Delaware County, Indiana - Chapter 2: The Days of Indian Occupancy, 1924

Chapter 2: The Days of Indian Occupancy

There has been a great deal of controversy concerning the origin of the aboriginal races of America known to us as Indians - so misnamed by Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries because they were taken to be natives of India. The Indians are now generally believed by the best authorities to be descended from the races of Asia. One authority says of them: "They are now generally believed to be a Mongolian people separated from Asia by the comparatively recent subsidence of the 'Pacific continent'." Another authority says: "By some ethnologists the American Indians are considered an aboriginal or single stock; by others a mixture of Miongolian, Polynesian and Caucasian types; and by others as derived from the grafting of Old World races on a true American race." Some authorities think the ancestors of the Indians may have drifted across the Pacific from Asia, or entered this continent by way of Behring strait. Be that as it may. Where he came from or how he got here are hardly questions for such a review as this. The Indian, once dominant throughout this region, is gone. Of whatever ethnological stock, his was an arrested and nonprogressive race and in the struggle with the white man and the latter's civilization he was worsted and required to withdraw.

Mere Caretakers For The Real Possessors

As one thoughtful writer has pointed out: 'Those who preceded the present occupants were the mere caretakers for the real possessors whose coming these broad savannas, far reaching forests and teeming hills plainly foreshadowed as the future domain of a mighty empire. They left nothing behind them which in the slightest degree influenced the character, laws or customs of the present occupants.

they never possessed it in any true sense of possession. It is only by agricultural labor that man can be said to appropriate or possess the soil, and the Indian lived by the products of the chase. He was marked for destruction by his fixed and ineradicable prejudices, his fierce and ungovernable passions, his vices, and still more perhaps by his savage virtues. The coming of the white man with his peculiar civilization was the death knell of the Indian, for it had come to be an axiom of that civilization that barbarism has no rights which it is bound to respect, and that axiom was the rule and guide of the white man's conquest. So that the Indian has gone the way of the mastodon, the cliff dweller and the mound builder. He has sped away like a bird on the wing, leaving behind him no memorials of his passage save his dishonored graves and his musical names which linger on mountain, lake and river to tell the story of his sojourn and his exit."

The Melancholy Musings Of Sprague

To that generation in Indiana, now fast passing, that "grew up" on the McGuffey Readers, the melancholy musings of Sprague readily will recur: 'Not many generations ago where you now sit encircled by all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your head, the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer; gazing on the same moon that smiles for you, the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate. Here the wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless and the council fire glared on the wise and daring. Now they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy lakes, now they paddled their light canoes along your rocky shores. Here they warred; the echoing whoop, the bloody grapple, the defying death song, all were here; and when the tiger-strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace. , As a race they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken, their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council fire has long since gone out on the shore, and their war cry is fast fading to the untrodden west. Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountains, and read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty tide which is pressing them away; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave, which will settle over them forever. Ages hence, the inquisitive white man, as he stands by some growing city, will ponder on the structure of their disturbed remains and wonder to what manner of persons they belonged. They will live only in the songs and chronicles of their exterminators. Let these be faithful to their rude virtues, as men, and pay tribute to their unhappy fate, as a people."

The fact ought not to be overlooked, however, in any sentimental retrospection regarding the long departed redskin of the Midwest country or in any review of his stormy conflicts, his defeats and his gradual extinction, that his was not the type of the Indians of Longfellow, mellowed and humanized by stately meter, nor of the gentlemen redskins of Cooper's fabrications. Here was the real Indian, bitter, cruel, vindictive - a barrier to the progress of civilization and the enemy of peaceful society. Yet, in the language of Elmore Barce ("The Land of the Miamis"), there is something of pathos in the © Indian's complete obliteration. .

"Thus vanishes the red men," says he. "In their day, however, they had been the undoubted lords of the plain, following their long trails in single file over the great prairies and camping with their dogs, women and children in the pleasant groves and along the many streams. They were savages and left no enduring temple or lofty fane behind them, but their names still cling to many streams, groves and towns and a few facts gleaned from their history cannot fail to be of interest to us who inherit their ancient patrimony."

The Struggle For Racial Supremacy

Though long gone from the haunts he once dominated hereabout, the Indian left many memories - not all of which are bad. His was a distinctive part in the history of the region now comprised within the confines of Delaware county and his memory is perpetuated not only in the names of our county and of our county town but in other instances of our geographical nomenclature. Here was long his favorite hunting ground. It hardly could have been otherwise. As fair a land as the sun shines on, it occupies the summit of a divide which separates the waters of the north and the waters of the south, offering a singularly advantageous situation for the aboriginals, as the headwaters of the Mississinewa and the headwaters of the White afforded admirable village sites from which their canoes might have ingress (by a narrow portage) into the waters of Lake Erie and by an easy course into and down the Wabash and into the Ohio, and profit by the rich hunting in between. And thus he came to establish his villages here and to make this a center for his hunting grounds. But the white man came, with desire in his heart to possess these lands. And the white man won and the red man departed, and of the latter we have only the name to remind us of his former occupancy of these lands. The savage had to go. There was no place for him here.

"It must never be forgotten," says the historian Barce ("The Land of the Miamis"'), "that despite his stocism in facing danger, his skill in battle, his power to endure privation, and his undoubted valor and bravery, that the Indian was a savage. Toward those who, like the French, pampered his appetites and indulged his passions to secure his trade, he entertained no malice. . . . Thus the British government, through its duly authorized agents, its governor and army officers, retained the posts belonging to the new republic, encouraged the tribes in their depredations, and defeated the pacific intentions of the American people, and all from the sordid motives of gain. On April 30, 1789, when George Washington was inaugurated as the first president, every savage chieftain along the Wabash or dwelling at the forks of the Maumee, was engaged in active warfare against the people of the United States, largely through the instrumentality of the British officials. . . . The star of the Little Turtle was in the ascendant. He was now thirty-eight years of age, and while not a hereditary chieftain of the Miamis, his prowess and cunning had given him fame. The Indians never made a mistake in choosing a military leader. He watched the Americans from the very time of their leaving Fort Washington and purposed to destroy them at the Indiantown. . . . Gen. William Henry Harrison, who was aide to Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers, said to him: 'General Wayne, I am afraid you will get into the fight yourself and forget to give me the necessary field orders.' 'Perhaps I may,' replied Wayne, 'and if I do, recollect the standing order of the day is, Charge the damned rascals with the bayonet.' "

A Story That Has Been Told And Retold

The historical literature of Indiana though perhaps not equal in volume is fully equal in interest to that of any state in the Union. The story of a rich and proud state has been told and retold and many volumes are accessible to the student who would seek to know the whole wondrous tale in full. No detail of this story is more engrossingly interesting than that relating to the Indian wars, beginning with the dashing adventure of Gen. George Rogers Clark in 1779 in wresting from the British their dominance of the lands later erected into the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, commonly called the Northwest Territory and out of which Indiana Territory was erected in 1800. This naturally operated as an incentive to settlement in the Ohio country and to inquiries concerning the availability of lands for settlement along the Indiana frontier, and it was not long until the Indians began that system of bloody reprisals against what they regarded as encroachment upon their lands which necessitated military expeditions against their centers. General Harmar's defeat on the Maumee in 1790, followed by General St. Clair's even more erushing defeat at the headwaters of the Wabash, just over the state line at the site of the present town of Ft. Recovery, in 1791, were followed by an ineffectual council with the victorious Indians at the mouth of the Auglaize (Defiance, Ohio), in 1792, and the beginning of the operations of Gen. Anthony Wayne ("'Mad Anthony") which culminated in his defeat of the Indians at Ft. Recovery in June, 1794, and his conclusive defeat of the redskins at the decisive battle of Fallen Timbers in the following August.

