Noble County, Indiana - The whole text, 1902 (part 1 of 21)

Preface

IN laying Alvord's History of Noble county, Indiana, before its patrons, the publisher takes pardonable pride in the fact that he has fulfilled conscientiously every promise made in the prospectus and points with pleasure to the neatness of the typography; the quality of paper upon which the work is printed, and the elegance and durability of its binding.

As to its contents the patrons have already had an opportunity of approving of their biographies before they were placed in type, while the illustrative department is the ne plus ultra of the art.

The History of Noble county, by Samuel E. Alvord, gives an accurate and minute history of the county, derived or deduced from the acts of the true creators thereof, as depicted in their biographies, from the day of the pioneers to the present time, and biography is, in fact, the true source of all social and political history.

To those who have been uniformly obliging, and have kindly interested themselves in the success of this work, volunteering information and data, which has been very helpful in preparing this work, I desire to express my grateful and profound acknowledgment of their valued services.

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THE cordiality with which the announcement of a furthcoming history of Noble count}' has been welcomed by all classes of the people, shows not only a general recognition of the want of a complete work of this character, but also* the prevalence of an intellectual taste and culture well befitting the descendants of a band of pioneers whose mental fiber was as line and strong as their their will was indomitable, and their physical energies powerful.

The general plan of the history embraces a natural succession or order of events and developments. The story of the formative periods, translated by geological science; the flora - that is, the trees, plants and flow ers; the first human inhabitants, including some discoveries of mounds and relics of pre-historic ages; the Indians first discovered here, and considerations of the questions whether or not they may have been descendants oi the race of the "Mound Builders," which will be Covered by the first chapter. Extracts appear, taken from official geological reports and from Professor VanGorder's work on the "flora" or Noble county, giving a complete catalogue of the native trees, plants and flowers, copied by his permission. This is a must valuable and instructive feature; and the whole chapter is of great interest and value on account of the scientific nature of its contents. Tabular exhibits of the underlying strata, to a depth of over one thousand feet, are given, as taken from the borings of the Albion Gas Company by Professor W. B. VanGorder all that was possible in the space at disposal, of accurate and reliable information concerning the structure of the districts, its superstructive and garniture of forests and flowers and its revealed evidences of a prehistoric people.

The second chapter embraces a brief review of the contests between the French and English colonies under their respective home governments, with their native allies,, for supremacy over the vast and fertile regions of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys - especially of the magnificent territory known! as the "Great Northwest," a continued struggle of nearl}' two hundred years, inclusive of the final conflicts of the American colonies with the English government, and also with the Indians. The history of these two centuries of rivalry, aggression, warfare anil bloodshed, is intensely interesting and thrilling to the student of history when contemplated, in the light of the transcendent importance of the principles involved and the ends in view. But to present it in full would not be possible or pertinent to the history of Noble county; therefore the account in which was are most directly inested can be taken up with the results of Gen. George Roger Clark's campaign against the Indians in the northwest territory, and specially in that section which became known in subsequent years as Indiana and Illinois.

The history proper of the district embraced in the boundaries of Noble county will cover a period of sixty-five years, in which the leading purposes will be to* present a concrete biography; to depict the characters, and relate the experiences, and chronicle the deeds and triumphs of the pioneers and their descendants and successors. To tell the truth about and thus do justice to the people who have by the sheer force of inherent physical and mental energy transformed a gloomy wilderness into a paradise of fertile, cultivated fields, intersected with over a thousand miles of highways: landscapes of cultivated beauty, adorned by numerous temples of learning and religion; thousands of comfortable and artistic rural homes ; well-built cities and towns ; graceful and substantial bridges; manufactories and busy marts of trade; splendid county buildings, not excelled by any rural district in the state, not even by those whose location and natural advantages are vastly superior, and whose organization and settlement preceded Noble's many years and all this great accomplishment crowned by freedom from county debt; while the tone of intellectual and spiritual culture evinces an upward progress that has more than kept even pace with the wonderful material development. Included in this chapter will be a history of native effort in the field of invention, and also' the specialties in science. This chapter is thus specially mentioned, because it is a novel, though important feature of a unity history.

Education, religion, schools, churches, impersonal history of crime, its consequences and influences upon the public weal - including the thrilling incidents and events of the "Regulator" agitation; courts and lawyers, their personnel and characteristics; county offices and official business; township officers and township business; statistics; history of Noble county's part in the terrible drama of the Civil war ; Grand Army organizations ; Agricultural Associations ; Granges. Fairs ; in short, a thorough history of the county throughout the course of its development; supplemented by separate township, town and city histories.

Alvord'S History Chapter

-Geology - Formative Agencies - Glacial Action and Deposits - Character of Soils - Underlying Strata - Physical Geography - Fauna and Flora - Landscape Effects - Human Occupants - Supposed Remains of Prehistoric People - Mounds and Contents - American Indians - Savage Life and Character

The story of geology is naturally the first chapter in human history. The earth was created before man ; the stage was prepared before the actors appeared.

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth ; and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep ; * * :|: and God said let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so; * * and God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness ; * * * so God created man in His own image; in the image of God, created He him; male and female created He them," etc.

In accordance with this natural order some brief account of the formative process - of the geological genesis of the land of Noble county seems to be, if not essential.

at least appropriate as a beginning of its history. Nor is it a subject of curious inquiry only; for in the economic phase of geological science many important factors of human advancement are found.

The alluring region of contemplative speculation and theory concerning the sublime eons of the creation has been fully explored and has yielded glorious fruits in higher and broader conceptions of creative omnipotence; the inconceivable immensity, of the lapse of ages; the stupendous architecture of the planetary system, and the ever beneficent tendency of creative wisdom and power. And though the contemplation of these tremendous processes at first staggers the imagination and overwhelms the soul with indefinable awe and a sense of helplessness to comprehend anything but a sublime and illimitable greatness and omnipotence, at last science comes to the aid of the swirling soul and concentrates and directs our attention to the defined footsteps of the ages and the recorded evidences of their work.

Each creative period left clews to its labyrinthian secrets - an index to its autobiography, in its strata and their composition, posture and markings. Geology consults this index, translates the mystic annals and follows the clews ; names the period, and describes the operations of the giant agencies ; reveals the treasures latent in the composition of soils or hidden in subterranean matrices - riches and blessings; germs of human happiness and progression, deposited and implanted in inexhaustible profusion and variety for the benefit and glory of God's appointed viceroy - man.

A geological survey of the State of Indiana was made during the year 1873 by the State Geologist, Hon. E. T. Cox, assisted by Professors John Collett, W. W. Borden and Dr. G. M. Levette. Dr. Levette, an accomplished scientist, explored northern and northeastern Indiana, and reported the counties of DeKalb, Steuben, LaGrange, Noble, Elkhart, St. Joseph and LaPorte. His report, as embodied in the Fifth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, 1873, says of the counties above named:

"The above counties lie wholly within the Boulder Drift or Quaternary epoch, and are covered with transported material to a great depth. Bores have been put down at different points in the northern part of the state, some of which reached the underlying limestone ruck, of the Devonian age, at a

"That these enormous deposits of material - equal in solid contents to a small range of mountains and covering the whole of northern Indiana, the southern part of Michigan and the northwest part of Ohio to an average depth of perhaps a hundred feet - were brought down from points north of the great lakes by glaciers (moving fields of ice) or icebergs floating in a sea which then covered the whole Mississippi valley from the Polar ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, is now almost universally accepted by geologists as a fixed and incontrovertible fact. The glacial hypothosis of Professor A. Agassiz, with slight modifications, explains in a rational and satisfactory manner all the conditions existing in this section of the country."

"The surface is diversified with hills, alternating with burr oak 'openings,' and about equally divided between the two; many small prairies occur, and one of several thousand acres near Ligonier, in the northwest corner of the county. The soil of the timbered land is loam and clay, with a stiff clay subsoil, and is proverbially productive. That of the burr oak 'openings' is lighter, containing sand, is easily cultivated and is considered the best in the county. The soil of the prairie is a dry peaty loam and sand with a subsoil of gravel or sand. Extensive beds of bog iron ore occur. The largest deposit is on Ore Prairie, in the western part. It lies in the edge of the marsh about one foot beneath the surface, is

"Immense deposits of peat occur in the lower lands, along the marshes and over the 'bridged lakes.' A partly completed 'fill' of the Baltimore, Pittsburg & Chicago Railroad broke through the crust of a subterranean lake, a half mile west of the town of Albion, and exposed a deposit of peat eighteen feet in thickness. Fish, with perfect eyes and colors common to the species, came up with the water on the submerged embankment, clearly indicating that this hidden lake was somewhere connected with water exposed to the rays of the sun. In the dim, distant future, when the wants of a dense population shall demand the cultivation of every available foot of this fertile section of country ami fuel shall have become the costliest item of household economy, these deposits of peat will be sources of wealth to the owners and objects of practical interest to those who consider the success and well-being of the community. Extensive beds of marl are found in different parts of the county."

In the fifteenth report of the state geologist for 1886, Maurice Thompson, state geologist, considerable space is given to explanation of glacial agency in the formation of a Aery large proportion of the surface of Indiana and Noble county. It is of high scientific authority, published by the state, and popularly instructive. It is almost indispensable to a clear idea of the geology <>i this county, and is quoted here for the benefit of those to whom these official reports are not accessible.

