f$2£> r. P 526 . 1472 Copy 1 HISTORY OF INDIANA BY OSCAR H. WILLIAMS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION INDIANA UNIVERSITY D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO HISTORY OF INDIANA By Oscar H. Williams Assistant Professor of Education, Indiana University CHAPTER I THE FIRST OCCUPANTS Indiana Two Centuries Ago. — More than two centuries have passed since European white men first set foot on the soil of what is now Indiana. The country was then a vast wilderness. It was almost wholly covered with tangled forests, threaded by noble rivers, and inhabited by a varied wild life and by bands of roving savages. In the north and west, open prairies, with rich and copious grasses, added beauty to the landscape. In the north clear calm lakes, with beautifully wooded shores and sweet pure water, basked in the sunshine. Surely here was nature's garden spot. In the lowlands of the valleys near the streams were immense swamps. They made the country almost impassable at certain seasons. What changes have two centuries wrought! How very different is the land we know as Indiana to-day! The forests are gone, the swamps are drained, the wild creatures have fled or linger only in remote places. Where once the deer grazed are now well-tilled farms. • W T here the buffalo marched in stately droves to salt-lick and spring are now lines of steel coursed by thundering trains. Where the woodlands were thickest are now thriving towns and cities. What magic has wrought this marvelous change? Copyright, 1916, by D. C. Heath & Co. 2 HISTORY OF INDIANA We are to follow the story of Indiana's making through two centuries of progress. But first let us consider the factors which helped in the making of a great State. One of the most important of these is its position with regard to the country as a whole. Indiana on the Nation's Highway. — Indiana lies at the crossroads of the nation. The summit plain which lies across the Mississippi-St. Lawrence watershed covers the northern portion of the State. This furnished an easy grade for the lines of traffic from east to west. The Lincoln Highway is a new and recent use of this great natural thoroughfare. In like manner the gentle southerly slope of the Wabash basin makes north and south communication easy and direct. The Dixie Highway is the latest witness of this line of transit. To-day, no less than nineteen east and west trunk lines and seven north and south systems of railway traverse the State. Thus Indiana lies on the main highway of commerce and travel between the East and the West, as well as the North and the South. Moreover, two great inland waterways lie along the two ends of the State and supplement the overland lines of traffic. This fact of strategic location, as we shall see, has had an important bearing upon the history of the State. Natural Resources of the State. — A second factor in the making of the Indiana of to-day is the presence of rich stores of natural resources. The first to be used was the timber. To the early settlers an obstacle to be removed by destructive methods, the timber has nevertheless been a useful asset to the people of the State. Indiana's woodlands form the western margin of the North American forest, — all beyond is prairie, with only an occasional clump of trees. The trees are mostly of the hardwood variety. They include the black walnut, red and white oak, three or four kinds of ash, two of maple, besides beech, hickory, and elm. At first yellow poplar abounded, though it is now nearly exhausted. The quality APR26I9I©CU428698 . 'Ho j. Air THE FIRST OCCUPANTS 3 and variety of timber and the closeness to the market in the prairie regions of the West help to explain Indiana's leadership in the making of furniture and agricultural implements. Another resource is the natural fuels. Indiana, though not a mountain region, is uncommonly rich in stores of coal, natural gas, and petroleum. Coal measures at varying depths underlie seven thousand square miles of surface, or nearly one-fifth of the State. Indiana coal is of two varieties, block and bituminous. Both are of excellent quality for steam and household uses. Natural gas has been found in a field com- prising twenty-five hundred square miles, and petroleum in an area half as great. Both are factors in Indiana's industrial greatness. Another resource of prime importance is the productive soil. About four-fifths of the State lies in the glacial drift region. It was here that many centuries ago a great ice- sheet pounded up the rocks and spread the soil broadly over the surface. This is known as the drift. It covers the surface to a depth of from ten to two hundred feet. It is composed of mineral elements necessary to plant growth. The remain- ing fifth of the