries he informed me that he did not think it
worth my while to cause any military preparation to be made at the
Falls of the Ohio for the attack of Post Vincennes. although the place
was strong and a great number of Indians in its neighborhood, who,
to his knowledge, were generally at war ; that the governor had, a
few weeks before, left the place on some business to Detroit ; that
he expected that when the inhabitants were fully acquainted w T ith
what had passed at the Illinois, and the present happiness of their
friends, and made fully acquainted with the nature of the war, their
sentiments would greatly change ; that he knew that his appearance

* Clark'« Memoir.

SECUKES VINCENNES. 251

there would have great weight, even among the savages ; that if
it was agreeable to me he would take this business on himself, and
had no doubt of his being able to bring that place over to the Amer-
ican interest without my being at the trouble of marching against it ;
that the business being altogether spiritual, he wished that another
person might be charged with the temporal part of the embassy, but
that he would privately direct the whole, and he named Dr. Lafont
as his associate.

' ' This was perfectly agreeable to what I had been secretly aim-
ing at for some days. The plan was immediately settled, and the
two doctors, with their intended retinue, among whom I had a spy,
set about preparing for their journey, and set out on the 14th of July,
with an address to the inhabitants of Post Yincennes, authorizing
them to garrison their own town themselves, which would convince
them of the great confidence we put in them, etc. All this had its
desired effect. Mr. Gibault and his party arrived safe, and after
their spending a day or two in explaining matters to the people,
they universally acceded to the proposal (except a few emissaries
left by Mr. Abbot, who 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 elected, the fort
immediately [garrisoned], and the American flag displayed to the
astonishment of the Indians, and everything settled far beyond our
most sanguine hopes. The people here immediately began to put
on a new face, and to talk in a different style, and to act as perfect
freemen. With a garrison of their own, with the United States at
their elbow, their language to the Indians was immediately 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 ; that they
would advise them to make peace with the Americans as soon as
they could, otherwise they might expect the land to be very bloody,
etc. The Indians began to think seriously ; throughout the country
this was the kind of language they generally got from their ancient
friends of the Wabash and Illinois. Through the means of their
correspondence spreading among the nations, our batteries began
now to play in a proper channel. Mr. Gibault and party, accom-
panied by several gentlemen of Post Vincennes, returned to Kas-
kaskia about the 1st of August with the joyful news. During his
absence on this business, which caused great anxiety to me (for
without the possession of this post all our views would have been
blasted), I was exceedingly engaged in regulating things in the Illi-

252 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

nois. The reduction of these posts was the period of the enlistment
of our troops. I was at a great loss at the 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 impos-
sible 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 the want of instruction in certain cases,
I thought would amount to a reflection on government, as having no
confidence in me. I resolved to usurp all the authority necessary to
carry my points. I had the greater part of our [troops] reenlisted
on a different establishment, commissioned French officers in the
country to command a company of the young inhabitants, estab-
lished a garrison at Cahokia, commanded by Capt. Bowman, and
another at Kaskaskia, commanded by Capt. Williams. Post Vin-
cennes remained in the situation as mentioned. Col. William Linn,
who had accompanied us as a volunteer, took charge of a party
that was to be discharged upon their arrival at the Falls, and
orders were sent for the removal of that post to the mainland.
Capt. John Montgomery was dispatched to government with letters.
... I again turned my attention to Post Vincennes. I plainly saw
that it would be highly necessary to have an American officer at that
post. Capt. Leonard Helm appeared calculated to answer my pur-
pose ; he was past the meridian of life, and a good deal acquainted
with the Indian [disposition]. I sent him to command at that post,
and also appointed him agent for Indian affairs in the department of
the Wabash. . . . About the middle of August he set out to take
possession of his new command."' Thus," says Clark, referring to

* "An Indian chief called the Tobacco's Son, a Piankeshaw, at this time resided in
a village adjoining Post Vincennes. This man was called by the Indians 'The Grand
Door to the Wabash'; and as nothing of consequence was to be undertaken by the
league on the Wabash without his assent, I discovered that to win him was an object
of signal importance. I sent him a spirited compliment by Mr. Gibault ; he returned
it. I now, by Capt. Helm, touched him on the same spring that 1 had done the inhab-
itants, and sent a speech, with a belt of wampum, directing Capt. Helm how to man-
age if the chief was pacifically inclined or otherwise. The captain arrived safe at Post
Vincennes, and was received with acclamations by the people. After the usual cere-
mony was over he sent for the Grand Door, and delivered my letter to him. After
having read it, he informed the captain that he was happy to see him, one of the Big
Knife chiefs, in this town; it was here he had joined the English against him; but he
confessed that he always thought they looked gloomy; that as the contents of the let-
ter were of great moment, he could not give an answer for some time; that he must
collect his counsellors on the subject, and was in hopes the captain would be patient.
In short, he put on all the courtly dignity that he was master of, and Capt. Helm fol-
lowing his example, it was several days before this business was finished, as the whole
proceeding was very ceremonious. At length the captain was invited to the Indian
council, and informed by Tobacco that they had maturely considered the case in hand,
and had got the nature of the war between the English and us explained to their sat-
isfaction; that as we spoke the same language and appeared to be the same people, he
always thought that he was in the dark as to the truth of it, but now the sky was

clark's influence over the Indians. 253

Helm's success, " ended this valuable negotiation, and the saving of
much blood. ... In a short time almost the whole of the various
tribes of the different nations on the Wabash, as high as the Ouia-
tanon, came to Post Yincennes, and followed the example of the
Grand Door Chief; and as expresses were continually passing be-
tween Capt. Helm and myself the whole time of these treaties, the
business was settled perfectly to my satisfaction, and greatly to the
advantage of the public. The British interest daily lost ground in
this quarter, and in a short time our influence reached the Indians
on the River St. Joseph and the border of Lake Michigan. The
French gentlemen at the different posts we now had possession of
engaged warmly in our interest. They appeared to vie with each
other in promoting the business, and through the means of their
correspondence, trading among the Indians, and otherwise, in a
short time the Indians of various tribes inhabiting the region of
Illinois came in great numbers to Cahokia, in order to make treaties
of peace with us. From the information they generally got from
the French gentlemen (whom they implicitly believed) respecting us,
they were truly alarmed, and, consequently, we were visited by the
greater part of them, without any invitation from us. Of course we
had greatly the advantage in making use of such language as suited
our [interest]. Those treaties, which commenced about the last of
August and continued between three and four weeks, were probably
conducted in a way different from any other known in America at
that time. I had been always convinced that our general conduct
with the Indians was wrong ; that inviting them to treaties was con-
sidered by them in a different manner from what we expected, and
imputed by them to fear, and that giving them great presents con-
firmed it. I resolved to guard against this, and I took good pains
to make myself acquainted fully with the French and Spanish
methods of treating Indians, and with the manners, genius and dis-
position of the Indians in general. As in this quarter they had not
yet been spoiled by us, I was resolved that they should not be. I
began the business fully prepared, having copies of the British trea-
ties."

At the first great council, which was opened at Cahokia, an Indian
chief, with a belt of peace in his hand, advanced to the table at which

cleared up; that he found that the ' Big Knife' was in the right; that perhaps if the
English conquered, they would serve them in the same manner that they intended to
serve us; 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 English. He jumped up, struck
his breast, called himself a man and a warrior, said that he was now a Big Knife, and
took Capt. Helm by the hand. His example was followed by all present, and the
evening was spent in merriment."

254 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Col. Clark was sitting; another chief, bearing the sacred pipe of the
tribe, went forward to the table, and a third chief then advanced
with fire to kindle the pipe. When the pipe was lighted it was fig-
uratively presented to the heavens, then to the earth, then to all the
good spirits, to witness what was about to be done. After the ob-
servance of these forms the pipe was presented to Clark, and after-
ward to every person present. An Indian speaker, then addressed
the Indians as follows: "Warriors, — You ought to be thankful that
the Great Spirit has taken pity on you, and cleared the sky and
opened your ears and hearts, so that you may hear the truth. We
have been deceived by bad birds flying through the land. But we
will take up the bloody hatchet no more against the Big Knife, * and
we hope, as the Great Spirit has brought us together for good, as he
is good, that we may be received as friends, and that the belt of
peace may take the place of the bloody belt."

"I informed them," says Clark, "that I had paid attention to
what they had said, and that on the next day I would give them an
answer, when I hoped the ears and hearts of all people would be
opened to receive the truth, which should be spoken without decep-
tion. I advised them to keep prepared for the result of this day, on
which, perhaps, their very existence as a nation depended, etc., and
dismissed them, not suffering any of our people to shake hands with
them, as peace was not yet concluded, telling them it was time enough
to give the hand when the heart could be given also. They replied
that 'such sentiments were like men who had but one heart, and did
not speak with a double tongue.' The next day I delivered them the
following speech :

'Men and Warriors, — Pay attention to my worfls: You informed
me yesterday that the Great Spirit had brought us together, and that
you hoped, as he was good, that it would be for good. I have also
the same hope, and expect that each party will strictly adhere to
whatever may be agreed upon, whether it be peace or war, and hence-
forward prove ourselves worthy of the attention of the Great Spirit.
I am a man and a warrior, — not a counsellor. I carry war in my

* The early border men of Virginia and her county of Kentucky usually carried
very large knives. From this circumstance the Vir^inkins were called, in the Illinois
(Miami) dialect, She-mol-sea, meaning the "Big Knife." At a later day the same
appellation, under the Chippewayan word Che-mo-ko-man, was extended, by the
-Indians, to the white people generally, — always excepting the Englishman proper,
whom they called the Sag-e-nash, and the Yankees to whom they gave the epithet of
Bos-to-m-ly, i.e., the Bostonians. The term is derived from the Miami word mal-she,
or mol-sea,\ knife, or the Ojibbeway mo-ko-man, which means the same thing. The
prefix die or she emphasizes the kind or size of the instrument, as a huge, long or big
knife. Such is the origin of the expression " long knives," frequently found in books
where Indian characters occur.

CLARK'S SPEECH TO THE INDIANS. 255

right hand, and in ray left, peace. I am sent by the great council of
the Big Knife, and their friends, to take possession of all the towns
possessed by the English in this country, and to watch the motions
of the red people ; to bloody the paths of those who attempt to stop
the course of the river, but to clear the roads from us to those who
desire to be in peace, that the women and children may walk in them
without meeting anything to strike their feet against. I am ordered
to call upon the Great Fire for warriors enough to darken the land,
and that the red people may hear no sound but of birds who live on
blood. I know there is a mist before your eyes. I will dispel the
clouds, that you may clearly see the cause of the war between the
Big Knife and the English, then you may judge for yourselves which
party is in the right, and if you are warriors, as you profess to be,
prove it by adhering faithfully to the party which you shall believe
to be entitled to your friendship, and do not show yourselves to be
squaws.

' The Big Knives are very much like the red people. They don't
know how to make blankets and powder and cloth. They buy these
things from the English, from whom they are sprung. They live by
making corn, hunting and trade, as you and your neighbors, the
French, do. But the Big Knives, daily getting more numerous, like
the trees in the woods, the land became poor and hunting scarce,
and having but little to trade with, the women began to cry at seeing
their children naked, and tried to learn how to make clothes for
themselves. They soon made blankets for their husbands and chil-
dren, and the men learned to make guns and powder. In this way
we did not want to buy so much from the English. They then got
mad with us, and sent strong garrisons through our country, as you
see they have done among you on the lakes, and among the French.
They would not let our women spin, nor our men make powder, nor
let us trade with anybody else. The English said we should buy
everything of them, and since we had got saucy we should give two
bucks for a blanket, which we used to get for one ; we should do as
they pleased ; and they killed some of our people, to make the rest
fear them. This is the truth, and the real cause of the war between
the English and us, which did not take place until some time after
this treatment.

' But our women became cold and hungry and continued to cry.
Our young men got lost for want of counsel to put them in the right
path. The whole land was dark. The old men held down their
heads for shame, because they could not see the sun ; and thus there
was mourning for many years over the land. At last the Great

256 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Spirit took pity on us, and kindled a great council tire, that never
goes out, at a place called Philadelphia. IK- then stuck down
a post, and put a war tomahawk by it, and went away. The sun
immediately broke out, the sky was blue again, and the old men
held up their heads and assembled at the fire. They took up the
hatchet, sharpened it, and put it into the hands of our young men,
ordering them to strike the English as long as they could find one
on this side of the great waters. The young men immediately struck
the war post and blood was shed. In this way the war began, and
the English were driven from one place to another until they got
weak, and then they hired you red people to fight for them. The
Great Spirit got angry at this, and caused your old father, the
French king, and other great nations, -to join the Big Knives, and
fight with them against all their enemies. So the English have be-
come like deer in the woods, and you may see that it is the Great
Spirit that has caused your waters to be troubled, because you have
fought for the people he was mad with. If your women and chil-
dren should now cry, you must blame yourselves for it, and not the
Big Knives.

'You can now judge who is in the right. I have already told
you who I am. Here is a bloody belt and a white one, take which
you please. Behave like men, and don't let your being surrounded
by the Big Knives cause you to take up the one belt with your hands
while your hearts take up the other. If you take the bloody path,
you shall leave the town in safety, and may go and join your friends,
the English. We will then try, like warriors, who can put the most
stumbling-blocks in each other's way, and keep our clothes longest
stained with blood. If, on the other hand, you should take the path
of peace, and be received as brothers to the Big Knives, with their
friends, the French ; should you then listen to bad birds that may
be flying through the land, you will no longer deserve to be counted
as men, but as creatures with two tongues, that ought to be destroyed
without listening to anything you might say. As I am convinced
you never heard the truth before, I do not wish you to answer be-
fore you have taken time to counsel. We will, therefore, part this
evening, and when the Great Spirit shall bring us together again, let
us speak and think like men, with but one heart and one tongue.'

'•The next day after this speech a new fire was kindled with
more than usual ceremony ; an Indian speaker came forward and
said : They ought to be thankful that the Great Spirit had taken
pity on them, and opened their ears and their hearts to receive the
truth. He had paid great attention to what the Great Spirit had

CLARK TEEATS WITH THE INDIANS. 257

put into my heart to say to them. They believed the whole to be
the truth, as the Big Knives did not speak like any other people
they had ever heard. They now saw they had been deceived, and
that the English had told them lies, and that I had told them the
truth, just as some of their old men had always told them. They
now believed that we were in the right ; and as the English had
forts in their country, they might, if they got strong enough, want
to serve the red people as they had treated the Big Knives. The
red people ought, therefore, to help us, and they had, with a cheer-
ful heart, taken up the belt of peace, and spurned that of war. They
were determined to hold the former fast, and would have no doubt
of our friendship, from the manner of our speaking, so different
from that of the English. They would now call in their warriors,
and throw the tomahawk into the river, where it could never be
found. They would suffer no more bad birds to fly through the
land, disquieting the women and children. They would be careful
to smooth the roads for their brothers, the Big Knives, whenever
they might wish to come and see them. Their friends should hear
of the good talk I had given them ; and they hoped I would send
chiefs among them, with my eyes, to see myself that they were men,
and strictly adhered to all they had said at this great lire, which the
Great Spirit had kindled at Cahokia for the good of all people who
would attend it."

The sacred pipe was again 'kindled, and presented, figuratively,
to the heavens and the earth, and to all the good spirits, as witness
of what had been done. The Indians and the white men then closed
the council by smoking the pipe and shaking hands. With no ma-
terial variation, either of the forms that were observed, or with the
speeches that were made at this council, Col. Clark and his officers
concluded treaties of peace with the Piankeshaws, Ouiatenons, Kick-
apoos, Illinois, Kaskaskias, Peorias, and branches of some other
tribes that inhabited the country between Lake Michigan and the
Mississippi.

Gov. Henry soon received intelligence of the successful progress
of the expedition under the command of Clark. The French inhab-
itants of the villages of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Post Vincennes
took the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia.

In October, 1778, the General Assembly of the State of Virginia
passed an act which contained the following provisions, viz : All the
citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia "who are already settled
or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be in-
cluded in a distinct county, which shall be called Illinois county ;
17

258 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

and the governor of this commonwealth, with the advice of the
council, may appoint a county lieutenant, or commandant-in-chief,
in that county, during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission
so many deputy commandants, militia officers and commissaries as
he shall think proper in the different districts, daring 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 form
of their own religion. And all civil officers to which the inhabit-
ants have been accustomed, necessary for the preservation of the
peace and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a major-
ity of the citizens in their 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 com-
mandant-in-chief. ' '

Before the provisions of the 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
River Wabash, and took possession of Post Vincennes on the loth
of December, 1778. No attempt was made by the population to
defend the town. Capt. Helm was taken and detained as a prisoner,
and a number of the French inhabitants disarmed.

Clark was aware that Gov. Hamilton, now that he had regained
possession of Vincennes, would undertake the capture of his forces,
and realizing his danger, he determined to forestall Hamilton and
capture the latter. His plans were at once formed. He sent a por-
tion of his available force by boat, called The Willing, with instruc-
tions to Capt. Rogers, the commander, to proceed down the Missis-
sippi and up the Ohio and Wabash, and secrete himself a few miles
below Vincennes, and prohibit any persons from passing either up or
down. With another part of his force he marched across the country,
through prairies, swamps and marshes, crossing swollen streams —
for it was in the month of February, and the whole country was
flooded from continuous rains — and arriving at the banks of the
Wabash near St. Francisville, he pushed across the river and brought
his forces in the rear of Yincennes before daybreak. So secret and
rapid were his movements that Gov. Hamilton had no notice that
Clark had left Kaskaskia. Clark issued a notice requiring the
people of the town to keep within their houses, and declaring that
all persons found elsewhere would be treated as enemies. Tobacco's
/Son tendered one hundred of his Piankashaw braves, himself at
their head. Clark declined their services with thanks, saying his

SURRENDER OF HAMILTON". 259

own force was sufficient. Gov. Hamilton had just completed the
fort, consisting of strong block-houses at each angle, with the cannon
placed on the upper floors, at an elevation of eleven feet from the
surface. The works were at once closely invested. The ports were
so badly cut, the men on the inside could not stand to their cannon
for the bullets that would whiz from the rifles of Clark's sharp-
shooters through the embrasures whenever they were suffered for
an instant to remain open.

The town immediately surrendered with joy, and assisted at the
siege. After the first offer to surrender upon terms was declined,
Hamilton and Clark, with attendants, met in a conference at the
Catholic church, situated some eighty rods from the fort, and in the
afternoon of the same day, the 24th of February, 1779, the fort and
garrison, consisting of seventy-five men, surrendered at discretion.""
The result was that Hamilton and his whole force were made prison-
ers of war. f Clark held military possession of the northwest until
the close of the war, and in that way it was secured to our country.
At the treaty of peace, held at Paris at the close of the revolutionary
war, the British insisted that the Ohio River should be the northern
boundary of the United States. The correspondence relative to that
treaty shows that the only ground on which "the American commis-
sioners relied to sustain their claim that the lakes should be the
boundary was the fact that Gen. Clark had conquered the country,
and was in the undisputed military possession of it at the time of
the negotiation. This fact was affirmed and admitted, and was the
chief ground on which British commissioners reluctantly abandoned
their claim. "^

*Two days after the Willing arrived, its crew much mortified because they did not
share in the victory, although Clark commended them for their diligence. Two days
before Capt. Rogers' arrival with the Willing, Clark had dispatched three armed
boats, under charge of Capt. Helm and Majors Bosseron and Le Grass, up the Wabash,
to intercept a fleet which Clark was advised was on its way from Detroit, laden with
supplies for Gov. Hamilton at Vincennes. About one hundred and twenty miles up
the river the British boats, seven in number, having aboard military supplies of
the value of ten thousand pounds sterling money and forty men, among whom was
Philip De Jean, a magistrate of Detroit, were captured by Capt. Helm. The writer
has before him the statement of John McFall, born near Vincennes in 1798. He lived
near and in Vincennes until 1817. His grandfather, Ralph Mattison, was one of
Clark's soldiers who accompanied Helm's expedition up the* Wabash, and he often told
McFall, his grandson, that the British were lying by in the Vermilion River, near its
mouth, where they were surprised in the night-time and captured by Helm without
firing a shot.

fThis march, from its daring conception, and the obstacles encountered and over-
come, is one of the most thrilling events in our history, and it is to be regretted that
the limited space assigned to other topics precludes its insertion.

X Burnett's Notes on the Northwest Territory, p. 77.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Col. Clark having captured Gov. Hamilton's forces at Yincennes,
and reestablished the authority of Virginia over the northwest terri-
tory, Col. John Todd, commissioned as lieutenant for the county of
Illinois, in the spring of 1779 proceeded to Kaskaskia and Vincennes,
and organized a government under the act of the General Assembly
of Virginia of October, 1778, for the establishing of "Illinois
county." Col. Todd formed courts of justice, and provided other
machinery to secure peace and good order among the inhabitants.

The northwest territory soon became a source of trouble to the
continental congress. Besides the claims of Virginia, New York,
Massachusetts and Connecticut asserted title to portions of it by
virtue of their ancient charters. These conflicting claims were the
subjects of much discussion and legislative action in the states named,
and by congress as well. Congress, on the 6th of Sej)tember, 1780,
requested the several states "having claims to waste and unappro-
priated lands in the western country to cede a portion thereof to the
United States." Virginia, on the 2d of January, 1781, released her
claim to the northwest territory, reserving one hundred and fifty
thousand acres near the falls of the Ohio, which she had promised
to Gen. Clark, and the officers and soldiers of his regiment who
marched with him, and preserving to the French and Canadian
inhabitants of Kaskaskia, Vincennes and neighboring villages their
titles to the lands claimed by them. However, owing to conditions
imposed by the terms of cession, further legislation intervened, and
the Virginia delegates did not execute the deed of release until the
1st of March, 1784. New York followed Virginia, and ceded her
claim on the 1st of March, 1781 ; then Massachusetts, on the 18th
of April, 1785, executed her release, and on the 14th of September,
1786, the Connecticut delegates delivered a deed of cession.

The provision — the ordinance of 17S7 — contains relative to a
subdivision of the territory is, "that there shall be formed in said
territory no less than three nor more than five states ; the western
state to be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Wabash
rivers ; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post St. Vincent
due north to the territorial line between the United States and
Canada, and [west] by said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods
and Mississippi. The middle state shall be bounded by the said

GOV. HARBISON". 261

direct line, the Wabash from Post St. "Vincent to the Ohio ; by the
Ohio, and by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the
Great Miami to said territorial line. The eastern state shall be
bounded by the last-mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and the said territorial line." The act provided " that the bound-
aries of these three states should be subject to alteration if congress
should find it expedient," with "authority to form one or two states
in that part of the territory lying north of an east and west line
drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan."
The wording of the proviso, and a want of means for a correct
geographical knowledge of the lake region, led to a sharp contro-
versy in adjusting the boundaries of the two additional states.

Peace being secured, emigration poured into Ohio so rapidly,
extending itself westward to the Great Miami, that at the beginning
of the year 1800 the population was nearly sufficient to entitle the
territory to be advanced to the second grade of government. Ac-
cordingly, on the 7th of May of that year congress passed an act
for a division of the territory, to take effect on the 4th day of the
following July.

By this act all that part of the Northwest Territory lying " to the
westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite the mouth of
Kentucky river, and running from thence to Fort Recovery, and
thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line between the
United States and Canada, shall for the purposes of temporary gov-
ernment constitute a separate territory, to be called the Indiana
Territory. ' '

Gen. Wm, H. Harrison was appointed governor. The governor
reached Vincennes early in the year 1801, having been preceded
thither by the secretary the previous July.

Early in 1806 Gov. Harrison was advised that a Shawnee Indian
had set himself up as a prophet. This man pretended to foretell
future events, declared that he was invulnerable to the arms or shot
of his enemy, and he promised the same inviolability to those of his
followers who would devote themselves entirely to his service, and
assist him in the cause which he had espoused. This new light dawned
upon the Indians at Greenville, Ohio, in the person of " Lol-a-waw-
chic-ka," or the Loud Voice, brother of Tecumseh. The Prophet,
the name by which he was generally designated, soon gathered about
him a large number of followers, composed of a few Shawnee war-
riors of his own tribe and numerous persons from other tribes, many
of whom had fled for their crimes.

In the spring of 1808 the Prophet and his adherents moved from

262 HISTORIC NOTES ON" THE NORTHWEST.

Greenville and took up their abode on the Wabash, near the mouth
of the Tippecanoe, on a tract of land claimed to have been granted
them by the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos, without the consent of
the Miamis, who were the rightful owners.

The Prophet was merely a screen, behind which his brother, Tecum-
seh, a man of much more ability, was perfecting a confederation of all
the tribes in a grand scheme of hostility against the people of the
United States, and involving no less than a bold attempt to check the
westward advance of white emigration and the recovery of all pre-
viously ceded lands north and westward of the Ohio.

The Prophet becoming bolder every day, at last, in the month of
April, 1809, required his followers "to take up the hatchet against
the white people, to destroy the inhabitants of Vincennes and those on
the Ohio, who lived as low down as its mouth and as high up as Cincin-
nati, telling them that the Great Spirit had ordered them to do this,
and that their refusal would result in their own destruction." A
number of Chippeways, Ottawas and Pottawatomies were so alarmed
at this bold avowal that they hurried away from the Prophet. The
estimated force of the Prophet at this time was from six to eight
hundred men.

The boldness and insolence of the assemblage at the Prophet's
town increased daily. Finally Gov. Harrison received orders to
proceed to the Prophet's town with a military force, which he
was only to use after all efforts to effect a peaceable dispersion
of its occupants had failed. The governor left Vincennes on the
26th of September, 1811, with a force of nine hundred effective
men. On the 3d of October the army, moving up on the east side
of the Wabash, reached a place on the bank of the stream some
two miles above the old Wea village of We-an-to-no, tk The Pisen
Sun," called by many the "Old Orchard Town," and time out of
mind, by the early French traders, Terre Haute. Here the gov-
ernor halted, according to his instructions, within the boundary
of the country already ceded by the Indians, and occupied his
time in erecting a fort, while waiting the return of messengers
whom he had dispatched to the Prophet's town, demanding the
surrender of murderers, and the return of stolen horses shel-
tered there, and requiring that the Shawnees, Winnebagoes, Potta-
watomies and Kickapoos collected there should disperse and re-
turn to their own tribes. The messengers were treated with great
insolence by the Prophet and his. counsel, who, to put an end to all
hopes of peace, sent out a small war party to precipitate hostilities.
The new fort was finished on the 28th of October, and by the

II I

FORT HARRISON.

263

unanimous request of all the officers it was christened "Fort Har

rison

On the 29th of October Gov. Harrison moved up the Wabash,
crossing Raccoon creek at Armiesburg, and ferrying his army over
the Wabash at the mouth of the former stream on boats sent up the
river for that purpose. The army encamped on the 2d of November
some two miles below the mouth of the Big Vermilion, and about a
mile below the encampment a block-house, partly jutting over the
river, twenty-five feet square, was erected on the edge of a small
prairie sloping down to the water's edge. The block-house was
garrisoned with a sergeant and eight men, in whose charge were left

Fout Hauhison in 1812.

the boats which up to this time had been used for the transportation
of supplies. On the 3d the army left the block-house, crossed the
Yermilion and entered the prairies, the route passing just east of
State Line city ; from thence to Crow's Grove, where the army went
into camp for the night.

On the 5th the army encamped within nine miles of the Prophet's
town. The 6th was consumed in working the army over the diffi-
cult ground toward the Indian town. The night of the 6th was spent
a short dis' vn^e from the town, but the governor decided not to
jeopardize hio men, and therefore delayed, for the purpose of deter-
mining the exact position of the enemy. Early in the morning,
however, the Prophet and his followers approached stealthily and
surprised the army. A hard fought battle followed, in which both

264 HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

parties stubbornly contested the ground. The Indians were repulsed,
however, and completely routed, retreating into a marsh where the
army could not follow. The predictions of the Prophet, on which
his followers had relied, that the white man's bullets should not
harm them, so utterly disappointed them that, while their regard for
Gov. Harrison and his army was greatly heightened, their confidence
in their leader was totally destroyed, and subsequently, writes Gen.
Harrison, " the frontiers never enjoyed more perfect repose."

The troubles between the United States and England were not
yet at an end however, and Tecumseh availed himself of the sym-
pathy and support of the latter government to plan sieges of Forts
Harrison and Wayne simultaneously. His plans, though well formed,
were unavailing ; as in the former case, the Indians having attacked
and attempted to burn the fort were repulsed with loss, while the
latter was relieved by Gen. Harrison.

Upon the restoration of peace, immigration received a new im-
pulse. Indiana, having sufficiently increased her population, was,
on the 11 th of December, 1816, admitted as a state in the Union.

The campaigns of Harmar, Scott, Wilkinson, St. Clair, Wayne
and Harrison gave the volunteers a knowledge of the beauty and
fertility of the western country, and may well be said to have been
so many exploring expeditions. As soon as the Indian titles to the
several portions of the territory were successively extinguished,
population poured in, often in advance of the government surve} r s.
The Ohio and the Mississippi were the base, and the Illinois, the
Wabash, the Miami, and their tributaries, with their principal
streams, were the supporting columns upon which the settlements
respectively formed and gradually extended themselves to the right
and left from these waters until the intervening country was filled.

Within little more than half a century population has extended
itself northward over the states of Indiana and Illinois, and counties
have been organized like the blocks of a building, one upon the
other, until now those hitherto wild and uninhabited wastes com-
prise the most wealthy, enterprising and populous portions of these
two states.

The order in which these counties were organized and filled can
be more properly carried forward in their respective county histories
in an unbroken continuity from the place where the writer now bids
the reader a hearty good-bye.

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

By P. S. Kennedy.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

Montgomery county occupies a part of the great and fertile valley,
of the Wabash river. It is bounded north by Tippecanoe ; east by-
Clinton, Boone and Hendricks ; south by Putnam and Parke ; and
west by Fountain and Parke counties. It is twenty-four miles north
and south, twenty-one miles east and west, and contains 504 square
miles or 332,560 acres. From a thorough and minute geological
survey of the county, made by Prof. John Collett, assistant State
Geologist, in the year 1875, we learn, among many other important
facts, that the drainage of the whole county takes direction from the
dip of the underlying rocks, which is a little west of southwest.
The main stream of the county is Sugar creek, formerly called Rock
river, on account of the vast ledges of rock that tower above its
waters at many points. It enters the county a little south of the
northeast corner, and meandering through the central areas passes
out six miles north of the southwest corner. There is not another
stream in the state which presents to the eye grander scenery than
Sugar creek ; and much of it has already been rendered famous by
the genius of a young Crawford sville artist, Walter Sies, whose land-
scape paintings are fast becoming the admiration of lovers of the
fine arts throughout the country.

The affluents of Sugar creek from the north are Lye creek and
Black creek; and from the southeast Walnut fork, Offield and In-
dian creeks. The south and the southeastern parts of the county
are drained by Big and Little Raccoon creeks, and the northwest by
Coal creek, which flows into the Wabash. "These streams are fed
the year round by almost countless numbers of cold, clear springs,
which burst from their banks or fall in beautiful cascades from ma-
jestic cliffs that rise here and there, high above their beds. The
channels of most of these streams are deep, and afford the best of
drainage for the whole county.

The water-power of Sugar creek is of great importance to the

2 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

county, and, besides running the machinery of Yount's celebrated
woolen factory at Yountsville, four miles west of Crawfordsville,
it keeps running, all the year round, numerous grist and sawmills,
which produce great quantities of flour and lumber. The disciples
of Izaak Walton take from its clear waters many fine bass and other
kinds of excellent fish during all the fishing season.

The surface of the county is pleasantly diversified. The western
part, near the principal streams, is broken and hilly; in the north and
center it is generally rolling, and at the east and southeast flat and
level. Along the northern border are many small and fertile prai-
ries. Most of the county was originally covered with the heaviest
growth of poplar, walnut, oak, beech, and sugar maple, many groves
of the last named being yet preserved, and from which large quanti-
ties of molasses and sugar are yearly made.

The soil of Montgomery county is everywhere fertile, and under
good cultivation yields most abundant crops of wheat, com, oats,
hay, etc. The best class of farmers seldom raise less than twenty
live bushels of wheat and sixty bushels of corn to the acre ; and
often as high as forty of the former and eighty of the latter. Many
parts of the county are also noted for fine pastures of blue-grass,
which usually remain green and luxuriant throughout the spring
and summer months ; and the fall growth often makes the finest wiii-
ter pasturage. The farmers of the county are just fairly beginning
to learn the great value of blue-grass, and the adaptation of the soil
to its growth.

The following table, published by Prof. Collett in his geological
report, shows the approximate altitude of various points in the county,
and also the height above Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Lafayette :

TABLE OF ALTITUDES, ABOVE THE OCEAN.

Crawfordsville 740

Linden 763

Divide seven miles north of Crawfordsville 799

Darlington 752

Mace 788

New Koss 838

Ladoga 820

Waveland 694

Bodine's mills on Sugar creek 598

Alamo 839

Glacial moraines near Alamo 870

Waynetown 735

Indianapolis 698

Terre Haute 494

Lafayette 538

ALTITUDES ABOVE THE OCEAN. 3

It will be observed from this table that the general surface of the
county is much above Indianapolis, Terre Haute or Lafayette. Its
high position and superior drainage constitute a perpetual guaranty
against the malignant types of malarial diseases, and the inhabitants
of the county, as might be expected, are healthy, robust and full of
energy.

The soil of the county is composed mostly of the drift of the
glacial epoch, and is, hence, full of all the mineral elements that
make the foundation for the most productive fields. Some of the
lands of the county have been constantly cultivated for fifty years
without perceptible deterioration.

Prof. Collett is of the opinion that Sugar creek once flowed west
from a point just above Troutman's mill, where it is crossed by the
Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western railroad. He says : " Sugar
creek, east of Crawfordsville, has a general trend of south 70°, to 80°
west. A few miles west of the city, and near Tountsville, it is sud-
denly deflected to the south and southwest. Above this point the
valley bottoms are from one to two miles wide, with well-rounded
bluffs supported by great beds of gravel and modified drift, which
have been ^subjected to the sorting action of currents of water.
Below Yountsville the valley is compressed, rarely exceeding
a few hundred yards in width. Its precipitous or overhanging
bluffs are often bare and naked cliffs of stone, indicating clearly the
recent origin of the chasm through which the stream flows, and the
short period during which the bluffs have been exposed to the modi-
fying influences of the elements. * * *, These facts, without
a doubt, demand another and older outlet for Sugar creek ; and
if the primal direction of the stream was due to the action or
results of the first ice-flow, it ought to be found continuing in the
original course west from Crawfordsville. Beneath that city, and
in an area of several hundred acres west and southwest of it, are
beds of coarse gravel and sand, having a thickness of forty to ninety
feet, of drift origin, but sorted and re-deposited by fluviatile action.
The stream to whose currents its origin was due, at one time must
have had its low-water level as high as a terrace on which Craw-
fordsville is situated. This was accepted as a hint toward a solution.
Starting with this level registered as a datum line on the barometer,-
it was found that allowing a range of less than forty feet between
high and low water in the ancient river, at least two outlets existed,
one leading more directly to Coal creek, the other trending gently
southwest to Mill creek. The latter is a broad, well defined valley,
now of a somewhat swampy nature, and, as far as pierced by wells,

4 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

say thirty to forty feet, built up with mucky silt and quicksand, with
beds of line gravel. It seems evident that the ancient river not only
could, but actually did, find egress by this way. This presumption is
further sustained by the fact that deep wells, and bores in search of
coal, have discovered a great system of deeply eroded river channels
in the great level plateau in the south part of Fountain county, now
entirely filled up with silt and glacial drift, and which are on the pro-
duced line in which a river of the early glacial period would be com-
pelled to seek the Wabash and western drainage. To these deduc-
tions we may add that a few fragmentary rocks, which seem to be
like the Medina sandstone of Ontario, and two nuggets, of nearly a
pound each, of coarse, octahedral Champlain iron ore were found near
the present mouth of Coal creek, in the bed of " Old " Sugar creek,
if our theory is^correct. These facts, separately, are of little value.
Combined, they hint at the solution of an obscure chapter of na-
ture's history, and are briefly thrown together to invite full investi-
gation rather than a complete solution of the enigma."

Prof. Collett is also of the opinion that the waters of Lye creek once
ran through what is known as Lye creek swamp, and passed through
Black creek, which empties into Sugar creek about two miles below
Crawfordsville. The following from Prof. Collett' s report on this
subject will be of interest to many citizens of the county: "Lye
creek enters near the extreme northeastern corner of the county,
and after flowing in a westerly direction for six miles, suddenly
turns to the south. The ancient valley is plainly continued through
Lye creek and Black creek swamps and Black creek valley. The
obstructing agent, a vast bed of modified clay and water- washed
sands, is at once detected at the head of Black creek, between Lin-
den and Crawfordsville. The discharge of water thus denied, the
flow from the east would first be confined, and, after reaching the
maximum capacity of the basin, be compelled to rind a new line of
exit to the south by Sugar creek. The obstructing dam of modified
materials is the termination of a north-south ridge, and its modified
nature demands the sifting and sorting process of flowing water. A
lake, now known as Lye and Black creek swamps, succeeded, origi-
nally six miles long and from one to three miles wide. The deepest
wells in the basin do not find the bottom of the lacustral silt, quick-
sand and muck. In opening ditches, drains, etc., many canoe pad-
dles, spears and fishing implements have been found, proving that
in modern times it was a constant body of water, and a favorite resort
for the Indian fisherman. The present channel of Lye creek, from
the point where the southern bend commences to its mouth, is by a

ALTITUDES ABOVE THE OCEAN. 5

deep, narrow valley, with steep, precipitous bluffs, which facts indi-
cate the recent origin of this outlet."

A large ditch, some fifteen feet deep, is now (1880) being dug
through the obstructing dam referred to by Prof. Collett, which,
when completed, will drain all the waters of the Lye creek swamp
into Black creek, and reclaim a vast body of rich land which has
hitherto been unproductive on account of insufficient drainage.

Perhaps the most remarkable features of the topography of Mont-
gomery county are the traces of an ancient lake, which, centuries
ago, covered a large part of the central region of the county. Prof.
Collett has named it " Ancient Lake Harney," in honor of Hon.
James F. Harney, of Ladoga, who has given much attention to it,
and who first called Prof. Collett" s attention to the indications that it
once existed. This ancient lake was principally within a circle
drawn through Crawfordsville, Brown's valley and Ladoga, and
was probably drained by Indian creek and Offield creek into Sugar
creek, as the channel of that stream was from time to time gradually
cut down through the ledges of rock that constitute its high banks
below Yountsville.

The contractors who constructed the Crawfordsville and "Whites-
ville gravel road, running six miles southeast from Crawfordsville,
found beds of fine road-gravel near the shores of this ancient lake.

Another remarkable geological feature of the county is the im-
mense number of large boulders scattered over its surface. A heavy
line of these boulders stretches from near New Ross, in the south-
eastern part of the county, to the Tippecanoe line, above Linden.
At some places they are so numerous and so large as to render the
fields difficult of cultivation. They were evidently transported
hither from the north during the glacial epoch. Prof. Collett says
" the earliest glacial flow in America was from the northeast (N. 80°
E. ), which passed up the St. Lawrence valley, hewing out the basins
of lakes Ontario and Erie, and finding discharge by sluiceways into
the Ohio, Wabash and Mississippi. A period of intense cold pre-
vailed. A might} r mass of solid ice, with its source away toward
the pole, many hundreds of miles in width, slowly crept to the
south. Its surface was covered with a large amount of angular
rocks from overhanging cliffs at the north, and with gravel, sand,
etc., such material absorbing warmth from the sun's rays, gradually
sunk in the ice, and finally falling through various crevasses and
water-ways, reached the bed-rock over which the glacier was pass-
ing. The softer materials were ground to powdered clay and sand
in this giant mill, while the more obdurate rocks were rounded and

6 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

polished, and survive as boulders and gravel.'"' These are the con-
clusions of Prof. Collett after a long and thorough study of the sub-
ject, and they are concurred in by geologists generally.

An account of the geological features of Montgomery county
would be incomplete without mention of the celebrated crinoidal
beds in the vicinity of Crawfordsville, on Sugar creek. From these
beds have been dug and sold many thousands of dollars' worth of
the petrified remains of the crinoida, a genus of ancient radiated ani-
mals related to the star-fish. Specimens from this locality now
enrich the cabinets of most of the colleges and geological associa-
tions of the civilized world.

Those who wish to study the matters here noticed more fully are
referred to the Indiana Geological Report of Prof. Cox, state geolo-
gist, for the year 1875.

The most noted scenery in Montgomery county is what is called
"The Shades of Death," or Pine Bluffs, where two small streams,
Indian creek and Clifty, run together, about one-fourth of a mile*
from Sugar creek, into which their mingled waters flow, about fifteen
miles southwest from Crawfordsville. These creeks, for some con-
siderable distance, run at the base of cliffs of solid sandstone, from
80 to 150 feet high. At several points the cliffs project almost over
the little streams that ripple and murmur in dismal solitude at their
base. At the very verge of these cliffs tall, straight pines are grow-
ing, with hemlock and cedars, along whose trunks one can see from
below as though he were taking sight at the zenith with huge pieces
of artillery. The water running down the sides of the cliffs from
the surface above has washed out holes of various fantastic shapes.
There is one large cavity pointed out to visitors as "The Devil's
Fireplace " ; another which has a striking resemblance to a huge
fish's mouth, wide open. At one point, fifty or sixty feet below the
top of the cliff, entirely beyond the reach of man otherwise than by
ropes from above, is a large recess, in which eagles used to build
their nests and hatch their young; and parts of a nest are yet visible
from below. Of course this has been given the name of "The
Eagle's Nest." No human eye has ever seen it from any nearer
point than the bed of the stream, a hundred feet below it. To reach
it by any means is so difficult and dangerous that no one has ever
attempted it. The eaglets reared in it enjoyed absolute immunity
from molestation by the hand of man.

