Putnam County, Indiana - The whole text, 1887 (part 1 of 12)

History

'II IX two brief generations tt wild waste of unbroken wilderness lias been transformed into a cultivated re- ^p^, gion of thrift and pros- Sfife. ^ ^ perity, by the untiring zeal and energy of an enterprising people. The trails of hunters and trappers have given plaee to rai roads and thoroughfares for vehicles of every description; the cabins ami garden patches of the pioneers have been succeeded by comfortable houses and broad fields of waving grain, with school-houses, churches, mills. ]>os?oftices and other institutions of convenience for each community. Add to these the prosperous city of Greencastle, and numerous thriving villages, with extensive business and manufacturing interests, and the result is a work of which all concerned may well be proud.

The record of this marvelous change is history, and the most important that can be written. For sixty five years the people of Putnam County have been making a history that for thrilling interest, grand practical results, and lessons that may be perused with profit by citizens of other regions, will compare favorably with the narrative of the history of any county in the Xorthwest; and. ; considering the extent of territory involved, i it. is as worthy of the pen of a Bancroft, as ! even the story of our glorious Republic. ; While our venerable mice-tors may have said i and believed j they were nevertheless for a long time con- I tent. t<> occupy and possess a very small cor- I ner of it; and the great West was not opened ! to industry and civilization until a variety ' of causes had combined to form, as it were, a j great heart, whose animating principle was i improvement, whose impulses annually sent j westward armies of noble men and women. j and whose pulse is now felt throughout the i length and breadth of the best country the sun ever shone upon - from the pineries of Maine to the vineyards of California, mi'!

graves of their fathers. One generation after | the garden of the Union - they have found another had worn themselves out in the ser- inviting homes for each, and room for all. vice of their avaricious landlords. From the j To secure and adorn those homes more than first flashes of daylight in the morning till ordinary ambition was required, greater than Lhe last glimmer of the setting sun, they had ordinary endurance demanded, and untlinehioiied unceasingly on, from father to son,1 ing determination was; by the force of neeesearrying borne each day on their aching sity, written over every brow. It was not shoulders the precious proceeds of their daily pomp, or parade, or glittering show that the labor. Money and pride and power were , pioneers Mere after. They sought for homes handed down in the line of succession from which they could call their own, homes for the rich father to his son, while unceasing themselves and homes for their children. work and continuous poverty and everlasting How well they have succeeded after a strugobscurity were the heritage of the working- gle of many years against the adverse tides man and his children. let the records and tax-gatherers testily; let

Their society was graded and degraded, the broad cultivated fields and fruit-bearing It was not manners, nor industry, nor educa- orchards, the Hocks and the herds, the palatum, nor qualities y>t' the head and heart that tial residences, and places of business, the established the grade. It was money and spacious halls, the clattering car-wheels and jewels, and silk and satin, and broadcloth and ponderous engines all testify, imperious pride that triumphed over honest There was a time when pioneers waded poverty and trampled the poor man and his through deep snows, across bridgeless rivers, children under the iron heel. The children and through bottomless sloughs, a score ot of the rich and poor were not permitted to miles to mill or market, and when more time mingle with and to love each other. Court- was required to reach and return from marship was more the work of the parents than ket than is new required to cross the eontiof the sons and daughters. The golden calf nent or traverse the Atlantic. These were was the key to matrimony. To perpetuate j the times when our palaces were constructed a self-constituted aristocracy, without power j of logs and covered with ''shakes" rived of brain, or the rich blood of royalty, purse from the forest trees. These were the times was united to purse, and cousin with cousin, ; when our children were stowed, away for the in bonds of matrimony, until the virus boil- night in the low. dark attics, among the ing in their blood was transmitted by the j horns of the elk and the deer, and where Saw of inheritance from one generation to j through the (dinks in the u shakes " they another, and until nerves powerless and man- j could count the twinkling stars. These were hood dwarfed were on exhibition everywhere, ' the times when our chairs and bedsteads were ami everywhere abhorred. For the sons and hewn from the forest trees, and tables and daughters of the poor man to remain there ; bureaus constructed from the boxes in which was to forever follow as our fathers had fob j their goods were brought. These were the lowed, and never to lead; to submit, but j times when the workingman labored six and never to rule; to obey, but never to command, sometimes seven days in the week, and all

Without money, or prestige, or influential the hours there were in a day from sunrise friends, the old pioneers drifted along one by to sunset. one, from State to State, until in Indiana - Whether all succeeded in what they under- took Is not a question to be asked now. The the great crane hangs the old tea-kettle and proof that as a body they did succeed is al! ; the great iron pot. The huge shovel and around us. Many individuals were perhaps i tongs stand sentinel in either corner, while disappointed. Fortunes and misfortunes be- . the great andirons patiently wait for the huge long to the human race. Not every man can back-log. Over the fire-place hangs the have a school-house on the corner of his trusty rifle. To the right of the tire-place farm: not every man can have a bridge over stands the spinning wheel, while in the a stream that flows by his dwelling; not every ( farther end of the room is seen the oldman can have a railroad depot on the borders fashioned loom. Strings of drying apples and of his plantation, or a city in its center: and poles of drying pumpkins are overhead. Opwhile these tilings are desirable in some re- posite the door in which yon enter stands a spects, their advantages are often times out- huge deal table; by its side the dresser whose weighed by the almost perpetual presence of pewter plates and '- shining delf" catch and the foreign beggar, the dreaded tram]), the reflect the lire-place ilanies as shields of arl'ear of tire and conflagration, and the insecu- mies do the sunshine. From the corner of its rity from the presence of the midnight bur- shelves coyly peep out the relics of former glar, and the hold, bad men and women who china. In a curtained comer and hid from lurk in ambush and infest the village-. The casual sight we find the mother's bed, and good things of this earth are not all to be under it the trundle-bed, while near them a found in any one place; but if more is to be ladder indicates the loft where the older found in one than another, that place is in children sleep. To the left ^\' the fire-place our rural retreats, our quiet homes outside of and in the corner opposite the spinninrr wheel the clamor and turmoil of city life. is the mother's work-stand. Upon it lies the

Let us turn our eyes and thoughts back Her spectacles, as if but just used, are into the log cabin days of a quarter of a cen- serted between the leaves of her Bible, and tury ago, and contrast those homes with com- tell of her purpose to return to its comforts fortable homes of to-day. Before us stands when care.- permit and duty is done. A stool, the old log cabin. Let us enter. Instinct- a bench, well notched and whittled and ively the head is uncovered in token of rev- carved, and a few chairs complete the furnierence to this relic of ancestral beginnings, ture of the room, and all stand on a coarse early struggles and final triumphs. To the but well-scoured floor.

left is the deep, wide fire-place, in whose Let us for a moment watch the city visitcommodious space a group of children may ors to this humble cabin, The city bride. sit by the fire, and up through the chimney innocent but thoughtles.-. and ignorant of may count the stars, while ghostly stories of labor and care, asks her city-bred husband, witches and giants, and still more thrilling lt Pray, what savages set this up?" Honestly stories of Indians and wild beasts, are wins- confessing his ignorance, he replies, " I do peringiy told and shudderingly heard. On I not know." But see the pair upon whom age sit;? "frosty, hut kindly." First, as they enter, they give a rapid glance about the eahin home, and then a mutual glance of eye to eye. Why do tears start and till their eyes? Why do lips quiver? There are many who know why; but who that has not learned in the school of experience the full meaning of all these symbols of trials and privations, of loneliness and danger, can comprehend the story that they tell to the pioneer? Within

| this chinked and mud-daubed cabin we read ; the first pages of our history, and as we retire through its low doorway, and note the : heavy-battened door, its wooden hinges and its welcoming latch-string, is it strange that j the scenes without should seem to be but a ! dream? But the cabin and the palace, stand- I ing side by side in vivid contrast, tell their j own story of this people's progress. They I are a history and a prophecy in one.

Scientific Geography

s» TIE comity forming the' Floyd, Franklin, Greencastle, Jackson, Jeffersubject of this volume is j son, Madison, Marion, Mill Creek, Monroe,

|gp' ern boundary of the State. It ! size, having a length east and west of twelve bounded on the north by \ miles, and a breadth north and south of four Montgomery County, on the east ! miles. Warren and Jefferson are five miles by Hendricks and Morgan coun- ; north and south by five miles east and west, ties, on the south by Owen and All the other townships are six miles square, Clay counties, and on the west ! except Mill Creek, the smallest in the county, by Clay and Parke counties. It It comprises that territory between Mill contains an area of 497 square Creek and the line dividing ranges 2 and 3, miles, embracing a little less than j and south of the line dividing sections 19 and

Surface And Soil

16 north, in ranges 3. 4, and 5 west, and five fractional townships (12 north, in ranges 3, 4 and 5 west, and 13 and 14 north, range 3 west). In all, the area is not quite that of fourteen congressional townships. For local

In the eastern portion of the county the surface is level or gently undulating, affording vast fields for tillage and for meadows. The flat lands on the divide between the headwaters of Walnut Creek and those of purposes the county is divided into fourteen i the tributaries of Sugar Creek, lying princicivil townships, named Clinton, Cioverdale, ! pally within Boone County, extend into the extreme northeast corner of Putnam, sometimes requiring artificial drainage to render the land productive. The northern and northwestern .portions of the county are rolling, affordingsome of the finest pasturage to be found even in that remarkable belt of pasture lands lying along the fortieth parallel of north latitude. The hills along Little Walnut, Walnut and Lower Deer Creek at times rise into lofty cliffs, while the valleys along these streams and at the mouths of their tributaries furnish as tine fields for grain as those of the best river bottoms.