State is less fortunate in its soil, although the bottom lands of the streams are covered with rich silt washed down in the flood seasons. Mention should be made also of the building stone and clay, in which the State abounds. These have had a large place in the growth of the State, as will be noted later. Early Indian Migrations. — The original occupants of Indiana were the red children of the forest. They belonged chiefly to the Algonquin stock of Indians. They were not fixed in their habitation, nor had they long been occupants of the western country. The Indians known to the first white comers had only recently migrated to the valley of the Ohio. Their ancestors had for the most part lived on the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies. Why had they migrated westward? 4 HISTORY OF INDIANA Two answers help to explain, — the hostility of the warlike Iroquois, and the westward "push" of the English colonists. The Indian Homes and Hunting Grounds. — The country immediately south of the Ohio River was not occupied by Indians. This region was an Indian hunting preserve, held as neutral ground by the tribes to the northward, eastward, and southward. But the valleys of the Wabash and its branches, and the valleys of the Maumee and the Big St. Joseph held a numerous Indian population. How many Indian braves lived on the banks of the Wabash none can say. But they formed an impassable barrier to western settlement. Indian Tribal Groups. — There were several tribal groups or "nations" of Indians. There was no real bond of union among the tribes; on the contrary, petty quarrels and con- stant strife prevented united action. Near the close of the eighteenth century the Indians became a serious menace to the white settlers on both sides of the Ohio River. At this time the Delawares occupied the eastern portion of Indiana. They were a fugitive people, their fathers having formerly lived on the eastern side of the Alleghanies, along the Sus- quehanna, around the Chesapeake, and along the rivers and bays of Virginia. About 1760, they settled on the Muskingum River in Ohio. From here they were forced farther westward after the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The Shawnees lived near and along the Ohio. Having originally come from the south, they settled at first along the Scioto, later on the Great Miami River, in Ohio. Thence, under their famous chieftains, Tecumseh and the Prophet, they migrated to Indiana after 1795. The Wyandots were the descendants of the Hurons, who had at one time lived north of the lower Great Lakes. Very early, the Huron nation had been fiercely attacked by the Iroquois and destroyed. A remnant known as the W r yandots THE FIRST OCCUPANTS came to live on the Sandusky in Ohio. Here they became civilized, dwelt in substantial log houses, carried on agri- culture, and lived settled lives. One tribe of Wyandots was later found in Southern Indiana, between the lower Wabash and the Ohio. The Miami Confederacy. — Strongest and most warlike of the Indian nations was the group known as the Miamis. It was composed of four main branches: The Twightwees, around the union of the St. Mary and the St. Joseph Rivers; the Eel River Miamis; the Weas along the middle course of the Wabash; and the Pianke- shaws on the lower Wabash. Other tribes looked up to this powerful confederacy. The first named branch — the Twightwees — were considered the head of the confederacy; to these all others yielded in matters of peace and war. The Miami nation had carried on a long warfare with the distant Iroquois. Acting closely with the Miamis were the Kickapoos, who once lived in the far north but had been driven southward by the Sioux. They now dwelt west of the Wabash and south of the Kankakee. The Pottawatomies lived in the extreme north and northwest and were on good terms with the Miamis. We should become acquainted with these early occupants of Indiana. We should know the name, the location, and the importance of each tribal group. Let us also learn something of how they lived. Indian Life and Customs. — Let us select the tribe farthest removed from the influence of the English settlers — the Pottawatomies — and ask an Indian agent who lived among them to tell us how they lived. "The men are well clothed, " Tecumseii 6 HISTORY OF INDIANA he says. " Their entire occupation is hunting and dress. They make use of a great deal of vermilion. In winter they wear buffalo robes richly painted and in summer red or blue cloth [purchased from traders]. The women do all the work. They cultivate Indian corn, beans, squashes, and melons. These all come up very fine. "The women and girls dance at night. They adorn them- selves, — grease their hair, paint their faces, put on white chemises, and wear