This was followed by the establishment of a chain of forts throughout the disturbed frontier country and the consequent effectual subjugation of the Indian fighting spirit, paving the way for the treaty of Greenville in 1795 whereby the several fighting tribes acknowledged the white man's superiority and for a season kept off the war path, or until Tecumseh began to cause trouble by his efforts to establish a great Indian confederation, a dream which Harrison's victory at the battle of Tippecanoe, November 7, 1811, effectually dissipated. Then came on the War of 1812, in which many of the Indians, under Tecumseh's leadership, took part as allies of the British. Upon the reassertion of American dominance the Indians recognized that the fight was over so far as they were concerned and at the second treaty of Greenville in 1814 made further concessions as to their rights in the frontier country, this being followed by additional concessions at the treaty of the Maumee in 1817 and in the treaty at St. Marys (Ohio) in the next year (1818), by which the remaining lands held by the Indians south of the Wabash in Indiana were ceded to the United States and a great domain, including the

Origin Of The Delawares

The Delaware Indians were an important Algonquin tribe which at the beginning of the settlement period in this country lay in the path of white settlement on both sides of the Delaware river, and therefore fill a large part in Colonial history. The name Delawares became attached to them by the whites by reason of this circumstance of location. In their own tongue they were known as the Renno Renappi, or Lenno Lenape (Leni-lenape), meaning "true men," "real men" or "native, genuine men."

Previously to their contact with the whites these "real men' had been subjugated by the powerful Iriquois, who, instead of exterminating them, exacted tribute from them, called them "women" and dictated their action, so that at the time of the coming of the white man they were but a subsidiary tribe.

The early Dutch settlers within the scope of the hunting grounds of the Delawares were massacred as usual, but the Swedes who settled on the Delaware upheld Indian titles to land to secure their own possession against the Dutch, compelling the latter in turn to buy instead of seizing, so there was peace with the Delawares in this period of early settlement. The Swedes tried to christianize them with Luther's catechism, without much success.

In October, 1682, William Penn made his famous treaty with the Delawares, which was as well and as ill kept by his successors as others of the kind. That the Delawares did not revenge the white encroachments by massacre was due to Penn's sagacity in buying up their overlords, the Iriquois, who threatened to destroy them if they molested "Onas" people. The infamous trick of the "Walking Purchase" in 1737 (denounced by the Quakers) ousted the Delawares from half a million acres in the forks of the Delaware above Easton, and the Iroquois with furious menaces compelled them to retire to the Susquehanna.

This "walking purchase" of 1737 has passed into history as one of the tricks whereby the white man's cunning often proved superior to the red man's guile. Penn's purchase of 1682 comprised a tract of land in the present counties of Bucks and Northampton (Pennsylvania), bounded on the east by the Delaware river and in the in- terior at a point as far as a man could walk in three days. Pen and a party of Indians started on the walk, beginning at the mouth of Neshaming creek. At the end of a walk of a day and a half Penn concluded that it was as much land as he wanted, and a deed was given to the lands at that point - about forty miles from the starting point. In 1737, after Penn's death, the tract was increased by a party of expert walkers to a point seventy miles in the interior instead of forty miles.

Wandering Tribe Gradually Pushed Westward

In their new hunting grounds on the Susquehanna settlement still pursued the Delawares and, not daring to resent it, a large part of them by 1750 had removed to the Alleghany and Muskingum rivers, where they recovered Indian courage and ferocity. The Moravian missionaries converted part of the remainder, and these always remained peaceful. The others, maddened by aggression and the continued encroachments of the advancing tide of white settlement, joined the French and Iriquois in the French and Indian war, and helped in Braddock's defeat. Sullenly yielding in 1758, after the Senecas had turned against them, they broke out again in Pontiac's conspiracy or uprising in 1762 and were among the besiegers of Detroit, Ft. Pitt and Duquense.

Defeated by Bouquet at Bushy Run (1763), they made peace in 1764-65. In 1768 all the remnants of the Delaware tribe east of the Alleghanies migrated West and the Christian Delawares founded the village of Gnadenhutten at the headwaters of the Muskingum in what is now Tuscarawas county, Ohio. Roving bands of the others kept the field until the crushing defeat of Point Pleasant in 1774. In the Revolution they were divided. Part went with the British and part made a treaty with Congress in 1778. The Christian Delawares remained quietly at Gnadenhutten till in 1781 the English broke it up and removed them to Sandusky. Part of them returned thither to save their crops and were attacked by the Americans and ninety of them slain. The rest fled, mostly to Canada. Land was given them on the Thames and they founded Fairfield, with others who came in 1787 from Muskingum, where Congress had settled them.

The wild tribesmen of the Delawares continued hostile and contributed to St. Clair's bitter defeat at what is now Ft. Recovery, over the line in Ohio, in 1791; but General Wayne's decisive victory at the battle of Fallen Timbers three years later forced them to make peace, which was ratified at the treaty of Greenville in 1795. Successive treaties removed them from Ohio and by 1800 the main body 'of the Delawares were over here on the White river. They did not join Tecumseh in the War of 1812 and in 1818 at the treaty of St. Marys (Ohio) they ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi and moved to lands on the White river in Missouri. There were then about 1,800 Delawares in all, a few remaining in Ohio. Later some went south to Red river on the Texas border, by Spanish permission. By a treaty of October 24, 1829, the main body (about 1,000 in number) settled on the Kansas and the Missouri, where they had schools and missions. In 1853 they sold all but a reservation in Kansas and invested the money in improving their farms. During the Civil war, out of 201 warriors they sent 170 to the Union side, these proving good soldiers and guides. In 1866 their land was cut up by the Union Pacific railroad and in 1867-8 they sold the whole and took up lands on the Verdigris and Cane, bought from the Cherokees. A special treaty in 1866 permitted them to take lands in severalty and become citizens, since which time they no longer have been considered as a "tribe." It is said the remnant of the Delawares now in Okla- © homa number something like 1,700.

The Delawares had three clans, the Turtle, the Turkey and the Wolf or Munsee, the latter differing strongly from the rest and called by the French by the name of Loups (wolves), from their chief totemic division, a term probably applied originally to the Mohicans on the Hudson river and afterward extended to the Munsee division and the whole group. To the more remote Algonquin tribes they, together with all their cognate tribes along the coast far up into New England, were known as Wapanachki - easterners or eastern land people, a term which appears also as a specific tribal designation in the form of Abnaki. By virtue of admitted priority of political rank and of occupying the central home territory, from which most of the cognate tribes had diverged, they were accorded by all the Algonquin tribes the respectful title of "grandfather," a recognition accorded by courtesy also to the Hurons. When the Delawares made their first treaty with Penn in 1682 they had their council fire at Shackamaxon, about the site of the present Germantown, a suburb of Phila-

In the older chronicles it is narrated that upon the settlement of the Delawares or Miunsees at what then was the head of pirogue navigation on the White river about the year 1800, when by the terms of the treaty of Greenville they were dispossessed of their lands in Ohio, a missionary effort was set on foot among them, which was afterward broken up by the interference of The Prophet, brother of Tecumseh and evil genius of the Midwest country Indians, during the height of his career of popular jugglery and imposition. They apparently, however, presently recognized the falseness of his pretensions to statesmanship and from all accounts steadfastly declined to become parties to the plans or willing tools of the ambitious Tecumseh and his unscrupulous brother, The Prophet, in their conspiracy to effect an Indian confederation against the whites, which conspiracy was effectually suppressed by General Harrison and his force at the battle of the Tippecanoe in the fall of 1811, and it is pleasing to recall that in his report of this campaign to the Secretary of War, General Harrison specifically mentions the Delawares as "this faithful tribe."