The water-shed of the county is to the southwest. It is traversed by Walnut Fork of Eel River, from northeast to southwest, which has for its principal tributaries, on the west Little Walnut, on the east Warford's Branch and Deer Creek. The northwest portion of the county is drained by Raccoon Creek, while the southeastern portion finds its drainage in Mill Creek. The county is thus divided into three geographical sections. Each of these streams draws supplies from almost innumerable smaller streams, which form a complete net- work of branches throughout the extent of the county, furnishing to it a complete system of drainage for almost every part.

The entire surface of the county was originally covered with a dense forest of valuable timber. The beauty of these woods could scarcely be surpassed in the world. The trees were tall, straight and symmetrical, and were of great variety. Here grew side by side the majestic poplar, walnut and oak, the sturdy sugar-maple and beech, in company with the tall, lithe hickory. The different kinds were not evenly dispersed over the ground, nor yet scattered at random. In one locality one kind prevailed, whilst in

1 other localities other kinds were more numer- ; ous. The ridges and the dry limestone land j generally produced the sugar-maple, interi spersed with clumps of poplar 'and black I walnut. The cold, wet lands were covered | with the beech, hickory and red oak, while f the bluffs along the margin!? of the creeks | were crowned with the huge trunks and I spreading tops of the white oak. Resides ! those named, there was a great variety of i other kinds of timber less valuable for pur- I poses of manufacture and commerce, but I enhancing the grandeur of the solitude that i reigned in the midst of their shades. The j place of fruit-trees was supplied by the wild j plum and the black haw, with an occasional j wild crab and persimmon. Some of; these I ancient monarchs of the woods, maple, pop- | lar and oak - guardians of a thousand years, I may still be seen around the ri m of tin* ffarm lands, like sentries of the ages as they |y.:

After the Indians were Jpne, -a^- tne annual burning of the .Av6od^.%eased, inhere grew up a dense undergrowth, and the highways of the early settlers consisted of narrow trails through the brush, the thickness of which may be illustrated by the statement of a pioneer that when driving cattle from place to place they often tied hand-spikes across their foreheads, which prevented them from leaving the trail.

Wagon And Railroads

There are in the county three toll roads, J aggregating 47 miles, and 140 miles of free gravel roads, or in all 187 miles of roads that are good at all times of the year, reaching to nearly every part of the county. There are I four railroads that cross Putnam County - ; the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago north and south, and the Indianapolis, Decatur & Springfield, Indianapolis & St. Louis, and Vandalia roads east and west. : The combined mileage of these roads in Putnam County 'is 89.99. These have twelve stations, affording convenient shipping facilities for every portion of the county.

Within the space allowed us in this work, it is impossible to give a complete analysis of this locality, and the various causes which modify it from year to year. In this region we are free alike from the Arctic blasts of a New England winter and the enervating heat of the Gulf States; but as often as once in eight or ten years we are visited by a Polar wave, which continues for a greater or less length of time, sometimes giving ns for several weeks a fair exhibition of a Labrador winter; and about as often the current sets in the other direction, and we have for a season the isothermal of the Tropics transferred to Putnam County.

This oscillation of temperature in different seasons and in the same season is owing to the vast extent of a comparatively level land, unobstructed by mountain or large body of water, from Hudson's Pay to the Gulf of Mexico. The average temperature for twenty-five years past, during the winter months, at Indianapolis, was 35° Fahrenheit, or three degrees above freezing point. In Putnam County, owing to its greater elevation, the average mnst be somewhat less, about 32°. The mean annual temperature at Indianapolis, as obtained from fifteen years' observation, is 55°. ----

The number of days on which it rained or snowed in Putnam County in 1884 was 131. The average number of days in the year in which it rains and snows in Indianapolis is 128. The average annual depth of rainfall may be set at from forty-three to forty-five inches. The greatest number of rainy days occur in the month of March. The greatest

The prevailing winds of this region are from southwest to northwest; the coldest are from a point between west and northwest, and the warmest from a little west to southwest.

This is very nearly a climate of latitude; its elevation of 1,000 feet makes it a little colder, and there is a greater rainfall and more frequent atmospheric changes than generally occur in this latitude in places so far from the sea. This is caused by the position of the county, on the line of interchange of winds between the gulf and the great lakes. The water of the great, lakes maintains in summer time a much lower degree of temperature than the land, and the winds from the Gulf of Mexico, freighted with moisture and unobstructed by mountain ranges, meet with no cooling surface to condense their vapors, until they come in contact with the cool atmosphere in the lake region, when densation begins, and soon a storm is the result, which backs southward until this region is favored with a thunder stonn from the northwest. For this reason long continued droughts rarely pecur in this region; and when they do occur they are generally ended by a storm from the north we.- f., produced by the above causes.

Thus it is seen that the position of Putnam County is a. fortunate one, and that to murmur, on. account of the frequent changes of weather, or at " cold snaps " in spring, is double blasphemy; for such are the results of these fortuitous climatic conditions. "W b, »n droughts occur, it is when the wind cones from a point a little north of southwe <\ and has been deprived of its moisture in its passage over the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. The most steady and longcontinued rains in this region are from the east and southeast.

Since the early settlement of the country changes have been taking place which have, to a considerable extent, modified the climate, i d these changes will continue until a further ra dification of it will be observed. Dr. II. I. Brown, in his chapter on the climate of Indiana, in the Historical Atlas of Indiana, says: " The greater portion of this State was originally covered with a dense forest, which, aided by the thick undergrowth of shrubs and weeds, completely shut out the earth from the direct rays of the sun, and greatly obstructed the free circulation of the air. The great level plain which embraces the greater portion of the State, receiving the water from the melting of the winter's snow and ice, and from the spring rains, retained most of it through the spring and summer, the drainage being obstructed by driftwood, leaves, growing vegetation, etc.

"-This water, slowly evaporating, tempered the summer heat and gave a moist and cool atmosphere. In winter the sweep of the cold northwest wind was broken by Vests, and the freezing of so large an amount of surface water as was retained from the tall rains gave oil' heat enough to sensibly modify the winter cold.

"The earth, covered with a heavy coat of autumn leaves and decaying weeds, scarcely froze during the winter, and as soon as the spring sunshine warmed the air, the earth was in a condition to respond by an early growth of vegetation. So, in the fall, the earth, not having been heated by the summer sun, soon felt the influence of the autumn winds and frosts, and winter came early.

"Now the forests have disappeared to make room for cultivated fields and the earth receives the direct rays of the sun, and the air circulates freely, obstructions have been removed from the streams, and artificial drainage has in many places been added.

The cultivated lands in many districts have been underdrained with tile, so that the melting snows and spring floods are carried away directly, and but little moisture remains to temper the summer heat by evaporation.

"The earth, relieved by drainage of its redundant moisture, and stripped of its protecting forests, is exposed to the direct rays of the summer sun. Before the fall months come it is heated to a great depth, and this heat, given off to the air, carries the summer temperature far into autumn and postpones the advent of winter several weeks. But when the store of summer heat is exhausted and winter comes, the winds from the plains of the West come unobstructed, and the earth, now deprived of its former protection, freezes to a great, depth.

For the benefit of the thousands of pupils I who receive instruction in the excellent I schools of Putnam County, and because the ! greater part of those who have come to ma- | ture years are unacquainted with the subject I of general geology, it is advisable, before | saying anything of the special features of j Putnam County, to describe the formation of ; the world as a whole and give such an I account of the great periods of the earth's j history that we may be able to find our place : in that history, and thus, as in locating a \ ! place upon a map tirst, we may be the better j j able afterward to study it more satisfactorily I and understanding^. Indeed, without this j | method of procedure all our ideas are vague | j and the entire work unsatisfactory and unj scientific.

bodies of the solar system, to have been in primeval times in the form of an incandescent gas of incomprehensible dimensions, and the second step derived from the former, through long cycles of "whirling motion, radiation and condensation, the liquid or molten earth, with its wonderful processes of crust formation, we begin our brief description with the process of

Rock-Form Atiox

The first or original rock is what was first formed as a crust, igneous rock, rock without form or strata - a mere slug. The earth, losing heat by radiation and becoming smaller, the crust, in accommodating itself to the smaller sphere, must necessarily rise in some place? and sink in others, just as by the shrinking of an orange the rind becomes wrinkled. Then the water, having been previously formed as the result of the great world formation, the residue, the ask-heaj) of the great conflagration, obeying the law of gravity, is gathered together into the depressed area? and thus the dry land, or rather the dry rock, appears.

Kow. by the action of winds, rains, waves and the various chemical and mechanical agencies, the exposed rock is decomposed, carried to the sea, and deposited in horizontal strata, which, in process of time, becomes stratified rock, just as is being done at the mouths <»f the rivers and the beach and bottom of the oceans of to-day.