their belts of wampum. They are very tidy in their way. The old men often dance the 'medicine.' While thus engaged, they resemble a set of demons. The young men sometimes dance in a circle and strike posts. While doing this they recount their achievements in war. "When the Indians go hunting — as they do every autumn ■ — they carry their apaquois [a plaited reed mat] to hut under at night. Everyone follows, — men, women, and chil- dren. They spend the winter in the forest on the chase and return to their homes in the spring." Thus we see the Indians were true children of nature. Their lives were often free and wholesome in spite of hardship and privation. Indian Education. — Indian youth were trained to endure the hardships of war and the chase. Both boys and girls were taught the difficult art of self-control. They were required to bathe every day in cold water, and at frequent intervals to fast for a whole day. When fasting, the child's face was blacked, — if a boy, all over; if a girl, the cheeks only. At eighteen the boy's education was completed; his face was blackened for the last time; he was taken a mile from the village and a small hut built of bushes or reeds. Here he was left alone for five or six days, perhaps eight, without food. Then he was taken home, washed all over, and his head shaved so as to leave the "scalp-lock." Finally, he was given a box of vermilion and accepted into the tribe as a full-grown THE FIRST OCCUPANTS 7 warrior. Thus we see there were many excellent features in Indian life and character. But we must turn aside from the red children of the forest to consider the first white occupants of this region. French Traders and Missionaries. — The first white men who came to what is now Indiana were Frenchmen. They came in the service of their God and king. The Jesuits, or members of the Society of Jesus, at this time planned to found a nation of Christian Indians around the Great Lakes. They began with the Hurons who lived north of Lakes Erie and Ontario. As we have already noted, just before 1650, the Huron nation was fiercely attacked by the warlike Iroquois and destroyed. After this, for a century, fur-traders went hand in hand with the missionaries. They established posts all over the western country and used them as centers from which to visit the neighboring tribes. Hither came the priests to carry the Gospel to the Indians. LaSalle, the Pioneer Trader in Indiana. — The real pioneer of France in Indiana was LaSalle. He was born of a wealthy burgher family in Rouen, the ancient capital of Normandy, educated by the Jesuits, and came to the New World in search of fame and fortune. He was given a large tract of land on the St. Lawrence, nine miles above Montreal; here he learned of a beautiful river to the west and burned with a zeal to find it, — a possible way to the South Sea. An account of how he set out and of what he did is given on pages 34-36 of Bourne and Benton's History of the United States. LaSalle at the Kankakee Portage. — When LaSalle reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River he built a fort there. He then set out with his faithful companions expecting to paddle in canoes by the rivers to the Illinois country. Up the beauti- ful St. Joseph they went in the month of December, 1679, 8 HISTORY OF INDIANA Starved Rock" on the Illinois River hoping to find the portage 1 place between the St. Joseph and the Kankakee. They arrived at the south bend of the river, near where the city of South Bend now stands. Here they had been told was the portage path. Treaty with 'the Miamis. — LaSalle and his party passed down the Illinois River and on a high rock — which they named "Starved Rock"— they built a town. Here they hoped to build up an Indian stronghold in the western country. They sent back a load of furs, but their party proved unfaithful and sold the furs. Two years later LaSalle re- turned to the Kankakee portage; here he made a treaty with the Miami Indians. With many gifts he induced the Indians to go with him to the town he had founded on the Illinois. French Settlements in Indiana. — It was a generation later that the French established settlements in Indiana. Already important posts were founded in the Illinois country, at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi River. The first post in Indiana was at Vincennes, but the exact date of its founding is unknown; perhaps it was as early as 1731. Another was established at Ouiatanon, near where the city of Lafayette now stands. A third post was at Kekionga, at the junction of the Rivers St. Joseph and St. Mary, near the site of Fort Wayne. Thus we see that LaSalle and his followers gave to the world its first knowledge of the Indiana we know. The 1 A portage is the land or route over which boats, goods, etc., are carried overland between navigable waters. THE FIRST OCCUPANTS 9 missionary and the trader sought out the wilds of the western country and aided in the work of advancing civilization. QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES 1. Contrast the Indiana we know with that of two centuries ago. Write a list of five different kinds of changes in the country. 