Glaciers And Their Action

"A glacier is a body of ice which, although solid, flows over a part of the earth's surface. It has been clearly demonstrated that ice in the form of a glacier, no matter how rigid it may appear, has a current similar to that of water. In other words, ice will form a solid stream, so to speak, which will slowly but steadily creep down an inclined plane and if this ice-stream be very deep, so as to give it great weight, it will overthrow, grind up and bear away whatever obstacle opposes it.

"Glaciers are formed by the accumulation of snow which, by pressure and crystallization, is turned into ice. Thus, whenever the snowfall in winter is greater than can lie melted in summer, the snow grows deeper year by year until at length by its own weight and by partial surface melting it is compressed into a sheet of ice enormously thick. Now if the surface upon which this sheet rests is inclined, the ice flows and we have a glacier. In the Alps there are glaciers from five hundred to over six hundred feet in vertical depth, slowly flowing down the m> mntain sides. But it does not require steep mountain slopes for the making of glaciers ; a comparatively gentle inclination of the surface of the ground is sufficient if the ice be thick enough and other conditions be favorable to motion.

"The general form of a glacier is that of a wedge, the edge resting on the lowest point of the surface occupied, the thick end resting on the highest point of the same. Of course the motion of a glacial stream will lie in some proportion to the slope of this surface, but the thickness of the great end of the wedge must have much to do with the force of the current. If we adopt the theory of Tyndall. or that of Mosely, or that of Croll, or anv other, we must see that gravitation directs the course of the glacial movement just as it does the flow of water; for it can not matter whether fracture or regulation, as Tyndall claims, or expansion and contraction by changes of solar heat, as Cam hi Mosely theorizes, or molecular motion generated by the conducting of heat through the mass, as Dr. Croll maintains, is the agent of motion, the fact remains that the glacier is very thick at its upper end, would flow over a surface of comparatively slight inclination, and its destructive force would be. in a way, proportional to such thickness. Fluidity must he regarded as a property of water, even when the water is in the form of the brittlest ice. It makes but little difference what is the cause of this strange, slow fluidity of ice, it is sufficient for the purpose of the study of the drift phenomena that the fluidity exists, and that it is sufficient to generate, under certain conditions, a force absolutely incalculable.

"The immense glacial deposit, or drift, that constitutes the structure of northern Indiana, presents in Noble county all the varied features resultant from the glacial movements and effects before described. The features and aspects of our landscape were moulded by the hand of the Creator with the mighty tools of storms and floods; of floating iceberg mountains, laden with the spoils of rended arctic cliffs and landslides, carrying titanic grists to be ground in the course of uncounted centuries by the tremendous glacial mills of God.

"We can faintly imagine a glacial plow, twenty-five miles wide, going slowly through and over a range of hills, throwing, as it emerges upon the lowland, immense heaps, laterally (lateral moraines), and carrying forward also great qualities of earth, bowlders, greater and smaller stones, pebbles, and gravel to its terminal point, to be left there in irregular piles (terminal moraines).

"A great portion of the area of Noble county is covered by moraines produced by the action of glacial lobes, originally described in the Third Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey as the Saginaw-Erie interlobate moraine, a mass of drift twenty-five miles wide and from one hundred to five hundred feet deep, the crest of which traverses the townships of Green, Allen and Wayne.

"This crest forms, according to the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Department of Geology and Natural Resources of Indiana, the divide between the basins of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie and the Wabash river. It is assumed by scientists from local indicia that a lobe of the glacier pushed southwestward from Saginaw bay across Michigan and northern Indiana, and' another from Lake Erie deposited a moraine, the southern wing of which crosses the count}-, occupying small portions of Allen and Green townships and a greater portion of Swan. This part of the moraine has the prevailing aspect of a plain, with a gentle slope to the southeast. Willow, Black, and Little Cedar creeks traverse and drain it, through Cedar creek in Allen and De- Kalb counties into the St. Joseph river, and through the Maumee into Lake Erie. The succession of swells and hollows characterize it as an example of mild morainic topography, as compared with the northern wing, or most prominent range, which presents evidence of far greater violence and power, by which was produced the more abrupt, jumbled and tumultuous effects observable in several other parts of the county.

"These massive effects of the glacial flow and push - supplemented by the eccentric erosions of retiring glaciers, now melted by increasing heats and pouring forth immense ll Is. agitated into cross and counter currents by furious storms, and again advancing before the tremendous pressure from the north and over-lapping in recurring periods of c<>1<1 the stages of retreat - are seen in the abrupt and man-shaped hills. profound and irregular valleys, marshes with strange looking islands, streams in tortuous courses, lakes and lakelets of varied outlines and different depths interspersed with level plateaus, rich bottom-lands and verdant meadows in Wayne, Allen, Swan, Jefferson. Green, Noble, Albion, York, Orange and Perry townships."

For a general, comprehensive view Of the topography of the county. State Geologist Gorby gives the three following natural divisions of the territory:

"1. The Salamo'nie, or Third Erie moraine, so called because its southern wing extends along the right bank of the Salamonie river. The general features of the southeastern slope of this moraine have already been described. The greatest elevations are: Swan, nine hundred and five feet; Potter's Station, eight hundred and eleven feet.

"2. The Mississinewa, or Fourth Erie moraine, so called because its southern wing extends along the right bank of the Mississinewa river, the most massive and pr< 1- nounced of all the moraines of northern Indiana, occupying the townships of Green, Jefferson. Orange, Allen and Wayne. It has a width of six miles in Green, ten miles in Allen and Orange, with an average elevation of one hundred feet above the country on either side. Its crest is the backbone of the whole morainic mass, and forms the principal watershed of the count}'. The t'evations of this moraine, from canal and railroad surveys, are: Summit, three miles east of Kendallville. 1,018 feet; summit, near Lisbon, 1.017 feet; summit, one and a half miles west of Avilla, 1,015 feet: Avilla, oiSfeet; Kendallville, gjjfeet. General level of water shed, 973 feet. The Erie slope is characterized by a thick deposit of boulder clay up all the higher points, sand and gravel being found only in the valleys, the result of the wash of streams.

"3. The region of Saginaw Drift presents features widely different from the compact. well-defined masses of the morainedescribed. It shows great diversity of character and irregular distribution, producing the comparatively smooth, level country, undulating topography, isolated groups of gravel knobs, broad valleys, extensive marshes and outlines of lakes now grown over, characteristic of the Saginaw Drift. No clay is found near the surface in the regions occupied by the Saginaw Drift. They are covered with sand and gravel, coarser or finer, except where deposits of peat occur."

Evidences exist of very extensive beds of peat, frequently of great thickness, the deepest layers being already superior fuel; and the whole mass, being gradually converted to that condition, promising a future abundant supply and corresponding source (if comfort and wealth within easy reach. As the fuel-producing forests are rapidly disappearing, practical attention should be directed toward this superior substitute and the means for converting it to use. It may be classed and estimated as the chief avail- able mineral wealth of Noble county. Iron ore, it is claimed, exists under many, if not must of the lakes and some of the bogs; but difficulties of access and comparative cost of transportation render it economically of httle value.

The genesis and character of the overlying drift and the general features of the surface topography having been described, we come to a brief consideration of the underlying strata. For a satisfactory view of these we are indebted to the scientific attainments and skillful investigations of Prof. W. B. VanGorder, ex-superintendent of the Albion public schools. This information is embodied in the Eighteenth Report of the State Geologist (1893). from which we quote, verbatim:

Section Of Drift

"During the boring for gas at Albion a very accurate and complete record was kept by Prof. W. B. VanGorder, who furnished the following section of the Drift:

Under The Drift

"Of the formations underlying the Drift in Noble county, our only information comes from the careful observation of Professor VanGorder. at Albion. He furnished the following section, which, including the overlying Drift, as above described, shows the lineaments of our geology to a depth of i .9 1 4 feet :

Such is the scientific history, in outline, of nature's work. No human imagination can ever compass its details. No soul of genius - not even the concentration of all the fires of genius that have blazed up on the signal summits of human intellect in all the ages of mankind - could illuminate the abysses of time wherein, "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." evoking the series of structural epochs that upbuilded the continents from the depths of the oceans; that interfused their structures with the various, ever-living germs of human destiny: that ever spread them with their garniture of landscapes of unspeakable beauty and granduer, adorning soils preg- nant with the elements of every form of human achievement and enjoyment. Yet, while unable to conceive definately the tremendous creative processes, man may devoutly ponder about them with ever increasing elevation and expansion of intellectual and spiritual life. The purest, noblest aspiration of the human mind and s< ml is the endeavor "To look through nature up to nature's < !'id," and in this noble cpiest, "science is the eve of the soul." And it is the guide of the mind in pursuit of the highest success, not only in agriculture, the most godlike of human purusuits, but in all the industries dependent upon it.

The glances we have had on the origin and structure of the overlying soil and substrata of the country show that Noble county has a fertile soil, composed of all the ingredients that constitute the best elements of all the products of the middle temperate zone. There are few sections of the land that do not contain in their soils the elements of nutrition adapted to a great variety of vegetables, cereals and fruits in profusion; and it is not uncommon to find in single tracts of not more than one hundred and sixty acres distinct and well defined zones and areas, each particularly adapted to the growth of one or another of one the staple crops.