Hasement Rock

From the preceding we may conclude that there is everywhere beneath the waters and soil of the earth's surface a basement of rock, sometimes called bed-rock. The outcropping of rock above the surface, the rocky bluffs forming the sides of many valjevs, the ledge.- projecting from the sides of mountains,

J and the cliffs of the sea-shore are portions of I this rock exposed to viesr. [Now, the various , strata which compose the stratified rocks of ! the globe, with their included fossils, are the | leaves of that great bopk which unfolds to us i the history of the earth through its incom- I prehensibly long periods of time. The lowest strata, of course, furnish us the first chapter in that history. In no part of the earth's I surface is the record complete, but all have ; their long blanks - periods in which no strata occur. This is caused by the elevating of the crust above the waters of the ocean, and, when this is continental, Jims is appended to the chapter, and the history of the rocks is finished forever.

In Xorth America we have an excellent example of the unfolding and development of geological history, and as the continent gradually emerged from the ocean it left us the record almost complete. The following section is a representation of the successive geological ages, with the corresponding formations and periods of the globe, by the side of which is placed that of Putnam County , with, its many and immensely long blanks between the Devonian and Quaternary or Psychozoic ages.

Thus a. glance at the section will show us our place in the history of the formation of the globe, not the least interesting part of which is the long blank between the Devonian and Quaternary ages, showing us conclusively that our soil rests upon tie- Devonian. At the close of the above named period all Northern Indiana and a strip extending through the central part ^f the State to the Ohio River emerged from beneath the sea and the history of the rocks of Putnam County was finished forever.

Ii I Stony Of Putnam Vounty

of the earth's formation | - - the Quaternary, Terti- ; arv, Reptilian, Carbonifer- j ous, Devonian and Silurian ; - we append the accompa- 1 nying carefully prepared j diagram.

so named by Sedgwick and ; Murchison, from Devon- j shire, England, where it j occurs well developed and abounds in fossils, and its j age. the Age of Fishes, so I called because in it the first known fishes are found, I is in no part of the coun try exposed to view, neither j has it been reached in the j sinking of wells; hence all our knowledge of it must be gained from ex- 1 posed areas and sections in other localities. Omitting the rock formation,! because completely hidden \ from view, we come to the j study of that which is apparent to all, that in which the farmer plows, ! upon which our wagon j

* For a description of the rocks of this age, and also of its Life System, both animal and j vegetable, Itoe reader is referred i to the three excellent works of i Professor Dana, the " Geolog- j ical Story," the ''Text Book,"' and the " Manual," the masterly work of Professor Le Comte, and to the many and valuable Geological Reports of Ohio and Indiana.

Drift

The farmer boy, as he walks over the meadow with its carpet of green and wanders beside the babbling brook, or, as witli sturdy hand he turns the grassy sward, uncultured though he be, asks himself the question: " From whence came all this that is spread out so beautifully around me? These huge stones which I see lying upon the surface or imbedded within the soil, how came they here? Do they grow? ' The hills, rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun," how were they formed? and what is their history?" Ah! if they could speak and tell us what scenes they have witnessed the story would be of far more interest than that of Bezoni's mummy, for it could tell us of the world not merely as it was '* three thousand years ago," but stretching far back into the illimitable past, they could tell much of the Creator's plans in lilting up the earth as the abode of man.

All soil, with the trifling exception of the thin stratum of vegetable mold that covers the ground in many localities, is formed from the disintegration of rocks, Now, there are two great classes of soil, to one of which every kind of soil may be referred, that is, soil formed in situ- in the place where found - and that which has been transported, when formed, to places more or less remote from the parent rock. It is to the latter of these that our soil belongs and hence that which we wish to treat.

Strewed all over the northern part of North America, over hill and dale, over field and plain, covering alike, in places, all the country rock to a depth of thirty to three hundred feet, thus largely concealing them from view, and extending in general from the liocky Mountains eastward, and southward to the fortieth parallel of latitude, is I found this peculiar surface soil or deposit. ; It consists of a heterogeneous mixture of clay, sand, gravel, pebbles, sub-angular ; stones of all sizes, unsorted, unsifted, un- ' fossil iferous. The lowest part lying in i immediate contact with the subjacent rock is \ often a still* clay including sub-angular stones: ; hence this is often called the boulder clay or

Professor Geikie, "are scattered higgledypiggledy, pell-mell, through the clay so as to give the whole deposit a highly confused and I tumultuous appearance."' On examining : many of these stones they will be found to : be angular in shape, but the sharp corners | and edges are invariably smoothed away, : their faces will be smoothed and frequently J grooved with parallel scratches, indeed in ! concretionary stones and others having an egg shape often one whole end has been ground off, showing conclusively its history. On the other hand, lying all over this drift ! soil, in clusters, in isolated rocks, and in ; belts varying in width from a single line to two or three miles, are found many boulders of all sizes; in some localities they are of huge dimensions and weigh hundreds of tons. These unscratched, or erratic, blocks, j as they are sometimes called, have attracted the attention and excited the wonder of those in the humblest walks of life, and since they are composed of materials foreign to the local ! geology were regarded by them a& foreigners which had been brought from a distance and | strewed over the surface or perched upon declivities in some incomprehensible way. j It is now very appropriate to investigate the causes for all this phenomena spread out j before lis.

for an j cause is exposed to view, if is always found to be plowed and planed and grooved with long parallel stria- and ruts. Thus, these scratches, with the superincumbent drift, the boulder clay, and the surface boulders, furnish for us phenomena, the exact counterpart of which is found on a smaller scale in all the glaciated regions of the world to-day - Alaska, Greenland, Switzerland, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the Antarctic Continent. Given identical phenomena, we must conclude there was an identical cause, (iiiven identical phenomena in the one case on a much larger and grander scale, we must conclude there was a cause of tar greater and grander proportions. There was, then, a | time in the past when for hundreds of years the winters grew steadily both longer and colder; the equatorial current, being pressed j southward at ('ape St. Roque, was pouring I more and more of its waters into the South j Atlantic. The moisture was all precipitated | as snow, and these all mutually reacting upon | each other so that each effect strengthened the cans*.', brought about the period known as the vreat Ice Age, and formed an immense I continental ice-sheet or Polar Ice Cap which j extended in general to the fortieth degree of latitude, with local extensions of its icy j fingers down river valleys far to the southward.

In the beginning of the Archaean Age. at I the time of the first known continental | emergence in the history of the world, there was formed a high mountain range north of th^ great lakes, extending from Labrador to the Lake of the "Woods and thence northward to the Arctic Ocean, the degradation of which has furnished the material for the stratified rocks that surround it, and, being especially active in the glacial period, it also furnished the greater part of our drift material. Thus through the lapse of countless ages down to

The glacier in forming the Erie basin, as is indicated by the furrows made at different points, moved from east to west along the line of its way or axis. It, plowed up the Huron and Erie shales, in the east end, to a great depth, but moving westward it came upon the hard floor of corniferous limestone and but a shallow basin was formed. Here the many beautiful and fertile islands particularly testify to the unyielding hardness of the rocks. Thence passing southwest to New Haven and Fort Wayne, and from New Haven down the Wabash Valley, it determined the valleys of two rivers which would, in turn, one day, through long periods of time, drain the waters of Lake Erie to the gulf, and convey to itself all the waters of the great Maumee basin. Now, by a process the exact reverse of that which produced

Cham Plain

This Mas characterized by melting of ice and snow, a far more extended and higher condition of the great lakes, by multitudes of icebergs floating southward over' these inland seas and dropping their loads of earth, sand, gravel and boulders, by numerous floods which broadened and deepened the river valleys and the pell-mell dumping of gravel and stones over hills and valleys, with the stratification of whatever was deposited by the water.

Proceeding from below upward in our investigations, we arrive at last at the thin stratum of vegetable mold covering the drift, which has been formed by the annual coating of leaves for untold years. This, together with the pulverized and partially decomposed granitic rock, the enormous drift covering. furnishes for the fanner a soil that is at once fertile and inexhaustible; for if he will but "plow deep, while sluggards sleep, he will have plenty of corn to .sell and keep."

Thus, though we arc not blessed with mines of the precious metals, nor coal, nor iron, nor copper, vet we have in our soil an inexhaustible mine of true wealth, the foundation of a nation's true greatness, the basis, the hidden spring that sets in motion the wheels of trade and commerce throughout the world. And the farmer, in his high and time-honored calling, holds in his hands the electric key. by means of which he sends the thrill of life-giving pulsations throughout the whole world of human industry and sets in motion its countless spindles and wheels, the sweet music of whose hum is heard in every clime,

Zoology

I within or near the borders of Putnam County | it formerly had a respectable number of both i species and individuals of the animal kingj dom. It afforded the Indian and the pioneer j an abundance of wholesome wild meats, and J in great variety, as well as a splendid supply | of useless or mischievous animals. Accord - | ing to the rule the world over, the larger : animals disappeared first before the advancing tread of human occupation, and then the ; next in size, and so on, down to the raccoon, I opossum, etc., which still exist, though in I diminished numbers. The buffalo and elk i were the largest, and they disappeared on the I very first approach of the white man, with his deadly rifle and indefatigable hound.

The common deer, which was abundant in pioneer times, is now very scarce in Indiana, being occasionally seen in some of the wildest portions of the State. The last one known to be in Putnam County was killed as much as four years ago.

The panther and two species of wild-cat used to infest the woods, and render travel somewhat dangerous to the early settler, but the last seen in the county were about a third of a century ago.

Minks, weasels and skunks, once common, arc diminishing. Twenty or thirty years ago there was a brisk trade here in their furs and other peltry which perceptibly thinned out the fur- bearing animals.