Delawares Abandon The Prophet

It is in his letter to William Eustis, secretary of war, dispatched from Camp Battle des Illinois (Terre Haute), October 13, 1811, while on the march to The Prophet's town, that General Harrison makes this reference to the Delawares. In that letter he says: "Previously to my leaving Vincennes I had sent to the Delaware towns to request some of their chiefs to meet me upon the march that I might employ them in missions to the several tribes which have a part of their warriors with The Prophet. All the chiefs of this faithful tribe that were able to march set out from their towns on the 6th inst. They had proceeded but a few miles when they were met by a deputation from The Prophet's town requiring from the tribes a categorical answer to the question 'Whether they would or would not join them in the war against the United States - that they had taken up the tomahawk and that they would lay it down only with their lives. They had, however, positive assurances of victory and when they had beaten the Americans those tribes who refused to join them would have cause to repent it.'

"The Delaware chiefs immediately dispatched the interpreter, Mr. [John] Conner, and four of their men to inform me of this circumstance and 'that they had determined to go immediately to The Prophet's town to endeavor to divert him from his purpose; that they would be with me in a few days and communicate the result of their mission, and that if they were unsuccessful in their endeavors to prevent The Prophet from striking us they would abandon him to his fate" "

As residents of the Indiana country, the Delawares were here under sufferance of the Miamis and their occupancy of this immediate territory was with the approbation and consent of this latter and then dominant tribe in this section of the Midwest country. By the terms of the treaty of Greenville it was determined that the community of interests in the lands among the Indian tribes, as claimed by Tecumseh, should not be recognized, but that each individual tribe should be protected in every claim that should appear to be founded in reason and justice. It also was determined that such tribes as lived upon any tract of land that it would be desirable to purchase should receive a portion of the compensation, although the title might be exclusively in another tribe.

Upon this principle the Delawares, the Shawnees, the Pottawatomies and the Kickapoos were admitted as parties to several treaties. Care was taken, however, to place the title to such tracts as might be desirable to purchase hereafter upon a footing that would facilitate the procuring of them, by getting the tribes that had no claims themselves and who might probably interfere, to recognize the titles of those who were ascertained to possess them. This was particularly the case with regard to the lands watered by the Wabash, which were declared to be the property of the Miamis, with the exception of the tract occupied by the Delawares on White river, which was to be considered the joint property of them and the Miamis.

Delawares Give Up Their Lands Here

By the treaty of St. Marys (October 3, 1818), the Delawares ceded all their claims to lands in Ohio and Indiana under the provision that they should receive from the Government a perpetual annuity of $4,000, the Government to provide them suitable lands beyond the Mississippi. In this cession the Delawares reserved the right to occupy their lands here on White river for three years, as a period of

Among the signatories to the epochal treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Delawares were second in rank, the names of their chief men being affixed second only to those of the Wyandots, whose signatures, headed by that of the wise old Tarhe (The Crane), followed that of Gen. Anthony Wayne. The Delawares signing this treaty in behalf of their fellow tribes men were Tetabokshke or Grand Glaize King, Lemantanquis or Black King, Wabatthoe, Maghpiway or Red Feather, Kikthawenund or Anderson, Bukongehelas, Peekeelund, Wellebawkeelund, Peekeetalemund or Thomas Adams, Kishkopekund or Captain Buffalo, Amenahehan or Captain Crow, Quehaskey or George Washington, Weywinquis or Billy Siscomb and Moses.

The proprietary right of the Delawares to the lands they occupied here in the Indiana country was incontestible, for by the terms of the treaty between the United States and the Delawares of August 18, 1804, it is stipulated that "the said tribe having exhibited to the above commissioner of the United States sufficient proof of their right to all the country which lies between the Ohio and White rivers, and the Miami tribe, who were the original proprietors of the upper part of that country, having explicitly acknowledged the title of the Delawares, at the general council held at Ft. Wayne in the month of June, 1803, the said United States will, in the future, consider the Delawares as the rightful owners of all the country which is bounded by the White river on the north, the Ohio on the south, the general boundary line running from the mouth of the Kentucky river on the east and the tract ceded by this treaty and that ceded by the treaty of Ft. Wayne on the west and south."

By the treaty of Vincennes on August 27, 1804, the Piankeshaws, who previously had claimed a right in certain lands lying between the Wabash and the tract before ceded by the Kaskaskias in 1803, relinquished all said right to the United States, thus acknowledging the right of the Delawares thereto. At the treaty of Grouseland (near Vincennes), August 21, 1805, it was set out that "the Pottawattomies, Miamis, Eel Rivers and Weas explicitly acknowledge the right of the Delawares to sell the tract of land conveyed to the United States by the treaty of the 18th of August, 1804, which tract was given by the Piankeshaws to the Delawares about thirty-seven years ago."

In the treaty at Ft. Wayne, September 30, 1809, between the Delawares, Pottawattomies, Miamis and Eel Rivers it also was set out that "the Miamis explicitly acknowledge the equal right of the Delawares with themselves to the country watered by the White river. But it is also to be clearly understood that neither party shall have the right of dispossessing of the same without the consent of the others; and any improvements which shall be made on the said land by the Delawares or their friends the Mohicans shall be theirs forever." This treaty was signed on the part of the Delawares by Captain Anderson (Kikthawenund), Petchekekapon, The Beaver, Captain Killbuck and by Captain Anderson for Hockingpomskon, who was absent.

Terms Of The Treaty Of St. Marys

The new home for the Delawares in what is now Oklahoma was provided for them by the terms of Art. II of the treaty of St. Marys (October 3, 1818), in which the Delawares ceded to the United States all their claim to land in the state of Indiana, where it is agreed that "in consideration of the aforesaid cession the United States agree to provide for the Delawares a country to reside in upon the west side of the Mississippi, and to guarantee to them the peaceable possession of the same." This treaty, by which the lands now comprised within Delaware county were opened for settlement was signed by Kithteeleland, or Captain Anderson, Lapahnini or Big Bear, James Nanticoke, Apacahund or White Eyes, Captain Killbuck, The Beaver, Netahopuna, Captain Tunis, Captain Ketchum, The Cat, Ben Beaver, The War Mallet, Captain Caghkoo, The Buck, Petchenalas, John Quake, Quenaghtoothmait and Little Jack. Among the witnesses to the signing of this treaty with the Delawares was "J. Hackley, captain, Third Infantry," of whom more anon.

