Delaware County, Indiana - Chapter 4: Public Survey of Delaware County - First Occupants of Land, 1908

However, even after the land was ceded by the Indians, it was not quite ready to be occupied by homeseckcrs. A very important preliminary nork had to be done. A few settlers probably entered the ceded region before it was finished, but they were what are properly known in American u-agc as "squatters," who could have no legal and recorded rights in the !,iiid on which they settled.

Before people could begin to live upon the land and form such associations with one another as constitute a county, it was necessary that a survey of the public lands should be made. Too often the employes of the government who performed this arduous and essentially pioneer work are overlooked or passed by with scant honor. They were the avant couriers of actual settlement, and the substance of their work has continued as a benefit to all who have come after them. Only on condition of their work having been properly done, could definite individual ownership exist, and those mutual rights and duties of men with one another be established which make an organic body such as a county possible. The legislature of the state of Indiana were able to declare where and what the area of this county should be, because the United States measurers of land had already laid their measuring chain upon the land out of which the county was to be made.

In 1796 Congress enacted the law in accordance with which all the public lands were to be surveyed. The system embodied in this act is known as the "Rectangular System." The entire territory of the present state of Indiana has been surveyed and divided into, townships in accordance with this system and with reference to a certain "meridian" and "base line." The first principal meridian is the north and south line that forms the boundary between Ohio and Indiana, but the meridian spoken of so frequently in determining the location of townships in Delaware county is the Second Meridian, which is just forty-seven miles west of the west boundary of this county. The "base line," or the east and west line from which reckoning was made in the survey, is a line one hundred and ten miles south of the south line of Delaware county. With thi.° principal meridian and Uiis base line established, the surveyors of the general government began to go over the public laud of Indiana with compass and chain, and to mark trees and set posts for the Iwundaries of townships and sections and quarter sections. These surveyors knew, of course, no names of counties and townships as we know them, neither did they give names at all to townships or groups of townships as they surveyed them. They recorded and dated carefully day by day their measurements and topographical notes in their note-books, thus creating the original "Field Notes," which in every county today arc of such primary and incalculable importance for titles, deeds, mortgages and all transactions involved in buying, selling or owning of land. As they tramped over the surface of the country, measuring and marking it off into portions each exactly six miles square, making a township, they gave no names to the townships, but merely numbered them in relation to meridian and base line.

These divisions of land six miles square, laid off by the surveyors, do not correspond in meaning nor generally in fact with the civil townships such as Perry, Center, etc. Taking the civil township of Delaware, for example, it lacks six sections of comprising the area of a congressional or surveyed township. The surveyors' description of this area stated that it was Town 21 North, Range 11 East; meaning, in the first place, that it was the 7i st block of land six miles square surveyed in going north from the base line; and in the second place, that it was the 11th block of similar size surveyed in going east from the second meridian. The congressional or surveyed township comprising the civil township of Delaware also contains the north row of sections in Liberty township. Not one of the twelve civil townships of Delaware county corresponds in both limits and area to a congressional township. All the townships in the two east tiers have the regulation width of six miles, and the range lines form their east and west boundaries. But the town lines, i. e., the east and west lines, laid off at regular intervals of six miles from the base line, in only one case form the boundaries of the civil townships. The southern boundary of Niles, Union and Washington is the same as Town Line 21 North; but the townships named lack one mile of extending to next town line on the north, and hence are only fractional congressional townships. South of these townships, Hamilton and Delaware both lack a row of sections on the bottom to make them surveyed townships, while Harrison township, though six miles from north to south, extends one mile into Range 8 and therefore contains six sections more than the congressional township. Harrison township is the largest civil township in area in the county. Center and Liberty are the only civil townships in the county that are six miles square; but they are made of two fractional parts of congressional townships. It seems that the legislature of Indiana, in forming county boundaries, and the county government in dividing the county into civil townships, did not endeavor to make range and town lines correspond with county and township limits. In other states, notably Michigan, the counties usually are made to contain a certain number of complete surveyed townships, and the civil townships arc generally the same in area and limits as the congressional townships.

The survey having been compl'ted, the next step was to provide for the disposal of the land to settlers. The land of some of the older cessions had been entered in land offices at Vincennes, Dayton and one or two other places. But for the sale of lands granted by the treaty of St. Mary's, the Fort Wayne land office and district was created, by act of Congress May 8, 1S22. Up to this time the lands in the St. Mary's cession east of the principal meridian had been sold at the Brookville and Jeffersonville land offices, hut it appears that all the land in Delaware county was sold at the Fort Wayne office except one or two entries to be mentioned later.

E. Dana was a speculator in western lands and had been very active in directing eastern investors and settlers to various points in the west. In 1819 he published a book, called "Geography of the West," in which he had this to say concerning the tract of land from which Delaware county was carved. "Among the lands purchased of the Indians in 1818 are S.500,000 in Indiana. . . . The purchase is now being surveyed. . . . At the northeast [i. e., of the purchase], although the lands will make valuable plantations, the surface over a considerable part approaches too near, perhaps, a perfect champaign to embrace all the conveniences of the best agricultural situations. The soil is, however, strong and durable. The prevailing growth here is beech, although there be considerable sugar maple and other forest trees that indicate a rich soil. The infrequency of running streams, and level surface in the northeast cause a scarcity of good mill seats. The lands bordering on the waters of the White river and its tributary streams are considered among those of the best quality. . . . Much of this tract is delightfully situated, and the surface consisting of gentle undulations, supplied with good water, and variegated with numerous, small, rich, dry prairies."