Fox and gray squirrels keep up their proportion with the diminishing forest. The gray species is the most numerous, among which a black specimen is occasionally met with. Plying squirrels are still here, but as they are entirely nocturnal in their habits

Wolves, of the large gray " timber " species, were plentiful in early times, and more annoying and mischievous than all other animals put together; but they are now, of course, extinct.

" Wild hogs," or domestic hogs escaped and running wild, were abundant in pioneer times. In a few generations these animals became as fierce and dangerous as wolves.

( >f the 250 species of birds found in Putnam County, either constantly or occasionally in emigration, the group of singers exceeds in number all others, though the really excellent musicians among them number but fifteen or twenty. The most numerously represented division, the wood warblers, are not fine singers. The best songsters of the forest belong to the thrush and mocking-bird family.

Thrush Family. - The superior singing bird of Putnam County is the superior singer of the world, namely, the wood-thrush. It is really more entertaining than the famous nightingale of Europe. Its melodious, flutelike tones are "too sweet " for description. They are grouped into short tunes of eight, ten or twelve notes each, and there are six or eight tunes sung by this bird, with intervals of five to six or seven seconds between them. Next to this prima donna of the forest are the olive-backed (or Swainson's) thrush, Wilson's thrush, the northern mocking-bird (or catbird), the brown thrush and the robin. These are all migratory birds, spending the summer here but the winter in the South. The robin sometimes remains all winter. The hermit and olive-backed thrushes arc more common in the spring and fall. The robin and the cat-bird frequent the orchards and gardens, nesting about the door-yards, and prefer these places to the woods, probably because of greater security from birds or oilier animals of prey. The brown thrush is found in the thickets of hazel-brush, briers, etc., which skirt old fences and edge of woods, and generally nests in brush heaps. The. remainder of this family is confined to the woodland. Their food consists of beetles, grasshoppers, snails, spiders, caterpillars, etc., together with small fruits and berries.

Bluebird Family. - The bluebird is the only representative of the family in the county. It is common from spring to fall, nesting i in bird-houses, fence-posts, decayed trees, and | feeds on winged insects, worms, grasshop- I pers, spiders, and a scant proportion of ! berries.

KingleU. - The ruby-crowned and the ; golden-crowed kinglets, and the blue-gray j gnat-catcher are all common during the j spring and fall. The first-mentioned is frej quently found in winter, and the gnat-catcher j is abundant during the summer. These are ! confined to the woods. The kinglets nest in I the lake region, but the gnat-catcher nests ! here, building a wonderful structure high up | on the oaks. It is somewhat purse-shaped, | and often at the extremity of a bough, so as | to sway with the wind, secure from enemies. 1 It is placed in a concealed situation, and | artistically as well as substantially finished

Vhickad&e. - The titmouse, or black-capped chickadee, the only member of the family here, feeds upon insects, seeds, berries, crumbs, meats, etc., and generally nests in the woods, where it makes its home most of the year, but during the winter it is seen near the house, feeding upon sweepings from the table.

Nuthatches, - The white-bellied and the red-bellied nuthatch are common, especially the former. These birds are found in woodlands and orchards. Their nests are built in holes in trees. Food - -ants, eggs of insects and seed.

Wren Family. - Tho Carolina wren is a very rare straggler from the South. The house wren is common locally. The winter wren is a common spring and fall visitor, often remaining during the open winters. The long-billed marsh wren is a common summer resident of the marshes, building' a large globular nest of coarse sand-grass, suspended to reeds or fiag-stems. The short- I billed marsh wren is a common summer l resident, generally found on low meadow I lands. The wrens feed on insects only.

Lark Family. - The horned lark is a win- j ter resident, bnt sometimes breeds here. It frequents barren and gravelly fields, feeding on seed.- and insects. When the ground is j covered with snow they may be seen feeding upon the droppings of stock about the farm. The THlark\% an abundant migrant in late fall and early spring, frequenting the same localities and subsisting on the same food as the preceding. There are sometimes large I Hocks of this species of bird.

Warblers.- These are numerous. The: black and white creeper is a common summer resident, nesting on the ground, general Iv bei side a fallen log. The bine yellow-backed - warbler, a rare migratory bird, is sometimes | found in the tree-tops of the wild forest. The blue-winged yellow warbler is rare. The blue golden-winged warbler is common in spring and fall. The Nashville i and Tennessee warblers are very common. j The orange-crowned warbler is rare. The | yellow, the black-throated green, the black- I throated blue, the blue, the yellow ramped, | the blackburnian, the black-poll, the yellow | red-poT and the chestnut-sided warblers are j all common - some of them abundant; all migrants. The bay-breasted, the Cape May, j the prairie, the yellow- throated arid Kirti land's warblers are rare. The golden crowned thrush (Scinrus auricoypllius) is w common summer resident, frequenting low, open woods. The water thrush (S. naevim) is rare, bnt breeds here. The large-billed water thrush is common in swampy timber lauds. The Connecticut warbler is rare, but may become common. It is a tine songster. The "Maryland yellow-throat is found occasionally. The black-capped lly-catching warbler is common during the spring and autumn. Canada fly-catching warbler, common. Red start, very common.

SvjaUow Family . - The barn, cliff or cave, white-bellied, and. the bank or sand swallows are common. The purple martin, formerly common, is being driven out by the English sparrow. The swallow feeds exclusively upon winged insects

Wane-wings. - -The Carolina wax-wing, or cherry bird is a common resilient, breeding in August and September, and feeding on the cultivated fruits.

Forthern shrike is rare; the logger-head which are residents all the year and those shrike, two varieties, is common. These form | which are summer residents only subsist insect-eating birds and birds of prey. Their of grass and weeds. The rose-breasted grosfood consists of large insects, mice and small, beak is the only bird known to feed on the paling their prey on thorns or sharp twigs feeds on the grape-vine flea-beetle. The com and leavirig them there - for what purpose is j mon yellow bird, or goldfinch, prefers the

Finch and Sjmrwtr Family. - N inner- sparrow and chewink scratch the ground for ous; pine grosbeak, an occasional winter hibernating insects and snails. The crossbills visitor; purple finch, a common migrant; teed on the seeds in pine cones, and the Engwh'ite- winged and red cross-bills, rare winter lish sparrow feeds on the seeds contained in visitors; red -poll linnet, an irregular winter the droppings of animals. visitor; pine linnet, a rare winter visitor Blackhird Family.- Bobolink, common from the North: goldfinch, or yellow bird, and well-known a fine and cheerful songcommon and well known has the appearance ster; cow-bird, or cow blackbird, a summer of a canary; snow bunting, a common but visitor, frequenting old pasture land and the irregular winter visitor; Lapland long-spur, edge of woods; like the European cuckoo, it a common winter visitor; Savannah sparrow, build.- no nest, but lays its eggs in the nests a common migrant; bay-winged bunting, . of smaller birds, such as warblers, vireos and very common from spring to fall; yellow- sparrows, Red-winged blackbird, abundant winged Menslow's and Lincoln".- sparrows in summer; meadow lark, well known; orare snmmcr residents; swamp and song spar- chard and Baltimore orioles are very cornrows, common, the latter abundant all the mon; rusty blackbird, or grackie, is common warm season; snow-bird, common in winter; for a week or two in spring; crow blackbird, mountain sparrow, common in winter; chip- common and well known.

ping and field sparrows, common in summer; With the exception of one or two species I white throated and white-crowned sparrows, this family is decidedly gregarious. Insects common migrants; English sparrow, abund- and grains constitute their food. The cowant in the towns, driving out our native song- bird destroys the eggs and young of other birds; fox sparrow, a very common spring j birds. The orioles feed largely on hairy catand fall visitor; black- throated bunting, erpillars and also on some of the small fruits, pro wins common; rose-breasted grosbeak, a green peas, etc.

Fly-catcher Family. - The king-bird is abundant in summer, frequenting orchards and the edge of the woods; great crested flycatcher, abundant in the forest; uses snake skins as a part of its nest material; pewee, or phoebe bird, common; wood pewee, a common bird of the orchard and woodland; least fiy-catcher, common in summer; yellow-bellied fly-catcher, a common migrant, but rare summer resident. The king-bird and pewee frequent open places; the others of this family dwell in the forest. They all subsist upon winged insects.

The Chimney Swallow is the only member of the family Cypselhhe that is found in this latitude. It is sometimes seen in large flocks, roosting in unused chimneys, barns and hollow trees.

Woodpecker Family. - There are half a dozen species of woodpecker found in this locality, all common, viz.: The hairy, downy, yellow-bellied, red-headed, red-bellied and golden -winged. Omniverous.

i short-eared are abundant. The barn owl is a | rare straggler from the South. Possibly one ! or two other species may occasionally be found i here.

Hawk Family. - The marsh hawk, the i sharp-shinned, Cooper's, the sparrow, the ; red-tailed, the red-shouldered, the broad- ! winged, the rough-legged or black, and the fish-hawk are all common. The white-tailed i kite, the goshawk, the pigeon hawk, Swain- ; son's hawk and the bald eagle are more rare. The Turkey Buzzard, belonging to a distinct family, is rare.

Plover Family. - The golden plover, the killdeer and the semi-palmated are common about unfrequented ponds. The black-bellied plover is rare, if ever seen at all.