2. Explain the factors which have helped to make Indiana a great State. Make a list of the natural resources. In what ways is each kind of resource useful? Make a list of native trees and tell for what each is useful. 3. On a map of the State, point out the lake region; the prairie district; the wooded area. Describe the drainage system. Name the principal tribu- taries of the Wabash River. 4. Locate on the map each of the Indian tribes which lived in what is now Indiana. Name the tribes of the Miami Confederacy and locate the principal town of each tribe. 5. From the map make a list of the rivers and lakes bearing Indian names. Find other Indian names on the map, e.g., Kokomo, Monon. 6. Make a list of counties or cities having French names, e.g., Dubois, Terre Haute. 7. What is the meaning of the name "Indiana"? 8. Trace the route followed by LaSalle across Indiana in 1769. French Settlements in the Illinois Country CHAPTER II THE TWO CONQUESTS The French and English as Rivals. — The French were not to be left in undisputed control of the country between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi River. The English colonists also laid claim to this rich domain. The French, as we have seen, held the country by right of exploration and occupancy. Before 1750, they had established forts and trading-posts at important points along the Great Lakes, on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, and in the Wabash country. The English claim rested upon three things, — the royal grants of the early charters, cessions made by treaties with the Iroquois, and a clause in the Treaty of Utrecht. That treaty, signed in 17 13, acknowledged the right of the English to trade with the Indians. Upon the right of trading with the Indians of the northwest, the contest turned. English Traders in the Northwest. — The Shawnee In- dians in the Ohio country had never been very friendly toward the French, but they had long been on good terms with the English traders. They were, moreover, close friends of the Miamis, the leading Indians of the Wabash Valley. Through their friendly relations with the Shawnees, the Eng- lish traders hoped to win the favor of the Miamis and other Indian tribes of the northwest, and thus secure for themselves the valuable trade in furs. Their agents slyly worked into the confidence of the Indians. They paid liberally for the furs. They even advanced blankets and whiskey to the Indians before the season's furs were ready to be delivered. These English traders were typical backwoods adventurers, THE TWO CONQUESTS ii — bold, cunning, skilled in woodcraft, and possessed of a thorough knowledge of Indian character. In time they found themselves in control of much of the Indian trade of the Ohio country. Their rivals at Detroit and Kaskaskia became highly incensed at their success. Before 1750, they held the most important part of the Indian trade. Two Journeys into the Ohio Country. — To strengthen the waning hold of the French, the governor of Canada sent Captain Bienville de Celeron down the Ohio in the summer of 1749. Up the St. Lawrence, across Lake Ontario, along the shores of Lake Erie, Celeron's party of two hun- dred soldiers and boatmen lightly skimmed in their birch-bark ca- noes. Crossing the country from Lake Erie, they launched their boats on a beautiful lake, and soon found their way into the Allegheny and thence down the Ohio. At Indian towns on the way, they stopped to give pledges of friend- ship. At each point where an im- portant stream fell into the Ohio, the party ^ould pause to bury a leaden plate inscribed with a le- gend which proclaimed the King of France as the rightful ruler of all the territory drained by these rivers. By this means France formally established her title. Slightly more than a year later, Christopher Gist, a shrewd and hardy hunter from the back country of North Carolina, passed down the Ohio on a similar mission. He came in the interest of the Ohio Company, which had lately received Lead Plate Buried by the French at the Mouth of the Muskingum River 12 HISTORY OF INDIANA from the English King an extensive grant of land west of the Alleghanies. Gist, with a few companions, sought out the best roads to the country, and assured the Indians of the friendship and good will of the English. Thus by 1750 the question of who was to control the