One of the small streams mentioned at one point folds back, as it
were, on itself so close as to leave onlv a narrow wall between the
two parts, not more than fifty feet at the base and from four to five

ALTITUDES ABOVE THE OCEAN". 7

feet at the top. This gigantic wall rises from 80 to 100 feet high,
and to traverse its top is extremely dangerous. It has, however,
tempted the daring and adventurous spirit of many a lad and lass
without any fatal result. For about a quarter of a mile before the
two streams unite they run so close together as to leave only a thin
wall between them, which is almost perpendicular on both sides,
and more than a hundred feet high. This wall has been named
"The Devil's Backbone." To stand upon the top of it, as visitors
often do, and look down into the deep chasm below, is a grand but
fearful experience. To pass along the top of this huge wall is so
dangerous that many who attempt it grow nervous and turn back on
reaching the narrowest part. Hundreds of both sexes, however,
have gone over it within the last fifty years. It seems almost mirac-
ulous that none of them have ever lost their balance and been
dashed to pieces on the rocky bed below.

At one point the creek winds in the shape of a horseshoe, with
the heels close together ; and within this circle, which encloses a
green valley of an acre or so of ground, are many beech and spruce
trees. The cliff towers high around, except at a single point, and
on entering it you feel as though you had wandered into some for-
tress, built at a time far back in the past when the earth was inhab-
ited by giants. To stand in this valley and look at the tall cliff
around you, almost as smooth as masonry, with the great pines and
hemlocks growing on its very edge, is to behold as grand a specimen
of nature's freaks as can be found in Indiana.

Further down the creek are two other valleys, hemmed in by
towering bluffs, and in one of these a cold spring gushes up from be-
low, which is always a welcome object to the weary picnickers who,
during the summer season, visit this celebrated resort from all parts
of the state. The deep and lonely glens in which Sir William Wallace
wandered as a fugitive, after his flight from Elerslie, were not more
grand and awe-inspiring than are "The Shades of Death" in Mont-
gomery county, Indiana. A short distance below the "Shades of
Death" is "Silver Cascade," an object of much interest to those
who visit this romantic region. A stream of considerable size,
named "Little Kaiity," flows from the south through a narrow chan-
nel fifty feet deep, worn in the solid sandstone, and tumbles in a
broad sheet forty-five feet down an almost perpendicular bank into
Sugar creek. This beautiful cascade is nestled away in a cove
almost 200 feet in diameter, and whose walls are 100 feet high.
Upon the rim of this amphitheater tall oaks and pines grow in
abundance, and lock their long arms above the gloomy recess where

8 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the falling water hums its endless song to the ferns and other wild
plants that cover the area below.

The county authorities have recently commenced constructing
free gravel roads, under the supervision of an experienced and intel-
ligent civil engineer. The first experiment of this kind was the road
from Crawfordsville to Whitesville, six miles southeast on the Louis-
ville & Chicago railroad. Soon after the completion of this road,
in 1878, another was commenced running from the Tippecanoe line
in Sugar creek township to the northeastern terminus of the Craw-
fordsville and Concord turnpike. This is now finished, and is one
of the finest wagon and carriage roads in the state. The Linden
and Potato creek free gravel road connects with this six miles east of
Linden. Another, running from Crawfordsville to the Tippecanoe
line north of New Richmond was completed in the fall of 1880.
When this road was first projected it was feared that gravel along
the line of it would prove to be scarce ; but near where the road
crosses Black creek immense beds of the best quality of road gravel,
from eight to ten feet thick, were found just under the surface of the
ground. Similar beds of gravel are scattered throughout the county
and will be opened as the work of road-building progresses into the
various neighborhoods.

This good work, so auspiciously begun, will doubtless be contin-
ued until first-class free gravel roads connect every part of the county
with the county seat. These roads are constructed under a general
statute, by means of a tax levied upon all the lands within two miles
thereof which are benefited by the roads, in proportion to the rela-
tive benefits to the several tracts, which is ascertained by viewers
sent out by the county commissioners for the purpose. The plan
has proved highly satisfactory, and will no doubt result in a system
of county roads equal to any in the country. These roads cost from
$1,000 to $1,500 per mile, and are kept in repair by a tax levied on
the county. Besides these free gravel roads, there were made, years
ago. turnpike or toll roads, as follows: The Crawfordsville and Alamo
turnpike, running from Crawfordsville southwest six miles; the
Crawfordsville and Fredericksburg turnpike, running from Craw-
fordsville to Fredericksburg, six miles southeast; the Crawfordsville
and Shannondale turnpike, running from Crawfordsville to Shannon-
dale, ten miles east; the Crawfordsville and Darlington turnpike,
running six miles northeast from Crawfordsville ; the Crawfordsville
and Concord turnpike, running from Crawfordsville, a little east of
north, six miles; the Crawfordsville and AVaynetown turnpike, run-
ning from Crawfordsville through Waynetown, ten miles to the

EARLY HISTORY. 9

county line ; the Crawfordsville and Parkerburg turnpike, extending
from Crawfordsville south to the line between Union and Scott town-
ships, six miles ; and the Crawfordsville and Yountsville turnpike,
running southwest through Yountsville, and on in the direction of
Alamo about seven miles. A proposition has long been discussed
to have the county buy all these roads and make them a part of the
free gravel road system of the county, and this will probably be
done before many years. The people seem willing to bear the
necessary taxation, but the obstacle in the way is the lack of a law
directly authorizing the purchase. This will likely soon be supplied.

EARLY HISTORY.

Sixty years ago the territory which now constitutes Montgomery
county was a wilderness, with no sound but the rippling waters of
its streams and the ceaseless patter of its cascades. Wild animals,
such as deer, bears, foxes, wolves and wild cats crept through the
dense and tangled undergrowth, in its great forests of walnut, oak,
beech and sugar-maple. Owls peered by day from their retreats in
its deep shades, and sallied out at night in search of food ; venom-
ous reptiles coiled in the green grass of its fertile prairies ; luxuri-
ous grape-vines in autumn, black with fruit, hung in festoons from
the tall trees ; the delicious paw-paw grew in abundance on almost
every square mile ; wild plums turned purple in the summer sun-
shine, and nuts of various kinds rattled down year after year on its
carpet of fallen leaves. Sometimes the wild animals shared these
luxuries of nature with the savages who roamed in search of game,
but until the year 1821 no civilized being had gained a residence in
what is now Montgomery county.

In February of that year, according to well-authenticated tradi-
tion, William Offield with his wife and one child came from a settle-
ment on White river, not far from the present town of Martins-
ville, in Morgan county, and settled a few rods from the mouth of
the little stream which Hows into Sugar creek, some five or six miles
southwest of Crawfordsville, and which now bears the name of Of-
field' s creek. His cabin, which was only 12x15 feet, was on the
south side of Sec. 16, T. 18 K, K. 5 W. Mr. Offield moved
from the settlement on White river in a single wagon, in company
with Thomas Johnson, father of Hon. Archibald Johnson, of Mont-
gomery county, Jubal Dewees and John Sigler. All except Mr.
Offield stopped in Putnam county, near where Greencastle now
stands. A son of John Sigler, named Andrew, accompanied Mr.
Offield to Montgomery county for the purpose of taking back the

10 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

wagon which the latter had borrowed from some one in the White
river settlement to transport his household goods to his new home.
The whole country through which they traveled was covered with
undergrowth, in some places so thick that Mr. Offield had to cut it
out with his axe to enable the wagon to pass. In going dowli a
steep hill Mr. Offield would construct a brake by cutting down a
bushy-topped sapling, making the butt-end fast to the hind axle of
the wagon and leaving the top to drag on the ground. Mr. Offield
came to the White river settlement from Tennessee in 1819, and
raised a crop of corn there in 1820.

His wife's maiden name was Jennie or Jane Langhlin. A second
child was born to 'them while they lived in the cabin on Offield' s
creek. An old Indian squaw officiated as doctor on the occasion,
there being no doctor or white woman nearer than thirty miles at
the time. This was undoubtedly the first white child born in the terri-
tory whieh now constitutes Montgomery county. Mr. Offield is repre-
sented by persons now living, who were well acquainted with him sixty
years ago, as a man low in stature, broad and strong, with sandy hair
and blue eyes, possessed of great coolness and courage, and strong
common sense. Some have reported that he was extremely fond of
hunting, and often found in the woods with his rifle and dog. But
other accounts, from persons who lived in the family, say he was also
an industrious husbandman, with horses, cattle, hogs and sheep, and
that his attention was largely given to the care of his stock and the
growing of grain, which latter must have been, of course, on a very
small scale, as the country about him was mostly covered with
thick woods. He was undoubtedly fond of a lonely backwoods life,
and had little taste for the ways of a cultivated community. There
is reason to believe that he was well educated, for he was elected a
member of the first board of county commissioners, and his signa-
ture yet appears on the records of the board in a plain, smooth, busi-
ness-like hand. While yet a member of the board of county com-
missioners, in the beginning of 1824, he, together with his family,
disappeared from the county. He is known to have remained in the
county up to January 1, 1824. In May of that year Henry Ristine
was appointed to fill a vacancy on the board of commissioners, the
record reciting that the vacancy had been occasioned by the removal
of William Offield from the county. So it is rendered certain that he
left the county between January 1 and May 1, 1824. It is conjectured
by some that he became dissatisfied with the growing civilization of
the county, and went toward the setting sun in search of new hunting-
grounds, where he could continue to gratify his supposed passion

EARLY HISTORY. 11

for the chase and the solitude of the wild woods. There are
stronger reasons, however, for believing that he quietly packed his
scanty supply of household goods in a wagon and wandered back to
Tennessee in the same manner in which he came from the White
river settlement to Montgomery county. It is remarkable that not
even tradition has preserved the least account of his departure from
the county. What his immediate destination was, how he went, or
why he went, will probably remain forever hidden from the popu-
lous community which has grown up around the site of his cabin,
on the banks of the little stream which perpetuates his name in the
county. It appears' from the public records that on July 4, 1822,
more than a year after his arrival, he entered the E. ^ of N.E. J Sec.
4, T. 18 N., R. 5 W., which lies about half a mile north of Younts-
ville, and that on December 31, 1823, he and his wife, Jane Offield,
conveyed this land to Jonas Mann. The name of his wife, as at-
tached to the deed, is without the cross-mark so often met with in
the early deed records of the county. This fact shows that she
knew at least how to read and write, accomplishments by no means
common with the women of her day in the backwoods regions of
Indiana. The consideration stated in the deed is $307.50, which in-
dicates that Mr. Offield must have considerably improved the land,
having entered it for $100 the year before. It is known that he
built a cabin on it, to which he removed from his first location near
the mouth of Offield' s creek.

But whether Mr. Offield removed back to Tennessee, or went
farther west when he left the county, it is certain that at some time
between 1824 and 1841 he went to the wild country beyond the
Ozark mountains, in the southwestern part of Missouri, not far from
the Arkansas line, perhaps in what is now McDonald county ; for
in the latter year Christopher C. Walkup, now a citizen of Montgom-
ery county, was traveling in that country, and found Mr. Offield liv-
ing in a rude cabin in the woods, such as he built at the mouth of
Offield' s creek in 1821. Mr. Walkup staid over night with Mr.
Offield, who related to him the circumstances of his settlement on the
banks of the little stream below Crawford sville, and the birth of his
second child there ; and also told him of an unfortunate mistake of his
which occurred shortly before Mr.Walkup's visit, and which resulted
in the death of one of his best neighbors. He was out hunting, and
mistook for a deer the neighbor, who was dressed in deer- skin pants,
with the harry side out. Seeing only a small part of him through
the thick undergrowth, he shot and killed him dead on the spot.
Mr. Offield greatly regretted the occurrence, and said it would be a

12 HISTORY OF MONTGOMEB1 COUNTY.

source of sorrowful reflection to him as long as he should live. Mr.
Walkup represents Mr. Offield as u man of more than ordinary intel-
ligence, and seemingly about sixty-five years of age. But as he was
only about thirty years old when he came to Montgomery county,
he could not have been over fifty at the time of Mr. Walkup's visit.
His constant outdoor life in the backwoods had probably given him
the appearance of being older than he really was.

The year following the advent of Mr. Ofrield quite a number of
families came to the county, and in a little while there were several
small settlements or neighborhoods on Sugar creek, not far from
where the city of Crawfordsville now stands, and a few in other
parts of the county.

On July 3, 1822, John Lopp entered the first tract of land ever
sold by the government in Montgomery county. This was the E. ^
of S.E. I Sec. 14, T. 17 N"., E. 4 W., in what is now Scott town-
ship. The land now belongs to M. M. Henry. Subsequently,
on the same day, however, Austin M. Puett entered the E. ^ of
N.E. i Sec. 34, T. 17 K, R. 4 W., and David Henry entered the
W. i of S.E. i Sec. 34, T. 17 K, K. 4 W. On 'the next day
several other tracts were entered in different parts of the county,
and during the following autumn quite a number of entries were
made, most of them in what is now Union township.

On December 21, 1822, the legislature passed an act defining the
boundaries of Montgomery county, and providing for the organiza-
tion of civil government therein. The county was named Montgom-
ery in honor of Gen. Richard Montgomery, of revolutionary fame,
who was killed in the assault on Quebec, December 31, 1775. On
March 1, 1S23, William Ofrield, James Blevins and John McCul-
lough were elected the first board of county commissioners for the
new county, and the local government thus went quietly and peace-
fully into operation. The whole number of votes cast at the first
election was sixty-one. The county jurisdiction originally extended
northward over what are now Tippecanoe, Clinton, Carroll and Cass
counties ; eastward to Marion county, southward to Parke, and west-
ward to the Wabash river.

The first settlers on the lands embraced in what is now the county
of Montgomery came principally from Kentucky and Ohio. There
were some, however, from Tennessee, the Oarolinas and Virginia,
and a few from the eastern states. They brought with them but few
of the necessaries of civilized life, and none of its luxuries and re-
finements. They lived in rude cabins, built of round logs, with the
ends beveled on top and notched underneath so as to fit closely

EAELY HISTOKY. 13

together and prevent slipping apart. The cracks left between the
logs were filled with mud, and the cabin was thus made tight and
comfortable. The floors were laid with what are called puncheons,
which were made by splitting small logs through the middle, dress-
ing off the flat surface with an axe or adz, and notching the under
side so as to fit down on the sleepers. The fireplace and chimney
were made of split sticks, and lined with a stiff clay, which, when
dried, was very durable. A smoke-house, in which to dry the meat,
was made in the same manner as the dwelling, except without floor
or chimney. The cabin and smoke-house were covered with clap-
boards, which were made by cutting off oak logs about three and a
half feet long, and splitting them into thin slabs with what was
called a frow, a strong, thick knife, with a handle at one end at
right angles to the back, like the handle of a cross-cut saw. The
pieces of wood were set on end in a horizontal fork, slightly ele-
vated, and the knife driven in with a small mallet. Nails being out
of the question, the boards were weighted down with small poles,
extending from one gable to the other, and laid on each course of
boards. The cabin usually consisted of but one room, and in this
the pioneer housewife and daughters cooked their scanty meals, con-
sisting, for the most part, of corn-bread and meat. Here the whole
family slept at night, and here, on Sunday, they received and enter-
tained their company from neighboring settlements. This descrip-
tion of the first settler's cabin would be very deficient in the eyes of
many without some mention of the proverbial latch-string. The
door was always fastened by means of a wooden latch on the inside,
to which a long buckskin string was attached and put through a
small hole a few inches above, so that one wishing to enter had but
to pull the string and thus raise the latch. At night the string was
pulled inside, so that the door could be opened only by one within.
The contrivance thus answered the place of a latch by day, and a
lock by night. When it was said of a settler that his latch-string
was always out, it was simply meant that his door was ever in a con-
dition to be opened by those in quest of his hospitality. The family
dressed in plain goods, usually of their own manufacture. The set-
tler who succeeded in getting his cabin built, and a few acres of
ground cleared on which to raise his bread-corn, was thought to be
in good condition for living.

In those days mills were scarce, and going to mill was one of the
great events of the year. The settler, after returning from one ot
these trips, which sometimes occupied a week and more, would
spend many evenings around the big fire-place relating to his wife

14 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

and children what he had heard at the mill, for the mill was the
great news depot. In those times the settler had no daily papers, with
telegraphic news from all parts of the world, as we now have, and
it was only those who were more than ordinarily prosperous and
well-to-do who could afford even a weekly paper. But notwith-
standing these early settlers had only rude cabins in which to live,
plain fare to eat, homespun clothing to wear, and were shut out, in
a great measure, from all communication with the world, they were
not absolutely unhappy. They gathered often at each other's
houses, and spent many pleasant hours at night by the blazing lire,
relating their adventures while hunting in the woods, discussing
plans for the future, and telling the news received through private
letters from the kindred and friends they had left behind them in
the old states. They were a simple, honest and sociable people, and
long years after their settlement in the county, when they had grown
rich and had carriages to ride in, and pianos, and silks, and broad-
cloth, and were worried with trade and business and fashions, some
of them have been heard to breathe a sigh, and wish for a return of
the good old days of the log cabin in the woods, with its humble
fare, its generous hospitality, and its sweet peace and freedom from
anxiety; and, in later days, when the question at the school-house
debate happened to be "Does a high state of civilization and refine-
ment tend to increase man's happiness," the old settlers were always
inclined to take the negative, fancying they could find stronger
arguments on that side. But, after all, were it seriously proposed
to do away with the improvements of the age, throw away our fash-
ions and luxuries, and go back to the condition of 1822, it is more
than probable that the old settlers would begin to hesitate, if not to
oppose such a course.

A benevolent creator has so made man that he soon forgets the
troubles and long remembers the pleasures of the past, and this, in
a large measure, accounts for the universal disposition to regard the
past as preferable to the present. But few would sigh for a return
to their childhood if it were not for the fact that childhood's bitters
are all soon forgotten, and its sweets long remembered.

The traveler passing northward along the road about one half
mile from the mouth of Black creek, some three or four miles north-
west of Crawfordsville, will see to his right a considerable knoll,
known in the neighborhood as "Noggle's Hill." It is on the
S.E. £ of N.E. £ Sec. 34. Here, at a very early period, perhaps
before the county was organized, a man by the name of Mayfield
murdered one Noggle. The former had suspicions, and perhaps

EARLY HISTORY. 15

proof, that the latter had been interfering with his domestic affairs,
and meeting him in the woods one day, while hunting, fired upon
him at a distance. The ball passed through his knee, and so dis-
abled him that he could not walk. Mayfield reloaded his gun, and
walking up to where Noggle lay piteousiy begging that his life
might be spared, deliberately shot him through the heart. Noggle
was buried near the spot where he was murdered, and his grave is
yet pointed out by those living in the vicinity. Mayfield fled from
the country, and no attempt was ever made to arrest him. This was
the first murder ever committed in the county.

The first court ever held in Montgomery county was organized at
the house of William Miller, in Crawfordsville, on May 29, 1823,
with Jacob Call, of Vincennes, presiding, John Wilson acting as
clerk, Samuel D. Maxwell as sheriff, and Jacob J. Ford as prosecut-
ing attorney. At this session nothing was done beyond organizing
the court, ordering a summons for a grand jury for the ensuing term
to be held in August, and adopting a seal for the court. After
transacting this business, which probably occupied only a few hours,
court adjourned "till court in course," and Judge Call mounted his
horse and rode through the woods back to Vincennes, or to some other
county in his circuit, which then extended from Montgomery county
to the Ohio river.

On August 28 following the court convened, for the second time,
in Crawfordsville, but the record does not state at whose house.
Tradition, however, locates it at the tavern kept by Henry Ristine,
father of Ben T. Ristine. The grand jury, for which a summons
had been ordered at the previous term, was in attendance, and
was composed of the following persons : James Dungan, Richard
M. McCafterty, James Scott, James Stitt, William Miller, Robert
Craig, Samuel Brown, Elias Moore, George Miller, Joseph Hahn,
Samuel McClung, William P. Mitchell, Wilson Claypool, and John
Farlow. Samuel McClung was appointed foreman. The jury was
duly instructed by the judge of the court, and retired ito diligently
inquire of the felonies and misdemeanors which had been com-
mitted in the county. After a few hours' session an indictment was
•returned against John Toliver for assault and battery, and the fore-
man answering in response to the inquiry of the judge, that they
had no further business before them, the jury was discharged, and
allowed 75 cents each as fees. Burwell Daniels was allowed $1 for
serving as bailiff to the grand jury, Jacob J. Ford $25 for his
services as prosecuting attorney, Samuel D. Maxwell $15 for serv-
ing as sheriff, and John Wilson $15 for serving as clerk.

l(i HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

There was yet no case on the docket for trial, except the indict-
ment returned against Toliver, and he seems to have fled, for the
record shows that writs were repeatedly issued for his arrest without
success. The court remained in session but one day at this term.
At the May term, 1824, James Stitt and William Burbridge appeared
with their commissions as associate judges, and were duly sworn
into office by Judge Call, the presiding judge. At the May term
no indictment whatever was found, and after a session of one day
the grand jury was discharged, and the court adjourned till the next
term. At the May term, 1825, one Jesse Keyton, was sentenced to
the penitentiary for two years for receiving stolen goods. This case
doubtless created a profound sensation throughout the county, for it
was the first case of any importance ever put on the docket of the
court. At the time of the trial of this case the new court-house had
been finished and received from the hands of the contractor, and
Mr. Keyton had the honor of going to the penitentiary from a bran
new temple of justice.

The history of the county would be very incomplete without a
description of the first court-house. It was ordered at a special
session of the board of county commissioners, held on June 28,
1823, and the specifications, according to which it was to be built,
were as follows :

"To be of good hewed logs; to face at least twelve inches;. to
be twenty-six feet long and twenty feet wide ; two stories high ; the
lower story to be nine feet from the floor to the joists ; the upper to
be seven ; the roof to be joint shingles, made of poplar timber ;
each floor to be laid with good seasoned poplar plank, to be one
inch and a quarter thick and seven inches wide ; the lower floor to
be square jointed, the second to be tongued and grooved, the third
floor to be laid loose, but to lap one inch on each side ; the first and
second floors to be well nailed down with suitable flooring nails ;
the house to have thirteen good joists in each story, the joists to be
three inches by nine, to be neatly sawed ; the under side of the
second floor to be dressed together with the joists ; the lower room
to have two doors and four windows ; the doors to be good batten
doors, and are to be hung with butts, and are to have locks such as
are on the doors of the land office ; the four lower windows to have
-twenty lights in each eight by ten ; to have shutters to open each'
way, or in the middle, and to be fastened with bolts ; the upper
story to have a plank partition across, six feet from the end of the
house ; the lower room then to be subdivided by a partition starting
at the middle of the house, and extending to the end of the

EAELY HISTORY. 17

house, which partition is to divide the large room of the second
story into two rooms of equal size, each to have a good door
with latches, and to be hung Lwith butts. There is to be three
windows in the upper story of the house, which windows are to
have twelve lights in each, to be eight by ten, and are to have
shutters and to be finished in like manner to the lower windows.
There' is likewise to be a good and convenient stairway to ascend
from the first to the second story. Each corner of the house is to
be raised twelve inches from the ground and to be set on stone.
The house is to be chinked and pointed with good lime and sand.
All the work to be done in a neat and workmanlike manner. The
undertaker to furnish all the materials ; one-third will be advanced
by the undertaker giving bond and security for the faithful perform-
ance of his contract. The building to be completed by the 20th of
May next."

On August 11, 1823, the contract for building the house was let
to Eliakam Ashton, at $295, and on August 9, 1824, the house
was duly finished according to the plans and specifications, and
turned over to the board of commissioners. It stood on the lot now
occupied by Gregg & Son's hardware store, on Main street. A
chimney was afterward added by another contractor. It seems to
have been overlooked in the first contract, or perhaps for some rea-
son, now unknown, was purposely left out of the original specifica-
tions.

It was in this house that the case of the State of Indiana v. Jesse
Key ton (spelled in the indictment Keaton) was tried, on May 3,
1825. Keyton was charged with receiving and concealing a stolen
cow's-hide, knowing the same to have been stolen. The case was
prosecuted by Hon. John Law, afterward a member of congress from
the southern part of the state, and Joseph Cox and Nathan Hunting-
ton appeared for the defendant. The jury was composed of the fol-
lowing persons : Joshua Baxter, Reginal Butt, Samuel D. Maxwell,
William Miller, George Miller, Samuel Wilhite, John Stitt, William
Mount, John Ramsap, Edward JSTutt, Abraham Miller and Isaac
Miller. The presiding judge was not present at this term of the
court, and the law was expounded by William "Burbridge and James
Stitt, the associate judges, both plain farmers (the former a good
blacksmith, also), wholly without legal knowledge, except such as is
usually acquired by observing persons without the aid of law books.
Yet the record does not show that any of their rulings were excepted
to, or that a new trial was asked on account of any blunder of the
court. The case undoubtedly attracted much attention, as well on
2

18 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

account of the fact that it was the first case involving a charge of
felony ever tried in the county, as because of the eminent attorneys
engaged in the prosecution and defense. The settlers came from far
and near to witness the trial, and "hear the lawyers plead the case,"
as listening to the argument of the case was universally designated
at that day. It is probable that almost every voter in the county
attended the trial, and that the little court-room was unduly crowded
with men dressed in either tow-linen or buck-skin pants, homespun
linen shirts and coon-skin caps, and without vests or coats. The
evidence showed that Henry Wisehart, who lived northeast of town,
had lost a cow, and that certain indications showed she had been
killed, skinned and carried away in pieces. About the time the cow
was missed a couple of women (Lydia Cox and Rachel Middleton)
had seen the defendant going northward on horseback, carrying a
cow's hide before him. His trail was followed, and the hide found
in a big pond or swamp in the northern part of the county, where,
according to tradition, he had cut a hole in the ice and sunk it.
But, as the indictment charges the act to have been done on April
18, a doubt is raised as to the correctness of the tradition, or of the
date laid in the indictment. The hide was easily identified as the
hide of Wisehart' s cow. The jury found Key ton guilty as charged
in the indictment ; that he be fined in the sum of $6, and be impris-
oned at hard labor in the penitentiary at Jeffersonville for the term
of two years. The next morning young Keyton (for he was quite a
young man) was taken to Henry Ristine's tavern for his breakfast,
and it is said by an eye witness that he wept over the misfortune
that had overtaken him all the time he was eating his breakfast. In
a few days he was conveyed on horseback to Jeffersonville, and put
in the prison, where he died before the end of his term of imprison-
ment. Before leaving for the penitentiary he disclosed all the fact
about the killing of the cow, implicating several other persons in the
crime, but as there was no witness but himself they were never
arrested. The indictment against Keyton was indorsed by John
Beard, as foreman of the grand jury. Mr. Beard afterward gained
much celebrity as a state senator from the county. It will be of
some interest to the present generation to know that Jesse Keyton
was put on his trial the same day the indictment was returned into
court, and that, although sixteen witnesses were examined, the case
was argued and submitted to the jury, and a verdict returned before
night.

In those early times the court was a great resort for persons fond
of exciting scenes, and served the double purpose of securing justice

EARLY HISTORY. 19

and affording pastime for the backwoodsmen, who always enjoyed
with a keen relish the searching cross-examination, and the sharp
and sometimes angry contests between opposing attorneys. A closely
contested case of assault and battery offered quite as interesting an
entertainment for the early settlers as the play of Hamlet or Richard
III does to the theater-goer of the present day.

At the time of Keyton's trial the population of the county was
yet sparse. There were altogether a dozen or fifteen families in
Crawfordsville, and most of these were located in the neighborhood
of the Whitlock spring, near where Brown & Watkins' mill now
stands. West of town, between where Wabash College now stands
and Sugar creek, there was a small settlement, composed of the fol-
lowing persons : John Beard, Isaac Beeler, John Miller, Isaac Miller,
George Miller, Joseph Cox, John Killen and John Stitt. The last
named built a small corn-mill in the deep bottom immediately west
of the old Remley homestead, which was run by a branch issuing
from the bluff near by. Remains of the old mill are j r et to be seen
on the spot where it stood. Southwest of town some two miles lived
Crane, Cowan (the father of Judge John M. Cowan), Scott and Bur-
bridge. East of town lived Whillock, Baxter, McCullough, Catter-
lin and John Dewey. Farther east lived Jacob Beeler, Judge Stitt,
W. P. Ramey Sr., McClafferty, widow Smith and the El mores. On
the north side of Sugar creek lived Abe Miller, Henry and Robert
Nicholson, Samuel Brown, Farlow and Harshbarger.

A few other families were scattered over the county, but the
whole population within twenty miles of Crawfordsville at this time
was probably less than 500.

Some time in 1823 the land office, which had previously been at
Terre Haute, was removed to the infant town of Crawfordsville,
and on December 24, 1824, a public land sale was commenced
there, which lasted for several days. This sale had been extensively
advertised, and land-buyers, speculators and persons in search of
new homes came from far and near to buy land. The eastern part
of the state was well represented, and there were many persons from
Ohio and Kentucky, and a few from Tennessee and Pennsylvania.
At this sale a large portion of the lands in the'county which had not
been previously entered were sold at public auction to the highest
bidder for cash. The money received at the land office was mostly
gold and silver, which was headed up in kegs and hauled in wagons
to Louisville, and thence it was shipped up the Ohio, and finally
reached Washington city. William Miller, the first settler of Craw-
fordsville, hauled several loads of money to Louisville from the land

20 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

office at Crawford sville, sometimes camping out at night, with no
guard to protect the treasure he had in charge. On one occasion
Ben T. Ristine and an uncle were employed to take $40,000, mostly
in silver. They went in a two-horse wagon, passing through the
rough country in Morgan county. At a steep hill near where Mar-
tinsville now stands their horses balked, and they were compelled to
unload the wagon and roll a part of its burden up the hill with hand-
spikes. Sometimes they slept in the wayside cabins at night, leav-
ing their wagon with its contents standing in the road. They arrived
at Louisville in about a week, and delivered the S40,000 to a govern-
ment agent at that place.

The year following the public land sale settlers came rapidly, and
the dense forest began to disappear, cabins were multiplied, numer-
ous corn-mills were erected on the smaller streams, school-houses
and churches began to appear at intervals, roads were being opened
in every direction, and altogether the scene presented was well cal-
culated to cheer the hearts of those who had come with hope and
courage to build up new homes in the unbroken forest in what was
then known as "The New Purchase."

The new settlers spent most of their time in the clearings, stop-
ping work at intervals only long enough to hunt wild meat tor their
families. In those days the sugar-maple was thick in almost every
neighborhood, and the settlers had no trouble in providing them-
selves an abundance of good sugar and molasses, which cost nothing
but a few days' labor, with which the young folks mingled much
fun. The young men and women of a whole neighborhood would
often gather at the sugar-camp at night and have their candy-pullings,
and enjoy themselves in harmless sports till a late hour. The cattle
and horses ran at large in what was called "the range," and fed on
the leaves and wild grasses in summer, and the tender twigs of the
undergrowth in winter.

The county was for a time measurably free from malefactors, and
there was but little use for prisons, but this blissful condition did
not last very long. With the influx of people the usual number of
thieves and law-breakers of every grade began to make their appear-
ance, and the practice of hiring guards to keep such of them as had
been arrested from running away was growing expensive, and the
commissioners, at their February term in 1824, set about providing
" a jail-house " for the county. The written specifications provided
for the minutest details of the building, and the whole document, as
entered of record in the minutes of the board, is worthy of a place in
the history of the county. It shows not only the kind of jail the

EARLY HISTORY. 21

fathers thought sufficient to hold the criminals, but likewise how
carefully the public business was transacted by the plain and honest
servants of the people in those early times. The document is as
follows :

" Ordered by the board that written proposals will be received by
this board at their next meeting to be held in May next, for building
a jail-house on the northeast corner of the public square in the town
of Crawfordsville, of the following dimensions, to-wit: To be
24 x 20 from out to out, the foundation to be laid with stone sunk
eighteen inches under ground and to be twelve inches above the
ground, making it two feet and six inches deep, and to be three feet
wide ; to be of good stone and well laid, upon which there is to be
built with logs, to be hewed square twelve inches each way, double
walls, with a vacancy of one foot between the walls. Two rounds
of the outside wall, together with the sill of the inside wall, are to
be of white oak timber ; the timber of each wall is to be twelve
inches square and laid close ; the vacancy between the walls is to be
filled with peeled poles, not more than six inches thick, and to be
straight ; the lower floor to be laid with white oak timber, to be four-
teen inches thick ; to be jointed close and to butt up close against
each of the outside walls, and likewise to be laid with oak plank two
inches thick, nine inches wide, square jointed ; to be spiked down
with wrought iron spikes four inches long and one to be driven in
each plank one foot apart ; the plank floor to butt up close against
each of the inside walls of the house ; the rooms to be nine feet
from floor to floor ; the upper floor to be laid with timber fourteen
inches thick, close jointed, to extend over each of the outside walls
eight inches, on which there is to be plates twelve inches wide and
eight inches thick ; the side plates and the ends of the timber of the
upper floor on which they rest, are to be boxed over with good
plank as usual ; the house to be covered with joint shingles in a
workmanlike manner ; there is to be a partition wall to run through
the narrow way of the house, to be of hewed timber twelve inches
square ; to extend from the foundation sill to the upper floor, and to
be close against each of the outside walls and to be jointed close ;
the upper side of the floor is to be laid with oak plank one inch
thick and nine inches wide, to be nailed down with good flooring
nails and the under side of one room is to be ceiled with inch oak
plank as above, well nailed on with good flooring nails ; there is to
be three doors to the house, the outside door to the outside wall is
to be made of inch oak plank, four of which inch planks are to be
nailed together, making the door four inches thick, the plank to be

22 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

twelve inches wide ; the first plank to the length and width of
the door are to be nailed on one on each side in like manner ; the
door to the inside wall of the house is to be made of oak plank one
inch and a halt' thick, to be nailed together with suitable nails in
every inch square of the door, making the door three inches thick ;
the door to the partition wall to be made in like manner to the last
mentioned and the plank of each to be not more than twelve inches
wide ; each door is to be six feet high and to be two and a half
wide ; each door to be well checked and hung with good strong
hinges to be in proportion to the other work of the house, and to
have strong locks and bolts suitable for a jail of the above descrip-
tion. There is to be a window in each end of the house, and at one
end the window is to be a foot square, and to have grates in both the
inside and outside walls, made of iron of the following description :
twelve bars of iron eighteen inches long and one inch square, four
bars three feet long and two inches wide, and four bars twelve inches
long and two inches wide ; the window on the other end of the
house to be one foot deep and eighteen inches wide, to be grated with
iron in like manner ; the grates are to be fastened in the windows
in a strong and workmanlike manner; all the work must be done in
a workmanlike manner. The undertaker is to furnish all the ma-
terials. The house must be completed by December 31. The
undertaker is to give bond. If necessary $200 will be paid by the
first of July, the balance when the work is completed."

The contract to build the jail was let to Abraham Griffith, who
in due time completed it, and received as his pay therefor the sum
of $250. It stood only a few yards from the northeast corner of the
present court-house. In 1827 an inmate under charge of larceny, set
fire to the building in order to burn off the lock. He succeeded in
making his escape, and left only a pile of ashes to mark the spot
where the jail had stood.

When the county was first settled, the woods, as already inti-
mated, were full of wild animals of almost every kind common in
North America. "Whole droves of deer would sometimes come up
to the settlers' cabin, take a quiet look at what they doubtless re-
garded as an invasion of their rights, and then bound away into the
thick undergrowth. Bears frequently carried away the young pigs,
and wolves were so abundant and so ravenous as to keep the settle-
ments in constant dread of their depredations. But the early settlers
were all expert with the rifle, and deer and bears and wolves disap-
peared with amazing rapidity. The streams were also full of fish.
Not far from Stiffs mill and just below the high bluff on Sugar

EAKLY HISTOKY. 23

creek, on the Remley place, there was in early times a fish dam or
trap at which immense quantities of fish were caught. It is related
by an old settler that during one night in 1824 nine hundred fish,
consisting of pike, salmon, bass and perch, were caught in this trap.
The settlers often carried them by skiff-loads from the trap and put
them in Stitt's mill-pond, where they were fed, and from which they
were easily taken as they were needed for food.

When the first settlers came to the county they found the path-
way of a most destructive tornado or cyclone, which, in some places,
had prostrated the entire forest. It passed about two miles south of
the present site of Crawfordsville, sometimes rising above the tops
of the trees, and then again descending and sweeping down every-
thing in its course. On a part of the land entered by Edmund Nutt,
southwest of Crawfordsville, and immediately south of where Johna-
than Nutt's new brick house now stands, not a tree was left stand-
ing. At the time Mr. Nutt entered this land a dense new growth of
young walnut trees had sprung up, and grown to the height of thirty
and forty feet. They were, perhaps, between twenty and thirty
years old, which would fix the date of the tornado not far from the
commencement of the present century. The precise time will prob-
ably never be ascertained. The prostrate forest had not all decayed
when the first settlers came to the county, and the locality of the
tornado was spoken of for years by them as the fallen-timber coun-
try. On the east side of the road, between the residences of John
A. Harding and Henry B. Wray, about two miles from Crawfords-
ville, may yet be seen a beautiful grove of young timber, which has
grown up in the pathway of this whirlwind. The grove is remem-
bered as a thicket of young saplings fifty years ago by some of the
citizens of the county, who were boys at that time. Traces of the
same tornado, or a similar one, were visible fifty years ago in Marion
county, between Eagle creek and "White river. The young walnut
trees on the JSTutt land were all cut down by Mr. ISTutt and made into
rails with which to fence his fields. Had they been left standing to
the present day they would readily have sold for £20 apiece, and had
there been but fifty to the acre (and the number has been repre-
sented as much greater), they would have yielded more than si. 000
to the acre. If human foresight could have reached to the present
day, with its numberless railroads and saw-mills, and its ship-loads
of walnut logs and lumber going across the Atlantic, what a magni-
ficent heritage might Mr. jSTutt have preserved for his posterity !
But as it was almost impossible for the early settler to get a saw-log
to the mill, only a mile or so distant, not even the wildest enthusiast

24 HISTOKY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

could have dreamed of the possibility of ever transporting the huge
trees of Indiana to the seaboard, and thence across the ocean to be
manufactured into furniture for the titled aristocracy of the old
world.

In December, 1824, Jacob Bell and James Smith, acting under
appointment by the legislature, superintended the laying out of the
state road from Terre Haute to Crawfordsville, Joseph Shelby, of
the former place, acting as surveyor. At the same time Samuel
McGeorge, of Marion county, Uriah Hultz, of Hendricks county,
and John McCullough, of Montgomery county, laid out the state
road from Crawfordsville to Indianapolis. The opening of these
two thoroughfares was considered, at that day, of great importance,
though nothing was done toward making highways of them beyond
cutting out the trees and putting down a little "corduroy" in the
marshy places. This corduroy road, now almost forgotten, was
made by cutting down small saplings and placing them close to-
gether, thus forming a floor on which horses could pass over the
swamps. It was called corduroy because of its resemblance to a
kind of coarse cotten goods of that name, corded or ribbed on the
surface.

But few of the young people of the county have any idea of the
amount of boating done on Sugar creek in early times, and they will
be surprised to learn that in the spring of 1824 William Nicholson
came from Maysville, Kentucky, to Crawfordsville in a keel-boat of
ten tons' burden, which landed at the mouth of Whitlock's Spring
branch. It floated down the Ohio to the mouth of the "Wabash, and
thence it was rowed up to the mouth of Sugar creek, and finally,
after a long and tedious voyage of many weeks, to its destination.
Afterward Ben T. Ristine, Esq., and William Nicholson took this
same boat down to Terre Haute for a load of corn. They took on
board about 250 bushels, and rowed back as far as the Narrows,
some eighteen miles below Crawfordsville, where, in consequence of
the low stage of the water, they were compelled to stop. The two
then went courageously to work, shelled the whole 250 bushels of
corn with their hands, put it in sacks, and by the aid of several
assistants transported it to Crawfordsville in canoes, bringing about
ten bushels at a load. The boat was afterward brought up empty,
and in the course of time rotted at Baxter's Ferry, near the site of
the present Louisville & Chicago railroad depot. In those days
there was much more water in Sugar creek than now, and no dams
to interfere with navigation.

The first settlers of the county were nearly all addicted to the

EARLY HISTORY. 25

use of intoxicating liquors, but about the year 1830, through the ef-
forts of Rev. James Thomson, the subject of temperance began to
be agitated. At a log school-house a few miles south of Crawfords-
ville, a debating society took up the subject and discussed it from
night to night, until the interest grew so great the little school-house
would not hold the audience ; so it was concluded to continue the
debate at the Methodist church in Crawfordsville. The disputants
on the side of temperance were George W. Benefiel and Bartis
Ewing, and on the other side Ambrose Armstrong, "yet living in
Scott township, and Capt. Ben. Hall.

This discussion gave an impetus to the cause of temperance in
the county, which has lasted to the present day. In 1840 another
great temperance excitement prevailed in the county, and many
drinking men who joined the Washingtonians at that time are to-
day living monuments of the good that is done by such agitations.
They signed the pledge of total abstinence, and have maintained it
for forty years,* and but for which many of them would long since
have been carried to drunkards' graves. There are few counties in
the state where the temperance cause is stronger than it is in Mont-
gomery.