Sandpiper Family. - The most common species of this family are the semi-palmated, least, pectoral, red-breasted, Willst, solitary, , spotted and upland sandpiper.-, the snipe and the woodcock. Less common are the buffbreasted and red-backed sandpipers, longbilled curlew, and perhaps occasionally two or three other unimportant species.

rails and the coot are often seen in the vicin- ' The salmon sometimes attains a weight of ity of the streams and in the margin of ponds; ! forty pounds.

the e]ap]>er, king, yellow and Mack rails, very j Pike family. - The larger pike, sometimes rarely; the Florida gallinnle, occasionally. I called "grass pike,1' used to be met with, Thick Family, The common species are especially in draining off the marshes. The the mallard, black, big black-head, little pickerel was also native here, but none are to black-head, ring-necked, red-head (or po- i be found at the present day. Nor have gar chard), golden-eye, butter-ball, ruddy and fish pike ("gars") existed here since the advent (gosander) ducks, the brant and Canada geese, | of mill-dams.

As there are no large lakes or streams and large numbers of other species denomiin Putnam County, the number and variety nated minnows, which are found in the green or Osage bass, the bi»" black sun-iish or have existed in this State, and probably in rock bass, goggle-eyed and the two common this county, several <-f the largest have been sun-fish, all of which have materially dimin- about exterminated. Only two of them are ished within the last rive years. venomous, namely, the copperhead and the

Perch Faioihj.- There are no perch or rnassasauga. Very few of these are to t>e '-jack salmon" in the county. They were found at the present day. The smaller species once common throughout the State, but. now are useful animals, like toads, in destroying are only to be found occasionally in some of i mice, moles and other vermin, and are prethe most favored places. They are among I served by intelligent farmer.- on this account, the finest n'shes, and ought to be cultivated. Of TAsmtfa there are very tew in this section. Those creatures which resemble i them are innocent salamanders, and are really as useful as toads in the destruction of flies and other insects. There are eighteen I species of these animals in Indiana. The J largest attains a length of eight inches, and I is black, with large, irregular yellow spots. I Another species is entirely yellow; another of a bright vennillion haunts cold springs. The second in si/.e is the " mud alligator,"' or ; " water dog,'' a frequent annoyance to fishermen. Still another species has external gills, for respiration in water, thus resembling pollywogs.

Of Frogs there are five species, and of toads live. Four are tree toads. One species of frog is subterranean, excavating its burrows backward with its hind feet, which are shovel formed. It conies to the surface early to breed, after thunder showers in April, in the evening, when it is easily recognized by its loud, discordant notes.

^S& as Green Bay and the Fox River 3 Sap Thus we see that all the land em ^l;J#s» braqed within the borders of Put -*H|i^& nam County was at an early day i the home of the haughty Miami. !

The Miamis were of the Algonquin family -the tribe which Fathers. '-Their diawas heard from the Bay of Gaspe to the Valley of the Des Moines: from Cape Fear, and it maybe from the Savannah to the land of the Esquimaux; from the Cumberland River of Kentucky to the southern banks of the Mississippi, and was spoken," continues the same writer, ; " though not exclusively, in a territory that extends through sixty degrees of longitude | and more than twenty degrees of latitude.'' i Thus we see the Miamis were the descendants i of renowned warriors and chieftains, and their subsequent history shows that they i

A good idea of the territory owned by this tribe after they became a separate and distinct people may be obtained from the speech of their chief, Me-she kun-nogh-quoh, or Little Turtle, in reply to Genera] Wayne at the treaty of Greenville, Ohio, in 1795: " You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United States; but ! m»w take the liberty to inform you that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed bv my ancestors from time immemorial without molestation or dispute. The print of my lather's houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. It is well known by all my brethren present, that my father kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his line to the headwaters of the Scioto; from thence to its mouth and from thence to Chicago on Lake Michigan."

Says Charles B. Lasselle: "When the Miamis were first invited by the French authorities to Chicago in 1070, they were a leading and very powerful Indian nation. A body of them assembled near that place for war against the powerful Iroquois (Six Nations) of the Hudson, and the still more

Says Bancroft: -The Miamis were the The Indians, from their places of eoncealniost powerful confederacy in the West, ex- ment, poured a destructive volley of muscelling the Six Nations (Iroquois). Their ketrv. which utterly confounded the English

In 1761 we find this tribe designated as began to assume another and different shape. the Miami, Eel Kiver and Wea tribe. The From thenceforward victorj crowned the Wabash Kiver formed a natural boundary English arms, the climax of which was the between the Miamis and the Pottawatomies. complete overthrow of the French and In- Other neighboring tribes Mere the Kickapoos, dians. ;inC\ the capture of Quebec by the gal- Piankeshaws and Kaskaskias. From these hint Wolfe, September 18, 1759. tribes the Miamis receive:! much honor, and At the close of the struggle, so great had nothing was undertaken by any tribe without been the havoc among tite Indians, that the first consulting the Miamis. ; Miamis could summon to the field no more portance, save an occasional brief struggle j peace was made between the two great powbetween some of the Indian nations. j ers, France and England, the former Barren -

In 1753 disputes arose between the French dering to the latter all claims to the vast reand English in regard to their possessions in gions lying east of the Mississippi. But here the New World. Being unable to settle let it be remembered, in order that future peacefully, they resorted to arms -the In- j trouble with the Indians may be understood, dians assisting the French. j that it was the custom of the French to pur- Several important expeditions were planned i chase from the Indians but very small tracts of land; according to the treaty, France had i council; but, visiting each tribe separately, very little land to cede to England. I induced some of them by intimidation, as

The year following, 1775, was commenced the oreat struggle for independence. In this the Miamis lent their influence to the British, being willing to assist any party that was warring against the inhabitants of their territory.

At the close of the Revolution, in 1783, when Great Britain transferred her western claims to the United States, she conveyed nothing but what she had previously obtained from France, which we have seen was very small, with the exception of some diminutive tracts of land purchased from the Iroquois and Southern tribes. None of the land whatsoever belonging to the Miamis and the neighboring tribes to the North and West were ceded by this treaty to the United States.

But a different view was taken of the matter by Congress at this period. Tiny concluded that the treaty granted to the United States the full right to all territory east, of the Mississippi, and, considering that the Indians had forfeited all right to the land by acts of warfare against the Colonial Government during the struggle for independence, made 7io movement toward the purchase of the land, but began to form treaties of peace and to suggest its own boundary lines. It had been agreed among the various Indian nations that no treaty should be made with the Government without the consent of all the tribes, assembled in general counsel. The Commissioners appointed by the Government to superintend these affairs refused to

The Miamis, believing that injustice was being done them, positively refused to enter into a treaty of any kind. Trouble soon arose which resulted in the expedition against the Miamis, in 1790, under the command ot General Josiah Earrner. The Indians under their brave Chief, Little Turtle, defeated the forces of Harmer on several battle-fields, with heavy loss.

The following year (1701) another expedition was planned against them, under the command of General Arthur St. Clair. On the -1th of November, near the head waters of the Wabash, about fifteen miles from the Miami village - the present site of Fort Wayne - a severe battle took place between the forces of St. Clair and the Indians, which resulted in a complete victory for the latter - the whites being driven from the held, panic stricken. This was the most severe defeat ever inflicted by the Indians upon the United States, the latter losing in the battle thirtynine officers killed, and 503 men killed and missing; twenty-two oflicers and 242 men wounded, with a loss in stores and other valuable property to the amount of $32,810.75. The command of the United States troops I was next given to General Anthony Wayne. I Having perfected his organization, August, j 1704, found him cautiously approaching the | Miami village. The Indians tried, as on j former occasions, to surprise him; but the I thoughtful Wayne was not to be surprised. I The Indians attacking him early on the ! morning of August 28, 1704, a severe battle ! ensued, which resulted in a complete victory I for Wayne. The haughty spirit of the Miami I was broken. lie was now ready to listen to deputations from the Miamis and from the different tribes of the Northwest began to assemble in accordance with a request from General "Wayne, to make a treaty of peace. They were in council several days, when, finally, August 3, 1795, the famous treaty of Greenville, Ohio, was completed. By this treaty the Miamis made their first cession of land to the United States, being various small tracts in Southern and Central Indiana. This was ceded to the Government partly to satisfy it for the heavy expense it had sustained in prosecuting the war against the Indians. However, the Miamis received as a remuneration $3,000, with §1,000 to be paid annually forever.

On the 21st of August, 1805, on the 30th of September, 1809, and on the 26th of October, 1^09, cessions of land were made by the Miamis, for which they were liberally and satisfactorily rewarded by the Government in goods and money.

In 1810 arose the famous Shawnee Prophet, Ells-kwata-wa, brother of the celebrated warrior, Tecum sell. These men, through a singular and somewhat powerful influence, began to exert a wide control over the tribes of the North, and being encouraged by the English Government, the country was soon deluged in the war of 1812. The Miamis were earnestly and eloquently sought to render assistance. Although many of the tribe were in favor oi war, their brave but honest Chief, Little Turtle, remained true to his obligations made at the treaty of Greenville. However, on the 14th of July, 1812, Little Turtle died, lie was succeeded by Pe-oon, who listened more favorably to the words of Tecumseh.