western territory had taken definite shape. But it was not settled until after a long war had been waged. The English Win the Northwest. — At the close of the French and Indian War, which followed in due time, the French yielded this disputed territory to the English. One by one the western posts, were occupied by British soldiers. In 1765 Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi, the last of the French posts to be transferred, was turned over to a British officer. Pontiac Wages War on the English, 1784. — Now that their rivals were out of the country, the English grew over- bearing toward the Indians. The traders, once so obliging, began to cheat and rob the red children of the woods. This treatment enraged the Indian chieftains. An Ottawa chief named Pontiac, one of the greatest of Indian leaders, formed a conspiracy, whose object was to capture all of the posts and drive the white people out of the country. Detroit was besieged; Ouiatanon was destroyed; Fort Miami (later Fort Wayne) was burned and its garrison butchered; other posts shared a similar fate. Fully three hundred whites were held as prisoners among the savages of Ohio and Indiana. Finally, Colonel Henry Bouquet, of Pennsylvania, marched to the Indian country with a large company of soldiers. On the banks of the Muskingum, in Ohio, he summoned the red warriors to his camp and, holding their chiefs as hostages, commanded them to go at once and bring back all the white people whom they were holding as captives. The Indians, now thoroughly alarmed, gladly obeyed. "A large number of men and women had accompanied Colonel Bouquet in the hope of finding their long-lost rela- THE TWO CONQUESTS 13 tives," says Dr. Esarey. "The scene that followed the return of the Indians, bringing in 206 prisoners, was one of the most tragic ever witnessed on the American frontier. As families were reunited, as wife and children were restored to husband V,:; '•'-.«% Fort Miami (Fort Wayne) in 1795 After a lithograph in Wallace A. Bruce's History of Fori Wayne. and father, as mothers found their babes after years of cap- tivity, and as others learned of the torture and death of their friends, their grief or joy was crushing." This Indian uprising was but the beginning of a bitter hatred between the Indians and English settlers and traders in the western country. George Croghan's Journey up the Wabash. — The Illinois country — that part of the newly acquired territory westward from the Wabash — was not well known to the English. This fact caused the British commander, General Thomas Gage, to send a party to that region by way of the Ohio. Colonel George Croghan, one of the best Indian agents in the West, was chosen to lead the party. He had for a long time lived among the Indians and had accompanied Christopher Gist on his tour among the tribes in 1750. While passing rapidly down the Ohio, in 1765, near the mouth of the Wabash his party was attacked by a band of Indians and carried as prisoners through the forest to Vincennes. i 4 HISTORY OF INDIANA "On my arrival," writes Croghan in his Journal, "I found a village of about eighty or ninety French families settled on the east side of the river, being one of the finest situations that can be found. The country is level and clear and the soil very rich, producing wheat and tobacco. I think the tobacco is better than that in Maryland or Virginia." "Post Vincent is a place of great consequence for trade," he continues, "being a fine hunting country all along the Wabash and too far for the Indians who reside hereabouts to go either to the Illinois or elsewhere to fetch their necessaries." Croghan and his friends proceeded up the river on horse- back to Ouiatanon. As he passed along he did not fail to note the beauty and promise of the country. After a con- ference with the Indians at Ouiatanon, and being freed by his captors, he continued on his journey to Detroit. Croghan gave his countrymen their first real glimpse of the Wabash country and aroused their interest in its future. Several attempts were made by them before the Revolution to found settlements in this region, in spite of the proclamation of 1763, which set aside the western country "for the use of the Indians." The West in the Revolution. — Despite the king's procla- mation of 1763, forbidding settlements west of the mountains, bands of settlers began to make homes for themselves in the valleys of the westward-flowing rivers. At the outbreak of the Revolution, there were numerous settlements in the back country of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. The English commanders began at once to use the war- loving Indians against the rebellious colonists along the fron- tiers. Colonel Henry Hamilton at Detroit was active in