Article 7 of this treaty with the Delawares at St. Marys provided that 'one-half section of land shall be granted to each of the following persons, namely: Isaac Wobby, Samuel Cassman, Elizabeth Petchaka and Jacob Dick; and one-quarter of a section of land shall be granted to each of the following persons, namely: Solomon Tindell and Benoni Tindell, all of whom are Delawares, which tracts of land shall be located, after the county is surveyed, at the first creek above the old fort on White river, and running up the river; and shall be. held by the persons herein named, respectively, and their heirs; but

"The first creek above the old fort on White river," referred to in this clause of the treaty is Buck creek, which empties into the river at the present site of Yorktown, and the wording of this clause of the treaty reveals the one time existence of a fort farther down the stream, probably erected at the time of the establishment of the Moravian mission in that neighborhood following the settlement of the Delawares here about 1800. It is said that Isaac Wobby, the first person mentioned in this clause of the treaty, died before his grant could be confirmed to him and the south half of section 14 on the left bank of the river in Mt. Pleasant township was reserved for his heirs. Solomon Tindell's quarter section was located in the southeast quarter of section 15 and Benoni Tindell's the northwest quarter of section 23, both adjoining the half section located by Cassman, the half-blood Delaware, on which the Yorktown town site later came to be laid off. Cassman, whom an older chronicle says "had the Indian thirst for whisky and had neither the thrift nor industry to develop his land and become a factor of civilization," sold his half section after awhile to Goldsmith Gilbert for $500, as is set out elsewhere, and Gilbert some years later sold the tract to Oliver H. Smith, who laid out on it his Yorktown townsite. In further relation to Cassman, it is written that "his existence was unprofitable and some years later his body was discovered in a hollow tree in Madison county."

Rebecca Hackley And The Hackley Reserve

Three days after the signing of the above treaty and in the treaty with the Miamis at St. Marys on October 6, 1818, it was provided that among other personal reservations allotted in Article 3 of that treaty there should be granted "To Rebecca Hackley, a half-blooded Miami, one section of land, to be located at the Munsey town, on White river, so that it shall extend on both sides to include 320 acres of the prairie, in the bend of the river, where the bend assumes the shape of a horseshoe." By further terms of this same article reservations also were allotted to Rebecca's brother, William Wayne Wells, and to her sisters, these latter reservations lying in the Ft. Wayne neighborhood.

nesses to the treaty with the Delawares at St. Marys in 1818, and was a daughter of Capt. William Wells, who for many years was one of the most influential factors in the frontier country. She was a granddaughter of the famous Indian chief, Little Turtle, who has been referred to as "the greatest Indian of all times," her mother, whom Wells married, having been one of The Turtle's daughters. Beginning in 1870, Little Turtle, who defeated Harmar in 1790 and St. Clair in 1791, was the acknowledged leader, not only of the Miamis but of all the tributary tribes in the Midwest country, until his star descended when General Wayne convinced him at the battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) that the white man had come to stay and hereafter would rule the country hereabout.

Capt. William Wells was a son of Kentucky frontier parents. When he was twelve years of age he was stolen from his Kentucky home by a band of marauding Miamis and taken to the Miami town (now Ft. Wayne), where he grew to manhood in easy compliance with the manner of Indian living. Little Turtle became attracted to the lad and he had all the advantages that could be given a chief's son. In time he married a daughter of Little Turtle and came to be regarded as the chief's right-hand man, a counsellor and aid in war. At the battle at the headwaters of the Wabash (Ft. Recovery) in 1791, "the bloodiest battlefield in pioneer history,' where General St. Clair suffered so disastrous a defeat at the hands of Little Turtle and his warriors, "it is worthy of note," says Roosevelt's "Winning of the West," "that William Wells, who was soon to become a leader of the whites, is said to have slain several Americans with his own hands." Simon Girty, of execrable memory, was among the renegade whites who also took part in that bloody debacle. Girty was the leader of the Wyandots. It is narrated that "the Wyandots fought courageously, and none with more bravery than their leader, Simon Girty, who was presented. with three of the captured cannon; but the present proved of no value to him, as he could not remove them."

Butterfield, the apologist of the Girtys, in his history, says that "among those who fought with the savages on that occasion (St. Clair's defeat) were considerable numbers of Canadians, mostly young men, and particularly such as were born of Indian mothers. There were also some refugees present. Girty was not the only one who on that day fought against his countrymen. After the action he found General Butler on the field, writhing from the agony of his wounds. The general spoke to him and requested him to end his mis- ery. Girty refused to do this, but turning to one of the Indian warriors, told him the wounded man was a high officer; whereupon the savage planted his tomahawk in his head, and thus terminated his sufferings. His scalp was instantly torn from his crown, his heart taken out and divided into as many pieces as there were tribes engaged in the battle."

Renegade Has A Change Of Heart

In the next year (1792) William Wells is said to have learned of the whereabouts of his people and with reluctance visited them, for he had broken away from the restraints of the white man and by marrying the daughter of a Miami chief had become Indian in all save blood. It is apparent that this visit back to Kentucky had a certain pacifying influence upon him, for he presently announced to Little Turtle his intention to abandon his Indian alliance and to join Wayne's forces which then were marching through the wilderness to avenge Harmar and St. Clair. At the same time he is said to have urged his redskin father-in-law to use his influence with the other chiefs for a peaceful treaty with Wayne. Little Turtle is said to have been favorably impressed with the plea, but his counsel was unheeded and war was continued until Wayne's decisive victory at Fallen Timbers and the consequent treaty at Greenville in 1795.

It is said that the story handed down in the Wells family is to the effect that Wells and Little Turtle were in entire accord in their views of the situation, and especially as to the necessity of bringing about amicable relations between the Indians and the United States. "For this reason," says Dunn's "True Indian Stories," "it was agreed that Wells should join Wayne and use his influence with the whites, while Little Turtle tried to bring about a more pacific frame of mind among the Indians. The two parted at a point some two miles east of Ft. Wayne, long known as 'The Big Elm.' With clasped hands, and both men visibly affected, Wells said: 'Father, when the sun reaches the noon mark I shall leave you and go to my people. We have always been friends and always will be friends. Upon the field of battle we may meet again. Let the result be what it may be, the purity of the motives prompting us, and our common love for the wronged Indians, must be our warrant, and we may well trust the Great Spirit for results that will vindicate our action this day.' " Wells then made his way to the army of General Wayne and ren- dered effective service in behalf of "his people" until he lost his life in the Ft. Dearborn (Chicago) massacre in 1812. It was in this same year, at the Wells home in Ft. Wayne, that Little Turtle died, and thus Rebecca Wells lost her father and grandfather in the same year. Burton's "Historical Collections" has it that "Captain Wells, son-in-law of Little Turtle, was doubtless one of the keenest politicians of the frontier. In his efforts to guard the interests of the savage tribes he excited the antagonism of General Harrison but he gained the good opinion of the powers at the seat of government." From the narrative of Sergeant Jordan, who managed to effect his escape at the massacre at Ft. Dearborn, it is learned that the Indians cut off the head of Captain Wells ''and stuck it on a pole, while another took out his heart and divided it among the chiefs, and they ate it raw."

From the evidence preserved in the correspondence between General Harrison and Little Turtle following the battle of the Tippecanoe it is apparent that The Turtle honestly had been attempting to preserve peace on the frontier. The Miamis did not take part in that battle. They at least nominally observed the terms of the treaty of Greenville. As old Gabriel Godfroy, the last "chief" of the Miamis, at a speech made at the Tippecanoe battle ground on June 16, 1907, not long before his death, said: "My people, the Miamis, made peace with the whites in Washington's time and we never violated it. My people did not take part in the battle of Tippecanoe. If they had, the result would have been different, for it was very close anyhow."