The natural production of the county, the plants and flowers and forests, illustrate the claim of fertility and variety; and in confirmation of this comes the elaborate classification of Prof. W. B. VanGorder, the result of years of thorough personal exploration, analysis and comparison, and patient labor in this interesting and important field of science. The able report of the State- Geologist for 1893 refers to Professor Yan- Gorder's work and introduces it as an important feature of the state report as follows :

" A geologist who spends but a few days or weeks in a given region can report very little of value in regard to its natural history. Such work requires the patient and careful attention of years. Fortunately Noble county possesses a citizen who has had the happy combination of taste, ability and opportunity, which has enabled bun to do thorough and trustworthy work in botany and zoi logy. Prof. W. B. VanGorder, of Albion, is a native of Noble county and was for several years county superintendent of schools. In 1884 be published at his own expense a catalogue of the flora of Noble county, which has been ever since a standard authority upon the flora of this portion of the state. The catalogue is here ( in the State Report of 1893) reprinted with corrections and additions to date; thus making available to all an important contribution to the natural history of Indiana." (Then follows Professor VanGorder' s catalogue as a part of the state report.)

[In reference to what the State Geologist says about "making available to all'" the important contribution of Professor Van- Gorder, by embodying it in a state report, it is' proper to consider how limited the circulation of such official documents really is. Thev are sent to a limited number of offices and officialls in each county, mostly at the county seat. The people at their homes - and on expected occasions when reference to something therein might be greatly desired and important, just then - would have to forego the explanation and remain in the dark or make a trip ( perhaps of many miles) to Albion, in order to satisfy inquiry upon a casual question. All can see how different it would be if the information were embodied in a popular, general history of the people and the events of the county, and of each township and town, distributed .in every neighborhood. This consideration alone is ample apology, if any were needed, for taking time and using space, enough to embody the most essential parts of Professor Van- Gorder's work in the geological chapter of this history. - S. E. A.]

The Catalogue

Professor VanGorder's book contains fifty-two pages, filled entirely with the catalogue in extensive and technical detail. The purpose and scope of the work are best stated and explained in the author's preface, which is quoted verbatim :

In 1884, after three seasons' careful work, a list of the plants of this county was published, enumerating nearly seven hundred species. The work has been continued since then, as time and opportunity permitted, and the few additions that have been made lead me to think that the present list comprises quite fully the flora of the county.

In >>ne respect the flora of Allen, Swan and Jefferson townships is much the same; that of Wayne, Orange and Green townships bears much resemblance; while the flora of the western half of the county contains many forms different from the eastern half of the county. Along the Elkhart river and its branches grow many plants common mostly to river territory. It is also noticeable that some plants, common farther northward, make their appearance here in our county, at the same time apparently being the northern limit of some of those farther southward.

The following catalogue includes seven hundred and twenty-four species belonging to ninety-nine order's, and grouped under three hundred and sixty-three genera. Many of them here named are usually regarded as "weeds" and "wild grasses," many others are "wild flowers," while numerous others are our shrubs and valuable fi ire t trees ; but all of them have their value and place in the economy of nature.

In giving the names of the plants, the order as presented in Gray's Manual of the flora of the United States, fifth edition, has been strictly adhered to, although aware that several changes in nomenclature are now recognized. The common names of the plants have been added, as they will be of more interest to those who are not bi tanists. The locality and ranges of the plants, so far as observed, have also been given, along with such other information as was thought would be of general interest.

It is not likely that any of our native plants have yet beeen exterminated, as is the case in some places; but the cultivation of the soil, the pasturing of the woodlands, the I draining of the marshes is rapidly reducing their abundance. Some are already quite scarce from these causes; while along our railroads, roadsides, and in grainfields. new ones occasionally make their appearance.

The foregoing lists of forest trees,, shrubs and climbing shrubs include enough tn indicate the prominent features of the native landscapes and the character of soils, uncultivated. The vast variety of obscure flowers, and the details of grouping, genera and species are not essential.

Original Inhabitants

* * * "About me round I saw- Hill, dale, and shady woods and sunny plains And liquid lapse of murmuring streams; by these. Creatures that lived, and moved, and walked or flew Birds on the branches warbling; all things smiled. With fragrance and with joy my heart or'eflov

Adam's description of the landscape - the topography and flora of the region in which he first awoke to conscious life, might well have been given by the first human being who saw the region of Noble county. Who, and whence, was the first man. or rather of what race and character were the original, native occupants? And when? We ask in vain. The abysses of the prehistoric ages only echo the question. They reveal no monuments ; they unfold no records: they hold no discovered clews to the time, racial cliaracteristics or condition of the first occupants, as distinguishing them from or connecting them with some one or of the historic races. The most obvious and natural conclusion, in the absence of impressive evidence against it, would be that the aborigines were of the same race as the people first found in occupancy. And they were American Indians ; people of racial characteristics common to the then inhabitants of the whole continent. The same race found everywhere, in tribal or national divisions, from the Atlantic to. the Pacific ; from the Arctic ocean to the Caribbean sea under varying conditions ; in different degrees of physical and mental development, and with differing social customs and policies, probably, but homogeneous in basic type - the same race. If we doubt this, if we say so. must we not acknowledge the justice of the obligation to show why not : If we proclaim a doubt, should we not stand ready to show that it is a "reasonable" doubt, not a mere speculation ?

The Mound Builders

It is said that ancient works - mounds and fortifications - are found in decay and ruin of size so immense and construction so scientific as to be wholly impossible to the power and skill of the savages of North America at the time of the discovery. Without going over the grounds of this argument, for which there is neither time nor space in the scope of this history, let it be answered : Possibly, nay. even certainly - as they were then. But upon what grounds can it be assumed that they were always the same as then ?

a mighty unfinished tower that seemed to aspire to the heavens. It was a magnificent ruin, in the midst of a babbling population who were utterly incapable of executing such a work, and indifferent as to its purpose or significance. But their ancestors of the same race, many centuries before, did lay the foundations and successfully carry on and up the mighty and symmetrical pile toward the sky, until discord, cross purposes and mental and physical calamity fell upon them and the}- disorganized, degenerated and became tribes of hostile and warring wanderers ; destitute of lofty aspirations, incapable of even desiring a higher plane of existence. Yet they were of the same stock from whose brain and muscle and towering ambition, sprang the once magnificent Babel that now silently crumbles in the shadow of oblivion.

To those who prefer examples from profane or secular history, or tradition, many may be suggested of the retrogression of nations. Indeed, the decline and fall of Rome ; the fading of the glories of Grecian art and science ; the lapse into barbarism of many peoples, the now broken and crumbling monuments of whose former culture and power still exist, and to their descendants of the same race, are objects of mystery about whose origin not even tradition had survived the night of the Dark Ages. Surely, it is hardly necessary to suggest specific examples of such catastrophes of racial deterioration and national wreck as may well support the probability that the greatest of the monuments of pre-historic origin on the American continent were works of the same race of people, who were found inhabiting the country or wandering over it in savage tribes, utterly incapable of executing such

The foregoing suggestions are applicable to the entire theory of a distinct race of "Mound Builders"' in the Mississippi valley and elsewhere in North America. They are not intended as controverting the possible fact - which may or may not be some time established ; but to show that the existence of works beyond the capacity of the savage pos-sessors at the time of discovery does not, necessarily, point to some other pre-historic race as the builders.

In Noble county itself there is nothing to suggest such ethnological inquiries ; nothing that the American Indians, as they were found, were incapable of doing, and in fact did do so far as extent and skill of construction were involved. Some of the most extensive and prominent earthworks in the county are referable to the animal instinct and activity of the beavers. Nevertheless, there were artificial mounds and earthworks of different kinds that were undoubtedly executed by human hands for definite purposes, and of which the existing tribes i if Indiana could give no account. Many of them have been excavated and explored, and relics of various kinds found - skeletons and fragments of bones of human beings, ornaments and implements, etc., etc. So, aside from any question of origin or race, these tumuli and the disclosure of their secrets, as well as the speculations and theories concerning them, have become a part of the history of the country, demanding attention and historic narrative.

Ace irding to the American Encyclopedia, the mounds of the Mississippi valley thus far discovered and explored, "with few exceptions." were incontestably simple places of sepulture - memorials raised i >\ er the dead, varying in size according to the importance of the personages commemorated. The mounds in Noble county so far as observed are commonly of this class. Classification has been attempted, assigning to them several distinct uses ; sepulchral, sacrificial, templar, memorial, monumental and observatory. These divisions, however, are probably conjectural in the main. It should be remembered in this connection that many apparent differences in size and outline may be referable to the erasions of time and the action of the elements. In some instances the fact of artificial origin may well be doubted; in other cases mounds of assumed natural origin may yet be shown to be clearly artificial works. In confirmation of this probability the fact is cited that, in 1873, the state geologist reported that "no mounds, or mound builders' earthworks could be learned of in Noble county," showing that up to 1873 the many artificial mounds now clearly recognized had not been distinguished from curious natural formations.

Mounds And Relics

In the office of Dr. A. E. Egles. dentist, over the Bank of Albion, in 1895 there was an interesting collection of specimens, representing nearly all the different relics usually found in the Mississippi valley region. The writer, hearing of the collection, visited Dr. Eagle's office in February, 1895, and with the assistance of the proprietor, examined and classified the collections, consisting of arrowheads, awls, a fiesher-saw, spearheads, fish spears, knife ( stone 1. drills, stone ax I finely formed and polished) and other instruments, the uses of which could not then he determined. The arrowheads were numerous and of many sizes. The implements, generally, were of flint, fashioned with skill.