It is difficult to realize that as late as 1832 Montgomery county
was so near the western frontier as to be subject to alarms from Indian
wars. Yet it is true that in that year the whole county was thrown
into the greatest consternation by the breaking out of the Black Hawk
war. In the latter part of May of that year rumors reached the
Wabash valley that the celebrated Sac chief, with a large band of
painted warriors, was on his way eastward, and was likely to pene-
trate the settlements as far as Montgomery county. Runners were
sent out from Crawfordsville to the commanders of all the military
companies in the county, ordering them to assemble their commands
at once at the county seat, armed and equipped for a campaign
against the Indians. All who were fit for military duty assembled
at once. The colonel, major and captains were all on hand with
their red and white plumes, red sashes, and shining brass buttons,
and the hardy settlers in homespun suits brought their trusty
rifles, powder-horns and deer skin bullet pouches. The " big drum,"
the ' ' little drum ' ' and fife filled the air with the music of war.
The band marched up and down Main street, and all who were will-
ing to aid in driving back the merciless savages were requested to
fall in behind it. In a short time a company of infantry, one hundred
strong was recruited, and a cavalry company of fifty. The infantry
was put under command of Capt. Elikam Ashton, and the cavalry

26 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

under Judge Burbridge. These companies were soon equipped,,
provided with stores and provisions and started on the campaign.
They went through Attica, and marched as far toward Chicago as
Hickory Grove, in Illinois, where they met about 3,000 Illinois vol-
unteers, who escorted them into camp with honors such as only
heroes returning from a victorious campaign are worthy of. But it
was soon ascertained that the alarm was groundless, that Black
Hawk had been already driven back by a detachment of the regular
army and some Illinois militia ; and the Montgomery county volun-
teers took up the line of march for Crawfordsville, where they ar-
rived after an absence of about fifteen days, and dispersed to their
several homes, never again to be disturbed by rumors of war in the
Wabash valley. Although the campaign was brief, bloodless and
uneventful, it showed the mettle of the early settler of the county.

In 1836 there occurred on Sugar creek, at a point just below
where Deer & Canine's mill now stands, a most singular murder.
Moses Rush and his wife lived in a cabin on a high bln^f overshadow-
ing the creek. He was an outlaw, and owing to some difficulty be-
tween him and his wife, he threatened to kill her, and secretly brought
the axe into the cabin for the purpose of executing his threat. Not
meeting with an opportunity to do the bloody deed just then, he lay
down on the bed and fell asleep, when his wife took the axe he had
brought in for the purpose of killing her and split his head open at
a single blow. She then went to some of the neighbors, and told
them what she had done. A number of persons met at the cabin
next day and buried the corpse, but no steps were ever taken toward
having the murderess arrested, the neighborhood, perhaps, feeling
inclined to thank her for putting the desperado out of the way. The
grave of the murdered man is yet 4 to be seen near a large beech-tree,
with the words and figures "Moses Rush, 1836," cut in its bark.
This grave is an object of interest to the many picnickers who every
summer visit the wild and romantic region near the mouth of Indian
creek.

In 1831 the population of the county had grown to more than
3,000 and the old log court-house would no longer serve the purposes
for which it was built. In fact it was intended only as a temporary
court-house, and is so designated in the order under which it was
built. It was contemplated from the first that the county would at
no distant day build a more imposing structure than the one erected
by Eliakam Askton in 1824-5. And so it did. At a session of the
board of commissioners held in January 1831, by Daniel Farly,
James Sellar and Dennis Ball, proposals for building a new court-

EARLY HISTORY. 27

house were ordered to be advertised for. At the next succeeding
session the contract was let to John Hughes at $3,420. This house
was a two-story brick, forty feet square with a cupola, and stood on
the public square. At the time it was built it was considered a fine
edifice. But forty years afterward the public voice demanded a
finer, more convenient and commodious house, and it was torn down
to make way for the present stately structure. Its bricks are now
doing duty in the walls of the Crawfordsville coffin factory.

It is claimed that the first horse-thief detective company ever
organized in the west was a Montgomery county institution. In the
fall of 1844 a great many horse-thieves were in the habit of passing
through Coal Creek township, and stealing the farmers' horses, and
to put a stop to their depredations about fifteen of the leading citi-
zens living in the northwest part of the township met at a locust
grove on the Meharry land, near the Tippecanoe count} 7 line, and
formed themselves into an association which they called "The Coun-
cil Grove Minute Men." A constitution and by-laws were drawn up
by Jesse Meharry and Cyrus J. Borum. At the session of the legis-
lature of 1848, through the influence of John W. Dimmitt, then a
member of the lower house of the legislature from Montgomery
county, an act was passed to incorporate this company, and give its
members, while in pursuit of criminals, all the power and authority
of constables. The charter members whose names are set out in the
act are James Gregory, William Casseboom, Absalom Kirkpatrick,
James Meharry, Jesse Meharry, Christian Coon, Elias Moudy, John
M. Thomas, and Edward McBroom. Though every charter member,
excepting Jesse Meharry, is now dead, the organization still exists,
and is doing effective service in bringing violators of the law to jus-
tice. Its vigilance and activity have well nigh put an end to all
horse stealing in the neighborhood. Its present officers are Hiram
Palin, president, and G. N. Meharry, secretary. From this organi-
zation have started a great number of similar companies, which are
now organized pursuant to a general act of the legislature for that
purpose.

They hold what they call "grand annual meetings ;" that is, rep-
resentatives from all the companies meet at* some convenient point
to make their work more effective by a thorough cooperation. John
S. Gray, of Wayne township, Montgomery county, who is noted
wherever known for his sterling honesty and firmness, is president
of the grand council. So well are these companies organized, and
so thoroughly do they understand their work, that they seldom allow
a horse-thief to escape. They not only arrest the thieves, but super-

•2S HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

intend prosecutions, hunt up witnesses, and, when necessary, employ

counsel to aid the prosecuting attorney in bringing malefactors to

justice. These companies are composed of the very best citizens of

the country.

A NOTED CRIMINAL TRIAL.

The most noted criminal trial that ever took place in Montgomery
county was that of the state against Jonathan S. Owen, who was
charged with the murder of his wife. Owen was a respectable
farmer living in the southeastern part of the county. He was a man
in good standing, a consistent member of the church, and possessed
of considerable property. His first wife had died leaving several
children. His second wife was childless and the family relations
were not all harmonious. The step-mother and step-children had
numerous quarrels, but the testimony in the case did not show there
had ever been any unusual difficulty between Mr. Owen and his new
wife. She had several times threatened to kill herself on account
of the annoyances of her step-children. One night late in 1858 she
died very suddenly, and was buried the next day. The suddenness
of her death, together with symptoms indicating poison, and other
circumstances, soon began to arouse the suspicions of some of Mrs.
Owen's relations, and they determined to have a resurrection of the
body and a post-mortem examination. This greatly agitated Mr.
Owen, and when he found it was fully determined on, he secretly
sold his farm, disguised himself and fled to Canada. The post-mor-
tem examination showed very conclusively that Mrs. Owen had died
from the effects of strychnine. A large reward was offered for
Owen's arrest, and he was finally captured by William H. Schoolen
and others and lodged in the Crawfordsville jail to await his trial.
Hon. D. W. Vorhees, Col. Samuel C. Wilson, Hon. James Willson
and Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, an unusual array of distinguished
counsel, were employed to defend him. The trial came on at Craw-
fordsville, at a special term of the circuit court, on July 21, 1859.
Hon. John M. Cowan, then in the beginning of his career as a success-
ful and popular circuit judge, presided. The prosecution was con-
ducted by Lew Wallace, K. C. Gregory, and Robert C. Harrison, the
prosecuting attorney. This array assured a judicious, able and un-
relenting prosecution. The jury selected and sworn to try the case
was composed of the following citizens : Joseph Allen, Jonathan
Todd, Samuel Davidson, William Royalty, John Blankenship, Jess
Vancleave, Joseph Clifton, Emanuel Burk, James Ames, Jacob
Bennett, Daniel Vaughn and Silas A. Fardy. The trial occupied
several days. The court-room was crowded from day to day, to its

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN MEXICAN WAR. 2$

utmost capacity. Aside from Owen's conduct subsequent to the
death of his wife, the evidence was barely sufficient to raise a sus-
picion of his guilt. It was shown he had bought strychnine at a
drug-store in Ladoga some time before the death of his wife, but this
circumstance was fully rebutted by proof of the facts that he had
requested the druggist to charge it on his account, and that he took
it home and gave it to his wife to put away, telling her to be careful
with it, that it was poison to kill rats with. But the secret sale of
the farm, the flight to Canada, and the agitation under disclosure of
the suspicions, all conspired to fix in the public mind an unalterable
belief of his guilt, and to this day it would be folly to suggest to
any one, who lived in the county at the time of the trial, the theory
that Mrs. Owen committed suicide. Yet, a careful consideration of
all the testimony, which was fully reported in the county papers,
will leave the impression on the judicial mind that the theory is not
an unreasonable one. The law books are full of instances show-
ing that innocent men have acted under accusations based upon cir-
cumstances which they feared could not explain, precisely as Mr.
Owen did when accused of the murder of his wife. Few men are so
constituted as to be able to remain perfectly calm in the face of great
danger. These things were dwelt upon by the attorneys for the de-
fense with great ability, and made a profound impression on the
minds of the jury. A verdict of acquittal resulted. Great indigna-
tion was felt and expressed throughout the county at this unlooked-
for outcome of the trial. But it would be impossible for any ra-
tional being, who had never heard of the trial, to sit down at this
day and read the evidence without feeling a strong doubt of Owen's
guilt. After his acquittal he left the state, without money and with-
out friends, and has not been heard of since.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN MEXICAN WAR.

The spirit that aroused so many of the hardy pioneers at the time
of the Black Hawk war had not died out in 1846, when the govern-
ment declared war against the Republic of Mexico. Soon after the
formal declaration of war Indiana was called on for three regiments
of infantry. At that time James Whitcomb was governor, and he
at once issued his proclamation calling for volunteers. In a few
days the governor's proclamation reached Crawfordsville. News of
the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma soon followed, and
these startling events at once threw the whole county into a great
excitement. The whig and democratic parties were nearly equal in
the county. The whigs had predicted that a war with Mexico would

30 HISTORY OF MONTCxOMERY COUNTY.

follow the policy of the democratic party touching the annexation of
Texas. There was some party animosity, and the democrats were
denounced for involving the country in a war whose sole object was
believed to be the extension of slavery. But the news of Taylor's
victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and a few stirring
speeches from Henry S. Lane, the gifted orator and pure patriot,
and Judge Isaac Naylor, one of the heroes of Tippecanoe, both lead-
ing whigs, soon obliterated all party lines, and the people of the
county, with one voice, declared they would stand by the govern-
ment, right or wrong. The Saturday after the governor's proclama-
tion reached the county a large meeting was held at the old Christian
church in Crawfordsville. Speeches were made by Lane and others,
and about twenty volunteers enrolled their names in response to the
proclamation. The whole county was then canvassed, and in a short
time ninety-eight names were secured. June 10 was designated as
the day on which the volunteers would meet at Crawfordsville.
They all came prepared for the long and tedious journey to the seat
of war, on the Rio Grande. On the 11th an immense concourse
assembled in front of the residence of Henry S. Lane, who had been
the inspiring genius of the movement for responding to the gover-
nor's call. Here Mrs. Lane, in behalf of the ladies of Crawfordsville,
presented a beautiful flag to the company. Wagons had been ten-
dered by the patriotic farmers to transport the new recruits to the
capital. Many sorrowful good-byes were spoken, and the wagons
started forward. At Brownsburg the volunteers were greeted with
applause, and tendered the hospitalities of the village. The next
day they reached Indianapolis. Here the company was organized
by the election of Henry S. Lane as captain ; Allan May, first lieu-
tenant, and Gustavius A. Wood as second lieutenant.

Gov. Whitcomb advanced $5 to each one of the recruits, from the
state treasury, and on June 15 they marched to Franklin, the county
seat of Johnson county, twenty miles south of Indianapolis. Here
they were treated with great hospitality by the citizens, and cared
for till the morning of the 16th, when they marched to Edinburgh,
where they took the cars for Madison. From Madison they went by
boat to New Albany, and there went into camp at a place called
Camp Whitcomb, in honor of the governor. By July 5 thirty com-
panies had reported, and they were at once organized into three regi-
ments. The Montgomery county company was assigned to the 1st
reg. James P. Drake was appointed colonel ; C. C. Nave, of Hend-
ricks county, lieutenant-colonel ; and Henry S. Lane, major. There
was much dissatisfaction because Lane was not appointed colonel of

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 31

the regiment, as he was a favorite with all the volunteers. They
have always believed that under him the regiment would have been
assigned a more honorable place, and had a more eventful career.
When Capt. Lane was appointed major, John B. Powers took his
place as captain of the company. On July 5 the regiment started
for New Orleans on steamboats, and landed at the old battle-ground
on the 12th. Here it remained till the 17th, when the Montgomery
county company was crowded on board a small sloop with another
company (some 200 in all), and set sail for the Rio Grande. Before
day on the 22d the vessel struck on the beach of Padre island, four-
teen miles north of Brazos, the place to which the 1st reg. had been
ordered. A stiff breeze was blowing, and the night was very dark.
When daylight came the troops were all safely sent ashore in boats,
with their stores, and went into camp. They remained here eight
days, when they were marched to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and
finally up the river to Camp Belknap, where they remained for some
time. The whole term of service was spent in marching up and
down the Rio Grande. The company suffered much fro*m sickness,
and at the close of the year for which they had enlisted it was re-
duced to one half its original strength. Upon the expiration of their
term of service the volunteers (or, rather, so many as had survived
the ravages of disease) returned home. Upon their arrival at Craw-
fordsville, in July 1847, a grand ovation was tendered them by the
citizens of the county, on which occasion Col. Henry S. Lane, who
had been promoted during the campaign, made one of the most elo-
quent and thrilling speeches of his eventful life as an orator.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Montgomery county, even prior to 1861, was noted as one of the
localities of the state where a military spirit had always been more
or less fostered. Lewis Wallace, who rose to high rank and dis-
tinguished himself during the war, had been a lover of the rattling
drum, the flashing sword, and the gleaming bayonet, from his boy-
hood, and had long kept up a military company in the county.
When in April, 1861, Mr. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to aid
in enforcing the law, young Wallace, for he "was then quite a young
man, was practicing his profession in Crawfordsville ; but he at once
threw down his pen and law books and took up his sword to defend
the Union. He had served in the Mexican war when very young,
and was not altogether a stranger to the bivouac and the march.
His example, together with that of Mahlon D. Manson, another
Montgomery county veteran of the Mexican war, who also distin-

:{J HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

guished himself in the war of the rebellion, soon filled the whole
county with an enthusiastic spirit of devotion to the old flag of the
fathers.

The night after the President's call for 75,000 volunteers was is-
sued, a large and enthusiastic meeting was held atMcClelland's Hall,
in Crawfordsville, at which the venerable Judge Isaac Naylor pre-
sided. Resolutions were adopted denouncing the rebellion as wicked
and inexcusable, proclaiming that the public authorities were as much
bound to put it down as they were to repel a foreign invader, and
offering all the aid the county could render to make the war for the
Union successful. The third day after this meeting a company was
fully organized and ready to go into camp. The morning of April
18, 1861, the time set for its departure, will be long remembered in
Crawfordsville. War was a new thing to most of the people, and
thousands had gathered in the streets of the town to honor the brave
and patriotic young men who were to be the first to meet the haz-
ards of battle. A little while before the arrival of the train which
was to bear them away the company was drawn up in line on Green
street, between Main and Market, and James H. Benefiel passed
along presenting to each member thereof a copy of the New Testa-
ment. After this the company marched to the depot of the then New
Albany & Salem railroad, followed by nearly the entire population
of the town and hundreds from the country. It was a sad and
solemn occasion. The patriotic father, with a heavy heart, bade his
manly boy good-bye. The mother, with a mother's tender love,
pressed him to her bosom, as she feared, for the last time ; and the
coy maiden, who had pledged him her affections,, with bowed head
and palpitating heart, whispered in his ear her wish for his safe re-
turn. It was not long till the train came, the boys were soon on
board, the train moved off, handkerchiefs were waved, and the vast
concourse in solemn silence went back to their several homes, little
dreaming that such scenes were to be repeated till 2,000 of the
county's patriotic sons should volunteer to join the ranks of the na-
tional army. The next day a company left Ladoga, and soon
another from Crawfordsville followed. And from this time till the
old flag of the Union waved in triumph from the ramparts of Sum-
ter again the county promptly met every draft upon her patriotism.
During the long struggle many a field drank freely of the best blood
of the county, and many a household yet mourns the loss of a dear
boy or a father who gave his life to preserve what we to-day enjoy,
a government strong enough to be merciful to its enemies, upright

Hf'fr L

P S. Kennedy

ew roRfc

RARY

rrLO * N *OLr 1 VDATIOK8

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 33

enough to gain the respect of all the nations of the earth, and
mild enough to retain the undying love of its own citizens.

The long list of Montgomery county soldiers is given in the fol-
lowing pages. Great pains have been taken to make the list full
and accurate, yet it is possible that some names which ought to have
been inserted may have been accidentally omitted.

Roll of Officers from Montgomery County in the Civil War,

1861-5.

TENTH REGIMENT— THREE MONTHS.

Colonel M. D. Manson, commissioned captain April 17, '61;
mustered in April 25, '61 ; promoted major April 27, '61 ; promoted
colonel May 10, '61 ; promoted brigadier-general.

Captain James H. Watson, commissioned April 26, '61; mustered
out, term expired.

COMPANY K.

Captain William H. Morgan, commissioned June 24, '61; mus-
tered out, term expired. Reentered service as lieutenant-colonel
25th regiment.

ELEVENTH REGIMENT— THREE MONTHS.

Colonel Lewis Wallace, commissioned April 26, '61; mustered
out, term expired. Reentered service as colonel 11th regiment in
three-years service.

Surgeon Thomas W. Fry, commissioned April 26, '61; mustered
out, term expired. Reentered service as surgeon 11th regiment in
three-years service.

COMPANY G.

Henry M. Carr, commissioned April 22, '61 ; mustered in April
25, '61 ; mustered out, term expired. Reentered service as captain
in 11th regiment, three-years service.

First Lieutenant H. B. Wilson, commissioned April 22, '61 ;
mustered in April 25, '61 ; mustered out, term expired.

Secgnd Lieutenant John F. Caven, commissioned April 23, '61 ;
mustered in April 25, '61; mustered out, term expired. Reentered
service as first lieutenant 11th regiment, three-years service.

company i.

Captain Lewis Wallace, commissioned April 18, '61 ; mustered in
April 25, '61 ; promoted colonel.

Captain Isaac C. Elston, commissioned April 27, '61; mustered
in April 25, ' 61 ; mustered out, term expired. Reentered service as
captain in 11th regiment, three-years service.

34 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

First Lieutenant A. C. Wilson, commissioned April 18, '61
mustered in April 25, '61 ; mustered out, term expired.

Second Lieutenant Isaac C. Elston, commissioned April 18, '61
mustered in April 25, '61 ; promoted captain.

Second Lieutenant John W. Ross, commissioned April 27, '61
mustered in April 25, '61 ; mustered out, term expired.

TENTH REGIMENT— THREE YEARS.

Colonel Mahlon D. Manson, commissioned May 10, 61 ; mustered
in September 18, '61 ; promoted brigadier-general U. S. Vols. March
24, '62.

Chaplain George T. Dougherty, mustered in September 18, '61 ;
resigned.

Surgeon Joseph S. Allen, commissioned September 21, '61 ; mus-
tered in September 18, '61 ; resigned October 3, '62.

COMPANY B.

Captain James H. Vanarsdall, commissioned September 2, '61 ;
mustered in September 18, '61 ; resigned June 7, 62.

Captain Frank Goben, commissioned June 8, '62; mustered in
July 5, '62 ; resigned August 9, '64.

Captain William Col well, commissioned August 10, '64 ; mus-
tered out as first lieutenant September 19, '64, term expired.

First Lieutenant Frank Goben, commissioned September 2, '61 ;
mustered in September 18, '61 ; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant William Col well, commissioned June 8, '62;
mustered in July 5, '62; prbmoted captain ; mustered out Septem-
ber 19, '64.

First Lieutenant Robert P. Snyder, commissioned August 10,
'64 ; mustered out as second lieutenant September 19, '64, term
expired.

Second Lieutenant William Colwell, commissioned September 2,
'61 ; mustered in September 18, '61 ; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Isaac F. Miller, commissioned June 8, '62 ;
died July 1, '62, at Corinth, Mississippi.

Second Lieutenant Robert P. Snyder, commissioned July 1, '62;
mustered in October 23, '62; promoted first lieutenant; mustered
out September 19, '64.

ELEVENTH REGIMENT— THREE YEARS.

Colonel Lewis Wallace, commissioned August 31, '61 ; mustered
in August 31, '61 ; promoted brigadier-general U. S. Vols. Septem-
ber 3, '61.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 35

Major Isaac C. Elston, commissioned September 3, '61 ; mus-
tered in September 3, '61 ; resigned April 8, '62.

Surgeon Thomas W. Fry, commissioned August 31, '61 ; mus-
tered in August 31, '61; appointed brigade surgeon U. S. Vols.
September 28, '61.

COMPANY B.

Thomas C. Pursell, commissioned October 4, '62; mustered in
October 10, '62 ; mustered out November 28, '64, term expired.

company c.

Captain James R. Ross, commissioned October 28, '63 ; mus-
tered in December 19, '63; resigned May 17, '64; promoted major
and aid-de-camp.

COMPANY E.

First Lieutenant Thomas W. Fry, commissioned January 13, '62 ;
resigned February 23, '63.

Second lieutenant Thomas W. Fry Jr.; commissioned December
4, '61 ; mustered in December 4, '61 ; promoted first lieutenant.

COMPANY F.

First Lieutenant Thomas B. Woods, commissioned October 19,
'62; mustered in October 21, '61 ; transferred to Co. G.

First Lieutenant William W. Hyatt, commissioned January 28
'65 ; mustered in May 1, '65 ; mustered out July 26, '65, term ex
pired.

Second Lieutenant Joshua Budd, commissioned October 3, '62
mustered in October 1, '62 ; resigned February 23, '63 ;

Second Lieutenant W. W. Hyatt, commissioned August 1, '64
mustered in April 11, '65 ; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Charles Kroff, commissioned January 28, '65
mustered in May 2, '65 ; mustered out July 26, '65, term expired.

COMPANY G.

Captain Henry M. Carr, commissioned August 24, '61 ; mustered
in August 31, '64; promoted colonel 58th reg. November 14, '61.

Captain John F. Caven, commissioned November 20, '61 ; mus-
tered in November 20, '61 ; mustered out November 23, '64, term
expired.

First Lieutenant John F. Caven, commissioned August 24, '61 ;
mustered in August 31, '61 ; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant Milton Clark, commissioned November 20, '61 ;
mustered in November 20, '61 ; resigned 1, '62.

First Lieutenant Thomas B. Woods, commissioned October 19,
'62 ; mustered in October 21, '62 ; honorably discharged January
27, '65.

36 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

First Lieutenant Robert W, Matthews, commissioned January 28,
'65, mustered in May 1. '65; promoted captain Co. C.

First Lieutenant Alexander Richardson, commissioned February
1. '65: mustered in May 12. '05; mustered out July 20. '65, term
expire'!.

Second Lieutenant Milton Clark, commissioned August 31, '61);
mustered in August 31, '61; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Thomas B. Woods, commissioned August 2,
'<yJ: mustered in August 1. '62; promoted first lieutenant Co. F.

Second Lieutenant Thomas W. Durham, commissioned £ June 14.
'63 ; mustered in September 1. '63 : resigned January 10, *' ; 4.

Second Lieutenant George A. Fielding, commissioned January 1,
'05; mustered in May 1. '65; mustered out July 26. '65. term ex-
pired.

COMPANY H.

Randolph Kellogg, commissioned May 5. '63; mustered'in May
5, '63: honorably discharged January 20, '65.

Randolph Kellogg, commissioned March 22, '65 ; revoked.

First Lieutenant James R. Ross, commissioned August 24. '01 :
mustered in August 24. 'til : promoted captain Co. C.

COMPANY I.

Captain Isaac C. Elston, commissioned August 31. '01: mustered
in August 31. '01 : promoted major.

Captain John W. Ross, commissioned ^November 20, "61; mus-
tered in November 25. '01: mustered out November 25. 't!4. term
expired.

Captain Joseph B. Simpson, commissioned May 5, '63; mustered
in May 5. '63; promoted captain.

Second Lieutenant Randolph Kellogg, commissioned August 24,
'61; mustered in August 31, '61; promoted first lieutenant.

FIFTEENTH REGIMENT— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY E.

Captain George W. Lamb, commissioned April 24, '01; mustered
in June 14, '01 ; resigned February 9, '03; reentered service as first
lieutenant 150th.

-Captain William Marks, commissioned February 10, '03: mus-
tered in March 19, '63; mustered out June 25, '64, term expired.

First Lieutenant George \Y. Riley, commissioned April 24, '61;
mustered in June 14, '01 ; dishonorably dismissed January 25, '63.

First Lieutenant William M. Graham, commissioned February

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 37

10, '63; mustered in March 19, '63; mustered out June 25, '64. term
expired.

Second Lieutenant William B. Kennedy, commissioned April 24,
'61 ; mustered in June 14, '61; resigned February 5, '62.

Second Lieutenant William Marks, commissioned February 15,
'62; mustered in April 3, '62; promoted captain.

Second Lieutenant John I. Harvey, commissioned February 10,
'63; mustered in March 19, '63 ; mustered out June 25, 1K64, term
expired.

FORTIETH REGIMENT.

Chaplain George W. Stafford, commissioned September 9, '63;
mustered in September 11, '63 ; resigned June 9, '64.

COMPANY C.

Captain John R. Connell, commissioned April 22, '63; mustered
in June 2, '63; resigned January 17, '64.

Captain James P. Hanna, commissioned January 18, '64; died as
first lieutenant.

Captain Joseph W. O'Brien, commissioned .July 1, '65.

First Lieutenant, John R. Connell. commissioned December 3,
'62; mustered in December 3, '62; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant James M. Hanna, commissioned April 22, '63;
mustered in June 2, '63 ; died February 28, '64.

First Lieutenant Joseph A. Stillwell, commissioned February
29, '64; mustered in April 27, '64; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant Joseph W. O'Brien, commissioned July 1, '64;
mustered in September 1, '64 ; promoted captain.

Second Lieutenant John 11. Connell, commissioned September
15, '62; mustered in September 15, '62; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant James M. Hanna, commissioned December
3, '62 ; mustered in December 3, '62 ; promoted first lieutenant.

FIFTY-SECOND REGIMENT.

Major Henry M. Carr, commissioned October 18, '62; mustered
in October 23, '62 ; resigned June 28, '64, disability.

COMPANY B.

Captain Henry M. Carr, commissioned July 22. '62: mustered
in August 16, '62 : promoted major.

Captain Oliver P. Mahan, commissioned October 19, '62: mus-
tered in October 24, '62; resigned February 16, '63.

Captain William P. Herron, commissioned February 17, '63 ;
mustered in February 24, '63 ; mustered out with regiment.

38 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

First Lieutenant Oliver P. Malum, commissioned July 22, '62;
mustered in August 16, 62; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant Wesley C. Gerard, commissioned October 19,
'62; mustered in October 24, '62; resigned February 2, '63.

First Lieutenant William P. Herron, commissioned February 2,
'63; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant Robert Maxwell, commissioned February 17,
'63; mustered in February 24, '63 ; mustered out with regiment.

Second Lieutenant Wesley C. Gerard, commissioned July 22,
'62; mustered in August 16, '62; promoted first Lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant William P. Herron, commissioned October 19,
'62; mustered in October 24, '62; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Robert Maxwell, commissioned February 2,
'63 ; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Charles M. Robinson, commissioned February
17, '63; mustered in February 24, '63; resigned April 18, '64.

Second Lieutenant Nelson Gaskell, commissioned May, 1, '64 ;
mustered in January 12, '65 ; mustered out with regiment.

COMPANY E.

Captain Harvey B. Wilson, commissioned August 14, '62; mus-
tered in August 14, '62 ; resigned December 14, '62.

Captain Lawson S. Kilborn, commissioned December 15, '62;
mustered in February 17, '63; promoted major.

First Lieutenant Lawson S. Kilborn, commissioned August 14,
'62; mustered in August 14, '62; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant John N. Insley, commissioned December 15,
'62; mustered in December 17, '62; resigned February 9, '63.

First Lieutenant Lewis C. Priest, commissioned February 10,
'63 ; mustered in April 9, '63 ; died June 24, '64.

Second Lieutenant John N. Insley, commissioned August 14,
'62; mustered in August 14, '62; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Lewis C. Priest, commissioned December 15,
'62; mustered in December 17, '62; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant John W. Plunkett, commissioned January 1,
'65 ; mustered in June 21, '65 ; mustered out with regiment.

FIFTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT.

Colonel Henry M. Carr, commissioned November 14, '61; mus-
tered in December 17, '61 ; resigned June 17, '62.

COMPANY K.

Captain Walter B. Carr, commissioned November 15, '61 ; mus-
tered in December 22, '61; dismissed May 1, '62.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 39

FOURTH CAVALRY, SEVENTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY I.

Captain John Jackson, commissioned March 1, '64; died in rebel
prison, Columbia, November 20, '64, as first lieutenant.

First Lieutenant John Jackson, commissioned February 15, '63 ;
mustered in April 24, '63 ; promoted captain.

Second Lieutenant John Jackson, commissioned August 12, '62 '■>
mustered in August 22, '62; promoted first lieutenant.

EIGHTY-SIXTH REGIMENT— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY F.

Captain Wilson H. Layman, commissioned August 24, '64; mus-
tered in November 7, '64; mustered out with regiment.

First Lieutenant Wilson H. Layman, commissioned October 24,
'63 ; mustered in January 1, '64 ; promoted captain.

Second Lieutenant Wilson H. Layman, commissioned January 10,
'63; mustered in April 3, '63; promoted first lieutenant.

COMPANY I.

First Lieutenant John Gilliland, commissioned August 22, '62;
mustered in September 4, '62 ; returned as a deserter to 51st Illinois
volunteers by sentence of court-martial.

First Lieutenant Thomas H. B. McCain, commissioned August 1,
'64; mustered in September 5, '64; mustered out with regiment.

COMPANY K.

Captain William M. Southard, commissioned August 23, '62;
mustered in September 4, '62; killed at battle of Mission Ridge
November 25, 1863.

Captain Robert B. Spillman, commissioned March 31, '64 ;
mustered in June 26, '64; mustered out with regiment.

First Lieutenant William H. Lynn, commissioned August 23,
'62; mustered in September 4, '62; resigned November 30, '62.

First Lieutenant John M. Yount, commissioned November 30,
'62; mustered in November 30, '62; discharged March 4, '64.

First Lieutenant Hugh Reilley, commissioned August 1, '64;
mustered in September 5, '64; mustered out with regiment

Second Lieutenant John M. Yount, commissioned August 23,
'62; mustered in September 4, 62; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant Tighlman A. Howard, commissioned June 1,
'65 ; mustered out as first sergeant with regiment.

40 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

FIFTH CAVALRY (NINETIETH) REGIMENT— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY L.

First Lieutenant Irvin A. McCullough, commissioned March 5,
'64; mustered in March 18, '64; mustered out June 15, '65.

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH REGIMENT— MINUTE MEN.

Quartermaster George W. Lamb, commissioned July 12, '63;
mustered in July 12, '63; mustered out July 17, '63.

company c.

Captain John W. Kamsey, commissioned July 11, '63; mustered
in July 11, '63 ; mustered out July 17, '63.

First Lieutenant William S. Fry, commissioned July 11, '63;
mustered in July 11, '63; mustered out July 17, '63.

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH REGIMENT— MINUTE MEN.

COMPANY K.

Captain Joseph Belton, commissioned July 10, '63 ; mustered in
July 10, '63; mustered out July 15, '63.

First Lieutenant John Hickman, commissioned July 10, '63 ;
mustered in July 10, '63 ; mustered out July 15, '63.

Second Lieutenant William Kerr, commissioned July 10, '63;
mustered in July 10, '63; mustered out July 15, '63.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH REGIMENT— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY B.

Captain Charles W. Elmore, commissioned December 30, '63;
mustered in January 30, '64; resigned September 30, '64.

Captain Ebenezer P. McClaskey, commissioned September 30,
'64; mustered in November 13, '63.
. First Lieutenant E. P. McClaskey, commissioned December 30,
'63; mustered in January 30, '64; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant Esaias H. Cox, commissioned September 30,
'64; mustered in November 22, '64.

Second Lieutenant John S. French, commissioned December 30,
'63; mustered in January 30, '64; promoted assistant surgeon.

- Second Lieutenant E. II. Cox, commissioned May 1, '64; mus-
tered in July 10, '64; promoted first lieutenant.

Second Lieutenant William H. Ryker, commissioned September
30, '64; canceled.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 41

COMPANY C.

Captain John M. Barcus, commissioned January 30, '64; mus-
tered in March 19, '64; promoted major.

Captain Jacob M. Barcus, commissioned December 1, '64; mus-
tered in December 25, '64.

First Lieutenant Jacob H. Barcus, commissioned January 30, '64;
mustered in January 30, '64; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant John E. Shockley, commissioned December 2,
'64; mustered in March 1, '65; dismissed for desertion August 15,
'65.

First Lieutenant Thomas R. Irons, commissioned August 16, '65.

Second Lieutenant James W. Plunkett, commissioned January
30, '64; mustered in March 19, '64; honorably discharged August
11, '64.

Second Lieutenant Thomas R. Irons, commissioned July 1, '65 ;
mustered in July 20, '65 ; promoted first lieutenant.

ELEVENTH CAVALRY (126th) REGIMENT — THREE YEARS.

COMPANY K.

Captain Robert H. Heckathorn, commissioned August 28, '64;
mustered in November 10, '64; died December 26, '64, of wounds
received in action at Nashville, Tennessee.

First Lieutenant R. H. Heckathorn, commissioned January 1,
'64; mustered in January 1, '64; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant Benjamin C. Miller, commissioned March 1, '65 ;
mustered in April 1, '65 ; mustered out with regiment.

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT — ONE HUNDRED

DAYS.

Surgeon James A. McClelland, commissioned May 25, '64; mus-
tered in May 26, '64; mustered out with regiment.

Assistant Surgeon James A. Berryman, commissioned May 25,
'64; mustered in May 25, '64; mustered out with regiment.

company c.

Captain John K. Harrison, commissioned May 15, '64; mustered
in May 23, '64'; mustered out with regiment.

Second Lieutenant Lewis Barnet, commissioned May 15, '64;
mustered in May 23, '64; mustered out with regiment.

COMPANY F.

Captain Alfred J. McClelland, commissioned May 18, '64; mus-
tered in May 23, '64; mustered out with regiment.

42 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

First Lieutenant Albert Calm, commissioned May 18, '64; mus-
tered in May 23, '64; mustered out with regiment.

Second Lieutenant Robert B. F. Peirce, commissioned May 18,
'64; nfustered in May 23, '64; mustered out with regiment.

COMPANY I.

Captain Walter B. Carr, commissioned May 21, '64; mustered
in May 23, '64; mustered out with regiment.

Second Lieutenant John A. Shanklin, commissioned May 21, '64;
mustered in May 23, '64; mustered out with regiment.

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH REGIMENT — ONE YEAR.

Surgeon William C. Hendricks, commissioned March 16, '65 ;
mustered in April 15, '65; resigned July 18, '65.

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH REGIMENT — ONE YEAR,

COMPANY D.

First Lieutenant Thomas Hartness, commissioned July 1, '65 ;
mustered in July 27, '65; mustered out with regiment.

Second Lieutenant Thomas Hartness, commissioned March 1,
'65 ; mustered in March 2, '65 ; promoted first lieutenant.

COMPANY E.

Captain Frank L. Hamilton, commissioned March 1, '65 ; mus-
tered in March 2, '65 ; mustered out with regiment.

First Lieutenant George W. Lamb, commissioned March 1, '65;
mustered in March 2, '65 ; mustered out with regiment.

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT — ONE YEAR.

COMPANY K.

First Lieutenant William H. McNeeley, commissioned April 20,
'65; mustered in April 21, '65; discharged June 21, '65.

First Lieutenant George T. Dorsey, commissioned July 1, '65 ;
mustered in July 21, '65 ; mustered out with regiment.

Second Lieutenant George T. Dorsey, commissioned April 20,
'65 ; mustered in April 21, '65 ; promoted first lieutenant.

NINTH BATTERY, LIGHT ARTILLERY.

Captain Noah S. Thompson, commissioned January 1, '62; mus-
tered in February 25, '62; mustered out August 18, '62, by S. O.
No. 195; restored April 7, '63, by S. O. No. 159; honorably dis-
charged June 8, '63.

Captain George R. Brown, commissioned June 9, '63 ; mustered
in July 1, '63; mustered out March 6, '65 ; term expired.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAE OF THE REBELLION. 43

First Lieutenant George R. Brown, commissioned January 1,
'62; mustered in February 25, '62; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant John W. Wellshear, commissioned January 1,
'62; mustered in February 25, '62; resigned July 8, '62; recom-
missioned.

Second Lieutenant Samuel G. Calfee, commissioned June 16, '63 ;
mustered in July 1, '63 ; mustered out March 6, '65, term expired.

EIGHTEENTH BATTERY, LIGHT ARTILLERY.

Captain Eli Lilly, commissioned August 6, '62; mustered in Au-
gust 4, '62; resigned June 3, '64, to accept promotion of major in
Ninth Cavalry.

Captain Joseph A. Scott, commissioned April 5, '64; resigned
as first lieutenant April 24, '64, on account of wounds received in
action.

First Lieutenant Joseph A. Scott, commissioned August 6, '62;
mustered in August 4, '62; promoted captain.

First Lieutenant Martin J. Miller, commissioned April 25, '64;
mustered in May 15, '64; killed in action near Selma, Alabama,
April 2, '65.

Second Lieutenant Martin J. Miller, commissioned August 10,
'63 ; mustered in November 15, '63 ; promoted first lieutenant.

TWENTY-SECOND BATTERY, LIGHT ARTILLERY.

Captain Edward W. Nicholson, commissioned July 5, '64; mus-
tered in August 26, '64; mustered out with battery.

First Lieutenant Edward "W. Nicholson, commissioned October
25, '62; mustered in December 15, '62; promoted captain.

Roll of Enlisted Men From Montgomery County in the Civil

War 1861-5.

TENTH REGIMENT— THREE MONTHS.

COMPANY G.

FIRST SERGEANT.

Wasson, Jas. H., mustered in April 24, '61 ; mustered out Aug. 6, '61.

SERGEANTS.

Greene, Leroy W., mustered in April 24, '61 ; mustered out Aug. 6, '61.

Martin, Thos. S.

Davis, Isaac " " " "

CORPORALS.

Hartman, David W., mustered in April 24, '61 ; mustered out Aug. 2, '61.

Powell, Thos. M. " " "

Tammany, Jas. H. " "

Simpson, Joseph " " " "

. in

April 2

tt a

a a

tt a

it a

44 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

MUSICIANS.

Gray, Andrew, mustered in April 24, '61 ; mustered out Aug. 6, '61.
Ott,John

PRIVATES.

Austin, Abner V., must, in April 24, '61 ; must, out as corp. Aug. 6, '61.

Bailey, Charles

Birchfield, Wm. P.

Boots, James

Bordon, Jno. D.

Blass, Charles

Britton, Aaron

Barditt, Albert

Cheeney, Hamilton

Clew, John

Caldwell, William

Conway, John M.

Cope, George L.

Cooms, Eli

Cooms, John, mustered in April 24, '61 ; must, out Aug. 6, '61,

Cory, Coramando

Davidson, James

Devoe, Allen

Dewling, William

Duncan, William S.

Edmunds, William

Eicher, David C.

Elliott, John T.

Elliott, John

Evans, Morris B.

Fryer, John E.

Ful wider, Andrew

Ginger, George

Ginger, John

Grinsted, Noah J.

Grubb, Joseph

Hartness, Thomas

Hays, Robert A.

Hemphill, James

Hickman, William H.

Hickman, John

Hillis, Levi H.

Hogsett, John W.

Hoover, Barnet

((

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 45

Jarret, Henry, mustered in April 24, '61 ; must, out Aug 6, '61.

Lane, Henry S.

Liter, Martin

McMaken, Benj. F.

McNeely, William H.

Miller, Isaac F.

Mongaren, Frank

Murphy, Charles

Nicholson, Elisha

Norman, Thomas

O'Hara, Henry

Ornbaun, Andrew M.

Opperman, John

Powell, George W.

Rooney, John

Ruffner, William

Sahm, Seigfried

Simpson, James M.

Smith, James

Smith, Francis M.

Sparks, Laban

Sprague, Daniel G.

Steele, Thomas

Wellshear, John W.

Williamson, William H.

ELEVENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY— THREE MONTHS.

COMPANY G.
FIRST SERGEANT.

McCullough, James H., must, in April 22, '61 ; must out Aug. 4, '61.

SERGEANTS.

Stears, Charles, must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.

Steele, Spear S. "

Smith, James M. " " " "

CORPORALS.

Harrison, John K., must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.

Ellis, Rolla

Chambers, William B. "

Ford, Franklin

MUSICIANS.

Knox, James C, must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.

** chanan, Thos. B. "

Calfe>

46 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

PRIVATES.

Armstrong, Thomas J.,

must, in April 22, '61 ;

must.

out Aug. 4

Austin, Theoren

Baley, John W.

