Delaware County, Indiana - Chapter 3, 1908

To Settlement

A number of interesting matters arc brought up for consideration when we inquire into the reasons why civilization did not sooner advance its bounds over the region now called Delaware county. From a population of 2500 in 1800, Indiana had about 25,000 in 1810, and over 60,000 in 1815. But during the next five years population increased to nearly 150,000, and to nearly 350,000 in 1830. The rush of settlement began about 1815, and in fifteen years settlements had been made in every portion of the state. It is remarkable how such a county as Delaware became "settled up" in ten years' time, how a wilderness was so quickly transformed into civilization, and homes and institutions established on every section where shortly before the Indian and the hunter had been the only human visitors. The power of American civilization to transform the wild prairies and the rapidity with which the transformation was effected doubtless inspired the poet who spoke thus of the uninhabited plains: -

' ' I listen long . . . ami think I hear The sound of that advancing multitude Which soon shall fill these deserts. From the ground Comes up tho laugh of children, the soft voice Of maidens, and tho sweet and solemn hymn Of Sabbath worshippers. Tho low of herds Blends with the rustling of tho heavy grain Over tho dark brown furrows."

The treaty of 1809, above mentioned, by which the "twelve mile purchase" was gained, had one result that contributed very materially to the slow development of Indiana. during the next five years. The Indians had not failed to regard with jealousy the gradual encroachment of the whites upon their hunting grounds. But after Wayne's victory and the treaty of Greenville, no concerted movement in opposition had been carried out. But a worthy leader, brave warrior and shrewd chieftain arose among them in the person of the Shawnee, Tecumseh, who was ably assisted in his endeavors to rouse the Indians to resist by his brother, Law-le-was-i-kaw, but best known as the "Prophet." These two dwelt in one of the Delaware villages in the present Delaware county in the year 1805, and here it was that the Prophet began his exhortations, reinforced by his claims to divine power, by which he acquired a powerful hold on the superstitious minds of his followers and gradually inflamed them to open hatred of the whites.*

Leaving the Delaware villages on White river about 1806, Tecumseh and his followers removed first to Greenville, Ohio, where their conduct soon aroused the suspicions of the American officers, and in the spring of 1808 they moved t hoi - settlement to the banks of the Wabash, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe, their village being known as Prophet's Town. Tecumseh "s efforts were now directed toward the formation of a great Indian confederacy, and he lacked little of complete success. When, in 1809, as above mentioned, several of the tribes ceded a large tract of territory to the American government, Tecumseh opposed it, declaring that one or several of the tribes could not barter away the lands that belonged to all the Indian nations in the confederacy. Despite the efforts of Governor Harrison toward breaking up the confederacy which had its center about Prophet's Town, the Indians became more hostile every day. Small parties appeared in different parts of the territory, stealing and occasionally taking the lives of settlers. Tecumseh and his brother became more insolent in the conferences with the governor, and, on the eve of the second war with Great Britain, a secret British influence increased the disaffection of the tribes.

* Until recently it was supposed that tho following incidents, as described liy Dillon, took place in tbo Indian villago which stood at the site of Yorktown: "An old Delaware chief, whose name was Tnte-cbock-o-she, through whoso iiitbience a treaty had been made with tho Delawnres in 1804, was accused of witchcraft, tried, condemned and tomahawked. His body was then consumed by fire. The wife of the old chief, his nephew, who was known by the nnmo of Billy Pat- !- r-on, and an aged Indian whose name was Joshua, were then accused of "witchrraft, and condemned to death. Tho two men wero burnt at tho stake; but tho life of the wife of Tate-c-bock-o-sho was saved by her brother, who suddenly approached her. took her by the hand, and, without meeting with any opposition from the Indians who were present, led her out of the council-house. Ho then in.nu'diately returned, and checked the growing influence of the Prophet by exclaiming, in a strong, earnest voice: 'The evil spirit has come among us, and we »re killing each other.' "

A comparison of the different authorities has led Judge Dunn (in an article in the Indianapolis News, March 17, 1906) to the conclusion that "Joshua was killed at the principal Delaware town, which was what the whites called Munciet"'.vn and the Indians Woopicamikink or Wapecomckoke. This is commonly spoken of ;:- Icing on the site of Muncie, but it was on the north side of the river, directly opposite where Muncie now stands. The traditional site of the mission [the old Moravian mission] where Tatapachkse [Tate-e-bock-o-she] was executed is the southca-t quarter of section 17, range 8 east, township 19 north, the location of Little Murisee town," in Madison county at the resort now known as "Indian Monnds. "

Concerning the old Indian village on the north bank of the river at Muncie there is the following testimony by a pioneer, William Jackson: "The old Indian village and graveyard stood on the north bank of White river, a short distance to the westward of the bridge, on the Muncie and Granville pike. When I camo here many distinct features of the graveyard were still visible. The graves in many instances were surrounded with pens, or poles piled around them. Many skeletons were exhumed and a number of Bkulls have been preserved."