In a letter to Harrison addressed from Ft. Wayne on January 25, 1812, in answer to the Governor's searching inquiry concerning the responsibility for the attack at Tippecanoe in the preceding November, The Turtle said: "My Friend - I have been requested by my nation to speak to you, and I obey their request with pleasure, because I believe their situation requires all the aid I can afford them. . . . Your letter to William Wells of the 23d November last has been explained to the Miamis and Eel River tribes of Indians. Although neither of these tribes have had anything to do with the late unfortunate affair which happened on the Wabash, still they all rejoice to hear you say that if those foolish Indians which were engaged in that action would return to their several homes and remain quiet they would be pardoned and again received by the Presi- dent as his children. We believe there is none of them that will be so foolish as not to accept this friendly offer; whilst, at the same time, I assure you, that nothing shall be wanting on my part to prevail on them to accept it.

"All The Prophet's followers have left him (with the exception of two camps of his own tribe). Tecumseh has just joined him with eight men only. No danger can be apprehended from them at present. Our eyes will be constantly kept on them, and should they attempt to gather strength again, we will do all in our power to prevent it, and at the same time give you immediate information of their intentions. We are sorry that the peace and friendship which has so long existed between the red and white people could not be preserved without the loss of so many good men as fell on both sides in the late action on the Wabash, but we are satisfied that it will be the means of making that peace which ought to exist between us more respected, both by the red and white people. . . . The clouds appear to be rising in a different quarter, which threatens to turn our light into darkness. To prevent this, it may require the united efforts of us all. We hope that none of us will be found to shrink from the storm that threatens to burst on our nations."

This letter was signed by "Your friend, Mischecquocquah, or Little Turtle, for the Miami and Eel River tribes of Indians;" was witnessed by William Turner, surgeon's mate, United States army, and bore the attestation of William Wells that "I certify that the above is a true translation." Little Turtle was reading the signs of the times. "The clouds in a different quarter" which he had discerned marked the approaching storm of the War of 1812. Six months later he was dead. Not long afterward Wells fell at the Ft. Dearborn massacre. In the next year Tecumseh fell at the battle of the Thames. The days of Indian troubling in the Midwest country were drawing to a close.

Heirs Of William Wells Rewarded

Because of his services to the government following his political split with Little Turtle, Captain Wells had been given a grant of land which includes those sections of the city of Ft. Wayne now known as Bloomingdale and Spy Run, which descended to his children. He had three sons, William Wayne, Samuel G. and Yelberton P., and five daughters, Ann, who married Dr. William Turner, an army surgeon at Ft. Wayne; Rebecca, who married Capt. James Hackley, of the United States army, stationed at Ft. Wayne; Mary, who married Judge James Wolcott, a Connecticut yankee who had located at Ft. Wayne in 1821; Jane T., who married John H. Griggs, and Julianna, who died unmarried. Rebecca (Wells) Hackley, to whom (as above) had been granted the mile square now covered by one of the best sections of the city of Muncie and on which the nucleus of settlement here was effected, died on June 14, 1835. She had two children, a son, Jack W., and a daughter, Ann, who married Nathan 'Ferrand. Capt. James Hackley, according to Griswold's "History of Ft. Wayne," committed suicide by hanging in 1826, "after a vain attempt to murder his sister-in-law, Mrs. Turner, against whom he had become enraged because of a dispute over the partition of their property in Spy Run. Mrs. Turner escaped by leaping from an upper window of her home." MHackley was a charter member of the lodge of Freemasons instituted at Ft. Wayne in 1823 and his death was the first in the lodge. It is written that "some objection was made to conducting the funeral because of the nature of the death, but, according to the records, the members 'turned out to gratify Mrs. Hackley.'"' And this is the story of Rebecca Hackley, whose land grant here later was bought by Goldsmith Gilbert and converted to the uses of civilization, as is set out elsewhere in the story relating to the beginning of white settlement at the old Munsee town.

In relation to Rebecca Hackley's aboriginal grandfather, an Eastern writer of the period in describing the visit that Little Turtle and his head men made to Washington in 1807, observed that they "were dressed in a costume usually worn by our own citizens of the time - coats of blue cloth, gilt buttons, pantaloons of the same color, and buff waistcoats; but they wore leggins, moccasins and large gold rings in their ears. The Little Turtle exceeded all his brother chiefs in dignity of appearance - a dignity which resulted from the character of his mind. He was of medium stature, with a complexion of the palest copper shade, and did not wear paint. His hair was a full suit and without any admixture of gray, although from what he said of his age at Ft. Wayne in 1804, being then fifty-three, he must at this time have been fifty-seven years old. His dress was completed by a long red military sash around his waist, and his hat (a chapeau braze) was ornamented by a red feather. Immediately on entering the house he took off his hat and carried it under his arm during the rest of the visit. His appearance and manner, which were graceful and agreeable in an uncommon degree, were admired by all who made his acquaintance."

The Delaware Claim Officially Recognized

It is apparent from official records that the claim of the Delawares to the lands lying between the White river and the Ohio was admitted with reluctance by some of the other tribes, particularly the Miamis and the Pottawattomies. It having come to the notice of Governor Harrison that these latter had taken offense at the terms of the treaty of Vincennes with the Delawares and the Piankeshaws, the Governor made a report of the matter to Henry Dearborn, then secretary of war, in which he pointed out in a letter dated Vincennes, March 3, 18038, that he regarded it as certain that the disaffected were not as numerous as had been stated and that "those who have expressed discontent have been instigated thereto entirely by The Turtle." oa

Mishikinnakwa or Little Turtle, thus referred to in the Harrison letter and long the leader of the Miamis, generally has been regarded as having been the greatest warrior of that tribe. He was born at the old Miami town, the site of the present city of Ft. Wayne, about 1751, and was thus about forty years of age when he led his forces against Harmar, to the latter's humiliation, in 1790. In the next year (1791) he inflicted crushing defeat to St. Clair's army at the present site of Ft. Recovery and three years later (1794) divided with Blue Jacket the command of the Indian forces which went down before "Mad Anthony" Wayne's stout command at the battle of Fallen Timbers. The Turtle died at Ft. Wayne in July, 1812. Though romancists and sentimentalists have referred to him as "'the gentleman of his race,' Governor Harrison evidently had his own opinion as to the sort of gentleman he was. In the letter to Secretary Dearborn above quoted, the Governor pointed out that "the violent opposition which The Turtle has made to the Delaware and Piankeshaw treaties is easily accounted for. Conscious of the superiority of his talents over the rest of his race and color, he sighs for a more conspicious theater to display them. Opportunities for exhibiting his eloquence occur too seldom to satisfy his vanity and the subjects which are generally discussed in the councils of the few chiefs who adhere to him, are too contemptible to gratify his ambition. A chosen connection among the neighboring tribes and a regular convention of their chiefs has long been the ruling wish of his heart and the object of numberless intrigues." see no reason to alter the opinion I had formed that neither the Miamis nor the Pottawattomies have any just claim either in common or otherwise to any part of the tracts ceded to the United States by the Delawares and Piankeshaws. The Delaware claim to that particular tract was derived from present occupancy and from a grant said to have been made to them upwards of thirty years ago by the Piankeshaws. When the French first descended the Wabash the Piankeshaws were found in possession of the country on either side of that river from its mouth at least as high up as the Vermillion and the possession of it has never been disputed excepting by the Delawares, who claimed under the Piankeshaws and the Weas, who have occupied the country above Point Coupee since their towns at Ouitenon [near the present city of Lafayette] were destroyed by Generals Scott and Wilkinson in the year 1791."