Ball, Zopher

Ball, Zephaniah M.

Ballard, George B.

Barnett, James

Barrett, Enoch

Brown, Paton J.

Brush, Jno. H.

Bruce, Chas. H.

Campbell, John F.

i«

Cord, William

Cord, Harris R.

Cassity, Oliver A.

Cosho, Jacob

Daugherty, Andrew W.

Donahue, Tilman A.

Durham, Thomas W.

Dyer, William F.

l«

Dyer, Albert M.

Ellis, Isaac W.

Feather, Philip H.

Gill, Franklin

Graham, George W.

Griffin, William T.

Harris, William

Hetfield, George W.

Hawkins, Thomas B.

Hendrix, Allen

Holms, William

Howard, Samuel A.

Howard, Thomas A.

Howard, Henry C.

James, Isaac T.

Kelly, William M.

Kelly, James H.

Kinder, Milton

Low, William H.

Maughn, William H.

Maxwell, Robert

it i

McCall, Philander V.

McCall, Jasper H.

«(

(«

((

<«

(«

«(

((

(«

((

«(

((

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 47

Newberger, Charles H. must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.

Newhall, Samuel K.

Nicholson, Benjamin H.

Nugent, Jasper

O'Kear, Eobert F.

Powell, Henry L.

Priest, Lewis C.

Ragan, Ransom H.

Rankins, Joseph H.

Richards, Reason •

Richardson, Thomas

Roberts, James D.

Sharp, Sylvester

Stark, James W.

Sterret, Samuel W.

Stiles, George W.

Winkler, Christian

Woods, Thomas B.

Woods, John H.

Wright, Harrison L.

COMPANY I.

FIRST SERGEANT.

Pursel, Thomas C, must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.

SERGEANTS.

Patterson, Thomas, must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.
Ross, James R.
Kellogg, Randolph
Ramsey, John W.

CORPORALS.

Robinson, Charles M., must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.
Megrew, John P.
Black, William P.
Groenendyke, Henry
Stone, Valentine H.

MUSICIANS.

Wade, Harrison H., must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.
Gookins, James F. " " " "

PRIVATES.

Bryan, John A., must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.
Brown, John H.
Byrd, George B.
Calfee, Samuel G.

<«

(«

((

a
a

48 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Carnahan, James R. must, in April 2'Z, 'ill ; must, out Auo-. 4, '61.

Carpenter, Rufus 0. " •• « «

Carrington, Samuel S. " " "

Carter, John M. " •• «

Clark, Frederick A. " " " «

Collins, Frank " " " u

Cox, Elijah •• " «

Crist, Henry H. "

Darnell, Lafayette " •• « «

Darnell, Marmaduke H. "

Deming, Arthur " " « «

Doherty, Marshall D. " " « «

Dooley, Alva H. " " «

Dunlap, Henry H. " " « «

Fitzpatrick, Michael F. " « « «

Foote, Horace " " « «

Fullwider, Benjamin F. "

Groenendyke, John B. " " «

Hopping, Lewis " •• « «

Hornaday, Enos " " « «

Kennedy, Peter '* " <■ «

King, Jesse D. " "

Kingsbury, Edward B. " •• "

Lane, Thomas " " «

Learning, George "

Lingeman, Samuel " " «

Mack, Thomas '• "

Martin, William R. " " •• «

McClure, James M. " " « «

McCoy, Robert " " •• «

McMechan, Theodore " " " «

Milford, Monroe M. "

Miller, Alfred S.

Miller, Martin J. " "

Miller, Robert G.

Miller, Thomas J. "

Nicholson, Edward W.

Peanock, John P. "

Pollock, Milton T.

Ross, Abram T. •'

Ryker, William H. "

Schooler, Hugh W.

Schooler, William, Jr. . ••

Scott, Henry M.

••

<«

MONTGOMEKY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 49

Sexton, Charles H. must, in April 22, '61 ; must, out Aug. 4, '61.

Smith, Horace B.

Smith, Kobert H.

Spencer, Oliver H.

Stephens, Thomas J.

Stover, George W.

Stumph, John J.

Taylor, Isaac

Townsley, Peter

Tyson, James H.

Webster, Joseph E.

Whitehead, Edward J.

Wilkeson, Rufus H.

Willson, Lane

NINTH REGIMENT, INFANTRY— THREE YEARS.
COMPANY D.
SUBSTITUTE.

Underbill, Obed, must, in Sept. 27, '64; died Huntsville, Ala., June 16,
'65; disease.

COMPANY G.
PRIVATE.

White, James L., must, in Sept. 5, '61 ; must, out Sept. 6, '64.

TENTH REGIMENT, INFANTRY— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY B.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Miller, Isaac F., must, in Sept. 20, '61 ; died Corinth, Miss., July 1, '62.

SERGEANTS.

Eicher, David C, must, in Sept. 18, '61 ; must, out Sept. 19, '64.
Hogsett, John W., must, in Sept. 18, '61 ; wounded Mill Springs, must.

out Sept. 19, '64.
Cason, William J., must, in Sept. 20, '61 ; discharged Louisville, Feb. 19,

'63 ; disability.
Hartness, Thomas N., must, in Sept. 18, '61 ; must, out Sept, 19, '64.

CORPORALS.

Nickolson, Elihu, must, in Sept. 18, '61 ; must, out Sept. 19, '64.
Snyder, Robert P., " " promoted 2d Lieut. Oct. 23, '62.

Burdett, Albert, " " vet'n, reduced, transferred to

58th Regiment.
Duncan, William S., " " vet'n, died June 25, '64; w'nds

rec'd Kenesaw.
Swank, Jacob, " " dis. June 18, '62 ; disability.

Hanee, Louis W., " " ap'd Serg't. ; w'd Perryville, m.

out Sept. 19, '64.

50 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Storer, Geo. W., m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; killed Perryville, Oct. 8, 62.
Manka, Joel, m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; killed Perryville, Oct. 8, '62.

MUSICIANS.

Kobbins, James M., m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64
Scott, John H., m.in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

WAGONER.

Duncan, John, m. in Sept. 18. '61 ; dis. March 28, '62 ; disability.

PRIVATES.

Applegate, John E. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Applegate, George W. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Beach, William H. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; trans. Miss. mar. brig. Feb. 9, '63.

Babb, Benjamin M. m. in Sept. 19, '61 ; killed Chickamauga Sept. 20, '63.

Bradford, Geo. W. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. March 28, '62 ; disability.

Bratton, Charles A. m. in Sept. 18, '61; dis. July 5, '62; disability.

Brown, Zebulon m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd corp., m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Calfee, Albert W. m. in Sept. 18, '61; vet'n, trans. 58th Ind. vols.

Childer, William M. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Clark, Levi m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. May 8, '62 ; disability.

Conner, Dennis m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Conk, Kobert F. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Copner, James E. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; killed Mill Springs Jan. 19, '62.

Craig, Samuel M. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. July 5, '62; wounds rec'd Mill

Springs.
Custer, William H. m. in Sept. 18, 61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Crain, Zephaniah H. m. in Sept. 20, '61 ; trans, to \ . R. C. June '63.
Davis, Andrew P. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. June 18, '62; disability.
Day, William H. m. in Sept. 18, '61; dis. June 23, '62; veteran.
Edmonds, William m.in Sept. 19, '61; ap'd sergt., m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Elmore, Wesley C. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; died Corinth, Miss., July 2, '62.
Evans, John P. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Ferguson, Isaiah m. in Sept. IS, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Ferguson, Jessie Jr. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Fields, Jasper M. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. June 30, '62; disability.
Firgy, Jas. S. (Forgey) m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Fulwider Jacob S. m. in Sept. 18, '61; dis. March 7, '63; disability.
Goehring, William m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; trans. 2d IT. S. Cav. Jan. 26, '63.
Hanee, John P. W. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd corp., m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Haywood, John M. m. in Sept. 21, '61 ; "

Harris, James m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. July 17, '62; disability.
Harris, William K. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Higgins, William 0. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; vet'n, trans. 58th regt.
Hunt, Thomas m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Hunt, Wesley m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THK WAR OF THE REBELLION. 51

Inlow, Isaac m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; died Crawfordsville, Ind., June 22, '62.

Jay, Moses m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; vet'n, trans. 58th regt.

Jesse, Thomas J. m. in. Sept. 18, '61 ; died Corinth, Miss., June 19, '62.

Johnson, John M. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Jones, William C. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd Corp., m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Kelsey, Thomas m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; wn'd Perry ville, m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Landis, Thomas m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd corp., m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Lewis, William H. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.

Lynn, Daniel B. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; died Evansville, Aug. 19, '62.

McDaniel, Joseph m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd corp., m. out Sept. 19, '64.

McKensie, Jonathan m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; wn'd Ohickamauga, m. out

Sept. 19, '64.
McCready, Emerick m.in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Marlow, George E. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, 64.
Martin, George P. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Mote, James H. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Moore, John A. m. in Sept. 19, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Miller, John m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; deserted Corinth, Miss., May 12, '62.
Miller, Leonard H. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd hospital steward Sept. 20, '61.
Misner, Amos K. m. in. Sept. 18, '61 ; killed Mill Springs, Jan. 19, '62.
Nicholson, Samuel m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Newkirk, William m. in Sept, 18, '61 ; died at Corinth, Miss., May 29, '62.
Ochiltree, Andrew m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; died Somerset, Ky., Feb. 15/62;

wounds received at Mill Springs.
Parsons, James H. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. March 19, '63; disability.
Patterson, Samuel m. in Sept, 18, '61 ; dis. Nov. 11, '62 ; disability.
Poague, William C. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; trans, to U. S. signal corps Oct.

22, '63.
Porter, William Y. m. in Sept, 18, '61; wn'd Mill Springs; dis. Feb. 21,

'62; disability.
Pickerel, John W. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; killed at Perryville Oct. 8, '62.
Pruitt, George W. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; died at Shiloh May 9, '62.
Routh, John F. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept, 19, '64.
Shoemaker, James A. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; killed at Perryville Oct. 8, '62.
Simpson, John H. m. in Sept, 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Simpson, John R. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. June 9, '62 ; disability.
Simpson, William A. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; died at Sanford, Ky., Feb. 20, '62.
Snyder, James H. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; died at Mill Springs Feb. 12, '62.
Sparks, Walter P. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Steams, Daniel W. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept, 19, '64.
Stonebreaker, David A. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Simpson, Thomas J. in. in Sept, 18, '61 ; trans, to V. R. C. May 1, '64.
Stonebreaker, William m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd corp., dis. Jan. 13, 64 ;

disability.
Stubbins, Joseph L. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; m. out Sept, 19, '64.

52 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Sweetzer, Abraham C. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd Corp., wn'd Chickamauga,

m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Talbot, Nathaniel A. m. iu Sept. 18, '61 ; dis. March 2, '62 ; disability.
Tate, John L. m. in Sept. 18, '61 : dis. March 21, '64; disability.
Tate, Samuel M. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; ap'd wagoner, m. out Sept. 19, '64.
Tipton, Geo. W. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; died at Somerset, Ky., March 1, '62.
Yancleve, Benjamin M. m. in Sept. 18, '61 ; wn'd at Mill Springs, m. out.
Vancleve, James M. m. in Sept. 18, '61; dis. March 9, '63; disability.
Wilson, Thomas W. m. in Sept. 18, 't',1 ; wn'd at Chickamauga, m. out.

RECRUITS.

Bratton, Samuel B. m. in Jan. 8, '64 ; trans, to 58th regiment.

Crain, David B. m. in Dec. 2, '62 ; dis. July 10, '63.

Dorsey, George T. m. in Dec. 2, '62 ; dis. July 10, '63.

Davis, Franklin W. m. in Jan. 8, '64; died at Jeffersonville July 25, '64.

Evans, Joseph M. m. in Dec. 2, '62 ; dis. July 10, '63.

Fulwider, Samuel J. m. in April 22, '63 ; trans, to 58th regiment.

Kelley, Lorenzo D. m. in Dec. 1, '63; died at Jeffersonville Aug. 10, '64.

Lawrie, John m. in Sept. 19. '61 ; m. out Sept. 19, '64 ; trans, from Co. G.

Lewis, Benjamin R. m. in Oct. 22, '62 ; died at Chattanooga Aug. 9, '64.

McKensey, Mordecai m. in Dec. 1, '63 ; trans, to 58th regiment.

McKensey, Joseph m. in Dec. 1, '63 ; trans, to 58th regiment.

McLaughlin. John W. m. in Oct. 24. '62 ; trans, to 58th regiment.

Poague, John H. m. in Dec. 2, '62; discharged July 10, '63.

Porter, John C. m. in Dec. 2, '62; discharged July 10, '63.

Peterson, John m. in Dec. 2, '62 ; discharged July 10, V>:>.

Quire, Charles E. m. in Dec. 2, '62 ; discharged July 10, '63.

Roberts, James M. m. in Dec. 1, '63 ; transferred to 58th regiment.

Stump, James W. m. in Dec. 1, '63 ; transferred to 58th regiment.

Williams, Thomas W. m. in Dec. 2, '62 ; dis. May 18, '63 ; disability.

Wert, Martin V. m. in Oct. 1, '62; transferred to 58th regiment.

UNASSIGNED RECRUITS.

Hiatt, Joel m. in March 30, '64.

ELEVENTH REGIMENT, INFANTRY-THREE YEARS.

COMPANY A.
RECRUITS.

Fiscus, Jacob J. mustered in March 14. '65 : mustered out July 26. '65.
Fry, John R.
Hargrove, John
' Keman, John C.
Painter, George
Pee, Emmet
Ramsey, Newton L.
Wolf, Jonathan

<•'

8, '65 :

29, '65 ;

June 26, '65

9, '65 ;

July 26, '65

14, '65 ;

15, '65 ;

12, '64;

10, '65;

17, '65 ;

1 2, '65 ;

i 'fi* •

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 58

COMPANY R.
RECRUITS.

Billsland, James I. must, in March 28, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.

Burgam, John

Henderson, Joseph I.

Holmes, Thomas

Lindsay, Adrian A.

Snyder, George W. m. in Oct. 22, '62; vet. ap'd corp., m. out July 26, '65.

company c.

RECRUITS.

Paxton, Samuel D. must, in March 4, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.

COMPANY D.

Hickman, Simon P. mustered in March 2, '65 ; mustered out July 26, '65.
Newton, Matthew S.
Taylor, William V.
Whitesill, James M.

COMPANY E.
RECRUITS.

Kilpatrick, Robt. B. must, in March 21, '65; must, out July 26, "65.
Meissee, Cornelius " " 14, '65 ;

Sh river, Evan " " 18, '65 ;

9, '65;

ii
(i

COMPANY F.
RECRUITS.

Clark, John M. m. in March 11, 65 ; discharged July 18, '65; disability.
Fulkerson, Thomas W. must, in March 8, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.
McKey, George C. " " 13, '65 ;

Mallory, Bernard m. in Oct. 21, '62 ; vet. des'n Indianapolis, April 24, '64.
Pollet, Henry mustered in March 8, '65 ; mustered out July 26, '65.

Regan, John W.

15, '65 :

Sims, Anderson

June 23, '65

Tungate, Josiah

July 26, '65.

Watkins, Wilson

COMPANY G.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Custer, Jesse must, in August 31, '61 : promoted second lieutenant.

SERGEANTS.

Woods, Thomas B. must, in August 31, '61 ; promoted second lieutenant.

Carpenter, John G. "

Durham, Thomas W. "

Bloomfield, John W. " dis'd Dec. 19, '62 ; disability.

a a a

54 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

CORPORALS.

Seawright, James A. must, in August 31, '61 ; must, out August 30, '64.

Martin, James A. " "

Hitch, Thomas G.

Hebb, Joseph B. " " must, out August 30, '64.

Youngs, Henry V. " " (lis. July 16, '62; disability.

Millikon, Vestal L. " " died at Carrion Crow. La.,

November 4, '63.

Osburn, Squire N. " "

Messick, John " "

MUSICIANS.

Wallace, Henry K. m. in August 31, '61; transferred to Co. H Dec. 31, '63.
Kellogg, George mustered in August 31, '61.

WAGONER.

Osburn, Jasper N. mustered in August 31, '61.

PRIVATES.

Adkins, John C. must, in Aug. 31, '61; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Arvin, William F. m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; died at Keokuk, la. Oct. 13, '63.
Bair, Cyrus H. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; died May 19, '63, wounds received

Champion Hills.
Baxter, Lewis must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Boots, Samuel must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '04.
Brown, Felix G. must, in Aug. 31, '61.
Buchanan, Jacob must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Castor, Abraham B. must. Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Castor, Miles must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; died at Helena, Ark. Jan. 8, '63.
Condra, Edward B. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Conyers, John "

Cook, John I.
Cosand, Robert H.

Cowan, Amos S. " " " "

Creamer, Isaac " " " "

Creamer, John W. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; died at St. Louis, March 3, '63.
Dain, Marion must, in Aug. 31,' 61.

Davidson, George W. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet. must, out July 26, '65.
Denny, Robert B. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Downing, Isreal I. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. Sept. 1, '63, disability.
Gapen, John B. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Giltner, John P. m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. Sept. 20, '62, w'ds rec'd Shiloh.
Goldsborough, Andy, must, in Aug. 31, '61 : transferred to 2d Ohio Bat.

Aug. 14, '64.
Gregg, Addison H. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Hall, Benjamin W. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 55

Haller, Nathan must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

Hanna Joseph T. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

TTarrison, Josiah S. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Heckathorn, William M. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

Hottle, Benjamin F. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

Hundartmark, Henry m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; trans. Co. H June 30, '64.

Kernodle, Isaac N. m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. April 2, '63, disability.

Kercheval, William J. must, in Aug. 31, 61 ; must, out Aug. 30, 64.

Largent, James W. m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; died at Helena, Ark., Apr. 14, '63.

Lasley, David M. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Lewellen, James m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet. ap'd corp., wounded Winchester,

must, out July 26, '65.
Mason, George K. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Maxwell, Thomas B. m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet., m. out July 26, '65.
McCorkle, Jasper E. m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet., ap'd corp. ; m. out July 26, '65.
McCorkle, Quincy B. m. in Aug. 31, '61; died at St. Louis July 11, '63.
Mfllis, John B. m. in Aug. 3], '61 ; died at Algiers, La., Jan. 4, '64.
Meredith, Charles m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; died at New Orleans, May 28, '64.
Moore, Leroy must, in Aug. 31, '61.
Nutt, Frank must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Pary, Francis M. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must. Aug. 30, '64.
Phillips, John m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet. capt., Cedar Creek, died Danville

prison.
Renwick, Alexander K. must, in Aug. 31, '61.
Rich, Jordan E. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; died May 28, '63, wounds received

Champion Hills.
Robbins, William R. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Rogers, Joseph T. B. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Rachel, John C. F. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Sayer, William M. m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; died Carrollton, La., Aug. 28, '63.
Shockey, Edward F. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Thompson, Charles A. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Thompson, William C. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Varnasdal, William H. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; died at New Orleans May

22, '64.
Varnasdal, William C. must, in An - 31, '61.
Walton, William must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Warbritton, John must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet. ap'd first sergeant, must.

out July 26, '65.
Westbrook, William must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; killed Champion Hills May

16, '63.
Willey, John R. must, in Aug. 31, '61; dis. Jan. 31, '64, disability.
Wright, Oliver J. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

HISTOKY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

as absent sick

Young, Clairborn A. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. Jan. 2. '64 ; prom'n U.

S. col. troops.
Young, Solomon m. in Aug. 31, '61 ; died at Madisonville, La., Jan. 29, '64.

RECRUITS.

Bratton, William H. must, in March 4, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65, as

absent on furlough.
Bowman, Ross must, in March 16, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.
Boher, Elihu " " 7. '65 ;

Canada, George 2, '65 ;

Caldwell, John
Corbin, John A.
Corbin, Smith H.
Orump, William C.
Davis, William C.

Ellis, Rolley must, in Sept. 30, '62; vet., mustered out- June 20, '65.
Hughes, George B. must, in March 30, '63 ; must, out July 26, '65.
Hickey, Edward " Sept. 21, '64 ;

Hurt, James D. " March 2, "65 ;

Irwin, Andrew L. " " 14, '65 ;

McConnaughy, Har. L. " " 14, '65 ;

" 26, '65 ;

" 16, '65 ;

" 10, '65 ; ap'd mus., m. out July 26, '65.

" 4, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.

Reed, James M.
Roark, James
Tyson, Oscar
Younger, Jesse

«
a

a
a

COMPANY H.
CORPORAL.

Harris, William must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. Oct. 23, '63, disability.

PRIVATES.

Bly, Isaac must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. Dec. 22, '61, disability.
Carman, Wm. N. " " died at St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 16, '61.

Dyer, Wm. F. " " vet., must, out July 26, '65.

Harris, Thomas " " " ap'd corp., must, out July 26, '65.

RECRUITS.

Bailey, Wm. F. m. in Oct. 21, '62; vet., ap'd Corp., m. out July 26, '65.
Brown, Georf i W. must, in March 1, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.
Boyland, Will>m H. must, in April 14, '62; vet., must, out Mar. 22, '65.
Bailey, John W. m. in Oct. 21, '62; vet., killed, Halltown, Va., Aug. 24, '64.
Ensminger, Samuel must, in Apr. 14, '62 ; vet., promoted 2d lieut.
Eastlack, Allen E. must, in Apr. 14, '62; vet., must, out Mar. 22, '65.
King, Peter B. must, in Mar. 4, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.
Lemmon, Leonidas " " 1, '65 ; • " "

McVay, William H.

Thompson, Joseph

Wiseharfc, John D.

Wise, William E.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 57

Ray, Henry M. must, in Mar. 13, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.
Thompson, John S.

(( it a a »

1, '65:

COMPANY I.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Megrew, John P., must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; promoted 1st lieut. Co. B.

SERGEANTS.

Groendyke, Henry, must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; promoted 2d lieut.
Hornaday, Enos C. " " " " " "

Hill, Daniel F.

CORPORALS.

Groendyke, Edward must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Megrew, Willis H. must, in Aug. 31, '61; discharged Nov. 18, '63, for

promotion.
Fulwider Benjamin F., must, in Aug. 31, '61; vet., ap'd serg't, must.

out July 26, '65.
Sprague, Daniel G. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; died Madison, Oct. 2, '63.
Hills, David A. must, in Aug. 31, '61; vet., promoted 2d lieut. Co. B.

MUSICIANS.

Mellville, Robert J. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Mains, John F. W. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '65.

WAGONER.

Flanigan, Harrison must, in Aug. 31, '61; vet., must, out July 26, '65.

PRIVATES.

Avery, John P. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.
Banzhaf, Nicholas must, in Aug. 31, '61; trans, to Co. B June 3, '64.
Bloxson, William must, in Aug. 31, '61; trans, to V. R. C. June 13.

'64, wounds received Champion Hills.
Bremer, Noah must, in Aug. 31, '61.
Brown, Isreal must, in Aug. 31, '61; wounded Champion Hills, trans.

V. R. C. July 13, '64.
Brown, Samuel W. must in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. Oct. 7, '62, disability.
Briggs, George must, in Aug. 31, '61.
Burgess, Marshall W. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Burns. William D. must, in Aug. 31. '61 ; trans, to Co. B June 3, '64.
Coons, Augustus F. must, in Aug. 31, '61.
Coons, Jno.W. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; promoted 2d lieut. Co.G.
Cooper, John J. must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Cordray, William must, in Aug. 31, '61; dis. July 11. '62, disability.
Cox. Elijah must, in Aug. 31, "61; died Helena, Ark., Feb. 4. '63.

58 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Curtis, William H. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

Dixon, George F. "

Duffy, William must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet., trans. V.R.C. Nov. 19, '64,
wounds received Winchester.

Elliott, William P. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

Euos, Robert C.

Evans, Morris B. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet., ap'd serg't. must, out
July 26, '65.

Fitzwilliam, Joseph must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Foust, Zachariah N. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. Aug. 23, '63, disability.

Ginger, George W. must, in Aug. 31, "61; vet., ap'd corp., must, out
July 26, '65.

Ham, Jonathan must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

Ham, John W. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; vet., died Sandy Hook, Md., Aug.
26, '64, wounds.

Halstead, Asbury W. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. Oct. 19, '63, disability.

Henry, Harvey C. must, in Aug. 31. '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

Hills, Francis E. " " " "

Highland, Richardson " "

Hudson, George " "

Jackson, Josepb " "

Lendormy. Lemuel

Love, Byron must, in Aug. 31. '61 ; died Paducah, Ky., Dec. 15, '61.

Martin, George "

Mcllvain, William H. must, in Aug. 31, '61; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

McKee, Benjamin F. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; dis. May 9, '64, disability.

Messier, Henry P. must, in Aug. 31. '61; vet., dis. Sept. 14, '64, disa-
bility.

Michael, Cornelius must, in Aug. 31. '61 ; dis. Oct. 19, '61, disability.

Pavy, John W. " " Aug. 21, '62.

Pearcy, Howard must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Pearson, Silas M. must, in Aug. 31, '61 ; must, out Aug. 30, '64.

Pickrell. William must, in Aug. 31, '61; vet., ap'd Corp., must, out
July 26, '65.

Quick, John B., must, in Aug. 31. '61; dis. Oct. 19, '61, disability.

Ramsey, Nelson "

must, out Aug. 30, '64.
promoted first lieu teu ant.

Richards, George "

Ristine, Albert L. "

Ross, Daniel W.
Shellady, Eugene N. "
Slusher, Henry
Stacey, Harrison
Stormer, John P.
Sunderland. Peter J. "

must, out Aug. 30, '<i4.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 59

Sunderland, Marion, must, in Aug. 31, '61.

Thomas, Marion " " died at New Orleans Oct. 4, '64.

Wanenmacher, John " "

Waterman, Moses " " must, out Aug. 30, '64.

White, William H. " " died at Memphis Aug. 20, '62.

Williams, Sandford S. " '< must, out Aug. 30, '65.

Wilson, John " " " "

Wise. Andrew J. " " "

RECRUITS.

Balser. Charles must, in April 7, '64; died at Sandy Hook, Md., Aug.

20. '64.
Booher. Jasper C. must, in March 3, '65.
Current, Henry G. " " 1, '65.

Flannigan, George " " 28, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.

Groyn, James " April 7, '64; dis. May 15, '65, disability.

Hendrick, Allen " Oct. 21, '62; vet., m. out July 26, '65.

Jennison, Henry S. m. in April 7, '64; ap'd corp., m. out July 26, '65.
Knapp, Charles H. m. in March 17, '64; ap'd Corp., m. out July 26, '65.
McConnell, James E. must, in April 7, '64 ; must, out July 26, '65.
McDaniel, Thomas " March 2, '65 ; " "

Meloy, Michael " " 9, '65 ;

Mote, Andrew " " 28, '65 ;

Nickerson, Benjamin " " 4, '65 ; " "

Patterson, James m. in April 15, '64; killed at Winchester Sept. 19, '64.
Palmer, Daniel C. must, in April 28, '64; must, out July 26, '65.
Philipps, Cornelius A. must, in April 7, '64 ; must, out July 26, '65, as

absent on furlough.
Robinson, George W. must, in March 16, '64; ap'd corp., must, out

July 26, '65.
Snyder, John J. must, in March 16, '64; must, out July 26, '65.
Soward, Rezin D. « " 14, '65 ; "

Webster, William H. m. in March 12, '64; ap'd corp., m. out July 26, '65.
Woodrow. Edward R. must, in April 7, '64; dis. Feb. 27, '65, disability.

COMPANY K.
RECRUITS.

Ader, Adam, must, in May 9, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.
Brown. James C. " March 17. '65; w " "

Bowers, Joseph M. " " 15, '65 ; " "

Biddle, Tighlman H. " " 8, '65 ; " "

Gough, Sylvester « •« 15, '65 ; « June 24, '65.

Hamilton, Joseph E. " " 15, '65 ; « July 26, '65.

Nolan, John " " 9, '65 ; « "

Prather, Richard m. in March 9, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65, as sick on
furlough.

60 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Parrish, Jessie M. must, in March 10, '65 ; must, out July 26, '65.
Stnltz, James F. " " 15, '65 ; "

Waugh, Miletus A. " " 15, '65 ;

Young, Thomas D. " Feb. 25, '65 ;

UNASSIGNED RECRUITS.

Barnhart, James H., must, in March 17, '65.

Cornelius, Jacob

Cronin, Daniel

Call, William

Doty, Henry

Dill John W.

Gill, Thomas

James, John

Kenney, James

Kivin, John

Miller, Edward

Miller, David

Marquis, Joseph

Pinkney, Joseph

Robinson, James R.

Talmon, John

Thayer, Willard

Thornton, Absolom

Webster, Henry

Wells, Charles

THIRTEENTH REGIMENT, INFANTRY.
COMPANY K.

SERGEANT.

Cary, John must, in March 3, '65 ; must, out Sept. 5, '65.

FIFTEENTH REGIMENT, INFANTRY.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Marks, William must, in June 14, '61 ; promoted second lieutenant,

SERGEANTS.

Graham, William M. must in June 14, '61 ; promoted first lieutenant.
McConnell, Joseph W. must, in June 14, '61; dis. Aug. 2, '62, disability.
Moliere, Thomas must, in June 14, '61 ; des. at Murfreesboro Jan. 15, '63.
Harvey, John T. must, in June 14, '61 ; promoted second lieutenant.

CORPORALS.

Oilman, James H. N. must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Oct. 9, '61, disability.
Burcham, Harrison D. m. in June 14, '61 ; des. at Chattanooga April 30, '64.
Grey, William F. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.

" 15, '65 :

must, out May 19. '65.

" 16, '65.

" 17, '65.

Sept. 27, '64.

March 21, '65.

" 18, '65.

" 29, '65.

" 17, '65.

" 9, '65.

Oct. 19, '64.

March 16, '65.

" 14, '65.

Oct. 10, '64.

March 30, '65.

Sept. 27, '64.

" 27, '64.

March 17, '65 ;

must, out May 15, '65

((

Sept. 27, '64.

" 27. '64.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 61

Nelson, William must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Nov. 18, '61, disability.
Walker, Frederick must, in June 14, '61 ; trans, to non-com. staff.
Dent, Samuel F. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Gilbert, Robert B. m. in June 14, '61 ; killed at Mission Eidge Nov. 25, '65.
Cowan, William must, in June 14, '61 ; des. Aug. 18, '62.

MUSICIANS.

Gibe, John J. must, in June 14, '61 ; trans, to 17th reg. May 30, '64.
Kennedy, Joseph W. must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Nov. 18, '61, disability.

WAGONER.

Everson, Jacob must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. July 3, '62, disability.

PRIVATES.

Ammerman, George must, in June 14, '61 ; died Oct. 17, '61.
Anderson, Richard H. must, in June 14, '61 ; des. Oct. 2, '62, Louisville.
Barrett, James B. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Beal, Henry must, in June 14, '61 ; wounded Stone River, must, out

June 25, '62.
Bennett, Thomas J. must, in June 14, '61 ; des. Aug. 18, '62, must, out

Sept. 30, '65.
Belto, Joseph F. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Bolles, James must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Bowers, Solomon must, in June 14, '61; died Nov. 26, '63, by wounds

received at Mission Ridge.
Bolser, George W. must, in June 14, '61 ; des. Oct. 2, '62, Louisville.
Brady, Thomas must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '62.
Burnett, Abraham must, in June 14, '61 ; died Dec. 17, '61.
Burrows, James must, in June 14, '61 ; vet. trans. 17th reg. May 30, '64.
Burrows, Hugh must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Nov. 18, '61, disability.
Campbell, William H. must, in June 14, '61; must, out June 25, '64.
Cassel, Jefferson must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. March 3, '63.
Charles, Marion must, in June 14, '61 ; ap'd Corp., must, out June 25, '64.
Cooley, Silas must, in June 14, '61 ; died Dec. 17, '63, by wounds received

at Mission Ridge.
Crewce, Pleasant must, in June 14, '61 ; trans. 4th U. S. cav. Dec. 5, '62.
Creek, William R. must, in June 14, '61 ; died Nov. 26, '63, by wounds

received at Mission Ridge.
Crew, Charles P. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Dryden, William H. m. in June 14, '61 ; ap'd s'ergt, m. out June 25, '64.
Ellis, Ashel R. must, in June 14, '61 ; des. at Chattanooga April 30, '64.
Edwards, William m. in June 14, '61 ; vet., trans, to 17th regt May 30, '64.
Emmerson, Reuben m. in June 14, '61 ; killed at Mission Ridge Nov. 25, '63.
Evans, Thomas B. must, in June 14, '61; dis. July 14, '62, disability.
Fliniaux, Alfred must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Gardner, Daniel must, in June 14, '61 ; des. at Murfreesboro Jan. 13, '63.

62 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Gundrum, Godfrey must, in June 14, '61 ; appointed commissary sergeant.
Hamilton, Joseph A. must, in June 14, '61; dis. July 5, '63.
Hammer, Fred. must, in June 14, '61 ; ap't corp., must, out June 25, '64.
Hartman, William m. in June 14, '61; vet., trans. 17th regt May 30, '64.
Hessler, Oliver must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Hess, William L. must, in June 14, '61 ; vet., trans. 17th regt May 30, '64.
Hill, Philip must, in June 14. '61 ; vet., trans. 17th regt May 30. '64.
Hill, James A. must, in June 14, '61 ; died Jan. 17, '62.
Horton, Henry must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Husband, Henry must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Jackson, William must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Lakin, John T. must, in June 14, '61; ap't corp., must, out June 25, '64.
Leach, Francis M. must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Nov. 18, '61, disability.
Long, John must, in June 14, '61 ; vet., trans. 17th regt May 30, '64.
Linn, John W. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
McCullough, William must, in June 14, '61 ; des. at Louisville Oct. 2, '62.
McCoy, George W. must, in June 14, '61 ; des. Aug. 18, '62.
McDonald, Thomas must, in June 14. '61; died Oct. 14, '61.
McDonough, Thomas must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. July 6, '62, disability.
Mercer, Henry H. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Miller, Etto J. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Mowery, Christian R. must, in June 14, 61 ; dis. July 16, '62, disability.
Moore, William P. must, in June 14, '61 ; died Feb. 5, '63, by wounds

received at Stone River.
Nettleton, Daniel W. must, in June 14, '61; transferred to company C;

promoted 2d lieutenant.
O'Daniel, George W. must, in June 14, '61 ; died Dec. 8, '62.
Oliver, Joseph E. must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Dec. 9, '62, disability.
Osborn, Commodore P. must, in June 14, '61 ; des. July 1. '62.
Perry. Albert must, in June 14, '61 ; des. at Nashville March 16, '6:3.
Phillips, Sidney must, in June 14, '61 ; des. Oct. 19, } 6'Z.
Pruet, Merida must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Kipetto, James must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '64.
Roberts, George W. must, in June 14, '61 ; must, out June 25, '6 I.
Sudors, Robert F. must, in June 14, '61 ; died Feb. 18, '63, by wounds

received at Stone River.
Schmall, John A. must, in June 14, '61 ; killed at Stone river Dec. 31, '62.
Smith, Oliver P. must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Nov. 18, '61.
Smith, William R. must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. April 18, wounds received

at Stone river.
Stockton, John D. must, in June 14, 61; died in Libby prison, wounds

received at Stone river.
Stephens, Edward P. m. in June 14, '61 ; ap't corp., m. out June 25, '64.
Sittinger, Adam must, in June 14, '61 ; killed at Stone river Dec. 31, '62.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 63

Stout, David must, in June 14, '61 ; died Feb. 25, '62.
Stoffen, Henry must, in June 14, '61; killed at Stone river Dec. 31, '62.
Summers, Nathan must, in June 14, '61 ; des. at Nashville March 16, '62.
Sweem, Tilghman A. H. must, in June 14, '61 ; died March 8, '63.
Tyson, John C. must, in June 14, '61 ; died Dec. 10, '63, wounds received

at Mission Ridge.
TJpshaw, James m. in June 14, '61 ; ap't wagoner; m. out June 25, '64.
Vancleve, William M. must, in June 14, '61; dis. Aug. 8, '62, disability.
Wall, Charles B. must, in June 14, '61 ; des. Nov. 7, '62.
Waltz, Frederick m. in June 14, '61 ; killed at Mission Ridge Nov. 25, '63.
White, Albert M. must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Feb. 7, '63.
White, Andrew J. m. in June 14, '61 ; vet., trans. 17th regt May 30, '64.
Wilson, Lorenzo must, in June 14, '61 ; des. at Louisville Dec. 9, '61.
Wilsey, George W. m. in June 14, '61 ; ap't sergt ; m. out June 25, '64.
Winings, Benjamin L. must, in June 14, '61 ; dis. Nov. 18, 61, disability.
Williams, Emery m. in June 14, '61; killed at Stone river Dec. 31, '62.
Woodbridge, Thomas (William) must, in June 14, '61 ; transferred to

company F June 25, '61.

RECRUITS.

Gappin, Samuel must, in Dec. 20, '63 ; must, out June 8, '65.
McGrew, Milton must, in March 14, '62; trans. 17th regt May 30, '64.
Robinson, Albert M. must, in Jan. 1, '62; trans. 17th regt May 30, '64.
Showen, Daniel P. must, in Feb. 29, '64; trans. 17th regt May 30, '64.
Siebring, Jesse must, in June 14, '61 ; des. at Greensburgh, Indiana, July
1, '61.

SIXTEENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY — THREE YEARS.
UNASSIGNED RECRUITS.

Anderson, Joseph, must, in Oct. 20, '64.

Archer, George "

Conway, James "

Hanson, James "

Morris, Charles "

Ward, Henry

Walzel, William

Way. Samuel

SEVENTEENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY.

COMPANY B.

PRIVATES.

Aldridge, William, must, in June 12, '61; dis. Sept. 17, '61, disability.
Endicott, Geo. W., m. in June 12, '61 ; vet., Corp., m. out Aug. 8. '65.

UNASSIGNED RECRUITS.

Williams. David, must, in Oct. 25, '64.

64 HLSTOKY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

EIGHTEENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY — THREE YEARS.

COMPANY H.
PRIVATES.

Loyd, Edmund, must, in Aug. 16. '61; des. May 16. '63.

TWENTIETH REGIMENT INFANTRY— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY E.
RECRUITS.

Simons, Price, must, in Jan. 7, '64; trans, to 20th reg., reorganized.

TWENTY-FIRST REGIMENT INFANTRY — AFTERWARD FIRST REGIMENT

HEAVY ARTILLERY.

COMPANY H.

MUSICIAN.

Lough, Geo. W., must, in July 24. '61; must, out July 31. '64.

PRIVATES.

Lough, Thomas W., must, in July ^4, '61 ; vet., must, out Jan. 13, '66.
Lough, Thomas J., m. in July 24. '61 ; vet. m. out Jan. 13, '66. Corp.
Lough, John H. " " dis. Nov. 11, '61, disability.

Moody, Foster M. " •• must, out July 31, '64.

Musgro\e. John A. " killed, Baton Rouge, Aug. 5, '62.

Yelton. John

RECRUITS.

Edwards, Willis, must, in Jan. 14. '62; vet., dis. Oct. 13. '65, disability.
Lough. Jacob L.. m. in Mar. 29, '64; died. Baton Rouge. Sept. 27, '64.
Phillips. James, must, in Jan. 14. ?62 ; must, out Jan. 14. '65.

UNASSIGNED RECRUITS.

Ash ton. Charles, must, in Sept, 9. '64.
Green, John

Hunt, George " 20. '64.

Newc'omber, Wm. " 9, *64.

Swift. Oliver P. "■ 7. '64.

TWENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT INFANTRY.

COMPANY 1).

si.l;«;i'..\ NT.

Manburn. William H., must, in Aug. 30, '61 ; vet., must, out Sept. 21, '64,

as private.

RECRUITS.

Baldwin, Thomas, must, in Nov. 15. '64; must, out Nov. 14, '65.
Jones. Francis M.. must, in Nov. 11. '64; must, out Aug. 28, '65.
Smith, Daniel, must, in Nov. 25, '64; died at Macon, Miss., Oct. 2, '65.

tsC^CJL

■

i •

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IX THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 65

COMPANY G.
RECRUITS.

Armstrong. Thomas J., m. in Mar. 3. '62; vet., m. out Jan. 10. '66.
Cave. Hiram L... must, in Sept. 10. '62; must, out Sept. 6. '65.
Jackson. Harvey, must, in Mar. :!. '62; vet., died Donaldsonville, La.,

July 30. '64.
Peterson. Samuel, must, in Mar. 3. '62; died Cassville, Mo., Nov. 5, '62.
Boyce. James Gr.. must, in Sept. 24, '64; must, out Sept. 6, '65.
Burk. Samuel L. "

Davis. John "

Shellhouse, Conrad H. "

THIRTY-FIRST REGIMENT INFANTRY — THREE YEARS.

COMPANY A.
PRIVATES.

Strawn. William, must, in Sept. 20, '61; dis. June 20, '63, disability.

COMPANY I.
PRIVATES.

Bilboe, Archibald, must, in Sept. 20, '61; dis. June 9, '62. wounds re-
ceived at Ft. Donelsou and Shiloh.
Bushong, Frederick M., m. in Sept. 20. '61; dis. Jan. 27, '62, disability.

RECRUITS.

Hutton. William, must, in Feb. 13. '65; must, out Dec. 8, '65.
THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT INFANTRY.

COMPANY A.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Fitzpatrick, Michael, must, in Nov. 24. '61; promoted 2d lieut.

SERGEANTS.

McMahon, Timothy, must, in Nov. 24. '61; must, out Jan. 13, '65.