arousing the Western Indians against the Virginia settlers in Kentucky. The Indians themselves hesitated to attack the settlers. For two years they remained quiet. But in 1777 — the THE TWO CONQUESTS J 5 "bloody year" — the break came. Hamilton boasted that seventeen bands had been sent by him to ravage the frontiers. The Miami Indians on the Wabash took a leading part. They fell with pitiless fury upon scattered settlements. A terror hung over the West. The frontier was in a fever of excitement. Forts and block-houses were hastily con- structed. Militiamen were summoned to arms. George Rogers Clark. — At this point a leader appeared. George Rogers Clark, a Virginian by birth, was one of the early settlers of Harrodsburg, which he helped to lay out, and had represented the county of Ken- tucky in the Virginia legislature. He clearly understood the real source of danger and thought out a plan for relief. The Eng- lish posts, including Detroit, must be taken and held to pre- vent their use as rallying-points for Indian war-parties. Clark Prepares for the Ex- pedition. — It was a bold ven- ture, but Clark made sure of his ground. In the summer of 1777, he sent two of his friends as spies to the Illinois and the Wabash. Disguised as hunters, they visited Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and, returning quietly to Harrodsburg, reported the places not strongly guarded, the inhabitants without suspicion, and not firmly attached to the British. Clark now hastened to lay his plan before Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia. He was authorized to raise an army of Clark Statue In Monument Place, Indianapolis. 1 6 HISTORY OF INDIANA 350 volunteers and was voted £1200 for expenses and given an order on the commanding officer at Pittsburgh for boats and supplies. The brave Clark now quickly enlisted a few of his old Virginia friends and neighbors and sent them in different directions to raise companies of volunteers. In May, 1778, a little band of hardy Virginia backwoodsmen, all skillful Clark's Army going over the Falls of the Ohio hunters and marksmen, accompanied by a few settlers and their families, dropped down the Ohio to the Falls, near the site of Louisville. Here Colonel Clark fortified Corn Island, and began to drill his little army. Expedition to Kaskaskia. — After a month of drilling, Clark for the first time told his men the real object of the expedition. They were much surprised, as they believed the party was intended for the defense of Kentucky. Most of the men cheered loudly when told their commander's purpose, but a number from the distant Tennessee country refused to go so far from their homes and slipped away during the night. With the remaining men — about half the number that he THE TWO CONQUESTS 17 had expected to raise — Colonel Clark started for the Illinois. He well understood that everything depended on his being able to take the British at Kaskaskia by surprise. Rowing swiftly down the Ohio to the mouth of the Ten- nessee, the little army struck boldly across the country, arriv- ing near Kaskaskia on the evening of July 4, 1778. Capture of Kaskaskia. — In a wonderfully interesting letter which he afterwards wrote to George Mason, as well as in his Memoir, Clark re- lates the story of his long march and capture of the post. He tells how he led his men to a farmhouse on the east side of the river, and, finding boats, crossed over, reaching the outskirts of the town 1 , , r , ■■ , TT Ruins of Old Kaskaskia shortly alter dark. Here ^ . , . , J r rom a recent photograph. they remained in quiet until nearly midnight, when they en tered the fort and seized the commander. Immediately, Clark's soldiers ran through the town, making a great noise and ordering the people to keep off the streets. Thus the remarkable capture of the place without bloodshed was an accomplished fact. The other places near by on the Mississippi quickly fell into Colonel Clark's hands. Pierre Gibault and the Capture of Vincennes. — Clark won the good will of Father Pierre Gibault, a priest, who had great influence with the French inhabitants, by his assur- ance that the French would not be molested in any way. He showed Gibault a copy of the Treaty of Alliance recently made between France and the United States. The latter offered to go to Vincennes and explain to the French there the kind treatment his people had received and show them 1 8 HISTORY OF INDIANA the Treaty, believing, he said, that he could win them over to the American side. Accompanied by a few friends, Gibault set out for Vin- cennes, and on his arrival, finding the post without a garrison, gathered the people together and had them take the oath of Ac** -^Cu -jtS Y>fayu^p ucd_£ syzs^f- ~tr £U*y &//Hn^ pAyi^w -/^L^ SaL^s' Y