The stone was symmetrical and smooth, and shaped much like the axes in common use to-day, the blade regularly beveled and ground down to- a fine edge; instead of an eye to receive the handle a deep groove was cut around the head where the handle could be fastened, either on one side by means of bark strings ( leatherwoodj or to both sides, by dividing the end of the handle and binding the parts in the groove with thongs of bark or deerhide. The whole instrument was smoothly polished and finished ; and, considering the material and the primitive tools that must have been used, it was a remarkable piece of workmanship. Probably it was used as a battle-ax. and with a length of handle sufficient to give \ sweeping stroke it could be made to cleave ti e head of an enemy from top to chin, or break he firmest bones of the human frame. So^ e of the arrow and spear-heads were large, . er four inches in length, fashioned from th> lardest flint, reduced to the thinness of a sclu "1 slate and beveled at the sides and points to keen edges ; others were two inches, and some only threefourths of an inch in length, and very light and sharp, and for birds and small animals or for the use of little boys to shoot at marks, and so cultivate from infancy the highest degree of skill in the use of the bow and arrow. A form of this training, intended to fortify the infant nerves against any natural shrinking from the infliction of torture upon human beings, consisted in marking the bodies of living war-captives (bound to posts or trees) in many places, from heads to feet, and familiarizing the little boys with steadiness of aim at the quivering marks and with the flow of blood from the wounds made by scores of the keen little arrows discharged by the tin)- hands of children of three, four and five years. This cultivated at once their strength, skill, and inhuman cruelty. On the other hand the captured enemy was trained to stoic endurance of torture, and was capable of standing, scornful and defiant, with twenty arrows sticking in his flesh and covered with blood from wounds in face, eyes, neck and chest, and every limb, and hurling bitter and sarcastic taunts at the weakness of his foes - assuming that the adults s uch awe of his presence that they were <. of him, even when bound, and resorted -hildren too young to know of his prowes vreak their cowardly hatred upon him in Liieir stead. This was to provoke them to rush upon him in incoutrolable fury and end his agony by killing him at once. But the firm warriors understood him. They knew he was seeking death before torture became unendurable - a hero's triumph nt death - to die in proud defiance nout complaining. They sought * \r ">rive him of such a crown of glory; and Had a further and severe test of endurance. This consisted in piercing the j flesh from head to feet with splinters of resionus wood - "pitch pine," or other dry wood saturated with grease, left sticking in ' the flesh. These were lighted and burned, ! scorching and shriveling the skin and eating into the raw flesh, causing torture inexpressible ; the object being to conquer the fortitude of the sufferer and extort a frantic plea for instant death; to subdue the spirit and force the soul to surrender to physical pain.

Recorded instances of Indian warriors yield ing and begging for the mercy of death are very few. Even white captives have been known to endure this extremity of lingering torture without crying out. Of course, ordinary "burning at the stake" would be easy in comparison. The mounting flames inhaled, the columns of suffocating smoke quickly quenches the vital spark and the agony is over.

A Big Indian

Of the interesting collection in Dr. Egles" possession the most prominent were the entire skull, dorsal and lumbar vertebra, pelvic bones, and left femur and forearm of a skeleton exhumed from one of the prehistoric mounds of Noble count}', located on the farm of Jeremiah Noel, section I, Elkhart township. Some measurements were taken, which are given below, with the common names of the measured parts:

Skull, from base of nose* over the top of head to base of occiput, 1 1 ' j inches ; an ntnd the skull, from middle of forehead. 15^4 inches; over the top. from ear to ear, ii'j inches ; around the back of skull, from ear to ear, io^4 inches. Thigh-bone, 18 inches long, large and showing by the size of the muscular attachments great solidity and power of muscle. Forearm. 12 inches in length, large and strong. This skull, in size and proportions, was superior to those of many whites; and the pelvis, backbone and thighbone, all indicated that the form, when clothed in flesh and animated by the living spirit, must have been a noble specimen of manhood. The cranial developments showed capability of a high degree of intellectual culture. He was unquestionably an Indian, and was probably a chief and leader 111 all the important affairs of a tribe, perhaps of a confederacy, including their barbarous customs and superstitions.

The skeleton just described was found in a large mound on Noel's farm, as above stated, with parts of twenty-seven others, b\ explorers in the interest of Battey & Co., publishers of a history of Lagrange and Noble counties. In describing the excavation of this mound and others in the same vicinity, the principal writer of that history notes the posture of the skeletons as identical with known modes of Indian burial ; and in alluding to the fact of a "remarkably large and sound maxillary bone." indicating comparatively recent burial, adds: "The reader must remember that these are the bones of .Mound Builders, not Indians, and were certainly placed there at least five hundred years ago, and very likely longer." And yet nothing had been advanced to prove or that tended to prove that the ancestors of the then existing Indians had not been, themselves, the Mound Builders. The mounds under consideration were not more extensive than many beaver dams, and were entirely within the known capacity of even a small tribe of American Indians. "At least five hundred years," says this writer. as an evidence of an antiquity ton remote for connection with the Indians. Why, it was then nearly four hundred years since Columbus' discovery, when the Indian tribes roamed in scattered hands over the continent, with the same customs, habits and lack of organized power and moral discipline which were assumed to lie totally inconsistent with the execution of such works as what ? ( )nly the throwing up and fashioning of conical piles of earth several feet in height, and terraces of earth sixty feet in diameter. American Indians in besieging a fort near Erie, Pennsylvania, threw up earthworks to cover their approaches many times greater in extent, and constructed long tunnels underground for access to the interior of the fort so truly aimed that they actually reached the very points designed, and would have conducted the savages to sure success and victory had not the garrison been relieved and the besiegers driven off by a reenforcing body of troops.

"Five hundred years."' Let us assume that these mounds were one thousand years old. Is there any evidence that our Indians had not inhabited the continent for even more than two thousand years? Certainly not. The historian mentions the fact that "a yellow oak, fifteen inches in diameter," had been growing on the top of the mound on Noel's place a few years before. If that is supposed to cumulate the evidence of antiquity, let me say that to-day, growing in front of my house is a tree twenty inches in diameter which I personally know to be only fifty-two years old. All this, it is admitted, does not disprove the existence of an unknown people, different in race from the Indians, and who might have built these mounds and afterward completely disappeared, leaving no surviving representative and nothing but rude earthworks without inscription or trace of language to differentiate them from or connect them with any other knqwn race. On the other hand there is not a scintilla of satisfactory evidence that such a phenomenon ever did exist, at least in Noble county or in the territory from which it was carved.

W. P. Denny, formerly superintendent of the Noble county schools ; Thomas A. Reed, afterward treasurer of the county, and Prof. W. B. VanGorder, who was collecting materials for his work, "The Flora of Noble Count}-." since published. These gentlemen, in 1 88 1 -.2, gathered the collection, a part of which has been described as in the possesion of Dr. Egles in 1895. The entire collection was at first in the posssession of Air. Reed, who still has the greater part. Accidental discoveries had before been made by persons ignorant of their significance. Twenty of these so-called pre-historic mounds had been discovered and explored, and parts of fifty-six human skeletons unearthed prior to the undertaking of this history. Others have since been made known to the writer.

A Pre-Historic Battle

Late in the summer of 1895 Mr. W. A. Kuhn, of Albion, told me of the existence of mounds and of the discovery of a large number of bones, skulls, etc., in a peninsula formed by a sharp northeast bend of the Elkhart river, in section 16, York township. The excavation took place in 1842, Mr. Kuhn, then a youth of eighteen years, being a participant in the work. An Indian trail, deeply worn and running from Lake "\Yawassee northeastward toward Mongoquinong, crossed the river at the bend, where there was a fording place. A little southwest of the point where the trail on the Eversole farm crossed the river certain peculiarities of formation in some of the mounds suggested artificial work and led to excavation. The result, as above stated, was the uncovering of many human skulls and other parts of human frames. On exposure to the air most of the hones crumbled to dust, but some retained their forms long enough to show a physician and anatomist of the party, Dr. W. H. Ninmon, that they belonged to a race different from the European, and probably to aborigines or Indians. Everything about the place indicated that it was not an ordinary burial ground: Together with the great number of stone implements of war - arrow and spearheads, fragments of hatchets, and warclubs - found at different times in the vicinity, the trail and ford commanded on either side of the riser by morainic bluffs, all told of a savage battle of a past century, long anterior to the advent of civilized men.

Here, at this strategic point, the warriors of the Denizen tribe, probably the Miami--, met the southward advance of invading foes, who crossed in the face of strong resistance and a bloody battle raged on the southern bank, the Miamis lighting desperately for their ancient homes and hunting grounds; the fierce northern hordes for possession of a richer country in a milder climate than their own, the sterile and stormy north and northwest. Such incursions are historic. About two hundred and fifty years ago an avalanche of Chippewas, W 'innebagos, Sacs and Foxes and Pottawatomies descended upon northern Illinois and Indiana, - the beautiful country of the Minnewas, or Miamis, whose ancestral possessions stretched from the Scioto to the Mississippi, and from the St. Joseph valley in southern Michigan to the Ohio river, inhabited by peaceful tribes of the common Minnewa stock, of whom the Miamis were the parent and ruling family, with the capital home at Ke'-ki-ow-ga fFort Wayne).