WAGONER.

McMahon, John. must, in Nov. 2-4. '01; must, out Oct. 17, '64.

COMPANY E.
PRIVATES.

Figg. William, must, in Dec. 14. '61: des., joined regular army.
O'Connor. Patrick, " " killed. Marietta. Ga.. July 4. '64.

Woodruff. Charles, " " died June IB, '62.

Carroll. Andrew, " " trans, to V.R.C. Mar. 10. '65.

THIRTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT INFANTRY — THREE YEARS.

I "MPANY H.
CORPORALS.

Patton, David H.. must, in Sept. 18. "61 1 promoted 1st lieut.

66 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

PRIVATES.

Brush, John C, must, in Sept. 18, '61.

Logan, Joseph L. " " must, out Sept. 18, '64, as corp.

Martin, John L. " " vet, promoted captain Co. A.

Milligan, John W., must, in Oct. 4, '61.

Richards, William J., must, in Sept. 18, '61.

Steele, James N., must, in Sept. 18, '61.

Patton, Luther H., must, in Oct. 20, '64; died, Chattanooga, Feb. 20, '65.

Patton, Joseph A. must, in Jan. 14, '64; prom. U.S. col. troops, declined.

Sterrett, Joseph E., must, in Dec. 28, '63 ; vet., must, out July 15, '65,

as commissary sergeant.
Richardson, Chauncy, must, in Oct. 20, '64; died, Beaufort, S. C, May

5, '65.

EIGHTH CAVALRY, THIRTY-NINTH REGIMENT.

COMPANY L.

PRIVATES.

Straley, Calvin, must, in Jan. 19/64.

FORTIETH REGIMENT INFANTRY — THREE YEARS.

COMPANY B.
PRIVATES.

Groves, John W., must, in Nov. 27, '61 ; vet., must, out Dec. 21, '65.
Stump, Ephraim, must, in Apr. 7, '64; died, Jeffersonville, May 27, '64,

COMPANY C.
CORPORALS.

Kennedy, William must, in Dec. 6, '61; died Bowling Green, Ky.

Mar. 19, '62.

Fullenwider, Robert A. must, in Dec. 6, '61 ; dis. Feb. 9, '63, disability.

Ben ham, Henry " " must, out Dec. 6, '64.

Riley, John " « dis. Dec. 20, '62.

Rice, Jonathan " " must, out Dec. 6, '64.

WAGONER.

' Hatcher, Jesse must, in Dec. 6, '61 ; dis. Aug. 27, '63, disability.

PRIVATES.

Bennett, James W. m. in Dec. 6, '61 ; dis. May — , '64, wounds.

Britton, William F. " " des. June 18, '63.

Browning, Henry C. " " dis. July 23, '62.

Brush, James R. " " dis. June 18, '65.

Burton, James H. " " must, out Dec. 6, '63.

Bunker, George W. " " dis., loss of arm.

Connell, Moses " " killed at Kenesaw, June 27, '64.

Davis, Josiah " " died Nov. 25, '63, wounds.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Dirr, John M. must, in Dec. 6, '61 ; must, out June 14, '65.

Doyle, Farmer I.

El rod, James
Fordyce, Henry
Hamilton, Clinton
Hamilton, Thomas
Hanna, Robert C. H.
Hanna, James M.
Harrall, Perry
Harrall, John T.
Harwood, Jackson
James, Peter
Laforce, William R.
Mayes, Joseph
McKinsey, John
Michael, Harvey
Monfort, John C.
Moore, Allen
Moore, Harvey
Patton, George W.
Phillips, Michael
Rush, Jesse T.
Seaman, James H.
Seaman, John J.
Sheppard, William T.
Sinnett, James E.
Shelton, James R.
Smith, William
Stilvvell, Stephen A.
Sullivan, Patrick
Thompson, James R.
Vancleve, Aaron
Vancleve, William N.
Webb, Edwin G.
White, John W.
Wible, Robert B.
Willis, James P.
Willis, Lindsay A.
Woodgate, James

trans, to V.R.C. Aug. 5, '63, must,
out Nov. 17, '65.

died July 25, '62.
" killed in action June 14, '64.

" killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.

" died Feb. 4, '64, wounds.

" vet., m. out Dec. 21, '65, as sergeant.

U (( (C u tc

18, '61 ; discharged
6, '61 ; vet., m. out Dec. 21, '65, hos. steward,
dis. Nov. 15, '63.
dis. May 6, '62.

tc a t(

12, '61 ; died at Nashville, May 8, '62.

6, '61 ; died Nov. 26, '62, wounds.

" died at Chattanooga, May 25, '64.

12, '61 ; des. April 8, '62.

6, '61 ; trans, to V.R.C.
died Jan. 7, '62.

" vet., must, out Dec. 21, '65, as corp.

" must, out Dec. 6, '63.

" dis. May 5, '64, wounds.

" dis. June 18, '65.

" dis. June 27, '64, wounds.

" killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.

" died at Murfreesboro, April 7, '63.

" promoted captain.

des. Feb. 18, '63.

" dis., wounds.

" must, out Dec. 6, '63.

10, '61; died at Nashville, April 12, '62.

6, '61 ; des. Dec. 14, '64.

" must, out Dec. 6, '63.

" dis. Dec. 11, '62.
dis. June 18, '65.

" vet., must, out Dec. 21, '65, as sergt.

" dis. May — , '62, disability.

RECRUITS.

Conner, Caleb W. must, in Sept. 13, '62 ; died at Nashville, Oct. 22, '64.
Cault, David must, in Sept. 12, '62; must, out Sept. 11, '65.
Gault, Lemuel " " " June 14, '65.

68 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Groves, John m. in Sept. 13, '62; dis. June 9, '63, wounds received at

Stone River.
Groves, Aquilla W. must, in Sept. 13, '62 ; must, out June 14, '65, ascorp.
Huff, Richard must, in Mar. 16, '64; must, out Dec. 21, '65, ascorp.
Harroll, Francis must, in Feb. 2, 'G5 ; " " "

McMane, Anderson m. in Sept. 13, '62; m. out June 3, '65, 1st sergt.
Moody, Thomas M. " " " June 14, 65.

McMane, David H. must, in March 23, '62; must, out Nov. 28, '65.
Oliver, William must, in Oct. 6, '62; died June 27, '64, wounds.
O'Brien, Joseph W. must, in Oct. 10, '62; promoted 1st lieut.
Rusk, Richard L. must, in April 7, '64; must, out Dec. 21, '65, as sergt.
Stump, Samuel must, in Feb. 24, '65; must, out Sept. 19, '65.
Winmore, George W. must, in Oct. 21, '62; must, out Oct. 24, '65.

COMPANY G.
SERGEANTS.

Webster, John C. must, in Dec. 10, '61 ; promoted 2d lieut., dis., wounds.
Curnett, Wm. W. " " must, out Dec. 10, '64, 1st sergt.

CORPORALS.

Kirkpatrick, 0. H. m.in Dec. 10, '61 ; vet, promoted captain.
Hamilton, Joseph " " vet., must, out Dec. 21, '65, as sergt.

Livingstone, Daniel " " must, out Dec. 10, '64, as sergt.

Hiett, Samuel R. "

MUSICIAN.

Reynolds, Stephen must, in Dec. 10, '61; des. Nov. 4. '62.

PRIVATES.

Elrod, Samuel N. m.in Dec. 10, '61; died June 28, '64, wounds.
Grove, Vincent " " died Louisville, Ky., Jan. 30, '62.

Haines, Cornelius " " vet,, dis. June 30, '65.

Henderson, Owen " " vet., missing in action at Franklin.

Tenn.
Hobbs, Leroy " " des. Nov. 4, '62.

Krauss, George " " killed Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.

Kruge, George J. " 11, '61 ; vet., must, out Dec. 10, '64.

Livingston, Jasper " 10, '61 ; " " "

Matthews, Washington " " vet., dis. by order War Dept. Sept.

1, '65.
Matthews, Marion " " vet., must, out Dec. 21, '65, corp.

Patterson, Joseph " " dis. April 18, '63, wounds.

Peede, William F. " " died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., Feb.

28, '63.
Reese, Francis M. " " died at Munfordsville, Ky., Mar.

18, '62.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Slavens, Henry, must, in Dec. 23, '61; must. out. Dec. 10, '64.

Smith, George
Strader, William
Switzer, William
Thayer, Caleh
Vancurren, James H.
Wilson, James M.

21, '61; dis. May 7, '62.

10, '61 ; must, out Dec. 21, '65, as corp.

des. Nov. 22, '61.

dis. Jan. 3, '63, disability.
" must, out Dec. 10, '64.

died , '62.

RECRUITS.

Boyle, John F. must, in Dec. 30, '62; dis. June 19, '65.

Hamilton, Alfred H. m. in Oct. 10, '62; m. out Oct. 25, '65, as sergt.

Hutchinson, William must, in Dec. 20, '63; kid. Keneway, June 27, '64.

COMPANY II.
RECRUITS.

Alwood, Henry M. must, in Sept. 17, '62; died April 18, '63.

Barr, John W. must, in Jan. 8, '64; must, out Dec. 21, '65, as corp.

Bel ton, Joseph
Battley, William
Coombs, John
Cooper, John R.
Dooley, Jerome B.
Eastlock, Samuel J
Farmer, Isom B.
Fullenwider,NewtonI. "
Farise, William R. "
Ham, James A.
Hibler, Scott W.
Hickman, John
Jarrett, Abner
Long, Thomas A.
Mcintosh, Taylor
Moore, George W.
Moore, Harrison T.

Mcintosh, George W.
Mayse, Joseph
O'Brien, Joseph W.
Osborn, Charles
Palmer, John
Porter, Milton H.

Palmer, Jacob T.
Rogers, George W.

" died March 28, '65.

" must, out Nov. 21, '65.

Dec. 21, '65.
trans, to V.R.C. April 12, '65.
must, out May 22, '65.
dis. July 30, '64.
Oct. 23, '64 ; must, out Oct. 27, '65.
Jan. 8, '64;
" 6, '64; "

" Feb. 10, '64; died Aug. 20, '64.
" Sept. 25, '62 ; dis. Feb. 18, '63.
" Jan. 8, '64; must, out Dec. 21, '65, as corp.

July 2, '65.
Jan. 27, '66.
" Sept. 25, '64; died Dec. 16, '63, wounds.
" Jan. 8, '64 ; must, out Dec. 21, '65, as corp.
" " died, May 29, '64, wounds received

at Resaca.
" " must, out Dec. 21, '65.

" . Sept. 16, '65.
" Oct, 10, '62 ; promoted 1st lieut.
" Jan. 8, '64; died at Texana, Tex., Nov. 16, '65.
" Oct. 10, '62 ; must, out Oct. 22, '65.
" Sept. 4, '62 ; died June 30, '64, wounds received

at Kenesaw.
" Feb. 10, '64; dis. June 24, '05.
" Jan. 8, '64; missing in action at Franklin, sup-
posed killed.

70 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Reed, John A. must, in Jan. 8, '64; must, out Sept. 21, '65.

Smith, Chauncy " " " June 30, '65..

Shepherd, Henry A. "Feb. 10, '64; " Dec. 21, '65.

Sharp. Joseph R. " Jan. 8, '64; " «

Thompson,William A. "

Warbritton, Henry W. " Sept. 2, '62 ; dis. March 8, '63.

Walever, Aaron W. " Jan. 8, '64; must, out Dec. 21, '65.

Walever, Sylvester S. "

Wilson, Robert " " dis. June 22, '65.

Watts, William H. " " must, out Sept. 21, '65.

FORTY-NINTH REGIMENT INFANTRY— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY D.
PRIVATES.

Smith, Hamilton L. must, in March 23, '65; must, out Aug. 9, '65.

FIFTY-FIRST REGIMENT INFANTRY— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY A.
PRIVATES.

Cook, Samuel G. m. in Dec. 13, '61 ; vet., m. out Dec. 13, '65, as serg't.
Cook, John R. " " " " as corp.

COMPANY C.
PRIVATES.

Thompson, David must, in Dec. 14, '61 ; dis. May 15, '63, disability.

COMPANY F.
PRIVATES.

Overman, William A. must, in Dec. 14, '61; died at Louisville, Ky., Dec.

21, '61.
Overman, John M. must, in Dec. 14, '61; deserted Dec. 15, '61.

COMPANY K.
RECRUITS.

Butcher, Francis M. m. in Oct. 10, '64; m. out Dec. 13, '65, substitute.

FIFTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT INFANTRY- THREE YEARS.

COMPANY B.
RECRUITS.

Bratton, Samuel B. must, in Jan. 8, '64; must, out July 26, '64.

Burdit, Albert " 14, '64 ; vet., must, out July 25, '65.

Calfee, Alfred W.

Higgins, William I.

Hollins, Bialby m. in Oct. 18, '64; vet., m. out July 25, '65, drafted.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 71

McLaughlin, John W. must, in Oct. 24, '62 ; must, out July 25, '65.
McKenzie, Joseph " Dec. 1, '63 ;

McKenzie, Mordecai " " " June — , '65.

Roberts, James W. " 8, '63 ; " July 17, '65.

Stump, James W. " 1, '63 ;

COMPANY E.
RECRUITS.

Packer, Andrew J., must, in March 1, '62 ; must, out July 15, '65.

SIXTY-THIRD REGIMENT INFANTRY— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY A.
CORPORAL.

Elliott, John T. must, in May 3, '62 , must, out May 3, '65.

COMPANY H.
RECRUITS.

Brush, David B. must, in Sept. 4, '62 ; dis. Oct. 1, '63, disability.

SEVENTY-SECOND REGIMENT INFANTRY— THREE YEARS.

COMPANY B.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Herron, William must, in July 14, '62 ; promoted 1st lieut.

SERGEANTS.

Maxwell, Robert must, in July 15, '62 ; promoted 1st lieut.
Robinson, Charles M. " 27, '62; " 2d lieut.

Grubb, Joseph " 14, '62 ; dis. March 25, '63.

Hauver, Barnett " 14, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65, as private.

CORPORALS.

Greene, Thomas C. must, in July 21, '62; must, out July 24, '65, as

serg't.

Herr, Benjamin L. " 14, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65, as

serg't.

Montgomery, William B. " 19, '62; killed by guerillas near Le-

banon, Tenn., April 4, '63.

Keese, Thomas " " must, out June 24, '65.

Bridges, John " " dis. March 9, '63.

Clain, John " " must, out July 24, '65.

McClean, William C. " 17, '62; died at Gallatin, Tenn., Jan.

17, '63.

Richestine, Jacob G. " 19, '62; must, out July 24, '65.

MUSICIANS.

Waldron, James must, in July 19, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65.
Townsley, Charles " 15, '62 ; dis. Feb. 20, '63.

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Christman, Matthias must.

Andrews, Joel H. must, in

Anderson, Austin B. "

Bechner, Marion "

Brown, Solon "

Bannister, William "

Bannister, Enoch "

Callahan, William H. "

Castor, Franklin "

Cowan, Samuel "
Ohilders, Robert

Castor, Isaac N.
Carnes, Joseph
Dodd, George W.

Doyle, San ford
Doherty, James
Drenman, John W.
Davisson, Nathan
Doss, John E.

Goble, Jasper
Goble, Thomas

Grubbs, Samuel

Grubbs, John
Goodman, Jacob
Grist, Alva C.
Hamilton, San ford
Hoover, Henry
Hatfield, Thomas
Hashberger, Noah

Harris, John
Hixson, Theodore
Hollingsworth, Pin son
Henshaw, John M.

Harris, John L.

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WAGONER.

in July 19, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65.

PRIVATES.

July 9, '62; dis. May 1, '63.
Aug. 9, '62; must, out July 24, '65.
July 19, '62 ;
"'" 18, '62;
Aug. 9, '62 ;

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July 19, '62

Aug. 9, '62

" 19, '62

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died at Murfreesboro, Tenn.,
Jan. 26, '63.
July 19, '62 ; dis. May 28, '63.
22, '62 ; dis. May 19, '63.
25, '62 ; died at Gallatin, Tenn., Nov.

27, '62.
19, '62 ; died Louisville, Ky., Dec. 14, '62.
14, '62; must, out July 14, '65, as corp.
19, '62 ; dis. June 10, '63.
Aug. 9, '62 ; must, out July 25, '65.

" left wounded Okolona, Miss.,
Feb. 22, '94 ; supposed dead.
" dis. June 26, '63.

" trans, to marine squadron July

I, '63.

" died at Camp Dennison, Feb.

II, '63.

dis. Jan. 13, '63.
July 19, '62; must, out July 24, '65.

tc cc tc

dis. Feb. 8, '63.
" must, out July 24, '65, as serg't.

" dis. Jan. 15, '63.

" died at Bowling Green, Ky.,
June 18, '63.
27, '62; dis. June 10, '63.
Aug. 9, '62; must, out July 24, '65.

tc cc cc

" died at Murfreesboro, Tenn.,

May 22, '63.
" died at Bowling Green, Ky.,

Nov. 15, '62.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Harris, Jonah, must, in Aug.

Henderson, William "

Ingersoll, Martin "

Johnson, Benjamin "

Joyce, Robert T. "

Jackson, Elbridge "

Jackson, Athol "

Lowman, David A. "
Miller, Enoch

Laughlin, Nathan M. "

Martin, David "

Mills, William H.
Mershon, Shubal

Monohan, David
Martz, Jacob
Miller, Jasper
McCoy, James F.
McCoy, Boyd L.
Moorman, Miles
O'Harion, Henry
Patton, Aaron

Powers, David F.
Patton, Albert
Picket, Nathan

Rhoades, John
Shurr, John A.
Peters, John H.
Ruckelle, John C. F.
Sellers, James
Sands, David A.
Strain, Andrew
Smith, Abijah
Trickey, David S.
Vannice, Isaac B.
Van nice, John W.
Wright, Henry F.

White, Francis A.
Wilson, Joseph
Wilson, George M.

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July
Aug.

July

Aug.

July
Aug.
July

Aug.

9, '62 ; dis. July 4, '63.

" must, out July 24, '65, as corp.

19, '62;

dis. June 25, '63.
must, out July 4, '65.
died Gallatin, Tex., Jan. 10, '63.
9, '62 ; " 12, '63.

must, out July 24, '65.

" " aslstserg't.

19, '62; dis. March 15, '64.
9, '62 ; wd. and c'pt.Chickamauga Sept.
19, '63 ; supposed to be dead.
" died at New Albany, May 15/63.
19, '62; trans, to marine squadron July
1, '63.
died Gallatin,Tenn., Jan. 18, '63.
dis. March 15, '64.
17, '62 ; dis. May 26, '63.
9, '62; dis. June 9, '63.

" must, out July 24, '65.

19, '62; dis. Sept. 18, '62.
" ' dis. March 8, '63.
9, '62; killed, accident, Columbia,

Tenn., Sept. 5, '64.
19, '62 ; must, in July 24, '65.
9, '62 ; " "

19, '62; died at Bardstown, Ky., Nov.
16, '62.
" must, out July 24, '65.
22, '62 ;

19, '62 ; dis. Feb. 10, '63.
9, '62 ; des. Oct. 28, '62.

must, out July 24, '65.

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u

July

Aug.
July

Aug.

21, '62;
9, '62;
19, '62; died at Selma, Ala., Oct. 17, '63.

15, '62; must, out July 24, '65, as corp.
9, '62; dis. June 9, '63.

15, '62; died at Frankfort, Ky., Nov.
10, '62.

16, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65.
9, '62 ; dis. June 26, '63.

must, out July 24, '65.

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Wilson, Henry M. must, in Aug. 9, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65.
Walters, Harvey " July 19, '62 ;

Wright, Elam P. " July 17, '62; died at Columbia, Term., April

25, '64.

RECRUITS.

Myers, Richard, must, in Nov. 12, '64; drowned at Macon, Ga., May 8, '65.

COMPANY e. .,

SERGEANTS.

Park, Elijah, must, in July 19, '62; deserted Nov. 21, '62.
Ash by, William " " died at Gallatin, Tenn., Dec. 27, '62.

Medearis, James W. " 25, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65, as private.

Plunkitt, John W. " " promoted 2d lieu t.

CORPORALS.

Conningham, Edmund H., m. in July 25, '62 ; m. out June — , '65.

trans, to V.R.C., July 1, '64.
dis. Oct. 27, '62.
promoted 2d lieut.
must, out July 24, '65.

MUSICIANS.

Greenburg, John, must, in July 25, '62; must, out July 24, '65.
Webster, John H. " " died at New Albany.

WAGONER.

Ellis, Alfred P., must, in July 25, '62; must, out July 24, '65.

PRIVATES.

Avery, Whiting A., must, in July 25, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65.

Montgomery, Simpson

Maxwell, Samuel 0.

Mahan, William H.

Harris, James

Albuston, Silas W.
Barton, Madison
Bible, John C.
Chambers, Andrew J.
Cobb, Uriah
Campbell, John F.
Coombs, John N.
Coombs, Demman J.
Doyl, Harrison
Doyl, Allen
Cumess, Henry
Dungan, John W.
Deans, George
Edwards, Michael H.
Edwards, John W.
Flitcher, Jonathan
Gannon, George W.

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trans, to V. R. C.
dis. Sept. 30, '63.
must, out July 24, '65.

dis. March 8, '63.
dis. Nov. 28, '63.
must, out July 24, '65.

dis. , '63, disability.

must, out July 24, '65, as corp.
must, out July 24, '65.
dis. Feb. 24, '63.
dis. Nov. 11, '62.
died at Murfreesboro, April
18, '63.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Gill, Jonathan, must.
Haywood, Thomas
Hobhs, Horatio
Hamilton, Nathaniel
Insley, William A.
Jones, John E. B.
Keeney, John
Keeney, James
Insley, David W.

Johnson, Pussley J.
Keyes, William G.

Kirkpatrick, Milton
Kendall, James K.
Leffland, Alfred
Miller, Henry
Montgomery, George W.
McClemrock, Lemuel B.
Mason, Omer W.
Menagh, Robert J.

Meadows,

Mason, Francis M.
Kesterson, George S.
Nutt, James H.
Nicholson, William W.
O'Neil, John
Newkirk, Abner M.
Neeley, John A.

Peters, Henry S.
Piggott, Joseph
Plunkitt, George W.
Plunkitt, Levi H.
Pointer, William
Quick, Stebbins
Quick, Harrison
Kandel, Abram B.
Piomley, Ambrose
Reed, Henry
Ross, James
Rice, Henry E.
Swindler, Calvin E.
Shepherd, Israel H.

in July 25, '62 ; trans, to V. R. C, July 1, '63.
" must, out July 24, '65.

" died at New Albany, Dec. 7, '63.

" must, out July 24, '65.

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died at Murfreesboro, April

27, '63.
discharged,
died in Andersonville Prison,

July 26, '64.
must, out July 24, '65.

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a

as sergt.

-, '63.

dis. Sept. 8, '63.

trans, to marine brig. -

dis. Feb. 2, '63.

dis. Feb. 24, '63.

must, out July 24, '65.

died at Murfreesboro, May

28, '63.
died at New Albany,Oct. 27, '62.
must, out July 24, '65.

trans, to V. R. C. July 1, '63.

dis. Jan. 17, '63.

dis. Feb. .2, '63.

dis. Nov. 11, '62.

must, out July 24, '65.

m. out July 24, '65, as sergt.

dis. Nov. 5, '62.

must, out July 24, '65.

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a

HISTORY OF MONTGOMKRY COUNTY.

<«

(«

died at New Albany, Nov.

20, '62.

died at Louisville, July 21, '63.

died at Gallatin, Tenn., Jan.

11, '63.

dis. July 10, *64, wounds.

must, out July 24, '65.

died at Murfreesboro, June

5, '63.

dis. March 23, '63.

killed at Cbickamauga, Sept.

19, '63.

dis. Feb. 17, '63.

must, out July 24, '65.

(«

Shepherd, John T. must, in July 25, '62 ; must, out July 24, '65, as corp.
Stockton, Theodore
Totten, Jasper
Slavins, John W.

Steward, John J.
Thorp, George B.

Tennery, Tristom B.
Winter, Daniel W.
Wright, James W.

Warbritton, Andy
Wood, John C.

Walton, James W.
Williams, James H.
Zoller, George F.

FOURTH CAVALRY, SEVENTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT.

COMPANY I.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Knox, James C, must, in Aug. 11, 62 ; promoted 2d lieut.

COMMISSARY SERGEANT.

Man, Thomas C, must in Aug. 8, 1862; must, out June 29, '65.

SERGEANT.

Brown, William S., must, in Aug. 15, '62 ; must, out June 29, '65.

CORPORALS.

Coffman, John H., m. in Aug. 14, '62; must, out June 29, '65.
Jennison, Albert C. " 11, '62; dis. March 7, '63.

4 FARRIER.

Bayless, George, must, in Aug. 11, '62 ; killed at Mumfordsville, Ky., Dec
25, '62.

PRIVATES.

Cora, Wilbur F., m. in Aug. 11, '62 ; died at Andersonville, Ga., July

29, '64.
trans, to V.R.C. June 20, '64.
must, out June 25, '65.
4, '62; prom. asst. surg. 5th Tenn. Cav.
11, '62; dis. Nov. 5, '62.

Holbrook, Abel S. "
Jarrett, Henry "

Moffitt, William H. "
Peters, John W.
Wade, Isaac
Hobson, John C.
Holliday, Daniel M. '

15, '62; trans, to V.R.C. May 1, '64.
" must, out June 29, '65.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IX THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. i <

Blackburn, William, m. in Aug. 15, '62; died Nashville, Tenn.,Nov. 12, '63.
Mahorney, Ohas. H. " 12, '62; dis. April 30, '62.

Marrs, John S. " 11, '62 ; dis. Sept. 1, '63.

EIGHTY-SIXTH REGIMENT —THREE YEARS.

COMPANY F.

PRIVATES.

Laymon, Wilson H., must, in Aug. 11, '62; promoted 2d Hem.

COMPANY K.
SERGEANTS.

Ristine, Harley S., m. in Aug. 11, ; 62; dis. Feb. 13, '63.

Holloway, George W., must, in Aug. 17, '62; des. Jan. 20, '63.

Snyder, Benjamin F., m. in Aug. 12, '62 ; m. out June 6, '65, as sergt.

CORPORALS.

Blair, John W. Jr., must, in Aug. 12, '62 ; dis. Feb. 3, '63.
Spilman, Robert B., must, in Aug. 11, '62 ; promoted cap.
Barton, William, must, in Aug. 15, '62 ; des. Nov. 20, '62.
McClelland, Alfred J., must, in Aug. 15, '62; dis. Jan. 14, '63.
Engle, John B., must, in Aug. 15, '62 ; must, out June 6, '65.

MUSICIANS.

Naylor, Charles, must, in Aug. 22, '62 ; died at Bowling Green, Ky.,

Nov. 1, '62.

WAGONER.

Vanhook, Andrew J., m. in Aug. 18, '62 ; trans, to V. R. C. Sept. 1, '63.

PRIVATES.

Allhands, George, must, in Aug. 16, '62 ; dis. May 12, '63.
Baldwin, William J., must, in Aug. 18, '62 ; must, out June 6, '65.
Ball, Oliver, must, in Aug. 18, '62; must, out June 6, '65.
Beard, Thomas J., must, in Aug. 22, '62 ; dis. Jan. 14. '63.
Burk, George W., must, in Aug. 23, '62.
Carroll, Joseph S., must, in Aug. 25, '62 ; dis. Dec. 29, '63.
Curtis, John, must, in Aug. 26, '62.

Dice, William A., m. in Aug. 28, '62 ; des. from Slstregt., returned to regt.
Edwards, James G., " dis. Jan. 10, '63.

Engle, Talton, must, in Aug. 20, '62 ; dis. Dec. 31, '64.
Farley, William, must, in Aug. 16, '62 ; sent to penitentiary by civil au-

thoritv for bigamv.

mi Ok

Ferguson, John, " must, out June 6, '65.

Ferguson, Isaac W., " "

Forbes, William J., must, in Aug. 20, '62 ; dis. Feb. 26, '63.
Galey, William L., must in Aug. 23, '62 ; must, out June 6, '65.

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Galloway, George, must, in Aug. 20, '62 ; died at Indianapolis, Sept. 5, '62.
Green, James, must, in Aug. 13, '62; trans, to 19th U. S. Inf. Dec. 4, '62.
Green, Bartholomew, must, in Aug. 13, '62; died Jan. 9, '63, wounds re-
ceived at Stone River.
Griffith, Thomas B., must, in Aug. 11, '62

must, out June 6, '65.
dis. Jan. 14, '63.

Jan. 13, '63.
must, out June 6, '65.

dis. Oct. 14, '62.

m. out June 6, '65, as 1st sergt.

Gwinn, John W. " 28, '62

Hall, Henry C. " 29, '62

Harrington, James " 24, '62

Harris, Alexander " 24, '62

Harris, Peter " 20, '62

Howard, Tilghman A. " 25, '62

Kelley, John (1) " 20, '62

Kelley, John (2) " 29, '62

Laren, Garrett " 20, '62

Lawson, Branson H. " 25, '62

Linn, Joseph R. " 28, '62

Long, Samuel K. " 23, '62

Lynch, Patrick " 12, '62

Moore, John D. "

Moore, Harvey H. M. "

Murry, Hiram M. "

Osborn, Warren "

Oxly, Joseph H. "

Peed, Henry "

Peed, Oliver H. "

Pickerill, James L. " 22, '62 ; dis. Feb. 27, '63.

Potts, Elisha, must, in Aug. 25, '62 ; dis. Dec. 13, '64.

Prine, James M., must, in Aug. 24, '62; must, out June 6, '65.

Slattery,John " « "

Reilly, Hugh, must, in Aug. 28, '62 ; pro. first lieut.

Sanders, William W., must, in Aug. 29, '62 ; killed at Nashville, Dec. 15,'64.

Smith, Charles, must, in Aug. 20, '62 ; dis. Mar. 9, '63.

Smith, Elisha, must, in Aug. 19, '62; died at Chattanooga, Feb. 4, '65.

Swank, Wilson, must, in Aug. 15, '62 ; must, out June 6, '65.

Swank, James R., must, in Aug. 16, '65; " "

Swank, John « " dis. April 27, '63.

Swindler, Henry H., « " trans, to V. R. C, Sept. 2, '63.

Thomas, James R., must, in Aug. 18, '62; must, out June 6, '65.

Van horn, John S. " "

Wainscott, Francis M., m. in Aug. 16, '62; " "

Walker, Albert B., must, in Aug. 17, '62;

Ward, Dennis, m. in Aug. 22, '62 ; trans, to V. R. C, m. out July 7, '65.

" as corporal,

trans, to eng'r corps Aug. 7, '64.
must, out June 6, '65.

" as sergt.

dis. Jan. 15, '63.
trans, to 19th IT. S. Inf. De-
cember 4, '62.
20, '62 ; trans, to V. R. C. Jan. 10, '65.

24, '62 ; must, out June 6, '65, as corp.

25, '62 ;

26, '62; died at Danville, Ky., Dec.

25, '62.
23, '62 ; dis. Mar. 7, '63, wounds.
" must, out June 6, '65.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 79

Thompson, John M., m. in Aug. 16, '62 ; dis. Feb. 5, '63.
Urmston, Jonathan T. " died Oct. 21, '63, wounds.

Whited, William, must, in Aug. 22, '62 ; dis. July 10, '63.
Willey, Foster C, must, in Aug. 20, '62; died at Nashville, Jan. 29, '63.
"Williams, James, must, in Aug. 25, '62 ; must, out May 17, '65.
Williams, Martin L., m. in Aug. 26, '62 ; killed at Stone River, Dec. 31. '62.
Wisong, William M., m. in Aug. 11, '62; died at Nashville, Dec. 27, '62.
Wisong, Francis M., must, in Aug. 16, '62 ; must, out June 28, '65.
Walker, Adam H., must, in Aug. 20, '62 ; must, out June 6, '65.

FIFTH CAVALRY, NINETIETH REGIMENT.

COMPANY A.

RECRUITS.

Chenault, John must, in Oct. 6, '64; must, out June 15, '65.

COMPANY K.
CORPORAL.

Peterman, John P., must, in Aug. 8, '62; must, out June 15, '65.

COMPANY L.
CO. Q. M. SERGEANT.

Chambers, John W., m. in Aug. 16, 62 ; m. out Sept. 15, '65, as 1st sergt.

CO. COM. SERGEANT.

McCullough, Irvin A., must, in Aug. 16, '62, promoted 1st lieut.

CORPORAL.

Ball, Lafayette, must, in Aug. 19, '62; dis. April 27, '64

PRIVATES.

Adams, William S., must, in Aug. 20, '62 ; died at Lexington, Ky., April

28, '64.
Ball, Isaiah, must, in Aug. 19, '62; must, out Sept. 15, '65.
Chambers, William, must, in Aug. 16, '62 ; must, out Sept. 15, '65, as

corporal.
Chambers, Charles M., must, in Aug. 22, '62; must, out June 16, '65.
Elliott, William Mc. " 19, '62; must, out Sept. 15, '65, as

sergeant.
Furguson, John, must, in Aug. 21, '62 ; must, out Sept. 15, '65, prisoner

of war.
G-illis, George W., must, in Aug. 22, '62; dis. Dec. 16, '62.
Herron, Samuel B. " 21, '62; must, out Sept. 15, '65, as sergt.

Hendricks, Thomas " " " " "

Hodges, Edmond J. " 22, '62 ; " " "

Hughes, Eldridge " " " May 27, '65.

Moore, Alfred " 18, '62 ; " Sept. 15, '65.

Michael, Cornelius " " des. July 16, '63.

80 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Mullen, Jesse, must, in Aug. 22, '62 ; must, out June 16, '65.
Rider, Silas " " died at Glasgow, Ky., April 29, '63.

Rider, William " " must, out Sept. 15, '65, as sergt.

Singer, William E.

Vancleve, William M., must, in Feb. 16, '64; died on hospital boat Nov.

31, '64.

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH REGIMENT— MINUTE MEN.

COMPANY C.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Faust, William H., must, in July 11, '63; must, out July 17, '63.

SERGEANTS.

Wasson, William H., must, in July 11, '63; must, out July 17, '63.

McMechan, Theodore

Scott, Uriah M.

Wilson, Lune " "

CORPORALS.

Lane, Henry S., must, in July 11, '63 ; must, out July 17, '63.

Suman, Milo H.

Herndon, Henry " "

Mack, James T.

PRIVATES.

Allen, John B., must, in July 11, '63 ; must, out July 17, '63.
Belli, Zopher
Burr, Newton
Beard, Thomas J.
Brown, James
Britton, James M.,
Bishop, John
Braden, Albert H.
Burk, John M.
Burns, Lemuel
Canine, James F.
Canine, John H.
Chill, Johnson J.
Carey, Orlando W.
. Coons, Albert
Courtney, William
Crawford, James B.
Davis, Thompson
Davis, Isaac
Doherty, Marshall
Doherty, Madison

M «

« «

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 81

Deighton, George H., must, in July 11, '63; must, out July 17, '63.

Drum, James E. " "
Elrod, John

Ensminger, Horace P. " "
Griffith, Thomas J.

Galey, Samuel " "

Horner, Abram " "

Hays, Charles " "

Hareus, Levi B. " "

Hague, John " "
Hills, Murray E.
Hays, William W.

Havvley, Ransom E. " "

Hareus, Robert " "

Harner, Samuel " "

Harrison, Temple C. " "

Harrison, John R. " "

Herr, John "

Heaton, James " "

James, Charles K. " "

Jennison, Henry " "

Lyon, William " "

Long, William H. " "

Lemmon, Leonidas " "

Lowry, Alfred, " . "

Lamb, George W. " promoted quartermaster.

Marks, Isaac A. " must, out July 17, '63.

Masterson, Wm. " "

Murharney, A. C. " "

Maxwell, James " "

Myers, Eli N. " "

McCray, Oliver P. " "

Martin, James M. A. " "

May, Richard J. " "

Mitchell, Milton " "
Mills, B. M.

Newton, Thomas H. " "

Newton, Horace E. " "

Napper, Paul " "

Ornbaun, Wm. " "

Ornbaun, Andrew M. " "

Powell, Thomas M. ' "

Patterson, James " "

Riley, Ambrose W. „
6

it ((

n u

82 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Robinson, George W., must, in July 11, '63; must, out July 17, '63.

Roderick, D. G. "

Ryker, William H.

Robertson, William " "

Redenbaugh, Milton

Ristine, Tbeodore H.

Suman, William H.

Shepherd, Perry J.

Scott, William W.

Speed, Bruce

Snyder, George W.

Stonecypher, James H.

Shanklin, John A.

Spillman, James F.

Taylor, Tighlman

Vancleve, William N.

White, John W. "

Wray, David R.

Wilson, Robert S.

Wilson, Levi B.

Wolf, Edward T.

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH REGIMENT-MINUTE MEN.

FIRST SERGEANT.

Sharp, Isaac, must, in July 10, '63 ; must, out, July 15, '63.

SERGEANTS.

Rhoades, M. G., must, in July 10, '63 ; must, out July 15, '63.

Shular, A. J.

Peterman, W. H. H.

Ayers, Alonzo " "

CORPORALS.

Cooper, John R., must, in July 10, '63 ; must, out July 15, '63.
Philabaum, David "

Jones, David "

Fullenwider, Newton "

MUSICIANS.

Buchanan, Thomas B., must, in July 10, '63 ; must, out July 15, '63.
Wible, A. M.

PRIVATES.

Atherton, 0. B., must, in July 10, '63 ; must, out July 15, '63.

Austin, Henry " "

Brush, W. T.

Bloomfield, J. D. G. " «

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 83

Barr, J. W. must, in July 10, '63 ; must, out July 15, '63.

Buchanan, John " "

Clark, W. T.

Conner, C. W.

Crooks, Joseph " "

Couch man, George " "

Conner, P. M. " "

Cooper, Samuel P. " "

Durham, J. W. " «

Eastlach, Samuel, " "

English, B. D. « "

Frazier, E. R. " "

Fullen wider, Eobert " "

Fullenwider, C. E. " «

Glenn, William " "

Glover, N. J. " "

Gamble. James " "

Gardner, James A. " "

Gardner, George " "

Hawkins, William " "

Hutton, William M. " "

Hicks, David " "

Hanna, George E. " "

Huff, Richard

Hanley, R. E. " "

Garrett, Abner " "

Johnson, F. M. " "

Jones, James " "

Laugh, John " "

Long, Thomas S. " ""

Long, Thomas A. " "

Lookabill, Alfred " "

Lookabill, Noah " «

Mcintosh, George " "

Miles, John A. " "

McCormick, John N. " "

Mcintosh, B. F. " "

Moore, Taylor " "

Moore, George W. " "

Milligan, Thomas E. « «

Milligan, James R. " "

McMain, D. H. « «

McMain, Lloyd " "

McMain, John " "

84 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Mercer, James M., must, in July 10, '63 ; must, out July 15, '63.

Osborn, Charles " "

Owens, James " "

Patton, W. A.

Patton, L. H.

Parker, Henry C.

Pratt, David

Richardson, William

Read, John A.

Rogers, G. W.

Rice, William

Shepherd, P. M.

Steele, A. T.

Smith, F. M.

Sharp, Russel

Thompson, W. A.

Vinson, J. J.

Wolever, S. S.

Whittington, S. T.

Williams, Daniel

Wilson, George W.

Yount, James " "

Young, G. B.

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH REGIMENT, INFANTRY— SIX MONTHS.

COMPANY I.
PRIVATE.

Phelps, Oliver A., must, in Aug. 17, '63 ; trans, to Co. A.

SEVENTH CAVALRY, ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH REGIMENT—

THREE YEARS.

COMPANY D.

CORPORAL.

Day, William H., must, in Sept. 3, '63 ; dis. Aug. 21, '64.

PRIVATE.

Swindler, George W., must, in Sept. 3, '63 ; died March 20, '64.

CO. COMMISSARY SERGEANT.

Kelley, William W., must, in Sept. 5, '63; promoted 2d lieut,

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH REGIMENT, INFANTRY — THREE

YEARS.

COMPANY B.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Cox, Esaias H., must, in Jan. 30, '64 ; promoted 2d lieut.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

SERGEANTS.

Wert, William, must, in Jan. 30, '64; dis. Aug. 5, '65.

killed at Franklin, Tenn., Nov.

30, '64.
must, out Jan. 8, '66.

Sherlen, James

Ryker, William H.
Duncan, Alexander

CORPORALS.

McClaskey, Isaiah R.,must. in Jan. 30, '64; m. out Jan. 8, '66, as 1st serg't.

Martin, James M. A.
Hart, Richard
Wert, Elnathan
Ensminger, Benjamin B.

Brown, Joseph H.
Barr, Isaac N.
-Steele, William

must, out Jan. 8, '6Q.

m. out Jan. 8, ^6, as serg't.

must, out June 10, '65.

died at Petersburg, Va., June

25, '65.
must, out Jan. 8, '66.

dis. Oct. 15, '65,

PRIVATES.

Brockway, Asahel, must, in Jan. 30, '64; must, out Sept. 21, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

must, out June 7, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.
tt

a
a
u

dis. May 18, '65.

died at Louisville, Ky., June

26, '64.
killed at Atlanta, Aug. 9, '64.
must, out June 8, '65.
must, out Jan. 8, '66.

Burk, John F.

Buck, George W.

Britton, William

Beatty, Nathaniel

Boyland, George M.

Burkmeyer, Henry

Black, Samuel H.

Bunch, Willis

Bannon, Samuel P.

Booher, Albert

Claypool, John J.

Clark, Ulysses R.