This description, which would fit Delaware county (though whether the writer ever visited this section is uncertain), no doubt was read by many who afterwards came to Indiana and perhaps by some who became permanent settlers of Delaware county. Such a book as Dana's was not the least of the influences which directed settlers to the western country. We can imagine how eagerly those contemplating the journey west would seize upon every piece of information that would be of value to them in selecting a home. That was not the day of railroad emigration bureaus, supplying handsomely illustrated and glowingly written descriptions of every available section of the country. Yet there were various land companies with eastern agencies that supplied prospectuses and other printed" matter concerning western lands. The newspapers published letters from easterners who had gone west and become well situated and satisfied with their surroundings. These and other avenues of information w.ere open to the prospective settler, and the above quotation may serve to indicate what the pioneer looked forward to when he journeyed toward that part of Indiana now included in Delaware county.

Here and there in the wilderness of Indiana, and among the Indians, some few white men had chosen a place to live before the transfer of the land from the Indians. Usually such men adopted Indian ways, married Indian wives, and merged their identity so completely with the wildness and the life of their neighbors that the record of very few is left. These men were often misanthropes, fleeing from their natural society because of crime, or sorrow, or morbid desire of loneliness. In some cases their eccentricities marked them as "characters" among the pioneers, and their queer doings and speech were remembered long afterward. Seldom were they substantial settlers, the kind that clear the forests, raise crops of corn and wheat and contribute the proceeds of their work to the institutions of civil society. Rather, they were hunters or fishermen, having a cabin remote in the woods, surrounded, perhaps, by a small garden plot, and their days were passed in ranging the woods or fishing in the running streams.

When we approach the subject of the early settlement of_ Delaware county, we find mention of one or two such characters, although the items are too meaner to compose anything resembling a portraiture. In the records of Congress for the year 1820 is contained, under date of March 13th, a favorable report to the senate upon a petition from William Connor, who, so the petition averred, had resided for years at a place called Del Towns among the Delaware Indians. After the St. Mary's treaty he [ tioned Congress for a pre-emption for 640 acres, on which he claimed to have made a number of improvements, and on which he should be permitted to remain and rear his family of half breeds. The lands had not yet been surveyed, hence no method was provided for this sale, and it was for this reason that Connor desired the right to "pre-empt." The location of the land- he desired has not been ascertained except that it was at "Delaware Towns," which allows the supposition that they were in Delaware county. Nothing more is known of Connor, except that it is likclj he assisted the government forces as scout during some of the Indian campaigns. In the treaty of St. Mary's (1818) one of the articles directs that "one half-section of land shall be granted to each of the following persons, namely: Isaac Wobby, Samuel Casman, Elizabeth Pct-cha-ka and Jacob Hick; and one quarter of a section of land shall be granted to each of the following persons, namely: Solomon Tindell and Bcnoni Tindell; all of whom are Dclawarcs; which tracts of land shall be located, after the country is surveyed, at the first creek t'xdvc the old fort on White river, and running up the river; and shall b<: held by the persons herein named, respectively, and their heirs; but shall never be conveyed or transferred without the approbation of the president of the United States."

The words of the treaty state that all those named were Delawares; but several of them surely only by adoption into the tribe. Most of those named in the treaty are again mentioned in the records showing the original land entries, and from the two we get some of the earliest history concerning Delaware county.

"The old fort" referred to in the above treaty probably meant the Indian town or fortifications along White river toward Anderson. "The first creek," however, is without doubt Buck creek, that joins White river in the village of Yorktown. So it happened that, after the land was survcyed, those granted land under the treaty became residents of what is now Mt. Pleasant township and their land was situated near the site of the present village. Samuel Casman, who was to receive a half section of land, was a half-breed. The date of his land entry is the earliest in Delaware county, bearing date of September 16, 1820. His land was the north half of section 22 in what is now Mt. Pleasant township. Such facts as are known of him do not honor him in his distinction as the first recorded land owner in this county. He had the Indian thirst for whisky, and had neither the thrift nor industry to develop his land and become a factor of civilization. His first wife was a negro, and after her death he married again and shortly afterward sold his land to Oliver H. Smith, a transaction that involved obtaining the consent of the president of the United States. Casman joined his Indian associates on one of the reserves in Indiana. His existence was unprofitable, and some years later his dead body was discovered in the hollow of a tree in Madison county.

Of the other grantees according to the St. Mary's treaty, grants were made on February 25, 1824, to Solomon Tindell of the southeast quarter of section 15 (lying just north of Casman's grant) and to Bcnoni Tindell, consisting of the northwest quarter of section 23, just east of Casman's. Isaac Wobby, first mentioned in the treaty clause, died before his grant could be confirmed to him, and the south half of section 14 was reserved for his heirs. Further up the river, in what is now section 18 of Center township, the southeast quarter, was another reservation under the St. Mary's treaty. At a very early date this came into the possession of Goldsmith C. Gilbert, who also, about 1825 or later, purchased what was known as the Hackley reserve (the widow Hackley being an Indian who inherited this land). The Hackley reserve is now covered by the city of Muncie.*