Finally in the fall of 1811 General Harrison, with a force of about a thousand regular troops, Indiana militiamen and Kentucky volunteers, marched up the Wabash into the heart of the Indian country. While encamped about seven miles northeast from the site of Lafayette, on the early morning of November 7, a furious attack was made by the Indians, "so suddenly,*' wrote Governor Harrison, "that the Indians were in the camp before many of the men could pet out of the tents." Tccumsch was not present in the battle of Tippecanoe, but the Prophet, standing near the scene of action, lent encouragement to his followers by singing a war song that could be heard al»vc the rattle of musketry and the din of battle. The loss in killed and wounded was almost equal on both sides, but substantial victory remained with the whites, the power of the Prophet was broken and the confederacy dissolved soon after the battle. Some six or seven tribes were represented at the battle of Tippecanoe, but it is of interest to note that only a few of the Miamis and none of the Dclawarcs were present, the tribe whose homes were in what is now Delaware county and vicinity having withheld full allegiance to Tecumseh and his league.

Though the settlers were relieved of the worst dangers by the victory at Tippecanoe, the war with Great Britain which was declared in June, 1812, placed new obstacles in the path of peaceful progress, and created a state of almost constant apprehension throughout the settlements. It was uncertain how far the Indians would be influenced by the state of hostilities, and to guard against any outbreaks from the tribes residing near the settlements it was deemed best to inaugurate a state of defense along the frontiers. Block houses were built from Wayne county to Vincennes. The Delawarcs on White river professed friendship for the Americans, and in order that they should not be involved in any collisions between the whites and other tribes they were directed to remove from their villages to the Auglaize river in Ohio. The Miamis, on the lower courses of the Mississincwa, as well as other tribes in northern Indiana, became troublesome after the Fort Dearborn massacre and Hull's surrender of Detroit to the British. An expedition, for the destruction of the Miami villages on the Mississinewa, was organized late in the year 1812, under the command of Lieut. Col. Campbell. Leaving Dayton on December 14th, and marching eighty miles in three days, early on the morning of the 17th the force reached an Indian town on the Mississinewa inhabited by a number of Dclawarcs and Miamis. After killing eight warriors and capturing fortytwo of the inhabitants, the Americans burnt the village, and in the course of the day destroyed several other Indian villages in that vicinity. At night camp was pitched at the village first destroyed, and here, on the following morning, the Indians made a furious attack, engaging the troops for an hour, and killing and wounding about fifty of the whites. The Indians were repulsed, but Colonel Campbell at once began his return to Greenville, where the force arrived after much suffering and almost unfit for further duty. The location of the villages which were destroyed has been placed, Ijv Dillon and successive writers, at points fifteen or twenty miles distant from the junction of the Mississincwa with the Wabash. If Campbell's official report of the campaign can be relied upon at all in its figures as to , lavs' march, it is difficult to understand how, if he left Dayton on the 14th and after marching a distance he estimates at eighty miles reached the first Indian village on the morning of the 17th, he could have traversed the wilderness at least as far as the present site of Marion, which is distant by an air line nearly a hundred miles from Dayton. Accepting the figures of the official report, it seems more reasonable to conclude that the villages which wore burnt and where the bloody fight occurred in December, 1812, were Incited somewhere along the Mississincwa in its course through northern Delaware county.

One other Indian campaign during the war of 1812 deserves mention because it was directed against the Delaware villages in what are now Madison and Delaware counties. Depredations upon the white settlements continued during 1813, and in June of that year an expedition was formed to punish some hostile Indians supposed to be sheltered in the Delaware villages. The troops, under the command of Colonel Joseph Bartholomew, left Valonia, in Jackson county, and proceeded north and northeast, "about one hundred miles, to the upper Delaware town on White river.* We arrived there on the 15th, and found the principal part of the town had been burnt three or four weeks previous to our getting there. We found, however, a considerable quantity of com in the four remaining houses. We went from thence down White river, a west course, and passed another village three or four miles below, which had been also burnt. At the distance of twelve miles below the upper town, we came to another small village, not burnt." A skirmish was had with the Indians in this neighborhood, but nothing of consequence was effected by the expedition further than the burning of the Indians' corn. Soon after another expedition visited the Delaware towns and the Indians on the Mississinewa, but because of the comparative neutrality of the Delawares throughout the war this county did not become the scene of important campaigns. In 1814 the tide of victory set in strongly toward American arms, and with the battle of the Thames in October the British and Indian power ceased to cause serious alarm in the west. The tribes in Indiana soon sought terms with the American leaders, and to the close of the war they professed to live on terms of peace with the Americans.

The return of peace in 1815 marked the beginning of such an era of expansion as no other century and no other land than America has ever witnessed. The supremacy of our national arms, the ability to assert and protect our rights as a nation, were impressed upon the world at large, and among Americans themselves the success of the war produced an independence, an cxpansivencss of thought and action, and a degree of self-confidence that became the dominating qualities in the American character during the nineteenth century. The original colonies at once seemed too small and confined for the restless energy of the people, and the movement to the west became a great overflow that soon peopled all the lands east of the Mississippi.

It was from the emigration that set in after the war of 1812 that Delaware county was settled. On the cast and southeast, a large part of the territory of Randolph and Wayne counties, as we have already seen, had been opened to settlement and by this time contained a large and flourishing population. One barrier must be removed in order that the tide of settlement might reach Delaware county: the Indian title to all this region had to be extinguished before anyone could legally make a home there.

This was accomplished in the treaty of St. Mary's, in Ohio, concluded October 3, 1818, when the Delaware Indians ceded to the United States all their claims to lands lying within the boundaries of the state of Indiana. However, the Delawares reserved the right to occupy these lands for a period of three years from the date of the treaty, and as the experience of the pioneer settlers of Delaware county testifies, these Indians were familiar visitors and neighbors of the whites for some years after settlement had begun.