Cully, Michael F.
Crouch, Jonathan
Champion, Chester C.
Cox, William
Davidson, Thomas
Davidson, Samuel
Doherty, Madison
Dorsey, John W.
Everson, Jacob
Fagg, Clairborn
Flannigan, Noah
Fisher, Samuel
Guy, Zachariah T.

(«

must, out May 18, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

must, out June 15, '65.

must, out June 6, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, ^66.

it
il

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Gutt, William P., must.
Gillis, William B.
Gardner, Henry C.
Hardee, John
House, William C.
Hatt, Reuben C.

in Jan. 30, 'G4; died at Marietta, Ga., Aug. 3, '64.
must, out Jan. 8, '66.

«
«
«
«

Hatt, George W.

Harrison, Robert G.

<«

Hardee, William

Hall, William

Jay, Jonathan

Jackson, John B.

Johnson, William T.

Johnson, Samuel

Jones, Francis M.

Keeney, Thomas
Kerr, Samuel

(«

Lee, Francis G.

Long, Lorenzo
Long, Lorenzo D.
Miller, William

it
tt
tt

Miller, David

Nelson, Clark B.

It.

Orr, Daniel

Patton, David W.

<«

Patter, William H.

Pear, Rufus T.

<«

Paxton, William

((

Pearson, Richard S.

Perry, John W.
Perry, Henry M.
Peebles, Thaddeus

(1
l«

Romenger, Madison

Runnyan, Isaac N.

Seeley, Marshall
Shular, Lewis

ti
((

Williams, Daniel

Wray, Curson H.

Wilkinson, Thomas

Waggoner, Samuel

Warrtrnnaf Wi'lliom A

it
ft

trans, to V. R. C. Nov. 30, '64.

des. July 20, '64.

died at Annapolis, Md., Dec.

29, '64.

must, out May 22, '65.

promoted ass't surgeon.

must, out June 8, 'Go.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

must, out June 16, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '65.
«

" as corp.

des. March 1, '64.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

des. March 19, '64.

died at Newbern, N. C, March

10, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, 'GQ.

killed at Atlanta, July 20, '64.

died at Knoxville, Tenn.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.
«

died at home Feb. 8, '64.
must, out June 9, '65.
trans, to V. R. C. April 1, '65.
must, out Jan. 8, '66.
must, out June 13, '65.
must, out Jan. 8, '66, as corp.
must, out Jan. 8, '66.

died at Newbern, N. C, April

25, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, 'Q(i.

" as corp.

must, out June 16, '65.

must out June 10, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, ^66.

must, out June 10, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

died at Chattanooga, June 17, '64,

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Wilson, George A., must, in Jan. 30, '64 ; died at Chattanooga, June 21/64.

Wineland, Daniel Jr. *f must, out Jan. 8, '66.

Wolf, Edward F.

Wright, Erie F. " diedat Louisville,Ky.,Feb.3,'65.

Wilkinson, John " must, out Jan. 8, '66.

RECRUITS.

Britton, Thomas H., must, in March 4, '64; must, out Sept. 12, '65.
Harris, Robert T., must, in Feb. 19, '64; must, out May 25, '65.
Imel, Franklin G. " must, out June 6, '65.

Largent, George W. " "

Pinkerton, Hiram " must, out Jan. 8, '66.

Ritter, John

COMPANY C.
SERGEANTS.

Barcus, Samuel, must, in Jan. 30, '64; must, out Jan. 8, '66.

Ruff, James W. " " as 1st sergt.

Foster, Wiley S.

CORPORALS.

Thomas, William C, must, in Jan. 30, '64; promoted 2d lieut.

Gillilan, Benjamin F.
Thomas, John M.

Morrison, Thomas W.
Aydelott, Thomas
Roberts, William
Ellis, John

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

died at Knoxville, Tenn.,

July 27, '64.
died at Nashville, April 9, '64.
must, out Jan. 8, '66, as sergt.
trans, to V. R.C., May 8, '65.
must, out Jan. 8, ^6.

PRIVATES.

Bastian, Jefferson, must, in Jan. 30, '64; must, out Jan. 8, '66.

Bland, George W. " dis. June 12, '65.

Bennett, Caleb " must, out Jan. 8, '66, as corp.

Bennett, Samuel " must, out Jan. 8, '66.

Bannon, Samuel, never mustered.

Clouse, John, must, in Jan. 30, '64: must, out Jan 8, '66.

des. March 14, '64.

must, out- Jan. 8, '66.

must, out Jan. 31, '66, as sergt.

dis. May 3, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

dis. Aug. 15, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

must, out May 12, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '66, as corp.

dis. Feb. 4, '65.

Cowan, William T.

Doran, Isaac

Doran, James

Dimple, Henry

Dungan, William

Evans, James B.

Epperson, Edward H.

Ebrite, Alfred

Ellis, James F.

Ellis, Zachariah

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Galey, James R., must, in Jan. 30, '64 ; dis. Sept. 12, '65.

Gillian, William, must, in March 13, '64; died in Andersonville prison,

June 14, '64.
Hill, Mack P., must, in March 13, '64 ; must, out Jan. 8, '66.
Hashberger, Christopher, must, in Jan. 30, '64 ; must out Jan. 8, '66.
Howard, William E.
Harris, Charles A.
Hutchinson, Isaiah
Irons, Anthony "

Irons, John R., must, in March 18, '64 ;

Irons, Thomas R., must, in March 13, '64; promoted 2d lieut.
Keeney, William H., must, in Jan. 30, '64; must, out Jan. 8, '66.
Layton, John " "

a
«

>«

des. Jan. 20, '65.

trans, to V.R.C., May 11, '65.

must, out Jan. 8, '66.

died at Knoxville, Tenn., July

12, '64.
dis. July 27, '65.
must, out Jan. 8, '66.
des. June 27, '66.
dis. Jan. 28, '65.
must, out Jan. 8, '66, as corp.

Lane, George W.
Lane, Abraham
Mason, Thomas D.
Mclntire, Daniel W.

McCorkle, James

Nelson, William P.

Peed, Oscar V.

Pen rod, Solomon

Pickerill, James L.

Powers, William J.

Rusk, John

Russel, Martin V.

Ross, Isaac

Robinson, John

Sparger, John B.

Sparger, Charles R.

Stout, John, must, in March 13, '64 ; dis. May 3, '65.

Willey, Hezekiah, must, in Jan. 30, '64; must, out Jan. 8, '66, as corp.

Whitecotton, Jacob " died at Indianapolis, March

14, '64.
Worth, John C. " must, out Jan. 8, '66.

Wheeler, William " des. Jan. 20, '65.

Wilson, William C. " died at Indianapolis, March

11, '64.
Wheeler, John, must, in March 1, '64; must, out Jan. 8, '66.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD REGIMENT INFANTRY— THREE

YEARS.

COMPANY C.

PRIVATE.

English, Benjamin, must, in Dec. 10, '63 ; m. out Aug. 25, '65, as corp.

must, out May 30, '65.
must, out Jan. 8, '66.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 89

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOURTH REGIMENT INFANTRY— THREE

YEARS.

COMPANY D.
PRIVATE.

Snider, William must, in Jan. 21, '64; must, out Aug. 31, '65.

ELEVENTH CAVALRY, ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT,

THREE YEARS.

COMPANY I.

SERGEANT.

Seymour, Charles W. must, in Jan. 13, '64; must, out May 23, '65.

PRIVATE.

Holmes, Jonathan must, in Jan. 19, '64; must, out Sept. 19, '65.

COMPANY K.
SERGEANTS.

Miller, Ben. C. must, in Dec. 19, '63; promoted 1st lieut.
Harris, William must, in Jan. 9, '64; must, out May 23, '66.

CORPORALS.

Skillman, Benson must, in Jan. 9, '64; died at home May 8, '64.

Peffly, Thomas " dis. Sept. 7r'64.

Mills, George L. " must, out Sept. 19, '65, as serg't.

Magill, John A. " must, out May 18, '65.

PRIVATES.

Airhart, Joseph must, in Dec. 19, '63 ; must, out Sept. 19, '65.

Bird, James F. must, in Jan. 9, '64 ; "

Calhoun, Robert G. must, in Dec. 19, '63 ; "

Catick, John C. must, in Jan. 9, '64; promoted quartermaster.

Frick, Abraham must, in Dec. 19, '63 ; dis. June 6, '65.

Fuel, William H. " died at home Feb. 17, '64.

Graves, William H. must, in Jan. 9, '64; must, out May 23. '65.

Gott, William B. " must, out Sept. 19, '65, bugler.

Inlow, John must, in Dec. 19, '63.; died at Jefferson ville, April 4, '65.

James, Robert M. " must, out Sept. 19, '65.

James, Charles K. must, in Jan. 9. '64; must, out Sept. 19. '65, as sergt.

McDaniel, Alexander C. must, in Dec. 19, '63 ; must, out June 27, '65.

Mills, William B. must, in Nov. 2, '63 ; must, out June 3, '65.

Miller, Oliver must, in Nov. 5, '63 ; des. Aug. 3, '65.

Otterman, Francis M. must, in Dec. 24, '63 ; must, out July 25, '65.

Pointer, William must, in Nov. 16, '63; des. June 17, '65.

Rouk, George H. must, in Oct. 26/63 ; died at Huntsville, Ala., Oct. 5,'64.

Ring, William H. m. in Jan. 2, '64; died at Larkinsville, Ala., Aug. 11,'64.

90 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Stevenson, James A. must, in Oct. 25, '63 ; m. out Sept. 19, '65, as corp.

Swank, Isaac must, in Nov. 19, '63 ; "

Swank, Fletcher must, in Dec. 19, '63 ; des. July 2, '65.

Swank, John H. must, in Feb. 11, '64; (lis. June 2, '65.

Stalin, Joseph K. must, in Jan. 2, '64; must, out May 29, '65.

Statin, Alvin B. must, in Dec. 19, '63 ; died at Indianapolis, Feb. 3, '64.

Shaw, John A. must, in March 23, '64; died at Bowling Green, Kentucky,

Jan. 5, '65.
Watkins, Daniel K. must, in Jan. 9, '64; dis. June 2, '65.
Williams, Bryan must, in Dec. 19, '63 ; died at Jeffersonville, Feb. 4, '65.

RECRUITS.

Crawford, Philander must, in Oct. 25, '64 ; must, out Sept. 19, '65.
Linn, Franklin " dis. May 6, '65, wounds.

COMPANY M.
PRIVATES.

Allen, William must, in Jan. 30, '64; must, out Sept. 19, '65.

Cooper, George A. " "

Drollinger, Albert C.

Evans, David W. " " as bugler.

Jackson, Elcanah " "

Stewart, Joseph " "

Wilson, John W. " promoted 1st lieut.

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THIRD REGIMENT INFANTRY— ONE

HUNDRED DAYS.

COMPANY G.
PRIVATES.

Austin, Henry M. must, in May 17, '64; supposed m. out, term expired.

Austin, Jerome

Brush, William T.

Coutch man, George K.

Hanna, Pendleton

Lamson, Thomas W.

Richardson, Chancy

((

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT INFANTRY— ONE

HUNDRED DAYS.

COMPANY C.

PRIVATES.

Beck, Edward F. must, in May 23, '64 ; must, out Sept. 29, '64, as corp.

Boone, Richard F.

Bridges, John W.

Brown, Hiram A. " "

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Cadwallader, Edwin, must, in May

Castor, Isaac N. "

Cox, Lindley,

Crawford, Philander,

Custard, Aaron R.

Decker, William

Davis, Randolph

Dorsey, George T.

Dnke, George H.

Frame, Samuel P.

Hall, Benjamin F.

Hampton, John C.

Hayworth, George

Hodgin, William R.

Hunt, James W.
Inlow, Ezekiel
Jesse, James N.
Kelsey, Isaac M.
Knox, Matthew M.
Ladford, William
Lockridge, John
Lynn, James H.
Markey, Josiah
McKay, Richard
McMurtry, John
Marts, Jerome
Mote, Marcus
Mate, Andrew
Myers, Harry W.
Nealey, John T.
Nicholls, Joseph L.
Nicholls, Cyrus L.
Perkins, William
Peterson, Taylor
Potenger, David D.
Rosen crans, Edwin
Sharp, John T.
Spry, George A.
Stickrod, Preston
Stoner, David L.
Summers, Henry
Thompson, James
We nee, Henry

23, '64 ; must, out Sept. 29, '64.

as serg't.
as corp.

it
it
ti
H
it

" as serg't.

died at Nashville, Sept. 4, '64.
must, out Sept. 29, '64 as corp.

as wagoner.

died at Tullahoma, Tennessee,

Sept. 4, '64.

must, out Sept.

29,

'64.

((

as corp.

as musician.

as corp.

as musician.

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

White, George W. must.
Wright, Thomas W.

Allen, John B. must, in
Balser, Frank C.
Bayless, John G.
Bay less, John M.
Bayless, William T.
Beach, John H.
Beach, George
Bein, George
Coffin, George
Cope, Absalom B.
Clevinger, Schobal V.
Copner, John W.
Cowan, Edward H.
Cruse, Columbus D.
El rod, George W.
Elliott, Henry C.
Fisher, John
Gilkey, James H.
Gil key, Joseph A.
Goble, Hiram
Gregg, George W.
Gronendyke, Charles
Ham, Joseph
Holman, Robert
Harrison, John
Harrison, Thomas
Hombaker, Albert T.
Johnson, Samuel
Kingsbury, Samuel D.
Lafollet, Jacob G.
Larsh, Robert G.
Liter, Matthias A.
McClarnoch, John
Mclntire, Ferguson,
Mills, Elias H.
Mitchell, George
O'Neal, Edgar H.
Patterson, Samuel
Ristine, Theodore H.
Roderick, Daniel G.

died Bridgeport, Ala., June 30/64.
must, out Sept. 29, '64.

in May 23, '64; must, out Sept. 29, '64.

COMPANY F.
PRIVATES.

May 23, '64 ; must, out Sept. 29, '64.
« »

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as serg't,

as corp'l

as serg't

as musician,
died Bridgeport, Ala.,June 23/64.
must, out Sept. 29, '64.

died Bridgeport, Ala., July 16/64.

must, out Sept. 29, '64.

ft
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ft

«
«

as corp.

as wagoner.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Eouncltree, Henry C. must, in May 23, '64 ; must, out Sept. 29, '64.

Remley, William F.

Ruffner, John

Smith, James M.

Smith, Francis

Stout, John

Stout, Wilson

Stonebraker, J. K.

Stubbins, Archibald A.

Taylor, James

Talbot, Jesse

Taylor, Thomas

White, Isaac Gr.

Willis, John W.

Youkey, John

as corp.

as musician.

COMPANY H.
PRIVATES.

Aydelott, John P., must, in May 23, '64; must, out Sept. 29, '64.

Cook, Thomas M.

Galbreath, James

Halstead, William

Myers, George B.

Martin, Owen " " as serg't.

Parker, David L. " " as corp.

Russell, Dallis

COMPANY I.
PRIVATES.

Allen, James, must, in May 23, '64 ; must, out Sept. 29, '64.

Berryman, James A.

Burke, John M.

Brown, Elias

Buffington, Julian

Bennett. Durett A.

Bennage, Martin

Bailey, John

Burns, John H.

Bishop, John

Brown, Preserve

Crawford, Charles M.

Coons, Albert L.

Cord, Harris R.

Cadwallader, Ira

Driscoll, Allen

Foust, Zack N". " " as serg't.

promoted asst. surgeon.

must, out Sept. 29, '64, as corp.

ap'd hospital steward,
must, out Sept. 29, '64.

as corp.

as serg't.

as corp.

94 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Griffith, Thomas J. m. in May 23, '64; ap'd com. sergt.

must, out Sept. 29, '64.

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ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH REGIMENT, INFANTRY— ONE YEAR.

COMPANY C.
PRIVATE.

Kelly, James, must, in Feb. 17, '65 ; must, out Sept. 27, '65.

Gillmore, Thomas

Heatou, James Jr.

Hays, Frank R.

Hamilton, San ford

Herndon, Henry

Harris, John R.

Hovermale, John A.

Holloway, Enoch

Irwin, William A.

Irvine, Zeph.

Johnson, Hale

Justice, Francis A.

Kelly, Edward

Martin, William H.

Mondy, William

Moore, Thaddeus

Masterson, William S.

Morris, Benjamin

McGregg, Joseph

Nasler, Calloway

Nicholls, Francis

Newton, Horace E.

Ornbaun, William

Proctor, Ilolin T.

Pierson, Benjamin F.

Robinson, George A.

Riley, Ambrose W.

Rogers, Henry C.

Reynolds, John

Suman, Milo H.

Suman, William J.

Stonecypher, Samuel

Speed, Robert B.

Stewart, Robert

Stoddard, Owen

Thorp, Harvey

Vancleave, Samuel M.

Wilhite, Jacob M.

Ward, Lafayette

as serg't.

as corp.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 95

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH REGIMENT, INFANTRY — ONE YEAR.

COMPANY C.
PRIVATES.

Gallady, William H., must, in Feb. 15, '65 ; must, out Aug. 5, '65.
Lipp, William S., must, in Feb. 17, '65; " as corp.

Marty, John M. " "

Stamper, William, must, in Feb. 16, '65 ; des. Feb. 20, '65.

COMPANY D.
PRIVATES.

Cromer, John K., must, in Feb. 15, '65; must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Chesnut, Thomas, must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; " as corp.

Durham, John S., must, in Feb. 22, '65; des. Mar. 15, '65.

Dye, James, must, in Feb. 27, '65 ; must, out May 29, '65.

Edwards, Nathaniel, must, in Feb. 15, '65; m. out Aug. 5, '65, as serg't.

Flinn, William W., must, in Feb. 17, '65;

Fate, Joseph H., must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; "

Glass, Silas M., must, in Feb. 16, '65 ; must, out June 5, '65.

Monday, Peter, must, in Feb. 15, '65 ; must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Monday, Willis " "

McKinley, Joseph G. "

Ocletree, George

Powell, John F. M.

Eoss, Joseph, must, in Feb. 17, '65 ; "

Smith, Samuel, " des. March '65.

Smith, Simon " must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Sloverings, Zachariah, must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; "

Thompson, James W., must, in Feb. 21, '65; "

Thomas, Seth, must, in Feb. 16, '65 ; "

Thomas, Price J., must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; "

Thomas, Arthur M. " must, out June 14, '65.

Wilson, Henry C. " must, out Aug. 5, '65, as sergt.

Woods, James M., must, in Feb. 17, '65; must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Williams, Ellison, must, in Feb. 16, '65 ; must, out Aug. 25, '65.

COMPANY E.
PRIVATES.

Adams, James, must, in Feb. 8, '65; must, out Aug. 6, '65.

Austin, Abner V. " " as sergt.

Bennett, Dmalt A.

Birney, Samuel

Brown, Preserve "

Brown, Elias, must, in Feb. 17, '65 ;

96 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Cooley, Ambrose G., must, in Feb. 6, '65 ; must, out Aug. 6, '65.

Coleman, Jacob, " "

Caster, Jacob C, must, in Feb. 10, '65; "

Coleman, George " must, out June 17, '65.

Caster, Montgomery " must, out Aug. 5, '65, as corp.

Cbenault, David 1., must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Dinsrnore, William W., must, in Feb. 10, '65; must, out July 26, '65.

Faust, Milton J., must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; must, out Aug. 5. '65, as corp.

Gillis, David, must, in Feb. 13, '65; must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Hopkins, Henry, must, in Feb. 16, '65 ; must, out May 25, '65.

Heauey, William F., must, in Feb. 8, '65 ; must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Jackson, James W., must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; "

Kelly, Michael, must, in Feb. 8, '65 ;

Leak, William M., must, in Feb. 10, '65 ; "

Myers, Harvey W., must, in Feb. 15, '65 ; "

Mires, William 0.

McCabe, Peter

McCannish, George, must, in Feb. 10, '65 ; "

McDowell, Lewis " "

McLaughlin, Alvin " "

McManny, Thomas D. " "

Martz, Jerome, must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; "

McKinley, Ezra

Mullen, Silas K.

Michael, John

McCabe, James, must, in Feb. 6, '65 ; " as corp.

Nicholson, James " "

Nicholson, Joseph " "

Perkins, William, must, in Feb. 10, '65 ; must, out June 17, '65.

Sheppard, George W., must, in Feb. 15, '65 ; must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Stout, Wilson, must, in Feb. 6, '65; " as corp.

Switzer, Michael S., must, in Feb. 13, '65 ; "

Slippey, George, must, in Feb. 13, '65; must, out Aug. 5, '64, as corp.

Tyler, William S., must, in Feb. 10, '65; must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Williams, Robert, must, in Feb. 6, '65 ; "

Whitecotton, Esau, must, in Feb. 10, '65 ; des. March 1, '65.

COMPANY K.
PRIVATES.

Dukes, Davis, must, in Feb. 28, '65; must, out June 29, '65.
Hampton, William F. M must, out Aug. 5, ^o.

Matthias, Ephraim, must, in Mar. 3, '65 ; "

Neighbors, Ruins " "

Rankins, Thompson, must, in Mar. 2, '65 ; "

< f_fi/?^?-i&LA u

U. S. ARMY

THE NEW Y(
C LIBRA:-

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a

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 97

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT INFANTRY— ONE YEAR.

COMPANY B.

Benefiel, James H., must, in Mar. 28, '65; must, out Aug. 4, '65, as corp.
Benefiel, William H.
Bratton, Charles A.

Burgner, Charles, must, in Mar. 20, '65 ;
. Burris, John H., must, in Mar. 28, '65 ;

Essex, David, must, in Mar. 15, '65. "

Routh, Isaac, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; "

Riley, James, " ties. June 5, '65.

Richardson, Joseph T., " must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Stoops, John W., must, in Mar 20, '65 ;
Young, Thomas, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; "

COMPANY D.
PRIVATES.

McFeters, William, must, in Mar. 31, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.
Rush, Harvey, must, in Mar. 30, '65; "

COMPANY E.
PRIVATES.

Bowen, William, must, in Apr. 12, '65; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Bowen, George "

Elliott, Benjamin F., m. in Mar. 22, '65 ;

Fallace, Jacob R.

Goodwin, Cyrus A.

Johnson, Joseph, must, in Apr. 6, '65 ; ties. Apr. 14, '65.

COMPANY G.

PRIVATES.

Andrews, David P., must, in April 12, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.
Arnhostler, William " "

Gallaher, Alonzo, must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; des. June 20, '65.
Leachman, James, must, in Mar. 18, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.
Lawler, John, must, in Mar. 21, '65 ; " as corp.

Smith, William, must, in Apr. 12, '65; des. Apr. 22, '65.
Sailor, Mordecai " must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Sailor, Lewis " "

Wood, John

COMPANY H.
PRIVATES.

Edmonson, George W., must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Ray, John D.

Ray, Morris W. " " as corp.

as corp.

as sergt

as corp.

98 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Spellman, James, must, in Mar. 22, '65 ; des. Apr. 19, '65.
Smith, Richard H., must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.
Thompson, George B. " "

COMPANY I.
PRIVATES.

Bly, David, must, in Mar. 20, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Brown, Franklin, must, in Apr. 12, '65 ; des. Apr. 18, '65.

Hossfelt, Frederick, m. in Mar. 23, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Hunter, David, must, in Apr. 11, '65 ; "

Imes, Martin, must, in Apr. 12, '65 ; "

Jones, William B., m. in Mar. 22, '65 ;

Long, Ewiiig, must, in Apr. 11, '65 ; des. July 6, '65.

Laflin, William W., must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; m. out Aug. 4, '65, as corp.

Vanscoy, Thomas, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; "

Wicker, William, must, in Mar. 15, '65 ; " as sergt.

COMPANY K.
PRIVATES.

Allen, Perry, must, in Mar. 23, '65 ; des. Apr. 19, '65.

Boon, Morgan, must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Bracket, Robert, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; must, out May 20, '65.

Buffington, Julian, must, in Mar. 23, '65 ; m. out Aug. 4, '65, as corp.

Banks, Jefferson " "

Brown, Thomas H., must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; " as must.

Baehle, Ignatius " "

Butcher, James A., must, in Mar. 24, '65 ; "

Brown, Henry " des. Apr. 19, '65.

Bishop, James H. " "

Brown, Joshua " w

Blackburn, Richard B. " d. at Indianapolis, Apr. 19, '65.

Burk, John M., must, in Mar. 11, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65, as corp.

Coons, George W., m. in Mar. 23, '65 ; "

Collins, Elijah, must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; died, at Indianapolis, Apr. 25, '65.

Cadel, William J. " des. Apr. 19, '65 ;

Catterson, James " "

Clements, Thomas V. " must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Cline, William J.

Custer, Andrew R., m. in Mar. 24, '65 ; "

Coombs, Eli, must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; "

Dickerson, James, must, in Mar. 23, '65 ; "

Dean, James (Jefferson), m. in Mar. 17, '65 ; "

Dew, John "

Dorsey, George T. " pro. 2d lieut.

Foster, George A. " m. out Aug. 4, '65.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 99

Finch, John, must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; m. out Aug. 4, '65.

Ford, Michael " des. Apr. 28, '65.

Faddis, Martin, must, in Mar. 24, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Garrigus, John, must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; "

Glenn, Martin, must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; "

Hern don, Samuel P.

Harris, William, must, in Mar. 18, '65 ; "

Justice, Francis M., m. in Mar. 12, '65 ; "

Johnson, Samuel, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; must, out May 11, '65.

Job, John S., " must, out Aug. 11, '65.

Jesse, James M., must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; must, out May 13, '65.

King, John W., must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Kidd, Andrew J., must, in Mar. 23, '65 ; " as sergt.

Lesley, Josiah, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; "

Murry, John W. " must, out May 28, '65.

Moore, Lewis, must, in Mar. 29, '65 ; des. Apr. 19, '65.

Mickey, John F., must in Mar. 17, '65 ; "

Mikesell, Christopher " des. June 22, '65.

Mead, Alva C, must, in Mar. 24, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

McClure, James, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; "

McGraw, Richard " "

McCormick, Patrick, must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; "

Norris, Joshua, must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; des. June 22, '65.

Nugent, Francis, must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Norwood, Daniel S., must, in Mar. 24, '65 ; "

Peterson, James, must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; "

Parker, William, must, in Mar. 24, '65 ; "

Swank, John C, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; must, out May 28, '65.

Smith, William " died at Cumberland, Md., June

30, '65.
Smith, John E., must, in Mar. 24, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.
Shertz, Jacob, must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; "

Shepherd, Lewis " must, out June 16, '65.

Spillman, Marcus I. " must, out Aug. 5, '65.

Simmons, Henry, must, in Mar. 24, '65 ; des. Apr. 19, '65.
Taylor, Thomas, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; must, out May 11, '65.
Tate, Samuel M. " must, out Aug. 4, '65, as sergt.

Tate, John R., must, in Mar. 17, '65 ;
Taylor, Isaac R.

Vannice, James N., must, in Apr. 11, '65 ; "

Welsh, John, must, in Mar. 14, '65 ; "

Whited, William, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ;
Wilhite, Warner, must, in Mar. 23, '65 ; "

Williams, Anderson S. '*' "

100 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Woods, Lorenzo D., must, in Mar. 17, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65, as sergt.

Wright, Joseph G. " "

Weaver, Albert "

Wallace, John H., must, in Mar. 30, '65 ; "

Wence, Henry, must, in Mar. 18, '65 ; "

Zachary, Alvin, must, in Mar. 28, '65 ; "

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIXTH REGIMENT INFANTRY— ONE YEAR.

COMPANY A.
PRIVATES.

Faust, Zachariah, must, in March 11, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65, as serg't.

Heden, Alexander F., m. in Mar. 17, '65 ; " as corp.

Hopson, Joseph " des. March — , '65.

Jacob, William, must, in March 15, '65 ; must, out Aug. 4, '65.

Morgan, William H., must, in March 17, '65 ; "

Morgan, John H. "

Petit, Thomas, must, in March 15, '65 ;

Hains, David, must, in March 13, '65 ; "

Sullivan, Patrick

NINTH BATTERY— THREE YEARS.
FIRST SERGEANT.

Calfee, Samuel G., must, in Feb. 25, '62; promoted 2d lieut.

QUARTERMASTER SERGEANT.

Myers, Gerge F., must, in Feb. 25, '62; must, out May 16, '65.

SERGEANTS.

Deets, Emly, must, in Feb. 25, '62 ; dis. Sept. — , '62.

Sullivan, Marcus 0. " died Union City,Tenn.,Oct.26,'63.

Nicholson, Edward W. " promoted 1st lieut.

Smith, Robert H. " must, out Feb. 25, '65, as private-

Swearinger, Joseph P. " " absent sick.

CORPORALS.

Sparks, Thomas, must, in Feb. 25, '62; killed explosion U. S. transport,

Jan. 27, '65.

Grimes, George W. " vet., died Feb. 9,'65, wounds rec'd

Eclipse explosion.

Stubbins, John W. " m. out Jan. 26,'65, as Q.M. sergt.

McKinsey, Nehemiah 0. " must, out June 3, 65, as private.

Shafer, Jesse N. " drowned in Tenn. river Apr. '62.

Learning, Marshall " vet., must, out June 26, '65.

Budd, John T. " died March 20, '62.

McKinsey, George W. " vet., must, out Jan. 26, '65.

Budd, Daniel C.

Dwiggins, Samuel

Holeman, William

Julien, Joseph

Lindsey, Oliver P.

Martin, Brenton C.

Stanford, David G.

Watson Joseph A.

((

York, William B.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 101

ARTIFICERS.

Wolverton, William, must, in Feb. 25, '62; died Jan. 27,'65, wounds rec'd

explosion steamer Eclipse.

Warfield, William H. H. " died at Bolivar,Tenn., Aug. '62.

WAGONER.

Frier, John R., must, in Feb. 25, '62; killed Jan. 27, '65, explosion of U~.

S. steamer Eclipse.

PRIVATES.

Bolser, David, must, in Feb. 25, '62; dis. May — , '62.

must, out Feb. 25, '65, as corp.
killed accidentally, Jan. 27, '65.
must, out Feb. 25, '65.
vet., killed Jan. 27, '65, exp. Eclipse,
vet., must, out June 26, '65.

must, out Feb. 26, '65.

di s . '62.

died at Vicksburg, Miss., June 1, '64.

RECRUITS.

Garland, William, must, in Jan. 18,- '64; must, out June 26, '65, as absent.

Garland, Berryman,must. in Jan. 2, '64; must, out May 16, '65.

Harwood, James P., m. in July 27, '64; m. out June 26, '65, as absent.

Julien, George, m. in Nov. 2, '64 ;

Little, John M., m. in Jan. 2, '64 ;

Myers, Charles J., m. in Jan. 26, '65 ;

Sparks, Albert T., m. in Jan. 21, '64;

Smith, Joseph W., must, in July 26, '64 ; killed Jan. 27, '65, exp. str.

Eclipse.
Taylor, John, must, in Aug. 20, '62; killed Jan. 26, '65, exp. str. Eclipse.
Wendall, Jacob, m. in Apr. 25, '64; m. out June 26, '65.
Winters, Henry, m. in Dec. 15, '64 ; "

RECRUITS FOR 1865.

McFeeley, William, m. in Apr. 11, '62 ; m. out May 13, '65.

EIGHTEENTH BATTERY— THREE YEARS.
SERGEANTS.

Miller, Martin J., in. in July 12, '62 ; pro. 2d lieut.

Binford, James W. m. in July 23, '62 ; m. out June 30, '65, as private.

Miller, John W., m. in July 16, '62 ;

CORPORALS.

Runey, John, m. in July 19, '62; died from wounds.

Sperry, Frederick L. " m. out June 30, '65, as private.

u
«

102 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

McMaken, Benjamin M., m. in July 19, '62; died at Crawfordsville, Ind.,

Jan. 18, 'G3.
Newell, Augustus E., m. in July 12, '62; m. out June 30, '65.
McBroom, Martin V., m. in July 28, '62 ; " as private.

Lyon, Theodore S., m. in Aug. 7, '62 ;

BUGLER.

Campbell, Henry., m. in July 12, '62; dis. to accept commission.

ARTIFICERS."'

Ellis, James H., m. in July 19, '62 ; m. out June 30, '65.

PRIVATES.

Austin, Archelaus C, m. in Aug. 4, '62; m. out June 30, '65.

Barr, Marion J., m. in July 12, '62 ; " as sergt.

Beaver, Christian C, m. in July 28, '62 ; "

Birchfield, William V., m. in July 21, '62; trans, to Miss. Marine Brig.,

Jan. 12, '63.
Birchfield, Thomas F., m. in July 18, '62 ; m out June 30, '65.
Black, William, m> in Aug. 6, '62; died of wounds, Oct. 17, '64.
Butcher, Charles M., m. in July 18, '62; m. out June 30, '65.
Corey, Nelson H., m. in July 20, 62 ; died Dec. 12, '64.
Crouse, William O., m. in Aug. 3, '62 ; m. out June 30, '65, as sergt.
Crawford, John A., m. in July 14, '62 ; "

Fitzpatrick, Patrick, m. in July 20, '62 ; "

Gilkey, Daniel, m. in July 15, '62 ;
Knox, Benjamin F., m. in Aug. 1, '62; dis Apl. 10, '63.
McClure, Nathaniel, m. in July 19, '62 ; m. out Jan. 30, '65, as corp.
Pair, Albert L., m. in July 20, '62 ;
Smith, George A., m. in Aug. 6, '62 ; dis. Jan. 1, '63.
Smith, John A., m. in July 21, '62 ; dis. Nov. 16, '63.
Somerville, James A., m. in July 29, '62 ; m. out June 30, '65.
Speed, Sidney A., m. in July 15, '62 ;
Wolf, William J., m. in July 12, '62 ;

Koll of Soldiers from Montgomery County who were Killed
in Battle, or Died from Disease or Wounds, in the Civil
War, 1861-5.

Below are the names of Montgomery county soldiers who, during the
years of the war, died from disease or wounds, or were killed in battle.
The roll comprises 273 of the flower of Indiana, and their names are
worthy to be engraved on marble :

Marcus O. Sullivan, 9th battery; died at Union City, Tenn., Oct. 26, '63.
Thomas Sparks, 9th battery; killed in an explosion at U. S. Transport,
Jan. 27, '65.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 103

George W. Grimes, 9th battery ; died Feb, 9, '65, of wounds received in

an explosion of steamer Eclipse.
Jesse N". Shafer, 9th battery ; drowned in Tennessee river, April, '62.
John T. Budd, 9th battery ; died March 20, '62.
Cyrus Welborn, 9th battery ; died of wounds received explosion steamer

Eclipse, Feb. 2, '65.
Samuel Mounts, 9th battery; died on hospital steamer, April, '62.
Isaac McCoy, 9th battery ; died near Corinth, Miss., May, '62.
William Wolverton, 9th battery; died from wounds received in explosion

steamer Eclipse, Jan. 27, '65.
Wm. H. H. Warfield, 9th battery; died at Boliver, Tenn., August, '62.
Andrew J. Whitted, 9th battery; died Jan. 21, '65, of wounds received in

explosion steamer Eclipse.
Wm. W. Lowder, 9th battery; killed Jan. 27, '65, explosion st'r Eclipse.
John M. Frier, 9th battery; killed Jan. 27, '65, explosion steamer Eclipse.
Eichard F. Becket, 9th battery; died Jan. 20, '65, of wounds received ex-
plosion steamer Eclipse.
John Bond, 9th battery; died at home, July 20, '64.
Franklin Brown, 9th battery ; killed Jan. 27, '65, explosion Eclipse.
George Brough, 9th battery ; killed by guerrillas near Yellow Bayou, La.,

May 16, '64.
Jesse 0. Davis, 9th battery ; killed Jan. 27, '65, explosion steamer Eclipse.
Samuel Dwiggins, 9th battery ; killed Jan. 27, '65.
Joseph F. Flinn, 9th battery; died at Pea Ridge, Tenn., May 6, '62.
Uriah Hadley, 9th battery; died at Pittsburg Landing, May, '62.
James M. Heidrich, 9th battery; died Feb. 10, '63.
Andrew J. Hood, 9th battery ; died at Keokuk, Iowa, '62.
John M. Henry, 9th battery ; supposed to be captured by enemy.
Wm. M. Henry, 9th battery; killed Jan. 27, '65, on steamer Eclipse.
Joseph Julien, 9th battery; killed Jan. 27, '65, on steamer Eclipse.
John W. Livingston, 9th battery ; killed by guerrillas at Canton, Miss.,

Feb. '26, '64.
Wilson M. Caiman t, 9th battery ; killed Jan. 27, '65, on steamer Eclipse.
James S. Owen, 9th battery; died on steamer A. D. Wood, March, '64.
Daniel Ping, 9th battery ; died near Shiloh, Tenn., May, '62.
Lewis Royl, 9th battery; killed at Yellow Bayou t La., May 18, '64.
Wm. L. Scott, 9th battery; died on steamer, April, '64.
James A. Scott, 9th battery; died on steamer, April, '62.
John S. Smock, 9th battery ; died Feb. 5, '65, of wounds received on

steamer Eclipse.
James Thompson, 9th battery ; killed at Shiloh, April 7, '62.
Albert S. Underwood, 9th battery ; killed Jan. 27, '65, on steamer Eclipse.
Joseph F. Wolfe, 9th battery; died near Shiloh, Tenn., May, '62.
Wm. B. York, 9th battery; died at Vicksburg, Miss., June 1, '64.

104 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Win. W. Brooshear, 9th battery; killed at Yellow Bayou, La., May 18, '64.

Thomas A. Brow, 9th battery; died at Memphis, Term., June 26, '64.

Wm. E. Conner, 9th battery ; died at Memphis, Feb., '64.

Wm. H. Coffin, 9th battery; died Jan. 29, '65, of wounds received by ex-
plosion steamer Eclipse.

Frances English, 9th battery ; killed Jan. 27, '65, on steamer explosion.

Charles Griffin, 9th battery; died at Columbus, Ky., '63.

John Healey, 9th battery ; killed Jan. 27, '65, on steamer Eclipse.

Snider I. Hibler, 9th battery; died at Memphis, Tenn., '74.

James T. Monroe, 9th battery; died at Memphis, August, '64.

James M. McCord, 9th battery ; died at Memphis, June 28, '64.

Thomas Noblet, 9th battery; died at Memphis, July, '64.

Joseph W. Smith, 9th battery; killed Jan. 27, '64, on steamer Eclipse.

Matthew Stover, 9th battery; died at Memphis, March, '64.

John Taylor, 9th battery; killed Jan. 27, '65, on steamer Eclipse.

Benj. F. Thomas, 9th battery; killed Jan. 27, '65, by explosion steamer
Eclipse.

Thomas C. White, 9th battery ; died at Memphis, Oct. '64.

Isaac F. Miller, B, 10th ; died at Corinth, Miss., July 1, '62.

Wm. S. Duncan, B, 10th; died of wounds received at Kenesaw Moun-
tain June 28, '64.

George W. Stover, B, 10th; killed at Perryville, Ky., Oct. 8, '63.

Joel Mauker, B, 10th ; killed at Perryville, Ky., Oct. 8, '62.

Benj. M. Babb, B, 10th ; killed at Chickamauga, Ga., Sept. 20, '62.

James E. Copner, B, 10th ; killed at Mill Springs, Ky., Jan. 19, '62.

Wesley C. Elmore, B, 10th; died at Corinth, Miss., July 2, '62.

Isaac Inlow, B, 10th ; died at Crawfordsville, June 22, '62.

Thomas J. Jessee, B, 10th; died at Corinth, Miss., June 19, '62.

Daniel B. Lynn, B, 10th ; died at Evansville, Aug. 19, '62.

Amos K. Misner, B, 10th ; killed at Mill Springs, Ky., Jan. 19, '62.

Wm. Newkirk, B, 10th; died at Corinth, Miss., May 29, '62.

Andrew Ochiltree, B, 10th; died at Somerset, Ky., Feb. 15, '62, of
wounds received at Mill Springs.

John W. Pickerill, B. 10th ; killed at Perryville, Ky., Oct. 8, '62.

George W. Pruitt, B, 10th ; died at Shiloh, May 9, '62.

James A. Shoemaker, B, 10th; killed at Perryville, Ky., Oct. 8, '62.

Wm. A. Simpson, B, 10th ; died at Standford, Ky., Feb. 20, '62.

James H. Snyder, B, 10th ; died at Mill Springs, Ky., Feb. 12, '62.

Geo. W. Tipton, B, 10th; died at Somerset, Ky., March 9, '63.

Franklin W. Davis, B, 10th ; died at Jeffersonville, Ind., Aug. 10, '64.

Benj. Pi. Lewis, B, 10th; died at Chattanooga, Tenn., Aug. 9, '64.

Wm. F. Arvin, G, 11th ; died at Keokuk, Iowa, Oct. 13, '63.

Cycus H. Bair, G, 11th; died May 19, '63, of wounds received at Cham-
pion Hills.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 105

Miles Castor, G, 11th ; died at Helena, Ark., Jan. 8, '63.

John W. Creamer, G, 11th ; died at St. Louis, March 3, '63.

James W. Largent, G, 11th ; died at Helena, Ark., April 14, '63.

David M. Lasley, G, 11th ; killed at Champion Hills, May 16, '63.

Charles Meredith, G, 11th ; died at New Orleans, May 28, '64.