"I was not present when the Miamis recognized the title of the Delawares to the country between the White river and the Ohio, but I have no doubt of the fact," the Governor's letter continues. "As there can be no doubt but that everything that can be advanced in favor of the Miami claim is to be found in The Turtle's address to the President, in that to Mr. Wells [the Indian agent] and in Wells's own letters, the matter will be fully before the President and I must beg for further instructions unless it is determined to admit the principle that the Delawares and Piankeshaws had no right to sell their land without the consent of the Miamis, Pottawattomies, etc. It will be improper, in my opinion, to have a public conference on the subject as it will be necessary to invite not only the chiefs of those two tribes, but those of the Weas, Eel Rivers, Kickapoos and Shawnee tribes, and I know that they can never be convinced without a gratification which will considerably exceed the original purchase money."

Dissension Among The Delawares

It also is apparent from the old state papers that some of the Delawares were not entirely satisfied with the manner in which their chiefs were letting their lands get away from them. Following the treaty of Vincennes in 1804, it seems that the makers of the treaty were reproached by their fellow tribesmen and that in answer they must have denied that they sold any of the lands down toward the Ohio. The controversy apparently was causing considerable commotion among the redskins and Gen. John Gibson, secretary of the

In his report of this mission, addressed to Governor Harrison and dated Vincennes, July 6, 1805, General Gibson sets out that they proceeded to the Indian towns on the Wabash. "On our road we passed the town of the Eel River Indians at the river of La Rabellaire. They were all drunk, excepting one of their chiefs named Sam. We told him we wished to speak to him and the other chiefs. He replied that they were all drunk, but as they intended going to Ft. Wayne in a few days to receive their annuity they would at that place hear what we had to say to them. We then proceeded to the town of Massasinewa on the Wabash river. . . . At this place I parted from Colonel Vigo and proceeded to the Delaware towns on the White river. Previous to my arrival there I heard of the death of the great chief and warrior, Bokongehales. I informed Telabuxika, the other chief of the Delawares, that I was sent by you and that I had a message to deliver to them from you and requested them to send for the other chiefs.

"The next day the chiefs assembled, except Keehlawhenund or William Anderson, whose wife being dead prevented his coming. When I addressed them and informed them that you were very sorry to hear that they (the Delawares) had denied that they had sold any lands to the United States the last summer and that you, with my assistance, had defrauded and cheated them.

"I then repeated every transaction that took place at the treaty and told them that they had in the most fair and solemn manner sold the lands last summer to the United States and that the treaty had been ratified by the President and Senate of the United States and that their denying it was of no effect and would only make them appear in a ridiculous light in the eyes of all the nations, and would lessen them very much in the great esteem and respect the United States had for them. I also told them White Eyes (George White Eyes or Alimee), one of their chiefs who had signed the treaty, had told their young men that they, the chiefs, had sold the lands to the United States and the chiefs were afraid to own it.

"T then asked them for a copy of the treaty which was given to them at Vincennes last summer. They informed me that they had left it in the hands of Mr. Wells at Ft. Wayne and they said they would council together and speak to me. Soon after, they sent for me, when Telabuxika delivered the answer: 'We did not sell any lands to the United States last summer at Vincennes. The goods we received there were a condolence present and to pay for horses which your people stole from us.'

"He trembled and appeared very much agitated and confused whilst speaking. He said they were going to Ft. Wayne in a few days to receive their annuity and that on their return they would pay youa visit. . . . After the council a number of their principal warriors and young men came to me. They said they were sorry that their chiefs had behaved so foolishly as to deny the truth, and that they were convinced that they had sold the land and were afraid to own it; that White Eyes had told them so, and they also said that the Little Turtle and Wells had said the sum specified in the treaty was a mere nothing and that they were cheated and imposed upon. .

"T then set off for Ft. Wayne. On the road I was joined by Hockingpomskan, one of the chiefs who signed the treaty. In conversation he told me that they had sold the land and that he intended going to Vincennes to settle everything with the Governor.

On Colonel Vigo's arrival at Ft. Wayne he went to see Tdeutenant Bronson [Brownson] the commanding officer. Mr. Wells came in and he (Colonel Vigo) mentioned he was sorry for the death of Bokongehalas, the Delaware chief, as he was a great man and that he would be much missed by the nation. At the same time he said it was a pity he had tarnished his character by telling a lie in denying his having sold the lands to the United States. Mir. Wells replied and said he dare say the lands were fairly sold and that if he (Bokongehalas) had told a lie it was a lie of necessity. . . . Mr. Johnson, the factor of the United States at Ft. Wayne, informed us that Mr. Wells had repeatedly said that the Indians would never approve of the treaty of last summer and he (Mr. Johnson) as well as every other gentleman with whom we conversed in that place were of the. opinion that there never would have been any noise about the treaty had it not been occasioned by the Little Turtle and Wells the latter of whom seems more attached to the Indians than to the people of the United States. In the several towns which we passed through the Indians, although drunk in almost every one of them. behaved in the most friendly manner to us and never once mentioned the treaty or anything respecting us."

Indians should come to this place, as they have promised, you need be under no apprehension of having the affair of the Delaware treaty settled to the satisfaction of the President. . . . Being fully persuaded that firmness and decision are absolutely necessary in every transaction with Indians, I shall state to them in the most explicit manner that the United States are determined to keep possession of the land ceded by the Delaware and Piankeshaw treaties, as they are fully satisfied as well of the fairness of the transaction as of - the right of the tribes to sell. If we recede one inch those people |

"A respectable citizen of the state of Ohio came to this place (Vincennes) a few days ago and informed me that in his journey he had stopped at a camp of Delawares, with one of whom, who spoke good English, he had a long conversation respecting the treaty. The Indian informed him that some of the chiefs of the other tribes were very angry with the Delawares for selling the land without including them and the Deleware chiefs had been informed that if they would deny having made the treaty a new one would be made and a much larger consideration given. He further observed that the chiefs were very much laughed at by some of the white people in their country for having sold so valuable a country for so contemptible a sum. . . . Patterson, the Delaware who made the speech to Wells, was present at every conference pending the treaty and also at the signing of it, and he understands English as well as his native tongue. George White Eyes, one of the chiefs who signed the treaty, also speaks English. Indeed, there are few Delawares that do not understand something of it."

Formal Protest Filed By The Delawares

The Patterson here referred to as having made a formal speech of protest to Captain Wells was Billy Patterson, a half-blood Delaware, perhaps a nephew of Tethteposeske, one of the sachems of the tribe who had joined with Buckongahelas, the war chief, and Hockingpomskon in a memorial to Wells relating to the subject of the disputed treaty. This memorial, dated White River, March 30, 1805, addresses Wells as "Our Nephew" and says: "We send to you our nephew, William Patterson, to council with you. We wish that you will listen to what he says concerning of Governor Harrison's purchasing a large tract of land. We know nothing of it. We have not in our power to sell land, and more than that it is contrary to the articles of the treaty of Greenville. Therefore we wish that you will see into it and let the President, our Father, know that the purchase is unlegal and that he may take such measures as will prevent it from being settled. This is all; but you will listen to what Patterson says, as we cannot have all wrote what we wish to say. This is all, but remain your uncles."

Then come the signatures by mark of the en chiefs above men. tioned and the countersignatures of John Conner, the Indian trader and interpreter and founder of Connersville, who certifies that "the above is a true translation of what the above signed chiefs said to William Wells."