Soon warlike preparations were observed in the Miami villages along the Mississinewa of Grant County. General Harrison at once planned an expedition against them. The detachment consisted of about 600 mounted men, Kentucky volunteers, who were armed with rifles and under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John B. Campbell. They left Franklin town on the 25 th of November, 1812, by way of Dayton and Greenvi'ie, and reached the north bank of the Mississinewa, near the mouth of the Metocin-yah Creek, December 17, 1812. In a rapid charge upon the first Indian village eight warriors were killed and forty-two taken prisoners, consisting of men, women and children. The troops then destroyed three other villages farther west on the river, and returning, encamped for the night in a level strip of woods just across the river from Jalapa, Grant County. About half an hour before day on the following morning, December 18, they were suddenly attacked by the Indians, under the command of John Godfroy and Joseph Richardville, the latter a son of John Richardville, who so long and wisely ruled the Miamis. The battle was short but sharp. The Indians, being unable to resist the well-directed lire of Campbell's men, soon fled in dismay, leaving some fifteen of their men dead and forty-eight wounded. The whites lost eight killed and thirty wounded. To the severity of this contest, though of short duration, many of the early settlers of Grant can testily, as the trees bore the impress of the bullets for many years.

This battle closes the war record of the Miamis. They ever afterward remained friendly toward the United States. It is true, an occasional brief struggle took place between the Miamis and some of the neighboring tribes. These, however, were generally of minor importance, as the following will illustrate: About 1830 the Pottawatomies, having crossed the Wabash River, the boundary line, were proceeding through the confines of the Miamis. The latter, deeming this an en- croachment upon their hunting grounds, met the Pottawatoraies near Jefferson, on the farm owned by Mr. Hill, and forbade them proceeding farther. Disputes arising, a battle ensued, fought with knives and clubs, in which a number were severely ent and bruised, but no one seriously injured. The Pottawatomies retired to their own territory.

October G, 1818, was made the famous treaty of St. Mary, in which the Miamis ceded to the United States large quantities of land. However, at this time some valuable tracts of land were reserved by the Indians, among which was that known then and at the present as the " Big or Miami Reservation." On the 23d of October, 1826, the Chiefs of the Miamis assembled at a place called "Paradise Springs," where, in council with General John Tipton, Indian Agent, assisted by Genera! Cass and John B. Hay, the greater part of the bind belonging to the Indians was cede«l to the United States. In payment for this they received $31,040.53 in goods, and s31.04-0.53 in money. The following year, 1827, they received $61,259.47, after which an indemnity of $25,000 was paid to them as long as they existed as a tribe.

In 1834: the Miamis sold to the Government. 177,000 acres of land for $335,680. This included a strip seven miles wide along the west side of the " Reserve," in what is now Clinton, Howard and Cass counties. This was transferred by the United States to the State of Indiana, to be used for the completion of the Wabash & Erie Canal from the Tippecanoe River down. A strip five miles along the Wabash had been used in the same way to construct said canal to the mouth of the Tippecanoe River. Again, on the 6th of November, 1838, the Miamis ceded to the United States portions of land which had been reserved by them in former treaties. One important reservation of ten sections

On the 2Sth of November, 1840, the Mi- ! amis relinquished, for the sum of £550,000, ! all their remaining land in Indiana, except i that reserved for Met<>-ein-yah, which the i Government conveyed by patent to Me-shiui cro-me-sia and his band. The Indians also I agreed to leave in five years at the expense of the United States. Their departure was delayed, however, until 1847, when they were I removed to the Marais des Cygues, in the Fort Leavenworth Agency.

The Kansas Miamis, at the time of their removal, numbered 250 souls, each individual i receiving an annuity of about «125. They ! were removed to the Quawpaw Reservation i in 1873, and now number about 150. i The Miami Indians at present arc scattered j over the country from Grant County on the ; south to Grand Rapids on the north, and j from Napoleon River to the Indian Territory I on the west. A large part of these are known ! as the " Miamis of Indiana," numbering j about 835. They received each §32.73 as their individual share on the interest of their j money held by the United States. The total I sum disbursed yearly to the Indians at Peru | is $1,200.

The ten sections of the Me-shin-go-me-sia ! Reservation was held in common until 1873. ! In May of that year a partition was made by the Government, in which all the bands participated, each receiving, both young and old, eighty acres of laud. Men who had large families now control large farms of from four to six hundred acres. The land on an average is as good as can be found in this section of country.

habits of the whites. Although never becoming truly Anglo-Saxon in so far as the inventive and higher sense of civilization is manifest - although never losing their tawny skins, save in the sense of amalgamation, nor ceased entirely to entertain an affection for the forest and its wildest haunts, the stream and the bark canoe, the spear, the bow and arrow or the trusty rifle- - -yet some of the Indians in Miami and Grant counties are a living evidence of the power and influence of civilization. A rude, uncultivated child of the forests of nature and the primitive wilds, being readily and naturally imitative, he has received from the white man a knowledge of agriculture that enables him to till the soil in a very creditable manner.

at Plymouth and Jamestown to those of a later period springing up at other points, both east and west, the tribes seemed ever imbued with the belief that the white man would, eventually, overrun their hunting grounds and drive the red man far westward. How truly thought and said the Indian is now most clearly seen. Such is the force of civilization; such the destiny of the unadvancing, unprogressive, uncivilized of the earth, even to the lowest kingdoms of animal life.

Their births are less frequent than their deaths, and so, as a race, they are withering from the land. Soon they will live only in the songs of their exterminators. Let us be faithful to their rude virtues as men, and pay due tribute to their unhappy fate as a people.

^X§*~ cuts the west line of Putnam County §" live ami live-eighths miles north ot 7v V^ the southwest corner, and the south . S| pL line seven and seven-eighths miles !£, Past of the same point. The geographies published soon after the date of the Fort Wayne treaty described the country to the northward of this The treaty of

1818 extinguished the last vestige of Indian title to the soil of Putnam County, and the reign of savagery took its flight forever from the forest shades of Central Indiana. In

1819 the land acquired by the latter treaty was surveyed by authority of the general Government, and was put on sale at the land office in Terre Haute.

Close upon the surveyors followed the purchasers and settlers, and on the 18th day of December, 1818, John Colman entered the first piece of land owned by a white man in

Putnam County. This tract embraced the west half of the northwest quarter oi section 10, and the east half of the northeast quarter of section 9, township 12 north, range 5 west. It lies in the Eel River bottom, just below the fork. The first piece entered in the portion of the county belonging to the purchase of 1818 was the west half of the northwest quarter of section IS. township 16 north, range 5 west, by Felix Clodfelter, on October 11, 1820. The firsr deed conveying land in the county was made on the 23d day of September, 1S22. By this indenture Christopher Miller conveyed to Daniel Swank, for the sum of &S00, section 12, township 16 north, ranfe 5 west. Other entries and transfers were made in such rapid succession that it is unessential that they should be mentioned in the order of their occurrence. It might be of interest to observe how, in this instance as in others, the tide of civilization follows the larger water courses and their tributaries, but it is sufficient here to say that immigration came pouring in to take possession of the magnificent forest and the generous soil awaiting the sturdy stroke of the pioneer. The portion of the county south of the Indian boundary of 1809 was the scene of earliest settlement. The first white inhab- j For the first year John Sigler settled on itante were James Athey and Benjamin Croy. ! section lfi, then lived three year* on the James A they raised a crop of corn one-half southeast quarter of 15, and finally removed mile below Croy's mill in 1818. Soon after j to the northwest quarter of section 22. Jefthis date Webster's mill was built, being- the ferson Thomas entered and settled on the first structure of the kind to wake the echoes ! northeast quarter of section 10. Miller chose of the surrounding solitude with its monoto- j lands immediately belov/, ami others made nous hum. Croy's mil! was also of very I selections at various places north and west of early date. Mr. (my was from Ohio. Ot- I Greencastle. Into the eastern part first came well Thomas, Reuben Ragan and three other; Joseph Warford in the year 1821, and settled spent the winter of 1818-'19 in the same on section 83 in Floyd Township. In the neighborhood, with a Mr. Thomas, resident j spring of the next year he was joined by his there. During the same winter they erected j son, Wilson L. Warford, ami during the year a residence for James A they. ! by Reuben Smith, Isaac Monnett and his

In the year 1819 Jefferson Thomas and son, Lawson Monnett, all of whom settled in John Miller selected the tracts of land after- ' Floyd. During the same year Reuben Howard entered by them, lying just west of gan located on the land where he died j« Greencastle. Ar the same rime Reuben Ra- 1868, in the extreme north of Marion Towngan explored the hills and ravines on which ship. In 1824 Samuel Ilazelett settled fur- Greencastle is built. It was about this period t-her south in Marion, having entered a part also that Kev. Daniel Anderson, a Methodist of the land since owned by his son. Richard minister, preached rite first sermon within M. Hazelett, in that township, the limits of the county. During this year The year 1S~2 witnessed a large increase also four families made temporary settlement in the population about Greencastle. The in the south, edge of the county. first man who lived where the county seat is

John Sigler and his family were the first, built was Ephraim Dukes, who in 1822 repermanent residents of the portion of the moved to a place near where James T. Git'* county then called the new purchase, having ford's blacksmith shop was afterward built. arrived in the county March 21, 1821. With The next who came was Silas G. Weeks with Mr. Sigler came also Thomas Johnson. The his family, lie lived where now is a pretennext man. who came was John Johnson, with tious brick block. Then came Jubal Deuces his family, who reached the count* May 11 and John F. Seller. Mr. Seller built a house of the same year, and settled about seven on the south side of the public square, near miles southeast of Greencastle. Probably the east end. Such were the feeble but amthe next was John Miller. During the same bitious beginnings of civilization in Putnam year came Jefferson Thomas. Abraham Coil- County, man, Sr., Samuel Rogers, Sr.. Jubal Dewees, organic.