This mention is made in connection with the evidences of a battle at the Eversole ford, and is only hypothetical as to the invading foe. It might have been one of the historic forays of Iroquois warriors from central Xew York, who more than one invaded the Indiana and Illinois regions and inflicted terrible defeats upon the Miamis and Illinois tribes, but never took possession of any portion of their territory. The victorious and desolating hands invariably returned to their homes in Xew York - the motives of their six hundred-mile expeditions being a thirst for martial distinction and glory - or revenge - as in the extermination of the Peorias in punishment for hospitably receiving and aiding LaSalle. the great French explorer, the Iroquois being deadly enemies of the French. But the date of the battle indicated might have been of greater antiquity than the seventeenth century, and the invaded people, in condition, very different from that of the seventeenth century Indians. And again the question arises tint of the dark abyss of unknown antiquity: "Who and what and how were they?" If divine revelation were to illuminate the silent bloom of that oblivion, would it show us a vast and beautiful panorama of pastoral and agricultural wealth, contentment and peace; lanscapes lighted b] God's approving smiles; inhabited by teeming, happy millions, under the pure, spiritual dominion of the love of Christ and of His "Golden Rule." dotted with delightful groves and nestling villages; green pastures with browsing herds and -'olden fields of grain: grand marts of honorable traffic, pervaded by the vital spirit of altruism; modest temples i f worship on gentle eminences embowered in immortelles, and over the entrances, woven of pure white lilies, the fragrant words of this inscription: "Sought we first the kingdom of heaven; and all these things were added unto us."' And while gazing, with eyes suffused -by sacred emotion, should we suddenly hear the startling croak of the raven of desolation and see the awful shadow of oblivion sweep over and engulf the scene?

Guided by all the clews we have, let us endeavor to reach a standpoint of logical probability from which some gleam of circumstantial evidence may penetrate the chaos and enable us to see glimpses of something more rationally substantial than mere fancy, engendered hypothesis concerning an anomalous race, kindred to nobody ever heard of in America.

General Harrison, when Governor of Indiana territory - a man of scholarly tastes and philosophical bent - bestowed great care and research upon the questions concerning the Indians under his jurisdiction. Their known history and most authentic and rational traditions were studied and compared, and in an official report he announced the conclusion that all the tribes represented in Indiana were immigrants from other regions of the continent, except the Miamis. He could find no evidence that the Miamis had ever been settled anywhere else or had removed at any time. They were "native to the manor born." All this evidence pointed to them as descendants of the aborigines, occupying their ancestral region, their native soil. Accepting this rational view, is there anything eccentric or fanciful in assuming that these aboriginal people a thousand years ago had attained a semi-civilized condition; that this magnificent country was densely populated and flourishing under the benign influences of peaceful prosperity, and steady progression? No, for history is full of such examples. Further, is it unwarranted fancy to contemj plate them as victims of a series of catastrophes that desolated their fair land ; destroyed the material results of all their peaceful industry and progress ; reduced them to the demoralization of abject despair, nor ceased the work of wreck and ruin until only a few remnants of what had been a prosperous nation were left - wandering and aimless mourners amid the desolate scenes of ruin ? No, for true historic story is rife with instances of utter national wreck and downfall. But absolute, total, individual extinction and disappearance from the face of the earth - racial death - that in-

I deed would be phenomenal anywhere, except in the airy regions of pure fancy and fiction. These demoralized remnants of the great Miami nation, resorting to the most primitive means of supplying the demands of physical existence, we might sav be-

[ The spirit of primitive barbarism resumed its sway. Superstition usurped the throne of religious faith. The bright past faded from the horizon of memory, and the scope whose ancestors constructed them in the forgotten period of their glory and power. Four or five centuries of progressive decadence had produced the barbarism that characterized the same race when the discoveries of Columbus and others introduced them to the notice of the civilized world. Nevertheless a great mystery remains to be solved - that of the time and nature of the catastrophes that wrecked and ruined the nation - and as long as doubt shall continue to shadow the origin and consummation of the tragedy, so long will the mystery appeal, not only to the curious spirit of historical and scientific research, but to the fraternal interest of human souls in all beings of all the ages, living or dead, who are of the sacred kinship of "God-in-man," and inthe vicissitudes of their lives and careers. The questions, "How fared they on their earthly pilgrimage? What were their parts in the great drama of human life? may never be fully answered. But the humane spirit will continue to brood over their unlettered monuments; science will variously , translate the language of form, location and | relics, and imagination will fondly essay to interpret the epic stories chanted by the winds that for ages have moaned over their tombs.

Chapter Ii

Pre-Organic History - Embracing the Train of Events and Influences from 1535 to 1787, Culminating in the Organization of the Northwest Territory of the United States (Noble County Being a Constituent and Almost Exactly Central Part of the Territory) - The French and English and Indian Conflicts and Struggles for Supremacy - Actors and- Acts of the Drama of Two Hundred Years - Pre-Organic Settlements and Pioneers of the County - Indian Occupants and Their Final Expulsion - Pre-Organic Land Entries - The Dawnings of Civil Dominion.

Whenever and wherever a race or nation has arisen and acted - on whatever plane, high or low - their career is an act of one sublime drama of humanity; the projected and undying- influences of their deeds and their fate are with us now and ever, modifying the march of progress and the currents of the stream of destiny. Hence the historian is always impelled to seek and trace the origin and influences of the remotest events affecting the condition and career of the people whose story he essays to tell.

Noble county, Indiana, is a component part of the vast and lovely region known by French designation at the beginning of the seventeenth century as Xew France, and nearly two hundred years later ( 1787) as the Great Northwestern Territory of the United States of North America: from which were carved the five great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Very near the geographical center of this magnificent empire is situated of the territory; a casual fact to which no particular significance is attached, but is referred to as attracting momentary attention in a mental survey. In 1609 this imperial region was claimed by France as appurtenant to her possessions on the St. Lawrence by the right of first discovery and exploration. It was the splendid prize for which the French and English colonists, aided by their respective governments and their Indian allies, contended for a hundred and fifty years, in several wars, supplemented and connected by an almost unbroken series of bloody conflicts and savage forays marked by merciless massacre, rapine and conflagrations, in which the customary

English

It is beyond dispute that the French first penetrated and explored the interior of the St. Lawrence basin and set up the first claim to the territory of France. Jacques Cartier, in 1534. after discovering the main land of Canada, the straits of Belle Isle, posted at the mouth of the St. Lawrence a proclamation asserting the French kins, - right to the country as sovereign. The next year ( 1535) the same Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence to Montreal island on which was Hochelaga, a fortified native village at the foot of a hill. He ascended the hill, unfurled the French flag and again proclaimed the title of France to the whole country. The hill he named Mount Royal (Montreal). This was in October. 1535. The preceding summer he and his crew had spent in trade and friendly intercourse with a tribe of Indians at the site of Quebec. The principal chief of the tribe bore the name of Don-a-co-na. To Don-a-co-na's village the French returned after the expedition to Hoch-e-la-ga and Montreal, ami spent the winter of 1835-6, cultivating the acquaintance and friendship of Don-a-co-na and his Indian subjects.

In the spring of 1530, after six months of profitable traffic, characterized by friendship and hospitality on the part of the natives, Cartier, loaded with furs and valuable gifts, prepared for his home voyage. His ship lay anchored in the broad river near Don-a-co-na's village. As Carder's boat put 1 'if lor the ship, it was accompanied by Don-a-co-na's big canoe, carrying the chief, and nine subordinates, or headmen of the tribe, all of whom on Cartier' s imitation went on board the vessel for a formal farewell ceremony; but Cartier ordered the canoe to be set adrift, and the anchor to be hoisted while all were in the cabin. The ship sped down the river, the Indians were imprisoned and carried away captives, to France and slavery - as specimens of North American savages for profitable exhibition.

In 1 541 Lord Roberval was appointed governor of New France, and came with a colony of two hundred persons to the forts built by Cartier at Quebec in 1535. They passed a rigorous winter there. Many died of disease; all were sufferers from the climate: the Indians were hostile and troublesome, on account of Cartier's treachery. The enterprise was abandoned, and nothing more was done in the way of permanent settlement for more than sixty years.

But the symbol of French dominion stood at the mouth of the noble river; the Fleur de Lis had floated from the summit of the "Royal Mountain" in the far interior ; French graves marked the soil at Quebec; and in coming decades the lilies and the cross were to reappear - forerunners of a tragic finale.

Early English Discoveries And Claims

On the other hand. John and Sebastian Cabot had furnished England a ci lor of title, in 1497-8. by sighting the main land from their decks, and coasting in view of the shore from Newfoundland to the Carolinas, followed in 1585 by a colony on Roanoke Bland, which soon broke up, and the settlement and city of Raleigh, in 1587. This colony mysteriously disappeared and was win illy lust. The first English attempts at settlement were fortyfour and forty-six years, respectively, later than that of Cartier and Roberval at Quebec ( 1 54 1 ) and fifty and fifty-two years later than Cartier' s visit to Hochelaga and Mount Royal. The first actual permanent settlement by the French was at Quebec, in 1608; the first pemanent English settlement was in 1607, at Jamestown - antedating the French one year. They were virtually simultaneous, while in beginnings of settlement the French were more than forty years in advance; and their permanent settlement was a continuation, at the same place, of their first settlement.