The speech of Patterson, delivered to Wells at Ft. Wayne on April 5, 1805, also is carried in the Harrison papers and is attested as having been signed in the presence of John Johnston, the United States factor, and Lieutenant Owens of the Ist regiment, with the further certification of John Conner that '"'the above is a true translation." The tract of land in question included the Indiana "pocket" and all south of the Vincennes tract ceded in the summer of 1803 and south of the trail from Vincennes to the falls of the Ohio (Jeffersonville). Patterson's speech. concluded with the declaration that "my chiefs declare to you that they are not willing to sell the lands on the Ohio from the mouth of the Wabash to Clark's Grant at the Falls, and that they consider it out of their power to do any such thing without the consent of the other nations in this country. My chiefs wish you to prevent this land being settled by white people."

Needless to say the protest of the Delawares was ineffectual. The land already was being settled by white people. Kentuckians were coming up over the river in numbers and the great flatboats coming down the river out of the East were bringing other numbers. Indiana Territory had been in existence five years. That portion of the territory in the southeast and extending the tip of its "wedge" from the mouth of the Kentucky river as far north as Ft. Recovery, which had been opened to settlement by the treaty of Greenville in 1795, was being settled and Ohioans were coming in from the east. In the summer of 1805, even while the Delawares were protesting the sale of the summer before, a treaty signed at "Grouseland," the home of Governor Harrison at Vincennes, opened for settlement all the remaining section southeast. Four years later, by the treaty at Ft. Wayne, September 30, 1809, lands in the "New Purchase" in the east- ern part of the territory below the Wabash and extending to what now is the eastern line of Delaware county, were opened for settlement, as well as a much larger tract in the southwestern part of the territory north of the Vincennes tract. In 1816 statehood was granted the territory. The pressure on the Indian frontier line became irresistible. The overflow from the East was pouring into the Midwest country and the rich lands over here were becoming greatly desirable. The Indian was at his last stand in this part of the country. Two years later, in 1818, by the treaty at St. Marys the Delawares ceded their remaining lands south of the Wabash and the white man entered upon possession of the inexhaustible treasures of central Indiana. Three great new counties were erected out of this central tract, Fayette, Delaware and Wabash, all rather indeterminate in boundary and extent, which were destined presently to be cut up into other civic units as expanding population necessitated. Among the counties carved out of Delaware county was Marion county, organized in 1822, the new capital of the state thus having been in Delaware county when the site of Indianapolis was selected as the center of state government in 1820. And this, all too briefly, is the story of the coming of the Delawares to this region and of their going. The white man needed their lands.

Among all the chiefs of the Delawares who had their habitation here at the headwaters of the White river in the days of Indian ascendancy here, perhaps none left a more enduring name than did old Buckongahelas, the war chief, of whose death here in 1805 mention has been made above in the copy of the official correspondence relative to the dissension created by the sale of some of the Indian lands, although the name of his successor, Kiktheswemud or William Anderson, came to be perpetuated in the naming of the county town in the neighboring county of Madison.

According to Hodge's "Handbook of American Indians,' Buckongahelas (properly Pakgantchihilas), the significance of whose name, in English, is "breaker-in-pieces," was a Delaware chief who lived during the Revolutionary period. He was born in the first half of the Eighteenth century, the son of Wewandochwalend, apparently a chief of a Delaware band in Ohio. Buckongahelas became the head warrior of all the Delawares then residing on the Miami and White rivers. Although he took part with the English against the colonists, Drake says he was not only a great but a noble warrior, who took no delight in shedding blood. The conduct of the English at the battle of Presque Isle in 1794 so disgusted him that his sympathies were diverted to the United States.

Buckongahelas was present at Ft. McIntosh, the present site of Beaver, Pa., when the treaty of 1785 was made, but his name is not among the signers of the instrument. He was a signer, however, of the treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795; of Ft. Wayne, June 7, 1803, and of Vincennes, August 18, 1804. Soon after signing the last his death occurred, probably in the same year, and he thus did not become a party to the dispute which presently arose regarding that treaty and to which reference has been made above. From the evidence of dissension among the Delawares and their neighbors, the Miamis and the Pottawattomies, disclosed in the review of that dispute, it is apparent that the old chief's counsel was missed by the tribesmen.

Hodge recognizes the spelling of this old chief's name as here given, though it appears in the old prints in various forms. This also is true of the aboriginal name of William Anderson or Captain Anderson, Kiktheswemud, who succeeded Buckongahelas as 'chief sachem of the Delawares and whose name led the list of Delawares signatory to the treaty at St. Marys in 1818, there spelled Kithteeleland. Hodge renders the name Kiktheswemud, but it is found in other forms, a variant for almost every writer of the period who had occasion to put the name down in black and white. Anderson also was a signatory to the treaty of Greenville, on which instrument his name is rendered Kikthawenund, and his is the initial signature to the treaty of Ft. Wayne, September 30, 1809. Jacob Piatt Dunn, for many years secretary of the Indiana Historical Society and recognized as an authority on Indian etymology, renders the aboriginal name of Anderson as Kok-to-wha-nund, or "making a cracking noise." The Delaware name of his town at the present site of Anderson was Wa-pi-mins-kink, or "chestnut tree place."

But why bother with Indian etymology? As General Pratt, of Carlisle Indian School fame, once wrote in a communication along this line: "The subject has not specially interested me, for the reason that, in my experience, not one in twenty of the Indian names in use could be recognized by any member of the tribe from which the name was derived. The attempts to perpetuate such names are therefore only sentimental abortions." .In the matter of the word Muncie, name of our county seat town and the chief city of Delaware county, this same etymological and orthographical confusion is revealed in the old writings, each commentator on the Indians apparently adopting his own idea of how the word ought to be spelled.

One somewhat pretentious history of Indiana says that the town of Muncie "was named after the old Indian chief who lived in Delaware county." There is no evidence that there ever was a Delaware chief of the name of Muncie or Munsey, either here or elsewhere. Old Munseytown (Muncietown) took its name from the fact that here was a village of tribesmen of the Munsee or Wolf division of the Delaware (Leni-lenape) tribe, who had come over here from Ohio and had settled at this point under sufferance of the Miamis, and the point thus came to be known among the whites as the Munsee or Munsey town. This latter form (Munsey) was that employed in the text of the treaty with the Indians at St. Marys in 1818. The government surveyors here in 1821-22 rendered it Munsee town. By easy variation this name came to have its present popular, attractive and musical form. Hewitt renders the name Munsee literally as Minasin-ink, ''at the place where stones are gathered together." Hodge recognizes the spelling as Munsee, but it is found in old prints rendered variously such as Humenthi, Mantuas, Mincees, Minci, Minissi, Minseys, Mincimini, Minsis, Moncey, Monsays, Monsees, Monseys, Monsi, Monsies, Monsys, Monthees, Montheys, Munceys, Muncies, Muncy, Munsays, Munsees, Mun-see-wuk, Munses, Munsey, Munseyis, Munsi, Munsy, Wemintheew, etc. The Delaware name for the village which formed the nucleus for the present city of Muncie, or of the old town which stood just above it on the other side of the river, was Wa-pi-ka-mi-kunk, or "White River Town." The name Outainink, sometimes applied to it, is the Delaware u-ten-ink, which, according to Dunn ("Indiana and Indianans"), means "place of the town" or 'place where the town was."