Isaac Matkin. Abraham Lewis and Rev. Reu- Putnam County was created by an act of ben Clearwaters, and settled near the center the Genera! Assembly, approved December of the county. James Gordon, Sr., also came 31, L821, entitled -'An act for the formation in 1821. locating his land in the northern of a new county out of Owen and Vir.ro portion, being the first resident of that neigh- counties, and north of Owen." The full text borhood. "is- as follows:

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That from and after the first Monday of April next, all that part of the counties of Vigo and Owen, and of the county north of Owen, contained in the following hounds, shall form and constitute a separate county, to wit: Beginning in the center of range 7 west, on the line dividing townships 10 and 11 north, thence east fifteen miles to the line dividing rancres 1 and 5 west, thence north twelve miles to the line dividing townships 12 and 13 north, thence east three miles, thence north twelve miles to the line dividing townships 14 and 15, thence west fifteen miles to the line dividing ranges 6 and 7 west, thence south six miles, thence west three miles, thence south eighteen miles to the beginning.

"Section 2. The said new county shall he known and designated by the name of Putnam, and shall enjoy all the rights, privileges and jurisdictions which to separate and independent counties do or may properly appertain or belong.

"Section 3. John Bartholomew, of Owen County, Aaron Redus, of Washington County, Jonathan Wells, of Sullivan County, John Allen, of Daviess County, and Peter Allen, of Vigo County, are hereby appointed commissioners agreeably to the act entitled 'An act for the fixing of the seats of justice in all new counties hereafter to be laid off.' The commissioners above named shall convene at the house of James Athey, in the said county of Putnam, on the first Monday in May next, and shall immediately proceed to discharge the duties assigned to them by law. It is hereby made the duty, of the sheriff of Owen County to notify the said commissioners, either in person or by written notification, of their appointment on or before the fifteenth day of April next, and the said sheriff of Owen County shall receive from the said county of Putnam so much as the county I commissioners shall deem just and reason- | able, who are hereby authorized to allow the j same out of any monies in the county ! treasury, in the same manner other allow- ; ances are paid.

I "Section 4. The circuit court of the | county of Putnam shall meet and be holden ; at the house of James Athey, in the said I county of Putnam, until suitable accommoda- I tions can be had at the seat of justice, and so j soon as the courts of said county are satisfied that suitable accommodations can be had at ! the county seat, they shall adjourn their I courts thereto, after which time the courts of ! the county of Putnam shall be holden at the I county seat of Putnam County, established j as the law directs. Provided, however, that ; the circuit court shall have authority to re- ' move the court from the house of James Athey to any other place previous to the i completion of the public building, should the j said court deem it. expedient.

'-Section 5. That the agent who shall be ! appointed to superintend the sale of lots at I the county seat of the county of Putnam, ! shall reserve ten per centum out of the pro- | ceeds thereof, and also ten per centum out of ; the proceeds of all donations made to the ! county, and pay the same over to such person | or persons as may be appointed by law to ! receive the same, for the use of a county j library for the said county of Putnam, which ! he shall pay over at such time or times and | place as may be directed by law.

"Section 6. The Board of County Com- ! missioners of the said county of Putnam ] shall within twelve months after the permaj nent seat of justice shall have been selected, I proceed to erect the necessary public buildings thereon.

Early And Civil History

That such parts of the county of Putnam as | line dividing ranges 6 and 7 west, thence previous to the passage of this act belonged ! east twenty-four miles, to the line dividing to the counties of Vigo and Owen shall be ranges 2 and 3, thence north with said line, considered attached respectively to the coun- ! twenty-seven miles to the line dividing townties from which they were taken, for, the j ships 16 and 17, thence west with said line purpose of electing a Representative and I twenty-four miles, to the line dividing ranges Senator to the General Assembly of this j 6 and 7, then south twenty-seven miles to the State.

" Section 8; The powers, privileges and authorities that are granted to the qualified voters of the county of Dubois, and others named in the act entitled * an act incorporating a county library in the counties therein place of beginning, shall constitute and form the boundaries of the county of Putnam; and that the first section of the act to which this is an amendment, be, and the same is hereby repealed.

south nine miles to the line dividing towns 10 and 11, thence west twelve miles with mi id line, to the line dividing ranges (5 and 7, thence north nine miles to the place of beginning, shall be attached to, constitute, and form a part of the county of Owen, and that all that part of the county of Vigo which was attached to the county of Putnam by the act to which this is an amendment, and which is not included within the boundaries of said Putnam County, as designated by this act, be and the same is hereby attached to, and shall hereafter constitute and form a part of the said county of Vigo.

"Section 3. That all suits, pleas, plaints, actions and proceedings, which may have been commenced, instituted and pending within the said county of Putnam, previous to the taking effect of this act, shall be prosecuted and carried on to a final effect in the same manner as if this act had not been passed. And the State and county tax which may be due, in that part of the county of

The commissioners named in the organic act failed for some reason to meet and locate I the county seat. Accordingly the following ! act was passed and approved January 7, 1823: j

"Whereas, It has been represented to this ; General Assembly that the commissioners ; heretofore appointed to locate the seat of I justice in the county of Putnam, pursuant to the provisions of the act entitled 4 an act for j the formation of a new county out of Owen j and Vigo counties, and north of Owen,' j approved December 31, 1821, failed toper- : form the duty assigned them by said act, for . remedy whereof:

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly] of the State of Indiana, that Jacob Bell, '' of the comity of Parke, Abraham Puskirk j and Daniel Anderson, of the county of Monroe, Jacob Cutler, of the county <f Morgan, and James Wasson, of the county of Sullivan, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners, agreeable to the act entitled 4 an act for the fixing of the seats of justice in all new comities hereafter to be laid off.' The commissioners above named shall convene at the house of John Butcher, in the said i county of Putnam, on the second Monday in April next, and shall immediately, or as soon thereafter as may be convenient, proceed to , discharge the duties assigned them by law; j and it is hereby made the duty of the sheriff j of the said county of Putnam to notify the i said commissioners of their appointment, either in person or by written notification, on j or before the fifteenth day of March next, j and the said sheriff shall receive from the j said county of Putnam so much as the county commissioners of said county shall deem jast and reasonable, who are hereby authorized to | allow the same out of any monies in the county treasury, to be paid in the same manner other allowances are paid. The said commissioners, and all other proceedings had under this act, shall be regulated and governed, in all respects not provided for by this act, pursuant to the provisions of the acts referred to in this act.

"This act to take effect from its passage." Section 20 of "an act relative to county boundaries," approved February 17, 1838, reduced Putnam County by taking away the southwest township, and leaving it a perfect rectangle in shape. In 1850 the area now known as Mill Creek Township was added from Morgan County, which brought the county to its present shape and si/.e.

The first county officers were- Arthur MeGaughcv. Clerk and Recorder; James Talbott, Treasurer; William W. Mcintosh, Sheriff and Thomas Blake, Prosecutor. Amos Kobertson was appointed county agent, and tiie political organization was complete. Jt was yet necessary to provide for the administration of justice. Prior to this time the citizens of the county had been under the jurisdiction of Owen County. After considerable delay, occasioned by the examination of several rival places, pointed out by persons residing in different parts of the county, each anxious to secure the location of the county seat in his own neighborhood, the present site of Green castle was selected by the commissioners previously named, and established as the capital and seat of justice for the county.

As early as the autumn of 1821, James Trotter began the erection of a grist and sawmill on Walnut Creek, just north of Greencastle, and completed it the following spring. In the year 1822, also, Fiddler's mill was built on Raccoon Creek, within the limits of

Putnam County. Grimes', Sutherlin's, in their deportment toward one another in Swank's and Fasher's were other pioneer both their religious and business relations, mills of the county. Samueljtlazelett built Christian Astlinger,John Oatinan and George the first mill put up on Deer Creek, in the ' Pearc) were the pioneer preachers of this eastern portion, about 1825 or '26. About j denomination. The first camp-meeting in the at a very early day where Keelsviiie now j farm, northeast of Greencastle. Thisdenomstands. All these were water-mills of the ination was principally absorbed into the tub-wheel pattern, but- there was another - Christian church and became extinct in the kind of mill common in that day. It. was : county.

the horse-mill. John Butcher erected the j The Baptists organized a society and held first one in the county, on the Hammond j meetings at Michael Wilson's, west of Greenfarm, north of Greencastle. : castle, in the year 1S°3. John Miller, Jnbal

The first marriage license shown bj the Dewees and Thomas Johnson are rememrecords to have been issued, authorizing the j bered as prominent members of this church, marriage of persons resident within the : John Leatherman aud a Mr. Den man were county, was issued on July 4, 1822, to Thorn- their earliest preachers. This denomination as Jackson and Sarah Woods; and the return j very soon organized another society at James thereto shows the parties to have been joined Bird's, on Walnut about seven miles northin matrimony on the 15th day of the same east of Greencastle. This is thought by some month, by fie v. Reuben Clearwaters. Only J to have been about as early as the year 1.823. one otiier license was issued that year. It j From these beginnings the Baptist church was to Andrew Astlinger and Sally Dukes, j has aprea ' into every neighborhood of the They also were married by Mr. Clearwaters. : county.