Conflicting Theories

In French contemplation, "New France" embraced the whole country, from Labrador to Carolina. In English contemplation. "Virginia" included the whole, from Carolina to Labrador. The French were far ahead in exploration; they were more successful in winning the confidence and securing the co-operation of the native Algonquins. On the other hand the English colonists had powerful allies in the Five Nations - the renowned Iroquois of central and western New York, who were traditional enemies of the Algonquins; and as will appear hereafter were soon to become inveterate enemies of the French colonists. Here, truly, was ample ground for bitter rivalry and uncompromising conflict - a Pandora's box of terrible troubles, the opening of which must set free the raging spirits of dire calamity.

sense of mankind, to note how utterly the rights of the native owners and occupants were ignored in the early charters, and the disposition of the territory of a continent. The kings of Spain, France and England granted empires to adventurers and companies. In 1 61 2 the king of France granted all North America, from the St. Lawrence to Florida to an association headed by one Madame de Guercheville. The charters and grants of the English kings covered about the same unmeasured continental regions. From their lofty elevations of self-conceit, and so-called "divine" domination, tl ey handed down to worthless favorites and ambitious speculators, grants, leases and charters, disposing without the consent of the owner and inhabitants, of an unexplored world.

The natives knew nothing of all this. Hospitality with them was instinctive. They were unsophisticated and credulous. They could not entertain suspicion nf the bright, good-looking strangers who came to them bearing the olive branches of peace and brotherhood. They received them in amity. In all the traditions, chronicles and histories of the very earliest intercourse of civilized men with the savages, there is no instance, well authenticated, of absolutely unfounded enmity or unprovoked violence on the part of the Indians. Of course, there were instances of hostility, for which there was no visible open provocation. A course, brutal nature will often unconsciously betray itself. Civilized garb and social veneering cannot always cloak internal meanness. The supercilious-eye; the scornful gesture; the little manifestations of aggressive and domine.. - ing disposition ; the favorite look and conduct ; the suppressed snarl of the caged' beast, all unnoticed by busy, pre-occupied people, will be comprehended in a dash by young children. They read the soul in countenance, speech, tones of voice, twinkle of the eye. If what they see is evil, they frankly manifest their aversion, and either cower, or shrink away from the lair of the evil spirit or boldly essay to punish and drive it out.

It was so with the Indians - the children of nature. There were, inevitably, some brutes and beasts of prey among the crews of Jacques Cartier, wintering among- the Indians at Quebec, in 1535-6. The Indian penetration, quick and clear as that of a child, recognized the spirit of meanness and aggressive brutality in the soul, through its development in the visage; heard it in the voice; realized it in little instances of aggressive selfishness, that would have been ignored by white and civilized associates in contempt. Repulsion, suspicion and fear followed; and hostility, intense in proportion to the degree of sensitiveness of the Indians. Hostility towards whom? Why, against both the individual offender and his white comrades, who tolerated him on terms of guild fellowship - a fact that seemed to the savages to indicate sympathy and approval. The logical discrimination of "poor Lo," in his primitive state, was not very keen. Again, intense dislikes without visible or rational justification arise, and grow, sometimes into violent demonstration, unaccountably.

It was natural that the Indians were hecoming somewhat hostile, during the winter, to the people who had come unbidden among them, bringing these exponents of the had. and affiliating with them. And when, in the spring, their beloved chief, Donacona, and the others with him were deceived, kidnaped and carried away over the great, mysterious ocean, never l" return, the simple savages felt justified in regarding white men as heralds of calamity - agents of mischief and meanness. But, worse than all, they were corrupted. The experience was an education in evil. It was a lesson in treachery. Thenceforward, dealing with tlie whites, can we wonder that they accepted the standards of the superior race; confounded the wisdom of true diplomacy with the deviltry of deceit, and made fraternity a clcik 1"' r criminal selfishness?

The great struggle that involved the dotiny of that portion of the continent known as Xew France - Canada and the territory northwest of the Ohio - began in the dawn of the seventeenth century. The general aspect of the great battle field at that time is important and of historic interest. The physical geography of Canada, and the great basins of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, need not be described; but the inhabitants, who figured more or less prominently in the mighty drama, cannot be excluded from historic notice. Their agency in the great a nflict, their vital interests, at stake in spite of themselves, and their unconscious influence upon the results, render them of peculiar interest to the people of this region; and that interest increases in proportion to the deepening of the shadow of oblivion that is fall-

All the Indians found inhabiting Canada and the St. Lawrence and Ohio valleys in 1600 were of the Algonquin stock, or family, except the Iroquois "True Nations" - a confederacy, or republic, consisting of five tribal groups, each divided into several tribes, who collectively constituted a "nation" - as our several townships constitute a county ; several counties a state. The five tribal groups, associated under the confederate title. Five Nations, had in all from thirty-five to forty tribes, or an average of from seven to eight tribes to a group, or nation. In their times of greatest numerical strength each of the five nations could send upon the war-path a force of eight hundred warriors. Combined, for a supreme emergency, the republic could marshal an arm}" of lour thousand warriors, in five divisions. The original Five Nations were: The Ah .hawks, immediately west of the Hudson river; Oneidas, at Oneida lake; Onondagas, of Onondaga lake and valley; Cayugas, of Cayuga lake; and Senecas, of Seneca lake.

They were united in a regular confederacy, which recognized the independence and individuality of each, in its own sphere, made as the Union of our states under the constitution, recognized the several states. Internecine war was prohibited. All tribal disputes not involving important interests common to the whole confederacy were referred to councils of the particular nation to which the tribes belong. Treaties, and all concerns of common interest, were settled b\ supreme councils of the whole confederacy at Onondaga, the capital. Wars with outside Indians could not be declared by subordinate councils ; but if suddenly attacked, a nation could, and was in duty bound, to repel the assailing enemy with all the force of the nation attacked, without reference to the supreme council - unless the means of defense should prove inadequate.

Briefly stated, the unwritten constitution of this savage republic was a precursor of the Constitution of the Lnited States, in all the fudemental principles of the latter. It was established two hundred years before the Federal Union, by savages who probably had never seen a civilized man, and to whom the political theories of European philiosophers were unknown. They had never of Plato: they had never heard of the democracies of Greece, nor of the Roman republic. The splendid mirages of Utopia had newer greeted their mental vision. And yet, their constructive statesmanship was equal in political wisdom to the best fruits of modern enlightenment. And their personal prowess was equal to their intelligence. All the Algonquins feared them. Their renown extended from Canada to Florida, and over the New England coloj nies. The_\- held the key to the Ohio and ! Mississippi valleys. The natural route from Quebec, Montreal, etc., was by way of the St. Lawrence, and through either Lake Champlain or Ontario, if with vessels, or by land down (rather up) the great valley of those lakes to the headwaters of the Ohio and down that stream, which drained the whole magnificent region now constituting ( )hio, West Virginia, Indiana and Illinois. But parties of French colonists and settlers would have to go through the country of the Iroquois, which stretched from the Hudson river at the head of Lake Ontaria and

Originally the country around the foot of Lake Ontario, and between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain, was occupied by the Wyandots, a powerful and ward ike tribe, and the country around the foot of Lake Erie by the Fries or Erigas. the most powerful single tribe of all the eastern Algonqins; but very early in the century the Wyandots had been assailed and scattered by the Iroquois; and by the same power the proud and powerful Fries, coming into hostile contact with the Five Nations through a dispute with the most western of the nations of the confederacy - (the Senecas, of the Genesee region, and nearest to the Eries ) - were almost literally exterminated, and had disappeared as a tribe. The same fate through the same agency had befallen the Andastes. a less important tribe further west and southward on Lake Erie, and in the country of northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio.

Thus, in the beginning of the seven teenth century, contemporaneous with the first matured and organized scheme of French extension of settlement, trade and dominion over the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, the "Five Nations" of Iroquois ruled, the undisputed masters of the country, described in general terms as follows:

Bounded on the north and northwest by the St. Lawrence river and Lake Ontario; east and northeast by Lake Champlain. the Hudson and upper Delaware rivers : south by the irregular line of the Alleghany mountains, including the territory .of the present "northern tier" of Pennsylvania counties: west by the Niagara river and Lake Erie, - covering all that now constitutes the foundation of the glory and power of the "Empire State" outside of its imperial city.

Surrounding the Iroquois confederacy were almost innumerable nations and tribes of the prevailing class (numerically) of North American Indians, the Algonquins. From Labrador to North Carolina, and extending west to the Rocky mountains, swarmed the nations and tribes of the Algonquins - everywhere in the great basins of the St. Lawrence, Mississippi and Ohio - the "New France" of the visions of Louis and Champlain - swept the turbulent and contending hosts of Algonquin people, general animated and agitated by mutual rivalries, and demoralized by internecine conflicts. I can only mention and approximately locate the prominent nations and tribes directly involved in the struggle for supremacy in the northwest territory.

In Canada, the Ottawas, of the Ottawa river and valley, were numerous, brave and enterprising. It is probable that Donacona, the chief kidnaped by Cartier. was of a branch of this nation. Cartier seems to have been indifferent or ignorant, and reports nothing concerning the tribal conditions or connection of any of the St. Lawrence Indians with whom he came in contact.