According to this same authority, White river, the largest tributary of the Wabash, was called by the Miamis Wa-pa-ka-mi-ki, or "white waters." The Delawares sometimes used this name and some- . times called it Wa-pi-ha-ni, or "white river." The Mississinewa derives its name from a corruption of the Miami name Na-ma-tci-sinwi, meaning "it slants," or as applied to a stream, "it has much fall."

The Battle Of The Mississinewa

At the beginning of the War of 1812 the Miamis occupied many stations along the Mississinewa river and were concentrating a large force at these towns. Governor Harrison, who had resigned his gubernatorial duties to John Gibson, territorial secretary, in order that he might give his whole attention to his duties in the field, ordered Col. John B. Campbell, of the 19th regiment, to organize a corps of mounted troops for the purpose of breaking up these stations along the Mississinewa. This force was made up of a regiment of Kentucky dragoons, commanded by Colonel Simerall, and a detachment of United States dragoons, commanded by Major Ball, together with a few other detachments of regular and volunteer soldiers, something more than 600 troops in all, besides a company of scouts and guides, mainly composed of whites who had learned Indian ways by reason of periods of captivity among the redskins, and who were thus familiar with the lay of the land through which the army intended to march.

From headquarters at Dayton and Greenville this detachment started on the expedition along the latter part of November, 1812. "The weather becoming very cold, they were much retarded in their march," says Cockrum's "'Pioneer History of Indiana." "They carried, individually, a full ration for twelve days and on their horses, strapped behind their saddles, a bushel of corn. It was not until the 17th of December that they arrived at a town on the Mississinewa river, inhabited by the Indians. The ground being covered with snow and the weather very cold, the Indians were in their wigwams. The troops entered the town from several points and killed several warriors and captured between forty and fifty prisoners, most of them women and children. Then they went to some other villages farther down the river, but found them all evacuated. The weather was so extremely cold that it was thought best by the council of officers assembled for the expedition to return, but while the officers were in council the camp was attacked by a large body of Indians [near the present site of Jalapa in the neighboring county of Grant].

"The attack was made upon the left flank of the camp, but in a very short time became general. The enemy advanced very close to the line and seemed determined to come into the camp. The soldiers along that line were brave men, many of them old Indian fighters, and they met this onrush of the Indians with a leaden hail which checked them; when they rushed to find places of concealment, from which position they kept up a furious fire on the American troops for more than an hour, when the Indians gave way and retired from the field.

"Of the Americans, eight were killed outright and several died that day of their wounds. In all there were about fifty-five soldiers hit. They lost something more than 100 horses. The Indians left on the field fifteen dead. It was not known how many they carried oft the field dead or mortally wounded, but probably as many as they left. There was no way of ascertaining the number of others wounded who were able to get away. After the battle was over and the dead were buried, it was decided to commence immediately the return trip. They were compelled to move very slowly, owing to a number of severely wounded men whom they had to carry with them. Colonel Campbell sent an express to Greenville notifying the authorities there of their condition and a detachment of ninety men, commanded by Major Adams, started to meet them with supplies and conveyances for the wounded.

"At a large town in what is now Delaware county, Indiana, the Delaware Indians were in considerable force, and at various other towns up and down that river and its tributaries. These Indians were regarded as friendly to the United States and were urged to move away from the routes of the hostile Indians into the state of Ohio at a reservation assigned for-them on the Auglaize river. This arrangement was carried out and the friendly Delawares placed themselves under the protection of the United States government." For full details concerning the battle of the Mississinewa the student is recommended to the reading of Colonel Campbell's official report to General Harrison, pp. 253-265 of Vol. II of "Harrison's Messages and Letters," Vol. IX of the Indiana Historical Collections.

Good Influence Of Moravian Missionaries

The peaceable attitude of the Delawares during the period of their habitation here undoubtedly was largely due to the influence of the Moravian missionaries who accompanied them over here from Ohio and who for some years (1801-1806) maintained a mission here along White river. In 1913 the Kikthewanund (Anderson) chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution set up a boulder with a bronze tablet suitably inscribed as a marker commemorating this Moravian mission. This marker is along the roadside two miles east of Ander- son in the neighboring county of Madison. The real site of the old mission is located one mile south of the spot where the boulder stands, along the north bluff of White river.

during the troublous times of the War of 1812 among old Chief Blackhoof's friendly band of Shawnees over in Ohio, who declined to follow Tecumseh, this refuge being secured by the presence of the forts Harrison had caused to be erected at St. Marys and at Wapakoneta, controlling the headwaters of the St. Marys river and of the Auglaize river. Their exodus from their headquarters here on the White river evidently was not as expeditious as had been expected on the part of the government authorities, for in a long letter from John Johnston, the Indian agent at Piqua, to General Harrison, October 23, 1812, - the agent pointed out that "in consequence of the Delawares not coming this way for protection and knowing as I do that there is a number of unprincipled, lawless scoundrels among them, I directed John Conner to proceed to White river to watch their movements and keep them straight, to collect news and convey it here by every opportunity. I am sending out William Conner (brother of John) tomorrow morning to conduct some Delawares past Greenville and return here. I believe he will answer your purpose better than his brother. I have always thought him the better man of the two. The Indians are hovering about and only want an opportunity to strike. Their signs continue to be seen in this neighborhood. We cannot doubt the information respecting the Miamis - it was derived from John Conner, the Shawnees and the Delawares. I consider it fortunate that Mr. Conner did not proceed farther than Massassineway, thereby leaving General Hopkins at liberty to proceed up the Wabash. The Pottawattomies continue to pass Massassineway with droves of stolen horses. They told Richardville that they wanted the horses to enable them to move out of the reach of the long knives. I hope they will be as good as their word. I should be content to spare them a few horses myself on condition of getting rid of such neighbors. . . . All accounts agree in representing the Indians of the Wabash and the Illinois in the utmost confusion and distress."

Nearly a year later (August 3, 1813) Johnston wrote to the secre- - tary of war that "the Delaware and Shawnee Indians on this frontier have turned out about two hundred men who have marched to the relief of General Harrison. The Wyandots within our lines, the Senecas and Mingoes have also turned out their disposable force, about two hundred more. The whole intend to continue with the army during the campaign." During that second war for American independence the Americans had about as many Indian allies as the British. Tecumseh's blandishments did not seduce the more thoughtful and far seeing among the redskins.

Col. John Johnston, above referred to, at that time agent for Indian affairs in the Northwest, was born in Ireland in 1775 and was seventeen years of age when he came to America with his parents in 1792, the family locating at Philadelphia. A year later he was appointed to a position in the quartermaster's service in General Wayne's army and presently was given a clerkship in the War Department, where "his deportment and high standing as an accountant in that department led to his appointment as Indian agent at Ft. Wayne." In 1798 he took his station at Ft. Wayne, where he remained for eleven years, or until 1809, when he was transferred to the agency at Piqua and was thus in charge of that important agency during the period of the War of 1812. Colonel Johnston was retained as Indian agent until his displacement during the Jackson administration, after which he spent his time variously with his children at Piqua, Dayton, Cincinnati and New York, and his death occurred while on a visit to Washington in February, 1861, he then being past eighty years of age. He had married a sixteen-year-old girl in Philadelphia upon receiving his appointment to the post at Ft. Wayne in 1798 and she accompanied him to his frontier station and remained with him during all the years of hazard in the Indian country. To them were born fifteen children.