The first white child }K,rn in Putnam ; it was in the year 182! that the Rev. County was Mary Jane McGaughey. on ! Reuben Clearwaters came to the county. February 10, 1S22. She died in the year - about the same time came, also, John Messer, 1842. | and the two preached for the Methodists, who

The first death in the county occurred at were at that early day quite numerous, before Trotter's mill. Mr. Dennis, the millwright, | the latter were included within the bounds died there in the autumn of 1821, and was j of any conference. The Methodist Episcopal buried on the hill in the woods just west of circuit including the county was organized the mill. - in the fall of 1822, by the Rev. William

1825- '26*, Daniel Anderson was the pastor of the circuit. He returned the following year with Benjamin C. Stevenson, brother of Dr. A. C. Stevenson, as assistant. The circuitrider on this work for the year 1827-?28, was the late venerable William II, Smith. His assistant was also Benjamin 0. Stevenson. The next year the circuit was divided on Eel River and Walnut, when Mr. Smith was returned to the eastern portion, called Greencastle Circuit. The Methodists built at Greencastle the first house of worship in the county in the year L826. It was a hewedlog house, with clapboard root', rough board floor, and a very large open lire-place. Linden logs having been cut into proper lengths, split in two and supplied with stout wooden pegs driven into holes on the round side tor legs, served as seats. As a matter of personal reminiscence, it may be stated thai the clapboard rout' of this building was put on by Amos Robertson-, then holding the office of State Senator. This buiiding stood on Lot No. 191, and covered a part of the ground since occupied

I by the residence of Mrs. Hammond. When : the house was done, James Armstrong i preached the dedicatory sermon. Some of the first members of this church were Amos | Robertson, Benjamin Jones, William Talbort, I James Talbott, Reese II ardesty, William Hol- I land and William G. Duckworth. Such as ; these and their associates were the pioneers j of the Methodist Episcopal church, most, if not all. of whom have gone to their reward. The first organization of a Presbyterian church in Greencastle and in the county was effected by the Rev. Isaac Reed, August 12, 1825. Mr. Reed at that time was laboring under appointment of the Connecticut Missionary Society, and lived in Owen County, near Gosport. He says that to form this church required much previous labor in preaching, visiting and traveling. This organization afterward became e.xtinct. During its existence the members held meetings iit the Methodist church. Among the early members of this society may be mentioned James M. Ilillis, Mrs. llillis. Mh. General Qrr and Mrs. L. R. Chapin.

LINTON TOWNSHIP joins Russell on the south, and is the preceding Congressional township of the same range. It is bounded on the north by Ruson the east by Monroe, on the south by Madison Township, and on the west by Parke County. A small portion of Clinton is a little rough and broken, though most of it lies well, and the township altogether is a tine body of land, and very well improved.

The first entry of land in this township was made by Ashbery Yandever. on June 17, 1871; the next by Roan Irwin, July 22, 1821; the third by Samson Sutherlin. August 1. 1821; the fourth by Israel Linder, October S, 1821. Some of the entries of the year 1822 were made by the following named, in the order in which thev are given: Alexander Johnson. Aimer Goodwin, John Holt, John Dougherty, Isaiah Vermillion, Andrew

Among the old settlers are named James Johnson, Arthur Walker, Thomas Hart, Edward Newgent, Wilson Spaulding, Oliver McCoy, Moses Spurgeon, Stephen C. Burk, Jonathan Manker, Michael Etter, James Crawford, Oliver Tally, Eli Praekney, Robert Johnson, John Butler, Isaiah Ratliff, William C. Butcher. Jonathan Bee, Judge William McKee, Scady Chandler, Daniel Herron, William Angel and Mr. Shonkwiler, all of whom are deceased.

The first birth in the township was that of John Sigler, son of Andrew and Sarah Sigler, on December 15, 1825. Andrew Sigler and Sarah Heady were the first persons married in the township. The first blacksmith was a man named Tvvigg. The first grist-mill was put up in the year 1825, by Captain Goodwin, on Little Walnut Creek. Like many others, of those early days, it was a kind of wet-weather mill, and could run only when the heavens gave a supply of water. Captain William II. Thornburg, so well known fo the citizens of Putnam County, taught the first

The lirst church organized in this township was tlie Predestinarian Baptist. Tin's took place about the year 1831, and was conducted by Rev. Turpin Darnall, of Bainbridge. John Leatherman and Jesse Mc- Clain were "»fft'ong the earliest ministers of, this congregation. A house was soon built, and the organization was kept up for a number of years, but it is now disbanded, and the house is gone to decay. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized about the year 1832, by Rev. William C. Smith, and a log house was built a year later. Revs. Aaron Wood, DeMott, Beck, Preston and Wright were the early ministers of this church. A few years later two other Methodist churches were organized in the township, and log houses were erected. All three of these buildings have been replaced with frame ones of substantial character.; Some twelve or fifteen years ago the Tanker denomination organized a church ;in this township, and built a good frame house of worship, where they still hold regular services.

In Clinton Township there are three postoffice towns: Portland Mills, Morton and Clinton Falls. The first named is an old town, and is so situated that a part of it is in Clinton and a part in Russell Township, Putnam County, and a part in each of two townships in Parke County.

CLOVERDALE TpWNSHIP. This township was originally a part of Warren and Jefferson townships. It was organized in 1846, and is composed of the southern tier of sections of township 13, ranges 3 and 4, and the northern half of township 12, of the same ranges. It is bounded on the north by Warren and Jefferson, from which it was detached; on the east by Morgan County and Mill Creek Township; on the south by Owen County, and on the west by Washington Township. The surface is hilly and broken, and was originally covered with a dense growth of timber, such as i white and yellow poplar, maple, walnut, oak, ! ash, elm, gum, beech and mulberry. The f soil "is good and of the quality known as ! limestone land. The whole township is un- J derlaid with a fine quality of limestone well i adapted to building and manufacturing pnrj poses. The principal streams are Mill Creek in the east and Doe Creek in the center.

The first settlers in what is now Cloverdale J Township were William Hamilton and James j Robinson, who came together from Kentucky j in the spring of 1823, and built the first [-' cabin.-. Hamilton located on section 1, townj ship 12, range 4, and Robinson on section 0, ; township 12, range 3. Abraham Van Sickle, Anthony Kilgore, Thomas James, Robert j Hadden, Arthur MeNary, Mr. Goodman, j Ambrose Bandy, G. Macy and Robert Macy, : alLeame from Kentucky in the autumn of ' the same year, and settled around where j Cloverdale now stands. Jubal Meadows, ! John Macy, George Bandy and John Tabor came in 1824. In 1825 came John P. Sinclair, John Briscoe and Robert Conoly. During the next year Williain Martin* Thomas Evans, Enoch Patrick, A. Tabor, N. Nolin and Nancy White became citizens. The next four years witnessed the arrival of Philip Rouse, Peter Lyon, .lames Woods, Robert Donnoson, James Gilmore, O. Owen, T. Owen, Daniel Morgan, Robert Hood, Jacob Rule and Samuel Logan.

The first white child born in the township was Elizabeth Tabor, daughter of John Tabor, in 1824. At that time the family lived on' section 36, township 13, range 4. The first death was that of a child of Ambrose Bandy

Thomas Nelson was the first postmaster, an The Christian denomination was organized office having been established in his store in into a congregation at Cloverdale, July 24, 1836. William Hamilton was the first jus- 1841, by Eider James M. Mathes, assisted by tice of the peace. John Pearcy, Reuben Magiunis Joseph Col-

The first religious meeting in the town- well, George W. Grose, Andrew T. McCoy, ship was held by the Methodists, at the Moses Nelson, Thomas W. Dowell, Michael house of John Macy, in 1824, and conducted Grose, J. B. Ross. Andrew McMains,J.C. Moby John Cord, an itinerant Methodist Coy- 1. J. Nickson and others. Meetings had preacher, who died the same year. After been held in the township before the organizahim came John McCortl, Stephen Grimes, tion of the church, generally in private houses Daniel Anderson, William 11. Smith and Mr. and in groves. Among those who preached at Strange. They were followed by the Revs, this point are Elders Colwell, Ileadriek, Forbes. Ames, Hebenridge, Morton, Wells, George Pearcy, Ferry and James Blanken- Wood, Scam mahorn, Jackson, Brunei*, Davis, ship, Franklin, Smith, [lawn, Lockharfc, "Williams, John and Byron Carter, Lee. Ros- Burgess, Swinford, Wright.-. Wilsons, Black. son, Poynter, Allison, Walls, Webb, Hewring, Harris. Badger and Pritchard. The last Pewett, Tansey, Johnson and McNaughton. named held a debate with the Rev. Mr. This denomination erected a log church on Brooks, of the Methodist Episcopal church. section 1, township 12, range 4, in the year March 19 to 28, 1866, which created quite a 1827, which was the first built in the town- local excitement. It is claimed by the Chrisship. They continued to use this house un- turn church that about seventy members were til 1848, when they built a frame church in added to its organization, as the result of the

1827 to ls30 brought George Monabrick building in the northern part of the | chal, Anderson B. Matthews and his fatherin-law, John Heavin, A. Pickett, William

Cloverdale village is the second largest j point in the county, aud is not tar from the \ center of the township. Its history will be j jHven later on.