The Hurons. the noblest and most powerful of the Canada tribes with whom the early French colonists came in contact, inhabited the country east of Lake Huron and north of Fake Ontario; and it has been stated that they had a town on the south division of the island of Montreal. If true, it points to the Hockelaga, of Cartier. in according to some authority, of tribes from other nations that were at war. but contrary to the wishes of these tribes on both sides, had seperated and established themselves in an independent and natural attitude, in force sufficient to maintain their position. The dates of their secession and independent organization are unknown. They were said to be peaceful and prosperous. It is not distinctively known whether they took any part in any of the wars and disputes arising from the French and English claims and controversies.

The St. Francis tribe, at the mouth of the St. Francis river, and south of the St. Lawrence, was a subordinate branch of the Algonquins of central Canada, and does not figure in separate prominence in the beginning of the seventeenth century ; but they attained terrible distinction, during the French and Indian war, as enemies of -the English colonists. In the five years from 1754 to 1759 they numbered six hundred English colonists of the Champlain, Vermont and New Hampshire districts, and were of more trouble to the English settlements than any other six tribes. General Amherst, after repeated vain attempts to conciliate them, finally, in 1759, sent a detachment of Rogers' Rangers against them. The Rangers passed down Lake Champlain, and from the north end of the lake struck across through the wilderness of mountains and morasses, marching by night to avoid discovery, on the way encountering a spruce bog of so immense size that they were nine days consecutively marching or floundering through - the water averaging a foot in depth and being very cold. Reaching the vicinity of the savage town on the St. Francis river, thev observed unusual

The surprise was complete, and two hundred warriors - all who were at home - were slaughtered ; several English captives were rescued, and the town was burned. Over six hundred scalps of white men were found hanging in the lodges. Tt was the final, and death blow. The tribe was annihilated. The next year (November, 1760), the war having ended in the surrender of Canada and New France to the English, these same Rangers, under Captain Rogers,

I The fearful struggle was over. Something of its horror may be judged from the trophies found in a single obscure tribal village - the six hundred white men's scalps found in the lodges of the St. Francis Indians. Undoubtedly the six hundred adult scalps signified the simultaneous massacre also of a large number of women and chil-

The Delawares, at the time of the discovery, or when the Dutch first settled at Manhattan, constituted a numerous and noble nation - their Indian name "Lenni Lenape" (grandfather of nations) indicated antiquity of power and title to veneration. The seats of the Delawares in 1600 were in the valley of the Delaware river, adjacent region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and southeastern New York, extending over the Catskill and Otsego regions. Cooper's portraitures of Indians were drawn from Delawares, who lingered in or revisited the Otsego country long after the subjugation and expulsion of the tribes by the Iroquois confederacy. The reader of Cooper's Leather- stocking Tales will remember, also, some striking' portraitures of Iroquois warriors, under the name of Mingoes. The Delawares claimed to home come from the west - but what part of the west was not known. In the beginning of the French and Indian war with the exception of a band who were influenced by the Moravian missionaries to abstain from war and bloodshed, the most of the Delawares fought against the English. Later, through treaties, large numbers of them became friendly to the English. Again, they joined in Pontiac's conspiracy - so called - to destroy the English forts in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and Michigan. The part assigned to the Delawares was the destruction of Fort Pitt and other forts in that region - the massacre of the garrisons, and the settlers for whose protection the forts were maintained. The forts were invested and besieged, and were about to be captured, when the forces under Colonel Boquet drove off the besiegers with heavy loss and relieved the forts. This was followed by indiscriminate retaliation. in the course of which occurred the frightful massacre by the whites of nearly a hundred of the Christian Delawares under Moravian teaching. They were entirely innocent of any participation, either in Pontiac's plan, or hostile demonstrations, but frenzied by the fearful dangers of the situation, the whites did not stop to inquire, but indiscriminately fell upon everybody who was a Delaware. It is said that, true to their faith, the devoted people, men and women, meekly accepted their fate, and with uplifted hands and thrilling prayers for the forgiveness of Christ for their murderers received the blows of the assassins. \\ e have been so long accustomed to regard the deeds of the "red" barbarians with horror, as unexampled in fiendishness, and to find excuses for much that was evil and unjust in the treatment of the Indians by the whites, in the assumption that nothing le>s than terrorizing cruelty would suffice to hold them in check, it is well to pause and listen to the voice of true history. It tells us of deed-; of outrage and horror committed by "civilized" I ?) white men upon savages, that are scarcely exceeded in fiendish cruelty by anything in the authentic annals of savage warfare. Savage ferocity is not mitigated, nor less to be deplored, because white men have been equally guilty: but before arrogating to ourselves the authority to pronounce judgment, let us think of the Divine condition: "lie that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone," etc.

After the Delawares had been expelled from their homes in the Delaware valley by their haughty conquerors, they were dispersed to widely distant points. A tribe of them settled on White river in Indiana, and became guests and allies of the Miamis. They contributed effectively to the troubles of the white setlers and the government during Washington's administration, and participated as an organized tribe in the treaty of peace with General Wayne at < rreenville, Ohio.

The Sacs and Foxes, a union of the formerly separate and independent tribes on the St. Lawrence river, but who had emigrated to central Wisconsin together, and at different times participated in movements that bore upon the destinies of the Northwest territory, were of the Algonquin stock, though apparently related to the Iroquois in some respects, in common with the Chippeways, or Ojihwavs. At what point on the

St. Lawrence was located their ancestral seat dues not appear from their traditions. The early French explorers found them on the Detroit river and Saginaw bay, with forces united, for defense against the Five Nations of central New York - the Iroquois. In their position on Saginaw bay and the Detroit they were shielded by the powerful Hurons of Canada, and frequently acted as allies to the latter in their conflicts with the Iroquois. But after the Hurons were scattered and almost annihilated by their irresistible enemies, the Sacs and Foxes were compelled to flee from their country. They fled to the Green Bay region, west of Lake Michigan.

The Chippewas. at the time mentioned, inhabited the Manitoulin islands, and the countr\" north of Lakes Michigan and Huron, and extending to the Mississippi. They were warlike, enterprising" and powerful - representatives of the highest type of Indian manhood. With the traditionally "terrible" Dakotas, west of the Mississippi, the Chippewas were engaged in continued conflict. They were said to be of the same ancestral stock as the Iroqouis of New York. Both had traditions of a wonderful "wise man," who appeared mysteriously as a messenger from the Great Spirit, and who taught wisdom and maxims of prudence and good policy. According to these traditions, it was this noble monitor, whose name was Hiawatha, who counseled the organization of the confederacy of the Five Nations, and inspired them with the undying sentiments of brotherhood that kept them free from internal dissensions, did unite, and in their union became invincible. It was the same Hiawatha who went on a mission of peace from the Chippewas to the Dakotas.

In Longfellow's beautiful poem. "Hiawatha," is a noble Ojibway (Chippewa) youth, a prince of his people, who journeyed to the land of the great Dakotas, and wooed and won the sweetest and loveliest of their maidens for his wife - thus wreathing the pipe of peace with the roses of love.

The Shawnees were rovers. The}- came at an earlv day from Florida to the Ohio river, and settled on the north side of the stream. There, the great Tecumseh. or Tecumtha, was born, the son of a warrior chief of the Shawnees. They claimed to have been, in the south, only guests of the Creek Indians, joining with them in some of their wars. The Suanee river received its name from this wandering tribe, who for a time dwelt upon its banks. They were, at different periods, on the Susquehanna ; in the Wyoming valley: on the Cumberland in Kentucky, on the Ohio, and on the Wabash in Indiana, where they were guests of the Miamis.

The family of Tecumseh moved from Florida to the north side of the Ohio about the year 1765, when the territory was British. The Shawnee hero was born there, about 1768. Conflict was in the air from which he drew the first breath of life; and it grew louder and fiercer as his boyhood years went on. Within him was a spirit that responded in sympathy to the battle sounds of the breezes. The spirit of adventure and battle - the genius of war and command - were not more conspicuous in Napoleon's boyhood and youth, than in Tecumseh's. Let us recognize the truth, that in the combined elements of spiritual elevation, intellectual power, and energy of will. Tecumseh was at least the equal of Napoleon : while the beckoning motive of his ambition was a

There is a well-founded opinion that the Shawnees were fugitive survivors of the great slaughter of the Eries by the Five Nations, in the first half of the seventeenth century. The\" were a branch of the Huron nation, who were distant cousins of the Iroquois, as well as the Chippewas. The ancestral lines of both met, it is believed, in a common source in the remote past: and the Iroquois ( the name bestowed by the French ) claimed that their native ancestral name was "Hode-no-Saw-nee." The derivation of the different forms of modern names - Swanees, Suanees, Shawanese, or Shawness, is evident.

The Dakotas, or Sioux, whose wars with the Chippewas, and co-operation is an invasion of the Minneway county (hereafter mentioned ) exerted a direct influence upon the destines of this territory, were located in the country west of the Mississippi and opposite to' the present states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and northern Illinois. There were several tribes or branches known by other names; but the national or family ancestral name was Dakotah. The general characteristics of this great nation were similar to those of all the northern Algonquins - Chippewas, Hurons, Ottawas, Eries, Wyandots, Sacs and Foxes, and the collecttion of clans immediately north of Lake Erie, called the Neutral Nation - all were of the highest rank of Algonquins. in physical and mental development, bravery, endurance, fierce temper and worst disposition.