John Phillips, G, 11th; died in Danville Prison. Captured at Cedar

Creek.
Jordon E. Eich, G, 11th,; died May 28, '63, of wounds received at Cham-
pion Hills.
Wm. M. Sayer, G, 11th ; died at Carrollton, La., Aug. 28, '63.
Wm. Westbrook, G, 11th ; killed at Champion Hills, May 16, '63.
Solomon Young, G, 11th ; died at Madisonville, La., Jan. 2, '63.
Wm. N. Carman, H, 11th; died at St. Louis, Mo., Sept 16, '61.
John W. Bailey, H, 11th; killed at Halltown, Va., Aug. 24, '64.
Daniel G. Sprague, I, 11th; died at Madison, Oct. 2, '63.
Elijah Cox, I, 11th ; died at Helena, Ark., Feb. 4, '63.
Byron Love, I, 11th ; died at Paducah, Ky., Dec. 15, '61.
Marion Thomas, I, 11th ; died at New Orleans, Oct. 4, '64.
Wm. H. White, I, 11th; died at Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 20, '62.
Charles Balser, I, 11th ; died at Sandy Hook, Md., Aug. 20, '64.
James Patterson, I, 11th ; killed at Winchester, Sept. 19, '64.
Aaron Wert, 1, 11th ; died at Winchester, Oct. 24, '64, of wounds received

at Cedar Creek.
Kobert B. Gitbert, E, 15th ; killed at Mission Eidge, Nov. 25, '63.
George Ammerman, E, 15th; died Oct. 17, '61.
Solomon Bowers, E, 15th ; died Nov. 25, '63, from wounds received at

Mission Eidge.
Abraham Bennett, E, 15 ; died Dec. 17, '61.
Silas Cooley, E, 15th ; died Dec. 17, '63, from wounds received at Mission

Eidge.
Eeuben Emmerson, E, 15th ; killed at Mission Eidge, Nov. 25, '63.
James A. Hill, E, 15th ; died Jan. 17, '62.
Thomas McDonald, E, 15th; died Oct. 14, '61.
Wm. P. Moore, E, 15th ; died Feb. 5, '63, of wounds received at Stoue

Eiver.
George W. O'Daniel, E, 15th ; died Dec. 8, '62. >
Eobert F. Sailors, E, 15th ; died Feb. 18, '63, of wounds received at Stone

Eiver.
John A. Small, E, 15th ; killed at Stone Eiver, Dec. 31, '62.
John D. Stockton, E, 15th ; died in Libby Prison, from wounds received

at Stone Eiver.
Adam Sittinger, E, 15th ; killed at Stone Eiver, Dec. 31, '62.
David Stout, E, 15th ; died Feb. 25, '62.
Henry Staffer., E, 15th ; killed at Stone Eiver, Dec. 31, '62.

106 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

T. A. H. Sweem, E, 15th ; died March 8, '63.

John C. Tyson, E. 15th ; died Dec. 10, '63, of wounds received at Mission
Ridge.

Fred Waltz, E, 15th ; killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.

Emery Williams, E, 15th ; killed at Stone River, Dec. 31, '62.

John B. Rakestraw, G, 26th; died at New Orleans, Dec. 2, '63.

Harvey Jackson, G, 26th ; died at Donaldsonville, La., July 30, '64.

Win. G. Canine, H, 38th; died of disease, in '63, four hours after he
reached his home in Crawfordsville.

Alexander H. Buchanan, H, 38th; died of wounds in '63.

John M. Cassady, H, 38th ; died of wounds Sept. 2, '64.

Charles E. Fowler, H, 38th ; killed at Marietta, Ga., Aug. 26, '64.

John F. Hanna, H, 38th ; died of disease, Feb. 13, '62.

John W. McDaniel, H, 38th; killed at Perryville, Oct. 8, '62.

Thomas Noon, H, 38th ; died at Nashville, Sept. 3, '63.

Luther H. Patton, H, 38th ; died of disease at Chattanooga, Feb. 20, '65.

William A. Riley, H, 38th ; killed at Chickamauga, Sept. 19, '65.

Chauncey Richardson, H, 38th ; died of disease at Beaufort, S. C, May
5, '65.

Samuel W. Sterrett, H, 38th ; killed at Perryville, Ky., Oct. 8, '62.

Columbus W. Veatch, H, 38th ; lost on steamer Sultan, April 27, '65.

James II. Wells, H, 38th ; killed. No date reported.

William Kennedy, C, 40th; died at Bowling Green, Ky., March 19, '62.

Moses Connell, C, 40th ; killed at Kenesaw, June 27, '64.

Josiah Davis, C, 40th ; died Nov. 25, '63, of wounds received at Mission
Ridge.

Clinton Hamilton, C, 40th ; died July 25, '62.

Thomas Hamilton, C, 40th ; killed in action, June 14, '64.

Robert C. H. Hanna, C, 40th ; killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '65.

James M. Hanna, C, 40th ; died Feb. 4, '64, of wounds received at Mis-
sion Ridge.

Harvey Michael, C, 40th ; died at Nashville, Tenn., May 8, '62.

John C. Monfort, C, 40th ; died Nov. 25, '62, of wounds.

Allen Moore, C, 40th ; died at Chattanooga, Tenn., May 25, '64.

Michael Philips, C, 40th ; died Jan. 7, '62.

James R. Shelton, C, 40th ; killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.

William Smith, C, 40th; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., April 7, '63.

Wm. N. Vancleave,C, 40th; died at Nashville, April 12, '62.

James Elrod, C, 40th ; killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.

Caleb W. Connor, C, 40th ; died at Nashville, Oct, 22, '64.

Wm. 01iver,C, 40th ; died June 27, '64, of wounds.

Samuel N. Elrod, G, 40th ; died June 28, '64, of wounds.

Vincent Grove, G, 40th ; died at Louisville, Ky., Jan. 30, '62.

Wm. F. Peede,G,40th ; died at Murfreesboro, Feb. 28, '73.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 107

Francis M. Keed, G, 40th ; died at Munfordsville, Ky., March 18, '62.

James M. Wilson, G, 40th ; died — , '62.

Wm. Hutchison, G, 40th ; killed at Kenesaw, Jan. 27, '64.

Joseph Belton, H, 40th ; died March 28, '65.

James H. Ham, H, 40th ; died Aug. 20, '64.

Taylor Mcintosh, H, 40th ; died Dec. 16, '63, of wounds.

Harrison T. Moore, H, 40th ; died of wounds received at Resaca, May 29,
,'64.

Charles Osborn, H, 40th ; died at Texarkana, Texas, Nov. 19, '65.

Milton H. Porter, H, 40th ; died June 30, '64, of wounds received at Kene-
saw.

George W. Rogers, H, 40th; missing in action at Franklin, Tenn. Sup-
posed to be killed.

Alvin Egnew, K, 40th ; killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.

Lieut, Thomas W. Zook, D, 63d ; died June 7, '63.

John M. Bly, D, 63d ; killed at Marietta, Ga., June 27, '64.

A. J. Gray, H, 63d ; killed at Resaca, May 14, '64.

Willis L. Gray, H, 63d ; killed at Atlanta, July 28, '64.

Richard McLean, B, 63d; killed at Resaca, May 14, '64.

Silas C. Drake, A, 63d ; died at Nashville, May 10, '64.

Wm. B. Montgomery, B, 72d; killed by guerrillas near Lebanon, Tenn.,
April 4, '63.

Wm. C. McClean, B, 72d ; died at Gallatin, Jan. 17, '63.

John H. Brown, B, 72d ; died in rebel prison at Cahawba, Ala., May
12, '64.

Robert Childers, B, 72d ; died at Murfreesboro, Jan. 26, '63.

George W. Dodd, B, 72d ; died at Gallatin, Tenn., Nov. 27, '62.

Sanford Doyle, B, 72d ; died at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 14, '62.

John E. Dost, B, 72d; left wounded atOkolona, Miss., Feb. 22, '64. Sup-
posed to be dead.

Samuel Grubbs, B, 72d ; died at Camp Dennison, O., Feb. 11, '63.

Noah Harshbarger, B, 72d ; died at Bowling Green, Ky., June 18, '63.

John M. Heaswah, B, 72d ; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., May 22, '63.

John L. Harris, B, 72d ; died at Bowling Green, Ky., Nov. 15/62.

Eldridge Jackson, B, 72d ; died at Gallatin, Tenn., Jan. 10, '63.

Athel Jackson, B, 72d ; died at Gallatin, Tenn., Jan. 12, '63.

David Martin, B, 72d ; wounded and captured at Chattanooga, Sept. 19,
'63. Supposed to be dead.

Wm. H. Mills, B, 72d ; died at New Albany, May 15, '63.

David Monahan, B, 72d ; died at Gallatin, Tenn., Jan. 18, '63.

Aaron Patton, B, 72d ; killed by accident at Columbia, Tenn., Sept. 5, '64.

Nathan Pickett, B, 72d ; died at Bardstown, Ky., Nov. 16, '62.

David S. Trickey, B, 72d ; died at Selma, Ala., Oct. 17, '63.

Henry F.Wright, B, 72d ; died at Frankfort, Ky., Nov. 10, '62.

108 HISTOKY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Elam P. Wright, B, 72d; died at Columbia, Tenn., April 25, '64.
Richard Myers, B, 72d; drowned at Macon, Ga., May 8, '65.
Wm. Ashby, E, 72d; died at Gallatin, Tenn., Dec. 27, '62.
J. H. Webster, E, 72d ; died at New Albany.
Geo. W. Garman, E, 72d ; died at Murfreesboro, April 18, '63.
Horatio Hoffs, E, 72d ; died at New Albany, Dec. 7, '63.
David W. Insley, E, 72d ; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., April 27, '63.
Wm. G. Keys, E, 72d; died in Andersonville prison, July 26, '64.
John A. Neely, E, 72d; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., May 28, '63.
Henry S. Peters, E, 72d ; died at New Albany, Oct. 27, 62.
John W. Slavens, E, 72d; died at New Albany, Nov. 20, '62.
John J. Stewart, E. 72d; died at Louisville, July 21, '63.
George B. Thorpe, E, 72d; died at Gallatin, Jan. 11, '63.
James W. Wright, E, 72d ; died at Murfreesboro, June 5, '63.
John C. Wood, E, 72d ; killed at Chickamauga, Sept. 19, '63.
Thomas C. Mann, I, 4th Cav.; died at Nashville, Nov. 9, '63.
George Bayless, I, 4th Cav. ; killed at Munfordville, Ky., Dec. 25, '62.
Wm. Blackburn, I, 4th Cav. ; died at Nashville Nov. 12, '63.
Cora T. Wilbur, I, 4th Cav. ; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 29, '64.
Jeptha Custer, I, 86th ; killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.
, Charles Naylor, K, 86th ; died at Bowling Green, Ky., Nov. 1, '62.
George Galloway, K, 86th ; died at Indianapolis, Sept. 5, '62.
Bartholomew Green, K, 86th ; died Jan. 9, '62, of wounds received at

Stone River.
Warren Osborn, K, 86th ; died at Danville, Ky., Dec. 25, '62.
Wm. W. Sanders, K, 86th ; killed at Nashville, Dec. 15, '64.
Elsha Smith, K, 86th ; died at Chattanooga, Feb. 4, '65.
Jonathan T. Urmston, K, 86th ; died Oct. 21, '63, of wounds.
Foster C. Willey, K, 86th ; died at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 29, '63.
Martin L. Williams, K, 86th ; killed at Stone River, Dec. 31, '62.
Wm. M. Wysong, K, 86th ; died at Nashville, Jan. 27, '62.
Silas Rider, L, 5th Cav.; died at Glasgow, Ky., April 29, '63.
James Shevelin, B, 120th; killed at Franklin, Tenn., Nov. 30, '64.
Benj. B. Ensminger, B, 120th ; died at Petersburg, Va., June 25, '65.
John C. Bannon, B, 120th ; died at Jeffersonville, Jan. 4, '65.
Ulysses R. Clark, B, 120th; died at Louisville, June 26, '64.
Marshal F. Cully, B. 120th ; killed at Atlanta, Ga., Aug. 9, '64.
Wm. P. Gott, B, 120th ; died at Marietta, Ga., May 3, '64.
Reuben C. Hatt, B, 120th ; died at Annapolis, Md., Dec. 29, '64.
James McGregg, 135th ; died while home on a furlough in '64.
Henry N. Ornbaun, 79th ; died at Chattanooga, Dec. 1, '64.
Capt. Absalom Kirkpatrick, 40th ; killed at Kenesaw Mountain, June

25, '64.
John Thompson, 40th ; perished on the Sultana boat, April 27, '65.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 109

Francis G. Lee, B, 120th ; died at Newbern, N. C, March 19, '65.

Lorenzo D. Long, B, 120th ; killed at Atlanta, July 20, '64.

Wm. Miller, B, 120th ; died at Knoxville, Tenn.

Daniel Orr, B, 120th ; died Feb. 8, '64.

Thaddeus Peebles, B, 120th ; died at Newbern, N. C, April 25, '65.

Wm. A. Waggoner, B, 120th; died at Chattanooga, Tenn., June 17, '64.

George A. Wilson, B, 120th ; died at Chattanooga, June 20, '64.

Earl F. Wright, B, 120th ; died at Louisville, Feb. 3, '65.

John M. Thomas, C, 120th ; died at Knoxville, July 27, '64.

Thomas W. Morrison, C ; died at Nashville, April 29, '64.

McConnell Bailey, C ; died at Indianapolis, March 14, '64.

Wm. Gillian, C, 120th ; died at Andersonville prison, June 15, '64.

Daniel W. Mclntire, C, 120th ; died at Knoxville, July 12, '64.

Wm. C. Wilson, C, 120th ; died at Indianapolis, March 11, '64.

Benson Skillman, K, 11th Cav. ; died May 8, '64.

Wm. A. Fuel, K, 11th Cav. ; died Feb. 17, '64.

John Inlow, K, 11th Cav. ; died at Jeffersonville, April 4, '64.

Geo. H. Bonk, K, 11th Cav. ; died at Huntsville, Ala., Oct. 5, '64.

James L. Routh, K, 11th Cav. ; died at Eastport, Miss., May 3, '64.

Wm. H. Ring, K. 11th Cav.; died at Larkinsville, Ala., Aug. 11, '64.

John A. Shaw, K, 11th Cav. ; died at

Geo. H. Duke, C, 135th ; died at Nashville, Sept. 4, '64.

Henry C. Rountree, E, 135th; died at New Albany, Sept. 21, '64.

John H. Beach, F, 135th ; died at Bridgeport, Ala., June 30, '64.

Joseph Ham, F, 135th ; died at Bridgeport, Ala., June 23, '64.

Thomas Harrison, F, 135th ; died at Bridgeport, Ala., July 16, '64.

Richard B. Blackburn K, 154th; died at Indianapolis, April 19, '65.

Elijah Collins, K, 154th ; died at Indianapolis, April 26, '65.

Wm. Smith, K, 154th ; died at Cumberland, Md., June 30, '65.

John A. Sidener, 10th battery; died at Murfreesboro, June, '63.

Israel E. Moore, 10th battery; died at Murfreesboro, July 6, '63.

Isaac Martz, 10th battery; died at Nashville, Sept. 11, '63.

Dan'l. W. Test, 10th battery ; killed at Fletcher's Ferry, Tenn., May 18, '64.

Capt. W. W. Southard, K, 86th ; killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, '63.

Lieut. James M. Hanna, C, 40th ; died Feb. 28, '64.

Joseph Bolser, 9 th battery.

Robert Smith, 9th battery ; died while home on a furlough.

Wm. W. Black, 18th battery ; killed while on a foraging expedition near
Dalton, Georgia.

Edward R. A. Black, 20th Ind. Vols. ; killed, while on picket duty, on the
night of the 4th of July after the battle of Gettysburg. He had been
in nineteen battl-es without receiving a scratch, and was killed by a
hidden foe after the close of the great battle which decided the. war.

110 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Horace B. Smith, I, 11th; reiinlisted in 82d Ohio; wounded at Gettys-
burg, captured and imprisoned at Belle Isle, and afterward at Ander-
sonville, Ga., when he died March 13, '64.

John Combs, D, 63d ; died at Nelson, Ky., May 14, '64.

George Combs, D, 33d ; died in Ky., '64.

Patrick Lynch, 19th U. S. Inf.; died at Nashville, Tenn., of wounds re-
ceived at Stone River.

Jesse York, D, 3d Md.; killed at Chancellorsville.

James Greene, 19th U. S. Inf.; killed at Stone River.

Britton Hamilton, D, 63d ; place of death not given.

Jeptha Singer, L, 5th Cav. ; killed in action near Knoxville, Tenn., Dec.
18, '63.

William S. Adams, same Co.; died of small-pox at Lexington, Ky., April
28, '64.

John H. Coshow, L, 5th Cav. ; killed at Sunshine Church, Ga., July 3, '64.

Silas Rider, L, 5th Cav.; died at Glasgow, Ky., April 29, '63.

Wm. M. Vancleve, L, 5th Cav.; died Nov. 30, '64.

Zephaniah TV. Sanders, 16th Bat. ; died of sickness at Washington, D. C,
Nov. 19, '63.

Alfred W. Calfee, 38th Ind. ; died near Savannah, Jan. '65.

Daniel Smith, 62d Ind.; died at Nashville, Oct. '63.

Benjamin McMaken, 18th Ind.; died at home, while on a furlough, of
chronic diarrhoea, contracted while a member of Co. B, 10th Ind. reg.,
during the three-mouths service.

Charles Ochiltree, U. S. Inf. ; died at home in Feb. '65.

James Fullen wider, 33d reg. ; killed at Thompson Station, Tenn., March
24, '63.

Eugene N. Shellady, 11th Ind. ; died at Evansville, April 1, '62.

John N. Raper, F, 17th Mounted Inf.; died at Columbia, Tenn.,
June 10, '64.

Benjamin F. White, 27th ; died at Snaketown, Md., in '62.

Wm. Arnold and Thomas Shields, of the Harris Light Cavalry, were
killed in a skirmish in Virginia in '62.

Robert Heck Avas killed at Nashville.

D. B. Ritchey, 54th, died at home.

Hiram Thomas, C, 16th ; died at Covington, Ky., Dec. 4, '63.

Joseph Singer, L, 5th Cav., killed in East Tenn., Dec. 8, '63, while for-
aging.

Robert Tricky, K, 63d ; killed by accident at New Haven Ky.

THE RAILROAD INTEREST OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. Ill

THE RAILROAD INTEREST OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

An important factor in the development and material progress of
Montgomery county has been the railroads, which the energy and
enterprise of her people have secured. No history would be com-
plete which omitted mention of this. interest, and the marvelous
changes it has wrought. In 1848, in the early days of railroading
in Indiana, the legislature of this state granted to a corporation,
the main projectors of which resided at New Albany, a charter allow-
ing it to construct a line of railroad "from New Albany to Salem,
and thence to any other point or points in the State of Indiana."
The organization effected under this charter, constructed the
road from New Albany to Salem, a distance of thirty miles. It
was completed in 1850, only two years after the undertaking was be-
gun. The illiberal ity of the legislature toward railroad enterprises
at this period, and the reluctance with which it granted charters for
them, paradoxical as the statement may seem, were the means of
securing to Montgomery county a railroad much sooner than would
have been the case had the legislation respecting them been of a
more friendly character. The Michigan Central railroad was, at this
time, earnestly but successfully petitioning the legislature for a
charter granting it the right to extend its line around the shore of
Lake Michigan through this state to Chicago. Baffled in its attempt
to secure this privilege, the Michigan Central found in the liberal
provision of the New Albany & Salem charter, as quoted above, a
solution of what had been a hard problem. This company at once
began to agitate the extension of the New Albany & Salem railroad
from Salem to a point on Lake Michigan. In the final accomplish-
ment of this design the Michigan Central obtained relief from its
embarrassment. Under the impetus given to the enterprise by its
aid and liberal subscription to the stock, work was immediately be-
gun on the northern end of the road, and soon afterward on the en-
tire line. In 1850 the citizens of Crawfordsville and Montgomery
county organized a company for the construction of the Crawfords-
ville & Wabash railroad, a line projected from Crawfordsville to La
Fayette, a distance of twenty-eight miles. The construction of this
road was exclusively a Montgomery county enterprise. The county
commissioners subscribed for $100,000 of the capital stock, and
issued bonds for its payment. The enterprise met with many ob-
stacles, not the least of which was the determined opposition made
by La Fayette. This thriving young city looked with extreme dis-
favor on the establishment of a rival trade center with shipping

112 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

facilities equal to her own, and in the midst of a territory hitherto
monopolized by her merchants. The enterprising tradesmen of La
Fayette with their own funds built a plank road, which has long
since rotted away, from that city to within one mile of Crawfords-
ville, hoping thereby to retain the very profitable trade which they
had built up with the people of Montgomery county. But, notwith-
standing this organized opposition, the railroad was pushed rapidly
forward to completion. An organization had been effected by the
election of Major I. C. Elston as president, and Alexander Thom-
son as secretary. To the large executive ability and untiring indus-
try of these two men, in a great measure, was due the success which
eventually crowned the enterprise. The Crawfordsville & Wabash
railroad was completed to La Fayette in 1852. About three years
later it was consolidated with and became a part of the New Albany
& Salem railroad, the name of which was afterward changed to that
which it now bears, the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago railroad.
In 1859 the entire road was completed, and a train of cars run
through from New Albany to Michigan City. The county nev r er re-
alized anything from the $100,000 of stock subscribed to the Craw-
fordsville & Wabash road, and the amount may be put down as a
donation to the company.

The next enterprise which engaged the attention and taxed the
energies of the people of Montgomery county was the construction
of a line communicating directly with the east. The growing wants
of trade and commerce demanded with unmistakable emphasis an
eastern outlet. As early as 1855 a line was surveyed from New
Castle, Henry county, through Crawfordsville to Danville, Illinois.
Prof. Twining, of Wabash College, was the main projector of this
road, and under his supervision a company was organized for its
construction. A considerable portion of the grading between Craw-
fordsville and Covington had been completed, when the whole un-
dertaking suddenly collapsed, in consequence of the financial panic of
1 857. In 1864 C. K. Lord began the construction of a line from
Indianapolis to Danville by way of Crawfordsville, but soon after-
ward abandoned the project. The enterprise assumed definite shape
in 1866, when a railroad convention was held in Crawfordsville.
Delegates were present from all the counties through which the line
of the road passed. An organization was effected with a capital
stock of $50,000, all of which was at once subscribed. A board
of directors was chosen, of whom the following were from Mont-
gomery county : S. C. Wilson, David Harter, V. Q. Irwin, and
James Graham. The board organized by the election of Col. S. C.

THE RAILROAD INTEREST OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 113

Willson, of Crawfordsville, as president, and Prof. John L. Camp-
bell as chief engineer. The new road was designated as the Indian-
apolis, Crawfordsville & Danville railroad. Books for private sub-
scriptions to aid in building the road were opened, and most liber-
ally filled ; but in 1867 the subscribers were released from their ob-
ligations in consideration of a donation of $125,000, which the
county commissioners at that time made to the road. The right of
way through the county was secured to the company, as was also the
old road-bed of the Newcastle & Danville railroad, valued at $80,-
000. Col. Samuel C. Willson deserves well of Montgomery county
for the indefatigable energy and good judgment which he displayed
in the performance of his duties as president of the road. His un-
selfish labors in its behalf were so successful that the road-bed was
completed and the work of laying rails begun on November 19,
1868. The first spike was driven on that day, near the junction,
amid imposing ceremonies. The road was completed to Indian-
apolis, and the first train run to that city on May 4, 1869. One
year later the Indianapolis, Crawfordsville & Danville, and the
Danville, Urbana & Pekin roads were consolidated under one name,
the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western railway, which was sub-
sequently changed to the name which it now bears, Indiana, Bloom-
ington & Western railway. It would be wellnigh impossible to
overestimate the benefits which the people of Montgomery county
have reaped from the opening of this new channel of commerce to
the markets of the east. The thick forests of oak and walnut in the
eastern part of the county became at once accessible, and the lum-
ber produced from them has been the source of a large annual
revenue ever since. Renewed activity was infused into every
branch of business, and the county entered upon a new era of pros-
perity. The Logansport, Crawfordsville & Southwestern railway,
the last one built in Montgomery county, was formed by the consoli-
dation of three partially completed roads. These were the Frank-
fort & Logansport,, the Crawfordsville & Frankfort, and the Craw-
fordsville & Rockville railroads. A proposition donating $125,000
to aid in the construction of this road was submitted to the voters of
the county on August 9, 1869, and was carried by about 400 ma-
jority. John Lee, of Crawfordsville, was elected president of the
road, and as liberal subsidies were secured by Mr. Lee all along the
line, he was enabled to complete the work in about two years. The
road has changed hands several times since it was built, and is now
known as the Logansport division of the Terre Haute & Indian-
apolis (Vandalia) railroad.
9

114 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

These three roads have added to the taxable property of the
county nearly half a million of dollars. The valuation at the last
appraisement was as follows :

The Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railroad Company has in
the county twenty-three and a half miles of track, valued for
taxation at $8,500 per mile, making a total valuation of $199,750

Its rolling stock in the county is valued at 42,300

Total valuation 242,050

The Terre Haute & Logansport Railroad Company has in the
county twenty-one and a half miles of track, valued for taxa-
tion at $3,000 per mile, making a total valuation of 64,500

It has rolling stock in the county valued at 10,750

Total valuation 75,250

The Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad Company has in
the county twenty-four miles of track, valued for taxation at

$3,000 per mile, making a total valuation of 72,000

Its rolling stock in the county is valued at 13,800

Total valuation 85,800

Grand total valuation of track and rolling stock in the county $403,100

COUNTY OFFICERS.

The following is a full list of the county officers from the organ-
ization of the county to the present time, showing the dates at which
they served and the term of service of each :

CLERKS.

John Wilson, 1823 to 1837. William K. Wallace, 1863 to 1871.

James W. Lynn, 1837 to 1851. Isaac M. Yance, 1871 to 1875.

Andrew P. Lynn, 1851 to 1855. T. D. Brown, 1875 to 1879.

William C. Yance, 1855 to 1863. T. D. Brown, 1879 to 1883.

SHERIFFS.

S. D.Maxwell, May to Nov. 1823. William K.Wallace, 1857 to 1859.

David Yance, 1823 to 1827. George W. Hall, 1859 to 1863.

Foster Field, 1827 to 1829. Isaac Davis, 1863 to 1865.

David Yance, 1829 to 1833. JohnN. McConnell,1865 to 1869.

Ambrose Harland, 1833 to 1S37. Hugh E. Sidener, 1869 to 1873.

David Yance, 1837 to 1841. Isaac M. Kelsey, 1873 to 1875.-

William K Gott, 1841 to 1S45. Samuel D. Smith, 1875 to 1877.

Joseph Allen, 1845 to 1847. William J. Krugg, 1877 to 1879.

William P. Ramey, 1847 to 1851. William J. Krugg, 1879 to 1881.

Benjamin Misner, 1851 to 1853. James Q.W.Wilhite,1881 to 1883.
William H. Schooler, 1853 to 1857.

COUNTY OFFICERS.

115

TREASURERS.

David Vance, 1841 to 1855.
John R. Coons, 1855 to 1857.
John Lee, 1857 to 1859.
William H. Schooler, 1859 to 1863.
Robert F. Beck, 1863 to 1867.
Robert H. Myrick, 1867 to 1869.

Warren Davis, 1869 to 1873.
William P. Herron, 1873 to 1875.
John A. Hardee, 1875 to 1879.
Fountain N. Johnson, 1879 to

1881.
John D wiggins, 1881 to 1883.

AUDITORS.

John B. Austin, 1841 to 1855. Isaac M. Vance, 1863 to 1871.

James Gilkey, 1855 to 1859. James H. Watson, 1871 to 1879.

David T. Ridge, 1859 to 1863. James H. Wasson, 1879 to 1883.

RECORDERS.

Matthew Cowley, 1825 to 1827.
John Wilson, 1827 to 1830.
George Miller, 1830 to 1846.
James Heaton, 1846 to 1853.
Geo. W.Alexander, 1853 to 1861.

Hugh J

Webster, 1861 to 1869
T. K Myers, 1869 to 1877.
Marion P. Wolf, 1877 to 1881.
John Johnson, 1881 to 1885.

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.

William Offield, 1823 to 1824.
Henry Ristine, 1824 to 1827.
James Blevins, 1823 to 1827.
John McCullough, 1823 to 1827.
Charles Swearinger, 1827 to 1829.
James Milroy, 1827 to 1831.
Daniel Easley, 1827 to 1831.
Dennis Ball, 1829 to 1840.
James Seller, 1829 to 1838.
Frederick Moore, 1831 to 1841.
Richard McAfferty, 1838 to 1841.
Joseph Gray, 1840 to 1840.
James Gregory, Sept. 1840 to

1842.
Daniel Easley, 1841 to 1843.
Jacob Chrisman, 1841 to 1847.
Joseph Gray, 1842 to 1852.
Washington Holloway, 1843 to

1852.
C. H. R. Anderson, 1847 to 1850.
J. W. Shaw, 1850 to 1852.
Daniel Long, 1852 to 1852.

J. M. Shaver, 1852 to 1858.
fra. P. Watson, 1852 to 1860.
Henry Lee, 1852 to 1854.
Wm Mulliken, 1854 to 1855.
Samuel Gilliland, 1855 to 1864.
Thomas E. Harris, 1858 to 1859.
John E. Corbin, 1859 to 1866.
John Gaines, 1860 to 1863.
David Long, 1863 to 1870.
Taylor Buffington, 1864 to 1867.
Samuel Marts, 1866 to 1868.
Samuel Gilliland, 1867 to 1870.
Thomas Wilson, 1868 to 1871.
James Mclntire, 1870 to 1876.
James Lee, 1870 to 1876.
James F. Hall, 1871 to 1874.
Samuel L. Hutton, 1874 to 1877.
Tyra L. Hanna, 1876.
Levi Thomas, 1876.
Thomas J. Wilson, 1877 to 1880.
J. M. Hashberger, 1880.

IK) HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

Win. P. Britton, 1865 to 1868. John F. Thompson, 1871 to 1873.
Thomas Patterson, 1868 for 3 mo. M. E. Clodfelter, 1873 to 1875.
John W. Fullen, 1868 to 1871. John G. Overton, 1875 to 1881.

UNION TOWNSHIP.

CRAWFORDSVILLE.

The town of Crawfordsville owed its existence to Maj. Ambrose
Whitlock, who laid out the original plat in March, 1823, upon the
S. W. i of Sec. 32, T. 19 N., R. 4 W., Terre Haute land district. The
recorded survey furnishes the following particular description of the
town territory : " Each street running north and south is laid parallel
with the north and south line of sections thirty-one and thirty-two,
and each street and alley running east and west is laid parallel with
a line dividing townships eighteen and nineteen. Each street within
the lots is sixty-six feet wide, except Market and Washington streets,
which are ninety-nine feet wide. Each alley is ten feet wide, and a
reservation of sixty feet, as a street, is made all around the town,
except from the south side of Spring street to the northeast corner
of the town. Each lot within the town is one hundred and sixty-
five feet by eighty-two feet six inches. The town was christened
in honor of Col. William Crawford, of Virginia, a distinguished
soldier, who in the year 1782, while leading a volunteer force against
the hostile Indians on the river Sandusky, was captured, tortured,
and burned to death at the stake. During the year 1823 Craw-
fordsville was made the seat of government of Montgomery county,
and for judicial purposes likewise over all that district of land lying
north of Montgomery county to the southern shore of Lake Michigan
and known as Wabash county. This fact, together with the location
of a government land office at Crawfordsville in the succeeding year,
gave a healthy impulse of growth to the infant community, which,
at the date of Maj. Whitlock's platting of lots, consisted of not
more than a dozen families. The town was situated near one of the
great Indian trails, that crossing Ohio, Indiana and Illinois gave
passage through the wilderness to the tide of immigration from the
east. Lying just outside of the original plat were several large
springs, even then famous for the purity and medicinal qualities of
the water, and this fact doubtless had much to do with the choice of
the location. Maj. Whitlock expressly reserved to the public the

UNION TOWNSHIP. 117

free use and access to these springs, and built his residence in the
midst of a beautiful grove immediately above them.

" Of the original appearance of the town but little can be learned,
as all of the hardy race of pioneers who cleared the forest from the
town site and built their cabins have paid the debt of nature, and
have left no permanent record behind. William Miller appears to
have erected the first cabin in Crawfordsville about fifty yards north
of where Brown and Watkins' flouring-mill now stands, and other
cabins were sprinkled along at intervals over the territory bounded
by Green and Market streets and the Louisville, New Albany &
Chicago railroad tracks, extending on the north as far as the La
Fayette depot.

"The land office building stood in the center of the little settle-
ment and was located a few feet west of the mill just referred to.
It was composed of the universal building material then in use
logs, mortised and tenoned, and contained a primitive desk and a
few slab benches, with an iron chest to hold the silver and gold paid
in for land ; and we may here remark that the good old strong box
now does duty as a powder magazine for the grocery firm of James
Lee & Brother.

"Probably the only contemporaneous history of Crawfordsville
ever written in those first years of the town's existence is contained
in a work entitled "Old Settlers," by Sanford C. Cox, late of La
Fayette, and now deceased. Mr. Cox was one of the first school-
masters that wielded the birch in the Wabash valley, and has left a
record of early times in his book bearing the above title that is of
inestimable value. He kept a diary of his experiences and travels
and has the following to say about Crawfordsville in the years 1824
and 1825.

"Crawfordsville is the only town beween Terre Haute and Fort
Wayne. The land office is held here. Maj. Whitlock is receiver
and Judge Williamson Dunn, register. Maj. Bistine keeps tavern
in a two-story log house, and Jonathan Powers has a little grocery.
There are two stores, Smith's, near the land office, and Isaac C. El-
ston's, near the tavern. Thomas M. Curry and Magnus Holmes
are the only physicians, and Providence M. Curry the only lawyer,
in town. John Wilson is clerk of the court, and David Vance
sheriff. William Nichalson carries on a tannery and shoemaker
shop. Scott and Mack have cabinet shops, and George Key blows
and strikes at the blacksmithing business. Old man Hill has a
small mill on the south bank of Sugar river, north of town. West
of town, in the country, there is a small neighborhood composed of

118 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

the following persons and their families, namely : John Beard,
Isaac Beeler, three of the Millers (John, Isaac and George), Joseph
Cox, Joseph Hahn, John Killen, and John Stitt, who owns a little
mill about two miles west of town. Southwest of town, near the
Fallen Timber (result of some old-time hurricane), live Elihu Crane,
John Cowan, James Scott, William Burbridge, Samuel McClung,
Edmund Nutt, John Caldwell, Prentice Mitchell, and James B.
McCullough. East of town resides Maj. Whitlock, Baxter, David
McCullough, Ephraim Catterlin and John Dewey. Farther east are
Jacob Beeler, Judge James Stitt, who owns a saw-mill, W. P.
Ramey, Richard McCafferty, widow Smith, and the Elmores. Zach-
ariah Gapen has a little tan-yard near Stitt' s mill, and in the vicinity
of Kenworthy and Lee. On the north side of Sugar river I know
of but Abe Miller, Henry and Robert Nichalson, Samuel Brown,
John Farlow, and Harshbarger.

"Besides those named there are but few others living in the
town and country. I think I am safe in saying that half a dozen
more families would embrace all, including hunters and trappers,
within fifty miles around."

In May, 1823, the circuit court of Montgomery county was organ-
ized by Hon. Jacob Call, president judge of the first judicial circuit
of Indiana, at the house of William Miller, in Crawfordsville. Judge
Call presented his commission as judge, signed by William Hen-
dricks, governor, at Corydon, on December 18, 1823, in the eighth
year of the state, together with a certificate from Hon. Isaac Black-
ford, one of the judges of the supreme court, that the usual oath of
office and the oath against duelling had been duly administered by
him to the new judge. Previous to this formal inauguration of a
court of law, the sole legal transactions in the county were con-
fined to the tribunals of justices of the peace, who were oftentimes
men of no legal learning and impatient of the law's delays and chi-
canery, and capable only of administering a rude form of justice,
without regard for precedents or paper pleas.

The court continued to hold its sessions at Miller's house until
the growth of litigation and population made it necessary to erect
the first regular court-house.

The building was located on lot 113 of the original plat, on the
ground now covered by Dickey & Brewer's and S. H. Gregg &
Son's store-rooms, on Main street. It was twenty-six feet long by
twenty feet wide, of hewed twelve-inch logs, and two stories high,
having thirteen substantial joists in each story ; the roof made of
poplar jointed shingles and the floors of poplar planks, seven inches

UNION TOWNSHIP. 119

wide and one and one-quarter inches thick ; the lower floor having
two doors and four windows ; the doors of good batten, hung with
butts and locks such as were on the doors of the land office. In the
upper story were three windows of twelve lights each. The edifice
stood twelve inches above the ground, and was built by Eliakim
Ashton for the contract price of $295. This is probably the only
public work ever done in Montgomery county for which no " extras "
above the contract were either asked or allowed, and the house
stood on its orignal location for many years, a monument of the
simple taste and solid honesty of our early builders.

In the year 1824, soon after the completion of the court-house,
the commissioners of the county ordered a jail to be constructed on
the northeast corner of the public square, about where J. S. Miller
& Co's blacksmith shop now stands. The specifications of the
work show it to have been a quaint structure, and as likely to prove
interesting to the general reader. We give sufficient details to
show what kind of prison walls were deemed sufficient to hold
prisoners in those days: "The jail-house to be 24 feet by 20 feet
from out to out ; the foundation to be laid with stone sunk 18 inches
under ground, and to be 12 inches above the ground, and to be 3
feet wide, on which there is to be built, with logs hewed 12 inches
square, double walls with a vacancy of one foot between the walls ;
the vacancy between the walls to be filled with peeled poles, not
more than six inches thick."

The jail contained two rooms : the " debtors' room," for the incar-
ceration of persons unwilling or unable to pay their honest debts,
had the only door opening to the outside of the building, and com-
municated within by a single door opening into the felons' cell ; a
single grated window, cut high up in each room, furnished light and
air to the inmates. Abraham Griffith was the builder, and received
$243 for his work.

The first inmate of this jail was Peter Smith, who was arrested
for stealing a silver watch. He was awaiting trial and had been con-
fined but a few days, when one stormy night. gave him the oppor-
tunity to burn the lock off the oaken door of his cell and gain ac-
cess to the debtors' room, where he easily filed the fastenings from
the outer door and made his escape, leaving the building in flames.
The citizens were aroused, but not in time to save the jail. Sus-
picion was rife that Smith had assistance from some confederate
scamp outside, and finally it settled with sufficient certainty upon a
worthless chicken-thief named Jack, who had long been a lazy pen-
sioner upon the industrious little community, and a crowd of citizens,

120 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

duly disguised and armed, collected to administer lynch law upon the
offender. He was arrested and taken down in the ravine northwest
of town, now the road running to the Sperry bridge and Blair's ford,
then filled with dense thickets and clumps of briers, where he was
stripped and soundly thrashed with hickory "gads" and released
on a promise to leave the country for that country's good. From
this circumstance the ravine was long called "Jack's Hollow."
Smith, the jail burner, was soon afterward recaptured by Sheriff
Maxwell and a posse, brought back, and chained to an iron staple in
the court-house, where he was carefully guarded until his trial and
conviction, when he was taken to the penitentiary at Jeffersonville
to serve a term of three years at hard labor.

In consideration of having the county seat permanently located
at Crawfordsville, Maj. Whitlock conveyed every "odd' 1 lot in his
plat to the county for school purposes. The sale of these lots was
entrusted to William P. Ramey, as agent, who gave bond in the
sum of $10,000. Lot 49 was reserved for a pound or stray-pen;
and from the early records it appears that lot 11 was sold to William
Warren for $25, lot 25 to James Warren for the same amount, lot
37 to Samuel Kinkade for the same amount, and lot 139 to Jacob
Beeler for $20. These were the first sales made, and the proceeds
formed the nucleus of the "County Seminary Fund." The coiiir
missioners ordered that all sales should be for cash, and no lot
should be sold for less than $10. A building was erected for a
seminary on the premises where Chilion Johnson now resides ; and
if the frame shell of his present house could be lifted off it would
disclose many of the old hewed logs of the original seminary building.

The land sales brought a large influx of people to Crawfordsville
in 1824, many to become citizens of the town and surrounding coun-
try, and many who were "land-sharks" from the east, whose pur-
pose was to buy up the choicest pieces of land on speculation.

Mr. Cox, from whose book we have previously quoted, gives a
graphic account in his diary of these land sales, and we may profit-
ably again use his record. He writes, under date of December 24,
1824: "The land sales commenced here to-day, and the town is full
of strangers. The eastern and southern portions of the state are
strongly represented, as well as Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Pennsylvania. There is but little bidding against each other. The
settlers, or 'squatters,' as they are called by speculators, have
arranged matters among themselves to their general satisfaction.
If, upon comparing numbers, it appears that two are after the same
tract of land, one asks the other what he will take not to bid against

UNION TOWNSHIP. 121

him. If neither will consent to be bought off, they then retire and
cast lots, and the lucky one enters the tract at congress price,
$1.25 per acre, and the other enters the second choice on his list.

"If a speculator makes a bid, or shows a disposition to take a
settler's claim from him, he soon sees the whites of a score of eyes
snapping at him, and at the first opportunity he crawfishes out of
the crowd.

"The settlers tell foreign capitalists to hold off till they enter
the tracts of land they have settled on, and that they may then pitch
in, — that there will be land enough, more than enough, for them all.

"The land is sold in tiers of townships, beginning at the south-
ern part of the district and continuing north, until all has been of-
fered at public sale. Then private entries can be made, at $1.25
per acre, of any that has been thus publicly offered. This rule,
adopted by the officers, insures great regularity in the sale ; but it
will keep many here for several days who desire to purchase land
in the northern portion of the district.