French in southern Michigan, whence they lied in terrior before the approaching wave of some of the Iroquois forays - pn babl) that from which the Sacs and Foxes escaped - to the country west of Lake Michigan, where they were located at one period in the seventeenth century - evidently, from the location of other Wisconsin Indians - in the southern part of the Wisconsin district, with the Sacs and Foxes and Winnebagoes north of them, and the Illinois and Miamis next to them on the south. They were first know to white men and described as a some^ what vagrant tribe of unambitious and obscure fishermen and hunters, with little appearance of organization or definite purpose, and destitute, so far as known, of national or family totems (coat of arms) or definite traditions. According to the younger Pokagon i who addressed the Old Settlers" Association at Albion, in 1X1)4), they had a tradition of being a remnant of a once powerful nation on the Atlantic coast. What pari of the coast has n< t been indicated, nor can traces be found of any Atlantic nation not otherwise accounted for, nor of anysimilar name given to a river, lake, or other feature of natural scenery, or to any civil division of territory, anywhere between the Mississippi and the ocean, from Key West to Labrador, from the Gulf to Lake Superior.

Pokagon, although son and successi r 1 f a chief, and a scholar, could not give the English words, or significative in English of '-Pottawatomie." If it be true that their ancestors came from the Atlantic coast, they must have been from some nation on the north Atlantic, hearing another name, or having been broken up and dispersed before the lirM explorations by white men - the fugitive remnants afterwards penetrating westward and assuming, or receiving from other Indian nations in the interior a name, or combination of names indicative of tempi irary local habitation, or some tribal characteristics or customs. The French bestowed the name of "Iroquois" upon the confederacy of tribes composing the Five Nations - possibly as a name of odium, or evil import, or possibly not. Other Indian people called them "Mingoes," as a term of approbrium. Others named them "Maguas" or "Maquas," to convey an evil meaning, or as appropriate to odious characteristics. The Delawares called themselves : "Lenni Lenape" or men. whose original family was the source of all the innumerable host of unadulterated Algonquins ; in other words the "grandfather of the nations."

In some such way and for reasons not known, the Pottawatomies may have been named entirely different from the original nation whence they sprung, and of whose destruction they were survivors or remnants. It is to be regretted that so little light lies upon the origin and early career of the people who inhabited and held exclusive possession of the territory afterward organized as Noble county, and whose story, more than that of any other savages, is appropriate and important in a history of the county.

The Minnewas

The several tribes of Illinois and Indiana - all related as members of one nation or family - the Minnewas - occupied the beautiful and extensive country from the Scioto river (Ohio) to the Mississippi, and north and south from Wisconsin and southern Michigan and the head of Lake Erie, to

La Belle Riviere - the "beautiful Ohio." The Miamis constituted the original, or parent stock, as all spoke the Miami language. The great valley of the Scioto, Maumee, Wabash and Illinois were the seats of their power, and Kekionga ( Fort Wayne) was the capital of the principal tribe. They were of the Algonquin stock. In their best condition tney could have opposed the advance of English or American conquest and settlement armies aggregating from eight thousand to ten thousand warriors, in defense of their homes the graves of their ancestors - their native land. For it was their native country.

But when the supreme emergency arose they had been scattered, humiliated and more than decimated by wanton invasion and massacre. They were, naturally, friends of the French, who had first come in contact ! with them, and had conciliated them before they had any knowledge of conflicting claims. Their rights were respected. The Frenchmen, trappers, hunters and fur-buyers who preceded or followed in the wake of exploration and fortification made no pretensions to conquest, or individual or associational "ownership" of the soil. Theirs was the idea of tenancy in common in leases under a recognized sovereign. It was the feudal system, with a loyal priesthood. The missionaries in the earliest stages of exploration and settlement were good men. They were as careful of the rights and privileges of the Indians, and as earnestly anxious to make them happy and prosperous as children of Christ's kingdom on earth and loyal subjects of a Christian sovereign - all for their temporal and spiritual good - as they were for the white men among them. The Indians saw this spirit practi- cully manifested. They saw that the men who came among- them freely adopted their modes of living; mingled with them; took wives from among their maidens, and entered heartily into their sports and participated in their ceremonies - not knowing, (if course, that these friendly people were of the lower strata of civilization. We can plainly see why it was that the Indiana and Illinois Indians were allies of the French in 1600, and mainly so, throughout the great struggle for supremacy between England and France.

Champlain Governor Of New France

The preceding locations and character of the Indian tribes and nations apply to the year 1600. It is assumed that the same situation, in a general sense, existed during the closing quarter of the preceding century - from 1575. The expeditions of Cartier, and the beginnings of a colony, under Lord Roberval - from 1534 to 1541 - evoked no light on the general situation, tribal names, location and comparative .standing of the native nation; these topics seem to have been ignored by Cartier and Roberval. Nothing was investigated; nothing was found out on these points.

The purpose and scope of this history dn not require nor permit a search into the obscurity of pre-historic times, not an attempt to trace, by the uncertain class of Indian legend and tradition, the possible or probable vicissitudes of the Indian drama during the sixty years that elapsed between the breaking up and departure oi Roberval's Quebec colony, in 1542. and the renewal of French colonization in 1602-3. It seems probable that during that time occurred the beginning of the rivalry and feud between the Hurons and Five Nations which Champlain, the governor of New

France, found existing in 1003. It was enough that it did exist, and that it made the Five Nations an obstacle in the pathway of advancing French colonization and supremacy in the Ohio regions. How should that barrier be removed? There were two ways. Either by making friends of the Iroquois, or by crushing and dispersing them. The Hurons. anxious to see their enemies punished and destroyed, and certain from their knowledge of their character that they would not tamely submit to conditions of peace requiring consent to combined French and Huron occupation of their country even for temporary purposes and passage, counseled forcible measures and a descent upon them with power sufficient to insure their overwhelming defeat. The combined forces of the Sacs and Foxes, with the Hurons and \\ "yandots, under the command of Champlain himself and some French aids, was planned ; the Sacs and Foxes and Wyandots eagerly responded, and the formidable array moved forward, to descend Lake Champlain and attack first the Mohawks, who inhabited that part of the country. This was in July, 1609.

The First Battle

The invaders were met by a band of Mohawk warriors, on the west shore of the lake (then first discovered by white men, and. named Champlain in honor of the governor).

city of tigers. The consciousness that their foes outnumbered them, and that they were far from the aid of their confederates, caused not a heart to quail or a step to waver. Then, for the first time, Champlaiu had an inkling of the character of the Mohawks as warriors. He was yet to learn that it was a fair exhibition of the spirit and prowess of the warriors of the entire confederacy ; and that against outside foes they acted as one. It was easy to see the power of a mighty prestige in the individual onslaughters of the Mohawks. Their face-to-face opponents visibly cowered and shrank from personal collision. It was the prestige of warriors long accustomed to conquer. "Mohawks" was a name of terror far and near. It is related in a local history of the wars of the Massachusetts colonists with the Indians that on one occasion in western Massachusetts the colonists had secured the aid of a band of Mohawks in a battle with out numbering savage foes who had previously incurred the hostility. of the Mohawks; that in the onset of battle the cry was raised: "The Mohawks' The Mohawks!" whereupon the hostile savages gave way and fled.

But in the first battle on Lake Champlain the Huron- Wyandots had an advantage greater than that of preponderance in numbers. The Mohawks were entirely ignorant of fire-arms. The muskets of one or two Frenchmen were strange and terrible weapons. They seemed to combine the thunder and lightning of the Great Spirit. Men were stricken down mysteri- j ously, at every awful explosion. It was to them a superhuman mystery ; and repelled several otherwise irresistible onslaughts.

until so many were slaughtered that the Hurons bore away from the battle-field fifty Mohawk scalps, to adorn their Canadian lodge-poles. The Mohawks retreated toward their villages on the Mohawk river; but they sent back yells of hatred, defiance and revenge. The Hurons constructed the retreat correctly. They did not pursue very far. They presumed that young runners were ahead of the retreating warriors, diverging toward Oneida and Onondaga, to alarm and rally the power of the confederacy, ami that two days' pursuit would have brought them face to face with the Oneidas, and the Onondagas would be circling to their rear. They retired, carrying their hard-earned scalps and a secret consciousness that the light of glory was not very dazzling on the homeward trail

This battle with what he learned from the Hurons of the character of the Iroquois satisfied Champlain that submission, without compulsion, could not be expected. He had attacked and defeated a band of the Mohawks. But they were not subdued. He had destroyed all hope of amicable relations with the confederacy. Was it not good policy, by another chastisement, to fully convince these Iroquois that their interests and safety dqaended upon friendly relations and co-operation with him and the French government? He had already taken pains to inform himself of the numerical strength of the Five Nations, and, to some extent, of their attitude toward surrounding tribes. He found the fighting strength of the whole group to be, in numbers, not more than four or five tin insane! warriors, even assuming that they might act together; which he deemed so highly improbable, judging from the experience of other Indians, that it might be dismissed from consideration. The signal chastisement of one or two tribes would terrify all ; or set them to fighting each other. They were surrounded by overwhelming numbers of Algonquins, who were hostile to them. The conquest would be easy. He was impatient with the obstacle of their resistance. The banner of France feudalism - the ensign of His Must Christian Majesty of France - was unfurled, awaiting a clear course to dominion, in precedence of the lion flag of England.

In April, 1610, De Champlain again invaded the country of the Five Nations, leading a carefully picked force of the flower of Huron warriors. He met with disaster. His army was badly defeated and he was seriously wounded. They were forced to fly. leaving behind them many more scalps than they had before carried off.