"It is a stirring, crowding time here, truly, and men are busy
hunting up cousins and old acquaintances, whom they have not seen
for many long years. If men have ever been to the same mill, or
voted at the same election precinct, though at different times, it is
sufficient for them to scrape an acquaintance upon.

"Society here, at this time, seems almost entirely free from the
taint of aristocracy. The only premonitory symptoms of that dis-
ease, most prevalent generally in old-settled communities, were
manifested last week, when John I. Foster bought a new pair of
silver-plated spurs, and N. T. Catterlin was seen walking up street
with a pair of curiously embroidered gloves on his hands."

Concerning the employment of the people in those days, and
their usual amusements, Mr. Cox says: "We cleared land, rolled
logs, burned brush, blazed out paths from one neighbor's cabin to
another, and from one settlement to another, made and used hand-
mills, and burned out hominy mortars from the ' butt-cut ' of trees,
hunted deer and turkeys, otter and raccoons, caught fish, dug gin-
seng, hunted bees and the like, and lived on the fat of the land.
In the social line, we had our meetings and our singing-schools,
sugar-boilings and weddings, and many a good ' hoe-down ' on
puncheon floors."

Maj. Henry Kistine (father of Benjamin T. Iiistine Esq.) kept
the first regular tavern, on the ground where Evans & Sidener's
shoe store now is. It, like all the buildings of the town, was built
of hewed logs. Around its capacious-throated chimneys many a

122 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

weary traveler has found cheer and comfort, and many a merry song
has wakened the echoes of the surrounding woods, and countless
tales of hair-breadth escapes and "moving" accidents by flood and
field have been rehearsed. The tavern then was a chief center of
attraction, and during court times, when the attorneys who "rode
the circuit" came riding up from Indianapolis, Vincennes, Terre
Haute, La Porte, Richmond, and Connersville, their persons and
horses liberally bespattered with the mud of the sloughs, and their
huge portmanteaux surmounted with overcoat and umbrella, they
received a general welcome from mine host and the entire male
population. Venison, turkey, and berries from the woods, and big
pike, salmon, and bass from John Stiffs fish-pond on Sugar creek,
with "sweet-pone," corn "dodgers," hominy, and a tin cup of
pure whiskey if desired, recompensed the traveler for leagues of
weariness and hunger. The rates of tavern keepers were fixed by
the county commissioners, and were not allowed to be departed
from in the direction of extortion. For the year 1824 the rates
were as follows :

Wine, per bottle $1 25 Oats, per gallon $ 12|

Brandy, per half-pint 50 Corn, per gallon 12£

Gin, per half-pint 25 Horse, at hay, per night. 25

Whiskey, per half-pint. . . 12£ Lodging per night 12£

Victualing, per meal .... 25

Taverns in town were required to pay a license fee of $10, and it
may readily be inferred that the business in those days was not im-
mensely lucrative.

The first mills in use were fitted out with overshot wheels, fed
by streams conveyed in hollowed poplar logs, jointed together as an
aqueduct, the water being furnished by the numerous never-failing
springs of the country. Mill-stones were roughly dressed out of
huge boulders, called "nigger heads." A small log-mill of this
description was built at the mouth of the stream flowing into Sugar
creek from the Whitlock springs. A dam was thrown across the
stream some distance above, and the water was conducted to the
mill-wheel by a log aqueduct supported by poles. The mill was
quite difficult of access, the road leading to it being cut through a
spur of the bluffs, and thence along the side down to the mill. The
machinery was of the rudest description, and just sufficient to turn
the stones. This mill ground cornmeal and cracked hominy for all
the early inhabitants of Crawfordsville. It was a general custom to
send small boys to mill, seated astraddle of a horse, with the sack
of grain serving as a saddle ; and the father of the writer has often

UNION TOWNSHIP.

123

told how he adventured on such expeditions in his boyhood, and the
constant mental distress endured on the homeward route, perched
giddily upon a lofty stack of meal and bran, fearful of toppling both
himself and his grist into the road, and knowing his lack of strength
to replace the load upon his horse in such an event. Boys were
thus utilized because the men were too busily engaged in clearing
and grubbing and log-rolling to go to mill.

Household furnishings were meager and comprised few luxuries.
The ordinary necessities were held at a price too high to permit in-
dulgence in ornament, even if the pride of the frugal pioneer had
not stood in the way. A bill of the property sold at a public ven-
due in 1824, taken from the court records, furnishes an inventory of
the articles and value of "plunder" considered a fair pioneer out-
fit. It reads as follows :

"1 rifle gunn $6 75

1 bull 3

1 brindle cow 2

1 bull 1

1 cow skin 2

2 sheep 3

4 sows and pigs 15 37-£

1 wagon 30 00

7 muskrat skins 1 00

54 raccoon skins 10 00

37i

31i

11 fox and wild-cat skins.

4 deer skins and 1 wolf
skin

1 pair hip straps (har-
ness)

1 lot pewter

3 steel traps

1 shovel plow

3 horseshoes

1 axe 3

1 pair saddle-bags 1

1 tar bucket

1 auger

1 hoe

2 linnen sheets 2

1 pieced quilt 1

1 white counterpin 6

1 double coverlit 1

1 00

1 43|

87i

37i

1 wire sive

45 hanks yarn

1 pair of and irons,

£ 75
9 37£
2 50

1 grid iron 1

1 flat iron

4 earthen pans

3 small Liverpool plates

4 green-edged breckfast
plates (Delph)

5 Liverpool tea-cups and
three saucers

1 large Delph bole ....

1 Liverpool bole

1 small tin bucket

1 coffee mill

1 goard of lard

2 crocks of tallow

1 red callico dress 1

1 blue callico dress ....
1 black silk dress (doubt-
less a remnant) 2

6 pair woolen stockings

7 pair thread stockings .
1 pair cotton stockings .

1 cotton dress

1 flannel dress

1 flannel dress, striped .
1 petticoat (red)

50
50
50
25

37£

37*

12£

37£

31*

62i

37£

00"

124 HISTORY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

The ubiquitous "Smith" had arrived in 1823, and was "keep-
ing store" near William Miller's house, where he dickered for gin-
seng and peltries with whites and Indians, and had things, commer-
cially, pretty much his own way. He seems to have been puffed up
with a sense of his own wealth and importance, judging from a cer-
tain record left behind by the commissioners' court.

It appears that Smith had returned, among other property listed
by the county assessor in 1824, "five hundred silver watches," and
when the tax collector came around Mr. Smith swore he only owned
three watches, and was forced to appeal to the commissioners for a
remission of the tax upon 497 silver watches, which in a boastful
moment he had claimed to possess, but never owned in fact. This
appeal was granted, but Smith's feathers were effectually plucked,
and he was ever after very careful in giving in his property for taxa-
tion, and in bragging about his wealth.

Maj. Isaac C. Elston and Jonathan Powers were engaged in mer-
chandising at an early day, and transacted a large business. Their
stores were in the immediate vicinity of Kistine's tavern.

William W. Nicholson carried on a tan-yard where James Lee &
Bros' block now stands, and had a number of tanning vats in the
rear. He was a very valuable artisan in that day, and made a great
deal of leather for harness and foot-wear. He voyaged to Craw-
fordsville from Kentucky by water, floating down the Ohio to the
Wabash, andjpoling up that stream and Sugar creek in a flat-bot-
tomed boat styled a "pirogue." The voyage ended at the foot of
Washington street, and his boat is credited with bringing the pio-
neers of a colony of rats that has been growing and prospering
ever since that time.

The "Baptist church of Sugar creek" built the first church edi-
fice in Crawfordsville, on lot number 100, donated to them for that
purpose by good Maj. Whitlock from his original plat of the town.
The dimensions of the structure were 24x30 feet. The material
used was brick. It was for several years the only building used ex-
clusively for religious services, and such was the kindly spirit of ac-
commodation governing the brethren in those early days, that all
sects and creeds represented in the infant settlement were privileged
to use it. All traces of this primitive church building have long
since disappeared.

The first school was held in a house that stood about where the
gas works are now located, and was taught by a young man named
Josiah Holbrook. This was at first a somewhat pretentious and
contentious rival of the Crawfordsville Seminary, the latter being

UNION TOWNSHIP. 125

conducted by James C. Scott, beginning its sessions in October
1831.

In 1833 Rev. Caleb Mills began the work of instruction in the
"Wabash Manual Labor and Teachers' Seminary," an institution
which received a charter from the legislature in 1834, and has grown
into the amplest proportions and wide notoriety as Wabash College.
The first building occupied was located on the brow of the hill east
of the Blair Pork House, and was used for recitations and as a
boarding place for the students.

During the first year of its operation forty-one young men were
enrolled. The first public exhibition of the students presented the
following programme :

"The Science of Music," — R. N. Allen, Parke county, Iowa.
"Biographical Sketch of La Fayette, " — T. W. Webster, Cincinnati,
Ohio. "The Obligations of American Citizens," — F. G. Bur-
bridge, Crawfordsville. "The Importance of Character," - Z. Bai-
ley, Montgomery county, Iowa. " The Connexion of Popular Edu-
cation with the preservation of Civil Liberty, "■ — ■ S. S. Thomson,
Crawfordsville. "Latin Oration," an extract, — A. McAuley, Hen-
dricks county, Iowa. "The Blessings of Liberty," — E. P. Barlow,
Hendricks county, Iowa. "The Prospects of the Mississippi Val-
ley," — B. F. Gregory, Warren county, Iowa. "The Moral Destiny
of America," — R. W. Allen, Montgomery county, Iowa. "The
Necessity of High Professional Attainments," — S. N. Steele, Owen
county, Iowa. "Greek Oration," an extract, — T. Newbury, In-
dianapolis. "Female Education," — E. R. S. Canby, Crawfords-
ville. "The Spoils of Time,"— J. W. Yandes, Indianapolis.

Of those participating in this exhibition, S. S. Thomson has been
for years the honored professor of Latin language and literature in
his alma mater. Mr. Gregory is a prominent lawyer at Williams-
port, in Warren county. R. W. Allen is a venerable minister in the
Presbyterian church now located at Jacksonville, Illinois, while to
E. R. S. Canby was reserved the horrible fate of massacre by the
savage Modoc Indians in the lava beds of Oregon.

The success of a collegiate institution at such an early day in
the settlement of a new country must, to the general observer, have
seemed problematical, but the sublime faith of its founders, and the
universal thirst for knowledge which not even the hardships of the
wilderness could subdue, gave its growth such a start as no vicissi-
tude has ever succeeded in checking. What Wabash College now
is, and what she has accomplished, will be better told by her present
venerable president in another place in this volume.

126 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

On October 18, 1831, the initial number of the first newspaper
was published in Crawforclsville. It was called the Crawfordsville
"Record," and was edited by Bryant & Wade. Only two bound
books of its files have been preserved by the veteran editor, Isaac
F. Wade, covering the period from October, 1831, to June 1836. It
was a folio of twenty columns, published weekly. A perusal of its
pages furnishes a striking comparison of old-time conservative news-
editing with the telegraphic, inquisitive and irreverent style of the
present day ; and while the "Record" is an admirable epitome of
political history during the years of its publication, it fails to present
much of the domestic and local news of the town and county, and
is consequently not a mine of treasure to be worked by the historian
of our city. From its advertising columns we learn the names and
business of the enterprising citizens of the day, and occasionally,
by seeming accident, a transaction is mentioned or some statistics
given that compensates somewhat for other omissions.

At the time this paper was begun the county contained nearly
10,000 inhabitants, and a census of Crawfordsville, taken only a
short time previous, showed a population of 422, while the subscrip-
tion list of the paper contained less than 200 names.

The first advertising patrons of the "Record" were Isaac C.
Elston, postmaster, with a long list of uncalled-for letters ; Benjamin
Spader, dry-goods and general merchandise ; divers estray notices
from J. P's in the county; a few legal notices from John Wilson,
clerk of the circuit court ; dry-goods advertised by Henry Crawford,
William Binford, and Jonathan Powers ; sundry tax-collectors' no-
tices, and a prospectus of the Indiana "Journal" and the Cincin-
nati "Mirror."

The foreign news speaks of the war in Belgium and a rebellion
in China. Home affairs comprise a report of the anti-Masonic con-
vention held at Baltimore on September 28, where William Wirt
was nominated for president, and Amos Ellmaker for vice-president.
The editors express their gratification at the election of Henry Clay
to the United States senate over his competitor, Richard M. John-
son.

In their issue of November 26, 1831, the editors write as follows
of the town :

"The number of houses in Crawfordsville must considerably ex-
ceed 100, — some of them splendid buildings, and would do honor to
any city.

"House rent is even higher in Crawfordsville than in many old-
settled towns, and much higher than in Hamilton and Lebanon in

UNION TOWNSHIP. 127

the State of Ohio, and much greater demand for houses here than in
either of those towns. Some have supposed 100 houses might have
been rented to applicants more than have been rented during the
last summer and fall. Every house is full, and some have two and
even three families in them. Our court-house is not yet up. * It is
under contract, however, and is to be completed next fall. This
building, being on the most elevated lot in town, will add greatly
to the appearance of the place.

"Our churches, three in number, Baptist, Methodist and Presby-
terian, are large and commodious buildings, and the highest compli-
ment we can pay our people is, that meetings are better attended
here than in most places of our acquaintance.

"The Crawfordsville school, which at present is conducted in a
manner highly creditable to the town, is kept in a spacious brick
building erected solely for that purpose.

"Our houses for the accommodation of travelers and boarders are
four in number, and yet, from experience, we know some of them
are very much crowded, and we believe all supper and lodge a
goodly number of travelers every night. Besides these houses of
accommodation there are other private boarding houses, one of
which we know has six boarders. The ordinary price of boarding is
$1.50 per week. The tables of these houses are crowded with all
the dainties of old countries to an overflowing abundance. Our
chief complaint is, that we are fed on too many dainties. When we
have the exquisite pleasure of sitting down to a meal served up with
corn bread, which happens but seldom, we are at the summit of
epicurean joy. We are doomed, however, to live on wheat bread,
which is here the staff of life. All kinds of vegetables appear upon
our tables. Horticulture, for which our soil is admirably adapted,
is well understood by our citizens, many of our gardens displaying
a neatness and taste that would not suffer in comparison with those
of the east.

"Our town has about the usual number of professional men in
places of this size. Our citizens are not very quarrelsome, and the
lawyers generally follow some other business in connection with
their profession. The people are seldom sick, and the doctors,
though learned and skillful, have but little to do. Our mechanics
are generally the best of workmen. Our hats manufactured here
are good, made quite to a point at the top like they are in the east,
and our boots are square-toed. The ladies dress cap-a-pie in the cos-
tume of the east, with the exception of tight lacing. About $75,000

* The reference is to the old brick court-house, removed to make place for the present structure.

128 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

worth of goods are sold here annually. Money, though tolerably
plenty here, is worth more than at any place we have ever been. It
is seldom loaned for less than fifty per cent, which shows that busi-
ness is lively and the purposes of money numerous.

"Land is bought up here with astonishing avidity. The sales at
this office for 1830 amounted to $367,146.39, and during this year
the sales have been $283,164.44."

Willis Hughes kept the first livery stable, and furnished horse,
saddle and bridle for fifty cents per day.

Ira Crane manufactured fashionable wedding garments for ex-
pectant grooms and cut out the clothing for all who had no female
tailor at home ; John M. Fisher manufactured saddlery of all de-
scriptions ; Thomas Messick made cabinet ware, and C. S. Bryant
was the only attorney who advertised his desire for clients.

The market is reported as follows :

Hay per ton 8 00 Beef per lb . . 2 to 3

Oats per bu 25 Pork per cwt 2 00 to 2 50

Flour per cwt 2 00 to 2 50 Butter per lb 10 to 12

Corn meal per bu . . 37 to 50 Apples per bu 87

Corn 25 to 37 Wood per cord 75

Wheat per bu. (cash) 62

A great temperance wave swept over the country in 1831 and
1832, and having reached Crawfordsville, caused the organization of
a regular society, the first officers of which were John Gilliland,
president ; Caleb Brown, vice-president ; Francis Miller, secretary ;
and Benjamin Spader, James C. Scott, B. F. Irvine, C. S. Bryant,
and W. R. Winton, managers, with sixty-six members. This so-
ciety existed for nearly ten years, and undoubtedly accomplished
much good, despite a hot and bitter opposition.

The " Seventh District Medical Society," of which Samuel Fullen-
wider was secretary, had a flourishing existence of several years,
but finally disbanded on account of scholastic differences.

The first Sabbath-school ever held in Crawfordsville met in the
brick school-house on Sunday, May 6, 1832, and was organized
mainly by the efforts of Rev. James Thomson, now deceased.

Books were opened at the clerk's office in Crawfordsville on July
15, 1832, for subscription to the capital stock of the Ohio & La
Fayette railroad. The road was to extend from Xew Albany to
La Fayette, on the line of what is now the Louisville, New Albany
& Chicago railroad. The shares were placed at $50 each ; one dol-
lar of which was required to be paid at the time of subscribing.
This was the starting point of our present railway system, of which

^u^^/

cy^^^c

UNION TOWNSHIP. 129

more will be said in another place. Beebee Booth, of Salem, was
chosen president ; Samuel Feck, of Salem, treasurer, and Israel T.
Canby and John Wilson, of Crawford sville, were appointed agents
to solicit subscriptions in Montgomery county for the enterprise.

From 1832 to 1834 the citizens of this county were kept in a con-
tinual state of dread and alarm by reason of the ravages of cholera,
from which numerous deaths occurred in adjoining towns, but fortu-
nately the disease never visited this county, a fact doubtless
attributable to the pure water and perfect drainage to be found in all
the settlements. Crawfordsville has been remarkably exempt from
epidemics of every kind from the date of settlement up to the pres-
ent time.

It was the custom of the merchants in those days to keep whisky
for their customers, and all who traded were free, to imbibe without
charge. An empty whisky barrel would be set up on end in front
of the counter, having small holes bored in the head to drain the
glasses. On the barrel was placed, invitingly, a large case-bottle
holding a half-gallon of whisky, a bowl of maple sugar, and a pitcher
of water, and, in cold weather, a tumbler of ground ginger. A
stock of merchandise comprised everything from a log-chain to a
cambric-needle ; from a matlock to a silk dress pattern ; from a sack
of coffee to a barrel of whisky ; calico, jews-harps, molasses, mink-
traps, gun-flints, wool-cards, dye-stuffs, and all the conceivable arti-
cles called for by the exigencies of frontier life.

The credit system prevailed to an extent that would, if allowed
in these times, bankrupt a merchant within a year ; but the buyer
paid a price for his goods that provided large profits, and the peo-
ple were generally honest, so that when settling-up time came,
generally on New Year's day, the accounts^were cleared up and
the merchant started east to make new purchases with a pocket full
of money.

Cincinnati, Buffalo and Louisville were the leading wholesale
markets, and our merchants traveled thither and hither on horseback
and by stage-coach, while their 'goods were conveyed in wagons.
There were several grain buyers in the town whose accumulations
were wagoned to Chicago and sold, when their teams brought back
salt from the Saginaw country, and general merchandise.

The town was incorporated on Tuesday, October 14, 1834. The
first meeting of the trustees was held at Maj. Kistine's tavern, and
Henry Ristine was chosen president and Isaac Nay lor secretary of
the board. The trustees for the first year were Chilion Johnson,
Jacob Angle, Caleb Brown, Henry Ristine, and Isaac Naylor. Fran-

130 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

cis Miller was subsequently chosen treasurer, and required to give
bond in the sum of $500.

The first ordinance passed by the board related to licenses to
sell intoxicating liquors "by the small'" in the town limits, and the
license fee was fixed at $8.

In 1835 a census taken by order of the board of trustees shows
the population of Crawfordsville to have been: Males over eigh-
teen years of age, 269 ; females over eighteen years of age, 221 ;
males under eighteen years of age, 226 ; females under eighteen
years of age, 261 ; persons of color, 17 ; total population, 994.

The primitive court-house proving too small to accommodate the
largely increased business of the county, the commissioners con-
tracted with John Hughs for $3,420 to erect a two-story brick build-
ing on the lot where the present edifice stands. The building was
of the prevailing style of architecture, specimens of which may yet'
be seen in a number of the older counties of this state. It was
square, forty-five feet each side, with a square cupola in the center
of the roof, with four large interior columns of stuccoed brick, hav-
ing seven windows on the lower floor, eleven in the second story,
with outside shutters. The building was completed in 1833. At
first the county officers were domiciled in the rooms of the upper
story, but eventually separate one-story brick buildings were erected,
as east and north wings to the main building, and occupied by the
auditor, treasurer, clerk, sheriff, and recorder.

In 1873, after several years' accumulation of a building fund by
taxation, the county commissioners, James Lee, James Mclntyre,
and James F. Hall, having accepted architectural plans, made a con-
tract with McCormack & Sweeney, of Columbus, Indiana, to erect
a new court-house of Berea sandstone, brick and iron, to be heated
with steam, and provide a spacious court-room, with offices for all
departments of the county's business and jury rooms, the whole to
cost $124,000. The old buildings were at once removed, and work
went forward rapidly and continuously until May 1877, when the
present noble structure was completed. The extra work, together
with the large clock in the tower, finally ran the cost up to $150,000.
With but a single exception (the court-house at Indianapolis) the
building is probably the most elegant and convenient of any in the
state used for similar purposes.

•The public school building contains thirteen large rooms, fur-
nished with modern school furniture and apparatus. The number of
school children has so largely increased as will demand the erection
of an additional building in the near future.

UNION TOWNSHIP. 131

The City Hall is a strikingly beautiful structure, located on
Green street between Main and Market, and furnishes ample ac-
commodations for all departments of the municipal government.

There are eight church edifices in the city, owned by congrega-
tions as follows :

Regular Baptist, a one-story brick building, very plainly con-
structed after the old fashion, with the pulpit between the entrance
doors, located on Walnut street, between College and Jefferson.

New School Baptist, a handsome frame, with spire and belfry,
located on the northeast corner of Pike and Walnut streets.

Christian, small frame church, with belfry, on the northwest
corner of Wabash avenue and Walnut streets.

Methodist, a large brick edifice standing on lot number 160
of the original plat of the town, donated by Major Whitlock to the
congregation. Connected with the church is a comfortable two-story
frame parsonage. This church is erected on the northwest corner
of Water street and Wabash avenue.

Saint Bernard's Catholic, an imposing pile, after the Gothic style
of architecture, built upon the southeast corner of Pike and Wash-
ington streets. The building is lighted by mullioned windows of
stained glass, and, when the bell tower and spire are completed, will
constitute one of the most conspicuous structures in the city.

Saint John's Episcopal, a neat frame building, situated on Green
street, between Pike and Wabash avenue.

First Presbyterian, a plain brick edifice, with lecture-rooms in
basement, located on Water, between Main and Pike streets. This
is one of the earliest church buildings erected in Crawfordsville.

Center Presbyterian. The congregation of this church have
recently completed an elegant and commodious building on the
southwest corner of Wabash avenue and Washington street. The
new building contains all the latest improvements in seating, heating
and lighting, and with its numerous beautiful memorial windows,
and graceful contour, is decidedly the finest church edifice in the city.

The leading congregations of the city, in point of numbers, may
be mentioned in the following order : 1. Roman Catholic ; 2. Meth-
odist ; 3. Center Presbyterian. Besides these churches above de-
scribed, the colored citizens have congregations of the Baptist and
Methodist faith. Nearly all the churches carry on flourishing Sab-
bath-schools. Religious services have been conducted every Sab-
bath afternoon at the college, by the college presidents, for a number
of years.

In referring to these churches it has been exceedingly difficult to

132 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

obtain data upon which to write an extended historical account such
as they deserve. The recent removal of the Center Presbyterian
congregation from their old home on the northwest corner of Pike
and Washington streets, furnished occasion to Alexander Thomson,
Esq., to prepare an exceedingly interesting account of Presbyte-
rianism in Montgomery county, from which we excerpt the fol-
lowing tacts :

The first sermon ever preached in Crawfordsville was by Rev.
Charles Beatty, now of Steubenville, Ohio, in the year 1821, and
this was likewise the first ever preached in the county ; on the
afternoon of the same day, the reverend gentleman solemnized the
first marriage in the county, the high contracting parties being Col.
Samuel D. Maxwell, the first sheriff of Montgomery county, and
Miss Sarah Cowan, an aunt of the writer of this sketch.

In June, 182-1, Rev. Isaac Reed organized the Presbyterian
church. In 1829 the church began to build, and in 1832 finished
a church edifice. In 1838 the disruption of the Presbyterian
church took place, and the "old school " branch retained possession
of the present property of the First church, on Water street, while
the "new school" began the erection of a large frame structure on
a lot purchased of Judge James Riley, situated, as before stated,
on the corner of Washington and Pike streets, where they con-
tinued to dwell until the recent completion of their "New Center
Church."

Lest it may seem that too much prominence is given here to the
history of the Presbyterian church, it will be well to remark that
Crawfordsville has, from a very early day, been distinctively a Pres-
byterian community. The college being founded and fostered by
that denomination has made the town a center of church influence
and directed the faith of a large percentage of its citizens.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT.

May 11, 1805, 13-4 voters of the town petitioned the board of
trustees to have Crawfordsville incorporated as a city. The town
marshal, C. E. Vanarsdal, was ordered by the board to ascertain
by a census the exact population of the town. That census, taken
on June 21', 1st;;,, showed the aggregate resident population to be
2,316. An election was ordered to be held on August 10, to de-
termine the wishes of the majority in the premises, which resulted
as follows : Whole number of votes cast, 215 ; in favor of incor-
porating, 188 ; opposed to incorporating, 27.

The board of trustees, then consisting of John Hoover, David

UNION TOWNSHIP. 133

Divine, William Enoch, Charles M. Steele, and "William S. Fry,
with T. D. Brown as clerk and William Burbridge treasurer, pre-
pared for an election of officers for the new government. The ter-
ritory embraced by the town limits was divided into three wards, as
follows :

"Ward one : All that part of the city west of a north and south
line, running along the center of the alley, running north and south
between Walnut and Washington streets.

"Ward two: All that part of the city lying between said north
and south line, running along the center of the alley, running north
and south, between Walnut and Washington streets, and a north
and south line running along the center of the alley running north
and south between Green and Water streets.

' ' Ward three : All of that part of the city lying east of the east-
ern boundary of ward two. 1 '

These boundaries, as then defined, have not since been changed,
except as they may have been extended to include additions to the
territory of the city.

On September 4, 1865, the first election for city officers was held,
with the following result :

For Mayor :

Wilson H. Laymon received 221 votes.

George W. Snyder " 130 "

For Clerk :

T. D. Brown " 337 "

For Assessor :

John A. Shanklin " 190 "

For Treasurer :

William Burbridge " 341 "

For Engineer :

Daniel G. Eoderick " 343 "

For Marshal and Street Commissioner :

John W. Boss _ " 287 "

James Nolan " 58 "

For Councilmen, first ward :

Benjamin Wasson " 114 "

J.W.Cumberland " 106 "

John Speed " 1 "

James Lee " 3 "

Charles M. Steele " 1 "

David Divine " 1 "

134 HISTOKY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

For Councilmen, second ward :

William C. Vance received 89 votes.

William S. Fry " 94 "

John W.Blair " 64 "

Z.B.Richardson " 53 "

For Councilmen, third war<l :

William M. Epperson " 71 "

Washington Holloway " 52 "

Chilion Johnson " 22 "

John W. Bnrk " 7 "

James Epperson " 3 "

The precise vote as distributed between the several candidates is
given here for the purpose of showing hereafter what the gain of
the respective wards in population has been since this original elec-
tion.

The next election was held May 1, 1S66, and the following were
the municipal officers for that year : Wilson H. Laymon, mayor ;
T. D. Brown, clerk ; William Burbridge, treasurer ; John W. Ross,
marshal and street commissioner. Councilmen, first ward, B. Was-
son, L. A. Foote ; second ward, William S. Fry, William C. Vance ;
third ward, William M. Epperson, J. P. Campbell. Roderick H.
Galloway, city attorney ; Albert C. Jennison, city engineer.

At the election held in May, 1867, for one councilman from each
ward, Henry Lorenz was chosen from the first ward, William S.
Galey from the third ward, and Horace P. Ensminger and William
S. Fry received a tie vote, requiring another election, that resulted
in the choice of Fry from the second ward.

In May, 1868, the following officers were elected : John Speed,
mayor; T. D. Brown, clerk; William Burbridge, treasurer; William
H. Martin, marshal. Councilmen, first ward, L. A. Foote; second
ward, James Riley; third ward, William M. Epperson. Jeff. W.
Scott, assessor. The council elected Charles M. Steele as street
commissioner, who resigned during the year, and William H. Scott
was chosen in his stead. John W. Ramsay was chosen city attorney,
and Daniel G. Roderick engineer. The marshal resigned his office
soon after the election, and was succeeded by William Watts.

In May, 1869, the following councilmen were elected : First ward,
Samuel D. Smith ; second ward, James P. Watson ; third ward,
William S. Galey. The council chose Levi B. Willson as city attor-
ney, and Prof. J. L. Campbell as engineer. The first death among
the city officers was that of councilman William S. Galey, which
occurred January 4, 1870. David Harter was elected to the vacancy.

UNION TOWNSHIP. 135

During the year Levi B. Willson resigned his position as city attor-
ney, and William T. Brush was appointed in his stead.

In May, 1870, the general election resulted as follows : W. Frank
Elston, mayor; T. D. Brown, clerk; William Burbridge, treasurer;
William Watts, marshal. Councilmen, first ward, J. W. Cumber-
land ; second ward, William A. Vanarsdal ; third ward, William M.
Epperson. The council chose William T. Brush as city attorney,
Thomas J. Ross as street commissioner, Jeff. W. Scott as assessor,
Prof. J. L. Campbell as engineer. James P. Watson resigned his
position as councilman from the second ward, and Horace P. Ens-
minger was elected to fill the vacancy.

In May, 1871, the following councilmen were elected : First ward,
L. A. Foote ; second ward, Robert E. Bryant ; third ward, David
Harter. William Watts resigned the office of marshal July 24 of
this year, and David W. Paul was selected to fill the vacancy by the
council. On June 12 the council ordered the issue and sale of
school bonds to the amount of $30,000.

The following officers were elected in May 1872 : Wilson H. Lay-
mon, mayor ; T. D. Brown, clerk ; William Burbridge, treasurer ;
M. S. Smith, marshal. Councilmen : first ward, Paul Hughes ;
second ward, Wm. A. Yanarsdal ; third ward, H. H. Crist. The
council chose John M. Cowan as city attorney, M. S. Smith as street
commissioner, and Daniel G. Roderick as engineer. M. S. Smith
resigned the office of marshal during the year, and W. B. Riley was
chosen by the council to that position, and A. L. Duckworth was
appointed street commissioner.

On January 13, 1873, the new City Hall building on Green street,
designed for city court room, fire department hall, engine house
and city prison, that had been commenced the previous year, under
the superintendence of Col. H. B. Carrington, architect and engineer,
was formally accepted by the city authorities. The total cost of the
building was not less than $9,000. The new city school building
was also completed during this year at a cost of nearly $32,000.

In May, 1873, the following councilmen were elected: first ward,
A. F. Ramsey ; second ward, Michael Price ; third ward, Robert F.
Beck. S. C. Campbell was chosen city engineer by the council.

On July 30, 1873, mayor Laymon resigned his office, and marshal
W. B. Riley was removed by the council. John Pursel, justice of the
peace, was chosen acting mayor until a new election could be held to
fill the vacancy. On August 15 John R. Coons was elected mayor,
and William Britton marshal, for the unexpired terms.

At the election of councilmen in May, 1874, the following were

136 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

chosen : first ward, Theodore H. Ristine ; second ward, Wm. A.
Vanarsdal ; third ward, James J. Insley. Horace P. Ensminger
was elected marshal, and Ira McConnell chosen as engineer, with M.
W. Bruner as city attorney. R. A. Hightower was appointed street
commissioner.

At the council election in May, 1875, the following were chosen :
first ward, A. F. Ramsey; second ward, Michael Price; third ward,
H. S. Braden.

On November 13, 1875, T. D. Brown resigned the office of city
clerk, and Henry Sloan, at a special election held on November 26,
was chosen to fill the vacancy.

At the general election held in May, 1870, the following was the
result : John R. Coons, mayor ; Theo. McMechan, clerk ; Alfred
Dickey, treasurer ; Horace P. Ensminger, marshal. Councilmen :
first ward, John J. Darter ; second ward, Wm. A. Vanarsdal ; third
ward, James J. Insley. The council chose Theo. T. Ristine as city
attorney, Ira McConnell as city engineer, and William H. Scott as
street commissioner.

The council election in May, 1877, resulted as follows: first ward,
J. N. McConnell ; second ward, S. C. Campbell ; third ward, Hector
S. Braden. The council chose Daniel Sullivan as street commissioner.

At the general election in May, 1878, the election resulted : John
W. Ramsay, mayor ; Theo. McMechan, clerk ; Alfred Dickey, treas-
urer ; Horace P. Ensminger, marshal ; Jeff. W. Scott, assessor.
Councilmen : first ward, John J. Darter ; second ward, Jacob Joel ;
third ward, Chauncy M. Coutant. The council chose Edward C.
Snyder as city attorney and Ira McConnell as city engineer.

Daniel Sullivan, street commissioner, died in July of this year,
and the council elected Edward Gr. Rowe to fill the vacancy.

In May, 1879, the council election resulted as follows : first
ward, John Bishop ; second ward, Ephraim Griffith ; third ward,
William Martin.

At the general election in May, 1880, the result was as follows :
John W. Ramsay, mayor ; William T. Miller, clerk ; Alfred Dickey,
treasurer ; Horace P. Ensminger, marshal ; Charles M. Scott, asses-
sor. Councilmen : first ward, Joshua C. McKinsey ; second ward,
Wm. A. Vanarsdal ; third ward, Chauncy M. Coutant. The coun-
cil reelected the city attorney and engineer.

The total vote cast at this election, was 1,009 ; the vote in the
first ward was 119 ; the vote in the second ward was 219 ; the vote
in the third ward was 311. Comparing the above vote with the
present school enumeration of 1808, and using the census rule of

UNION TOWNSHIP. 137

calculating population, would give Crawfordsville a present popula-
tion of not less than 6,000, and, adding the adjacent suburbs, the
claim should not be less than 7,000.

ADDITIONS.

The following additions to the original territory have been made
to the town and city of Crawfordsville :

In 1829, October 12, twenty acres lying west and northwest of the
original plat, by Williamson Dunn.

In 1830, October 1, eight lots, now composing the square between
Main, Water, Meadow and Pike streets, by Williamson Dunn.

In 1831, May 6, twenty-eight lots, southeast of the original plat,
by John Wilson, and on November 29 of the same year Maj.
Whitlock added two lots, numbered 161 and 162, north of North
street and west of Washington street.

In 1832, 1833 and 1834 no additions were made.

In 1835, November 6, fifty-eight lots lying south of South street
(now Wabash avenue) were added by Israel T. Canby.

In 1836 a real estate "boom " manifested itself, and no less than
eleven additions were made to the town in the following order :
January 1, eight lots lying between Main street and Wabash avenue
and west of West street, by Nathaniel A. Dunn ; January 20, eight
lots on the east side of Walnut street, south from Wabash avenue,
by J. Hughes ; January 20, twenty-three lots lying south of
Wabash avenue and west of Walnut street, extending south to Col-
lege street, by Joseph H. Graham ; April 27, twelve lots adjoining
College street on the south, between Green and Water streets, by
Magnus Holmes ; April 27, ten lots, composing two-thirds of the
square bounded by College, Franklin and Water streets, by Isaac
Naylor; June 8, eight lots composing the square bounded by
Wabash avenue, Washington, Water and Jefferson streets, by John
Wilson; June 21, twenty-one out-lots, comprising about twenty-five
acres on the N. i of Sec. 5, T. 18 N., R. 4 W., by A. Ramey &
Co.; August 6, thirteen lots lying south of Wabash avenue and west
of Walnut street, extending south, by J. II. Graham ; September
10, thirty-four lots lying north of Jefferson street, fronting on Wal-
nut street between Jefferson and College streets, and also the square
bounded by Washington, College, Walnut and Franklin streets, by
Israel T. Canby ; October 21, eighteen lots, composing the square
bounded by Elm, Water and Jefferson streets and Wabash avenue,
by Providence M. Curry, commissioner for Richard Canine's heirs.

In 1837 Wabash College made an addition of nearly one hundred

138 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

acres, in out-lots, dividing the territory into twenty-eight parcels,
situated west and south of the College Reservation, or Campus,
nearly all of which are improved with substantial dwellings and em-
braced within the present corporate limits of the city, and comprise
the base of several later additions.

The next addition was made in 1839, January 26, seventeen out-
lots, amounting to thirty acres, lying between the Indianapolis and
Noblesville state roads, east of the present location of the Logansport
& Terre Haute railroad depot, between Main and Market streets ex-
tended, by John Pottinger.

Following this, there were no additions made until 1845, when, on
September 8, Nathaniel A. Dunn added seventeen out-lots, amount-
ing to seventy-nine acres, lying in the N.E. £ Sec. 4, T. 18 N., It. 4
AY., and south of the Indianapolis state road.

The next addition was made February 14, 1849, as follows: Four-
teen lots, composing the square between Walnut, Perry, West and
Elm streets, and two lots north of the Perrysville road, by James
Thomson.

In 1851, February 26, Allen May laid out an addition often lots,
composing the northern half of the square bounded by Meadow,
Market, Water and Main streets.

In 1852, March 9, thirteen lots, composing the square bounded
by Market, West and Spring streets, and a street on the west of the
square (now closed), by William Suydam.

In 1853, April 28, twenty-one large out-lots, lying on the E. ^ of
S.W. i Sec. 5, T. 18 N., R. 4 W.,\y James Thomson ; also, on
June 21, five lots, fronting on Market street, immediately west of
West street, by Nancy Hanna et al.

In 1854, February 25, twelve lots, composing three-fourths of the
square bounded by Walnut, Franklin and Washington streets and
the north line of Prof. S. S. Thomson's property on Walnut street,
by Jesse Coons, John R. Coons and William McMullen ; on June 30
of the same year Ambrose Whitlock's third addition was made, of
twenty-four lots, composing the square bounded by Harrison, West,
Walnut and North streets, and the square bounded by Harrison,
Washington, North and Walnut streets, and eight lots north of Har-
rison, between West and Washington streets.

In 1S55, November 20, thirty-two lots were added by David T.
Powers, fourteen of them lying north of College and west of Plum
streets, and six east of Plum, between College and Franklin streets,
the remainder composing the square bounded by College, Plum,
Franklin and Elm streets.

UNION TOWNSHIP. 139

Osgood W. Williams likewise platted an addition of six out-lots
on April 15 of this year, on the tract bounded by Sugar Creek and
Harrison, West and Washington streets.

In 1856, May 5, Isaac Naylor made his second addition, twelve
lots, west of Elm street and south of Franklin, between Scott and
Railroad streets ; and on May 15 of that year John Wilson laid out
his second addition, twelve lots on the bluif side east of the Logans-
port, New Albany & Crawford sville railroad track, and north and
east of the depot of that road.

The next recorded additions were made in 1858. On March 20
O. P. Jennison laid out six lots south of Perry street to Porter street,
west of Wabash College addition, and on October 23 Hannibal Pur-
cell's addition of nineteen out-lots was laid out, on territory lying
west of the Danville road.

In 1859, November 11, nine lots were added by the trustees of the
town of Crawfordsville, eight lots lying between Wabash avenue
and College street and one between College and Franklin, west of
Powers' addition. This addition no longer appears upon maps of
the city, having been absorbed by other more recent sub-additions.

In April 21, 1860, William S. Galey added one large lot amount-
ing to half a square, west of Water between Jefferson and College,
on which he built a handsome residence, and where he resided at
the time of his death ; and on the same date Taylor Buffington
added three lots south of Wabash avenue and west of Washington
street, on which the new Center church building and his present
residence are situated. On July 23 of the same year Samuel S.
Thomson added four lots fronting on Plum and east of Court street.

During the dark years of the rebellion property in real estate
was a drug in the market, and consequently no additions were called
for by the growth of population or for speculative purposes.

In 1864 an addition was platted on November 26, by Houston &
Graham, consisting of sixteen lots, making the square bounded by
Green, College, Washington and Franklin streets.

In 1865 Peter S. Kennedy platted an addition of ten out-lots on
the S.W. I Sec. 6, T. 18 N., R. 4 W.

In February 9, 1866, David Harter added eight lots lying north
of Wabash avenue and directly west of the Logansport & Terre
Haute railroad line. On August 8 of the same year, Blair & Hous-
ton laid out an addition of fourteen lots west of West street and
fronting on North street.

In January 12, 1867, Messrs. Blair & Houston platted their second
addition, consisting of fifteen lots, situated south on North street and

140 HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

extending to the west of their first addition, following the trend of
the bluffs on the north of the Sperry's mill road. On July 1 of that
year Jacob Hughes added twelve lots, extending west of Wabash
street to Union street and lying immediately north of the Perrysville
road. On April 15, 1868, Graham, Houston & Connard laid out an
addition of fifty-one lots, composing the square bounded by John,
College, Hoacum and Franklin streets ; the square bounded by
College, Mill, Franklin and Hoacum streets, and twenty-six lots
south of Franklin, between Plum and Mill streets. On November
28, of that year, Mrs. M. E. Elston added twenty-two lots, lying
south of and fronting on Wabash avenue, between the Logansport
& Terre Haute, and the Logansport, New Albany & Chicago rail-
roads, and on December 14, Jabob Hughes recorded his second ad-
dition, composing the square between Perry, Liberty and Union
streets, and eighteen lots lying west of Union and north of